Brand Architect

Today my guest is Dixie Gillaspie. Ever since she was a little girl, Dixie’s least favorite word was "can’t." It still is, and she's on a mission to prove that anything is possible, for anyone. Her first love is working with entrepreneurs as a coach, consultant, muse, and firestarter. She's good at seeing opportunities where other people see walls, navigating crossroads where other people see dead ends, and helping people connect their passion and purpose to create a powerful presence and increased profit. Dixie contributes to Entrepreneur and Huffington Post and is a Senior Managing Editor for The Good Man Project.

Most of us write because we have something inside that we want to share.

If you don't have anything inside that matters to you and that you want to share into the world than writing is gonna be really, really hard work for you.

If you have something inside you that you wanna share then the first step isn't really the writing - it's the getting comfortable sharing!

People remember ideas, not words.

There are so many reasons for people to say they can't.

What is the purpose for your art?

Don't ever abdicate your writing to the editor.

Whatever you've been to and whatever you want to share with the world has value.

The important thing is finding the people it has value for.

Dixie's website

Dixie on Facebook

So what is it that most of the writers do? What is in common among them? What are the different facts we all share together? I tried to come up with a list of things that might be signs that you are a writer.

1. You are avid reader

2. You own many journals

3. You can’t walk past stationary shop

4. You take pen and notepad everywhere with you

5. You have more books than friends

6. You love watching people

7. You Listen to life stories and think about how to write them up in a book

8. Writing is always in your priority list  

9. You love solitude and enjoy “me” time  

10. You think about the book you’re writing and the characters no matter  what you do

11. Spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes annoy you

12. You hate any “real” and “normal” 9-6 jobs  

13. You listen to other people’s conversation trying to find a new story  

14. You dream of making full time income writing  

15. You hate editing

 16. You have your personal list of things that boost your creativity  

17. You feel guilty if you haven’t written for a while

Well, those were the signs I came up with, but I am absolutely sure that there are many other signs I forgot to mention. Please add those in the comments and let's have a much bigger list at the end :)

Don’t miss the opportunity to join me and other Write 2B Read podcast listeners at our Facebook group.

Today I am talking to Amazon bestselling paranormal author Rebecca Patrick-Howard. Rebecca wanted to become a country singer. But later she re-considered and became a blogger and travel writer. She self-published her first fiction book in January 2013.

Rebecca's website

Publish My Book Today

I read somewhere that 81% of people say they want to write a book…and only 1% DO. To me it was really sad discovery. Why? Well because as I have already told many times before Unread Story is a Broken Dream!

So what about those 80% of people who want to write a book and don’t? Why do they give up their dream? Why don’t they write a book if they want to? All they have to do is sit and write, right?

WRONG!

Those 80% have their reasons… I have been there too and I think I know some of the reasons that keep them away from their dream.

They all have stories locked in their soul and messages inside that stay silent. They all would love to share their stories, but they can’t. And although it is sad, it can be explained.

Today I decided to make a solo episode about those 80% and try to explain why they staid where they were while the other tiny 1% actually wrote their books.

When you talk to them and ask why they don’t write a book if they would like to, they come up with different reasons.

“I don’t have time”, “I don’t have a good idea”, “I am not ready yet…” and  then they come up with follow up phrases that are supposed to make things sound better - “One day I will do it”, “I will start as soon as I get more free time”, “I am writing it in my head…”

Now, I know it will sound cruel and many of you might not like hearing this, but I don’t believe a single word. What I believe instead is that those are just excuses and the real reasons for not writing that book are completely different. The real reasons for not writing are much deeper.

No one  has time - but everyone can make time. Many don’t have ideas but they can come up with new ideas. And none of us was ready when we started writing our first books with no clue how to do it.

After all if 1% can do it the other 80% can do it too…

So what are the real reasons then?

Well I might not know them all but I can tell you the reasons I had myself a while ago.

The biggest reason was that I was afraid. I was afraid to  share my writings with others. Putting myself in the vulnerable situation where strangers could judge me was scary. I was afraid of criticism and I had fear of failure. I had writers doubts. I wasn’t sure that my writing was good enough. I wasn’t writing novels because I was not sure that I could finish them. What if I do start writing a book and never finish? It would feel like failure…

The other part was the permission. I had a feeling that someone had to allow me to write a book. I thought: “Who am I to write a book?” “What do I know about writing?” “Why should people read what I write?”… I felt like I was not entitled to become an author. I thought that my writing should be no more than a hobby. I was waiting for someone to tell me that I can write.

Only years later I realized that we don’t need permission to be writers. We don’t need to WANT to be a writer. We don’t need to decide to BECOME a writer. All we need to do is decide to BE one.

Going back to the sad statistics again - 81% of people say they want to write a book…and only 1% DO.

I’ve been in the 80% until just few years ago.

I’d love to see that 80% decreasing. I’d love less Unread Stories and  Broken Dreams.

In which group are you at? if the 80% - which are your reasons? Please e mail me by clicking this link and let’s try to change the statistics.

Meanwhile - keep writing, even if only for yourself for now!

Today I am talking to Dan Norris. Dan is entrepreneur, speaker, award winning content marketer and bestselling author.

My Favorite Resources

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If you write the book that really hit a nerve that gets people's attention and do a good job marketing the book yhen it can really open some amazing doors.

You need to impact people.

There is no point in writing and creating anything if it's not gonna involve in some kind of change in people.

With your content you should be differentiating from other people who have the attention of your audience.

Dan's website 

Content Machine Resources

Thunderclap

Today my guest is fiction author D. D. Marx.

She had a successful corporate job and was making great money, but was unsatisfied and unhappy.

A while ago she found herself without a job and that's when it all started. She wrote her first novel, which is part of a trilogy,  was inspired by dear friend lost in a car accident 20+ years ago.

Writing the book became the final healing mechanism to let it go. D.D. decided on the names of the trilogy, book cover, her pen name and built out all her social media channels even before she started writing the book.

That made her be already committed to the work. D.D. is visiting book clubs and talks about the book.

D.D. among other social media channels uses Pinterest to market her book.

She has created boards for each character of the book and pins things that the characters could like there.

In the book the main character falls in love with a chef. So a real chef comes with D.D. to book club meetings and cooks recipes from the book.

Stay committed to the process.

Make sure the stories come from your heart.

Surround yourself with like-minded people.

Have you heard Jack Ma’s quote that says “If there are 9 rabbits on the ground, if you want to catch one, just focus on one." 

Looking back I realize that most of the time I’ve been chasing all the rabbits. The visible ones, the invisible ones… I looked for new places to spot new rabbits… and as a result I was doing many different things and getting mediocre results at best. No surprise that I did not catch any of those rabbits.

Focus has been a challenge for me. And it’s mainly because it is difficult for me to choose just one thing to focus on. Deciding what is the most important thing for that moment can be hard. And even when you decide… sticking to it is even harder. There are many people fighting for your attention.

There are many distractions getting on your way. There is family, there are relatives, there is social media, the stupid TV, the good weather luring you to go out, the new e mail, which just arrived….

The distractions are endless and they will always take you away from your 1 chosen thing all the time. That is why by choosing a goal you want to focus on, you should make that a top priority. Everything besides that should come AFTER you have completed the task you focused on.

If you need good results you have to be ready to sacrifice. You will need to give up many things, or at least postpone them for later. Focus on the most important at the moment – and the most important thing for that moment is reaching your goal. That means that you need to allocate time and effort on things, which will get you closer to the desired result.

So if you have to write a blog post today, for example start your morning with that task and don’t leave your seat until it’s done. Don’t proceed with anything else before you have your blog post written and completed. Only then go ahead and let yourself get distracted. After – and NOT before or during.

My problem has been that I always had too many things on my plate at the same time. I worked on several projects. I did different unrelated things. I did not prioritize things by their importance and pushed myself too hard to do and complete them all. As a result many things did not work, I started burning out and the disappointment was always somewhere around.

Now I decided to do the opposite and focus on 1 rabbit instead. It was hard decision to make, but I did give up several things I was planning to do. I didn’t even start those projects. No matter how exciting they seemed, I decided to give them up. So right now – Publish My Book Today is my top priority. I want to make it work, I want to make it grow and succeed and I want to keep focused on it until it does. You are welcome to check it out, provide your feedback and let me know what you think.

I still kept 2 rabbits though… because I simply could not give up this podcast and let you all down.

So think about what projects are you working on. Think about which are important and which can be left for now. And choose the rabbit you’re going to focus on.

Today I am talking to Jim Heskett. Jim is an author, a world traveler, indie podcaster, purveyor of reviews, and writing advice. Steven King was the first author Jim fell in love with. Later, he wrote 2 screenplays with his room mate. Jim had day job, while writing his very first novel, which took him 2 years to complete since he was endlessly revising it. After unsuccessful tries to get agent's attention and find a publisher he finally decided to self publish. And I am sure he has no regrets. In this interview we follow the journey of becoming self-published author, discuss what worked for Jim best, how to deal with having several different audiences and get his advice for newbie writers.

Jim Heskett's website

Indie Author Answers podcast

How to Make $450k a Year By Writing Fiction Mark Dawson's interview on Write 2B Read podcast

Today my guest is Dorie Clark. Dorie is a marketing strategy consultant, professional speaker, and frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, TIME, Entrepreneur, and the World Economic Forum blog. Recognized as a “branding expert” by the Associated Press, Fortune, and Inc. magazine, she is the author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future. Her most recent book, Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It, was released in April 2015.

Step 1 - find out where you are now (what are you known for) Step 2 - create a vision of where you wanna go and what do you need to do in order to overcome the gap of where you are and where you wanna be Step 3 - live your brand (make sure everything you do is in line with the brand you wanna become)

Go to half a dozen friends and colleges and ask the following question - "If you had only 3 words to describe me what would they be?" You will be able to see certain trends and you might want to capitalize those in your branding.

Dorie's website How to Start Writing for High Profile Blogs

Today I am talking to Ken Dunn. Ken is a bestselling author and the CEO and founder of Next Century Publishing and the Readers legacy. His mission is to change the way people read, write and experience books.