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Networking Strategies for Introverted Writers · The Daily Writer

• 0:11
  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 at the four practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers, 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: Well, you've probably heard the famous quote by Zig Ziggler: you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Success is all about building great relationships and serving other people well.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: But what if you're an introverted writer?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: How can you succeed in a world that is so relationship-driven?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: That was a big struggle of mine for most of my life.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Back when I was a pastor, this was a real problem.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: When you're in ministry, you're around people all the time.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, church work is obviously people-centered.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was a worship pastor and we had three services on Sunday morning plus a Sunday night service.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I was so emotionally drained by the time Sunday night church was over that many times as soon as the service was done, I would put my guitar away, I would walk behind the stage and take a side exit out of the building so nobody would see me leave.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I was so drained that I literally could not form the words to have a conversation with one more person.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that sounds extreme, but all the introverts listening, I think, will really relate to that.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I also want to offer just a blanket apology to anybody at that church in Streeter, Illinois, whoever that Sunday night church service because I just was not really a people person by the time that was done.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're listening to this episode, there's a good chance you can relate to what I'm talking about since I think most writers are introverts by nature.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Most writers write because that's the way they love to communicate.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: We love people, but quite honestly, they kind of drain us.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So how can you be successful in a hyper-connected world in a business or leadership environment that depends so much on relationships and networking?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: How do you get this done as an introvert without losing your mind or completely draining your emotional energy?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I am not the world's best expert on networking.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm not an expert on this at all.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I consider myself very much a learner in this whole realm of networking and relationships.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I have found over the last few years some strategies that have worked pretty well for me.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: In many ways, these strategies are designed for introverts because they involve things where introverts excel.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Things like creating content, being detailed, being task-oriented, and writing.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, certainly there are a lot of extroverts who are great in those areas as well.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't get me wrong.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're an extrovert who's listening to this, um don't get offended and you know, don't think that I'm talking bad about extroverts.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: But in my experience, most writers tend to be introverts.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I also believe that introverts are uniquely suited to use the strategies I'm going to talk about for networking.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before I share these five things, let's set a little bit of context.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is the most important thing that I'm going to say on this episode.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: What is the purpose of networking and building these relationships?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's quite simple.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it goes back to the Ziggler quote I shared a minute ago, which is again, you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it all comes down to helping people.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is all rooted in serving and generosity.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have those as a fundamental way of life, then these things are not going to work.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're just going to come off as shallow and as self-centered and as fake and self-serving.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So please keep that in mind.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: We are all about serving and helping people.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea here is that the more people that you serve and the more people you help, the better that's going to come back to you.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe if you do it in the correct way, the more money that you're going to make.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you do the right type of work that's compensated well.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you serve enough other people, I mean that's that's just kind of like a law of economics.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you serve more people and you serve them in a deeper way, meaning you're doing things that they value more highly financially, then you're going to make more money.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's just basic economics.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: But in order for that to happen, you have to really be focused on serving people and helping people.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: It really all comes down to that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Our success is a byproduct of service.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: We serve and give because we first and foremost value other people.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that means we need to be at the top of our game when we're serving.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: That means we've got to be excellent.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to be always improving.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: That means we need to have an internal desire, an internal energy source that makes us want to serve, that makes us want to be excellent and to do deeper and better service for other people.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if we do those things, we will reap the fruit of success.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so with that foundation, let's dive into five specific strategies for networking as an introverted writer.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Here's number one, this is one of my favorite things, and that is posting reviews for books and podcasts.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: An important principle to keep in mind is that people's number one need is to feel affirmed and valued.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And a great way to meet this need is to leave reviews for somebody's podcasts on Apple Podcasts or leave a review for their book on Amazon or Goodreads.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then what you can do is take a screenshot of that review and post it on social media, or you can send it to that person and make sure and tag them, you know, make sure that they see it.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really, really simple and cool way to make other people feel loved and to feel valued.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter how successful an author is or how well they're known or how many books they've sold, every single author craves that validation that comes from other people saying, Hey, I loved your book.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I had somebody just um yesterday and I was it yesterday, a couple days ago.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, it was yesterday.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm recording this on a Friday.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was yesterday on our daily writer community call.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: One of the people on the call was saying that, hey, I've bought several copies of your artist suitcase book in the last year and have given it out to people and they really loved it.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, that is so cool.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've been writing for a while now, but it still really makes me feel good whenever other people say they like something that I wrote.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: It meets a fundamental and very, very deep need that we have as humans, which is to feel included, to feel loved, to feel affirmed by other people.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So when you can do that for other people on their podcasts and books, that really, really makes a huge difference.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would say make it a goal to do this for one or two people every day if you can, at least do two or three a week.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you challenge yourself and just make this part of your social media routine, this can actually be very simple and quite a lot of fun to do.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Strategy number two is sending gifts and handwritten cards to people.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do this quite often for my podcast guests and many other people who I want to thank for really any reason.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, sending a card does take some time and a little bit of money because there's postage, and of course, you've got to buy the stationery.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the return that you get for this is amazing.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: People really love getting stuff in the mail.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you one quick example.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just a few days ago, I had uh one of my former college students, she sent me a message on Facebook, and I had not talked to this student, this former student in gosh, five or six years probably.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whenever she she worked at our school for a little while after she was a student, and uh then she left to go pursue a different career.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I haven't talked to this this former student in probably five or six years or so.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they sent me a message on Facebook, just totally out of the blue, and said, Hey, by the way, we were going through some stuff in our house.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: My dad was moving.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is what she said.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: My dad was moving, and he came across this note that you had sent my mom back in 2010.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is 11 years ago.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Keep this in mind.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what had happened was this student's mom uh was very, very sick with cancer back in 2010, and she passed away, I think about a year later.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I had sent this student's mom just a very shorthandwritten note saying, Hey, I just wanted to let you know.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So-and-so mentioned that you were struggling with cancer and fighting through it.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to let you know I'm praying for you and thinking about you.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Those of us here at at SLCC, which is which was my school, St.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Christian College, we're all praying for you and rooting for you.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hang in there and please keep me updated on your progress.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that was all that I said.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a very simple few sentences.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: But that handwritten note had meant so much to this student's mom that she had kept it in a drawer.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then just recently, whenever this former student's dad was moving and going through going through her stuff, they found that note in there.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently she had kept it.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So handwritten notes really do mean things to people.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm honestly often quite surprised at the people who will tell me that they've kept notes that I've sent them years later.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's really crazy.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think oftentimes we greatly underestimate the power of handwritten cards.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know I save handwritten cards that people send me.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I actually have a file and I it's just labeled my encouragement file, where I have a digital version and a literally just a like a manila folder where I put those cards in and I save those and I look through them every once in a while because they validate me as a person and I I just am really encouraged when I read through those cards.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, oftentimes, just in terms of practicality, oftentimes whenever I send a handwritten card to people, I will include a little skeleton key in the card and I will write something like this here's a little reminder of your power to unlock other people's creative potential, or something like that.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just kind of a reminder that you have power to help unlock people's potential, you have power to change people's lives and so forth.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I recently tell me that they kept that little skeleton key on their keychain as a reminder of that.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, that's that's pretty cool.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you send somebody something and they literally put it on their keychain where they take that with them every day when they go around places, you know you've done something that touches somebody emotionally in a deep way.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I would encourage you to find a way to send a little something in a card.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Steal that idea if you want to.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that it's original with me.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, take advantage of this really, really cool idea of sending out cards to people.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: I also send out books to people occasionally.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just sent out a bunch of books, in fact, to podcast guests a few weeks ago.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the benefits of doing this is that people sometimes post a picture of the book on social media.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't send books to people so they'll post pictures, but oftentimes they do that and they'll be like, hey, I got this book in the mail from Kent Sanders.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, really people still love getting stuff in the mail.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I get excited.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this happened yesterday.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: This this makes me sound like kind of juvenile, but it was like uh six or seven at night.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that I had three books coming from Amazon yesterday.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm in my home office doing something, and we're all upstairs in my house.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I hear the amount, you you know, you know it's kind of sad whenever you recognize the engine of the Amazon van.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's really sad when you get to that point in your life.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I could hear it coming down the street, then I see it pull up in front of my house, that blue Amazon van.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately I get excited like a little kid.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I run downstairs and I go out into the yard and I meet the Amazon guy halfway and I'm like, hey, thanks so much.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: He hands me the packages.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I still get excited when I get stuff in the mail.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I get excited when I get packages and books, just like a little kid.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we have that power over other people as well, not over other people, but we have the power to impact people, to send them something that is going to literally get them excited to go out and meet the Amazon person.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I just think that's a that that's a very powerful thing and a good way to make an impression on people.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it might seem like sending cards and gifts is kind of a hassle, but that's precisely why you should do it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's because hardly anybody else goes to the trouble of doing it.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: You will stand out from everybody else because hardly anybody else sends handwritten cards in the mail.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So take a little bit of extra time, get a roll of stamps, get some stationery, and send out that stuff because it does make a big difference.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, along the same vein is strategy number three, except this is digital and not physical.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is sending personalized videos.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is something I learned from my friend Aaron Hunt, who is a personal branding expert and a photographer.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: He is a master at sending short, personalized videos to people.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so is my friend Andy Storch.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've had both of these guys on my podcast before.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, whenever you want to forge a deeper connection with somebody, you can use this strategy because it stands out and it's way more personal than sending an email or a Facebook message or a text.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I use the app Loom.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a free app.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: They've had they have a paid version, but I just use the free version because it's awesome, uh, even just at that level.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: What I do is I use this Loom app on my Mac to record a short video and I say something about what I appreciate about the person or what I noticed or some kind of mutual connection we have.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then I send a video to that person, but then I make sure and title it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I put their name in the title.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I will title it Video for Steven.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever I send them the link to that video, that's gonna pop up in their Facebook messenger.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And usually I send these over Facebook, sometimes I do it by email, but it's gonna pop up with their name on it, which is very, very powerful.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that people's names are the sweetest words that they ever hear.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's a principle from Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: People love to hear their name.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and why wouldn't we?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's our name.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: It that's what our whole identity is based around is our name.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So just titling the video with that person's name is a very powerful thing in and of itself.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing I would caution you to do is don't go long with these videos.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Keep them very short, like 30 seconds or 60 seconds or something like that.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you're answering a question, which you can go a little bit longer, and I sometimes do that with people, is they'll ask me a question, then I'll send them a personalized video just answering the question.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's extraordinarily powerful.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is how I got my second ghostwriting book deal.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I sent a personalized video to the person just to say that I appreciated their work and how it impacted me, and that led to a phone call to connect and the rest is history.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I've actually gotten several other uh book projects and potential projects from that one video.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like that tells you how incredibly powerful that is.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as an introvert, you probably don't like video.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, video is not my medium of choice either.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, I don't like the way I look on video.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I always feel kind of awkward on video, but but it doesn't make any difference because people love seeing your face, they love hearing your voice, and they love the fact that you took the time to make a personalized video.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like the handwritten card thing, hardly anybody does it.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's powerful and effective because it's so rare.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I would challenge you to try and get more comfortable on video.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Learn to make video your friend.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: People don't care if you come across as this smooth talker or this perfect announcer type of a guy or gal.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you're a little bit awkward or you're not like totally this smooth media person, it's way better because it means you're authentic.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And authenticity and just being real is way more important than coming across as this perfect announcer type of a person.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So remember, this personalized video strategy is very, very, very powerful.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: It really blows people away.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: So give it a shot.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Strategy number four is joining a paid community or a mastermind.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as with most things, the more that you invest in something, the more that you're going to get out of it.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing with paid groups in general.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that people are paying to be there means that they're more serious about growing and learning.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that, by definition, is a barrier to entry, which means that the quality of the people in the group is likely going to be higher than it is in free groups.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying that free groups are bad by any means, but let's let's just be real for a second here.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: How many times have you been a part of this ginormous free group on Facebook or something?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And about 0.002% of the people are actually engaged.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's an equal number of people who just ask inane, dumb questions, or they're they just make stupid comments, or, you know, they just post things that are irrelevant or they're spamming people or that kind of junk.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So the beauty of a paid group is that, you know, people are paying to be there, so they're by definition going to take it more seriously.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to really accelerate your progress, you've got to get past these free groups.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to get it, you've got to get into a paid community or a mastermind.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm currently part of several paid communities.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Each of these groups is different in the way that people interact with each other.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: They are each on a different topic, but they're all very powerful and helpful.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I'm also going to take this opportunity to share about our daily writer community.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you've heard me talk about this before.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is literally the community that I created because I could not find a group with all the features that I wanted.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the Daily Writer community is literally the group that I would join if it existed.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: But it didn't exist, so this is what I created.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I cannot even begin to tell you how this community has impacted people in the few short months that it has existed.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have members connecting with each other, publishing books, shooting for big goals, getting more engaged in their writing, and so many other cool things.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is really, really inspiring.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this is not just because I'm some awesome guy.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of the ringleader of things, but man, it's really the people in the group who are taking action.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones that are making this happen and doing all this cool stuff.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really, really inspiring and so much fun to see this.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I would highly encourage you to check it out if you want to take your writing to the next level.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you can do so by going to dailywriterlife.com/slash community.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then finally, the fifth strategy I want to talk about is starting a podcast and interviewing people in your niche.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, this is one of the strategies I have focused on the last few years, obviously, because you're listening to a podcast, um, it is it is working because you are listening to this.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, it does work in building an audience and engaging people.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, podcasting is absolutely perfect for introverts because you can do it in your own home or studio, you can do it on your own time, and you can do it in your own way.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: The awesome thing about having your own podcast is also that you can basically invite anybody you want onto your show.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I mean, there's a limit, of course.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're probably not going to call up the president or you're not going to call up um, you know, some famous movie star or some super famous musician and have them be on your show immediately.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: However, that being said, you would be very, very surprised at the caliber of people who will agree to come on your podcast if you give them a well thought-out invitation and if you connect in the right way.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just look at the caliber of guests I've had on this show and you'll see what I mean.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: They are truly some stunning achievers, leaders, business people, authors, and creative minds.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the thing about a podcast, okay, and please hear me very, very clearly on this, okay?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thing that really messes people up with podcasting.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Podcasting takes time, podcasting takes energy, podcasting takes commitment.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: For example, now this is a daily show, so I'm kind of on the extreme side and I understand that.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: But on a weekly basis, I dedicate anywhere between four to six, sometimes eight hours to my podcast, and that's every single week.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's much more if I'm batch producing episodes.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I started podcasting, gosh, back in 2014 or 2015, and I did a weekly show for a long time.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then last November I started doing a daily show.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now I just left my college job.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm doing ghostwriting and my daily writer stuff full-time now.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I started doing a daily show back in November, and that's so I've been doing a daily show with a part-time ghostwriting business, with my daily writer community, and with a full-time day job.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I am living proof that you can get it done if you work intelligently, if you work efficiently, and you plan out your stuff and you batch create content.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can do this.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I promise you can do it, but you you better know that going into it.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Don't start a podcast if you don't have the time to do it.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I see constantly is people who start podcasts and they get burned out 10 or 20 episodes in and then they give up, and then they're really, really discouraged and they're like, oh, podcasting sucks and it's not for me, and and you know, et cetera, et cetera.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you've got to understand going into it that podcasting is going to take time.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: But if you do it correctly and you're smart with your time management and you're efficient, you can totally do a podcast.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: So just kind of know that going into it.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that being said, podcast podcasting is a lot of fun.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is an absolute blast, and I can literally trace almost any good thing that has happened in my business back to podcasting in some way, shape, or form.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that everything has come directly from podcasting, that's not what I mean.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean that everything has been tied to my podcast in some way.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Podcasting is kind of like having a giant living room where you can invite people to to have really cool conversations about stuff.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you you can't just call up people and and get a phone call with them a lot of times.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can, but it's harder because they don't necessarily just want to talk to you if you don't have a relationship with them.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: But you can invite somebody on your podcast and they get to promote their thing, you get to have a conversation and ask them all kinds of cool questions.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have this relationship built once you've done that interview, and it's really, really cool.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've ever thought about podcasting, I would strongly encourage you to do it.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: But again, realize it does take time, it takes energy.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: But if you know that going into it, it will be fine if you just kind of plan for that and you know, pace yourself.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before I wrap up this episode, I want to uh address a couple of objections.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: I guess this is kind of like like a sales thing.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, in a sales conversation, many times the person will anticipate the the buyer's objections and then present those to them before the buyer has time to raise those objections.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's just a good sales and kind of negotiation process.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I guess w on this episode I'm not I'm not selling you anything necessarily.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but I kind of am because all sales is is just persuasion when it comes down to it.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm trying to persuade you about these networking strategies, but I can imagine as an introvert, there are some things that are going to keep you from taking action.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: So let me address what those objections might be.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Objection number one is I don't have time to mess with all this network building stuff.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, building your network and building relationships can be time consuming, but relationships are the most important thing that you have in life.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason that you have to do this is because so few people are putting the time into it.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's virtually no competition because most people are not willing to do the hard work of building a great network over time.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: It takes time, it takes energy, it takes intentionality, it takes having the right heart toward people.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have those things and you do this consistently, it will produce lots and lots of really cool rewards for you over time.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then the second objection is this I don't have the money to join a paid group or community.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that people oftentimes uh feel strongly about, especially if you have a tight budget or if uh if that's a concern, then that is a legit obstacle, and I definitely have been there.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in fact, when I joined Nick Pavlitas' ghostwriter school a couple years ago, that's that's what really got me into ghostwriting, which is what I'm doing full-time now.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: When I joined that community, I didn't have the money to do it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't even that much.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like we were, we were really uh going through a difficult time at that point, and I actually had to call my dad and borrow the money to do the course.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and I had never done that before.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was a major, that was a major, major struggle for me, you know, to call my dad and say, hey dad, uh, is there any possibility I could borrow money to take this course?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he, of course, was very gracious in letting me do that.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I tried to pay it back later, but he wouldn't let me pay it back.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's he's an awesome dad.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: But that might be something that you're struggling with also, um, even just thinking about the Daily Writer community.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I get this, I totally do.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was there for a long time, and so I that that pain is very real to me of being strapped financially and not being able to join these paid groups.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: But then I realized that relationships are the key to success in life.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they really are.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: So my question is if you want to get in, get into a community like the Daily Writer community or some other community that's paid, what can you do to scrape together some money to engage in a community of high achievers?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a really, really powerful question.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: What can you do to get into the community?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: What can you do to be around these high achievers that are going to take your life and your writing and your business to the next level?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: What can you sell?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of freelance work could you do?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't get I wouldn't really encourage you to do whatever it takes because those paid communities are high leverage, which means if you engage in those groups and you use the knowledge that you gain there, if you serve people and you build into those relationships, you will get a far bigger return on your investment than you're paying up front.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: You really, really do.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the way that I have designed the Daily Writer community is to be a high return kind of thing.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I've priced it pretty low, honestly.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I should be charging a lot more for it, but I want it to be affordable, you know what I mean?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've I've been in those places in life where you really want to join something, but then there's this super high price for it, and you're like, well, I can't afford that.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I've intentionally priced mine really, really affordably.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're looking looking to get to to get into bigger courses, you know, from others, then I would encourage you, do whatever you got to do to get in those things, uh, if it's a good fit for you and if it's something that you want to do because they can really, really be worth it.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my challenge is choose one of these strategies that I've shared today and put it into practice over the next 48 hours.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And again, those are starting a podcast, joining a paid community or mastermind, sending personalized videos, sending gifts and handwritten cards to people, and posting reviews for books and podcasts.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the five things we've talked about here on this episode.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one of those things and put it into practice in the next 48 hours.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear how it goes.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I really truly would.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: So shoot me an email at Kent at dailywriterlife.com and let me know what you did and how you put it into practice.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to hear your success story.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: That would be lots of lots of fun.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 26:19
  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.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 26:31
  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.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.