Make Your Writing Goals to Stick ft. Erin Marcus (Classic Replay EP#569)
Be in charge, take action, get results. 🎯 Most of us stay stuck because we've never actually decided what we want. Business coach Erin Marcus on working out the outcome, reverse engineering the steps, and putting a date on it. 📅 A classic replay, and all of it still applies. ✨ Her starting point is that most people don't get what they want because they've never decided what it is. Others know, but don't believe they're allowed to have it. Either way there's nothing to reverse engineer from, so the work becomes what Erin calls random acts of marketing. The fix is a process: Decide. Take action. Look at what came back. Decide again. Erin writes out what she wants every morning because it makes the rest of the day's decisions easier. She works in specific outcomes rather than feelings, because feelings are vague enough to let you off the hook. Then she asks the question that stops most people: when is it happening? Put it on the calendar, then live by the calendar. There's a long stretch for writers in the middle. Trudi once spent an hour with Erin trying to decide whether she wrote urban fantasy or paranormal romance. Erin's read was that the decision was giving her a reason not to start. Start the book — the genre settles once the book exists. Pick a niche for now rather than forever. And a lot of the subgenre agonising exists because Amazon needs a category to sell ads against, not because readers need one. In this episode: Why most people are stuck: they haven't decided what they want, or don't believe they can have it Reverse engineering the steps from the outcome "Random acts of marketing" and where they come from Wanting the impossible: if the outcome depends on other people behaving, it isn't yours to have Erin's daily written practice, and why she does it before anything else Start with what you don't want, if that's easier Specific outcomes beat feelings, because vague language is where we let ourselves off the hook Be in charge, take action, get results, then decide again Why self-trust shortens the gap between deciding and doing Fear and habit: your brain's job is to keep you alive, not to make you happy How fear turns up as overwhelm, confusion and distraction "When is it happening?" — putting it on the calendar and living by it Debriefing monthly, and after every marketing event Three or four goes is starting, not trying Recovery speed over perfection — what used to cost a year now costs a moment Observing your own behaviour without the judgement A niche for now, not forever "I don't pivot, I iterate" — and the companies that didn't Why subgenres matter more to Amazon's ad categories than to your reader Reading the physical signal: what a clenched feeling tells you, and what excitement tells you Inspired action plus infinite possibilities equals inevitable results Turning away from the problem to find the answer Being lit up about your work is what gets you marketing it Your commitment to the outcome has to be bigger than your fear of the thing Writing the books and growing the business are two different skills Why none of us can see our own patterns, and who you let tell you the truth About Erin Marcus Erin Marcus is a business coach and consultant with more than 25 years of mentoring, training and coaching behind her. 🔗 Find Erin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinmarcus/ 📌 Erin's YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@ErinMarcusUntamedSuccess 📌 Note on this replay: since we recorded this in May 2023, Erin has moved on from Conquer Your Business, so the website mentioned in the episode is out of date. Find her on LinkedIn instead: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinmarc 🔗 CONNECT WITH THE SPA GIRLS: 🌐 Website & free self-publishing resources: http://www.SelfPublishingAuthorsPodcast.com 🎧 Subscribe to our weekly episodes on your favourite podcast app — search "SPA Girls Podcast" ❤️ Watch our episode recordings on the SPA Girls Podcast You Tube Channel http://www.youtube.com/c/SPAGirlsPodcast 💗 This podcast is supported by our amazing Patreon community! ⭐ Join at the $10 tier for access to our private Self-Publishing Mastermind group where we discuss marketing, writing, and answer your burning questions: http://www.patreon.com/spagirlspodcast #authortube #SelfPublishing #IndieAuthor #romancewriter #SelfPublishing #romancewriter #writingpodcast #writingcommunity
