Dan Blank, Author at WeGrowMedia - Dan Blank

Honing Your Craft vs Connecting With Your Audience

Should a writer spend their time honing their craft, working towards producing work of the highest quality – OR – should they focus their time on building their audience, connecting with others, and building their writing career?

This is a questions I have seen posed many times in many places in the past couple months. I often see people come back with a passionate answer of:

IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR WORK. DON’T WORRY ABOUT MARKETING UNLESS YOUR WORK IS AMAZING.

And yes, that resonates with me, that is something I can nod my head to. When I look at the great work of our culture in stories of all kinds, I find them to be breathtaking, and on high rotation in the playlist of my life.

But should writers ONLY spend their time head down, locked in the attic, creating and revising their work until it meets some standard of greatness? The more I consider this, the more I am convinced that honing your craft and connecting with your audience are not mutually exclusive activities.

So I wanted to explore this topic today. I will say up front: there are no right answers except for what works best for you personally. Whatever feels right in your gut: go with that. Okay, let’s dig in…

A Romantic Vision of the Creative Process

Oftentimes, we have a romanticized view of the creative process and success. We look for purity – we want to think our favorite singer became popular because of their sheer majestic talent alone, that there wasn’t a team of producers crafting their work, that they didn’t throw out 20 songs to come up with one amazing tune, or that they started out as goth before going alt-country.

We don’t want to know about the corporate machine – the business – behind art. The idea of the lone artist resonates with us, that they are creating their work in a cabin in the woods – completely pure. And then, magically, the world discovers their work, validates their effort, and shines a light on their gift. This is how we dream success will happen.

Oftentimes creating great work is akin to how sausage is made. You do not want to know what went into making that hot dog – you simply want to know it tastes yummy at a summer picnic.

When you hear your favorite song – it sounds impassioned, personal, it speaks directly to your heart. But even one verse can be made up of 20 takes, could have been processed in subtle ways (not something as obvious as auto-tune), and be composed of dozens of nuanced layers, all while being debated endlessly by the artist and collaborators. It’s been road tested at a dozen live shows, it’s been shared with friends for months, collecting feedback, slowly improving the performance, the rough edges.

The point is: creative work is often a long process of revision, of sharing, of iteration, of slowly adding and removing layers. In the music world, it is expected that bands will tour and play live shows endlessly before they “make it” – they hone their craft right in front of their audience. They are constantly learning about their fans, how their work connects to people, and are becoming not just better musicians, but better storytellers in the process.

For writers, yes, I love the image of JK Rowling sitting alone in the cafe, creating her little world. I. LOVE. THAT.

But I don’t want to pretend that is the only way for creators to produce quality work. That you are not allowed to come out of the attic with your work until it is amazing. I have been a writer, been an artist, been a musician. When did my work improve? When it was shared. When I took the training wheels off, and took a leap of faith to share it with someone.

Planning vs Doing

You learn so much when you share your work, connecting it with others, and listening to not just the feedback of others, but to how you yourself react to your work once it is free in the world.

This process begins to help define you as a writer, or artist, or musician or other creative. The work lives, it has been unleashed, it can’t be taken back.

For some, this is the start of their career – of their identity. They learn how to share, how to deal with reaction, how their own vision evolves, changes, and grows.

Consider the difference of practicing basketball by yourself, perfecting your moves and shooting vs playing in an actual game. The difference is night and day. It’s the same with music – the difference between spending thousands of hours practicing alone, perfecting your technique vs the experience of playing with a band. BOTH sides of this equation are useful. But something special happens when you experience your craft with others, you see it from an entirely new light. Oftentimes, it is the difference between planning and doing.

There are some things that you can’t learn until you experiences them – with real people reacting to your work, with the insights you gain that make your next piece even better. This often works best if you build it slowly over time, instead of rushing out of the gate with something to sell six weeks before your book comes out.

So how do you create quality work? By doing. By sharing. By publishing. By repeating that process.
This is the principle around the “lean startup” process for launching a business. That, instead of getting an idea for a product, and diligently building it until it is what you want it to be and THEN launching it, you launch little iterations quickly. The idea is that things rarely go according to plan. That what you think is perfect when you launch, after you have expended all the time and resources to create it, is often missing key elements. That you can never predict how people will react to it. So you should launch small “good enough” versions, get feedback, and quickly improve the product to meet the needs of others and improve overall quality.

When you share, you learn so much not just about those who do or don’t react to your work, but about the work itself, and about your own understanding of your vision and abilities.

Storytelling is a Process
For most of us, our work gets better over time. What this means is the first work we create may often be of, say, lower quality than we would like. We mean well, but we simply didn’t have the experience to craft amazing stories, or songs, or works of art yet.

But, as the saying goes, it gets better.

We try, we share, we connect. Just as bands tour their work – they learn, they grow, all through the process of creating AND sharing. It is not an event, it is a PROCESS.

Ira Glass, host of This American Life, reflects on his process of finding and sharing great stories:

“All we do is look for interesting stories, and there are 7 or 8 of us now. I have to say, more than half of our week is engaged in looking for stories and trying stuff out. We’re really good at our jobs, we are as good as anyone who does this sort of thing. Between a half and a third of everything we try, we kill it. By killing, you will make something else even better live.” (meaning they record and produce it, and then they throw it in the trash.) Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.”

It speaks to the process of creative activity. That it is a cycle of creation, of sharing, of creation, of sharing. Ira and his team aren’t sitting in a room, alone, making one story better and better. They are out there, in the world, researching, listening, creating, broadcasting, and in a constant process of creating and connecting – because both sides of the process increase quality over time.

The Subjectiveness of Quality

Let’s just say you have written one of the greatest works of your lifetime – a book that will electrify an entire generation, become one of the biggest sellers of all time, and create a billion dollar empire. Here is the reaction that JK Rowling’s literary agent got when they approached publishers:

“The agency sent Rowling’s 200-page script to 12 publishers, all of whom, to their eternal regret, turned down the book. Harper Collins showed interest but was too slow in formulating a bid and so the first book by the most lucrative writer in the world was picked up by Bloomsbury for an advance of £1,500.”

Or how about another writer’s story. After being rejected by more than 20 publishers…

Early in 1965, Frank Herbert received good news from a surprising source. Chilton Books, best known for publishing auto repair manuals, made an offer of $7,500 (plus future royalties) to publish the three Dune segments.”

Once these writers received 10 rejection letters, should they have gone back to revisions, back to their cabin in the woods, to somehow increase the quality of what have since become classics?

The Confidence Game

Oftentimes the biggest the biggest barrier to someone who wants to create something is themselves. They create a document on their computer – a story, a song, a poem, and image, a video – and they never share it.

Success relies on more than the quality of work. Lots of quality work goes unnoticed. Lots of brilliant people die alone, unknown, without any measure of success or legacy.

Being successful is often as much about confidence, as it is about anything else. Confidence to create. Confidence to share. Confidence to persevere.

I have found that if you share something you are working on with JUST ONE PERSON, a whole new world of possibilities opens up. We live in a world where having “only” 32 followers on Twitter is disappointing. Imagine that – 32 FANS! Never before could you do that, especially on your own, without affiliation of a larger entity.

This is well summed up in this mention from Nathan Bransford’s blog/forum:

“Comment! of! the! Week! I really liked Cathy Yardley’s answer about what she wished she had known when she started writing, because it’s something I believe in wholeheartedly:”

“I wish I’d know that everybody writes alone, but nobody becomes a writing success that way. Not just the critique aspect, but the support. It’s too tough a business to lone wolf.”

Clearly – the goal is to produce quality work – stuff that will shape our culture, touch our hearts, inspire others to greatness, and leave a legacy long after we are gone. And I think that what I am describing in that post is one process to achieve work of the highest quality.

Is this hard work with no clear roadmap? Oftentimes, yes. But I will leave you with this quote from comedian Louis C.K.:

“I’ve learned from experience that if you work harder at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work. I remember seeing this thing, a documentary about a Los Angeles coach [John Wooden], the guy who coached UCLA to huge wins, so they couldn’t be beat for three seasons. He’s a very legendary coach, but a very unassuming guy with thick glasses. They just won and won and won. They talked about the difference between him and, like, Bobby Knight and Vince Lombardi. He didn’t make winning speeches. He never made speeches about being winners and being the best, like, “This is our house,” that kind of horsesh*t. Never said it. He said that to focus on that, to win, win, win, is worthless. It just has no value. He’d address all his players in his little voice, “If you just listen to me, and you work on your fundamentals and you apply yourself to working on these skills, you’re probably going to be happy with the results.” I think about that all the time.”

Thanks!
-Dan

The Value of Dependence

“In their own minds, everybody is Mick Jagger.”

This is how Derek Sivers explains the value of customer service – of serving those in your community – those that you are dependent on. The example he gives is:

“Imagine that every person you’re emailing with is Mick Jagger. If somebody were to email you and say, “Hey Derek, I’ve been checking out your site and I have a question about so-and-so and where can I download the PDF e-book?”

“If you think of that person as some peon that’s a pain in your [butt], that’s another email in your inbox. You’re like, “You just follow the link. Jeez, don’t be such an idiot.”

“But think how you would respond if the email was signed Mick Jagger, Mick.Jagger@rollingstones.com? You would go, “Oh my god, it’s an honor to even be speaking with you. Wow. I’m so happy you emailed. Here, let me . . . in fact, you know what? Instead of telling you where to get the PDF, I will attach it to this email so you don’t have to bother because I know you’re busy. Wow, thank you so much for emailing.”

He concludes: “Treat everybody like it’s Mick Jagger. In their own minds, everybody is Mick Jagger. They are that important. So let’s honor that, let’s respect that, and talk to them as that.”

I have been thinking a lot about how we are dependent on each other for success and well being. In the past year, my wife and I have made some big decisions:

I started a business
She left her job to be home full time with our 10 month old son, and pursue her art career

Inherently, these decisions have the air of “independence” about them, that we are disconnecting from traditional systems and support structures that most people rely on. But I can’t help but feel that with these decisions, my wife and I have become MORE dependent on others, and that this is a positive thing. That I am more focused on serving the needs of the communities that I am a part of – the needs of others.

In fact, starting our own businesses is the MOST social thing that my wife and I can do, and the biggest commitments we can make to others.

I think others view starting a business as me “not having a boss anymore.” It’s the opposite really – I now have MANY bosses. Each of my clients is someone I have to serve and ensure is 100% happy with my services. Each student I teach is someone I have to meet their expectations and provide a lot of value to. The markets and communities I serve will determine the health of my business – I have to give and give and give as much free value as I can to ensure I am a valuable member of these communities.

All of this has made me acutely aware of how interconnected we are, how well being comes from what I can do for you, how I can make others more successful.

Why? Because the good will of these communities are what have allowed me any opportunities I have. The only way I will find success is by the good will of others, including you.

Sure, like anyone, I am a fan of a certain level of independence – of free will – of choice. But I do look critically at what independence is and what dependence is, and which helps us create a more meaningful experience in our culture. That dependence can be positive – helping us to each grow and be a part of something larger.

This is why I have been such a big fan of social media. It connects us to others – strengthening ties that are a support structure in so many ways: professionally, emotionally, socially, within families.

For many types of publishers, it has been an awakening to realize that they are not just delivering a product with content, but are linchpins in a community that depends on them. That publishers can’t just deliver information – they must serve and connect these communities in other ways. And yes, that means providing resources that are sometimes free – that help without asking anything in return.

How does this relate to business, to digital media, to publishing? This:

Myspace to Be Sold to Specific Media for $35 Million

Just six years ago, News Corp. bought Myspace for $580 million.

But without the connections – without people choosing to spend their time on Myspace, the company has little value. Sure, the domain name has value, the brand equity has value, the technology has value, the experience, knowledge and connections of whatever employees are left are valuable. But with Facebook being valued at around $70 billion, you have to wonder: what went wrong with Myspace?

It was noted that:

“News Corp. bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005, and made that back via a lucrative advertising deal with Google when the social networking site was flying high.”

Perhaps Myspace should have been serving the needs of their community, instead of serving ads.

Thanks!
-Dan

How to Build Your Brand? From the Core.

A big focus for my business is brand building – how does one establish and grow a brand online, and create the processes and systems to turn an idea into a business. Today I would like to talk about the idea of building your brand from your core – how to create something that is uniquely you, and that provides not just a career and revenue, but fulfillment and creative control.

Charlie is a Brand
I’d like to introduce you to Charlie. He’s 20 years old, he’s from England, and there’s really nothing special about him, per se. Except… that he records and uploads videos to YouTube, mostly of him talking to the camera on some topic.

The thing is, each of his videos get well over 1 million views, oftentimes closer to 2 million views. And this usually happens in the first couple days of him uploading them. He now has 1 million subscribers too. So the question is: why, and what can we learn from Charlie? Well, here is Charlie introducing himself, and explaining what he does:

A recap:

He’s never had a proper job, he just makes videos on YouTube.
Google pays him to do it via advertising revenue.
He also plays in a band that makes music about Dr. Who.

Why does this work? He won’t pretend to know, he basically fell into all this accidentally. But he does share this:

I don’t like to think of [my audience] as a sea of eyeballs that I need to trick into ‘liking’ my video or subscribing to my channel, or leave me a comment. I try and make good stuff. If I do that, the rest of the good stuff will come with it.

He doesn’t speak to a “community,” he speaks to individual people. You are just a person, one normal actual person. That makes it personal.

Since his success, he says he has been contacted by people “wanting a slice of the Charlie pie” – people making offers of collaboration, capitalizing on his popularity and turning it into a business venture.

He went down that road a bit, hiring a manager and trying some TV presentation. But it was weird for him, he had to work off a script, written by someone else, pretending to be him.

So he’s back out on his own. This is why:

“It has to be fun. If its not fun, I’m not going to want to put in the extra effort to make it as good as it needs to be. Fun is a necessity.”

Personal Brands as Business Strategy

Understandably, there are many folks online who want to build their career by becoming something more of a brand. Some have blogs or video blogs or websites or actual businesses, with products and services. Unlike our friend Charlie above, other folks may actively seek out affiliation with a well-established brand. For instance: if one can build an affiliation with Tide or Ford or Smart Water, then that credibility may land them other affiliations that will lead to a audience growth, a book deal, and of course, your own TV show.

And this works well for some people.

It’s interesting to consider what Charlie is doing compared to those who collect badges from major brands to display on their blogs. Charlie’s possibilities are in his own hands, and that has its own challenges and rewards.

But a primary one is that everything Charlie builds is coming from his core. He isn’t slowly changing what he does in order to fit with a sponsorship, a career path, or doing what he can to please a partner or client.

Drifting
How did you end up in the job you work right now? A lot of folks I know slowly drifted into their chosen career path, often based on convenience and building on where they were at the start. For instance, a friend of mine was a salesperson at a store in the mall during college, and then he became assistant manager, then changed jobs to another retail job, and little by little, carved out a career as a manager of major retail stores.

Was this his goal? When you were 24, was your goal to have the job title you have right now?

There is nothing wrong with this, I am simply reflecting on the fact that sometimes we end up in places far away from our center because of the choices others make for us. We pursue opportunities one step at a time, but 367 steps later, we find we went off-course somewhere.

The Right to Choose Your Path

This week JK Rowling announced an online “experience” by which she would finally release the Harry Potter books in digital formats. She was able to wait so long, and follow her own path because she retained the digital rights to the books.

Likewise, on May 13, 1971, Stevie Wonder turned 21, and his Motown contract to expire. From Wikipedia:

“Wonder independently recorded two albums, which he used as a bargaining tool while negotiating with Motown. Eventually the label agreed to his demands for full creative control and the rights to his own songs. The 120-page contract shattered precedent at Motown and additionally gave Wonder a much higher royalty rate.”

What followed were a series of seminal albums – an outpouring of creative mastery.

The thing is, we all inherently have the legal rights to choose our own path. We don’t need to negotiate them away from some larger corporate entity.

Justine Musk recently shared a wonderful post on building your brand, and had this advice:

“You don’t invent your personal ‘brand’ out of thin air, any more than you invent your life or your self. You search your soul, you explore your past, you excavate your fascinations and beliefs, and drill down and drill down for the meaning of it all.”

It’s not something that comes to you from others, it comes from inside of you. It’s not a business card, an office, a product, a newsletter list, or logo, or a contract with a major brand. It is an intangible that comes from within, and is baked into everything you do.

On the Cusp
We are always on the cusp of greatness. Sometimes it takes an extraordinary risk to move past boundaries.

In all of this, I have been considering, “Well Dan, what is YOUR brand?” I honestly have no idea. I was looking back through my blogs the other night, and surprised at what I found. I was reminded of who I was, what I dream about. This post from 2007 seemed relevant to this discussion: What Rockstars Can Teach Us About Innovation. It shares a single moment where Bono risked the entire career of U2 with one ten foot jump. But doing so launched them to worldwide success. The video:

Playing at Live Aid in 1985, U2 had a cult following, but by no means had any kind of mainstream fan-base. Their albums had fallen out of the charts, and they had a 3-song slot at the concert. The plan was to end with their strongest song, and hopefully attracting new fans with it. But during their second song, Bad, Bono went way off script.

Midway through the song, he wanders to the front of the stage. Looking down at the crowd 10+ feet below, he begins to focus on faces. With tens of thousands of people in the arena, and millions watching on TV worldwide, he was looking at the face of a single woman. He suddenly starts waving for security to allow the fan to go over the barrier and come up onto the stage. They don’t understand his intention, and as Bono becomes frustrated, he makes a split second decision to leap down 10 feet to the floor of the arena.

The band keeps playing in the background, unsure of where Bono went or why. The precious few minutes are getting eaten up, and the moment he jumps off the stage, they lose all chances of having time for their third song – their big shot at stardom.

Meanwhile, back on the arena floor, Bono pulls a fan from the crowd and slowly dances with her amid security guards. He finally makes his way back on stage, where the band continues the music from Bad. Bono grabs the microphone, and instead of singing any U2 song, he looks out at the crowd and begins to sing lyrics from the Rolling Stones’ Ruby Tuesday. Then he goes into Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side.

As their time runs out, Bono rushes past his bandmates and off stage. They hated him for what he had done, and Bono assumed he had just inadvertently broken up the band.

But as the days passed something strange happened. U2’s albums began re-entering the charts. Bono’s effort to reach out to the audience became the highlight of the entire concert – the one person who broke from the script to create a moment of meaning from a massive spectacle.

What Bono did was stop talking, and start listening. The audience was not a thing, it was made up of unique individuals. Bono knew U2’s songs didn’t matter in that moment, bur rather, the songs that brought people together.

This came from his core, not the “plan” of promoting their songs.

This is Our Time

Each of us are on the cusp of greatness. But we have to stop the train that is our lives to take the action to realize that greatness. This is our time to share something worth being remembered for. To create the space in this world to give, and to help empower others.

So when we use imperfect words such as referring to people as “brands,” this is what I think we are referring to. A word that encapsulates everything we are and everything we can be.

Thanks!
-Dan

Embracing Change

If you are in publishing, media or are a writer, you are well aware of the incredible transitions going on in your industry. Digital media is changing every aspect of the business models of these fields, and we find ourselves swept up by the wave in one way or another.

Transitions are often things that folks avoid. They wait them out. They linger, they stall. But these transitions don’t have to happen TO you. In fact, YOU can happen to them.

It’s almost absurd how the music industry, and now parts of the publishing industry have waited for Apple and Amazon and Google and others to TAKE control of the transition. To embrace it as an opportunity, instead of a threat. But a company like Apple realized something critical:

You can CHOOSE transition, not have it thrust upon you.

When you choose transition, you can build from the core. You are not reacting, you are shaping. The way you approach it comes from your own DNA – not by plugging a thousand holes in a leaking dam.

Transitions Are Opportunities to Live Up To Your Potential

When we talk about building our careers, we are talking about creating our lives. Creating our success. We all inherently have potential. Every single day, we have potential to do something remarkable, something that positively affects the lives of others, that shapes the world we live in. But most of us are too busy doing other things, attending to obligations, so the potential waits.

There is a phrase that has become popular in the startup and business worlds:

“Fail often, and fail fast.”

I appreciate the sentiment that people are trying to express here, but feel that this phrase takes a lot for granted. Namely, that the “failure” that is referenced here never seems to be debilitating failure. You know, failure where you lose all of your money, have to fire your entire staff, where you lose your job, tarnish your reputation, waste millions of dollars of your employers resources. “Failure” that can’t be recovered from very quickly or easily, which honestly, is how I always defined the word.

What I think the people who use this expression are trying to convey is this:

Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Fear failure. That’s natural and smart. But don’t be afraid to consistently try experiments that you will learn from. Sure, many of your experiments won’t work, but none will be debilitating to you, your family, your colleagues, partners or employers.

When we fail, there are often consequences. But when we experiment, we learn. We don’t just sit in a chair and assume – we FIND OUT. We push ourselves beyond what is known – maybe a bit beyond our comfort zone, and we LEARN. This is where growth comes from; where new knowledge comes from; where we learn how to navigate transitions and find success, instead of just battening down the hatches on rough waters and hope to merely survive.

Setting Expectations – Taking Control of the Wheel

I am a huge fan of Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com, who interviews entrepreneurs. Recently, he shared what he has learned when interviewing entrepreneurs who have written and published books:

“Authors don’t want to talk about their books after they’re published, for the most part. One of the reasons I heard is that they have this big vision for how big their lives are going to be, how much their lives are going to change after they publish their book. And they imagine their publisher is going to get them publicity, that they are going to get themselves publicity, they are going to be on Oprah, and then…”

“…nothing happens.”

“They have to hustle to sell their books, just like they have to hustle to sell anything. People aren’t paying attention to them. Once they realize that, and they push as much as they can, they don’t want to talk about the book anymore, because some of them are just a little embarrassed by how poorly it did compared to their vision. So they move on with their lives.”

When I work with writers to help them build their careers, it is often about building their platform – enabling them to build the connections they need, the skills they need, and to find new processes and ideas to provide a sustainable writing career.

That, just trudging along is not going to get them to their goals. Just Tweeting, just blogging, just doing any one thing is not enough. That your career needs to have a strategy, not just an unending list of to-do’s.

To create this strategy, to develop this platform, you often need to expend resources, usually time or money or a combination of the two. It’s an investment.

Investments are often full of hope and fear. I hear a lot of people share their personal mantra as some variation of “no fear.” But I think fear is natural, it is okay. Stagnation is not. It’s okay to have fear, it’s not okay to let it stop you. This sentiment is best embodied in this quote:

“The brave man is not he who feels no fear, For that were stupid and irrational; But he, whose noble soul its fears subdues, And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.”
– Joanna Baillie

You Must Make the Time to Grow
Years ago, my brother was a manager at a major retail chain – a store so big, it required 10 managers to run the entire operation. His day was a rush of managing a lot of employees, a ton of merchandise, and assisting hundreds of customers.

One day, his boss came up to him and asked: “Andy, do you want to go grab lunch?” – meaning a sit down lunch across the street at Bennigans. The first time this happened, my brother replied: “I have a lot to get done,” hinting that taking an hour for lunch would throw off his whole day.

His manager looked him in the eye and said: “If taking a single hour off will disrupt how you are running your department, then you aren’t managing correctly.”

My brother went to lunch that day, and every other day he was asked. He built a stronger relationship with his boss, which lead to more career opportunities (and an actual friendship) down the road.

The point is this: it easy to feel overwhelmed in your job, or pursuing your writing career. Don’t let it stop you from growing. Take the time to learn new skills, to experiment, to have lunch with someone you want to know better, to serve your community without any clear indication that anyone will return the favor.

Thanks!
-Dan

Investing in Time Instead of Money

Today, I want to talk about two things:

A big decision my wife and I made.
Why I feel that people should invest more in themselves – their skills and abilities – instead of just financial investments.

So my wife and I are taking a leap. This week, she handed in her letter of resignation at the wonderful teaching job she has had for the past six years. Why? To spend all of her time and attention on raising our son, and working on her art. (Here is her art in case you are interested: SarahBlankStudios.com)

Time Vs Money

There are very real implications here, notably, the financial stuff. She gives up a wonderful job at a decent salary, with incredible benefits and lots of time off. We recently heard about a job position like hers opening up elsewhere in the state, and they received 1,000 applicants for the position. So yes, it feels weird to choose to give that up.

And there is the not-so-small fact that buying private health insurance is going to cost us in the neighborhood of $1,500 per month, and that does not include the deductibles we have to pay or higher co-pays. Less income, higher expenses.

But I am thinking of all of this as an investment in three things:

My own time. With my wife home, we can stop juggling the dozens of things each day of two working parents with a young son and a young business. I can fully focus on building We Grow Media, on becoming better at what I do, and on serving clients and students. I love what I do for a living; I LOVE working with writers; I LOVE working with publishers; I have an unending stream of energy for this.
My wife’s time. She has always been an artist, and has built a small following via her blog and Etsy store. Now, she can truly focus on her art, and on growing the business related to it. Will she make-up her old salary anytime soon? Nope. Will she potentially have a thriving art career in 5 or 10 years? Yes. And that is a life worth living – a risk worth taking.
Time with our son. With my wife at home, and me working from home, that means that we are both around to raise our son, and to find countless family moments each day, each week, each month, each year. I know that is a luxury that is very rare in our culture. We have saved and saved and saved for the past 10 years, in order to take this leap.

Even with the financial risk, this decision feels empowering. To choose the life we want to live, instead of basing our decisions on the seemingly “safe” route – and money alone.

We have all heard the story of the wealthy man on his deathbed, whose dying regret is that he wished he spent more time with his children, instead of at the office. That is what I am keeping in mind. That money comes and goes, time is all we have.

Investing in People Instead of Things

There is something I don’t understand about investment as it is discussed in the media, especially in light of the recession. Our culture often has an unhealthy relationship with the idea of “investing.” We view it mostly with regards to money – that we invest $10 and hope to get back $15. But what about value beyond dollars and cents? What about investing in ourselves?

I am not investing in the stock market, or real estate or anything else that is a “thing.” I am investing in having the time to grow my skills and abilities. I am investing in people – in growing my relationships with others. I am focusing on the value of TIME, not just the value of MONEY. To use that time to grow my skills, to serve clients, to become better at what I do. Things that can exponentially repay themselves over the course of a lifetime, instead of a stock that may rise 12% next quarter.

This is also why training and education are such a big part of We Grow Media – I believe so strongly in the idea of investing in our own possibilities.

The Nature of Freedom

I am giving up all of the security that seems standardized in our culture. We rent an apartment instead of owning a home. I started a business after leaving my corporate job of 10 years. My wife is leaving her very stable and wonderful job. We had our first child less than a year ago. As my brother said: this all defies logic, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t the right decision.

The truth is, I have never felt more free. I have never felt more confident. I have never felt less scared.

Freedom is not about what you own, but how you live and the options you have. And, the more you own, typically, the fewer options you have. The financial cost of purchasing and upkeeping our possessions often provides less freedom. You spend time not just paying off the stuff, but dusting it, maintaining it, upgrading it.

Getting Better at Serving Others

EVERYTHING I am describing here is about how I can have the time to become better at serving the needs of others. How I can devote more time to my clients and students; how I can spend more time studying and researching new tools that will empower them; how I can devote more time to personal and professional relationships; how I can be more mindful of those around me.

The first year of my business has been incredible, and it has been ENTIRELY due to the generosity of those around me. I have been unbelievably lucky, and want to do everything possible to help others – to return the favor – and to be kind-hearted at every possible step of the process. This isn’t about “fighting to grow my business,” this is about giving as much as I can, because others have already given me so much.

There are many reasons that went into the decisions my wife and I have made recently, but it is all best encapsulated in a Tom Robbins quote a friend recently shared:

“Should you fail to pilot your own ship, don’t be surprised at what inappropriate port you find yourself docked.”

So thank you to the many people who have shared in this journey so far, and made it all possible. I am looking forward to going down the next path through the wilderness together.

Thanks!
-Dan