Years ago, I started this blog with a pretty big mission in mind: to help you succeed.

I wanted to tell you things you didn’t know. I wanted to point you in better directions. I wanted to share lessons I’d learned the hard way so that you didn’t make the same mistakes.

I wanted to give you shortcuts that helped you succeed faster, easier and with a lot less stress than I had to go through to get where I am today.

Somewhere along the way, I lost sight of that goal. My business got big. My blog became popular. It was explosive growth. I got busy. I had clients and readers who wanted my attention, and I had responsibilities and obligations to both.

(Oh yeah. And then there was that thing.)

Life got a little crazy, and I got caught up in it, stretching myself to make ends meet.

Then things got a little worse.

Worse was that I spent a lot of time writing for my blog, sharing good solutions, smart advice or better methods… but I wasn’t seeing many readers put the advice I shared to good use. They’d whine about this or that, and when they did, I worked harder to bring them even more ideas and advice.

I poured my heart and precious time into helping them do better. Years later, many of those same readers were still whining. They were still stuck in the same place they started from. They’ll still be reading blogs full of smart advice five years from now.

I’ve since learned that there’s nothing I can do about that. Some people just don’t want to change. They don’t want a better life. They don’t even want to try. (Sorry, people. I can’t help you if you can’t help yourself.)

But until I learned that life lesson… well, blogging was discouraging.  It was disheartening. It felt useless.

But wait – things got even worse.

Worse is that I started to think I’d said it all. That I had nothing left to say. That I’d run out of new material to cover. After all, this blog has well over 1,000 posts, and I’ve been blogging good, smart advice for years.

There’s only so much you can say before it starts to sound redundant.

Pair that with readers who kept whining about being stuck, and I thought this blog was done for. I’d done what I’d could, I’d tried as hard as I could, I’d given it my all… and the well of smart advice had gone dry.

But I had a problem: I couldn’t abandon my blog. So I started doing what everyone was doing: rehashing the same old, boring topics we’ve all read a million times before.

I hated it.

I stuck with my blog out of a sense of obligation, battling nasty bouts of writer’s block (that were really just my mind’s signal that something was wrong and that I should pay attention). I stared at blank pages. I hired a business shrink. I spent frustrated hours trying to cobble together something “good enough”, something that made me feel awesome again. Like I’d nailed it.

Nuttin’.

I started losing my writing voice. It sounded bland and disinterested. It wasn’t the vivacious, bold, brash tone I used to have. I looked back on older posts and wished I could write like that again – but I couldn’t. The spark was gone.

I felt like was just keeping up appearances.

This wasn’t fun anymore.

This dragged on for well over a year, and I shudder at what could’ve happened had it continued. I nearly abandoned this blog to go run off to play in the sunshine of Damn Fine Words, a project that’s always sparked my motivation like a lit blowtorch.

Until the day I realized this blog was completely, utterly, falling apart in tiny little pieces. It was done. Over. Reached its end.

Finished.

Dead.

I was THRILLED!

This blog was burnt toast, and I was absolutely relieved! Now I could finally – finally! – rebuild it to be whatever I wanted it to be. The potential of Everything I Could Do Now was so exciting I actually laughed out loud.

Ideas hit me so hard and fast that I must’ve sounded crazy as I told my friend, hands waving in the air.

“I can go back to my roots! The reason why I started this damned blog in the first place! I can do exactly what I’ve always wanted to do – write about the lessons I learned the hard way so others don’t make the same mistakes.”

This was risky thinking. Admit I blew it? Admit mistakes? In public on my blog? Me, a successful entrepreneur?!

You bet. It might be refreshing to have someone tell it to you straight and say, “Man, it’s hard being successful, and boy, did I ever screw up along the way. Here’s what NOT to do.”

You might be thinking, “Well, why didn’t you just do that years ago, James? I mean, if that’s how you felt… Just… do whatever you want.”

But it’s not that simple. You can easily get away with admitting mistakes when you’re a small blogger or start-up business, but when you reach a certain level of success, your reputation is everything. People expect you to know it all. And you hide the screw-ups. Very few people at my level will admit them.

Me? I’ve got nothing to lose.

I am who I am, and I’ve done well. I’m going to keep on being successful. Admitting mistakes is part of who I am, and I think you appreciate honesty. I think you want to hear that the big guys screw up too.

And I think you’ll appreciate learning how to avoid the pitfalls I dropped straight into.

Oh, and I think you’ll appreciate the fun. It’s good to get my voice back. It’s good to write again. I’m churning out blog posts like there’s no tomorrow.

Kind of like someone lit a blowtorch for me.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
What to Do When You Hate Your Blog first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

It’s the middle of summer. You’re going camping, and you have the option of two campsites. One is by a running stream. The other is by a pond.

Which do you choose?

If you’ve ever had a run-in with mosquitoes before, you pick the stream. Running water doesn’t allow algae and rotten leaves to collect and rot on the surface, which means mosquitoes don’t have anywhere to lay their eggs.

What does this have to do with writing?

If you’re doing the same things over and over again, your writing has become stagnant.

Nothing is moving. Nothing is changing. Your creativity is festering. And yeah, your business is probably starting to go a little rotten around the edges.

Here’s how you keep your stream of thought clear – and avoid a business that stinks.

Keep Things Moving

Moving is better than standing still. That means you should be constantly learning, applying new ideas, and pushing forward.

If you’ve been at the same level in your business for more than a year, you’re a still pond. You’ve had the same number of clients and a consistent level of income. You write the same number of posts on the same topics every week. You haven’t launched a new product in months – maybe you’ve never launched one at all.

Since nothing is strictly wrong with your business, you think you’re doing okay. But since you’re not challenging yourself, you’re probably getting pretty bored.

And your creativity is completely stale.

It’s time to get the river flowing again.

Challenge Yourself

Challenge yourself to do one new thing in your business every day. Crack out those e-courses and ebooks you’ve bought and start writing down the tasks they suggest in your calendar.

Your business will begin growing and changing because of your efforts. And as your business changes and grows, up the challenges.

If you’ve successfully launched a product, start researching how to pull off an even bigger launch next time. If you’ve doubled your client base, start investigating whether you should take on some help to triple it.

Never stop moving forward. Standing still is how the skeeters get you.

Clear Out the Debris

After applying new strategies and ideas, you’ll find that your business has begun moving forward – but slooooowly. You’re not so much a river as a trickling stream, and you’ve probably got a lot of debris collected around the edges.

What do I mean by “debris”?

A bad accounting system. Procrastination habits. An email system that doesn’t work. A typo that’s been on your website for ages. A newsletter that you never actually send out, even though you have sign-ups and subscribers.

That’s the sort of stuff that’ll start to fester and wreak havoc on your business if you don’t watch out.

So here’s your second challenge: in addition to adding one new thing that works for you every day, start looking for one old thing that’s working against you.

These can be small things. On the first day, maybe you fix that typo. On the second day, write an email for your list. On the third day, call up some accountants in your area.

One new thing and one old thing, every day.

Raise Awareness

Any environmentalist will tell you that one of the reasons running water turns into stagnant pools is because of erosion and destruction by well-meaning campers.

Since they don’t know they’re causing harm, they don’t stop. But if they realize how important it is to help out, they’ll get engaged – and they’ll recruit others to the cause.

This equates to marketing.

If you’re looking to make your business a more engaging, creative, fast-moving place, you need people to rally to your cause.

You want to bring around and encourage people who want to work with you – or even for you.

You want to develop relationships with people who have similar ambitions, like colleagues and peers who are willing to lend a hand when you need one in exchange for your help when they need you.

How do you improve your marketing? By raising awareness.

Get on social media and talk about what you’re trying to do. Ask for help and get people’s feedback. Write to people directly and see if they’d be willing to help.

Let people know what you’re trying to do. Revamp your mission statement or philosophy or About page. Put up a notice on your home page that says what you’re all about.

Promote your products and services. Shout it from the rooftops: this is a place where creativity flows.

Smell that? That’s not the stinky whiff of stagnancy. That’s the sweet scent of awesomeness.

Got some ideas for stirring up still waters? Let’s hear ‘em in the comments.

Leave a Comment!

Post by Taylor Lindstrom

Taylor hails from Boulder, CO, and she blogs for people who are too good to fail over at... well, Too Good to Fail. Go check out her inspiring posts now.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Are You Building a Business That Stinks? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

I know, you guys. I know. I know there are a thousand posts out there with this kind of title. I’ve made fun of them. I have begged whatever internet gods may be to stop people posting topics like this (also, topics like “The X Guide to Such-and-Such” and damned if I didn’t write one of those too.)

The reason people write them, I’ve discovered, is that it’s very easy to get caught up in the online world. To think that everything in the world is contained somewhere between Google and your RSS feed. And when you do reconnect to the real world in a visceral, tangible, thoughtful way, it feels pretty profound.

You start to learn things. You start to apply what you’re learning to what you do the most: blogging.

This is more or less what happened with me and the mushroom hunting.

How’d You Wind Up Mushroom Hunting, Of All Things?

Well, I have a friend. This friend frequently makes me dinner. And those dinners frequently contain the kind of mushrooms that cost upward of $50/pound, so I started to wonder how he was bankrolling these dinners of ours, and if I might happen to owe him, say, a Porsche.

Turns out I don’t owe him a Porsche. I do, however, owe him several tanks of gas. Because what he does is drive three hours up the mountain, to where the elevation is just right for mushrooms to grow. He wanders around the woods for a couple hours at a stretch looking for the edible ones.

My asking him where the mushrooms came from must have been some kind of secret code, because I was immediately invited on an excursion. Which is how I spent about three hours in the woods in utter silence, looking for mushrooms with a distinctive pattern on their tops and discovering some things about blogging.

1. Silence is Good

I have never thought about how much silence I get in the world. It is fairly infrequent and often kind of painful (the silence of the line in the post office is a good example). When I walk, I walk with headphones. If I’m being social, I’m being talkatively social. I’m watching a movie. I’m chatting on the phone. I’m listening to music as I ride in the car. When I work, I’m listening to music, getting distracted by my next-door office neighbor’s voice through the wall, or watching a video trying to distract myself from the work I’m about to do.

It is very, very rare that I am completely quiet.

People. Quiet is amazing for thinking.

Thinking is essential for blogging. It is not essential for work. When you work, you have a task at hand: a sales page to write, a product to create, a phone call to make. You can pretty much hold off thinking until you begin the task.

With blogging, you not only have to do the task: write the post. You have to decide what the task is: the topic of the post.

Almost every blogger I know tries to dive headlong into the post without thinking about it. They think of it like a job whose parameters are already determined. A blog post is almost pure thought. It has to be considered first. You have to find, and reject, a hundred possibilities before settling on a scant few you actually want to talk about.

Being alone in the woods for three hours gives you plenty of time to do that. By the time I got out of there, I had a basket full of edible mushrooms and about a dozen new things I wanted to write about. And a blister, which I believe could have been avoided if I’d just sat in my chair for three hours thinking of new topics instead of trying to shlep up a mountain.

2. Some of Those Things Are Poisonous

Actually, lots of those things are poisonous. Official warning: should you ever get it into your head to go mushroom-hunting, take someone along who knows which ones are edible, because you would not believe how many of the incredibly tasty-looking ones will kill you.

That’s mushrooms, though. Surely blog posts aren’t poisonous.

Well, yeah. A lot of them are.

There are blog posts that involve link-baiting your favorite famous bloggers. There are blog posts that will get you a lot of traffic, but all of it angry, controversial traffic, not good, loyal-fan traffic. There are blog posts that will absolutely alienate your entire audience, even if you really want to jump in on the latest controversy surrounding a politician. There are blog posts that will make you seem boring, inarticulate, misguided, ill-informed.

There are a lot of poisonous blog posts out there. And if you’re in a hurry, you’re far more likely to accidentally wind up choosing one of them instead of a post that will sustain you and enrich your readers.

Know what you’re looking for. Know what kinds of posts your readers enjoy and which ones are going to truly help them. Know which posts are nourishing your blog and helping it thrive.

And keep an eye out for those poisonous ones. Some of them look remarkably like the good ones.

3. You Only Have Today

When we’d picked a giant basket heaping full of mushrooms, I’d thought we were done. I was excited about all my succulent finds and ready to go get a burger and celebrate. But the picking was good that day. There were mushrooms everywhere and they were easy to hand. We put our basket in the back of the truck and went back out for more.

This was unusual, he told me. It’s not often you get a day like this. You don’t want to waste it. They won’t be here tomorrow. They won’t be here, definitely, the week after that. You only have today.

For bloggers, sometimes you’ll write a post that truly inspires you. Your mind will be on fire with ideas. You’ll be humming, practically vibrating with that urge to create. You’ll write out a full post and you’ll know you have so much more, that you could write a whole book, you could write a whole shelf of books.

But you’ll stop. You’ll stop because you did what you needed to do that day. You wrote one post.

You’ll stop thinking you pick it up again tomorrow.

You can’t. You only have today.

When you have a good day, a truly magical day, you have to ride it out. Write down everything you can. Write all night long if you have to. Write until your fingers hurt. Write and write and write and write and when you honestly can’t do anymore, then you can stop.

Those days are rare and far between. You don’t have to post everything you create in that time. But you have to pick while the pickin’s good. There’s time to enjoy what you’ve harvested later. Right now, there’s today. Get everything you can out of it.

4. There Are Bad Days

There’s a corollary to the above, and it’s this: Sometimes today is not your day.

The weekend I went up with my friend happened to be a good weekend. There were good mushrooms everywhere. We got two huge heaping baskets-ful. But the eight weekends before that, he hadn’t had such a good time. It was a strange year weather-wise and the factors that make for thriving mushroom colonies weren’t there. This was the first weekend that had been good.

In that situation, it’s okay to pack it in because it’s not a good weekend. But here’s the trick: you still have to show up.

Every weekend. You can’t skip one because the last one wasn’t good. You have to show up every single time hoping for one of the magic times, one of the ones where everything goes your way.

If he’d given up six weekends before, we never would have had those two baskets of mushrooms to tide us over all the weekends to come with none.

Same for you and your blogging. You show up every time. You show up every day. And you try like hell to reap enough good work to tide you over when it’s a lousy day, when you have no ideas, when there’s absolutely nothing left.

If you don’t show up for the bad days, you will miss the good days entirely. You’ll never know they could have happened. Because you weren’t there.

So yes. There are bad days. Not every day is a magic day. But it’s by showing up for the bad days that you get to those glorious days.

What I Learned

There’s a reason for all the many posts about what non-blogging activities have taught us about blogging. It’s because it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. It’s hard to get new insight into blogging simply by blogging more.

Sometimes you have to get offline. Sometimes you have to get out in the woods. Sometimes you have to try something new to get better at this thing you enjoy doing, this thing that sustains your business and your life.

Mushrooms aren’t any good by themselves. Mushrooms are amazing in butter, with herbs, as part of a larger dish. A plain, raw mushroom is no fun to eat.

Blogging is the same. Blogging by itself doesn’t sustain you. You have to mix it up with other things. You have to learn what it works with. You have to experiment. You have to find new ways to add to the base.

Try it. Try something new, and see if you can glean anything that helps you become a better blogger.

Then take half an hour to think. Choose a post that’s right for you. And have one of the good days.

Leave a Comment!

Post by Taylor Lindstrom

Taylor is a freelancer working out of Boulder, CO, and she blogs for people who are too good to fail over at... well, Too Good to Fail. Go check out her beautiful stories and words of encouragement - and remember that while you may not be good enough right now, being great is definitely part of your potential.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
What Mushroom Hunting Taught Me About Blogging first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

When was the last time you cleared up your clutter? I don’t mean office clutter (though you should probably take care of that; it’s been a while since the last time you tidied up).

I mean mental clutter: ideas you’re never going to action.

I bet that over the past months or even years, you’ve collected a ton of half-formed ideas. Heaps of them. Because they’re Good Ones. You’ve jotted those Good Ideas down on some sort of document somewhere so that you won’t forget them, and you keep them handy just in case.

Just in case. Because one day you might need them.

That’s hoarding.

People with hoarding behaviour collect all sorts of items. Clothing. Furniture. Knick knacks. Stuff they have no real need for. Stuff they don’t use… and never will.

But they keep all that stuff anyways. They stash, they store, and they fill rooms (even entire houses!) with all sorts of possessions. They sometimes even hoard so much they nearly crowd themselves out of their own house and onto the street.

Hoarders have a problem: They can’t discard what they don’t need or can’t use. They let clutter take over their life.

And they can’t stop.

You hoard. I know you do. Maybe not clothing or gadgets, but you hoard ideas. Freelancers are FULL of good ideas, and entrepreneurs are even worse. So I know you have all these little bits of ideas kicking around. You stash, you store, you fill up your hard drive with half-written files and snippets full of good intentions.

Just in case. Because one day you might need them. You’re planning to do something with them.

One day.

The problem is that one day never comes. You collect months and years worth of ideas and never action any of them. If you do, you give the idea a half-hearted start, eventually letting yourself get sidetracked onto something else, and the idea just sits there, taking up space.

You aren’t going to use that idea, the same way hoarders won’t ever use 90% of all that clutter they’re collecting.

Here’s the big question: If we’re not going to use our ideas (or our stuff), why do we cling to them and let them clutter up our minds?

Well, that’s easy. Some people hoard because they think the items are valuable – when they’re really not. Some think they might one day need those items – and they never do. Some hang on out of a sense of frugality, to save money… which costs them on several levels. And some have emotional attachments. They just can’t bring themselves to let go.

Can you?

Think of the half-written blog posts you won’t finish. The business venture ideas you won’t start. The products you won’t create. The courses you won’t put together. Think about the files on your computer, the notes you’ve written to yourself, the cheat sheet full of partially formed stuff you’ll do.

Maybe. One day.

Imagine what you could do if you cleared out that clutter. If you just wiped everything clean and started fresh. Imagine grabbing onto one idea that you know has potential… and sticking to it. Actioning the steps. Seeing it to the end.

Finishing it.

Not one day. Today. Now.

Fair enough – it’s not that easy to clear away piles of Really Great Ideas. You might throw out a good one! And never find it again! It’ll be lost forever, the dream of riches and millions…

See how insidious hoarding behaviour can be? If you don’t stop clinging and start something, you’ll never have anything but a pile of ideas that go nowhere.

So here are a few steps to help you tackle the junk, let go of the clutter and start achieving great goals:

Start Small

Don’t decide to clear out everything. Pick something small that you can clean up now so that you can finish quickly and actually see your progress.

Choose a single folder on your computer and clean up the files. Grab one idea sheet and decide to eliminate 10. Work for only half an hour, then stop. Tomorrow, pick another folder, clear out another 10 ideas or work another half hour.

Otherwise, you’re probably facing a huge task. Minimalizing your clutter can be done in an exhausting weekend marathon, absolutely – but it’s far less stressful and manageable when done in small sprints.

(Just ask the intervention-assaulted hoarders on TV how they feel after two intense days of watching their homes being ripped apart and emptied by those helpful clutter killers.)

Be Honest

Most of us aren’t truly honest with ourselves. It’s damned hard to admit we’re never going to run that dream marathon or set aside money for that new car. It’s much, much easier to lie to ourselves and say of course we are! We’re just not ready. We don’t have the time. Besides, it’s a Good Idea – we should hang onto it for now.

No. Come on. Be realistic. Ask yourself questions, like, “When will I actually ever move forward on this idea? How long do I need to hang onto it before it’s okay to let it go?”

The answer – if you’re really being honest with yourself – is that you’re probably never going to action the idea, and you don’t need to hang onto it for five years before figuring that out.

So why cling to it?

Here’s an example: Just last week, I nearly let an automatic renewal of a domain name I owned go through. Cool name, very catchy.

But then I asked myself when I’d really ever do anything with it… and how many years did I really need to fork out money just to hang onto the name?

The answers? Never, and I’d already wasted enough money. I let the name expire.

And that’s really all there is to it. Start small, ditch, sort and organize, and be honest with yourself. By the time you’re done chucking those old files and lists of ideas, you’ll realize you’re left with just a few.

A few good ideas. REALLY good ideas. Ideas that you’re actually going to do something about, because as you revisit them, you realize they’re still exciting to you. Worth your time. Worth your energy.

In fact… Excuse me, but I think I have to go action one of those really good ideas. How about you?

Leave a Comment!

Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Are You Hoarding Ideas? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

I sat there, my hands edging towards the keyboard… but I couldn’t bring myself to touch it. I felt that as soon as I tapped out a few faltering words, any hope of perfection would be gone forever.

Your opening won’t be strong enough. Why would anyone read this anyway? How could you think that THIS was worth writing down?

Being a writer isn’t just about knowing how to construct a great sentence or how to format a blog post so that readers can engage easily. Being a writer is about sharing your thoughts, ideas and experiences with the world.

And that can be a pretty daunting task.

Traditional print markets like magazines and books have a long time lag between initial composition and final publication – the online world moves much faster.

The post you write at 9am might be out there for all to see by 3pm. That ebook you’re frantically finishing off this week could be launched and on sale next Monday.

No wonder you freeze up when you sit down to write.

So what do you do? Give up? Turn to something easier and safer – like writing in your private journal or working on the novel you’ve been fiddling with for a decade?

You could.

Or you could take a deep breath and write like no one is watching. Here’s how:

Step #1: Find a Safe Place to Write

Your current writing environment probably isn’t exactly dangerous. I assume you’re not sitting in a tree with your laptop while a pack of hungry wolves snap at your ankles.

But do you feel truly safe where you write?

I can’t bring myself to write if anyone’s looking at my screen. In fact, I can’t even write if there’s a possibility that someone might see the words I’m putting down. If I’m in a room with other people and have to write, I make sure I have my back to a wall.

For you, writing in a safe place might mean:

• Working in a room where you can close the door and keep family/housemates away.
• Working near disinterested strangers like coffee shop patrons rather than nosy colleagues
• Surrounding yourself with other writers (try a meet-up or a library)
• Using a notebook that you can shield with your arm instead of a wide-open laptop
• Switching to a small or hard-to-read font to write (You can change it afterwards)

It doesn’t matter what your writing environment looks like. What’s important is that you feel as safe and secure as possible while you write.

You can’t write well if you’re constantly looking over your shoulder or feeling unsettled.

Step #2: Forget About the Reader

This might sound heretical, but when you’re in the throes of composition, you don’t want to keep thinking about your reader.

Yes, the reader matters. When you’re writing for your blog or your client or a magazine or a book, you need to target your work to a particular audience.

But you don’t need to constantly second-guess every single sentence that you write based on what your readers might think.

When writing, focus on getting the message out. Don’t worry about whether your readers will appreciate that off-colour joke or whether they’ll understand an unfamiliar dialect word – you can make decisions about whether to keep or discard those later on when you’re editing.

Write it the way you want to write. You might even surprise yourself – some of my most popular posts are ones that I thought readers wouldn’t like at all.

Step #3: Get in the Zone

Do you ever have writing sessions where words just flow from your fingers? When writing feels effortless? Most writers experience this from time to time – and it feels great.

If you’re anything like me, though, you’re not always in the writing zone. Often, you’re in the, “Hey, I wonder what’s happening on Twitter?” zone.

Getting in the zone could mean:

• Having music on – or writing in complete silence
• Closing your eyes briefly while you write (this only really works if you can touch-type…)
• Writing as fast as you can, perhaps with a timer running
• Using a writing prompt to warm up at the start of a session
• Burning incense or scented candles
• Wearing a particular t-shirt or hat – or your pyjamas

When you’re in the zone, you don’t feel self-conscious. You stop being so aware of yourself – you lose track of time, and the writing is all that matters.

Today, write like nobody’s watching. Write the piece that you don’t quite dare to start. Pick up a project that you set aside months ago. Find somewhere safe and comfortable, and stop worrying about your readers.

It’s just you and the words.

Now write.

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Post by Ali Luke

Ali Luke is a writer and writing coach from the UK, with an accent to match. She blogs over at Aliventures: if you want to get more writing done, start with her post How to Write Thousands of Words Every Single Week.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Write like No One is Watching first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Which is exactly how Marcus Sheridan caught mine.

He caught it twice when he sent me this guest post. At first, I was too busy for the video… but then I watched. Then I read the post. And now I’m sharing it with you.

Although there are certainly many metaphors that could describe the life of a blogger, I personally would relate it to the most famous test of human endurance and achievement in the world:

The Ironman Triathlon.

Before we go further, please take three minutes of your day and watch the following video. Yes, I know you’re likely in a hurry and quickly skimming this article for helpful nuggets of information, but this will be one of the most memorable 3-minute videos you’ll ever watch online.

And maybe no other relates more to your determination in life.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w

Ironman Crawl

Now for the lessons learned:

1. The Human Body and Mind Is Capable of Incredible Things

2.4 miles swimming in a frigid, rough ocean….112 miles of strenuous biking….26.2 miles of running—all in one day. Such staggering numbers are inconceivable to most people.

Until they decide it’s actually possible and then make it happen.

The same is absolutely true with blogging as well. It’s easy for the ‘little guys’ out there (like me) to look at a Seth Godin or copyblogger or Men with Pens and think, “That’s just impossible. I’ll never get where they are.”

The truth is that we all start at ground zero. We all had to get our first subscriber.

And with enough hard work, diligence, and effort we can certainly achieve monumental goals we never thought possible.

2. Setting the Proper Pace

Just like every successful triathlon racer, every blogger must learn to set the right pace.

This is especially true for newer bloggers. Come out the gates too fast and you’ll be dead half-way through the race. Start off too slow and your blog may never get any traction.

Although pace (determined by post frequency, post length average, comments on other blogs, and more) may be a tough idea to grasp for bloggers, at least it creates certain goals that can be very beneficial and motivating.

3. Competitors Make Us Better

For the most part, triathletes in the Ironman appreciate other participants. These people could be viewed as competitors, but most racers realize that other particiipants bring the best out of their performance.

This is one thing I love about the blogosphere. In almost every corner, bloggers do want their peers to succeed, even though they may be involved in the same niche. For example, instead of trying to ‘outdo’ their competition, Men With Pens and Copyblogger work hand-in-hand in a synergistic effort to create better content for their readers.

This is what the blogging community is all about. And the more we all have an abundance mentality in terms of helping others, the more we’ll be blessed and benefit as well.

4. Just Finish the Race….No Matter How or What It Takes

When it comes to the Ironman, it’s not about what place you earned when you finish the race – it’s that you cross the finish-line. Period.

Watching the two incredible women in the video cross that Ironman finish line is a powerful reminder of that we should always finish our tasks.

As we get ideas and inspiration to write certain posts or initiate certain projects, we need to do what it takes to ‘cross the finish line’ no matter what comes our way. We mustn’t allow the distractions of everyday life to deter us from the goals we’ve set. We know achieving them will lead to joy and satisfaction.

So the next time you’re down and out with your blog, or if you’re stumped as to how to finish an article, just keep with it. Do what it takes. Keep moving forward to the finish line.

5. It Isn’t About Being in 1^st Place

Okay, so be honest: How many of you thought that these two women were fighting for first place? I certainly thought so the first time I watched the video. They were actually trying to be fourth, not first.

And think about it for a second – does anyone know who actually won the women’s Ironman that year (without Googling it)? Very few people do, simply because Sian Welch and Wendy Ingraham captured hearts around the world as they battled. Literally, these two women could not have given an ounce more strength and energy, and this is why over 1,000,000 people have watched this video in complete and total awe.

I think too often bloggers get caught up in the numbers of more established and ‘successful’ blogging icons and become dejected about their own position.

To me, blogging isn’t about first place. It’s about everything Welch and Ingraham exemplify: effort, determination, and undaunted faith. By sharing these characteristics, we’ll win the hearts of readers… just as Welch and Ingraham won the hearts of the world,.

About the author: Liked this post? Then subscribe to Marcus Sheridan’s blog, The Sales Lion, where he’s been known to write some pretty sweet stuff on sales, marketing, and How to be Freaking Awesome.

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Post by Marcus Sheridan

About the author: Liked this post? Then subscribe to Marcus Sheridan's blog, The Sales Lion, where he's been known to write some pretty sweet stuff on sales, marketing, and How to be Freaking Awesome.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
What the Ironman Triathlon Can Teach You About Blogging first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

A while back, I couldn’t sing enough praise for Ali Hale. She wrote great posts, she loved fiction, she was fun and chatty and reliable and made me smile every month.

Then she disappeared.

It felt like years of absence and I’d just about given up on her when Ali returned from her adventures of marriage, name changes, a house move and traveling overseas. She even brought me back a souvenir – this lovely guest post. Enjoy.

Some time ago, you set out on a writing adventure. And like any good adventurer, you carried a sword. It glinted in the sun. It looked impressive.

And it was sharp.

You fought dragons. You beat down demons. You forged your way forwards through a brave new world. But then …

Months went by. Years went by. And that sword wasn’t glinting so brightly anymore.

Your sword got scuffed and dented and rusted. It didn’t look very impressive. Everyone else had better, brighter weapons.

And worst of all, your sword got blunted. You wanted to fight bigger dragons. You wanted more treasure. But the journey was getting harder, and harder, and harder.

You started to wonder if the adventure was over.

Your adventure is only over if you stop learning and stagnate.

Whatever stage you’re at with your writing, you need to keep honing your craft.

When you’re just starting out, you have a lot going for you: enthusiasm, stories to tell, words that you’re burning to put down on the page.

And because of all that, most writers get to be competent. It takes time, sure, and hard work, but you can turn your raw talent into the ability to craft a good short story or a decent blog post. You might not win any awards, but you’re pretty good.

Your writing is solid. People read it. They take your message on board. And it’s easy to stop there. It’s easy to sit back and decide that you’ve finished your journey.

You haven’t.

No matter how good you get, there’s always another step to take.

I have a few illusions about my writing. I know that I’m good. That’s a speck of raw talent combined with most of a lifetime’s work. I can write a decent blog post – I’ve written somewhere around a thousand posts in the past three years. I can write a well-constructed piece of fiction.

That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped learning.

I’ve just finished an MA in Creative Writing, where I worked with some brilliant tutors. I’ve been through Pace and Kyeli’s World-Changing Writing Workshop. I attend the big blogging conferences. I regularly share work with fellow writers and learn from them, just as they learn from me.

In part, I do this simply because I enjoy it. I love being around other writers. I love learning new things.

But I also do it because it’s important for me and for my business. If I let myself stagnate, I’ll end up with a bunch of unread blog posts, a handful of unpublished novels, and a bank balance in the red.

Whether your writing is a business or a hobby, take it seriously. Keep learning. Some good ways to start are:

• Write regularly. It doesn’t have to be every day, but a good session or two once a week is important.
• Go after bigger challenges. Write a guest post for a big blog. Submit a short story to a competition. You learn and grow when you stretch yourself.
• Read about writing. This isn’t a substitute for doing the writing, but it’s a great way to develop new skills and come up with new ideas. You’re already reading Men with Pens, so you’ve got a head start here. Other great writing blogs include Copyblogger, Write to Done, and Daily Writing Tips.
• Consider a course. You might want to study for a degree, or take a less formal course – an evening class or an online one.

Pick up your sword. Use it. Sharpen it. And keep fighting. There’s a lot more adventure still to come.

About the Author: For a sharper sword and a toolbox crammed with creative tools, check out Ali Hale’s Creativity Toolbox, a joint venture with Thursday Brahm. You’ll be swinging the steel in no time.

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Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Sharpen Your Writing Sword first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Did you know writers have a mental factory hard at work in their heads? That may be surprising, but it’s true: You have a full staff up there in the office of your mind.

Now, you may be the CEO calling the shots, but your mental employees are the ones who action your decisions and produce the blog posts, articles, web copy and novels you create. When you take awareness of your team, you have one awesome production line at your disposal.

Close the office door and ignore your team’s existence, and you have chaos.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let me introduce to your mental writing team: the Visionary, the Draft Worker and the Editor.

The Visionary heads the team. He’s the one who thinks up the great ideas, and he’s the creative crafter producing the mental raw material for the team to work with. Want to know how to recognize your Visionary? He’s the one shouting, “That would make an awesome post!”

Now the Visionary doesn’t write. That’s not his job. The Visionary’s only role is to come up with ideas and send them to the next guy in line: the Draft Worker.

The Draft Worker gets handed the ideas, and his job is to take the idea in front of him and write. He starts scribbling away and creates a rough written draft. You can recognize what the Draft Worker does when you see the 500 words you just wrote on your screen.

But the Draft Worker doesn’t polish the writing. That’s not his job. The Draft Worker’s only role is to flesh out ideas into written words. Then he sends the draft to the next employee: the Editor.

The Editor doesn’t create ideas and he doesn’t write. That’s all beneath him. His job is to take the rough draft and apply his hawk-eye skills. He looks for typos and cleans up phrasing. He smoothes the rough edges, polishes the structure, tightens things up and tweaks until the piece is presentable.

And your Visionary says, “That’s it! By jove, you’ve got it. That’s exactly what I wanted to say!” You hit publish, and the work’s all done.

Now your hard-working writing team can do magic. They perform their duties on demand and as a result, you can churn out good work without stumbling blocks.

But like any team, sometimes there are power struggles. Squabbles. Infighting. Backstabbing between co-workers. And sometimes it gets so bad that your team’s work can grind to a halt. They completely shut down your mental word-crafting factory.

And when that happens, you can’t write.

Your Editor puts on airs and starts to think his role is most important. After all, editing is what makes your writing awesome! And he thinks the Draft Worker should pay more attention to editing. So he starts looking over the Draft Worker’s shoulder as he writes and criticizes everything. It’s not good enough!

Your Draft Worker gets unhappy, because now he’s being watched like a hawk, criticized every minute, and keeps getting interrupted. He can’t do a good job, because he’s getting told it’s not good enough, that he should start over every sentence or work harder to find the right words.

Your Visionary? He’s on his creative throne trying to come up with ideas, but now the other two guys are making a lot of noise. The fighting’s distracting. The Visionary can’t think of new ideas, and he even starts forgetting good ones he had in mind. So he decides to go see what all the ruckus is about.

So there you are with no ideas, no writing getting done and nothing getting editing. Each time you try to write, it just doesn’t work. You stare at a blank page. You can’t start. You can’t finish. You half-heartedly write draft after draft after draft, and nothing ever gets to the point where you like it.

What does that give you?

Nothing.

It might take you hours – days! – to write a mediocre post. Creativity’s low, nothing seems good enough and you can’t finish anything to satisfaction.

You need to resolve your internal staff squabbles.

It’s time to call a mental time out and split up the fighting. You’re the CEO of that mental writing team, which means you get to call the shots. You get to send everyone back to their desk and back to their job so they can all get back to work.

You’re in control of your mind. And that means you control your results.

Your Visionary needs room to come up with great ideas. Start there. Get away from the computer and give yourself mental some mental space. That way, the Draft Worker can’t elbow in to grab a half-finished idea and the Editor can’t criticize a crappy rough draft.

Go for a walk. Hang out in a café. Take a day off. Read a book. Expose yourself to the outside world so you can get the mental stimulation you need to come up with ideas. Bring a pen and paper. Jot down thoughts as they come to you. Write down a working title and three points that you want to write about.

Then close the pad, thank the Visionary for doing his job and do no more writing that day.

The next morning, it’s the Draft Worker’s turn. It’s time to take the idea and write a rough draft. You have the idea and a brief, three-point outline to work with – now you need to flesh it out.

Give the Draft Worker what he needs to settle into work. Start by preparing yourself mentally with a good routine that puts you in the mood to write. Don’t write cold – warm up by writing something completely irrelevant for 15 to 30 minutes. Then let your Draft Worker do his job.

What’s his job? To write an absolutely unpolished mediocre rough draft from the Visionary’s idea. That’s all. Just get the words out. Nothing spectacular, nothing perfect, nothing awesome. A rough draft isn’t supposed to be good – remember, that’s not the Draft Worker’s job. Just write a not-too-bad piece for the Editor.

And when you’re done, stop writing, close your document, thank the Draft Worker, and do no more writing that day.

The next morning, your Editor’s up – and by now, he’s probably raring to go. Let him loose on that rough draft. He’ll love sprucing up the Draft Worker’s writing. Don’t let your Editor write – that’s not his job. Just polish the prose and correct awkward phrasing. Check for typos. Smooth paragraph transitions. Make the rough draft good.

Then wrap it up in a pretty bow and be done with it. Your editor can’t get incessant, after all. His shift’s over. Thank him for his good work, and hit publish.

Teach your mental writing team that they need to respect each other’s roles. Each has a single task to do, and each contributes to the creation of great writing. They all bring equal value to the finished piece and rely on each other to achieve a good piece of work.

No one is more important than the other.

Once you’ve developed a respectful mental working environment for your Visionary, your Draft Worker and your Editor, you’ll soon be able to benefit from their magic. In fact, you might find that separating your writing process into three mental roles (and enforcing a round-robin of taking turns!), your writing becomes better and faster – because your mental trio isn’t wasting time trying to control each other.

They’ll be focused on their job, and when their shift is over, they’ll be cheering, pushing and encouraging each other along. Your writing will swoosh from rough idea to polished piece in no time at all.

Squabbles not included.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Unblock Your Writing and Create Effortless Words first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Many freelancers and solopreneurs think they’re totally motivated to build a rockstar business that wins them wealth, freedom and fame.

It’s a lie.

The truth is that most freelancers only believe they’re driven toward wealth and success. But dig deep down, and you discover that the opposite is the actual reality.

Where does it all go wrong? What makes freelancers say they’re gung-ho about wealth and freedom when they’re actually not?

Read on. You’ll learn the mental makeup of the freelancer that pinpoints the problem.

How Motivated Are You to Gain Wealth?

Imagine you’re lying on the couch. You’re exhausted. You have the flu, your head feels like cotton wool and your body aches from head to toe. You’re having one of those days where you just can’t work – and for freelancers, reaching that point often means being nearly on death’s door.

The next thing you know, I burst into your house. “Hey! Come with me right now! I have a client who wants to hire you. Land this contract and you’ll make $10,000! It’ll be great. You’ll rock, I know it – it’ll be as easy as pie! Now get up and let’s go, he’s waiting!”

What would you do?

Remember, you’re pretty sick – death’s door. You were taking the whole day off to recoup your strength and get over this flu you’ve been fighting.

Freelancers who answer this question honestly usually say they’d actually be skeptical of me and my enthusiasm.

You’d have questions, even if I were a trusted friend with a reputation for clever ideas. You’d want to gauge the opportunity before you dragged yourself out of your flu-induced stupor. Even if I had you utterly convinced, your first question would be, “Can I see him tomorrow? I’m pretty sick.”

How Motivated Are You to Protect Wealth?

I want you to imagine a different scenario. You’re still on the couch, feeling as sick and miserable as before, only this time you have $10,000 hidden away in your underwear drawer. It’s your hard-earned cash, tucked away Mafioso-style for safekeeping.

Suddenly you hear shattering glass from your bedroom. There’s a thump, and you hear your drawer being opened. I’ve broken into your home – and I’m after your money.

What would you do?

No matter how sick or miserable you feel, you’d probably leap up like lightning! Your heart would pound and adrenaline would zing through you, making your mind and body crackle with energy as you grab a baseball bat and come after me.

The Freelancer Feast or Famine (Finally) Explained

Freelancers are notoriously known for yo-yoing bank balances and that oh-so-common feast or famine cycle. You’ll find posts about it all over the internet – but very few tap into the truth about why it exists, and what to do about it.

And most freelancers just accept the poor-to-rich-to-poor cycle as an inescapable reality of the self-employed lifestyle.

It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, the only thing that causes your freelancer feast or famine is the psychology that drives your motivation.

The good news? Psychology can be changed!

The exercise you completed earlier tells you a lot about your personal motives for action and the psychological forces that drive your behavior. Most people are far more motivated to avoid losing money than to actually pursue riches and success.

They mentally focus on avoiding poverty. Not on creating wealth.

That’s why most freelancers are highly motivated to find ways to bring in money when they’re near disaster but often lack the necessary drive to build a business that takes them to the big times.

3 Quick-fire Yips to Turn Yo-yos into Rockets

Get your bearings. Yo-yo motivation (and feast-or-famine finances) are primarily caused by a lack of direction and vision. Richard Branson doesn’t yo-yo because he always knows there’s another level of success to reach. Now he sends people to the stars. Figure out your long-term direction and business goals. When you’ve done “enough” of them, you’ll be hungry for more.

Raise your standards. Donald Trump won’t buy a suit that costs less than $3,000 – so it makes sense that he doesn’t consider it a good day unless he makes millions. Up the quality of your living and simultaneously up the expectations for your business performance. Did you get into business to struggle month after month or to succeed?

Line up the rewards. Set rewards worth salivating over. Go beyond merely raising your living standards and decide on some captivating rewards for specific business milestones. Grab a mentor or a friend and get some accountability, then set a target and stick to it. When you reach it, celebrate big and then return to work with a fire lit under you.

Of course, none of these tips work unless you deal with the psychological core of the problem, which is…

Overcoming Your Fear of Loss

Even if you’ve been reading about personal development for years and believe that you’re a positively motivated person, it’s time to take an honest look at what drives your behavior.

If the imaginative experiment of earlier had you leaping up to prevent me from stealing your money, you’ve successfully identified some mental conditioning you need to change. Spotting the problem is the first step.

Let’s keep it real, though. Working to avoid financial loss and stay away from poverty is a good motivation. You never want to lose that.

But imagine if you could channel that same lightning-fast, zero-hesitation energy into the pursuit of business growth.

Instead of reaching that point where your unconscious decides you’ve done enough for the month, you’d be furiously working, capitalizing on any success so you could take your business (and your life) to a whole new level.

Twitter, your RSS reader, YouTube, watching TV… None of that would look very tempting. Wild horses couldn’t drag you away from your business.

All this is possible and easily achievable, but you have to overcome your fear of loss. As long as you hold onto that fear, your unconscious keeps the bulk of your motivation juice in reserve to save it for a possible financial apocalypse.

Ironically, the only way to guarantee such an apocalypse never happens is to get motivated enough that you build the kind of kickass business that can survive anything.

Reconnect with what it is you really want – not what you don’t want. Expose your business fears and look at them. Do whatever it takes to remove them from your consciousness.

Forget what you’re driven away from. Set goals that pull you toward what you want.

And when you do? You tap into the same psychological, motivational state that the world’s business rockstars use to win wealth, freedom and game-changing impact.

For business psychology strategies that help you achieve more wealth, freedom, AND sanity (all at the same time!), click here to visit the home base of Peter Shallard, the Shrink for Entrepreneurs, or follow Peter on Twitter for mini Jedi mind tricks that get you ahead in the game.

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Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Is Your Freelancing Psychology Broken? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Seeing your name on top sites and in big publications is a pretty hot feeling. I know that feeling personally. And many freelance writers want to know how they can get their work right in the spotlight. Well, Kelly Watson’s here to tell you just how easy it is – and exactly how to get your work published by some really big names. Go for it!

To date, I’ve had my work published twice by Forbes.com. As a freelance journalist, seeing my name in print was nothing new. But each time I announced the Forbes posts on my Facebook page, friends and colleagues reacted with awe.

“How’d you do that?” some asked, as if I was privy to a secret formula that let me create bylines with the wave of my magic wand.

You don’t need a magic wand to have your articles and blog posts published by top media outlets. All you need are a couple of great ideas, a decent command of the English language and the determination to keep working after the rejection letters roll in.

Here’s how I did it:

Know your publication

There’s no faster way to ruin your credibility than to pitch editors a topic that’s completely irrelevant. Prevent this by checking the publication to see:

• What topics it covers
• Who writes the articles
• What style articles are written in
• How long articles are

I knew Forbes accepted blog posts from freelance writers, so I figured my odds were good. I also noticed that list posts were popular, so editors would probably be open to accepting one.

Craft your query

At the heart of most freelance writers’ professions is the query letter: a one-page document describing the proposed article, how long it will be, what sources it will reference and the writer’s past experience.
If you’re pitching a guest blog post, editors may want to see the finished document before they accept. But be careful – sending a finished article to a magazine publisher is a sure sign of a newbie.

Because Forbes also has a print version, I decided to go the more formal route and pitch the blog post with a traditional query letter instead of sending the whole thing (which hadn’t been written yet anyway).

Send the pitch

Nobody likes getting letters addressed “to whom it may concern.” Do your homework to find out the name of the editor of the publication. If you’re pitching to a magazine, look at the masthead in the front pages of a recent issue. If you’re pitching a website, look for “Editorial Guidelines” or “Contributor information”.

If you can’t find the right information or you’re still not sure who to contact, call the publication and ask.

Never send a pitch to more than one publication at a time. You don’t want to risk getting two acceptance letters and having to turn one down. Editors hate this, and they won’t look kindly upon your future queries.

Follow up

Getting no response could mean that editors didn’t like your idea, but more likely it means that your query was lost in the shuffle.

If you don’t hear back within two or three weeks, follow up with a brief email or telephone call reminding editors of the query and asking them to respond within two weeks’ time. Attach a copy of the original query to the email. If you still don’t hear back, you can either follow up a second time or pitch the article elsewhere.

Review the contract

If editors accept your query, they’ll probably ask you to sign a contract. This contract specifies what rights the publication has to your work and how much money (if any) you’ll receive.

I try to hold publishers to first publication rights – that means they have the right to publish my article first, but I can then sell the content again or post it on my blog. Avoid work-for-hire contracts that take all rights to your work (unless they pay well).

Write the article

Once you’ve signed the contract, you’ll need to write the article. Don’t get lazy – stick to the agreed-upon word count and meet all deadlines. Also, read the article aloud at least once to catch any hidden typos. The less editing you make others do, the more likely you are to land repeat assignments.

If possible, send your article in a few days early. Don’t send it more than a week in advance, however, or it might get filed and forgotten about. I give most editors a call when sending the article to let them know it’s on the way. That way they expect it and can let me know if it doesn’t appear in their inbox that day.

Promote, promote, promote

Once the article has published, do your part to promote it. This builds your credibility and makes editors more likely to hire you in the future. (After all, they benefit from your promotional efforts, too!)

If your article is posted online, link to it from Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. Leave comments if possible and encourage others to do the same.

If you feel the experience went smoothly, you can ask the editor for a short testimonial. I do this often, and include the responses under the published articles on my website. This way, other editors can see that I’m an experienced writer who always meets her deadlines.

Kelly Watson is a freelance journalist and copywriter who blogs about small business marketing. Check out her site today.

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Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How I Got Published on Forbes.com – and How You Can Too first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.