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Introduction to the Daily Writer Podcast · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Kent Sanders, and I'm a ghostwriter, author, and college professor.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining me on this episode today.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was a kid back in the 1980s, we watched a lot of sitcoms, and every once in a while to help boost ratings, they would have what they called a very special episode.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, something like tonight on ABC, a very special episode of Punky Brewster.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I have no idea if Punky Brewster was on ABC, and I'm certainly not going to confess to watching Punky Brewster here on a public podcast, but that's beside the point.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, this is a truly very special episode of the podcast because it's the first episode of the Daily Rider version of this podcast.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're seeing this episode in the podcast feed, you'll notice there are a bunch of episodes before this one, something like 230 episodes or so.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because this podcast used to have a different name.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it had two different names.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't recommend that anybody ever do this, but I've changed my podcast name and branding two times now, and I don't anticipate ever changing it again.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: This show used to be called Born to Create, and the focus of the show was on creativity.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the beginning of this year, I changed the focus a little bit and I started to call it smart business writing.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that all went really well and I enjoyed it a lot, but over the summer, I kept feeling a pull to focus on helping writers with daily habits.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll talk about that more in just a few minutes.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the short story is that I felt like the best way to serve writers was to pivot once again and change the show to the daily writer, since I believe that daily writing is a major key to success as a writer.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to hear the expanded story of why I made this switch, you can go back and listen to an episode that I released on October the 5th, so a little less than a month ago, and I talk about this in a lot more detail.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not going to go into all that now.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So to go back to my original point about there being a lot of episodes in the podcast feed before this one that you're listening to, it's because the show has existed in two slightly different forms before this one.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you like the Daily Writer, I think you'll also really enjoy all the previous episodes.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: All the episodes before January 1st, 2020, are from the Born to Create podcast.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And all the episodes between January 1st of this year and today are from the smart business writing version of this podcast.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully that clears up any confusion if you're tuning into this podcast for the first time and you're wondering why there's like 230 episodes before this supposedly introduction episode of this podcast.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here today, I want to give you an introduction to the show that is called the Daily Writer and what you can expect.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to cover several things, including what the show is about, what it's not, and also the four guiding principles of the show.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in first of all to what is the daily writer all about?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it really comes back to again this concept of the daily writer, which by the way has a double meaning.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, this is a daily show, seven days a week.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Monday through Friday, it'll be very short episodes, just a few minutes long, where I will share a short lesson that gives you some kind of spark in your writing journey.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And these episodes will give you something to think about or something to do, and they're really designed to motivate and inspire you in your writing.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: On Saturdays, we'll have an interview, just like the interviews that I've been doing for a long time.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And on Sundays, I'll do a solo episode where I teach about something related to writing, or I do a listener QA segment or a book review or something along those lines.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now the audience for this show, The Daily Writer, will be pretty much the same as it has been.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's for writers who are looking for direction, motivation, and wisdom in their writing journey.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if I had to choose a name for the ideal listener for the show, it would be a creative entrepreneur.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this show is mainly for people who want to build a business with their writing, or writing is a key part of their business.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a writer, I believe that you should be building a business with your writing, whether that is books, articles, blog posts, ghostwriting, freelance writing, curriculum, sermons, novels, short stories, screenplays, video scripts, or pretty much anything else.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Those were all the writing types that I could think of.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's a lot more that I'm forgetting right now, but that was off the top of my head.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that all being said, about the business aspect of it, I also absolutely welcome anybody who simply wants to grow in their writing skills.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a teacher or you're a student.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you write a newsletter for your church.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you love to journal every day or you love to write poetry.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And all those are wonderful uses of writing.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And even if you don't have any intention of building a business with your writing, you're also going to get a lot out of this show.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's one more group that I want to mention that I have in mind when doing this show.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, I mentioned it just a second ago, but let me highlight this for a second, and that is students.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you might be in high school or middle school for that matter.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: You might be in college, grad school, or maybe you're like a couple of friends of mine are right now, you're working on your PhD dissertation.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So my brother just completed his doctorate last year, and he definitely worked really, really hard on it.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So for anybody out there who's working on your doctorate, um, you have my encouragement, you have a little bit of my sympathy because I know it's a lot of hard work, so just keep plugging away at it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: You will get it eventually.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless of whether you're working on a PhD or whether you're in high school or even middle school or somewhere in between, you're doing a lot of writing as a student.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that this podcast encourages you to stick with it and to do your best, no matter what level of education you're involved in right now.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So now that I've talked about what the show is and who it's for, let's take a second to talk about what it's not.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this may sound this may sound a little bit strange, but I think it's important to articulate not only what a show is, but also what it's not.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's two specific things that this show is not.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, this is not a place where I come as the expert and I have all the answers to everybody's questions.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as I mentioned before, this is a place of learning and growth.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I am right there alongside you on the journey of learning and improvement.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I think that doing a blog or a podcast is one of the very best ways to learn because it forces you to put out regular content.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this is also why I have authors and other experts on the show every Saturday.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love learning from these friends, and I love the fact that I can create a podcast and invite these people onto my show.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I get to learn and you get to listen into those conversations and hopefully learn something as well.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's really important that we have a posture of being a constant learner, that we have the posture of being a person who's always seeking to be wiser, to be growing, and to be looking for answers to the questions that we have in life.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: The world is changing really fast, and we all have to be constant learners if we're going to stay competitive and if we're going to stay creative.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing that's just that this show is not.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a place where I come as the expert and I have all the answers that you are seeking.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that being said, I do have some answers.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that you'll stick around because I do have a lot of things to share with you and teach and all that stuff.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: But know that I don't perceive myself as the end-all be-all expert of everything.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then, number two, this is not a place for comparison.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you hear people on a podcast, or especially when you listen to interviews with successful people, let's just be really frank.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to feel bad about yourself for what you haven't accomplished.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you listen to these interviews with people and they're like, oh, I had this huge book launch, or I've got this huge book deal, or this massive audience, or I've got whatever it is that I perceive that I need.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to look at those things and to think, wow, if only I could be that person, or they're so lucky, or I'm so far behind them, and I'll never be successful because they're so far ahead of me.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to be clear with this up front.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Your journey is your own journey.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the only person you should be comparing yourself to is who you were yesterday, last month, or last year.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can learn from other people, but you have to travel your own path and take your own journey.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever you hear from other successful people, don't use that as a reason to feel bad about yourself or to feel jealous of their success.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just use that as a chance to learn something and improve yourself.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And as my friend Andy Storch says, don't compare your life to someone else's highlight reel.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's talk about some principles that will be at the core of the Daily Writer.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really where the rubber meets the road.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of the core aspect of what I'm doing with this podcast.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever seen the movie Citizen Kane, which happens to be one of my two favorite movies of all time, the other one being It's a Wonderful Life, these are sort of like the declaration of principles that Charles Foster Kane wrote on the front page of his newspaper when he became the new owner.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you haven't seen Citizen Kane, you'll have no idea what I'm talking about.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do yourself a favor and go see Citizen Kane because it's the greatest movie of all time.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And regardless of whether you immediately love it or not, I think if you get into it, you'll really come to understand why it's a phenomenal uh work of art.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, that's a little bit off topic, but I really, really love Citizen Kane.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So now one thing that I I do want to mention is that Charles Foster Kane, um, in the movie, you know, he starts out being this very good guy, but then by the end, he becomes a total jerk who alienates everybody in his life.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, even though that's the case in the movie, I still think there's a lot of value to having something like a declaration of principles, or basically where you're saying these are the core things that I believe and I'm gonna teach, and I'm going to kind of base my whole life on these in a way.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe I'm not gonna base my whole life on these, but I'm certainly gonna base my business and my teaching and what I'm doing here on the podcast on these four principles.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So here on the Daily Writer Podcast, we focus on the four key practices of a great writer.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And those four things are creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to emphasize that we must have a writing practice.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that word practice has a double meaning.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, writing is something that we literally practice.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We do it repeatedly and we do it intentionally with the goal of getting better.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: We never arrive at perfection as a writer, and I think that's a really important thing to keep in mind.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: We never arrive at the destination of being the end all be all writer of all time.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're always in improvement mode, we're always in learning and growth mode.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: But second of all, we have a writing practice in the sense that we approach our writing as professionals.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Just like you can have a medical practice or a legal practice or a dental practice, you can also have a writing practice.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this means that we show up consistently, we have goals, and we approach what we do as a professional, and so forth.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dig into these four key practices for just a couple of moments.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is creativity.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of writers think that the key to writing success is getting a publisher, getting an agent, building a big audience, or whatever it is.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And all those things could be helpful, don't get me wrong, but the absolute foundation of everything we do as writers is that we create.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: We use our words to create value.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: We use our words to create stories, to create entertainment or instruction.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: We use our words to inspire, to challenge, to record our memories and to do so many other things.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole essence of what we do as writers is that we create, we do creative work.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't write, you don't have anything to publish or to sell.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can't make a difference in anybody's life as a writer if you don't actually write and create the words.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the whole idea of this podcast, and this is why I'm focusing all my energy on this one idea of the daily writer.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's that so many writers are just not getting the work done.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And creativity is a very, very simple concept.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: It gets diluted, it gets messed up.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: People have all kinds of crazy ideas about what it means to be a creative person.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so let me really simplify this for you.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is a very, very simple concept.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity is simply the capacity to create.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why it's important to keep your creative well filled, because you can't draw water from a well that's empty.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can't create if there's nothing in your creative well.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is why so many people struggle to write and to produce and to create, because there's nothing in the well.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're not putting anything in the well.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of what we're gonna talk about on the show is not just getting the writing done, but also filling up your creative well and having something to draw from as you create.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: So creativity is the first practice of a great writer.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is consistency.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're inspired and creative, if you don't have a plan or a schedule to produce the work, you're not gonna get very far.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we all know what it's like to hope that we feel inspired someday to write that book or to start that blog or to write that music or begin that novel.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: The inspiration might come for a little bit, but then it fades once the work gets hard or frustrating.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have the second practice of consistency.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be spending a lot of time talking about the strategies and the processes for getting the work done in a systematic way so you can be a lot more productive.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we go back to this idea of being a professional.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Professionals show up and they do the work despite whatever they're feeling or not feeling on a particular day.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got to prep we've got to approach our writing as professionals because people are depending on us to keep our promises.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um You are depending on yourself to keep your promises to yourself.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: The reason, one of the reasons why I think we we struggle so often as writers is because we just don't keep our promises.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: We say to ourselves, I'm gonna start that book this year, or I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna work on this or that, or I'm gonna accomplish this.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't do it just because we don't have a system for actually getting the work done.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is not that you're lazy.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is not that you're not motivated, typically.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is not that you're not disciplined enough.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So stop beating yourself up because you're not accomplishing this or that.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: The problem most of the time is that we just don't have systems for getting the work done.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: And one of my big goals with all this is to help, is to help people with systems and strategies and processes and workflows so we can just get the writing done in an organized, efficient, and productive way.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're feeling like you're not very creative or you're not very talented, or you're not very inspired, you know, if you're kind of beating yourself up because you're not getting the things done that you want to get done, it's not because you're not creative.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not because you're not talented.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I guarantee that you are creative.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: I guarantee that you are talented.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the problem.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is usually that we just don't have a workflow for getting the work done.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And those are very easy things to fix.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want you to feel, you know, frustrated or to beat yourself up because of this.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: These are all really pretty simple fixes when it just comes right down to it.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to tell you that this is one of the big reasons why I do a podcast.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's because doing a podcast keeps me on schedule with content production.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the secrets, I think, of just being more productive, is that when you have people who are expecting you to produce, you know, when they're expecting your writing or your email or your newsletter or whatever it is, your YouTube video or your podcast, when people are expecting that, it has a way of forcing you to actually get the work done.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: So as I'm recording this, I'm thinking of about seven or eight things that I've got to do today.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a really, really packed day today.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And today's Sunday.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, typically we think of Sunday as like a day of rest, but I've actually got a super busy schedule today.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some stuff with my son, I've got some house stuff I need to do, uh, some things to get ready for this week, but because this episode has got to go out today, um I'm sitting here recording it.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the beautiful thing about a podcast or about any other means of production where people are expecting your work.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: It just forces you to sit down and get it done, regardless of whether or not you're feeling particularly inspired, um inspired on that particular day.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So when you make a commitment and you announce that something is coming, I think it's important to keep your word and to make sure it gets out there.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's go to practice number three.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we've looked at creativity, consistency, and practice number three is courage.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's face it, it is scary to put your writing out there in the world.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to put yourself at risk for being criticized or rejected by other people.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: But that's an essential element of being a writer or a creative person.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's essential that we release our work out there so it can impact people.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big reason why so many people start books, but they don't finish those books.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: They get scared and they don't want to put their work out there because it feels intimidating.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if this has happened to you, I can totally relate to that.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've done the same thing several times.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, courage is not the absence of fear.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Courage is the decision to keep moving forward, even though you're feeling fear.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the big things that I hope you take away from this podcast is that it makes you more brave.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to feel empowered and emboldened to take more risks and to stop worrying so much about what everybody thinks.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Especially here in this year, 2020, the absolutely most bizarre year any of us have ever experienced, I figure why not take a risk?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Why not do something crazy?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why not do something unexpected?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why not do something that you're scared to do, but you actually really want to do?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is so messed up this year, so why not go ahead and do what it is that you actually want to do?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why not do something crazy and put yourself out there in a way that you never have before?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to feel the rush of freedom whenever you step out and courage in your life.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, we come to the fourth practice of a great writer, and that is connection.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this is an area where a lot of writers get tripped up.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've conquered your fear, you've written consistently, and you've put your best creative foot forward, but if you haven't developed the right relationships and connections, you'll have a very limited impact, and not very many people will read your work.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I hate to put it bluntly like that, but I'm your friend.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm your friend, and my name is Kent, and I care about your success.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: I really truly do.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know many of the people who listen to this podcast, but I may not know you personally.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we've never met or connected on social media or email or in person, and that's totally cool.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but just know that I am your friend, and I I want you to be successful.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I really care about your success.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I will always tell you the truth, even if it hurts a little bit.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: But the great thing about truth is that it heals a lot more than it hurts.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you're living in the truth of who you are and you see the truth of a situation, you can walk in freedom because nobody has anything on you.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: There is an immense freedom that comes from being true to yourself and knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are, and then setting up your life accordingly so that you're living in congruence with your strengths and with your strengths and weaknesses.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're living in accordance with who you actually are, rather than trying to play some role or embody some um persona that you think everybody else wants to see.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's something that I absolutely want to emphasize on this podcast is just being true to who you are, being authentic, and being the very best version of yourself.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now I'm getting a little bit off topic, but that's okay.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Back to the topic of connection.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of different connections you need to succeed as a writer.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Friends, colleagues, editors, graphic designers, and mentors, people you are mentoring and helping.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget that one, that's very important.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be helping other people, your readers and your audience, and so many other people.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but it really wasn't until two to three years ago that I began to see the value in spending a lot of time investing into relationships and just helping people with no expectation of getting anything in return.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: I went the vast majority of my life just kind of assuming that people who were successful, they just got lucky or they happened to know the right people or or whatever.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: But as it turns out, people who are successful, you know, the vast majority of the time, they have been very intentional about building those connections and those relationships.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to tell you that that relationships have actually absolutely changed my life.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it really has.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: The last couple of years have been amazing, and I'm super looking forward to the next couple of years of my life and the cool things that I think and hope and expect to happen.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not because I'm Mr.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Talented or Mr.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Super Duper.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's really because I have chosen to spend a lot more time around high achievers and people who are positive thinkers and people who are inspiring and encouraging and who challenge me and kick my behind when it needs to be kicked.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm spending a lot of time around those types of people.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that is super critical if you want to be successful.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to spend time around people who can take you further, who can take you higher than you can ever go on your own.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: I want that for you.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to be really strong with your connections.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: And even if If you are not a quote unquote people person, you can learn to really love and appreciate people because that is a huge key to your success.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, my friends, those are the four key practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to give you a kind of a taste of each of those things and explain how those fit into the broader idea of what's happening with this podcast.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to be talking about those four concepts a lot more in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned, of course.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before I wrap up this episode, I want to share a little bit about some other things that are going to be coming up.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And these are three things that I want to mention before I wrap up here.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is over the next few months I'll be developing some courses, so make sure to be on the lookout for those.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, I have a couple of book releases coming up in the next year.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: The first is a teaching story, which is also called a parable.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And tentatively, this book is called Just Get Started, and it's all about taking action in spite of your fear.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I anticipate that's going to be coming out next spring sometime.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: The second book is one that I'm co-authoring with a couple of people, and that will probably be out next fall.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: That one will be through a traditional publisher, and you'll hear a lot more about that as time goes by.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Then finally, number three, and this is probably the most important one, is I'll be launching a membership community for writers, appropriately titled the Daily Writer Community.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this will probably be launched to the public in January or so.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I'm having a lot of conversations with the writers about the group.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting ideas and feedback, and I'll be doing a beta group launch in December.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you're definitely going to be hearing more about this in the next couple of months.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Again, going back to the whole idea of relationships, one of the big reasons why a lot of writers struggle is they're just not in relationship with people.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're isolated, they're they're not engaged in mastermind groups or community groups or small groups or whatever it is.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um they're trying to do things on their own.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a really great way to stay discouraged and to not make a lot of progress in your creative life or your writing life.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's really why I have decided to launch this group.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and really I've been kind of pushing against this for some time, but I had someone challenge me, one of my mentors challenge me a few weeks ago.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was explaining actually to a to a group I was at a retreat, and uh I was explaining some ideas for this group and how I was gonna do a lot of research for it and all that stuff, and and he just looked at me and said, you know, you have a moral obligation to launch this group.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't launch this group, there are going to be be people who don't make progress because you didn't launch your group.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this is not about me at all.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is just about providing a way for people to grow that they wouldn't be able to grow otherwise.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really, really excited about this.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: I've never done this before, but um, I can't wait to get this rolling and really see how this can impact people.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just because of the power of relationships.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is not about hey, everybody surrounds Kent because Kent is so great.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's way it's not about that at all.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's way more about people coming together who can challenge each other and grow because of what other people in the group are are encouraging them to do.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you can come and you can challenge other people.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we all go so much higher, we all go so much further when we are with a great group of people.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right, friends.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know I've covered a lot of ground here, but I hope this is helpful and it gives you a clear idea what to expect on the show.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you listening.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that your writing has the power to change lives.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you tomorrow.