Category Archives: Writing

Can We Be Both Spiritual and Successful?

Blogging, Creativity, Goals, Inspirations, Life, Platform, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

The other day I walked past my bookshelf, and this juxtaposition caught my eye—two books that have no business being next to each other.

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The one is an Advent devotional titled Preparing for Jesus: Meditations on the Coming of Christ, Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom by accomplished writer and National Book Award winner Walt Wangerin. The other is Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of Your Dreams by self-made marketing expert Jeff Walker.

I was struck not only with the seemingly contradictory messages of these books but with the fact that there they stood—on my bookshelf! They were in some way emblematic of the internal conflict I feel so often.

Two Parts

On the one hand I long to be near my Maker, resting and communing in the dance of Divine Love. On the other I desperately want the businesses in which I’m involved to succeed, and succeed fabulously, thank you very much.

On the one hand I love the beautifully penned prose of a spiritual master. On the other I want to make a buck.

Give me poetry, but then don’t wait too long before giving me tools.

One impulse is all about living deeply and being spiritually attuned. The other is all about being successful in business and getting ahead and attaining the freedom that wealth affords.

And I’ve noticed that my friendships seem to head in one trajectory or another too. Not exclusively, of course, but primarily I have friends who support my spiritual pursuits, and I have other friends who support my entrepreneurial pursuits. And I value both equally.

For better or worse, this is just who I am. To deny one or the other part would be like hacking off limbs. In high school I was the drama geek who loved weight-lifting. Do you see what I’m getting at?

Don’t Call It Contradiction

So what am I to do with these apparently divergent parts of myself? What is any of us to do? I have worked with many, many authors who face a similar dichotomy. They want to write books of meaning and import, and they want people to read their books, yet they don’t want to be self-promoting.

How should we think about such contradictions?

Well, for one thing, I guess we should stop calling them contradictions. Does a spiritual impulse necessarily militate against an impulse to create and serve and make an income by doing so?

[Tweet “Does a spiritual impulse necessarily militate against an impulse to create and serve and make an income by doing so?”]

The other thing we must realize is there are different shades of motivation for either impulse. Wanting to commune with God is all good and fine and sounds super holy, but to what end? Is my doing so an act of love and gratitude, or is it an act of manipulation? Do I want to abide in God because of my love for God, or is it actually because I want God to run the world per my agenda? And do I read books like Launch merely because I want riches, or is it because I think I have something of real value to offer the world, and I want to be as strategic as possible about offering it?

You see, as soon as we start thinking one part of ourselves is good and the other bad, we do violence not only to ourselves but to reality. We must continually check our motives, but let’s not be too quick to write off sides of the self. We are whole people, endlessly complex, entire universes unto ourselves. And the God who saw fit to breathe life into clay is not taken aback. Not in the least.

We are free, friends. We are free to live out the different parts of who we are—always negotiating, yes, always careful, surely, but in confidence that it all needs redeeming anyway. And it so happens God knows something about redemption. He invented it.

Go in peace, good pilgrims.

[Tweet “Can We Be Both Spiritual and Successful? @ChadRAllen on reconciling our identities…”]

[reminder]Do you struggle with your desire to be both spiritual and successful?[/reminder]

Speaking of books, check out my free report: The Best Books Ever Written on Creativity, Writing, and Pursuing Your Dreams.  Click the image below.

The Most Important Thing I Learned from Selling My House Might Surprise You

Creativity, Inspirations, Life, Work Habits, Writing

The first thing realtors tell you when you’re preparing your house to go on the market is this: declutter.

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Courtesy of Unsplash

Not paint or redo the bathroom or update your windows. Get rid of the stuff, they tell you.

Why? Because when we’re making what is arguably the most significant purchase of our lives, what we want more than anything is to see the space.

[Tweet “When we’re making the most significant purchase of our lives, we want to see the space” via @ChadRAllen”]

It’s what we want in our homes, and it’s what we want in our lives.

Space.

In this post I want to offer 5 ways to simplify and declutter so you can see the space again.

1. Purge Your Calendar

Each week look at what’s on your calendar. In addition to clustering items that are like one another (phone calls, for example), ask yourself, “Do I really need to do that this week?” Get rid of the nonessentials.

2. Work from a List

Each day ask yourself, “What do I need to accomplish for today to be great?” Write the list and get to it.

3. Clear Your Physical Space

Pick up each piece of paper in your workspace. Ask “Can I address this in two minutes or less?” If so do it. If not, place it where you’ll know where to find it and schedule a time in your calendar to address it.

4. Tame the Email Beast Once and for All

I’ve been getting my email inbox down to zero just about every day for years. In this post I show you how.

5. Right-Size Your Social Media Time

Social media is useful and entertaining. It can also be hugely time-consuming and keep us from accomplishing the things that matter most to us. Set specific times during the day when you are going to engage social media, and put yourself on a timer. If you have an iPhone tell Siri, “Sound an alarm in 15 minutes.” When the alarm sounds, you’re done. Try the app Anti-Social to block yourself from social media for an amount of time you designate.

[Tweet “”Tame the Email Beast Once and for All” and other decluttering tips via @ChadRAllen”]

[reminder]What can you do to declutter today?[/reminder]

[callout]Bonus Content: Need some space for creativity? I’d love to give you my free Creativity Self-Assessment and Action Guide. It’s been a huge help to a lot of creatives. [button href=”https://www.chadrallen.com/getnourishflourish” primary=”true” centered=”true” newwindow=”false”]Download[/button][/callout]

How to Turn Your Blog Posts into a Book Publishers Will Love

Blogging, Book Proposal, Creativity, Goals, Guest Posts, Platform, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

As editorial director for a major trade book publisher, I regularly receive questions like this:

  • Is it okay to blog content that I want to use in my book?
  • Will publishers mind if my blog content ends up in my book?
  • If my book proposal is for a book based on my blog, will publishers give it a chance?

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I can’t speak for all publishers, but I can tell you my take on these questions and offer some advice to bloggers who want to work with a traditional publisher. The truth is you can use your blog posts to write a book that both publishers and readers will love.

This is the beginning of a guest post I wrote for my good friend Jonathan Milligan at Blogging Your Passion. To keep reading, click here.

The Best Business Book I’ve Read in a Long Time

Creativity, Goals, Inspirations, Life, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

Becoming an entrepreneur has done a lot more than pay the bills over the years, it’s saved my life.” That’s the first line of a wonderful little book by Inc. columnist Timothy Askew, The Poetry of Small Business: An Accidental Entrepreneur’s Search for Meaning.

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As I make my way into entrepreneurism, I find myself hungry for content that addresses matters of the soul. I can quickly get lost in a sea of material covering tools and finances and formulas. These are important and necessary, but their rightful place is secondary.  What must be primary for the sake of sanity let alone wholeness is a grounded sense of self and calling. [Tweet “What must be primary for the sake of sanity let alone wholeness is a grounded sense of self and calling.”]

The Poetry of Small Business is a refreshing break from all the picayune minutia, the niggling details of business. It’s an immersion into meaning, and it offers a more philosophical approach to business. Continue reading The Best Business Book I’ve Read in a Long Time →

How to Be Yourself and Make Money

Creativity, Goals, Guest Posts, Life, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

[guestpost]This is a guest post from my good friend Samir Selmanović, an executive coach, organizational consultant, and entrepreneur living in New York City. Connect with Samir on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.[/guestpost]

The way we work is changing rapidly. The number of us who have opted out of traditional corporate or government employment is growing. According to such sources as Forbes and Public Sector Digest, by the year 2020, 40 to 50 percent of the workforce in the U.S. will be freelancers. By 2030 we will be the majority.

Courtesy of Unsplash
Courtesy of Unsplash

Moving from cubicles to freedom is appealing for many reasons. Perhaps the most significant is the fresh air of possibility and permission to create products, services, and ideas that would never be possible in the often monochromatic, dehydrated, and angular space of traditional business.

Corporations and government organizations are also awakening to the realization that human freedom and a sense of purpose make business sense. Those living in denial of this softer but more powerful aspect of business will be awakened one day soon by the success of their competitors.

But that’s what they have to worry about.

The Nursery of Creativity

What we have to worry about is the flip side. It only takes a short while to realize that this new creative space comes with a whole new set of limits placed on us. We have to create on demand, produce what can be sold, and deliver what the market wants.

The good news is that this very tension—between being oneself and providing valuable service—is the nursery of creativity.

[Tweet “”The tension between being oneself and providing valuable service is the nursery of creativity” via @SamirSelmanovic @ChadRAllen”]

Being oneself in work—which translates to doing what we love—is the holy grail of vocation, and it usually comes in the later years of our lives. As we move from having a job, to having a career, to having a calling, we become increasingly aware that who we are is far more important than what we do. Young adult zeal to prove ourselves gives way to deeper movements toward understanding ourselves.

As we mature we realize we are not human doings but human beings. Our leadership influence correlates far more with who we are than with what we do. Doing more, at some point, becomes unproductive.

Freedom to attend to who we are becoming, however, is often visited by freedom’s well-meaning brother: fear. Once we walk out of the map of conventional ideas and practices, we are going feral. Wilderness brings freedom but also wipes away our assurances, safeties, and consolations. No one can guarantee your survival anymore.

We’re left to make it work. And this means doing what your difficult entrepreneur boss, your less-than-ideal clients, or the circumstances of life itself are asking of you.

5 Ways to Be Yourself and Make Money

Here is what I have learned in my leadership coaching practice from leaders who have learned to inhabit their own lives while doing what they have to do whether in the cubicle world or outside it:

  • Give yourself permission to use your work as a tool of becoming the person you were meant to be. Claim this and never let it go again. Commitment to becoming yourself is your freedom, your bliss, and your heaven on earth. It is also your door to success. If you are not doing your work as you, there will be someone who will do it better. By being yourself, you make your competition irrelevant. This is your anchor and your sail.

[Tweet “”By being yourself, you make your competition irrelevant” via @SamirSelmanovic @ChadRAllen”]

  • Embrace limits. Reject the cultural fear of limits. Limits are where art comes to life. Create with the canvas you have, the technique you are limited to, and the experience that is yours. Within these boundaries, set by your project, clients, or circumstances, you have full freedom to be yourself. The narrower the boundaries, the more creative you are called to be. Find a way to turn the commands into choices and you will find a way to freedom.
  • Embrace money as one of the measures of your creativity. Money is what people work for and where they deposit their sense of safety and their personal aspirations. Like Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, your heart will be also.” People give their treasure to you because they believe you can contribute to their safety and their aspirations. Respect what they want and need. It is about their heart. If you don’t see it, it is because you are not creative about the way you see. Learn to enchant yourself with their story.
  • Lose, grieve, and let go. When tempted to complain about circumstances or resent what life is doing to you, remember that half of life is made of losing, grieving, and letting go. We all love the win-celebrate-achieve half of life. Learn to love the other half. If you are chronically stuck, it is probably because you are avoiding states such as anxiety, frustration, and boredom. They are partners on your journey. Let them in. Breathe through them.

[Tweet “”Embrace limits. . . . Limits are where art comes to life” via @SamirSelmanovic @ChadRAllen”]

  • Master your irreducibly human skills. Technical and transactional competencies required in your business are necessary, but you need something far more foundational. To perform in the midst of volatility, uncertainty, and ambiguity, you need meta-competencies. What is it that you can do because you are human? What is it that you can do because you are this particular human? Get very good at these things.

Whatever you do, make a life-long commitment to learn to love the harsh world that seems to be pushing against you.

Work is intimacy, a place where your inner world comes into full contact with the outer world. It is a conversation between lovers, a continual negotiation between what you want and what the world wants. Like in a marriage, you will learn what love is only when you are willing to go to the place where neither you nor your love has ever been before.

[callout]Special gift for my readers: Samir has put together a new resource especially for you. It’s called THREE PIVOTAL PRACTICES FOR HIGH PERFORMING PROFESSIONALS, and it’s a gem of a piece. Well worth your time. Visit wisdomworkroom.com and grab the download.[/callout]

[reminder]Do you struggle with the tension between being yourself and making a living? [/reminder]

How to Stay Fresh and Create Your Best Content

Blogging, Creativity, Goals, Guest Posts, Inspirations, Life, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

Recently my family traveled to the Salt Lake City area to visit my dad. On the way to the airport following our visit, my eight-year-old son asked why the Salt Lake was full of salt water instead of fresh water. My dad explained the Salt Lake has no outlets. Water comes in, but it can’t get out. Some of the water evaporates, but the natural minerals do not, so the concentration of the minerals increases, producing a “salt lake” rather than a fresh lake.

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What makes a fresh water lake fresh is the water flowing freely in and out.

Later it occurred to me this is an apt metaphor for creating great content. To stay fresh creatively, we need resources and experiences to flow freely into our lives…

This is the beginning of a guest post for Rebecca Livermore’s Professional Content Creation. To keep reading, CLICK HERE.

Why Blogging Might Be Your Fastest Way to Secure a Book Deal

Blogging, Book Proposal, Guest Posts, Platform, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

If you have ever known a clean-shaven man who quickly grew a beard, you have a clue about changes in the publishing industry over the past five to ten years. Publishing today looks very different from how it looked a few years ago, and the transition can catch you off guard.

Courtesy of <a href="http://www.DeathToTheStockPhoto.com/">DeathToTheStockPhoto.com</a>
Courtesy of DeathToTheStockPhoto.com

Whether it’s the decline of bricks-and-mortar retail, the advent of ebooks, the audiobook boom, the democratization of media channels, or any of innumerable other changes, the shifts have been rapid and dramatic. Even the nimblest publishing professional can have trouble keeping up.

But among authors one group in particular has been able to capitalize on upheaval in the publishing world . . .

This is the beginning of a guest post on Michael Hyatt’s site. To keep reading, CLICK HERE.

10 Things I Learned from Hosting My First Webinar

Blogging, Book Proposal, Creativity, Goals, Inspirations, Life, Platform, Publishing, Uncategorized, Work Habits, Writing

Well, okay, it wasn’t quite my first. It was my second, but it was my first real shot at hosting a webinar by myself. I called it “3 Steps to Winning a Nonfiction Book Contract,” and here’s what I learned in no particular order.

1. Webinars are fun!

I really enjoy the anticipation of the event and then watching people enter the webinar, acknowledging them, serving them. And I enjoyed providing what they told me later was valuable information and then answering questions. It’s quite a rush actually.

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2. Webinars are collective.

The vast majority of the time the internet is a solo experience. We surf the Web as individuals. Webinars are more communal. My webinar had about thirty people, but some have close to a thousand. Mine was like a classroom. Larger ones can be like small concerts! It is a different way to be on the Internet, and I think that’s cool!

3. Webinars are live.

Most of the time we’re interacting with already published material. In a webinar participants are part of the publishing process. They are part of the broadcast! Again, that is distinct from the way we normally experience the Web, and again, that’s awesome.

[Tweet “”In a #webinar we are all part of what’s being published. That’s awesome!” @ChadRAllen”]

4. Webinars are a great way to learn.

The thing about a webinar is that typically if somebody shows up, they are willing to dedicate some time to it. This too is terrific because it increases the chances they will learn something valuable and incorporate it into their lives.

5. Webinar participants are generally forgiving about technical problems.

I had a few technical issues in my webinar, and you can be sure I’ll do what I can to avoid them in the future. But I’m pleased to say people were good-natured about it and rolled with the punches. The only way to learn, sometimes, is to mess up trying. And I was grateful to be the recipient of a lot of grace amid my mess-ups.

6. I need to think more about the place of incentives in a webinar.

A couple of times in my webinar I offered a free tool by providing a link to an opt-in page. I did this mainly because I already had those pages ready to go, so they were simple to give people. But one webinar participant expressed “struggling” with the incentives. I get that. If I’ve registered for a webinar, I’ve already given you my email address. Why should you keep asking for it?

7. I don’t know how to sell on a webinar.

Originally I wasn’t going to sell anything on my webinar. I was just using it to interact with writers and list-build a bit. At the last minute I decided to offer a very limited opportunity to sign up for Book Proposal Academy. Webinar participants had 15 minutes to respond, and that was it. Not one person signed up. BPA is an awesome course. I’ve heard this from too many people to doubt it. But clearly I have some learning to do when it comes to selling via webinar. That’s okay. I’m new to this. I’ll get better.

8. I like to incentivize notes taking.

At the beginning of the webinar I encouraged people to take notes by letting them know that if they uploaded a picture of their notes to my Facebook page, I would pick someone for a 30-minute call with me. (By the way, I got this idea from Lewis Howes via Michael Hyatt’s Platform University.) It was fun to see all the notes on my Facebook page, of course, but even more important: these folks likely got a lot more out of the webinar by being engaged throughout it.

[Tweet “”I like to incentivize notes taking” and 9 other things @ChadRAllen learned about hosting webinars”]

9. I like prerecording a video for part of the webinar.

I prerecorded a video for part of the webinar mainly because I had the content recorded already and because I was nervous about losing some energy by the end of the webinar. It was still a live webinar. I was there the whole time. Even though I had some trouble with the recording (my error, sigh), I liked doing this because it allowed me to watch what was going on in the chat box and to create and publish polls during the webinar.

10. I’ll keep doing them!

I just love the interactivity of a webinar. I received instant feedback about how well it went. And I also received amazing, smart, relevant questions during the Q&A at the end. One of the questions was about how to write a bio, which gave me an idea for my next webinar!

My Next Webinar: “How to Craft a Killer Bio”

If you’re a creative, you need a great bio. The right bio can open doors. What I’d love to do is curate a webinar that helps people craft one for themselves. My vision is for people to walk away from the webinar with a solid bio. That’s what I’m going to try to do. Want to join me? CLICK HERE. I’ll send a replay to everyone who registers.

Why the Market Is Not Too Crowded for Your Message

Blogging, Book Proposal, Creativity, Guest Posts, Life, Platform, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

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 starting a blog on writing, publishing, and creativity. “Don’t you, Michael Hyatt, and Todd Henry pretty much have that covered,” I asked, “or is there room for one more?”

I’m so glad Jeff responded the way he did: “Look at late-night talks shows. They all do basically the same thing – tell jokes and interview people. What makes them unique is the personality and perspective and style of the host. Your voice makes you unique.”

There’s always room for one more because . . .

That is the beginning of a guest post over at my friend Michael Nichols’ blog today. If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s room for your message, this one’s for you.

To read the full post, CLICK HERE.

Confessions of a Flawed Editor

Creativity, Goals, Life, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

Editing is a tricky business. What I want more than anything is for your book to hum. I want it to be such an engrossing experience that a reader would sooner take a bus than drive, just for a few more moments in your book.

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Legendary editor Sol Stein says the writer’s job is to create “conditions that enable pleasure to edify”–to “provide an experience that is superior to the experiences that the reader encounters in everyday life.” All other intentions–expressing oneself, making money, even altruistically relaying information–take a backseat to creating a killer experience.

I often see the potential for a powerful piece. It’s there, but it’s buried or it’s not continuous. Sometimes what’s required is digging work, judicious trimming, sometimes hacking, to bring out the good stuff. Sometimes it’s relocation work, seizing the part that’s going to capture attention, setting it up front, then massaging it all so no one’s the wiser. Sometimes it’s charming work, writing a query that if worded right will prompt the author to compose a story that pulls the whole thing together. Sometimes it’s murderous work, killing a darling that, forgive me, has no business living.

I’m not always the author’s friend, or at least not the kind of friend you ring up when you only want to escape or party. Don’t call me for that. If I’m a friend at all, I’m the one, or by God I try to be, the one you call when you need some help–when you know you’ve made some poor decisions and you want to get back to center. That’s the guy I want to be.

Maybe I’m not your friend so much as your coach, who only becomes a friend for a little while, and not until the championship is in the bag. Until then, I’m going to push you for all you’re worth.

I’ll also sneak away during a family vacation to read your chapter and give you a hand. I’ll communicate via your agent. I’ll spend money for a second and third and fourth opinion when we don’t agree–to make absolutely sure we’ve got the full picture. I’ll come early, stay late, eat lunch at my desk.

Am I perfect? No. Is my judgment flawed? Do I get it wrong sometimes? Yes. But I’ll tell you one thing. You’ll look long and hard before you find someone who cares as much as I do. Don’t for a second doubt that I care. I do.

We’re going to get through this, you and I, and your book will be the better for it. It might even be a piece of art. That’s what I’m after. That is what you have in you.