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Do you have a dream or a desire or a habit that you want to change? But you've been sitting on it and you haven't?  In this blog, I’m sharing about a common question I ask clients, “What are you waiting for?” You have something a dream or desire a habit that you want to change, but you're not. Why are you doing it? What the problem is causing now that you're not doing it? What you're missing out on and what you can actually do to get moving? This is what I'm going to be exploring today. (Sidenote: Doors for She's Goaled 2.0 are open right now. It's your speed course to reach your goals. A six-month program to give you coaching and mastermind support, and a group of like-minded women to help you reach your goals.) What are you waiting for? I coach people. I have powerful conversations with people I meet. As a speaker, I chat with people in the audience. What I've been finding is people very often want to do something.
But they just don't do it. If it's a habit, then it's something like…
Whatever it may be, the question I want to just scream out is, “What are you waiting for?” Sometimes I have to ask myself that tough question, too.
Ask yourself these questions:
When you're in that place of not doing something that you really want to do, you're telling yourself…
The saddest thing is when people get too old or too struck in responsibility or lack of that they're just not able to do it. There are different people I meet who eventually have mobility issues, health issues, or a loved one was taken too soon, and they don't get to realize the things that they really wanted when they were younger or healthier or really desired it from the beginning. So what are you waiting for? I'm going to say that many, many times in this blog. The psychological or practical factors that are stopping you from taking action towards your goals There might be some psychological or practical factors that are stopping you from taking action towards your goals. Maybe you want to do this big trip, but you just don't have the financial means. Maybe you want to quit your job, but you're the sole breadwinner, and it's pretty scary to think about leaving your job to have the lack of stability in your finances. I get that. I get that you might have health issues that are stopping you. But there's always one way or another to do it or a modified version of the original desire. Let's really figure out what are the psychological or practical factors that are stopping you from doing what you want.  Maybe it's a lack of clear goals: When you don't have those specific, achievable goals, it can feel like you don't have any direction, any focus, and then you lose motivation. If you have clear goals, you're going to have a roadmap and reasons to act. But if you don't have clear goals, you're going to suffer from overwhelm. You're going to be overwhelmed by how big the task feels. Most of the time, it's just an unknown factor. I didn't know what it would be like to write my first book and publish it. Now, no problem. Hand me something, and we can bang out a book in a few days sort of thing. It's not an overwhelming feeling now, because I've been able to know the scope of the actual project. But you might feel overwhelmed because you have poor planning, you have unrealistic expectations or even a lack of prioritization. You don't have clear goals and a clear plan, so you feel overwhelmed. Habitual Inertia: Maybe you're also trying to take it all on yourself. Now, if it's around habits, you may be afraid of change or kind of opposed to change. Something called habitual inertia where you stick to these familiar routines, familiar habits, even when they don't serve you, because it's easier than changing. For me, it's like, I'm not a morning person. Well, maybe if I just got myself to bed earlier then I could get my butt out of bed in the morning. Is it really who you are? People say, “Oh, I'm not a planner.” Well, could you learn how to plan? Because you've learned a lot of things in your life: to be able to eat and walk and dress yourself and have good hygiene. There are a lot of things that you've been able to do. I get the change. It does require us to give some effort. Sometimes change also means we don't know the outcome. But really, we also don't know the outcome of reaching a wonderful goal, desire, or habit that we want to make better. Isn't it worth the effort if we know that there's going to be some sort of payoff? Poor Time Management: Another reason why you might not be going to do what you wanted to is you're prioritizing everything else instead, and you have poor time management. Let's be honest. If you're playing games on your phone, if you're watching Netflix, if you're kind of pushing papers around, checking out social media, maybe that's why you don't have time to do the things that you really desire. Other things that are causing you to have poor time management, like procrastination, that's maybe another reason why you're not going for it. You're delaying tasks that need to be done. You're putting them off. Maybe it's because you have no motivation. Maybe it's because of another reason like you have a fear of failure: Is that what you have? It could be. When you have a fear of failure, you don't even want to try it. Or worse when you have perfectionism, you don't want to finish it. You put all that work in, but you won't finish because it's not going to end up the way you imagined it. But the sad thing I see is that people don't spend the time or invest the time to figure out, “What is stopping me? What am I waiting for?” My clients that come to me and I ask them this question, bravo, amazing. They're exactly where they need to be because they're getting the support to get the awareness. Understanding the reasons, the barriers, and the obstacles, is the first step in overcoming them. Awareness is key. As soon as you have the understanding that this is a psychological problem that you're dealing with, you can then address them. You can then focus on them and be able to have some practical strategies and mindset changes to be able to get through it. What you can do I don't want to just give you the problem and point this out in your life without some action items. Really, I'm hoping I stir something in you because I'm sick of seeing people living in black and white, living in a place where they're not where they want to be. They don't have joy, and they've lost their spark. I want you to have what you've been waiting for. But to have it now. First, figure out, “What's the thing that's stopping me?” Maybe it's the list that I've shared. Maybe it's something else. Having a session with a coach like me can really help to pull out the true answer here. The next thing is, once you've figured it out, I urge you find someone to support you through this. It could be a coach or a counsellor. You need some accountability to be able to move forward. Seek support. What you can do is just take one small step. Figure out what's the desire, the habit, or the thing you yearn to have be different or to have in your life, and then come up with what's the very first step. Once you know what the first step is, and you know 150% can go for it and achieve it, then just commit to that, and do that. Then at that point, you're going to gain confidence and motivation, which are actually two other pieces that could be holding you back and causing you to wait for what you want and to wait for going for what you want.  I challenge you, as you're reading this, to be thinking, “Okay, what is that first step?” Get some clarity on that first step, and reflect on, “What is stopping me?” I'd love to hear love to hear from you. What is the thing stopping you? Is it procrastination? Is it perfectionism? Is it a lack of resources? Is it…
I'm glad I wrote these down because there are so many of them, and there are more. These are just some of the main ones that I see. I don't want for you to be in a place where you say…
You have an opportunity to realize what you've wanted and to not wait for it anymore. Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email [email protected]. Share with me the thing that you've been waiting for. What is the thing that's been holding you back from getting it? What is the first step that you're going to take? Again, doors are open for She’s Goaled 2.0. I encourage you to jump in and have us support you in reaching your goals, desires, habits, and dreams that you've been wanting. Because you'll have the accountability, you'll have the coaching support, you'll have the group's mastermind support, and you'll have timed actions so that you can move forward. That's really what I want for you. Because you are brilliant and you have great skills and talents and the world needs to see more of it. You need to be able to invest in yourself so that you can have the life, the business, the career, the family, and all the areas of life to be how you desire them to be. Until next time, stay dynamic. Read my other blogs:
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This is the third part in a three-part series about being a collaborative author. In this one, I'm sharing the five reasons to be a collaborative author when you have a book or are currently writing your own, or have been in a collaborative book (You can read the first two parts of this series where I shared about the three ways you’ll get left behind by NOT being an author and what to look for in collaborative book opportunities.)
Leadership Secrets is coming up in the next year. Our first call for authors closes, April 17 at 11:59PM, where we have the opportunity for 18 women to jump into co-authorship with us. This is part of why I'm doing this three-part series. On April 15, we also have a training called Collaborative Author 101: How to Explode Your Audience, Establish Your Authority, and Leave a Legacy by Entering the World of Co-Writing. If you missed it and would like a replay, please reach out to [email protected] as soon as possible so that we can see if we can get that to you. Depending on when you reach out, we might even be in our second call for authors or we might be able to squeak you in the first. We'll see. No guarantees. There are so many benefits to being in a collaborative book, and we offer so many bonuses when you’re in Leadership Secrets. Now, here are the five different reasons to be a collaborative author, even if you're already an author, or you're writing your own book. These are also for you if you were already part of a collaborative book. You might think, “Well, I'm already an author, why bother?” Well, there's actually a strategy for why to be an author. I've been part of collaborative books from other people, and even if they don’t have all the strategy pieces that I want, there’s still some benefit to it, and I still do it. You can read my previous blogs where I talked about what to look for in collaborative book opportunities and the previous one to is about the three ways you'll get left behind by not being an author. But today, I want to speak to those who have had a book, who are writing their own books, or have been in a collaborative book and are thinking, “Why would I bother being a collaborative author?” I'm going to talk through these five pieces. Because I'll tell you, I felt the same way. Reason 1: It's a jumping-off point. Some authors who have been part of Dynamic Women® Secrets Books have used this as a learning opportunity to then jump off and do their own solo book. They’ve been able to build confidence as a writer and also be able to say, “Okay, I'm a collaborative author, and this is the first book and now I'm going to be a solo author of my own book.” Then they go on to do their own. If you're writing your own book, now's a really great time to invest in this type of opportunity with us because you're going to be able to have our book come out, and then your book. Sort of like “Bam, Bam.” You get to leverage my network and our promo to then position your own book. Here's a little bonus tip: You can bundle the books when you go to sell them as a way to make even more money to get a double sale rather than just a single sale. If you already have a book that's out there, then you can use this opportunity to link it back to your book that you've already done. Cool, eh? Reason 2: To plant the seed. If you're currently writing your own book, then you want to plant the seed to the readers that your book is coming out. You can plant the seed forward to the next book or you can plant the seed backwards to a book that you've already done so that the people reading this collaborative book with us can go back and purchase the book that you've already done. Planting the seed for a future book, a past book, or a current book is a really amazing reason to be a collaborative author. I've done that a bunch of times. In one book, I talked about being a Dynamic Woman. Then I linked it back to the Dynamic You™ Book. I've also been in another one where I talked about the importance of celebrating our successes and linked it over to the Dynamic Year journal. You might even write your piece as something that will open up an idea that is then more thoroughly talked about in your own book or in another collaborative book. There are different ways. I can even write in someone else's collaborative book about the importance of being a collaborative author and link it back to my opportunity. It doesn't even have to be directly to the book. It could be to other opportunities or offerings. Reason 3: To build your audience. How do you build your audience? Well, the obvious one is you’re building your audience with the readers who buy your book from you.  You're also building your audience by the other authors selling it to their audiences. Plus, you can build your audience by leveraging your own social media promotion before the book even comes out, and when it’s out. What you might not have thought about for your own book or even with a collaborative book is to share the content from other authors or commenting on their posts to gain more connections and followers. What you might not have thought about for your own book is the power of the publisher, in this case it’s me, promoting you as an author to my network. As I mentioned in my previous blog, you want to be looking for full promo from a collaborative book opportunity. It’s them promoting you and also giving you lots of promo materials for social media, emails etc. that they have designed personalized to you. That's a really key thing and strategy. That's something we teach in our book opportunity. Reason 4: Build your network. You might be like, “What's the difference between audience and network?” Well, if we think of audiences, these are people who could buy from you, who do buy from you and leads. Then we talk about networks. Yes, that could also be leads. Yes, that can also be potential customers. It can also be your audience. But I want you to think of it differently in the way of network by connecting with a network of authors. You are an author. Now you have permission to reach out to the other authors. Obviously not a salesy or creepy way. You can be like, “Hey, I'm an author in the Dynamic Women® Secrets Book. I'm secret number 13. I see you’re secret number 28. Let's connect.” Now, you're connecting, not just as maybe an expert in your topic, but you're connecting as authors. Connecting on another level, and even though you've maybe already been part of a collaborative book, this is a new set of authors. Even if you've written your own book, this is now you connecting with other authors. It's always important to continue to expand your network, grow your network, and build your network, so that you can continue to build collaborative opportunities, joint ventures, affiliates, referral partnerships, all of these things to move your business forward.  If you don’t grow your network, eventually, by having just the same group of people, you're going to hit some dead ends, and your lists are all going to start being the same. Reason 5: Being relevant. You need to continue to add to your achievements and your bio with a current book. I don't lean on the power and the success of my solo book back in 2017. I'm constantly putting out books or being part of books so that I continue to be relevant. I continue to be on people's radars like, “Whoa, you're an author again. Wow. Cool.” The ability to say, “My latest book” is powerful, and then in selling this new book, you can bring in your old books and bundle them. Authors, if your book is over a year old, you need another book. You need some fresh readers. There's so much strategy that can be used here around being a collaborative author. That's why I continue to be a collaborative author, even though some of the opportunities don't hold all the things I really want in collaborative authorship opportunities. Wrapping Up These five reasons: a jumping-off point, planting the seed, building your audience, building your network, and being relevant - are game changers in your business, to get the message out there, to be able to bring business back to you, and really, to stand apart from other people in your industry. I hope you'll consider joining the Dynamic Women® Leadership Secrets book. Check in with us to see if we still have opportunities depending on when you read this and go back and read the other two parts of this series so that you can really get all of the information to make the right choices about being a collaborative author. Also, invite your friend to be an author with you. That's a really cool opportunity as well as growth for you, your friend, and for your friendship as you both move up in the world in the same book and make a change in other people's lives. Read my other blogs:
This is the second part of a three-part series about being a collaborative author. You can read the first part here. In this blog, I’m going to be covering what to look for in collaborative book opportunities.  Collaborative book opportunities To kick things off, I want you to know that there are many collaborative book opportunities out there, mine included. After publishing five of my own books, three of them collaborative in the Dynamic Women® Secrets Series. We have Success Secrets, Confidence Secrets, and Trailblazer Secrets, and now in the next year, we're going to be launching Leadership Secrets. I also have my Dynamic Year Journal, my Dynamic You book and I’ve been in six other collaborative books. I don’t share this to brag, I share this only because I have learned a lot about the process: writing, editing, formatting, layout, editing, publishing and promotion. I have learned what to do, what not to do, and really what I look for in collaborative opportunities. All of them are basically going to have done-for-you options, meaning you submit your piece, and they put it in the book, and they publish it. But there are many other things to look out for. This is true in the way that I look for opportunities, but I'm also noticing I've even joined books that don't have all of these opportunities. There's a different reason why I'm joining, but I don't get the full ROI (return on investment) when I am part of these book opportunities. I do it for different reasons. I won't fully go into that today. I want to let you know some things that you can look for. One of my collaborative authors in this new Leadership Secrets book came to me and said, “You know, Diane, I was part of another collaborative book, but I just didn't like how it was going, so I actually dropped out and asked for a refund. Now, I'm joining your book because I see the opportunities here and I see the different levels of opportunity that you're providing for my investment.” Side note: We have a Call for Authors right now for Leadership Secrets and we have 18 spots for authors to jump in. There will be special perks for this group, but some spots are already taken and doors close April 17th at 11:59 pm PDT. If you’d like more info, then join us on April 15th from 1-3:00 PM PDT, we are going to have a free training called “Collaborative Author 101: How to Explode Your Audience, Establish Your Authority, and Leave a Legacy by Entering the World of Co-Writing”. We're doing two more Call for Authors throughout the year. But this group will have most of the perks. I encourage you to check it out to be part of this opportunity. Who is this opportunity good for?
The 3 things to look for in collaborative book opportunities #1: Strategy Support You're looking for strategy support. Now what do I mean by that? Well, I've been in books before. I joined, I paid the investment and then it was, “Okay, you need to submit your piece within 10 days.” Or “You need to have your piece in by this date.” What I would love to see happen more and what we do in our book is we offer a course called “Book Writing Strategies.” You get an idea-generating session with everyone to talk about what you could write about, so it’s easier to write your piece. Then we look at the “Book Writing Strategies” where you get strategies on what to write and how to write it to boomerang business back to you: leads, clients, sales, and opportunities. Then that gives you the best ROI. There are a lot of different things I’ve learned over the years and in being part of six other people's collaborative books and three of my own. There's a lot of strategy in how to write your piece, what to put in your bio, what your title should be, and which links to use for readers to connect with you, each part of your piece is important so you can boomerang business and opportunities back to you. There's a lot of strategy that goes into every word. You can choose to just write your piece and submit it and be done. But I really think that if you're looking for a collaborative opportunity to be part of a book, you want to get that outside view of what’s possible.
be a big part of the opportunities that you say yes to. #2: Full promotion What I mean by full promotion is in two pieces: 1. The publisher, or whoever is providing this opportunity, gives you promotional assets. I say full because you get your book, and then you say, “Now what do I do with it?” What we do on our team is we do something called “Author-in-a-Box” where you get all the promo assets needed to properly promote the book. We provide you with the sales sheets, PR press release, and all the promo, including stories, videos, graphics, and everything. Not just, “Here's the book” and it's generic for everyone, it is personalized for you, your name, your image, and the ability for you to do that with the videos and other pieces. It's a full promo. It’s personalized. It is about you being announced as an author, promo for the virtual book launch party, as well as more promo for when the book is out to help you sell it. That's what I see as a full promo. You’re provided with the copy, the images or graphics, everything, so you can just copy and paste, basically because we want it to be easy for you. That’s why we call it “Author-in-a-Box”. It's super easy to just copy and paste into your email, onto your social media, or wherever you want to put it. 2. The other side of this is actually that the publisher is promoting you. I think the publisher should be doing this by promoting all of the authors and their names, not just an image of them on a banner or something and no one knows who they are.I announce that everyone is an author on multiple platforms of mine, like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. It's on my banners I promote on my social. You need both sides for it to be full promo. Then the publisher promotes the book to their network and encourages all the authors to do so with the opportunity for wholesale copies. #3: Wholesale copies This is definitely something you want to be looking for, the ability to purchase wholesale copies. If I give you copy and images to promo, then you can easily promote the book, sell the book to your network and make money off of it. Imagine making 10-20 bucks per book or using the book in a way that's going to help you bring in more clients, more opportunities, and more checks. That's key, right? If you have to buy the book retail from the publisher or Amazon then you are not making money off it unless you raise the price, but you wouldn’t since it’s listed as lower elsewhere. This also stops you from being able to gift the books cheaply or using them strategically to for leads. Bonus: Another thing that you want to look for in an opportunity that encourages you and teaches you the ways to sell the books and bring more business and cheques back to you by using the book.  I do a training that gives you 20+ ways to use the book to bring in clients, opportunities, money, and sales. These are all proven things that I have done in my business. It’s really crucial that if you're going to invest money in an opportunity to be a collaborative author, you want to have opportunities to bring the money back to you and to get a really good ROI. Wrapping Up When you're looking for that collaborative book opportunity, you want to look for a publisher who’s giving you strategy support, the full promo, personalized promo for multiple parts of the book process, as well as wholesale copies so that you can make money off of it and teaches you how to use the book in different ways to bring business leads and money back to you. If you want to be part of our next collaborative book called Dynamic Women® Leadership Secrets, apply here. We have open doors right now until April 17. This is our first call for authors. I encourage you to jump in now. The best perks will be now. On April 15, we have a training called “Collaborative Author 101: How to Explode Your Audience, Establish Your Authority, and Leave a Legacy by Entering the World of Co-Writing”. You can join by registering here. It’s free to attend. If you have any questions reach out to me, [email protected]. Stay tuned for the next blog (we are dropping right now) where I talk about the “5 Reasons to be a Collaborative Author When you Have a Book or You're Writing Your Own Book”. If I can say so myself, I share some really cool strategy in it as well. Read my other blogs:
Today, I will share about the three ways you'll get left behind by not being an author. This is part one of a three-part series about being a collaborative author. In the next two blogs, I’ll cover what to look for in collaborative book opportunities and the five reasons to be a collaborative author even when you have a book or are writing your own book.  Sidenote: Doors are open for our first call for authors for the next book in the Dynamic Women® Secret series. The book is called Dynamic Women® Leadership Secrets. Our first call for authors is closing on April 17, at 11:59PM PDT, and we’ve opened 18 spots for this round. There are bonuses and benefits to being in this first group. If you’re interested and want to learn more about this opportunity, you can come to our info session happening on April 15 at 1 PM PDT where I will share about, “Collaborative Author 101: How to Explode Your Audience, Establish Your Authority, and Leave a Legacy by Entering the World of Co-Writing”. The Three Ways You’ll Get Left Behind by NOT Being an Author These ways are for all people including those who…
#1: Competitive Edge I wrote my first book seven years ago called “Dynamic You: The Nine Pillars of Being a Dynamic Woman.” Being an author is still very special, but things have changed because more books are being put out. It is a little bit easier to self-publish these days, rather than having to find a publisher.
I hear, “Well, why would you go and be in other people's books when you can just publish more of your own?” There’s a strategy in all of this. There's a reason why I do all of these things, so watch out for my next two blogs in the coming weeks because I will go through the reasons why I continue to be in books. I've now put out one solo book, three Dynamic Women® Secrets books - Success Secrets, Confidence Secrets, and Trailblazer Secrets. I've also put out the Dynamic Year journal. That's me doing five of my own, then I've been in six other books that other people have put out, and I'm going to be signing up to be part of yet another one. That competitive edge is what you want over other people in the industry. I'll talk about how that comes into play in the second way. #2: Expertise and bio depth. You may think, “Well, I'm not quite an expert at what I am doing.” Or you may believe, “Well, I am an expert.” That's okay you both can be in a book. Being an author…
Adding that you're an author, a collaborative author, and an author again, is a benefit that can move you ahead of others. As I said, almost everyone will have a book in the next couple of years. Then it's since most people have at least one book or have been in one book, you’ll need to have more. When I get introduced to go and speak and they say, “10-time bestselling author”, that's pretty impressive. I'm not saying you need 10. But 1, 2, or 3 would be wonderful. Expertise and bio depth come into play when your leads and clients are looking at their options. They're weighing options. “I’ve got this person, that person and one other person to consider.” You're one of three, one of two, one of 10. Who knows. If it's between you and these other people, they will start weighing the bios and the expertise. As soon as they see someone has a book, that they're an author, or they're an author in something and other people aren't, that's one thing that can make your competitors stand out compared to you. Also, it can help them to be seen as the expert, even though you might have more expertise than they do, and will give them more bio depth than your bio. Even if you have been published, if you don't have a recent publication, then that can also put you down if someone else has a recent book that's come out. We're going to see that in LinkedIn, as it's put up as a milestone. There's new energy around that. #3: Missing out on opportunities You may think, “Well, what opportunities?” In my training that I've done about being a collaborative author, I talk about 10 to 20 ways of benefiting from being in a book or putting out your own book. Some of the ones that you're going to be missing out on are opportunities like speaking engagements. Being asked to speak because you're an author and expert on a topic. If you're not an author, you can’t join authors’ groups or be brought on to podcasts about being an author, or about the book that you're in. Those are some of the key benefits you’ll miss out on as well as summits. I get invited into summits and podcasts because of books that I've been in, because they found me that way, or they've been justified in asking me because they see that I have books for sale on my website.  The last piece around missing out on opportunities is list building. Now, with list building, there are multiple ways you can be doing it:
There are so many different ways that you're missing out on opportunities by not being in a book. You don't want to be left behind, especially because I'm sure you're doing such great work in the world, that you're super passionate about, and you can help people with your products and your services. Wrapping Up I’m guessing you now see how you want to have that competitive edge. You want to have expertise and bio depth. You don’t want to be missing out on opportunities. You don't want to get left behind by not being an author. I do provide a very simple, easy and affordable way that you can be an collaborative author. As I said, the call for authors is closing April 17th, 2024. You can go here to learn more about this exciting opportunity! There is an investment because we do have to pay for editors, the design team, the layout, the promos, and all the other pieces that we do. There is a very minor investment, I would say, in being part of this amazing opportunity. You can also join us on April 15 to learn more. We do have an amazing new training that I'm doing called, “Collaborative Author 101: How to Explode Your Audience, Establish Your Authority, and Leave a Legacy by Entering the World of Co-Writing”. I encourage you to jump onto that or reach out to me [email protected] if you have any questions. Read my other blogs:
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