Month: July 2016

We all have critics in our lives.
They pick apart
everything we do,
tell us things aren’t possible,
or, if they’re possible,
they’re not possible for us.

Criticizing is what they do.
That’s their role.
And I believe that role is valuable.
If I allow a critic’s comments
to stop me,
I know I didn’t really want
to achieve the goal
in the first place.

Selena Gomez
shares

“But there was my mom
next to me,
stronger than ever,
and she said
the most important thing is
to always trust in myself.
If I am doing something
because I love it,
I should do it
because I love it
and I believe I can do it.

So she told me to keep going.
She told me and she taught me
to turn the other cheek.
And let the critics be critics.
And let us just trust ourselves.”

Let the critics do their jobs.
Concentrate on YOUR job,
making the world
a better place.

Failure is a part
of every success.
If you want to succeed,
if you want to do spectacular things,
you have to embrace failure.

Renée Elise Goldsberry,
“Hamilton” actress
and Tony-Award winner,
shares

“I love that I know that
I can be brilliant
and
I can also bomb.
I love that about myself.
That is very much who
Renée Elise Goldsberry is,
somebody who is human
and vulnerable
and that makes me more valuable.

I kicked failure’s ass.”

You, too, will kick failure’s ass.
Don’t fear failure.
Embrace it.

A writing buddy
told me yesterday
that she wasn’t open to change.
She didn’t like
to try anything new.
She preferred everything
to remain the same.

And she wonders
why she’s having challenges
growing her readership (sales).

She is asking readers (prospects)
to try her books (products)
for the first time
yet she doesn’t want
to try anything for the first time.

Don’t ask prospects
to do something
you wouldn’t do.

If you want them to change,
be open to change.

Currently,
my self-published books
are available
only in eBook format.

I have one prospect
who is very vocal
about wanting my books
in audiobook format.
Every time I promote my books,
she asks about audiobook.

It’s tempting,
very tempting.

The issue is…
audiobook requires a huge financial investment.
I’d be wary of making
that size of financial investment
in the healthy eBook market
and the audiobook market
is much smaller.

And expanding into audiobook
also requires time and marketing.
If I invested that same
time and marketing
in the eBook format,
a format I know,
sales would increase also.

Before looking at a product extension,
evaluate what your sales would be
if you invested in your existing product line.

I baked banana muffins yesterday.
There are two ‘tricks’
to making great muffins.

1) Don’t stir the ingredients
too much.

It is tempting to stir
until the batter is ‘perfectly’ smooth.
That will ruin the muffins.
The best batter is slightly lumpy.

and

2) Take the muffins out
before they are fully baked.

If you wait
until the muffins are
‘perfectly’ baked,
they will be dry,
overdone.
It is best to take the muffins out early
and allow them to finish baking
while cooling.

Yes, in order to bake
great muffins,
the baker has to
tolerate imperfection.

Business building
is very much the same way.

We have to tolerate imperfection
in order to launch
great products
and build
great businesses.

Don’t strive for perfect.
Strive for GREAT.
These are two
very different things.

A couple of months ago,
I deliberately went a week
without working
on my writing business.

I wanted to see
if my business could survive
without me.
Would my sales remain constant?

There WAS a decrease
but sales were healthy.
And I uncovered
the high maintenance parts
of my business.

Lindsey Peers,
owner of
The Craft Studio,
shares

“In order to grow,
you have to step away.
You have to choose
what aspects of the business
need you,
and how you can make things run
if you can’t be there
for weeks at a time.”

Can your business run without you?