“I saw this as a reinvestment in myself” – an interview with author-illustrator Lori Richmond

In this podcast, I speak with Lori Richmond who made a huge shift in her career — leaving a corporate job in order to pursue her dream of becoming a children’s book author-illustrator. In this interview, we go through the specific steps she took to pursue her creative vision.

You can find Lori at the following places:
http://www.loridraws.com
https://twitter.com/loririchmond
https://www.instagram.com/loririchmonddraws/

The solution to overwhelm

This week, Joanna Penn shared an interview with me in her podcast. Within it, we cover a lot:

  • Is platform still as important as it used to be?
  • How to identify who your ideal readers are.
  • How does paid advertising fit into a book launch? Is it mandatory?
  • Lots more!

One listener graciously responded this way:

Lori Richmond

What was in those first five minutes? Joanna asked me what has changed for authors in the past few years. My response:

“What’s changed for authors is opportunity. We’ve all come to understanding that newsletters, webinars, ads, courses, free bonuses, and digital products are all now accessible for someone to create. That is mind-blowingly awesome.”

“The flip side that is that everyone feels an incredible sense of pressure. An author could be doing 40 things to launch their book and succeeding with 80% of it, and they will still go to bed feeling bad about themselves because they checked Facebook they saw an ad that says: “If you’re not using this trick on Amazon, you’re missing the boat!” So there’s this pervasive sense of overwhelm and that they’re never doing enough.”

“No matter how masterful they get, they’re being dangled that carrot. They hear people promoting to them: “I launched a book with no email list, no following, no expertise, and now four weeks later I’m this big bestselling author!”

“So that’s I think a big thing that has changed is the overwhelm that comes with opportunity.”

You know what I mean, right? Just this week, I took some screenshots of emails that came in where there was a sense of “pressure” that a deadline was approaching for an opportunity. Many of these are courses aimed at writers. These two emails came in about 16 hours apart:

Mark Dawson

Mark Dawson

This is after approximately eight other emails I received from him specifically about this course in the past three weeks. Some others I received this week:

Joel

Kristen Joy

Darren Rowse

Michael Hyatt

A couple from Joseph Michael:
Joseph Michael

Joseph Michael

And a whole bunch from David Siteman Garland:
Joseph Michael

Joseph Michael

Joseph Michael

Joseph Michael

Notice how many of these people are not just telling you about an opportunity, they are using FOMO, or “the fear of missing out,” to drive an emotion (and perhaps action) within you.

Now, none of these people are doing anything wrong. They are wonderful individuals, offering something that is truly helpful, and each have hundreds or thousands of happy customers who would gladly advocate for these resources.

But for some writers who receive these emails, this may be overwhelming. For many of the opportunities that that are presented to you, you don’t simply get a single email telling you about it. For an online course, you may get a chain of emails promoting it such as:

  1. Pre-launch emails.
  2. A big email with reveal of the offer of the course.
  3. A webinar offer that promises free training, but is also a strong pitch for the course.
  4. Limited time bonus or discount if you act right now.
  5. More webinars.
  6. A free video series, that leads into the course registration.
  7. Then the series of “deadline” emails, a day before, 12 hours before deadline, 6 hours, 3 hours.
  8. Then an email that they have extended the deadline.
  9. Then a last chance (really) email.

Years ago I spoke to someone within a company that was notorious for sending loads of emails for their products. They said, “Do you know why we send so many emails? Because every time we do, we get a huge spike in sales.” Meaning: email marketing is effective. Psychological triggers such as FOMO works.

Why I Stopped Offering Online Courses

I have taught hundreds of online courses. It began when I first launched my company seven years ago, when there were few others out there, especially for writers and creative professionals. Over the years, I launched course after course, experimented with new systems to most effectively give people what they needed: true action and real results.

Over time, I found that something felt off. Part of me felt a sense of “launch fatigue” in feeling the pressure to do all the steps I just listed above. But more than that, I found that courses were becoming so pervasive, that more and more people would sign up for one, but never fully commit.

Five years ago, if someone signed up for a webinar, it was much rarer. They would most likely attend the live webinar. Today, because they are pitched with so many webinars, they may sign up 100% knowing that they will skip the live webinar, and that there is a 10% chance that they will watch some of the replay.

This extends to courses. I spoke with a writer who had purchased a $2,000 course a few months prior, and still hadn’t found the time to log in to it. I remember Seth Godin explaining how a large percentage of people who signed up for a free course he offered never finished it. It was a huge number, like 80%. (I believe this was in his interview with Tim Ferriss, I have to go find the actual number.)

Online courses are amazing. But as writers and creative professionals (you!) are being presented with more opportunities, overwhelm overtakes you. You are inundated with information. With education opportunities. It is not uncommon for writers I speak with to tell me about the long list of blogs they read, podcasts they listen to, courses they took, webinars they signed up for.

Yet, they still feel stuck.

What I find is that this can begin to effect your mental health, as I indicated earlier in the post. Even if you are doing 1,000 time more things today than you did years ago, you may still go to sleep feeling stuck behind the eight ball.

The Solution to Overwhelm

What is an overwhelmed writer to do when they are surrounded by so much opportunity, yet still feel stuck? Lots!

Let’s consider how each of us tend to approach getting in shape. Now, it is no mystery how to get in shape. We all know what foods are good to eat, and which are bad. We all know about the value of not over-eating. We know that having some kind of workout our fitness routine is necessary.

Yet, each year, people start a diet on January 1st and are done with it before the month is out. They join a gym that same month, and stop going by February. Meaning: information is only part of the solution.

What is the missing piece? The answer is collaboration.

Having a set of true COLLABORATORS for your creative work can have more value than unlimited blog posts, podcasts, forums full of “advice,” courses, and webinars. Collborators don’t just give you ideas, they help you work through them.

I have worked with hundreds of authors. What I find is that the most successful of them:

  • Have good collaborators. This may include beta readers, colleagues (other writers) who they speak with regularly, an agent, an editor, and so many others. Regardless of whether you self publishing or not, collaborators which are required for success.
  • They test things. There is this myth out there that successful bestselling authors have this great system that works on autopilot. NOPE. In working with many bestselling authors, I find that they are always needing to evolve and experiment with new ideas. They work incredibly hard, and each book poses new challenges as to how they can reach readers. If you want some proof of this, reread my post from earlier this month that shows authors promoting their books at BookExpo.
  • They constantly engage with and learn from their readers.

These authors focus on developing a mindset for improving their craft and reaching more people. They set up collaborations that keep them accountable. They study best practices, but don’t rely on them. They embrace the risk and fear associated with experimenting with new ideas.

Here are my recommendations for actions that you can take to find more success with your creative work by embracing collaboration:

  • Consider developing collaborators for your craft and for better understanding how to read your ideal audience.
  • This can start with one person, and can begin as a simple practice of maintaining accountability. Perhaps it is for your writing or craft, but it can also be with a fellow writer to consistently address how to better understand the marketplace and reach readers.
  • Meet weekly. This can be via text, phone, Skype, or in-person. A collaboration requires interaction.
  • If you don’t know where to begin, make a weekly practice of sending an email to other writers who write in the same topic or genre that you do. Don’t ask anything big of them, just tell them what you like about their books, and maybe ask a simple question. What this does is seed the potential for you to connect with someone in a meaningful way. For instance: when I reach out to people to interview for my podcast (relaunching soon!), what I find is that some of these people turn into true friends because we really hit it off in the interview.
  • Be focused on clear goals and milestones. Consider this on a yearly, quarterly, and monthly basis. When you show up to a meeting with your collaborator, you should come with a specific goal or challenge to work through. If you find you are spending three hours chatting with your collaborator about all the things that bug you about the industry you are working within, then you are doing it wrong. This is all about taking small actions and developing forward momentum.

My belief in the benefit of true collaboration is why I have doubled down on working with writers and creative professionals via my private mastermind group (which starts July 1st! Am I doing the “fear of missing out” thing correctly?) Because it not only provides the expertise that was present in my courses on how to find and engage their ideal audience, but because it also has me working directly with writers in the trenches. Everything is personalized and 100% focused on a collaborative environment with a small group of 10 or fewer colleagues.

Further reading on the value and process of collaboration:

Thanks!
-Dan

Inside BookExpo: How Publishers Promote Books

Today I want to showcase the variety of ways that publishers promote books within the publishing industry. I will share with you what I saw this week at BookExpo, a trade show held each year that is open only to those in the publishing industry. I want to make a big point here: publishers use a wide range of new and old fashioned ways to promote books. If you are an author wondering how you should develop your own audience and readership, take note of what is happening here. I’m going to explore it piece by piece, so please read the captions to the photos, they are critically important.

Who is the audience at BookExpo? Librarians, booksellers, distributors, agents, media, and so so so many others who play roles in how publishing works.

Let’s dig in:

GET IN FRONT OF YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

The first thing to note is that publishers spend loads of money to be a part of this event. It was held in the Javits Center in New York City; just look at the size of this place:

People travel from all over to come, and publishers will send loads of employees:

They construct booths that all attendees are welcomed into. It’s kind of like walking right into the offices of each of these publishers. Here are some of the booths of major publishers:

And of course, there were many small publishers, individual authors, and publishing services who had booths:

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS AND LEARN THAT PUBLISHING IS A BUSINESS

For many of the big publishers, a primary reason they participate in BookExpo is to have pre-scheduled meetings with partners. Each booth has an area that is meant only for private meetings. Some of the bigger publishers have screened areas just for meetings:

BANNERS

Okay, here I am going to list out a wide range of ways that publishers tried to market books at BookExpo. We’ll start with huge banners. Like, mega huge. Something to note: these publishers are convinced that John Grisham’s books won’t sell themselves. Nor Dan Brown. Nor Tom Hanks. No, their name recognition is not enough. They require a 50 foot wide banner. Think about that for a moment. So many authors assume “once I make it big, things will get easier.” Look at these banners. These publishers (and the authors) are working hard to try to succeed with each and every book. It’s not easy.

TOTE BAGS

Then there are the tote bags. Yes, tote bags. These are hugely popular on the show floor, and people will wait on line for them, and collect them feverishly. I was super impressed with this woman’s collection:

ADVERTISING

Yes, this publisher spent big money and big space to promote a little book series called Harry Potter. I can’t even tell you how many authors I have spoken to who have cringed at the idea of doing paid advertising. You can tell that it somehow made them feel dirty. They simply wanted readers to magically find their books. Yet, here is the publisher advertising Harry Potter in their booth:

GIVEAWAYS

Free books are a huge part of BookExpo. It is why many people come. Now, there is something to note about these books… many of them won’t be published for months. The publishers are promoting books for the Fall now to try to get on the radar of librarians, booksellers, and others. Some of these books are highly coveted. People will wait on a long line for them. Others are stacked up in huge piles, free for the taking:

HANDSELLING

I saw this constantly, a publisher handselling a book to try to get someone to take it for free! Imagine this. You walk into the Penguin Random House booth, there is a huge stack of a book that won’t be released until the Fall, and one of their employees comes up to you and is trying really hard to get you interested in the book. The goal? That you take a free copy!

DISPLAYS

Publishers aren’t just pushing their new books, there are loads of displays showcasing books that have been in the market for months or years. I was so glad I got this photo of someone pulling a book down off of a high shelf. This works!

MEDIA

There were loads of cameras, video crews, live interviews, Facebook Live sessions and so much else. Some of this was traditional media organizations, and some was media created by the publishers themselves:

PANELS AND EVENTS

There were lots of events setup throughout the show. Some were instructional, others took you behind the scenes of a book. There are actually a bunch of concurrent events that go on during the show, entire conferences on the lower levels of Javits Center:

MUSIC AND COSTUMES AND ALCOHOL

Anything you can think to attract people, these publishers did it, including live music, costumed characters, and free drinks in the booths during the last hour of the day.

NEWSLETTER LISTS

I saw this while on line to get Gretchen Rubin’s new book — signing people up to her email newsletter list. So many authors don’t want to bother with email newsletters, they get sheepish about putting a sign up box on their website. Yet here is Gretchen having a member of the Penguin Random House staff go person to person to get them onto the list:

DOOR SIGNS

At every opportunity, no matter how big the author is, there was a new opportunity to advertise their upcoming book:

RELATIONSHIPS

This is a huge part of the show, just wandering through the booths and chatting with colleagues and friends:

AUTOGRAPHS

Both within booths and in a large autographing area, there was a wide range of authors signing their latest books:

CELEBRITIES AND PROMINENT AUTHORS

This always astounds me… how even the most famous names and bestselling authors travel to BookExpo to handsell their books one person at a time. As you look through these, consider how famous some of them are, how many millions of books they have already sold. So many writers seem to bemoan the very idea of marketing, saying, “I just want to write.” Would some of the people in the photo below have preferred to wake up on this day and work on their craft, or spend time with their family? Maybe. Yet, they show up. Here are some people I met or saw:

Mo Willems:

Amy Tan:

Denis Leary, John Hodgeman, and Isla Fisher:

Maria Shriver:

Harlan Coben:

Scott Turow:

Malachy McCourt:

E. Lockhart:

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner:

Astronaut Scott Kelly (this guy spent more than 500 days in space!):

A. J. Jacobs:

Gretchen Rubin:

AM RADIO

Okay, this marketing tactic didn’t come from a large publisher, it came from an indie bookstore owner from Tennessee that I met, James Lund. We were discussing the ins and outs of running a bookstore, and he told me that something that he resisted for months, but ended up working was advertising on a small AM radio station. Go figure. Great guy, check out his bookstore Duck River Books.

Conclusion

There was so much else I couldn’t capture. Yes, many people were Tweeting, Facebooking, Instagraming, and there were other things happening to market books that I simply didn’t get a photo of. My point is this: even for large publishers with the most successful authors, it isn’t easy to market a book. They try a variety of methods, and even then, it is difficult.

No, you do not have to spend the kind of money that these publishers do. But many of the tactics listed above can be done for free, or with a small investment. You do not have to do them all. But if you are serious about finding success as an author, I would encourage you to not ignore marketing out of some romantic belief that “good books simply find readers.” Does it happen? Sure. Does it happen as often as it should. Nope.

-Dan

Place a bet on yourself

When will you give up on yourself? On your dream of becoming a successful writer, or being known in another creative field?

Will it happen all at once? Will there be a day where you “declare” that you are giving up?

Or will it happen slowly, one missed opportunity at a time? One missed writing session at a time?

Something just astounded me this week. I was reading about the history of the Seattle rock scene in the early 90s, and came upon this passage:

“I thought I might be done with music, at least at that level of playing the game and trying to be on a major label. I was feeling the pressure of being a 26-year-old that hadn’t finished college. There was pressure from the way I grew up to finish something and do it right. There was unfinished business with school, getting my art degree. That summer I went to Western Washington [University] and kind of looked at the campus and the art facilities.”

This was Jeff Ament, the bassist for Pearl Jam just a year before their breakout success. Before Jeff and his bandmates would help radically shift music and the culture.

Can you imagine choosing to miss this? To give up on your creative work the moment before you find success beyond your wildest imagination?

When I read Jeff’s comments above, they resonated with me. Here was someone trying to figure out if he was a quitter or not, and trying to find the right path forward.

Dealing With Doubt

In the past couple weeks, I have been doing three things:

  • Analyzing the biggest challenges that writers and creative professionals who reach out to me have. These are people who have hired me, or shared the insiders account of their goals, their challenges, and their process.
  • Working step by step through the process of finding an audience with my mastermind group. I am in the trenches every day with 20 people, digging through research, ideas, processes, and steps forward.
  • Beginning to write my next book, and starting that process with a deep analysis of what all of my research has told me about the stumbling blocks that hamper creative professionals — the things that keep people from attaining their goals.

As I do all of this analysis, something that jumps out at me is how much doubt people wrestle with. Doubt in their abilities. Doubt in the clarity of their vision. Doubt as to whether they even deserve success.

Finding Your Path

I reviewed some of the conversations I have been having with people in my mastermind group, and wanted to share a three step process for helping you find your own path. The goal is this: place a bet on yourself.

I cannot remove doubt from this process, but I can share advice on what I have seen propel writers and creative professionals forward to success:

STEP 1: OWN IT

Can you imagine the first time that Mick Jagger stepped on stage? Do you think he sheepishly found his groove, and slowly tried out a few dance moves? No, I’ll bet he OWNED IT.

Here he is in 1963:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct2n2iiiIGQ

I want you to consider the confidence that it takes to do what he does on stage here. When I see this, I personally see someone who isn’t the traditionally best looking, doesn’t have a classic singing voice, and isn’t even the best dancer. But he is MICK JAGGER. His confidence, his tenacity, his stamina, his talent, his drive have made him a legend.

Okay, here is the best thing you will see all week, shared with me by author Michael Raymond. Its David Bowie impersonating Mick Jagger:

David describes Mick as “I had never seen anything so rebellious in my life.”

Do you need to be rebellious? Nope! But its worth it to remember that Mick Jagger’s decision to walk out on the stage and do what he does is a choice. You have to ask yourself: are you making the choice to bet on yourself? On your abilities, on your vision, on your own tenacity? Will you own it?

STEP 2: DOUBLE DOWN

Are you working hard on your creative work, but frustrated because you aren’t finding success? Double down. Get clear on the one or two parts of your vision that is the core of it, clear away everything else, and double down on it.

Do it twice as much, twice as hard, with twice as many ideas, and twice as much vigor.

Is this work? Yes. But it should also be a joy. A joy to find your clarity. To experience it each day. To develop your craft. To know, regardless of external validation, that you doubled down on your creative work, and yourself.

The key to this is not the “doing more work” part, it is in the “clear away everything else” part. Now, I 100% realize that you likely have many responsibilities that you need to live up to: a day job, kids, relationships, health, keeping a home, and the like.

Let me ask you this: do those around you know that you are driven in your creative work? Even if it is just 3 minutes per day, would they describe you as someone who is “obsessed with becoming a novelist”? Not because you gloat, but because they see that you fight to find a few minutes a day to study your craft.

If not, then consider if you have truly doubled down on yourself. Or if your creative vision is at the end of a long list of to-do’s, just after “clean out the garage.”

STEP 3: OVERDO IT

In one of the assignments I gave to my mastermind group, one of the writers within it sent me her work and asked “Did I overdo it?” I replied, “Um, YES you overdid it, which I think is exactly right!”

In the research and analysis I mentioned above for my own creative work, I have been reading a lot. What I find is that the people we admire and seek to emulate overdo it.

Ed Catmull and his team at Pixar overdoes it.
Bruce Springsteen overdoes it.
Amanda Palmer overdoes it.
Twyla Tharp overdoes it.

I don’t think that “overdoing it” is about buying a bedazzler and writing “I’m Awesome!” on your jean jacket. It is about doubling down on what matters to you, and really committing yourself.

You Define Your Success

At the start of this post, I mentioned Jeff Ament who almost missed out on the success of Pearl Jam. I want to be clear about something: your path forward need not be defined by your work. Not even your creative work.

In thinking about Jeff, I thought of other people who famously “missed the boat” to success. Pete Best came to mind, the original drummer for The Beatles who was asked to leave the group just before their international success.

Did Pete really miss the boat? When reading his Wikipedia page, I came along this line: “He has been married for over 50 years to Kathy Best; they have two daughters, Beba and Bonita, and four grandchildren.” That warmed my heart.

In other words: define success however you like. Regardless of the path you choose, or even the path you unintentionally find yourself on, bet on yourself. Do what you can to quiet the doubt and know: you are worth it.

-Dan

How ‘word-of-mouth marketing’ REALLY happens

Today I want to share a small case study with you, illustrating how word-of-mouth marketing really happens. My goal is to encourage you to connect in meaningful ways with others who resonate with the writing and creative work you are passionate about. Okay, let’s dig in…

OMG! My Book Was Mentioned on a Podcast!

Last week I received an email letting me know that me and my book, Be the Gateway, were mentioned on the #AmWriting podcast.

Eeeeeeeeeeee! (that is what I thought when I found out.) This was me:
Dance

The #amwriting podcast is incredible for so many reason:

So you can see why I was so excited to be mentioned on the podcast.

The Timeline

Okay, let’s break it down step-by-step how this happened. It feels like this is the opening scene:

… because the reality is, word-of-mouth marketing often feels like a movie such as Pulp Fiction:

  • You can’t tell which part happened first.
  • You can’t tell what action led to which reaction, or which unintended consequence.
  • There are so many characters that you don’t realize are interrelated in some ways.
  • You realize how easy it is to end up like Vincent Vega in the shower instead of Jules Winnfield taking his wallet back.

Okay, this is what happened, this is what word-of-mouth marketing looks like:

  1. Kathleen Fordyce signed up to my email newsletter a few years ago. She tells me, “I have been receiving your newsletter for years and always found it helpful.” I point this out because it underscores an action I took, to keep sending out an email every single week, but also an action she took: she did not click the “unsubscribe” button dozens and dozens of times. She could have. She didn’t.
  2. Kathleen listens to the #amwriting podcast, and heard KJ mention that she is finishing a book, and was considering how to grow her community. Kathleen emailed her recommending my newsletter, since that is a topic I focus on often.
  3. KJ signed up for my email newsletter! Yay!
  4. When someone signs up for my newsletter, an email is automatically sent out that asks, “What is your biggest challenge?” I read and respond to every single one of these — it is such a wonderful opportunity for me to learn about and connect with someone who is interested in my newsletter. KJ took the time to respond to this, which I want to call out because she is busy! I mean, all of you are busy. I never take this for granted, the time and energy it takes to reply to that email.
  5. When I received her response, I noticed her name right away. I became aware of KJ awhile back when I was doing research for a client who is an author writing about education and family. I replied back to her response, told her how much I appreciated her checking out my newsletter, then asked her a question of how I can help her with her immediate challenges in growing her community.
  6. We had a nice back and forth conversation via email exploring all of this.
  7. I suppose she heard about my book via one of the email newsletters I sent, and she bought it and read it.
  8. Then on May 5th she mentioned me twice on the podcast, and she mentioned that she liked Be the Gateway.
  9. Kathleen emailed me to let me know, and then we had a nice email exchange back and forth. And more importantly, I now follow her on Instagram, where she shared one of my new favorite quotes:
    “You can do it!” -Coffee.

  10. I emailed KJ to thank her and tell her I appreciated the mention on her podcast. I also asked if I can interview her for research I am doing for my next book.

When I consider these steps, they at once seem very simple and very complex. Simple because the main driver here was empathy, focus, and simple communication. It was Kathleen and KJ and me just trying to help each other and connect in a meaningful way. This is not unlike how word-of-mouth marketing would have happened in the 1920s, the 1950s, or the 1980s.

It feels complex because it isn’t a simple system that has a clear pre-planned result.

What You Can Learn From This

I think there is a lot that one can learn from this:

  • The long-game works. Just showing up, posting a blog and newsletter each week. Responding to emails. Asking questions. Connecting one by one with wonderful people.

    During that time, the years that Kathleen received my newsletter, there were so many moments of writing them on weeks where I felt too busy to find the time for it. Or where clicking “send” on the newsletter gave me sweaty palms because I didn’t know if the post would resonate or fall flat.

  • Mentioning your work, works. When Be the Gateway came out, I told everyone I know. That wasn’t always easy, because no one wants to feel that they are being self-promotional, and they certainly don’t want to feel they are spamming people. But without me doing that, KJ never would have known about it.
  • Direct outreach works. It is just amazing that Kathleen reached out to KJ, that Kathleen reached out to me, and that KJ replied to my emails. If you feel like you don’t know anyone who would resonate with your creative work, or who is a like-mind, try reaching out. Does it feel risky? Yep. Is it risky? Nope.
  • You have to keep engaging. As all of this was happening in the past week, I was thinking: “How can I thank them?” “What can I learn from this and share with others?” “How can they fit into research I’m doing for my book?”

    It’s scary to keep engaging sometimes because you don’t want to risk rejection. Even before I wrote this post, I emailed KJ and Kathleen asking permission to do so. Between the time I sent the note and the time they replied, I was nervous. What if they feel they did me a favor, and now I’m asking something ELSE of them, messing up any goodwill that we had. Luckily, they felt sent lovely responses, and were totally into the idea.

Too often, we think that the sale of a book happens in one step. That you do something on social media and it leads directly to the sale of your book. I have heard versions of this a thousand times from an author or someone marketing their creative work, “I checked my Facebook ads, and they didn’t convert to a book sale. What a waste.”

But real sales happen with a weird process of consideration, abandonment, re-consideration, working across networks, little reminders, and finally, a sale. When I buy a book, it is often after I have heard about it a few times. After I checked it on Amazon three times on three different days. After I put it in my shopping cart, then got distracted, only returning to it fifteen days later.

All of this was underscored in an email conversation I had with Kathleen this week:

“In the past, I honestly might not have sent KJ that initial email. Two years ago, I attended the ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors) conference in NYC. I was blown away by how friendly, forthcoming and honest the writers there were – both in their presentations, panels and how willing they were to answer any questions or to simply share their experiences.”

“I realized two things: I missed the camaraderie and connection with people who are passionate about writing. And I noticed that the same people who were on one panel would be sitting next to me in the next talk, taking notes furiously. I realized even though their careers were way ahead of mine, they still were trying to learn, had questions or were trying to branch out their careers to try something new.”

“Fast forward: now I connect regularly (just by email or sometimes phone and Skype) with other writers. I seek that connection and make an effort – even if just a small one – to include that as part of my life and work.”

“I was in a mastermind for a while and do think people underestimate the power of collaboration. Not necessarily working together, but having people you can turn to – to bounce ideas off of, get feedback and to simply share the process with.”

“There are several writers that have welcomed me into their tribe and been so generous with their time and insight, I look at this as paying it forward. Because I simply want to live in a world where this sort of helpful supportive network exist, even among strangers.”

Thank you to Kathleen and KJ for their incredible generosity. Please consider checking out their work:

KJ: website, podcast, Instagram, Twitter
Kathleen: website, Facebook, Instagram.

Oh! And check out Jessica Lahey who runs the #amwriting podcast with KJ, she is the author of The Gift of Failure: website, Twitter, Instagram

Thanks!
-Dan