Archives for April 2013

Is It Worth It To Drop Several Hundred Dollars on a Writing Conference?

April 29, 2013 by 2 Comments

I am a cheap bastard. Instead of spending money on pricey project management systems, I run my life through Google and GQueues. I avoid paid teleclasses and webinars in favor of business books that I dog-ear and pore through over and over again. I even married a web developer so I could get him to build all of my websites for me. (Okay. I married him for other reasons, too.)

And just a few weeks ago, I was out at a restaurant when I realized there was a massive hole in the crotch area of my only pair of jeans.

My mom proceeded to make fun of me for being too poor to buy new pants.

(Then she pity-bought me new pants so, really, who wins here?)

Still, back in 2012, I vowed that I would start investing in my business instead of cutting corners all the damn time. In the spirit of that, I hired designers to pretty up my Starter Kit, and to create a color palette and a logo for a side project. I became a paying member of ASJA. I re-joined Freelance Success and started subscribing to a slew of literary magazines (Poets & Writers, The Sun, Creative Nonfiction, Oxford American), educational organizations (Toastmasters), and freelance services (Duotrope). I plonked down a couple thousand dollars for yoga teacher training.

And just last week, I went to a professional writer’s conference, for which I dropped $338.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: community, networking, writing Tagged With: , ,

How Do You Bribe Yourself Into Getting Busy?

April 25, 2013 by 3 Comments

hungry kittenThose of you who follow me on Twitter may have noticed that I’ve been having a little bit of trouble with motivation these days.

Monday, April 22, 2:27 p.m.: “I just picked up a book, slammed it down, and shouted at myself, ‘You can read that if you get shit done!’ Obviously losing it.”

Tuesday, April 23, 10:41 a.m.: “Today will be one of those days where I only get shit done by bribing myself with Spider Solitaire + hip-hop + @poetswritersinc.” #freelance

Then on Wednesday, I came home from my a.m. yoga class all pumped up to be productive, but was then quite easily lured away from my desk by a fellow Toastmasters member who wanted to meet up for lunch.

I obviously have no self-discipline.

I mentioned to Thursday Bram (on Twitter, obvs) that this is the dirty little secret of being a work-at-home freelancer. As holy-shit-fantastic as it is to be a freelancer (and you’d better believe that it’s holy-shit fantastic, and I feel incredibly lucky), it’s still hard as hell.

So I still manage to successfully juggle the social media management and the three ghostwriting projects and the weekly sex column and the yoga teacher training and my book proposal and my Toastmasters VP of Education responsibilities.

But damned if I know how.

Here are things I have promised myself in the pursuit of being productive. [Read more…]

Filed Under: motivation, productivity

The Guru I Don’t Want To Be

April 3, 2013 by 3 Comments

Crazy new age woman in a yellow robe concentratingA little over three years ago (holy crap), I launched Career Coaching for Word Nerds, a career coaching service for beginning freelance writers.

I did it because, for several years, I had been receiving emails from writers pleading for advice, and I realized there was a real need for the help I could provide. Besides, the bottom had fallen out of the economy, I needed to diversify, and I knew that — with my knowledge and experience — this was something I could really kick ass at.

So I went through a career coaching certification program to make myself legit, and then I opened for business.

In the years since, however, it’s gotten so that you can’t cross the street without bumping into a coach or a ninja or a guru or a Guide To Ultimate (Career) Enlightenment. Entrepreneurship blogs have proliferated… which on the one hand is a good thing. It means that people are opening their minds to alternate career paths.

But so much of the content I see these days is regurgitated crap I’ve read a trillion times before, from a trillion different people.

In yoga, I keep hearing the sentiment that the teacher shall remain as a student, always open to learning something new. It’s a concept I’ve always believed in.

But suddenly, I wasn’t learning anything new anymore.

And I worried that you, my dear readers, weren’t learning anything new either. [Read more…]

Filed Under: coaching