The First Humbling Lesson of Building Your Own Business
At the airport on the way back from an author’s conference a few years ago, I was magnetically drawn to scan the best seller lists and consider who was there and why.
There were so many of those names you’ve see there over and over for decades, like Nora Ephron or Dan Brown. An entire, multi-shelf section devoted to Ann Patchett. The requisite books about how companies can motivate millennials next to Mark Manson’s bestselling The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life.
My eye caught on a cover simulating (well, graphic-designed rather than photographed) a page torn at the top and bottom with a lowercase title etched out in a watercolor-style gradient migrating from aquamarine to forest green like descending through a cross section of the ocean.
Watch the Beginning of Our Business Fundamentals Series for Free–For a Limited Time!
Our new VIP (Very Insightful Professionals) Coaching Program is different than anything you’ve ever experienced.
- Most programs that say they offer group coaching are really just doing Q&As with limited value past saving you the time googling answers to your questions.
- We specifically focus on helping you build a flourishing life AND business, because the science is pretty clear—you can’t have one without the other. (More on that in our upcoming webinar!) https://www.dreamoftravelwriting.com/flourishing-business-webinar/
- Our program centers around the closest thing to an MBA for writers that I’ve ever found: our business fundamental flows. Unlike the grind of an MBA, though, they’re designed to make your life easier 🙂
Meet Our New Team
It has been such a long journey to reopen and be with you all again.
Part of that journey has been building up our team, so that many hands are available to carry the work load and many sparkling, energetic minds work together on ideas.
Do You Thrive on Riding the Waves in Style? (Danny Meyer-style)
For what I do, helping writers understand, come to terms with, and make the most of, the marketplace for travel writing today, it’s very important that I not only spend time with a diverse company of writers, to understand the issues in the industry today from many different viewpoints in terms of both background and experience, but also that I spend time with those on the other side of the desk—the editors and companies that hire writers.
Why Do We Avoid the Simple, Easy Steps that ACTUALLY Move Us Toward Our Goals?
I had a reminder to myself for weeks to do the smallest, simplest thing: email one person I’ve met several times over several years to reconnect and ask for advice.
The reasons I kept thinking of it and not doing it immediately are myriad, even removing busy-ness from the equation.
A very small number of you that I’ve met in person may have heard me mention in passing a narrative travel book I have in the works, My 15 Big Fat Indian Weddings.
(I share the story of how it immediately got 22 very well-respected agents hungering after it my first time out pitching it–and how you too can have the same experience in our webinar series on How to Publish Non-Fiction Books Easily.)
What You Do 60% of the Time is What You Do
No, I am not rephrasing the Pareto Principle.
You know, the one that says that 20% of the work you do yields 80% of the results. Though if we apply that here, it’s even more telling.
I’m talking about how you spend your time—your work time specifically—and what that says about you.
The Single, Biggest Thing That Holds You Back From Travel Writing Success
I know this sounds crazy, but you really can have travel writing success and get yourself officially up and running with a flourishing business in one hour!
Have you tried before? I can feel the head shakes and sighs.
But what makes this process take longer than an hour is not the time required to announce to the world that you are a travel writer, via various forms of social media and your own shiny new website. It’s the decision making.
Don’t Let the Haters Sell You on These 3 Mega Myths About Freelance Travel Writing
It’s a breath of fresh air to see more and more websites talking about six-figure freelance writing. Particularly six-figure freelance travel writing, as a reality rather than a pipe dream, but I am still shocked by the various ways people who are not successful freelance writers deride the profession.
Editors Have Needs. Please Fill Them.
Let’s turn your usual visions of editors around. Rather than envisioning an editor:
- seeing an email come in from someone they don’t know and either ignoring or deleting it;
- finding something fundamentally wrong with your subject line and deleting your email without reading it;
- opening your email, checking if you have any clips from national magazines and deleting it when they find none;
- reading your email, liking the idea, and then sending it off to one of his or her writers to work on