Anne H. Janzer's Blog, page 14

Amplifying Women Authors

image of stack of books with phone and headphones.

June is Audiobook Month and the time when we compile our “summer reading/listening lists.” It’s the perfect opportunity to amplify the voices of women authors—both literally and figuratively!

Put aside some time this summer to listen to, review, and/or share an audiobook or two. And why not look for a few written by women?

Did you know that only 17 of the 200 best-selling business books of 2020 were written by women? (See Susan Althoff’s Fortune article.) That’s only 8.5%—and as many as were written by men named John. Yikes! Readers are missing out on a whole bunch of voices worth hearing.

So, here’s a list of possibilities from smart, inspiring, and entertaining authors, ranging from business books to personal development, memoir, history, and thriller. There’s something for every part of your summer reading/listening experience.

(A few of the publishers and authors are offering bonuses or discounts during June, so act quickly on these.)

Business Audiobooks

Branding Basics: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget (2nd Edition) by Maria Ross

No matter whether you’re a large organization or a company of one, the secret to attracting loyal customers starts and a strong reputation is to start with a strong brand strategy, which goes far beyond a logo. Marketing expert Maria Ross offers real-life case studies, expert interviews, and a simple 10-question process so you can build a strong brand strategy to attract more customers, make smarter marketing decisions, and stand out from the crowd.

Amazon/Audible

The Connector’s Advantage: 7 Mindsets to Grow Your Influence and Impact by Michele Tillis Lederman

Regardless of your goal—a new job, a promotion, new business, a referral—who you know and who knows you will lead to opportunities. It is the strength of your relationships that leads to your success.

Amazon/Audible

Bonuses: Buy one, get one (print edition)

The Em pathy Edge: Harnessing the Power of Compassion as an Engine for Success (A Playbook for Brands, Leaders, and Teams) by Maria Ross

Empathy is not just good for society, it’s great for business. Through proven research and fascinating stories from executives, change makers, and community leaders, Maria Ross reveals exactly how empathy makes leaders and brands stronger and more successful.

Amazon/Audible

Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees Want by Beverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni

Careers are developed one conversation at a time. And this book offers a framework for leaders who want to make development more meaningful, engaging and productive.

Amazon/Audible

Just Work: Get Sh*t Done, Fast & Fair by Kim Scott

Just Work reveals a practical framework for both respecting everyone’s individuality and collaborating effectively. This is the essential guide leaders and their employees need to create more just workplaces and establish new norms of collaboration and respect.

Amazon/Audible

Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters by Linda Popky

With all the new marketing techniques accessible to the masses, it’s becoming harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. Learn how to cut through the clutter, stand out, and effectively build business by implementing timeless marketing principles.

Amazon Audible

The Pivot: Orchestrating Extraordinary Business Momentum by Lori Michele Leavitt

Leaders, you can move your business and yourself from where you are today to a more vibrant future. Great leaders orchestrate a culture primed for change; they are nimble and never stall.

Amazon/ Audible

Bonus: Purchase an audio, book or e-book and get a free strategy call between June 11 and October 31 2021. Contact us for a call. OR take a free online assessment (est. 8 minutes) and use the 11-digit code “AudioJune21” when you register, and we’ll email you a report with our recommendation of your best next steps in addition to your bonus strategy call.

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott

You don’t have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor—avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy—you can be kind and clear at the same time.

Amazon/Audible

Ready to Be a Thought Leader? by Denise Brosseau

A highly readable go-to guide for becoming a recognized thought leader in your field.

Amazon/Audible

Rare Breed: A Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous, and Different by Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger

RARE BREED is an unconventional business book for those who don’t fit the mold. It turns seven so-called vices that society deems counterintuitive to success into virtues that lead to shattering templates and owning all of who you are, not just the pretty parts.

Amazon Audible

Reader Bonuses

You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World, by Michele Wucker; narrated by Tavia Gilbert

The number-one international best-selling author of The Gray Rhino offers a bold new framework for understanding risk and how we can reexamine and reshape our relationship with uncertainty to live more productive and successful lives.

An AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award winner

Amazon Audible

Women in Business

The Adventures of Women in Tech: How We Got Here and Why We Stay by Alana Karen

A 20-year tech leader, Alana Karen brilliantly replaces what we know about women in tech with 80+ women’s stories of what it’s honestly like to join, lead, and thrive in technology companies. As featured in Forbes, Karen offers “a lens through which readers can gain insight into obstacles faced, barriers broken down and feats accomplished.”

Amazon/Audible

Changing Tides: Powerful Strategies for Female Founders by Jennifer LeBlanc

Changing Tides brings together experienced female venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who share their expertise and tactical guidance through a collection of essays and discussions on how to change the tides. This audiobook is intended as a resource for anyone wanting to win – or support a woman to win – at the heavily stacked entrepreneur and funding game.

Amazon/Audible

Free offer: Continue the conversation and change the tides in our online community where you can connect with other female founders around the world, access valuable resources and make connections to investors, allies and ecosystem partners who are actively supporting female founders. It’s free to join!

You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See: An Eye-Opening Toolkit for Cultivating Gender Harmony in Business by Karen F. Cornwell

You trip over differences at work constantly and just can’t see it. Understanding differences leads to discovering alternative approaches we can use to leverage the diversity in our workplaces.

Amazon/Audible

Career/Professional Development

The 11 Laws of Likability: Relationship Networking . . . Because People Do Business with People They Like by Michelle Tillis Lederman

This book presents a new paradigm that shows even the most networking-averse how to network well–and maybe even enjoy the process. This book teaches readers how to build the kind of deep relationships that have true staying power, bring genuine joy, and provide long-term support.

Amazon/Audible

Bonus: Receive a networking style assessment, personal branding exercise, and more in Michelle’s free gift pack for readers.

Millennials’ Guide to Work: What No One Ever Told You About How to Achieve Success and Respect, by Jennifer P. Wisdom

Millennials’ Guide to Work helps listeners identify what is important to them, how to clarify their values, and how to navigate complex workplaces. Clinical Psychologist Jennifer P. Wisdom believes we all need to work together to help the youngest members of the workforce be successful.

Amazon/Audible

More Than My Title: The Power of Hybrid Professionals in a Workforce of Experts and Generalists by Sarabeth Berk

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is morethanmytitle.jpeg

If you do more than one thing for work, then you are more than one thing. If this describes you, then you may be a hybrid professional. Until recently, hybrids have been hidden in the workforce. But today and moving forward, the secret is out.

Amazon/Audible

Self-Promotion for Introverts, by Nancy Ancowitz, narrated by Bernadette Dunne

In Self-Promotion for Introverts®, career coach and intrepid introvert Nancy Ancowitz helps introverts tap into their quiet strengths, articulate their accomplishments, and launch an action plan for gaining career advancement.

Amazon Google Play

Bonus: 10% off career and presentation skills coaching sessions for verified audiobook purchasers during June 2021. Schedule a free 30-minute discovery session (limited availability; first come, first served): Click here.

Writing to Be Understood: What Works and Why by Anne Janzer

This is the thinking writer’s guide to effective nonfiction writing. Whether you’re an expert trying to communicate with a mainstream audience or a nonfiction writer hoping to reach more people, Writing to be Understood will give you the insight you need to reach more people with your words.

Amazon/Audible Apple Books Chirp Google Play

Bonus: Through June, purchase this audiobook for $1.99 on Apple Books and Chirp

Personal Development

Fck the Bucket List for the Soul: Discover the Wonder of You by Ayelet Baron

This award-winning BIBA 2020 guide helps you leave behind the exhaustion, overwhelm, burnout, stress, anger, fear, blame, and judgement of society’s decaying systems, and reveal yourself to the universe in all your wonder. Life will never be the same. The journey will be intense. It is not for the faint of heart.

Amazon/Audible

Meditation Illuminated: Simple Ways to Manage Your Busy Mind by Joy Rains

Learn to meditate with simple explanations and more than 20 guided exercises. The first part of the audiobook is designed to give you a complete understanding of how meditation works – and how to meditate. Then, Joy Rains will guide you through more than 20 meditations (with brief periods of silence woven throughout), so you can discover the meditation styles that resonate with you.

Apple Books Amazon Audible

When Life Hits the Fan: A Mindful Guide to Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others by Janet Fouts

A deeply personal book, When Life Hits the Fan shares the experiences of a number of caregivers and activities they can do for mindful self-care. The practices in the audiobook come from the author’s training in mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and positive psychology, as well as her own caregiving journey.

Amazon Audible

The Writer’s Process: Getting Your Brain in Gear by Anne Janzer

A guide to the “inner game” of writing, whether you’re working on a novel or a term paper.

Amazon/Audible Apple Books Chirp Google Play

Bonus: Through June, purchase it for $1.99 on Apple Books and Chirp

Memoir

Identity Theft: Rediscovering Ourselves After Stroke by Debra E. Meyerson with Danny Zuckerman, narrated by Julia Whelan

Identity Theft follows Stanford professor Debra Meyerson’s journey to recover from a severe stroke. It focuses on the less frequently documented emotional journey in recovery. Virtually every survivor is haunted by questions like: “Who am I now?” and “How do I rebuild a meaningful and rewarding life?” This is a book full of ideas and hope for survivors—from stroke or other injuries—as well as families, supporters and healthcare professionals.

Amazon/Audible Google Play Apple Books Libro

Rebooting My Brain: How a Freak Aneurysm Reframed My Life by Maria Ross

The true story of what happens when you get yanked out of your life by a crisis and have to get back on the ride all over again. With refreshing candor, humor, and heart, Maria Ross shares how her busy life came to a screeching halt when a brain aneurysm ruptured and nearly killed her – and how she bounced back changed for the better.

Amazon/Audible

Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles by Kathleen Turner and Gloria Feldt

Co-written by Gloria Feldt and Kathleen Turner, this is an honest, courageous look at the fascinating life and career of the Golden Globe winning, Oscar-nominated actress. Turner candidly shares lessons learned from her personal struggles and anecdotes from the memorable roles she has played on stage and screen. Read in her own iconic voice.

Audible Amazon Soundcloud- Hachette (with audio excerpt)

History

The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore

The powerful true story of an American housewife from the nineteenth century who was locked up in an insane asylum for daring to defy her husband and courageously fought for justice.

Amazon Audible AudiobookStore

Fiction: Thrillers/Suspense

Dread of Winter by Susan Alice Bickford

Thirteen years ago, Sydney Lucerno escaped the creeping addictions and long-simmering anger that are as much a part of the landscape as the bitter cold of Oriska, NY.. But when she gets the call that her mother is dying, every secret and fear she left behind is waiting to welcome her back. Listen to this Edgar-nominated thriller.

(Edgar Award Nominee)

Amazon / Audible

A Short Time to Die by Susan Alice Bickford

In this electrifying thriller, two women from opposite sides of the country find their lives inextricably bound—by blood, by fear, and by a merciless, murderous revenge . . .

(Left Coast Crime Debut Author Nominee)

Amazon / Audible

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Published on June 13, 2021 17:33

Listen Up! Celebrating Audiobooks

My grandmother was a voracious, lifelong reader who bequeathed that joy to her children and grandchildren. When cataracts obscured her vision in her later years, losing the ability to read was a hardship.

But she was unstoppable. She composed poems in her memory (sticking with haiku). And she never slowed down on consuming books or attending book clubs.

She ordered books on tape from the Library of Congress. (Back in the 1970s and 80s, cassette tapes were the big technology.) Those “talking books” on tape were both a novelty and a blessing.

If only she were with us now! There are so many different ways to access and listen to audiobooks, and so many books in this format.

Do You Listen?

The growth in audiobooks is a blessing for everyone, not only those with vision problems.

Audiobooks keep us company when driving, walking alone, doing housework—creating more “reading” time in our lives.They add a human voice to the book—and that often feels like a real connection.We can listen to audiobooks together, making reading a shared activity.

Listening also forces us to slow down and spend time with the book.

My favorite part? As a nonfiction author, I love listening to books narrated by the author, as it feels like we’re going on a journey together.

How about you? Do audiobooks have a place in your life? A way to squeeze in more books, perhaps?

An Audiobook Month celebration

June is audiobook month To celebrate, I’ve discounted two of my books to $1.99 on two major audiobook platforms: Apple Books and Chirp.

I’ve also set up an AuthorsDirect storefront, where you can purchase the books directly form me. The sale price applies here as well:

Here are the links you’ll need to get the books at a discount from Chirp and Apple. (Sorry, I don’t control the price on Audible.)

The Writer’s Process
All of my best advice about the “inner game” of writing, delivered directly into your ear!

Listen on Chirp https://bit.ly/2JthUs1
Listen on Apple Books https://apple.co/3yTPQqc

Writing to Be Understood
Master the techniques of the best nonfiction authors to connect more deeply with your readers or make a wider impact.

Listen on Chirp http://bit.ly/2ZQI0Ni
Listen on Apple Books https://apple.co/2RcMZrE

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Published on June 08, 2021 10:18

Sow Ideas Like Sunflowers

Our first crop of sunflowers was a gift from unseen forces—a bird, perhaps, or a squirrel? The seedlings poked their heads up in the two raised beds in our garden—in and amongst the poppies, alongside the cosmos plants we had raised from seeds and planted in the bed.

My husband Steve (the one who does the gardening), contemplated the upstarts.

“I’m going to let these grow and see what they are.”

He had an inkling they were something special—volunteers worth giving a chance. I suspected they were broad-leafed weeds, but agreed.

A few weeks later, he was certain. “They’re sunflowers.”

And then there were more.

Nature is a considerate landscaper. She sowed the seeds in sequence, so that while one flower bloomed, the next was climbing toward the sky. For weeks last summer, we enjoyed a rotating succession of blooms. As one lost its petals and developed seeds for the birds, the next unfurled and turned its face to the sun.

A jay contemplating how to get at the seeds

Some were short, others tall. Their flower heads ranged from a few inches in diameter to 10 inches or more.

Sunflowers amidst the cosmos in our planting bed

Last fall, Steve gathered the seeds from these volunteers, and this spring he planted them with care, choosing their locations, hoping for the vigorous success of their ancestors.

This time, the world waited to devour them.

Unseen insects feasted not only on the established leaves but also the brand new growth, stunting the plants’ upward progress. A subterranean creature yanked a just-sprouted seedling below for a tasty treat.

We’ve had to shelter them from birds and bugs as seedlings, and spray them with neem oil (a natural insecticide) as they grow to protect the fresh leaves. (By we, I mean Steve.)

Why were last year’s volunteers, left to their own devices, so fortunate?

Maybe we only saw the survivors. (It’s survivorship bias!) Nature believes in abundance. Plants generate thousands of seeds so that a few can take hold and propagate themselves.

How does this related to writing?

Ideas are like sunflowers.

You need to generate a lot of ideas to produce something wonderful.

Some ideas never land on fertile soil—you have a concept, but it never makes it beyond your head and into words. Others are crowded out by the exigencies of life. You may nip others in the bud pretty early—you try writing, but it doesn’t go anywhere.

And some ideas are like those stunted, late sunflowers, with small, late blossoms that barely rise above the surrounding plants. Your writing may be lovely, but no one ever sees or hears it.

(Much writing belongs in that category.)

Not every seed sprouts. Not every idea deserves publication. If you don’t write, you’ll never know.

But when an idea arrives, like a gift from nature, see where it takes you. You might be delighted.

When Good Advice Is a Trojan Horse

We live our lives surrounded by a chorus of shoulds.

They accumulate gradually, as we try to improve. We read the best practices, success stories and guides. We listen to industry experts and accept friendly tips—and most of them come loaded with new things we should be doing.

For example, if you’re trying to be a writer, you’ll find plenty of advice about what other authors have done, how to write, how to publish, how to be successful.

If you want to be a writer, you should…

Here’s how I wrote my book or experienced success, you should do the same.

Alas, these promises are like Trojan horses. You dutifully drag them into the walls of your life and take them on. But wrapped inside each nugget of advice is a small army of assumptions, obligations, and practices that can quickly take over your life.

One action leads to another, to another. Pretty soon you are spending most of your time on tasks dictated by other people’s objectives or experiences rather than your own values. Your life fills with things that you don’t really want to be doing.

I have wandered down many false trails following sign-posts marked “Should.”

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It’s taken me several years in my author career to have the confidence to sort through and set aside well-meaning advice that doesn’t fit my objectives.

Enough.

Examine the gifts of advice carefully

Before you accept advice, take a careful look at what’s inside it. Is it based on unspoken assumptions, and if so, what are they? Does the advice-giver’s life match the one you want to lead?

If you simply follow best practices, you’ll look and sound like everyone else. If that’s not your goal, think twice.

Be clear on your goals and values—and boundaries. Don’t accept gifts of advice blindly—even from me! Examine recommendations, accept the ones that fit, and leave the rest safely outside the walls. They’ll be there later if you need them.

Clearing out the invading army

If you already feel derailed, examine how you’re spending your time and notice all of the tasks you think should be doing.

The word should is a red flag. Every time you find yourself saying or thinking it, dig deeper: Who says I should? Why?

Do you spend all of your time racing between social media accounts, because people say you should be there as an author? What if that leaves you no time to write?

You may be spending time on apparent obligations that have slipped into your life cushioned in sound advice. They may not match your objectives or values.

Show those unintentional obligations to the exit before they overrun your life.

When you defend the borders of your life from unwelcome intruders, you’ll make room to experience the genuine gift of a purposeful life. You’ll hear other possibilities and ideas knocking at the door—things that were overwhelmed or drowned out by the chorus of shoulds.

Here’s my challenge—look through the things on your “to do” list that are weighing you down. Re-examine those tasks. Are they taking you where you want to go? Are they genuine obligations, or simply someone else’s standards? Do they get in the way of more meaningful work?

Find at least one, and show it the door.

Then get back to your writing.

Bring a Full Mind to the Empty Page

Open a blank white notebook, pen and cup of coffee on the desk

You sit down to write, but can’t come up with anything good enough to besmirch the pristine whiteness of the blank page.

Perhaps you know what you want to write about. Even so, your inner critic bashes everything you propose. For every keystroke you make, there’s a backspace.

Once this encounter with the empty page happens a few times, limiting thoughts barge in. You’ve got writer’s block. Maybe you’re not cut out to do this. You’ve got nothing to write, so why torture yourself?

This may have nothing to do with your being a writer, and everything to do with what’s in your “writing tank.”

It’s not the empty page we’re afraid of—it’s the empty mind.

Where the words come from

Before words appear on paper, the ideas form in your head. (Sometimes those ideas don’t clarify until you put them into the words. For me, writing is a physical manifestation of deep thought.)

When writing is fun and fulfilling, the words emerge from different areas of our minds as images, emotions, and memories. Ideas connect and combine and invite their friends to the party.

Creativity results from messy, unstructured thoughts colliding and connecting.

But it’s tough to get into the right frame of mind—one in which those thoughts rise to the surface, so you can capture them in the containers of the right words.

That’s why it’s often best to prime the pump before you face the blank page of a draft, whether you’re writing a blog post or a book chapter.

First, prime the pump Old fashioned, hand-operated water pump

Back when people hand-pumped water out of wells, they had to put a small amount of water in the pump to get the suction going.

That’s what the phrase “priming the pump” comes from. To start the water flowing, add water.

It works well for writing. To get your writing flowing, add words and ideas. Starting working with the things you want to write about. Prime your pump before you begin a first draft of anything, before you face that blank page.

In the writing recipe outlined in The Writer’s Process, this activity falls into the research phase. This is inner research. You rummage around in the attic of your mind to get the words flowing.

Pump-priming activities

Everyone will find different ways to prime their pumps.

My favorite pump-priming activity is writing. (No surprise there.) I use “directed journaling” or freewriting—writing something just for myself to put ideas into words, and welcome fresh ideas altogether.

Most of the stuff in my freewriting file gets thrown away, and that’s fine. It’s served its purpose. Bits and pieces may end up in the final draft. But that’s a lucky accident, and not my intention when writing.

Your inner research might look different than mine. You could:

Write in a journal as preparation for a blog postWrite a blog as preparation for a bookUse dictation or voice recognition software to capture ideas you talk through and transcribe them into words.Use mind mapping to brainstorm ideas onto paperDiscuss your topic with another person

The activities outlined above work best early in the writing process, when you’re sorting through and capturing your thoughts.

Once you have those ideas and want to refine them, you can turn to advanced pump-priming activities that also contribute to your overall platform. These might include:

Teaching: Create a webinar or host a session for your local library.Speaking: Find opportunities to speak publicly on your topic.

These activities involve an audience that can offer valuable input as you refine and explore your ideas. These experiences may change how you think about and present your ideas. They almost always make the work better.

When you’ve primed the pump, the blank page isn’t frightening—it’s an invitation to bring the swirl of ideas into the world.

Prime the pump, then let the words flow.

You can start pump-priming any time, even well before you plan to buckle down and start drafting. If you’d like to write a big project like a book, you can start putting your thoughts on it into words right away. Today.

What will you do to prime the pump for your next writing project?

Jargon Kills (Other People’s Time)

Old-fashioned watch buried in sand at the beach

Are you inadvertently wasting other people’s time when you speak or write? Here’s a cautionary tale for anyone who works in a field that uses acronyms, abbreviations, and other jargon.

“We had an NPS of 80.”

That comment came from a marketer on a panel discussion in a video. She was referring to Net Promoter Score—a metric of how willing customers are to recommend a business to others.

A few people commented on that score, and then the conversation moved on. I thought nothing of it, alas.

But here’s the thing—not everyone on the panel came from the world of marketing. Probably not everyone in the audience, either. The average person on the street has no reason to know or care about Net Promoter Score.

One of the panelists was mystified, but didn’t want to interrupt to clarify. As she told me later, “When you’re in the thick of it, you don’t like to ask, because you don’t like to look like an idiot.”

(We’ve all experienced that uncomfortable feeling when we don’t know something that others do.)

This woman (my new friend and ally in the jargon battle) is clearly diligent, because she set out to learn what the term meant.

Alas, she mis-heard the “N” as an “M.” So she searched for MPS after the call and found nothing that made sense for the context. (Meters per second? Minnesota Public Schools?)

Next she asked friends and colleagues—no one knew what MPS referred to.

She reached out to me, because I was on the panel and she didn’t remember who had mentioned it. She asked, “If you know what it is, would you mind enlightening me, so I don’t feel left out of the loop next time I hear it?”

Let’s recap here. She felt confused when she heard (misheard) the term. She spent time searching online, then consulting her colleagues, then crafting a message to me asking about the term.

How much time did the abbreviation save us in conversation? In contrast, how much time did she spend chasing down its meaning? And how about the cost of her feeling like an outsider?

Jargon may save you time, but at what cost?

The False Time Savings of Jargon

The word jargon refers to terminology known mostly to insiders in an industry. We use it for many reasons, including demonstrating our expertise or insider status in a group.

But we also use it to save time when communicating with colleagues. It’s faster to use abbreviations or acronyms than to spell things out. Academics use specific terms to be exceedingly precise when communicating with others.

When we use those terms with others outside of that specific domain, jargon quickly becomes a huge time sink—not for you, but for the people reading or listening to you.

If you are writing something that will go out into the world, or recording an interview, you cannot be sure who will listen. Even in the confines of your own workplace, you can alienate someone who is new at the job.

You might save a couple seconds by saying NPS instead of Net Promoter Score, but waste countless minutes of your listeners’ or readers’ time. They won’t appreciate it.

Respect the reader’s time by clarifying or eliminating industry terminology.

Alas, we are all subject to using jargon unknowingly. I am sure that I have done the same, unwittingly making people feel left out or uncertain.

What can we do about it?

First, recognize when we use it.

It’s tough detecting the jargon in our own words—that’s the curse of knowledge in action.

When we’re speaking live, as this panelist was, it’s difficult to catch.

When writing, however, we have a golden opportunity to protect the reader. It’s called revision.

Here are a few things to consider:

Scan your work for acronyms, abbreviations, or other industry terms and either spell them out or define them the first time they appear.Use spelling/grammar checking software. If it coughs on a term, then that phrase is probably not familiar to all of your readers.Ask an editor or someone else to read your work and be ruthless about highlighting anything unfamiliar. (If you ask a colleague in the same line of work, they may not spot the jargon.)

Second, be an advocate for the listener when you hear someone else using a term that might be unfamiliar. (In the terminology of allyship, be a jargon upstander.)

When you hear someone else using jargon in a meeting or on a Zoom call, clarify it for anyone who may be left out.

You don’t have to call people out on using the term—you don’t want to embarrass the speaker, but to clarify for the listener. You can be subtle.

If it’s an acronym or abbreviation, spell it out. If it’s an industry term, use it in context. Consider doing both.

This story made me question—how many times have I made readers feel unwelcome or insecure by using terms thoughtlessly? How much of other people’s time have I wasted by not taking the time to revise or clarify?

I wish I registered the abbreviation on that call. If I had, I could have said something like, “Wow, that’s a really terrific Net Promoter Score. Did your company rely heavily on that metric to track customer loyalty?”

Hindsight is always better than foresight. Let’s all help each other.

Respect the reader’s time by taking a moment to clarify.

You Are What You Risk: A Review

Your friend says she won’t fly anywhere until 2022. Is that excessively cautious? Another friend is flying around the country before they’ve gotten vaccines. Does that make sense? When should you go visit that elderly relative across the country?

In the past year, we’ve all become armchair risk analysts contemplating the various risk levels of our lives. Vaccines, variants… the calculations change from week to week.

Have you noticed that faced with the same information, people make different choices.? What’s going on?

Michele Wucker’s new book You Are What You Risk addresses those issues perfectly. It arrives at a perfect moment, just when we need it most.

A new vocabulary of risk

You Are What You Risk is a Deep dive into personal risk, and it gives us a better vocabulary to understand and talk about risk.

Wucker describes us as each having a risk fingerprint, which is influenced by personality, social context, and experiences. It’s a fascinating way to think about this, as we notice the diversity of human behavior in this time of uncertainty.

She also asks that we stop throwing around the risk averse label and instead consider terms like risk perception (are we aware of the risks?), and risk attitude (how do we feel about them?)

My favorite definition is risk savvy:

The ability to recognize and assess dangers and opportunities reasonably accurately while balancing emotion and reason, and taking smart precautions so as to avoid being either foolhardy or overcautious.
Michele Wucker, You Are What You Risk

The book dives into the various factors affecting our risk fingerprints, including the societies in which we live, the people we spend time with, our personalities, our sense of purpose, even whether we’re eating spicy food!

Not All Risks Are Bad

While we want to protect ourselves from negative risks, we also need to get comfortable taking chances for positive outcomes. The book offers advice on how to train ourselves to take risks in service of growth and a greater purpose.

In many situations, it’s riskier to stay in your comfort zone than to act on opportunities to stretch and adapt to changing situations.

How can we better manage our own risks? We start by understanding our current risk fingerprint, then working with ourselves and our environment. Even things as subtle as what music is playing in the background can affect our decision making.

We can also build up our positive risk-taking with practice, and by surrounding ourselves with accountability groups (or risk circles) to help us stretch.

Risk Empathy

Wucker also writes about risk empathy, which she defines as “the ability to relate to the ways others experience risks and adapt your own behavior to accommodate those needs.”

I predict that for the rest of 2021, we’ll yet again be divided. This time it’s not mask-wearing. Rather, we’ll have varying degrees of comfort and understanding of risks of the lingering COVID-19 pandemic. Some people will hop on planes or attend in-person chorus rehearsals quickly, while make different choices.

We’ll need to show each other, and ourselves, grace in the coming months. Let’s understand and acknowledge our different risk fingerprints, and demonstrate risk empathy as we work together to define our new normal.

This book is a great place to start. Kudos to Michele Wucker for working diligently through the pandemic to get it out into the world when we need it.

Searching for Creative Inspiration

Sighting a whale is always a thrill, even from a great distance.

The first thing you usually see is the whale’s exhalation—the spout. A white, misty column appears suddenly on the horizon, then slowly dissipates as you focus in on it.

Is it a whale? You watch and wait.

Somewhere, underneath the distant surface, a large, magnificent creature is breathing, surfacing, rolling.

Then another spout appears nearby. Yes! If you’re lucky or have binoculars on hand, you might detect the sun’s reflection off the back of the whale as it rolls, or perhaps the wave of a fluke as it dives.

It’s like a glimpse into a hidden world—a breach of the borders between water and air, sea and sky. It’s always miraculous. You feel lucky, blessed by the encounter.

But finding the whales out at sea is difficult. Even if you visit the coast at the right general time of year, they are hard to see from afar. There’s an element of luck—are the whales even present? The conditions matter, too. A fairly calm ocean makes it easier to see those characteristic spouts.

The more intently you search for them, the tougher they are to detect—and the more disappointed you may be if they don’t show up.

The Benefits of Open Attention

I’ve been lucky enough to see gray whales migrating off our coast in California in recent months from a nearby state park. Over time, I’ve honed my method for finding them by practicing a kind of open attention.

Here’s my method, in case you’re ever looking for whales:

First, I let go of the idea of seeing whales and direct an open, accepting gaze on the sea, absorbing it all. Other things attract my attention—pelicans filing by in a line, diving cormorants, a sea otter.

While I am peacefully enjoying this prospect, in the corner of my vision I see something that doesn’t belong—a vertical white line. A spout. It feels like a gift for patient acceptance.

It strikes me that writers often spend our time on a similar quest, looking for ideas lurking in the depths that come to the surface to surprise and delight us.

Maybe the lessons of whale watching apply.

Spotting Inspiration

When looking for creative inspiration, start by putting yourself in the right situation—in this case, a mental situation rather than a physical one.

Just as calm water helps the whale watcher, a calm mind helps the writer. You’ll never notice the brilliant ideas if you are busy ruminating on what you’ve got to do tomorrow morning or what someone else said about you.

Direct your gaze to the general area you would like to think about. You’ll never spot a whale while scanning the mountains. Bring your mind’s attention to the general subject area you’d like to explore.

Then welcome a state of open attention. Rather than seeking the ideas, enjoy the contemplation. If you’re out walking, enjoy the walk. If you are freewriting or journaling, relish the exploration.

When you spot that puff of an idea, then you can focus in. Explore. Spend more time exploring and see what else comes up.

The big, brilliant ideas don’t show up every day on demand. But if you look often enough, you’re bound to find them.

Related Posts

Where Do You Go for Inspiration?

Adopting a Writing Mindset

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Published on April 06, 2021 10:23

A Book That Made me Pick Up a Pen (and Journal)

Image of hands writing with a pen in an open journal

Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. But how does one go about examining a life while still immersed in it?

Even with the slowdown of a pandemic, our minds never seem to dial back. The constant chatter of the universe is always clamoring for our attention.

(Dang, I just got another Clubhouse notification. Am I missing out? Should I be there?)

The secret, for many of us, lies in a combination of writing and practice—specifically, a journaling practice. Even if you’ve tried and abandoned journaling before, I suggest you pick up Mari L. McCarthy’s book Journaling Power.

It’s a guide to building a journaling practice into your own life. The book is both simple and powerful.

In the “nonfiction writing” category, this book combines how-to, exposition (why-to), and story.

How and why to keep a journal

At its heart, it’s a how-to book. Each chapter shares prompts to get started on (or restart), your own journaling practice.

But for most of us, the problem isn’t knowing what to do—it’s doing it.

Julia Cameron’s description of morning pages in her book The Artist’s Way originally inspired McCarthy. I, too, had read that book, and thought it sounded cool. But then, I went about my distinctly non-artsy life. This practice seemed to belong to a different type of person, in a different type of life.

Not so. In Journaling Power, Mari McCarthy presents extensive research into the benefits of writing for oneself, including many studies I had not seen.

She refers to the work of James Pennebaker, who has studied and documents the value of what he calls expressive writing, or writing as therapy. There’s also other research into the use of journaling on topics as diverse as handling stress, healing from trauma, overall health, and getting to sleep.

Stress? Sleep? Overall health? Sign me up.

The stories

Like most good nonfiction writing, Journaling Power supplements this research and instruction with compelling personal stories. And stories might move you to pick up that pen and paper and try journaling one more time.

The author generously shares the story of a health crisis, and how she used journaling to address it and transform her life. She has completely reshaped her life around this practice. It’s an inspiring tale.

She also shares other stories of people finding significant advances through journaling. But the one that matters most, of course, is yours. Here’s what I’ve found.

My story with this book

Reading this book inspired me to readjust my personal writing practice to include those morning pages.

Although I’ve been keeping an online journal in the morning for years, it veers quickly into general planning for the day. Not much deep introspection happening there.

Freewriting is a another critical part of my writing practice—writing to myself to explore topics. Nearly every piece of content I create, from blog posts to books, has its origins in a freewriting file meant just for my own eyes. (See my post on freewriting on the CreateWriteNow site.)

But morning pages are something else altogether—something just for me. I write it by hand first thing, before checking email. No one will read it but me.

Journaling is an inexpensive, effective form of self-care—cheaper than a spa day, healthier than a drink.

Close journal, pen, and coffee cup on a table.

I’ve been doing this every day now for weeks since reading her book, and am floored by the results. The process has given me new perspectives on tricky issues and awareness of invisible burdens and limits I carry with me.

This book has reignited that practice for me, and its benefits are already showing up in my life.

What will journaling do for you? If you’ve been skeptical, or stalled out on your practice, pick up Journaling Power. Then start writing—for yourself.

Book Promotions: Long-Term Benefits

Book marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. That’s a great metaphor—one that rings true for many authors who suddenly find themselves on an endless journey of book promotion. But it’s not the only sports-related metaphor that applies.

Slow and steady may win the race, but many trainers advocate high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to build fitness quickly.

Discount price promotions are the high-intensity interval training of book marketing.

To recap the sports metaphor, high-intensity interval training is doing segments of using short bursts of intense activity, combined with spells of lower or medium-intensity work. Experts say that interval training a faster way to build fitness than simply trudging at a moderate pace for 30 minute son a treadmill a few times a week.

The periods of intense work create unseen, metabolic shifts in fat burning, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular fitness. The follow-on, unseen benefits are the real payoff.

In book marketing, running a discount book promotion is like doing a quick sprint in book sales. You focus your efforts in a week or less and discount the price so you can be “all-out” on book sales.

Like the sprinter, you cover more distance during those short bursts—in this case, selling more books. But the real benefits come from the lasting effects of those short-term sales.

Defining Success

Most people evaluate the success of a book promotion based on how many books it sold and whether it paid for itself. The financial issues are usually top of mind:

How many books did you sell? Did you earn more in royalties than you spent on promotion?Did you earn at least as much as you would get from baseline, full-price sales?

Focusing on the direct Return on Investment disregards those hidden benefits, like the metabolic magic of high-intensity interval workouts.

The long-term success of your promotion will take more time to measure. You need to ask questions like,

Did the promotion reach the right people—those who will appreciate the book?Will people who bought it actually read it?Will they review it and/or recommend it to others?

Those questions are harder to answer. You may not know for a while. But that’s where the real magic of book promotions kicks in.

The “Metabolic” Benefits of Discount Book Promotions blue books arrayed like a bar chart, with a red arrow indicated growth

What happens when you get the book into the hands of hundreds, or possibly thousands, of people who are your target readers?

Let’s look at some of these unseen benefits:

If you managed the promotion to appeal to the Amazon algorithms, your book may continue selling at an elevated rate or some time after the price resets. That’s like fat-burning that keeps happening after you stop exercising—a lovely bonus!Over time, more people will leave reviews for your book, which then helps it find even more new readers.Getting the book into the hands of its ideal audience results in more recommendations, more positive reviews on other platforms, a growing email list for you, and more. Adjust Your Workout for Your Fitness Level

Back to that sports analogy: If you haven’t gotten off the couch for a year, your “high-intensity” sprint might be much slower than someone who has been training. There’s a reason that gyms keep telling you to “consult your physician.”

The same thing is true for book discounts. Starting too aggressively isn’t hazardous to your health, but your results will depend in part on your existing platform, your budget, and your book. You may not hit it out of the park on your first attempt.

The good news is that you can start small. Experiment with setting the price down for five days and sending the right readers to the promotion. Once you’ve done that, you can try a bigger promotion—perhaps investing in a book promotion website or running a few ads alongside your other efforts.

The end game isn’t just book sales—it’s building your book’s overall readership and audience. And that will help to sustain all the books that you write.

For More on Book Promotions

If you’re interested in trying this approach to building your audience, check out my book marketing webinar. Watch the replay for $25.

Learn more and register here.

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Published on March 16, 2021 12:02