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The Daring Author
The Daring Author
Investing in Yourself: The Ultimate Success Strategy
What's the most valuable investment you can make as an author? After years of chasing strategies and systems, I discovered the surprising answer that transformed not just my career, but every aspect of my life.
For too long, I operated under the crushing weight of hustle culture. I scheduled rigid writing hours, created endless to-do lists, and measured my worth by productivity metrics. This mindset once drove me to write nine books in a single year—an achievement that left me completely burnt out and disconnected from the very creativity that called me to writing. The conditioning ran deep: work hard to make money. If you're not reaching your goals, you're not hustling enough.
Everything changed when I began investing in myself instead. By reconnecting with who I am, nurturing my wellbeing without guilt, and approaching my emotions with curiosity rather than judgment, I transformed my relationship with writing. The words began flowing from a place of genuine connection rather than forced productivity. I stopped chasing external markers of success like bestseller lists or income thresholds, and instead focused on enjoying the creative process itself.
The results defied everything hustle culture had taught me. My income doubled, then tripled—not because I was working harder, but because I was creating from an authentic, centered place. Sales started coming in precisely when I was out living my life, enjoying experiences that filled my creative well. Readers connected more deeply with work that came from a place of genuine emotion and presence.
Ready to break free from the burnout cycle and discover what happens when you make yourself your best investment? Trust your instincts, honor your needs, and watch as success follows naturally—not as something you chase, but as the natural byproduct of living and creating authentically. Your readers (and your future self) will thank you.
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Website: https://thedaringpress.com/
Hello and welcome back to another chapter of the Daring Author podcast. Now, today, I'm going to talk about my biggest investment this year, and it might surprise some people If I say to you what do you think would be my biggest investment this year? You, what do you think would be my biggest investment this year? Have a think about that and I'm going to tell you this year, the best money I have ever spent. It wasn't on ads, it wasn't on my business, it was on me and it changed everything. It was on me and it changed everything, and I don't say that lightly. It literally has changed everything.
Speaker 1:So I have created a lot in the past from this space of I need to have the perfect system, I need to hustle, I need to make a plan, I should do this, I should market it this way, I should market things that way. And let me tell you when I put that force and pressure in turn, that is what hasn't made me success, which is totally backwards, because we hear all these things on, like I know. You know, follow this exact roadmap to get to 10K months. Follow this exact roadmap to get to 20K months, 30k months, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the biggest investment and thing that has created the biggest ripple effect is investing in myself, is investing in learning more about me, learning more about who I am, remembering who I am. And when you upgrade, you like every area of your life upgrades without you having to fix anything. It is literally this, like I'm always saying now, like this game of life, and really it is all about up-leveling in different areas of your life and, honestly, the more that I have lent back and lent away from the constant hustle, the constant doing and this is a big big thing of mine condition is to work hard to make money, and I'm totally shedding that. I am removing those thoughts and those conditions that I really have to work hard and I would. I'm a very scheduled person and I would have to be at my desk at a particular time. I've got the to-do list, I've got a ticket off.
Speaker 1:If I didn't reach these certain milestones, if I didn't reach a certain thing, then I felt like a failure. I felt like we're not going to make money because we're not putting in enough effort. Does this sound make money because we're not putting in enough effort? Does this sound familiar? Like we're not putting in enough hustle, we're not putting in enough work. We've got to be working to the midnight. We've got to be hustling, hustling, hustling, because the only way that we're going to make money is if we work harder and keep going and put so much into it and write 50 books a year and blah, blah, blah, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.
Speaker 1:Like, honestly, I fell into this trap and I had a year where I wrote nine books in a year. I ended up being totally burnt out, exhausted, didn't even know how to think, I couldn't connect with myself, I couldn't connect with anyone else, I was just totally exhausted and a good lesson that taught me was that I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to be in that headspace. I want to enjoy the process. I want to enjoy the experience of writing a book, of getting excited about life, of actually living my life and loving who I am and who I am becoming as well.
Speaker 1:And each day I wake up and I'm like, feel like a new version of myself because I'm so connected to myself. I'm connected to my creativity. I believe in myself. That's a huge one. I believe in myself. That's a huge one. I believe in myself, in my abilities, I believe in my creations, I believe in my deepest expression and the more that I am connecting, the more that I am believing in myself, the more I am connected to the work that I'm putting out there, the energy or the energetics that I'm putting into the work that I'm producing out there, the energy, all the energetics that I'm putting into the work that I'm producing, the words that are connecting, the words that have depth, the words that have feelings. This has caused such a ripple effect and the more that I just feel so good. Every day and I'll actually rephrase that every day, I don't wake up always feeling like, in this space of happiness, joy, because we are human beings, we have all these layers of different emotions and I don't think of being angry, being sad, as like bad emotions anymore. I lean into that and I'm like oh, okay, what are we feeling? Today I'm connecting to myself. I'm expressing myself in my journal, in voice notes, being like, okay, let's get curious.
Speaker 1:Curiosity has been a big one for me. Of like, okay, I am feeling anger. What has caused this anger? What was the trigger of that? Can we get a little bit curious into this? Of like, okay, let's go deeper into this. Why am I feeling this way and like how can we, how can we let go a little bit of this and how can we have this conversation with this part of us that does feel triggered? It might be our inner child, it might be certain parts of our past that feel like when this thing comes up, I'm feeling quite triggered about it and just getting curious about it. And I've the more that I'm doing this, the more I'm feeling quite triggered about it and just getting curious about it. And the more that I'm doing this, the more I'm having fun with it and playing this game of life and as storytellers we could rephrase that as playing the story of our life and all the different as we go through the story arc, all the different elements of that. We're in the fun and games, we're in a challenge that might come up and just being curious with it and having those levels.
Speaker 1:And for me, this has changed everything. I don't sit in a state of mind for very long, I get curious, I work through it and then we up-level to the next level of that game. And it's been a really amazing experience for me to just live this life. We are here, like to be even deeper in gratitude of like we are here. We are here now experiencing and living this life.
Speaker 1:I am so over looking to the future of like, oh, when I get to this mile, when I sell this many books, I'll be a success. When I hit the New York Times bestseller, I'll be a success when I hit blah, blah, blah blah, or when I'm blah, blah blah. All these expectations, all these things in this industry where it's like, oh, you'll be a successful author when you earn 10K months, or I'm a six-figure author, I'm a six-figure author, I'm a seven-figure author, blah, blah, blah, like all them. Things like it's putting us in this state of mind of like, constantly chasing that next hit. And let me tell you, when you do hit those things, when you do hit the USA Today bestseller list, it's always like next, like you don't actually even care about the thing.
Speaker 1:For me, it's very much in the experience of life now and experiencing and living and enjoying this craft, enjoying what I love to do every single day, and the ripple effect of that, the success that has come from being in this state of mind, working on myself, being uplifted, connected to myself on a deeper level and up-leveling these different games of this life, the levels of this game of life. That has been my success. I have doubled, tripled my income from my books by doing this. And there will be people that tell you that, oh no, you need to have this particular strategy, you need to have this thing, you need to have this magic sauce. The magic sauce is you. You are the magic source.
Speaker 1:When you connect more with yourself, when you connect and remember who you are and when you go up these levels of your life, of this game of life, that is when the success comes, because you're not even thinking about the success. You're too busy. You are too busy enjoying your life. You are too busy in this world, world, in this book that you have created, and you are just like putting everything into it. You are enjoying the experience. You are putting in and feeling all of this energy and all of that, and that is the pillar of success in my experience and in so many others experience when we get to this and you feel that connection.
Speaker 1:When the readers read your words, they feel that depth, they feel that connection, they feel that emotion.
Speaker 1:It moves them. It moves them. It has the potential to change their lives. It has the potential to help them to go through something that they're going through. It has this ripple effect. And how amazing is that that we have this skill to write, to express ourselves through these words that have such impact on the world. Impact on the world, and we are in this experience of just loving it, living it. And you know what, fuck the hell. You know what you are doing and you move from that place. You get a inspiration hit, you move, you take inspired action towards that. You get an idea okay, run with that. Don't go check with the person in your DMs of like your author, friend or whatever. Be like, oh, do you think this is a good idea? Move, and that's a big one for me. Of like validation and seeking approval from other people and it's something that I am consciously doing now of like I don't need approval, I need my own approval. If I get a download and I'm like, oh, my God, this idea, run with it, move with it, create it and just feel how beautiful that is to be in this creative vortex. There is nothing like that and that is the most beautiful thing that I have experienced this year and the best money I have ever spent is in myself, in feeling good, in going out and getting coffee when I want to get a coffee, not feeling any guilt about that, going to work from places where it makes me feel really good, it makes me feel in this creative zone, doing stuff for myself that makes me feel good, moving my body, having conversations, going out for lunch, doing all these things. Going for walks when it's sunny, not being like, oh no, I need to be at my desk, I need to be hustling and writing, because you know what it's a game now. Every time that I go and do something for myself, the sales come in. The sales come in. I get notifications. The sales come in through my direct store. The sales come in when I am living my life, when I am out and enjoying my life, when I am feeling my best and I'm not like wondering, oh my God, how am I going to make this money? When am I going to make this money? Oh, I need to do all this stuff to make money. I need to post five TikToks today to make this money. Yeah, it's a lie and I like I. I have proof of that from when I go and do whatever it is I'm doing and I'm feeling good, and that's when the sales drop in, cause I'm in this energetic mind of like, I am feeling good, I am in the best mindset that I can be in this moment, and that's that's a true beauty. That's a true beauty of it. And just trust, trust yourself, trust your self-worth, knowing, knowing your worth and like betting on that and being in that. And the most strategic move you can make for your business, your relationships, your future is to make yourself the first investment line in your budget and that is what I'm going to leave with you with today and, yes, I know this will land with you and yeah, I'll see you in the next chapter.