In my recent guest post for WriterUnboxed.com, I reviewed the reasons why a writer or creative professional should consider having an email newsletter:
Thanks!
-Dan
Sarah Bray is a living embodiment of the 1,000 true fans ethos; She has a thriving career as a creative professional, by catering to a small group of like-minds who know and appreciate her work. Just before we spoke, Sarah was thrust into a career transition when she was laid off from her job. In this discussion, we explore her process of working through risk, and how she is driven by creating a meaningful body of work. Sarah is a strategic designer, front-end developer, and nation-builder, who recently worked for &yet
Click ‘play’ above to listen to the podcast, or subscribe on iTunes, or download the MP3.
This podcast is part of the research for a book I am writing called Dabblers vs. Doers, which is about working through RISK as you develop your craft and build a meaningful body of work.
Here are some key insights that Sarah shared with me…
Sarah was just laid off two weeks before we spoke. She framed her transition like this:
“I have 50 days before I actually have to be putting more money in the bank, so I gave myself three weeks to finish a book that I have been writing for the past two years. I figured, at least I’m working on something while I try to figure out what is next, so I’m not just sitting here worrying.”
As she stands on the edge of the abyss for her career, she took these steps:
Sarah was incredibly open about an area where she feels she can still develop:
“I discovered my weakness is in collaboration, and ever since then I have felt hesitation in partnering with somebody, especially when money is involved, and ownership, and all these things that are hard.”
So when she and her friend Brooke wanted to explore collaborating, then first went through a book together: The Partnership Charter, to ensure that the collaboration would be a good one. I thought this was genius, and described it as their first act in the collaboration was to go to couples therapy together.
I have always marveled at how open Sarah is online in her newsletter, blog, and social media. Yet, like many people, there is a duality to that process:
“My relationship with online is so hard. I guess it brings out your insecurities, and the worst parts of yourself. Because you are putting things out there, and you get reaction from people. If you are the kind of person who looks at that social mirror as something that is accurate, then that can be hard. I’ve been struggling with that forever. It’s weird, because it feels like the thing I’m really good at is the thing that is toxic to me in some ways.”
Years ago when I was in a mastermind group with her and two others, I always marveled at Sarah’s ability to release a product or service, and have it almost immediately sell out. She would regularly be booked six months in advance for consulting. She tells a bit of the behind the scenes of what that looks like:
“I don’t have a huge audience. The thing that I do is honor the relationships that I do have. So while I’m saying I can sell [300-500 books], it is based on 2,000 people. I have 5,000 Twitter followers, but that is not who I think of as the people who will buy it, it is usually the people on my email list, which isn’t a huge circle of people. What I have learned is that if you honest, it sounds trite, but if you can just find the thing that is true, and be able to say that, and be able to make something out of that, then you will be successful with whatever it is that you do. That is the way it has been for me.”
She said that this audience hasn’t just supported her making a living, but that it supported a team of three people awhile back. And even now as I talk to her, she is clearly not freaking out in terms of her next career move — she clearly knows that she has options, because she has a tight-knit audience of people who know her, like her, and value the services she provides. To me, Sarah is the living embodiment of 1,000 True Fans.
Thank you to Sarah for making the time to meet with me and share her wisdom. You can find her in the following places:
For more interviews and behind-the-scenes stuff on my book Dabblers vs. Doers, click here.
Thank you!
-Dan
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I just opened the doors to the next session of my online course: Launch Your Email Newsletter. This is a 4-week course to help writers & creative professionals, well, launch their email newsletters. It begins February 9th, full details are below.
One super exciting part of this process has been adding a full faculty to the course, welcoming Lorraine Watson as a TA to the roster:
How you communicate with your readers is at the core how you develop an audience over time. Email is a primary channel to not just communicate, but to develop a trusting relationship with your readership.
Time and time again, I hear from successful authors that email is not only important, but actually ESSENTIAL in establishing meaningful connections to readers, and to selling more books.
And yet, establishing an email newsletter can be a difficult and sometimes overwhelming process. Join me to launch your email newsletter:
Throughout this course, I will use my own experience and observations in the field of email marketing to help you launch an effective, personal newsletter of your own.
Together, we will face some of the most common challenges and questions authors have when it comes to email marketing:
This is an interactive course – I invite you to work with me and other students to understand email marketing and develop your own strong content at your own pace.
Throughout the course, I offer personalized feedback, and the potential for a group dynamic with other students.
What you get:
If you’re ready to take the next step in connecting with your readers and raising your sales, sign up today:
Thanks!
-Dan
Well, there are my professional credentials:
But I think what is equally important is that my days are spent with writers and creative professionals, and my entire life has been spent surrounded by creators hoping to make their mark. As for myself, I have been an artist, a poet, a musician, a paper sculptor, a writer, a publisher, a photographer, a teacher, a radio DJ, a cartoonist, and an entrepreneur. You can read my full bio here.
How can one woman not only manage five huge projects/businesses, but do so in a way that empowers other creative professionals to grow their craft and earn more revenue? Today, I talk to Tina Roth Eisenberg, who runs temporary tattoo company Tattly (with 14 employees), a monthly meetup series (in 100+ countries) CreativeMornings, a to-do list app called TeuxDeux, a collaborative workspace called StudioMates, and the popular design blog Swiss-Miss.com.
You can listen to the podcast by clicking ‘play’ below, or in the following places:
In this episode, we discuss:
To hear the full conversation, click the ‘play’ button above, or subscribe on iTunes, or download the MP3.
This podcast is part of the research for a book I am writing called Dabblers vs. Doers, which is about working through RISK as you develop your craft and build a meaningful body of work.
Here are some key insights that Tina shared with me…
“It all comes down to analyzing what overwhelms you; breaking it down into smaller chunks. That is where the list-making thing in me comes in. When I want to tackle something, and it is entirely too big and overwhelming, I literally break it down into everything that needs to be done.”
“This gives me a false feeling that I have things under control when I put them on my to-do list. When people look at my to-do lists, they kind of laugh, because there’s way too much on it. I feel like I am in control, because at least everything is listed out.”
“How do I cope with overwhelm? A lot has to do with letting go. There is a reason why you are overwhelmed, and you just have to get to the core of what it is, and find a way to calm yourself down.”
“For example, with me in the beginning, I was a complete control freak and I didn’t really want people to do the thing, because I felt I could do it better. Eventually, I thought I’m either going to break, and I’m not going to grow these things the way I should, because I can’t do everything myself, or, I start trusting people, and start delegating.”
“That’s been a long process, and it was really hard for me. What I have learned is that the minute you start trusting people, the minute you tell someone, ‘I believe you can do this,’ — trust is the biggest compliment of all — they will make this thing so much better. When things become a bigger labor of love, of not just one person, it actually turns into something bigger and better than I could have ever imagined.”
“For whatever it is you want to accomplish, you need to break it down into [a few] main goals. Cross-check everything you do with that. Everything you do has to funnel back to [your goals.] Because we often do things that don’t actually help the end goals – being busy for busy-sake. It’s all about setting priorities. ”
When Tina had each of her kids, she felt a sense of professional focus, and each birth led her to take even more creative risk in her career.
“When I became pregnant with my daughter, I went through this incredible taking-inventory stage of my life. I became very reflective. I realized that we all have these dreams we want to accomplish. I always wanted to have my own design studio. I really feel that moment in my life when I become a parent – I think it was this wake up call for me — I’m a grown up now. To some extent, I was in denial. I was waiting for someone to tell me it was the moment to start my own business.”
“I realized — I need to stop not living the life I actually want to live — I really need to address my dreams. So I started my design studio when I had my daughter.”
“The same thing happened when I got pregnant with my son — I took inventory again. I realized — so I started my design studio, I have more clients than I can handle, and they were very prestigious clients. But I wasn’t happy. I realized, I wasn’t made for the service industry. I can’t disappoint – the feeling of giving my best and having the person still being disappointed – it really crushes my soul.”
“I realized that these small side projects light me up — they make me incredibly happy. With my blog making some income through advertising, I could take the risk to not have clients and see what happens. To help grow the side projects. The luxury of giving yourself time to create something else, or to see what it is you want to be doing. I realized that the secret sauce to having a creative life is having passive income.”
I asked Tina how she negotiated such big moves with her spouse:
“I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t have a husband who is as supportive as he is. We have separate bank accounts — we divide up who pays for what — that makes both of us happy. So when I said I wanted to take a one-year client sabbatical, I laid it out for him that I could still cover what I covered so far.”
“He just knew I had to do this. there is this thing with me — when I get so excited about an idea — you can’t stop me man, I’m like a machine.”
“It’s funny, I never think about the risk. I really don’t. For me, overarching it is the fun that can be had, the things I can learn. Maybe I should think more about the risk! When I started any of these things, I never thought about the risk. But I think it has to do with the way I started them – they never started as a business — they always started as a labor of love. If you don’t focus on the money part, you never think about risk. When you do things as a side project, there’s no pressure from the outside world, and you experiment more and learn so much faster. You are so much more willing to reshift and refocus.”
“When you take the money out and pour the heart in, it changes everything in the perception to people around you. These projects felt very loved. People feel that and appreciate it. That makes it so much more attractive.”
“[The expression] ‘flip it’ is one of our big terms. It is something that is really dear to my heart: take something that is a seeming bad news, and turn it on its head. When some bad news come in, my team says, “Let’s flip it – let’s make it good.” It’s become my personal sport.”
Her blog Swiss-Miss.com is about to be ten years old; she explains how it allowed her to build an audience and relationships:
“I built it on helping people get off the ground — that’s my currency. There is nothing that makes me happier than someone saying to me, ‘Hey, I was able to quit my job because of you featuring me [on your blog.]’ It’s been years of doing this for other people.”
“When I launched Tattly, I didn’t realize how much karma I built up over the years, because we got orders the minute I launched it.”
When I saw how Tattly described their mission on the About page, it really struck me: how values seemed to come first. Tina describes connecting her professional work to her personal values:
“It’s starting to crystalize that this is becoming my mission: bringing a bit of a human touch to how businesses can be run. I think you as an entrepreneur need to know what your values are, and be able to articulate them. You need to be the same person at home as you are at work, and be true to what you believe in.”
“Oftentimes when I talk to friends who are more classically trained business people, they oftentimes shake their head at me, and say things like, ‘Tina, come on!’ they don’t get it, how I run my companies. To them, it’s all the spreadsheet, it’s all the bottom line.”
Tina lives and works in Brooklyn, which has become a hotbed for wonderfully creative people. I asked her about those who don’t live in Brooklyn, and who may feel isolated in their communities — how can they find creative collaborators? Her response:
“That is what the internet is for! It will help you find your like-minded folks. You really are who you surround yourself with. There are so many things I never would have started without StudioMates. The most important thing you can do is find people who share your values or are excited about the same things, and who you can collaborate with. There are so many ways — Meetup.com — start a meetup in your city, see if anyone comes. Even if it is just a group of two people in the beginning, then you find a third. It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be the people who will help you make your ideas better, who support you, who are your sounding board. ”
Thank you to Tina for making the time to meet with me and share her wisdom. You can find her in the following places:
For more interviews and behind-the-scenes stuff on my book Dabblers vs. Doers, click here.
Thank you!
-Dan
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Do you have a creative vision that seems to be falling flat, failing to engage an audience of enthusiastic fans? Have you worked hard to develop an audience, but still feel like you haven’t reached your potential?
In this free webinar, I will explore the biggest challenges that writers and creative professionals face in finding and engaging their audience, and some of the best solutions.
Join me on Tuesday, January 13 at 2 p.m. (EST), where we will cover:
There will be an open Q&A at the end, where you can submit questions for me to respond to live on that webinar.
I will also be providing a preview of my next online course which is where we partner to truly work through these challenges and solutions: Get Read: Embrace & Engage Your Audience, which begins January 20th.
If you’ve resolved to grow your audience in 2015, join me on Tuesday, January 13 at 2 p.m. (EST) to take that first step toward renewing your creative vision.
You can sign up for the free webinar here:
Well, there are my professional credentials:
But I think what is equally important is that my days are spent with writers and creative professionals, and my entire life has been spent surrounded by creators hoping to make their mark. As for myself, I have been an artist, a poet, a musician, a paper sculptor, a writer, a publisher, a photographer, a teacher, a radio DJ, a cartoonist, and an entrepreneur. You can read my full bio here.
