The Temptation Every Author Faces (and How to Overcome it)

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Does this look familiar? 

  • You’ve given a talk to six people when you’d hoped for six hundred.

  • You’ve reached out to organizations that look like the perfect fit, but they don’t seem to be interested in your message.   

  • You’ve sent out a powerful new article to test out your next book concept and all you hear are crickets.

Ok, so you may not be bawling your eyes out with a party hat on, but this can often be the reaction when you put yourself out there and things don’t go as planned. 

Beware! It’s a Trap! 

When you feel like this, the natural reaction is to pull back and wait to be picked; however, this is a trap. After all, the temptation to retreat never goes away, even when you’ve reached a significant level of success.  If you succumb, your momentum will grind to a halt and you’ll eventually feel so small that you’ll lose connection to your audience and message. 

Learning to Ride a Bike (Again?!) 

The counter-intuitive “trick” that successful thought leaders know is this: instead of putting on the brakes, you have to pedal faster in order to regain your balance. Likewise, when you fall off, the longer you wait to get back on the bike, the harder it is. 

If you’re feeling a bit like my kid brother in the photo, the best thing you can do right now is to start pedaling.  Here’s a few suggestions:

  • After your speaking gig didn’t go as you hoped, read a testimonial you received from a previous engagement and use that energy to go out and book three more keynotes.

  • When you don’t get a response from that “perfect” organization, revisit your existing relationships and look for new opportunities with the groups you already know.

  • If the wider audience didn’t resonate with your new post, pick a few of your loyal fans who will give you their honest feedback and ask for their input.

If you lean into these inevitable moments, you’ll not only build up a healthy tolerance for these setbacks, but you’ll uncover a huge number of opportunities for your message and work.

As always, I love hearing how things are progressing for you.  Reply to this email and let me know how you’re doing. 


Until next week, 

e

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10 Ways for Thought Leaders Like You to Bounce Back

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I just returned from giving the closing keynote at Greenleaf's Author Summit and had an insight that I wanted to share with you.

For the event, CEO Tanya Hall asked me to not only deliver an inspirational speech, but also to give the audience tangible strategies to survive the setbacks that happen along the way to making a lasting impact.

While delivering the talk, I realized that these 10 strategies were not only important for the authors in the room, but useful to thought leaders at all stages, including you.

Over the next few months, I'm going to be sending you one of these ideas per week that will help you move your message and business forward.

By the way, I'm not going to be sending you a tome.  These will be short, "snackable" emails you can digest while standing in line at Starbucks. Also, I think you'll get a kick out of the images that go along with them.

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