Whatever you decide, remember that the most important thing is to do what’s right for YOUR situation. Everybody’s family life, living situation, budget, and way of working are different.

Now we come to the final thing I want you to consider when deciding whether to rent an outside office space. It’s a factor maybe you haven’t considered, but it’s an important one. Are there networking opportunities with real, live people in your current office location?

If you work from home, the answer is no. You have to go to other places to interact with real people (with the exception of your family or the occasional solicitor who comes by).

But if you want to grow your network in your community, and you’re looking at a potential office, think about what kinds of people hang out there. Can they help you grow your business? Do they know your potential clients, customers, or readers? Do you know people whom they need to know?

I know that as introverted writers, we are most concerned with having a quiet space where we can do our work. But being a writer isn’t just about retreating from the world. If you want to have a business that impacts your local community, consider the kinds of people you will interact with in your physical office location.

The office I just started to rent is located in a building that’s a mix of a couple of different companies. The top floor is home to a real estate office, with about a dozen offices rented by different businesses. The bottom level of the building is occupied by a contractor who has a couple of dozen people working there.

The office next door to mine is rented by a counselor who has clients several days a week. I’ve seen a few other building tenants with various businesses.

In the last few weeks, I’ve had conversations with several people. They know what I do, and I know what they do. It’s been refreshing to spend some time in a place where I get to have random conversations with people who do different kinds of work than I do.

There is a mutual benefit to looking out for others who can benefit from their services. I’m looking for clients or people who will benefit from other people’s services. Likewise, I’m pretty sure I’m the only ghostwriter and author coach most of them know. As a result, they will automatically think of me when they run across people who need my services.

A lot of writers love the idea of working from home and only interacting with real, live humans when they venture out of the house to the gas station or grocery store. I hope you won’t default to that type of existence. There is immense value in getting out in the real world, with real, live people, and being part of your community.

And I would argue that as a writer, you have the RESPONSIBILITY to mix it up with people in your area. How can you possibly stay curious and creative if you just want to stay home all the time?

And as a business owner (yes, you DO have a writing business if you sell books!), I’d also argue that you have a responsibility to improve the quality of life for the people in your area. None of us exists as a silo; we are all part of a broader community of people who live and work together.

As the poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.” No woman is, either. So, if you’re considering getting an office outside the home, think about how many people you will have the opportunity to interact with in that location.

And if you plan on working from home or going to coffee shops sometimes, make an effort to spend some time around other people. Get to know them. Ask questions. Invest in relationships.

What you’ll learn, and how you will grow, will improve your creativity and writing in lots of ways!

Today’s Challenge: Whether you’re getting an outside office or working from home, make an effort to interact with real humans and be part of your broader community.

The post Office Space: Are There Networking Opportunities? appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

We’ve talked about several steps in the Writer’s Path, and today we’ll focus on Milestone #5: Expanding your networking of friends, fans, and connections.

Why it’s important: One of the biggest things that holds back great writers is not knowing how to network and build relationships. I have learned a lot from Vincent Pugliese in this regard. He leads the Total Life Freedom community and mastermind, and he’s recently released a fantastic book called The Wealth of Connection, which I highly recommend. It will help you develop a mindset of networking and building relationships.

A network is critical because these are the people who will support your work, share your work, refer others to you and vice-versa. Whether it’s friends, fans, readers, collaborators, or connections, you need other people in your life and business to do anything significant.

The challenge here is that it’s hard for many introverted writers to do networking. We’ll have a lot more to say about this later on, but for now, I want to challenge you to simply reach out to three people a day just to say hello and see how they’re doing. People love it when others check up on them.

Remember, our greatest emotional need as human beings is for others to affirm and acknowledge us. When you can get past your introverted nature and begin to strategically reach out to people and build your connections, amazing things can happen.

This is one of the main things that holds writers back. You can be the greatest writer in the world, but if you don’t have connections and a network, you’re basically dead in the water. Your relationships are the difference-maker.

The big challenge here, especially for introverted writers, is that we mistakenly believe that writing success is all about being a good writer, about creating the most innovative or well-written content or books. Not true. We have to get out of our comfort zones and take initiative to build and nurture those relationships.

Daily Question: Who are three people you can check in on today?

The post Milestone #5: Expand Your Network of Friends, Fans & Connections appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Let’s talk about one of the hardest truths to swallow. Here it is: the circle of relationships that brought you to where you are is not the circle of relationships that will take you to where you want to be.

Most of us don’t like conflict. We don’t want to feel like we’re leaving others behind. This fact alone prevents a lot of people from growing because they are not willing to make tough changes to their personal and professional relationships.

You’ve probably heard about what happens in a crab basket. When you put a bunch of crabs in a basket, and one tries to crawl out, the others pull him back in. Most social and professional circles work the same way. Whenever you try to grow or improve, the people around you who don’t want to grow will try to discourage you. They may not do so directly, but they will express doubt that your plans or dreams are realistic. People will try to keep you in the crab basket of mediocrity in all kinds of ways.

Let me get personal for a moment. Once I had been teaching college for 12-13 years, I knew there was something more I wanted. I didn’t want to do that job forever because the context of our tiny college was very limiting. We had a small number of students, my salary was very limited, and there was zero potential for either one of those numbers ever increasing.

I was very friendly with the people I worked with. I still consider most of them to be friends. But none of them had any intentions of building a business. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, and they are wonderful people. But I knew that if I wanted to build a business, I had to start spending time around people who thought and dreamed bigger, and who were doing the kinds of things I wanted to do.

So, I started getting involved in mastermind groups and communities. I started taking courses and investing in myself. I started doing freelance work. I started podcasting and writing my own books. Most of the people in my day job didn’t know what to think of this because it wasn’t in their DNA to build something of their own.

I’m not talking about denying the value that some people have had in your journey. You can be grateful for a season or a phase in your life and recognize its value, while at the same time also understanding that you need to have a different focus moving forward. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

Life is a journey, and if you’re not willing to let go of some things, you won’t have room in your heart and mind for the people and things that you need to carry with you going forward. It doesn’t mean that those relationships were not important, and that you can’t still be friends. It just means that you are going in a different direction in life, and you will be spending the bulk of your time and energy around people who have the same goals as you do.

This is a very difficult thing to do. You have to do a real gut-check because it means some people in your life won’t agree with your direction, and you will not fit into your old social circles and old ways of thinking. So be prepared for that.

One more thing about all this: there will be some people who see what you’re doing and will want to join you. Make sure to make time and energy for those people who are curious about your new direction and find ways to help them.

Daily Question: Are you willing to let go of some relationships in order to make room for new ones that are more in line with your new direction in life, writing, and business? Be honest.

The post The Art of Letting Go appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Let’s talk about one of the more uncomfortable truths of the author life. It has nothing to do with books, but it has everything to do with how others perceive you. And therefore, that means it has everything to do with your social standing and how much others want to be around you.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: people judge you by the company you keep. If you spend time with positive, successful, generous people, you will be perceived the same way. You will borrow their influence and others will want to be around you because other people’s goodwill and positivity will be transferred to you. Of course, you can destroy this borrowed goodwill by being a jerk, but if you keep good company, it will greatly help your success.

The opposite is also true. If you spend time with negative people who complain, aren’t growing, and tear others down, you will be perceived the same way as well. You can do lots of good things yourself, but we are judged by the company we keep. As they say, bad company corrupts good character.

This may not be fair, but it’s the way that social relationships work. We are always looking for ways to gauge whether someone is a potential threat, and one of the ways we do this is by seeing who they spend time with. One of the fastest shortcuts to success is by spending time with people who others like to be around. As a result, they will also be open to spending time with you and giving you opportunities. This can greatly help your writing and business opportunities.

Daily Question: Take a good look at the people you spend the most time with. Are they helping to improve your reputation and social standing?

The post Successful by Association appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.