All Posts in Category: Professional Writer Mindset
When You’re Not Getting Things Done, You Are Doing *Something*–What Is It?
When I first started coaching, running events, corralling writers for a website, and interviewing a lot of people for positions in a short period of time, I felt like a high school teacher.
I was receiving excuses right and left, insignificant and grave, for all sorts of things.
Event space managers delay getting me contracts because they’re sick (and apparently have no one else in the office of the major hotel they work at?), sponsorship chairs for conferences aren’t available to get me a sponsorship contract for months, and writers get me overdue in two weeks rather than two days because… well, I don’t think they actually even bother to explain themselves (and correspondingly aren’t due to be receiving any new assignments).
How to Be Your Own Unerring Sounding Board for Any Freelance Problem
What is up with the mismatches between our to-do lists or our freelance goals and what we actually spend our time doing?
I personally hate when I get to the end of a day or week, look at my three MITs (“most important tasks”) and find that I didn’t do them, because I did other things that matter that I’m glad that I got done.
On most occasions, I don’t regret swapping the goal line, and I’m happy with the things that did get done as they were necessary, but there’s feel this twinge like, “Why couldn’t I forecast this better? Why is it so hard to know what the right things are at the beginning of the week?”
It’s typically much easier to see these situations with some clarity when they happen to someone else, though, am I right?
Are Travel Writers Really Magicians?
I remember when I was designing our Travel Writers Detox + Reset retreat, I thought a lot about the topic of burnout.
The other side of this Janus coin is often thought to be balance, and I’ve seen a number of newsletters from freelancers and other online business owners concerning their struggles with this topic. Maybe it’s the time of year sneaking up on us and reminding us that we’re now one an accelerating train headed for the holidays.
I’ve often seen, whether in my own life, something I’ve read, or conversations with others, that the opposite of burnout is something more akin to revitalization–rekindling your love for either what you’re already doing or something else entirely that is what really lights you up.
As Sherlock Holmes Says: When Inconvenient, Do It Anyway
There’s a Sherlock Holmes line that gets repeated in nearly every adaptation verbatim. It’s a note from Sherlock to Watson:
Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.
They always find comical ways to make the letter arrive at the most inconvenient times. And Watson does always come right away, out of loyalty and curiosity (though often tempered with a fair amount of annoyance ;)).
What “Impossible” Things Can You Do Next Month?
What do you tell yourself is impossible?
I don’t mean the quite difficult things, like base jumping, becoming a competition-level ballroom dancer, or learning a new language in one week.
I’m wondering more about the things that you just don’t allow yourself to imagine as possibilities. The things that stop you building a flourishing business.
Sometimes they hide in the places we haven’t travel, the activities we haven’t done, or the way we describe ourselves.
Never Write the Story First (In Case You Didn’t Know)
When I go to conferences and talk to people who would like to publish travel articles, online or in print, one of the most frequent questions I get is:
But I should write the article before I pitch, right?
Or something like that. Some variation on the crazy, horrifying spread of misinformation out there that makes people think they should work many hours for peanuts to be published on some random travel website.
Are You Wasting Your Best Hours By Not Energy Mapping Your Day?
I literally track every minute that I spend on my laptop using a time tracker. Not because I am a particularly micromanaging person. But to make sure that what I think is happening or is possible is in line with reality.
My Short Formula for Writing Productivity Magic
It really all started, for me, with one travel writer.
You know the story. Writer has blog. Writer has blogged for some number of years. Writer makes cards boldly and proudly proclaiming the job title “travel writer and photographer.” Writer lands one or two gigs writing for other websites.
3 Ways (You Probably Haven’t Thought of) to Land Your Next Gig at a Conference
Whatever the business occasion, I am all about looking at outside of the box ways to rock it.
- Travel media conference? Get an AirBnB and host a dinner party the day after the conference wraps where people can keep talking to their favorite new people—or finally meet the ones they didn’t get a chance to talk to.
- Trade show rife with tour companies hawking their wares to travel agents? Scout their storytelling, website and other marketing channels and pitch them on how they can improve it to close more deals by next year’s conference even for a fraction of the cost of being an exhibitor.
- Press trip? Chat with, sincerely thank, get business cards from and follow up with the owners of each business exhibited on the trip rather than just snapping photos, eating their food and trusting (or not caring if?) the CVB takes care of those things.
We All Had to Start Somewhere: A Podcast Interview on Gabi’s Travel Writing Origins
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by a friend from a small business conference I attended who also happens to produce several podcasts and wanted to include me in one on travel writing.