Episode 103: Why You Need to Invest in Yourself as a Writer

This week Elizabeth and Stephanie talk about the importance of investing in yourself as a writer. Find the rooms with people who are writing and moving their dream forward. When you put yourself in the right room you’ll be amazed at what happens. It’s only if you’re doing the work of writing you understand the challenges of what comes with the job. It’s not easy. Which is why you need to find your people and we offer spaces for you to show up and invest in your writing journey. If you’ve been following us for a while, you know how often we talk about the value of community. It’s what keeps us showing up each week for all of you. If you’re here, you’re part of our community and we’re so glad you’re here. We’re here to show you it’s possible. No matter what you’re writing, your work as a writer has value.

 Welcome to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. If you've ever felt the pull to write your truth, to shape the chaos of real life into something meaningful and to share your journey with the world, you're in the right place. We're your hosts, Elizabeth and Stephanie, writers, coaches, and entrepreneurs who believe in you and know how important it is to find a writing community to guide you on your path to self-publishing.

You’re invited to connect with us by joining our Embodied Writing Experience where you’ll get a writer’s retreat directly to your inbox on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each week. Whether you’re working on a memoir, a novel, or journaling for yourself, this is an invitation to slow down, tune in, and write with embodied intention.   

Join our Embodied Writing Experience where you’ll get a writer’s retreat directly to your inbox on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each week. This is an invitation to slow down, tune in, and write with embodied intention.   

Work 1:1 with Memoir Coach Elizabeth Wilson. Book a session here.

Feel Good Marketing with Stephanie. Book a session here.

If you prefer to watch our conversations, you can find all of them on our YouTube channel.

You can find us on Instagram and Threads

Transcript

Elizabeth Wilson 1:15

Welcome back listeners to another episode of The Inspired Writer Collective. I am Elizabeth, and I'm joined with Stephanie, and today we are gonna be talking about how you invest in yourself as a writer. So often I see writers comment in Facebook groups or on Instagram threads asking for advice in how to promote their book, and they're really concerned about. You know, the financial cost of getting that book from their brain into the hands of their reader. And they're looking at that as the investment, right? That they're investing this money into their book, and how much are they gonna get in sales, and how much is that, you know, are they gonna earn back their investment? But Stephanie and I are gonna talk today and sort of challenge that concept that it is not a singular book that you are investing in. It is actually yourself as a writer. So, Stephanie, let's kick it off, like how is it that you have invested in yourself and seen rewards from choosing to invest in yourself?

Stephanie Oswald 2:22

So one of the biggest ways that I've invested in myself is I have a book coach who I work with on. I try to do a weekly basis. Sometimes that doesn't always happen given schedule conflicts and such, but I've really found that putting myself in the company of someone who sees the possibility, who encourages that is that courage is so powerful for the momentum the process because the process of writing a book is. Slow at times and fast at other times. and on top of that, I feel like too, the work that we've done with this podcast and the, the offerings that we have, I mean, there's so many layers to it, right? Coaches need, coaches is one of the conversations we were having the other day is that Elizabeth and I are both. Coaches for writers in different formats, and still need to have a coach. Like we don't have it all figured out. anybody who tells you they have it all figured out is not telling you the truth because we all need to surround ourselves with the people who see it's possible, that's what makes it powerful. That's what propels the momentum forward and believing in yourself. Because if you're thinking like, oh, I have to do this all by myself. I have to make all these decisions by myself. I have to put all this money into this myself. Well, guess what? It makes it so much easier when you invest in the people who can show you the shortcuts so that you're not throwing. Hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars out the window by all these slick marketers out there who are telling you that they have the answer. And for those of you who've been following us for a while, you know we have a memoir summit coming up that's gonna be a day long event with panelists who will show you it's possible.

Elizabeth Wilson 4:24

Very true. And what you just said, Stephanie, really just made me think about why I have recently chosen to hire an author coach. So I have hired Hannah and I don't think her episodes come out yet, and maybe the after the week after this one. Um, and so what I'm working with her on is she is helping me figure out all the timelines and intricate details of getting my book from its. Completed version, right? Like it's, I've got my, my book cover designer working on the cover right now. Um, if you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen some of that. And I also am getting ready to send off my manuscript to both my beta readers and my line and copy editor. Shout out to Allison, who was in last week's episode, um, as my editor. And so. I needed help and guidance in figuring out how to take my book from where it is now, to getting it into the hands of my target audience, and I don't know how to do all that, and it would take me so much time. To, you know, follow the right people on Instagram who teach you how to do these things, or show you tips or gather the individual pieces altogether. And time is not really what I have. I work a job, we also run this podcast and I'm trying to get this book done. So like I need someone who can help me map out a clear plan of what I need to do when making sure I'm not missing any key, key pieces like. When do I need to reach out to ARC readers? Did you know that you should be doing that like three months before you ever hand them a copy of the book? I didn't. And if I didn't hire Hannah, then I wouldn't have known that, and I probably would've missed that, that mark, that timeline. And then I wouldn't have the ARC readers to help me promote the book ahead of, you know, during the presale and pre-publication period. So all of that is to say that there are times when you're stepping into a new stage of the writing process where it is worth the investment of working with someone who knows that stage well. So whether you're working with an editor, you're working with someone who is gonna help you, you know, outline your story. Like I work with my, my memoir people on either one-on-one or within a small group coaching session, and. Once Hannah laid out for me, like our schedule,'cause I started working with her in January and I'm publishing in towards the end of June. So we have a schedule from January to July and once she outlined for me what we'd be covering in each of our. Our sessions. It felt so totally doable. Like it really, once she broke it down of when we needed to do what, I was like, oh, I've got this. I can do this. She's got a plan. I'm very good at following through on plans, even if I struggle to make them for myself. So that has given me that framework so that I can relax and know that. I am doing exactly what I need to be doing right now at this stage. I simply need to get these edits done so I can get them sent off to the people who need to read these copies of the book. I need to make my beta question lit, beta reader questions, um, to send out to them. So I. I can feel confident knowing that I'm not missing anything and I'm doing exactly what I need to be doing. I'm on the right path that's going to get me to this goal that I've set for myself and for my book. And that's exactly, I think the beauty of. What hiring a coach can do for you when you are in that particular stage. One of the key key pieces of this memoir summit that is going to be so helpful for you guys that choose to attend is that throughout the day we are presenting on. Topics from the beginning and the idea and the concept of valuing your story and choosing to share your story before you even start drafting. All the way through drafting, through editing, choosing what content to keep in there, what you wanna take out, how to put it into a book form, formatting, cover design, and then marketing and publication. And in each of these sessions. We have a panel of experienced people and through this you could ultimately find the coach or the service or the program that you are ready for the, each of these people offer some sort of program or one-on-one coaching option, so you will get to come and sit with us for the day. The ticket is only$5, and through that you can get an introduction to all of these experienced people. You get to hear what they're talking about specifically. You get to submit your your own q and a questions. As soon as you buy your ticket, you'll have access to submit your questions, to make sure that you question gets asked and answered. And. Then you'll have a whole toolbox of people that you can reach out to or read their blog posts. When you get to that stage in your writing journey, this is basically going to give you the roadmap that you need, and then you can pick and choose those experts and those coaches that fit. What you want for your book and at only$5 a ticket to attend live. I mean, it's really such a deal. There is an option to purchase the the replays so that you don't have to be overwhelmed trying to jot down all the notes. We will be sending an email as a follow up after that program with everyone's contact information so that you will have all of that. Um. This is, this is a great way for you to invest in your writing journey in a very broad way. You can get a taste of all the different flavors and see what, what works for you.

Stephanie Oswald 10:35

Well, and I think it also speaks to the power of putting yourself in the right rooms. that's one of the pieces that, that I'm learning on this journey because it's, it's new for me. I certainly don't have it all figured out. And that's the beauty of investing in something that's already been curated for you. And essentially the, the memoir Summit. You know, we've. Hold the people together who we've connected with, who've all been guests on the podcast, and you can listen to all those episodes. The link to the webpage will be in the show notes where you can find all of those episodes together, and you can go right to the spot that you're most curious about The beauty of it is, is that it's about putting yourself with people who show you the possibility, who show you that there is a path to pub publishing, whether you're doing it traditionally or independent. possible, and I think one of the biggest. Challenges with the writing community out there is that it often seems like there's so many gatekeepers that there's not a way in. And Sure. If you're trying to go for one of the Big five publishers, that's a whole other journey and challenge, and that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about valuing your of saying, I'm a writer and owning that and saying. This is, this is what is speaking to me. This is the story I'm ready to tell. And finding the people who will lift you up at every step of the way. And that's the beauty of listening to this podcast of maybe working with me or Elizabeth as your coach or finding another coach, and maybe even through the memoir summit there. There's so many possibilities. And the beauty of it is, is, is that. We've done the footwork for you here and we're offering this to you for, for less than a latte

Elizabeth Wilson 12:52

Yeah,

Stephanie Oswald 12:53

coffee shop. I mean, I don't

Elizabeth Wilson 12:55

especially nowadays, my gosh.

Stephanie Oswald 12:58

I, yeah, I mean, you know,$5 for an entire day. I mean, this is gonna be, you know, hours of time with. Amazing people who will just fill you with. This sense of like, oh wow, like I know this is possible, or, oh, I didn't even know that that was the step I should be taking, or I didn't know that that's what I should be looking for. And that's what we're here to support you with, is to say like, yes, you are a writer and the story you have to tell is valuable Let, we're gonna help you get in the room with people who will show it's possible. And it's the same thing for us. You know, we have our weekly writing sessions that we do, and it's about putting ourself in a room with others who are on this journey, and everybody's in a different place and not everybody has it figured out, but we all know. We're writers and we know that community has so much value. And so again, I mean, I'm just all in today about like putting yourself in the rooms, yourself in the spaces, and even if it's this Zoom room, I mean. Recently I went to a traditional publishing weekend for romance writers, and one of the things I learned there was that when you show up and put yourself in the rooms, it opens doors faster than if you don't put yourself in those rooms because every single agent who presented at that online conference said if you put in the subject line that you were at this session, I will look at your stuff. questions. And so that's also, again, with our memoir Summit, you attend, our guests are going to be open to inviting you into their space because we've pro, you know, we've provided this space for them as well, and we raise each other up. And that's where the focus is, is investing in yourself. Investing in knowing the people who are gonna show you what's possible.

Elizabeth Wilson 15:20

Yeah, and, and like you said, Stephanie, we have individual episodes with each of these people so you can do a deep dive into someone. I mean, frankly, this is how I screened everyone that I've hired in order to help me get my book. Uh, my, my book cover designer came from this podcast. My, my. Um, both of my editors came from this podcast. My author coach came from, you know, getting to meet them through this podcast, and so I have screened these people. You can screen these people, but the beauty of the memoir summit is you don't have to watch, oh, I don't know, like 10 hours of podcasting material. You can come to the MEMOIR Summit and you can get, what you're gonna see is a a five minute talk from each of our panelists on each of these sessions, and then we're gonna open it up for q and a again, where you can ask your own questions and get responses from these experts, from these experienced and published authors, memoir, writers themselves, many of them. And. That is so valuable because you get it in such a more condensed space. You don't have to go and and find necessarily all the episodes to get to know each of them, and it's priced at such a way that if you are really. Uh, just only looking for the very next step that you have in the writing process. Like maybe you're still in the idea stage and you don't wanna be overwhelmed with the marketing yet. Totally get it. That session is 45 minutes. We, we'll tell you what time it's at. You can just show up for one session and then leave the rest. Right? It's five bucks. That's totally worth attending a a 45 minute q and a session and discussion on, or say you've already gone through all those earlier stages of writing and you're just. Maybe you've even published your book already, but it just didn't land with your target audience. You're having trouble in this internet world reaching them and you're not sure what to do. We've got some great experts who will have actionable tips and tricks for you to use, and so maybe you just attend that last session of the day. You don't have to come for all of it. Maybe you don't wanna give your entire day up, and I get that if this is structured, that you can jump in and out of whatever sessions you want. If you're afraid you're gonna miss something, just buy the replays, um, and mark your calendar for March 14th, because that's coming up. But Stephanie, like you said, we, we show up in so many different ways, right? We've got these, these bigger curated events. We've got our one-on-one coaching, but at the end of the day, the way I get my writing done is showing up for our weekly writing sessions. And what I love that came out of it recently, like within the past two weeks, is this concept of even just using the time to do all the icky logistical work of being an author who has to run their own business, um, in promoting their books and sending emails and, you know, everything we have to juggle as authors and being able to use that time. To just handle some of those logistics that you've put off. Whether you need to sit down and finally just buy your ISBNs or you need to research something, maybe, uh, whether you wanna go with, you know, Ingram Spark, or you wanna go with Amazon, or you wanna do both, like. You can use, we're not judging how you use that writing time. You can use that writing time for whatever you need to do, even if you simply need to just sit and journal or read something else. You know, it's a, it's so great to, to be able to use that time. Even if it's not on your like core primary writing project, although that is exactly how I've gotten my writing done. And you know this, Stephanie, you know, like every sprint I've done and rewrites or edits, almost the only time I get to spend is in that little writing window a couple days a week. And that's what's helping me get across the finish line. So it may sound small, but it's the consistency of doing it that'll get you there.

Stephanie Oswald 19:25

Well, and the, and the great thing about it too is that you'll surprise yourself as you start to show up how much you can get done in even the 35 or 45 minutes, depending upon the day and the session that we block off time for. Because when you set your mind to it and. know for me, I don't always get writing done during that time, and it is valuable for like, oh wait, I didn't do my email for the week for the newsletter. Like, I'm

Elizabeth Wilson 19:55

Yeah.

Stephanie Oswald 19:56

that done during that time. Or, and, and this is, and we're being

Elizabeth Wilson 20:00

Okay.

Stephanie Oswald 20:00

because these are real things that we all know that like life is happening and. There are just times that you're not inspired by anything to work on your, on your novel, your memoir, your whatever it is, your fiction, nonfiction, anything. The power of showing up in a room with others, and this is where a lot of my coaching is centered around, around the A DHD brain is that body doubling of just knowing that you're in the room with someone else who's working on something is so powerful for the brain and your productivity to have that mirrored for you. And, you know, if you, if you identify with having an A DHD brain. Or maybe you don't even know. But what I've learned for myself, having discovered this so late in life, is that my brain was already helping me. Put myself in situations like I love to write in coffee shops because I can have that ambient noise around me because it's just the fact that other people are doing things on their computers. That motivates me to sit down, like, oh, I have stuff to do on my computer too, and I have writing to do. And so our weekly writing sessions provide that. Space and opportunity for you to show up and to show up with other writers, you know, every now and then, while it's not required to come off camera or come off mute, we do sometimes end up in a random deep dive conversation about something or about where someone was stuck or where someone needs inspiration or whatever it might be. That's the beauty of it as well, is again, you know, building that community for yourself, investing in yourself, you, you know, putting it on your calendar is the first step towards saying like, yes, I am blocking off this time. I am valuing myself because if there's one thing that I know all too well. In my writer life is that writing can slip so easily because another thing pulls me or I get distracted. And by putting this on your calendar, you know, we invite you to reach out to us. This is something that we offer. If you express interest to us, we don't send out the link, the weekly Zoom link to everybody on the list. Um, we know not everybody has the space and time in their schedule, but if you do have, you know, five o'clock Eastern time and very, it varies from week to week, which day, what day it is, but basically five o'clock eastern time, um, is the time when we get together. You know, send us a message. We'd, we'd love to hear from you. We'd love to connect with you. Um, it's just been really fun to watch the other writers in our community who come in and are moving themselves forward,

Elizabeth Wilson 23:01

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Oswald 23:01

it's that piece of putting yourself in proximity with others who are gonna show you it's possible.

Elizabeth Wilson 23:10

Yeah. Yeah. Well said. Um, I feel like, oh yeah, I know what I was gonna say. Like before we hit record, Stephanie and I were both reflecting on how this tail end of the year of the snake has been brutal for both of us in our personal lives, and it's made it really hard to. Show up for our writing. Our schedules are packed. There's extra stuff going on that we're having to juggle behind the scenes and having that. Little window of time. I mean, the meetings themselves are about 45 minutes long with the writing time, around 35 minutes. So there's a little time to chat before and after. Um, and that's what's kept me from not being so totally derailed in this, these tumultuous couple of weeks from my writing goal of needing to get my manuscript to my editor next week. It has been the, the anchor that has kept me. Continuing to show up to get the editing done, that I need to do that confidence that I've already got the time carved out in my calendar. And like you said, Stephanie, some days I'm writing my Tuesday email in there on Monday to like get it done.'cause I haven't had the time over the weekend. Um, but it, it really is so helpful. And I just wanna emphasize one more time that like you're investing in yourself as a writer, you. Everything that you're learning, whether you hire coaches, you attend something like the Memoir Summit or some other like larger, um, conference. Those are all tools that you are adding to your toolbox that don't just serve your current project, your current writing project or story that you're working on. Those are tools that you take forward into the next project and the next project and the next project. Like it's quite possible that. I won't need an author coach the next time I go to publish a book.'cause I'll already have learned the framework this time around. Just like when I offer my memoir, small group coaching, the memoir, master plan cohort. Granted, it's a recurring course where you pay once and you come back as many times as you need to, but that's because once you learn the the framework and how to set up your. Core message and doing your outline. It's a process you can repeat for all your other projects. You're learning concepts, you're learning tools, you're learning the key steps that you can then, you know, plug in for any future project or working on. So especially as a first time writer, especially for your first book. It's not gonna make dollars and cents, guys. It's not like, because you are, you are not just investing in putting that one story out. So many people are writing, you know, a series, right? And, and so you're looking at multiple books, three books or something like that. Um, it's rare that you have just a singular project. Even in memoir because the memoir bug bites you and you're like, oh, I, yeah, I'm excited to share this story, but there's this whole other story that I know doesn't fit in this one that I wanna write someday too, and. So I just wanna leave you with that final reminder that, like Stephanie said, it's about putting yourself in the rooms with people who are gonna show you what all is possible for you. And it's about investing in yourself. You are the product, you are what is selling, because you don't start and end just when you hit publish on a book, you continue and. That's why it's important to find the right places that fit you to invest in yourself. Whether that's showing up for a free, you know, weekly writing session, like we've mentioned, whether that's paying$5 to attend a full day memoir summit on March 14th, or if that's sitting down one-on-one with a coach of your preference, it's about investing in yourself. You're worth it.