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3 Productive Ways to Use Your COVID-19 Down Time · The Daily Writer

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, this is Kent Sanders from Inkwell Ghostwriting.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode 156 of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is the show that helps you grow your business, amplify your authority, and increase your impact through the power of writing.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining me today.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is definitely a crazy time as we all figure out how to deal with the coronavirus situation.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Most everybody's work schedules, along with every other facet of life, is being affected right now.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that certainly applies to my work as well as my wife's work, as we've been juggling a lot of changes and situations that are being adjusted almost every single day.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But first, I want to make sure that you're doing okay.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's the most important thing to me.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I may not know you personally because there's no way I can know everybody who listens to this podcast, but regardless of who you are and where you live or what you do, I really care about your well-being, and I just want you to know that I hope that you're doing okay.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: In times like this, it's vital that we take care of ourselves.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that you're feeling extra stress, whether it's from your business, maybe from having kids at home more, maybe it's just from being in a general panic about the uncertainty of life right now.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to stop caring about other people and about ourselves and just binge on Netflix for hours at a time.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to sleep all day, just eat junk food that feels good in the moment, and it's easy to just basically give up on life for a while.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you not to give in to those impulses.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Times like these call for our best, not for our worst.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to take care of yourself, to stay healthy, and to do as much as you can during this time to keep some kind of sense of normalcy.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mentioned that a lot of people's work schedules are being upended right now, and as I mentioned also, both my wife and I are pretty much we're pretty much working from home, and our schedules, probably like yours, are being upended and being rearranged.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I imagine you're in a similar situation as well.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you already work from home, or maybe you're working from home now but didn't before.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Regardless of whatever your situation is, I'm pretty sure you're gonna have some extra time on your hands the next few weeks, or maybe even a few months, depending on how this whole thing goes.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So in this episode, I'd like to offer three ways to use your extra time so you can stay more productive and forward focused.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's dive in here.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is work on your writing.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Chances are pretty good that you have a book that you've been wanting to write.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's face it, about eight out of ten people have a book that they say they've always wanted to write.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm pretty sure that you have a book, at least one, that you've been wanting to write.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe there's several books that you want to write, or maybe you've already written books and you want to work on the next one.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever you fall on that spectrum, you probably have stuff that you want to create.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a blog post or podcast content that's backlogged.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's even more client work that's waiting to get done.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure that there's something that you want to create.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is a great time to put the pedal to the metal, as they say, and to make some serious progress on those projects.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you just take an hour extra per day for your writing, that's six hours per week or almost a whole workday every week if you work Monday through Saturday.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you were to do two hours of that every day, that's 12 hours per week.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can get a lot of writing done in 12 hours per week.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: The main thing that I'm working on now is an outline for my next book, which will focus on being a smart and productive business writer.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So right now I'm putting together my outline and I'm planning to launch this book next fall or probably towards the end of the year.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to mention a couple of resources that have been super helpful to me right now in terms of productivity.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: The first is Joanna Penn's excellent book, which is called Productivity for Writers.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'm sorry, it's called uh actually, hang on one second.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let me look here.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is it called?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, sorry, I had to check really quick.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Productivity for Authors, not Productivity for Writers.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is a short little book, but it's absolutely packed with great tips on getting more writing done.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Joanna is an absolute machine in terms of her writing output, so she's the ideal person to teach you how to be more productive.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you can find that book by going to thecreativepin.com, and that's pen spelled with two ends, as she often says on her podcast, which I love, by the way.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Another person whom I greatly respect for her amazing writing output is Honore Corter.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: She has an amazing book called You Must Write a Book, and that book will help you plan, organize, and launch your next book.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, she has a phenomenal live course called Publishing PhD that's based on You Must Write a Book.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm taking the course right now, and it is a phenomenal course.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best I've ever taken, in fact.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I highly, highly recommend it.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the book and the course by going to honoreacorter.com.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's H-O-N-O-R-E-E C-O-R-D-E-R dot com.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's number one.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Work on your writing.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Point number two here is work on your planning.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned earlier, there will be a lot of you who are working from home right now.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And during this pandemic crisis, I know it seems like it's going to last forever, but the reality is that this will pass as all things do.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when this does pass, we will all be glad that we took the opportunity to plan our writing and our business activities.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to try and plan out your content for at least the next couple months, if not for the whole rest of the year.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you have to create it all right now.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It just means that you know what content you need to create and when you need to create it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I know that my main writing project is my next book.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm also going to have a draft of another book done by the end of the year, but that's a whole different project.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also working on my plans for this podcast, and I'm lining up topics and themes that we'll be talking about here on the show for the next several months.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I also want us to think about our financial planning.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: This coronavirus pandemic is affecting everybody, and it's probably throwing your business for a loop, as it has mine as well.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the time to get proactive about building relationships, which we'll get to in just a moment.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Really, this is all about our mindset.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's tempting to sit back and get depressed because the situation is throwing a huge wrench into every aspect of our lives.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of just sitting back and getting depressed and being passive, we should instead ask ourselves, what does this situation make possible?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: What new opportunities does the coronavirus give to us?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here's the cool thing.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: As a writer and as a content creator, this whole thing is an amazing opportunity.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you probably think, why is that?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: How could there possibly be something positive in all this?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason is because more and more people are going to be at home and they're hungry for stories, they're hungry for ideas and how-to articles, and great books, and audiobooks, and podcasts, and so much other stuff.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And my friend, you are a content creator.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: As a writer, you create stuff.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you do.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can create content out of thin air.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you are a brick and mortar business where you've got to depend on suppliers to get you, you know, resources or material goods.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can create value literally straight out of your brain.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the coolest things about being a writer.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can provide content for people that adds value and increases your impact and influence.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So take this time to reassess where your writing and your business are and then make whatever adjustments you need to make.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And most important, take action.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is not the time to sit around and do a three-month study and read 12 books on how to plan your life and all those kind of things.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is the time to sit down, make plans, but then take action and then adjust as needed.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I say this on the podcast sometimes, but I'm preaching to the choir here, a choir of one.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm preaching to the solo artist.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm preaching to myself because I have a bad long-term tendency to analyze everything to death and to then get paralyzed and not take action.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have a bad habit of doing that.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing way better on that these days.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just being totally honest with you.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: But as a person who's an Enneagram 5, as an introvert, as an analytical person, it's really easy for me to sit down and make all these elaborate plans and read 15 books on a topic and do research and then never do a stinking thing about it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want you to make my mistakes.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want us all to, yes, sit down and make those plans, figure out where you're going, figure out your direction, but then take action and do it.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot adjust anything, you cannot fine-tune anything until you actually take action.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you got to take that first step and take action and do something first.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Then you know, then you will know where you need to adjust.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so first point is work on your writing, second point work on your planning, and then number three is work on your connections.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard it said before that your network is your net worth.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's putting it kind of crass in in money terms, but the general sentiment is really true.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Your success in large part is determined by the quality and the size of your network and of your relationships.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, our first impulse is going to probably be to look for clients or to look for readers or look for people who are giving us something.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I totally get that, I really do.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I would encourage us all instead to focus on giving and adding value right now.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: People are very open to you reaching out and to seeing how they are doing, and they really, really appreciate that.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm just gonna be totally, totally transparent with you.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I recently got a ghostwriting client.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is a book client, by far my largest client ever.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what was so cool is that they had been uh quiet for a couple months.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: We had talked about doing a book and they were very serious about it, but the timing just wasn't right for them.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I reached out recently, you know, as this coronavirus situation was getting started, I sent a very simple email.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just said, hey, so-and-so, I just wanted to check and see how you're doing and see if your family was okay.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know if there's any way I can help.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say anything about the book or anything like that.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I just assumed that that project was probably dead.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was legitimately just reaching out to say, hey, I hope you're doing okay.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: That was the extent of my intention with that.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then they wrote back immediately and just said, hey, we're doing great.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you're doing well.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do you still have time to work on this project?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: If so, we'd love to get started.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where that came from, simply by just reaching out and seeing how somebody was doing.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I would encourage you to do the same thing.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just reach out to people, just see how they're doing, just check on people.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my goodness, this is about more than just business or making money or writing books for people and all that stuff.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is about humanity.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is about caring.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is about the fact that, hey, we're all going through this experience together.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is a shared experience among humanity.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: People are important, and we've we've got to chug on people and build those connections and give and serve and do all those things that our grandma taught us to do, but sometimes we lose sight of because we get so consumed with the business aspect of what we're doing.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that our business is for the purpose of helping people.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, our business helps us because we make money doing it, but our business ultimately is much more than about just making money, it's about serving other people, it's about adding value, it's about making the world a better place.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if when I say those things, that comes across to you as kind of like a woo-woo kind of a deal or kind of a um a pie in the sky thing or a naive perspective.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, that's totally cool.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I would much rather be a little bit naive and a little bit woo-woo, but maintain a sense of giving and serving and and being generous.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: I would much rather be that guy than be the cynic who's who always thinks everybody has negative intentions and who's always you know feeling like people are out to rob them and everybody's going to take from them.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I would I would rather just keep a positive perspective on life and and believe that most people want to do good in the world and that most people have good intentions, and that most people appreciate you reaching out.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's the kind of people I want to hang out with.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of clients that I love working with.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: People who add value to my life in more ways than just paying me for some type of service.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I've gotten off on a little bit of a tangent there, but um I do want to say a couple more things before I start to wrap up uh this episode.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: One is that some of you may not realize that I used to be a pastor.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually what what my background is.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um fact, in my day job, I teach at a small Christian college in St.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Louis.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I love it there.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh some people find it weird that I still have a day job because you know I do this podcast on business writing and I do ghostwriting and these other things, but but honestly, I I legitimately love my day job.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: I I love teaching there, I love the people there, uh, I love my students, and there's just something about it that um is just really, really fun.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I will always be grateful for my background as a pastor because that is kind of baked into who I am.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's interesting because the typical church size in America is around 75 people or so, the last I heard.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's a good template to use when you're thinking about your network of people and and the the number of people who you should be reaching out to.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine that you have a personal congregation of 75 people that you need to check on within the next few weeks.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's about 20 people per week or just four people per day.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's very, very doable.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: If 75 people seems impossible, then just start with 10 people.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Who are 10 people that you care about?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Who are 10 people that have impacted your life?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: 10 people on Facebook or LinkedIn that you have a good connection with?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's 10 clients or prospective clients.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter who it is, just make that list of 10 or 75 or whatever the number is, shoot them a message and check in and see how they're doing and let them know that you're thinking about them.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Something else that you can do that's really effective, and this is something I've been doing a lot of lately, is using the Loom software.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can get this at Loom.com, L-O-O-M.com.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh a website that you can go to to create short videos that are uploaded into the cloud, and you can send people a link and they can view those videos.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit like YouTube, but it's way easier to well, not that YouTube is hard to use, but it's way faster and just way cleaner than having to upload stuff to YouTube and all that jazz.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I've been using this a lot, making short videos and sending them to uh clients, prospective clients, friends, colleagues, students, whoever.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and people love it.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: People really, really love these little short videos.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like it is such a simple thing to do, but hardly anybody is doing this today.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you make these quick videos saying, hey, I'm just checking in to see how you're doing.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thanks for this or that, or you know, whatever the personal connection is you had with them.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Send them the link to that video, they view it, and man, it's like crazy effective sending these videos to people.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot of ways to connect with people and a lot of different systems.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: So don't get burdened or overwhelmed by how do I do this system or I gotta develop this complicated deal.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: My friend Jennifer Harshman is an expert in this, and I've learned a lot from her ability to connect with a lot of people.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the main idea here is don't get caught up in a system, just add value to people, just give before you ask for anything.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: It really comes back to the golden rule, which is do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in summary, my main response to all this coronavirus thing from a writing perspective is this you can choose to sit and worry this whole time and get very little work done and just check out of life, or you can choose to take advantage of this extra time to set yourself up for success after this initial crisis passes.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: The choice is really up to you.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact of the matter is that as soon as the quarantine measures are over and people start getting active again, there's going to be probably an explosion of activity.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: People will have been cooped up for a while and they're going to be ready to spend money, to get outside and get active, and to get re-engaged with all the aspects of their life.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when that time comes, you will wish that you would have gotten more done and made more progress when you had that extra time.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, I'd love to hear your thoughts on all this.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: How do you plan on using your extra time right now to make some progress on your writing and to grow your business?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to shoot me a message on Twitter at Kent Sanders, or you can hit me up on Facebook as well.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you just want to talk or you need some ideas, hey, I'm here.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to connect and to serve you however I can, so just uh get in touch and let me know.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, thanks for listening.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you in the next episode.