Page Up Ep #1: Why You Can’t Get Your Book Done

 

Welcome to the very first episode of the Page Up podcast. I decided to create this podcast because I see so many amazing change-agents wanted to change the world with their books but not having the tools or the know-how to do it. Writing a book that makes a difference isn’t hard — but it’s tricky because almost all the advice that’s out there is flat-out wrong!

I wanted to give you a chance to get to know me before you ever sign up to write a book with me, and I hope this podcast will give you the information that you need to get your book written, published, promoted and changing people’s lives.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why you MUST be honest with yourself before you will write your book.
• The 3 ingredients to getting your book done. Guaranteed.
• How to myth of the solitary writer is holding many people back and what community can do for you.
• Where the evidence you will be able to finish your book has been hiding.
• The 1 thing that is WORSE than not getting your book done.

 

Listen To The Show:

Full Episode Transcript:

Hey everybody welcome to page up this is the first episode of page up we have ever done and I wanted to kick things off just to give you an introduction of me and what we do at The Author incubator, but what I’ve decided to do instead is give you a little lesson, it’s the one thing I noticed most about people who want to write a book but haven’t done it. So I’ll tell you little bit more about our story and what we do throughout all of the upcoming podcasts, but I’ll just say now that The Author Incubator was created because of my love for personal growth books, and my passion for making a difference in people’s lives. There are so many amazing books out there with transformative powerful messages that never get into the hands of people who need those solutions, and there are whole bunch of really crappy books that get a lot of attention and downloads and readers and really my personal mission is to help people who have a calling, who have almost the need what I say is your book is waking you up at night you are being nagged to share your story and to help people; but maybe you just don’t have some of the skills that other people have to get that book out into the world.

A book that makes a difference that’s what we do at the author incubator, and that means those are powerful books of hope and healing and change and transformation, but they are also books that get into people’s hands and into their hearts, and into their heads. So they are taking action on the information provided in your book. So I decided to create this podcast because I wanted to help even more people to make those connections to tween the difference between writing a good book or even a great book, and a book that makes a difference.

We really want you to get to know us before you sign up to actually do a book with us or really before you sign up to the book with anyone or decide to do it on your own. I want you to learn what is the difference between authors that are successful and authors that fail to make a difference, even if they succeed to get their book done; and I hope through this podcast you kind of see our approach and you’ll be able to apply it or maybe even sign up to work with us and do a book with our team.

Let’s start off with the topic for today and that is why you can’t get your book done. So many people come to me and say that they have wanted for a long time to write a book, and that they have wanted to use a book to change people’s lives, but despite all their efforts going to writers workshop reading books about writing a book, writing maybe an outline maybe some of them of started to write 20 or 30 or 40 pages, they can’t get across the finish line, and it’s so interesting to me to see how many people go through the same shame spiral of really blaming themselves for maybe not been able to take more action for being a procrastinator, for being lazy, people tell me I just need to get my butt in the chair and I just need to write and when I write it’s good but what is stopping me from writing; and they go into the cycle of really beating themselves up for promising themselves that they would write a book and then breaking that promise, and that is really at the heart of this episode is for you to think about what promises have you broken to yourself about your book.

Because here’s the thing I want to teach you in today’s episode, inside everyone who believes they are supposed to write a book is a part of yourself that’s connected to a source or your higher self or God however you think about it, but there is a part of you that in my opinion has already written your book, and I call that part of yourself your inner author; and here’s the thing about your inner author, when you break a promise to your inner author it actually creates more distance between you and your book being done. What I say is every time you lie to yourself about when your book is going to be done that adds a day to the amount of time it will take to get your book done, and these lies add up over and over we are telling ourselves and going to work in my book, I have to work on my book, when am I going to do that, and you keep it on your to do list.

I want to start today by really suggesting if you have writing a book on your list, there is a choice here, and by the end of this podcast I wanted to make a very, very simple choice which is decide either to write your book or to not write your book, but choose not to stay in this space of I really need to write my book; because here’s the thing, that energy I really need to write my book, oh why am I not working on this, or when you bump into somebody you haven’t seen in a while and they say, oh weren’t you working on a book how is your book coming? When you feed into that negative energy you are pushing your inner author away. And so when you bump into that person they say what’s going on with your book, if you can look at them and say very clearly oh I decided not to write it I’m not working on a book. I know this is going to sound counterintuitive but that actually gets you closer to finishing your book. If you can just fully own the depths of your soul I’m not writing a book rather than I’m working on it I need to get back to it all that stuff, you will actually either at that book or you won’t, but if you’re going to write it it’s going to happen a lot faster if you can just decide not to because that grabby energy, that energy of wanting, of yearning, what that attracts is more wanting, yearning, more self-loathing shame, more beating yourself up that’s what that attracts.

If  you lean into those negative feelings about your book, I should be working on my book, what you’re going to get is a lot more energy right back at you, evidence that you aren’t working on your book. And so if you make that decision “oh I’m not working on a book I decided not to,” one of 2 things happens, one your book goes away awesome, or two, you create a safe space for your inner author to raise her hand and gently say to you a am still kind of thinking about writing that book, and then you can create that relationship again with your inner author, you can stop the wrestling match, you can lean in and say I’m listening, but we’re not going to decide to write this book until we are all the way in. So for now we’re not going to write a book, and as she continues to bring that question to the table as that idea comes up in your mind, there may be a point where you made a decision that my mind has made which now is the time, I’m done, I’m ready to put down my childish things, I’m ready to stop the tantrums, now is the time to write my book; and when you make that decision in a true meaningful powerful way, we will talk a little bit more about how to do that in a minute, when you do that your book is already written.

I want to tell you little story, I have a person in my life who I call my bonus son, he is very special to me he was an exchange student who came to live with us and we did let him go home, he went on briefly but he decided to come back to the US and to get his college degree here, and there was a day when he signed up for college and there were a bunch of us contributing to paying for college for him, I’m part of his team, and making that first payment was so easy because there was not a single part of me that wondered oh I wonder if he will actually finish, I wonder if he will go to class, I wonder if you will take advantage of the opportunities presented to him.

There was no doubt the minute he decided to enroll in college in America the minutes that he found people to contribute to scholarships and pays tuition, the minute he made that commitment it was all but a done. Yes there were 4 years of classes and soccer practice, and a summer vacation to go through, there were obstacles and hoops to jump through, but really the moment he truly decided I’m going to go to college and I’m going to find the resources to make that happen is degree was pretty much done; yes of course some people fail out of college but if you think if you look at numbers, and I’m not looking at statistics here but if you look at the numbers you’ll see really not that many people who start college and that sort of meaningful way don’t finish.

Now if you take a class at community college or maybe audits a class or take a single credit here or there and your kind of half in and half out then yeah you’re probably likely not to finish, but if you enrolled full-time in an undergrad program and you find in his place the 3 people to get together and pay your tuition which is a hard thing to ask people to do about $55,000 a year. So it’s not a small ask, so if you make that commitment to yourself and to your loved ones the chance of finishing is almost a sure thing.

I want you to make your book a sure thing. So the first thing we want to do is find evidence that when you commit to something you finish it. So maybe you went to college, how did you commit to college, what was your story? Did you make a financial commitment yourself, did your parents pay for it, did you go straight through, did you switch colleges? Let’s find some examples from your life that you can write down, I’d love for you to find 3 or you make a commitment and site all the way through.

Now a commitment has a couple of components to it that I want you to look for, one of the components I want you to look for is a graduation. So for us our graduation is the day we publish our books because on that today our clients go from being authors in transformation to being authors. So I never look at our clients as writers. In fact one of the ways I know that somebody isn’t going to finish a book is if they go to lots of writers workshops, because writers don’t tend to finish their books they want to explore their path of writing which is fantastic. Authors finish books and so our authors are authors in transformation within fly on their publication day that’s their graduation.

So obviously undergraduate it’s a great example you go to school and you are an undergraduate right. So you are under or less than a graduate you’re clearly heading towards graduation, and then you hit that graduation day. So let’s look for other examples in your life maybe certification programs, maybe it was getting a promotion at work, maybe you did a play, so I have a background in theater and the day that I signed up to do a show, I’m a director and so today I signed up to do a show I know it’s happening I’ve got the date, I’ve got the location and there are many days on that journey where I doubt the possibility that we are going to go live in front of an audience of human beings, and yet it has always happened. I have never had a show not happen. I probably had some shows that were pushed back a day or 2 but for the most part if the show is scheduled for you know opening night Friday, July 1 pretty much Friday, July 1 there’s going to be an audience and there’s going to be us.

What are some things that you have initiated and then graduated to and what do they have in common. Very often there is a commitment of time and finances, and there are other people involved, other people who have a stake in the game. The story of my bonus son he has 3 people who have a stake because we are paying for his degree. In the case of the play you can see how the cast has a lot at stake. There are commitments of time and finances, time to take the classes, time for her cells, there is the cost of participating. And so find an example like that in your own life and then I want you to think about when you started that adventure whatever that was, going for a promotion, may be there is a craft project that you completed, and when you started it what was your primary thought about that project?

I’ll give you an example from my experience in theater. I am thinking very much when I start a project I wonder how this will be received by the audience. So I’m thinking less about the audience on opening night. And so then for you that could be really different right. So you might have a thought is going to be great to finish, this is going to be an awesome accomplishment. I am going to wager a bit here that you did not start this project thinking it’s 50-50 maybe this happens maybe it doesn’t, I am going to bed that you did not start whatever the project was holding space for it to not happen. So we’ll use the metaphor of grad school, I’m sorry of undergraduate school and my bonus child. I don’t feel like his primary thought even if he didn’t share it with me, but if his thoughts was yeah this whole thing with going to college in America, I give it 50-50 odds, I don’t think I would’ve made a financial commitment I made to him even if he didn’t say that to me. But if he was holding space in his heart energetically for, ah I’ll take people’s money if it works out it works out if it doesn’t work out whatever all got back home, if he had that energy behind that even if he had the energy of I don’t know if I can do this I will give it a shot but you know English isn’t my first language so I’m probably not going to pass my classes, but I mean I’ll try. If he had that I’ll try energy or I really wanted to work out any of that I don’t think I would have made the financial commitment I made, I don’t think you would’ve gone the scholarship that he got, and I don’t think his mother would’ve made the financial commitment that she made.

A lot of us think that to go to college I need to get the money lined up first, that’s actually not true you need to get your thoughts lined up first and that’s true with your book too. When your thoughts are in the right place about your book all those other steps like finding people to give you $200,000 they come together and it seems counterintuitive, it seems like lately I don’t think so I think first you’ve got to find $200,000 and then maybe go to college, the truth is when you make that decision the other pieces fall into place. So let’s do it for you what was your thing. You know I use the example of theater and I thought I can’t wait for opening night I can’t wait for people to see this, I can’t wait to see how this transforms people. Those are the things I’m thinking of. So then stuff happens it’s hard to find people to play certain roles, the theater burns down, somebody drops out, somebody gets a better role in New York and they move, stuff happens all the time in theater I can’t even tell you; but because were holding space for success and were not really holding space for failure somehow somebody comes in and covers the role we find another space things come together and opening night happens over and over again.

And so what is your graduation that you can’t imagine not happening? How can you look at your book like it’s a done deal yeah you might have to replace an address or find $200,000 there are going to be things that will, but you’re going to do it. So I want you to think about that event for you what your last graduation was you can think of a couple of these, and what were the obstacles that came up as they do, what were the obstacles that came up and how did you overcome them from the perspective of your thoughts. So again something comes up whatever your example was, my example been an opening night for show something comes up an actor drops out. Now my thought doesn’t go too well I guess were not going to do this, my thought is I wonder how we’re going to fill this role, I wonder how we are going to open tomorrow night even though we don’t have an actor. So I’m looking for ways it’s going to happen, and I’m not holding space for it not happening so why am I doing that let’s go back to the components of why you’re going to finish her book. A financial commitment, a commitment of time, and a community other people who will be affected by your decision. So those could be your readers, those could be your writing accountability group, those can be your clients but who is going to be affected negatively if you were to drop out of the process.

So again the goal here is to find your current thought about your book and usually what I hear from people who wanted to write a long time is some version of, I really had to work on that. Find that and let’s find a better thought that is true then that thought even if it’s I’m not working on my book right now is one of the most powerful things you can do is a drop the lying to yourself. That doesn’t mean you don’t get to write your book just means were going to be honest right now I’m not committed, I’m not committed with time, I’m not committed with community, and acquainted with financial resources, I’m not really in this isn’t what being in looks like. So yeah maybe someday but right now I’m not working on a book. That’s a great way to change or thought, or if you really are if you resist me when I say that if you feel like oh this is annoying why she telling me on day one of page up decide not to write your book right, then I want you to lean into that and say I’m deciding to write my book. I am committing this time, I’m going to promise this community these people my book, and I’m going to make a financial commitment to getting it done just like I would for an undergraduate degree.

Now that financial commitment can look a lot of different ways. So you can certainly hire people, you can hire us, you can hire other companies like ours, you can hire individuals from ELance.com or Fiverr, but one of the things I like to tell people to do is really just a start by finding someone you trust to hold your money. So is there somebody that you can give and it has to be enough money so remember using undergrad here it’s $54,000 a year, that’s a pretty significant commitment. So I want you to feel this commitment your financial cost to committing to this should be at least one month salary, at least what you’re making in a month, and find someone who will hold of that money for you if you want to do it on your own, and then when you finish the book you get that money back or if you break your promise to yourself that money get sent to the charity of your choice but you don’t have the right to get that money back. I wanted to make a financial commitment that is significant enough that you will actually be all in, and that you find someone you trust that they actually will take your money and send it off if you don’t hit the deadlines that you promised.

So it’s really important that you find someone trustworthy here and obviously the other thing that you can always do is to hire some experts and make it an investment, so in that case you would be getting the money back but you would be getting a higher quality product. So next week on page up were actually going to talk about when to DIY it and went to hire help when it comes to writing your book. And I have to say less of people are surprised by this but I think there are great reasons for both, sometimes it make sense to DIY and sometimes it makes sense to hire help. I’m going to give you a lot of information to make that decision in our next episode. But for this week what I want to leave you with is this thought, when you lie to yourself that you are working on your book and you’re not, you are delaying the amount of time it will take for you to get your book out. So the number 1 first step in getting your book done is to get honest with yourself, are you in or are you out, and either answer is perfectly acceptable there is no judgment you’re not a bad person if you decide you’re out or you’re out for right now, that is really the step 1 choice; and then when you’re making that choice I wanted to think about another time when you’ve decided to be all in and you made it to publication day graduation day, opening night, you made it there what was your thought, what was your primary thought when you signed up and what was your primary thought true the process, because when you do make that decision when you do decide I’m going to write my book in that full body commitment way we want to know what’s your primary thought and are you holding space for failure?

My argument is authors in transformation have doubts and fears and moments of panic, but they don’t hold space to not finish their book. So there could be something that comes up a rear less than 1% of the time where there is a cyclone and your manuscript is lost or something, but for the most part if you do this part right and you make that decision in a way that includes commitment of your time, your finances, and community, that committee aspect is key then you will get your book done. So that is the first episode of page up, we are going to be really busting a move here and identifying what holds people back from writing their book, what are the most important steps to take when you’re writing a book so that they affect the most people that you reach the most people and make the biggest difference possible, and we are then going to focus on promotion and publishing secrets, Amazon hacks, insider publishing industry information that isn’t out there that publishers don’t want you to know that are hidden behind 5 or $10,000 programs. I’m going to expose all of this on the podcast I really want you here for the journey, and I want to know a little bit more about you. So what I would love if you would go to theauthorincubator.com and you signed up for my 4 part video series which is right on the home page, it’s going to tell you how to write a book that makes a difference. I’ve got 4 short great videos that are going to give you a lot of information really quickly, you can catch up on those between now and the next podcast episode, and then drop me a note so it’s [email protected] I would love to hear from you you can also leave comments right in the podcast and I will find them and you can come over and see us at theauthorincubator.com/blog where you’ll be able to find show notes and transcripts, and you can comment more and tell me what you think has been holding you back from writing your book.

So please go ahead and check that for part video series over at theauthorincubator.com and we will meet you back here for episode 2 of page up.