Why the Market Is Not Too Crowded for Your Message

A lot of other people have written about this. Is there room for one more? Does it make sense for me to write about it too?” As editorial director for a book publisher, I get this question a lot. In fact, I’ve asked it too. I remember emailing successful blogger and author Jeff Goins to ask about […]

Interview with Professional Blogger Jonathan Milligan, a Living Legend

Jonathan Milligan is a professional blogger, entrepreneur, speaker, life coach, social media expert, and all around great guy! I met him via Michael Hyatt’s Platform University in the forum there. He threw out an invitation to join a mastermind group, and I jumped. So glad I did. Jonathan was in the “head hunter” recruitment world when […]

Where Most People Go Wrong When Chasing a Dream

Chasing a dream can be tough. It takes perseverance–sometimes more perseverance than we’ve ever had to muster in the past. Chasing a dream stretches us in ways we’ve never been stretched. I tend to think we actually become different people when we pursue a goal to which we feel deeply called. Watch this video to […]

4 Proven Steps That Turn Writers into Tribal Marketers

We were all excited. An author we had just published was going to be on Oprah, and the subject of our author’s book would be front and center during the interview. We shipped thousands of books to make sure our accounts had plenty of inventory. The day came, and Oprah set her up beautifully. The author did a […]

How to Find Success (It’s Simpler than You Think)

The more I work with successful people and observe how they become successful, I’m convinced: success is not the result of some magic key. It doesn’t happen to people who are smarter or prettier or more talented than everybody else, or at least that’s not how it happens most of the time. It’s much simpler […]

3 Things I Learned about Building a Platform When My Blog Posts Went Viral

When I started my Christian parenting blog, Christian Mom Thoughts, three years ago, I didn’t have any specific objectives in mind. But over time my readership and interest in writing steadily grew. Like many bloggers, I started dreaming of writing books. I began to research the publishing world and immediately ran into the word “platform” […]

The 2-Step Plan for Increasing Your Creativity

Includes a Free Self-Assessment and Action Guide

Stand up, everybody,” the perky lady said from up front. “We’re going to do a little stand-in-place yoga to get our blood moving.” Great, I thought to myself. Comfortably seated at a conference with two hundred strangers, I was not excited about getting up and moving my pudgy body in unusual ways for all to […]

The Best Thing to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do

I would have slammed into her if I hadn’t been looking. Luckily, at that particular moment anyway, I was, and so stopped within a few feet of her flashing hazards. The silver 1990s Corolla was bunching up the morning commute, and clearly the car was going nowhere. On another morning, a more hectic morning, no […]

Why You Must Not Ignore the Benefits of a Mastermind Group

A group of friends got together to ask some questions. They ended up changing the world. In 1727 Benjamin Franklin started a group of about twelve souls whose purpose was individual and community improvement. The “Junto,” as Franklin called it, met on Friday nights and went through a list of questions including: What new story have you […]

How New York Times Bestselling Author Chris Guillebeau Wrote His Latest Book

Several years back a colleague recommended Chris Guillebeau’s The Art of Nonconformity, which was a real eye-opener to me. The book challenges readers to think about unconventional ways of doing life and making a living, and honestly I’ve never been the same. I can draw a straight line from his book to the creation of Book Proposal Academy, […]