Brand Architect

My today's guest is one of my best friends Julie Sheranosher.

Julie was a Captain in the army and had absolutely no choice but to get REALLY good with time management. She found out that she has a talent for understanding people's needs and routines and matching them with custom-tailored time management systems that work for them.

Julie quit the army and became a Time Hacker, helping the highly successful entrepreneurs to reach the NEXT level. She has a blog, 2 podcasts, book and a whole bunch of happy clients.

Today we will talk about how to make time for writing every day and Julie provides us with practical tips of how to make it happen. Below are the highlights of the interview, but as always they don't cover everything we spoke about. That is why I encourage you to dedicate about 50 minutes to listen to the interview itself and learn much more than I covered in the notes.

Highlights

Time Hacking is all about finding how time can work for you instead of the other way around.

It all comes down to finding clarity, focus and priority.

Every single day you get 24 hours no matter what you did with the previous ones. It doesn't matter if you've managed it well or not. You get a new fresh start.

There is no such thing as "I don't have time". Time is not something you have. Time is something you make.

If you want something to happen then you make time for it.

Multi tasking is basically doing more things slower. I am never ever busy. I'm always doing what is the most important thing right now.

I am never busy for anything because it's always my choice.

Changing habits take from 28 to up to 32 days straight. And if you stop in the middle the counter starts from zero and you have to start over again.

If you can't see results and don't see early wins you won't stick with it.

Julie Sheranosher's website

The Time Hacker podcast

Julie's Time Saving Tools

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group. [text-blocks id="podcast-subscription-links" plain=1]

I knew that my interview with James would be packed with wisdom and that you'd enjoy it too. For the very few of you, who don't know who James Altucher is - I have included his short bio below for you. James Altucher is a successful entrepreneur, investor, board member, and the writer of 11 books including the recent WSJ Bestseller, "Choose Yourself!". He has started and sold several companies for eight figure exits. He's on the board of a billion revenue company, has written for The Financial Times, The New York Observer, and over a dozen popular websites for the past 15 years. He's run several hedge funds, venture capital funds, and is a successful angel investor in technology, energy, and biotech. He has also lost all his money, made it back, lost it, made it back several times and openly discusses how he did it in his columns and books. Although I encourage you to listen to the interview, because there is no other way to feel the energy and the flavor of our conversation, I have included the important points James mentioned during our talk below for you.

My today's guest is Srinivas Rao. Srini is a bestselling author and the host and founder of The Unmistakable Creative podcast. In this episode we have a pretty unstructured talk about things related to success and creativity.

Expectations are killer of joy.

You will never live up to everybody's expectations.

Part of what kills our ability to so things is that we have these lofty expectations and when we don't - suddenly things are lot easier.

There is a beauty about being a beginner and not having an audience and not having anybody reading yourself. There is something very liberating about that.

Feedback can become whole other form of addiction.

We're culturally conditioned to seek praise and avoid criticism.

We've kind of really gotten obsessed with growing the audience - almost to a fault. And the challenge with that is that we're trying to do work that is designed to build audience as opposed to work that is designed to strike a cord or touch someone's heart.

It doesn't stop after you had first level of success. That's not where it ends.

Being away from the computer. The key is shutting down every digital distraction.

One thing that kills creativity is comparison.

"Where my work started to improve and change is when I stopped reading books about social media and blogging. Once I literally stopped reading any books about marketing or online marketing or social media and then my work got significantly more interesting and better."

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

My today's guest is Ryan Hanley. He helps brands and businesses find their audience, tell their story and win the battle for attention online. He is also the author of Content Warfare: How to find your audience, tell your story and win the battle for attention online.

Content marketing is the process of creating media in the effort to add value to an audience.

It's a culture of audience building. You are never not building an audience.

You don't write a book and then go and find an audience. That would possibly be the worst possible thing you could do as an author.

You never gonna find time. [spp-tweet "You either make time or you don't wanna write a book that badly."]

With crowdfunding your core audience has already bought the book. So you have to sell the book twice: once to those who will fund your book and once again when it is published.

Those who back up your campaign will not be part of your Amazon sales and therefore contribute to your book's bestselling rankings.

Ryan raised $10K with his crowdfunding campaign and it took only 147 people to fill that campaign. This means that you down need huge audience - all you need is couple of hundred people, who are willing to invest in you.

Ryan Hanley's website

Content Warfare (Ryan's book)

Publishizer (crowd-publishing platform for authors)

Book Baby (POD hardcovers)

CreateSpace (papaerback)

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

My Today's guest is James Thorn. J. Thorn is a Top 100 Most Popular Author in Horror, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure and Fantasy (Amazon Author Rank). He has published over one million words and has sold more than 130,000 books worldwide. In March of 2014 Thorn held the #5 position in Horror alongside his childhood idols Dean Koontz and Stephen King (at #4 and #2 respectively).

James believes that reading dark fiction can be healing. James admires strong people who are not afraid to speak their mind.

You can watch this presentation at the Author Marketing live where and find out about all the mistakes he made at the very beginning. You can get more details and contact James through his website.

"I figured out what to do by failing over and over and over again"

"I think talent is overrated. Perseverance is essential in becoming a writer"

"There was a moment when I was sitting at my desk and had my finger on a delete button on a title at KDP"

"Horror is like pizza"

"I like my books to be escape for people"

"Even the best book is gonna get really harsh criticism"

"Reviews are for readers. It's readers' space and authors should stay out of it"

[spp-tweet "When you are starting just write the story you wanna read."]

Writing a novel is a long lonely process and if you are not really excited about what you're doing - it's gonna be hard.

If you can't take criticism or you can't accept rejection writing is not the business for you.

[spp-tweet "You have to keep writing and you have to keep growing."]

If you give up easily you're not gonna be successful writer because there are way more rejections than there are rewards in this business.

You should chase what you're passionate about in life no matter what anyone else thinks about it.

If you're doing it for money you will eventually lose interest. It will become a job and you'll wanna do something else.

Your biggest challenge is not sales - your biggest challenge is discoverability. What you're trying to do is get eyes on your work and in order to do that you have to sacrifice your compensation.

[spp-tweet "Giving your book for free to certain people at certain times does pay off."]

Personal branding is the single most important thing you can do besides the writing.

Be patient. It takes time for you to develop your voice as a writer. It takes time to understand how to unfold a story. You're gonna doubt yourself. You're gonna have moments when you want to quit. You will have people tell you that you should quit. And if you listen to it all you will quit and you won't write.

Just persevere, be patient and at certain point if writing is for you you'll know it and if not you'll know it. And that should come from inside and from your own judgement and not based on the things that people are telling you.

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

Neeraj Kumar is an IT Professional based in London. He was born and grew up in India and moved to the UK in 2000.

Neeraj has just launched his maiden Novel called ‘The I.T. Immigrant’, which a biographical fiction.

On this Podcast Neeraj shares some insights about his writing journey, what inspired him to write this Novel and some practical tips and tricks he has applied in his own writing and book promotions. Neeraj can be contacted via his Facebook page

You can get all the details and reserve your spot here 

The Master Class starts on March 20 and the group will be limited to 25 people.

25 people only because I want to ensure that I have enough time to provide you with the personal support, encouragement and over the shoulder guidance on top of the knowledge you’ll be getting.

Please do not hesitate to contact me and ask anything you need to know but could not find on the website.

I will be more than happy to meet you in the class.

Let’s share your story with the world!

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

Today I would like to talk to you about the most exciting and at the same time scariest moment. That is the moment when what you’ve been working on for a while is put out to the word.

Many of my guests have mentioned that the biggest challenge that writers are facing is hitting the publish button.

Many writers complete their work and stop there. There are so many amazing stories hidden somewhere in someone’s computer folder or in someone’s drawer.

What makes publishing a book so scary? I can tell my personal opinion. I think that what keeps most of us from putting ourselves out there is the fear of failure. We are afraid to fail publicly. We are afraid that the book won’t be liked, that the book will get bad reviews. We are terrified that people will be asking “so how is your book doing?” and we’ll have to admit that it is not selling…

Besides the emotional pressure we are having with ourselves, by putting our work out there we are putting ourselves in a situation where we also have to deal with others. By publishing our work we kind of give permission to people to read it and later publicly share their opinion about it. The opinion, which can’t be predicted in advance. The opinion which can’t be silenced if it’s not what you hoped for.

So, does it mean that those who hide their writings are right? Well… I don’t think so.

Because along with all the things I said there is another side to this.

What if your book helps someone? What if your book inspires people? What if people need to get the message you’ve shared in the book? What if your writing will help someone escape the reality, forget their problems and re-live the lives of your characters? What if people will actually like it and the book does well?

You know what?

You will never know what will actually happen unless you publish.

So you have 2 choices. Either keep that writing to yourself and keep dreaming seeing your name on book’s cover knowing that the dream will never come true… or collect all the courage you have, take the risk and hit that publish button.

I know it’s hard. I know that you have to get out of your comfort zone for that and that taking risks is scary… But I also know that nothing amazing in life happens until you leave that comfort zone of yours behind.

I know that it is very difficult…

At the same time I believe that an unread story is a broken dream.

Unread story is a broken dream

I know what I’m talking about because I’ve been there. I had different notebooks and word documents hidden far away. I’ve been their only reader and they felt lonely and neglected because of that.

None of the books wants to be read only by its author.

Maybe you are not ready to publish your book because you think it’s not good enough? Well, let me tell you something. None of the good writers are ever completely satisfied with their writing. They all think that it could have been written better. And that’s ok… No one’s first book has been perfect. But if not that first book… we would never have read author’s second, third and fourth books either.

When I was launching this podcast my biggest fear was that no one would listen to me. Well if I listened to that fear and did not launch - no one would listen to me for sure… but you’re listening to me now right? Which kind of proves my point. Just don’t let the fear stop you. Go ahead and try and you’ll be surprised how wrong you were to feel scared.

So ask yourself now…

Do you have a story that you want to share with the world?

Do you dream of seeing your name on a bestseller cover? Do you have a special story to tell?

If yes, then what are you waiting for?

Since I know that it is not easy I am willing to help you and I want to tell you how…

Remember me talking about taking risks, getting out of the comfort zone and putting yourself out there?

Well I did that few days ago…

I am very excited about that. But I am also terrified .. Yes, both at the same time.

That is because I have the same feelings one has while hitting publish. I have launched a Write 2B Read 8 Weeks Master Class for you to overcome everything I spoke about in this episode.

Remember I told Unread story is a broken dream? I want to change that for you. With this Master Class that I have created I want your dream to become reality.

I am not sure you know this, but I spent years in the high stress corporate world as a marketing specialist for big brands… until I finally burned out and decided to strike out on my own. It was a difficult decision, but looking back now I can say it’s been one of the best ones so far.

I decided to follow my passion and become a writer. The only problem was… I knew nothing about writing, self-publishing and book marketing back then.

Oh yeah and I also couldn’t afford to hire anyone to help me out. But what I did have was time (the one great benefit to being jobless).

So I dug in and through trial and error, and more error…  I made all the possible mistakes that self-published newbie authors made. I spent weeks and months researching and experimenting. and failing…

That was until I finally became Amazon bestselling author - twice. But believe me I did it the slow and the hard way.

That is why I want to help you avoid all the mistakes I’d made and save your precious time so you can spend it on writing instead.

The Write 2B Read Master Class will have your book published in 8 weeks.

Basically by the end of week 8 you will be all set for your exciting journey of becoming an author, with your book already available for sale on Amazon and paperback!

During our weekly coaching and video calls I will show you how:

We will have Group Coaching Meetings With Your Book Project in the Hot Seat

You will become part of the exclusive Facebook Group where you will meet like-minded people and get direct access to me there. You will get feedback on your ideas (book title, cover, concept, launch plan, etc.), present your problems and get help and the members may become part of your book launch team.

Each new member will get 30 minutes Skype call when we will specifically discuss the details your project and end up with action plan  for your book and you will also get unlimited e mail support in-between the live weekly calls

I know what you might be thinking… Actually Few days ago I saw a similar program which was priced over $1,000.

Remember when I told my story? I needed something like this but I could not afford paying thousands of dollars. And I don’t want you to that either.

That is why the price of the 8 week master class is only $149.

You can get all the details and reserve your spot here 

The Master Class starts on March 20 and the group will be limited to 25 people.

25 people only because I want to ensure that I have enough time to provide you with the personal support, encouragement and over the shoulder guidance on top of the knowledge you’ll be getting.

Please do not hesitate to contact me and ask anything you need to know but could not find on the website.

I will be more than happy to meet you in the class.

Let’s share your story with the world!

Well that was all I wanted to share with you today… Just like I feared that no one would listen to my podcast, now I am scared that no one would enroll to the Master Class. I truly hope you’ll prove me wrong again.

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

When I was about 6 years old I got my very first roller skates. To be honest I don’t even remember where they came from, but they were very classy for the Soviet times. The skates were from those you attach to your shoes, with red leather upper side and laces… they had 4 rubber wheels each. Two in front and two in the back. Oh and the size was adjustable, so I could use them like forever… or until they broke or something.

After getting the skates and feeling super happy I had to learn skating. It was winter and it was snowing outside…

I was even more impatient than I am now. And people who know me well will tell you that I am one of the most impatient people they have ever met.

So what did I do?

No, I did not go outside - because those who know me well will also tell you that I absolutely and intensely hate cold.

So I decided to make my first tries on our living room carpet.

Every day I was putting the skates on and trying to move without falling. As you can imagine there were many falls… I fell on the soft carpet and immediate stood up and tried again. I don’t remember how long did it take until I mastered that thing, but by the time we went out with my dad I could maneuver my skates like a pro…

Why am I telling about something that happened 30 years ago and what does it have to do with writing you might ask…

Well, although it is not so obvious but in fact it does. I can link it to writing, to entrepreneurship and anything else that requires the right mindset.

The thing is, when I got those shiny skates I did not think that I can’t skate. When I was falling on the carpet over and over again it never occurred to me that I will not be able to learn. I did not even consider giving up. It was not an option I would choose because I never even thought that it could be one of the options.

So what happens to us when we grow up? Why do we start getting all those negative thoughts triggered in our mind?

Why every time we write something we keep thinking that it is not good enough? Why do we have so many doubts about sharing our writings with the world?

How come our 6 years old self is so much stronger? How come she keeps standing up after every fall until she reaches the point when she doesn’t fall anymore and we, instead close up and stop writing after getting a negative feedback?

Back then I did not spend hours on that carpet because I wanted others to admire when they saw me skating outside, no. I did that because I wanted to skate. I wanted to be one of the people who can do that, that’s all.

So why do you write? You write because you want to sell your books, or you write because you want to be a writer?

Do you think about giving up, because you lack encouragement and inspiration? Do you think you can’t succeed because you have only 2 readers and one of them is your mom?

I’ve told this many times already… But I think it’s worth repeating again. If you are writing and creating a story with your words then you are a writer. It doesn’t matter if what you’ve written is liked by others or not. It doesn’t matter if 2 people read you or hundred… What matters is that you have created a brand new story, from scratch with your words. You have come up with a piece of writing which was not out there before…

Just like my first tries in the living room, your stories too will not be perfect. Some of them will even be terrible. So what? Do you have to conclude that you can’t write just because your first story is not a masterpiece? Who’s first story was?

Just like my 6 years old me you have to practice too. You have to write, erase, tear up the paper and start all over again. With each try things will go smoother. With each next try you will enjoy it more… and your each new version will sound better and the story will be stronger.

All those things you are longing for now - the readers, the fans, the book sales, your name on the bestseller’s cover… it all will come with the time.

It will… but ONLY if you don’t give up and start over after each thorn paper and each erased paragraph or deleted document.

I am sure you have your own examples of your 6 year old strong self. Recall those, admire your little self and try to be like that strong will child.

So next time you feel discouraged, you feel down or feel like giving up - re-think again, get back your positive mindset and try again. Or write me an e mail and I’ll cheer you up!

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

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My today's guest is Joe Bunting. He is a writer and entrepreneur. He  ghostwrites books for busy leaders. He also wrote a #1 Amazon Bestseller "Let's Write A Short Story" and publishes the blog for writers called The Write Practice. He also founded Story Cartel.

In this interview we discuss different writer's struggles and Joe suggests ways to overcome those.

Observe and try to describe whatever captures your eyes. Taking notes of what is going on around you. It is a good lesson in showing and not telling. Very valuable tip for your storytelling.

The biggest thing that people struggle with is the ability to finish their writing.

It is important to give yourself deadlines and to break up your writing project into smaller chunks (chapters, section, etc.). It is so important to give you deadline that gives you focus. And the hardest part is setting the deadline yourself.

Stress in the right amount is good thing - it focuses you and gives motivation.

We all need a little bit of stress to write well.

You do better when you write your first draft in short period of time. Sometimes we get too perfectionistic about those.

People think that an idea is all it takes to write a good book.

[spp-tweet "Ideas are useless - execution is everything!"]

The best way to market your book is to get reviews. Amazon reviews do 3 important things.

Publish - put your writing out there! Until you don't start putting it out to the world it's very difficult to step into your identity as a writer.

Too many people keep their work locked away for too long.

Writers write for people. they don't write in closets.

One of the best way to learn something is to teach.

The main thing he focused on was not selling a lot of copies but giving away a lot of copies.

The amazing part about launching a book is - you finally see how people are reacting to your writing.

They (ones who provide feedback on your writing) didn't have to read your book. They took time out of their lives to read and that's a gift.

The Write Practice (Joe's blog for writers)

Story Cartel (readers get free books, writers get reviews)

Joe Bunting's Amazon author page

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

My today's guest is Tim Paige. Tim is proud to be the Conversion Educator at LeadPages. An experienced marketer in all forms of media, Tim spends his days speaking to the most successful marketers across multiple industries, and sharing his findings with business owners who want to increase their marketing results.

In this interview Tim provides practical advice about where to start building audience, how to drive traffic to your site and how to build, grow and treat your e mail list.

It's one thing to be a fantastic writer and artist and it's another thing entirely to get people to actually experience your fantastic art.

Start by building your e mail list cause it's an asset you own.

Fist place Tim recommends to start is get the "title of your book".com domain and link that to a landing page.

What is a landing page? It is a webpage, that's designed for people to take an action.  And typically that action is to opt in - i.e. give their e mail address.

Many people give a free chapter of their book, which is good IF people already know who you are or if people already know your writing. If you are a first time writer, instead of the free chapter of your book you better come up with a resource that will appeal to potential readers of your book. It should appeal to major pain or interest of the audience.

In terms of conversion it is better to provide a 1 page pdf as lead magnet than an online course or anything else requiring time to digest

To drive traffic to your landing page you have 2 options, you have to have money or time. If you have money, you can save yourself time by paying for the traffic. If you don't have the money (which happens more often :) you need to spend time to generate traffic. There is no fast solution with no money.

If you want to drive traffic efficiently one of the best ways to do it is through content marketing. The good news is that as an author you already know how to create great content.

You have to write quality blog posts that not only speak to your particular audience but also include relevant keywords for your books. You can get useful resources on keywords at Content Marketing Institute and Orbit Media Studio.

You can write a blog post and then create different content out of it. Using Voice Bunny services you can get the audio version of the blog post. You can make a video based on that post and pit it on YouTube. That way you will be able to be everywhere. Later on, you will already have ready content + social proof and can pitch to guest post on other blogs.

The biggest mistake you can make with your email list is to NOT e mail them.

You wanna keep in regular contact with your audience.

Once they get in your e mail list set up an autoresponder sequence for every 3 days for minimum 6 e mails (maybe a course or entertainment series, your book chapters, etc.).

When you're e mailing your list promoting your blog post make sure that you have a clever subject line they would immediately want to open. Also the copy of that e mail should have only one goal and that's to click to go to your website and read your blog. Do not include your entire post in your e mail because like that you will be losing traffic, comments, shares and similar SEO juice.

Once or twice a month you can send something exclusive (content or free resource) that is only for your e mail list subscribers. It will make them feel special + when you promote your list you can mention that you provide special content for free.

Don't e mail too much but e mail enough so your subscribers don't forget about you.

You can treat your e mails very much like social media. Tim recommends that your e mails are as personal as they can possibly be. Remember that your e mails are going to people and they read them in the middle of their lives. So show them that you are real person too and treat them like people.

Don't be afraid to sell, just make sure that you have earned your right to sell.

ConversionCast podcast

Tim's podcast intros and outros business

Voice Bunny

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World

Join Me and Meron Bareket from the Podcast Incubator on a free webinar where you will:

“DISCOVER HOW TO USE THE POWER OF PODCASTING TO GAIN AN AUDIENCE, GET IN FRONT OF AVID READERS, AND SELL MORE BOOKS… IN 7 EASY STEPS!”

So save the date and register to the webinar, by clicking the link below:

FEBRUARY 18th at 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern 6pm GMT    http://podcastincubator.com/writers

Please feel free to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.