I believe Audience is where my friction is highest right now. I’m learning to maximize my Forest-ness and how to change some of the language I use to attract people who resonate with my books. One thing I’m looking to do to ease that is to redo my welcome sequence. I have some cross promotions set up and some discounts already in place to attract new readers through my books and the welcome sequence will help encourage them to stick around.
This is a tough one. I keep changing my mind. I feel pretty sure about Heart, though there is no doubt my books could be better shaped to get more people responding to them. I could better target my Audience. I could certainly Prioritise better and focus on less. Income is decidedly variable and dependant on launches and promotions.
After much deliberation it feels like Prioritisation is the one. One sentence? “I haven’t yet found the one high-leverage move that will ease up my push for growth.”
When I do, it should ease up the other compass points too.
Income is where my friction is the highest right now. My writing has been mostly focused on an industry that is very tight on funding at the present and still going through major upheaval. That is where the novelization of my story comes into play. I can use the Launch path to get the story out in a different format and utilize the Forest that has already formed around the festival wins to create a larger audience for the book. The trick is to figure out the best marketing strategies before the launch to create the most interest before releasing it.
I have a problem in all areas, I think. But Prioritization (plus consistency and focus) and Heart (can't find anything that truly lights me up anymore) keep me stuck (burnout is part of this too, I think). I've always worked on multiple projects at once, but I've always been able to connect with them and that's been a real struggle for me the last few years. I've drifted away from who I started out as and I've changed as I've aged and gone through burnout and perimenopause. I write from an emotional place and honestly, that place is pretty messed up right now. My Audience... I've had one book completely miss them in all these years and that miss has stunted my ability to move forward with the series and left me grappling for something to write that at least one person might want (which also I think is a Heart/Audience issue... I loved the project/they didn't want to buy it).
You've given me so many different ways to think about things and this has been a pretty difficult challenge for me as I feel I'm all over the place.
I've decided that the priority for me is to write, to find more consistency, to find that thing that lights me up... And as I said in an earlier comment, to take these next 6 months to write and to maintain/communicate with the small audience I do have... To connect with myself and hopefully connect with them or know for sure if I need to find a new audience.
I think Prioritization has been my biggest hurdle - with Audience coming in at a close second *because* of the Priority problem -- writing under multiple pen names is fine... but the way I've done it has left my backlist and writing career much wider than it is deep (a Priority problem - not focusing on the one or max 2 that can really move the needle)... and that left me with an audience problem (I think) because I was scattering myself across so much that I wasn't connecting with and truly building an engaged fandom for any of them consistently.
I think maybe choosing just 2, which I'd already been thinking about doing, one is in a genre I enjoy writing in and it's more easily marketable (fast selling genre), while the other is one I love writing in, but it's slower (longer books plus slightly slower read thru and sales) and using what I'm learning here (and after I join Hapitalist) go all in on those in a frictionless way. I went back to the quiz and instead of answering in the way I've tried to "force" my writing business to be, I answered in the way that felt the most aligned to me rather than what I thought I should be doing... turns out I'm not the Spotlighter I thought, I'm much more of an Evangelist, so I've been diving into your content for E's and am starting on the ecosystem book this evening! But I'm still trying to suss out some practical steps to build this in a way that is sustainable
After this week of clarification, I've come to realise that my biggest problem is prioritisation because I try too many things at once without figuring out which one(s) actually work. That leaves me with too much guesswork. I know SOMETHING works, but I don't know what it is. I then end up feeling like I'm doing too much, which I can see eventually leading to burnout.
My plan going forward is to focus on fewer things at a time for set periods, collect data so I have an objective way to measure what's working and what's not, and go from there.
This quarter I have spent on Audience, but my real friction with Audience is probably Prioritization. I think the other compass points would fall into line if I focused on (P) - failing to choose one high-leverage move at a time. Even as I write this, I have a handful of ideas and am not ready to narrow them down to one. It's a trust issue. Not trusting that any one will move the needle.
Also, as Emily said, if I worked on Embodiment, I think it would allow me to unclench my fist.
Soooo, Prioritize one high-leverage move. To share as much of my work as widely as possible, creating a beacon for people to follow to me.
1. Find a medium (Substack ?) for people to interact with my work.
2. Advertise (shine the beacon) through FB ads and shared promotions.
Is that narrow enough? Specific enough? Am I still being too vague and not prioritizing? ACK!!!
So, one thing you can prioritize is testing. That might help. We don’t have to guess. We can do and collect data. Everything I do, like this challenge, is data. It changed in real time as people went through it.
Of Course, Testing. I like testing and gathering data. Although, I often use data gathering as procrastination. BUT, if I am actively DOING something, and gather data, instead of reading about other people's data, that also cures my issue of standing still.
1. I DO
2. I Collect Data
3. I Adjust Accordingly
Thanks, Russell. You are so good at helping with clarity.
I think I've got Audience challenges (hence being in a growth phase to try and gather a larger audience and filtering them down into only those people that actually want books like mine), and I definitely have Prioritisation challenges, because my default approach to attract that larger audience has often been throwing spaghetti at the wall.
As I've written in my other responses throughout this challenge, I think I'm now able to better discern the types of activities that suit me and my business, which is amazingly motivating! (and helps me resolve the prioritisation issue)
My biggest friction is along the compass z-axis, in Embodiment (been working on it, thanks I hate it) and I'll surely dig up some Belief work along the way.
I'm already kind of working on this, thankfully! I was dealing with Heart and Audience issues, because the project I was working on just didn't have my heart or much of an audience left. On your advice I decided to pivot to my passion project, and now I have lots of Heart flowing and I think my Audience is following/arriving. I'm going to keep reaching out to form connections that will grow the Audience.
Prioritization (and patience, and consistency): I have so many different ideas and thoughts about where I should reach out to find readers that start a bunch of stuff and don’t keep up with any of it it. That’s why I’m liking the “try one thing for 3-6 months” idea (deepen newsletter content). I can tell myself “work the plan,” the time feels short even though it’s probably really a yearlong project, and I do love writing the long email essays.
I am certain I have a Heart issue. Specifically, being able to allow myself to fully dive into writing and trusting what the characters "show" me. I also have too many ideas running through my head, competing for attention. I will need to find a way to record separate ideas without getting sidetracked.
Prioritization for me. I have so many different ideas and thoughts about what I should work on first. I usually end up not getting anything done. Write the book that would be the corner stone of my biz? Get started on substack? Continue posting on Medium?
Every time I'm working on one, I feel like maybe I should be doing the other first.
I believe Income is where the most friction is right now for me. I show up, have grown a decent audience (newsletter size about 700, reviews on two books are growing and a fantastic average, good engagement on socials), but it’s not translating to income. I think I’ve trained my audience to expect freebies. I am experimenting with a new storefront. I increased paperback prices to reflect the time cost for me, but offered a small discount for only this month to my newsletter list. We’ll see how this goes. But I may ask for a Hapitalist membership for Christmas. I’ve wanted to do it but income…
So what percentage of people are converting? Things like that are income questions, and whether to have good email sequences and blurbs. You seem to be experimenting so I think you are on the right track. Make sure to read the income chapter of the book if you have more questions, but I think I agree based on what I know.
Audience is almost certainly my friction point right now. I sorted out my Prioritization earlier this year (this will almost certainly be a recurring problem for me since I want to do all the things all the time), but now I think I have the right Heart project front and center.
One thing I am doing is putting more of my personality into my newsletter to capitalize on my Forest ecosystem (or maybe Swamp? I didn't realize that not all writers want to do 10 different things in different formats all at the same time 😂)
Classic forest. The audience chapter on the book is great. And there are even more on the site archives. Hapitalist has even more. Great job choosing one!
I feel like both audience and income are where my friction is the highest right now. I need to work more with my publishers and stop treating them like what they do to promote my work is a problem (why would it be? I don't know - maybe my pride or some equally weak non-reason) and engage more genuinely with my audience when it comes time to sell. I need to shed whatever shame or embarrassment or 'imposter' feelings I have when it's time to sell and not shift gears in those situations, rather keep up the same energy I have when interacting with my fan base and other authors I know and support when nothing's on the line (by which I mean, I'm when I'm giving for free)
There’s a lot of stuff for that in the belief chapter of the book. Since those two blocks are diametrically opposed, you should also pick one, which is the point of this exercise. Pick one.
I believe Audience is where my friction is highest right now. I’m learning to maximize my Forest-ness and how to change some of the language I use to attract people who resonate with my books. One thing I’m looking to do to ease that is to redo my welcome sequence. I have some cross promotions set up and some discounts already in place to attract new readers through my books and the welcome sequence will help encourage them to stick around.
Nice!
This is a tough one. I keep changing my mind. I feel pretty sure about Heart, though there is no doubt my books could be better shaped to get more people responding to them. I could better target my Audience. I could certainly Prioritise better and focus on less. Income is decidedly variable and dependant on launches and promotions.
After much deliberation it feels like Prioritisation is the one. One sentence? “I haven’t yet found the one high-leverage move that will ease up my push for growth.”
When I do, it should ease up the other compass points too.
Awesome. Well the book is a guide, and this article is a guide. https://www.frictionlessgrowth.com/p/the-4-ps-of-prioritization
And of course Hapitalist is a guide.
Thanks
Income is where my friction is the highest right now. My writing has been mostly focused on an industry that is very tight on funding at the present and still going through major upheaval. That is where the novelization of my story comes into play. I can use the Launch path to get the story out in a different format and utilize the Forest that has already formed around the festival wins to create a larger audience for the book. The trick is to figure out the best marketing strategies before the launch to create the most interest before releasing it.
Make sense
I have a problem in all areas, I think. But Prioritization (plus consistency and focus) and Heart (can't find anything that truly lights me up anymore) keep me stuck (burnout is part of this too, I think). I've always worked on multiple projects at once, but I've always been able to connect with them and that's been a real struggle for me the last few years. I've drifted away from who I started out as and I've changed as I've aged and gone through burnout and perimenopause. I write from an emotional place and honestly, that place is pretty messed up right now. My Audience... I've had one book completely miss them in all these years and that miss has stunted my ability to move forward with the series and left me grappling for something to write that at least one person might want (which also I think is a Heart/Audience issue... I loved the project/they didn't want to buy it).
You've given me so many different ways to think about things and this has been a pretty difficult challenge for me as I feel I'm all over the place.
I've decided that the priority for me is to write, to find more consistency, to find that thing that lights me up... And as I said in an earlier comment, to take these next 6 months to write and to maintain/communicate with the small audience I do have... To connect with myself and hopefully connect with them or know for sure if I need to find a new audience.
I’m sorry to hear that.
I think Prioritization has been my biggest hurdle - with Audience coming in at a close second *because* of the Priority problem -- writing under multiple pen names is fine... but the way I've done it has left my backlist and writing career much wider than it is deep (a Priority problem - not focusing on the one or max 2 that can really move the needle)... and that left me with an audience problem (I think) because I was scattering myself across so much that I wasn't connecting with and truly building an engaged fandom for any of them consistently.
Makes sense to me. Any thoughts on how to fix it?
I think maybe choosing just 2, which I'd already been thinking about doing, one is in a genre I enjoy writing in and it's more easily marketable (fast selling genre), while the other is one I love writing in, but it's slower (longer books plus slightly slower read thru and sales) and using what I'm learning here (and after I join Hapitalist) go all in on those in a frictionless way. I went back to the quiz and instead of answering in the way I've tried to "force" my writing business to be, I answered in the way that felt the most aligned to me rather than what I thought I should be doing... turns out I'm not the Spotlighter I thought, I'm much more of an Evangelist, so I've been diving into your content for E's and am starting on the ecosystem book this evening! But I'm still trying to suss out some practical steps to build this in a way that is sustainable
After this week of clarification, I've come to realise that my biggest problem is prioritisation because I try too many things at once without figuring out which one(s) actually work. That leaves me with too much guesswork. I know SOMETHING works, but I don't know what it is. I then end up feeling like I'm doing too much, which I can see eventually leading to burnout.
My plan going forward is to focus on fewer things at a time for set periods, collect data so I have an objective way to measure what's working and what's not, and go from there.
I love it.
This quarter I have spent on Audience, but my real friction with Audience is probably Prioritization. I think the other compass points would fall into line if I focused on (P) - failing to choose one high-leverage move at a time. Even as I write this, I have a handful of ideas and am not ready to narrow them down to one. It's a trust issue. Not trusting that any one will move the needle.
Also, as Emily said, if I worked on Embodiment, I think it would allow me to unclench my fist.
Soooo, Prioritize one high-leverage move. To share as much of my work as widely as possible, creating a beacon for people to follow to me.
1. Find a medium (Substack ?) for people to interact with my work.
2. Advertise (shine the beacon) through FB ads and shared promotions.
Is that narrow enough? Specific enough? Am I still being too vague and not prioritizing? ACK!!!
So, one thing you can prioritize is testing. That might help. We don’t have to guess. We can do and collect data. Everything I do, like this challenge, is data. It changed in real time as people went through it.
Ahhh, I think my fist finally unclenched.
Of Course, Testing. I like testing and gathering data. Although, I often use data gathering as procrastination. BUT, if I am actively DOING something, and gather data, instead of reading about other people's data, that also cures my issue of standing still.
1. I DO
2. I Collect Data
3. I Adjust Accordingly
Thanks, Russell. You are so good at helping with clarity.
I think I've got Audience challenges (hence being in a growth phase to try and gather a larger audience and filtering them down into only those people that actually want books like mine), and I definitely have Prioritisation challenges, because my default approach to attract that larger audience has often been throwing spaghetti at the wall.
As I've written in my other responses throughout this challenge, I think I'm now able to better discern the types of activities that suit me and my business, which is amazingly motivating! (and helps me resolve the prioritisation issue)
Nice! There’s a lot for audience growth in Japanese Hapitalist, included a very detailed workbook
My biggest friction is along the compass z-axis, in Embodiment (been working on it, thanks I hate it) and I'll surely dig up some Belief work along the way.
I'm already kind of working on this, thankfully! I was dealing with Heart and Audience issues, because the project I was working on just didn't have my heart or much of an audience left. On your advice I decided to pivot to my passion project, and now I have lots of Heart flowing and I think my Audience is following/arriving. I'm going to keep reaching out to form connections that will grow the Audience.
Amazing!
Prioritization (and patience, and consistency): I have so many different ideas and thoughts about where I should reach out to find readers that start a bunch of stuff and don’t keep up with any of it it. That’s why I’m liking the “try one thing for 3-6 months” idea (deepen newsletter content). I can tell myself “work the plan,” the time feels short even though it’s probably really a yearlong project, and I do love writing the long email essays.
Awesome. I love it.
I am certain I have a Heart issue. Specifically, being able to allow myself to fully dive into writing and trusting what the characters "show" me. I also have too many ideas running through my head, competing for attention. I will need to find a way to record separate ideas without getting sidetracked.
There’s a whole chapter on mindset and another on embodiment which might help.
Prioritization for me. I have so many different ideas and thoughts about what I should work on first. I usually end up not getting anything done. Write the book that would be the corner stone of my biz? Get started on substack? Continue posting on Medium?
Every time I'm working on one, I feel like maybe I should be doing the other first.
Awesome! There’sa whole chapter in the book about that, and workbooks in Hapitalist. Plus the breakthroughs and Russellbot to help you get sorted.
I believe Income is where the most friction is right now for me. I show up, have grown a decent audience (newsletter size about 700, reviews on two books are growing and a fantastic average, good engagement on socials), but it’s not translating to income. I think I’ve trained my audience to expect freebies. I am experimenting with a new storefront. I increased paperback prices to reflect the time cost for me, but offered a small discount for only this month to my newsletter list. We’ll see how this goes. But I may ask for a Hapitalist membership for Christmas. I’ve wanted to do it but income…
So what percentage of people are converting? Things like that are income questions, and whether to have good email sequences and blurbs. You seem to be experimenting so I think you are on the right track. Make sure to read the income chapter of the book if you have more questions, but I think I agree based on what I know.
Audience is almost certainly my friction point right now. I sorted out my Prioritization earlier this year (this will almost certainly be a recurring problem for me since I want to do all the things all the time), but now I think I have the right Heart project front and center.
One thing I am doing is putting more of my personality into my newsletter to capitalize on my Forest ecosystem (or maybe Swamp? I didn't realize that not all writers want to do 10 different things in different formats all at the same time 😂)
Classic forest. The audience chapter on the book is great. And there are even more on the site archives. Hapitalist has even more. Great job choosing one!
I feel like both audience and income are where my friction is the highest right now. I need to work more with my publishers and stop treating them like what they do to promote my work is a problem (why would it be? I don't know - maybe my pride or some equally weak non-reason) and engage more genuinely with my audience when it comes time to sell. I need to shed whatever shame or embarrassment or 'imposter' feelings I have when it's time to sell and not shift gears in those situations, rather keep up the same energy I have when interacting with my fan base and other authors I know and support when nothing's on the line (by which I mean, I'm when I'm giving for free)
There’s a lot of stuff for that in the belief chapter of the book. Since those two blocks are diametrically opposed, you should also pick one, which is the point of this exercise. Pick one.
I would say income, then. That's where I'm blocking myself the hardest
Great! Check out the section on in income in the book. There’s also some great workbooks in Hapitalist, including one the align your hapi compass.