motivation

, , , ,

Client Success Story: Douglas Gentile

I want to take a moment and brag on my client, Douglas Gentile, for his new book that was published on May 12, 2022.

The book is “Finding the Freedom to Get Unstuck and Be Happier” by Ven. Dr. Douglas Cheolsoeng Gentile.

​Douglas is one of the graduates from the VIP Writing Mentorship and the Finally Write Your Book System. His book was published last week by Penguin (and is available on Amazon.)


 

Douglas came to me after hearing me speak at Sedona Yoga Festival. I was asking the same questions his potential publisher had been asking (and he didn’t know how to answer!) Douglas quickly figured out that I could help him answer those questions – and rewrite the book. (He had written it twice already!)

Through our work together in the VIP Writing Mentorship, Douglas re-wrote the book, this time for a more main-stream audience. While the original publisher who had expressed interested in the book decided to pass on publishing it, Penguin decided it was perfect for what they wanted to bring to market.

Buy The Book

More about Douglas Gentile:

Dr. Douglas Gentile is an award-winning research scientist, educator, author, and is professor of psychology at Iowa State University. His experience includes over 30 years conducting research with children and adults. He has authored over 140 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, including studies on the positive and negative effects of mass media on children in several countries, video game addiction, and mindfulness practices for reducing anxiety and increasing happiness. He has written several books on similar topics.

He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He was honored with the Distinguished Lifetime Contributions Award to Media Psychology and Technology by the American Psychological Association, and he was named one of the Top 300 Professors in the United States by the Princeton Review.

In addition, he is an ordained Zen Buddhist monk and meditation teacher who leads retreats and has written and narrated the best-selling audiobook Buddhism 101: How to Walk Easily over Rough Ground and Meditation: The Busy Person’s Guide to Cultivating Compassion and Positive Mind States.

, ,

Are You Using Stinkin’ Thinkin’ as an Excuse Not to Write?

It’s not a newsflash that I love my watercolor paints. I spend time every single day thinking about painting. Ideally, I spend time every day also, actually, PAINTING.

Sometimes I even dream about it at night…

When I started this watercolor journey, I really wanted to be able to paint for hours at a time. Uninterrupted. In the flow.

However, I was physically able to SIT for about 15 minutes at a time. (Surgery-gone-sideways, October 2020.)

Then as I could sit for longer periods of time, my days also filled up with getting back to the tasks of motherhood, chores, and my business.

For a while, I wasn’t painting AT ALL because if I could only do it for 20 or 25 minutes, it wasn’t “worth” it.

What stinkin’ thinkin’!

Most days, Ben is able to help me grab the time between Little Bean going to bed and the time dinner is ready. Approximately… 20 minutes.

And in those near-daily 20 minutes, I have been able to complete DOZENS of paintings. But more than that, I’ve clocked about 75 HOURS of pure enjoyment.

Because I changed my stinkin’ thinkin’ about how it wasn’t “worth” painting if I couldn’t do it for long stretches of time.

The same is true for your writing.

Yes, you may WANT to write for two HOURS a day. But writing for 15 minute a day, every day, can actually get you MORE writing done than scrambling to find two uninterrupted hours in your week.

The math

15 x 7 = 1.75 hours actually COMPLETED.

OR

2 hours that you tried (and maybe couldn’t) find.

So let me ask you:

Where will you find fifteen minutes today to work on your writing?

The #1 Mindset You Need to Write Your Book

Let’s talk about… mindset.

#truthbomb

Mindset doesn’t write books.

WRITING – the physical act – writes books.

#truthbomb - Mindset doesn't write books. WRITING - the physical act - writes books. Click To Tweet

There I said it! Whew!

Mindset alone doesn’t do you any good. Because action is what actually moves your book forward. The action of thinking about your book, planning out your stories, and then *gasp* putting words onto paper.

Woah.

Now there are FIVE Mental Monsters™ that keep you from writing your book. Read about them here.

And the thing with these Mental Monsters™ is that they like to show up – alone or in combination – often. So yes, there is mindset work that you need to do to recognize those Mental Monsters™, deal with them, and get back to writing.

At “Brew Your Book – LIVE: Stop ‘Percolating’ on Your Message and FINALLY Write Your Book” we have a whole session about identifying and dealing with your mental monster.

But here’s something you need to know about how we deal with it at the event:

We do it LAST. The very last thing on the very last day.

Why?

Because you don’t START writing your book with mindset!

I’ve been around the Internet course building, coaching, mentoring space a LOOOOOOONG time (like 10 years.) And I’ve seen so many experts put together their course, program, system, etc.

Every single one has a mindset element. Every single course, program, system, book, training – you name it.

And often times, getting into the right mindset is the foundational piece. The FIRST step.

Except…

That isn’t the truth for writing a book.

Let me say that again:

Working on your MINDSET is not the first step in writing your book.

(Nor is it dealing with your procrastination, inertia, or habits.)

The FIRST step in writing your book is your message.

MESSAGE.

Which is why we spend an entire DAY on Message at “Brew Your Book – LIVE!” and only one session on Mental Monsters™.

If you’re still on the fence about joining us, this is your prod to get OFF the fence, register your ticket, and come to Prescott, Arizona April 7-9!

At the event you’ll learn:

  • The steps to uncover your powerful message so you can move your readers – and change their lives.
  • Exactly how to write powerfully and easily – even if you think you’re not a writer or struggle with expressing yourself in written word.
  • What needs to go into the book and what doesn’t so that your reader feels that you understand them – and are here to help.
  • How to deal with procrastination, writer’s block, overwhelm, and lack of motivation so that you’re able to keep going – moving forward and making steady progress – even if your inspiration gets derailed.
  • My proven method to consistently finding the time to write no matter how busy your life is!
  • How to engage your readers – from the first page – so that they keep reading, and so they recommend your book to their friends.
  • How to share your message in a way that your readers will remember – even if they forget the steps of your process, acronym, or system.
  • Why writing a book is the best way to be seen as an expert – and how having a book can open doors to interviews, speaking gigs, and more clients.
  • And more…

Register Here – Ticket Is $297

Keep Reading!

,

Are You Creating an Environment for Writing Success?

Take a moment, right now, and ask yourself:

How am I setting myself up for writing success?

If you’re like most of the authors I work with, that answer is going to surprise you. Authors fall into two camps:

I’m so organized my PAPERCLIPS are alphabetized. (And I don’t write because I’m afraid of messing it up!)

OR

My piles make sense… to me. And if you need something, I just need to shift four piles to get it. (And I don’t write because the clutter is actually out of control BUT I neither want to admit that NOR deal with it!)

By the way, I fall FIRMLY in category two. I have been cleaning my office lately but to anyone else’s eyes, it’s still a disaster.

Now, no matter which extreme end of the organizing continuum you fall on, one thing remains:

How are you setting yourself up for writing success?

Because it’s so EASY to just focus on the STUFF. The neat office. The pretty mug full of perfectly sharpened pencils. The exact right journal. The software. The comfy chair. The perfect temperature cup of coffee.

But are these outside things REALLY helping you write?

Probably not. Because writing is so much more than the writing space. It’s more than the computer or journal or perfect pen.

So where do you fall in these categories?

Writing mentorship
Are you STUDYING writing? Or are you just sticking words on the page and HOPING it gets your message across?

Feedback
Who is reading your stuff? Is it someone who KNOWS how to write a book or just someone who knows how to hunt down commas? Or worse – is it someone who blows smoke and tells you how wonderful your writing is? (Positive encouragement is SUPER important – but it won’t point out your weaknesses!)

Community
Who do you know who is also writing a book? Who is serious about it?

Investment
Where are you investing your money in your writing? While writing may be the cheapest of all the arts (you don’t need expensive paints or a pricy instrument) that doesn’t mean that it is actually FREE. What events are you attending? (And yes, a paid event IS going to offer better content than a free event!)

Writing time
Are you ACTUALLY writing? Or is it just lip service?

Guess what? You get all this AND MORE when you join me for the live three-day event, “Brew Your Book – LIVE: Stop ‘Percolating’ on Your Message and FINALLY Write Your Book” happening April 7-9, 2022, in Prescott, Arizona.

Register Here

Keep Reading!

, ,

In her own words: Erin Copelan

If you’re like me, there’s always some wondering…

“Will it work for ME?”

When I’m evaluating something to invest in. And trust me, I invest in myself a LOT – programs, courses, trainings, events… you name it.

Does all of it work?

Actually, they probably all DO work – if I put in my time and energy and Do.The.Thing.

​That being said, I LOVE reading client testimonials. I love knowing that someone just like me, with real struggles, was able to have success.

Which is why I wanted to introduce you to my client, Erin Copelan. Erin attended my event last year – on a friend ticket! In fact, she squeaked in days AFTER registration closed. (My assistant had missed taking down just ONE registration link – Erin found it and got in!)

Here is Erin’s book writing journey – in her own words.

I used to tell people the story of Jerry’s liver transplant. How we got The Call in the middle of our move, how his liver attacked him and he almost died, and how I cared for him over his cancer journey which has spanned over a decade. People were enthralled. I realized there weren’t a lot of caregiving stories out there and I decided I was going to write mine.

At the end of 2018 I started to write. I had started a little blog about my massage business and got good feedback on my writing skills which fueled me to believe a book was a hop, skip, and a jump away. I dove in on the weekends writing my caregiving tale. Then I got stuck. There was more that I had to say, a lot more, but I didn’t know how to say it. Should the book be chronological? Should it be situational?

A year passed with me tinkering and fussing and rearranging words and attacking it from different angles. 2019 came and went. I had two books and while the order of the words varied slightly, it read like this:

​Then we did this….
Then we went there…
Then he said this….
Then I did that….

Which led to:

You should do this…
You should do that…
You should say this…
You will want that…

​Then I was stuck in the mud, just as my readers would have been because it’s likely they would have become incredibly bored with my preachy timeline. It was mid-2020 and my dear friend, an angel in fact, sent me an email, “I’m taking this story writing course, I know you’re working on your book and I don’t know how far you are, but thought you might like it.”

I wasn’t writing a story; my book was non-fiction. It was real life with real experiences, I wasn’t storytelling. But I thought it might be interesting so I joined Kim’s three day event, “Your Bestseller Live”. I signed up at the very last possible moment, so close to the deadline that I thought the Internet would reject me. But I got in. Because the Universe wanted me to finally write my book.

By the end of the three days, I could see everything I didn’t know: how to engage a reader, how to connect with them, how to make your message be heard. Because that’s all I wanted! I wanted my message to be heard by those who needed it in the moment in their life they needed support the most. I realized I didn’t know how to get it out there. I didn’t know how to make my voice clear. I needed someone to help me and to teach me.

​That someone was Kim. And it started at the event.

​Register for Brew Your Book – LIVE​

​

*** MARCH 2022 ERIN UPDATE ***

Erin’s book, “Welcome to Caregiving: What Caregivers NEVER Talk About” is launching on March 29, 2022. The cover is finalized, we’re doing last-minute touchups on the interior layout, and then Erin is inviting people to her book launch. (Register Here)

But just in case you think a book doesn’t really ever FINISH… it does!

​

My fellow author, I want to help you do this too:

  • Engage your reader
  • Connect with them
  • Have your message be heard

THIS is my complete zone of genius. (Not to mention that I’m REALLY FUNNY when you give me a stage – even a virtual one!)

When you come to “Brew Your Book LIVE – Stop “Percolating” on Your Message and FINALLY Write Your Book”, you’ll learn how to write a powerful book that shares your message – without struggling to get the writing done.

​

Here are the details:

Dates: April 7-9, 2022

Location: Prescott, Arizona

Ticket: $297

Link to register: www.BrewYourBookLive.com

​

Next year, I want to use YOUR words to invite a future author to join us. It all starts when you register.

 

, ,

Truth: You’ll Always Be “Too Busy” to Write Your Book

Do you ever feel like you’re just… waiting?

Waiting for things to get easier? For you to have more time? For the kids to be in school, out of school, graduated? For the business to be making more money? For the remodel to happen? For summer? For fall? After the holidays?

Before you know it… you’ve waiting yourself right out of opportunities.

I bought my first house in October 2008. I sold it in May 2015. And for the six years I lived there, I had always intended to put in a flowerbed in my front yard. I could just SEE it in my mind – tipped so you could see the flowers more from the living room window, rather than the street. That it would be formed from huge volcanic rocks. That it would be a spill and rush of colors, each plant nestled against each other…

I had always intended…

And one of my biggest regrets when I sold the house and moved out… was that flowerbed.

I was always “too busy.”

When I was in college, I thought I was sooooo busy. I took a full course load and lived on campus. So yes, that was lots of homework. And I went to many “social” activities offered by the College of Humanities and the Honors College.

What I didn’t have was a job. Or pets. Or a house. Or a boyfriend (or husband!) Or a business…

Looking back, all that “busy” was a myth.

So here’s some truth for you, my friend: Keep Reading!

, , ,

That time I got it all wrong…

Story time:

That time I got it all wrong…

It was 2012 and I had this wild, audacious idea that I was going to start an online business around books: writing them, publishing them, launching them.

After all, I had a degree in Creative Writing, five books of my own (including a runaway bestseller,) and a deep NEED to leave my dad’s tax practice (where I’d been working for the last ten years.)

A chance email from Ali Brown – who I’d followed for YEARS at that point after taking her pilot course about creating an ezine – led me to THE woman I needed: Lisa Sasevich. Now, Lisa is known for teaching her “Speak to Sell” course… But what she was launching in that moment was “Five Figure Teleseminars” (the ‘webinar’ bit was added later – this was in 2012 and webinars just weren’t a thing yet.)

I sat ENRAPTURED through a 3-hour livestream. Then I ran into Dad’s office demanding his credit card because I was going to buy a $997 course on how to take my “how to publish for Kindle” idea and put it online. My dad, being the supportive man he is, handed over the card without a word.

On her live calls, Lisa kept talking about her event, coming up that October. It was in Southern California (driving distance!) and I had a bonus ticket from being in her class (score!) All I had to do was get there…

What that REALLY meant was finding the money to get DAD and I there. I won’t drive on Southern California freeways. I’ll fast-forward through the gritty details and tell you, we made it.

Now, if you’ve been around me at all, you’ll know that it took THREE YEARS of listening to Lisa make her offer to join her in Sassy, her year-long mastermind, before I said yes. Three YEARS of going home crying because I didn’t take her up on the offer…

But while this IS the first time I heard the offer, this story isn’t about “regret” in not joining Sassy.

Because after she made her oh-so-desired offer to invest $18k in her year-long program, I was in sticker shock. I had NO CLUE that people would ask – or invest – that much. Kim of 2012 decided she’d raise that money – someday.

And then Lisa did something magical…

She laid out what it would take to CREATE an online business – all the steps. And HANDED ME A WORKSHEET.

Looking back, after having DONE events, I know two things:

1. That was actually designed to say “look how HARD this is. Let me guide you!” and as a last pitch to join Sassy.

2. I got it 100% wrong.

Because I thought I had this ROAD MAP. I thought it was clear. I took that worksheet and ran. I was a MONSTER at creating the “things” on it so I too could be successful.

I LOVE a good checklist. I love my to do lists. I love writing things down just so I can check them off. I love ADDING things I’ve done – so I can cross them off.

Now we fast forward three years. Three years of dutifully crossing things off this “Master Plan” that Lisa had given me. I had FINALLY joined Sassy. I had left Dad’s tax practice the year before and was full-time in my business – and 100% supporting myself. Ben and I had JUST bought our house together.

I was sitting in my first every Sassy retreat – in Southern California. (Yes, I went by myself. It’s amazing what you can do when you realize that Dad The Chauffeur isn’t the ONLY way to get there!) And Lisa brought it out… The Worksheet. The roadmap I’d been following for all those years.

And I had a startling realization.

I had done a GREAT job creating all the THINGS that were on the worksheet. Stuff like my optin gift, emailing my list, lining up affiliates, creating my signature talk, having a preview call, etc.

But what I had COMPLETELY MISSED was that these weren’t just THINGS. They weren’t a box of spoons – each one identical and equal.

They were SUPPOSED to be a framework. A system. They BUILT a business – IF they worked together. If they were done in ORDER.

{insert wild cussing here}

No WONDER I was still struggling. I had done the online business equivalent of tossing spaghetti at a wall. What stuck were clients (yay) but MOST of it hit the ground. Enough that I WAS supporting myself.

But not enough that I could EVER stop the hustle. I had pieces but no structure.

Really hard to actually create a functioning online business.

Are you getting that sinking feeling too?

The one that says, “I think I’m doing this too.”

Not about your online business (if you have one.) But about your book.

Because it’s a HUGE myth that all you need to do is “sit down at a typewriter and bleed” (Hemmingway) to write a book.

Writing a book DOES take, well, writing.

But it doesn’t START at the computer. Writing a book doesn’t START with… writing.

(Most people follow that initial burst of inspiration. But it wears off and then what?)

I want to give you the plan to write your book. And I want to MAKE SURE you fully understand Step 1. Together. In person. Where you can ask questions, get feedback, NOT BE CONFUSED.

That’s what we’re doing at “Brew Your Book – Live! Stop “Percolating” on Your Message and FINALLY Write Your Book.”

You need to be there. Yes, this IS a live event. Yes, it takes travel – and it’s 100% fine if YOU need to convince YOUR dad to drive you there! (In fact, you can bring a friend at a wicked-amazing discounted rate.)

But you need to be there.

Even if YOU get it “wrong” – think of all the progress you’ll make on your book.

(This is a small intimate room of up to 30 people. I’ll make sure you don’t get it “wrong.” Lisa’s room was 300+; it’s not her fault I didn’t understand. She couldn’t see my face in the crowd! That will NOT be your experience at MY event.)

Coming OUT of your normal environment and traveling, being in a room with me for three days, letting me pour into you (and feed you), and hearing from your fellow authors will be life changing.

Register Here.

Because, no matter what, YOUR message matters. And it’s time to finally write your book and share your message with the world.

P.S. I don’t even have a PICTURE from me at that event. I was too shy to stand in line to take a picture with Lisa. But at “Brew Your Book – LIVE!” I will really get to know YOU – so you won’t be too shy to get a picture with me!

«< 2 3 4 5 6 >»