Become a Writer Today

I recently read  Mind Management, Not Time Management by  David Kadvy.

It made a big impact on me because David has thought a lot about popular productivity methods like Getting Things Done and considered how they can apply to writers and creatives. 

He breaks down how creatives can organize their day so they’re at their best when it’s time to write or work on a project and how they can also find time for all the administrative stuff that could come with running a writing business. 

I was interested to know more about his writing process. He also has a very specific early morning writing routine he describes in this week’s interview. 

I started by asking David about the key ideas in his book and how he came to write it in the first place. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Getting your mind ready to write
• Review what you're going to write the next day
• David's morning routine
• Using The Zettelkasten Method
• How many hours a day David spends in a creative state 
• Deciding how many books to write each year

Resources:

• David's Amazon store
• David Kadvy
• The Zettelkasten Method
• The Zettelkasten Method Means You'll Never Run Out of Ideas Again with Sascha Fast

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If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

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I've read a few books about productivity and work that have radically changed how I think about finding time to work and creative projects.

One of those books is Getting Things Done by David Allen, and it made a significant impact on how I think about work. 

In this week's interview, David discusses how your mind is for having ideas, not for holding onto them, and writers and creatives must have a system for capturing all of their ideas.

I started the interview by asking him how GTD has changed since he first came up with the concept over 20 years ago.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How GTD has evolved over the years
• Strategies for managing inboxes
• Practicing weekly reviews
• Managing your priorities
• The books key role in the development of GTD courses
• How the book was received in different languages around the world

Resources:

• Getting Things Done - Website
• Getting Things Done - Book
• Making it all Work - Book

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

In this episode, I catch up with TEDx speaker and author Dai Manuel.

Dai brings to his work his personal story of the challenges he overcame to become a wellness coach and run a multimillion-dollar business.

Dai explains how, when he started to bring more vulnerability into his writing, everything changed for him. His coaching clients increased, and he secured more public speaking gigs, including TEDx.

I was interested in finding out from Dai what it was like to give a TEDx talk, and I was fascinated to discover the amount of work and editing that goes into it.

Dai reveals how he worked with a team of editors and public speaking coaches who helped him perfect his talk and how much he learned from the whole process.

In this episode we discuss: 

• Dai explains what the five F's are
• Identifying what to work on when you have a busy life
• Overcoming the fear of being judged
• Educating and inspiring others through story
• Behind the scenes of a Tedx talk

Resources:

• Why Vulnerability is a Human Thing - TEDx 
• Dai Manuel

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

In this episode, we focus on email marketing, and my guest is email marketing expert Keith Monaghan.

He knows his stuff as he previously worked as a market researcher and email marketer for companies like Nike, Specialized Bicycles, Trek, and NBC Television.

He's the author of the new book, Easy Email Marketing: 10 Simple Steps for Creating and Sending Marketing E-Mail Your Customers Will Love.

I asked Keith to walk through all the steps needed to create a successful campaign. From setting up an email list through to what to send. He also explains what to look out for and how to engage with readers more frequently.

In this episode, we discuss:

• People are using email more than ever
• The steps to creating a successful email campaign
• Keith's recommended email tools
• How to get the tone of your emails right 
• How to write a good subject line
• Do a final check before sending your email

Resources:

• Fat Stacks Offer
• Keith Monaghan
• ConvertKit Review
• Easy E-mail Marketing: 10 Simple Steps for Creating and Sending Marketing E-Mail Your Customers Will Love - Keith Monaghan
• Revue
• MoonMail
• TinyLetter
• ActiveCampaign
• SubStack
• Interview with Daniel Pink

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Was your first book a bit of a passion project? If you're going to commit to writing in the long term and want to earn a living wage from it, you need a plan.

That's one of the topics I address in this week's interview with Orna Ross. She is the Alliance of Independent Authors director, and she also coaches students on creative planning.

I wanted to know more about her creative planning process and how writers can benefit from it. I started our conversation by asking her to describe her background and how she first broke into self-publishing.

If you have questions, suggestions, or feedback for the show, please tweet me at @bryanjcollins. 

I'd love to hear about your writing projects and what writing podcasts you're listening to at the moment.

In this episode, we discuss: 

• Are there more opportunities to self publish today
• How creative planning works
• Tips for what you should and shouldn't be doing 
• How to decided what to work on next
• Taking time out for creative play
• Can business be fun and creative?
• Shifting from a hobby to a business

Resources:

• Alliance of Independent Authors
• Creative Self Publishing by Orna Ross
• Self Publishing Advice
• OrnaRoss.com

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Would you like to start a content website about your hobby that you could sell for many multiples? My guest this week explains how to do just that.

Mushfiq has bought and sold over 150 websites since he started his career as a content creator and website builder back in 2008. In other words, he’s an expert on the topic.

But what if you have no money and no budget for buying a content website? Mushfiq explains the steps he would take if he were starting from scratch today. He reveals how he buys, builds, and later sells his content websites.

I also asked him what his working life looks like and his approach to working and collaborating with other writers to build his sites a little bit faster.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Mushfiq first got started buying and selling websites
• His target criteria for buying a content website
• Using freelance writers and specialists to grow your content
• The primary monetization methods 
• Knowing the right time to flip a website

Resources:

• The Website Flip
• Motion Invest
• Flippa
• ODYS
• EasyWins

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Michelle Cox is the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series author, a mystery romance set in 1930s Chicago. 

Described as Downtown Abbey meets Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, the books have won multiple awards, and publications like PopSugar, Elle, BuzzFeed, Redbook, and Bustle have praised it as a top read. 

In this episode, Michelle describes her writing process for mysteries and explains where the idea came for a mystery romance set in 1930s Chicago. 

Michelle also describes how beta readers help her improve her mystery books, where she finds them, what she asks them, and how she decides who to listen to and who to ignore.

In this episode we discuss:

• Where Michelle got the idea from for her series
• Michelle's writing process
• Doing character research
• How to find her beta readers
• What to do with the feedback from beta readers
• Marketing strategies

Resources:

• Book Funnel
• SurveyMonkey
• She Writes Press
• Clubhouse
• Michelle Cox

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Chicago-based scriptwriter Daniel Joshua Rubin is the author of 27 Essential Principles of Story.

This book stands out because Daniel uses modern examples like South Park and Breaking Bad to describe how storytelling principles work. Then, he explains how writers can apply the principles to writing screenplays, novels, etc.

Daniel describes what it means to live a writing life and how sometimes you need to separate your identity from being a successful writer.

Towards the end of our conversation, we went off-topic and talked about how investing, and the stock market has something in common with a good plot.

 
In this episode we discuss:

• Deciding on the number of principles
• Using popular media to convey the principles
• Should you outline a story first
• Daniel's writing process
• How long it takes to write a script

Resources:

• story27.com
• Day One 
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Díaz
• The War of Art - Steven Pressfield 

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

Carol and Matthew Newell run the Family Hope Center. It's an organization that has so far supported over 20,000 families dealing with special needs children.

Carol and Matthew took some of the ideas they've refined throughout their careers and turned them into a book.

One of the key challenges they faced is having spent their entire careers as experts in their field, they found it hard to convey the knowledge they take for granted.

I've experienced reading books written by clinicians, and I appreciate that the books could often be challenging to read. I was struck by how accessible their new book, Healing Your Child's Brain, is.

I wanted to understand how they turned their expertise into something that parents can understand. It was interesting to hear how they didn't write the book to generate an income. Instead, they're doing it because of the message they want to share with parents.

 In this episode we discuss:

• Their background and how they came to start The Family Hope Centre
• How society forces people to be labeled disabled
• The importance of making information easy for parents to understand.
• What is a neuroparent and how to become one
• The reasons behind them writing the book
• How they are getting the book into the hands of as many parents as possible

Resources

• The Family Hope Centre
• Healing Your Child's Brain
• The Family Hope Centre on Instagram
• The Family Hope Centre on Facebook

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

I recently read a collection of personal essays by my guest today, the Irish Times journalist Patrick Freyne. It’s called OK, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea.

 In the book, Patrick reflects on the jobs he’s had, his time in a band, and a friend who unexpectedly passed away. He didn’t necessarily set out to write a book, but one of his personal essays gained traction with a popular writing publication in Ireland.

I had the chance to catch up with Patrick and ask him about his writing process and how he put together a collection of personal essays.

I started by asking Patrick all about this book, OK, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Patrick relied on his memory when writing the essays
• Patrick explains his writing process
• Patrick's love of short stories
• Having a criteria for what goes in the book
• How Patrick promoted the book

Resources:

• OK, Let's Do Your Stupid Idea
• Irish Times

Support the show

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!