Category: New Business Development

I dread telling people what I do
when I attend social gatherings.
I always know how the conversation will go.

Stranger: What do you do?
K: I write novels.
Stranger: Oh, I’m going to write/am writing a novel.
(said flippantly as though writing a novel is something
he/she can simply sit down at a computer
and do)

The reason everyone thinks
they can write a great novel
is because the true masters at writing
hide all of the work involved in their novels,
showing only the magic.

I figure skated in the past
and a former coach told me
that the audience should never see me sweat or grimace,
should never hear me huff, puff, grunt.
Great skaters make skating look easy.
Hiding the effort is part of being great.

It takes on average
10 years of hard work
to write at a professional level.
It takes as long or longer
to become a professional figure skater.

If a career appears easy,
it likely isn’t.
Investigate before you make a change.

One of my buddies is self-publishing
a series of novels.
She’s working completely for herself.
She doesn’t have any firm deadlines.

Unfortunately, this means
there’s no urgency.
She has been giving
every other ’emergency’ priority
and she has been procrastinating.

Her book was supposed to release in July.
Now, she’s talking about
a January release date.

When we work for ourselves,
we HAVE to give ourselves deadlines
and we HAVE to meet these deadlines.
Make yourself accountable.
Tell family, friends about your deadlines.

One of my loved ones plans a special event
after each of my important deadlines.
If I don’t make the deadline,
he cancels or goes without me.

If no one else is giving you a deadline,
YOU have to give yourself a deadline.
Get it done.

Last year,
I went on what writers call
the Great Agent Hunt.
I sent queries to about 50 agents.
Not one agent asked
to read the story I was querying.
Not one agent replied to my query.
They didn’t even bother to sent a rejection.

Last month,
I went on a rush Great Agent Hunt.
I sent out queries to five agents.
The next day,
I had signed with my dream agent.

I went from
not worthy even of a rejection letter
to
must sign her
in one year.

Jason Mercado,
founder and owner
of Just Cookies,
shares

“Never count yourself out.
I had to believe that
this company would come
into existence.
I got a lot of no’s starting out
and it would have been easy
for me to cave,
but I always believed in myself.
Every ‘no’ prepared me
for that ‘yes’
when the door to Carmelo’s opened up.”

Never count yourself out.

I was working hard,
writing story after story
for one of my publishers,
earning what I thought
were okay sales.

Then I talked to one of my buddies,
mentioned what I made on a story,
and she freaked out.
She made 10x’s that level
on similar stories
placed at another publisher.

I didn’t know
those sales were even possible.
Once I found out they were,
I figured out how to achieve these sales
for myself.

Recently, I signed with a literary agent.
Yes, she’ll be shopping my stories around,
negotiating my contracts,
but best of all,
she’ll be sharing what is POSSIBLE,
what I COULD earn with these stories.
Some of these possibilities
will become my new goals.

There are people or businesses
achieving great things in your industry,
things you don’t think are possible.
Find out what these things are
and make them possible for yourself.

James Surowiecki
in the New Yorker
shares

“It’s true that,
between 2009 and 2011,
e-book sales rose
at triple-digit annual rates.
But last year,
according to industry trade groups,
e-book sales rose just forty-four per cent.”

This slowing growth rate is natural.
If in year 1, sales were 0 units
and in year 2, sales were 1 unit,
that’s an infinite increase.
If in year 3, sales were 2 units,
that’s only a 100% increase over year 2.
The unit increase was the same.
The % growth is lower.

Does that make e-book any less of a threat?
No.
Of course not.

This article is filled with justifications
about why Barnes and Noble should ignore
the e-book threat.
There are dismissive comments like
“Against that,
the Codex Group finds that people of all ages
still prefer print for serious reading;
e-book sales are dominated by genre fiction
—“light reading.”
with no mention that one genre alone,
Romance,
consists of 16.7% of the U.S. consumer market.

This justification might make the people
at Barnes and Noble feel better
but it doesn’t eliminate the threat.

We all do this.
I was ignoring a certain threat
to my business,
hoping it would go away,
justifying why it wasn’t really a threat.
You’re ignoring a threat also.

Let’s accept these threats
and prepare for them.

One of my buddies
wants to be a chef.
She’s been talking about this for years
and hasn’t done anything about it.
Every day,
she watches food networks and cooking shows,
spending hours
watching others do what she dreams of doing.

If she had spent the same hours
doing rather than watching,
she’d be living her dream right now.

Srinivas Rao,
author of The Skool of Life,
shares

“As you stand on the shore suiting up,
you can watch other surfers
catch wave after wave,
in anticipation of the perfect ride.

But you’re not going to catch any waves
unless you’re in the water.
The more waves you go for,
the more you’ll catch.

The game of life is quite similar.
It’s exciting to watch people start companies,
push their limits,
and experience new things.

But living vicariously through other people
just means you’ll be standing on the shore
watching others catch waves
your entire life.”

Get off the shore
and into the d*mn water.
We’re supposed to LIVE life,
not watch it on TV.

A decade ago,
a loved one and I started writing.
He had natural talent,
a talent I envied.
Because he had this natural ability,
he didn’t take classes.
He didn’t read books
on how to improve his writing.

I didn’t have this natural talent.
I worked hard.
I took a writing class
or read a writing book
every month.

Now, I’m the better writer.
Seeing this,
he has started taking classes
but he will never catch up to me
because I continue to take classes also.

Rohit Bhargava
CEO & Founder of
Influential Marketing Group,
shares

“There is one stunning fact
about millionaire self-help gurus
that might surprise you.

Most spend hundreds of thousands of dollars
every year on personal training,
experiences and learning.

They overspend on themselves
—and see the return of the investment
in the people they meet
and networks they build.

What’s the conclusion?

Overspending on personal development,
instead of expensive clothes or jewelry,
tends to pay back tenfold over time.”

In September,
many students will be returning
to school.
Consider refreshing your knowledge also.

I only have four stories
in the publishing queue.
Four.
This is scary for me
because I normally have seven.

I won’t see the impact
of this lack of production
for a two months
but I WILL see an impact.

I know this.
I’m hustling to get the stories written,
to fill the production funnel.
I got distracted by promotion
but all of the marketing in the world
won’t help me
if I don’t have books on the virtual shelves.

Keep that innovation funnel full.

As a project manager,
I’ve noticed many people
only do the bare minimum
when given tasks.

The rare few overdeliver
and I tend to listen to these rare few
more closely.
I trust them to put
the good of the project
first.

As Mark Goulston
and John Ullmen
share

“”Overdelivering” makes you
stand out in the moment
and makes people remember you later.
You become locked in
as someone who deserves
to be listened to,
and people don’t wonder
whether you have ulterior motives
or hidden agendas.”

Yes, complete the requirements
but then add a little something more.
Overdeliver.

I’m happiest
when I’ve spent the work day
in the writing cave.
My head is down.
I’m 100% focused on my own goals.

As Cy Wakeman
shares in
Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace

“If you remain in your lane,
tending to your own responsibilities
in the present,
you will seldom be stressed.
You’ll be clear, capable,
and effective.

Stress enters the picture
when you leave your lane
to meddle in other people’s business,
judging or trying to control them.”

Stay in your own lane.
Focus on your own business.