Latest / The Daily Writer / July 2021, Business Update

Transcript

July 2021, Business Update · The Daily Writer

• 0:13
  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.
• 0:24
  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: For more, you can visit us at dailyriderlife.com.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, happy 4th of July.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Here in the U.S., we celebrate the 4th, also known as Independence Day, to commemorate our independence from England way back in the 1700s.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's fitting that I'm giving this business update on July 4th because both of those things represent independence.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, today's episode is my second business update.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: About a month ago, I recorded my very first business update episode.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you listen to that one, I hope that you enjoyed it.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot of fun to put together, and I intend on doing a business update episode the first Sunday of each month.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that these updates give you some insight into my business as well as some ideas and motivation for your own writing and business.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: In addition, I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and failures along the way, which are many, and I'm going to freely share those as much as I can.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in and start with the biggest chunk of my writing business, which is ghostwriting.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, not a lot has changed since my last update a month ago, except that I've added another ghostwriting client.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's always a welcome addition to my business.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I also have several possible books that could happen in the next few months.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Those are not for sure things, but they're really strong possibilities.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see what happens.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: For the moment, though, I'm getting pretty close to my capacity as a ghostwriter.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I could probably handle one additional book over the next three months, but that's probably it.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And now that I have several client projects going, so basically right now I'm writing four books.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing developmental editing on another one.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I could probably add another one, and that would put me really close to capacity, I think.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: But now that I've got several of these going, one of the challenges that I'm learning how to deal with is keeping clients enthusiastic throughout the process.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now you might think, why would clients get tired in this process since you're doing all the work for them?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, that's that's not really true.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Typically, the client is involved in a bunch of calls, especially in the early two to three months of the process, and they're also reading drafts of the book or of the chapters, and they're pretty highly involved in the process typically.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: My clients are generally business professionals and entrepreneurs, so they're often quite busy and they're traveling and so forth.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: For example, um, one recent week, one of my clients had to reschedule our call four times because of travel.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of an extreme case that doesn't usually happen that many times, but it's pretty common to reschedule things.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it happened just today.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had a client um had some stuff come up, and so we just shifted it to one day next week.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's not really unusual.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge of this though is again keeping clients enthusiastic and engaged throughout the process.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the way that I try to handle this is by keeping the vision of the book in front of them.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, writing a book, even if you're the client who is having a book written, you're still in involved in the process.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it takes about six months from start to finish, at least.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So part of my job is keeping the enthusiasm of this thing going.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as time goes by, I'm learning more and more how to run an efficient business.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of moving parts to a ghostwriting business.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: It probably doesn't seem that way because it's a very straightforward type of thing, but you know, just like any business, there's a lot of moving parts.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, whatever kind of business that you're involved in, I encourage you to keep plugging away and continually learning.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me give a quick update on some things related to the Daily Rider.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: As I've mentioned before, there are several parts to this side of my business, which is called the Daily Rider, of course.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have the community, the podcast, and products.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: The community is continuing to grow and go really well, and I'm having a blast seeing this group grow and take action toward their writing goals.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't yet considered joining this community, you can check it out at dailyriderlife.comslash community.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's of course my shameless plug for DW.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I'm going to say it because I do think it's pretty awesome.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, I'm continuing to plug away on this podcast because obviously you're listening to an episode of this.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, many people have asked how I keep up with a daily podcast like this.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is that it's honestly a lot of work, but I also create it in batches.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, for example, I typically write and record a week's worth of episodes at one time.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So there are ways to make it a lot more efficient than doing the work every single day.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I'm very excited about, looking toward more the long term of Daily Writer, is developing some products that would go along with what this branding is of the Daily Writer.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been talking to a couple of manufacturers who could help with some different products like card decks, journals, planners, and those kinds of things.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this area honestly is totally new to me.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I feel a little bit out of my depth, to be honest with you, because I don't really know anything about manufacturing and uh distribution centers and product design other than books and those kinds of things.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see where it goes, but I do know this.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's really, really exciting to me because honestly, you can create almost anything.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you can dream it up, there's somebody out there who can probably build it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, why just create books?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Why not create things like um inspiration cards like my friend John Stongy has with his book that came out with Penguin Random House a few weeks ago?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, why not do calendars, journals, pens, all kinds of cool stuff that can go along with your book or your message?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this research into products initially started with a couple of ideas for client books, but as oftentimes happens, I learn from clients and what they want to do, and I can apply those lessons to my own books and my own business, and vice versa as well.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: On the writing front with my own books, I am continuing to work on two books in particular.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: The first is called Kickstart Your Creativity, which will come out in October.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I mentioned that on my last business update.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: The second book is called The Daily Writer, which will come out next October.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of weeks ago, I took one full day and I categorized all the daily episodes that I have done since November.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm sorry, all the all the weekday podcast episodes.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I categorized those into sections that I'm using for the Daily Writer book.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, in essence, there are four sections which coordinate with this podcast.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And those are uh creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: But each of those sections is divided into three months, and I'll share more about that uh later, later on as the book gets closer and so forth.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I went through and I took these, it's like 170 weekday episodes that I've done since November.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, honestly, I didn't realize I had done that many.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I had done like 140, but it was like, wow, 170 so far.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I sat down one day and I categorized those into the parts of the book where those will probably go, just kind of making a draft out of it.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really, really fun to do that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I can already see this book is taking shape.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've already got about half of this draft written of the book just because I'm I'm writing content for the podcast and then using that for the book.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the big lesson there is that it's pretty cool what you can accomplish when you work at something consistently week to week over a long period of time.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me take a few minutes and uh say some things related to a personal update.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I always like to include personal updates within these business updates because I'm not just some robot doing a podcast.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a real life person who's behind the mic, and you are, of course, as well.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And one advantage I think of the past year with the pandemic is that we're all a little bit more willing to accept the humanity of other people that we're doing business with.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at the end of the day, we're all people, and every time that you make a business transaction, even you know, the Amazon drivers who are delivering stuff to your house, uh, those are people with stories and names and situations and and fears and dreams and hopes.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully we can all keep that in mind.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: As sometimes, at least in American culture, we get really impatient when things don't go well and we gotta have everything right now, and and so forth.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's an important thing to keep in mind.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to briefly touch on three things in my personal life from the last few weeks.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing is that I ran a 5K with my brother uh last month.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I understand that a 5K is not a big deal in the running world.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's probably the most common type of race, and it's only a little bit over three miles, so it's really not even that far.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I've run a couple of 5Ks before as well as a 10K, so this wasn't necessarily a new thing for me.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: However, one thing to remember is that 99% of people never even run a race.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, actually, I don't know if that's an exact number.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what percentage of people run a race, but I'm guessing it's pretty high, you know, because whenever you whenever you go to a race, it's not like everybody's there.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So just by being at the race, you're already part of an elite group of runners, so to speak.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're already part of this group of people who has decided to take on this challenge and do the race.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So running this 5k has made me want to do more of these types of things and get in better shape as well.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing I want to mention is that my wife Melanie and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on June 15th.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's all kinds of wonderful things that I could say about her, of course, but the one thing I want to focus on is how important it is to have a supportive partner in your life.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for those of you who are single, I'm not saying you're deficient in any way or anything of that nature or that you should go out and immediately get married.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that at all.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you're hearing that.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that if you're married or you're thinking about getting married or you're dating, it's really critical for your partner, I believe, to be supportive of what you do as a writer.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: My wife has always been my biggest supporter, hands down.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: It has made a massive difference in my confidence and also in my ability to focus and build my business.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: It really, truly has.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: This would not have happened without her.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: It just wouldn't have.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the final thing I want to throw out there as far as a personal update is that I'm thinking about renting a co-working space here in town.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I live in St.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's, Missouri, which is a suburb.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not it's not a St.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Louis suburb, it's in St.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Charles County, which is the area kind of northwest of St.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I live about 30 minutes from downtown St.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just in St.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's um just a town of, I think, 50 or 60,000 people, something like that.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking about renting a co-wake, uh, a co-work, co-waking.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully everybody's waking.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a co-working space here in town.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't decided yet, but I'm wondering if I would be more productive in a co-working space than I would at home.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So this is kind of a new deal for me, working from home all the time.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you have any tips on trying to decide whether to use a co-working space, or if you have and you've got some experience with that, um, I would love to know what what your thoughts are on that.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm trying to decide that and I'm really resting through do I want to spend the money for a co-working space or do I just want to, you know, set up an office in my basement or whatever, uh, just to kind of have more of a dividing line between work and home.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's important.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, that's pretty much it for my July 2021 business update.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that you find these helpful and that you're taking away one or two things that you can apply to your own writing or business.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I appreciate you listening.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 12:04
  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.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 12:16
  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.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.