My mentor, Dave Lakhani, sent me a copy of Derek Siver’s Anything You Want. Derek is the founder of CD Baby, a website he started to sell his CDs. Then a few of his buddies asked if he could sell their CDs, too, and as these things go, the venture morphed into a multi-million dollar…
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Very few of us have the luxury of writing for ourselves – we write for other people, the target market we are trying to connect with. If what we have to say isn’t what they need or want to know, they’ll find the information somewhere else. Our job is to put ourselves in our readers’…
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What’s your writing pace? Are you a fast or slow writer? Are you haunted by the question how fast **should** be writing? Hemingway wrote a consistent and disciplined 400 – 600 words a day. That’s not a lot. However, it was perfect (for Hemingway, that is) when he was done with it—no rewrites, no editing…
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There are many , many reasons to write a book but this is one of the best: You can make your Mom proud. Feel free to substitute in “Dad,” your spouse’s or significant other’s name, your kids, your grandparents, your friend who has always believed in you and cheered you on. Maybe even yourself… Some…
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Years ago, I received a phone call from the new boyfriend of a business acquaintance. He wanted me to be a part of his new business. He talked at length about what he could do for businesses, his “great idea,” and I guess all kinds of stuff because I tuned out after the first five…
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Event promoters and speaking bookers have a tough job. They have to find qualified people to speak, hopefully someone who can speak well and keep the audience engaged, who has information relevant to their audience, and most importantly, won’t be a flop, which would embarrass them at minimum and in some instances, could tank their…
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I am sitting on my lanai, where I’ve been for the past two hours, writing. It’s incredibly humid, but not unbearably hot due to an ongoing thunderstorm. Lightning flashes close by, with increasing frequency, and I’m reminded of the safety lessons I was taught as a kid. I’m sitting on a wrought iron chair, six…
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We live in a world filled with interruption. Interruption has become its own form of entertainment. Interrupters are rewarded. They’re the 15 second clip blasted out by every news outlet. They’re the outspoken pundit who is invited to every Sunday morning talk show. The problem with interruption (outside of the fact that it is very…
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One of the biggest deterrents to writing a book is finding the time to write. While you can write a, shall we say, “lesser” book – an ebook or a quickly thrown together collection of blog posts, the book that you’ll use as your brand flagship deserves and needs your time and careful attention. There…
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A few years back, I had a friend who would say, “Barbara, you’re on the cusp. You are right there. I can see that you’re going to be famous!” (Yeah, I know. We need to hire her to hang out with us when we’re having bad days, right?) I would smile and thank her, knowing…
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