I went through my ScribeCount this morning and did my “all time” book sales. It was fascinating to look at which books earned out their investment, which books 2x’d or 10x’d their investment, and which books didn’t. I have entire pen names that haven’t even earned out their initial investment. And then pen names that…
DetailsListening To Advice… Especially Those Who Are Very Certain and/or Successful Anytime you hear someone speak with certainty, be aware of the inverse relationship between correctness and certainty. Our brains want to believe certain = correct. (Biologically, it’s safer for us if that’s true. Every time someone says, “there’s a lion,” it’s safest for us…
DetailsWhen you’re a smart person, and you have a particular type of personality (which I’ll talk about in a second), you care about being and looking smart. This is not a flaw or a fault. But it does create a pretty deep connection to “smart/stupid” insinuations. (Especially if you were also a gifted kid.) In…
DetailsIn 2018, I wrote a book called Dear Writer, You Need to Quit, which was the result of my having coached a couple thousand writers and seeing some patterns coming. The patterns I saw coming are the patterns we’re now in. Where we’re all doing too much, we’re all scared we’re not gonna sell (now…
DetailsWith burnout in peak form lately, the phrase “no is a complete sentence” has been getting tossed around a lot, and I just want to add the perspective, as someone who coaches success outcomes obsessively, that for many of us, it is not. There are too many skills before the “no” that we don’t have…
DetailsI ran across a comment by a very successful author about how hard it was for them to write each book, successively. It was part of a larger conversation, but I wanted to pause for a minute and answer this question I see a lot from writers who thought it should get easier with each…
DetailsIn every situation, there is an optimal response–a “best” option, one might say. Like a lock and a key. One click, and it is… ahhhh… right. Some of us (might be Strategic, might be Achiever, might be… trauma…) are hard-wired to keep seeking until we find that best. That click. When it is working for…
DetailsEvery morning, I used to start my day with a song from the Superman (Man of Steel) soundtrack. It’s called “If You Love These People” and it has this “time to go to work now” feel. But it also encourages me to think of myself as the lone Superman fighting evil on my own. Subconsciously,…
DetailsY’know the scene in the Office when Michael Scott walks out and yells, “I declare Bankruptcy!” Remember that? So many of us attack our New Year’s resolutions, and our annual goals like that. We invest a *lot* of our expectations in our decisions and our will to make change. And then we hold ourselves accountable…
DetailsThere’s a scene where Ted is talking about why he likes coaching and someone (I believe it was Trent) makes a really tense point that these athletes he’s coaching aren’t kids. They’re fully grown adults who are being paid a lot of money to do what they do. And of course, they’re not wrong. But.…
Details
