Hey you. Tap, tap. Yeah, you on the other side of the screen... Wake up! I mean it. Even if you think you are awake, likely you are just sleepwalking through the day. And that cup of coffee? Not going to help for this kind of wake-up. No, I am talking about waking from your get-up-work-eat-drink-sleep-repeat lifestyle. I’m surprised you even call it living. And lifestyle? Not much style there if you ask me. I have big dreams, and like me, I bet you do, too. Or at least you did at one time. So, ...
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. ~Ernest Hemingway How hard can it be, this writing thing? As a professional writer, I often hear non-writers suggest that copywriting must be easy for me since I am so good at it. That writing, for a writer, has got to be painless, just something we do naturally, like breathing. That a short project shouldn't take too long to complete because there are so ...
When I was in my twenties, I dated a man whose family traveled extensively. They lived in Saudi Arabia, the father was headmaster at an American school, and the entire family of six would travel all over the Middle East and Europe. The one good thing I remember from that train-wreck of a relationship was his family's mantra about packing before a trip: Never pack before midnight, and never pack sober. I reference that maxim often when people ask me for advice on packing light, not because I follow the ...
The plan was laid. My mom was returning home. After a year away, her personal experiment at moving back to the town where she grew up was coming to a close. Last October, just two weeks after she left her tiny casita in what was a fevered rush to get to greener grass, she declared she’d be returning to her house after the lease was up. The big move, which included, I swear, over one hundred pots, from little to large, filled with succulents and other plants, would ...
[caption id="attachment_2634" align="alignright" width="461"] photo credit: armosa studios[/caption] The 2012 World Domination Summit wrapped up this past weekend. And, unless you have been sequestered in a monastery, in silent meditation without internet access, you can barely get a pixel's distance from the phrase World Domination Summit. That is, of course, if you are on the web with any regularity and have a hunger for alternatives to the status quo and defining life on your own terms.
As the excitement builds for World Domination Summit, or WDS for shorthand, there are a few things you need to know if you are a WDS newbie. WDS, which takes place in Portland July 6-8, 2012, is the progeny of my friend Chris Guillebeau’s fertile mind. Wildly successful last year, this is the sophomore year for WDS. This year WDS will double in size setting loose 1,000 official attendees, and likely many more who come to hang out, on downtown ...
8/24 Update: The Merry Inksters is opening again soon! After taking a summer hiatus, The Merry Inksters support and accountability group for nonfiction writers is ready to open its virtual doors on September 15, 2012. If you are a blogger, author, writer, or an entrepreneur who needs to write (but you don't necessarily call yourself a writer), this group is for you! Read more below and get on the priority notification list. Tell me: Are you a nonfiction writer struggling to stay focused? ...
Smart entrepreneurs make smart decisions. This woman was no exception. I was recently chatting with a potential client about her process to revamp and rebrand her website and shift the focus to the current services that she provides. As we talked, she told me about her desire to make sweeping changes—colors, logo, overall feel and look, and, of course, the perfect content that would speak to her clients. In an effort to do something, anything, she decided to just change the header on her site—you know, jazz the space up ...
You want to write a book. You have a book in you and it desperately needs to come out. You’ve thought about this for a long time. You have ideas, great ideas. Maybe your book idea is an autobiography, a how-to, a tell-all, or some other genre that needs to see the light of day. You want to write it, you know you must, but…it’s freaking scary! Every time you sit down, you sit down and stare. At the screen. At the ...
The contest is over for a copy of Chris Guillebeau’s latest book, The $100 Startup. Thank you to everyone who weighed in with a comment on the business they would start today, if time, money, and fear were not in the way. I love your creativity and your desire to craft a business that is infused with your personality! I wish that I could award a book to all of you, but alas, that I cannot do (unless Chris wants to send more ...
