Latest / Inspiring Stories / A fantasy book launch with Claire E Jones

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A fantasy book launch with Claire E Jones · Inspiring Stories

0:03
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Pictures Media Radio.
0:26
Speaker 2: Rat you readying to me?
0:33
Speaker 1: Oh?
0:34
Speaker 3: Will bad alone? I need so suplasson alone?
1:27
Speaker 4: Is it dead?
1:37
Speaker 1: Okay, Welcome back to everybody. Our next guest is actually,
1:43
uh well, we've had her on the show before. Claire
1:49
is a publishing coach and she helps authors actually get
1:53
their book out there. But guess what, she is also
1:57
a published off author and we get to hear a
2:01
little bit about her next book in this next interview
2:05
as she talks about who she is as an author,
2:08
and it explains a little more about who she is
2:12
as a person also, So this is going to be
2:17
a really cool opportunity to see who Claire E. Jones
2:22
is as a person and not just as a publishing
2:25
coach and a excellent business person. So Claire is a
2:32
queer fantasy romance author who sold her books in six
2:38
countries and has produced over a dozen journals, planners, workbooks.
2:44
She is experienced a guide that supports other writers in
2:49
getting their works out there into the world, and as
2:53
established business, small business and entrepreneur expert of twenty years,
3:02
she has launched four of her own businesses and is
3:06
now now services creatives of all types and achieving goals
3:15
in less time and with less stress. She's a Seattle
3:21
based girl, so, which means this from my studio to
3:25
where she lives is about maybe two hours.
3:29
Speaker 5: So let's see what she has to say, ALcom claire
4:04
and maybe say congratulations on a new book.
4:08
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you. Yes, it is my third and it's
4:12
coming out next Thursday. And I've been just a busy
4:17
little bee over here.
4:22
Speaker 1: Well, it's especially in the Negative Woods where we live.
4:26
The great rainforest that it is is either you get
4:31
busy doing something or you just drown yourself and all
4:34
the Yeah, and that's not cool either.
4:37
Speaker 2: So yeah, we are slowly transitioning to the rainy season
4:41
and some people love it and some people hate it.
4:43
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, well in our Negative Woods it's been a
4:48
little more dangerous than usual. Mm hmm. Yeah. So but hey,
4:54
you know, atmospheric rivers happen.
4:58
Speaker 2: Yes, that is true, that is r.
5:02
Speaker 1: So yeah, so first off, let's let's talk about about
5:07
your new book going on there? You know, yeah, a
5:14
gay fantasy.
5:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's accurate. It's queer fantasy romance is what
5:21
I call it. Yeah, for sure. It is book three
5:25
of an eight book series that I've been writing for
5:28
a while now, and so I'm in the middle of
5:30
writing book four at the moment. But it started out
5:34
as a D and D setting actually for a Dungeons
5:37
and Dragons game. I just kind of wanted to start
5:42
my own game at a certain point and wanted to
5:45
like homebrew my own world, and this was in the
5:49
middle of the pandemic, so I had one to play
5:51
with at that point in time. But I later repurposed
5:55
it for this fantasy romance setting, and so I put
6:00
much crafted a romance story around it, and then realized
6:04
I had a fully fleshed out eight book series in
6:07
this world that I could explore because there are eight
6:11
classes of magic in the world, and so I decided
6:15
to write a book from the perspective of one person
6:19
who wields a certain class of magic. So Book one
6:25
is from the perspective of the woman who wields the
6:29
blessing from the Goddess of Death, Book two is from
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the perspective of the woman who wields the blessing from
6:34
the Goddess of Water, and Book five is from the
6:38
hero who wields the blessing of the Fire God. And
6:42
so each book progressively tells the story where they're fighting
6:48
against evil forces and fighting love along the way as well.
6:53
Speaker 1: Okay, the blessing of from the goddess of Death. Yeah,
7:00
it's an interesting twist.
7:04
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. Yeah. So I created a pantheon of eight
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gods and goddesses and they are more or less elementally based,
7:11
like there's you know, water, fire, earth plants, but there's
7:14
also life and death as well. And the magic system
7:20
in this world stems from a divine blessing that was
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bestowed upon a bloodline at a certain point in time
7:27
in the history of this world, and so certain people
7:31
of this bloodline can wield those magics.
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Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, sign me up. I need a copy of
7:43
Holley Books.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I love pantheons in general.
7:49
I've always loved the whole Greek system, the Roman system,
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but especially Egyptology. I've been a huge fan of Egypt
7:57
for a very long time, and I actually got a
8:00
chance to really dive into it in the third book
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because of the homeland where the third book's hero is
8:05
from is very much ancient Egypt inspired.
8:10
Speaker 1: Wow. I always got to kick out of out of
8:16
people's belief systems. M I always found it found a
8:22
uh found it interesting how how how different natural events
8:28
brought about a a belief system, and it's it's pretty cool. Yeah,
8:35
but that sounds sounds like a really good book, good
8:41
series of books to read. On top of which is
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like that, I will label myself, uh the uber geek.
8:48
Also I used to play Dungeons and Dragons myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
8:53
Speaker 2: Mean I am a huge geek for Dungeons and dragons.
8:55
So you are in welcome company.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I think so where I still have
9:00
my little sack of dice around something.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm actually blessed with a group right now. We
9:07
formed it about two years ago and I'm the dungeon
9:11
master for my group, and we have three fairies and
9:14
a human paladin. Who are my players?
9:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I used to have. My favorite character was a
9:21
wood elf. He was also a thief, a thief with
9:28
a conscience though yes, yes, no man, you shouldn't have
9:32
done that, And I had to steal that back from
9:34
we give it back to the right people, and then
9:38
we cause all kinds of trouble in uh in for
9:42
our group because because I would all of a sudden
9:46
like pocket something then and then have to give it
9:50
back and the whole group would have to come along
9:52
with some pretty fun stuff.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you can get up into all kinds of high
9:57
drinks in D and D. My players are currently reorganizing
10:01
a pirate headquarters. They've taken over as the bosses of
10:06
this pirate organization and they are now doing reorg team
10:11
building activities with said pirates. And they spent thirty minutes
10:15
of our last session arguing about how to form a
10:18
union for said pirates as well and who exactly gets
10:21
union member votes in this pirate union.
10:27
Speaker 1: Wow. They also starting to sound like some like like
10:31
some real life issues too, you know, you know.
10:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's the thing about tabletop role playing games,
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and I think role playing games in general, I mean
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art and creativity in general. It's a reflection of the
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real world. I mean, that's where we go to grapple
10:47
with heavier topics that might be more stressful to deal
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with in the real world, but it's the safe world
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of fantasy that we get to experience with them.
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Speaker 1: And hopefully every now and again something comes out of there.
11:02
They can actually be used in the real world too,
11:07
like help better humanity itself.
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Speaker 2: So absolutely, Dungeons and dragons is using is being used
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more increasingly in group therapy sessions as a tool to
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help people somatically work through their issues.
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Speaker 1: Well, I didn't know that, mm hmm, And I can
11:26
see how it can work. Uh, definitely towards towards it better. Yeah,
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so so you created this world, I mean, assuming it
11:38
took more than just a few roles of the dice.
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Speaker 2: That come over yes.
11:44
Speaker 1: Books. So yeah, what what what else you inspired? How
11:54
the how the magic should work, and how the the
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the energy of that magic should work and everything.
12:01
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, you know, I've always, like I said, loved pantheons,
12:05
and so I love the idea of divinely granted magic.
12:09
I've always loved that in books that I've read. But
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when I was younger, I was a huge fantasy wader.
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I'm still a huge fantasy reader, and particularly when I
12:19
was younger, I loved books that and still to this day,
12:24
focus on different characters, and so I often get tired
12:29
if it's the same protagonists all throughout a series. It's
12:32
like I understand their point of view, and I want
12:34
another person's point of view for the next book, because
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they tend to repeat the same emotional themes over and
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over again, if they're the same protagonists throughout the series.
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And so I really liked the idea of kind of
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passing the baton between these different magic users, and so
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that gave me a chance to play with more character types, honestly,
13:00
and I've honestly had a really fun time trying to
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coordinate the magic that they use to their personalities as well,
13:12
Like what are plant characteristics that show up in the
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person who wields the magic of plants? What are fiery
13:21
characteristics that show up in the person who wields fire
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like For example, my second book, the One who wields
13:27
the Water Blessing, is very emotional. She has very deep
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emotional experiences in the way that she interacts with and
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perceives the world, and throughout the book, I've specifically used
13:40
water based descriptives to describe her emotional experiences. So I
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use words like the emotion washes over her, or her
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anxiety drips out of her, And so I'm using descriptive
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words that match her magic class in subtle ways. But
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she also has a temperamental aspect to her as well,
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which water like the ocean can be. You know, it's
14:08
a vast place the ocean. So how can I match
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the characteristics of the magic class to the magic wielder.
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Speaker 1: Wow, it's it's a lot of imagination.
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Speaker 2: Oh, all I do is imagine I spend my whole
14:27
day and in my imagination many.
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Speaker 1: And that can be a really cool place to be,
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you know.
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Speaker 2: You know, yeah, I mean it gets maladaptive at certain
14:41
points in time, or something as maladaptive daydreaming. But I
14:45
try to say, on the adaptive side.
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Speaker 1: How often do you fail? No, don't answer, I'm.
14:52
Speaker 2: Getting better at it. I mean, my therapist did graduate
14:55
me a couple of years ago, so I feel like
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I got her blessings graduate.
15:01
Speaker 1: There you go. No, I don't think my therapist is
15:08
ever going to let me go. It's like it's like, uh,
15:13
he says, I get to or just say they say
15:17
I get too deeply involved in the issue at hand. Hey,
15:23
you know it's human rights, right. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: I mean we all have our nerd zones. I like
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to call them.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, speaking of one of your nerd zones, We're
15:38
going to dive away from the book for a second
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to talk about because you're like the one of the
15:44
most serial of entrepreneurs I've ever met was how many
15:50
different businesses, right.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, publishing is my fourth that I've founded.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and ah have seen some level of success or everything.
16:02
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean they've all provided me with great
16:09
learning opportunities and great lessons, and that in itself, I
16:14
find is a success to me. And they've all made
16:17
money in some shape or form, which is also a
16:20
success to me. So I started out my first business
16:25
was a general store devoted to local goods. It was
16:27
a brick and mortar location in West Seattle, and that
16:31
really was birthed from my love of local warism at
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the time, which is the concept of trying to consume
16:40
as much of your daily consumption needs locally as possible.
16:45
Typically it's relegated towards food consumption, like how can you
16:50
eat local produce, meat, et cetera as locally as possible,
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But I extended it to basic goods as well, and
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so I sourced my store with ninety five percent goods
17:03
that were produced and in the Pacific Northwest, and five
17:07
percent was US in general. So like I imported coffee from Hawaii,
17:12
for example, and so that was more of like an
17:15
extended local warism.
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Speaker 1: Well, coffee is a tough one for the area that
17:22
we live in, because coffee will not grow.
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Speaker 2: Here, yeah exactly, So there were in the same.
17:28
Speaker 1: Rain bars they won't.
17:29
Speaker 2: Grow here, yeah exactly.
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Speaker 1: That's a tough one. But from what I understand though, uh,
17:38
over fifty percent of your goods in that store when
17:41
you had that, uh didn't have any more than a
17:44
two hour truck ride.
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Speaker 2: Yes were Pacific Northwest.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah, which that's that's an amazing thing to
17:54
actually be able to do.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know what I found, what the two
17:59
cansumer pains that I was trying to solve for was
18:02
like one, the amount of time and effort that it
18:04
took to research where products were made, and to the
18:08
amount of time and effort it took to track all
18:10
of those items down, because typically you have to go
18:13
to several different shops to get everything on your list
18:15
if you are looking to buy as much as your
18:17
stuff locally as possible. And so that's why I made
18:20
it a general store format, so I had, you know,
18:24
notebooks to ornaments, to jewelry, to t shirts, to soups,
18:28
to coffee, to pretty much as much as I could
18:33
find in a variety of goods so that you could
18:36
buy it all under one roof and trust that it
18:39
was locally sourced without having to do the research yourself.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, just kind of an off to walk question. Yeah,
18:49
you rate your relationship building skills to be able to
18:53
do something like that.
18:55
Speaker 2: Well, that was honestly my crash course that first business
19:00
because I had worked in retail since a teenager, and
19:04
so I knew how to run a retail store logistically,
19:09
but I didn't necessarily know how to promote a retail store.
19:13
I'd never really been in that kind of position, is
19:16
to be in charge of the marketing efforts of a
19:19
retail store. And so when I looked around for mentors
19:25
in the space, I went to places like SCORE, you know,
19:29
through the SBA, which is a small business association that
19:32
the government provides. But I also found organizations like the
19:36
Small Business Development Council SBDC, and I found a free
19:40
mentor through them that I was instantly a fan of.
19:45
And he introduced this concept of networking to me, and
19:49
I was like, what is this word that you speak of.
19:53
I have never heard it before. And so that store
19:57
was a crash course in me learning how to network
20:01
and how to develop business relationships in a fruitful way.
20:05
And I made a lot of mistakes, to be fair,
20:08
when I was starting out, But yeah, that was officially
20:12
ten years ago at this point, and I would have
20:16
to say my score nowadays is miles beyond where it
20:21
was back then.
20:25
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well that's the whole point of entrepreneurship. It isn't like,
20:29
it isn't the nine to five grind. It is a
20:34
daily learning experience.
20:35
Speaker 2: Right absolutely. I mean I was working sixty hours a
20:38
week in that store because I had to man the
20:41
store myself. I had to physically be there in order
20:45
for the store to be open day in and day out,
20:47
and so it quickly overtook my life.
20:52
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well that's the other secret of entrepreneurship. We all
20:58
work what is it, half days, which twelve hours?
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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I'm like, how about like we sleep like
21:11
a quarter of the day and three quarters of the
21:14
day is left over for exactly yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
21:22
So from there, I actually went into business consulting because
21:27
it was such a huge crash course for me.
21:32
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:32
Speaker 2: I suddenly realized that after two years of doing that,
21:37
two years of learning the ropes, two years of learning
21:40
as much as I could, it was basically my crash course.
21:42
MBA and I could then go to other small businesses
21:46
in the area and be like, hey, this is what
21:48
I learned, this is the research that is behind what
21:52
I learned, and we can also improve your operations and
21:56
marketing and systems and stuff like that to benefit them.
22:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, you had that special kind of NBA though it
22:06
wasn't It wasn't a university NBA. It was the street
22:13
NBA exactly.
22:14
Speaker 2: I joked that I got my MBA via Google, you know, like,
22:19
I honestly think it's more worthwhile these days than a
22:23
paper MBA from a university because it's hands on, on
22:28
the job learning and you learn so much more from
22:33
that than you can from a detached spreadsheet lecture.
22:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't say they don't misunderstand everybody listening that we're
22:46
not saying you shouldn't do that sort of work. It's
22:49
an important work also, but hey, look for the real
22:52
world stuff also because it's going to one helped you
22:57
build relationships because you have to join in with people
23:00
in order to make that work.
23:03
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean that's one of the ways that I
23:06
really truly learned the meaning of the phrase it takes
23:09
a village.
23:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it does. It does take a village. Yeah,
23:17
so that led us to which next business.
23:21
Speaker 2: So I started working more in other small businesses, kind
23:26
of as an employee, but more of like a consultant
23:30
employee for a few years. And from there I was
23:34
actually working with a leadership team of a small business
23:39
who were kind of failing at being leaders in their business.
23:44
Like this is very common in the world of small businesses,
23:48
is that they are an expert in the skill that
23:51
they build the business around, whether they're a contractor or
23:57
For my example, they were dog walkers and trainers, but
24:00
they weren't necessarily skilled in leading the businesses that they
24:03
built around those skill sets. And so as a result,
24:09
I was doing a lot of research into leadership skill
24:11
development for them to try to help train them into
24:15
being better leaders in the companies that they were leading.
24:19
And that's when I found the neuro Leadership Institute. I
24:23
stumbled across their research one day when I was doing
24:27
leadership skill development research. And they are an institute over
24:31
in New York that combines the science of neuroscience and
24:37
the soft skills of leadership skill development. And so they
24:41
pretty much use the scientific method They use fMRIs, they
24:45
use psychological studies, they use as much hard science as
24:49
possible to study what goes into making a good leader,
24:53
and they have founded about four facets of neuro leadership.
24:59
I believe one is making decisions, two is collaborating with others,
25:05
three is facilitating change, and the fourth I think is
25:09
self regulation. I want to say, if I'm remembering correctly.
25:15
And so finally I found research that gave me hard
25:19
science behind those soft skills, because often when you come
25:23
to leadership skill developments, it's anecdotal and observational and more
25:29
often than not based on a very privileged perspective.
25:35
Speaker 1: Yeah it that ors it from the armed forces.
25:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And so I was hooked once you gave
25:43
me that hard science behind soft skills, Like, I was
25:47
absolutely hooked. So I ended up becoming a neuro leadership
25:50
coach as a result, and studied under the institute, got
25:55
a certification and opened up at set Out my Shingle
26:00
as a neuro leadership coach. And so that's when I
26:02
then started doing coaching programs with leaders in businesses who
26:08
wanted to improve the way that they led their companies.
26:12
And so that was my second business.
26:16
Speaker 1: Wow, well do you eventually wind up doing because you
26:21
currently coach creatives and how to get their work out there.
26:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a different iteration of it. The neuro leadership
26:29
coaching morphed a couple times in terms of my focus.
26:33
I morphed into business consulting for a time in that business,
26:38
and I also morphed into wellness coaching for executives as
26:45
well during that business and kind of a transition coach
26:49
of sorts, because I was finding the root causes to
26:54
a lot of these leaders' problems didn't necessarily have to
26:58
do with their business know how or their leadership know how,
27:01
but their self management was often what it boiled down
27:06
to in terms of time management, wellness management, and mindset management.
27:12
That was more often the case in terms of where
27:15
they were falling short in how they could improve the
27:21
way that they were running their organizations. And so that
27:25
business morphed a few times. And so I have taken
27:29
the vestiges of those coaching practices consulting practices and kind
27:35
of integrated them into my publishing company now where I
27:38
work with authors and other types of creatives in their
27:43
business management.
27:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
27:49
Speaker 2: And then for a short, hot minute, I had a
27:52
sweatpants company, Yes, sweatpants. That was during the pandemic, but.
28:01
Speaker 1: That I can see that being your your brand of fashion. Yeah,
28:04
I always look so comfortable. You always don't understand this
28:10
for for everybody who's who's watching is a you know,
28:15
the plaid shirt, the scarf and everything, but you always
28:19
look it may be eclectic, but it's put together.
28:23
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. It has taken me years to
28:26
get to this point. Thank you. Yes, my fashion sense
28:32
did evolve rapidly during the pandemic, as I think everyone did.
28:37
Prior to the pandemic, I thought it was a cardinal
28:40
sin to wear sweatpants in public.
28:45
Speaker 1: I generally don't, although okay, I do spend a lot,
28:52
a lot of my time in especially since we're getting
28:56
into the colder weather with with our our plenty of
29:02
going into the shadow of the sun, of the fleecy
29:07
warm leggings.
29:10
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah. And so in the pandemic, you know,
29:14
sweatpants were becoming more and more of an acceptable public
29:18
wear item, and I thought, why couldn't we have fun
29:24
sweatpants out there? You know, sweatpants and bright colors and
29:28
bold patterns, and that kind of sweatpants hadn't really hit
29:33
the level that it is to do this day. Because
29:36
the whole athleisure industry was transformed by the pandemic and
29:41
people going for more comfortable wear out there in the world.
29:46
And so I started a sweatpants company that was based on,
29:51
you know, more fashionable sweatpants, but were also high quality
29:55
make and made in the US as well. So that
29:59
was kind of my attempt at reviving the whole local
30:03
warism thing that I had going with the General store,
30:07
while also trying to tap into my creativity which hadn't
30:12
really been well fulfilled. With the consulting and the coaching,
30:17
I kept finding myself, I'm a creative at heart. Every
30:20
bone in my body is a creative bone, and I
30:24
just have this generative creative need that I need to
30:28
address day in and day out. And so the sweatpants
30:32
company was my first attempt at finding a business model
30:35
to encapsulate that.
30:39
Speaker 1: This sounds like fun.
30:40
Speaker 2: It was. I mean, I had a ton of fun
30:42
designing the sweatpants. But the thing about fashion brands, especially
30:46
with custom fashion brands and not white label fashion brands,
30:51
is that they are very expensive to start.
30:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you still do need to find someone to
30:59
actually physically make the sweatpants.
31:01
Speaker 2: Yes, and in order.
31:03
Speaker 1: To quantities to be consumed by the public exactly.
31:08
Speaker 2: And so for my first run of inventory, just to
31:12
launch the company itself, I had to invest two hundred
31:15
and fifty thousand dollars into sweatpants.
31:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's not go down to two hundred and fifty
31:20
thousand dollars road too often though, because the person sitting
31:26
on this side of the of the zoom call. We
31:31
put two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into a TV
31:34
show only to be told is never going to be made? Yeah,
31:43
and then't imagine it. Could you have a significant other? Right?
31:47
Speaker 2: Uh? No, actually I am single with my dog.
31:51
Speaker 1: Oh well, I actually had to go after hearing that
31:58
the TV show was not going to be be made
32:02
for error or any of that sort of stuff. I
32:04
had to go home and tell my wife that I
32:05
spent two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from out or
32:08
savings account to a project that wasn't ever going to
32:14
happen and there was no recoping the money. Yeah, that
32:17
was one of the downfalls of entrepreneurship.
32:20
Speaker 2: But yes, that was the era of my life where
32:23
I learned the phrase it's not a life lesson unless
32:26
it counts costs. At least ten thousand dollars. It's a
32:32
good saying, and that honestly changed my relationship to what
32:37
a whole lot of money meant, you know. And I
32:41
think that that was a great mindset shift for myself
32:44
as an entrepreneur as well to truly understand, like, you know,
32:49
five hundred dollars here and there sure might make a
32:53
difference in my bottom line, but at the end of
32:56
the day, it's not a true life lesson unless it's
32:59
over ten thousand dollars.
33:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh, I'm just gonna say that there is a
33:08
question right going to tip my tongue about that. How
33:12
important is it as an entrepreneur to expand our idea
33:19
of what a large sum of money is.
33:24
Speaker 2: I think it's very important, and I think it's a
33:27
piece that a lot of starting entrepreneurs and starting small
33:32
business owners forget because I think we waste a lot
33:36
of worry energy on small sums. Like don't get me wrong,
33:42
it is definitely a good idea to budget and to
33:46
track your expenses and to understand where each dollar is
33:50
going in your businessess and where it's being used and
33:53
how it's being used. That is definitely fundamental to running
33:57
a business. But I think you have to have a
34:04
more expansive approach to those smaller bills and those smaller
34:13
expenses because I run into so many people who waste
34:18
so many hours a day sweating the small stuff and
34:25
at the end of the day, like to use the
34:26
NBA example for example, like an NBA costs thirty to
34:31
fifty thousand dollars right out of a university. That's usually
34:35
what you expect to pay for thirty for an MBA.
34:38
Speaker 1: Really, I thought it was the price tangle was a
34:41
bit higher, but hey, let's go with it.
34:44
Speaker 4: Let's go with it.
34:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it honestly depends on the university you
34:48
go to, for sure, and whether you're in state or
34:51
out of state, and whether you have laid and you know,
34:54
so on.
34:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so okay, But.
35:00
Speaker 2: What is the difference between spending thirty thousand on an
35:04
MBA or spending thirty thousand on a business? What is
35:08
the difference between spending thirty thousand dollars on a new
35:11
bathroom and spending thirty thousand dollars on a business. You know,
35:17
at the end of the day, you can choose which
35:21
expenses are going to propel your goals further and which
35:26
expenses are going to give you the most ROI return
35:30
on your investment versus you know, like we spend what
35:34
forty grand on a car, sometimes fifty grand on a
35:38
car sometimes when it's often a status symbol, right, And
35:46
so you can look at spending thirty thousand dollars on
35:51
a business as an investment in yourself rather than an
35:54
investment on a status symbol. Or if you just really
35:56
need a good, big, better bathroom, like if your bathroom's
35:59
fallen apart, you know, there's nothing wrong with spending the
36:02
thirty forty fifty dollars it takes to remodel your bathroom.
36:06
But it puts those types of expenses into better perspective
36:12
so that you understand what you're choosing to spend your
36:17
money on, because the money is going to be spent
36:19
either way, right.
36:24
Speaker 1: And that's the money should be spent. Because one of
36:29
the I think one of for our public in the
36:35
US and Canada, one of the most expensive things that
36:40
people have is a savings account. It costs some more
36:45
money than they think.
36:47
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we have to be careful about that, yeah, exactly,
36:56
And it's I'm.
36:57
Speaker 1: Sure you're gonna go to agree with this one. Also,
37:00
it's it's okay to sock money away for the rainy day. Sure,
37:07
nothing wrong with that, but it's a when you make
37:16
yourself suffer the rainy day just to have the rainy
37:22
day money, you may kind of rethink that, right.
37:25
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean it's a fine balance to make,
37:33
and each person is going to have to make that
37:35
decision for themselves. Is what kind of balance of risk
37:39
and safety you're willing to accept in this endeavor of
37:44
this entrepreneurship cycle, or even just how much you spend
37:48
on expenses versus what you save in the bank or
37:52
wherever you save it. And I think a lot of
37:55
people are reluctant to spend money on unusual things like
38:03
business ownership, and are more willing to spend money on
38:06
usual things like cars, bathrooms, so on and so forth.
38:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't know. We we have a sitting
38:21
and sitting in our in our driveway because I keep
38:24
the business truck here. It costs but but it it
38:31
costs us uh something like one hundred and fifty thousand
38:34
dollars for a for a truck. Yeah you, oh, but
38:39
that truck can haul a whole TV set like like
38:46
like a a talkshow TV set forth in it to
38:52
get from point A to point and B so that
38:55
we can actually provide entertainment for an audience. And with
39:01
that entertainment we get money, lots of money from sponsors.
39:04
Speaker 2: Right, hopefully you have to make really conscious decisions on
39:12
the strategic use of money at the end of the day.
39:18
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this because because because we're talking
39:21
a lot of language, the only only entrepreneurial creatives are
39:26
going to catch on too, So to to to create
39:33
our art rather be the book, the painting, uh, the documentary,
39:40
whatever it is, it's it costs, there's a cost to it,
39:46
and balancing the costs versus the return and how to
39:54
spread the cost throughout the community so that you can
39:58
actually live mm hmm. How do you help people figure
40:01
all that out?
40:04
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I think the first thing is looking
40:07
at their resources. Like when I said that before, is
40:12
like the st strategic use of money. I think it's
40:15
more the strategic use of resources and that involves money,
40:20
that involves energy, that involves time, that involves community. Is
40:26
who do you have access to? What are they willing
40:28
to provide? What time do you have access to? What
40:33
time are you willing to commit, what energy do you
40:36
have access to, and what energy are you willing to
40:39
commit to it? And what money do you have access to?
40:41
And what money are you willing to commit? Because the
40:44
more intentional and strategic we get about those decisions, the
40:51
more we're able to plan accordingly, Like you start to
40:59
accept the consequences of the decisions you make, which it
41:04
sounds so simple, but it's actually a really radical concept
41:07
to a lot of people these days, is that they
41:10
don't equate consequences and decisions. Often is like decisions to
41:18
purchase cable versus a decision to invest in a financial
41:22
course or something like that. They think that cable is
41:29
the automatic answer oftentimes, but financial courses may have a
41:35
greater reward in the long term. So in terms of community,
41:41
you can also intentionally strategically tap into your community in
41:47
the same way. Is who is also resourced enough and
41:54
willing enough to help you in this endeavor and how
41:57
can you I don't honestarily want to say use your
42:01
community because that sounds credit for but tap into the
42:09
well of resources that are available when you bring multiple
42:13
people together. And I think a very specific example of
42:17
this to make it a little more concrete, it's crowdfunding.
42:20
I think crowdfunding is becoming more and more of an
42:24
option for people nowadays, whether it's funding a creative endeavor
42:28
like art, music, books, TV, so on and so forth,
42:33
or whether it's just funding lifestyle expenses. I recently donated
42:37
to a friend who did a crowdfunding campaign for medical
42:40
expenses for her dog, and I think it's an attempt
42:45
to go back to more village centric ways of living
42:50
that we've had in the past, where people pitch in
42:55
when a member of the village is in need because
42:57
they believe that they would also pitch in if they
43:00
were in need.
43:02
Speaker 1: Well, okay, toss out a large university kind of word.
43:10
We are a gregorious species.
43:14
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm. Yes, do you mean gregorian as in the
43:19
calendar or do you mean gregarious as in loquacious.
43:25
Speaker 1: As in social We got to be part of a society, gotcha?
43:30
Speaker 2: Gotcha?
43:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, which also means that only do we have to
43:36
talk to each other, we have to hang out with
43:38
each other, but it also means that we have to
43:40
lift each other up. Yes.
43:44
Speaker 2: Yes, I think we've gotten too isolated in this world
43:47
of technology that we live in. And I think we
43:51
can see that in the mass difference between how families
43:54
stick together in different countries versus in the US and Canada.
43:59
We have got very isolated in our family structures.
44:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a really good example of that, but
44:10
I'm not going to share it with you at this
44:12
particular time.
44:14
Speaker 2: You're definitely officially on a tangent.
44:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to lead down a huge political tangent.
44:23
And this is not a political show. So hey, with
44:27
what we time, we have left character lists for your
44:32
books because I want to get back to the book,
44:34
because hey, we want to promote the heck out of
44:36
your book, because hey, we want you to sell you
44:39
sell a billion copies.
44:41
Speaker 2: Yes, that would be nice for sure. Yeah. I mean
44:47
in the first book, we have Kila, who is the
44:50
moon blessed, the goddess of death blessed. We have Nesima
44:56
in the second book, who is the water blessed. Then
45:00
we have rock Meant in the third book, who is
45:02
the fire blest.
45:04
Speaker 1: Now going back to the because I've kind of feel
45:09
drawn to this water character. Oh yeah, which is kind
45:12
of funny because because if we were to look at
45:17
my numerology and my and my zodiac and all that
45:21
kind of stuff. I'm air air air air, just floating
45:25
away air. But there's something that you said about about her,
45:33
did at least to did you actually paint her like
45:37
like as an impact or something like that, because.
45:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean she feels everything very deeply, and I
45:46
think she picks up on other people's emotions more so
45:49
than other characters in the book for sure. Like you know,
45:53
Rock met because he is the fire blest I had
45:56
a lot of like fiery impulsiveness built into his character
46:00
as well, and he's a bit blind sometimes when it
46:04
comes to people's emotional experiences.
46:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it also makes it How do you see
46:17
each element developing inside of a person.
46:23
Speaker 2: In terms of the magic mechanics or for like me
46:25
developing a character.
46:28
Speaker 1: Well, it's going to be a little bit of both,
46:30
I think, okay, because how you view a firing personality,
46:39
it's going to be how you're going to write the
46:41
fiery personality.
46:44
Speaker 6: Yeah.
46:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I should see those elements developing people.
46:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I chose the elements first. I chose
46:52
the magic abilities first, and I also chose their genders first.
46:57
I knew going into it, like whether I wanted a
47:01
hero or a heroine or even non binary is going
47:05
to show up as well later on in the novel.
47:10
And from there, I sort of crafted the characters around
47:20
like not only the elemental influences, but also certain personality
47:25
traits that I wanted to play with. Sometimes they're inspired
47:31
by other characters that I've seen out there in the world.
47:34
Sometimes they're inspired by songs that I've come across. But
47:38
I usually have a element. I have a gender, I
47:43
have a sexuality usually that I begin with for the character,
47:47
and then I have different tropes, different relationship dynamics, different
47:51
character traits that I think align with those first three
47:56
choices that I then assign to those various characters.
48:03
Speaker 1: Pretty cool.
48:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I have like a whole playlist of songs
48:07
that are all character songs for me that put me
48:11
in the mood and the perspective of the various characters.
48:15
And that's what really truly drives home my connection and
48:19
understanding of the characters themselves.
48:24
Speaker 1: To create a whole environment around yourself in order to
48:27
write the character.
48:29
Speaker 2: Oh yes, absolutely, like because I'm feeling from their perspective.
48:34
Like when I was writing the Water character, I was
48:37
in the fields all the time because she was in
48:40
the fields all the time, and she was just so
48:43
emotional that I had to tap into that aspect of
48:46
myself to be emotional as well. And so, for example,
48:50
for Book four's character that I'm writing right now, she
48:52
is very angry with where she is in life at
48:56
the moment, and so I've kind of had to work
48:59
my rile myself up in order to write from her
49:03
perspective in order to tap into the anger that's inside
49:09
of her. And so songs definitely help with them.
49:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, hit that part kind of is a quasi actor.
49:20
You know, you gotta find that and you can't keep
49:24
replaying the that same emotion because then thin gets tired
49:27
and tack me.
49:28
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean, I definitely have to play the
49:35
playlist a few times in order to sync into the
49:37
character's point of view. But once I'm there, that's where
49:40
the flow starts.
49:42
Speaker 1: For sure. Sounds like a lot of fun too, it is.
49:47
Speaker 2: I mean, I get so much dopamine from writing, like
49:51
I I'm not one of those writers that can do
49:54
short chunks every day. I honestly hate the advice to
49:58
write every day. I think it's un sustainable and puts
50:00
you like sets you up for failure. But that's a
50:03
whole nother rant. I like to have long blocks of
50:08
writing time, and so I schedule at least three to
50:10
five hours per writing block because that allows me to
50:15
fully sync into the flow and fully sync into the
50:18
character without having to divert or distract my attention to
50:25
other things going on.
50:30
Speaker 1: Sounds like a lot of fun, and I do actually
50:33
look forward to to getting a hold of the book.
50:37
But hey, I need that special link that guides me
50:41
to where the book.
50:41
Speaker 2: Is link Tree slash Claire.
50:44
Speaker 1: Giants that would be in the show notes. Guys, So
50:50
I want you to when it would be October?
50:54
Speaker 2: What October thirty? First, it's Halloween every.
50:57
Speaker 1: Year, Halloween. Halloween. Yeah, I was gonna say it sounding
51:02
like Halloween. Yeah. So if you're listening to this before
51:08
Halloween in twenty twenty four, you know, given another couple
51:14
of days, it'll be up there. If you're listening after Halloween,
51:18
go get the book. It's gonna be fun, it's going
51:21
to be enjoyable, and if you like fantasy fantasy romance
51:27
in general, you're gonna really love with Claric's writing. So
51:33
go check it out. It is again, the link is
51:37
link Tree.
51:38
Speaker 2: What flash Claire joyants, there you go.
51:42
Speaker 1: All right, thanks for listening everybody, Thank you Claire for
51:45
coming on.
51:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, happy to be here, all right.
52:00
Speaker 3: That's so bad. So I don't know, so I shun action.
52:22
So why say this?
52:31
Speaker 4: He says?
52:35
Speaker 3: A reason.
52:42
Speaker 4: Should be like cho wah, we can't wait, so.
52:59
Speaker 3: Will yees?
53:31
Speaker 1: She go to.
53:34
Speaker 3: It? St ST ST.
53:47
Speaker 2: I know.
54:12
Speaker 1: The show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please contact
54:17
us at depictions dot media for more information