Latest / The Daily Writer / Business Update, June 2021

Transcript

Business Update, June 2021 · The Daily Writer

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Writer.
• 0:14
  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, as well as teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Starting with today's episode, I'm beginning a new monthly business update, and I want to take a second to explain where the idea for this came from, and then I'll get into some specific updates.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about this before here on the podcast, but I'm a member of a fantastic community called Total Life Freedom.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is a group led by Vincent Puglisi, who is an author and entrepreneur.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he created this group two or three years ago, and I've been a part of it for the last couple of years.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I just joined the elite mastermind level of Total Life Freedom a few weeks ago.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this is his high-end mastermind group that meets every week, and it's been a phenomenal experience, even better than the community, which itself is really, really phenomenal.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the people in this Total Life Freedom group is a realtor named John Schukman.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: John lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you live in that area and you need a realtor, John is definitely your guy.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: John also hosts a fantastic podcast called the Real Estate Survival Guide.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's your industry, make sure and check it out.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: John recently started doing a monthly business update on his podcast, which I thought was a really cool idea.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he got the idea from another friend of ours in Total Life Freedom.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And his name is Ken Carfagno.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Ken runs a cleaning business and also hosts a great podcast for cleaning business owners.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that show is called Smart Cleaning School.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Ken does a monthly business update on his show, which is where John got the idea from.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So really this is all kind of Ken's fault.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, Ken, if you're listening to this, know you've impacted not just John but myself in terms of the kind of cool stuff that we are wanting to do on our podcast.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you can also see how powerful it is to be part of a great mastermind group and how good ideas can spread from one person to another very, very quickly.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of the background of where this idea of doing a monthly business update came from.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I heard John doing an update on his podcast, I immediately thought, hey, that could work really well here on this show.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know many of you have a writing business of some kind, and a lot of you probably want to do that as well.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And even though this podcast isn't really about ghostwriting, a lot of the lessons that I talk about are transferable to your own writing and business.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and struggles as well as any successes that I have.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't just do ghostwriting, I also do my own books.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working on a couple of my own books now, which I'll talk about in a little while.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got this community that um the Daily Writer community, which of course I talk about here on the show quite a bit, as well as this podcast.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of have a whole ecosystem called the Daily Rider, as well as my ghostwriting business, which is a whole separate thing, but they are still connected because they're both part of my business.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: What I want to do here in this episode, kind of the framework that I want to follow, is that I want to fill you in on what's happening with my ghostwriting, then I want to talk about the daily writer, then give you a couple personal updates, and also talk about my biggest challenge that I'm dealing with right now.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, let's talk about the ghostwriting side of my business.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I've talked about this briefly on the podcast recently, and I'll go into a lot more detail soon here on the podcast, like in a few weeks.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you may or may not know that I recently quit my college teaching job so that I could do ghostwriting full time.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this was not a decision that I made lightly.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of criteria that needed to be met in order for me to make this transition.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those criteria was that I needed to have about six months of savings in the bank before I made the leap.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I did that.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Another criteria was that I needed to have at least six months of consistent ghostwriting income to indicate to me and to my wife, more importantly, that this was a sustainable business.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that was also true.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: My income had been consistent really since pretty much last summer, to be honest with you.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So for almost a year, I had I had been matching my day job salary.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then it actually had went up, which I'll talk about here in a second.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So both of those things were true.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And both of those elements, you know, the consistent income matching my day job salary so I could make the leap, as well as having a few months of savings in the bank, those were really important things to me.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So once those criteria were met, then I felt free to make that transition.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another key factor in making this transition to doing a full-time writing business was that I needed to have definite confirmation from my wife, as well as other key people in my circle who I trust.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to tell you, of the, you know, maybe half a dozen really, really key, kind of trusted advisors in my life, I would put it that way, of those people that I talked to about this transition and just sort of asked, you know, do you think I should do this?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Does it seem like I'm making a good decision based on what you know about um, you know, my business and my skill set and my personality and and so forth and my situation?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Does this seem like a good move?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And there was not one single person that I talked to who said I should not do it.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Every single person that I talked to, and again, these are wise, trusted advisors in my life, they all to a T said, we think that you should do this.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is a good decision.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, even my own bosses, when I gave notice at my job, even my own bosses recognized that my business was growing and that they were not really surprised by this transition.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt very, very encouraged by that.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not the least of which reason was that I still had some doubts in my own heart about okay, was I really cut out for this?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Should I really be doing this?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really cool because when you have people in your life that you trust, they see things in you sometimes that you don't even see yourself.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's why it's really important to have a group of people in your life that you trust who can give you wise guidance and counsel and advice.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in my case, my my wife, my spouse was a huge, huge part of that as well.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're married, I of course highly, highly encourage you to make sure that your spouse is on board before you make a big decision like this.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because if they're not, then you're probably headed for uh some choppy waters, uh, to say the least.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are some important lessons about this transition that I'll get to in a few weeks when I do a dedicated episode on why I quit my job and went into ghostwriting full-time and how that whole thing came about.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go into detail about all that.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: But for the time being, the main thing that I think is important to note here is that this was a very planned, very deliberate decision.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing that you'll hear a lot when you spend time around entrepreneur type of people, especially in the online business space, something that you hear a lot is that these entrepreneur types talk a lot about ditching your day job so you can have freedom and you know, escaping the nine to five and all those kinds of things.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And while I understand the sentiment behind that, if you quit your day job, you better be darn sure that you have a plan in place and some money in the bank as a safety net.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I say that because I have a very low tolerance for risk.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I want things to basically be a sure bet.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: I want there to be a lot of evidence to back up my decisions.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't just want to make a decision because I feel something.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I want it to be a solid decision.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So having that money in the bank and having that consistent income was very, very important to me and my wife as well.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your situation might be different, and that's totally fine.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, but I did want to just share that that this was a very planned, deliberate kind of a thing, but it had been in the works really for some time.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that's kind of the big news in terms of my ghostwriting business.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into what's happening in my ghostwriting business, specifically in terms of projects.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I'm actively writing four books for clients, and I'm also doing developmental editing on another book.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And of the four books that I'm writing, one of those came through a ghostwriting agency, which incidentally is my lowest paying book.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that really shouldn't come as a surprise because that's the way that agencies typically work.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: You make less than you would if you got a client on your own because you're not doing the marketing and all that, you're just doing the writing.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I'm totally cool with that.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I actually took this book because I wanted the experience of writing this very specific kind of book that I'm doing for this agency, and I'm actually really enjoying it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think there's kind of an important point there, which is sometimes the highest paying books are not necessarily the ones that you enjoy the most.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the ones that pay less are ones that you can learn a lot from.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So when it comes to ghostwriting and freelance writing, I think it is important to have a balance of things.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's important to have some books that you are doing maybe more for the money side of it because they pay well, and other books that you're doing more because you really like the subject, or you're doing it um just to help somebody or things like that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's just that's just kind of my own personal perspective.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Others may disagree with that, but that's uh at least been my experience so far.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I like having a variety of projects at a uh variety of price points, not necessarily like low price points necessarily, but um, but I do want a variety of things because I think sometimes you can take a project that doesn't necessarily pay the most, but you're developing a specific skill with that project, and that's why I took this one.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um now the other three books I'm writing came through my network and my personal relationships.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And as of this moment, I also have a proposal out for another book, and there are also, in addition to all that, three other books that I think are very good possibilities for this year.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So the short story is that I've I've got my plate is honestly really kind of full right now.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the proposal that I sent out today uh to a prospective client, I basically said I can't start writing this until September because I'm working on like four active books.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got a few others that are good possibilities for later this year as well.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really, really super grateful uh for all these things.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I do have to tell you simply that ghostwriting is just a lot of hard work.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you like writing and you're good at writing and you can do it fast, there's no way to get around the work of ghostwriting.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So just know that if you're interested in ghostwriting or you're interested in freelance writing, or if you want to do writing for clients, um, some people may think, oh, ghostwriting, that just sounds like such a fun thing that you kind of just sit down and you enjoy it and it's light and it's a fun sort of business.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong, I love my work and I really appreciate my clients, but it is just a lot of work.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And many times when I'm sitting down to write a book and I'm I'm going through transcripts and I'm outlining a book and I'm going through all the details and my notes and uh doing research, and I'm weaving all these things into a narrative or into a book chapter.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll be honest with you, there are many times where I just think to myself, you know, this is why ghostwriting can be a well-compensated profession, because it is just quite honestly a lot of work.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of effort, and at times it does feel pretty tedious.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: But again, that's this is why this is why sometimes people do pay a lot of money for ghostwriting, is because it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of skill to do it well, just like any any profession where you're doing something that is highly valued by clients or customers.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just a little bit of a perspective on what it's like to actually do this work.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, speaking of money, let's go, let's go into a question that you may be wondering, which is how is the money in ghostwriting?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, can you give us specifics on this?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a great question.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I've talked about on this podcast is that I I always want to be as honest as I can with you.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: With my current level of ghostwriting, I have, just to be really honest with you, I've essentially tripled my salary from my day job within the first five months of this year.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that is due to a mix of book projects and other freelance writing as well.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not all books.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: I would say I'd have to sit down and look at the numbers, I guess, but I would say probably 75% of that is books and 25% is other types of writing.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I have one client who I'm uh doing an article or two, like long, long articles, like in-depth stuff for every month.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I have another ghostwriter that I'm actually doing some book outline work for.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um because her volume is so high, she needs help with the outlining.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm one of my really specialty skill sets is book outlining and construction of uh the flow of the book and and those kinds of things.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm doing some work for her.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are some other things that come along occasionally that are freelance type of things.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I would say uh it's about 75-25 in terms of books versus other kinds of stuff.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, and just to be honest with you, you know, the the compensation was a major factor in why I decided to leave my day job.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna gloss over that fact.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like a lot of times whenever people talk about their business and why they move into different kinds of businesses and why they started their own business, they they gloss over the financial aspect.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I always feel kind of cheated by that whenever I'm hearing people talk about these transitions.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just being blunt with you.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: That was a major factor in why I quit my day job, is because the compensation with ghostwriting is so much better.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, now I I want to balance that out.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and please hear me on this.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to just hear, oh, the compensation is better with ghostwriting, because there's another flip side to that, which I've already alluded to, which is that ghostwriting is a lot of work.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's important for me to acknowledge this that whenever you hear me talk about increasing my income, you know, it might be tempting to think, oh, that kent, he's he's just really lucky and he's so fortunate and so forth.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I am, I feel very grateful.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed to be able to do this as a job.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: I truly am.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But this was not a case of luck at all.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't really buy into the myth of people get lucky.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think the harder that you work and the more that you plan for success, the luckier, quote unquote, you will get.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And me being able to move into this type of of business really had nothing to do with luck.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: This was a process that started back in gosh, probably 2015 or so.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I've been working at this for five or six years on freelance writing and trying to make income from client work and so forth.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then I I got into ghostwriting books a couple years ago, and that's really where it began to take off from me because ghostwriting is such a highly valued type of writing versus other kinds of lower valued freelance writing.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there's a broad spectrum of writing, don't get me wrong.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's highly paid freelance writing, there's low-paying freelance writing and so forth.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: But for a long time I was doing lower-paying freelance writing.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I got into ghostwriting books and really began to be much more strategic about uh the kind of clients that I wanted to connect with and so forth, and understanding my own value, then I began to get compensated better for my writing.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but just keep that in mind that that the compensation for for what you're getting for your job, your income, is a reflection of the value that you're bringing into the marketplace.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that my compensation is greater now with ghostwriting than it was as a college professor, is just a matter of me shifting to a type of work that's more highly valued in the marketplace.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ghostwriters are compensated generally at a higher level than college professors because the market feels that they're adding more value.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And this is just really basic economics.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the market, or you could also say culture or society, determines what someone is is worth by the amount that they compensate them.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is why the CEO of a of a large Fortune 500 company is compensated more than someone who is a janitor at that company.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that it's not that either one is necessarily better or worse.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that the person who is compensated more usually has more responsibilities.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're carrying more weight on their shoulders.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Their decisions carry more weight, and they're adding more value by what they're bringing to the organization or to the company or to the workplace.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I don't necessarily want to get off on a big tangent here with all this stuff.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I cut of him already, to be honest with you.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think this is really, really important to recognize.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and here's where this impacts you if you're thinking about developing a writing business.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you're wrestling with what kind of business to get into with your writing skills, I would urge you to consider what kinds of writing is most valued in the marketplace, if income is one of your main criteria.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, just to put it really plainly, if you want to make more money with your writing, don't just work harder at doing the types of writing that doesn't pay very well.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on doing the type of writing that is compensated better.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And things like copywriting and ghostwriting memoirs, ghostwriting nonfiction business books, those are compensated much better than doing articles for for a content mill or you know, getting paid like five cents a word for something.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um so just kind of keep that in mind.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, this this really isn't rocket science.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this really isn't complicated.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to make more money at what you do, then do the kind of work that is compensated at a higher level, if that all makes sense, and I'm sure that it does.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of an update with ghostwriting.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't necessarily uh want to get off on some big tangent with all that, but uh, I've been thinking about this stuff for a really long time, and and I think it's important for me to tell you all this stuff because this is kind of what's happening in my business and my life, and I'm really sort of living this transition, and I'm committed to sharing with you what I'm learning along the way.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope this is helpful.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: And more than anything else, my goodness, the main thing that I want to communicate with all this is that you can do the same thing too.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am nobody special, I'm really not.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I am not necessarily like the Shakespeare ghostwriter guy whose skill sets are just off the chart.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: I would say I'm a very good writer, but there are writers who are certainly better than me.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but what I have tried to do is be really strategic with who I'm connecting with and get into the the kinds of of business and networking circles where people can recognize that I'm bringing value to the table.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I simply try to get around people who who want to have books written, the kind of books that I'm writing.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really a fairly simple thing.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: But you can do the same thing.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: You really, really, truly can.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you get nothing else out of this episode, I want you to know that you, if you're a writer, you have a highly valuable skill set and you deserve to be compensated well for what you're doing.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And particularly if you're in a field like teaching, or if you're a pastor, or or you're in any kind of a role like marketing where you're developing content, you have highly valuable skills with all that.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: So don't undervalue yourself.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Go for it.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, try to do the kind of work that has compensated well if that is important to you, because I promise you that you can do this.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I think I've beat that horse long enough.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go on to uh a few updates from the Daily Rider.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: So ghostwriting is one side of my business, the other side is the Daily Rider, which consists of uh products, potential products in the future, um, digital and physical products, books that I am working on, the Daily Rider community, which is a paid membership community, and other potential things in the future, like um retreats or conferences or whatever else we may come up with.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, this podcast, the Daily Writer Podcast, is essentially a gateway into all those things.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this podcast is my main way to promote what I'm doing with my books and with the Daily Rider community.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, currently we have about 25 members in the community.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a small but strong and active group, and I'd say it's going very well.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a blast being there with these guys and ladies, and I'm so inspired by the cool things that are happening in this group.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: We have a very active Facebook group, we have resources, and every Thursday we do a several hour writing sprint where people can hop on and off as they would like.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we also do a group call at noon, Central Standard Time, every Thursday.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that alternates between a general community call, a guest expert call, a teaching call, as well as a book discussion.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are a lot of possibilities for the Daily Writer, and I feel like I've only started to scratch the surface of it, honestly, in terms of its potential.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: The main thing that I need to accomplish next is Is building the Daily Writer email list, which I have done a terrible job of uh since I launched the Daily Writer, really last November.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even have a lead magnet finished for the website.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not even currently collecting email addresses, which is like a cardinal sin in the world of online business.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and truthfully, I've I've been really, really busy doing client work.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've been busy with my own writing, uh, this podcast, which which honestly it does take a substantial amount of time to put together, and other things.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I know I'm missing out on a huge chance to serve people and build the side of my business.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm committed to just being honest with you, and that is an area where I have really failed is getting a lead magnet ready for the Daily Writer website, which is dailywriterlife.com, and really developing my email list with that.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as far as the books I'm working on, there are two of those that are in active development.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is called Kickstart Your Creativity, and that is a 31-day challenge to unlock your creative genius and discover new possibilities.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: So each chapter or each day in that book will have, oh, probably 500 words or so to help boost your creativity.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have a short tip in there, maybe some discussion questions, uh, little action step that you can complete, and that'll help to boost your creativity.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this is also the first volume in what I'm calling the Kickstart series.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this series is designed to help creative entrepreneurs develop important business skills such as creativity, networking, productivity, courage, and several other areas.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And these are all future volumes in this series.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the other book I'm working on is called The Daily Writer, which will be 366 daily readings to help inspire and motivate you in your writing.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if you listen to the short weekday episodes of this podcast, what you're hearing is me writing those entries as I go along.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: So every week I'm writing five of those daily entries that'll go in that book that will release next October.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that book is basically a year and a half away from release.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm using the podcast as a way to write content for that book.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really, really excited about it.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a really, really cool book.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I cannot wait to get that out to you next year.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me give you a quick personal update and also talk about my biggest challenge, and then I'll wrap up this episode.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would say the biggest thing that I'm working through personally right now is simply dealing with a lot of change all at once.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm now working from home all the time, and I'm needing to learn to think more like a business owner.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: I have an assistant now.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: I need to look at maybe adding a couple other part-time team members in the near future, uh, especially as my ghostwriting projects grow.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that's a big shift from being a college professor for 17 years.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've been doing my business part-time for several years, but you know, making a leap to doing that full-time and kind of shifting my whole work, work schedule, uh, my work location, that's a really, really big shift.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm honestly still very much getting used to that.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, family-wise, my son is also going to be a senior in high school this fall.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: So my wife and I will be looking to be empty nesters before too long, which sounds really, really odd since it seems like he was just like five years old yesterday.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we're we're just wrestling through a lot of emotions about that.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: My wife has also transitioned into a brand new job and career direction over the last six months or so.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, plus, we're all coming out of this sort of mild catatonic state from the pandemic last year.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got a lot of changes happening in my life right now.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: And these are all these are good and positive things, but again, they're just changes.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're going through transitions in your life as well.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: So as we come out of this whole pandemic thing, it sort of feels like we're all just kind of waking up a little bit.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we're looking around at each other and going, what happened?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: What in the world just happened the last year?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's been such a crazy time.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me close up this episode by sharing the biggest challenge that I'm working on right now.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: A few days ago, I was taking a long walk trying to figure out why I had been feeling kind of mildly irritable the last few weeks.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a list, this kind of low, very, very low grade irritability.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever experienced that, but I was experiencing that the last couple months.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, you know, you have those times in life where you have this kind of light bulb moment and the light bulb goes off and you go, oh wow, that's what's been going on.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I realized that what was happening is that I was going through a grief process because even though I wanted to make this transition from my day job to, you know, my full-time business, I very much wanted to do that.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I had been in that job a really long time, and I I love my job.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love the people there.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love the college that I worked for.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm leaving on very good terms.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that I, even though I wanted to make this change, I it's just been difficult.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I've have realized that I've been going through a grief process of let learning to let go and learning to embrace a new season in my life, which is not always easy.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm 46 years old and I'm clearly, I'm very, very clearly in the second half of my life.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then I suddenly realized as I was going out for this walk that I'm not ready for the second half.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: It sort of feels like you're you're in a football game and they throw you out onto the field for the second half.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, halftime is over and they throw you out of the field, it's the second half, but in your head, it still feels like the first quarter, and you're kind of like, wait a minute, I I don't necessarily want to move this fast.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still kind of getting the the pump primed, you know.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: I I still I still am not quite ready to be doing this.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you realize that time is limited and it's moving faster than you realize.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where I am right now in my life, just to be honest with you.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm kind of emotionally grappling a little bit with the fact that I'll be 50 in a few short years, and that that and that life is moving pretty quickly.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: So all these things are kind of going on in my life.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's rapidly changing, but uh it's all good things.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it it is just change, and it's it's the idea of just getting used to change and getting accustomed to a new period and a new phase of life.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: But overall, I am so grateful for this new opportunity to serve people through ghostwriting full-time, as well as all the cool things that are going to be happening with a daily writer.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: So don't don't mishear me.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't this is not this is not me like bemoaning anything at all.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of confessing to you that uh change is hard and and it can be difficult to adjust to a new reality in life, even when your new reality is full of blessings and full of good things.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I am gearing up for an awesome second half, and I'm looking forward to lots more good things to come.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as always, I appreciate you listening to this episode so much.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always grateful for you taking the journey with me.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks again.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 29:04
  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.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 29:17
  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.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.