Serenity for the Self-Employed

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Alisa Bowman faces the fear of the downturn

2010-06-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

Alisa Bowman's website says it all: Pull it up and the tab will read "Alisa Bowman: Creates bestselling books." New York Times Bestsellers. Major national magazines. She knows what she's doing. And I don't mind saying that she's thoughtful, kind and helpful.

But is she confident? Alisa answered a few questions to explain how she got where she is now and where confidence plays a role there.

When you started freelancing, where would you place your professional confidence level, on a range of 1 (who me? I'll fade into the wallpaper over here) to 5 (I'm great! Let me tell you more!)? Why?

I started freelancing in 1990 and I didn't even think about my confidence or my writing abilities back then. I freelanced after a few years with a newspaper, a few years in book publishing and a few years at a magazine. Initially, I freelanced for people I knew--all of whom I'd worked with before. I knew exactly what they wanted, so the relationships were easy. Boy, I yearn for those days again! Anyway, I've never been one of those full-of-myself people. The day I tell someone that "I rock" will be the day the day I'm on some sort of wonder drug. So I won't give myself a 5, but I definitely didn't have as much to worry about back then. I'll say I was a 3.5.

Where would you place your professional confidence now, on the same scale?

Now I'm a 4, but for different reasons. My career is a lot more demanding now than it was 10 years ago. The freelance climate has changed. Editors have higher expectations of freelancers than ever before. I'm at a point in my career, too, when people have very high expectations of me. I've been a part of 6 best selling books, so authors come to me expecting miracles. Ten years ago, people just wanted me to put words together. Now they want me to make them rich, famous and happy. It's a tall order.

I'm also pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I'm writing on topics -- especially memoir -- that I am not as familiar with. So I feel shaky for the first time in years. I'm also learning how to promote myself, understand technology, and so on. These are things that writers didn't need to worry about 10 years ago. Now, though, I don't just write. I market. I maintain a blog. I delve into photography and photo editing. I'm learning video. I've posed for photos. I've been interviewed on TV. I'm giving speeches. I'm becoming a brand. That's all new to me, so the insecurity factor is higher.

If your confidence level has improved, what do you think made the difference? How did your confidence grow?

Confidence does not grow by staying safe and only writing about what you know. It grows when you push yourself, a little at a time, beyond your comfort zone. Whenever I've stretched in a new direction and did not die as a result, I got stronger and more confident. I was then able to look back on that experience and say, "If I could do ____, then I can do ____." There have been plenty of times in my career when I've wanted to hide under my bed. Whenever I've had that sensation, I've used it as a sign that I needed to face on what scared me JUST FOR THE PRACTICE of facing my fear.

What parts of your professional life still cause you the most insecurity? You told me about a recent bout of bad news that affected your professional confidence. How do you cope when those things happen?

Rejection and revisions still get to me. I am very good at taking feedback and I'm always looking to improve my writing. But lots of revisions generally cause me to blame myself. I think, "I really screwed that up. That editor hates me." In reality, we all get rewritten and edited. If we didn't, the job of "editor" would become obsolete. Also, as my good friend Julie Sturgeon says, we all get tossed into the toilet for a swirly every so often--even the best of us. It doesn't mean that we suck as writers. It means that the situation sucks. I know that, but I don't always feel that.

This may be another way of asking the same question but: Tell me about your demon. You mentioned him privately. What does he say, how does he say it and how do you wrangle him to the ground so you can get up and work again?

My demon says: "You always sucked at writing and you always will. You are a fraud. I can't believe you are still in this business. For Criss Sakes, why do you list those best sellers on your website? You know each and every single one of them was a fluke. You just got lucky. That's all. You suck. You can't write. You are a loser. Pretty soon every editor will know this and no one will hire you and you will eventually starve to death and so will your family."

He's pretty blunt. He's a real swell guy, eh?

How do you cope with those feelings of insecurity?

I write about them. When I am feeling really sucky, I'll post something about it on a writer's discussion board. Or I'll email a friend or post it as a Facebook status update. Or I'll blog about it. I try to use the insecurity as a lesson that can somehow help others. In this case, writing about my demon helps others feel normal and less alone. It also allows me to take the the focus off myself and put it on others. As soon as I do that, I feel better.

Plus, other writers are so supportive and can come up with the perfect pick-me-up. They are writers after all!

There was a time in my life when I did not do this--when I held it all inside. That was during my 20s and I ended up very depressed and in therapy. I've found that being frank, open and transparent has helped tremendously with all of life's little demons.

My premise for this challenge is that all creative people are insecure at some level. Agree or disagree? Why or why not?

Yes, right on. All people are insecure in some way, but creative types even more so. In creative careers, what counts as "good" is so subjective. Edison knew he succeeded in inventing a light bulb when the dang light bulb lit up. But we writers never know for sure if our writing rocks. It's not as if a little computer bell goes off, "ding, ding ding!" to tell us that our work is awesome and that people are going to respond to it. We have to experiment. One way to do this is to blog. The communal nature of blogging gives you instantaneous feedback. You can learn, in real time, how your writing affected those who read it. It's quite powerful.

If you could offer any two suggestions for beginning writers on how to increase their self confidence, what would they be?

Blog. It's the best way to test your writing skills and see if your writing resonates with others.

Practice. I look at life as one huge practice rehearsal. That way, when I screw up, it's not a big deal. I was just practicing. Now I can use the screw up and I can learn from it and become a better writer. When you think of it that way, nothing seems terminal. All writers get better over time. Some of writing is talent, but a lot of it is skill--a skill that can be improved upon with practice.

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Kelly James-Enger is a Five!

2010-05-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Kelly James-Enger's name ought to be familiar to most freelancers. She's the author of the freelancing bible Six-Figure Freelancing and a prolific freelancer in her own right. She's been a full-time freelancer since Jan 1, 1997 and is the author of Ready, Aim, Specialize! Create your own Writing Specialty and Make More Money, in addition to Six-Figure Freelancing.

She also blogs about making more as a freelancer at Deadlines and Dollars. I asked her to talk about her own path to professional confidence. Here's what she had to say.

When you started freelancing, where would you place your professional confidence level, on a range of 1 (who me? I'll fade into the wallpaper over here) to 5 (I'm great! Let me tell you more!)? Why?

I’d say it depended on the day. I was fairly confident starting out, but that was because I’d had early success early on, selling my first two articles to national magazines. I had *no clue* about how challenging full-time freelancing would be, and even less of a clue (if that’s possible) about how I would actually approach it. I’d say, though, that I was a 3 or 4 most days, 1 on plenty of others…usually coinciding with receiving more than 1 rejection on that particular day.

Where would you place your professional confidence now, on the same scale?

With all modesty, I’d say 5 simply because I’ve encountered and overcome multiple challenges (e.g. having stories killed, losing steady clients, dealing with an unstable economy, having books going out of print). I really believe surviving those kinds of things has made me much more confident. For example, if a query gets rejected, I never think it’s because my query isn’t good enough (something I would have automatically thought early on). Now I just figure the editor didn’t like it, had something similar in inventory, or just isn’t smart enough to work with me. (Kidding!)

What parts of your professional life still cause you the most insecurity?

I think it’s having the time and drive to keep up with our changing industry. I’d resisted jumping on the social media bandwagon until quite recently… simply because I didn’t want to take the time to learn how to do it. Setting up my blog took me about 10 minutes. I’m not joking. I’m a luddite at heart but I know that to thrive as a freelancer, I have to embrace technology and know how it impacts my business and the publishing industry as a whole. And that’s always something I’m working on.

My premise for this challenge is that all creative people are insecure at some level. Agree or disagree?

I totally agree…and actually I think probably all people are insecure at some level. I think being a creative person, however, you’re taking a risk of putting yourself out there, whether it’s through a painting or short story or photographs, whatever. I can say that I am much more insecure (and take criticism much more personally) with work that I wrote for myself (I’m a published novelist and have published essays as well) compared to the work I do on assignment for editors. The latter is what I do to pay my bills. I’m much more attached to, for lack of a better word, the former.

If you could offer any two suggestions for beginning writers on how to increase their self confidence, what would they be?

Fake it ‘til you make it. Seriously. When you act confident, people think you are confident. Even when I’ve had my biggest slumps career-wise, I didn’t post on message boards or blogs bemoaning my existence. (I did vent to my husband and close friends, but I didn’t put it “out there.”) It’s really important for freelancers to remember that they’re running their own businesses, and clients want to work with people who are confident and successful.
Oh, and another tip—keep an “inspiration file.” That’s what I call a folder I have of happy notes from editors (e.g, “you did a great job on this piece"), “fan mail” from readers, awards, whatever. It’s a reminder that I am good at what I do, even when I doubt myself (which again everyone does sometimes!)

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: When you are not the genius

2010-05-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

And just for a fun Sunday afternoon, enjoy Elizabeth Gilbert's brilliant take on genius. It has everything to do with confidence. After all, we put pressure on ourselves to be the genius. But what if we weren't. Gilbert is amazingly articulate and compassionate. That's reason enough for a revisit of this post.

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Practice, practice, practice

2010-05-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, novelist and writing craft coach Elizabeth Stark shared the basics of her creative and professional confidence. Today, she'll share the ways she teaches her clients to build confidence.

It's my theory that all creative people are insecure--it's the nature of putting something that really matters with you out into the world. How do you feel about that? Is that true for you, and if so, how?

Yes--I think you are right. It's amazing to work with successful writers. Of course, success as a label is so whimsical, so dependent on a bit of a particular kind of luck: Your film gets picked for a festival, your book gets published, reviewed, noticed . . .

The recent awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to a book which could not find a mainstream publisher is a perfect example. Paul Harding is categorically a success--even though many folks reading this blog probably still haven't heard his name. But who cares? He won the Pulitzer Prize for his book! Yet no writer says to herself, I just wrote and published this great book. I can really trust myself going forward.

Instead, writers are constantly reinventing themselves, imagining ways to change themselves into something better.

When you're working with writing students, what are the areas in which most people lack creative confidence?

People lack confidence every step of the way:

How do I begin?
Is what I have to say worthwhile?
How to I organize a bunch of ideas, images, characters into something as large as a book?
How do I write it?
How do I silence the critic who keeps telling me how bad every sentence is?
How do I know if the book is good enough?
How do I approach agents and editors?

Even after a book is accepted for publication:

How will I make sure my book is noticed?
Will it sell?
What's next?

This is why I've created The Book Writing World. We all need a team. Olympic athletes have a team and coaches. No need to go it alone.

Setting goals publicly is a key to success. Deadlines. Guidance. A feeling that practicing is worthwhile. Writers are the only artists or athletes who think everything we do should be the show-stopping performance. What about rehearsals? Muscle-building? Of course, I tell brilliant writers these things every day, and then when I sit down to my own work, it's hard to remember them . . .

What would you say are the biggest barriers to creative confidence in the craft of writing?
How do you help your students face and overcome them?

The biggest barriers to creative confidence in writing are the blank page and the fact that we are not taught to enter the void and fill it. It never gets easier, in certain ways. Our job as writers is to ask ourselves questions whose answers we do not know--questions that matter to us deeply--and then to answer them. That's it! Who wouldn't be terrified?

In a way, if you are not terrified, you probably aren't tapping a vein. Conversely, you have to take these brave and daring actions not when the mood hits you, but habitually, every day. It's hard enough to jump blindfolded into your own imagination. And it's hard enough to commit to a daily practice. But a daily practice of jumping blindfolded into your own imagination? That's a lot to ask of yourself.

On the other hand, (to paraphrase Mary Oliver) what else do you want to do with your one and only life?

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Are you faking it or are you giving up?

2010-05-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's one thing for me to tell you that all successful journalists and writers are insecure. It's another to hear it from their high-achieving mouths yourself. So I've asked some writers I love and whose work inspires me to answer some questions about professional confidence. We start with Elizabeth Stark, a novelist and writing craft coach whose online writers community, Book Writing World, just launched. This is just a preview. Elizabeth had such amazing things to say that I'll continue her Q&A tomorrow.

I chose you for this q&a because you are a successful novelist--or at least I would qualify you as such: You've written a book, Shy Girl, that I loved and that was nominated for two book awards. You have an MFA from Columbia and have taught writing and continue to teach creative writing through your site, Write Angles. From the outside, I'd guess that you're very confident in your craft and your career. How true is that?

This is going to be a more challenging interview than I originally thought. My public persona (authentic but only one part of a contradictory whole) is confident. And I would say that I am most confident as a teacher. I've practiced editing, responding to and guiding writers more extensively than I've practiced my own writing, and as a result, I've become most confident in those areas.

No matter what, creative practices are harder to master. I strongly feel that I am always a beginning writer. When I wrote my first book, the novel Shy Girl, I told myself that this was my "learning-to-write-a-novel novel." Imagine my surprise when it turned out that each book must be imagined from scratch, and learned from the beginning.

This is the curse (and blessing!) of creativity: you can't rest on your laurels, your experience or your knowledge. You have to flail around. So just like everyone else, each day I face the blank page, I face the terror that I do not know what I'm doing, that I will fail. And in a way, a first draft must fail, so there is no escape, no reassurance. You build upon the failure, improve the mess . . .

I find that I am less confident when I am in the middle of writing--but I am happier. The distance provides a veil; I can remember a set of skills without putting them to the test.

What parts of your career are you most confident in?

See above: I feel good about my ethics and principles in how I respond to others' work and guide them through the process of writing a book. Of course, even here I have moments of doubt, because, again, the creative process requires adherence to a set of guidelines ultimately created from within. I cannot dictate these for other people. With publishing in crisis and a million writing courses out there, I want to be sure I am offering something valuable and meaningful to my clients and students.

Where do you feel like you need more confidence professionally?

I've just undergone a radical shift. For a long time, I would say, "I don't want to be a Julia Cameron." She's the author of The Artist's Way and many other books to guide creative folks along the path. I had this idea that to be known as a teacher rather than as a creator was a sort of failure or carried some sort of shame associated with the crass world of popular success. Hmmm . . .

At any rate, I looked more deeply and learned that Julia Cameron is actually a very productive writer of plays, fiction, screenplays. It's the fault of the market that her teaching books are more widely read than her other work--but she is living a balanced life. And also, now that I have kids, a family to support, I feel like I'd be incredibly lucky to make an impact like Julia Cameron has made.

This shifted my confidence. I used to feel impatient that my work as a writer seemed to inspire others to jump into the fray. Now I acknowledge that this is a gift. And I am learning more about outreach, about marketing--for my own business and to help all my writers to promote their books. My biggest challenge is fitting in my own writing with the nurturing of The Book Writing World (my business) and taking care of my kids. Juggling. I need confidence to say I am doing enough in each area, when each one could happily demand all my time and attention.

What has increased your confidence as a writer and an instructor?

Practice, practice, practice. You really do have to do anything that's important to you every day. Writing. Reading. Teaching. Being with your kids. There are successful writers who do not write daily--but very few.

I think it was easier for me to take myself seriously as an instructor much earlier than I took myself seriously as a writer. When you take yourself seriously, you make time and put in the practice.

You take the next step--practice and promotion.

You ask to be taken seriously, by people in power, by your family and, most importantly, by yourself.

You ask not only in words but in actions.

Now I'm creating an online membership site for writers: coaching and craft for folks writing book-length narratives (fiction, non-fiction, memoir). This is a giant step. I am also writing what my writing group (and secretly, I, too) thinks will be a "break-out" book. It's big and ambitious and risky and exciting. I have had the idea in mind for fifteen years! I've been too scared to just do it. Now I've committed to write this big book.

It's not so much that I have more confidence--I'm just committing to take myself and my occupations seriously, to "fake it until I make it." I think even people with a ton of success have that feeling of faking it often. The difference is: are you faking it or are you giving up?

More tomorrow!

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Confidence and cash

2010-05-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

I asked many of my favorite freelancers to tell me how their professional confidence grew. Katrina Ramser-Parrish, a friend of this blog and of this blogger, shared the following:

For me, my professional confidence grew when I said 'no' to a particular freelance job offering payment far less than what I felt was acceptable or what I was looking for. It was a very nerve-wracking, face-to-face situation with about four employees from the owner to the head editor (and just one of me).

When the team dropped the price for the long-term assignment they had just spent an hour describing to me, I countered with a number that doubled the amount. Complete radio silence followed. They stared at me like I had horns growing out of my head. Instead of recoiling or stammering -- my former negotiating behaviors -- I realized something wonderful:

We both had different ideas about my worth. And that is was nothing to be embarrassed about. Or that anyone had the right to convince me of different or make me feel bad because I wanted more.

I really needed that job, too! But it set the bar for me and I went on to land great assignments with great clients at the price I wanted. It is nothing for me now to say 'no' -- it just means a match isn't there.

Sounds easier said than done, doesn't it? It doesn't have to be.

The point is that your professional confidence can only grow in accordance with how much you believe your work is worth. When I started freelancing, I was earning 15 cents a word on publication and was happy to have it. But if I had stayed there, I wouldn't be happy or confident in my work now. It was taking the risk to query a $1/word publication (then a $1.50/word and then a $2/word publication) that built my professional confidence.

Having work builds confidence--but not if you're shortchanging yourself. It becomes an unpleasant negative feedback loop: You work for less, you feel more hurried, you do sloppier work, you feel worse about it. And when you get the check, you feel even more discouraged.

The good news is you have the power to interrupt that cycle at any time. You have the power. Take it.

Photo by bigburpsx3.

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Confidence Killer #3 Avoidance

2010-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that this space has been blank for a few weeks.

That's because, much as I love this blog, I've been wading through the deep muck of avoidance.

You know the feeling: Those urgent matters, or at least the important ones, are tickling at the edges of your consciousness. But with all your considerable brain power, you're focusing on.... Facebook. Or email. Or your child's dance recital costume. Or that story that's easy. Or those emergency edits.

What you're not doing is taking care of the stuff that needs taking care of. What you're not doing is building confidence.

Why do these go together? The best explanation I can give is to answer that question with another question:

When you've been practicing avoidance, how do you feel at the end of the day? Heavy, right? Lethargic. Maybe a little ashamed. And usually very overwhelmed with the growing to-do list you'll have to tackle tomorrow.

Now switch it. When you've done the scary stuff and faced down those tasks you were avoiding, how do you feel at the end of the day? Chances are, you feel lighter. You feel energized. Strong. Proud. Confident.

This week, my goal for each day has been to face the tasks I've been avoiding. It's painful sometimes. I'd really rather surf the web than work on a story assignment that's more idea than angle. Trudging through the embarrassing and sometimes demoralizing process of narrowing down an amorphous idea into a sharp, concise story isn't high on my priority list, especially when I'm already feeling down. So how do I make myself do it?

Get aware
The first part is always coming out of the fog of avoidance and into the stark and sometimes uncomfortable reality of awareness. Maybe you've sunk into Facebook so far you can't see your email list. When you come out of that denial, expect to feel overwhelmed, ashamed and stuck. It won't last, but remember the feeling. Want to avoid feeling that way? Avoid avoidance!

Accept it
What most of us naturally do is start berating ourselves for losing a few minutes, hours or days to avoidance. How could we be so stupid? How could we have fallen into that trap again?

Well, we do it because we're human. Lighten up on yourself. If berating yourself worked, you'd be winning Pulitzer Prizes and accepting that Nobel Peace Prize right now. It doesn't. All it does is make you so uncomfortable that, guess what? You slip right back into avoidance.

Skip that whole trap. Just practice telling yourself, "I accept that I lost X minutes/hours/days in avoidance. Yep. I did it again. This is part of being self-employed." Like the weather, it comes and goes. Try not to turn it into a referendum on your worth or professionalism.

Take action
Welcome to the hard part. That stuff you've been avoiding? It's staring you in the face. Choose one of those things. For me, it was email yesterday. I used to be so good at clearing out my email. I was an inbox-zero girl. Yesterday, I had 355 emails in my inbox. Overwhelmed? Oh, sure.

So I just started. I sat down and spend some time clearing them out. I found an email from an editor that needed replying to. I sent her three story ideas. I started feeling better about myself.

Let it snowball
I kept going. I found some news reports on subjects my editors follow and forwarded them as a courtesy. I got bolder. I followed up on an outstanding invoice. That felt so good that I sent three invoices that needed sending. Finally, I did the big thing I'd been avoiding for a week: I called the source I needed to call for a story I'm working on.

Don't ask why I was avoiding it. I don't know. The important thing is that I did it. I went to bed feeling better about myself, feeling in control of my life and my business, and confident that today could be just as good.

And you know what? It has been.

How do you fight avoidance?

2010-04-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

All you need is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
Mark Twain

Photo by dnhoshor.

2010-04-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools.
Jeffrey Immelt

Photo by rick.

Join Me for Some Free Coaching

2010-04-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Spring is a good time for renewal. Why not consider renewing your career:

If you're in or around San Francisco, I'll be offering free speed coaching at the Journalism Innovations Conference on Saturday, May 1 from noon to 4:45 p.m.

Here's how it works:

Register for the conference, which is being held at the University of San Francisco
Sign up in them morning (Saturday) for a slot with a coach.
Ask for me when you sign up.
Bring your biggest career questions or even a query.

We'll only get 15 minutes, but you'll get some one-on-one advice and direction. And I'd love to meet you!

Photo by stylianosm.

2010-04-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

You have to pretend you're 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can't hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure.
Andrew Grove

Photo by -= Bruce Berrien =-.

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Confidence killer #2 Isolation

2010-04-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, I wrote about how comparing ourselves to other writers makes us miserable and is the fastest way to kill our confidence.

Today, let's talk about another confidence-killer: Isolation.

It's an occupational hazard: If you're self-employed, you're spending a lot of time by yourself. And if you're lucky, you're spending a lot of that time working. But there's the rub: Especially if you're newly self-employed, you've got more time than work, and that alone time, with all those doubts and insecurities nagging at you can wear you down to the point where you're doubting everything:

Doubting your skills ("Everyone else out there has more talent/more tech skills/is younger/better connected than me")
Doubting your ideas ("Everyone else out there probably has better story ideas and it's easier for them to generate them.")

Before not too long, you find yourself doubting your career path ("Everyone else has always been focused/knows what they're doing/is going to be more successful than me") and then to your very place in life ("Everyone else knows what they're doing with their lives. Oh my God, what am I doing with my life?!?").

And bingo: Paralysis.

No work is getting done. No queries are being sent. No effort is being made to find new clients or expand your creativity. How could it? You've decided it's all pointless.

And you're certainly not talking to other freelancers about your doubts, because you've already convinced yourself that everyone else has it all figured out/has it all together/is wildly successful, while you slowly decompensate into a mass of quivering insecurity.

So how do you cope with the fear, especially when being alone is a part of the job?

Here are a few ideas, and please share your own in the comments:

Go to writers' events
I know they're scary. I know you feel awkward. I know you don't know any of them, but that's the point. You have to get out there and meet freelancers and build a network of other creative professionals you relate to and you can call. Don't go with making the goal of getting work. Go with the goal of meeting other creative types and trying to find out about social get-togethers, potential co-working set-ups and people you might want to have lunch with and talk shop.

Get an action buddy
Now that you've met some people, start asking them if they'd be up for. Tell them what you have in mind: Daily or weekly phone check-ins on your progress and how you're doing. The key is that both of you need to participate. That way, you'll hear the struggles of another writer and be reminded, perhaps daily, that you're not the only one with those doubts.

Join a writer's group
I've suggested this before, but I'll tell you that it's my lifeline. Getting together with a group of freelancers and talking about successes and challenges, and checking in on goals gives me a built-in place where I can talk about my doubts. It also reminds me that everyone has doubts, that everyone struggles. It's incredibly freeing.

Have lunch
Whether you meet them through writers events, Facebook or other organizations, you'll inevitably find freelancers who might want to get out of the house regularly and meet face-to-face with a real-life human being. Get together. Have lunch. Make a goal of doing it once a month, and you'll be out of your house and away from those running thoughts more often.

The key is to interrupt those spiraling fear thoughts.

How do you break the isolation and the downward spiral?

Photo by chad_k.

2010-04-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
Charles Darwin

Photo by celerrimus.

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Confidence at conferences

2010-04-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about April: It's tax month and it's the month of conferences and reunions. This month alone is the American Society for Journalists and Authors conference, the Association of Health Care Journalists conference, the Power of Narrative Conference (the replacement of the Neiman conference), and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

It's enough to make your head spin and your stomach lurch with a whole season's worth of butterflies.

For us freelancers, conferences can be something of a culture shock. We go from working alone in front of our computers (with occasional forays out to interview people in real life) to being at a hotel surrounded by dozens to hundreds of other writers and editors. We go from working in casual clothes to having to wear "fancy" clothes--that is, professional attire.

Suddenly we have to make small talk. We feel the pressure to network--and most of us haven't a clue what that actualy means. And if we want to get anything at all out of a conference, we have to speak up, ask questions and join in the debate.

For most of us, that can be overwhelming. Here are some ways to bolster your conference confidence:

Think before you go

I don't mean "think twice before you go to a conference." It's my experience that conferences can energize your work and renew your commitment to it. By all means, go. What I do mean is that before you see a single person at the conference, come up with two pieces of information you can roll off your tongue when the time is right.

Summary of your work
When someone asks you, "What kind of journalism do you do? Who do you write for?" you need to have an answer. As freelancers, sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that what we're doing isn't enough, and when people ask, we say, "Oh, I'm just a freelancer." Banish that from your vocabulary. Instead, think about the kind of journalism you love to do--your best work, your goals and aspirations--and come up with a mission statement you can tell writers and editors when they ask.

Something like, "I write about a lot of things, but my favorite subjects to cover are health and real estate. I especially enjoy writing about chronic illnesses and how people cope with them."

Whatever it is, know what you love. And share it readily. A happy freelancer is an attractive freelancer.

What you're working on
Sometimes this question can flummox us. Either we're embarrassed because, again, we don't think what we're doing measures up, or we don't think what we're doing now represents what we can do. In essence, we feel inadequate and may shy away from the question.

There's no need. I can tell you that as a newspaper reporter, I covered a lot of dogs of stories: Late night planning commission meetings, bake sales, etc. It wasn't my best work, but it was part of my job. Everyone understands that. Freelancers are no different. What makes us professional is that we don't always love every part of our jobs, but we still do it.

So think about what you've been working on lately: It counts. Think about one or two stories you've worked on in the recent past that you were excited about and talk about those.

"I just finished a story on how the healthcare reform package will affect working class people in my state." Or, "I just finished a story on needle phobias in kids with hemophilia," sounds interesting, whether the person you're talking to knows much about hemophilia or healthcare reform or not. All they want to know is, "Are you doing work?" and "Do I have anything in common with you?"

Look for connections

And that's the whole point. Conferences are a great place to have the water-cooler chats we don't often get to have as freelancers. I remember going to a conference last April and having a great time talking to other freelancers about the frustrations of trying to reach doctors, or the general health insurance system, etc. I shared my own personal experience as well as mentioning stories I wrote on the subject.

Many months later, one of the freelancers I was talking to about it emailed and asked if I would take over a story for her, since she had a family tragedy. It wasn't calculated on my part to get an assignment--and I would prefer not to get assignments under such circumstances--but still, it happened because I was open about my experience and background.

Take it easy

The main thing I found at the conferences I've attended is to remember that being around that many people for that many hours is exhausting. I gave myself permission to leave the cocktail hours early if I needed to--though I made myself face my fears and go to them in the first place--and visited the hotel gym. I got in my exercise to keep myself feeling balanced, and I realized that I needed to just be myself.

You know, mom always said it and it's true--but when you're insecure it's hard to believe it. You don't have to go to a conference prepared to tap-dance for your colleagues or potential clients. You can be yourself, and trust that your professional interest in the topic (that's why you're there, after all) and your general friendliness (you're a reporter--you're used to talking to people) will shine through.

Be in your body

You don't have to be "on" all the time. If you don't feel like smiling, don't smile. If you don't feel up for chatting, don't chat. But at least put yourself in the position to enjoy yourself. Go to the cocktail hours. Maybe talk to one person. If that's all you do, that's a success.

The key, to me, is to stay in your body. When I get very nervous, I err on the side of trying to see myself through the eyes of the person I'm talking to. It's a bad habit and only serves to make me more nervous. After all, when I do that, I start thinking that how that person sees me is more important than how I see myself. But when I stay in my body and check in with myself--how am I feeling? Am I tired? Hungry? Overtaxed? Excited? Engaged?--and then act accordingly, I don't have to worry how the other person sees me. I'm taking care of myself. I'm only doing what I feel comfortable with.

It's a huge relief. And for me, it built my confidence to speak more, to talk to more people, and to know that when I was done, I could go back to my room.

Enjoy your conferences!

Photo by AndyRob.

2010-04-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endevours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
--Henry David Thoreau

Photo by Rich Moffitt.

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Try, try again

2010-04-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an oldy but goodie: Maya Angelou reciting her poem, "And Still I Rise."

The point for this challenge is that there are always second, third and fourth chances--whether you mess up, whether you could have done it better. So get up this morning and try again. And rise.

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Confidence Killer #1 Comparison

2010-04-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

During this challenge, I'll be giving you lots of hints for how to boost your confidence--ways to focus on what works.

But before you can focus on what works, you have to let go of things that don't work.

So I'm aiming to do one post a week targeting confidence killers--those behaviors we don't even realize we're doing that are undermining our professional confidence.

Today's confidence killer? Comparison.

I see this every day. Almost every time I talk to a new freelancer, she's mired under a metaphorical pile of magazine articles and newspaper articles that are Better Than Her:

That writer over there is nominated for a National Magazine Award.
This writer has been published in Big Name Publication.
This other writer is prolific--so much more prolific than I.

It goes on and on. Some writers are so hampered by this comparison thing that they spend hours in the name of "research" looking at other writers' Web sites, or following one writer's byline. There's an easy way to understand this, at least with many women: How many times have you found yourself comparing your body to someone else's? Don't you imagine that other woman's love life is better, her life easier, because of her body? If you asked her, I'd be willing to bet she has the same problems as the rest of us.

Regardless of whether the struggle is bodies or bylines, with every minute spent, you feel further and further away from your goals. Chances are that the goal isn't really to be published in this magazine or that--though that's always appealing. This magazine or that award is a symbol--just like having a certain body is a symbol. It represents the life you'd like to have: You'd like to have happy relationships and respect, and you think the body is a way to get there. It certainly seems easier than learning relationship skills and making mistakes and being assertive enough to correct people when they treat you poorly.

Likewise, this award or that byline is a symbol for doing the kind of work that feeds your soul and fills your bank account. Fixating on this publication or that award is a sign that we're getting professional success, that we've burned through some of our fear and are realizing our true creative potential. That's what we really want, deep down.

That crazy voice in the back of our heads (Seth Godin would call it the lizard brain. Steven Pressfield would call it The Resistance) gets louder and louder, informing us that that other writer has some essential spark we lack.

It's exhausting and keeps us further and further away from trying.

This tendency exists completely separate from reality. I can let myself get into this mode if I'm in a certain frame of mind and pick up a New Yorker. I think, "I'll never meet my goal. I should just give up. I should stay where I'm at now. Best not to risk it and humiliate myself."

The ironic thing is that looking at me from the outside you wouldn't expect it: I went to the best journalism school in the country. I have years under my belt working for newspapers. I've won a few awards. I've been supporting myself as a freelancer for years.

There's an old saying, "Don't compare your insides to someone else's outsides."

But I actually would take that one step further: Don't compare your own insides to your own outsides.

Because chances are that your work intimidates someone else. Chances are that someone else looks at you and says, "I could never do that!"

Believe it.

The fact is that we are forward-looking. We're ambitious. Which often means that as soon as we've accomplished something, we disregard how hard it was, how much of a risk it was to try, and what courage and confidence it took to do it.

So try this, when you find yourself seeking into compare-and-despair:

Make a ta-da list.
Sit down and make a list of all the things you've accomplished--today, this week, etc. Include things like sleeping enough and being kind when you were irritable. Include showing up for your job. Include one risk you took.

I know it sounds beyond New Agey and ridiculous. But you need facts to counteract what your crazy doom-and-gloom voice is laying on you. You need to remember that you have accomplished things--maybe more than you ever really expected.

Step away from the computer.
... or the newspaper or the magazine. If you're in that frame of mind where you're feeling insecure and comparing your accomplishments to someone else's, no amount of reading or muscling through will help. Take a break and come back to it after the ta-da list, after you've renewed your confidence.

Talk to other writers.
This touches on another tip I'll be giving next week, but you need to run your doom-and-gloom voice past others in your field. Ask them: Do you ever feel this way? You'll be surprised to learn that even the most accomplished writers are insecure and worry about reaching the heights for which they strive.

Then, when you're done: Try. Just try. Do one small thing that's intimidating and then give yourself credit.

Photo by Marc Lippe.

2010-04-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience by which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I can take the next thing that comes along.'
--Eleanor Roosevelt

Photo by Kables.

Become a Facebook Fan!

2010-04-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

God bless Facebook.

It's the security blanket of many a procrastinating, insecure freelancer. I've got hundreds of fabulous freelancers on my Facebook page, and we talk about everything from gearing up to write that 6,000 word article to the weird press releases we receive (I got one from the American Association of Nude Recreation the other day--seriously) to kvetching about late payments.

But it's also a place to get inspiration. I'd love to share more of my inspiration with you on there. So become a fan of Serenity for the Self-Employed on Facebook and get updates on this blog, upcoming events and links to news articles and videos pertinent to your freelancing sanity.

All right there, along with status updates on your friends' kids, video clips from The Daily Show and links to The Onion.

30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge: Quiet the Lizard Brain

2010-04-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo.

For your weekend enjoyment, check out this longish video of marketing expert Seth Godin. You may have heard a lot about him this year. He's the newest guru. But ignore that. For our purposes, Godin talks about something very important in terms of building confidence: Quieting the fear.

Now, confident people aren't free of fear. That's a myth. You can know this is true because you probably look confident from the outside, too. But on the inside? Fearful, insecure, doubtful and future-focused. Among other things. Godin's talking about something that increases serenity tremendously. He's talking about not muscling through the fear, not ignoring it, but acknowledging it, and then doing the work anyway.

That's how you gain confidence. And that's how you send your brilliant work out into the world. And that's how your work becomes better so you can become the writer you want to be.

Enjoy.

2010-04-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.
--Rita Mae Brown

Photo by notsogoodphotography.

30-Day Confidence Building Challenge: Professional confidence is a work in progress

2010-04-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Confidence imparts a wonderful inspiration to its possessor.
--John Milton

To start this challenge I want to do something that's kind of arrogant: I want to question the esteemed Mr. Milton.

Now, I'm sure it's true. And I know it to be true personally. When I'm confident in my work, I'm more inspired, I'm freed up, I'm on fire.

But.

Here's the thing: When I started freelancing, I thought I had to be confident before I sent the query, made the phone call, brainstormed story ideas. I was obsessed with what the editor would think on the other end of the email and what the source would think on the other end of the phone call. I needed them to choose me. I needed for them to hire me so I could get the confidence.

And since I believed that I had to be confident first, I was stuck. Paralyzed.

I see this with my clients all the time. Especially freelancers who are new to journalism, but also freelancers who've been in the industry for years, we believe that confidence is a prerequisite. We don't understand that you get the confidence by doing the work.

That's what this challenge is all about. With all due respect to Mr. Milton, it might be easier to be inspired when you're confident, but you can find your way to inspiration and action before the confidence kicks in. Then, by doing the work, by doing the thing you're scared of, your confidence grows. Then you get assignments. Then inspiration comes a little easier.

So I want to challenge you for the next 30-days to consider the possibility that confidence isn't an essential state. You aren't either born confident or your screwed. You gain confidence by doing things you didn't think you could.

You gain confidence by:

Querying a market you've always dreamed of querying. (It's nice when they email you back.)
Writing up the query for the story you've been dreaming of writing for three years.
Walking up and introducing yourself to the editor at the conference.
Having lunch with that freelancer who intimidates you, to whom you're convinced you could never compare.

What you find is that the editor, the freelancer and the person on the other end of the email are just people. You find that you can do things you didn't think you could. You change your mind about yourself. You aren't stuck and paralyzed.

You're inspired.

Photo by J.J. Verhoef.

New Challenge: 30-Day Confidence Building Challenge!

2010-03-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

So this is it: New astrological year, last year's taxes are about due, and we need a new perspective. I know I do. The end of last year and the beginning of this were tough personally for me. I won't get into it here, but it meant that this blog went on hiatus.

But now it's back, I'm back and I think after a financial year that ravaged many of us, we could use a little confidence boost. That's why I'm going to start a 30-Day Confidence-Building Challenge in a few days. That's right. We're going to tackle simple steps you can take to increase your confidence with:

Marketing
Craft
Brand
Interviewing

So lay it on me: What are your biggest confidence-drainers when it comes to your business? Does your personal life leach confidence from your personal life? How about vice versa? We'll have some great guest bloggers and q&as with writers and other creatives who started with their confidence in the dumps and found ways to climb out of it.

30-Day Branding Challenge: Brands you already understand

2009-09-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Most writers will tell you they don't know anything about brands: That brands are the Warhol soup cans--devoid of any real substance, all style. Brands, in other words, have nothing to do with what you do.

Think again.

It's not that writers are lying. It's just that we can't think of anything we respect that's part of a brand.

Here's something that I hope will change that thinking: If you've been a newspaper reporter or worked at a magazine or trade publication, you know all about a brand. You've lived it. It was your publication.

Think about it: The New York Times has a very different brand than the New York Post than The National Enquirer than The New Yorker than Body + Soul than Ladies Home Journal than Slate than Gothamist.

We get that intuitively. But what's the difference, really? They're all publications. They're all words printed on paper or splashed across a Web site.

It sounds like a dumb question: What do you mean what's the difference between the National Enquirer and The New York Times? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

But why? Because the New York Times is "all the news that's fit to print" and The National Enquirer supplies information for "inquiring minds." But they both purport to tell stories about people that are true. They both make corrections. They've both been sued for libel. (And, of course, some would argue that there's not enough of a difference between the Old Grey Lady these days and gossip magazines, but that's another conversation.)

The difference is that they both purport to do something different and they approach what they do with a different style: The New York Times spends a lot of money on very good editors who spend lots of hours shaping stories that are up to their standards. They fact-check. The National Enquirer--well, I don't know much about the National Enquirer, but I'd be willing to bet that they don't spend their money the same way and they don't want deep, thorough stories. Their Web sites look really different from one another: The New York Times looks closest to a newspaper of almost any newspaper Web site. The National Enquirer has huge photos and splashy headlines like "The Grace Kelly Curse Strikes Again."

Those are not mistakes. They do these things on purpose. The New York Times isn't competing directly with The National Enquirer, though I'm sure they share readers.
What this means for you

Likewise, you are not competing against every writer out there. Obviously, you aren't competing with business writers if you're a parenting writer. But you also aren't necessarily competing with every other parenting writer. If you focus on tween issues, you aren't competing with pregnancy and newborn writers.

But your editors only know that if you don't have a brand:

If you spend money that backs up what you like to write about--learning more, attending conferences--and you pitch stories based on the topic areas you want to cover.
You write in a fun, lighthearted style if your vibe is intimate and informal. You write a web site with moving copy if you write narrative nonfiction.

The examples go on. The point is that The New Yorker's brand is not a coincidence, and it's also authentic to what it excels at. I'd hate to see The New York Times do any more gossip than it's already done. Doing so would confuse the heck out of its readers. And I shudder to think what the National Inquirer would do to thoughtful healthcare reform coverage.

So what are you? How do you show it?

Photo by Terje S. Skjerdal.

2009-09-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

“A brand is no longer defined only by advertising-driven perception. Rather it is defined by the customer’s experience in buying the product; satisfaction in using the product; and the services wrapped around the product with positive consequences.”
Andrew Cohen, Founder, Exposed Brick

Photo by AleBonvini.

30-Day Branding Challenge: Authenticity and transparency as brand

2009-09-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Most of this video is this guy ranting and advising people to quit jobs and start something new (spoken like a trust fund baby), but if you scroll to minute 10:50, you'll start hearing some interesting things about what a brand is really about.

Here's the essence: Your brand is your passion--what you want to do forever--plus being yourself. Don't imitate other writers you love. Be the best version of yourself as a writer.

30-Day Branding Challenge: Your personal life and your brand

2009-09-15T06:00:00.001-07:00

How much of what you do in your personal life should be part of your brand?

It's an important question to ask yourself as you craft your brand. Since you're writers, I think I have an analogy that you'll understand.

I'll start with a story.

When I was in college, my journalism professor taught us to do a "letter from"--a combination of a first person essay and reported feature. In teaching us about the writing voice to assume, he was very clear. In essence, he told us that none of your readers care about you as a person, not really. They don't care what irritates you personally, what you think is funny. You aren't famous enough or charismatic enough--probably--for that to be compelling. You are, most likely, the generic first-person.

The only personal stuff you share in your story is stuff that advances the story. So if it advances the story for you to be funny, share the bit about the funny behavior of the bell hop in the hotel. If is advances the story to talk about your childhood raised by a single parent, share that part of yourself.

But not everything belongs in the story.

Likewise, not everything about your personal life belongs in your brand. But if you are a financial writer, talk on your Web site about working on the stock exchange. If you're a real estate writer, talk about your experience as a landlord or a renter.

If you look at the bio on my Web site, you'll see that I write openly about having lost 85 lbs. in the past five. I also write about my decade-long love affair with yoga. But I don't write about other parts of my life--parts I'm going to keep to myself even now.

I'm a health writer, and I excel at stories about regular people taking charge of their health with small but important changes. Guess why I include that stuff in my bio? Plus, the vibe I go for on my Web site and with my clients is friendly and personable. So I don't mind sharing parts of my personal life. I also don't mind showing myself dancing around on this blog, apparently.

So think about this: What in your personal life motivates your work? If there isn't anything in particular, don't feel like you have to come up with something. But if something authentically makes you passionate about the work you do, celebrate it, and tell your editors about it.

Photo by tiffa130.

2009-09-14T06:00:00.001-07:00

An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service.
--Daniel J. Boorstin

Photo by tourist_on_earth.

2009-09-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

"A brand that captures your mind gains behavior. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment."
Scott Talgo

Photo by aussiegall.

30-Day Branding Challenge: Reflecting your brand in your queries

2009-09-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we examined how the queries you send can help guide the creation of your brand. Today, we'll talk about branding the opposite direction:

How do you put your brand in every query you send?

Yesterday I touched on one way: In your "why I should write this story" paragraph (and if you don't have one of those, you should create one for every query), you should include one sentence that cogently explains your brand. You create it by finishing this sentence:

I specialize in...

For example, "I specialize in simple changes that make a big difference in one's health and relationships;" "I specialize in moving and in-depth investigative stories that make a difference;" or "I specialize in upbeat, quirky stories that revel in my subject's humanity, not their flaws."

Whatever it is, you should know it and you should be able to express it.

But you should also be able to do that time-honored writer thing: Show don't tell.

And you show your brand by pitching stories that are consistent with it. For Jen Miller, she markets her brand by pitching stories on the Jersey Shore. You can do this by pitching stories on quirky people you want to profile, or by pitching investigative pieces.

There's a side benefit to this kind of brand development: This is an opportunity not only to embed your brand in your clients' heads, but to get closer to the type of writing you love to do.

So take a few minutes and free write: What do I love? What do I specialize in? What am I great at?

If you've won any awards, this is one way of telling what you do well. And if you've won those awards doing writing you're good at but are burnt out on, then it's a chance to refocus your querying toward work that feeds your soul.

And then start coming up with vague ideas for stories. Any little kernel that's been fermenting in your head, write down. If it fits with your brand, give it a top priority with your querying.

It's not that you can't query short or simple stories that might bring in money while you build up a practice that supports your brand and your passion. But you should be querying every week or every month stories that support your brand. Make it a goal to send at least one query before the month's end that reflects your passion and your strengths, and then you're marketing your brand.

Photo by Valeriana Solaris

30-Day Branding Challenge: Using querying to refine your brand

2009-09-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Jen Miller said something great in our Q&A last week: "I feel that pitching articles, too, is a form of branding."

I love this idea, as it brings together two things I'm passionate about: Marketing and branding.

I wondered if she could explain more of what she meant, and here was her response:

Sometimes I send letters of introduction instead, and then follow up with a pitch or two. I want them to see me as the expert so that if they have a shore idea, they'll think of me.

That last sentence is the essence of branding: You live in your client's head as the perfect person for X, Y, or Z story.

And it's an interesting thing for us to consider as writers: Do our brands reflect what we're querying? If not, it's a good opportunity to refine our brands, or better direct our marketing. Here's how:

Refining Your Brand

If your stated brand is that you write upbeat service stories and love helping people, but you're constantly pitching and interested in long-form narrative fiction, then maybe your brand has outlived its usefulness. So take an inventory:

Go back through the last month and look at the queries you've pitched. Rather than asking yourself what the subject matter was--health, real estate, business, etc.--ask yourself what type of story it is:

Is it an upbeat inspirational story?
Is it a serious piece of investigative journalism?
Is it a profile driven by your source's quirky personality?
Is it a snarky short?
Is it a service piece?

Now, tally it: Is there a pattern here? Do you constantly pitch quirky profiles? Do you always pitch service pieces?

Ask why:

Why do you pitch service pieces? Is it because they sell more easily than in-depth features? Or are they your passion?
Why do you gravitate to profiles?
What is it about short, snarky pieces you love?

Once you have the answers to these questions, take a look at your stated brand. If your stated brand, like mine, is to focus on inspiring regular people (thus my tagline "Writing with a human face"), compare that to what you're pitching.

You may find that your pitching is right in line with that: Person-centered stories of overcoming challenges. Or you may find that you prefer to pitch service pieces.

If that's the case, it's a chance to tweak your brand. You don't have to abandon what you have. You can simply clarify it--for yourself and your clients. Maybe your love of person-centered writing extends to the reader. Maybe the reader is the person you draw inspiration from and therefore you want to help with service pieces.

How do you express that on your Web site? How do you express that in your queries? In your "why I should write this story" paragraph of your query, do you have one cogent sentence that explains that you "specialize in stories that..." Fill in the blank. You should have one sentence in there that clarifies and highlights your strengths and interested. It's part of your brand, so editors have an easy time matching you with stories you'll be best at. That's what Jen has done, and it's worked really well for her. Every time they think of the Jersey Shore, they think of her.

What do you want editors to associate with you? Make that part of your brand. Tomorrow, we'll talk about how to market that.

Photo by striatic.

2009-09-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

"If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks."
Leo Burnett

Photo by Indigo Goat.

30-Day Branding Challege Web Sites I like: Anne Ford

2009-09-07T09:33:00.001-07:00

I spend a lot of time with my coaching clients talking about the need for a Web site. But when it comes to branding, it's not enough just to have a home page, bio, recommendations and clips. You need to have a site that presents you as a the kind of writer you want editors to know you are. And the best way to illustrate this is with examples. Today's is the first of what I hope will be a series of great examples of freelancers' brands. And if you have a recommendation of a Web site you love for writers, email it to me at heather at heatherboerner.com.

[Full disclosure: Not only is Anne a fabulous freelancing colleague of mine, but she's a dear friend who's known me since my acid-washed jeans days in middle school. So I have great love for her as well as for her talent.]

Anne Ford is a freelance writer who excels at quirky, upbeat stories in the vein of This American Life. So when you land on her Web site, you want something that shows you that. What I love about her site is that she tells you that with so many words, but she also shows you that in the way her Web site is designed.

Land on her home page and you see a sunny picture of Anne, an bright and sunny orange-and-red color scheme with stylized flowers jutting up all around.

Visit her About page and you get a taste of her wit in the first line of her bio:

Writer or Nun: Those were the most memorable results of my high-school career aptitude test.

Her quips about being a decent square dancer and able to talk about highly-virulent strains of hospital-acquired infections--just not during dinner--give you the flavor of her writing and her personality.

And it goes on: The profiles she features meld well with her stated style, and even her health clips for a trade magazine--a genre not known for its adventurous voice--are even witty. And then she's got the recommendations that call her "an editor's dream" and say she "really knows what magazine writing is all about."

I don't have any money for her, but I'd hire her after reading her Web site.

This gets to a point about Web sites: You can't just say that you're a great writer--you have to show it on your site. I tell this to clients all the time. You want your Web site to read like your best article. It should:

Show off your writing style.
Illustrate your "voice" with the images and even colors you choose. Anne does this by choosing, bright, sunny colors to go along with her warm, sunny copy.
Back up your stated skills with clips that show it (and if you don't have any yet, clips that at least hint at your ability to follow through on your claims).
Provide testimonials that do the same--because editors will believe other editors before they believe you.
Be specific about what you excel at. Anne doesn't say she's great at investigative series, though I'm sure she could do one. That's not her chosen genre. She's specific and clear about what she likes to do and what she does with aplomb.

Thus, Anne leaves editors with a kernel of a vision of her before they call her or email her. She's planted herself in editors' brains without even talking to them. She now lives in them as a complete person and a professional. And her brand leads editors to believe that she's the right person for a specific type of story that Anne loves to write and at which she's an ace.

That's your goal. What can you do to bring it to life?

Photo © Charlie Simokaitis

2009-09-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Brand inside is more important than brand outside for sustained success.
--Tom Peters

Photo by The Wandering Angel.

30-Day Branding Challenge Profile: Cynthia Alvarez

2009-09-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

In an effort to share how other creative freelancers build their brand, I've done an interview with Cindy Alvarez, web strategist and startup aficionado. I think you'll find the steps she's taken to create a brand are things you can do as well.

Tell me about your career trajectory. What industry did you started in and what industry are yon in now? How do you describe your consulting business now?

I started doing web design in the early days of the web browser. As Web sites became less brochure-like and more interactive, I started realizing that visual design came too late in the Web site and product development process: I needed to be involved earlier to make sure the right thing was being built, not just making the wrong thing prettier. I've been doing interaction design and product management for the past few years.

I help companies use a customer-driven process to ensure that a) customers are interested in their product, b) their product solves specific customer problems and frustrations, and c) their product is usable. This involves interviewing real people and then an iterative cycle of showing them stuff, getting feedback, incorporating that feedback into new stuff--"stuff" being the very professional software development term.

Before you went freelance, what did you think of when you thought of branding? Is it a new concept for you?

I've actually been actively branding myself for probably eight years now. Both interactive design and product management are roles that mean totally different things in different companies.

It didn't take me long to realize that I have a very specific combination of skills: I don't have an MBA or MFA. I haven't worked in Fortune 500 companies. I don't have a lot of patience for formal process. I do have a rare combination of understanding technical details and design theory. I'm an excellent presenter and writer. I find a way to get the impossible done. This means that there are some companies and products where I'm absolutely the best person, and others where I'm mediocre at best. I want to associate myself with those areas where I excel, even if that means opting myself out of other opportunities.

How long have you been working on creating your new personal brand?

The most evolution has happened in the past 18 months or so. I've really focused what I want people to associate with me professionally, and what I can put forward to ensure that association happens.

Tell us what your brand is.

There are four elements that I consistently use across various channels:
Name: I'm always cindyalvarez and blog at CindyAlvarez.com.
Icon: See above
Tagline: Serious About Launching Great Products
Content Topics: user experience, product management, startups, doing things quickly/pragmatically, experimenting/trying new things
Persona: optimistic, blunt, action-oriented

How did you come up with your brand? Was it difficult?

I brainstormed a list of phrases and topics that described what I am and what I aspire to, professionally. Things that are differentiated (i.e. everyone would like to be thought of as "smart") and memorable. I didn't come up with everything all at once - I kept discovering new brand contexts - oh, how do I describe myself in 100 characters or less? oh, what should my short bio be?

How do I know my brand works? When people I've never met face-to-face forward me articles that I'd be interested in, or introduce me to people or client opportunities that are great fits.

What steps would you recommend other creative freelancers take to create a brand?

Take a stand. You are not good at everything, be upfront about that. It's easy to think, I need work, I can't afford to turn anyone away, but there's no advantage in branding yourself generically. Focus on a few things you do really well. It makes you more credible, and it makes you a more attractive consultant to the people who need your specific skills.

You need to care - you don't come across as authentic if you don't really care about the associations that make up your brand. It feels very natural for me to write about user experience design and how to be a better product manager and how to do user testing because I've done those things and it frustrates me to see them done badly.

Prove it. (and don't brand yourself on "unprovable" qualities). You want people to think of you as helpful? Proactively answer questions, share useful resources, educate others in your community. Put something out there - blog posts, case studies, tweets, endorsements - that proves that you are the things you brand yourself as.

Be memorable at a glance. I use the same blue+orange "c" icon everywhere - whether you're skimming through Twitter or comments on someone's blog or a professional social network, it's always consistent. Most people use faces or complicated logos - those are very hard to distinguish when they're shrunk down or in the midst of a sea of other little icons.

30-Day Branding Challenge Profile: Jen Miller

2009-09-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you're a writer looking to figure out how branding fits in with your work, you could do much, much worse than to take Jen Miller's example. The 20-something freelancer has written a book, regularly contributes to the New York Times and writes two blogs: Down the Shore with Jen and Book a Week with Jen. It turns out her high profile is no coincidence. Jen is a writer who knows how to work a brand. Consider her approach below.

For many freelancers I know, branding seems like an alien concept. Did it seem that way to you when you started? How so?

It didn't. I'd worked in medical PR before, so I had some idea of what it took to get something noticed. I also review books and write frequently about authors, so I knew how many books are published every year. I go to Book Expo America every spring and probably see less than 1 percent of all new titles! I feel that pitching articles, too, is a form of branding and marketing, so I applied all of that knowledge to attach myself to the Jersey Shore.

Why did you decide to create a brand for yourself? Or was it something you fell into?

I didn't set out for the Jersey Shore to be my "thing." I just wanted to sell books. So I started a blog, Down the Shore with Jen, while writing my book. I started my PR campaign two months after I turned the book in. Even though I didn't have galleys to send, I started reaching out to bloggers to see if they were interested in the book. I also interviewed people with shore ties on my blog, and they told their friends, which helped get word out there. When the book came out, I continued to write articles about the Jersey Shore. I started a twitter account as @jerseyshorejen. My editors realized that I was an expert, so they kept assigning. By November of last year, I was ready to take a shore break when the magazine editors came calling, wanting to secure my services for Shore 2009 writing.

I never expected the brand to work so well, or translate to more article assignments. I was shocked when the New York Times reached out to me with their Jersey Shore idea, even though I'd written about one of the shore towns for them before.

Describe for me your brand: Any catchphrase you have, and what its components are.

Down the Shore with Jen -- follow along with the adventures and misadventures of one gal down the shore, and her writings along the way.

What steps did you take to create your brand?

I took Sandra Beckwith's Book Buzz online book publicity course. That gave me an idea of how to get my book out there. I didn't realize that it would also build my brand. Once I garnered coverage of the book, I used that expertise as author and then clips of shore writings to pitch more shore articles. I share links of shore articles on my blog. I update people on facebook of what I'm working on. I have a high Google ranking for shore related search terms. The twitter account and a good facebook presence has helped, too.

What do you find to be the advantages of having a brand?

Editors know me or are referred to me sometimes when they have an idea but no writer.

What are branding's disadvantages for you?

Sometimes I'm seen as just a shore writer. I do a lot of work in health, fitness, home & garden, and personal finance, too!

How did you know it was working?

My bottom line. Each year, I am assigned more articles about the shore than the year before.

What do you think are the biggest misconceptions of branding among freelance writers?

That it's not necessary. I still consider myself a generalist, but being known for one thing can be a big boost to your income.

Anything else I didn't ask that you'd like to add?

This is hard work!

2009-08-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

The primary focus of your brand message must be on how special you are, not how cheap you are. The goal must be to sell the distinctive quality of the brand."
-- Kerry Light, Brand Strategist

30-Day Branding Challenge Profile: Nader Khouri

2009-08-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Nader Khouri has been in the position of many of my readers: Former newspaper staffer, passionate about his work, took a buyout and is now trying to make his way as a freelancer in this economy.

Khouri, a photographer, has morphed his impressive photojournalism credentials into corporate and other photography work, and he has a brand to prove it. Here's how he did it. Oh, and do yourself a favor and check out his heart-rending photos at his Web site. I especially recommend looking through the "Picture Stories" tab. There you can find some of the photos he refers to below.

Tell me about your career trajectory. You used to be a newspaper photographer. When did you leave that job?

I worked for 10 years as a newspaper photojournalist at the Contra Costa Times. I left the Times in early 2008 and my departure was part of a buyout. Much of the shakeup at the company originally started when the shareholders of Knight Ridder (who used to own the Contra Costa Times) decided in 2006 that the newspaper business wasn't profitable enough. Knight Ridder, the second largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. with 32 dailies, sold all of its papers, and it was downhill from there. Right now I am running my own business as a commercial photographer. I couldn't be happier now that I am working for myself. My success is much more in my own hands, whether the economy is good or bad.

Before you went freelance, what did you think of when you thought of branding? Is it a new concept for you?

I knew branding only from the point of view of a consumer. I had no idea about how branding could be developed for my business. I now see it as a process of identifying what I love to do and then researching the market(s) to see how it connects with making a living. It's a combination of my passion and the market's needs.

How long have you been working on creating your new personal brand?

Since leaving the paper in early 2008. I took a semester-long class in marketing through Berkeley City College that helped me narrow down my focus and set goals for myself. It was geared toward helping each student prepare a strategic marketing plan, which included a mission statement, core values, goals and objectives and strategic infrastructure.

Tell us what your brand is.

My brand is photography that helps support a healthy planet and economy. It consists of subject matter that has anything to do with supplying healthy food, sustainable energy and business. My brand also includes my style of shooting where I put value on composition different from your average straight shooter. Many clients value a developed sense of seeing.

How did you come up with your brand? Was it difficult?

No, not at all. It was easy to come up with because it was a fusion of the causes I care the most about: food, energy, and business. Some people have argued that it isn't focused enough, but I am happy with it. I don't think that marketing oneself solely based on subject matter (i.e. shooting food, fashion, autos, etc.) is totally necessary. Having more than one thing to focus on is okay.

I have three life experiences that have helped fuel my motivations for photographing food and helping preserve the right to eat healthy food. First is the connection that started after I photographed Palestinian olive farmers. They still use the same farming methods passed down from generation to generation. It is there where I became most connected to the land and where I also began to worry about how that way of life is becoming endangered. Also fueling the food passion was my experiences photographing all of the farm communities here in the California delta. I spent a lot of time photographing in the fields of both small and large farms where I gained a lot of respect for immigrant laborers and learned about the different issues farmers face. Lastly, my food passion comes simply from the love of eating healthy food. I have seen how a healthy diet really can make a difference in my own life.

The energy part comes from seeing the conflicts in the Middle East that have such a direct effect on our lives here in the U.S. I would love it if the U.S. did not have to exploit other countries for their natural resources. That is why through my photography I support causes that would allow the U.S. to be dependent on its own resources for energy while also cutting down on the burning of fossil fuels.

The business component of my brand comes out of my desire to help businesses get through this difficult economic climate. Websites these days are a necessity for any business and I have seen too many businesses with websites that are either unprofessional looking or severely outdated. I think good design and photography are crucial for any business whether new or established so I work with branding firms to help businesses develop a look that fits their character.

What steps would you recommend other creative freelancers take to create a brand?

Start calling yourselves entrepreneurs and start thinking more about the big picture. Then, start networking like your life depends upon it. You've got to make solid connections with people in other professions and start saying the words "collaborate" and "partner." Hang your goals on the wall and start to convince yourself that they will happen. Keep them in your site as much as possible. The more you see them, the more you become them.

Photo courtesy of Nader Khouri.

2009-08-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Build brands not around products but around reputation.

--Richard Branson

Photo of Richard Branson by tobybarnes.

30-Day Branding Challenge: It's not as hard as you think

2009-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'll confess: I thought branding was for cattle when I started freelancing.

As a newspaper reporter, I cheered and high-fived colleagues when a story I wrote on consumer protection led to an advertiser pulling an ad. Advertising--and by extension, I thought--branding, was the problem, not part of the solution.

But then I found out the truth: I already had a brand, and it was based on these things:

What my clients/employers thought of me.
My writing voice.
My track record.
How I interacted with my clients.
My strengths, real and perceived.
My passions.

It sounds obvious, right? How we're perceived, our reputations and what we actually do. That's not a brand, you'll argue. That's just your reputation.

But reputation is a component of your brand. And it's really important to understand it, because without your reputation, all a brand is is something you're trying to convince people of.

This is why I tell my coaching clients that every freelancer needs a Web site, and every freelancer's Web site should include testimonials from editors. After all, you can say whatever you want about your brand. But until a client hears it from another editor or experiences it for him or herself, they won't quite believe you.

So if you're building a brand, go out and get some testimonials. Ask editors to share honestly what your strengths are, how they'd recommend you to a fellow editor who's looking for a kick-a$$ freelancer. And then feature them prominently.

Photo by benketaro.

2009-08-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.
--Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

30-Day Branding Challenge: How branding can improve your integrity

2009-08-24T06:00:00.001-07:00

To start off this challenge, I want to address one of the biggest barriers writers have to creating a brand: Integrity.

To most of us journalists, branding will always look like Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup cans--artificial, utterly devoid of meaning, designed to sell, to manipulate and to lie. It's a lot more Mad Men and a lot less The Wire.

So how do you get over the hump? Should you?

Consider it differently. Branding is not only about the message you send but also the message your clients receive. In other words, you could create a brand that, say, tells your clients that you're fun, outgoing, perfectionist and well-organized. And that may be the way you'd like to be. But if what your clients actually experience is that you're juggling a million assignments, scattered when you talk to them and drop facts, forget to follow up on things, you're delivering something different than they've been led to expect. You're out of integrity.

So if you're hesitant to work on a brand, approach it from a different direction. Working on your brand can help you find ways in which what you do doesn't live up to what you strive to do.

So take these steps:

First, create a mission statement: How do you strive to be in your business? What are your key words?

Here are a few of mine: Accurate, enthusiastic, professional, collaborative, inquisitive, prompt, thorough. These are all ways I strive to be with my clients: I give them an accurate impression of what it will be like to work with me. I act professionally and enthusiastically to bring my clients prompt, surprisingly good work that's of service to them and their readers. And I do it in a collaborative way, harnessing my inquisitiveness and writing skills.

Now you try.

Next, compare your mission statement to how you actually work. You can do this by asking yourself honestly these questions about how you behave at work:

Do you like talking to clients between appointments?
Do you ask questions of your clients or like to figure stuff out on your own?
How do you react to edits?
Do you fact-check your work or double check facts all the time? Do you have a system for this?
Do you take work that bores you to tears and that you struggle to complete?
Do you regularly file stories over word count, past deadline, or do you regularly ask editors for extensions?
How often do you like to update your clients on your progress?
Do you give clients a head's up on the sources you're planning to use or would you scoff at that?
Will you take source suggestions from your clients or does that violate a line for you?

Finally, compare the two lists: At least according to your estimation, are your goals in integrity with your behavior? If so, give yourself a gold star and move forward with your branding. If not, it's a chance to move your work in the direction of your goals. Start by identifying your weak spots and paying attention to them every day. Bring your support network into the issue, ask for help, make phone calls.

It's not about lying to convince your clients that you're better than you are. Can you imagine how much overselling yourself could kill your serenity? It's about giving your clients an accurate image of what to expect when they work with you. Branding is about the experience your clients have with you, not just the story you turn in.

How'd you do in this exercise?

Photo of Andy Warhol's soup cans by loop_oh.

It is decided: Branding Challenge. Send your questions

2009-08-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

The votes were tied: Half for a recession survival challenge and half for a branding challenge.

Since I get to be the deciding vote, and send my coaching clients are working at various stages of branding right now, I'm coming down on the side of branding.

So! Send your questions here or email me at heather @ heatherboerner.com:

What do you want to know about branding?
What myths have you heard about branding?
What do you hate about it and in what ways do you think it doesn't apply to you?

Let me know and the challenge will start on the 15th.

Photo by Sarah Jane.

2009-07-31T11:03:00.000-07:00

“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.”

–Vernon Howard

Photo by ManojVasanth.

Serenity Tip: See your work clearly

2009-07-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

It's so odd the veil between how I see the world and how the world actually is--especially in my freelance work.

Last year, I wrote a complicated story on the foreclosure crisis, focusing on people who were in a financial bind because of the healthcare costs associated with multiple sclerosis. Of course I worked hard on the story. I always try to keep in mind how my work can be of service to my clients and my readers, so I went beyond the sources the client gave me (it was a custom publication, where they often supply the people they want quoted) and sought out the best stories to illustrate the issue. I dug into the edits to illustrate the suggestions of experts with the lived experiences of people kind enough to share their struggles while they were in the middle of them.

But then, after the piece was done and I thought it was well received, I got an email from my editor, asking me why I hadn't responded to calls from another editor. Apparently, they'd been trying to reach me for weeks. I was mortified. I called back right away, gave them the information, but couldn't shake the feeling that I now appeared to them to be a flake.

I couldn't let go of the lapse--a lapse I didn't even realize had happened because I hadn't received any calls or emails. In fact, I still felt mortified yesterday, when I emailed the folks at the association for which the story had been written. At the suggestion of another freelancer, I contacted the association directly, seeking to reacquaint myself with them and, hopefully, get more work. As far as I could tell, that one lapse was the only dark spot in my record with them. I hoped they wouldn't remember it.

Well, I got an email back right away and the respose startled and elated me. It started with:

Of course we remember you.
You don't have to sell your talents to us!

That alone would have been enough to make my day. But then it continued to this startling revelation:

I’m not sure the message ever got to you that “Foreclosure and the Art of Saving Your Home” won a 2009 Apex Award of Excellence for Financial & Investment Writing.

For a second, I sat in stunned silence, staring at the computer screen. Then I grinned broadly and did a little jubilant dance in my office chair. This was the story: The story I thought of as a smudge on my otherwise stellar record with them. Not only did they not see me as a flake, but they were thrilled enough with my work to submit it for an award. And it won!

I tell this story not just to share my joy, but because my coaching clients are always trying to hedge their bets. They're always trying to be one step ahead of the mythical editors they imagine checking out their Web sites. They don't want an editor to see them as too much of this or not enough of that. They're convinced, in short, that their experience and their writing doesn't measure up.

But what my experience has taught me--and what this particular experience makes clear--is that as freelancers, we can't see our work clearly. If you're like me, you blow up the negative and shrink the positive. You see yourself through the skewed lens of your own self-doubt and insecurity. It's only natural. We're human. And we work alone, where we don't get to hear the plaudits of our editors unless they make the explicit effort to call us or email us with them.

I encourage you to do what you can to adjust your gaze--to see yourself as clearly as possible.

Chances are, if people are always telling you you're a good writer, you probably are.
If people tell you they like your work, they probably do.

They aren't being polite. They aren't sparing your feelings. They're trying to get you to see yourself clearly, too. Sometimes the obvious reason for their statement is the real one. Sometimes it really is that simple.

Where do you need to adjust your vision? Where is the fog of self-doubt still clouding your impression of your own work and worth?

Photo by terren in Virginia.

Another Possible 30-Day Challenge: Recession Survival

2009-07-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

Last week, I proposed a 30-day challenge on branding. I'm still gung ho for that, but another also occurred to me.

30-Day Recession Survival Challenge
It seems sometimes like the point is just to get through so you can live to write your dream story another day. And in this economy, with editors not responding, some of us are having to go to our Plan Bs.

This challenge will help you create a Plan B while still being open to continue on the path you're currently on, and will include guest posts from people who have expanded their brand in order to make money in ways they may not considered before--and how that can be a blessing.

So your choices are: Recession Survival Challenge vs. Branding Challenge.

What's your poison?

2009-07-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Everybody has to be able to participate in a future that they want to live for."
--Dean Kamen

Image by HikingArtist.com.

Next 30-Day Challenge: Building your brand?

2009-07-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hi gang,

A moment of housekeeping: I've been thinking for a while about how to build your brand when your brand is, well... You. (The image to the left notwithstanding.)

So what do you think of a brand-building challenge? Comment below and let me know if you'd be interested in that. If you are interested, leave a question or two you have about branding--ranging from "what the heck is it?" to something more complicated.

Image by Intersection Consulting.

2009-07-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

"The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success." Paramahansa Yogananda

Photo by karamellsauce.

Save the Date: Creative Freelancers Conference

2009-07-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I've been reading the Creative Freelancer Conference blog for a while. It offers short posts and interesting info on the business side of freelancing--my favorite topic as a coach. So when I got an email from the organizers, I was thrilled. They wanted me to let you know about this freelancers' conference, and I'm always big on expanding your network and having new experiences as a freelancer. The following is just information. I'm not endorsing it and I have no ties to it. And they aren't paying for the announcement. I just thought it might be something you'd be interested it.

The 2009 Creative Freelancer Conference, presented by HOW magazine and Marketing Mentor, is coming to San Diego, August 26-28. Freelance designers, copywriters, illustrators, photographers and other solopreneurs will get the tools they need to drive their businesses forward from an expert panel of speakers led by Marketing Mentor's Ilise Benun and Peleg Top. Topics include:

. How to create compelling presentations
. The ins and outs of social media
. How to plan for estimated tax expenses
. And more

Plus, the opportunity to network and connect with other creative solopreneurs before, during and after the Conference will prove invaluable to the growth of any freelance business.

For complete program details and to register visit www.CreativeFreelancerConference.com. Freelancers who register by the July 15 Early-Bird deadline will save $50!

Serenity Tip: The joy of the bookend

2009-07-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

You've got a client to call back, some contract changes to request, maybe even a story you're stuck on.

Call in reinforcements.

That is, make some book-ending calls.

Here's how it works:

1. Gee I'm stressed. I need to finish this story but it's just not coming. It's due tomorrow. What do I do? I need help.

2. "Hey Alicia. I'm just calling to tell you that I'm stressing out about this story. I've got most of the information I need, but I seem to be afraid to start writing because I'm afraid to discover that I don't have enough. I'm afraid this story is going to suck. But I've got to get it done. So I'm going to commit to working on it for the next hour and then I'll call back."

3. Work, work, work--sometimes easily sometime haltingly.

4. "Hey Alicia. I'm just calling back to say I did it! I worked on it for an hour and I have the skeleton down. Now I just need to insert quotes and get one more piece of information. Thanks so much for your support!"

That's it. Just call before and after doing something that's scary for you. It can be calling a potential client. It can be writing. It can be sending the query you've been working on for a while.

If you're on the receiving end of one of these book-ending calls, here are some ways to help:

Ask what she wants.
Does she want you to just listen and be supportive? Maybe she wants you to role-play the conversation with her, with you standing in for the editor/source/client. Whatever it is, ask at the beginning so the call can be of maximum benefit to both of you.

Offer to say what she wants to hear.
When she calls back, praise her for being courageous or diligent or a bad ass freelancer--whatever you want. You can even pretend again to be the editor/source/client and tell her exactly what she wanted to hear. It can be gratifying, even if we know it's all make-believe.

Return the favor.
People like to be helpful. Now you know her process. So hopefully when you're feeling stressed and like you can't possibly make the call or send the email or write another sentence, you know there's someone out there willing to listen to you with gentleness, support and just the right attitude.

Give it a try today.

Photo by Atilla1000.

Serenity Tip: Michael Jackson, dancing and righting work stress

2009-06-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was stressed and anxious. Work wasn't coming the way I wanted it to and I was cranky and discontented. Then it all changed.

So this is my tip for you for the week: Find some way to blow off steam and have fun.

The following is a video of the Michael Jackson Flashmob that descended on San Francisco the day the singer died. I'm in there a couple times. I'm the one with the light red, short curly hair waving my hands in the air like I just don't care. Because for a few hours, I didn't.

This moment reminds me of an idiom: Happiness isn't the absence of misery but the presence of joy. Getting out and doing something that's just fun injected my week with that joy. For those of us who are task masters with ourselves, getting out and having fun can be just as much of a challenge as marketing is for those who aren't in the habit of it.

The next morning I woke up feeling giddy and happy. And it's all thanks to some friends, a little exercise, some fun and ceasing to think about work for a few hours. It makes me happy just to watch this. Maybe that's part of why I'm posting it.

So I'll ask you: What can you do to inject fun in your day today? What's your hobby? And if your hobby is work, what did you used to do for fun? Can you do it today?

Serenity Tip: Partner Up

2009-06-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Last week, I wrote about working with groups of other freelancers to increase the numbers of queries you send. But what if you don't have a crowd of fellow freelancers to lean on, or even three more? Could you find one?

Here's why you should.

The advice to partner up isn't just good when you're a little kid faced with crossing a busy street. If you're a freelancer looking to navigate the sometimes-treacherous world of freelance business ownership, you need a buddy, too.

In a formal capacity, this is what I do with my coaching clients: I help them navigate the freelance business world. We come up with markets, we set deadlines, and when we talk, they report back on their progress. I hold them accountable.

My support as a coach carries more weight because my clients are paying for me to be their accountability buddy. You can create that system with another freelancer, however. You just have to find the right freelancer.

She has to work at a similar pace as you

If you want to send a query a day and your goal buddy wants to send one a month, you may not help one another. Instead, the one looking to send a query a day may feel slowed down by the once-a-monther; and the once-a-monther may find herself comparing herself to the uber-prolific one and beating herself up. That doesn't help anyone and doesn't get either of you closer to a sale or a more serene business life.

She has to show up

Sure it's obvious, but it's also one of the most important requirements. If you agree to call each other once a day, she has to show up. And so do you for that matter. A flaky goal buddy will leave you working by yourself, and that will defeat the whole point of seeking support.

She has to be your cheerleader, not your critic

If you find yourself dreading talking to your goal buddy or you find it excruciating to stay on the phone with her because all she does is complain about what's not working, it won't help. It could even feed your own self-doubt and run down your stamina. Keep looking.

The only way to know if your goal buddy is right for you is to try it out. Sure, do a gut check when you first talk to each other, but then take the plunge, with the caveat that you'll reassess the relationship at a predetermined interval. I recommend a month, but you might know after two weeks. Or a day. Who knows?

Now that you've got a buddy, set goals for working together. Ask each other:

What freelancing task do you struggle most with?
What kind of support has worked for you in the past?
What kind has derailed you?
What step do you want to be held accountable to?
What do you promise to do if you don't meet your goal?

With a freelance friend, we made a bet: We'd each send a query a day, and if either of us didn't make it for a month, we'd buy the other dinner. If we both did it, we'd split the meal, ideally with all the money we were making from our sales. It was a fun way to have it mean something and to build our freelance friendship.

Who can you recruit as your goal buddy for the month?

Photo by Rob Hoey.

Serenity Tip: Being SMART About Your To-Do List

2009-06-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

I know you probably have one--a to-do list with more things than you can accomplish in a day. Or, you're so scared of how long your to-do list might be that you keep it in your head. The advantage is that you don't have to see how long your list might be and how overwhelming your schedule is. The disadvantage is that you forget things.

The following is a video of an interview with work/life balance coach Kirsten Mahoney, owner of Insight Out Life Coaching. I met her recently and she's as down-to-earth and sweet as she appears on the segment. I love how she emphasizes saying no--both to others and to yourself. As a self-employed person it's so common to feel like you have to do it all and you have to do it all today. But do you really?

Serenity means doing what you have to today, and letting go of that which you don't. How you define "have to" is a question for another post--one that Kirsten herself may very well contribute.

Serenity Tool: Challenge Yourself, Part 2

2009-06-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite and primary roles when I work with coaching clients is to help them refine, target and send queries. I love playing the role of cheerleader and editor. And when I need someone to play that role for me, I turn to my fellow freelancers. This week, I'll talk a little about working with others to make your querying goals come to life.

Monday, I shared a query challenge approach that requires lots of other freelancers to make it work. But what if you've only got yourself and a few others? Let me tell you about another challenge.

The Query-a-Day Approach

In the freelance writers group I belong to, I might be the most maniacal querier of the bunch, but I'm not immune to the need for support. When I found my querying slipping a few months ago, I emailed my freelancers group and asked if I could join them. They'd been doing a query-a-day challenge for a month already.

Here's how it's set up:

Gather at least four freelancers, available via email.
Pair yourselves off.
Promise to report in daily on your progress.
At the end of the week, one of you tallies the score and sends it off to a group email, in this case a Yahoo! Group.

It's pretty simple. Every day, my query buddy and I emailed one another our progress. It was just a moment to check in. Sure, you could say it kept us accountable. But I prefer to think that it gave us an opportunity to check in with ourselves on our intentions, our resistance, and our successes. We cheered each other on, we kept each other honest, and we got to know each other better.

The Rub

Now, there were no points required in this challenge--no tallying three points for this, one for that, etc. Our goal was simply to send one query every work day--defined as Monday through Friday for the workaholics among us. But what was motivating us? Wouldn't it be easy to fall off. There were no stakes, after all.Well, after I joined, I discovered that there were stakes: One of the writers had promised, if she failed to send the number of queries she intended, to donate money to the political campaign of someone she hates. Now that's motivation.

A Little Story

It was during this challenge that I resurrected a query I've been sending for two and a half years. It's a great story. I love it. But it's very specific, very niche and I'm determined that it deserves a wide audience. So I got an email from a fellow freelancer alerting me to change in leadership at a publication, and I sent the query off again.

I'm now in talks with the editor about possibly writing the piece for him.

It's not to say I wouldn't have sent the query to the editor anyway. But the support always helps. It's always welcome and it's always encouraging when you have an agreement with someone that they will cheer you on if you email them. That can never be a bad thing.

Friday, one more post on query support.

Photo by Heart of Oak.

2009-06-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success."
--Napoleon Hill

Serenity Tool: Challenge Yourself, part 1

2009-06-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the primary roles I play with my coaching clients is to help them refine, target and send queries. I love playing the role of cheerleader and editor. And when I need someone to play that role for me, I turn to my fellow freelancers. This week, I'll talk a little about working with others to make your querying goals come to life.

If you've never buddied up and challenged yourself to send lots of queries, get started today. I'm participating right now in a query challenge organized by a professional writers' community to which I belong, and it motivated me to send 10 queries last week. Yeah!

I've participated in two different kinds of query groups. Today I'll talk about one of them.

The Mighty Mass Challenge

In the challenge I'm participating in now, there are dozens of freelancers chatting via Yahoo! Groups every day. We've been divvied up onto teams, and the goal is to make as many points as we can. The points are divided this way:

1 point for every query;
1 point for every letter of introduction; and
3 points for every assignment.

At the end of every week, we report how many points we've generated. My group is going like gang-busters: I think last week the gang generated 171 points between something like nine team members.

In addition to counting points, everyone gives a tip at the end of the week to stay motivated. But frankly, doing the challenge is motivation enough.

A Little Story

When I started freelancing a few years ago, I was in that gray area of working a lot for low-paying clients and not having enough money to live on. I loved the work. And my editors were great--don't get me wrong. But I wasn't working toward either my financial or my professional goals. So I heard about the query challenge and I took part.

I sent a query to a national health magazine on a lark--just to get the point, I told myself. It was the only way I could screw up the courage. After all, if I wrote for them, it would represent a huge leap in my writing business. I was writing for small local pubs that paid fast but paid poorly. They'd pay me $1/word and people across the country would read my work. If I thought too much about it--and I did--it could paralyze me.

So I sent it. And it bounced back. But I'd already reported the point. I felt obligated to send the query again. I found an anonymous editors@ email address. A month or so later, I got the assignment!

If it weren't for the challenge, I wouldn't have bothered. I would have just let it go. But the challenge, because I wanted to be honest, kept me going. It pushed me to be accountable and it supported me in being brave.

That's why I sent 10 queries this week. I saw what others were doing--sending tons of queries and getting tons of assignments by selling reprints or by meeting with editors--and it inspired me to do the same. This is where my competitiveness and my need for community come together to support my business. I got to know freelancers whose names I'd only previously seen on faceless posts on a bulletin board. Heck, I even sent first drafts of articles to freelancers I met on query challenges, and shared story ideas with others.

We work together to place story ideas, and we cheer each other up when we despair of paying the mortgage or getting enough work. While I still sit in my office alone, I don't feel it.

Keeping focused

But I want to add that I still maintain my querying standards: I send a minimum of 3 or 4 queries to markets that pay $1/word or more a week. It's easy to get points if you send queries to markets that don't pay enough to live on--they're desperate for writers.

But that wouldn't serve me. It wouldn't keep my accounts solvent and it wouldn't get me any closer to the kind of journalism I want to do. So I make the challenge work for me, not the other way around.

Tomorrow, I'll share another way to work with others to get your queries out the door.

How do you get support to query?

Photo by Heart of Oak.

Inspiration Sunday: Writers We Admire: Jane Mayer

2009-06-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

In a continuing effort to imbue you with the joy of our job, check out this Authors @Google interview and talk by writer Jane Mayer:

Two Ways to Change Focus from the Economy to Your Economy

2009-06-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm hearing from more and more people the state of the freelance landscape today:

"Since January, I've had three assignments (not high paying) and have sold two essays. My financial situation is far from good, and I'm the only breadwinner in the house."

"I have a large project pending but the client's counsel doesn't seem to be in any hurry to review my contract revisions. I am counting on this project to break my slump. "

"I'm only now seeing positive results, with two assignments I'm working on this week and potentially two more coming in this week. I've been at this almost full time each week since December 15. Getting out queries, LOIs, followups, etc. I can't give you an exact count right now, but I've gotten out at least 100 queries (new, revised or tweaked), more than 100 followups, and dozens of very targeted (with ideas) LOIs."

Still, sometimes, isn't it tempting to think it's YOU? In a way, it's almost comforting: If there really is a cabal of editors out there talking smack about that one article that took tons of revisions, then there's something you can do. You can try to change minds.

Whereas, if it's just the economy and the only answer is to stay vigilant and stay persistent and deepen your patience, then you've got nothing. There's nothing you can do but wait. And entrepreneurs? We're not known for our patience. Especially when the mortgage is due.

I talk a lot about the serenity hypothesis: That serenity isn't being happy all the time or getting everything you want (ask most lottery winners and they'll tell you the same). Serenity is focusing on what you can control and moving away from that which you can't.

And this economy? It's the epitome of what you can't control.

So how do you keep focused and sane and serene right now? Here are two techniques:

Look for role models
If you're a lone freelancer, staring at your barren inbox in frustration and worried about bare cupboards, it's easy to think that something has gone terribly wrong in your business. But if you hear, as I have recently, about tons of other freelancers going through the same thing--and getting through it, surviving and actually thriving--you have a road map.

Ask them:
How did you get through the slow times?
What did you do to keep yourself motivated?
How long did it take for the slump to pass?
How did you occupy your time?
How did you develop patience?

Especially those who say they've been through the slump a million times before--grab them. They're the ones whose resilience you want to learn from.

Pull a switcheroo
Serenity is all about switching focus from the uncontrollable to the controllable. So:

Instead of focusing on editors not responding, work on a new query.
Instead of focusing on two months from now when you're sure you'll be destitute and on the street, start teaching yourself a new skill.
Instead of obsessively crunching numbers, revisit your business plan.
Instead of replaying every stressful interaction you've had with a suddenly MIA client, send a thank-you card to an editor with whom you've always enjoyed working.

Can you think of more?

Photo by tomsaint11.

Getting Over Outsiderism

2009-06-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things I loved about Jacqui Banaszynski's recent guest posts on this blog is how frank she was about the challenges of looking like you know what you're doing and feeling the opposite. In the post on fear of seeming rude when you do the kind of persistence that leads to great stories, she said:

[T]he discomfort with self-promotion is very familiar. The same mother who taught me to hold my own in a sibling tussle also taught me that it’s bad manners to go bragging on yourself. And yes, she taught me to mind my own business, not be nosy, not pry into others’ affairs, etc.

Quite the dilemma for journalists, yes?

I’ve known a lot of journalists in my time who are flat-out hustlers, and I say that with admiration — perhaps even envy. They can charm, schmooze or bully their way into almost any situation and come out with the goods.

Not me. I’ve always believed — sometimes naively — that good work will get you noticed; and if not, good work should be its own reward. I also tend to lean more towards doing what works for the bigger group than for my own “score.” (Studies indicate that may be, in part, a gender-based tendency.)

I bring this up in particular because a coaching client of mine recently admitted that part of her hesitance to query had to do with feeling like she should be at a different point in her career by now. She described her main newspaper job as being with a crappy paper. She's been a full-time mom for several years now. How can she compete, she seemed to be asking, with people like me, who went to journalism school, worked at lots of papers, and is established?

What I told her is similar to what Banaszynski intimates above: Guess what? We all feel like we don't belong.

To illustrate, I told a story:

I went to Columbia Journalism School. Fancy, right? The best journalism school in the country. You'd think we'd all be walking around possessed of a level of confidence not experienced by mere hacks. We were the chosen ones, those who, the school's administrators constantly reminded us, would Save Journalism For The Next Generation.

You'd think that, and you'd be wrong.

Instead, there was a joke in the school: In our yearbook (because, in addition to being journalism nerds we were regular nerds as well), writer and former stand-up comic Barry Lank wrote a humor piece about how he didn't deserve to be at the school: Some guy named Bernie Link, or something, was out there somewhere, wrongly denied his spot at the illustrious school.

It was like the whole school had a case of impostor syndrome.

And it's not isolated just to students. Recently, on a professional freelancers board I frequent, someone posted a question with the title: "Do You Ever Feel Like You Just Don't Know What You're Doing?" The question got 13 responses, often with the reply, "All the time."

So if you're struggling with your right to be part of the group that calls itself full-time freelance writers, I'll tell you a secret. Feeling insecure is almost one of the requirements for admission. Just know that everyone is trying to find the next assignment, the next gig, the next piece of work that's going to make her career path make sense.

We do this job despite the fear, not because we're free of it. Maybe there's some level at which that fear is removed, but I haven't found it yet. I'd be willing to wager that the writer you most envy has his or her bouts with the same insecurities. There's always someone more honored out there to which we can compare ourselves.

So let's apply the serenity principle to this: If serenity comes from letting go of what you can't control and focusing on what you can, then feeling like you don't measure up definitely falls into the former category. It's antidote?
Get into the groove.

Finding and working on a query and a story you love--getting out of your brain and into your subjects' lives will--remind you that, though you may feel like you don't belong, you are exactly where you're supposed to be. The job will start making sense. You'll see that maybe you have something to contribute after all.

It's the thinking about it that bogs us down. So don't think. Do. Whatever's next on your to-do list, just do it. Get excited about your job. As Richard St. John said in one of the TED Talks I posted yesterday, passion and getting into the flow is key to success. Enjoy it.

Photo by TimWilson.

Serenity Tip: Keep doing what works

2009-06-17T06:00:00.001-07:00

Richard St. John gave two great talks at TED about success. The first is about the keys to success. You may recognize one I've talked about often:

Then, this year, St. John talks about how success can lead to failure and how to avoid it (with his personal story). It's a great message for mid-career journalists who feel stuck in a rut, who've been doing the same thing for a long time and have lost passion. Consider these keys to success and see which need a boost:

2009-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive -- the risk to be alive and express what we really are."
--Don Miguel Ruiz

Photo by roland.

Serenity Tip: Doing What You Have To, Giving Yourself What You Need

2009-06-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed radio silence from me over the past week or so. An odd thing happened at the end of the blogathon. I was plum out of energy. After filing a big story last week, then my birthday, and then a little break between assignments, I found myself with free time.

My usual approach is to keep working full days. After all, there's always something to do:

Scanning and shredding of old documents and useless receipts.
Reading other great blogs.
Meeting with other writers and editors.
Following up on invoices.
Reading great journalism.
Going through my stack of business cards and updating my address book.
Decluttering.
Revising my business plan.
Checking to be sure the links on my Web site are updated.

And of course, and perhaps most important, querying for more work.

One of my coaching clients has said that she has found, in the time between assignments, that life encroaches. It sure does.

But what I decided to do was something that seemed sane but never occurred to me before: I worked half days. I let myself sleep in every day (that extra hour of sleep is life-giving), and when I got up I sent a query. Then I did whatever else I wanted. I went to the gym. I went shopping (birthday gift certificates in hand). I read a guilty-pleasure book. I called friend.

And I capped it off with a weekend out of town that consisted mostly of soaking in a hot tub while reading.

And I'm here to tell you that the world did not fall apart. In fact, I came back and the first thing I did after saying hello to the kittens was finally throw out a bunch of old magazines that I'd been vacillating on keeping for months.

Amazing how inspiration strikes at the right time.

You may be in a slow period, and if you, like me, are a workaholic, consider a contrary action: Do what absolutely has to get done. Then get out of the office and enjoy your life.

If, on the other hand, you have a hard time getting started, please don't take this post as permission to put off your work to another day. The key is contrary action: Doing something against instinct. It can be healing. It was for me this week.

Photo by m o d e.

2009-06-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." ~ Albert Einstein

Photo by Bernt Rostad.

Five Ways to Overcome Persistence Resistance

2009-06-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week, we're getting a wealth of guidance from Jacqui Banaszynski about the art, craft and grit of reporting and writing. After yesterday's q&a, I had another question for her, based on some past posts to this blog:

What do you say, what advice do you offer, to writers who find the marketing and interviewing persistence you describe to go against everything they've been taught about politeness, respect and, for some, proper, ladylike behavior?

Here's her response. As a reminder, Banaszynski is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who now holds the Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism and an Editing Fellow at the Poynter Institute. She worked in newsrooms for more than 30 years, and now leads workshops for journalists around the world.

First, if I may indulge in a LOL moment. I grew up with four (large) brothers, raised by a mother who insisted I learn how to hold my own. The notion of “proper, ladylike behavior” didn’t exactly translate to the basketball court or baseball field in the way I think it’s suggested here. At the same time, I never saw a conflict between being competitive, intelligent and ambitious and being proper and feminine and attractive.

So the question itself, embedded in the notion of gender or femininity, is a bit of a puzzler to me. But the discomfort with self-promotion is very familiar. The same mother who taught me to hold my own in a sibling tussle also taught me that it’s bad manners to go bragging on yourself. And yes, she taught me to mind my own business, not be nosy, not pry into others’ affairs, etc.

Quite the dilemma for journalists, yes?

I’ve known a lot of journalists in my time who are flat-out hustlers, and I say that with admiration — perhaps even envy. They can charm, schmooze or bully their way into almost any situation and come out with the goods.

Not me. I’ve always believed — sometimes naively — that good work will get you noticed; and if not, good work should be its own reward. I also tend to lean more towards doing what works for the bigger group than for my own “score.” (Studies indicate that may be, in part, a gender-based tendency.)

So how do you “sell” yourself or your story, to either a story subject or an editor?

A few things to think about:

Step 1. Believe in what you’re doing.

If you’re trying to get an intimate interview, on deadline, with someone caught in a horrible tragedy, you have to believe that interview has value to the person and to the world, and that you will conduct the interview with as much respect as possible.

If you’re trying to convince an editor that you should travel to France to be fitted for a $600 couture bra and then write about it (I have a friend who did this), you have to believe that there are women— a lot of them — who are deeply curious about what it takes to find a perfect bra for their imperfect bodies.

At some level, you have to really find value in what you’re pitching, whether that value is in the idea or the experience you’ll get writing about it or the contacts you’ll make. Then you’re really not selling or self-promoting; rather, you’re relaying your passion, curiosity, sense of wonder, sense of fun, sense of outrage, desire to educate, belief in fairness, desire to try, etc.

Step 2. Do your homework.

There’s a story you’re dying to do? Make sure the publication you’re pitching it to does that kind of story, or you know enough about the publication to shape your pitch accordingly.

You want to interview someone hard to reach? Find people who can work as intermediaries to make a case for you.

Figure out how to make your idea of interest, use, value, fun not just for readers, but for the story subject.

You want more money for a story? Learn what the market rate is, by region, publication and author.

Step 3. Let go of a bit of self-protective ego.

This is going to sound counter-intuitive, because most people who don’t like to self-promote believe that only egotists do. But sometimes the failure to make your case — to get a difficult interview or defend your story to an editor — is really because you feel awkward or uncomfortable or defensive or shy. In other words, you make it about you, rather than about the story or the other person. If you shift the focus away from yourself, you’ll have a better chance of communicating your interest. And if you accept that momentary discomfort comes with the job, you’ll find that nothing bad really happens.

I can’t stress this enough. Time and again, I see reporters who won’t ask a difficult question or call a reluctant subject back because they think they are being polite — they’re protecting the feelings of the other person. But it’s the usually the reporter who is protecting himself when he doesn’t take that uncomfortable step.

Let’s say you’re interviewing parents who lost a son in Iraq. Do you really think asking them about their son is going to make their pain worse? Or do you think it could give them a chance to honor their son by letting the world know why he was special? (This is why writing obituaries is such a good experience; you discover that almost everyone wants to talk. And you learn how to ask for that conversation at a very sensitive time.) I’m a huge believer in letting other people (adults) make their own choices. Anything else is disrespectful.

So don’t pre-determine whether they want to talk by not asking them, or by editing your questions down to the most pallid. Don’t pre-determine an editor’s response to a story pitch by refusing to articulate — cogently and passionately — why you believe in the story.

Step 4. Learn not to take the first no as final.

People can change their minds with time. One skill to learn is to ask questions that give people a reason to say yes.

If someone doesn’t want to talk to you, maybe they don’t want to talk to you right now; ask if you could call back in a few days.
If someone is resistant to cooperating on a story, ask if you could come by and introduce yourself in person to explain your interest, or talk to them first on background to identify their concerns.
If an editor isn’t interested in your story pitch, ask if there are elements of the idea that work for her, or if she has other stories needing to be done or if you could submit the story on spec.

I can’t count the number of stories that bore fruit because I returned to a subject after the first no. And interviews are always more productive in the second round; you now have an individual-to-individual relationship with a subject (rather than a subject-reporter relationship), and the subject has had time to think about the topic a bit more deeply.

Step 5. Finally, rehearse.

I’m serious.Whether it’s preparing for an interview you are nervous about or a pitch to an editor, it helps enormously to rehearse the conversation with a trusted colleague or friend. It’s similar to an athlete who envisions a game or race in advance: She can envision challenges, work out solutions and then see the route to success.

The same holds true of the kind of conversations that may feel awkward because they may feel pushy. If you rehearse the conversation, with someone playing the other role or at least listening very hard to your side of the conversation and giving you feedback, you will have to figure out how you’re going to make your case. You’ll have a chance to work on phrasing and tone of voice — things that might trip you up, especially if you’re nervous. And you’ll have to think about how the other person might react — what does the story subject or editor need to know that makes them interested in your proposal?

Is this pushy self-promotion? I think that’s more a matter of style than anything else. And a pushy style — not the sell itself — is what might seem unladylike. If you believe in what you are proposing, then your job is to communicate that to others. You are really just telling another story, to an audience, and you have to do the same things you do when you write: You have to think about that audience, think about what your story is really about and why someone should read it, and then make that very clear in an engaging and honest way.

Motivation, Storytelling and Mid-Career: A Q&A with Jacqui Banaszynski

2009-06-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jacqui Banaszynski shared how persistence landed her three big stories. Today, she talks about the persistence of storytelling, finding the right motivation to stay persistent and how persistence might look different in mid-career than when you're just starting out. Banaszynski is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who now holds the Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism and an Editing Fellow at the Poynter Institute. She worked in newsrooms for more than 30 years, and now leads workshops for journalists around the world.

Tomorrow, one more post from Jacqui about persistence vs. politeness.

What role does persistence play in storytelling? Do the two go together at all?

I’m tempted to say there is no storytelling without persistence. Sure, there are the rare right-place, right-time cases of a great story landing in a writer’s notebook. But even then, the writer has to be alert to the value of the story and has to pursue it to the end.

Pursuit takes persistence. Lots of it. Persistence and follow-through often mark the difference between the successful, published writer and the frustrated wanna-be, perhaps even more than talent.

A writer has to be persistent in developing and pitching an idea; she has to be open to shaping and reshaping it to sell, while retaining her belief in it even when others don’t see the potential.

A writer has to be persistent in gaining access to the right subjects and sources, and in getting those people to grant both time and honesty.

A writer has to be persistent in staying focused on the point and purpose of a story, resisting the inevitable distractions and detours that come with reporting. At some level, that means even working to stay interested in the topic, or to get interested in the topic in the first place, or to work through enough interview questions to find the subject’s passion for the topic.

Most writers have to exercise discipline that goes beyond mere persistence when they finally sit down to write. And rewrite. And rewrite again. Too many great stories fail because writers lost patience or energy at the keyboard.

And finally, a writer has to be persistent in getting a story published. That means everything from (politely) hounding editors to working with photographers and designers to reading final proofs (if allowed) to make sure all the pieces of a story package are in place and accurate. Hitting the send button is not the end of journalistic writing.

You told a story at the conference of a student who wanted to do a story on a girl with an eating disorder. You set the bar high, assuming she'd give up. But she didn't and it sounds like she came up with a great story. How do high standards and persistence play off each other to create a better writer? Or do they?

Different people respond to different challenges. Some are “I’ll show you” types who thrive in the face of an impossible challenge. Others fold under pressure, so need constant validation and encouragement.

As an editor and teacher, part of my job is to figure out what best motivates a writer. But if you’re a freelancer working on your own or with multiple editors, you need to take control of your own motivation, and take responsibility for the quality of your work and for your own growth and development. If you can’t rely on someone else to push, prod or pull you, what can you do to push, prod and pull yourself? That takes both persistence and self-awareness. It means keeping yourself engaged, managing your time and refusing to get discouraged when you get little or negative feedback.

I believe in the theory that most people will rise (or fall) to the expectations set for them by people they value. So can you set expectations for yourself — tangible goals you want to reach or bars you want to clear — and then work day-by-day to get there?

Even if your work is “good enough” for publication or other editors, is it good enough for you?

Years ago, I made a sort of bet with myself to see if I could be directly involved with at least one award-winning piece of journalism a year. It wasn’t the awards themselves that mattered as much as using them as a benchmark. It reminds me to pay attention to the work I’m involved in, and make sure I’m giving extra effort to projects that have the most potential.

For mid-career journalists, is the issue of persistence in their craft different than those just out of college, in your experience?

See the answer just above. The key is to take responsibility for your own development, to know yourself and to find ways to motivate yourself.

Early in life, in school and at home, most institutions and relationships exist to help a young person grow and learn and achieve. It’s almost taken for granted that a young person will get constantly better, and that there will be people all around them to help them. That can be true very early in careers, too, when young hires have mentors or bosses invested in their success.

But after a few years on the job, that responsibility shifts and individuals have to take ownership of their own growth. One of the hard adjustments to adulthood is to realize that learning doesn’t come in a steady rise, but often in short steps up after frustrating long plateaus. And taking those short steps up sometimes doesn’t happen unless you make it happen yourself. So you have to start setting goals and routes to achieve them. You have to reach out and ask for help or for opportunities rather than have then given to you. You have to want to keep learning, and find ways to do so.

Are you constantly reading about the craft, or finding courses to take — perhaps joining a writer’s group or taking some online courses through NewsU or at a local community college? Are you inviting a publication's editor for coffee and asking her to evaluate your work? Are you finding writers who you admire, studying their work and perhaps interviewing them about their struggles and techniques?

And, most important, are you paying attention to how much your work grows and improves over time by reading past work?

Writing is a lot like running a marathon, or going on a long, arduous backpacking trip. You will cruise sometimes and stumble at others. You can’t get anywhere except one step at a time. So you need to set your sights on small markers along the way to the finish line, and celebrate when you cross one of those markers.

Then you need to start moving towards the next, one step at a time.

What do you tell mid-career journalists about their craft--improving it, etc?

Again, see the answer above. Improving the craft (and art) of reporting and writing and editing means constantly reporting and writing and editing — and reading. It means being in the world, talking to people, asking questions, paying attention, constantly keeping your curiosity on high and looking for stories.

It means reading with a writer’s mind, and at some level studying how good writers write. It also means getting back in touch with grade school grammar and gaining a better understanding of the habits you have in use of language, and of the effects specific language use (and grammar, punctuation, etc.) have on an overall piece.

It means writing, a lot, and then re-reading your work (out loud) with a reader’s mind:

What’s clear?
What’s fuzzy?
What images stand out?
What background can be condensed?
What words or passages are self-indulgent and decorative rather than telling and descriptive?

It means trying something new and taking a few risks, as a reporter, a writer and a reader.

Anything else I didn't ask that you want to add or think is important to say on persistence for journalists?

Journalism is work worth doing. No matter what is happening in the news industry economically, the work of storytellers is work essential to society. It feeds community in both knowledge and spirit.

My parents taught me than any work worth doing is worth doing as well as you can do it. That’s how I feel about journalism.

Three Stories that Persistence Made Possible for Jacqui Banaszynski (Now with more Pulitzers)

2009-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

We should all be so lucky as to spend some time talking to and working with an editor as ingenious, dogged and passionate as Jacqui Banaszynski. Banaszynski is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who now holds the Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism and an Editing Fellow at the Poynter Institute. She worked in newsrooms for more than 30 years, and now leads workshops for journalists around the world.

I was lucky enough to attend a writing workshop she conducted at Health Journalism 2009, and I knew I had to ask her to comment for this blog. Happily, she agreed and the next two days, you'll get two great posts from her. Today, she shares three stories that persistence made possible for her. Tomorrow, she'll answer a bunch of other questions. Stay tuned.

There are so many examples of how persistence paid off in (saved) my stories that it’s hard to know where to begin. It is no exaggeration to say that persistence — hard work, follow through, patience, a bit (OK, more than a bit) of stubbornness —had much more to do with any success I’ve had than native intelligence, writing talent or even training. There’s an old saw that reporters make their own luck, and a lot of that luck is sheer stick-to-itiveness.

The best examples from in my reporting:

Not Letting the Story Die
When a natural gas pipeline in suburban St. Paul ruptured and exploded, killing a young mother and her daughter, it was big news. Every news outlet in the region wanted an interview with the husband/father, who had survived the blast with his other daughter. But he made it clear he wasn’t talking, and after a few days, most other journalists gave up.

I continued to work the story each day, gently but constantly reaching out to other sources to try to get to the husband while respecting his privacy boundaries. Finally, about 10 days after the explosion, the husband called me. It took a little more intense work to get him to understand why I wanted to talk to him, and to agree. The interview produced one of the most compelling emotional narratives I’ve ever been privileged to do.

Reporting as a Form of Persistence
A popular young priest in Minnesota was fired by his bishop in the midst of the AIDS/gay rights battles of the late 1980s. Religion and moral/social issues were hot-button topics in Minnesota at the time, and the priest had written an article criticizing the Catholic church’s attitudes toward disenfranchised groups, especially gays.

Everyone wanted an interview with the priest to determine his motivation: Was he making a principled sacrifice on behalf of others? Or was he gay himself, and living a double life? The priest adamantly refused to talk after making an initial, brief public statement. I kept after the story, peeling off five or six related pieces over the next three or four weeks, and using each of them as an excuse to call the priest for comment. Over time, he realized I was both professional and determined; I wouldn’t give up but I wouldn’t burn him.

At the same time, I learned more about church issues, and about the priest himself. He ultimately agreed to an interview, in which he revealed that he was faithful to his vows — and that he was gay and could no longer live with the internal conflict. The resulting profile was one of the first pieces hinting at what became a major and complex national issue about homosexuality and mainstream churches.

The Importance of Support
As the AIDS crisis worsened in the mid-1980s, my editor suggested I do a death-to-diagnosis narrative of someone dying of the disease. It took a full year, talking to dozens of sources and following dozens of leads, to find the right subject for that story and to negotiate access. The result was “AIDS in the Heartland,” a four-part series that won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. And in that case, my “persistence” was helped immeasurably by photographer Jean Pieri, my partner on the project. When one of us flagged, the other pushed. Jean met our story subjects first, and paved the way for everything to come. In the same way I often needed a running partner when I was marathoning, it can help for a writer to have a partner or buddy to keep them going.

What It Means

But persistence was key in all aspects of my work — from developing trust with sources, to staying with a story over a long course of time, to calling back sources multiple times to ensure accuracy, to simply showing up for work day after day, year after year, to write paragraph after paragraph until I gained some sense of journalistic mastery and creative voice.

Too many journalists think good writing is either the result of raw talent or magic. Or they were good at it in high school so think it should be a snap to succeed professionally. They then grow frustrated when they don’t win big freelance contracts or big awards overnight. The hard truth is that writing is like music or sports: It takes years of practice, coaching (feedback) and attention — writing and then writing and then writing some more —to get good and stay good.

Inspiration: Getting Your (Authors @)Google On

2009-05-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you, like me, strive for more narrative nonfiction in your work, you need role models. Here's one:

Bill Hayes, author of Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood, The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy, and others. The following is a 47-minute reading and discussion by the narrative nonfiction and science writer Hayes. Happy Sunday!

Where Professionalism, Frustration and Serenity Intersect

2009-05-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week, freelancer LJ Williamson admitted to both fabricating outrageous stories for her client, Examiner.com, and to feeling self-righteous about it.

She emailed FishbowlLA:

[A]ll they care about is how many hits your page gets, and they don't care about the writing. Fine — I decided to try to do things their way.

Unexpectedly, one post I wrote about the vaccine/autism debate really brought the crazies out of the woodwork, and brought my page views to a new record high. So I went with it, decided to start baiting the vaccine deniers more and more, with exaggerations and half-truths.

I also wrote a series of preposterous articles on topics like why peanuts should be banned, why panic was a totally appropriate response to the swine flu outbreak, and why schoolchildren were likely to die if they were allowed to play dangerous games such as tag.

And no one at Examiner noticed or cared what I said or did for quite some time.

Examiner.com is an online content aggregator. I almost wrote "aggravator," and that would have been approriate, too. Sites like Examiner.com, Suite101.com and more hire freelancers, but only pay them according to the number of clicks their articles receive. I've written before about the danger these sites hold for freelancers, both in terms of their bottom lines and in terms of the quality of their work. And I'm not alone. Recently, freelancer Michelle Rafter, author of the WordCount blog, explained I don't work for aggregators, but I am a Web writer.

But Williamson's example shows another danger of these sites: If you let your clients, some will encourage you to discard your ethics.

Well, let me back up: I get what Williamson is doing. She's calling content aggregators' bluffs. They say they give writers free reign to explore and that their business model rewards the best and most interesting writing. But as she showed, they don't. They reward--duh--sensationalism and bombast. She exposed such sites' lack of quality control, which is just as important as profitability if the client is really a site for journalism and not just a cynical ploy to exploit would-be writers and make a buck.

And I suppose someone had to do it. I fully expect her to come out with a first-person article crowing about how she pulled one over on Big Business.

But I care less about teaching clients lessons than professionalism. It mortifies me that anyone would flout her responsibility as a journalist just to make a point. That's gotcha journalism at its worst, and it's just as cynical as Examiner.com's business model.

Still, this is an important lesson for writers. When I was still at newspapers, a rising-star reporter was fired after a big expose revealed some reporting holes. But all of us reporters knew what was going on: The editor had been seething to get this story in the paper for years, encouraging most reporters to pursue it. We all passed because we knew it was a boondoggle--impossible to prove and seemingly a vindetta. But he found in this writer, who was young and ambitious, the one person willing to pursue it his way. When you're getting that kind of validation and encouragement from an editor who ought to know better, it can be hard to remember your ethics.

When the truth came out and the crap hit the fan, the editor predictably abandoned her. Then he fired her. The lesson here is that you can't rely on your editors to check your ethics. If you love your job and you value journalism, you have to learn to adhere to your values no matter what. You have to hold yourself to a higher standard than perhaps even your editors do. Or, and perhaps more pointedly, you have to seek out editor relationships where your editor cares as much about good work as you do. As I've said before, the editors who care about good work are also more likely to pay you well for it. Not always, but it's a not-so-surprising correlation.

And while Williamson seems to have many great publications under her belt, I'd think twice if I were an editor about hiring a reporter willing to burn her clients and make stuff up for some snarky, well, vindetta.

So was the point worth making? I'm sure it depends on who you ask. I wouldn't make that point, but I already don't like aggregators or pay-per-click arrangements, and I advice coaching clients to avoid them. Perhaps it will serve as a lesson to new or aspiring freelancers and writers--both to avoid such aggregators and to avoid such irresponsible behavior.

Photo by vsqz.

2009-05-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." Robert Collier

Serenity Tool: Embrace, Don't Idolize Big-Name Writers

2009-05-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I wrote about Dan Baum's impressive archive of queries, available for any of us mere mortals to review and dissect. But I wanted to add something:

Baum makes a number of comments I disagree with. (And I'm not the only one to have that response.)

For instance, he states that when he calls people for queries, he tells them he's writing the story for X Magazine (Wired, The New Yorker, etc.).

"I say I’m working on a story for Wired magazine and I am," he told Linda Formichelli at The Renegade Writer. "My relationship with Wired magazine at that point is none of their business."

He also says he doesn't reslant and repitch stories:

Well, you have to write a proposal for the sensibilities of a particular magazine, so when people tell me “I have an idea for a story,” my first question is “You have an idea for a story for what magazine?” Because you can’t say, “I have an idea for a story, and if I can’t sell it Playboy I’m going to sell it to Rolling Stone, and if I can’t sell it to Rolling Stone I’m going to sell it to Harper’s,” because it just doesn’t work that way.

When Formichelli asked if that was specific to his particular realm of the freelance world, Baum conceded it might be.

"I want to keep saying this that this is just my experience," he added. "Family Circle and Woman’s Day might be similar enough. In the small number of magazines that I wrote for, you just couldn’t do it. I mean, if you were writing a proposal for Wired, there’s just nobody else you could sell it to. I tried, I’ve tried, I really have. I really have tried and it just never worked for me."

That's exactly it. I want to encourage all freelancers out there to embrace Baum but not idolize him. He's just one writer, and he and his wife live entirely off his earnings as a freelancer. (Best I can tell, Baum and his wife essentially co-write or at least co-report or co-research his work, but it's published under his name.) He, like you, is just trying to make a living.

This is one of the things I love about the freelance world. We're all just learning. We're all just finding what works for us and doing that over and over again to good effect. If we're in serenity, we're letting go of the stuff that doesn't work, which can be very hard. What Baum says is interesting, but it's not gospel.

For instance, I would never tell sources that I'm writing a story for a publication for which I didn't have an assignment. I tell them, instead, that I'm writing up a proposal for my editor at so-and-so magazine. It's important to me to be upfront with my sources in a way that makes me comfortable. Baum, obviously, is comfortable with how he does it. It's not my style.

Likewise, I try to reslant and repitch my work all the time. That's how most of us make a living as freelancers. Baum is right: A New Yorker story is nothing like a Wired story. But there's a difference between an idea and a story:

The story I pitch to Yoga Journal is nothing like a story I'd pitch to Reader's Digest. But the root idea might share a kernel. They're different pieces, though. And that has worked for me.

So my encouragement for the day: Find what works for you: Don't just emulate what works for someone else.

Photo by skye.gazer.

Writing the Dream Query for the Dream Job

2009-05-27T15:43:00.001-07:00

Recently, the fabulous Renegade Writer Blog posted a q&a with former New Yorker writer Dan Baum, and he shares both an interesting approach to freelancing and a whole treasure-trove of detailed queries. Some of those landed assignments at The New Yorker.

I point this out because it's interesting to see the amount of detail and the work he's put into his queries. One query I read, which landed him an assignment writing about the "jake leg" for The New Yorker, was so compelling I couldn't stop reading. No surprise it landed the assignment. It taught me a couple things about long-form narrative non-fiction pitches:

Write like you've got the assignment. Duh, right? But I know I've queried the New Yorker with far less narrative pitches, and I can see why his pitch sold and mine didn't. It's a case of show-don't-tell.
Details, details. The pitch is like a short article--fully researched, sourced and well-crafted.
Open access. All good queries should do tell the editor about access, but his do a good job of showing the editor that he's thought out how much background he'll need and where he'll need to go to get it. It makes the job easier on the editor and builds trust.

He also has a great quote about how he pursues his sources for his queries. It fits with the persistence theme, but also gives a window into another freelancer's world (emphasis mine):

[To make it,] I think it takes relentlessness. When I’m starting to work on a story, I’ll start reading about something, and I’ll just follow every link, and as I’m doing it I’ll make a list in a Word document of the people that I need to find.

I start calling them immediately, and talking to them and taking notes on my computer. The expression I use with Margaret is “I had a red dog day today,” which means I had my nose down on the ground and I was going after everything today. Just hoovering in enormous amounts of information. And when I start a proposal, I try to have a series of red dog days where I am just relentless, going after everybody, and as soon as I encounter somebody’s name I pick up the phone and I call. When I finish the interview I say, Who else should I talk to? Then I call those people.

I don’t put it off — I don’t say these are people I’m going to call later — I do it right then. Man, there are times when in one day I can get enough information to write a proposal that will get me a $12,000 magazine assignment.

If you're a freelancer interested in long-form narrative, check out his archive and try an exercise:

Take one of the queries
Take a story you've written that you thought had narrative potential
Start playing with your notes and research and practice making a narrative query from those notes and that research.

See how it works. Is there more research you need to do? What's missing? Do you know how to find the missing piece, or do you need to talk to someone about it?

It's fun. Try it and tell me how it works, and I'll do the same.

2009-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time." Marabel Morgan

Photo by bobster855.

Happy Memorial Day: Thinking about Genius

2009-05-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen this great talk by writer Elizabeth Gilbert on genius and the challenge of showing up and doing your work every day--with or without your muse--you should.

Enjoy, and happy Memorial Day!

Pitching Pebbles and Choosing Persistence

2009-05-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Take a few minutes today to listen to this short podcast:

Choosing Persistence by Essential Communications.

If you feel anxious about rejection of your marketing efforts and if you ever find yourself psyching yourself out by how anxious you are about querying, this is for you. I especially love the following visualization, which is great for all of us and our, well, pitching:

I imagined standing at the edge of a big pond. At my feet was a pile of pebbles. My task was to pick up one pebble at a time at pitch it into the center of the pond. The goal was to throw enough pebbles to the exact same spot so they would pile up under water until one would finally break the surface. I never knew how deep the pond was or how big the pile was under the water. My job was just to keep pitching. Any pebble that broke the surface of the water was a job I landed.

In my imagination, every pebble had possibility of being the one. I never knew beforehand which would break surface, so I had to clear mind and bring all my technique to bear on whatever stone was at hand. I couldn't be distracted by the previous stones already throne or the ones still to come. And I couldn't worry about what would happen if it didn't break the surface of the water, and I couldn't get seduced into thinking about the rewards I'd get if it did break the surface. Every stone was its own event and I had to attend to each one with care.

I also had to believe that every stone made a difference. I had to believe that every stone really was piling up under water even though I couldn't see them. I had to trust that I was doing the right thing in the right way, even when I had no feedback to prove that was true. It was so easy to fall into doubt: doubt that the task was too difficult, that it was too tiresome, too hopeless, too unfair, too whatever. But my belief was a choice, and I had to keep choosing my positive belief over and over.

Photo by petervanallen.

2009-05-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." - Pablo Picasso

Photo by Stephen Poff.

Persistence at the Wrong Thing

2009-05-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Recently there's been a lot of discussion on a freelancers' board I frequent about bidding sites such as elance and Suite101. A new freelancer asks whether they were worthwhile.

This got me thinking about persistence. As in: What if you apply all the tools in your toolkit, and follow all the suggestions on this blog--but to the wrong thing?

What if you persist and persist and persist at work you hate, or in job markets, like elance, that will never pay you enough to live on?

Goal Confusion

They always say, "Keep your eyes on the prize" when they (whoever they are) want us to keep focused and keep going despite obstacles.

The problem, it seems to me, comes when you identify your goals too narrowly. Sure, elance might keep you busy. But will it keep you solvent? Will it keep you contented in your work? If your goal is to be busy, then mazel tov--you've done it. But I'd like to suggest that your goal deserves to be bigger than that--and that you can learn how to be capable of such goals.

Any market or editor or freelance bidding site is the object onto which you unleash your persistence: You query them monthly for years, ever refining your queries until you find one that works. You show up every day and do the work, with faith that inevitably, if you keep querying you'll get more work.

But that's not the goal. That's a step in the process to reaching your goal. At least for me.

The goal, it seems to me, is to support yourself doing the kind of journalism you love. Or maybe it's to reach a specific level in your career. Whoever you're querying has to fit into that goal. The step is not the goal.

Changing the Prize

That's the problem, it seems to me, with places like elance and Suite101: They encourage you to confuse busy-work with accomplishing goals and working like a dog with supporting yourself as a freelancer. As I've said before, in order to achieve any level of serenity in your work life, your job has to be sustainable.

Hoping to be the lowest bidder on a job is insane if your goal is to support yourself as a freelancer. Spending time writing SEO articles is crazy if you really want to write for The New Yorker or The Atlantic.

So we can spend good persistence technique after bad goals if we confuse the method (I'll query this market or that) with the motive (I want to be a high-paid freelance writer who writes narrative nonfiction).

Keep Going, but Change the Road

The good news is that persistence is such a valuable skill that once you turn it in the right direction, you'll get much further, much faster. It helps in this case to have a business plan. That way you know what you want to earn, and how you'll get there.

The fact is that places like elance are sites for people who want to be a freelance writer but don't want to step outside their comfort level enough to start querying individual magazines with individual stories. There's something to be said for steady work, but not when it goes against your financial and professional goals.

It may sound like I'm coming from a place of privilege, but I'm not. What I'm doing is acting on faith:

I believe there's enough work out there for me to have steady client that pay well. I believe in my story ideas enough to keep working on them and sending them out. I believe that my goals are attainable.

And I believe that anything that's set up to have us bid against each other automatically puts us at a disadvantage. With the time you spend creating proposals and hoping (!) to be the lowest bidder, you could build a Web site, create a LinkedIn account, start sending letters of introduction and meeting editors face-to-face.

All of those will yield more work, longer term, than elance or Suite101. Those sites feed off insecurities, sure, but they also feed off that mistaken belief that marketing is a shameful activity that should be done with as quickly as possible. I hate that. Have more faith in your skills and your unique approach to your work. Get excited about what you do and share it with editors who might need a writer like you.

Photo by borman818.

Developing and Maintaining Marketing Momentum: Q&A with Rachel Weingarten

2009-05-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

Today is Guest Post Day in the 2nd annual WordCount Blogathon, so give a big Serenity for the Self-Employed welcome to Rachel C. Weingarten, a New York City freelancer, president of Octagon Strategy Group and author of the fabulous Career and Corporate Cool (which is sitting on my bookshelf as I type).You can read her blog at RachelcW.com or follow her on Twitter @rachelcw. Rachel mentioned on Twitter that she was trudging through some long client proposals, and I asked her a few questions about how she created the persistence to keep at it. Here are her answers.

First, tell me your approach to querying: How often do you do it, and how do you schedule it/ensure that you get to it?

I wish that I could say that I was incredibly organized with my queries and pitches. I'm not- initially. To give you a really corny metaphor, I tend to see it as planting seeds (bearing in mind that as a NYC resident I'm more of an avid window sill gardener so my metaphor probably won't work for agricultural professionals): I sprinkle some carefully chosen seeds in my little patch of land, as they start to sprout and grow, I pay more attention to the fastest growers while continuing to nurture the other seedlings.

I then lavish my attention on the plants that seem to have the most promise and generally will ignore if not repurpose the ones with no growth at all. In other words, I care for my prospects consistently, but don't really worry or waste my time on the ones that seem to offer no promise. Instead, I will tweak or work much harder on the elements that can provide the greatest long term payoff. That said, and to take the gardening metaphor one step further (what can I say? it's spring) much like perennials, there are some prospects that seem to have withered on the vine but magically come back to life after an extended period of time.

I'd advise people to be open to renewing relationships that once held promise. Too many people become annoyed when a prospect doesn't immediately pan out and can risk building a renewed relationship because of residual impatience. For me at least, it's crucial to keep a long term approach to all prospecting. I recently snagged a new client when he wrote to me in response to an announcement e-mail I'd sent in 2004. I kid you not.

You mentioned on Twitter that you do long proposals. What do they usually consist of?

You know, I've been told by my business mentors, advisers and colleagues that I should consider charging for my proposals since in the past I offered way too much information and long term brand building approach. Before I work with a company I like to do as much research as possible to ensure that I'm the right person for the job and that my skill set matches their needs.

I'll then usually offer them a breakdown of the problems that they face as I see them and the ways in which my company and I can help them. Unfortunately, sometimes I'm too good at offering potential solutions because there are companies who think that they can tackle these issues on their own. Most of the time though, their approach to doing it on their own doesn't quite work, either because they don't have the necessary skills, contacts, intellectual prowess or connections or because they lack the imagination to actually bring these elements to life in a viable and engaging way. For those reasons, I've streamlined my proposal process to offer carefully tailored suggestions on marketing, branding, promotion, corporate communications or reputation management among other things and also have started charging for consultations since even my most casual suggestions or recommendations add so much value to a company.

You say that momentum is important for your persistence with querying. What do you mean by that, and what does that look like in your work life?

I like to use Newton's Law of Inertia to inspire me: An object in motion stays in motion/an object at rest stays at rest. When I'm tired or worn out it can feel like nothing is happening or changing. Conversely, when I'm energized and in the midst of a great project or am close to landing a new gig, I find that I will have more energy and excitement about pushing forward and getting that deal. The hardest part is getting started.

If you're a creative person or an analytical one you can use every query as a building block to get you to the next point. I never consider a proposal that's been rejected as a failure, even if I'm crushed at the time because I always learn from my mistakes, which is a form of persistence in and of itself. I can also use the elements in future projects or simply open myself up the the possibility of continued pitching which becomes less painful when done in volume. Too many people become dejected or give up when facing a wall; I simply find another way to scale it, walk around it or knock it down--if and when it's appropriate of course!

How long did it take you to figure out the momentum thing with querying? Do you remember how you learned it? Was there a moment, or a series of events that drove it home?

You know, initially I would have answered that I'm still learning it, because the economy is so depressing that it can be easy to give up. I did have an a-ha moment, though:

I was asked to pitch for a project that I was incredibly excited about at the time. To be honest, I don't even remember what that project was, but it was for an industry I'd never worked with, but the timing and elements made me believe it would be a great fit. It was a nightmare to work through the proposal elements, as I customize each and every one. I finally finished it, submitted it and was promptly rejected with no explanations or apology. I was crushed. Literally within days a colleague sent a prospect my way. It was for the exact same industry I was now so well versed in. I was able to go to an in-person meeting and really own the subject and present them with options that weren't nebulous, but perfectly matched for their demographic and needs. Had I not been willing to really work to understand the topic on the first go round, I'd never have been able to take that knowledge forward to the next prospect. And yes, I did get a long term engagement from that one!

For readers trying to develop the momentum you have, how would you advise them to cultivate it?

Start.
Continue.
Keep Going.
Ignore the naysayers.
Learn from your mistakes and successes.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
And repeat, and repeat--and then some.

You will not achieve success on every go round. You will not even achieve acknowledgment half the time. What you will do, though, is toughen yourself to rejection and also work to develop a rhythm of trying, refining and defining the personal or professional brand elements that will help you to get more business moving forward. The only time you truly fail is when you just stop trying.

Thanks, Rachel. This is just what I needed to read today!--Heather

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Wrap up--and wait, there's more!

2009-05-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been 30 days of the challenge, and so now is the time to draw this to a close. But I'm having so much fun with it, that I'm stopping it in name only. The posts will continue, for the time being, to cover persistence and all related topics. But I reserve the right to change topics later. And do suggest something new you'd like to read about related to writing, business and serenity.

And now, to sum up the challenge:

Starting Now! What we'll cover. Did we get to all of them? Nope. But we will.
Querying new markets: Is the economy and the doom and gloom about publications shuttering hampering your querying persistence? Four steps to getting your querying mojo back.
Happy Tax Day: I didn't think I'd be able to pay my taxes in full, but I did. Here's how persistence and luck married to help me avoid debt.
Motivating yourself to move forward: The first key to finding the motivation to move forward.
Help with the hardest tasks: The second key to finding motivation and getting your persistence going again.
Automating the hard stuff: The third way to make persistence routine.
Motivating yourself into persistence: The three feelings to cultivate to get persistent.
Faith for the job hunt: The role faith plays in persistence, even when you don't believe in the guy in the clowds.
Cultivating great writing: Tom Hallman Jr. and how to become a great writer.
Going from good to great: Ira Glass on the taste-talent gap, and how to bridge it.
Getting support: And a drink. Meetup for San Francisco freelancers, including me.
Passion + persistence = success: People seem to use the terms interchangeably, but they're different. Here's how they boost one another.
Finding the fun in querying: You don't have to hate querying. What you have to do is change the way you think of sales.
Persevering with this blog, even: To keep it going, I'm doing a 30-day blogathon. Check out who's in it with me.
Calvin Coolidge on persistence: One of the best quotes I've read on the subject.
Dogged organization: Guest blogger and friend of the blog professional organizer June Bell shares the important role persistence plays in keeping yourself organized.
Yogananda's take: Make the effort. That's all anyone is asking of you today.
Speaking of organization (taxes, part 2): How to organize your receipts and stick to your system so tax prep isn't (as) painful.
How persistence created MySpace: Lessons from some of the world's big hitters on persistence.
Persistence in book publishing, part 1: Guest blogger and author Cheryl Alkon shares how she kept at her book idea despite discouragement, infertility and doubt.
Persistence in book publishing, part 2: Cheryl shares how she sold her book, despite repeated rejections (hint: The blog's old favorite, support, came into play).
Run Fatboy Run: What a quirky British comedy tells us about breaking through the wall of resistance.

2009-05-19T06:00:00.001-07:00

"Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time." Marabel Morgan

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Run Fatboy Run

2009-05-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

This clip may not look like it has anything to do with persistence, but trust me, the film does. Not only does it use the analogy of running to discuss how one copes with those moments--in running, in love and, I'd add, in writing--when one hits the wall, but there's a great scene in which the main character, Dennis, tells his son the following:

Dennis: As you get older, you're going to realize there are a lot of things that you don't like, OK? Things much worse than this. And when those things happen you can't just run away.

Son: Why not?

Dennis: Because it doesn't solve the problem. When you stop running, the problem's still there. You've got to stick at it and then figure out some way to solve the problem. Even if it's really, really hard.

If that doesn't sum up writer's block, I don't know what does. It also sums up the problem of not having enough work, or not enough higher paying work or not enough of the work you really love. Persistence isn't just about solving the problem in front of you now, it's about developing a means to solve every problem you face. It's about creating a system that makes problems solvable, even if the system is just to take a break and keep coming back to it enough times that the problem cracks.

And rent the movie, because it's hilarious.

2009-05-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Money grows on the tree of persistence.
--Japanese proverb

Photo by Guwashi999.

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Persistence in book proposals, part 2

2009-05-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

Today, part two of Cheryl Alkon's persistence profile on how her dogged persistence eventually yielded a book contract. Yesterday, Cheryl shared how she continued to pursue her book idea and pregnancy despite lots of road blocks. Today, she'll share how she kept sending her book proposal out despite rejections. Cheryl is the author of the forthcoming Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-Existing Diabetes: Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby and the author of Managing the Sweetness Within, her blog on type 1 diabetes, pregnancy, and infertility. Other writing, research and editing work is online at CherylAlkon.com

I’d heard two opinions about what to do with my book proposal now that it was complete:

* Send it directly to potential publishers, or
* Send it to literary agents who would consider taking it on and would send it to publishers on my behalf.

Since the book was such a niche topic, the idea of sending it directly to a publisher who focused on diabetes made some sense. Typically, publishers don’t even bother to consider manuscripts that aren't attached to an agent, but since this would be a small project with a small advance, it was worth a try. Through Publisher’s Marketplace, a subscription newsletter that tracked book deals and industry news, I found an email address for someone at a house that published diabetes titles sold as patient guides through mainstream bookstores and sent a query to the editorial director.

He wrote back right away, telling me he might be interested in my project, but that he suspected the audience might be too small for his company to take it on. In February 2008, I emailed him the proposal, and included the numbers I had for the book's potential readership.

An assistant wrote to say it could take up to two months to hear back. After two months and four days, I followed up, politely, and was told to keep waiting.

When I mentioned this to a friend who’s written several nonfiction books, she told me it was time to start finding an agent. “You’ve given this guy a two-month exclusive, and that’s plenty of time. Move on.”

A fellow blogger was writing her own book about infertility and generously emailed me the list of potential agents she’d compiled: Sixty of them, all interested in women’s health. It was invaluable. Since the list was more than a year old, I began to confirm, person by person, which agents handled women’s health books like mine. I found AgentQuery and AbsoluteWrite to be particularly helpful in learning:

What agents are looking for;
Their track records;
If they were open to new clients;
Specifics, like whether they preferred emailed or snail mailed queries first; or
Whether they wanted to see the entire book proposal first.

I also contacted agents who represented or knew people I knew.

In April, I began to send out the proposal. I kept a detailed spreadsheet of exactly when, to whom, and why I sent the proposal and how each responded. Some replies were instant—most said my proposal was well written, and had passion, but the market was just too small. Or else the topic just didn’t appeal.

I’d sent out more than 20 queries or proposals to different agents when one responded—11 hours later. She loved my query and wanted to see the full proposal. Agent A was the head of a boutique firm who had worked in publishing for years and seemed cool. A few days later, she called me and told me how excited she was about the project.

“So you’re interested in representing me?”

She was. I was thrilled. However, I’d also been waiting to hear back from a bunch of other agents, including one, Agent B, who had specifically requested my proposal and wanted me to let her know if I got another offer first.

I told agent A I had to follow up with Agent B and could I have a day or two to see what happened. She said fine.

Contacting Agent B, along with any agent I hadn’t heard from yet, was one of the highlights of the whole experience. I emailed about 10 others and explained I’d gotten an offer, but wanted to hear back if they were also interested.

Immediately, I heard back from most agents, several of whom asked for extra time to look at the proposal again, or else declined but congratulated me.

I emailed more questions to Agent A, asking specifically about a fiction project I wanted to pursue after the pregnancy book. She wrote back quickly, assuring me she had handled clients with both fiction and non-fiction projects, though she was clear that not every non fiction writer found success as a fiction writer.

However, the next day, Agent A emailed with disappointing news: She thought with my “diverse writing aspirations… you would probably do better with a ‘newer’ agent, one with the space in his or her list and time to explore the author-in-full you wish to become. I’m not in the habit of offering and then withdrawing the offer of representation, but I really feel that in this instance, it’s better to get that ‘right relationship’ from the start than be uncomfortable or disappointed soon thereafter.”

Without a solid offer from anyone else yet, I wondered if I’d been too pushy to ask about other book ideas I’d had. But since all the advice I’d heard about selecting an agent said to let an agent know that you have ideas about future projects, I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong. Agent A signed off saying that “I think you are a terrific writer and I am sure the perfect agent awaits” and wished me the best of luck.

Great.

I held out hope for the rest of the agents, and in time, five others were interested in representing the project. This was exciting, but after talking to all, I knew I wanted someone who wanted to keep the voice as is. One agent told me the writing needed work—a minority opinion among the rest of the agents I’d heard from. Others wanted me to redo the entire proposal and include large new sections for type 2 and gestational women, which didn’t appeal to me at all. I also talked to an editor friend of a friend who had worked with all these agents and gave me her opinions on each.

After much consideration, I signed with my agent in July. She recognized the book for what it was: A niche topic, written in a distinctive, insider, non-medical voice, with lots of quotes from other women. She was also young, hungry, and eager to work with me throughout my career on both nonfiction and fiction work. I took the rest of the summer and a month or so to polish a few parts of the proposal, to build a website for my writing, and to give my blog a facelift.

And then the economy collapsed.

Publishing houses were dropping staff, the stock market was plummeting, and people were scared. Ironically, I was raring to go. I’d spent so much time working on this project, landed an agent, and I couldn’t believe that the damn economy was holding me back. My agent told me she wanted to hold off sending the proposal until things calmed down in the new year.

Once again, as I did while I tried to get pregnant, I found myself waiting for things to happen.

December passed into January. In early February, my agent told me she was ready to send out the proposal to a list of 19 publishers. I’d heard of most of them, but at this point, I felt like all I could do was sit back and let my agent do her job and wait to see how things shook out.

Of the 19 publishers, most said no. One was interested, but thought the voice was too casual. Others liked it only if I’d rewrite it to include type 2s and gestationals. One publishing house made an offer by email only only to never respond to my agent’s phone calls. And one, Demos Health, a division of Demos Medical Publishing, was very excited about both the voice and scope and thought the title would be a good fit with their existing list. On my editor’s request, I agreed to include some type 2 women, but the original outline remains mostly the same.

I signed the contract in March. I’m now in the midst of writing Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-Existing Diabetes: Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby and the manuscript is due in August. Demos will publish the book in January 2010.

It took me two years to have a healthy pregnancy with diabetes and a healthy baby, another year to finish the proposal, and another year to land an agent and sell the project. All told, it will be nearly five years from concept to publication. Persistence has kept this project moving forward and thus far, it has paid off.

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Persistence in book proposals, part 1

2009-05-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Four years.

That's how long it took to go from story idea to book sale for freelance writer Cheryl Alkon. Cheryl is the author of the forthcoming Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-Existing Diabetes: Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby and the author of Managing the Sweetness Within, her blog on type 1 diabetes, pregnancy, and infertility. Other writing, research and editing work is online at CherylAlkon.com.

In those four years, she researched the market, starting blogging on the subject, and very slowly wrote the book proposal, all while trying to get pregnant and, later, giving birth to her son. She sent the proposal to about 40 agents, most of whom said the writing and idea--on pregnancy for women with diabetes--were great, but the market was too small.

But her persistence paid off: Ultimately, Cheryl had her pick of agents and two publishing houses were interested in publishing it. So how did she find the time and energy to keep pursuing it? She shares her story below. In a follow-up post, she'll explain how she kept at it despite agent rejections.

I have always wanted to write books. At 17, my last words to my first boyfriend--who had the nerve to break up with me--were simply, “Buy my books when you see them in the bookstore, and goodbye.”

But I had no idea that my first book concept would take three years of research and work--and considerable personal struggle--before I would even submit the idea to a publisher. Here's how it happened.

The Dawning of an Idea

I am a longtime type 1 diabetic, which means my pancreas has stopped producing insulin. Since childhood, I have taken insulin through daily injections, and currently wear an insulin pump, which I program to give myself the insulin I need each day. I also test my blood sugar levels multiple times a day, and carefully watch what I eat to ensure that my insulin doses match my food intake and keep my blood sugars within healthy ranges.

At 34 and recently married, I knew I couldn't ignore the potential realities of infertility. Also, pregnancy for women with type 1 diabetes isn't easy: Combine pregnancy planning with type 1 diabetes, throw in advanced maternal age, which begins at 35, and you have a recipe for a high-risk pregnancy. Because of these concerns, my husband and I had a preconception consult with an obstetrician who specialized in patients like me. He was blunt and clinical about what could go wrong.

Among other things, a diabetic pregnancy isn’t as simple as just going off birth control and going wild. With uncontrolled blood sugars, the chances of a woman having a baby with birth defects, or having a problem-filled pregnancy, increase significantly. But keeping blood sugars within a tight range, comparable to women without diabetes, requires extremevigilance and knowledge about all aspects of life with diabetes. It wouldn’t be easy, and the doctor made it sound like it was nearly impossible for anyone to ever have a healthy baby. And, oh yeah, I was “old,” and that came with its own set of genetic issues and possibilities.

I had a few diabetic friends my age who’d had healthy pregnancies and children, so I knew it was possible. But I wanted to know more about how people did it. I looked everywhere to find books about what it was like being pregnant with diabetes, and I was disappointed with what I found.

The few books devoted to the subject (as opposed to the paragraph or two about diabetes in mainstream pregnancy guides) were written by health care professionals. They often talked about gestational diabetes (which develops during pregnancy and is more common than preexisting diabetes in pregnancy) and were dry, simplistic, and straightforward. Later on, I found a book about parenting with diabetes, written by a fellow type 1 woman, which helped somewhat. But I wanted more details about getting and staying pregnant. Where was the insider’s guide to pregnancy with preexisting diabetes, particularly one written by a savvy longtime diabetic like me?

It didn’t exist. And that’s when I decided I’d have to write the book myself.

Crafting the Proposal

Writing nonfiction means you need a book proposal--essentially a business plan for a book. It includes an introduction, a bio, an analysis of competing titles, a marketing/promotion plan, a table of contents, and a sample chapter. A few friends had already written books, and I reached out to them for advice. One sent me her book proposal, and I used it as a model for what my proposal should include.

Another told me to find out why my kind of book didn’t exist already. The answer soon became clear: The number of pregnant women with type 1 diabetes in America wasn't readily available. I called U.S. diabetes associations and got nowhere. I reached out to similar associations in English speaking countries like Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and still found no solid numbers. I emailed researchers who did statistical studies about diabetic populations and consulting firms who marketed to diabetics, and got estimates on how many potential readers I might be able to sell a book to. The numbers were pretty low.

But I still pushed on.

Building My Platform

The next step, it seemed, was to create a platform--essentially anything to show you have an audience of willing book buyers. What I settled on was blogging, even though at the time--2005--blogging was a relatively new concept. When I first heard about it, I thought, “Why write for free?” It turned out to be the smartest way to find people interested in my niche topic of type 1 diabetes and pregnancy but it wasn't business savvy that got me blogging. It was envy.

I found an online community of bloggers with diabetes and one woman in particular who was blogging about being newly diagnosed with type 1 and newly pregnant. I panicked a little. “What if this woman ends up writing a fascinating blog and gets a book deal out of it?” I worried.

I set up Managing the Sweetness Within the next day--a blog about living with type 1 diabetes, trying to have a baby and what it was like to do both of them right. It was all about navigating tight blood sugar control, and how to successfully gestate a healthy and happy baby.

I wrote under a pen name so I could be honest and not worry about hurt feelings when I bitched about friends who got pregnant effortlessly or who didn’t understand the intricacies I went through just to, say, eat an apple. I still had a staff job then, and, as another blogger told me, “It’s not like your boss needs to know about your vagina.”

I blogged about once a week, and occasionally more when something interesting happened. It was easy to blog about frustrations about high blood sugars and the wait to find out if I was pregnant.

A Bump in the Road

As months went on, it was clear that we’d need to talk to infertility doctors. As I learned more about what that entailed, I became a part of a whole new community of infertility bloggers, equally as active as the diabetic community, and the number of page views and people who subscribed to my blog grew, bolstering my platform.

When you need assistance to get pregnant, you end up waiting a lot. This gave me plenty of time to blog and work on the book proposal. However, progress was slow. I worried that I'd have a tougher time selling a book about diabetes and pregnancy if I didn't get pregnant myself. I'll admit it--I wasn’t driven to finish the proposal. Plus, I worried about doing all the work of a proposal, setting up and maintaining a blog--and what if the book idea didn’t go anywhere?

Finding Persistence Anyway

At one point, I just decided to push forward and see what happened. If the book didn’t sell, I’d at least developed a well-read blog, and I’d know how to write a book proposal for my next book idea.

There were many times, particularly in the beginning, when people told me again and again that the audience for this book would be too small to interest a publisher. But whenever I mentioned the idea on my blog, or found other online communities of people with diabetes who happened to discuss pregnancy, it was clear that a resource like this was needed and would be gratefully purchased. This is what kept me going as I wrote the proposal and blogged and tried my damnedest to get pregnant: If this book ever saw the light of day, it might not make millions, but it would serve an audience hungry for the information and willing to pay retail prices to get it.

Sweet Success

I finally got pregnant through IVF; our happy and healthy son arrived in April 2007. By this time, I’d written a sample chapter (about trying to conceive while maintaining tight blood sugar control) and had rounded out the marketing plan. The demands of caring for an infant eased up after about six months, and I promised myself I would finish up the book proposal by the end of 2007, which I did by completing the table of contents. Having lived through a pregnancy with diabetes was key in knowing exactly what to focus on in my table of contents and what details to keep and what to omit.

After I finished the proposal, I asked for feedback from three friends who had written books. They had simple tweaks, and I had the manuscript professionally copy edited. This was nearly three years after I first came up with the book idea. At this point, it was 45 pages long and I thought it was awesome—some of the best writing I’d ever done.

Would anyone else agree? It was time to send the thing out and see what happened.

Photo by mujitra (´･ω･)

30-Day Persistence Challenge: How persistence created MySpace.com

2009-05-14T06:00:00.001-07:00

Now, I'll admit that MySpace completely missed me. I went from LiveJournal to Facebook and Twitter. But any startup (read: us) takes lots of different attempts to get it right before you hit on the magic combination of great idea, right time, right business approach and good marketing. During all that practice, you learn the best way to present yourself, you hone your business sense. For us, the way we do that is by experiencing the ups and downs of querying and writing. We learn that this approach works with this kind of editor, that that structure works with this particular kind of query. We learn how to follow up and to meet editors and generally how to be in business. The fact that some stories fail to catch on with the markets we imagine doesn't mean we're failing. It means we're learning.

Sure, I like to think that our businesses are more respectable than spam or Asian porn, but they're still businesses. Tell me what you think.

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Speaking of organizing--taxes

2009-05-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

Monday, June shared how important persistence is in maintaining an organizational system. I thought now would be a good time to piggy-back off that and talk about taxes.

Yes, taxes.

I'm not talking today about how to pay them or how to save for them. Today, I want to talk about how to organize for them. This is a questions coaching clients often ask and something all freelancers have to deal with. The good news is, if we create a system and persist in using it, tax time will take less time, and, while you may still feel panicky and a little queasy, you'll feel some calm and sanity underneath that.

Creating a System

So, start with this:

23 manilla folders
A marker
Some kind of storage device: A filing cabinet is my preferred solution (you don't have to look at the files every day and I already had one), but you can also use an accordian file, a hard-side lock box or a simple pair of book ends on a shelf.
Your receipts for so far this year.

Now label the files. One each for:

Paid Invoices (you'll put your stubs in here)
Accounting
Bank charges
Car/truck rental
Continuing education
Dues/organization memberships
Health insurance
Internet costs
Mileage
Office expenses
Other insurance
Other interest
Parking/tolls
Postage
Printing
Publications
Rent/mortgage
Repairs
Taxes
Telephone
Total meals/entertainment (business related, natch)
Travel
Web design/hosting

Your exact categories may differ. If you, like I, don't have a car, then you'll have a category for public transportation instead of mileage. This is just to prompt your thinking. Almost anything you buy for your business is deductible. One of the few exceptions is work clothes. Sure, you may work most days in your bunny slippers and robe, but that doesn't mean the slacks and blazers you buy for work meetings can be deducted. As someone I interviewed once said, "If you can wear it in public, you can't deduct it." It doesn't matter if you want to wear those clothes on your own time.

Next, go through your receipts so far this year and start sorting. Believe me, future you will thank you for having done this now. Add a note onto gas receipts and toll receipts for where you were going. On meal receipts, write who you met with and what you talked about. Then stick them in the folder and forget them.

The Persistence Part

So how do you keep up with it? Here are a few ideas.

Create a way station.
I don't file receipts every day. But having the files at the ready makes dealing with them easier. I keep them--and a bunch of other stuff I don't want to look at every day--in the bottom tray of a trio of clear plastic stackable trays. As I write this, It's bulging with articles to scan, receipts, old article files, etc.

When I have a spare minute, I can grab a handful of papers and file them away. I don't do it all at once. I don't spend 50 minutes or three hours on it. Little and often is my motto.

Place the piles where you can see them.
I hate looking at those ugly bulging piles. If I put the trays elsewhere, chances are, those piles would lay around much, much longer than they do now.

File while you talk.
Sometimes, I'll be on the phone with a friend or with a family member who calls during work hours--I know, poor discipline--and I'll take that time to put a few things away. Or I'll shred docs that need shredding.

The Payoff

Come the beginning of the year, I do something very simple. I sit down with the files and a calculator and I write the amount and date of each receipt on the outside of the file folder. Then, I tally it all up. Takes a few minutes while watching TV at night and I have my total spending. Score.

How about you? How do you do it?

Photo by D'Arcy Norman.

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Yogananda's take

2009-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

"As often as you fail, get up and try again. God will never let you down so long as you don't let Him down, so long as you make the effort."
--Paramahansa Yogananda

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Dogged organization

2009-05-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Persistence isn't just about querying. It also applies to those piles surrounding your desk. I've got 'em. You've got 'em. Today, guest blogger June Bell shares how to tackle them a little at a time. Bell is a professional organizer who helps people make the best use of their time, spaces and places. A member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), she’s at junebell (at) junebell.com.

When clients call me for organizing help, they initially assume that I’ll work some fairy godmother-like magic:

A den that’s a jumble of toddler toys, tufts of dog hair and electronics cables will be transformed into a sleek space worthy of a Better Homes & Gardens photo spread. The knee-deep piles of papers ringing their office will assemble themselves in tidy files. The closet door will finally be able to close.

And often, with the client’s help, patience and dedication, I can work that magic. Clients are ecstatic. Me too. One of my favorite aspects of being an organizer is helping usher order and functionality into a family’s life.

My work is done, the client’s problem is solved and we both can move on.

Well, at least I can. The client ‘s task, however, really is only just beginning. If I’ve done my job well, I’ve designed a system tailored to a client’s needs, space and quirks, and I’ve helped her use it and refine it. All she needs to do is follow it.

Easier said than done, of course.

That’s where persistence comes into play. Staying organizing – like marketing a business, keeping weight off or mastering the merengue – demands a steady commitment to staying the course. Just as self-employed people must constantly prospect for new customers and gigs, anyone who wants to remain clutter-free has to be willing to devote time to furthering that aim.

If you can bring to your organizing efforts the same persistence you devote to growing and maintaining your business, you’ll have conquered one of your biggest obstacles.

I’ve found some valuable advice in earlier blog posts here on doing one small thing each day to move you toward your business goals. The same advice applies to remaining organized. What’s one little step you could take to reduce the chaos in your home or keep a clutter-free area that way?

Here are a few ideas you might want to try:

Don’t even let it in. Instead of leafing through your mail, plucking out the interesting stuff and stacking up the rest (bills, anyone?) to read “later,” try opening your mail near your recycling bin. I’ve found that as much as 90 percent of what fills my mailbox is paper I don’t want or need. Toss it immediately.
Keep your e-mail in-box manageable. What feels right for you? Some people like to limit pending e-mails to 10 or 20 or no more than they can see on a screen. Schedule time to purge old e-mails, and each day, answer, delegate, delete or forward correspondence. Seeing an in-box that isn’t overflowing can give you a mental boost, helping you feel that you’re in control of your time.
Stop amassing stuff. More isn’t better. It’s just, well, more. These grim economic times are prodding relentless consumers into realizing that there’s nothing life-enhancing about having a lot of anything (unless it’s love or health, of course).
Hold the line. If you buy a new pair of shoes, select a pair in your closet to donate or discard. If you need to be more aggressive, make it two out for every one in.

These small changes can yield big results if you stick with them. With enough persistence, an act that at first feels uncomfortable gradually evolves into a habit.

Maintaining an organizational system, even a small one, becomes part of your priorities, which reflect your values. You’re showing that you value a tranquil, clutter-free space – and you’re willing to dedicate the time, consistently, to keep it that way.

Without this commitment on my clients’ part, even my most innovative ideas and support are useless. Fortunately, those who devote themselves to maintaining the progress we’ve made see terrific results. And those who build on it find themselves fantastically empowered.

Paring the contents of a closet ultimately leads to a functional wardrobe – which means it’s less stressful to get dressed each day. And giving away excess not only felt wildly liberating, one client confided, but it helped some grateful recipients too.

If you’re struggling to stay on top of clutter, don’t fret. Entropy in the universe is apparently always increasing, so why should you expect that your possessions should fall into line? But if you persist, you’ll find that being more organized pays off in all sorts of ways, bringing you the serenity you deserve.

Photo by PburghStever.

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Calvin Coolidge on persistence

2009-05-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
--Calvin Coolidge

30-Day Persistence Challenge: Persevering with this blog, even

2009-05-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed more blog posts from me this week? That's because I'm crazy--I signed on to do a blogathon. That means 31 posts in 31 days. You know, because I'm not busy enough.

Still, it will be fun! Lots of small snippets, lots of guest posts. I hope you enjoy it.

As blogathon organizer Michelle Rafter wrote on her site WordCount:

For the next 31 days, a merry band of freelance writer are teaming up to take part in the second annual WordCount blogathon. We’ll be testing the limits of our blogging endurance to find out if we can successfully post every day in May.

How hard can it be, right? Well, pretty darn hard. Those of us who make our living writing have those pesky paid assignments to attend to in addition to hanging out on our much more fun blogs. And while some days ideas for blog posts are as bountiful as cherry blossoms in spring, other days the idea well is as barren as those same cherry boughs in winter. Then there are the weekends, when nobody in their right mind wants to be at a keyboard.

But we’re determined to persevere. As professional blogger have noted, the more you post, the better you get at it – and if you’re doing it right – the more traffic you’ll attract to your blog.

So here’s to blogging, here’s to May and here’s to us.

Hey! There's that persistence again! And here are the brave souls who are taking the challenge with me:

Vera Marie Badertscher – A Travelers Library – Books and movies that influence travel.
Tim Beyers – The Social Writer – Motley Fool tech contributor and co-host of Twitter’s #editorchat.
Heather Boerner – Serenity for the Self Employed – Advice for the self-employed among us.
Jane Boursaw – Film Gecko – May Movie Madness and other film-related stuff.
Melanie Bonsall – Expert Editing – The online home of this editor, proofreader and writer.
Danielle Buffardi – Horrible Sanity – Random thoughts of a mother and freelance writer.
Sona Charaipotra – Sona Charaipotra – for entertainmnet topics, and Ishq in a Backpack on travel and food.
Rosie Colombraro – Trust the Universe – There is always a Plan B.
Sue Dickman – A Life Divided – Food, gardening, travel, books and more.
Jackie Dishner – BIKE with Jackie – Improving your life with the B.I.K.E. spiritual navigation tool.
Ron S. Doyle – Ron S. Doyle – The literary equivalent of fruit salad and Cyclorati – Exercising my cyclophilia.
Kelly Estes – Big Government in Your Wallet – A political blog.
Jennifer L.W. Fink – Blogging ‘Bout Boys – With 4 boys between 11 & 3, this writer knows her subject.
Sydne George - I’ll Have What She’s Cooking – Good eats.
Debra Gordon – Wine on Tuesdays
Nancy Hall – Floating Ink – How to fit making art into your every day life.
KT Hinderer – Write Beyond the Cubicle – Musings of a full-time freelance writer and editor.
Heather Holliday – Zazou Marketing – Putting your best words forward.
Elizabeth Humphrey – TheWriteElizabeth – Introducing creativity into daily life.
Leah Ingram – Suddenly Frugal – Tips for frugal living.
JoAnn Jagroop – This Dame Cooks – Recipes from Alaska to the South Pacific.
Sara Lancaster – No. 2 Pen Blog – Blog of this Denver, freelance Web & marketing writer.
Doug Lance – Freelance Fiction – “I get paid to tell sweet, sweet lies.”
Jared Lopatin – Sign in Ink – Everyday life as motivated by astrological happenings.
Jenn Maciejewski – Cities on the Cheap – Freebies and deals in multiple cities across the U.S.
Eric Mack – Wrecking Ball Report, MountainDaddy and SaveThatReceipt.
Lisa Mann – Sonoma on the Cheap – One of the Cities on the Cheap blogs, this one for Sonoma, Calif.
Joy Manning – What I Weigh Today – A food writer reflects on weight and body image issues.
Teresa Mears – Miami on the Cheap – A Cities on the Cheap blog for Miami.
Amy Rauch Neilson – It’s in the Genes – Thoughts of a breast cancer survivor.
Jennifer Netherby – Jennifer Netherby – Musings of a freelance writer.
Sarah E. Ludwig – Parenting by Trial and Error – Learning, growing, staying flexible.
Michelle V. Rafter – WordCount: Freelancing in the Digital Age – Plugging into the online news biz.
Kate Reilly – Polka Dot Suitcase – Finding fun in everyday life.
Meredith Resnick – Inner Writing Journey – Authors & professional creatives in quirky dialogue on how they write and why it works.
Melissa Sais – Digital Mom – Raising kids in a digital world.
Brette Sember – Martha and Me – One Martha Stewart makeover a day.
Kathy Summers – EcoPregnancy & Baby and Health Writing Hints.
Jodi Torpey – Western Gardeners – Your online guide to gardening in the West.
Sarah Webb – Webb of Science – Where science meets life.
Jennifer Willis – The Green Soul Guide – Where sustainability and spirituality meet.

Enjoy!