Month: May 2017

If you’re expecting
to make everyone happy
with the business you’re building,
you’re going to be
VERY disappointed.

Someone will hate your business.
Intensely.

Your business could cure cancer,
give away kittens,
heck, give away $100 bills,
and someone will hate your business.
Intensely.

So stop trying to please
everyone.
That isn’t going to happen.

Pleasing YOUR group of customers
IS possible, however.
You could wow those folks.
You could earn their loyalty for life.

Concentrate on them.

A writer I know
is always surrounded
by drama.
She blames others
for this drama.
She claims to be
the victim.

But the truth is
she creates that drama.

She talks about it.
This attracts the drama seekers.
She looks for it.
She overreacts to everything.

I avoid her
because I’ve noticed
she is the common factor
in all of these situations.

If you are plagued
by the same issues
over and over again
and no one else is,
YOU are the cause of your issues.

You’ll have to change something
to get a different result.

The Big New York Publishers
have reported
that their eBook sales are down.

Media is reporting this
as ALL eBooks sales are down.

There are two issues
with this logic leap

1) The Big New York Publishers
are deliberately trying
to kill ALL eBook sales.
They haven’t been successful
(because of point #2)
but they ARE doing a great job
of killing their own eBook sales.

and

2) The Big New York Publishers
aren’t the industry leaders
in eBook sales.
Indie publishers are.

In other words,
Big New York Publisher reporting
on eBook sales are meaningless.

Odds are,
you are building a business
that might dislodge your industry’s leaders
also.
Or maybe someone else
in your industry has already done this.

It will take time
for media to figure this out.
During this time,
think twice about using their data.

Know your industry’s leaders.
Pay attention when they change.

I sent a story
(a product)
to my editor today.

She will rip it apart,
point out
the gazillion things
that need fixing,
the product attributes
that don’t work.

I will receive these edits,
read them,
cry,
get angry,
sleep on them,
and then complete them.

And I will become a better writer
(product designer).
Because feedback does that.
It makes us better.

Beatrice Chestnut,
founder of
The Chestnut Group,
shares

“I try to be the best at what I do,
and to do what I do
in the most conscious,
most self-aware way possible.

This means being open to feedback,
even when it’s constructive criticism
that’s hard to hear;
continually being in learning mode;
and working on myself
and my own personal growth
all of the time.”

You don’t have to like feedback
but be open to it.

I fly quite a bit.
I just assume
that everyone knows
simply things like…
the bin above your seat
doesn’t really belong to you.
It belongs to whoever
claims it first.
Because hey, some bins
only fit certain bags
and some bins
are filled with the crew’s shit.

This week,
there was a huge romance writing convention.
I saw a post from a passenger
and a fellow writer,
complaining that someone,
a frequent flyer
in a business suit,
dared to use HER overhead bin.
Others chimed in,
saying that irritated them also.

THIS is why we need
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
pages
for our products or services.

New customers or infrequent customers
don’t ‘know’ what regular customers
take for granted.
This can cause friction
between the two groups.

Add a FAQ page
to your website.

Today, I helped design
a baby announcement
to be sent from two of my characters
to readers.

Yesterday, I researched
the best way to cut off
a man’s head.

The day before that,
I found the perfect
hunky man stock photo
to celebrate a reader’s birthday.

One of the things
I LOVE
about running my own business
is how every day is different
and every day
brings some different experience.

Beth Cochran,
co-founder and CEO of
Wired PR,
shares

“There’s no doubt
there are days
when the challenges of owning a business
make you question why you do it.

But it’s also those challenges
that keep stretching and developing you.
I’m constantly learning new skill sets
from calculating labor efficiency ratios
and gross margins
to understanding
how to infuse culture
into the company.

Owning a business has pushed me
into new realms of possibility
I might not have otherwise explored.”

Building a business
involves a gazillion different experiences.
Embrace them.

This week,
I’m completing the second draft
of my July release.

Second drafts are emotionally hard
but intellectually easy.

I have a first draft,
a prototype.
I’ve made the major decisions.
I have something to look at,
something to work with.
I can hold the idea in my hands,
see it,
touch it.

Now,
I merely have to tweak it,
adjust this and that,
remove one of these
and add one of those.

Eventually,
I’ll bring other people
(my editor, for example)
into this process.

This will be painful
because these other people,
these critics,
will pick apart my decisions,
decisions that took days to make
and mere moments for them
to find fault with.

But that is why
we create prototypes,
so these critics,
this refiners
have something to work with.

Your prototype
isn’t meant to be the final product.
Remember that
when you’re building it
and when it is being critiqued.

It never fails.

Whenever I have
a terrible sales day,
I almost always
get offered a different gig,
a short term business contract
or a request to complete
a business plan
or some other opportunity.

I’ll be tempted,
extremely tempted.

But my reasons
for building my business
are more powerful
than the temptation.

Bill Watterson,
Creator of Calvin And Hobbes,
shares

“There are a million ways
to sell yourself out
and I’ll guarantee
you’ll hear about them.

To invent your own life’s meaning
is not easy
but it’s still allowed
and I think
you’ll be happier for the trouble.”

You’ll be tempted to sell out.
Ensure you have a powerful reason
for building your business.