![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Some entrepreneurial books
Quite a bit of my reading over the last couple of months has been nonfiction about marketing and running a small business. My year's theme is sustainability and reinvention: learning how to do this business in a way that makes decent money and doesn't burn me out. I've had some misses, but I felt like I got useful insight (for me personally) from these:
Write to Riches by Renee Rose: I am deeply annoyed that one of the most personally useful books I've read in the last few months is a book on manifesting. (For those who don't know, manifesting is big right now in the indie writer community; it's a philosophy that involves nurturing the correct energy to energetically attract/manifest the things you want from the universe. In other words, if you want a new house, tell the universe that you want a house and really believe in getting a house and it will give you a house.) I don't believe in the energy side of it at all. But ...
From an actual best-practices standpoint, it turns out that going into a new venture, even if it's just like, doing a highway drive or something, and telling myself ahead of time that it's going to work out for the best, I'll have a good time and accomplish what I want and I'm prepared to deal with anything that happens along the way, is useful! Far more useful than dwelling on what might go wrong. To be completely fair, this isn't a huge perspective shift for me, more like leaning into my natural optimism and confidence, which I do have a lot of to begin with, at least on my more positive days. But doing it deliberately and with intent is something a bit new for me, and I like the results, so I think I'm going to keep working at it.
I ran into a summary of the useful-for-me aspects of manifesting somewhere else, not in this book, which is basically (paraphrased from memory): if you really want a duck, and you spend all your time learning about ducks, and you hang out around people who have ducks and talk about ducks and start noticing ducks and tell everyone you want a duck and spend time in places where ducks are, eventually you will have a duck. Manifesting at its less energetic end is just that. Once you start really applying yourself to getting a duck, you notice ducks everywhere! Or at least you realize that if you want a duck that badly, you need to change your life in ways that are compatible with duck ownership.
(This book has a number of journaling exercises that also combine well with some other journaling practices I've been discovering via other books I've been reading, so if nothing else I might come out of this with some self-soothing journal habits too. Like writing down three successes from the day, major or minor; that kind of thing. Or asking your subconscious to help solve a problem while you sleep. I'm not doing any of this regularly, but I'm kicking around the idea of doing more of it, and more often.)
Slow Productivity by Cal Newport: This book is on pacing yourself to avoid burnout. I don't know how personally useful it's going to be for me, but I enjoyed reading it - there are also quite a few actionable suggestions in the last section for putting this into effect as a creative person - and I think in particular, this book is reassuring as a reminder that you don't have to be on the go all the time to get anywhere. Fallow periods and taking the time to do something right from the beginning are just as important as rushing through to the finish line, and this is not only a reminder of that, but it has a number of useful case studies of creative people who played the long game well. And sometimes intentionally making less money and enjoying life more is the right choice. As indie publishing can be geared towards sellsellsell at all times, this was a nice antidote to that.
10x is Easier than 2x by Benjamin Hardy & Dan Sullivan: This is a book with a caveat, which is that it's based on this one self-help guru's "get ahead faster" (and pay me money to find out how!) shtick. But it actually did give me quite a bit of food for thought. The idea here is that, as a creative person trying to make a living or a small business owner, incrementally improving your business/creative life by making small improvements to what you're already doing is actually more difficult and less productive in the long run than learning to make big sea-change shifts to discard what didn't work before, embrace the best of what you've already learned, and level up rapidly. (And be happier, work better, and enjoy your life more.)
This book is largely aimed at self-employed people, whereas the Slow Productivity book is geared more towards those who don't have as much freedom to self-pace. So they're complementary in a way. But the philosophy of both has some things in common. I think one thing that keeps coming up in the books I'm reading is: as a business owner, outsourcing or - if possible - eliminating the things you don't want to do simply makes sense. It's better business practice (why do something exhausting, that you're not that good at, that takes you away from what you really want to be doing?) and frees up more time for doing what you're good at, that you do and enjoy best, or simply having more unstructured leisure time to refresh and recharge.
Obviously the exact amount of usefulness in any of these books is going to depend on where you are in your life, creatively and otherwise, but these are hitting me in the right way for what I'm currently working on figuring out, which is how to go forward in a way that's more sustainable for me long-term than the past few years have been. My big issue is that 2022-24 burned me out so badly - not just including work, but also personal, health, family issues - that I'm only now feeling like I'm starting to get back some of the creative fire that I used to deploy without even thinking about it in the 2010s. So I'd like to keep enjoying and building on that in a healthy way going forward, and not dig myself right back into the same hole.
Write to Riches by Renee Rose: I am deeply annoyed that one of the most personally useful books I've read in the last few months is a book on manifesting. (For those who don't know, manifesting is big right now in the indie writer community; it's a philosophy that involves nurturing the correct energy to energetically attract/manifest the things you want from the universe. In other words, if you want a new house, tell the universe that you want a house and really believe in getting a house and it will give you a house.) I don't believe in the energy side of it at all. But ...
more on that
the positive thinking, forward-looking, "seize the opportunity when it comes along" mentality of it has actually been very helpful for me on a purely non-metaphysical basis. Similarly, manifesting philosophy is big on clearing "energy blocks" that prevent the energy from flowing freely through you, but - once again I am deeply annoyed that this is so useful - on a non-metaphysical level, it involves identifying the specific beliefs that are stopping you from going out and getting a thing you want, and going, "Well, is that a rational belief to have? What's the basis of it? What if I didn't believe that? What if I tried anyway?"From an actual best-practices standpoint, it turns out that going into a new venture, even if it's just like, doing a highway drive or something, and telling myself ahead of time that it's going to work out for the best, I'll have a good time and accomplish what I want and I'm prepared to deal with anything that happens along the way, is useful! Far more useful than dwelling on what might go wrong. To be completely fair, this isn't a huge perspective shift for me, more like leaning into my natural optimism and confidence, which I do have a lot of to begin with, at least on my more positive days. But doing it deliberately and with intent is something a bit new for me, and I like the results, so I think I'm going to keep working at it.
I ran into a summary of the useful-for-me aspects of manifesting somewhere else, not in this book, which is basically (paraphrased from memory): if you really want a duck, and you spend all your time learning about ducks, and you hang out around people who have ducks and talk about ducks and start noticing ducks and tell everyone you want a duck and spend time in places where ducks are, eventually you will have a duck. Manifesting at its less energetic end is just that. Once you start really applying yourself to getting a duck, you notice ducks everywhere! Or at least you realize that if you want a duck that badly, you need to change your life in ways that are compatible with duck ownership.
(This book has a number of journaling exercises that also combine well with some other journaling practices I've been discovering via other books I've been reading, so if nothing else I might come out of this with some self-soothing journal habits too. Like writing down three successes from the day, major or minor; that kind of thing. Or asking your subconscious to help solve a problem while you sleep. I'm not doing any of this regularly, but I'm kicking around the idea of doing more of it, and more often.)
Slow Productivity by Cal Newport: This book is on pacing yourself to avoid burnout. I don't know how personally useful it's going to be for me, but I enjoyed reading it - there are also quite a few actionable suggestions in the last section for putting this into effect as a creative person - and I think in particular, this book is reassuring as a reminder that you don't have to be on the go all the time to get anywhere. Fallow periods and taking the time to do something right from the beginning are just as important as rushing through to the finish line, and this is not only a reminder of that, but it has a number of useful case studies of creative people who played the long game well. And sometimes intentionally making less money and enjoying life more is the right choice. As indie publishing can be geared towards sellsellsell at all times, this was a nice antidote to that.
10x is Easier than 2x by Benjamin Hardy & Dan Sullivan: This is a book with a caveat, which is that it's based on this one self-help guru's "get ahead faster" (and pay me money to find out how!) shtick. But it actually did give me quite a bit of food for thought. The idea here is that, as a creative person trying to make a living or a small business owner, incrementally improving your business/creative life by making small improvements to what you're already doing is actually more difficult and less productive in the long run than learning to make big sea-change shifts to discard what didn't work before, embrace the best of what you've already learned, and level up rapidly. (And be happier, work better, and enjoy your life more.)
More on that
Basically, you can go on making small improvements to things you're already doing - or find ways to toss/eliminate/outsource everything that is cluttering up your creative life and embrace the aspects of it that you really want to do more of, to lean into what you really want to do rather than being sucked down by minutiae and aspects of creativity/entrepreneurship that you don't enjoy.This book is largely aimed at self-employed people, whereas the Slow Productivity book is geared more towards those who don't have as much freedom to self-pace. So they're complementary in a way. But the philosophy of both has some things in common. I think one thing that keeps coming up in the books I'm reading is: as a business owner, outsourcing or - if possible - eliminating the things you don't want to do simply makes sense. It's better business practice (why do something exhausting, that you're not that good at, that takes you away from what you really want to be doing?) and frees up more time for doing what you're good at, that you do and enjoy best, or simply having more unstructured leisure time to refresh and recharge.
Obviously the exact amount of usefulness in any of these books is going to depend on where you are in your life, creatively and otherwise, but these are hitting me in the right way for what I'm currently working on figuring out, which is how to go forward in a way that's more sustainable for me long-term than the past few years have been. My big issue is that 2022-24 burned me out so badly - not just including work, but also personal, health, family issues - that I'm only now feeling like I'm starting to get back some of the creative fire that I used to deploy without even thinking about it in the 2010s. So I'd like to keep enjoying and building on that in a healthy way going forward, and not dig myself right back into the same hole.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I totally agree with your paragraph with the duck metaphor -- I don't think you have to buy into the woo woo metaphysics to see how practical that is, also reflecting on what barriers you are putting up for yourself.
All this sounds wonderful.
And I love the idea in the 2x is harder book -- like Captain Awkward used to say, sometimes the cheapest way to pay for something is with money.
I have a friend who, after a career as an art teacher, is now successfully working as an artist and selling her own work through several online platforms, and something else she said has been so interesting -- because of the changes in how customers use the internet and find her, she has to be alert and changing things all the time. Platforms come and go, algorithms get changed, and she has to be ready to shift with that.
Forgot to add: When I was pregnant with my first child I asked several wise friends who had teenagers their advice and I've never forgotten what one guy said to me -- he said he wished they had gone ahead and spent money for things like a house cleaner and prepared food deliveries when the kids were very small and that would have freed up time to spend with the kids. He and his wife both worked full time. If you think of the time spent on the kids in the same way as the time spent on the most productive or fulfilling parts of the business I think there is connection.
Thanks for the post.
no subject
YES. This is definitely one of the contributors to burnout for me as a creative person, even though I actually enjoy aspects of this; it is a constant tap-dancing act with something new to be learned all the time.
That conversation you relate is really interesting, and yeah, the thing about outsourcing tasks such as cooking and cleaning is also something some of these books talk about, and in fact I know authors who do this kind of thing as well, if they can afford it. Actually, that's one thing the manifesting book talks about too - a lot of people have a mental block against doing something like that because "I'm not the type of person who hires a prepared meal service/cleaning service" or "That's for people who are richer than me," or whatever, and that in fact IS one of the sort of blocks that's worth revisiting and seeing if it's stopping you from doing something that would benefit your life in some tangible way.
no subject
no subject
I absolutely went "Nope, cleaning service." Some of this is because I have chronic health stuff, and tasks that make me bend over take me much much longer to do than most people (I need a lot of breaks, and it's hard to do meaningful stuff between them.) So I get two people coming in once a month, they do all the floors and such. As I say, I not only save about 8 hours of cleaning time a month, but about 20 hours a month of feeling guilty I'm not cleaning something. It's vastly easier for me to keep up with the day to day stuff, or the stuff that requires decisions on my part.
(I also do grocery delivery once a month with the same person every time, partly because it saves me doing a trip to an annoying located store, and partly because if I have a health flare, having a pre-existing relationship with someone who knows my preferences will make a huge difference. She's great at "You got this last time, it's on sale, want some more?" and "Did you mean to leave your diet Coke off the list?" No, I did not mean to do that!)
Anyway, definitely a block worth poking at, because that kind of thing has helped me figure out how to free up more time/focus in really useful ways.
(I like cooking, but not every night. I live by myself, so I solve this one by batch cooking twice a week and periodically going "Yeah, takeout" but someone to make me food is on my 'if I ever make big money reliably' list.)
no subject
> I ran into a summary of the useful-for-me aspects of manifesting somewhere else, not in this book, which is basically (paraphrased from memory): if you really want a duck, and you spend all your time learning about ducks, and you hang out around people who have ducks and talk about ducks and start noticing ducks and tell everyone you want a duck and spend time in places where ducks are, eventually you will have a duck. Manifesting at its less energetic end is just that. Once you start really applying yourself to getting a duck, you notice ducks everywhere! Or at least you realize that if you want a duck that badly, you need to change your life in ways that are compatible with duck ownership.
Completely agree haha
But seriously it'd be nice to have stuff like this without the woo component ;__;
no subject
RIGHT?? I completely understand that some people do need that framework in order to do it, and it's providing an incredibly useful thing for them, because they would never do it otherwise, without having that reason/belief to go ahead and invest the time and energy in redirecting themselves in that way.
...tbf I figured I can just do the exercises without the belief, since that's the part that's useful for me anyway. But yeah, apparently the exercises without the belief are not as ... self-helpy? Catchy? Hooky? 😂
no subject
I totally get what you mean. I have lately been getting into crystals and associated woo-ery, and it's not because I believe in the power of crystals and reiki. I don't. But the associated exercises that go along with it are really useful. It's nice to have a schema for focusing on aspects of my mental and physical wellbeing and for journaling about them or trying to meditate or whatever.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
But having the schema (and recognising when I'm caught in a 'wow, this isn't handy' spiral) has been a very useful life skill.
no subject
I just do better with structure in pretty much all aspects of my life, and these sorts of structures are helpful as well as having that added flavor of ceremony (which I always love).
no subject
no subject
no subject
Yeah, if nothing else if you start talking to people about ducks, you will get someone going "I know a guy who has ducks, you two should talk, let me connect you".
no subject
no subject
That makes sense to me: you are logistically organizing your life in the direction of a duck. I am glad the part about the mindset shift has been so useful to you. The energy part makes me feel as violent as any other power of positive thinking. It gets very prosperity gospel and very victim-blaming. Believe me, if I could manifest myself into a state of normal physical health, it would have happened decades ago.
no subject
Yeah, I think it's not so much a seismic mental shift for me, as a useful framework for focusing my attention and energy (not the manifesting type, the other type, ha) in a particular direction. And it IS useful, so I'm glad I checked it out despite years of being convinced it wasn't for me! I mean, it still isn't for me, as a philosophy/quasi-religion/cult, but it has aspects that I do find helpful for me personally.
That being said ...
The energy part makes me feel as violent as any other power of positive thinking. It gets very prosperity gospel and very victim-blaming. Believe me, if I could manifest myself into a state of normal physical health, it would have happened decades ago.
... EXACTLY. For the most part I didn't have too much of a problem with it in Write to Riches (unlike a couple of other manifesting books I tried) because she's pretty clearly working through a lot of her own trauma and has found this a useful framework for dealing with it, and it's evidently good for her. But then there's a chapter where she's trying to figure out how to fit her brother's schizophrenia into this framework, and lands on "He must have wanted to be schizophrenic so he could teach the rest of us patience for mental illness" and - oh honey no.
no subject
The normal kind! I really do not see anything wrong with the encouragement to approach situations as though you will be able to handle them and enjoy whatever you get out of them along the way.
But then there's a chapter where she's trying to figure out how to fit her brother's schizophrenia into this framework, and lands on "He must have wanted to be schizophrenic so he could teach the rest of us patience for mental illness" and - oh honey no.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaah I'm glad the rest of it was useful aaaaaaaaaaaaah.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I checked out the 10x book *twice* at the library and both times didn't have time to read it. Most likely will read it on the plane or something, because I enjoyed what I read in the first chapter.
And well, you know my thoughts on the Ducks I mean Manifesting book :D How oddly helpful!
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I have a visceral aversion to manifestalk (it's victim-blamey and I think telling ourselves that things that aren't in our control actually are in our control is not a healthy way to self-soothe). However I have noticed that when I'm putting the draft of a chapter into Vellum to edit and format it, being able to see how it will look in simulated e-readers (Kindle, Kobo) and paperback makes indie publishing feel like a more... tangible possibility? And it's quite motivating. Clearly, though, seeing it visualised for me is more effective than visualising myself.
no subject