Writing To Get Business

Doug Lawrence, former member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, now works as a mentor. He describes the rewards of that work as “seeing somebody grow as a person, first and foremost, growing as a person having that belief in themselves and, sometimes, even being comfortable enough to want to share that experience with somebody else.” He says that he wrote his two books, first, The Gift of Mentoring, and next You Are Not Alone, because people felt that many could benefit from his experiences. With both books, he has included a lot of his personal experience, and he reports that people have said that reading it feels like having a conversation with him. He feels that in order to reach an audience, they must be able to hear your unique voice. In writing You Are Not Alone, he realized that he was still suffering the effects of traumatic events he had experienced. With the help of his wife and children, he worked his way through them. He emphasizes that it’s critical for a person experiencing any degree of PTSD to reach out for help and for friends and family to respond. If you wonder how much of yourself to put into a book, Doug’s podcast offers a clear-headed and candid perspective. · How do self-esteem issues affect the quality of a résumé? · What is the difference between mentoring and coaching? · Why is it important to bring your voice into a book? · Why do you sometimes have to make yourself vulnerable in telling your personal story in a book? · How does a clear and urgent purpose facilitate writing a book? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U. S. job market has never experienced a greater degree of upheaval. Companies and retail businesses are desperate for employees, but workers are far from desperate to return to dead-end positions. Steve Cadigan who has spent 35 years in the human resources field, including a four-year stint at LinkedIn, expresses in his new book, Workquake, a clear and detailed analysis of how the roots of the current turmoil have been growing for a long time. Companies worldwide have failed to innovate. Many have developed employment systems that encouraged longevity but not creative contributions from employees. Many corporate executives are resistant to change. The pandemic has made countless people look at their pre-Covid lives and recognize that they were dissatisfied with their work. Many of them decided that the security promised them from a “steady” job was an illusion. They felt that they wanted to be working on their own and moved into the gig economy—where, Steve notes, they are off the radar in terms of employment statistics. Steve is far from a doomsayer. He believes that the employment crisis triggered by the pandemic is forcing corporate leaders and smaller business owners to take hard looks at the way they run their businesses and treat their employees. “This busy world that we're creating for ourselves, we're just not spending the time affirming and recognizing and valuing one another. And if we lose sight of that, we're missing something really important.“ Don’t miss this inspiring podcast. · Why are we all entrepreneurs? · How do some people get the entrepreneurial impulse drained out of them? · Who are some of the key innovators in transforming the structure of their companies or industries? · How has the pandemic influenced the nature of employment? · Why do many people think that making a change provides more security than staying put in a job? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Although the Internet has been around for a while now, those in charge of advertising and marketing continue to face challenges in terms of adapting their approaches to a new medium. Some of these challenges come from the huge difference between, for example, print and digital media. Other challenges have emerged from what can best be described as the fickle nature of online platforms. Chris Cheetham-West, a digital marketing expert and author of Digital Marketing for Results: How to Focus on What Matters, describes some of the pitfalls of digital marketing. He emphasizes the importance of distributing your marketing efforts among a number of platforms. Too many people have lost their businesses because Facebook changes its rules. You may not know that YouTube may piggyback a competitor’s ad onto your video. His choice to self-publish his book was also based both on being in charge of the process and the ability to get it published quickly. Those of you who wonder how someone finds the discipline to start and finish a book will find guidance in his description of his approach to writing. • What primary challenge do marketers face? • What role do influencers play in marketing? • How many followers does an influencer need in order to have an impact? • How can having videos on YouTube actually defeat your promotion goals? • Why is it important to use a range of platforms for your promotion and advertising? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With this podcast, I step out of my traditional role as objective interviewer and become fully immersed in the author’s passion for emotional healing. I can think of no greater tribute to Regina Bergman, a woman, who has transcended her work description of profit acceleration and exit strategy specialist. Regina’s writing career took her along a very different path. When she heard about a woman whose husband, without warning, said they were getting a divorce, she felt a powerful urge to write a book that could help save marriage, especially those in the “empty nest” stage. She interviewed many couples all over the world and from their answers, developed strategies based on the essential nature of communication for couples. Her second book developed after she became widowed after 44 years of marriage. Struggling to work through what she calls the “widow’s fog,” she again turned to interviewing, this time to those who were going through grief. Realizing that she wanted to offer more than a book, she has partnered with grief experts to create an online membership platform to guide people through the grief process. Regina’s passion is contagious. I wasn’t prepared to have an old grief reawakened, so this podcast comes with a warning: Get out your tissues. • How can identifying a problem you want to solve create a book? • In what ways can an author who uses an interview format protect the privacy of interviewees? • How can an author interviewing people about an issue that’s personal and painful for her maintain the needed distance for the interviews? • In what ways can an author maximize a book’s potential outreach by creating an online platform that offers practical ways for readers to work with the book’s principles? • Why can it be valuable to partner with experts in the field about which an author writes? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you an author bewildered by the array of publishing opportunities? Should you submit to a big or medium-sized publisher? Self-publish? Or consider a hybrid publisher? Linda Stirling, founder and publisher at the Publishing Circle, as well as an author, answers these questions, and, more importantly, the ones you don’t know to ask: How often will you get paid, will your work get edited, what are your legal rights to your manuscript? She describes seven important questions you must ask a potential publisher. She also warns strongly against vanity publishers, whose biggest talent is taking your money, and describes what you need to do to get your manuscript accepted by the publisher you want. You’ve probably heard that hiring an editor is important. Linda goes into detail about this, explaining why the quality of your manuscript can make or break a deal. As an author, you’ll need to do a lot of marketing, and she describes how you can bring your entrepreneurial skills to that work. The world of publishing has changed dramatically over the last few decades. You need to understand the nature of these changes. This podcast will give you a rare opportunity to get an inside view of the world of publishing from the viewpoint of a publisher. Join me for this episode for Writing to Get Business. • How much marketing do publishers do for authors? • What size following do you need? • Are libraries important in terms of book sales? • Why must you have an editor for your book? • What is the difference between a hybrid and a vanity publisher? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donna is 6’5” tall and a woman who both literally and figuratively stands out. Her height gave her the confidence to succeed in the male-dominated world of real estate, and her intuitive gifts enabled her to become a master player and teacher of poker. Poker helped her to develop the belief that one’s life is created by one’s perceptions, a mindset perspective that enabled her to recover her speaking ability three days after having a massive stroke. A few weeks later, when she was waiting to have a heart procedure, staff members, having heard that she was a master poker coach, asked her about it. When she explained her mindset principles and exercises, she influenced not only more than a dozen people but also the doctor who had performed her procedure. She has published these principles and exercises in MindShift On Demand: QUICK Life-Changing Tools, her second published book. Donna, who recognizes that exposure to the Internet and related technology has created a need for information presented in a simple way, plans to create several smaller books on this subject and card decks. “Keep it simple” and “Keep on repurposing it” are her guiding principles in writing and publishing. These principles can serve any authors who want to get the maximum value from their work. Join me for this episode of Writing to Get Business to discover • How does extensive experience in writing articles help you write a book? • What question must you ask yourself when you plan to write an article or book? • How can your customers’ and clients’ questions tell you what to put in a book? • Why must you consider how the modern demand for instant gratification has changed what people want in an informational book? • Why is “Repurpose” the magic word of publishing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Perhaps the biggest challenge for someone who wants to write a book is how to begin. How do you choose a subject, and how do you manage to write the 40,000 or 50,000 words, which, even in these streamlined times, are needed? Here to break this down for you in easy, understandable steps, is David Avrin, author of several books, and a business consultant who focuses on customer service. In terms of choosing a topic, David focuses on relevance. This word has a twofold meaning. The subject should be relevant to current challenges. Because these challenges change, an author, in order to continue to be relevant, especially to his actual and potential clients, needs to publish every two to three years. David has learned that if you think, “I have to write an entire book,” you can be stopped before you start. Instead, he takes one task at a time. Anyone who hesitates about taking on the work of writing a book will find encouragement in this podcast. Get more pearls of wisdom from David here. • What is the number-one rule in writing? • Why should you abandon perfectionism when writing your first draft? • How does writing and publishing a book help your business? • What is the most important quality for someone who writes about business? • What are the advantages of writing in the program Scrivener? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Al Kushner, financial educational specialist, knows about the pain and suffering being financially unprepared for the cost of a funeral causes at a time when people already feel overwhelmed with grief and sorrow. He has seen people have to take out loans, max out their credit cards, and start ill-fated GoFundMe campaigns. He wanted to help people stay clear of these economic quagmires. This desire inspired him to write The Savvy Guide to Burial Insurance. Al understood the importance of timing and knew that people would, unfortunately, have a particularly great need for the kind of specialized information he could provide. He researched a wide variety of options and compiled them in his book. He provides information about various ways to prepay for a funeral and explains in detail the relationship of age and health to the cost of insurance plans. Al’s choice of subject material can teach any authors who may feel reluctant to tackle difficult and sensitive issues—even if it’s their area of expertise. If you are such a person, let Al’s story help you realize the necessity and immeasurable value of airing these subjects. If you give one person the tools to solve a huge problem, you will have made a difference. Here's what Al has to say in this episode of Writing to Get Business Podcast. • Why is caring about people’s needs such a powerful inspiration for writing? • Why is timing everything? • How do you evaluate the need for a book about your area of expertise? • How important is your personal knowledge and experience? • How does the information you share in your book leverage your ability to increase your customer base? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that a consultant has to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, detective, psychologist, and serve in multiple additional roles? Dave Dragon, an experienced consultant shares both in this podcast and in his book, I Solve Mysteries, the complex and fascinating world of consulting. Learn how you can accept a consultant’s evaluation of your business with less pain. Many companies are looking for answers on how they can optimize their processes, and be more productive, compete more fully in the market, and tackle business challenges. Dave Dragon is an expert in the area of larger companies dealing with some of those challenges. Dave works on large transformation projects for companies. And, typically, it has to do with their business processes being broken. And when you go into one of these projects, they may have opinions about what they think is wrong, but 90% of the time, they really don't know what's wrong. So, when Dave is going in to run a project, he’s really trying to understand what is the root cause of their issue. And that's what the mystery is. One of the first things that Dave leads people through is what we call a current state analysis, and that's documenting their business processes. And through that, he starts seeing where their issues are, and he starts identifying and understanding some of the cultural issues that they have, because people may be in conflict. He starts to get information back from his analysis. Join me for this episode of Writing to Get Business Podcast. • Why is an outside consultant’s work sometimes like that of a medical doctor? • Why is the method of handling returns one of a company’s biggest challenges? • How can “test marketing” your ideas for a book make it a more useful one? • What is people’s first reaction to change? • What do the five stages of grief have to do with the consultation process? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While a common recommendation for would-be authors is, “Write what you know about,” the writing journey of Pamela Rasheed, MSN, RN, who specializes in infertility counseling demonstrates that you should also write what you care about. A friend’s advice to choose to write about women’s and couples’ struggles to have children resulted in Barren: The Inside World of Infertility. Pam came from Guyana as an immigrant, in her very early twenties, alone, and having to navigate the complexities of living in a big city. Pam arrived needing to get established, find a place to live, get a job, all on her own with a couple of children. We met through a course that I taught on teaching people how to write books. Pam thought about this book morning, noon, and night, about how to shape this book. She had the clinical background that added credibility to the book. Nurses can be very effective if they would incorporate a holistic approach into the care of patients with infertility. And that was a reason why she thought, she needed to shed light on these hidden costs that these patients carry as a bigger burden, sometimes. How are we going to pay the mortgage but then afford the medications, which are very expensive? How did the women in the book dealt with their difficulties? How did they get through? And Pam realized this book is not only for the medical professionals, it's also for patients who are going through this. • When is it a sound idea to give up one book idea and take on another? • How can you closely define the audience for your book? • In deciding to interview people, how do you select them? • How can asking the right questions to yourself about your subject lead to useful organization of the material? • Why is passion for your subject so vital? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As first an artist and now an author, Scotsman John Morris has successfully bypassed settling into a creative niche. His painting subject matter varies widely, and when he turned his focus to writing and publishing, he designed a book that’s strikingly original in every aspect. The Battles That We All Face not only combines his art and writing, but he approached the design of the book to create a work of art. John’s vision was to write a book that would inspire people to grow through their struggles. He had many opportunities to practice his philosophy while self-publishing a book that presented unusual printing challenges. Several times he faced the choice between a timely publication and missing his self-imposed deadline for the sake of a high-quality product and always chose quality. While working on The Battles That We All Face, his vision expanded to include an ongoing relationship with the people he reached through his book. He established a significant social media platform, and its ability to reach people inspired him to develop a series of podcasts which furthers the message of his book. Though John’s publishing journey has been unique, the lessons he’s learned are universal. Learn from John how setting creativity free can help win the battles that we all face. Highlights of John’s journey as shared in Writing to Get Business Podcast: • Why should you never put off bringing an exciting idea to life? • What is the value of expanding one’s reach to include podcasts? • Why is quality of the product more important than timeliness? • How does honesty with customers and one’s audience deepen an author’s relationship with them? • How does listening to the messages that life is trying to tell you enhance your creativity? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you ever worry that the target audience for your book might be too small? Susan Haibeck, a highly experienced oncology nurse and legal nurse consultant, makes it clear that the question isn’t the size of the audience but how much they need the information in the book. Susan is a registered nurse with a master’s degree in nursing and a great deal of experience in the area of oncology. Susan is my guest today to talk about the process that she went through writing her book, and it's a medical book geared to a very specific population. In Susan’s nursing career, she was involved with cancer nursing since the very beginning of cancer treatment in the 1970s. She felt she had a good background in cancer care with all the subspecialties. And she wanted to share that information with attorneys who are not familiar with cancer cases, because cancer cases were coming her way, and she had to do a lot of explaining of some of the basics of cancer care. As a legal nurse consultant, Susan helps attorneys both as an expert witness and as a consultant. Legal nurse consultants assist attorneys with cases with medical issues. Plaintiff and defense lawyers desperately need the specialized knowledge Susan provides, and her book not only helps them in cases but dramatizes her expertise and wins her clients. Don’t miss this informative show of Writing to Get Business Podcast: • How can you most effectively focus on a subject for a book? • Why is the question, “What does my reader need to know” invaluable? • What is the value of speaking with members of your target population before outlining your book? • How can visualizing the ways your target audience can benefit from your book help you write it? • What are the benefits of taking a course on mastering the writing of a book? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you feel about writing or doodling in a book? Terry Pappy, coach, business strategist, and author, has created book series that invite the reader to create with her. She created an ingenious way for readers to use her books over and over again. Keeping the reader foremost in mind drives Terry’s writing and business strategies. Her podcast is a virtual blueprint for success. Terry describes her diverse background. She is a speaker and artist. She’s always loved writing, and loved being creative and artistic, and so her career choice was a creative one. She went to art school and learned vocational art, commercial art, and so she’s had a wonderful, diverse career in pretty much every touchpoint you could imagine regarding graphics, communications, marketing, and so on. She almost went to journalism school and made creative writing a fulltime career. Like many writers, Terry discovered the more she wrote, the better she got. Watch this episode of Writing to Get Business to discover: • What factors can make people feel compelled to write their first books? • In crafting an individual or corporate brand, why is writing that has a personal feeling so important? • How can reading and learning from a book turn into an interactive experience? • Once your book is published, how can you leverage it to drive your leads, marketing, and business-building strategies? • Why is it important to think like a reader? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices