mentors

Are you a mentor or coach to your readers? Writing books, especially how-to and self-help books, is a form of mentoring–of sharing both the expertise and wisdom you have been blessed with. And writing can also be a form of coaching–anticipating what your readers may be going through, offering them tools to help them achieve the results they seek, helping them feel capable that they can do it.

Last week, I traveled to Manhattan where I was honored with receiving the Silver Stevie Award for “Mentor or Coach of the Year – Business – 2014.” Today, I reflected on many of my coaches and mentors who have coached me as a writer, author, entrepreneur, teacher, coach and mentor–and the many lessons they taught me. They offer all of us a model for what we can bring to our writing, mentoring, coaching, teaching and other roles and relationships in our work and beyond:

1. BE GENEROUS: My publicist and colleague Rusty Shelton has taught me so much about generosity. Well beyond the official end of our book publicity campaign he went out of his way to send opportunities our way. He also serves as a powerful example of integrity. Generosity breeds loyalty and it’s also great karma!

2. ENVISION: Intuitive Julia Griffin has shown me how to focus on the good I want to create in the world–and in my own personal world, business and family–and to spend time on envisioning every day of my life. She has also taught me to meditate daily, which has opened up my writing, my work and my life. In addition, as a mentor, she’s not afraid to tell me things I don’t want to hear (at first–I’m always grateful later!). She’s willing to bring something un-pretty to my attention, so I can shift it. Great mentors don’t hold back just because you may not like what they have to say. They know that some of our greatest transformations come from shining light on the darker areas of our personality. They take risks for your own good.

3. OFFER EXPERIENCES: Coach Stephanie Marisca reminded me yesterday that I do my best presentations when I offer people an experience. Give people something to take away and use.

4. APPRECIATE YOUR GIFTS, YOUR VOICE: Tama Kieves reminds me that we often don’t value our greatest gifts because they are so obvious to us. The more we value our unique way of processing and communicating information–and the many nuances of our “voice”–the more powerful our writing voice becomes.

5. VALUE YOUR SERVICES: Teri Scheinzeit, Morgana Rae and Belinda Fuchs Rosenblum all taught me to value the services I provide to others. From their great coaching, I have gone on to support my clients in valuing all that they bring to their clients and customers. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.

6. WRITE GOALS THAT INSPIRE YOU–A 10! I apprenticed with my first coach, Wendy Keilin, early in my coaching career. She taught me way more than I can share in one blog post. A few of the lessons include the power of setting goals and intention and to keep asking, “What’s missing from this goal to make it a 10 out of 10 on the Inspiration Scale?” until you have a 10 (something I continue to use with my clients when we work on the vision statements for their books).

7. TALK LESS; BE MORE: My friends and colleagues from MaestroConference offered way more than providing technical assistance on my interactive teleseminars. I am the teacher I am because of their coaching. Joshua Home Edwards, Mitch Feigenberg and Adam Koren all taught me how to become less of a talker and more of a facilitator. As Joshua recently put it, “You’re not just offering inspiration and information. You’re offering creative conversation, transformation and implementation.” It took trust and vulnerability to teach this way–and it’s one of the things I am most proud of as a book coach and teacher. I can also promise you that if you try this, it is one of those exponential ways to up your game and be a source of transformation to others.

8. UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE: Melissa Sones offers a brilliant of example of how the better you understand your audience for any piece of writing, the more effective and successful you can be.

9. COLLABORATE: Linda Joy, Lalita Amos and others have taught me the power of mutual support, and I have enjoyed such collaborations with Linda Joy, Sam Bennett, Joshua Home Edwards, Ginger Moran, Kelly Malone, Stuart Horwitz, Katherine Mayfield, Tracy Hart, Maestroconference, and all my affiliates, too numerous to mention–I thank you for helping me do the work I love. And thank you to my first writing collaborators–Peaco Todd and Jane Middelton-Moz, and later, Jen Senecal.

10. PLAN AHEAD: Okay, I’m a bit of a hack on this one, but I’m working on it! My assistant Geri Lafferty has been a huge support in this stretch. And Linda Joy and Julia Griffin have also encouraged me here.

Who's on Your Team?

I recently read Open, Andre Agassi’s autobiography. It’s a great read and I was also struck by how dependent he was on the people on his team. I think that’s true about most successful people–they don’t do it alone. They have great coaches, managers, trainers, strategists, advisers, mentors…

Who are the people on a writer’s team? Here are some:

Your students and clients are part of your team!

Your Fans: If you blog, or have any kind of Internet presence, the people who are part of your social networking and blogging community are part of your team, as are those people who attend your talks or are your private clients. They’re your future readers and they know what they are looking for and wanting. Listen to them. See what blog posts get the most comments. What grabs them? What questions are they asking you?

Your Mentors: Certainly talk with your mentors about your goals and your book, especially if they are published authors. They can help you clarify your book concept and what makes your book unique. Maybe they’ll write a blurb, too.

Specialists: Book coaches, editors, writing coaches…there are lots of people out there who can help you hone your writing and your message, and also help you with accountability and other blocks or challenges that may come up. They know the industry and can help you write a book that sells. A slight change in your book hook or audience could make a big difference in the marketability of your book.

Literary Agents: If you’re fortunate enough to have a literary agent, certainly run your book ideas past them. They can help you fine tune your ideas, pick amongst different book ideas and even identify new books to write.

Publicists: Many people wait until they have a book to sell before hiring a publicist. After all, why waste money on publicity if you don’t have anything to sell? The problem with this strategy is that when your book comes out, you really don’t want to start at ground zero in marketing your book. You want to have a platform–fans who are already waiting for the book release so they can get your book and learn from you.

If you wait to develop your platform, your book will be much less attractive to agents and publishers. You may not want a full-on publicity campaign, but consider a modest Internet-based campaign to build your platform. You’ll need to have some way to develop a relationship with people who find out about you–so that they join your mailing list or fan page and you have a way to reach them when your book comes out. You can also monetize the publicity you get, so that it at least pays for itself. Perhaps offer a teleseminar series on the subject and use any feedback to perfect your book! Which brings us to another set of team members:

Clients and Students: Get feedback from clients and students to perfect any systems or programs you provide in your book. And see if any are willing to review drafts of any chapters and give you feedback on the book itself. Because they are in your market, they are the very best readers you can get. They can get into the minds of your readers because they are your readers.

Business Coach: I’ve had a business coach for many years now. I’ve worked with several different people and each one taught me different things. You may want to consider working with someone who is also a published author or works with authors. They’ll help you integrate your business plan/model and your book promotion efforts effectively.

Virtual Assistants: How did I wait so long to put this person on the list? I hired my Virtual Assistant, Geri, in November and I don’t know how I ran my business without her. A virtual assistant can take care of lots of details while you’re writing your book (scheduling interviews of subjects, researching information for the book proposal) and take over other tasks to give you time to write. Also, they can help you with book publicity and platform building.

Make sure your team members are seasoned and mature!

Friends: Your friends will want to support you any way they can, right? Reading and feedback (just remember, they may not be your market), cooking you a meal while you slave away at your book, taking the kids to the movies so you can write, sharing connections…let them help you! And they’ll probably want to throw a book party when the book comes out and tell all their friends on facebook about your book.

So, who’s on your team? (and whose teams are you on?)…What positions are missing from your team and need filling? You don’t have to assemble your team all at once but what one step can you take today?

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