Notes from Minnesota Beth Ann Erickson

In today’s show, I’m honored to chat with Jody J. Sperling from The Reluctant Marketer Podcast. We discuss:



* Conquering fear, particularly reticence to market your writing.

* Consistency vs Perfection. Which is more powerful?

* Getting overwhelmed with social media. How do you choose your best avenue?

* Jody’s most incredible piece of social media advice. This is huge. It actually transformed my feed.

* How his new book, “The Seven Figure Marketing Mindset for Authors” can make marketing your next project exponentially more effective.

* Conferences, Masterminds, Clubs… oh my! Some are great. Others? Avoid ‘em.

* What is your most important asset? Here’s how to protect it.

* Check out Jody’s writing process.

* Do you select a niche or does the niche select you?

* Jody outlines what’s working for him in the field of writing and publishing.

* What he’d do differently if he were starting a writing career today.

* Finally, Jody covers the formula and/or secret to successful marketing on the web.



That’s a lot to cover in a quick 35 minutes but that’s exactly what we do. So, fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride.

Website links: Jody’s website: https://TheReluctantBookMarketer.com (You can find his book here, too!)

Beth’s websites: https://BethAnnErickson.com and https://FilbertPublishing.com

Today I discuss two marketing methods I encountered last week. It’s an interesting exercise with lessons for every creative entrepreneur including…



* Red flags that screamed one marketing method wouldn’t suit my style

* Whether “gamifying” a hiring process worked with my mindset

* How I evaluated whether a creative process would work long term

* How another marketing guru broke every marketing “rule” and is currently experiencing tremendous success (as well as viral exposure)

* How this “guru” appears to balance life and work

* How you can benefit from this compare and contrast situation to make your marketing efforts sane



I hope you enjoy today’s podcast! If you find it helpful, please forward it to a creative entrepreneur you care about. 🙂

In today’s installment of Notes from Minnesota, I discuss…



* Three mistakes that can hurt your creative career

* A brief primer on some writing scams

* How to identify to whom you’re writing

* What to include in queries and proposals

* Some creative traps to avoid



We’ll cover a lot today so fasten your seat belt!

In today’s (much delayed) Notes from Minnesota podcast, Beth explains where she’s been lo these many months. She also discusses:



* Why it’s important to explore physical reasons for symptoms that affect mood

* Why your doctor is a fabulous resource!

* When medication side effects are the best

* Where Filbert Publishing is headed.



Enjoy today’s episode!

 

(Hey! You can listen to this entire newsletter here!)

Hey Creative Entrepreneur!

Well, this isn’t an announcement I was figuring I’d make.

It’s been an interesting few weeks since last we spoke.

The excitement came on a Friday afternoon when my dear husband entered my office saying, “I think you need to drive me to Willmar.” (Willmar is the next small town down the road, the one with the regional hospital.)

“Sure,” I said, “just let me finish what I’m doing.”

“I think we should go now.”

So, off we went. Little did I know I wouldn’t finish my project any time soon. Nor would I resume anything that resembled a “regular” day for quite some time.

Things like that happen when your husband experiences his second heart attack…

I share all the details in today’s podcast. Check it out here:

Beth 🙂

P.S. I hope you enjoy today’s feature article! I included this particular excerpt in honor of my husband’s heart attack. It’s sobering (and liberating) to realize how little control we have over our lives. As a creative entrepreneur, I hope you will find today’s message comforting and useful as you navigate your own challenges. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When positive thinking, affirmations, and plowing through resistance doesn’t dissolve your creative block, perhaps it’s time to try something new…

“Creative blocks don’t exist.” “Change your attitude.” “Just blast through your block.” I heard it all; every trite band aid solution to my very complex, creative block.

Truth was, a life changing medical challenge didn’t fill me with inspiration. It wasn’t a positive transformative experience, either.

Instead, I found myself navigating a crazy maze of emotions and head scratching moments. With each new blow, with every new reality, I realized I had a tangle of issues to unwind before I could resume my creative life. Perhaps you’re in the same boat.

If you’ve found yourself with a dream, a higher goal, but just can’t get started… this book’s for you. It’s for every dreamer, aspirerer, gentle soul who wants to achieve their life purpose, but can’t seem to get on the path.

Each short chapter contains a bit of my personal story, applications to your situation, as well as prompts to help you untangle your inability to get moving. You’ll also receive a unique set of tools in the Bonus Tool Chest in the final section. You can also download the official “Stuck” meditation.

My hope is that STUCK will give you everything you need to venture forth and create the life you know you were born to lead.

Check it out here.

Thanks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Life Throws You a Curve Ball

An Excerpt from Stuck: Transforming Everything You Think You Know About Creative Blocks

That’s the thing with creative blocks. My first, insurmountable block formed when I realized how little control I had over my own body. It blew my mind to consider that despite my healthy lifestyle, I could get felled by such a grave diagnosis (cancer). I perused my family tree and realized that I… the family “health freak…” was probably going to kick the bucket long before some of my couch potato relatives who smoked, drank, enjoyed processed foods; people who did little to nothing (in my then-haughty opinion) to maintain their health.

That one realization threw me for a loop. Sadly, that particular loop would trip me for quite a while.

I thought a healthy lifestyle would reduce my chances of receiving a cancer diagnosis… certainly a colon cancer diagnosi...

Not in the mood to read? Listen here!

Hey Creative Entrepreneur!

I recently discovered a dear friend and longtime subscriber has succumbed to melanoma. I was not only stunned, but profoundly saddened, I felt as though my world suddenly felt a little less sparkly. While I know she’s in a better place, I also feel so incredibly sad whenever I think of a world without her.

She was somebody who continually challenged me, made me think a little deeper; I always felt like my view of the world became a little bit wider when I interacted with her. I decided to grapple with my grief in a constructive way and go through some of my correspondence with her.

It wasn’t long before I found a small plaque with one of her favorite prayers etched on it. I read it silently.

Then, I stumbled onto the phrase that totally blew me away; it completely unraveled another so-called complicated aspect of creative blocks.

Uff, BarbaraJo. You’re still challenging me from beyond the grave.

And that’s exactly what I discuss in today’s episode of Notes for Minnesota.

Enjoy!

Beth 🙂

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When positive thinking, affirmations, and plowing through resistance doesn’t dissolve your creative block, perhaps it’s time to try something new…

“Creative blocks don’t exist.” “Change your attitude.” “Just blast through your block.” I heard it all; every trite band aid solution to my very complex, creative block.

Truth was, a life changing medical challenge didn’t fill me with inspiration. It wasn’t a positive transformative experience, either.

Instead, I found myself navigating a crazy maze of emotions and head scratching moments. With each new blow, with every new reality, I realized I had a tangle of issues to unwind before I could resume my creative life. Perhaps you’re in the same boat.

If you’ve found yourself with a dream, a higher goal, but just can’t get started… this book’s for you. It’s for every dreamer, aspirerer, gentle soul who wants to achieve their life purpose, but can’t seem to get on the path.

Each short chapter contains a bit of my personal story, applications to your situation, as well as prompts to help you untangle your inability to get moving. You’ll also receive a unique set of tools in the Bonus Tool Chest in the final section. You can also download the official “Stuck” meditation.

My hope is that STUCK will give you everything you need to venture forth and create the life you know you were born to lead.

Check it out here

Thanks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Misunderstood Concept of Creative Blocks

One of my pet peeves is hanging out on Facebook and discovering a wannabe helpful person post over simplified meme implying that creative blocks are the result of laziness, the inability to buckle down, the wrong mindset, some sort of failure in the law of attraction, you name it, you’ll find a meme to disparage anybody who isn’t a highfalutin, content creating, word slinging beast.

Truth is, if you had asked me about creative blocks only a few years ago, I probably wouldn’t have had that much trouble with those types of memes. Sure, I would have probably put a little thought into my answer, but those silly images never would have chapped my hide the same way they do today.

Truth is, as with most situations, creative blocks can fairly complex with solutions that take more than just a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality.

I should know.