Author: Dan Blank

I get emails like this all the time from writers:

“All the literary agents are telling me: ‘If you had a platform, I would represent you.'”

Why do they say this? A lot of books are thrust into the marketplace with a quiet “thud” — no readers, no sales, no reviews — and the agents want as much help as possible to prevent that from happening

Today I want to talk about how to assess your author platform in order to find clear, meaningful actions you can take in order to improve it and better develop your audience.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been conducting a “brand audit” for my company, WeGrowMedia. As I went through the process, I realized that it would be useful to reframe it for writers as an author platform audit. Even if you feel you don’t yet have a platform, this guide will help.

I will encourage you to do this way before you think you need it, and to do it on a recurring basis. I’m 8 years in to running my company, and I have done a brand audit like this many times. It is a great way for me to hone my radical clarity of what I do and why, and identify how I can best help the writers I serve.

Let’s dig in…

Remind Yourself of What Your Audience Wants Most

If you are a writer, your goals may be specific to the book you are writing or the place you are in your career. If you are 100% focused on getting an agent, consider what agents and publishers want and why. The short version is that they want you to:

• Write a great book.
• Identify the ideal readers are for your book. Don’t rely on vague demographics or descriptions. Be able to describe them in detail — why your book will resonate deeply with them.
• Have a keen sense of the marketplace. Publishing is a business, and if you are asking for collaborators to invest in you and your work, then take the marketplace seriously. Identify comparable books to yours.
• Develop relationships with colleagues who are connected to your ideal audience.
• Establish channels to reach your ideal audience. This could be social media, but it may include many others as well (more on that below.)
• Based on the list above, have ideas on how you can reach these ideal readers in more proactive ways — marketing, outreach, partnerships, events, collaborations, etc.

That is what a literary agent means when they say, “If you had a platform, I would represent you,” or even when they say “Come back to me when you have 10,000 Twitter followers.” They don’t really want that (you can literally buy followers, so that wouldn’t help them with their goals), they want the list above.

Regardless of whether you are seeking representation, you likely want to grow your audience. In that case, the list above applies as well. If you are self-publishing the list is probably even more important because you won’t automatically have a professional editing, marketing, and publicity team working on your behalf.

Remind Yourself of What Makes a Great Author Platform

Your author platform is not the number of social media followers you have. I can’t stress that strongly enough. Stop chasing the follower count number. I have seen so many writers or artists who have this super impressive social media follower count, but nearly zero connection to an actual audience who knows them and likes them.

What’s the difference?

When that person launches their book, it lands with the “thud” I referenced above. No one buys it. No one talks about it. No one reviews it.

I define an author platform as having two elements:

1. Communication
2. Trust

These are timeless and universal things that were just as applicable to an author in 1920, 1960, or 1990 as it is today.

Communication is about empathy and clarity: knowing who you want to reach, what they care about, and considering the best way to truly engage with them. It is as much about listening as it is talking.

This is why we even talk about social media. Social media is just a tool, but your focus needs to be on the person and how to truly connect with them.

I think people get distracted by the technology, and miss the point: this is about people. Let’s have Steve Jobs explain it, here is an excerpt from a 1994 interview:

INTERVIEWER: You’ve often talked about how technology can empower people, how it can change their lives. Do you still have as much faith in technology today as you did when you started out 20 years ago?

STEVE JOBS: Oh, sure. It’s not a faith in technology. It’s faith in people. Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them. It’s not the tools that you have faith in — tools are just tools. They work, or they don’t work. It’s people you have faith in or not.

The second part of platform — trust — focuses on how strong that connection is. When someone chooses to follow you on social media, that is one indication of trust. They want to hear from you consistently. So are actions such as signing up for your email newsletter, attending your book reading, pre-ordering your book, sending you an email, or even recommending your book to a friend.

Trust is also why marketers have talked a lot about the phrase “influencers” in the past decade. I don’t like that term because it feels too transactional in nature, and trust extends beyond that. But the crux of it is (please read this next line in a robot voice in your head): “You have a book that INFLUENCER X may enjoy. INFLUENCER X has a big audience who trusts them. If they recommend your book, you will get more sales. Befriend INFLUENCER X. Repeat with INFLUENCERS Y, Z, A, B, C, and so on…”

The Author Platform Audit — What to Analyze

Okay, now that we have reviewed what your audience wants most and the foundational elements of an author platform, let’s dig into the audit.

Chances are, you feel like you don’t have an author platform at all, or the one you have is not what you want it to be.

You are wrong.

I always remembered the advice I read years ago about what to do when you get laid off from a job: go home and update your resume. List out not just what you did in your previous work, but the impact it had on the people and organizations you worked with. It’s a huge confidence booster.

In the same vein, you likely have more of an author platform than you realize, it simply may not be organized in a way that feels actionable.

Create a document. I did this in a spreadsheet, but you can use a regular document or even just a sheet of paper. We are going to list out all of elements of your author platform.

Do NOT write down how many followers you have on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram. That number is useless, so ignore it.

Instead, I want you to:

1. List out each place online or off that someone can connect with you. So may include your website, social channels, an Amazon profile, etc. Go ahead and Google yourself. (scary, right?!) See what comes up and make note of places you are featured online that you forgot about. Oh, and if you Google yourself and nothing comes up, that is a good reminder that you have work to do. Do people use Google to find books? Not really. But do they hear about a book recommendation from a friend, and then Google the name of the author to find it? All the time! This is the “communication” aspect of author platform. If people can’t find you, that is a problem.
2. How do you proactively reach out to people, how often, and how effective is each? This includes email newsletters, the content you share on social media, speeches you give, podcasts you publish, etc. A lot of people feel that they are on a social media treadmill that takes up a lot of time and feels completely ineffective. Give this a good hard look to see where you are adopting a vanilla strategy and how you can connect with people in more meaningful ways.
3. Analyze each place that people can find you: all the things you just listed out. Note obvious ways you can update or improve each of these places. Does your Amazon profile incorrectly list your books? Does your LinkedIn bio still not mention your last two books? Does your author homepage still say, “Preorder now! My book launches Sept 8, 2015!”
4. Collect all of the various ways you describe who you are and what you do. I see this all the time: an author describes themselves in 4 different ways on 4 different channels. If you can’t effectively communicate these things, how can you expect people to truly hear you?
5. Write down your professional collaborators. These are people you have worked with in your life as a writer: editors, book cover designers, proofreaders, etc.
6. Then list out professional colleagues who you know. People you could email and they would reply. This likely includes other authors.
7. Identify ideal readers for your books that you actually know or could reach out to. This is a biggie. If you don’t understand your ideal readers, how can you reach more of them?
8. Note the people you know who support writers and books. This could be booksellers, librarians, those who run writing groups or literary festivals.
9. List out comparable authors — those who write books similar to yours. Even if you don’t know them personally, write their names down.
10. Identify communities that your ideal audience connects with. This could be an online forum, a physical conference/event, a person they love and follow online, etc.
11. Review your writing practice. Everything here begins with your craft. If you struggle to find the time and energy to write, note that. Consider how you can make the creative process a core part of your weekly schedule.

People tend measure the wrong things, they only measure social media followers, and always conclude their single takeaway as: “Get more social media followers.” But that isn’t the answer.

Now Take Action

Likely you are now sitting here with these big lists and thinking, “Um, now what, Dan?” Do this:

• Ensure all of the places people can connect with you are radically clear about who you are and what you create. So that may mean updating your website messaging, your Twitter bio, your LinkedIn summary, etc.
• Reconnect with collaborators and colleagues who you haven’t reached out to in awhile. Just say hello, ask them what’s going on in their life, and give them a brief update on your writing.
• Reach out to other authors who write work similar to yours. These should be your professional colleagues. Too often, I ask writes if they know other authors and they say “No.” Fix that. How can you succeed in a profession if you don’t know anyone else who does the kind of work you do? Send an email to people whose books you admire. Tell them you like their work. It’s really that simple. Who wouldn’t want to receive that email?!
• Consider how you can create or revise your social media and/or outreach strategy so that it focuses on communication and establishing trust with your ideal audience. Sometimes these things are simple. For instance: “I write literary fiction, and I find that my ideal readers love being reminded of the power of books to heal. So I’m going to share photos when I go to independent bookstores, images of books I love, and little stories of how a book changed someone’s life.”

For each step, focus on the person you hope to connect with, not about the tools you use to do so.

This process may raise a lot of questions about what direction you should take. When possible, do it with a collaborator. I do audits like this all the time in my one-on-one consulting with authors.

Let me know how I can be of assistance to you.

Thanks!

-Dan

This week I asked author Allison Leotta how she found her literary agent. The answer? From her existing network.

Allison didn’t spend weeks researching agents, creating spreadsheets, and then spending months emailing dozens of them. Instead, she considered anyone she knew who was a published author, and reached out to them for advice.

In her case, this was a former college classmate. It wasn’t someone Allison knew very well, but they both were in the same college class, so she figured there was enough of a connection to reach out.

The result? This connection lead directly to Allison signing with an agent. From this, her debut novel published with Simon & Schuster, as were the four that followed, another that is now prepping for publication, plus another she is currently writing. She also made the huge creative shift from working as a federal prosecutor to full-time novelist.

Too often, writers ignore their one of the greatest resources in their careers: the people they already know. I can’t tell you how many times I have spoken to writers who desperately wanted to NOT tap into their network of friends, family, and colleagues when they started out. Instead, they wanted to ignore those people, to avoid telling them about their writing aspirations at all possible costs.

But what they don’t realize is how high that cost actually is. It may cost them their best shot at becoming a published author.

Their reasoning is simple: “I don’t know anyone in publishing, and no one I know reads the kinds of books I write anyway.” But I always sense that there is a deeper reason: they don’t want to be judged by those who know them, and they especially don’t want to ask for help or be perceived as though they need help.

So they hide their writing. They ignore their network. And they struggle, alone.

If you want my advice for how to succeed as a writer, I would say these are the first two steps:

#1 Put craft first. If you aren’t investing in your craft by sitting down with the blank page each week and filling it with words, start there. (More from me on this topic here: Craft vs. Platform: Which Comes First?)

#2 Leverage your existing network of friends, family and colleagues. I’ll bet everything about that sentence made you cringe. The word “leverage” feels so cold and business-like, right? But you know what? When you get a book deal with a major publisher, the marketing and publicity departments send you an “author questionnaire” to fill out. I’ve seen many of these from my clients. They are long lists of questions that seek to explore every single corner of your existing network: Sororities you belonged to 30 years ago, boards you on were on 15 years ago, schools your kids went to 20 years ago, anyone you know that may work in media, any companies you worked for. They are mining your network because they know that these people have a stake in your success. They already know you and trust you, so they are easier to engage and use as amplifiers than total strangers. I think that many authors are excited to work with publishers because there is the hope that they will connect the author’s book to the masses. Yet, one of the first thing the publishers dig into is your own existing network of friends, family, and colleagues.

I want to share a compelling example of this with you, how one author kickstarted word-of-mouth marketing via their friends, family, and colleagues. This is Teri Case at the launch party for her novel, Tiger Drive — Teri is in the tiger shirt getting hugged, and just look at the long line of happy people waiting to hug her:

(photo by Gretchen Lemay Photography)

Dozens and dozens of people showed up to the event. I asked Teri about who was there, and she described how it was full of people from her existing network:

“I had a line 3/4 of the way to the door within the first five minutes. From that point on, it was out the door for 2.5 hours.” She knew many of these people directly, but not all of them. Here Teri describes how word-of-mouth marketing happened:

“Even the people I didn’t know were excited to tell me about the “degrees” of finding out about the book or connecting with me. For example, I met a co-worker of my oldest brother’s (he couldn’t come due to a previous engagement, but his co-worker did!). Or there was a woman who worked in dispatch in the Sheriffs Department. My brother’s son-in-law is a sergeant there, so this woman in dispatch heard about the book and came. A mother of my sister’s childhood friend came — I’m not connected to her in Facebook, but she heard about it via shares of Facebook.”

“I met so many new people that night, but for each person, we could track how we were connected. Word-of-Mouth Marketing STARTS with your friends, family, and colleagues. And at the risk of sounding self-absorbed, they do want to be involved and a part of it!”

As a part of the event, Teri raffled off copies of books donated by authors. When I looked at the photo, I noticed something fascinating: every single book was from someone she met in my Creative Shift Mastermind or course one of my courses:

These include names very familiar to me because I have worked with all fo them: Kelsey Browning, Cathey Graham Nickell, Pamela D. Toler, Lisa Manterfield, Mary Jo Hazard, Kathy Ramsperger, Dawn Downey, Carlen Maddux, Carrie Ann Lahain, and Nancy J. Nordenson.

Teri met these people and stayed connected with them. She followed up with them and supported them. Teri centered her book event around generosity and celebration. She started with the people she knew, and extended outward from there.

If you want to know exactly how Teri did this, she created a wonderful resource that she is allowing me to share: “Lessons Learned From My Book Signing.” What you see here is her incredible attention to detail and caring. You also see how this is work. Teri sweats the details to make it easy for people to connect with her novel.

You can find Teri and her book here.

Also, I just posted an amazing interview I did with Allison Leotta here. In our chat she describes how writing a book is more difficult than law school, running a marathon, or climbing a mountain! Oh, there’s a video too — the screenshot is from one of many moments where she totally cracked me up:

Oh, and if you want to know more about the first steps to share your writing or art, and connect it to an audience, check out my book, Be the Gateway. It shares the methodology I use every day with authors and artists.

Thanks!

-Dan

My days are spent obsessing about the creative process of writers and artists. The photo below is of Danika Massey. She has this amazing channel on YouTube where she goes by the name ComicBookGirl19. Here she is on her couch, crying:

She had just got done telling her audience that she is going to have to stop being ComicBookGirl19. That she can’t financially sustain herself by creating YouTube videos anymore.

This is after 6 years of making more than 300 videos. After amassing an audience of:

• 521,000 YouTube Subscribers
• 50,000,000 YouTube video views. (yes, million)
• 1,900 patrons on Patreon (these people each pay her at least $1 per month, if not much more)
• 9,000 Twitch followers
• 49,000 Twitter followers
• 76,000 Facebook likes
• 51,000 Instagram followers

Plus she has an online store, runs a book club, and more. Her work is soooo good, and she definitely describes herself as an artist (as she should.) I first discovered her via this 3-part video series where she takes you through the history of X-Men. It’s just amazing: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

It begs this question: if she can’t sustain herself financially via her creative work, how can anyone? An enormous part of me is convinced “she will be back” because of her talent, gumption, and fan base. Yet, my thinking that does just magically make it happen. She is working through her own creative process, one that there isn’t a roadmap for.

Now I’d like to dig into the relationship between failure and success. I understand that many people don’t like the term “failure,” so please bear with me as I use it below.

FAILURE SOMETIMES LOOKS LIKE SUCCESS

I heard of Sean McCabe years ago when his “Learn Hand Lettering” courses first took off. Sean wasn’t only helping people become artists, but he shared the behind-the-scenes of his success with blog posts such as this: “Behind the Scenes of a $177,803 Hand Lettering Course Launch That Made the First Six Figures in 26 Hours.” This is Sean:

I’ve followed him since then, and while listening to his podcast this week, he began talking about his failures. It was astounding not just to hear about them, but to hear the tone in his voice as he described:

• How moving his podcast archive into a members-only area turned out to create way more problems than it fixed.  He recently backtracked on that.
• He describes a launch that “saved us financially,” which is a reminder that we are often one good launch away from success, but one bad launch away from failure.
• He describes how a conference he ran garnered amazing feedback from attendees, but how none of them knew the toll it took financially to run it. That he hasn’t been able to run another one because the numbers just aren’t there.
• How he doubled-down on content creation, but it took a toll: “We were cranking out 14 pieces of content a week at the height of it, it was insane.”
• How he was “spending 18 months going down the whole rabbit hole of evergreen sales funnels, that was a failure.”

Now, Sean is perhaps the most positive person you will ever meet. In describing the challenges above, he framed all of them as lessons he learned and how he has bigger plans now.

But it was still amazing for me to see how someone who is successful has also been going through failure after failure in plain sight. His positivity and (yes, this word again) gumption keeps pushing him and his team forward. I’m interviewing him for my podcast in a couple weeks, I’m so excited to dig further into this with him.

SUCCESS SOMETIMES LOOKS LIKE FAILURE

I’ve followed Humans of New York for years, but was blown away by this interview with its creator, Brandon Stanton.

Brandon is wildly successful, with millions and millions of followers. He roams the streets of New York, asks strangers if he can take their photos, and asks them questions about their life. Often, their answers are profound.

In the interview, the first hour is spent going through Brandon’s background. Midway through though, at minute 1:15, as Brandon describes the tough early days, he goes silent. There is a stark change in his voice and you can sense the tears. He says, reflecting on the early days of Humans of New York:

“I’m in NY, and I’ve been trying to make it work for 6 months. I worked every day, including Christmas and Thanksgiving. All I did was photograph all day long. I had gotten thousands of these portraits and not many people were paying attention.”

“The hardest part about it was especially when I got started, and Humans of New York didn’t have any fans, and it wasn’t made into any books, and my family didn’t believe in it, and my friends thought I was crazy. I had no photography experience. I’m in New York City stopping random people and asking them questions. I’m feeling insecure.”

“When you walk up to somebody and you ask them if you can take their photo and they respond like you’re some sort of freak or that you’re weird, it’s hard to not internalize that because you’re so insecure at the moment about whether or not what you’re doing is weird and if it’s something that – am I weird for asking these people for their photographs? I’d go out some days, and ten people in a row would make me feel like I’m some sort of freak.”

“Like, “Do you know what city you’re in? You can’t be stopping random people. Get out of my way. What are you doing? No, you can’t take my photo. Get out of here.” And during my formative and impressionable early days when I’m trying to figure this out, five reactions like that in a row when nobody’s paying attention to your work, and you’ve been trying for months, and you can’t figure it out, psychologically was very tough. There’d be days where that would happen, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I would just go home and lay in bed.”

“It was all of the doubt, and not having any money, and nobody’s paying attention, and I’m just doing this all day long for months. The loneliness too, I didn’t know anybody in New York. I knew two people. There was a Christmas break where those two people went home, and for two weeks, I didn’t see anybody that I knew. I remember I spent Christmas Eve alone at a diner. Then I just went out and photographed because it was the only thing that would keep me from thinking about how unlikely it was and how stupid of an idea it might be.”

“The only thing that I think kept me from thinking about the possibility of failing was doing it, was just photographing. Whenever I started to think, “Is this gonna work? Is it not gonna work?” I’d just go out and photograph. That was my only way of keeping those wolves away of, “Is this ultimately going to be a success? Am I wasting my time? Am I stupid?”

“The only way to keep those away was to go out and work. So that’s what I would do just all day long and do it and do it and do it. These negative things like the rejection of people and people saying no that I was talking about, all of the negative stuff, the thing that was counteracting that all the time was just loving it so much. I just loved it so much.”

What’s astounding is how successful his work has become. He has given voice to thousands, and allowed millions of others to feel that they aren’t alone in their struggles.

All of this came from his spending months and months doing work that no one else believed in. He was willing to be the guy on the street, publicly failing, in order to find incredible success years down the road.

SOMETIMES, FAILURE LOOKS BACK AT YOU IN THE MIRROR

This week, I failed. For month and months, I’ve been working to develop a one-day workshop called Creative Business Boost. In the end, I simply didn’t get the minimum number of registrants I needed in order for it to run, so it was canceled.

I’ve been trying to process what I’m learning here. The original idea for the workshop came up in December in my Mastermind group. They loved the idea. I started to outline it, and then brought in author/illustrator Lori Richmond as a collaborator. Now, Lori is A-MAZ-ING. Her energy, her experience, her talent.

We spent months putting it together, taking it really seriously. Then we vetted it with colleagues, who helped us shape it and gave feedback. Years of experience went into this — I knew the event would be useful, high value, high touch, innovative, and fun.

Oh, and a flop.

When it became clear that it wasn’t taking off, I talked to people I trust about it. I heard lots of suggestions on how to turn the idea around:

1. Make it less expensive.
2. Extend it to 2 days.
3. Add more speakers.
4. Focus the topic more.
5. Do it at a different time of year.

Basically: give way more, for way less money, and change everything that it currently is.

All of these ideas are “good,” but it was a reminder that no one really knows what works. All that you can do is try, learn, and try again.

We have been talking about failure in my Creative Shift Mastermind group, with a big focus on failure as a chance to learn and improve. While I 100% agree with that, I also see it as this:

Failure is mirror. It gives you the chance to look at yourself and ask: what do you really believe in? How far are you willing to take this? How much are you willing to change in order to get it right? What will you sacrifice in order to double-down? What is your price to give up?

Failure helps you understand who you are and what your radical clarity is.

This is what failure looks like:

In other words, it looks like work. Me in my studio, trying again.

Just like Danika is doing. Just like Sean is doing. Just like Brandon is doing.

You can’t succeed without failure, because doing so is a process of learning. Someone shared this quote on the topic:

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.”
– J.K. Rowling

I spend every day talking to writers and artists, and I know that includes you. I want to thank you for showing up to your craft, for creating what matters to you, and for keeping at it, even when things don’t go as planned. Of course, I also want to thank you for supporting me in my work. It really means the world to me.

In the meantime, Lori and I are already brainstorming revisions to Creative Business Boost that we plan to launch in the Fall. It will keep the same purpose, but we will remix it with new ideas and the advice that our friends and colleagues shared.

How do you deal with failure?
Thanks.
-Dan

P.S. My next Studio Time online workshop is August 9: Create an Online Identity and Social Media Profile That Feels Honest, Professional and Inspiring

This is the feedback I just received on the draft of the book I’m writing:

• It wanders.
• It’s circular.
• It’s repetitive.
• It’s confusing.
• It’s a mess.
• It’s bloated.

This is the book that I started writing in 2015. That I wrote 72,000 words on. Then I threw those words in the trash and started again from scratch. Writing an additional 45,000 that comprise the current draft.

This is the work of being a writer. Of approaching the book with fresh eyes for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th time. Of getting greater clarity on what it’s about and whose world it will change.

If the feedback above seems harsh, it isn’t. I would say it is accurate. But the critiques above did not arrive as starkly as I wrote them above. They were part of a long email, that included four other documents that had markups on them — detailed notes. They were followed up by a long phone call talking about the book’s strengths and what I need to work on. The feedback above was not meant to tear down the work, but to build it up. To ensure that my creative vision didn’t get muddled by back structure. Oh, and the feedback above came from book coach Jennie Nash. She worked on my last book, and is basically a genius when it comes to making books the best they can be.

This is why I often talk about the value of collaborators. Simply put: they make my creative work better.

The book I’m writing is currently called “From Dabbler to Doer.” Since 2015, the content has gotten better and better because I have spent those years in deep collaboration with writers and artists in my mastermind group. Every day of those three years was spent in the trenches with them, learning how one moves from dreaming of ideas to actually making them a reality. All of what I have learned is infused in the book.

As a writer or artist, it is your job to keep trying when others would give up. To take the creative risk that others back away from. To experiment with ideas when you don’t have a roadmap. To double-down on craft when others say, “Gee, maybe you should just give it up.”

As I sit here in my studio writing this, I’m staring at photos I’ve hung on my wall of successful artists and writers:

• Kate Bush
• Ray Eames
• Tove Jansson
• Jack Kirby
• JK Rowling
• Alexander Girard
• and many others.

I have thick books on the shelves behind me that dig deep into the careers of creators:

• Walt Disney
• Joni Mitchell
• Ed Catmull
• Amanda Palmer
• Alexander Calder
• and many others

In studying their lives, you find that they were filled with collaborators. That they spent years working on projects, and involved others in the process wherever possible. Those collaborators made the work better. They turned good ideas into great ideas.

Many people have this romantic vision of the lone creator creating a perfect work of art. Does that happen? Sure. But it is more the exception than the rule.

Because of this, I am trying to infuse my own creative process with collaborators. Here are several ways I worked on that this week, and I’m going to encourage you to consider doing each of these for your own creative work:

Create a Team

I spent this week interviewing people to join my team. That process has been wonderful — it has helped me clarity where I want to grow, and to consider how the talents and skills of those who applied could add so much to that growth.

Perhaps your creative work is a side project and you have zero budget — that doesn’t mean you can’t create an informal team. A writing partner that you speak to once a week. A mentor you have lunch with once per month.

Consider where you want to grow, where your strengths lie, and where you can use help. Then, fill in that gap.

Find Creative Collaborators

In the past few weeks, I have mentioned my Creative Business Boost workshop, a collaboration with author/illustrator Lori Richmond.

The idea for this workshop is an experiment. Working with Lori on it has pushed me to consider new ways to make it better, and she has brought an amazing energy to the project. Something that may otherwise seem big and scary has instead been a total joy to put together.

I would encourage you to find side projects that you can collaborate with someone on. I approached Lori to work on this with as simple email. We took it step by step. Along the way, we kept checking in to ensure we understood each others needs and goals. These are incredible skills to hone in your creative career.

Oh, and she and I recorded two videos this week! The first is titled: “What I wish I knew when I first became an author/illustrator”

The second was hosted by Mom Writes Inc where we discussed how to find creative energy, fix your marketing, and make insider connections:

Join a Community of Like-Minded Creators

My most recent Creative Shift Mastermind started earlier this month, and I have been getting to know the new members, and working hard to ensure this group feels aligned and connected to each other.

The first month is about finding radical clarity in one’s creative work. That invariably leads us to deep places about what we create and why. I think that takes a risk: to explore that not just within your own mind, but with a trusting group of other people.

I would encourage you to seek out a community that you can be a part of. Maybe it is a mastermind group, or a writing group, or a co-working space. Maybe it is a formal organization you become a part of, or a loose-knit group of you have to create yourself.

I have seen magic happen when a small group sits down and talks about their creative goals, their challenges, and their process. If you are like many writers I speak to, you are overwhelmed by advice you see online: blog posts, podcasts, webinars, courses, and the like.

Take the next step from simply consuming content, to actively discussing your goals and challenges with a group of people you trust.

Learn From Those You Admire

This week I also reached out to several people to become guests on my podcast. These are longform interviews where I dig deep into their career. In the next few weeks I get to speak to Jonathan Maberry, Allison Leotta, Travis Jonker and others. I could not be more excited about this.

Reach out to those who inspire you. You have nothing to lose. There were people I reached out to that turned me down for the interview. And that is fine! I sent an Instagram message to Aline Tamir, and within hours she said she just didn’t have the time for it. I emailed Anna Burch’s publicist who within an hour, sent me a kind note talking about her schedule and how she is saying “no” to many things so that she can instead write new music.

In each case, even the rejections often lead to nice conversations.

We are all trying to find ways to turn our art into reality. Simply put, I find that it is more effective, and more fun, when you do it with others, instead of struggling alone. Does this require you to sometimes be vulnerable? Yep. In each of the things listed above, I had to put myself out there. I had to face the criticism, the rejections, navigate the social nuances, the negotiations, and the risk of failure.

And I’m so glad that I did!

The truth is, I don’t know which of my creative ideas will succeed and which will flop. But regardless, my life feels full of wonderful people, inspiring experiences with them, and a dedication to the creative process because of them.

How can you bring one person into your creative process this week?
Thanks.
-Dan