This week, we are celebrating the release of the book The Faith of Elvis, which I co-wrote with Billy Stanley, Elvis Presley’s stepbrother. Here on the podcast, I’m sharing a few lessons I’ve learned from working on this project. One of the difficulties of working on this book was that we had far more material … Read more
The intro for the long-running NBC soap opera “The Days of Our Lives” proclaims, “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” The line is more than a great introduction—it’s the absolute truth. One day, the sand in your hourglass will run out. We have a limited amount of time on … Read more
In your life as a writer, there are many things you get to choose: how and when you write, what kind of material you create, the type of platform you want to build, and so much more. But there is one thing none of us gets to decide: the times in which we live. Right … Read more
We’re doing a short series on perspectives that go against conventional wisdom. If you’re just now joining us, I encourage you to go back and catch the last few entries in this series. One of the benefits of the modern world of content creation and publishing is that you can get your material to your … Read more
Life is a lot like the process of having an eye exam. You sit in a dark room and the eye doctor puts a lot of different lenses in front of your eyes. What you see on the wall chart in front of you depends on the kind of lens you’re looking through. This is … Read more
For a while now, I’ve been wanting to do a series of conversations focused around mental health for writers. Everybody knows mental health is important, and we see lots of signs of depression, burnout, frustration, anger, and even increasing rates of suicide in society. Writers are not immune to those forces. In many ways, perhaps … Read more
As writers, sometimes we see another person’s success and believe we should have it as well. But when you stop and think about it, the logic doesn’t add up. Creativity is like a thumbprint. Everyone has creative gifts (whether they realize it or not), and everyone has something unique to offer the world. Creativity is like … Read more
Have you ever felt like you live in a room with invisible walls that have you trapped? You’re trapped by questions like this: Why does that so-and-so writer get all the attention? Why do they have more book sales? Why is my blog traffic so stagnant? Why isn’t anyone paying attention to me? Sound familiar? … Read more
This is the second entry in our mini-series on dealing with rejection. It’s happened to all of us. You had your heart set on an opportunity and it falls through. Maybe it’s a writing job, a podcast guest appearance, a collaboration, or another type of opportunity. You thought it was going to happen but now … Read more
If writing is a house, each of us lives on two levels. The ground floor is where we invite people in. We share things we think people want to hear. We say a lot of nice things, put some coffee on, and invite people to sit around the table. On the ground floor, we have … Read more