I’m talking about all those unanswered emails sitting in your inbox. If you just felt a tinge of guilt when I brought up this issue, no worries. I’m here to help.

Let’s cut right to the chase: when you have a lot of unanswered emails, it causes you stress. Why? Because those are “open loops” of communication.

It’s like having a bunch of open tabs on your internet browser. Every time you see them, you feel guilty because you haven’t dealt with it… but you’re too overwhelmed to do anything about it. So, the problem keeps getting worse and worse.

The result is that you have people who are expecting a response from you. But you’re avoiding their messages, which causes you stress and makes you look unprofessional.

Here’s a little business secret: the most successful professionals are not necessarily the most talented. They are the ones who take action. A lot of deals are made, and a lot of business is done, just because people followed up in a timely way.

You might be the greatest writer in the world. But if you can’t answer your email in a timely way, you will frustrate people who need a response. You will also lose out to other writers who are more responsive and build better relationships with their readers, clients, or customers.

I want you to have GREAT relationships with people and be highly responsive. Here are nine simple tips for getting through all those unanswered emails.

1. Set a timer.

I do this frequently. I’ll set a timer for thirty and sixty minutes and rush like mad to get through my emails for the day. If you have a huge, undefined block of time when you’re working on email, it will take a lot longer than it should.

2. Make decisions quickly.

If an email requires you to decide something, make the decision and move on.

3. Don’t use your inbox as a task list.

If an email requires you to do something, move that action item to a separate list where you can prioritize those tasks. Then get rid of the email.

4. Keep emails short.

My friend David Hancock, founder of Morgan James Publishing, is a master at keeping emails short. You will be amazed at how much more efficient you become when you limit yourself to five sentences per email reply.

5. Set up a call for longer conversations.

I have noticed that many writers send very long, detailed emails. I also do this sometimes but I’m a lot better at it than I used to be. Email is not a very good tool for in-depth conversations.

6. Don’t be everybody’s hero.

We get sucked into email sometimes because people ask for solutions and answers. Use this opportunity to create a lead magnet, blog post, book, coaching package, or resource that answers people’s common questions on your topic. Point people to that instead of answering the same questions over and over again.

7. Reply within 48 hours.

Or better yet, within 24 hours. You can also use the genius technique that my friend Honorée Corder uses, which is setting up an autoresponder that gets sent to people automatically, letting them know you have received their email.

8. Make a video instead of sending an email reply.

I do this often. Instead of sending a long and drawn-out email, I use the Loom app to send a personal video. It’s a nice personal touch that requires less time than writing.

9. Don’t respond to every email.

If someone is critical, out of line, or just plain weird, you don’t have to respond. The email police are not going to arrest you. There is a lot of power in taking control of whom you let into your life, and whom you ignore.

There you have it: nine tips for dealing with those unanswered messages. If you find your email inbox constantly growing and causing you stress, these tips will help you make more mental space for other more important activities.

Today’s Challenge: Choose one of the tips I’ve mentioned and use it immediately. If I had to pick JUST ONE tip, I’d recommend keeping your emails short. That alone will drastically cut down on your email time.

The post Clear the Clutter: Unanswered Emails appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

I thought it would be fun to consider five specific things each of us can be thankful for today.

1. The opportunities you have today. There are more opportunities for writers than ever before. You have access to virtually everyone on the planet with an internet connection. You can self-publish or go with traditional or hybrid publishing. You can blog, podcast, create videos, and more. The opportunities are endless.
2. The people in your life who support your writing. Sometimes, we are so focused on our goals that we forget about the people who make our writing possible. Think about the family, friends, and colleagues who have supported you and helped you along the way.
3. The incredible tools at your disposal. Think about how much harder it was fifty or a hundred years ago to connect with people and simply get your writing done. Today you don’t even have to type… you can use voice-to-text! We don’t realize how good we have it.
4. The amazing stories all around us. This is the golden age of storytelling, when there are so many great books, movies, streaming shows, and other formats of stories being told. There is unlimited inspiration all around you.
5. The access you have to so much learning. Never before in the history of the world have you been able to learn in so many ways, in so many places, from so many people. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Whatever you want to learn, someone is teaching it somewhere.

These are just a few of the things we can be grateful for as writers. I hope you will take a few moments today as you gather around the dinner table to acknowledge that we indeed live in an incredible time.

Question: Which of the five items above are you most thankful for?

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As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. When you look at the millions of books, blogs, podcasts, and magazine articles that have been created, what could you possibly say that is unique?

The answer is simple. What makes your writing unique is not that you’re writing about something new. It’s the fact that it’s you who is writing it. You are the unique factor in the equation.

Unique means “one of a kind.” And there is only one of you in the world.

Your unique combination of skills, experience, and viewpoint is what makes your writing worth reading. You might be writing about the same things as a hundred other people, but they’re not saying it in the way you say it.

So how does this inform your writing? The novelist Barbara Kingsolver has the answer. She said, “Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”

As it turns out, the only thing you have to offer is also the best thing you have to offer. There will only ever be one of you in the world. There is only one person who can speak with your voice. Don’t waste the opportunity to let us hear it.

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We can easily see how this applies to people in sales, marketing, or other business-related positions. But how does this apply to writers?

Here’s a simple principle to remember: Writing is not about the words. It’s about the people who are affected by your words.

This means we not only try to write well, but we keep in mind whom we’re writing for. We’re writing for human beings who are pretty much just trying to get through life on a daily basis.

We’re writing for that single mother who is struggling. For that teenager who is trying to fit in. For that new father who feels a new weight of responsibility. For that man in his 50s who just found out he has advanced prostate cancer.

More than anything, people want to have hope. Hope comes in many forms. It can look like self-help books, podcasts, novels, short stories, blog posts, business books, or many other things.

We writers are called to be brokers of hope. Our currency is the words we use. Whatever you’re working on today, think about the faces of the people who will read those words. Remember that your words can bring them hope by making them laugh, cry, reflect, or take action toward their dreams.

Could there be any better calling than this?

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Your creative mind works the same way. It can’t just receive ideas and then cause those ideas to sprout. Your mind must be prepared. So how do you “till” your mind, so to speak? How do you prepare your mind not only to receive ideas, but also create an environment for them to grow and flourish?

There are perhaps many answers, but the most important one is getting into an environment that encourages growth and creativity. Join a mastermind. Create a community. Go out with some positive and creative people for coffee. Start a club. Make social media posts about creative ideas and ask for feedback. Write blog posts and make videos and engage with people who comment.

It is impossible to prepare the soil of your mind by yourself. It is essential to be in an environment that encourages new ideas and creative thinking.

When you consistently do this, the seeds of great ideas and effective writing will have an opportunity to grow into something meaningful.

Question: How are you preparing your mind to receive new ideas?

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Why? Because I knew it was a lot of work to put together a great live event. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to invest the time or energy to host a retreat when I felt there were so many other important things to do. Client work, my podcast, my own writing, and the endless administrative details necessary to run a business all require my attention. Hosting a retreat for a select few people was pretty far down that list.

However, I’ve been to a lot of retreats and other small events in the last couple of years. I knew the incredible power a retreat or live event can have to impact people’s lives. There is magic when people come together in person—a magic that you simply can’t duplicate online.

Despite my best intentions to put off a retreat until next year or beyond, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Several of our Daily Writer Club members had been asking about a retreat, so I knew it was something they wanted to do.

We made plans to have a smaller retreat of ten people. I had a lot of help planning the event, and we decided on the following schedule:

On Tuesday evening, we met at a great BBQ restaurant for dinner.

On Wednesday, I kicked off the day by having everyone share what a successful retreat looked like for them. In other words, what did they most want to get out of our time together? This was helpful for me to know so I could adjust as needed in order for everyone to get the most value out of it. We spent the rest of the day in two small groups, helping everyone get clear on their business goals.

On Thursday, we had a similar schedule, except that we focused on how to write a short book. I’m a big proponent of crafting short books, especially if you’re a first-time author. I did a teaching session on three ways to organize a short book, then we spent the rest of the day in two small groups working on their book concepts, outline, and their next steps for writing and publishing.

Now that you have a basic idea of how we structured this retreat, I’ll share the ten most important lessons I’m taking away from this experience.

1. People are hungry for live events.

After two years of dealing with COVID, people have been ready to get back to live events. Not everyone, of course—some people are still cautious, and everyone has to choose for themselves whether they want to attend live events.

Personally, I never stopped going to events. But it’s clear that people simply want to be together. This retreat showed me the power of getting together in person, particularly for writers who are often isolated.

2. Food and location make a big difference.

I splurged on a nice, large, historic home in St. Charles, Missouri. We were only a couple of blocks away from the historic Main Street, where there are dozens of quaint little shops and many coffee shops and restaurants. It’s also right next to the Missouri River.

Catering was provided by my friend Stephanie Hill, who owns the catering company Nibble & Nosh. The food and the home were a little more upscale, which set a tone that I wasn’t trying to get away with a budget retreat.

3. Introverted writers need a different type of retreat.

I designed this 2-day retreat as sort of a “retreat for introverted writers.” I’ve been to retreats before where people are going from the early morning until late at night, and it’s exhausting for introverts who need personal space and downtime.

So, we went into this retreat with the plan of having a long lunch break, and being finished around 3:00pm both days, with an afternoon break so people could take a walk or get coffee.

What I didn’t take into account, though, was that writers love to talk and talk when they’re around other writers. Even introverts open up a lot when they’re surrounded by others who “get them” and have similar goals and interests. We ended up not having much downtime because people wanted to talk!

4. The main value of a retreat is not information, it’s relationships.

As a result of being together, everyone there made new connections, expanded their goals, made a lot of progress on their book outline or project, or had some other type of breakthrough (myself included).

Everything is SO MUCH EASIER (and more fun) when you surround yourself with great people. A retreat is a great setting to build those relationships and collaborate with people.

5. You need help planning a great retreat.

I had a lot of help planning and running the Daily Writer retreat. My wife, Melanie, helped choose the venue and prep some of the food. Two of our Daily Writer Club members, M.J. James and Lynn Smargis, were a big help in planning the retreat and leading groups.

It’s not just about “having help” and offloading things you could do yourself. Having other people’s help and input actually multiplies the impact of the event. They bring ideas and energy you can’t bring yourself. I’m so grateful to these people for making it so much better than I could have done on my own.

6. A retreat or live event can have a powerful impact on someone’s business or life direction.

One of the people who came had been trying to build their ghostwriting business, but they have been stalled out for a while. However, in one of our group sessions, he discovered he had a real gift and love for editing. Now he is working with another editor in the group to build his editing business, which will be a quicker way to gain some income than ghostwriting.

This insight and a new direction for his business only happened because he attended the retreat. Being in a live setting with people who want to assist you can help you make radical progress in a short time.

In fact, it was a Total Life Freedom retreat where I was challenged to start the Daily Writer Club! I didn’t feel ready, yet I made the decision to do it two years ago in the context of a retreat.

7. A retreat is a great setting for people to look at the big picture.

At this retreat, we did a lot of book planning, but the most powerful question we talked about was “What do you really want from all this?”

We writers love books, but the book needs to be connected to your bigger goals. A lot of writers get stuck—not because they don’t have ideas, but because they’re not sure which idea to pursue. When you get clear about your goals and what you want, everything is a lot easier.

A retreat gives you the time and space to get away from the details of your business and life, and instead focus on the bigger picture.

8. People love swag!

We have all been to events where the organizers gave you merchandise that wasn’t high quality. I didn’t want to give away cheap pens or other items that weren’t first-class.

I went through VistaPrint and had high-quality tumblers, pens, notebooks, and stickers designed. They were not cheap, but they made a great impression. We put all of these items in gift bags for attendees.

Just a side note: when you are designing merchandise for your business, make sure it’s items people will actually use. Nobody wants another coffee mug. High-quality tumblers are a great option. I chose one with a white background so the green Daily Writer logo really stands out… especially when you’re using it on Zoom calls.

9. You’re never too old to chase your writing dreams.

We had several people in their 60’s or 70’s at the retreat. It was so fun and inspiring to see them taking action and making progress! Don’t ever think you’re too old (or too young) to try something new or take the next step.

10. The role of a retreat leader is not to be the guru, but a catalyst.

People in your group or community come to your retreat because they respect you and you have a certain breadth of knowledge they want to learn from. However, I don’t believe a retreat is the time to focus on the knowledge you have as a leader.

A retreat is not about gaining information. It’s about life change. And the best way life change happens is through conversations, application of knowledge, good questions, and discussion… all in a safe and welcoming environment.

The leader’s job is to be a catalyst and to make sure everyone is supported and included. This means having a high degree of emotional intelligence and social awareness. You need to be able to see when others aren’t participating and take steps to draw the best out of them.

Bonus lesson: Focus on adding value at a retreat, not making it highly profitable.

For this first retreat, my goal was not to make money. In fact, I planned on losing money. I wanted to get a good group together and have an awesome event. Therefore, I priced it really low and did everything I could to make it worthwhile.

I ended up losing money, but it wasn’t really a “loss.” I considered this an investment into my training as a retreat host. Events can be expensive, and my goal will never be to make this the most profitable part of my Daily Writer business. But it’s an important part because nothing can match the energy and relational value of a live event. You can’t replicate it any other way.

Those are my major takeaways from this retreat. I learned a lot and saw this as an opportunity for me to get my feet wet as a retreat leader. I suspect this will become a bigger part of my Daily Writer business as time goes on.

If you have ever considered leading a retreat for writers, I hope you’ll take these lessons to heart. And I certainly want to invite you to participate in our next Daily Writer Retreat, which is coming up at the end of February! More details to come…

The post 10 Lessons from Hosting the First Daily Writer Retreat appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Social media is not only a great place to connect and network with other writers… it’s also a low-stakes environment to work on your writing skills.

For example, you can tell a story about something that happened to you today. You can give somebody a shout-out or acknowledge another writer. You can share a quote you liked. You can ask an insightful question. You can comment on other people’s posts. You can share what books you’re reading. You can share something you’re learning right now.

People’s greatest emotional need is to be affirmed and validated. If you make a list of all the things that make a big difference in your writing career, your writing talent is not item #1. A far more important item is the way you make people feel.

If you can make people feel good, if you can validate and affirm and encourage them through social media, you will go a long way.

Question: Can you think of an example of a social media post that impacted you or inspired to take action? How could you do the same for others by writing on social media?

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Justin Schenck is the host of the INC Magazine top-rated podcast the Growth Now Movement and host of the world-renowned event Growth Now Movement LIVE! He is known for his positive energy and being a person who, quite simply, other people like being around.

In a time when there is so much division and negativity in the world, I’d say that’s a pretty important quality!

In this conversation, Justin shares some thoughts from the book he’s currently working on. He talks about the 5 people you need in your life: the Cheerleader, the Bruiser, the Softie, the Mentor, and the Coach. I loved this conversation and found it incredibly informative and inspiring.

Justin also gives some insight into his morning routine, which is a key part of any high-performer’s success.

The post The 5 People You Need in Your Life with Justin Schenck appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

One of the difficulties of working on this book was that we had far more material than we could fit into it. Billy had so many stories and insights about Elvis and his faith that it could have been twice as long.

One of those items we couldn’t into the book was what Elvis called “the universal law of insanity.” When Billy was a teenager, Elvis once explained this principle to him. He was trying to help Billy see that life gets much easier when you understand that everyone is a little bit crazy, including YOU.

Elvis had the wonderful gift of being able to relate to anyone, whether it was the person digging ditches or the President of the United States. We could use some of this insight today, when people seem so divided and we need to find common ground with people who don’t see the world the way we do.

In your dealings with your family, business partners, editors, designers, publishers, agents, readers, and lots of others who are part of your life as a writer, it’s wise to remember that everybody sees the world a little differently.

We’re all just a little bit crazy. Understanding this can help you relate to people who don’t see things quite the way you do.

Question: Think of a few people in your everyday life. How could the “universal law of insanity” help you get along with them better?

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There are a lot of reasons people write. Some people want to build a brand. Some people want money. Some people want a creative outlet. Some people want to leave a legacy. Some people just want to prove the naysayers wrong.

All of those reasons have their place, but there is another good reason that is rarely talked about. Here is what young adult author Jon Green said:

“Don’t make stuff because you want to make money—it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous—because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people—and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.”

When you look at your writing as a gift, it puts a whole different spin on it. Instead of just making a product, you are making something that comes from the heart, something that can bless others.

Your writing can be a gift as well as a product, of course. But it must begin as a gift you are giving to the world.

Question: What gift can you give to others through your writing today?

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