Lorna Faith

Clean Fiction Author

037 Love-Based Money and Mindset for Author Entrepreneurs with Michele PW

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Our mindset on writing and money shape so much of our lives. If you’ve struggled with moving beyond fear and embracing a love-based mindset everyday, that attracts more of what you want into your life, you’ll love this discussion with the author of the Love-Based series, and premiere direct response copywriter and business owner Michele PW.

In the intro, I share a new book I’m reading on plot, plus I encourage all writers to listen to this chat Marie Forleo  with Cheryl Strayed, the author of Wild(yes, the book that was made into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon). Cheryl, shares about the realities of becoming a writer and the two questions every creative must ask themselves before they write their books and create their art.

Click Here to Watch the Video Interview

Michele PW is the founder and CEO of the Love-Based Copywriting and Marketing Company that is the premiere direct response copywriting and marketing company today. Her business caters to entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to be more successful and profitable and feel good about their marketing and copy.

A few of her clients, include Ali Brown, Lisa Sasevich, Brian Tracy, and other authors and entrepreneurs who use Michele’s marketing and copy to build a business they love and that loves them back.

Michele blogs and podcasts over at lovebasedbiz.com. Today we’re talking about her latest book, Love-Based Money and Mindset: Make the Money You Desire Without Selling Your Soul. She also writes psychological thrillers, with her third book in the series releasing soon.

We discuss:

  • Why authors should shift their mindset from thinking of writing as a hobby and to embrace their writing as a business. Michele encourages fiction writers, not to wait for the perfect time to start writing. Even if all you have is 15 minutes a day to work on your book, it could change your life.
  • Michele says her biggest regret, is that it took her mom dying, to get her act together so she started to take her writing seriously. She invites writers listening, to don’t wait for something drastic to happen, before you begin to write those stories you’ve been dreaming of writing.
  • Tips on how you can transition from your full time job to being a full time author, by becoming a part-time copywriter. Copywriting is still an excellent skill to have as an author.
  • How Michele’s Love-Based book series explores how to market your books with love-based emotions, instead of fear-based emotions.
  • How you can start to change your attitude so you can embrace love and abundance and attract money to you. Get clear on your ‘go to’ default emotion(worry, anger, etc), and instead of defaulting to the multiple reactions(procrastinating, drinking too much, starting a fight on social media, etc), stop yourself, and break the self-sabotage(example: fear stops you from doing what you need to do in your business that day, or having too many glasses of wine at night and you are groggy the next day).
  • How to establish a routine to tell your muse that you’re ready to sit down and write. Whether that’s getting a cup of tea, lighting a candle, putting on your writing music, or whatever works for you to inspire yourself that it’s time to write.
  • Tips for writers that feel worry or self-doubt around their books. If you have a habit of asking yourself, is anyone going to read my book? If you feel this emotion, don’t try to talk yourself out of it, but instead let yourself experience the worry – it’s an emotion that just wants to be felt. Once you’ve felt it – and most likely it won’t feel very good – the negative emotion will go away.

If you want to find out more about love-based books or podcast, and if you’re interested on learning from Michele how you can become a copywriter, you can find more details at lovebasedbiz.com. You can also connect with Michele on Facebook or Twitter.

Do you have questions about love-based money or mindset or being an author entrepreneur? Please leave a comment below!

036 Prosperous Creation: Make Art and Make Money at the Same Time with Monica Leonelle

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Many storytellers aren’t sure of the steps to take to make art and make money at the same time. In today’s interview, bestselling fiction and nonfiction author Monica Leonelle, shares with us her playbook of prosperous creation.

In the intro, I talk about how I’ve struggled to stay consistent with word count, and how writing down my 10 goals(for this year) in a notebook everyday has been helpful.

Books I’ve found helpful lately are Monica Leonelle’s Growth Hacking for Storyteller’s series; James Scott Bell’s book for writers Write Your Novel From the Middle; and James Altucher’s inspiring book The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth.Each of these books have is super helpful to understand either story craft or successful mindset.

Watch the Video Interview

Interview Summary

Monica Leonelle started blogging back in 2007. This got her excited to want to create an online business. She worked in corporate until 2011 and focussed at that time on digital marketing and did a lot of copywriting. She got her MBA and focussed on marketing strategy and entrepreneurship.

In 2012 Monica transitioned into full-time freelance copywriting and blog writing. While she was doing that she was learning to write and publish both fiction and nonfiction books. It was in mid 2013 that she decided she would force herself to write 50,000 words in a month. She did that in September 2013 and documented the her process which Monica describes in detail, in her book, Write Better, Faster.

By 2015 she  had achieved enough income from her books to quit the freelance work for good, and she stopped taking clients and transitioned out of freelance work. In 2016 she focussed on her first course, Let Your Book Flow Signature Program.

After Monica struggled for a few years to get her books written, she realized what she wanted was a clear playbook on how to become an author. 

She wrote down a notes, which eventually became what she called the Hierarchy of Prosperous Creation.

The idea is that you have to finish one step before you move onto the next layer:

First 3 Tiers:

These first three Tiers are miserable because it’s a ton of work to get through them and you don’t see results at the beginning. The goal is to get through these first 3 Tiers a lot faster.

  • Mindset: confidence issues that authors face that hold us back. Learning how to unblock that.
  • Craft: knowing how to create a book whether it’s nonfiction or fiction.
  • Rhythm: Your ability to write words quickly. Your writing habits and process and developing a consistent writing habit.

Last 4 Tiers:

  • Paths: Having one single path from a stranger to a reader/customer.
  • Fortresses: Basically turning your success from one path into a sustainable business.
  • Bursts: Time sensitive promotions and events. Most effective when you have all these sales funnels in place.
  • Community: A community that surrounds your work. As you nurture your community they help you find more customers. When you get to this Tier, you see deep profits because everything is aligned and you are growing organically.

Monica encourages new writers to go back to each Tier in the Hierarchy of Prosperous Creation and do an intensive on it.

Try to make it your goal to get through each of the Tiers quickly.

She’s found that what most authors are missing the most is that they don’t work on their mindset on a daily/weekly basis.

To start working on your mindset start by: tracking your metrics. Tracking what you’re doing = truth. Many people don’t confront the truth – because sometimes it’s painful.

Monica shares her story of how she had to confront and accept the fact that she had been trying to do this for 5 years with little results. She needed to find something that was working.

Accelerated Author, is a way to constantly check on your mindset and double check you’re consistently improving.

Monica encourages writers to study the hierarchy and understand where you’re at in the Tiers. When you understand it, you’ll move along the path a lot faster. For first-time writers, start with understanding the seven Tiers in Prosperous Creation. It will lay out the higher level strategic questions and answers that you might have for where you are headed as an author. It helps you to understand which piece you need to be focussed on right now 😉

You can find Monica at www.monicaleonelle.com or at www.proseonfire.com and on Facebook or Twitter.

5 Lessons I’m Learning on Writing Habits, Routines and Productivity

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As I’ve gone over my writing and self-publishing goals for 2017 – and as I’ve looked back at what worked and what didn’t in the past year – I’ve been learning some lessons on writing habits, routines and productivity.

I want to share with you what has held me back from being a productive writer and hopefully spare you some mistakes I’ve made. I’ve been learning to create new and better habits and I hope you find these ideas helpful to your own writing process.

5 Lessons I’m Learning on Writing…

Even though writing a book may seem easy to some people – and it does have it’s fun moments – I’ve discovered it’s actually a ton of hard work.

It is such a wonderful job(most days I love writing), but it really is not a job for everyone.

I’ve been learning that there are some details I needed to have clear thinking on in order to help me be more productive.

Here’s what I’ve been learning on writing habits, routines and productivity:

1.Start with your Why. What is your BIG reason that writing your book is so important to you? When you have a clear picture of the desire that drives you to write your daily word count, and to publish a specific number of books each year, then the chances of you acting on your goals and arriving at your destination increase dramatically.

I’ve noticed for myself, when something is truly important to me and I’ve really made a commitment to get it done, that I move my life around this main thing. I’ll get up earlier, I sacrifice TV time and work while the family watches TV and I’ll stop most of my procrastination.

Here’s some more thoughts on your why: Your why will keep you focussed and on track when times are tough. It’s the reason you’re doing any of this anyway. (Examples of what might be your reason to write: provide for your family, personal freedom, make a dent in the universe, or maybe there are stories deep inside of you that you feel it’s your job to tell, etc. ).

What is your why? Get clear on it and project where you want to be in 1 year or 5 years. Why do you want to be at that point? I’ve discovered that my why – which is freedom – is what gets me writing everyday 😉

2.Decide on Your Writing Habits. Even though every writer is different, if you want to get words consistently onto the blank page, it’s important to develop some sort of habit or routine.

Habits are those things that you do without having to think about them. You just do them. Much like brushing your hair or brushing your teeth. More often than not, we do those things at the same time everyday, and we miss it if they don’t get done.

I’ve been writing and blogging for five years, besides doing a ton of driving for our four children and the usual household stuff besides teaching piano and voice. Many times I’ve needed to write while sitting in the vehicle or especially lately, I’ve been writing when the family is watching T.V.  I’ve been working on getting up earlier lately, I find my creative flow easier in the early mornings, so 5am seems to work better.

I save time in the afternoons to work on my website, blog, podcast and social media connecting with other authors and growing my online platform. Lately I’ve been learning more from Brian Tracy’s tips on goal setting, productivity and being more self-disciplined. It’s been so helpful. And I’ve been reminded that I’ve done this before with all those early 5am mornings when I would get up and practice piano for two hours.

So, even though I haven’t switched quite yet to being a full-time author entrepreneur, the goal is now closer than I could ever see it before. If you’re goal is to make the switch from day job to full-time author, I encourage you to experiment with habits and routines that work for you.

Here’s what I’ve found works good for me, and hopefully it’s help you too:

  • I write fiction in the morning and then work on blogging, podcasting or marketing in the afternoons. Sometimes I’ll catch up on stuff that isn’t done for the day, after I’ve finished having supper with the fam.
  • I have a small chrome laptop that I use for writing when I’m driving for appointments and things. But when I’m at home I write from my iMac where I have Scrivener all ready to go, for my latest project(when I write from my Chrome laptop, I write in google docs and then it’s easy to copy and paste what I’ve written into Scrivener). When I write I play music – usually rain and piano sounds – and then I can focus on the story.
  • I also use printable calendars that I write down everything that’s on my schedule. I also schedule interviews, and writing times and deadlines into my google calendar. That’s been helpful, because then I have a calendar for when I’m on the go too.

3.Understand your first draft is fun!: I know this sounds weird to write that down, but I’m finally starting to loosen up enough when I write the first draft, that it feels more like creativeplay. Which feels so good.

But, here’s the thing. The only way I feel that freedom, is when I am secure in the fact that my first draft will not be seen by others. It’s almost like a safety net in a way, from a high fall… only this fall is the flow of words.

Usually as writers, our words don’t flow from our brain to our fingers in perfect order. But that’s okay, because you can feel safe in the fact that no one will see your words until you’re ready for them to.

Then after you’ve finished the first draft, then you can allow your inner editor to come in and begin cleaning up the draft.

4.Learn to trust emergence of your story. I learned this in this interview with bestselling thriller author JF Penn. Trust the story ideas that keep tumbling out of your mind and onto the page. Just go with it, and see where it takes you.

Sometimes you might feel, like you’re not sure how you’ll find more creative ideas. If you’re wondering how you can start the flow of more ideas, here’s some ideas that work for me.
I’ve started the habit of noticing details around me and writing them down.

I learned this first from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. She recommends going on a artist date about once a week. All this means is taking some time in your week to go somewhere that inspires you. It could be going for a walk, going to a museum… or I even go to the dollar store or a craft store and I feel like my creative well is filled up. Also while I’m meandering around, I will jot down stuff. For example, a few weeks ago when I was at the grocery story, I saw a blond haired, green eyed girl, who had that ‘girl next door look.’ When I heard the lilting way she spoke and the words she used, I thought this is much like my main character in my book. So I just wrote down some stuff in Evernote app on my phone, and then I can access the ideas quickly later when I get home.

You might be surprised how little memories of places or things you did long ago, resurface as you write and you include them in your story. I’ve noticed my memories of riding horses and living on the farm are coming back as I write my western romance. Also, as I write the contemporary romance, I’ve brought back memories of old victorian houses… which is part of the story. It’s fun to discover different tidbits of your memories that pop up as you write.

Keep trusting your ideas and impulses wherever you are and write them down. And keep filling up your creative well… and get excited about your ideas again and come back and write your story.

5.As You Write More You’ll Find Your Voice. I’ve discovered that the more I write – blogposts or books – that I uncover more of my true voice.

When I first started writing my first book, I was a little obsessive about this first novel. I had spent years writing and a few months editing it and had a really difficult time letting it go out into the world.

Most writers have self-doubt and worry about failing. Or maybe you’re concerned about reader’s expectations, like I was. I share more about how to deal with expectation’s here. As I’ve talked with a few successful authors, it seems like those fears don’t really stop. So what do we do?

Just put your head down again, and write the next book. And keep writing and don’t stop. Learn from other authors, from editors who read through your manuscript and read craft books. Put into practice what you’re learning, and you’ll continue to grow as a writer.

Most of all, let writing be fun for you.

The best thing I’ve learned so far when it comes to writing stories, is to learn to relax and play in the sandbox of your imagination. Just write for the pure joy of telling your story.

It’s such an amazing thing to be able to write stories that inspire, entertain or educate others and as writers it’s what we get to do… everyday 😉

What have you learned on writing habits and productivity that aren’t in this list? Please share your thoughts and ideas… it’d be so great to learn from each other.

 

 

What I Learned from My 2017 Reader Survey

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I sent out a survey to readers who read this blog or listen to the podcast around the middle of last month. It is important to me that regular readers of this blog or listeners of the podcast have a chance to voice their thoughts.

At the end of the survey, there was a place where people who did the survey to add their email address for a chance to win a 6 month FREE membership. I used random(dot) org to figure out the winner. Scroll to the bottom if you want to find out who won!

In the past, when I’ve asked people for their thoughts, I’ve found that a reader survey is the best way to get real, useful data on the people I want to serve best: you.

The Goal of this Reader Survey…

The overall goal, was to really dig deep and learn the areas where I could help readers of the blog, listeners of the podcast and people who have emailed to ask for tips on how to write, self-publish and market the stories they are passionate to tell.

My goal was really three fold:

  • to hear from readers/listeners, what they were struggling with in terms of writing, self-publishing or marketing their books.
  • from the answers on the survey, to learn where I need to focus my blogposts and interviews for the podcast.
  • to take it step further and understand how I could create something like a membership site, that would be a super helpful and simple solution to the struggles writers said they had in the survey.

What the Numbers Say in the Reader Survey

Based on the answers to the specific questions I asked, here’s what readers had to say.  I’ve also added some thoughts to fill out the picture.

  • Readers described themselves as Fiction writers(33%), nonfiction writers(20%) with most readers being both fiction and nonfiction writers(50%). (I love the diversity).
  • When I asked where people were at in their writing process: (20%) said they hadn’t started a book yet; (60%) were partway through writing their book; (10%) had published their book and wanted to learn how to sell more copies; and (10%) said they weren’t working on a book, but focussed on writing smaller stuff at the moment. It looks like overwhelmingly, writers said they were in the process of writing a book.
  • When asked what readers were struggling with most in the areas of writing, self-publishing or marketing their books, you responded: (40%) said they struggled to get words on the page most days; (10%) mentioned that writing and self-publishing their book felt overwhelming and/or they lacked know-how; (50%) felt like they had a messy, jumble of random thoughts and have difficulty breaking through distraction to write with focus and clarity; (30%) struggled with fear of working hard at writing and then failing; (10%)struggled with fear of success – to write a bestseller and not be able to keep up with readers demands; (20%) worried about finding readers who would love their books; (40%) were afraid their writing wasn’t good enough to self-publish; (20%)mentioned that sometimes reading writing books, leaves them more confused and less confident about their writing; (20%) struggled with technical ‘know-how’ of setting up their author website and email list; and (30%) felt unsure of how to build a career as a successful author entrepreneur. From these responses, it seems like many writers are looking for ways to have more freedom in their creativity/writing so they can focus, be more productive, grow in confidence as a writer so they can grow as successful author entrepreneurs. This is so helpful to learn.
  • Topics that readers most wanted to learn about were: 1)How to be more productive as a writer(60%); 2)How to successfully self-publish(50%); 3)How to get ‘unstuck’ and finish the story they are writing(40%); 4)How to stay motivated/inspired to write(40%); 5)The craft of writing a better novel(30%); 6)how to combine what they love to write with what readers want to read in their genre/topic(30%); 7)How to outline or write beats for their fiction or nonfiction book(30%); 8)Steps on how to go from writing and self-publishing one book to building a business as a author entrepreneur(30%).
  • Most important writing goals right now were: 1)Get unstuck so they can finish the novel/book they started(44%). 2)To be more productive so they can write & self-publish more books this year(33%). 3)Learn the craft of writing a better novel/book(22%). 4)Start writing their first book(22%). 5)Learn the successful storyteller’s mindset, writing craft, creative rhythm, growing your author brand; building your community(22%). 6)Learn how to write and edit books for great dialogue and story flow so readers love their stories(11%).
  • Writer’s said that the biggest struggle to accomplishing their goals were: 1)Accountability partners to help inspire and encourage them to stay on track(75%). 2)The support of a community of writers(37%). 3)Weekly or monthly Q & A calls where they can get their questions answered(37%). 4)Access to industry experts to mentor them in the areas of writing, self-publishing, marketing their books and growing their author entrepreneur business(37%).
  • The 7 top course topics readers wanted, were: 1)How to unblock their creative path & get rid of limiting beliefs to have more creative freedom(66%). 2)Step-by-Step process on how to format and self-publish their books to Amazon and other digital retailers(66%). 3)Simple steps to structure and outline your novel(55%). 4)How to of writing and editing a novel(44%). 5)step-by-step process of how to create a book cover using Canva(44%). 6)Simple step-by-step process on how to set up your author website(44%). 7)A Facebook Community to help writers connect, learn and grow from other mentors and writers(44%).
  • How readers learn best: 1)Video with slides and audio voice narration(55%). 2)Text with images and infographics(22%). Videos with graphics and voice-over seems to be the most popular with people who are learning something new.
  • The best month, for readers to begin a monthly membership site created to be an solution to the above needs: 1)Beginning of June 2017(55%). 2)Beginning of March 2017(22%). 3)Beginning of September(22%).
  • When asked what value readers would place on a monthly membership site that was designed specifically to be a solution to the above needs, readers responded: 1)$17 USD monthly(50%); 2)$20 USD monthly(50%). 3)Others responded, saying that the value they would place on a membership site and the budget they have for it are different. And some suggested different membership levels for more or less access to content. Something I hadn’t really considered. I’ll need to think about that 🙂

My Takeaway from this Survey

I think I’ve read through the survey answers and comments at least ten times already, pondering through the answers.

Based on your feedback, I have come to some conclusions of what to keep doing and gained more insight and ideas on what to start.

  1. I want to keep blogposts and podcast interviews focussed on your needs. That’s really  number one. This survey has been really eye-opening for me to see that some of the top important needs for you as writers are things like: 1)Learning how to get rid of distractions, and write with focus and clarity 2)How to unblock your creativity so you can write with freedom everyday 3)How to successfully self-publish books.
  2. I was reminded to keep details of each topic, really practical. As I read through some of the comments in the survey, I was reminded that readers find step-by-step guides really helpful as they learn something new.
  3. Also, I believe a membership site is a good idea. As I read through the struggles writers mentioned as well as from course topics and the need for community and accountability, this really reaffirmed my original idea to expand the storyteller’s roadmap into a membership website that was super affordable as well as be a solution to all the needs mentioned above. My goal is to have the membership website ready to go by the start of June 2017 😉

Also, I wanted to announce the winner of the 6 month Free Membership – when the membership website opens in June 2017…

I used random (dot) org to randomly choose someone(who had added their email at the end of the survey) for the Free Membership.

The winner of the 6 month FREE Membership is Carrie 😉 I have sent an email to the winner!

Thank you again to everybody who answered the questions in the reader survey. You guys are amazing and really appreciated. It means the world to me to hear your honest thoughts on your concerns, struggles about writing and those details that would really help you reach your goals.

I consider you effort and taking the time to fill out this survey, a real gift. So again, thank you for trusting me with your time and your thoughtful answers.

Are there some other areas – of writing, self-publishing or book marketing – that were missed in this survey? Please share in the comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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