Author: Dan Blank

A writer I know shared a story with me recently that I can’t stop thinking about. It encapsulated so much of how writers struggle to truly share their work with the world, and find their audience. What she told me:

“I went to a dinner this week with a group of my husband’s friends, people I’ve never met before. During introductions, one of the men mentioned that his wife (sitting across from me) was a writer. When I had a chance I went over to her, introduced myself, and asked about her writing.”

“She immediately wanted to know why I was interested. Which threw me. I told her because I write, and I believe in supporting writers. I kept thinking, “She doesn’t believe someone is interested in her writing.” So I asked her again, what she was writing.”

“She blinked, hesitated, and was uncertain in her explanation of her books. It reminded me of how isolated writers are, and how worried we can be about what we’re doing. We chatted for a few minutes, and she thanked me. She was thrilled someone had noticed her and paid attention.”

This story was fascinating to me, because it was a reminder that even once someone publishes multiple books, they may be uncertain about their identity as a writer, and how to best communicate their work to others.

When I considered how this writer can feel more comfortable, I thought of how we connect with each other on a one-to-one level.

In 2014, I wrote a post called “Truly Embracing Your Audience,” that featured this photo of musician and artist Amanda Palmer looking into the eyes of a fan:

In that post, I concluded:

Writers and other creative professionals are often overwhelmed with ideas for how to connect their work to the world. They may look for “marketing tactics that scale,” such as publicity, social media, getting reviews, blog tours, book tours, strategic partnerships, events, giveaways, bestseller lists, awards, and so much more.

Now, these things are good, and I work with authors every day on many of them. But I never lose sight of the goal: that real human connection between a writer and a reader, via their work. And that the 1:1 connection creates a powerful effect in the world.

There is so much value in simply — TRULY — seeing those around you. Whenever I look at an author or artist who seems to have an amazing connection with their audience, it is because they are good at engaging with other people on a one-to-one level. Many of these people would consider themselves introverts too, meaning they wouldn’t do well with large groups. So they default to what they know best: honoring the connection between two people.

Which brings me to my friend Carmen.

Each morning I go to Starbucks to write and attend to the work I do for my clients and members of my mastermind. Because I sit in the same spot every morning, people tend to notice me after awhile. I’ve made a lot of great friends simply by sitting at the same table every day.

One of those people I met is named Carmen. Every day, this is what happens,

1. Carmen walks in the door, and from about 20 feet away, looks me directly in the eye and says good morning. He gets his coffee from the bar, then walks over to the milk/sugar station near me.
2. Then he squares himself to me. Meaning, he fully faces me, and gives me 100% of his attention.
3. He asks how I’m doing, what’s going on. Some days, the conversation lasts 5 seconds, other days he will sit down and we chat for awhile, with one of us telling a story or exploring a topic. Regardless of the day, he is always ready to settle in to chat.
4. When he leaves, he turns around, looks me directly in the eye, and says, “Have a great day.”

It’s hard to describe, but when Carmen looks at you, you feel his complete attention. This is Carmen:

Now, there is no reason that Carmen should be taking this time to engage with me each day. This guy is BUSY. He runs three — YES THREE — businesses locally. Each of them has their own space a few miles apart. These aren’t virtual businesses, each has hundreds or thousands of square feet of space.

He has 50 people on staff that he is responsible for. Oh, and he has three young kids.

It is clear that Carmen knows A LOT of people. There is always someone who is saying hello to him when he stops into Starbucks.

Again, there isn’t any reason in the universe that this guy should have a moment of time for me. Yet, every day, he is 100% present with me.

I asked him about this — his ability to just be present with whoever he is talking to, and his immediate response was, “it was all my father.”

I asked what he meant, and he told me how he grew up in this town, and how his dad was a local coach. He learned from his father that you don’t dismiss people. He said, “That’s huge for me. If I brought my 8 year old son in here, he would look you right in the eye, shake your hand, and ask you how you are doing.”

It reminded me: people just want to be noticed.

Every day, I see writers and artists vying to get attention for their work by leveraging the “newest social media tool.” I want you to skip that. Instead, I encourage you to truly see those around you. To be present with them. And to give them the gift of your full attention.

Thank you.
-Dan

Many writers and artists I know are stuck between these two places:

• They are overwhelmed with all of the marketing, promotion, and content being thrown at them via email, blogs, podcasts, social media, phone, TV and every other channel.
• Yet, they desperately want to grow and engage an audience for their own creative work, usually via these same channels.

It made me consider how one truly creates a magical moment for others, and in doing so creates deep engagement, word of mouth marketing, and lifelong fans.

Which brings me to this sandwich:

You see, my dad drove 100 miles yesterday just to eat this sandwich. I mean, look how happy he is with his sandwich:

Why did he do this? Well, it’s a tongue sandwich (I know, totally gross), and evidently, it’s hard to find good tongue. So he drove up from Delaware with my brother to Harold’s Deli. Now, at Harold’s, everything is huge. Here are the three of us splitting a “single slice” of cake. Look at the size of this thing:

But the size of the food is not the most striking thing about Harold’s. It’s how friendly everyone is. At Harold’s you talk to all the people eating around you, because everyone treats going to Harold’s like an event.

Why does this happen? This guy:

That’s Harold Jaffe, the owner. I overheard him say he has been doing this for more than 55 years, and a quick Google search shows that he started out at the legendary Carnegie Deli in New York City. As I sat eating my lunch on a random Thursday, he’s working the front counter, still on his feet all day, welcoming people to his restaurant.

What’s most amazing to me is that this place is as hard to find as you can imagine. Here it is, shoved in the back corner of a hotel parking lot, next to a huge vacant lot and across from a faceless office park:

When you pull into the parking lot, you pull into the rear of the restaurant. The first thing you see is a large area with dumpsters and their trash. You have to turn the corner, then turn another corner to finally find the entrance in the back corner:

If you challenged me to find the WORST place to open a restaurant in New Jersey, I would pick this exact location. Yet, Harold’s thrives here. My dad and brother drive 100 miles just to come here.

There are thousands of other sandwich shops in New Jersey, every single one of them has a better location than Harold’s and better prices. That sandwich my dad ordered? $32. Yet, Harold’s stands out. When I posted a photo on Facebook, plenty of friends said, “I love that place!”

For you — the writers or artist — when you look around and see a crowded marketplace, I’ll bet that you may feel discouraged. Discouraged about finding a place in the world for your writing or art. Discouraged about being found, being heard, and engaging an audience. Discouraged that you missed the boat on your creative dreams.

In those moments, I want you to remember Harold’s.

I want you to remember that even if you have the most disgusting sandwich (sorry dad), at the craziest price, in the most inconvenient location — there will still be someone willing to drive 100 miles for it, and when he arrives, he will be welcomed by strangers at every table who trade jokes and give a big smile.

That there is always the opportunity for you to choose what Harold Jaffe did: to make your mark and delight people, even if you ignore every trend and every “best practice” that you read about. That you can amaze people with your creative work using the advice of tennis legend Arthur Ashe:

“To achieve greatness: start where you are, use what you have, do what
you can.”

Thanks.
-Dan

I have spent years teaching about marketing, branding, blogging, social media, podcasting, speaking, ecourses, newsletters, websites, digital downloads, videos, and so much more. But I’m going to say it:

Creating is the best marketing. Period.

Meaning: doing more of your craft, publishing it and sharing it is the best way to develop an audience. That is what I am obsessing about in 2018. How can I create more. How can I encourage my clients and members of my mastermind to create more. How can I provide you more resources for you to create, and then use that as the foundation for powerful marketing.

I mean, look at the “books” pages of authors such as Joanna Penn, Jonathan Maberry, or Chuck Wendig. Their output is consistent, and a little bit astonishing.

For visual art, look at the Instagram feeds of Debbie Ridpath Ohi, or Lori Richmond, or Elise Blaha Cripe. It is filled with the creation of new art. Some are big projects, others side projects, and some mere experiments.

For each of these people, they have focused on craft first, and connected it quickly to publishing and sharing. And it reminds me of a video from illustrator Jake Parker that resonated with me called “You Need a Product Not a Project”:

There is so much wisdom in the video, including this nugget: “The world desperately needs people who finish things.” In other words: your writing and art can’t change people’s lives if you don’t finish and share it.

For myself, this year is about focusing on creation first, with two big goals:

• Publishing more books. Yes, I write every day, but I have only published one book. That changes this year. I am now writing for much longer each day, 7 days a week, and feel a clear drive towards finishing instead of just crafting.
• Learning to play guitar properly. I have dabbled with the guitar for more than 20 years, but this is the year that I will finally master that craft. Much like writing, I am practicing every day, often multiple times per day. I am following the guide of JustinGuitar.com (wonderful resources that one of my Mastermind members turned me on to!)

I am a much better writer than guitar player, yet I have found that my guitar practice is already teaching me to be a better writer. I am reminded of the fundamentals of how to improve my craft and stay focused. What I am discovering is:

• I can optimize my days to fit in little “extra” moments to work on my craft. For the guitar this is may be a few moments of practice a chord change that I have trouble with. Just 5 minutes of rote practice. For my writing, I may flesh out an idea, or do a tiny bit of research.
• I need to be ready to create anywhere. For guitar that means I now have a guitar at my home office and one in my studio. I practice on an electric guitar that isn’t plugged in, so there is no noise to bother my family or neighbors. For writing, this means getting better at idea capture — via my phone, voice recorder, or small notebook.
• I need to stay accountable. I have someone on my team whose job it is to switch between the the role of Nurse Ratched and Mr. Rogers: to give me clear and firm accountability at times, and validating support at others.
• I have become more aware that my attention is a currency that I have to spend wisely. Picking up the guitar again, I got excited to produce some full songs, so I ordered an amazing keyboard (the Korg Minilogue) for an very low price on eBay. Going to sleep that night, I realized something: every single moment I spend on that keyboard is a moment I am not practicing the guitar. I messaged the seller the next morning asking if I could cancel the order. My attention is a choice, and every “great deal” on a new piece of audio gear steals my attention from my craft.
• I have been surprised that one creative habit reinforces the others. The more I play guitar, the more I want to write. The more I write, the more I want to play guitar. This is a massive creative shift in terms of my mindset and enthusiasm each day for creation: it feels accessible, compelling, and like the obvious choice when I have a moment of downtime.
• Many (most) writers and artists I talk to experience some form of doubt or imposter syndrome in their lives. When you create every day, I find that these voices are more muffled — because it is more difficult to doubt your work when you see progress on a week-to-week basis.

I know that many of you look to me for tutorials and resources on marketing, so I will be working hard to provide that this year as well. Always feel free to email me and let me know the topics you most want to see me cover.

I also want to share with you a few amazing resources for writers focused on improving your craft and ability to publish. All of them involve my good friend Jennie Nash. She is a book coach, but she’s also a genius when it comes to writing, editing and books. She is the one who helped me when I was writing Be the Gateway, and she and I chat all the time about what it means to create great work, and best serve your audience.

She is offering three courses through Creative Live:

1. How To Land A Literary Agent
2. Self Publishing For the Entrepreneur
3. Take Your Writing From Good To Great

If one of these topics interests you, then show up for the live event!

When I worked with Jennie, I was amazed at the clarity she provided, helping me hone in on exactly the book I wanted to write, and then structuring the process in a way that felt completely approachable.

Creating is the foundation for sharing your work, growing your audience, and truly changing people’s lives with your writing or art. Make this the year where you create every day.

Thanks.
-Dan

Reminder: today is the last day to register for my Mastermind group which begins on Monday. Work directly with me to develop the power habits you need to find success with your writing and art. You can find details, a video walk-through and registration here.

There is enough room in the world for your writing, art, or whatever you choose to create. That is why I love working with writers and artists — none of us are playing a zero sum game. Regardless of what you create, it has an equal chance to inspire someone.

The challenges that we face as creators are actually things that unite us. 20 writers can sit side by side in a room crafting short stories, and each move an audience in unique and compelling ways.

This is why I spend each day working closely with writers and artists, and why I try to connect them to each other. Because together it is easier to overcome challenges of creating, publishing, and sharing. Together we discover new ideas, new processes, and new ways to understand our own creative visions.

At the end of each year, I analyze my work, and set a clear path for the new year. For 2018, I’m basing my plans on a single word prompt: “intention.”

Intention is the opposite of reaction. Reaction is when you fill your days feeling off course with your personal creative goals, because you are busy reacting what other people are doing. Reaction may look like this in your daily life:

• Checking email first thing in the day instead of first working on your writing, art, or other creative work.
• Scrolling endlessly (and often) through social media, clicking “like” again and again, instead of creating something unique yourself.
• Choosing check off items on your to-do list that provide the most immediate validation from others, even if it means pushing off more important goals. An example of this: how many of us know that we have a horrible fitness routine, yet we know all the gossip going on around town? Or all the latest sports scores. One provides immediate validation (gossip and sports scores), while the other (fitness) requires weeks/months/years of slow and lonely work. The same applies to how too often, we trade long term creative goals for short term validation.
• Operating from a place of fear of letting others down, instead of creating what you are capable of; the things that no one will give you permission to create.

So this begs a question: what does intention look like? Let me take you through a few examples:

Putting the Phone Down

This is what author Abby Mathews did when she recently took a vacation with her family. She shared this with me on the immediate and long-term effects of this decision:

“I’ve definitely felt a huge impact from “just leaving it at home” during the vacation. But part of that is just retraining my mental habit of checking it, too. If you don’t have your phone with you, obviously you can’t check it! But I’m also trying to let go even if it is in my pocket. If I have to stand in line for 5 minutes at the grocery store, why do I need my phone to occupy me? Why do I need to check my email while I’m waiting for my kids at school pick-up? Why am I not allowed that time for my brain to wander without direction from technology? The [post-vacation] benefit is that I have gotten way more writing done because I’m not distracted by things that don’t matter.”

What I like most about what Abby found is that it wasn’t about adding anything to her life. She didn’t need to go buy a new journal or course or product. She simply removed something from her life, and found that it opened up new doors to her writing and focus.

Picking Up the Camera

I have been doing my own experiments like this in the past few months. I didn’t like how my phone was always in my pocket waiting to distract me when I was at home with my family. When I tried to put it down, I found that I resisted because I’m a photographer, so I was always reaching for my phone to take a photo.

Can you see the obvious solution here? It took me awhile to figure it out. I put down the phone, and picked up the camera.

Instead of carrying my phone around my house, I picked up my compact camera (The Canon G7x) and attached it to my belt with a small case. Now I can take photos and videos whenever I like, without any distraction of the phone. What’s better is that my camera takes way better photos and videos than my phone does. I’m actually capturing more moments than I would have otherwise.

Writing First Thing in the Day

Longtime readers of my newsletter will know that I tend to write first thing in the day. I share a photo of it on Instagram each morning… the same boring shot of me in front of my computer, each day of the year, working on my next book.

When I began this practice, it was actually pretty difficult to resist the urge to check email first. What I found is that I craved the immediate validation that comes with reacting to others first. But once the habit was in place, it now seems natural to delay email by an hour in the morning, and creating first.

My Advice to You

As Abby mentioned above, being intentional is about creating a mindset shift within yourself. It is not about downloading a new tool or buying a new product. More often than not, it is about creating “less” in your life, not “more.” What I mean by that is that for everything you say “no” to, it allows you to say “yes” with more vigor to the things that matter most. To your writing or art. To your health (mental or physical). To your family and friends.

For 2018, I have outlined three clear intentions for my creative work. This week, I have been meeting with someone on my team to brainstorm ways to truly make them a priority in my life. To ensure my days are filled with intention, not reaction.

What is your intention for 2018?

Thanks!
-Dan

This past year, I doubled down on my creative work. I made some big changes, focused on increasing the clarity of what I do, while improving all the details:

I signed a lease on a private studio space:

I spent the year continuing to dig deep into my research on successful writers and artists. I wanted to give myself daily reminders of their journeys, so I started hanging their photos on one of the studio walls:

I have written every single day since May 1 (plus plenty of days before that.) It is the first thing I do every morning, regardless of what else is going on in my life. This is all work for my next book, which has recently undergone it’s third major “let’s start this from scratch again” moment. Each time I approach it anew, the better it gets. That said, it will really need to be finished in 2018!

I put even more resources into my mastermind groups, each month finding new ways to optimize a small aspect of it. The results have been off the charts, I have never had such amazing feedback from writers and artists.

I brought on new members of my team this year, and every one of them has helped me grow. Most recently, I have had the absolute pleasure of welcoming Yvonne Kochanowski (aka author Yvonne Kohano) to the team. I find that the process of working with others creates deeper clarity in the work I do.

My consulting with writers and artists has become even more fulfilling. Here too, I tried to optimize many smaller aspects of the process. It genuinely feels like an honor to be in the trenches with these creators to push things forward. When one has a creative vision, it can be both thrilling and terrifying. I would say, that is how I spend my days with them. On the edge that creative work often takes us.

For 2018, I’m doubling down again on each of these things. But I’ll need help with that: new collaborators to help me become better at what I do. For your own work, I encourage you to consider: how will you move your craft and your career to the next level in 2018?

I speak to so many people who struggle alone with their creative work. Something I am considering this week is how working in solitude can hold you back. In so many other areas of our lives, when we want to grow, we collaborate with a coach or trainer. Why is writing or art any different? For instance, you may hire:

• A personal trainer to get you to show up to the gym, create a personalized workout routine, and give you encouragement to get through it.
• A financial planner to get you to make concrete decisions around money. Most people have a very emotional relationship with money, and even those who do take control, are often drowning amidst a see of conflicting advice.
• For any kind of sports, coaches are expected and required. Not just at amateur levels, but intermediate and advanced. I live very close to the Jets training facility, and often see members of their coaching and support staff around town. It’s not just one coach, it is a large support staff.

Today, I want to encourage you to assess your creative work and take small actions toward growth:

• How you improve your craft?
• How you better manage how you share and publish your work?
• How you better understand those you hope to reach in order to better engage them?

A few years back, I read this book: The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. It’s a wonderful book that I highly recommend for improving your craft. Atul is a surgeon, yet he talks about the value of bring in in a coach to get even better:

When he had a coach join him throughout his workday, he uncovered a huge problem: “I wasn’t effective at listening. With patients, I was talking 90% of the time. I didn’t ask enough questions. I carried that over to my team, where I was doing 90% of the talking.”

Can you imagine that? Someone whose job it is to diagnose patients and manage complex teams, not really listening to anyone. He has a longer video where he digs into this more deeply. He mentions having a 2% complication rate, meaning that 2 out of 100 patients experience a serious complication as a result of the surgery he performed. To get it down to 1% meant optimizing a lot of little things, and he listed them out. But even besides that wonderful point, it was astonishing to me to hear him share data about what some may call his “failures.” The idea that 2 out of 100 people he treats are harmed by it. Do you have that data for your work? Not that your work could potentially harm someone, but whether or not it is effective towards your goals.

As a writer or artist, this data is not necessarily the point. But it may be worth considering: “What is the effect I want my work to have on others? How can I assess ways in which that moment of connection truly happened and where I missed the mark?”

When you work alone, juggling every aspect of creation, publishing, and sharing, like Atul, you may miss 1,000 small ways to improve. That is why I am a big believer in collaboration and doubling down on one’s creative work.

I want to be a better resource to helping you in 2018. I need your help in order to do that. Please let me know: If there is one thing I could help you with, what would it be?

Thanks!
-Dan