Just a quick note to let you know we’re taking a short break from our daily episodes. Over the next month, I’ll be finishing the second draft of the Daily Writer book that releases on November 1st, and I’ll also be making several major improvements to our Daily Writer Club as well as my main website, KentSanders.net.

When the podcast returns on August 15th, we will be featuring not one, but TWO weekly interviews with amazing writers and creatives. In addition, we’ll be continuing our several-month-long series on The Writer’s Path, which is a framework for building a writing-based business.

In the meantime, I encourage you to go back over the last year’s episodes and listen to the ones you haven’t caught yet… or better yet, re-listen to them because you often catch things the second or third time that you didn’t catch the first.

As always, I appreciate you listening and I look forward to returning on August 15th.

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One of the things we have emphasized in The Writer’s Path is the importance of developing multiple streams of income for your writing business. Today, I want to share three writers who are great examples of what we’ve been talking about in this series. Each of them has a clear message for a specific audience, they use multiple platforms to share their content, they create content consistently (including multiple books), they have been expanding their network for years, and they have used their writing and books as a basis for building multiple streams of income.

Keep in mind that I don’t know everything about their businesses—this is my best estimate based on what I know and have observed.

1. Dan Miller

• Website: https://48days.com; https://48dayseagles.com/
• Core message: The value of building a business with multiple income streams.
• Main platforms: Long-running 48 Days podcast and email newsletter
• Income streams: Many books, membership community, mastermind, online courses, DiSC profile, live events, affiliates

2. John Stange

• Websites: https://desirejesus.com; https://platformlaunchers.com
• Core messages: Practicing your faith (spirituality); how to develop a platform
• Main platforms: Several podcasts, email newsletter
• Income streams: Several podcasts with sponsors, couple dozen books, affiliates, membership community, speaking

3. Honorée Corder

• Website: https://honoreecorder.com
• Core message: You must write a book.
• Main platforms: Email newsletter, frequent podcast guest
• Income streams: Mastermind, courses, dozens of books, coaching, speaking, book marketing services, certifications, writing collaborations, referrals

These are only three examples—there are many more I could mention, but you get the picture. The main idea here is not to get overwhelmed by other people’s success. These three have all been involved with their business for many years. I just want you to see what’s possible!

Daily Question: I’ve asked this question before… but it’s worth repeating: Do you believe amazing success is possible for you?

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We’ve spent the last couple of weeks talking about several milestones in The Writer’s Path. I want to emphasize again that these are not necessarily sequential in the sense that you can’t move on to the next one until the current one is completed. Rather, these are all just pieces of the larger puzzle of a writing business, and you will continually refine them as you go along.

Today I want to share three primary benefits of approaching your writing business in the way I’ve suggested, using The Writer’s Path:

First, there is less stress because you know exactly where you are and what you need to do next. Many writers get paralyzed because they get distracted by people doing all kinds of different things. The Writer’s Path gives you clarity.

Second, you have clear goals for your business, instead of feeling like you have to do everything at once. This is critical because it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the things you feel you should be doing, instead of focusing on the next thing in front of you.

Third, you will have less tendency to compare yourself because you can see where others’ success has come from following these steps, instead of just having blind luck or more talent.

I truly believe in what I’m sharing about The Writer’s Path. If you put these principles into practice, they will absolutely transform your writing business and give you a clear pathway forward. Tomorrow we’ll talk about a few examples of people who have used this same framework to build their writing business.

Daily Question: What would it feel like to have less stress and more clarity as you build your writing business?

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Now we’ve come to the final milestone in The Writer’s Path, which is simply this: Practice key habits for wellness, productivity, and success.

Why it’s important: Without key habits, you will burn out or have some sort of a train wreck. I have seen it too many times in my life. I have even seen it the last few years with some writers and entrepreneurs I know who got very successful, then they crashed and burned in their personal lives.

We all intuitively know that good habits are important—habits related to our health, sleep, productivity, mindset, and so much more. But they are also easy to ignore, aren’t they?

In a way, this is similar to Stephen Covey’s seventh habit from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People—that habit is “sharpen the saw.” It’s tempting to cut and cut and cut… and then never sharpen the saw. When we try to cut down a tree without sharpening the blade, it’s much harder.

And that’s the big challenge of maintaining good life habits. They are easy to ignore. It’s easy to focus on creating, writing, and building a business, only to find yourself alienated from the people you love or in the hospital with a heart attack.

This is not really the 7^th milestone in the sense that it’s sequential related to the other milestones. These are all just keys that need to be part of your writing business and life. Good habits are a key part of life no matter what stage of building your business you are in.

Daily Question: On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate yourself on having good habits? Be honest.

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So far, we have talked about getting clear on your message and audience, choosing your platforms, writing consistently, publishing books, and expanding your network. Once you have those in place, then you are ready to take advantage of Milestone #6: Create streams of income based on your writing and services.

Why it’s important: All of the successful writers I know personally have multiple streams of income. This mitigates risk and lets you grow several streams that can support you. They are also intertwined, and if you think like a business owner, you can always create new streams.

As I mentioned before, I believe that many writers should consider both sides of the equation – doing client work as well as focusing on income based on their own IP. Each side informs the other side.

This whole idea of streams of income could take up a whole series on its own, but for now, I just want you to grasp the idea that making money from books is only one of many, many ways to make income with your writing.

The main challenge that most writers face in this regard is learning to think like a business person. It is so easy to focus just on the creative aspect of writing. But you also have to think like an entrepreneur who is running a business…because if you want to make money with your writing, that’s exactly what you are. I want you to become comfortable with the idea of being a business owner and entrepreneur.

Daily Question: How comfortable are you with the concept of creating multiple streams of income based on your writing?

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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?

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So far in this series, we have looked at the importance of getting clear on your audience and message, building the platforms where you will share your content, and writing consistently.

That brings us to Milestone #4: Publishing and marketing books that solve problems for your reader.

Why it’s important: Books give you credibility and authority that you cannot get any other way. Books are also a super convenient way for you to share your wisdom with people.

Notice the emphasis on solving problems… it’s critical that your book be focused on solving a problem in some way for your reader. For example, my recent book 18 Words to Live By was focused on solving the problem of not knowing which values are most critical to take with you throughout life.

I highly recommend that you focus on writing short books that solve problems for people, at least in terms of nonfiction. If you’re focusing on fiction, that’s a different animal because fiction is not about solving problems. But if you’re doing nonfiction, remember that people come to your book with a problem or frustration they need help solving. Keep their needs in mind.

Remember, writing for an audience is not mainly about meeting your needs… it’s about helping your reader. If you want to write for therapy or just for fun, that’s totally fine. But if you’re focused on building a business with your writing, you have to follow the principle that every successful business follows, which is putting your customer (or reader) first.

What do they want? What do they need? How can you help them? Those are the questions that should be driving you if you want to have a successful writing business.

The main challenge you will face in this regard is two-fold. First of all, a lot of people feel intimidated by the idea of writing a book. That’s why I recommend writing short little books that people can read fast.

Second, you will face the challenge of not focusing on your reader. You must have a relentless focus on helping your reader. That is critical. We’ll say more about that later on.

Daily Question: What is a topic of interest to you that could be the basis for a short book you could write in the next 3 months?

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Why it’s important: When you see other successful writers, it might seem like you should be everywhere. But that’s not the case. The ones who do seem to be everywhere probably have assistants creating a lot of that content, which is totally fine. I have an assistant, also, but that’s only been for the last year or so. Up until then, I did everything myself.

But when you’re starting out, you have to pick and choose where you want to be. A blog is essential. That is the baseline for a writer, in my opinion. An email newsletter is essential also. And then being on social media is crucial, although I recommend just focusing on 2-3 places.

Video is great if you feel motivated. The same is true for podcasting. I love podcasting but you have to really commit to it. The point is to choose your platforms, the ones you enjoy and that you can use to reach your audience.

Here’s the big challenge in choosing your platforms: you will be tempted to be EVERYWHERE. And it’s just not possible. When you see the big names being super active on every social media platform and doing “all the things,” remember that it took them a long time to build that up. And again, they have hired people to help with those things.

Don’t give into the idea that you have to be everywhere. First, focus on your website/blog, and email newsletter, and a couple of social media platforms. That’s more than enough to begin.

Daily Question: What platforms do you currently use to share your content, and where do you plan to expand in the next six months?

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So far, I’ve given you a quick introduction to The Writer’s Path, why it’s important, and I’ve shared a bit of my story of traveling the path myself. Over the next couple of weeks, you’ll learn more detail about each of these seven milestones. I’ll explain what it is and also share the biggest challenge you will face as you try to achieve it. I’ll also give you some examples of people who have built a writing business using this pathway.

Let’s dig into Milestone #1: Clarify a powerful message for a specific audience.

Why it’s important: In order to have a strong business, you need a specific point of view of the world. You need a clear message that is the basis for everything else you do. Every business does this. They have a mission of some kind.

Remember: you are not for everyone. You should have one main thing to say, or one main thing you do, for each business you have. When you have a bunch of conflicting messages, people get confused and they tune out.

Think of Apple products. Now it’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Apple products. If you think of their core value, or their core message, what is it? It’s basically this: we build superior products for an audience who appreciates integration and a great design aesthetic. They have consistently followed that over-arching mission for many years.

You need to do the same thing. It’s important for you to have one single clear message that you are sharing in your writing.

For the Daily Writer Club, my message is: The Daily Writer Club is a supportive and engaged membership community that helps you clarify a powerful message, write books and content to serve your readers, grow your network and online platform, earn an income from your writing and services, and develop habits for wellness and success.

It’s also important to choose a specific type of person you’re serving. Again: you’re not for everyone. Don’t try to write for everyone. Choose one type of person with a specific set of needs or interests. For example, my specific audience is writers who want to build a business with their writing but are looking for community and resources to do that.

Here is the big challenge in choosing one overall message and a specific audience: you will be tempted to expand and try to reach everyone. So be disciplined and focused in your message and audience. Do a deep dive into the needs, desires, problems, and frustrations of that audience and create material specifically for them.

Daily Question: What is your core message, and who is your specific audience?

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Now that you have a basic idea of what The Writer’s Path is all about, I’d like to share my story of traveling this pathway myself.

I began blogging around 2007 or 2008. I had several blogs and was just writing for fun. I wanted to build a business but didn’t know how. I was a college professor and wanted to create more income to support my family.

Then, around 2010, I began following Dan Miller, the founder of the 48 Days brand. He emphasized building a business around your writing using multiple streams of income. I was intrigued and attended his “Write to the Bank” conference in 2012. As I continued to follow his teaching, as well as material from people like Cliff Ravenscraft, Michael Hyatt, Jeff Goins, and of course Dan Miller, I started to have a strong desire to create a business.

My first paid writing gig was writing podcast show notes for a client. That soon expanded into several clients. My business was growing slowly and I was also trying several other kinds of side businesses to see if I could make faster progress. I tried networking marketing, selling used books on Amazon, business consulting, and doing part-time church ministry. None of those were successful or greatly fulfilling.

During the same time, starting around 2015, I began writing books and hosting a podcast. Although I wasn’t making any money from those things, they gave me the desire to continue creating my own content. I saw lots of other people doing the same thing and making a great living, so I decided to keep plugging away at it.

In 2019, I was introduced to ghostwriting, which is where I have continued to focus most of my energy. As that side of my business has grown, I’ve also put a bigger focus on growing the side of my business that is the Daily Writer, which includes the podcast, a membership community, books—including the upcoming Daily Writer book—courses, and eventually, other products.

I really enjoy doing both client work and having my own material. I love having multiple streams of income. Some of them are very small right now but I think it’s important to get things started and then find ways to grow them. The Writer’s Path represents what I see others doing who are successful, as well as where I’m headed also.

My point in sharing this is to encourage you in your own journey. I believe you can do the exact same thing I have done. I’m not anyone special. I’m just highly motivated. If you feel the same motivation, you can be far more successful if you take consistent action and don’t give up.

Daily Question: What could your life and writing business be like three years from today if you took consistent action toward your goals?

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