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#075: What Do You Want From Your Author Business?

Oct 05, 2024

Read Time: 4 Minutes

 

Four and a half years ago, my wife, Lori and I were forced by events outside of our control (COVID) to build an entirely new business and way of life from the ground up.

I had been running my own video production company since 2010.

But in 2020, almost overnight, that business crashed and burned because everyone across the UK was locked down and I couldn't pick up my camera and film.

And just like that, our income dried up.

To make matters worse, our twin boys were due to be born 2 months later.

So, to sum up:

– No business

– No income

– Twin boys due in 2 months time

A tough position to be in.

Thankfully, we did have a little help from the UK government in the form of furlough, which saw us through. But it wasn't enough for a soon-to-be family of 4.

So, I had to make something work.

Between April 2020 and June 2020, I had one hugely valuable asset on my side... time.

And I used it.

Not always productively, but I used it nonetheless to build something that could support our family because nobody knew how long the country, the world, would be in lockdown.

For the first few months of 2020, Lori had been re-writing her first book and we had invested in some professional book covers.

So, when April came around, with a non-existent video production business and plenty of time on my hands, I dove head first into learning everything I could about self-publishing.

And wow was there a lot to learn.

But I loved every second of it.

As the days and weeks passed, and the birth of our twin boys grew closer, I began to see the advantages of an online business that didn't require me to exchange time for money, which was the only way I knew for making a living.

We could go to bed at night and wake up in the morning having earned a few dollars whilst we slept.

And if we could make $133 in our first month of self-publishing, we knew $1,000, $5,000, or even $10,000 per month was possible.

We didn't know all the steps to get there, but we knew it was possible.

It took us until 2022 to earn six figures in royalties in a single year, which just blew our minds.

This was life-changing.

We had dabbled in self-publishing before 2020, but never took it seriously.

Going "all in" on self-publishing was the best decision we've ever made.

In a way, yes, we were "forced" to go down this road, because COVID left us no choice.

But we could have picked any road; we could have chosen to sit on the sofa and watch Netflix for 2 months until our twin boys arrived.

We didn't do that, thankfully.

A lot of the time in life, we are scared to make decisions and commit because of what might happen.

– What will people think of me?

– What if I fail?

– What if I succeed?

– What if I look silly?

– What if, what if, what if...

All of these thoughts crop up because of one thing that is engrained into our brains...

FEAR.

Fear holds so many people back in life; I don't want you to be one of these people.

So let me reframe FEAR for you into an acronym:

False. Evidence. Appearing. Real.

That's all it is.

Our brains are wired to protect us from the unknown.

Building an author business, stepping off the tracks that society wants us to stay on is, to our brains, stepping into the unknown.

Your brain is thinking, "It's safe and known where you are now; why risk our life doing something we don't know what the outcome will be?"

When you can conquer fear, or at least put it aside, the world truly opens up to you.

I'm not saying fear is a bad thing because it can help us in certain aspects of our lives.

But we need to be aware of when it's rearing its ugly head and push it aside because it can stop you making rational decisions.

Fear-based decisions are rarely good for building a highly fulfilling life.

Personally, I still feel fear every single day. But I'm aware it's there, and awareness is the first step towards dealing with anything you're facing in life.

With a 9-5 job, you may feel secure and safe.

If that job was ripped away from underneath you tomorrow, what would you do? What decisions would you make?

Would you go back to the security of a 9-5 or would you use this event to kickstart your journey as an author and go all in?

In a way, Lori and I were one of the "lucky" ones who came out of COVID because it changed our lives for the better.

Had COVID not happened, would I be sitting here today writing this newsletter to you? Would I have been brave enough to close my video production business and go all in on self-publishing Lori's books?

Honestly, I don't know, but here's what I do know...

We have one shot at this thing called life.

Don't spend it climbing the wrong mountain, or chasing someone else's dreams.

My worst fear is waking up in years to come and coming face to face with the person I could have been, the life I could have lived, had I only made a different decision.

Because that's what life is; a series of decisions.

We are where we are today because of the decisions we've made in the past.

If becoming a full-time author has been your dream for any length of time, and you're resisting it because of the fear of the unknown, I would encourage you to grasp this dream of yours with both hands.

The last thing I want for you is to regret not living life to your full potential, not going after your dreams, and placing too much emphasis on what others may think of you.

This is your life to live. Live it your way.

You deserve to give yourself a chance and get what you want out of life.

To Your Success
– Matt

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