March 2011 – client k

Generating Ideas

I’m aiming to have
two stories a month published
in 2012
(these stories have to be written
and submitted to publishers
NOW
in order to be published in 2012).

When I tell people that,
they tell me I can’t maintain that pace
because I’ll run out of ideas.

Bullshit.
I’ll run out of life
before I’ll run out of ideas.
I have my most marketable ideas plotted out
for both this year’s writing
and next year’s
and a list of possible other ideas
for future years.

Ask any entrepreneur
and they’ll tell you the same thing.
In a survey of 1,000 people
by Intuit Inc.,
70% of those questioned
said generating an idea is easy.

70%
and these weren’t ‘entrepreneurs’.
These were regular folks.

So if you’re stifling your doing
because you’re worried about
running out of ideas,
don’t.

And if you don’t have any ideas,
ask around.
Many of us have more ideas
than we’ll ever develop.

Micromanaging And You

We all know a micromanager.
Some of us ARE micromanagers.
Many of us have worked for one.

How does that feel?

It feels like you’re being used
like the photocopier.
No, worse than the photocopier
because your micromanaging manager
trusts the photocopier
to make a copy of her documents.
She doesn’t trust YOU
to make a copy of anything.

As Executive Guide
Barbara Frankel says,
“One of the consequences
of micromanaging is
people feel they’re being controlled.
They start not being engaged
in their jobs.
They feel their ideas
and knowledge have been dismissed.”

If you are working for a micromanager,
schedule regular, reassuring progress meetings.
If your manager approaches you
between those meetings,
try to gently suggest you talk about it
AT that meeting.

If you ARE a micromanager,
you ain’t got enough to do.
Seriously.
Take on some new projects
until you are forced to
take your nose out of your employee’s business.

Cussing At Work

I’m currently working for a company
with a corporate culture,
endorsed by its leaders,
embracing profanities at the office.

Everything is F-this and F-that
and because everything is accompanied
by a profanity,
folks tune the cussing out.

Which makes crisis situations vastly amusing.

When all hell breaks loose
in other non-cussing environments,
the leader will spew profanities
until ears bleed
and you KNOW you’re in deep shit.
People run.
All other work stops.

In this environment,
the leader spews profanities
until ears bleed,
and no one listens
because he’s always spewing profanities
until ears bleed.
He then makes a weak-ass
‘this is important speech’
which people listen or don’t listen to.
It is amusing and slightly embarrassing.

There are other reasons
why cussing at work isn’t recommended
but losing the ‘oh shit, she’s pissed’ factor
is reason enough for me.

Dead Things And Vampires

The buzz in the romance publishing community
is that vampires are dead,
as in not breathing
AND
not selling… in the future.
They ARE selling right now.

It is interesting because
on a reader forum yesterday,
readers were asked
for their favorite types of characters.
The number one type by far?
Vampires.

Vampires aren’t dead.
They simply aren’t new.

The thing is…
Coca-Cola isn’t new.
Hamburgers aren’t new.
Barbie isn’t new.
Yet these ‘old’ things sell
very well,
thank you very much.

Ditching a selling product
because it is ‘old’ is silly.

Seth Godin has a great post on this topic

Saying No

I say ‘no’ a lot.
I have to
because if I didn’t say ‘no’,
I’d spend my life
working on someone else’s agenda.
Hell, I have to say ‘no’
because there aren’t enough hours in the day
to do everything everyone requests from me.

Jim Camp, negotiation coach,
advises
“When you have a solid purpose,
when you are on a mission,
no takes on a whole new meaning.
Discovering and embracing
your purpose in life
makes decision making much more effective
– and, of course,
no is a decision that
will protect your purpose, your job
and your ongoing efforts.”

Say ‘no’.
Don’t make excuses.
Don’t say ‘maybe’.
Give a flat ‘no’ and move on.

Nick Jonas And Les Miserables

I was watching the 25th Anniversary
performance of Les Miserables
on PBS.
Nick Jonas plays Marius.

I immediately thought
‘oh, he landed that role
because he’s a Jonas Brother’
and I was surprised
that he was marvelous in it.

Then I found out
he has been performing
on Broadway
since the age of 7,
and that he has played other roles
in Les Miserables
and yes, played Marius
in theater-loving London.
He EARNED that spot
in the Anniversary performance.

Recently, I snagged a great promotion opportunity.
My author buddies asked me
how I got so “lucky”,
hinting that it was
because of my relationship
with the site owner.
Sure it was,
but I built that relationship
by providing her with free content
and supporting her projects.

Some opportunities are due to luck
but more opportunities
are due to hard work.

If you want it,
really want it,
you need to work it.

Hardships

I grew up with not much material things.
We didn’t eat every day.
We didn’t have indoor plumbing.

I did some really shitty jobs
and you can take that literally.
I’ve cleaned up more feces
than a gal should even know exists.

So when things go wrong,
I KNOW I will survive.
I’m not scared to lose everything
as I’ve been there
and come back from it.
The lack of fear
and the knowledge that I will survive
makes me a better business gal.

As Pete Luckett,
founder of Frootique stores,
says
“You’ve gotta go through hardship
to be able to survive.
It may be tough at the time,
but it builds character
and helps you get through
the next challenge you face.”

Don’t fuss too much about hardships.
You’ll survive them
and when you do,
you’ll never be scared
of that possibility again.

Every Day Better And Better

Director Anna D. Shapiro
recently said of working with
comedian Chris Rock
“The day is filled
with a lot of laughing
and hard work
and generosity,
and all of that is
because of who he is.
He’s refining a skill
he already has.
He understands
the technical demands of that now
every day better and better.”

Y’all might be sick
of me mentioning
that ya gotta keep your tools sharp
but I repeat it
because it needs repeating.

If the best in the world
are working on getting better,
you should also.

Take a course.
Ask for a stretch project.
Try something new.

The Pomodoro Technique

Tom Clifford has a series of articles
on how to conquer the world.

One of his tips?

Use the Pomodoro Technique.
The Pomodoro Technique slices time
into 25 minute intervals.

“When we focus intensely
on only one task
for 25 minutes,
we immediately feel a sense of accomplishment.

In addition:
• You strengthen your resolve to continue applying yourself.
• Your anxiety to accomplish difficult projects is lessened.
• Your motivation to do more increases.
• Your concentration deepens with fewer interruptions.

All this changes how we see time.”

I use something similar,
taking the 5 minutes out of every half hour
to recharge and switch gears.

Concentrate on tasks,
25 minutes at a time.

Repurposing Content/Research

Chris Garrett has great post
on how to blog more.

One of his tips?

Repurpose Content

““Repurposing” is taking your content
and using it in a different location,
in a different way, or re-packaging it.
So I might take a series of posts
and create an ebook,
or I might expand an article
into a presentation.”

I repurpose time sucking research all the time.
Recently,
I wrote a long story featuring aliens
for a call for submission.
I took that same research
and wrote a shorter piece with aliens
for another publisher.
Same research,
two different stories,
two different sales.

Take any task you do
and investigate whether you can use that task
for different projects.