Latest / The Daily Writer / It's Business, Not Personal

Transcript

It's Business, Not Personal · The Daily Writer

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Rider.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers and teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can always visit us at dailyriderlife.com to learn more.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I believe one of the most important concepts that every writer today has to embrace is the idea of a personal brand business.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what does it mean to have a personal brand?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think it comes down to the fact that your brand equals you.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: What you do and say in your business is a reflection of who you are personally.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: When people think of your brand, they think of you.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when they think of you, they think of your brand.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is challenging to accept sometimes because the lines can get blurry at times.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a personal brand, as I do and you probably do as well, you care about your clients or customers on a personal level.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're emotionally involved in your business at a deep level.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: You spend a lot of time thinking about your business and working on it.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, it's a challenge to keep our business and our personal lives separate.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: In a world of personal brand business and increased transparency on social media, it might even be impossible at times.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But we still need to remember that at the end of the day, we're running a business, not a hobby.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm a huge movie buff, and in fact, I love movies and storytelling so much that I used to teach several college courses related to those topics.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Movies are a great lens into human nature and psychology.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And one of my very favorite movies is The Godfather from 1972.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Godfather is a classic movie with so many great quotes and scenes.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And although it's a great piece of entertainment, there are a lot of business lessons to be learned from The Godfather.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a reason that so many men cite The Godfather as their favorite movie of all time.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It has a lot to teach us about business, manhood, fatherhood, family, and so much else.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, note that I didn't say all the lessons were positive.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we can learn from negative examples as well.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite scenes from The Godfather happens close to halfway through the movie.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a little context first.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: The story of The Godfather centers around a mafia family who's facing off against several other New York crime families in the 1940s.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the father of the family, his name is Vito Corleone, he is shot by a rival family because he refused to enter the drug business, which he regards as too dangerous.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the mafia man who orchestrated the drug business proposal is Virgil Salazzo, who wanted his revenge since he needed the Corleone family's cash and political influence to get his drug business off the ground.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are you with me so far?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you're not, that's okay.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know this that was a confusing little summary there.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you've seen The Godfather, you already know what I'm talking about, so we're good to go.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So let's carry on with the story here.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: While Vito is in the hospital recovering, his youngest son, Michael, visits and he discovers that the rival family is planning to kill his father.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: He stands in front of the hospital and he manages to ward off the would-be assassins, but the police show up.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember that in the world of The Godfather, the police are corrupt.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: The police captain is angry with Michael because his plans are messed up and he proceeds to rough up Michael and he punches him.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And this angers Vito's oldest son, who is named Sonny, and he orders a hit on the rival family in the middle of the night.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And as a result, the rival family wants to have a meeting with the Corleone family to reach an agreement before things really get out of hand.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this brings us to the scene that I mentioned.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: The next day, all of Vito's sons have a meeting, and Sonny is thrilled because he has put his rivals in a corner.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sonny had a bad temper and he wants to destroy them, and he's responding to the situation emotionally and insists on starting an all-out war with his rivals.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the other sons, Tom, has a different response.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: He is the family conciliary, which is an advisory role, and he's looking at the situation with logic and reason while Sonny is insisting on an all-out war.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: But Tom says to Sonny, it's business and not personal.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that was a really long explanation to get to that one line, but I think it's helpful to have some context for why he says it's business and not personal.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to think about that phrase very carefully.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: What does it business not personal mean?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And how does that apply to your business?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I believe that it means that even though we may have friendships with clients or prospective clients, even though we want to maintain great relationships, even though we may offer great products and services, even though sometimes people don't rise to our expectations, we have to remember at the end of the day that this is a business.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard sometimes not to take things personally, but it's vital if we want to be emotionally healthy and have a lasting business, whether you're doing client work or whether you're selling your own books, it makes no difference really.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: You have a business as a writer.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I can think of many times the last couple of years when I have personally liked a client or a potential client, but I've been disappointed in the results.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I remember a time when I sent a proposal to a potential client who had indicated she was really interested in working with me.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I had even done some sample work to prove my value, and she had raved about it to other people.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: However, when I sent the proposal, she decided not to follow through.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I was disappointed and I wanted the work, but it had nothing to do with me personally.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was simply a business decision on their part.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the fact of the matter is that it's easy to take rejection personally.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people don't answer our emails.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they don't reciprocate or express appreciation when we promote their stuff on social media.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we we make a proposal or we pitch an idea and we don't get the response that we want.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I can think of a situation right now where a high-level author has agreed to consider writing a forward for one of my client books.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I have honestly had a really difficult time getting this person to engage with me on social media or email.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: They have a really successful business that they're running, so I get it, but it still amounts to being rejected because answering my messages is not their priority right now.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's really okay.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's business, it's not personal.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to have a real business, you're gonna get rejected.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's just part of the game of business.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's how I have started to think of this whole thing, which is as a game.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love games and thinking of business as a sort of game takes the emotion out of it.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's helpful also to look at this from the other point of view as well.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: How many times has somebody proposed something to you, but you didn't accept it?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: In our neighborhood where we live, just outside of St.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, we constantly have people who are selling siding, lawn services, and other stuff.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: They come around, they knock on your door and bug you and all that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when they do, I honestly get kind of annoyed with that.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's rare that I say yes to somebody and I buy what they're selling because most of the time it's not something that I want or that I need.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not personal, it's just simply a business decision.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a challenge to you and to me to not take things personally when things don't go our way.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that every no that you get gets you closer to the next yes.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So remember, it's business.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not personal.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you know that one of the four practices of a great writer is creativity.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: A writing prompt is a sentence or two that helps you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailyriderlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.