INTERVIEW:
1.
What or who inspired you to start
writing?
I’ve always
been a writer at heart. I could read and I could print my name and a few
other key words by the time I was four – well before I started school.
My writing disappointments came early, too. When I was about
ten years old, I was excited about a writing assignment in class.
“Write about whatever you want!” I recall my teacher saying.
And with that, my brain was off, planning the plot and setting the scenes. (I
believe I have a touch of ADD, attention deficit disorder, which means I hear
the beginning, my brain races around during the middle, and I might pop back
for the end, supposedly clear on what I was to do. I often miss something
important.)
I left class that day happy and enthused. Big into the Nancy
Drew mystery series at the time, I thought it was perfect that I build on the
Nancy Drew characters and develop my OWN mystery. Seized with purpose, I
ultimately produced a story that I was oh-so-proud of. It was really good.
But my little writer’s ego was soon crushed. The assignment
was to come up with a story completely original,
characters and all. I got a zero. A fail. And, this news was delivered in front of the entire class.
I took my writing into a more private place for the
remainder of my time in school. I wrote poetry and philosophized narratives
about the meaning of life, as only a teenager can, sharing with no one - or at
least very few.
By my mid-twenties I was hell-bent on writing for
television. Entertainment would be nice, I thought. Instead, I found in news.
My first day of my first job as a reporter took me to the side of Highway 97
North outside of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, staring at the
wreckage of a head-on collision between a fully-loaded logging truck and a
propane-powered minivan that had been carrying a high-school boys’ basketball
team. There were bodies and logs strewn across a wide swath of highway.
My cameraman and I got there early enough that we watched as police laid yellow
tarps like Gerbera daisies on a graveyard.
Of all the thousands upon thousands of stories I covered, in
all my years as a reporter, no image has stayed with me as clearly. But my
passion for telling stories won over my trauma, as I believed that it
might help someone else avoid a similar fate, trigger new safety regulations,
or empower citizenry to engage.
My work started to win awards, and soon I was the Alberta
Legislature Bureau Chief for a string of Western Canadian television stations.
But public appetites for news started to dramatically swing to the sensational,
and animal and weather stories would garner the best ratings. I seemed among a
dwindling number that thought covering government and politics was still
important. I moved on.
Fifteen years as a journalist, eleven in government
communications, and a host of successive entrepreneurial endeavours, and I’ve
amassed a healthy cache of experience in a wide swath of subjects.
I specialize in non-fiction, focusing on works that have a
strong ‘helping’ message. And that’s where Rock Your Business comes in – my
co-author and husband John and I have written about all the little things that
can and often do trip up that person starting up a business.
2.
What elements are necessary components
for this genre?
Business
non-fiction needs the following:
· strong definition of and connection to
the reader
· clear description of ‘the problem’
· demonstration of the credibility of the
author
· clearly laid out and logical
presentation of ‘the solution’ being offered by the book.
3.
How did you come up with your idea for
your book?
We’d been asked
to write a bi-weekly business column for Troy Media, a Canadian media content
provider to more than 1800 media outlets. After we’d published a few, we
realized just how much we had to say!
At the time we
started writing the column, we had just sold everything and left Canada, and
bought a sailboat in Mexico. We were still working full-time while living
full-time on the water, we realized we had joined a bit of a revolution. The
global growth of the ‘independent professional’ (we call them iPros), technology-enabled geographically independent
solo-preneurs, and small business owners who might not necessarily want to be
the next Elon Musk, but do want to do things right so they can live a
comfortable life and provide for their families.
Being an iPro
can be both exhilarating and isolating. We wanted to share what we know.
Together we’ve amassed an embarrasing number of years’ experience in various
aspects of business and we bring what we have learned – often the hard way – in
what we think is an enjoyable, easy and informative read.
4.
What expertise did you bring to your
writing?
I
brought my journalism skills, of course, interviewing more than two dozen other
small business rock stars and turning the information into usable, practical
information every startup entrepreneur, small business owner, freelancer or
independent professional can use. John has been running his own businesses all
his life and his experiences are well represented here too.
5.
As far as your writing goes, what are
your future plans?
Response
to Rock Your Business, combined with other work we’d been doing working with
authors, led us to launch our indie/hybrid publishing house, Ingenium Books. In
our first six months alone we helped nearly a dozen authors move from book idea
to published author. That keeps us busy, but we both love writing for
ourselves, too.
I have
three other non-fiction books nearing completion – one about trauma and how it
affects later health, one about breaking through fibromyalgia, and another
about the role foods play in the explosion in autoimmune disorders in Western
civilizations. She also has a historical fiction novel in the works based on
the true story of her grandfather’s escape from Russia shortly after the
Russian revolution.
John is
nearly finished writing his novellette, about a boy-turned-man struggling to
tell his dying father the truth about his feelings, his failings, and his hope
for forgiveness.
6.
Can you give us a sneak peak into this
book?
You
betcha!
In
addition to the practical information we referenced at the start of this
interview, in Rock Your Business we also talk about the importance of mindset
and attitude. Here’s an excerpt from the chapter on attitude and beliefs:
Fabian was looking for a
change after twenty years as a public sector manager. When an opportunity
presented itself to buy a thriving online marketing business, Fabian went for
it. He hired the right lawyers, the right accountants, and felt good about the
meetings with the outgoing owners. Buying this business came with a catch: the
package deal included a partner who would retain ownership of a 49 per cent
share of the business. This partner, Spencer Grainger, had been active in the
business with the old owner for several years. It seemed to make sense to have
someone on board who already knew how things worked. So, Fabian signed the
papers, borrowed a few hundred thousand dollars, and bought himself a business.
And a partner.
Things turned sour with
Spencer in the second year. Fabian started to get creepy emails from the former
business owner, where it was clear Spencer had been sharing business
information. In fact, it became clear that Spencer was in regular communication
with the former owner, undermining Fabian’s authority, even handing over
proprietary information the old owner no longer had a right to.
Before Fabian knew it, his
partner had taken off with both money and clients, rejoining the old owner in
their new business. Fabian’s business was in a death spiral and he was being
summoned to court. Fabian ended up in a protracted legal dispute that took
years to settle and cost thousands. It was beyond traumatic. Fabian lost his
life savings, the business and a good chunk of his self-esteem. Fabian really
couldn’t see how things could have turned out any worse.
Time went by, and Fabian
eventually started a new business. He thought he had put the bad experience
behind him and was truly trying to start fresh. But the experience with Spencer
as a business partner left a deep scar. And because he didn’t seem to be aware,
it was getting in the way of his new business.
Fabian remains fearful
that others are out to get him. He’s convinced that if he isn’t vigilant, he
will once again be taken advantage of. He trusts no one and sees nefarious
intent where there is none. He believes the worst about people – even those he
has known his whole life. The result is that Fabian’s relationships are fraught
with conflict. Employee relationships, contractor relationships, supplier
relationships, you name it. He hires them and fires them, or he hires them and
they quit. Fabian can’t seem to find people he can trust – because he trusts no
one.
Fabian’s beliefs are the
basis for an attitude focused on the negative outcome he doesn’t want. Fabian
will attract to his business the only people left that will work with him: the
untrustworthy and unethical. He will fall victim to someone again, or he will
believe he has fallen victim again, and Fabian will say, “See? I KNEW it. I
knew I was going to get screwed.”
Belief and Attitude are Choices
Your beliefs and your
attitude are the most important factors in your success or failure as an
independent professional entrepreneur. Oh, sure, whether you are outgoing or
risk averse, full to the brim with new ideas or resilient – these can all make
a difference. But they are personality traits.
Attitude is a decision.
You can decide to see the silvery beauty of the cloud cover or focus on how
much you hate the rain. One option will result in better health, better
relationships, better life experiences, and better business outcomes. You know
the one: sunshine and rainbows.
7.
Do you belong to a critique group? If so
how does this help or hinder your writing?
I belong
to a number of author/writer/publisher groups, none of which is a “critique
group” per se. However, every book is read by a number of beta readers who
provide incredibly valuable feedback for us. When we thought Rock Your Business
was ready to publish, we sent it out to a handful of beta readers, and as a
result of the feedback we made significant changes to the content: the title,
the ‘geological’ flavour of each chapter title, which lets us have a bit of fun
with the idea of business ‘foundations’, even the treatment of the quotes from
the business rock stars we interviewed was changed. For the better!
8.
When did you first decide to submit your
work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
We are
independent people through and through. When we’d wrapped up one of our most
recent entrepreneurial gigs, working with a Canadian startup and helping them
develop into a franchised system, we wanted to do something completely
different. So, we sold all of our stuff – yes, ALL of it – left our family and
friends in Canada, moved to Mexico, and bought a 40’ sailboat to live on full
time. Which we’ve been doing for more than two years now. That move also gave
us the freedom to finally pursue what we’ve both wanted to do forever: write
and publish books and help others to do the same.
We didn’t
really need any external encouragement: we both share a bit of an adventurer’s
streak and we love the ocean and the outdoors and our complete indepenence.
9.
What is the best and worst advice you
ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)
This is
a great question! The best advice I’ve ever received regarding writing and/or publishing
isn’t a single specific thing, but many things from a single organization. The
Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi for short, pronounced like the word
‘ally’) has been absolutely incredible in terms of the volume, coherence and
credibility of information and advice for any independent self-published author
and indie publishers too. My hat goes off to Orna Ross and the whole team at
ALLi – simply the best.
As for
the worst advice? There’s a lot of schlock out there, so you really do need to
read through a lot of information that’s flooding the internet with respect to
the major shifts in the publishing industry and take it all with a bit of a
grain of salt. Unless it is advice from ALLi, of course J.
10. Do
you outline your books or just start writing?
Both. I
start by producing an outline, which helps me get started with the writing
process. It doesn’t seem to take me long, though, to begin to mess with my wonderful
outline. As I write more detail and add flesh to the bones, I frequently move
things around, establish new linkages, and toss the original outline in the
trash J.
11. How
do you maintain your creativity?
For me,
and for both John and I, creativity is a driving need that exists at the very
core of our being. It’s not something that needs to be maintained, rather it is
something we have learned needs to be acknowledged and unleashed. In the last
few years, we’ve been very purposeful about letting our creativity live in the
drivers’ seat of our lives. When we bought our sailboat, we renamed her
“Ingenium”, which is Latin for ‘creative mind’ or ‘creative thinking’. We knew
it was the perfect name for our publishing company, Ingenium Books. “Ingenium”
is both a summary and a signpost of the value that creativity brings to our
lives on a daily basis.
12. Anything
else you might want to add?
Thank
you so much for the time and space for this interview!
