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The Daring Author
The Daring Author
The Art of Celebration
Ever wonder why the hustle-and-grind approach to author success leaves you feeling empty even when you're hitting your goals? I had this revelation while conducting a business audit for one of our Daring Press clients who thanked me for something unexpected—reminding her to celebrate her achievements.
The constant chase for the next milestone, the next book release, or the arbitrary markers of "success" we've created in the author community creates immense pressure that disconnects us from joy. I know because I've lived it. There was a time when I released nine books in a single year, convinced that more production meant more success. The result? Complete exhaustion and creative burnout.
Then something unexpected happened. The following year, I published just one book but approached it entirely differently. I took my time, marketed in ways that felt authentic, and operated from a place of alignment rather than pressure. That single book outperformed all nine from my "hustle year" combined. This wasn't just luck—it was the direct result of shifting from external validation to internal guidance, what I call "self-remembering" rather than self-discovery.
The most powerful investment you can make isn't in marketing strategies or productivity systems—it's in reconnecting with yourself. When you trust your instincts, honor your authentic desires, and create from a place of joy, you become naturally magnetic. Your work reflects that energy, and readers respond. So pause for a moment today and celebrate how far you've come. Your future self is watching, hoping you'll slow down long enough to notice you've already built parts of the dream life you're still chasing.
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Hello and welcome back to another chapter of the Daring Author podcast. Today, we're going to talk about celebration. Now I'm going to open this with an opening hook, that is, you can't build your dream life while ignoring the one you've already built, and this is huge. I had one of our beautiful clients at the Daring Press reach out to me this week and we did an audit for her on her author business, and the first thing that she said was thank you, thank you for reminding me to celebrate, because this is something that I don't do.
Speaker 1:I always look for, like, the next milestone or always chasing that next thing, and forget to like celebrate, and this is a huge one in our industry, I believe, and something that we are constantly chasing the next book, we are constantly chasing the next sale, we are constantly chasing to keep up with the so-called game that we have created in this community. That is total BS, in my opinion, and something I have stepped back and not gone into that because there's so much pressure. It is too much pressure that we put on ourselves to be a so-called and I'm using my little fingers here success, and I'm using my little fingers here Success, yeah, I just fully believe when you actually stop, look around and realise you're actually living something that you once wished for, prayed for, hoped for. Take a step back and look at everything that you have created so far the book that you've written, the 10 books you've written, however many, or if you're on your first draft, look at what you have created so far and celebrate that, celebrate the fact that you have put words into a document and I was going to say, used a, picked up a pen and written, but now we don't do that anymore. As such, it's more in the typing. You have put this idea that come to you and you have taken that and turned it into a book. You have turned it into characters that have so much depth, that have a story that only you can write, only you can tell, and I think we need to remember and celebrate that fact and stop living in that future. And, trust me, I used to be like this.
Speaker 1:I would constantly think about the next book or the next thing, or okay, when I get to this level of success, then I'll be a proper author, or when I get to this particular stage, I'll be, you know, held in this certain level as an author. I'm not a small author, I'm a big author or whatever. Like it's all just labels and things that we have put on ourselves. The pressure, and I'm just like totally disconnected from that now. The pressure, I just it is not something that I'm tapped into.
Speaker 1:I am really tapped into celebrating feeling good writing in a way that only I feel good writing in that way, things that feel good for me in terms of marketing, the way that I want to market my books. I don't follow set structures of like, okay, you got to follow this roadmap to get to 10K months, to blah, blah, blah. I very much, I will learn new ways to market, I will look at things and then I will check in with myself and be like okay, does this feel really good for me? Is this a pathway that lights me up? Is this something that I would have fun doing? And if it's a yes, roll with that. If it's a no and you feel yourself constricting, then it's not for you. It would be a waste of time, it would be a waste of effort and even though it has given somebody else success because they were following their path in a way that felt really true for them and had been a total yes, like a body response yes.
Speaker 1:And if we get into looking at like human design and our, our bodies and ourselves, like, for me, I'm a generator and mine I know when my it's my yes and no, it is my sacral and I'll feel it in my body. If it's like a yes or if I feel myself constricting, it's a no. And the more that we tap into like it's more knowing who we are, the more we're connecting with ourself, the more that we know about ourself and how we work and listening and tapping into our own beliefs, instead of always going outside of ourselves, of like okay, this person has the answer, this person has the magic source and if I just follow their roadmap, I will have success. And you know what? Like sometimes it might work if it feels good for you and if it's the right roadmap and if it is aligned with who you are, what you believe in, all of those things, if it makes you feel good, then you might have success. But if it's not, it's going to be a waste of time, a waste of money.
Speaker 1:And the more like the best investment I believe is the more you connect with yourself, the more that you work on yourself, and when I say work on yourself. I don't mean you have to learn all this stuff about yourself and like be in this, like consistent learning phase. It's literally like it's not even the whole word around self-discovery I have reframed that into it's like self-remembering, it is remembering who you are. It is having faith in yourself. It is having trust, trust in yourself, in your thoughts. It is having trust trust in yourself, in your thoughts, in your opinions, in your how does it make you feel? Instead of constantly going outside of ourself for the answers, go within, go within.
Speaker 1:It has been the biggest breakthrough for me this year in sales and in everything that I do, in the way that I feel, in the way that I feel in the way that I act, in the way that I take action now, in everything. And I am on this whole new level of just loving my life. And even when things are challenging, even when I get challenged with new plot twists that come in, and plot twists that you know are the contrast of what I actually have in my vision and what I'm like, oh, I really want this thing, and then I'll have like a contrast of like a plot twist, of like the universe, god, whatever you believe in, like throwing this thing down on me and being like, okay, do you really want this? Here's a challenge, and how you move through that and how you have your own back and how you take those steps and trust and faith in all of that Like, oh, it has up-leveled my game, it has up-leveled my sales. It has like doubled, tripled. It is been the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:The more that I connect with my life, the more that I love my life thing, the more that I connect with my life, the more that I love my life, the more that I love me, the more that I get in this game of self and remembering and just, oh, it is like I'm addicted to the more, the more that I connect with myself. It is, it is beautiful, and I think that's like the. You know the magnetism. The more magnetism you have to being present when you fully live now, you'll naturally attract more. And if you need, if you need that what's the word I'm looking for If you need to see that, or if you need like the oh, my God, I've lost the word for it. Anyway, you know what I mean. If you need to see that evidence, there we go. If you need the evidence of that, like I have got that evidence of this year investing in myself and learning more about myself and like connecting, trusting, moving from that space.
Speaker 1:And not last year, the year before for a story time I was releasing nine books. In that whole year I was like fully hustling the more I produce, the more I'm going to make. And because I believed in this thing, that I heard that that's the only way to success is, you know, producing all these books. And I just got caught up in that movement and in that wave. And let me tell you, I got to the end of that and I was exhausted. I was just like couldn't even think. I felt so uninspired, I was just like and then I took a year to just be like, okay, I'm going to do it my way, I'm just going to produce when I want to produce and getting this flow and it took to even now releasing two books this year.
Speaker 1:I released one book last year, let me tell you, like one book compared to the nine books, I had more success when I released one book in that year because I had time to look and I had time to market and market in a way that felt really good, because I had energy, I had time, I had trust.
Speaker 1:I moved from a place that felt really good.
Speaker 1:I wasn't constantly in this overwhelm, I wasn't constantly in this like pressure state.
Speaker 1:I really created from a space of just like happiness, joy, fun, like creating from that space and that energy in the energetics of that.
Speaker 1:That's when I had more success. And isn't that funny to look at the contrast of that of like okay, we're producing nine books in a year compared to one book in a year and that time and that freedom and not working as much and to have more success that way, like what a good example of that. And how good that feels to then be able to connect more with my community, to have more space and more time to put into that of like, feeling that connection, feeling the abundance, feeling the trust, loving living my life and up leveling and learning more about myself and being in playing this game of life, playing the story of my life and going through the plot twists, going through the fun and games, going through all the different parts of this life and being here and being now. And I will end this episode with saying your future self is watching you right now, hoping you slow down long enough to notice you made it this far.