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The Missing Ingredient to Writing Success with Ariel Curry · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: One of the blessings and curses of life in today's world for writers is the obscene amount of resources that we have available to us.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have books, conferences, writing groups, masterminds, retreats, workshops, podcasts, including this one, and the list goes on and on and on.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And with all these resources available to us, it's really easy to feel overwhelmed by all that information.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: But is information really what we need?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really need to read one more writing craft book or go to one more workshop or conference?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe what you really need is the missing ingredient that today's guest is here to talk about.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Her name is Ariel Curry, and she's an editor and writing coach with 10 years of experience in publishing.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: She enjoys brainstorming and outlining new book ideas, bringing clarity and purpose to prose, and helping authors find resilience in their writing journey.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ariel lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with her husband and their two dogs.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: On today's episode, Ariel is here to help us understand the importance of self-efficacy, which is the belief in your ability to execute actions in order to achieve specific outcomes.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's the quality that actually allows you to get things done as a writer.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: In this conversation, Ariel explains why this is such a critical quality and why it just might be the missing ingredient in your writing success.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: You'll also learn some practical tips that you can put into practice today to help you start making more progress toward your writing goals.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you, Ariel is the real deal, and she's an amazing teacher at heart.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as a former college professor, I did that job for a long time.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can pretty quickly recognize when somebody is a good teacher and when they have the heart of a teacher.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta tell you, Ariel has that.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: She's really, really good at what she does, and she explains it so well.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I'm excited to share this conversation with you.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: This really motivated and impacted me, and I trust that it's going to do the same thing for you as well.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my conversation with the amazing Ariel Curry.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ariel, it's great to have you here on the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, thanks for making time to do this and sharing your wisdom on a topic that we have never talked about before, which is self-efficacy.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so before we get into that and have you sort of define what that is and give us kind of a handle on the value of this topic, uh share with us some things that you're working on right now and generally what you do.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks for having me.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm super excited to be here.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: I love the podcast.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: I listen to it most days.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, thank you.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love it.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think what you're doing is great.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I love the new series you're doing on um, you know, business too, which is fun.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, somebody listened to it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know, right?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: It it really does reach some people.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of create this stuff in a vacuum and you're like, I don't know if this is actually any good, but I'm gonna put it out there and see what happens.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You made my whole day.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, good.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: So um, so I am an editor and a book coach.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was in the publishing industry for 10 years, and I just uh quit last September to launch my own business doing independent book coaching and editing and ghostwriting book proposals, which is a huge area of passion for me.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that is what I'm doing now.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I'm in the process of launching a group coaching program with Jeff Goines, who I've been working with for um about a year.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so we're gonna get that going in July, and it's gonna run July through December.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: So that is kind of the big, big project that I've got going on right now that I'm really looking forward to.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is cool.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've uh like many of my listeners, uh I've admired and respected Jeff for a long time.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really cool that you both are working together.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of have put your heads together and are bringing your individual strengths to this program, which I'm sure is gonna be massively successful.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And probably you're gonna repeat this multiple times in the future, I imagine.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And lots of people are gonna have books as a result of this.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I hope so.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely do believe um in the power of a group coming together to work together and get work done.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: I know you've seen that for sure in the Daily Writer community that you've got going on.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so you know just as well as I do that when people do collaborate and share their ideas, and especially when you do it for a longer period of time.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, ideas need time to grow and they need time to be refined, and you need time to get feedback and really work with it and mess with it.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: When you first have that idea, it's really exciting because it's like a little, you know, that little light bulb moment, and it feels like it's the whole world and it's gotta be perfect just as it is.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then when you start to put it out in the world, you realize, oh, wait, it doesn't quite work in this context.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't quite work in that context.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you have to spend some time figuring it out and trying it out in different areas and getting feedback from different people to make it really good.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: So that is something Jeff and I are both super passionate about and why we wanted to kind of bring all these people together in this program for a longer period of time.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's six months, to really incubate their ideas and their writing and make sure that the end result is really great.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm confident that it's going to be, and I'm looking forward to seeing the students that you have in this program and the cool things that happen as a result of them having gone through this program with you and Jeff.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So basically a year from now, would it be, would I be making too much of an assumption to say we'll see some books starting to get published?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that is the idea.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Based on based on this program?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: So this is really helping them through that first developmental part of actually getting the book done, which is the biggest and the first barrier that writers usually face with the book process.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then after that, um, Jeff's company, Fresh Complaint, has uh kind of the the uh the facility to help them actually get that book into the world to self-publish it or get it in front of agents or publishers' eyes or whatever they want to do next with it.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yes, absolutely.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: In a year, I hope we will see several new books out there in the world.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you've been in the book world a long time.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've been around books a long time, and now I'm full time in my business, you're full-time in your business.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most fascinating things that I know that we both have seen as we've have dived more deeply into this world of writing and publishing and and all that stuff is a lot of people start books and they have good intentions, but they drop out and they quit.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's they're in a coaching program, they're in they've taken a course, they're in a mastermind or whatever.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's a pretty high, what I guess I would just call this a failure rate, uh, which sounds horrible, but it's true, of people who start books and they want to do it, but something goes awry along the way.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I know one of the things that you're really passionate about is helping people understand this concept of what you call self-efficacy, which is not a term that we really toss around in everyday language.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I know you've described to me how this is a huge missing component of people's success as writers, but I think really in life in general.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if we can kind of explore this concept of self-efficacy as it relates to writing, I think that would be a lot of fun.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Give us kind of a sense of what does this term mean, first of all, and why is it so important?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: So self-efficacy is in a nutshell, basically your belief in your ability to execute actions to achieve a certain outcome.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to write a book and I know that I've got the skills and the confidence and the idea, and I know the steps to make that happen.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: If I can say all of those things are true, then I would say I have high self-efficacy to that goal of writing a book.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I have high self-efficacy when it comes to doing my laundry because I know all the steps that I need to take to successfully end in a clean pile of laundry.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: I know that I need the right amount of detergent and all of the right settings on my washing machine, and I need to separate my lights and darks, and I know the steps that I need to take, and I know that the end result when I take those steps is a clean pile of laundry.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so that would be I have high self-efficacy.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: And this is a term that um a guy named Albert Bandura did a lot of research on.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: He was a psychologist.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: He actually just passed away, I think about a year ago.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I first learned about his work um in my past life as an acquisitions editor at an education company.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: And education is such a great uh foundation for a lot of different things, but in education, you learn how people learn, right?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so this idea of self-efficacy of knowing all the steps that you need to take to achieve a certain outcome and being confident that when you do those things, it will result in that outcome.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's a key piece of learning.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: Every student goes through that process when it comes to learning math or learning English.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: And when you say, or when you hear people say things like, oh, well, I'm not good at math, it's probably because somewhere along the way they lost their sense of self-efficacy or there, it was lowered in some way because they had a negative experience, or a teacher didn't do a good job of bolstering that sense of self-efficacy.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: So self-efficacy was something I learned about uh in education in that context.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then I brought it with me into my coaching life now and saw how it applied to writers because as writers, you know, I'm sure you hear this from writers every single day.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: They say, Oh, well, I'm I'm not good at writing, or I don't know what I need to do.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what the steps are.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: And those are the reasons why people fail.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: I use that in quotes.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and there's not really any failure.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's no, it's not actual failure.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's just that they don't have the knowledge and the steps that they need to take and the confidence in themselves to actually take those steps.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a big part of what I'm trying to do here is make sure people have the understanding and the training, and then therefore the confidence to actually make it happen.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So to so to boil it down in a nutshell, actually, I'm using, I'm mixing my metaphors, I guess.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm from Missouri, so it's okay.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't actually talk in any grammatically correct sense in Missouri.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: So self-efficacy is a combination of confidence and competence.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you believe that you can do it, you're confident you can do it, but also you have to actually have the skills that you can do it.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: That is exactly right.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens if somebody is confident that they can do something, but they don't have the actual skills to do it?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's put this in book terms.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody says, I know I can write a book, I can do this, it's easy, but they don't actually have the skills.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is the likely outcome of that kind of a person?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I would say that it's great that you have confidence, but that's not the same as self-efficacy.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, confidence doesn't necessarily lead to a positive end result.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: So you can have all the confidence in the world when you start out.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then when you actually get to doing the work of writing your book, you realize, oh shoot, I don't actually know what I need to do next, or um this isn't as good as I thought.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so those people get discouraged and often give up.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Self-efficacy is really important because you are more likely to achieve your goal when you have high self-efficacy.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: You end up being more resilient in the face of uncertainty and negative outcomes.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: So when you actually face challenges or, you know, get negative feedback, you're more able to say, okay, let me take that into account and you know, change what I'm doing so that I can make it better.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: You're more willing to take on new challenges.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're willing to explore making that skill, improving that skill and bringing in greater nuance to it, if that makes sense.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um so self-efficacy is something that is incredibly important for writers and it's much more actionable than confidence.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's also different from self-esteem.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of people confuse self-efficacy with self-esteem, but self-esteem is more about your sense of personal self-worth.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: Has nothing really to do with like I can feel good about myself as a person.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: And also I have low self-efficacy about being able to run a marathon because I hate running and I don't want to run a marathon, and I don't attach any self-worth to my ability to run a marathon.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: So the two really are they kind of they're they're similar, but they exist on different planes.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so Bandura would say self-efficacy is actually the thing that's going to get you to your goal, as opposed to confidence or self-esteem.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to dive into how some ways that we can build self-efficacy, but before I do that, I'd love to explore this question, which I I see this all the time among writers and artists or and creative types is there's almost always some kind of attachment between uh writing and creative work and somebody's self-worth.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, like in other words, if you write a book and it doesn't do well, it's really hard for an author not to see that as some kind of like attack or some kind of commentary on their worth as a person.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if you if you create music or you write a book or something and it does well, we feel really good about ourselves.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why, why do you think that with creative work specifically, why is why do we tie that so closely to our sense of self-worth?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: When, you know, like as you're saying, the two things really are not related, but in our minds, we tend to relate those things very closely.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's such a good question.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the million-dollar question.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it is.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know that I have a great answer to it, but I do see that all the time.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I have mixed feelings, honestly, about attaching our self-worth to this identity as a writer.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: I do know that there are some people who find it incredibly empowering to say, I am a writer, and therefore that gives me the, you know, the confidence and the determination to do what writers do, which is right.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: I also know a lot of writers who say, Oh, I'm not a writer, but I am a coach and I am a speaker and I am an educator.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so those people often use writing as a way to coach and to speak and to get the job done.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: For them, it's more about writing as a means to an end, and they don't attach a lot of personal identity to it, which in some ways I think protects them from a lot of the like angst that writers have, you know.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's a beautiful thing.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: If you can say, my writing is more about the message that I want to share, and ultimately getting that message out into the world is the most important thing.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: Writing is just the method that I use to get that done.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you I think, and I'm curious to hear what you think too, but I think when you take that perspective, then you're more open to feedback on your writing.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: You are more willing to say, okay, this isn't quite good enough yet, or this isn't quite hitting the mark, but I'm gonna keep working at it because this is the this is the medium that I'm using to get this message out into the world.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of value in seeing what you do as a as a business and not just as your quote unquote art.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I I love what what Jeff talks about in his his book that's been out for so long, called You Are a Writer.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you've read it.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've read it many times, and it's so good.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of those books where even if you just know the title of the book and you don't do anything else, you just kind of entrust in the truth of the book's title, you are a writer.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like that alone is really, really powerful.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's this idea of I'm embracing the fact that it the the question is not, am I a writer?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, what kind of a writer am I?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because we're all writers, we all write emails and text messages and reports and social media posts and all that stuff.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm always kind of baffled when people say, Oh, I'm not a writer.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Well, you write, so you kind of are a writer.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, I think it is helpful to look at our our books and our our writing as hey, this is a business, and you're you're not creating art that is like a commentary on your soul necessarily.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you might be doing that, but it's also a product, and looking at it as a business product and something that you're selling where you can measure the ROI of it, you can measure sales numbers and all those things.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's helpful because it kind of takes the emotion out of it a little bit, which is a good thing.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what all the successful writers do is they look at it as, yeah, it's creative work, but it's also it's also a business product that you can market and you can create and you can figure out what people want and write to write to your audience and those kinds of things as well.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I am one of those people who says I am a writer and it feels like a part of my identity.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Me too, for sure.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: But I also, you know, I'm sure you've read Stephen Pressfield's The War of Art.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, many times.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: That book was so empowering for me because it taught me to hold my writing much more loosely and to say, you know, this is something that I do.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: This is part of my job.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so I need to work at it like a job and come to it, you know, every day with the determination to make it better and without holding it too precious and without attaching too much of my self-worth to to it exactly.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that that is really powerful.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think actually my favorite book of his is Do the Work because it takes those themes and and I think it, especially if you have your own business, whether it's full-time or part-time as a writer, and you've got to make money with this, and and it is it's a it's a business, it's not just a side hobby.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Then do the work for me is like I just love that book because it just kind of reminds you you just gotta sit your behind in the chair and just get it done.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and stop attaching so much emotional importance to what you do.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: I have not read that one, but that sounds perfect, honestly.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's got like a trilogy.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's do the work and then I can't remember the name of the third one.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's on my shelf down there somewhere, but I'm too lazy to go trying to find it right now.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: So But yeah, it's good stuff.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's dive back into this um this concept of self-effic efficacy.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: In the notes that you sent me, which I so appreciated, like most people don't take the time to write a bunch of notes.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, it's so helpful that it's like, oh my gosh, you've got like a whole series worth of podcast stuff here, which is fantastic.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: You talk about how we build self-efficacy, which I think is so important because it's not just something that kind of comes to us out of thin air or somebody sends us in the mail or shows up on social media someday.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that we can do practically, the things that we can do in a practical way that can build self-efficacy.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about what some of those are?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: So Bandura kind of identified, and this was really the core of his research.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: And he wrote this massive, massive book called Self-Efficacy.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: I know people listening can't see it, but it's like 400 pages.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: It is so big.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I don't suggest reading it because it's very dry.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: But let me let me give you kind of the rundown of what he identified as kind of the four ways to build your self-efficacy.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: And going back to that conversation of identity, self-efficacy is great because you can have very high self-efficacy as a writer without necessarily needing to say, I am a writer.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's part of my identity.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Just like I have high self-efficacy about doing my laundry, but I am not a laundrist.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: Is that a word?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: I don't do laundry.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we build self-efficacy in these four ways.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: The first way, and this is probably the most powerful way, is through mastery experiences.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: And mastery experiences are basically small wins that we experience that contribute to that larger goal.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: So uh a small win in doing my laundry is measuring out the right amount of laundry detergent.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: A small win in writing might be having an article published in your local newspaper, or it might be hitting your daily word count goal.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's a small win that's a piece of the bigger puzzle, getting you to the larger goal that you want to accomplish.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: The second thing is vicarious experiences.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, vicarious experiences is seeing other people who are like you achieve the goal that you're trying to achieve.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it's that piece, other people like you, that is so, so powerful.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: So, people love hearing stories about how you know Stephen King used to be a janitor and he used to be a teacher, and he used to hold You know, all of these kind of odd jobs.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: And what that says to us is, oh my gosh, Stephen King used to be just like me.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: And we love hearing about J.K.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Rowling as, you know, a single mom writing Harry Potter at a little pizza joint in Edinburgh, because we can imagine doing that ourselves.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so those kinds of um models that we can look to and say, not only is that person someone who's done the thing I'm trying to do, but they're just like me.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so if they can do it, I can do it too.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um the third way is what Bandura calls social persuasion.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so this is not peer pressure necessarily, but it is it has to be from someone who is credible and trustworthy, someone that we see and we really value their opinion.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: And their feedback has to be genuine and sincere.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: So uh when I, as a coach, give feedback or as an editor give feedback to an author, hopefully that is a form of social persuasion to them because they trust my expertise and my experience.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: And they say, okay, Ariel knows what she's talking about.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: If she tells me I'm on the right track, then I must be on the right track and I'm I can have the confidence to keep going forward.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um the fourth way is what Bandura calls affective states.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: So that is basically how do you feel, like emotionally and physically, um, and mostly emotionally, because if we're having a crappy day, we don't usually feel inspired to take on hard work.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if I'm having a crappy day, I might not feel like practicing a full hour of piano like I want to.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, if I'm like, oh, this, you know, I had a fight with my husband, or I just received some bad news, or, you know, I'm discouraged by social media or something I saw in the news, then I might not, you know, have the kind of the emotional wherewithal and um and fortitude to put in a lot of the work that needs to go into doing doing our goals and accomplishing our goals.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: So those are the kind of the four areas that we kind of need to need to have in order in order to build our self-efficacy.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, can we can we dive into each one of these just like with some specifics?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because you actually sent me a lot of great specifics.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm looking through these, I'm like, well, you basically have a whole course here.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And but but my honestly, my overriding thought is okay, I'm a full-time ghostwriter now.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have a membership community, I do a podcast, blah, blah, blah.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm looking at this and going, you know, you never get too old and you never get too experienced to still need to go through some of these things.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because every time we come to success at a certain level, we're always developing new things.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think we ever get to a point where we have total confidence and we have total ability in anything that we want to do.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Would you say that's true that life is kind of a process of you're getting successful, but but then you're always having to learn new things.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we're always needing to develop self-efficacy in in one way or another.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's always something new that we want to try.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: And we have to kind of adopt the the perspective and um the mindset of a learner.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that mindset is something that keeps us motivated to keep trying.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: It keeps us humble, it keeps us willing to receive feedback.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yeah, absolutely.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think life is just continually learning new things.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's what makes it fun.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: I I think so.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you're willing to learn and if you want to learn, which is, you know, hopefully everybody listening to this does want to do that.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: But let's dive into some mastery experiences.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to, and we're not gonna be able to get into all these, obviously, but something that you hit on here seems to me to be a really key piece of advice when it comes to a mastery experience that gives us a greater sense of self-efficacy.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned finishing a piece of writing, which is such a simple um it's such a simple piece of advice that sounds really obvious when we look at it, but what kind of power does that have whenever we've actually finished something?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of us we've started things, but we just haven't actually finished them.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can you share just what kind of power that has?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: If anybody who's listening would take something that they've started and they would finish it in the kind of power that could give them.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is so, so empowering.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Just like you said, I know what it feels like to have a folder of ideas and you know, ideas written down on scraps of paper that are like, this would be so great.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean to, you know, I get 10 feet down the road, and then I'm like, oh, I lose interest with it, or I realize it's much harder than I thought, or whatever.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: Finishing a piece of writing, and that's why I I tell people to start small.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: And in my coaching, this is part of why I really want my coaching clients to finish something before we meet.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: And this is why.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is why, because then when they come to me, you see it on their faces.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: They're they have huge smiles and they're like, I did it.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: That I mean, there's a reason why kids, when their parents come home, run up to them and go, Look, I did this, because I think there's just something very human about accomplishing something we're proud of that we can point to and say, okay, if I did that, then I can do this.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so finishing whatever it is, even if it's a blog post, even if it's, you know, something you never share with the world, just being able to look back at it and remind yourself, I did that.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: If I can do that, I can do this.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: That gives us so much more confidence and motivation to try the next thing.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's really, really good.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love it.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you also talked about, I'm sorry, go ahead.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, I was I was just gonna say, I think some some really easy things we can do to have that sense of I did it, you know, posting on social media.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: Often, honestly, I don't like posting on social media.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: I do it, um, and it's fun once it's done.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: But when I'm getting to it, I'm like, oh, I don't know what to say.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: Do I have anything important to say?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: What am I gonna talk about?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: Is anyone gonna like this?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, all of those doubts kind of enter my mind before I post on social media.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that that is something much easier that we can do to have that sense of, okay, I did that.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: If I did that, I can do the next thing.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, just hitting your daily word count goal, that's really powerful too.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, getting, like when we're in school, getting a good grade on a writing assignment is really empowering.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's where a lot of us, um, a lot of us first received any kind of positive feedback from a teacher was in school.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it also worked the opposite way.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's also where a lot of us first received negative feedback, which can be hard to overcome.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: But putting yourself in situations where you can receive that positive feedback is is really powerful.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: And being able to say, okay, not only did I do it, someone else saw me do it.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now you also meant so you also mentioned vicarious experiences.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: This idea of seeing other people succeed.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now you have obviously you're doing a uh program with Jeff right now, you've done other programs as well.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have the Daily Writer Club, which is a membership group.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: So what have you seen as far as people who were in a group setting who are seeing other people succeed?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of power does that have over them versus if they were just trying to do it on their own?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, there is a lot more accountability when you know that other people are relying on you and other people want to hear you succeed.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of writers that I know don't tell anybody what they're doing.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll ask them, who have you told that you're doing this project?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: And often the answer that I hear is no one.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, that's the number one thing you got to fix.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: Go tell five other people that you're doing this and tell them to ask you next time you see them, ask you how it's going.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because when you know that that's coming, you know, it's a little bit of a fear factor, maybe, um, a little bit of pressure, but it's in a good way.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: When we know that other people are invested in our success, we are more likely to rise up to meet those expectations.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's part of it.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's that other part that I mentioned earlier, which is oh, if I see someone else who is just like me, someone else who maybe doesn't have a platform, someone else who has never done this before, someone else who has the same doubts that I have, but they're succeeding at it.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, if they're doing it, I can do it too.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that that has such a powerful effect.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I just just this morning, in fact, I was uh in a mastermind call uh for one of the business masterminds I'm in.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then tomorrow I'm heading to Nashville for a different business mastermind, actually.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably in too many masterminds, but that's that's another that's a story for another day.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it is interesting when you are in a group, particularly when you have paid to be a part of a group, you know, that that there's usually a higher caliber type of a person who is invested in this group.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like you really feel like a loser if you come and you don't bring something, or if you're kind of slacking off and you know, they're talking about goals and accomplishments, and everybody else is having all these cool wins, and you're like, well, I haven't really done anything.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: That really motivates you to do something for the next time.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there's so much power in being a part of a group kind of a setting because you do not want to be the one who comes and you're not doing anything.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, the the success that I saw in the group coaching that I that I just finished um was way more than I saw with individuals.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: So there was um one woman in particular who I had been doing individual coaching with for several months, and then she joined the group.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: And with our individual coaching, she had gotten some work done.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: She had gotten started on some of her chapters, and you know, every time we met, we talked about it, but she was really feeling stuck.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, why don't you try the group coaching?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: And like, let's see how that goes.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: She finished her manuscript in like two months, where she had been stuck for so long.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like she had been stuck for I think it was like four or five months.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: She joins the group coaching and she finishes her manuscript in two months because she just something clicked.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Getting feedback from other writers in the group really helped her see what she was missing.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: And her being able to kind of talk through her ideas.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: We had success partners.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so she was able to meet with, you know, someone, get individual feedback.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she was receiving her feedback from me.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: But really, it was that environment of the group that really helped her be motivated, but not just be motivated, but also figure out where she was stuck and what she needed to do to fix it.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me ask you a a question.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if if the question, if the response is, if you if you want me to edit it that this set, I'll edit it out.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm guessing in school, you probably made good grades, didn't you?
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: I did.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I did too.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I was basically an A student, not straight A's all the time, but most of the time I made A's because there was something about that competitive nature that I really liked.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder, like, do you think that same dynamic applies when we're in a group setting, even if it's writing or something else?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: All the kids who did really well in school, there's something about being in that group setting where yeah, you're supporting each other, but you kind of still you want to be like the straight A student and you want to kind of like impress the coach or impress the teacher.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that, but that can be a really good force though, can't it?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_02: Man, that is a great question.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know what the psychology says.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know what Bandura would say about that if there's like a competitive piece to to any of this.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I can see that being true for sure.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: I I can see that for myself.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: I do have a little bit of a competitive streak, and that was that was a motivating factor for me when I was in school getting good grades.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I'm I'm I'm not gonna be, you know, anything less than the top X percent of class.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be on the Dean's list?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be on the honor roll or yeah, whatever it is.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's something about still, no matter what age we are, there's something about pleasing that authority figure in a group setting that is really, really powerful.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's all a bad thing.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, why is Tom Brady, you know, the greatest football player of all time?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: At least that I don't I don't pay attention to sports, so I don't really know that for sure.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's what people tell me.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard of him.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just kidding.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know who he is.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: But how does somebody like him get to be great?
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he supports his teammates, but he also is really competitive too.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe there's something the competitive thing is not necessarily all bad.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I I agree with that.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't think it's bad.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: I do think also that they're putting putting your ideas out there in a group setting, like I said, there it's vulnerable for sure.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so with my group that just ended, there were some people who were really nervous about the group setting.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: They were like, Well, I don't know if I'm ready to put my book out there.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: But hearing other people say what they were writing about and hearing their ideas and understanding that we're all we're all in this together and we all have these little itty bitty baby ideas that we're fostering and growing and nurturing, that was really that shared vulnerability was also very empowering.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: So you're right, I think there's the competitiveness, and then I also think there's the shared vulnerability that I saw that was really empowering for people.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as we kind of wind us down in our last few minutes here, and this has been so much fun.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: I could talk to you for hours about this stuff.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Could you say a little bit about um, so one of the things that you mentioned that's part of building our self-efficacy is effective states.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean like effective good, but effective, yeah, like our emotions.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And there's so many things that we can do to make better progress in our writing and in our life.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: But so many times as writers, like we just live in our heads and we forget about our bodies.
• 36:54
  unknown: Yeah.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are some things that we could do to to increase our emotional component and to effectively be better and feel better?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're you're so right that our bodies do affect our minds.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: So um, you know, Alison Fallon, and I'm sure many of your listeners know uh Allie Fallon.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: She wrote this fantastic book called The Power of Writing It Down.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in a writer, in fact.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just got it.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's so good.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, in her book, and just also in her teaching, she talks a lot about this idea of getting limbic.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: And there's brain science behind this.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know it offhand, so I can't quote it, but you can read her book to learn more about it.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: But using our bodies does activate those parts in our brains that number one, make us feel better and also get us thinking, and we do a lot of our processing while our hands are busy.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so I had an editor friend who always used to say, busy hands, busy mind.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so even if you're not, uh, even if you're not actually writing, if you are doing something with your hands or doing something with your body, your brain is actually very actively working.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and some other things you can do just so that you feel, you know, emotionally good.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: You go for a walk.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, make sure you get a good night's sleep.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, dogs.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's all good.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_02: Eat a healthy breakfast um with lots of protein.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's you know, I love I love my eggs.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: Eggs are a great way to start the day.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, do uh square breathing, which if I don't know if you practice yoga at all, but this idea of square breathing.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you take in breath, hold it for a few seconds, and then exhale, hold that, and then inhale again.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: So you've got this rhythm going on, and it actually does activate different parts of your brain and regulates your emotions so that you feel good.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Man, and that could be a whole book in itself, and maybe people have written books on that.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just the idea of how as a writer can we treat our bodies better and get in a better emotional state with better flow and all that.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's our next podcast interview topic.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I would love that.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or a course or something.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: So my goodness, Ariel, this has been really fun.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've hit on a lot of different things, and I've made a lot of notes and I've got a lot to think about.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: And really, this is this is why I do this podcast is so I can get to talk to cool people.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: The listeners, I happen to make this available publicly.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: They happen to be able to listen in, but really um the selfish reason I do this is to be able to talk to cool people and learn and develop as a writer myself.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um, if other people can listen in, that's so much the better.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate you taking time to be on the show today.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us where we can find out more about the coaching program with you and Jeff, as well as your writing and your services?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, well, so you can find out more about this uh group coaching program.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Finish Your First Draft.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: So if you Google Fresh Complaint, which is Jeff's company, and finish your first draft, you should be able to find the page.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll send you the link so that you can put it in the show notes.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then my website is arielcurry.com, a-r-i-e-l-c-ur-y.com.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: And you can connect to me on Instagram at Ariel K Curry.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, those are all good ways of connecting with me and finding more uh about what I'm doing.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ariel, thanks again.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: This has been an absolute blast.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to, before we wrap up here, I want to take a second to just acknowledge the good that you're doing in the world by helping writers.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly believe, and I know this sounds like a tagline that people put on marketing stuff, but honestly believe that writers are the most powerful people in the world.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the truth because nothing in culture or society happens without a writer behind it.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you think of every song, every TV show, every movie, every presidential speech, nothing happens without writers.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think those of us who are helping and serving writers are doing really, really vital work in the world and in history.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for carving out your little slice of the universe and helping writers.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're working on some of your own writing as well, which I'm excited to experience whenever that uh is available.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you again.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate what you're doing.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you, Ken.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: I feel exactly the same way.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so thank you for this opportunity and for everything that you're doing too.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_02: All right, thank you.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I had an absolute blast talking with Ariel, and I hope that you enjoyed this too.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: But even more than just enjoying a conversation, I hope that you took something away from this.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that this helped you realize that you can do it, that you have the strength and the stamina and the qualities within you to take action and to do the things that are important to you as a writer.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: So if I had to pick one takeaway from this conversation, I would say it would be the importance of finishing something that you have started, no matter how small it is.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever we finish something that we've started, again, it doesn't matter if it's a big or small thing, it gives us incredible power and motivation.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you take that with you today, that as you look at all the things that you are involved in as a writer and as a creative person, that you just start finishing things.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's be honest, how many of us have we've started book projects or we've started this or that, and we've, you know, our life is surrounded by all these half-finished things, and meanwhile, nothing is ever really getting published or done.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if that's the case, then I encourage you to take action and get something done as soon as possible because that will give you the confidence and the strength to then achieve even greater things.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to encourage you to sign up for Ariel's weekly newsletter, which is one of the best newsletters around, I've got to tell you, I get it every week in my inbox, and it's one of the small handful of newsletters that I read, and I read the whole thing every week because it's really well written, it's really well put together, and Ariel is a great curator of things that are happening in the writing and publishing world, so it's really great.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's a link in the show notes to sign up for that.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure to do that.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: And also when you do, you're gonna receive her best selling book idea scorecard, which is a great tool to have on hand.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you all in the next episode.