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Through the Storm

By on February 8, 2014 in 4. Writer’s Life, Inspiration and Life Coaching, Encourage Me!, Life Coaching, Nurturing Creativity, Nurturing the Soul, Reba Hoffman, Writer's life, Writing Life, Writing Life Coaching

I read something this week that gave me pause:

Your greatest test is when you are able to bless someone else while you are going through your own storm.

I pondered that for quite some time. It permeated my heart because life has wonderful moments of peace, joy and rapture sandwiched between the storms of life. It’s easy to get caught up in the trial of the moment and miss out on the blessing of reaching out to help another human being in need.

Or even worse, instead of reaching out, you could lash out at others when they share their teenie tiny little challenge with you. Doesn’t it always seem that right at the second you get the fortieth rejection letter, your crit partner calls and fusses because they only got a four book deal when they just knew they’d get six?!

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Don’t Sacrifice the Gift

By on February 1, 2014 in Encourage Me!, Life Coaching, Nurturing Creativity, Nurturing the Soul, Reba Hoffman, Writer's life, Writing Life

When I was in high school, my brother ran cross-country on our high school track team in Florida. On the opposite side of the country, one of the most incredible runners of all time, Steve Prefontaine, was breaking all track records while running track for the University of Oregon.

Under the ground breaking coaching of Bill Bowerman (founder of Nike), Steve ignored personal pain and agony in order to get faster. When asked why he would put his body through such brutality, Steve answered, “To do less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

Though Bill Bowerman went on cobbling shoes for his runner and later founded Nike, on May 30, 1975, Steve “Pre” Prefontaine was tragically killed in a car accident. But one thing’s for sure, he left it all out on the track. There was not a race inside him that day he’d left unraced. Not an ounce of running energy left unexpended.

You have a gift as well.

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One Thing Marketing: A different sort of marketing post

By on January 21, 2014 in Melissa Tagg, One Thing Marketing, Platform-building, Writing Life

Usually this bi-weekly One Thing Marketing “column” is meant to give small, practical tips for marketing you and your writing. But I’ve kept having the same niggling marketing thoughts in the back of my head for a couple weeks now and I decided I’d finally let them out. Next time we’ll go back to the usual content as I begin a series on the components of a marketing plan. But for today, like I said, a little something different…

So, there’s something I’m realizing more and more when it comes to marketing: If you talk about it long enough, some wrong mentality can creep in pretty easily. And that wrong mentality basically boils down to thinking we control our book sales. And it usually brings along with it a pesky dose of stress about how the book is doing and worry that we aren’t doing enough marketing work on our end.

Which is kind of funny, really, because you’ll always hear the stat that 80% of book sales still happen due to word of mouth. So unless we’re actually consistently putting words in other people’s mouths (and then hey, while we’re at it, pulling out their wallets and guiding them through the process of buying our books), we simply can’t control what happens on the buyer’s end.

And it’s these thoughts that have had me pondering lately how, really, the most important piece of any marketing plan isn’t social media wizadry or that awesome idea no one else has thought up or the best-looking newsletter on the block or a slew of book-signings. No. It’s this:

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Getting Past Stuck

By on January 18, 2014 in 4. Writer’s Life, Inspiration and Life Coaching, Encourage Me!, Life Coaching, Nurturing Creativity, Nurturing the Soul, Reba Hoffman, Writer's life, Writing Life, Writing Life Coaching

Ever seen one of those mouse traps with the sticky stuff on it? Rather than a spring-loaded steel bar that whacks the rodent in the head, it glues them to the trap. They smell the cheese, walk onto the trap and are instantly attached to it.

Don’t you feel like that sometimes? I mean, you’re tempted by the luster of being a published author. You inch closer, perhaps a bit cautiously at first. Ahhhh, but the lure of the cheese propels you forward.

Finally, when your prize gets within an arm’s length, you suddenly become trapped. Try as you may, you can’t budge from where you are. And, wouldn’t you know, where you landed in the trap places you just out of reach of the cheese. It’s so close you can smell it but you just can’t partake of it.

The writing journey is like that sometimes. It doesn’t matter where you are on your journey, you’ll eventually end up in the trap. And, regardless of the degree of success you’ve already achieved, stuck is stuck.

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