Report from a Writer Who’s Done it Hard Way

I’m happy to post this mini interview with Glenda Watson Hyatt who is an author with cerebral palsy. Her autobiography’s terrific (I got it for Christmas) and her story’s just as good. Read and enjoy….

1. Why is it important to you that others benefit from what you have experienced in your life?

By sharing my experiences and lessons learned from living with cerebral palsy, I hope it may make others' lives easier or it may ignite some spark in their life. I see my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself as part of my legacy, as my way of passing on the lessons I’ve learned in hopes of making someone else’s life easier, as my way of showing that having cerebral palsy is not a death sentence, but rather a life sentence. Sometimes simply reading how someone else handled a particular situation gives the reader the encouragement and ideas for handling a similar situation. Other times knowing others have had similar experiences – to know one is not alone – can be so comforting, and can offer strength and hope. Offering that strength and hope is important to me; I feel it is part of my life’s purpose.

2. Are there any central messages in your book? What were your personal challenges in writing this book?

By intimately sharing my life story, I show others that cerebral palsy is not a death sentence, but rather a life sentence. Although I can't walk and my speech is very difficult to understand, I still have a meaningful life. With determination and perseverance, I can accomplish so much, despite my limitations - or what others perceive to be my limitations. I am very much alive, leading a meaningful and fulfilled life.

I must confess that my biggest internal challenge when writing was that I'm so easily distracted. Checking my email or googling something on the internet was easier than writing seriously; writing is such a solitary and lonely activity at times. And new opportunities and ideas frequently popped up, as if testing my commitment to writing this book.

My other personal challenge was my typing speed (http://webaccessibility.biz/blog/?p=28). Plunking away on my keyboard with only my left thumb resulted in 500 words in an hour, which was a good, productive writing session for me.

3. What or who has given you encouragement to write your book?

First, my husband Darrell [www.enablingabilities.com] was, and continues to be, a wonderful source of support and encouragement. He enabled me to take the time necessary to write, which meant he often cooked dinner or did the grocery shopping. He always had an encouraging word when the task felt impossible and he gave me a well-intentioned kick in the butt when I became too distracted.

My family, particularly my Mom, and my close friends have also been supportive once they realized I was serious about making my dream reality.

Messages that I picked up from Oprah and Dr. Robert Schuller [from the Hour of Power, Crystal Cathedral] were the impetus in turning my thirty-old-year dream into reality by saying someday is now and by setting my fortieth birthday as the launch date, which forced me to get serious about writing my book I’ll Do It Myself.

I was also amazed by the support I received from the virtual world, particularly as I was soliciting votes for the Mega Marketing Makeover. People were so positive and encouraging, freely offering advice and suggestions, and assisting me in spreading the word. That support continued as I was finishing the manuscript, and I am feeling it now as I complete the first week of my eight-week virtual book tour “40 Blogs in 40 (Business) Days”

Suzanne, thanks so much for hosting this appearance along my virtual tour. I truly appreciate it.

I would like to invite your readers to join me for the rest of the virtual book tour by visiting www.doitmyselfblog.com and signing up to receive blog updates right in their email inbox. How cool is that!

Another Cool Conference – Blogher!

I’m inspired! My good buddy, marketing to women expert Yvonne Divita, has turned me on to Blogher – a conference all about blogging, social networking and the latest in marketing to women on this front. It’s in NYC from March 22-23 and I’m going! As these things go, it’s affordable (around $600 if your register by Jan 31)… and it’s loaded with women bloggers who I want to meet. Check it out if you feel your biz could use a boost of highly technical, feminine energy. Thanks, Yvonne!

How to Get Published by a Major Publisher

On February 13, 1PM Eastern, I’ll be speaking on ‘What You Need to Attract Publicity & Publishers – The Inside Scoop’ for the National Association of Women Writers (NAWW)’s 2007 Writer’s Telesummit. If you’ve got a book up your sleeve … or even if it’s a faint glimmer in your eye … I think this will be a helpful talk. The most critical thing you can have these days isn’t just a great idea and a decent writing style – it’s platform. The following you bring along with you, also known as your position in the market and your fan base. I’ll be sharing tips on how to get exactly that. You can register here for the Telesummit – it’s affordable, meaty, and best of all, you don’t have to leave home!

How to Perk Up Your Coaching Business Right Now

Want some sobering news if you’re a life coach? Here are the grim facts about the coaching business, courtesy of a survey conducted by Milana Leshinsky ...

Take any hundred coaches at the start of their businesses,
follow them for 2 years, and here's what you'll find:

- Only 9 will be making six figures
- 11 will be making over $50,000 a year
- 53 will be making less than $20,000 a year
- 40 will have coached fewer than 20 clients
- 29 will have a job or another source of primary in.come
- 12 will have no clients or coaching in.come at all

In other words, almost 90% of coaches will not be able to
support themselves and their families after two years in
business.

Amazingly, 9 out of 100 coaches will not only be able to
support their families, but also reach a high level of
coaching in.come in a relatively short period of time!

How do they do it?

All this month, these six-figure coaching business
models will be revealed during Milana's 3rd Annual ACCPOW
Coaching Telesummit:

In keeping with that … I'm going to be speaking three different times ...

Monday, Jan 22nd - Ill be on a panel talking about
Practice Building (and hopefully sharing my very best secret)

Tuesday, Jan 23rd - I'll be on a panel talking about
Practice Management

Tuesday, Jan 30th - I'll be sharing the stage with Travis Greenlee
speaking on 'Logistics and Technology Secrets of Running Your
Own Coaching Group'

Jump in and join us if you’re a coach or a practice-building consultant. I think you’re going to find this valuable.

What’s ahead with my business

You know, I’ve seen this coming for a long time. There’s something about platform building and creating a successful online business that begs support. For some years now, I’ve been selling an ‘ultimate’ guide to platform-building (which is creating a following and a place to stand in the market.) And somehow, somewhere ang the line, our technical culture has turned a corner. These big mega-volumes of information are just no longer as desirable to people.

Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

My 285 page guide to platform building, Get Known Now, is not flying off the shelves the way it used to. But the requests I get now are mainly for both group and private coaching. People want that hands-on support … they want someone to brainstorm with, get feedback from, get guidance from when it comes to building the brand and the business.

And frankly, that’s what we do best here at Get Known Now. The info glut out there is demanding we deliver more hands on support, and so we are. This is what 2007 will see as our primary product offerings:

Two coaching groups, GKN Extraordinary Business Builders followed by the GKN Online Blast Off which are designed to go hand in hand and both will launch in the next few months.

In the Business Builders, which will launch in mid-March, small business and solo pros (including coaches, consultants, artists, healers, etc.) discover not only their unique brand … they’ll break through the stuff that’s kept them inclined to hide and stay small. They’ll develop a market profile, brand, unique selling proposition, blue ocean strategy, product ideas, and keyword optimization – all the stuff you build a really solid business with. We’re just finishing up the beta version of this class and I’m really encouraged – this is the third iteration of this kind of group coaching I’ve designed, and this time I really think we’ve got it right!

So many good brands and excited biz owners are coming out of this it’s just awesome. Watch for news of when we go live with the registration for the full launch of that program in the next few weeks. It’s a really affordable way to get my live coaching AND the group support you need to build a really exciting business.

Hand-in-hand with is a follow up program which takes all the cool stuff you developed in the Business Builders and ‘blasts it off’ on the Web. You’ll walk away with a blog/site, an e-commerce interface, ezine, bonuses, podcast (optional) and even an automated Net marketing plan that makes it all just ‘go’. Woo-hoo! I’m REALLY psyched about this follow up … and this program is in test starting mid February with folks who did the beta version of my Business Builder’s program.

Just thought you might want to know what I’m up to … in between blog posts!

PS. I do also coach privately if anyone out there doesn’t ‘do’ groups.

Update on Calendars for Your Business

Here’s what the pundits recommend when it comes to online calendars. Marketing VA, Carol Deckert recommends the calendar in MS Outlook (Office 2003/Business Contact Manager). She notes: ‘You cannot share a calendar without an add-on, however, my client and I are using ShareO (a $34.95 per site program) and are able to update and share calendars with no problem!” It’s an add-in that synchronizes and shares your MS files. Cool! Michele of New Moon Journeys uses Plaxo with her VA. “It works great! The online system integrates syncs with Outlook.”

Denise aka The Blog Squad writes:

“I was using Trumba for public Blog Squad events and had it posted on our blogs. However, not that they are charging for the service, I've discontinued using it. We do use Google calendar to manage our business appointments and really like it a lot. I may begin using it for public Blog Squad events as well. When I have time to set it up...

Tips on Getting Your Blog in Print

The Brazen Careerist, aka Boston Globe columnist Penelope Trunk, has fine advice for how to get your blog and yourself mentioned in print. Thought I’d summarize here … but do read the full post. It’s much more complete and legitimately great stuff.

Reminder: A Columbia Journalism School study found that a full 79% of all mainstream media editors and reporters find their sources in blogs. Not websites. Not PR releases. Blogs. Take note, please.

• Don’t pitch yourself … pitch an idea. It’s just like writing a great press release – make it about something genuinely newsworthy to which you and your blog can be tethered lightly
• Think broader than your blog does. You would be reaching hundreds of thousands of readers so keep it very big and loose and general, but within the same theme.
• Make it easy for them. Journalists have no time, remember? So give them a well cooked idea with additional sources. She notes that even The New York Times will run a pitch verbatim if it’s a good one.
• Tailor it to the audience the journalist actually reaches – uh, that would mean do your homework folks. CHECK OUT the publication before you pitch. Most pitches are ignored because they don’t do this.
• When interviewed give snappy quotes that support the journalists point of view if at all possible. Key quotes are the last to be cut.
• Make yourself super available; respond quickly and have lots of ways to be reached.

Awesome post, Penelope … thanks! And do stop in and check out her full post – there’s more.

Tips on Getting Your Blog in Print

The Brazen Careerist, aka Boston Globe columnist Penelope Trunk, has fine advice for how to get your blog and yourself mentioned in print. Thought I’d summarize here … but do read the full post. It’s much more complete and legitimately great stuff.

Reminder: A Columbia Journalism School study found that a full 79% of all mainstream media editors and reporters find their sources in blogs. Not websites. Not PR releases. Blogs. Take note, please.

• Don’t pitch yourself … pitch an idea. It’s just like writing a great press release – make it about something genuinely newsworthy to which you and your blog can be tethered lightly
• Think broader than your blog does. You would be reaching hundreds of thousands of readers so keep it very big and loose and general, but within the same theme.
• Make it easy for them. Journalists have no time, remember? So give them a well cooked idea with additional sources. She notes that even The New York Times will run a pitch verbatim if it’s a good one.
• Tailor it to the audience the journalist actually reaches – uh, that would mean do your homework folks. CHECK OUT the publication before you pitch. Most pitches are ignored because they don’t do this.
• When interviewed give snappy quotes that support the journalists point of view if at all possible. Key quotes are the last to be cut.
• Make yourself super available; respond quickly and have lots of ways to be reached.

Awesome post, Penelope … thanks! And do stop in and check out her full post – there’s more.

A Great Source for Media Contacts

Book marketing expert John Kremer is publishing a daily “Kremer 100 PR” newsletter featuring key media contacts—editors, book reviewers, radio and TV producers, magazines, newspapers, syndicated columnists, etc.

These valuable contacts come packaged in a newsletter direct to your desktop for a mere $30 a year – it goes up to $52 on January 16. And that’s the kind of info you need at your fingertips – you just never know when. So I find this to be a very useful resource.

Spend a single dollar a week and cash in on some excellent contacts – a much better deal than Bacon’s and the other mega-big contact sources

5 Things You May Not Know About Me ... (but will you care?)

In keeping with the 'Tag, You're It!' game Sherman Hu invited me to play over at his excellent blog, here are 5 things you probably don't know about me. (Man, I hated games like this as a kid ... see below.) BUT, this is a good idea. Thanks, Sherman.

1. I was the class cry-baby in elementary school, and spent my time hanging with the adults who taught me. They used to send home worried messages about this.

2. In the mid-Eighties I worked delivering 'strip-o-grams' and 'gorilla-grams'. I'd pretend to be, say, a human resources consultant, show up on someone's last day at work on the pretense of doing an exit interview, and then whip out my tape recorder in their office and strip to 'Chaka Khan' while the staff (who'd arranged this) laughed from the doorway. My favorite was the visit to the lawyer's office in my gorilla suit. Boy, was he surprised when I jumped on the guy's desk and began hitting him with a banana.

3. I am learning to play the piano, via my Clavinova (an elaborate Yamaha electric keyboard) which is teaching me how. Very cool. I recently completed a class on reading lead sheets so I can accompany myself using jazz fake books. My next project on the piano is to learn composing. Man, why did I wait so long to learn this?

4. I met my husband, Larry Barns, in a yoga class in New York City in 1985 and we still do yoga together once a week ...after 20 years! (And we're still happily married!)

5. Our daughter is finishing high school early (this week) and shipping out to Ghana on Sunday afternoon for three months as a volunteer teaching English. She's only 17, has scarely been out of her tiny, protected world, and I'm both scared and excited for her. She's thrilled because her dream for years is to learn African music from the source (her dream is to become a professional singer.)

Here are some other sites to check out for Top 5 listings ... or just cause they're great.

Kim George
Andrea Lee
Jennifer Louden
Andy Wibbels
Pam Slim

Use Craig’slist to plant story ideas for reporters

Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, ran an interesting piece in her blog over the holidays about how reporters glean story ideas from Craigslist, the classified ad site. She sites the story of Katy Leakey, an artist who lives in Africa.

Joan writes: “Katy is the designer of the Leakey Collection, a colorful and versatile line of jewelry. The jewelry is handmade by the Maasai women with natural, sustainable grass beads that are dyed in brilliant colors.

Nancy Mills, an expert on how to use Craigslist, helped Katy post small classified ads about the jewelry on several Craigslists.

A journalist who writes for San Diego Home & Garden magazine saw one of the ads on the San Diego Craigslist about “An artist making a difference in the world, from the busy fields of Kenya to the trendy slopes of Seattle” and called for an interview. The story will be published soon.

Nancy is a master at creating several versions of the same ad so it can be posted on several different Craigslists. She was my guest during a teleseminar last year called “How to Use Craigslist as a Global Publicity Tool.”

Great tip, Joan!

Podcamp NYC is Heating Up – a Great Free Unconference

Hooray! One of my favorite places to play in the East is ready for visitors. That would be the New York City iteration of Podcamp, the great free podcasting conference I attended in fall ‘06 in Boston. If you are curious about how to set up a podcast, or take the one you’ve got to a totally optimized next level – or set up any kind of viral, serious online visual or audio presence on the Web – you want to be here.

You’ll be surrounded by cool, smart people who know a lot more than you do about the art, and are eager to share what they know entirely for free. It’s a wonderful, collegiate atmosphere that’s just overflowing with inspiration and creativity – and what a mixed bag of participants! Everyone from technically inspired schoolteachers to pierced, tattooed kids who are experts on something called ‘sniggetys. I met folks from all over the world at the last one – so you can bet I”ll be there. It’s Easter weekend in NYC. Don’t miss it.

By the way, in the true unconference spirit, you sign up by entering your information in the WIKI (a website in which visitors can add useful content.) If you don’t know how to do this, there’s an easy tutorial. And if you want to speak, just jump right in and sign yourself up. It’s that simple! And democratic. Just LOVE that.

John Havens, one of the organizers, says you can call the hotline at 212-229-8210 if you can’t hack the WIKI-based registration. Leave a message with the following information: Name, Contact info (URL for their site/email/phone if they want someone to call them for whatever reason), What you hope to get from the conference (networking/learning/biz contacts, etc.) They will add you to the WIKI.

Won’t you join me?

New Free Places to List Teleclasses

I’ve run across these places recently to list your teleclasses and drive folks to jump in and join you. Which, by the way, is an awesome way to build your list.

All you do is offer folks the sign up for the call and at the same time let them know that when they sign up, you’ll be sending them your free ezine/bonus/whatever with your compliments as a thank you. (And do let them know it’s easy to unsubscribe … and make sure that it is.)

I more than doubled my list using calls like this as an incentive in 2006. Forward ho!

Don’t forget to list your classes here:

http://planetteleclass.com/

http://www.cculearning.com/

http://solo-e.com/

What’s your favorite calendar?

One of the thing that really makes office life easier when you’ve got at least one other person working with you, (i.e. a virtual assistant, a sales team, etc.) is having a web-based, networked calendar system. I have my entire schedule on a calendar system that’s getting costly, called Trumba.

You can use the free Google calendar and get all this functionality. You can manage multiple calendars for different parts of your life and see them all at once or not (same as Trumba) .. you get up to five. Easy to use – same as trumba. PLUS you can drag and drop events from one box to another (trumba doesn’t do this).

You can share more with Google calendar … for instance, you can plan a dinner party and invite folks via a web page, and even use a discussion page to determine the menu. Cool! (Not on trumba.)

It doesn’t tie in with Outlook though that’s apparently coming soon (not something I use for planning, but Trumba does do this.) Google’s calendar is currently a freebie, and the revenue’s in the ad revenue potential – particularly on the ‘shared’ aspect of the calendar in which discussion of events can take place online at your calendar site.

I think we’ll be switching over. How about you? What do you like for a calendar?

The Best Way to Teach Something

I’ve got a 12 year old son who for years and years has wanted to learn the banjo, God love him. For some time he wasn’t big enough to hold a banjo (he’s a smaller kid), and so he began by learning the electric guitar which comes in a more child-sized version. For two years we went through the sturm-und-drang of guitar lessons (Did you practice? Would you please practice? No TV til you practice, etc.)

Each week he would plod off, have his lesson, come home and avoid practicing. And each week, he’d do just enough work to improve, marginally. Until finally, at the end of two years, he could play some classic hits and scales, and had some command of the instrument. Then … finally … came the pay off. Our boy was big enough to play the long-awaited banjo.

So here’s an interesting thing. Doug Knight (of the redoubtable band, Three Doug Knight) has a better way to teach recalcitrant kids: no one comes back until they’ve truly learned the previous lesson’s homework. Doug’s not interested in making a buck … but in truly teaching the kid the instrument. And it works.

Our son’s been working on the intro riff to Cripple Creek now for over a month and he just about has it. Yes, it’s boring at times to keep working on one thing, but he’s rising to the challenge in a way he just didn’t before. I think that’s because in his prior lessons, nothing much was demanded of him except that he ‘practice’. Which could have been five minutes three times during the week. No results were really expected or accounted for.

Now, however, he’s actually being held accountable for his progress. I like this teaching model and plan to implement it in my own coaching programs. Wouldn’t you rise to the occasion if someone actually demanded it of you?

Your thoughts on this?

Comic Book Templates for Windows Blog Users

Reader Celesta Krantz recommends the following comic book creation software for bloggers on Windows: My Comic Book Creator

She writes: “ I found it to be very user friendly, plus you can make your own templates (the free application can be found in the forums).”

Cool! Thanks, Celesta

Suzanne’s Goal List for January – What Are Yours?

It’s inevitable that with the start of the year you’re going to want to rise up and Get Things Done. It’s like the back to school season … we’ve just got to clear the decks and get going.

I like to take a few days at the very beginning of the season to get organized, then I feel refreshed enough to really get rolling on my actions big-time!

First, I clean out my filing cabinet and my electronic files, sort through my inbox, catch up my financial paperwork and empty out my email inbox. Then I feel renewed and ready to go.

Here’s what I’m going to do this month:

1. Write at least half the new script for my Serenity Hawkfire theater piece
2. Create the tangible version of my GKN Total Support Program
3. Learn at least three piano pieces that I can play entirely from lead sheets
4. Vocalize four times per week
5. Dig into my partnership with Andrea Lee with increased gusto
6. Set up Google Adwords on various products (haven’t I made this same promise here before?)

… and probably a whole lot more stuff I haven’t even thought of yet.

Feel free to commit to your own action plan right here. What will you be creating this month?