Do You Thrive on Riding the Waves in Style? (Danny Meyer-style)
Quick note: We’re having a 36-hour flash sale on a special 20-part celebration package for our launch (it’s more than $500 of resources for just $99)! Learn more about what it includes and how to grab yours here.
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.
Last week was a week heavy with both types of company, but rich in particularly in those that hire writers.
I connected with editors from outlets at the top of the reputation chain in both print and online publishing, like Food & Wine, Thrillist, Epicurious, Eater, Fine Cooking, and Penguin Random House’s Taste (yes, it was a food-themed conference if you were wondering!), as well as editors from book publishers, but also people who are at the top of the game in overarching lifestyle business fields, from the co-founder of the Edible magazines to Danny Meyer, head of the Union Square Hospitality Group, who has been involved in bringing Shake Shack, OpenTable, SweetGreens and many other major concepts to life.
He introduced the concept of hospitality as surfing, and even since I heard it, it has seriously changed my outlook on both my own business and those of the people that I coach and talk to about their writing every day, and I want to share it with you.
Surfers don’t distinguish themselves by taming waves. They don’t make a name for themselves by mastering calm water either.
Surfers need waves to do their thing. And the best, most well-known, top-awarded surfers are the ones who not only ride the waves—staying on their boards when others fall off—by doing so with style (Danny spread his arms, wiggled his fingers, and donned a mischievous grin when he said this bit).
Every week, I speak with writers about things that have come up in their writing that take up mental space, negatively impact their incomes, get them down generally, or throw their lives into complete disarray.
Danny also says, “If you don’t like problems, don’t go into business.”
All of these set-backs are not things that get in the way of the freelance business you are trying to build. They are integral parts of the complete scope of the fabric of it.
You cannot work around them or ignore them, but only incorporate them, learning to ride the waves with your own personal stylistic flair.
Just this week, while I was trying to get this newsletter and launch offer out to you guys, we had both our email newsletter provider experience some sort of hiccup delivering links in emails that left hundreds of thousands of readers for thousands of businesses unable to click links in any emails. Then, yesterday, when that seemed fixed, our whole Dream of Travel Writing server suddenly got full and went down.
No matter how things are going, there will always be a new wave. It usually won’t come from where you expect or look like how you think it will look, but it always comes somehow.
As we head into the week ahead, we’ve got a lot going on over here:
- we’re wrapping up applications for our coaching programs (we’ve got one spot left in each program if you’re still thinking of joining)
- the first of our new books is coming out (and you can grab a special 36-hour flash sale offer on both books!)
- we’re coordinating with our launch partners of some cool initiatives around the new books (you can still join the team here if you’d like to share the good word with your own readers, and even make some affiliate money in the process)
- and most of our team is trying to be on vacation this week because of the holiday!
But wherever we are and whatever we’re up to, we can’t wait to hear how you tackle that next wave with determination and verve.