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After living high on the hog for over a week in my jungle palace, I’m heading down the hill into town where there are less frogs, more restaurants and I’ll have to share a pool.
I celebrated a successful morning of writing seeing just how waterproof my non-waterproof camera is.
Tags: bali, Pita Maha resort, swimming, ubud, Writing
So, after the extremely satisfying task of express mailing my signed contract for Book #3 off to my agent in NY…
I'm in the mountains of Bali and this will be on my agent's desk in NYC in 3 days?! Humans really can be so impressive sometimes.
…I’m on my way back from the supermarket, winding my way down a cute little shoppy street and accidentally hobble right into The Monkey Forest (didn’t realize where I was) with a bagful of bananas.
Doh!
A blurry minute of shredded plastic and flying bananas later, I’m whisked off to my hotel on the back of a motorcycle taxi.
I would now like to officially thank The Universe for its continued support in the writing of my soon-to-be Bestselling book in the following ways:
1.) Providing me with Blimpy, The Ankle.
2.) Unleashing torrential downpours every time I’m writing and attempt to get up and procrastinate. Every time. Seriously, I even think of going out to get a bowl of something called something like bebek betutu when I’m not really even that hungry or take a swim or go see if I can’t round up some more of them sweet smelling flowers and the skies open up. It’s honestly a little creepy.
3.) Sicking a gang of monkeys on me when I attempt to turn a quick trip into town to mail off my contract into a massive shopping bender even though my ankle feels like lots of tiny teeth are chewing on it. And it has, of course, suddenly started to rain.
4.) Shutting down the entire island of Bali today for Nyebi (Hindu New Years), making it basically illegal for me to do anything other than write.
I’m scared if I take a whole day off I’ll go blind.
Tags: bali, Bestselling book, literary agent, monkey forest, monkeys, NYC, Nyepi, ubud, Writing
I almost didn’t come to Bali.
In my opinion, Bali is for amateurs. Everyone who has a yoga mat and a passport and a mid life crisis has been to Bali.
Plus, if I hear one more person utter the words Eat, Pray, or Love in reference to my life I’m going to start screaming and never stop.
I’m so much more original than all that.
So much more adventurous.
Way cooler, thank you very much.
Luckily, I realized that these are really stupid reasons to not visit what I have quickly come to recognize as paradise (please see my Huffington Post article on the ill effects of pride and general egomaniacal fatheadedness), and am so in love with this place I spent all day yesterday looking for houses to rent.
Hi! I'm an idiot!
Alam Indah Hotel, Ubud
3 Brothers Inn, Legian
Pita Maha Resort, Ubud
Bali is all about the things I love like beaches and monkey jungles and temples and nice people and outdoor showers and sweet smelling flowers and never getting cold and not in the way L.A. pretends to never get cold but REALLY never getting cold and coral reefs and great food and I’m so inspired to write my book here I could weep.
Jungle Office #33: Alam Indah Hotel, Ubud Bali
Plus, Eat, Pray, Love wasn’t soooo bad.
AND, speaking of my book, and my impending Balinese residency that has me wanting to do nothing but explore every last monkey crack and crevice of this place – The Universe has generously stepped in and provided me with the perfect ankle injury to make sure I actually sit my ass down to write the damn thing instead.
An injury that reportedly won’t fully heal for several months, which is how long it takes to write a book.
An injury that even revered Balinese healers can’t heal (because he got the memo from The Universe perhaps? Or from my agent?)
This seemingly mystical exchange was so fucking painful it's a miracle I didn't kick him in the beard.
An injury that has also provided the perfect material for the intro of my book, which is all about how we have already been given exactly what we need to live the lives we love, if only we’d change how we look at things.
It’s also why every shot on this page is of the many hotels I’ve stayed at. Me and Club Foot Jones don’t get out much, but I really don’t care because I live here now and can see it later.
Tags: 3 brothers inn, alam indah hotel, ankle injury, bali, book publishing, eat pray love, legian, Los Angeles, monkey jungle, pita maha hotel, Travel, ubud, Writing
In 2002 I published my very first book:
Today I’m inspired to talk about my dear old book because this week, in 2012, it appears in Oprah Magazine. Page 131 to be exact.
Look closely and you can see my mother holding it up.
I’m the blur on the bottom left. As I mentioned in my recent TEDx Talk, one fear I had around deciding to cut the cord and live the home-free lifestyle was what the hell is gonna happen to my mail?
Because I have the sweetest mother (who is still talking to me even after posting a picture of her in bed in her robe w/o make-up on in the aforementioned TEDx talk), she has now become my postmistress.
And she is constantly forced to get in front of her computer, fire up Skype, and hold up photos of my friends on the Christmas cards that were forwarded to her house, read aloud to me from the DMV about my upcoming car registration and yesterday, hold up O Magazine so I could get a screen shot because I refuse to buy it and lug it all over the globe with me.
A bit higher. Great, now move to the right.
Here?
A little farther. Perfect! Wait, it’s blurry. Let me try again. You moved!
Sorry.
Back to the left. Good.
My arms hurt. I’m putting this down.
It took us a good ten minutes and much blood loss in my mother’s arms to get a rather crappy picture of it, but the important thing is IT EXISTS! My little book that could keeps on keeping on!
And now it’s not only being talked about on page 131 by Malin Akerman in Oprah Magazine, but they’re taking an excerpt from it for an APP they’re making for the new iPad – doot doo doo!
So for all of you out there who are too lazy or scared to get off your asses and write your books or start a band or paint a picture or quit your job and start your own business…
Do it.
Because opportunity is out there whether you decide to show up or not.
And if you don’t show up, it’ll just go to someone else.
And one day a very lovely and very Swedish actress may be blabbing about you in a very O magazine.
Tags: books, don't sleep with your drummer, Malin Akerman, O Magazine, Oprah, TEDx, Writing
It’s official, ma new little baby has a home!
My next book, You Are a Badass, Now Start Acting Like One: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Live Large and In Charge was scooped up by Jennifer Kasius at Running Press and will be coming out in hardcover sometime next year.
Woo! Hooooooo!
I’m rill excited to work with my new editor because we share the same name, she’s great pals with another beloved editor of mine, Amanda Patton, who worked on The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping With Chicks, and she said she likes the dress I wore in my promo video.
One of the reasons I love being an author is that you work very closely with your editor. Just. Your. Editor. Unlike screenwriting or TV writing where you must answer to countless studio executives and development people and producers, many of whom are great people, but there are just so freakin many of them – how the hell are any of your words and ideas ever supposed to make it onto the page when they have to go through such a giant spanking machine of opinions? Answer = they often don’t.
So it’s very important that you like this editor of yours who you will be working side by side with. Which, thankfully, I already do.
I’m also rill excited because these are the people who brought us the NY Times Bestselling dieting book, Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous! Even though I’m not a dieter, I am a fan of cursing and sentences such as, “The first thing you need to do is give up your gross vices. Don’t act surprised! You cannot keep eating the same shit and expect to get skinny.”
And lastly, now that I have a deal, I have an excuse to buy a plane ticket to somewhere I’ve always wanted to go and write it! Life, she am good.
Tags: agents, amanda patton, bestselling books, book deals, editors, jennifer kasius, publishing, running press, skinny bitch, straight girls guide, Travel, Writing
This holiday season I decided to embark on a 30 day detox, take myself out of the binge-on-sugar-walk-around-with-my-pants-unbuttoned-feel-like-crap game.
Some people had big turkey dinners for Christmas.
I had a colonic.
I’m doing the renowned herbalist, Dr. Schulze’s 30 Day Detox. First week is a bowel/colon cleanse, second week is liver/gallbladder, third is kidney/bladder and then the last week you revisit the bowel/colon. Hi! We’re back!
Cleanses are actually pretty easy for me as I tend to thrive under extreme conditions. The discipline it requires is great for getting me in the right headspace to write (I’m working on my new book), it’s much easier for me lay off mashed potatoes altogether than merely cut down on them, and I prefer having my meals planned out by an herbalist who smiles with his mouth open than having to decide what to eat every single day.
I am Dr. Schulz. I want you to poop this much everyday.
As someone who is permanently on the road, it’s brought up an interesting question however: Where do I want to BE while I rid myself of my innards?
When you have your own place and are pooping out the crayons that have been lodged in your small intestine since you ate them back in 2nd grade it’s one thing, but it puts a pretty serious ding on my perfect houseguest score. So does the fact that I reek of garlic and fill the fridge up with gallons of tea made out of tree branches.
My new travel-sized blender. I love travel-sized everythings. I wish they made a travel-sized king sized bed.
Luckily my present stint in LA and my upcoming one in La Jolla is mostly house-sitting empty homes, but after that?
I had big plans to go overseas for the month of January and work on my book but feel there may be too much of an unknown food/parasite wild card thrown in.
We shall see where my kidneys lead me….
Tags: christmas, colonics, Discipline, Dr. Schultz 30 Day Detox, poop, Travel, Writing
It’s been 3 glorious months since I gave my address the ole heave ho, and In honor of my big anniversary, and the fact that I somehow neglected to blog about most of it, I’d like to summarize my who, what, when, and whereabouts.
And write The Longest Blog Post Ever. Holy crap.
But first, some critical tips on being a member of the NPA:
• Only buy one-way tickets. Even when I’m fully planning on returning somewhere, something more fun/lucrative/sexy/important presents itself and I’m always grateful I didn’t buy round-trip.
• Seize all opportunities to do your laundry.
• Don’t buy it unless you really need/love it and it folds up really small.
April 21st – 29th: Rome & all over Tuscany, Italy with Mom, brother Steve, sister-in-law Jenny
This entire leg of my trip was pretty much pantwettingly hilarious because I was born into a family that snootily considers itself The Funniest Family In The World, much to the horror of the Italian population, and all populations we come into contact with, actually.
We did the usual Italy stuff – ate like pigs, visited countless villages made of stone, climbed up towers, arrived in each new town during siesta when nothing was open, drank too much, etc.
We couldn’t find a car that fit all four of our giant, American bodies and our luggage, so we heaped it on top of Mom and Steve in the back seat.
We said our good-byes in Orvieta – they headed to the airport to fly back to New York and I headed to the Roman railway system during Easter mayhem to get lost for 6 frikken hours, missing train after train, and barely making my flight to Spain.
IMPORTANT TRAVELING IN A LONG DRESS IN UNDERWEAR THAT DOESN’T FIT YOU NOTE: If you are wearing a long dress and are also wearing underwear that is one size too big that you bought anyway because you thought it was super sexy and you are spending the majority of your day running after trains that you are missing, you will suddenly be horrified to realize that your underwear is around your knees and you have no way of pulling it up because you are in a long dress in a crowded Italian train station and your only choices are either pulling your dress up over your head or going through a grueling series of grips and hoists through your dress that is neither terribly subtle nor effective. So…when traveling in a long dress, always err on the small side when it comes to what’s underneath it.
April 29th – May 10th: Bascara, Spain with Jason & Serge
This is one of the few parts of my journey that I actually did blog about so I’m not going to bother to here except to say that Jason is an old college pal of mine who I hadn’t seen in over 15 years and who, I’m thrilled to report, is still one of the most delightful creatures this side of Colorado College.
He told me that while he was waiting for me at the airport he was watching people get off the plane, wondering if he’d recognize me after all this time, when a gigantically tall African American woman walked off and he thought, it’s Jen, anything is possible.
To Jason Flinn, nothing is out of the question.
Spain was also the beginning of my Global Office Series:
Office #1: The Kitchen, Jason & Serge's place, Bascara, Spain
May 10th – May 21st: Bristol, England with Katharine
I also managed to blog about my stay with the staggeringly staggering Katharine Dever, but left out some key points of my visit:
Office #2: Across the table from Katharine, Bristol, UK
We got tons of work done because we’re both coaches and we’re both bossy. I spoke at a retreat she was coincidentally hosting while I was there and constantly cracked my head on the doorways in her old English farm house built by midgets many centuries ago. We watched “9-5″. We fell deeper in love with Dolly Parton and entrepreneurship.
May 21st – 22nd: London England with Andriana
Andriana is a seasoned world-traveler who showed me more of London in one day and one night than most people see in their entire lives.
We ate bangers and mash at some pub that Madonna is rumored to frequent where the ceilings were also perilously midget-sized, drank wine on a roof with hipsters, went to a museum, looked at cool fountains,
ate at some shmancy, artsy restaurant where the toilets are encased in sci-fi white egg-shaped cones, went to Picadilly Square, shopped, ate more, got lost, ran around in cabs, subways and flip-flopped feet, hauled my suitcase up and down 10 flights of stairs…
May 21st – May 30th: Malibu, California with Gina and Glenn
Lovingly known as The Vortex by its inhabitants who struggle to find reasons good enough to ever leave, I found myself in a similar stupor once I arrived. The place is staggeringly beautiful, peaceful and comfy – I couldn’t get up off the lawn furniture long enough to take a decent picture.
Gina and Glenn generously housed my car whilst I flitted around the world and give me my own wing to stay in whenever I stop by, which is extremely dangerous because I now have the capacity to never leave and there is nothing like your own wing in The Vortex to make you do just that.
Even so, I decided it was time to see my family…
May 31st – June 17th: Westchester, New York with The Family
At some point during my nearly 3 week stay in New York, it occurred to me that while I perceived myself as living a life of freedom and adventure, I was actually living with my mother.
:-/
But I was so excited to luxuriate in hanging out with my family and my 8 million friends back east instead of frantically trying to cram them all in in a weeks time as I had for the past 20 years.
Office #3: Mom's back patio, Westchester, NY
I arrived on a Sunday when my brother informed me that Dad was having a big family get together. I got the brilliant idea to surprise him because NOBODY TOLD ME THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER SURPRISE AN OLD PERSON.
I walked into the yard and Dad froze. For a really. Long. Time. My brother, who was standing next to me, accused me of killing him. Then Dad burst into tears and spent the rest of the day looking at me and shaking his head.
I saw the usual cast of nieces and nephews and friends and was cruelly ripped away from shuffling from family barbecue to family barbecue when it occurred to me that I should go to LA to shoot a video for my upcoming writing retreat that I needed to promote.
I didn’t want to leave. At all.
I wanted to stay with my mommy.
And because of this I almost broke my strict rule of no round trip tickets but luckily refrained….
June 17th – June 18th: Manhattan Beach, California with Tory and Jacob
I’m not big on returning to LA now that I’ve cut the cord because when I’m done, I am done, but I know so many great people there. And my car’s there. And I can switch out the clothes in my suitcase for the clothes in my trunk. So there’s that.
There’s also the impossibly sweet Tory and Jacob and their 47 dogs who I stayed with my first night in town. Tory is the kind of person who would let the whole wide world live with her if she could. She has a heart the size of Texas. If you have a huge house, give it to her. She’ll make great use of it.
June 18th- 20th: Venice Beach, California
I rented a house in Venice Beach, my old hood, for 2 days to do my video shoot. I hired a professional crew, gathered my adorable clients to do testimonials for me and unloaded a bunch of clothes from the trunk of my car on everyone who showed up in order to lighten my load even more. Overall, it was a totally successful day. Here’s the video.
June 20th – June 21st: Phoenix, Arizona with Tania and Angela
I decided that instead of returning to my old bedroom in New York, I should drive to New Mexico and take pictures and videos of Santa Fe to further promote my retreats.
Two of my favorite people live in Phoenix, Tania Katan and Angela Ellsworth so I always break up the drive and stay a night at their place.
Office #4: The Starbucks off the I-10 Freeway somewhere between L.A. and Phoenix
Tania is obsessed with getting a puppy but the timing has yet to be right. So instead, she pours over the websites of local pet stores to see who they’ve got in their cages (who knew?) and if they have any puppies that look like little pigs, she shows up and asks if she can, like, um, touch them.
June 21st – July 5th: Albuquerque, New Mexico with Tami and Katie, Peter and Elaine
I stayed in Albuquerque and drove up to Santa Fe for my photo fest because that’s where I used to live and that’s where some of the sweetest people on this here earth live.
I spent the first few nights with Tami and Katie and we attempted to go see some fireworks for the 4th of July, left a little on the late side, couldn’t figure out where to go, and ended up watching the tail end of them from a Target Parking lot on the side of the freeway in a gravel pit. Woo. Hoo.
I spent the rest of my stay with my dear pals Peter and Elaine who I take annual sojourns through the wilds of the Utah canyonlands with. You can read about them/watch them critique some rocks I gathered HERE.
Office #5: Peter and Elaine's hammock, Albquerque, NM
I forgot how flippin hot it gets in Albuquerque in the summer time – as my great grandmother used to say, it was hotter’na half fucked fox in a forest fire! AND the entire state was being consumed by several completely out of control forest fires which made it seem that much hotter. And smokier. So I had to get the hell out of there.
July 5th – July 8th: Silverton, Colorado with Michael Flowers
I scooped up my brilliant friend Flowers and we headed for Colorado, having no idea where to go, and magically stumbled across the perfect little mountain town of Silverton, Colorado.
Silverton has one paved road running through the middle of it, no stop lights and some of the best views I’ve ever seen.
Office #6: Our suite in The Grand Imperial Hotel, Silverton, Colorado
We spent quite a lot of time at the library because it was the only place with really strong wifi and I had a crapload of work to do.
And for some stupid reason I didn’t get any video or pictures of the librarian who was one of the most chipper, enthusiastic and loud people I’ve ever met. She would holler a huge welcome to everyone who came in (99% of whom she knew), discuss the upcoming hot dog roast and crack jokes, all at top volume. She even encouraged one woman who wanted to step outside to make a phone call to not be silly, sit right here in my chair and put your feet up for heaven’s sake!
She broke every librarian rule in the book. Even flirted her little 75 year old buns off with the guy who stopped by to deliver the mail. I loved her.
July 8th – July 9th: Albuquerque, New Mexico with Tami and Katie
I stopped back in for one night to drop Flowers off, get some sleep and eat a burger made by Tami on her fancy new grill.
I had no idea where I was headed next, but a HUGE part of this journey of mine is to never worry about it. To keep moving forward, stay present, have faith, and the perfect situation will present itself.
It is such a brilliant lesson on how to live life in general, and when I really do it, the results are staggering.
I decided to drive north again to cooler climates and hang out with some dear college pals in Denver while I figured it out, when all of a sudden a call came in with an invitation from yet another dear college pal who has a place in Maine.
AND my friend in Denver told me weeks ago that if I ever needed to I could leave my car at her place. It was a little ridiculous. And then there was the rainbow I saw on I25 North to Colorado:
July 9th – July 11th: Denver, Colorado with Hilary and John
I arrived in Denver, exhausted and fully sweaty from my 8 hour drive the day before and my 8 hour drive that day, to a fairly raging dinner party at my pal Hillary’s house.
And a plate-full of awesome food.
And a shower. And a cozy bed.
I slept like I’d been clubbed.
Here is a picture of their not-so-raging dry toast breakfast the next morning:
July 11th – July 15th: Westchester, New York with The Family
I flew back to The Danger Zone because my friend with the place in Maine was driving up from New Jersey and my mom’s place was right along the way.
Imagine that.
While I was there, there was a little Italian street fair in the town my older brother lives in (on the left) that my younger brother’s (on the right) band was playing at:
We ate sausage and pepper sammiches and cheered loudly and then I went to bed because Shannon was coming at 5:30 the next morning to pick me up to drive to Maine.
July 15th – July 25th: Hancock Point, Maine with Shannon and Rob
In my long list of places I’d really rather not leave, Hancock Point, Maine is right up there. It met all my requirements: Dear friends,
dear friends with boats,
dear animal friends,
tear-jerking beauty,
and excellent work spaces with strong wifi.
Office #7: Back deck, low tide, Hancock Point, Maine
Office #8: The saggy hammock, Hancock Point, Maine
Again, I pretty much had an entire section of the house to myself, but just as I was about to get my mail forwarded, LA once again reared it’s head and informed me I must return for a meeting and to give a talk.
July 25 – July 26 Venice Beach, California with Justin and Todd
I spent my first night at Chez Justin and Todd in Venice, giving them 24 hours notice, barely enough time to make me a cocktail…
July 26 – July 28 Santa Monica, California
…before heading off to my luxury suite at The Georgian Hotel to get ready for a meeting with one of my high end coaching clients.
Office #9: Suite 803, The Georgian Hotel, Santa Monica, CA
Tags: albuquerque, boating, coaching, Colorado, Denver, Los Angeles, Maine, New York, pets, Santa Fe, Travel, venice beach, Wifi, Writing
Last week I put my sweet little butterball of a cat down after 20 years of spreading the love and the fur as only The Big Guy could.
The Absent Host of Sobfest 2011
Putting him down was totally surreal, ridiculously devastating and apparently very liberating because days later I found myself on the phone with my landlord giving him my notice.
On April 21st, 11 years after moving to Los Angeles, I’m putting all my stuff in storage indefinitely, getting rid of my apartment, heading off to Italy and Spain and will be officially home-free for the first time in my life.
I’ll be traveling about looking for a new home – could be Italy, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, India, New Mexico, the moon, might find it right away, might not….
I’m going to blog here about my search for home as well as how to be, ahem, a hugely successful nomadic virtual entrepreneur.
I’ve been on an incredible roll with my business and was horrified to think oh no, I’m hitting the road, I’m gonna drop the ball! Then I realized in order to not drop the ball, all I have to do is decide not to drop the ball.
So drop the ball I shant.
I shall instead continue to grow my business to be so big and mighty that it won’t be able to buy pants it’ll be so frikken big.
And I’ll share with you how I did it. I’ll be blogging about, amongst other things:
• How to come up with your own definition of home and success and how to go get it
• How to schedule your time when your schedule changes daily
• How to get work done when there are new people to have cocktails with, new mountains to hike, new languages to learn, new villages to plunder
• How to incorporate adventure and travel into your brand and offerings
• How to find wifi in Italy when they pretend to have it everywhere and barely have it anywhere
• How to live a life of purpose and compassion and service and beauty that is so in line with who you truly are that you are uncontrollably sobbing at all times
I’ll be bringing this energy and awareness and daredevilyness into my work with my coaching clients, so if this applies to you, or if you would like it apply to you, be warned….it is on, bitches!
This will be an exercise in literally living in the question, facing the unknown with open arms and trusting my gut to guide me where I’m supposed to go.
Here we goooooooooooooooooooooo!
I’m also hoping to inspire you to do the same in whatever form that takes for you – how are you playing small because you’re scared of stepping out of your comfort zone? Where are you holding back because the unknown freaks you out? What is your gut screaming at you to do that you’re ignoring?
And, um, what are you waiting for?
Tags: adventure, fear, Inspiration, Italy, Morocco, purpose, Spain, Travel, Writing
I went to a college where we took one class at a time. We basically learned a sememster’s worth of work in 3 1/2 weeks and at the end of each “block” we’d get a break for 5 days. My beloved alma mater, The Colorado College, taught me:
1.) One must take a serious vacation every month
2.) How to drink beer out of a funnel
3.) How to get a crapload of stuff done in a very short amount of time.
It really proved that old saying which I’m not even really sure is old and I’m not really sure exactly how it went but it’s something like:
If you have something to do, it will take you as long as you have to complete it.
So, if you have, oh, let’s just say hypothetically, a week to finish your book proposal, it will take you a week. If you have 6 months, it’ll take you six months. It’s like when we eat when we’re not hungry – whatever you give us, we’ll keep putting in our mouths.
As you may have picked up on, I just finished my first Book Proposal in a Week Bootcamp and even I, The Queen of Cram, was blown away by how successful so many people in the group were. And I’m going to share with you some of the reasons why.
Not only is there real power in DECIDING that you’re going to finish something by a certain goal date, no matter what, but we really tapped into some great tricks on how to get a lot done in a small amount of time. Here are some tools you can start using right now to get whatever it is that you’ve been putting off done NOW:
1. Find Your Prime Time
My sister is not a morning person. I remember when we were growing up, watching her try and crawl out of bed for school as if she’d just been beaten with a club. Meanwhile, every morning I’d wake up, my eyes would pop open, I’d spring out of bed, ready to go, chatty chatterson while Jill would fumble around like the walking dead.
Hence, I believe we are born a certain way and we all shine at certain times of the day. Figure out which is your prime time and make sure you do everything you can to get the bulk of whatever you have to do done at that time.
2. Chunk Out Your Time
If you say, “I’m gonna spend the entire day writing,” you will most likely spend the entire day:
Sitting down to write
Checking your emails
Cleaning your bathroom
Calling your mom
Writing
Making a lasagna
Taking a walk
Re-organizing your closet
Writing
Going to bed
We waste so much time when we set goals that are too big. It’s like lifting weights – if you lift something way too heavy, you won’t budge it. And if you lift something too lite, you won’t grow. Find a chunk of time that pushes you but isn’t too far out of your reality and hold yourself to it.
3. Set a Timer
When you find your golden hour and you create chunks of time to do your work, I highly recommend setting a timer, dorky as this may sound. Because here’s the thing – when looking for a distraction, we get very creative. And desparate. Constantly checking the time to see if your time is up becomes a distraction, so setting a timer allows you to focus that much more. Plus, if you get a timer that ticks, it can cheer you on and make you feel like you’re racing the clock.
IMPORTANT TIMER USAGE NOTE: Once that timer is set, you are unauthorized to get up for any reason – check your emails, answer the phone, pee, stretch, do anything that isn’t directly related to the task at hand.
4. Get Into Reality
Oh the drama we create for ourselves! I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve worked with who are completely freaked out by how much they have to do and there is no time and if only they didn’t have to blah they could blah and blah blah blah…..this is when it’s time for a reality check. Really sitting down and looking at what you have in front of you is an incredibly calming practice. Take a serious look at how long each thing on your list will take you. Then figure out what you can toss. Then figure out what you can delegate. Then put them in order of priority. Then do them. I promise you, you’ll be very pleasantly surprised. And finished before you know it.
Tags: book proposal, colorado college, decision making, efficiency, Writing
I was going to make today’s post a little sneak preview of the call I’m doing later this afternoon where I will divulge the secrets of 3 of my favorite and insanely successful bloggers and nonfiction authors (which you can sign up for HERE).
I started by writing about one of the heaviest hitters of them all, Seth Godin, and got so sucked into his story of how he became a bestselling author many times over that now there’s no room for the others because I would like to leave the house at some point today and I’m still in my robe as I write this.
:-/
But his ideas are so interesting and different that I had to share them all with you. As you read them, you’re unauthorized to think, well, he knows about computers and he has a big list and he’s already an established writer – all of his ideas can apply to you no matter where you’re at if you get creative.
This afternoon on the call, I’ll go into some other methods that other people used, but right now, it’s Sethapalooza.
This post is taken from a video I watched of Seth’s presentation from O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, New York City, NY, February 11, 2008 called 10 Bestsellers: Using New Media, New Marketing, and New Thinking to Create 10 Bestselling Books
TIP #1: GIVE 1/3 OF YOUR BOOK AWAY FOR FREE
After talking his publisher into letting him give 1/3 of this book away for free, Seth spent $400 building a semi-crappy website for it and told people to send him an email and he’d email them the first 1/3 of the book for free. He did this in one really long email that, in several places, said click here if you’re tired of reading this and you’d rather just buy the whole book. That’s all he did to market it and ¼ of a million people took him up on the free sample, then enough people bought it to make it a bestseller. (If you’re already freaking out that you could never reach that many people, check out my post on driving traffic to your blog HERE) In hindsight, he wished he’d said “I’ll send you something every week the rest of your life until you die,” and continued selling things to these same people, but alas, he didn’t.
TIP #2: GIVE YOUR ENTIRE BOOK AWAY FOR FREE
Because this book is all about the concept that ideas that spread that win, he decided to focus on the spreading and give it away for free. He went out and spent anoather $400 on another semi-crappy website and told people they could download the whole book for free on a PDF file. Millions of people went ahead and downloaded it for free, and loved it, but hated reading it in that format. So he printed up a hardcover copy that he sold for $40 on Amazon and in limited distribution at a few other places and it became an Amazon bestseller because everyone already knew about it. He talks about how the book was a souvenir – if people like an experience, they want a souvenir to keep. This is how he thinks you should look at books.
TIP #3: MAKE IT SUPER CHEAP AND DO IT BEFORE ANYONE ELSE DOES
This book was an ebook about website design that he sold only at Amazon for a couple of bucks. Because it was one of the first ebooks on this topic and was cheaper than anything else out there, people were willing to try it out and because it was awesome, the word spread and more and more people bought it. He talks about how volume has to be one of your goals. The more a book sells, the easier and easier it becomes to sell more because of word of mouth.
TIP #4: DON’T DO IT THE TRADITIONAL WAY
I just realized I forgot to make note of which book this was and instead of sift through the video again for who knows how long until I find it, I’m just gonna go ahead and leave it out. All you need to know is that he decided to go the traditional route with this one, dropped a wad building a fancy website, put ads on it, put up billboards in San Francisco, basically played by book publishing rules and it didn’t do that great because, as he says, he didn’t focus enough on using some of these other tools that had brought him such huge success before.
TIP #5: USE PACKAGING THAT SCREAMS “LOOK AT ME!”
This time around he decided to self-publish and get crazy with his packaging. He started by publishing an excerpt of the book in Fast Company Magazine , a magazine he was a columnist for that had 1/2 million readers, and offered everyone a copy for free if they sent in 5 bucks for shipping and handling. He stated that there were only a limited amount of copies and mailed the book out in a purple milk carton. Not in a box, just in the milk carton itself, so that when people got it, it became a conversation piece. If it was sitting on their desk at the office or their table at home, people had to ask “what the hell is that?” He mailed out 5 thousand, all of which had the URL to his website on the carton itself next to some copy explaining that if you wanted your own copy for free, you could only get them in bulk 12 at a time. So you had to send in 5 bucks for shipping and handling each, but the book itself was free. This way, people would get their copy and give the other 11 away, thereby spreading the word and starting a conversation about his ideas.
TIP #6: MAKE THE BOOK THE FOUNDATION FOR YOUR BLOG
This one was all about his blog. He built a blog talking about marketing, elaborating on the ideas that were in the book so that anyone following his blog eventually wanted to buy the book to get his original ideas. He based this on the method the Freakanomics guys were using. Today they blog about stuff that’s not even in the book, but if you get into their blog you’ll want to learn about the foundation of what they’re talking about and buy the book.
TIP #7: FIGURE OUT HOW TO BE MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL
Books sell much better when other people write about them than when the author writes about them. So if you write content that will hugely benefit people, they’ll write about it because it’ll make them look good (sort of like what I’m doing right now). With this book he decided to do this in person and go on a book tour. He posted on his blog and said he’d come to your city and give a talk if you organized it and guaranteed to get 500 people in the room. The people who set up the talks made no money but increased their status in the community by organizing the them. Everyone of them has written Seth and told him how those connections helped them immensely. With this method he helped his fans, spread the word and sold thousand of books.
TIP #8: JOINT VENTURE WITH OTHER PEOPLE AND GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE
This is one of the best ways to increase your exposure – piggyback on other people’s lists. For this book Seth hired someone to contact bloggers who wanted to host a podcast to join him for an hour long conversation. He asked them to invite all their readers, thereby getting Seth new exposure, giving valuable content to the blogger’s readers, making the bloggers look like superstars and then created another cheapo website to send everybody to where the podcasts were given away for free.
Here’s a short recap of all these ideas:
• Books are souvenirs – there’s nothing in a book that you can’t get online for free anyway so if you make the content good enough, people will want to own a copy.
• Permission is the only asset – deliver messages to people who want to get them. If they don’t hear from you and they complain, that’s permission. You want to appeal to your perfect audience and provide them with valuable content, not inflict yourself on people who aren’t your target market.
• Conversations are marketing. If you can make people talk about what you’re doing because you’re writing brilliant stuff, then you win.
• Words for readers, not readers for words. You’re not in the business of finding readers for your words. You need to find words for your readers. Once you build the permission base, ask yourself what do my readers want next? When you have a dedicated list, go out and find things they want to read about and the word will spread.
• Blogs work. It’s the nature of dripping ideas into a place where they can spread. Ideas online will spread. If you’re an author who doesn’t have an idea that will spread, you shouldn’t write the book.
• It’s not about selling books. Focus on putting out great ideas, then focus on creating interest and excitement around those ideas and the books will sell themselves.
Authors are idea merchants. Ideas that spread win. Free ideas spread faster. The way you monetize is buy selling souvenirs. This, she is the Seth Godin credo.
And now I’m going to get dressed.
Tags: bestsellers, blogging, books, freakanomics, free, marketing, ny times bestseller, seth godin, Writing
