Michal Stawicki's Blog, page 6

Book Review: Finding Speaker’s Edge

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Cover Design by Low & Joe Creative, Brea, CA 92821

This is a little sweet book, but it’s surprisingly full of golden nuggets. I mean, I’m not a total noob in the speaking world; I already had some paid gigs, and I was interviewed dozens of times on podcasts; yet, I learned quite a lot from Finding the Speaker’s Edge. Also, some tips were totally congruent with my own experience, and I can confirm that Michael’s advice is spot-on.

CONS

There is only one CON I can think of, probably because my expectations weren’t inflated. The book is superficial. It covers a lot of ground, well, ALL the ground. From preparing your mindset to building a professional career, Finding the Speaker’s Edge covers everything in just 112 pages. Thus, by default, it cannot be especially deep.

On the other hand, it’s deep enough to get you started. At least you will get to know what you don’t know. For beginners, it’s actually better than an ultra-deep textbook preparing you for every obstacle. Read Finding the Speaker’s Edge, and then find additional books or courses – when you actually know what you need to work on.

PROS

This book has plenty of benefits for its readers.

1. Short and to the Point.

The book may be superficial, but thanks to that you can read it really quickly and start implementing whatever you will learn ASAP.

2. Solid Info.

As I said, some of the info from Finding the Speaker’s Edge wasn’t new to me at all. Thus, I can confirm that the familiar pieces were rock solid. For example, dealing with the fear of public speaking:

Overcoming the fear of public speaking is not up to your audience; it’s up to you. It’s all about the conversations you’re having in your own head.”

Or the structure of the presentation:

Introduction: Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
Body: Tell them.
Conclusion: Tell them what you told them.”

3. Golden Nuggets.

Some advice took me completely by surprise:

In public speaking, you want to be known for one keynote speech, at the most two.

Why? How? Why again? I have had no clue it’s so important. I knew branding is important, and I knew the rule “you confuse, you lose,” but just a single keynote?!?

And this is an ideal example of utilizing the expert advice. Michael Butler gave over 3,000 paid speeches in his career, so I guess he knows what he says.

4. Business Details.

The author gives you also tips on how to cooperate with the speaker bureau, and how to comply with specific associations’ regulations among other things. It’s been all new to me.

5. Made Me Think.

I don’t recommend practicing your public speaking on your family. It can be downright disheartening and discouraging.

This sentence stopped me right in my tracks. Why? Because it’s the consistent advice across various industries: don’t try to coach your family, don’t show them your book draft, don’t hire family members, etc.

And this is so sad.

Shouldn’t your family be a safe place where you are supported and encouraged? If family is not such a place, then what?

6. And All the Rest.

A whole chapter about listening in a book about speaking. Mindset tips, including the idea that doing your keynotes for free is not such a noble thing as you could’ve imagined.

This book is full of such tidbits.

Summary

I recommend Finding the Speaker’s Edge to everybody who is not a pro speaker yet. This is a great book for beginners, an awesome starting point, and it can help those who already made the first steps, like me.

Short and concise form will give you the chance to quickly discover what you don’t know about the speaking business yet.

If nothing else, it will make an interesting read.

The post Book Review: Finding Speaker’s Edge appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

Every Human Can Be Grateful All the Time

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Photo by  cottonbro  from  Pexels

People have a really hard time when trying to develop a gratitude practice. Quickly, they “run out” of the things they are grateful for.

I say, we are like fish who don’t notice water around them. We have the whole ocean of things to be grateful for.

Earl Nightingale said in his cult classic, “The Strangest Secret,” that people take for granted everything that is free and don’t appreciate the most valuable things in their lives.

Like air. Without the air, you will suffocate in a few short minutes. Yet, who appreciates the free air? Maybe, once in a blue moon a tourist in the mountains or at the sea, who notices the difference between those environments and the smelly air of a big city.

And the same goes with water, food, shelter, clothes, and other everyday items.

Well, shelter is not especially free, but recall how much you’ve appreciated your home when the Great Lockdown had been introduced. However, we rarely appreciate our homes on a daily basis. We take them for granted.

An Infinitive Source of Gratitude: People

Going back to fish and the ocean – this morning I realized I do not notice and properly appreciate people in my life. One thought was enough to start the avalanche of gratitude:

Isn’t it amazing that I have about a dozen people working with me, supporting me and helping me out with my writing and business?”

You see, at the beginning, the only people who supported me on my life transformation journey were doing it unwittingly. Like my wife doing household chores – I didn’t have to do them, so I had time to write. Like my employer – they paid me, thus I had funds to invest into my writing venture. Like my co-workers, who picked up my slack in work when my mind was focused on my stuff.

See what happened in those examples? They were all following their agendas, but it helped me with mine.
After several months, a more purposeful support started to organically emerge. My online friends cheering me up on my writing journey; thanks to their encouragement, I got the mental energy to continue. Chris Bell, who volunteered to edit my fifth book; he did a great job, and it became my first bestseller.

Nowadays, I have the support of a multitude of others. I especially cherish the support of those who do it purposefully to support me and my endeavors.

My two Filipino part-time VAs, who are doing the time-consuming stuff. My American proofreader, who painstakingly corrects my English. My family members, who help me out in my book advertising business.

Including my wife, who purposefully took over most of the household chores, so I could work more hours in my business. About a dozen people who helped me with my books production – formatters, editors, cover designers, audiobook narrators. Well, and dozens of beta-readers too.

My mastermind buddies and accountability partners, who carefully observe my journey and call me out about my BS.

Even More People

And there is the whole huge crowd of people providing their support while following their agenda.

A dozen or so people who purchase my books; new people every day.

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Another dozen or so, who download my free books. A few dozen of my advertising service customers. About 40 people a day who visit my blog. A few hundred people who read my Medium articles. Over a thousand people who read my Polish answers on Quora. A few thousand people a day who read my English answers on Quora.

Several thousand people help me and support me every day.

Every. Single. Day.

Wow. And I barely notice, acknowledge, and appreciate them. The human fish in the ocean of people. I’m so blessed!

You Are Blessed Too

You don’t have to be an author or business owner to get the support of others. In fact, you are getting it all the time, around the clock.

This is what I mean by the human fish in the ocean of people – every day dozens, or even thousands people, follow their agenda, but they support you while being busy with their lives. People, whom you may never meet. People, whom you don’t know about or don’t normally notice.

How many people are working right now to provide water, electricity, and Internet for your home? Someone is working hard right now in a sweatshop in China, or in Cambodia, so you can enjoy your electronic device or a piece of clothing a few months down the road.

But why look for people so far away? Right there in your county, people hustle, so you can live your life. The gas you tank, the roads you drive on, the groceries you consume – every single good you utilize and enjoy is a fruit of labor of many.

Remember how we appreciated supermarket cashiers at the beginning of the COVID? Tap into this sense of wonder, and you will never run out of people you can be grateful for. They are everywhere around you.

They always have been there. They will always be there to support you.

Fish cannot live without water, and we cannot live without others. Do notice this. Do acknowledge it. Do appreciate it.

Be grateful for them.

Originally published at Medium.

The post Every Human Can Be Grateful All the Time appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

How to Find Peace of Mind Writing, Publishing and Promoting Your Book

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Another great podcast with the transcription! This episode is great for book writers, self-publishers, and universal – good for all.

Here comes my Cliffs Notes:

Snow Globe

I wrote a whole book about changing your self-talk, but even the best advice on this topic is worthless, when people cannot grasp what self-talk is. I think the below parable explains it perfectly:

I mean, think the snow that’s flying all over the place, we think that’s our thoughts. We think that’s our truth, but that’s not our truth. That’s just a bunch of conditioned responses and thinking that changes, and shifts, and creates different emotions, but there’s something deeper inside.”

-Bella Mahaya Carter

You Are Enough

Remember, and this is something that maybe you don’t hear often, but I just want to say to all of your listeners out there, remember this, you are enough. Whenever you have the thought that you’re not enough for whatever reasons because I have dealt with that thought in my whole life, I’m here to say that that is a thought, and it’s not the truth of who you are, or what have to offer. You don’t have to listen to that thought.”

-Bella Mahaya Carter

My heart just melted when I heard that. How aptly said. Bella is a really great communicator, and she has a gift of words. That wasn’t the first time I was like:

“Heck, I already knew this, but she said it so well!”

Four Golden Nuggets

Just know who you are, know yourself, slow down enough so that that is possible.” (knowing yourself)

I wouldn’t be myself, if I didn’t recommend some books at this point:

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Comer – a very good book to teach you how to slow down. Just remember it’s written by a pastor for Christians.

Know Yourself like Your Success Depends on It by some Polish guy *wink* – how to approach self-discovery systematically and create relevant habits serving that objective.

Your Personal Truth by Issac Robledo – in 50% this is a self-discovery workbook and the best I’ve ever read on this topic.

Surrender what you can’t control and work with what shows up with an open heart, and know that you’re enough.”

Seems a bit New Age or just common sense (who would fight with something outside of their control?). And maybe it is. But still, so many of us (including yours truly) struggle with each part of the above quote.

Spending your energy on something you cannot control is pointless. Being open-minded is harder than you think. Especially nowadays, when you are hit with ‘amazing offers’ from left and right, all the time.

In the last several years, I had plenty of unexpected offers I said “yes” to. Some I regretted; others, like signing up the contract with a small publisher, saved my sanity and were the help from Providence I needed at those exact moments.

Know that what you’re doing is an act of generosity of spirit.”

Speaking of “aptly said,” I’d have never thought to articulate it this way. That’s why this sentence really hit me. This is actually beautifully said truth about every single creator. Whatever we do – whether it’s a handcraft, a piece of art, or a piece of content – it comes from our spirit first. And it IS an act of generosity. We could’ve kept those creative results contained within our souls. Yet, we decided to create them and share them with the world.

This is also the truth about entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs create. They take action and something emerges out of nothing. In some lines of business, it’s more visible than in others – when you decorate an interior or a landscape, it’s pretty obvious you created something unique. However, the majority of small businesses are the creative expression of their owners.

I’m not better than anyone and I’m not less than anyone. I’m just showing up, doing the work that I love to do, and sharing it.”

What a great lesson about humbleness. As a writer, I always struggle to find the balance between the pride when my articles are praised and promoted, and the despair when they are exposed and criticized. For me, it’s so ridiculously easy to act like an arrogant prick… or like a weeping mess.

However, if I approach my craft from this point of view, everything is fine. I discovered long ago that I’m immune to most of my books’ criticism. Why? Because they are written from my experience. You can insult me the whole day long, and I will just shrug it off. No one in the whole world can tell me how my experience was. I was in that fight. I was in the arena.

It also cures one of excessive pride. I was just me. Whatever I’ve done, I cannot compare myself to others. They are them. Our internal experiences are incomparable.

The important thing is not to be better than others; it is to be better than myself from the past. Nothing else matters.

Book Marketing Basics

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Photo by George Milton from Pexels

Have your email list (called ‘newsletter’ in the episode).
Have your own website.
Don’t produce botches — each book should be proofread and edited.

My two cents to the above list missing in the episode:

Have at least a decent cover.
Craft your book description.

All the above are just basics, so why are book marketing experts talking about those fundamental things and not about advanced tactics? Simple – not enough people are doing even the basics.

No one will do your marketing for you as well as you will do it yourself.

Explore different marketing avenues and pay attention to what you like to do (writing posts, interacting on social media, doing podcast interviews?). It will be more sustainable than any other tactics and you should focus on that. The same goes with different platforms. Don’t chase shiny objects, focus on the platforms where your audience is and which you enjoy.

I sincerely recommend this episode, and this whole podcast. It’s one of the seven podcasts I listen to regularly.

Originally published at Medium.

The post How to Find Peace of Mind Writing, Publishing and Promoting Your Book appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

First Required Step to Achieve an Enormous Success in Life

Stop considering “success” in enormous terms.

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Photo by The Lazy Artist Gallery from Pexels

Why is this step mandatory? Because otherwise you set yourself up for a failure. The realistic truth is that very, very few people are capable of an enormous success. Do you know how many billionaires there are? About 2,755. That’s 0.000035% of the world population.

And hardly all the billionaires are successful in life — they are surely successful in making money. But how many of them have a lasting marriage? Take this into account, and the success ratio shrinks to a ridiculously miniscule number.

Enormous Success Frightens

When you think of success as something grand — starting a multi-million-dollar company, winning a golden medal at the Olympics, publishing a world-wide bestseller (you know, the one with 1-million+ copies sold), inventing a cure for cancer, and so on — you put a foot on a brake before you even start. Unless, of course, you are one of the very, very few who are capable of such feats right now.

But this article is for 99.999965% of average persons. For common folks, the thought of such a grand success is downright paralyzing; it’s incomprehensible. You, I, we all simply know we cannot do that.

You cannot fly by flapping your arms. You cannot breathe under the water. You cannot be awake for longer than 200 hours at a time.

And you cannot succeed. Not at SUCH a scale.

So, you don’t even try.

Mind the Gap

Even if you will attempt to attain such a great success, your effort will be halfhearted. Well, maybe at the very beginning, you will be enthusiastic, motivated and full of energy.

But then, the gap between your current situation and your goal will loom over your shoulder like a giant glacier. You will get frustrated. Even if you keep moving forward, the time horizon necessary to achieve what you want will overwhelm you. It will seem like you’re stuck in one place and don’t inch forward at all.

Even though you will be moving toward your objective, your emotions will sabotage your efforts.

You cannot be thriving and overwhelmed or frustrated at the same time!

What Can You Do to Stop Considering “Success” in Enormous Terms?

I have several tips for you. The most impactful, I think, is the first one.

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Image by Pexels from Pixabay1. Stop Being a Sucker for Success Stories.

I mean, the ones occupying media headlines. The ones spelling out “million followers,” “millions in revenue,” “world records beaten,” and so on. The only exception is, when those stories are somehow relatable for you.

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.”
— Jim Rohn

If you are a divorced single mom, and there is a story about a divorced lady who built her business while raising kids on her own, get inspired by her story.

If you are from a big city ghetto, and you see a story about someone who succeeded with similar upbringing — get inspired.

If you haven’t even finished a high school and you find a story about someone who succeeded without school — get inspired.

But if you cannot relate to the hero of the story, avoid it like a plague. It will only make you think you are somehow inadequate and incapable of success.

2. Start Being a Sucker for Relatable Stories.

And look for them in different sources. There are plenty of great success stories around. Instead of following viral stuff with a gazillion views, start looking around in your vicinity — both geographical and social.

Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves — their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.”
— Peter F. Drucker

You can find amazing support groups. I’m a member of several author groups. Author stories are SO relatable for me. I cannot even count how many folks started in similar circumstances as I had begun — having a day job, and dreaming about a different life.

I’m also a member of groups for online, small-business owners because this is who I am.

Are you a person of color who wants to start a business? Are you a single mom? An immigrant? An aspiring author? An employee of a non-profit who wants to change the world? There are groups out there just perfect for you.

What is more, in the groups like those, you don’t just passively absorb content. You can mingle with people whom you look up to. You can get to know at the personal level, making their stories even more relatable for you.

And you can start believing, you can succeed too.

3. Set Your Own Success Standards.

I’m successful beyond my wildest dreams. I started publishing books in a foreign language, and I sold about 80,000 copies of them! It took me eight years and eighteen books published.

An editor of a big magazine would have rolled on the floor laughing if I tried to sell him such a story. Eight years? Not a single book sold even 15,000 copies? I didn’t even fight a cancer in the meantime? Pshaw, it’s not shiny enough!

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.”
— Jim Rohn

But it is a story good enough for me. In 2012, when I got this idea of writing for a living, I had no clue what it takes to be a writer. Back then, I had never earned a dime from writing in my whole life.

As long as my books keep selling and keep helping people to change their lives, I consider my writing a successful endeavor.

You also should set your own success standards. You don’t need to employ hundreds of people. Maybe half a dozen employees is enough to create your dream lifestyle? You don’t need to have a mansion to thrive. Maybe you are single, and a small apartment with one guest bedroom is success of your size?

Don’t let society or other people enforce their success standards on you.

4. Remember that Real Success Is Multi-Dimensional.

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Photo by William Fortunato from Pexels

So what, if you have a great family, but you cannot feed your own kids? So what, if you have a prestigious position, but your family is in shambles? So what, if people in your church appreciate your efforts so much, but your marriage is going to end up with a divorce?

The biggest determinants of success are consistency and effort.”
— Tanner Baze

Yes, single-minded focus is a great success attribute. But it can also take you too far and you will end up in one of the above scenarios — wealthy, but with your family disintegrated; with golden medals, but with no health; with social impact, but no money to afford a decent lifestyle for your family.

So, follow your own success narration, not the one trumpeted by media. You are a holistic being, so take care of every area of your life. And most importantly, you are a social being, so never neglect close relationships.

5. Focus on Small Steps, Today.

Enormous success will follow. This is how you actually achieve anything: you set huge goals, but you break them down into smaller steps; into the pieces manageable at the everyday level.

Success is not perfection. Success is progress.”
— Darren Hardy

The world is full of bigmouths, especially nowadays, when they have so many avenues available to be loud. However, not the noise, but action gets things done. There is nothing better than consistent action to generate success of all shapes and sizes. Thus yes, have a big vision, but also have a plan for the things you can do today. And do them.

When you consider fulfilling your daily action a success, you already are successful. You don’t need golden medals or a multimillion business.

Scale down your thinking about success to here and there, and you will eventually succeed big. Do your workout today. Make a cold call today. Write two pages for your book today. Go on a date with your spouse today. Enormous fitness, business, impact and relationship will follow.

The problem with the huge success stories in media is not that they are false. The real problem is that they don’t properly illustrate how everyday grind contributed to the final results. Hence, you don’t think about success in terms of everyday grind, but in terms of one-time enormous achievement.

The definition of the word “success” doesn’t indicate the scope of the achievement: the achieving of the results wanted or hoped for.

It says about the results you “hoped for.” It may be your two pages written today, or it may be one million copies of your book sold.

Unfortunately, when all things you hope for are enormous, you spend a lot of time frustrated, in the process of getting what you wanted or hoped for. Years and decades.

You are making yourself, and those around you, miserable. You are also very prone to overlook deficiencies in other areas of your life focused on pursuing your grand scheme.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.”
— Jim Rohn

Stop considering “success” in enormous terms. Consider your daily action — when completed and done well — a success. You will enjoy your life so much more. And you will put in building blocks of an enormous success.

You will grow along the way. You will become capable of huge things. Consistently apply basic fundamentals, and the great success in your life will be just a matter of time.

Originally published at Medium.

The post First Required Step to Achieve an Enormous Success in Life appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

Hundredth Income Report – July 2021 ($3,043.37)

Are you curious about a 3-month delay? I explained it in my first income report.

[image error]We started July 2021 on Samos, a Greek island. The next day we were going back to Poland. But I got a nasty surprise; my airline cancelled our return tickets. I spent the whole afternoon on the phone and, in the end, I had to buy new tickets.

I’m officially anointing the Polish Airlines (LOT) the worst airline in the world, customer service-wise.
They cancelled our tickets, didn’t inform us, and lied in the correspondence that they tried to contact us multiple times. And the plane we traveled the next day back to Poland was half-empty! Why cancelling the tickets in the first place?

So if you ask me, you’d be better to go by foot or a row boat than fly with Polish Airlines.

Speaking of the Worst Customer Service

I got a new client, a guy from my mastermind tribe. He published his first book, and he was completely clueless on what was going on. I got into his KDP account and did everything by myself – from uploading the files to the book description. And I needed help from Anthony because Adam, the client, didn’t provide the right cover files.

We published his book in the middle of July, but Amazon refused to advertise it. It was a spiritual book; Adam is a pastor. Amazon said they cannot advertise it because the book contains medical claims – all of this because the subtitle of Adam’s book was Healing the Wounded Man.

*facepalm*

Luckily, Adam paid me for this particular project an hourly fee.

Inbox Zero

On the 19th of July, I processed all the emails in my Resurrecting Books inbox.

Every. Single. One. I jumped with joy and shared it on Facebook.  

Before going to Samos, I had a coaching session with one of the PwC’s coaching training alumni. I picked my email management as a subject of the session. The gal that coached me did an amazing job in a mere 20 minutes. I had well over 120 emails in my email inboxes back then.

On the day of the coaching session, I processed about 20 emails and started building momentum. Afterward, I kept consistently tackling about a dozen emails at a time.

Since the 19th of July, I kept my inbox clean. I’m writing those words on the 18th of October 2021, and I have 14 emails in my inboxes, and I haven’t looked into my email over the weekend.

Who Not How

Anthony delivered the final version of my podcast pitch sheet after a few iterations. He did the same with the Polish version of the sheet.

Having those materials, I shared them with a few podcast hosts who interviewed me in the past. Then, I pitched my guest appearance to a few hosts.

I also shared the sheet in my mastermind, and one of my buddies recommended to me a podcasting platform where hosts and guests connected. I created an account there.

Daily Accountability Partner

It was my accountability partner, Soren, who forced me to start sending those pitch sheets out. He was working with me for several months, and he could wonderfully sense when I was procrastinating over some tasks.

It was also he who pushed me to discuss with my wife my work schedule and work-life boundaries. I felt extremely frustrated with her constant interruptions, and Soren had enough of listening to my complaints.

Family Stuff

In July, we visited my mother-in-law twice. She finally was released from a hospital after her accident. It was almost two hours of driving in one direction and I was alone with my wife, and we had no interruptions (TV etc.) She couldn’t escape or evade, like she liked to do.

So, I finally told her how much it got on my nerves when she bumped into the home office with the latest FB meme or an online shopping “I had to” pay for right now. We agreed I’ll work till 6 pm and will be available for my family after that hour.

Of course, we both miserably failed with sticking to those boundaries, but at least we had a standard to aspire to.

During one visit of my mother-in-law, we also visited our friend from high school and her mom. We saw each other about eight years ago or even longer!

In July, we had my mom at home for almost the whole month. We spent some time together.

My wife took for a 1-week vacation first with my mother, then my daughter. And I could work without interruptions.

Cars

My Mazda didn’t pass the yearly technical check-up. I could fix it for about $700, but that car was 23 years old. It made little sense to invest into it. And my wife was sick of the rusty spots all over the car.

Thus, I had another distraction. I organized scrapping the Mazda and reached out to the car mechanic from whom we bought my wife’s car. According to the Who Not How model, I gave him some characteristics of a new car and let him find a relevant machine.

Well, that’s the theory. In practice, I couldn’t restrain myself from browsing through the car-selling portals and researching different brands and models. If I could, I would’ve saved at least 10 hours in July.

We used my wife’s car for the second trip to her mom. Something broke, made some racket and when we arrived at home, we’d seen smoke coming out of one of the wheels. My wife went for a vacation and I got a task of fixing the car.

The defect was tiny. It took a mechanic about 10 minutes to fix it. The problem was to actually get hold of a mechanic. Everybody was on vacation! I managed to fix the car a day before my wife returned.

Two days before the end of the month, my mechanic called me. He found a car for me. I finalized the deal on the 1st of August, but it was just a formality.

I got a white 13-year-old Toyota Auris with the LPG tank. I bought it for my company and put a part of the price into business costs.
 
Which means I can also deduct the part of the fuel and maintenance costs.

One day I took my mother to Warsaw and she got the 1-shot vaccine, mostly to make travelling around Europe easier. She lives in Ireland and has kids in Poland, Germany and Portugal.
We also watched quite a few volleyball matches at the Olympics.
I biked a lot. There was no COVID at the horizon.

Business

The book sales tanked. I couldn’t see the bottom of the fall. I sold only 528 copies in July.

I fired my VA. She consumed too much of my already-strained mental bandwidth. Her work was always hit & miss, so I had to always double-check her tasks. I had no energy for that. It was a good decision. I immediately felt relieved.

My output suffered a bit, but it had suffered anyway. Double-checking on my VA and training her a few times about the same issue had been consuming my time and energy, so doing things my way with my own hands wasn’t any harder. At the end of the month, I was able to go back to my proofreader with some new articles.

The July 2021 Income Report Breakdown

Income:

Amazon royalties: €1,651.06 ($1,964.7614)
Coach.me fees: $188.39
Audiobooks royalties: $62.57
D2D royalties: $65.23
PWIW personal coaching: $20.58
AMS service remuneration: $3,162.27

Total: $5,948.61

Costs:
$23.37, BirdSend fee
$870.74 Amazon ads
$1,190.6, RAs’ remuneration (RAs = Real Assistants; my team)
$30, SiteLock fee
$91.55, royalties split with co-author
$102.55, Advanced Amazon ads
$22, Greek SIM card
$135, book promotions
$100, an obligatory monthly fee for LLC
$92, my accountant’s monthly fee
Total: $2,905.24

Net Result: $3,043.37

Previous Income Report: June 2021

The post Hundredth Income Report – July 2021 ($3,043.37) appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

4 Things to Do when You Lost a Battle for Productivity

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Photo by Keira Burton from Pexels

I’ve just had a strange week. I had perfect circumstances to be highly productive — I rested on a weekend at the PwC’s (my employer) getaway; my wife started a new job and she was away from home between 10 am and 7:20 pm (she is one huge distraction when at home); I had dealt with the urgent minutia of my business and had brain power to spare on the bigger-picture tasks.

Yet, I fumbled through the days barely doing anything. I took a couple of naps practically each day. I wasted my time on news websites and social media chasing a dopamine high. I did household chores. Basically, I distracted myself to oblivion.

I just didn’t feel like working, and I could do nothing about it. I felt helpless.

The Mental Struggle

To add insult to the injury, I totally failed to remedy the situation. In fact, I made it worse.

I wasn’t productive, so I tried to force myself to do something, usually to no avail. Then, I felt guilty about my actions and my inability to improve. The guilt trips sent me chasing after anything that could give me a dopamine high — reading books, reading news, and watching funny videos. But all those activities actually wasted my time, so I felt even less productive. I beat myself even more, my guilt increased, and I was chasing for another dopamine boost…

Have you ever been caught in such a vicious cycle? You are a human; I bet you have been.

Environment.

I wasn’t my usual productive self, nicknamed Mr. Consistency. What the heck happened? Well…

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

— James Clear

The above quote is from the Atomic Habits book, in which James Clear argues that our environment has much bigger influence on our behaviors than we care to give it credit. We overestimate the influence of our willpower and motivation and severely underestimate the influence of the external factors.

I examined my week and found several external factors dragging my productivity down.

Lack of accountability.

My daily accountability partner went for a 3-day vacation.

Change of a daily rhythm.

My wife stayed at home for the last few years. She usually was waking up between 9 and 10 am, when I was already engaged in work. This week, she was on her legs at 8 am, so when I finished my morning ritual, I engaged into interactions with her. It delayed the moment of starting my work. I’m the most productive in the morning. I felt like I was catching up with my workload for the rest of the days.

Weather.

The older I’m getting, the more influence the weather has on my physical wellbeing. I don’t know if it has to do with my volatile circadian rhythm or with my ultra-low blood pressure (110/70 is my norm and it can get even lower). This week the weather was terrible, gloomy, dark, and we had a few rapid air pressure changes. It surely contributed to my aptitude for naps.

Random distractions.

One day, I had my car’s check-up in the morning. Then, I recalled I haven’t paid the tax for it yet, and I spent a couple of hours on chasing the IRS with all the legal mumbo-jumbo.

Bad habits.

Give me the good fiction book and I will sit down and read it to the end. Thus, I avoid them. However, my wife asked me to return her books to the library when she was at work. While packing them, I opened one of them — a Jack Reacher novel… and you know the rest of the story. Two hours were gone.

The same happened a few times a day with my favorite YouTube series and with reading news websites.

Feeling unwell.

Apart from the coma attacks, I suffered other symptoms — brain fog, mental exhaustion and unusual hunger pangs. It might have been my system fighting off COVID — I experienced similar symptoms in the recovery phase — or just the symptoms of overall exhaustion. I do try to take care of myself, but if I err, I err on the overworking side of things.

So, it appears a lot of external factors coalesced together, and their alliance went through all of my productivity routines like a hot knife through butter. I was caught off guard. I simply had no chances against my environment.

Avoid the Vicious Mental Cycle

I have several ideas, but the most important is this one. All the others practically come back to avoiding a mental meltdown and self-beating. I know it’s easy to say and much harder to do. So, let’s get over some things you actually can do.

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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels1. Summon Help.

Lack of my daily accountability was the crucial issue for me. And it is for most of us — well, it’s more crucial to most than me! As far as I know, I’m on the extreme side of the introversion spectrum. I like being alone, and I’m pretty good at dealing with a multitude of tasks with sheer willpower.

Yet, my productivity went down the drain without my accountability partner. And I know it’s not an accident because he was on a longer vacation at the end of August, and I experienced a drop of productivity as well.

We are social animals to the core, even the introverted ones. This is a fact. Accountability works for us, period.

I had a mastermind call on Thursday. My buddies asked me about my output, and I admitted my struggles. They asked me some follow-up questions. Thanks to that interrogation, I was able to logically think about my lack of productivity instead of being stuck at beating myself up. My accountability partner was back on Friday, and the last two days of the week were much better for me than the first four.

When you feel stuck, when you feel low, summon help. Talk to your spouse, friend, mastermind — anyone. Just get out of your head. When you are alone, it’s incredibly hard to get the perspective.

2. Be Gracious to Yourself.

Again, I’m in the extreme camp here. I judge myself very harshly. And I draw way too much self-value from my output, so when my productivity decreases, I tend to be even harsher.

Of course, giving yourself some grace works better when you are too harsh to yourself. If you have been a lazy bum for most of your life, it won’t do you much good. But for self-tormentors like me? It’s golden.

So what, I had a weaker day? There will be the next day? So what, I felt worse than usual and napped more? When you hit some real limits of your body, you’d better pause and take care of yourself. A breakdown, whether physical or mental, will have much more serious consequences than a lost day or week.

3. Plan.

I’m always, and I mean ALWAYS, more productive when I take five to fifteen minutes in the morning to go over the list of projects and tasks in my mind and write them down.

I haven’t done it in this ill-fated week. It is so powerful, I should do it even at 2 pm, or whenever I had realized I’m not my usual optimal self.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Plan. Planning shaves off 20% of the time spent on long-term projects. If you set your intentions first, you are much more likely to follow up with them than when trying to just power through your day.

Planning doesn’t have to be very elaborate. What works best for me is just jotting down a few tasks in my notepad. Then, I cross them off as I’m going.

4. Be Humble.

Part of being gracious for yourself is a deep understanding — and accepting — that you are just imperfect, like all the human beings. Don’t believe in the curated reality of perfect Instagram photos. Nobody is perfect, it only looks like it.

If not my pride, I could recognize so much sooner that I was too weak to face my environment. Instead of self-beating, I could have engaged into self-compassion, or just give myself internal permission to indulge for a few hours. But I didn’t, and I simultaneously chased the dopamine and chastised myself for doing it.

You are a human being. You will have some weaker days. Prepare for that. Accept that.

Hide your pride in a pocket. Summon help. Plan. Cut yourself some slack, when it’s needed.

Just don’t beat yourself up into a pulp. That’s the least productive thing you can do.

Originally published at Medium.

The post 4 Things to Do when You Lost a Battle for Productivity appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

Ninety Ninth Income Report – June 2021 ($2,605.57)

Are you curious about a 3-month delay? I explained it in my first income report.

[image error]If May 2021 was fully packed, then June 2021 was over-packed. For most of the month, I felt totally overwhelmed. Both business and family life were truly hectic. I planned a vacation with my wife at the end of the month and it didn’t go well, making the closure of the month bittersweet. I worked non-stop, and I was constantly exhausted.

1-time Projects

I tackled a few mini-projects in June; things I don’t normally do, but since I got the opportunities, I continued them.

Philip Morris Webinar

We scheduled the webinar on the 29th of June. My parents’ schedule shifted a bit, so we were forced to move the date of our vacation too. Thus, I needed to conduct a webinar from my hotel room in Greece.

I spent a few hours preparing the PowerPoint presentation, coordinating the technical details with my contact in Philip Morris and invoicing details with my accountant. I also had to pack my microphone to a suitcase. Luckily, our luggage didn’t get lost, and I could do the webinar with my normal audio-video setup.

More about the webinar itself further down, in the ‘failures’ section.  :/

Scribd Audio Program

I spent on this project a few hours too. Actually, I spent about the same time on registering myself as their contractor and figuring out the invoicing process, and working on the content of the program.

Scribd was up to their word; I had very little to do. They compiled several of my Medium articles and Quora answers and arranged them into a program. All I needed to do was to review the outline and provide my comments.

Podcast Pitch Sheet

I got the idea that this time I could do more for my book than just a soft book launch. I decided to try a podcast tour with The Remarkable Power of Consistency.

First, I created the Impact Filter from the Who Not How book, and posted it in my mastermind’s FB group. Crickets. So, I consulted a couple of podcasting books I read and created the podcast pitch sheet. Or rather, the content for it. It needed some graphical elements, and I’m hopeless with that. My friend, Anthony Smits, helped me with that.

Ironically, the only podcast interview I got through my business, without using the pitch sheet. One of my new customers has a podcast and he was interested in my way of doing Amazon ads. We discussed this, but also my book.

Book Launch

I published The Remarkable Power of Consistency at the very end of May. The first few days of June were busy with the publishing process too. There were some troubles with the paperback version, then Anthony helped me to create the hardcopy version.

Next in the queue were keywords and categories, which I researched and updated.

After the mid-month, when the book gathered 10 ratings, I scheduled a few promotions. I extended the launch period (and the Kindle discount to 99 cents) till the end of June. I switched to the full price already in July.

I did all the above when juggling my business and life. The Remarkable Power of Consistency sold exactly 361 copies during the launch, 24 of those non-Kindle; 247 copies in the US.

On the family front, there were plenty of 1-time events too.

A Tent

My wife bought a tent and, of course :/, she made me set it up the very same day.

Cinema

We got out of the lockdown at last, and we could use some entertainment. I went with my daughter and wife for Cruella – a very deep movie for a kids’ fairytale. I also went with my son and daughter for the latest Tom & Jerry movie; we had a lot of fun.

Braces

My daughter got her teeth braces. I wasn’t involved at all – other than being a calming element for my wife, who approached it like an open heart surgery. There were some complications; Olga had one tooth removed, and it all required attention and time of my wife. Meaning, I was the one who had to listen to all her concerns and hug her through anxiety attacks.

School Exams

My eldest son finished high school and had the final exams. My daughter finished primary school and had hers. My other son had a couple of vocational qualifying exams in his technical high school.

And it was the same story – it was a source of anxiety for my wife, that’s all. I was involved only into preparations of my daughter for her math exam. But the exam was on the 6th of June, if I recall correctly. So, maybe I did a single mockup test with her, that’s all.

My Parents’ Visit

My parents escaped from Ireland under the excuse of essential travel for health consultation. The lockdown was hard enough for us in Poland; it was nuts in Ireland.

They arrived at 19th of June, and they were a part of our vacation scheme. My mother stayed with our kids when we traveled to Greece.

Of course, I spent some time with them, which took time away from the mountain of tasks in my business.

The Mountain of Tasks

It grew and grew for the whole month, along with the accompanying pile of unprocessed emails. A week before vacation, I had over 100 emails in my inbox!

I felt totally overwhelmed for the most of June (and I WAS overwhelmed). Thinking of how much there is to do and doing just a fraction of it sapped my energy like nothing else. It was exhausting.

In the last week before vacation, I underslept. From Wednesday to Thursday, I slept less than four, five hours the next day and again, less than four. I’m too old for this shit.

I managed to deal with half of the emails and finish or move forward all the projects I mentioned above. Still, my mind was with all those unfinished tasks, and not focused on the finished ones.

Medium

One of my 12 Week Year goals for Q2 was publishing 100 articles on Medium. Among all the craziness, I kept steadily publishing new articles. I even exceeded the number of articles I planned.

On the 11th of June, I published an ultra-short piece, barely 100-words long. So, I added a few sentences about The Remarkable Power of Consistency, and the info that the Kindle was discounted for the launch.

I didn’t think much of the article. Why should I? It was a short, not especially useful for readers, shameless plug. On the 20th of June, the article started gaining momentum. It got a few thousand views till the end of the month. Medium’s algorithms recalibrated their perception of my writing, and my further posts got more views as well. Thirty days prior, I managed to get over the 50 reads threshold only on a couple of days. On the 21st of June, reads of my articles exceeded 100 a day, and kept climbing. 200, 300… On the last day of June, I reached over 400 reads for the first time.

Business Coach

In the middle of the month, we had a small get-together of my department. I talked to my supervisor and out of the blue, she decided to bestow on me a $5,500 coaching certification from the department’s training fund.

I asked my wife for her opinion and she said, “Take it!” So, before my vacation, we processed the paperwork and I signed up for the training cycle that starts in October. It would consume every second weekend for the whole quarter.

I took the offer mostly because there was another offer in the background. My supervisor would work the system so I could become a part of a PwC coaching team after the certification process. That’s better than IT stuff, which simply bores me out of my mind.

My Great (Nightmare) Greek Vacation

We had to travel a day before to an airport which was about 250 miles away from our home – we had the flight at 6:05 am. On a train to that other city, my wife got a message that her mom had a car accident. A truck ran her over while biking. We had no contact with her mom till about 8 pm. She was admitted to a hospital, had a broken arm and a ruptured leg. And no visits were allowed due to COVID regulations. She was going to stay in the hospital for about two weeks.

We booked a cheap motel near the airport. We woke up at 3:30 am to be early enough for onboarding. The queue to the check-in desk was long and slow.

And they didn’t let us get to the plane. We didn’t have a Greek Passenger Locator Form. It was the first time my airline informed me about this requirement. It wasn’t a mystery for them; they clearly knew we needed it, why they didn’t tell us?

‘Cos the whole airline (LOT Polish Airlines) is one big mess.

My wife was devastated. She cried like a baby. Well, the frickin’ lady at the check-in desk told us we could get the form, go to Samos, our destination, and come back with our already-booked flight. We went to a train station. I researched the flights for the next day. My wife kept being devastated.

We bought one-way plane tickets for the next day. They cost us 150% of the price of the original tickets. We had two layovers. I spent the whole day, literally, studying all the COVID travel regulations I could find. BTW, we booked new flights with a couple of different airlines, and they both informed us in big, bold letters we need to get our Passenger Locator Form. Which only highlights the incompetence of the Polish Airlines.

We traveled to Samos the next days with no problems. But we ended up with enormous headaches – dehydration and all the pressure changes took their toll.

The Webinar

The Wi-Fi connection in the hotel wasn’t very fast or reliable. I bought the SIM card to have a backup. That was a 1-hour trip to a town and 20 Euros.

A day before a webinar, I gave a mockup run to Anthony, and he gave me some feedback.

The webinar itself went exactly as I planned. No technical glitches. No network connections problems. About 20 people showed up, and I gave the presentation.

I called my friend who works in Philip Morris, and he told me it was a disaster from the audience point of view.

The PowerPoint presentation itself was awful, and I overwhelmed my audience with information. Ugh. I swallowed the tough feedback. My takeaway from this webinar was to:

a) show my presentation before I gave it (I did that, but Anthony was too polite to tell me it sucked.)b) prepare with the audience in mind (I didn’t do a proper research in advance.)c) prepare more in general

Emotionally, the webinar hurt me. I coordinated and prepared the whole thing, spent about 5 hours on all the paperwork and preparations. And the results were meager.

Logically, they got what they paid for (not much). My effort was proportional to my fee; in fact, my effort even exceeded the fee twice. And I got some painful lessons for the future. Painful lessons are the best. They better stick to memory.

Vacation

Our stay on Samos was great. The weather was awesome, especially by Polish standards. Our hostess was very hospitable. We had a room with the sea view. Thanks to idiotic Greek regulations, there were very few tourists and my wife often had the whole beach just for herself.

The vacation itself was cheap. We paid €240 for the hotel, and we spent about the same amount (or less) on food and souvenirs. Anthony’s wife, Paula, got along very well with my wife.

Vacation Work

Anthony has been helping me with my book business for years, but it was our first face-to-face meeting. It was so great to be able to finally hug him!

Apart from the webinar preparations, we moved forward a couple of other projects – my podcast pitch sheet and graphics for BookBub ads. I helped him to get control over his Kindle device and cleaned up both of their computers.

The June 2021 Income Report Breakdown

Income:

Amazon royalties: €1,884.72 ($2,299.35)
Coach.me fees: $188.39
Audiobooks royalties: $29.08
D2D royalties: $44.74
PWIW personal coaching: $573.2
AMS service remuneration: $2,064.41
Others: $475.2

Total: $5,674.38

Costs:
$23.37, BirdSend fee
$1,196.24 Amazon ads
$672.54, RAs’ remuneration (RAs = Real Assistants; my team)
$30, SiteLock fee
$500, ISI mastermind
$49.53, royalties split with co-author
$302.5, editor’s share, formatting and design
$102.55, Advanced Amazon ads
$99.99, Coach.me yearly fee
$5, book promotions
$100, an obligatory monthly fee for LLC
$92, my accountant’s monthly fee
Total: $3,068.81

Net Result: $2,605.57

Previous Income Report: May 2021

The post Ninety Ninth Income Report – June 2021 ($2,605.57) appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

How to Never Pay for a Nonfiction Book Ever Again

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Photo by Yevhen Liashchevskyi from Pexels

It’s childishly easy, but like with most of the “free” things, you will need to pay for those free books with your time.

As a reader you can give to an author one very precious thing they desire like nothing else in the world — your review.

How not to pay for a book ever again? Reach out to the author, ask politely for a copy and promise to write a review. End of story.

Of course, if the author is traditionally published and a household name in their own right, I don’t guarantee you can use this method. James Clear sold a few million copies of Atomic Habits and this book has over 52,000 reviews on Amazon. For him, a single review has a different value than for folks like me — I sold over 100,000 copies of my books and have about 1,000 reviews on Amazon.

I doubt Brené Brown will jump from joy at the opportunity to give away a copy of her book to get a single review. She has easily over 50,000 reviews on Amazon.

So, I cannot vote for those few authors with gargantuan sales, but an average — and sane — author will jump from joy at the very thought of getting a review. You see, for us, authors, our books are cheap. We can send you a digital version, usually in any possible format, with just a few clicks. Fast and free. Paperbacks are more of a hassle, but if you have a book in a print-on-demand Amazon system, you can send a copy to most of the first world countries for something like 10 bucks. No-brainer.

Self-Publishing Gold

A free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. Why would any sane author jump at such an offer? Because reviews make or break the book. Yes, there are some aberrations — books with poor reviews which sell like hot cakes — but they are rare. And usually, they are about some controversial topic, hot political debate. So negative reviews of the one side of the conflict actually sound like great reviews for the other side.

But normally the success of the book is the function of its reviews and vice versa — reviews are the function of the book’s success. Statistically speaking, Atomic Habits shouldn’t have 52,670 ratings. Only about 1 in 100 readers even bother to give a book star ranking, not to mention writing a full out review. So, James would have needed to sell almost 5.2 million copies on Amazon to get such a high number.

But this book is really good, so people are more likely to evaluate it.

Amazon: Ratings & Reviews

Recently, Amazon modified their book review system quite significantly. What we see on Amazon as the rows of golden stars next to the book title are readers’ evaluations in the form of a simple 1–5 star evaluation aggregated together with the actual reviews and evaluations given to a book when posting a review.

Sticking to the Atomic Habits example, here is how we see it and what it means:

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52673 ratings of the book

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(Only 6,126 actual reviews)

BTW, only about 6.1 thousand people actually wrote a review on Amazon for Atomic Habits; the other 46,000 readers just clicked on the star rating on their Kindle or on Amazon. Which gives you the idea how valuable reviews really are.

If we extrapolate Atomic Habits’ results, it means that only 3–5 readers in 1,000 write a review, no matter positive or negative. And getting the first thousand readers, especially if you have little to no reviews, is difficult for most self-publishers.

Reviews are gold for authors. What would you do if someone told you they will give you gold for something, which doesn’t cost you much (or nothing)? Jump with joy seems like the right reaction.

How to Get a Book for Free?Step #1: Get on Their Email List.

First of all, if you aren’t on the author’s email list, you are missing out. By far, the easiest way to obtain a free copy of the book is to become a part of the launch team. And how do you become a member of this exclusive circle? You volunteer!

That’s assuming an author has an email list and assembles the book launch team. However, if they don’t they are not much of self-publishers. I wouldn’t even bother with connecting with an author who doesn’t have an email list.

Also, if you haven’t been following an author for some time, but you want to cold-email them, signing up to their list is the best first step you can make. It’s the easiest way to obtain an author’s email.

I know authors who value their privacy a lot, but there is no workaround here — if you have an email list, you need to email them and reveal your email address.

Step #2: Send Your Pitch.

Be concise and clear. I think, the subject line: “I Want to Review [book title]” will make the author take notice and open the email.

Then keep the pitch short and simple:

Hi James,

I’m a habit nerd and read almost all the books on this subject. I’m very interested in reading “Atomic Habits”.

If you provide me a free Kindle copy of the book, I can guarantee I’ll post an honest review of “Atomic Habits” on Amazon within 2–3 weeks.

Sincerely,

Michal

The above message is stripped to the bone from non-essentials. Here is the breakdown of necessary elements:

a) make a relevant connection (“I’m a habit nerd”).

The author needs to know that you aren’t a completely random person, but you have interest in reading their very book.

You can work different angles here; you can mention for how long you have been following the author, how you loved his/her other books and how they impacted your life, or how someone recommended the book for you.

b) state the offer (“a free Kindle copy of the book (…) an honest review”)

There are three important things in this short passage:

-free copy; set the expectations from the start;

-Kindle copy; tell your preference, it will be a hurdle for the author if you don’t state it. For example, I read digital books only on Kindle. If someone sends me the PDF version, I’d have needed to ask for the Kindle file. That’s another message and wasting time of the author.

-an honest review; you cannot promise a favorable review, it’s actually against Amazon’s Code of Conduct.

c) timeline; (“within 2–3 weeks”)

It’s another carrot for the author. State the exact time (realistic though!), and your offer will be even more tempting. Of course, the sooner you can review the book, the more tempting it will be for the author.

Step #3: Follow up.

If you don’t get a reply within a week, send the follow-up to the first email. ONE follow-up. Believe me, it’s easy to miss an email in the crowded author’s inbox. But if you spam multiple times, you are not likely to get any answer.

Step #4: Do the Work and Swagger

You get your free copy, read the book and write a (hopefully) stellar review.

Do it in the promised timeline. If you cannot keep the deadline, send a message to the author and tell them how life got in your way. Publish the review, wait till it appears on Amazon (Goodreads, or anywhere else you promised to publish it) and send the email with the link to your review to the author. Let them know you kept your promise.

Bonus: Sharing is Caring.

Share your review on social media and tag the author. You will get bonus karma points (and find extra favor with the author).

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Image by Pixelkult from PixabayStep #5: Happily Ever After

If you follow the above process, you will not only get on the radar of the author. They will remember you. They will feel they owe you.

Now you can rule the world.

Or simply cultivate the relationship with the author. It may result in some very unexpected benefits. When two people connect, magic happens.

Inspiring Story to Drive the Point Home

Allan Dib, the author of 1-Page Marketing Plan, actually reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in reading his book. I was interested. I got the Kindle version, read the book and wrote a review.

About two years later, Allan referred me to another author. I got two free paperbacks from David Jenyns! The read was excellent and right down my alley. I connected with David. He got interested in my book advertising service. We jumped on the call, and he hired me to teach his team how to run Amazon ads. I got a great read AND earned several hundred bucks. Plus, I thoroughly enjoyed the consulting gig.

The above story is not an aberration. Having goodwill and trust begets win-win deals. I hired a couple of my readers as proofreaders. I promoted books of other authors who reviewed my books. A free copy of the book and a free review is just the beginning of a relationship and possibilities that can arise.

You can hand out gold to self-published authors. Use this power, and authors will flock to you ready to give away their books.

Originally published on Quora.com.

The post How to Never Pay for a Nonfiction Book Ever Again appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

Ninety Eighth Income Report – May 2021 ($2,004.31)

Are you curious about a 3-month delay? I explained it in my first income report.

[image error]May 2021 was a very long and eventful month on all fronts, from business to family. The month was jam-packed, so I don’t even know where to start.

The book sales weren’t stellar, but ROI on my ads improved significantly. So, despite selling a relatively small amount, I actually earned more royalties than in April and significantly more than in March.

I continued to train my VA. It was a struggle. I remember spending two full hours at the beginning of the month to rewrite a procedure she prepared. That was so frustrating; she was supposed to save me time, not consume it.

But with her help, I managed to publish 25+ articles on Medium. I earned $21 on Medium. Which was more than I made from books outside Amazon. On the other hand, my workload on Medium was much bigger, so those two income streams aren’t very comparable.

Family

My eldest sister visited us and spent almost three weeks with us. That was unnerving for my wife, who likes 1-day guests the most.  

My eldest son had high school exams at the beginning of the month. My daughter had primary school exams in the middle of the month. I kept preparing her for the math exam, and she even scored 83% on a mock test once! Quite a progress from the 16% she received in March at school. Two months of consistent practice made miracles.

She checked the answers after the real exam and claimed she will get above 50%. The official results will be available at the beginning of July.

COVID Vaccination

On the 20th of May, I and my wife drove 100 miles and stayed at the hotel for the night. The next morning, we had the vaccination with Johnson & Johnson vaccine scheduled. I worked very little on the day we went there. It was like a 1-day vacation for me. In the evening, we went for a long walk along the banks of a majestic river, Narew.  [photo]

The next day, right after getting the vaccine we drove back home, and we arrived around 11 am. I felt quite normal till the evening. Then, I got a fever. I gulped a couple of pills, sweated like crazy during the night, and I was almost back to normal on Saturday morning. I felt a bit shaky the whole day, but I already was OK on Sunday.

We purposefully took the 1-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine so we could travel abroad in a few weeks. My parents were coming to Poland from Ireland, and we arranged that my mom would stay with the kids and we would go somewhere on the Mediterranean Sea.

The Remarkable Power of Consistency

In the middle of the month, I decided to publish the new book at my 8th anniversary as an author – on the 26th of May, 2021. I didn’t really feel like pulling my weight with this project, but we managed to meet the deadline. I say “we” because Anthony Smits did most of the work formatting the book. And I couldn’t make it without my cover designer, Łukasz Szczubidło.

And “managed” is a generous term. I hit the “publish” button after midnight, but technically, it was still 26th of May in the States.  

Then, we discovered one huge problem with images in the Kindle version and a problem with the cover for the paperback version. I remember sitting in front of the TV on Saturday, 29th of May and frantically messaging both Anthony and Łukasz. But I had the final version ready on Monday (the last day of May), and that’s when I notified my subscribers about the new release.

The whole project wasn’t the model of doing things in a timely fashion not only because I was half-lazy about it. I had other things to attend (more about it in a minute). The huge problem was that Anthony got his COVID vaccine three weeks earlier and he got the chronic fatigue in the process. In his words: “I did nothing but sleep for the two weeks!”

The Abundance Shock

On the 13th of May, I got a call from the HR department of Philip Morris Poland. They wanted me to do a webinar for their employees in June. We exchanged a couple of emails, I wrote an offer for them, and then we set the date – it all took some of my time.

On 20th of May, I got an email from Scribd. They wanted to do an audio course based on my online articles about habits. I jumped on the call with their representative, and I saw no reason to decline the offer. But I had to pay my dues in time – to review a contract, to sign and send it, issue an invoice, and so on.

My customer contacted me and inquired about ads for his wife’s book. I got the access to her KDP account, looked around, created the AMS account and editor access for me, and finally replied to my customer with my recommendations. One of them was to rewrite the book’s description.

Why “The Abundance Shock?” I didn’t chase any of those opportunities. They didn’t materialize from the thin air – my friend working in Philip Morris sent the info about me to the HR department at the beginning of a pandemic, a year ago! I had a relationship with my customer. I have been consistently posting stuff online for years. Then, all the three opportunities emerged in the span of two weeks.

I figured out writing a book description will take me about two hours. I said to my customer that if he wants ME to write it, it’s $200. He just said “OK.” And I wanted to deter him from this idea because I don’t like writing book descriptions. I guess, I need to quote $400 the next time.

This is the magic of consistency and author-ity (being an author). I left a lot of footprints in the last eight years, thus I was offered $1,000 without even trying to get those deals. People came to me and politely asked if I can shut up and take their money!

The 8th Author Anniversary

On the 26th of May 2013, I published my first book – “A Personal Mission Statement: Your Road Map to Happiness.” Me being me, I couldn’t resist to crunch some numbers. I published 16 books of mine (including “The Remarkable…”, one bundle which included my whole first series (How to Change Your Life in 10 Minutes a Day), two stories books with co-written with Jeannie Ingraham (she did most of the work), and a public domain work – the quotes from The Science of Getting Rich.

I sold over 80,000 copies of my books. My books were translated into German, Spanish, and Chinese. I sold the rights to Trickle Down Mindset to a Korean publisher, and I don’t even know if it was published there. I turned five of my books into audiobooks.

In that eight years, I wrote over 2.5 million words, published 275 blog posts, 1,600+ answers on Quora, 230 answers on Quora in Polish, 400+ articles on Medium and all over the Internet. Those 2.5 million words include also my 300,000-word novel which I have been writing on Sundays just for fun and to keep my writing streak alive.

Since 23rd of September, 2013 I missed only two days of writing – one on the trip to Prague with my wife, the other during my mastermind retreat in Nashville.

Auto Ads Experiment

My friend gave me $500 to experiment with my ads. I dedicated half of this fund to a couple of automatic ads for The Art of Persistence. I turned off all the other ads for this book. I lost about $9 on the whole deal. I sold more copies with several ads, than with my full set of 134 ads running.

The results surprised me. When the fund ran out in the middle of May, I decided to create auto ads for my all books. And I turned off all the long tail ads I had. I used slightly less bold bidding than during the experiment. I didn’t want to just break even, but to generate some profit.

Twenty days later, I could tell it wasn’t the best idea. The Art of Persistence may, or may not, sell as many copies in a month as before the experiment. My overall sales dropped and ROI tanked.

Lesson: If you don’t know how to target the keywords well, or if you do know, but don’t have time for it, the long tail keyword method [link to RB] is still superior to normal book advertising on Amazon. It’s so much easier to generate profit with common words, even if you confuse the Amazon’s algorithm and sell fewer copies.

Free Books Experiment

I continued to advertise six permafree of my customer. In May, we generated over 2,600 downloads with the $760 budget. I got him on the call at the end of the month, and we examined the results case by case. We decided to change the approach and to promote only the three books which performed best.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t really pinpoint the impact of all those free downloads (over 8,000 since we started) on his business. So, I gave him homework to compare subscription rates and traffic to his websites before and after turning his books into permafree.

Resurrecting Books

I got a few new customers in May, but none of them was a big hit. In fact, I don’t even think I broke even with them.

I think May was the first month we managed to examine all the search terms of our customers and turned them into new campaigns.

The crazy volume of workload and the number of projects I juggled in May caused me to drop the ball I’m least inclined to tackle – customer service. Prospects and customers had been waiting for weeks for a reply to their emails, and this situation got only worse in June.

The May 2021 Income Report Breakdown

Income:

Amazon royalties: €1,501.54 ($1,816.86)
Coach.me fees: $192.96
Audiobooks royalties: $25.1
D2D royalties: $47.44
PWIW personal coaching: $575
AMS service remuneration: $2,451.13
Others: $54.98

Total: $5163.47

Costs:
$23.37, BirdSend fee
$1,252.331 Amazon ads
$1009.2, RAs’ remuneration (RAs = Real Assistants; my team)
$30, SiteLock fee
$49.55, royalties split with co-author
$500, ISI mastermind
$250.77, Bluehost hosting
$73.2, book promotions
$100, an obligatory monthly fee for LLC
$92, my accountant’s monthly fee
Total: $3,159.16

Net Result: $2,004.31

Previous Income Report: April 2021

The post Ninety Eighth Income Report – May 2021 ($2,004.31) appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.

Ninety Eighth Income Report – May 2021

Are you curious about a 3-month delay? I explained it in my first income report.

[image error]May 2021 was a very long and eventful month on all fronts, from business to family. The month was jam-packed, so I don’t even know where to start.

The book sales weren’t stellar, but ROI on my ads improved significantly. So, despite selling a relatively small amount, I actually earned more royalties than in April and significantly more than in March.

I continued to train my VA. It was a struggle. I remember spending two full hours at the beginning of the month to rewrite a procedure she prepared. That was so frustrating; she was supposed to save me time, not consume it.

But with her help, I managed to publish 25+ articles on Medium. I earned $21 on Medium. Which was more than I made from books outside Amazon. On the other hand, my workload on Medium was much bigger, so those two income streams aren’t very comparable.

Family

My eldest sister visited us and spent almost three weeks with us. That was unnerving for my wife, who likes 1-day guests the most.  

My eldest son had high school exams at the beginning of the month. My daughter had primary school exams in the middle of the month. I kept preparing her for the math exam, and she even scored 83% on a mock test once! Quite a progress from the 16% she received in March at school. Two months of consistent practice made miracles.

She checked the answers after the real exam and claimed she will get above 50%. The official results will be available at the beginning of July.

COVID Vaccination

On the 20th of May, I and my wife drove 100 miles and stayed at the hotel for the night. The next morning, we had the vaccination with Johnson & Johnson vaccine scheduled. I worked very little on the day we went there. It was like a 1-day vacation for me. In the evening, we went for a long walk along the banks of a majestic river, Narew.  [photo]

The next day, right after getting the vaccine we drove back home, and we arrived around 11 am. I felt quite normal till the evening. Then, I got a fever. I gulped a couple of pills, sweated like crazy during the night, and I was almost back to normal on Saturday morning. I felt a bit shaky the whole day, but I already was OK on Sunday.

We purposefully took the 1-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine so we could travel abroad in a few weeks. My parents were coming to Poland from Ireland, and we arranged that my mom would stay with the kids and we would go somewhere on the Mediterranean Sea.

The Remarkable Power of Consistency

In the middle of the month, I decided to publish the new book at my 8th anniversary as an author – on the 26th of May, 2021. I didn’t really feel like pulling my weight with this project, but we managed to meet the deadline. I say “we” because Anthony Smits did most of the work formatting the book. And I couldn’t make it without my cover designer, Łukasz Szczubidło.

And “managed” is a generous term. I hit the “publish” button after midnight, but technically, it was still 26th of May in the States.  

Then, we discovered one huge problem with images in the Kindle version and a problem with the cover for the paperback version. I remember sitting in front of the TV on Saturday, 29th of May and frantically messaging both Anthony and Łukasz. But I had the final version ready on Monday (the last day of May), and that’s when I notified my subscribers about the new release.

The whole project wasn’t the model of doing things in a timely fashion not only because I was half-lazy about it. I had other things to attend (more about it in a minute). The huge problem was that Anthony got his COVID vaccine three weeks earlier and he got the chronic fatigue in the process. In his words: “I did nothing but sleep for the two weeks!”

The Abundance Shock

On the 13th of May, I got a call from the HR department of Philip Morris Poland. They wanted me to do a webinar for their employees in June. We exchanged a couple of emails, I wrote an offer for them, and then we set the date – it all took some of my time.

On 20th of May, I got an email from Scribd. They wanted to do an audio course based on my online articles about habits. I jumped on the call with their representative, and I saw no reason to decline the offer. But I had to pay my dues in time – to review a contract, to sign and send it, issue an invoice, and so on.

My customer contacted me and inquired about ads for his wife’s book. I got the access to her KDP account, looked around, created the AMS account and editor access for me, and finally replied to my customer with my recommendations. One of them was to rewrite the book’s description.

Why “The Abundance Shock?” I didn’t chase any of those opportunities. They didn’t materialize from the thin air – my friend working in Philip Morris sent the info about me to the HR department at the beginning of a pandemic, a year ago! I had a relationship with my customer. I have been consistently posting stuff online for years. Then, all the three opportunities emerged in the span of two weeks.

I figured out writing a book description will take me about two hours. I said to my customer that if he wants ME to write it, it’s $200. He just said “OK.” And I wanted to deter him from this idea because I don’t like writing book descriptions. I guess, I need to quote $400 the next time.

This is the magic of consistency and author-ity (being an author). I left a lot of footprints in the last eight years, thus I was offered $1,000 without even trying to get those deals. People came to me and politely asked if I can shut up and take their money!

The 8th Author Anniversary

On the 26th of May 2013, I published my first book – “A Personal Mission Statement: Your Road Map to Happiness.” Me being me, I couldn’t resist to crunch some numbers. I published 16 books of mine (including “The Remarkable…”, one bundle which included my whole first series (How to Change Your Life in 10 Minutes a Day), two stories books with co-written with Jeannie Ingraham (she did most of the work), and a public domain work – the quotes from The Science of Getting Rich.

I sold over 80,000 copies of my books. My books were translated into German, Spanish, and Chinese. I sold the rights to Trickle Down Mindset to a Korean publisher, and I don’t even know if it was published there. I turned five of my books into audiobooks.

In that eight years, I wrote over 2.5 million words, published 275 blog posts, 1,600+ answers on Quora, 230 answers on Quora in Polish, 400+ articles on Medium and all over the Internet. Those 2.5 million words include also my 300,000-word novel which I have been writing on Sundays just for fun and to keep my writing streak alive.

Since 23rd of September, 2013 I missed only two days of writing – one on the trip to Prague with my wife, the other during my mastermind retreat in Nashville.

Auto Ads Experiment

My friend gave me $500 to experiment with my ads. I dedicated half of this fund to a couple of automatic ads for The Art of Persistence. I turned off all the other ads for this book. I lost about $9 on the whole deal. I sold more copies with several ads, than with my full set of 134 ads running.

The results surprised me. When the fund ran out in the middle of May, I decided to create auto ads for my all books. And I turned off all the long tail ads I had. I used slightly less bold bidding than during the experiment. I didn’t want to just break even, but to generate some profit.

Twenty days later, I could tell it wasn’t the best idea. The Art of Persistence may, or may not, sell as many copies in a month as before the experiment. My overall sales dropped and ROI tanked.

Lesson: If you don’t know how to target the keywords well, or if you do know, but don’t have time for it, the long tail keyword method [link to RB] is still superior to normal book advertising on Amazon. It’s so much easier to generate profit with common words, even if you confuse the Amazon’s algorithm and sell fewer copies.

Free Books Experiment

I continued to advertise six permafree of my customer. In May, we generated over 2,600 downloads with the $760 budget. I got him on the call at the end of the month, and we examined the results case by case. We decided to change the approach and to promote only the three books which performed best.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t really pinpoint the impact of all those free downloads (over 8,000 since we started) on his business. So, I gave him homework to compare subscription rates and traffic to his websites before and after turning his books into permafree.

Resurrecting Books

I got a few new customers in May, but none of them was a big hit. In fact, I don’t even think I broke even with them.

I think May was the first month we managed to examine all the search terms of our customers and turned them into new campaigns.

The crazy volume of workload and the number of projects I juggled in May caused me to drop the ball I’m least inclined to tackle – customer service. Prospects and customers had been waiting for weeks for a reply to their emails, and this situation got only worse in June.

The May 2021 Income Report Breakdown

Income:

Amazon royalties: €1,501.54 ($1,816.86)
Coach.me fees: $192.96
Audiobooks royalties: $25.1
D2D royalties: $47.44
PWIW personal coaching: $575
AMS service remuneration: $2,451.13
Others: $54.98

Total: $5163.47

Costs:
$23.37, BirdSend fee
$1,252.331 Amazon ads
$1009.2, RAs’ remuneration (RAs = Real Assistants; my team)
$30, SiteLock fee
$49.55, royalties split with co-author
$500, ISI mastermind
$250.77, Bluehost hosting
$73.2, book promotions
$100, an obligatory monthly fee for LLC
$92, my accountant’s monthly fee
Total: $3,159.16

Net Result: $2,004.31

Previous Income Report: April 2021

The post Ninety Eighth Income Report – May 2021 appeared first on ExpandBeyondYourself.