 Oh, everyone just started like it's coming. Sorry. I'm just setting it up. I was just finish a meeting. Hello. Okay. Hi, everyone. Welcome to how to set your new writing goals. When change happens, which is a conversation with Deborah Ekerling, myself, Taryn Edwards and Barbara Santos. So my name is Taryn Edwards and I am a librarian at the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco and there I manage the activities for writers. And this event in particular has been produced in partnership with the San Francisco Writers Conference and the Women's National Book Association. And these are two entities that I work with very closely to provide learning experiences that are relevant to the San Francisco Bay Area writing community. So, let's see, let me introduce our speakers today. Today we have Deborah Ekerling, who is a professional writer, a communication specialist, a coach, a project catalyst. She is the founder of WriteOn Online and which is a website and a community for writers, creatives and entrepreneurs. She is also the author of a new book published by Mango Press called Your Goal Guide, A Roadmap for Setting, Planning and Achieving Your Goals. I will put her website and her book details in the chat space. And then she's going to give a little presentation today and then she'll be in conversation with myself and with Barbara Santos, whom you know because she is the marketing director of the San Francisco Writers Conference. All right, so we have a- Well, I thought that she was the one collecting the money of the meeting. I'm kidding. That's richer, that has been richer, yeah. She really does everything. I mean, we've all learned number half. All right, so the way it's going to work today is Deborah is going to share her knowledge in a short presentation and then Barbara and I will take your questions. We have a large audience, so we might mute ourselves because we all have dogs, we have kids, we have mailmen coming and we want to focus on what Deborah's got to say. So, the thing that I think will work best is if you put your questions in the chat room, then Barbara and I will fold them into the general conversation. And then I just wanted to point out that we are recording this event. Yes we are, I'm double checking. We are recording this event and so if you do not want your name or your picture to show, I would turn your camera off and change your name. Just click on the name and you can change it to Mickey Mouse or whatever you want to be. That's the way it's going to go. All right, so welcome Deborah and thanks so much for coming and hanging out with us on this Thursday afternoon. Well thank you for having me. As you can probably imagine goals is like my favorite thing to talk about. So I am absolutely thrilled to help. And what I started talking about before is we've all been going through so much change, but change is actually not always bad. I should say it the other way. Change is good with change becomes opportunities. Sometimes we have control over that change. Recently, we've had no control over anything. But what we do have control over is really the way in which we respond. And it really is the perfect opportunity to reset our writing goals, start over, let's pretend it's January and move forward. I'm Deborah Echoing as chair mentioned I am the author of your goal guide and founder of write on online and also the depth method, which is my system for helping you figure out what you want and how to get it. So I am going to do my presentation presentation I'm basically going to go through a lot of the philosophies and techniques in the book which will help you kind of reframe the way that you look at things. So let me start. Everybody can see my screen. Yes. Great. So the depth method, the depth method is my system for helping people figure out what they want and how to get it. So it's most goal setting people say, Okay, this is how you achieve your goals. I created a system to help people figure out what those goals are. It's really simple. It's determine your mission, explore your options, brainstorm your path. And that's it. I mean, it's simple, my, I'll talk about missions and models. My motto is goal setting simplified, and I figure recalibrating your path is going to be challenging enough, figuring out the instructions on how to do it should not it should be easy and user friendly. So these are the steps, because you can't get what you want if you don't know what you want. Once you hone in on that mission, you can explore the different options because there are different things you want to be a bestselling author. Great fiction, nonfiction screenwriter and article writer poet. The world is your oyster, especially in this land of technology, because everything we have, as I was talking about before, you can find online, ask your community, get the support that you need to get where you need to go. And then you brainstorm your path to figure out what you want, figure out everything it's going to take to get there. And then you follow the plan. Because that is the challenge most schools fail because people overthink them, or they underthink them. When you plan, you know what you're doing, and you've got a route, it's much easier, less stressful, and your chances of success are much greater. Okay, I'm doing the modified version. And the first thing you need to do when you're embracing change you're changing your writing goals is to revise your mission and your motto, your mission statement. I'm not sure most of you have done it at some point in your life, whether it's for yourself or company or both, but really think about who you are, what defines you, what makes you special, because we're all writers, but we all have a different background, different experience, and we all have different things that make us us. That's what you want to embrace the who you are, what you want what you want to create. And so, when you're dealing with mission statement, you want it to be helping others. So, even if you're writing to entertain, whether you're writing to educate, whatever the purpose for the knowledge that you're bestowing upon the world, there is a reason that it's going to help others. So who you are plus what you want and how it helps is your mission statement. My mission, Big Shot, is to help as many people as possible define, plan, and achieve their goals. My motto, which is the shortened mission statement, is goal setting simplified. So not only do you want to recalibrate your mission, what you want to create, you want a motto to serve as your focal point. Because as you carve new paths for yourself, for your goals, what you're going to do is you're going to get distractions. I mean, it happens when the world isn't going nuts, and we're not having all this additional trauma. So, in real life, and in this new life, you're going to have other opportunities. When you have a motto, when you have a focal point, as you go through your journey to achieve your goals, it will keep you on the right path. Because if an opportunity comes along, you can say, okay, does that serve me? Does it serve my motto? Yes, great, I'm going to do it. Or if it doesn't, you can say, but will it benefit me personally? Then yes, you could do it. And sometimes things that come up are just distractions. And your motto will help you sort of go through those distractions to stay focused and on the right track. Now, if you don't know what your motto is, or even if you do, or if you know what your path is, or even if you don't, directed journaling is really my favorite way to hone in on anything. And it works for your mission and motto. It works for figuring out what those options are, what you're exploring to get to what I call Go's Hopia. And it also, in this challenging time, it helps relieve stress. So I'm doing my second bullet points first. It's okay. Journaling is great for stress release. It's great for every kind of problem you need to solve, because again, opportunities arise and you need to figure out how to deal with them. In addition to stress, the problems-solving aspect is good for journaling alone. But for the purposes of reframing your goals, this is how direct journaling works. You want to set at least three 15-minute appointments with yourself. Put them in your calendar so you do them, and you can do three, four, five, whatever it takes. And over the course of your week, I just want you to bring some, okay, let's say you finished this book and you're so excited to get it to the publishers. No one's expecting, accepting manuscripts right now. Oh no, okay, I've got this great book. What am I going to do in the meantime? So you're directed journaling and answering your question. Okay, what's next? Well, what can I work on? How can I use this time to my advantage? Let's say you were supposed to go on a live book tour that was canceled because everything has gone virtual. Use the directed journaling. Okay, how do I set up a virtual book tour for my release? How do I find the right places to go? Or where can I find the high casters to interview me? Whatever it is that you're trying to solve, that you're trying to reframe, you're going to ask yourself, okay, how do I rework this thing? So you want to do this at least three times, and that's really your only question. Okay, how am I going to change things up because of this challenge? And the secret is to do this three, four, five times, but no peeking. When you're done, then you can go back and look through your journal entries and be like, oh, well I mentioned this five times. But I mentioned this like 20 times, and I had absolutely no idea that this was of interest to me. So by doing this brainstorming, this free writing, and then looking at it objectively, you're really going to have a much easier time to pinpoint the things that you want to pursue. And it works for personal as well as professional goals, because yes, we're reforming our writing path, but the personal goals will fit in there as well. Okay, so after you review the journal entries, you find your common themes and then you could do your research. This is what I was talking about before. Let's say you decide you don't want to be on a podcast, you want to start a podcast. So your research phase is you go to your network, you see who you know who has done this or who you know who knows people who have done this. Do a little bit of searching, find the resources you need to see if that's a good path. Maybe another thing you want to do is you decide, okay, well, this book's on the back burner, I've always wanted to write my memoir. Well, what do I need to know to do this. So again, you go into research mode, find your resources, unsure mechanics Institute in San Francisco Women's National Look Association. There are plenty of articles and resources you don't have to even go that far to find what you need to do to pursue certain writing paths, but to take a good hard look at your different options. See what skills you have, what skills you need, what resources you have, what resources you need, you want to set yourself up for success so choose the things that are really speaking toward you. So you will, you're already setting yourself up for success if you choose new goals that align with your mission with who you are, but also exciting projects that you know you're going to put all the time and effort into. So do your research, set the select your goals and then map them up. This is where brainstorming path comes in. You choose a focal point and then brainstorm everything you think you need to do to create it. And this is personal goals like networking and professional goals like setting up a website, which if you haven't done as an author, you need to do that anyway, amping up your social media just everything. And then you divide your personal goals and your professional goals and then you kind of you categorize the different things. Okay, I want to set up a website. Okay, what is that entail? I need a branding. I need to set up a blog. I need to figure out my images, all the different elements, all the different elements that go into each like overarching goal. Map them out, give yourself deadlines, do it, you're done. Perfect. Okay. I know it's simple, right? And I just wanted to give a couple examples of ways to refresh your writing goals. I think I mentioned some of these already. You're supposed to do a live book tour, do virtual book tour. My book came out in January. I did a mini book tour around LA. By February, everything was closed. So I started speaking and leading workshops on goal setting, not only to get the word out about my book, but also to share my expertise. Reboot. Rebooting your online presence, whether or not you have one. There's always something you can do. You know the whole quote, artists never finished, it's abandoned. I think the same thing is true for your online personas. You haven't rewritten your bio in a while. If you haven't looked at your bio in a while, if you don't have, as a writer, it's really good to have like three. You want your one-line bio, your short bio, and your really long bio. I had, this was a few months ago, someone was doing me a favor. I wanted to talk about my Twitter chat, and he went on my write on online website, which by the way has since been updated. I've been doing everything for the Dev method, especially lately, because that's my coaching and where my book is through. He went on write on online, pulled a very old bio with places I don't even write for anymore, and sent it out. So lesson learned. Look at your bios on all of your websites and all your socials. If not once a quarter, once a year, fair minimum, and make sure everything is up to date. And that goes for your LinkedIn as well, because you may have, and this is, I'm going to do a little LinkedIn sidetrack again. LinkedIn lets you share articles and links. So not only are you telling people, okay, this is this is who I am, what I write, my expertise, my specialty. Oh look, here are some articles. So I don't even have to tell you, you could just read them. So you should be going into LinkedIn and having some featured media to really showcase everything. So reboot, great writing goal, revisit. And you know that project that you keep saying when I have a little bit of time, I'm going to work on it. Now is the perfect time or the one that's been in your head for like ever that memoir, that column, that podcast, that video series, why not spend time again with projects that are going to get you excited and really wanting to work on them. A lot of people are still, even though the stores are opening up, people are still working from home. If you don't have to commute, that's like an extra what half hour hour a day, a couple times a day. Use that time to create something that's going to make you happy and, you know, get those endorphins going and let that that will also help you deal with all the stress and the challenges are coming your way because if you're happy, stress is like less. Okay, research. Always a good time to explore new platforms and genres. Many years ago in my library's group. I gave a exercise to this guy who only wrote sci-fi, like, only wrote weird, strange, bizarre sci-fi. In one month, I gave everybody the challenge to write a genre completely out of their comfort zone. Well, he wrote this personal essay that blew me away. I mean, I have no idea he could write because of all the monsters and robots. I like monsters and robots, but because he took the time to explore a different genre, he found that he was good at something that he never would have tried before. And then the other way to refresh your writing goals is to reach out. You have all this found time, spend it networking. One really good personal goal, which is also a professional goal, is regular networking in real life when there are events. I always say, do one event a week and it can be a mix or education, a coffee or whatever. Well, we no longer have to travel to networking events. So instead of one event a week, you could do two or three. Or you can also just reach out and pick up the phone and call someone you have not spoken to in a while because it'll make you happy and them happy. And these calls are really at, hey, what are you doing? How are you doing? And they will ask you as well. And just conversation breeds ideas. And it also, this connection will help you feel better when you're not as connected. And in order to set yourself up for success, because now you have all these great goals, right? Because I hope your minds are spinning. Once you settle on what you want, you want to post your goals everywhere. Now I'm not talking the whole laundry list of goals. I'm saying like three to five of your focal point goals you want to have on your computer, on your phone. I have a canvas board right behind my computer. And so I can see my goals all the time. So it really works for me. I have a friend who's a yoga instructor. I told her to write her goals and put it on her yoga mat so she sees that in Downward Dog. It works. Think you're out what you're going to look at and what works for you. The other thing you want to do is make a list. I love a good to-do list. I love any to-do list. And I like doing both an electronic and a handwritten to-do list. And it's really the same way as brainstorming your goals. Every Sunday I will write out everything that I have to get done for the week. And I'll categorize it by client, by project, things that I'm doing for speaking for the book, or in ongoing sorts of things. Like blog recaps for my Twitter chat, those sorts of things. Then I'll type them in. Yes, you only have to type them in once. And then as the week goes on, on the paper list, I'll just check them off. And on the electronic, I'll do a calendar appointment. So on my electronic calendar, I'll put done in all caps. Because you never want to cross these off or delete them, because this is your tracking, which is, you know, a couple points down, but I will get there. You want, at the end of the week, you're going to copy your list and then paste it in the next week. And then delete the dones, keep the ongoings and keep anything that needs to be done and add new ones. And then you write it on the paper. So the list go back and forth. But this way, especially if you do it as a calendar appointment, it's always with you. It's awesome. Okay, once you have your list, schedule. A lot of people who are working on writing projects or passion projects have other things that they're doing. Schedule those in the same way you schedule your other work appointments. And even if it's an hour to three hours a week, that is your dedicated time that you are working towards these goals. This is the main thing with people who are working on things that will benefit in the future that don't even have a deadline yet. You need to treat these appointments as like a gift to yourself. You want to do new things. You have to get out there as an author. You have to be out there. That is part of the deal, because you need your words there for other people to find. So you want to schedule your marketing time, your writing time, and all your other obligations, but especially for your personal goal time. This is the rule. If you get busy, the appointments could be moved, but they cannot be deleted. The other reason you want to keep appointments and lists is for tracking. We've had understatement a rough several months, but we have had some accomplishments in there. In my write-on group, I always have two-year horn Tuesday. What's your biggest win this week? Because people need a space to celebrate their accomplishments and people who are going to be happy for them. If you've had a rough month, you can go look at your list and say, oh, look, I did this, this, and this. I sent out 10 queries. I had four calls with potential partnerships. I did this much research towards this thing. When you track things, it's motivation because you see your process and it motivates you to keep moving even more forward. And then you want rules and rewards. So remember that networking thing I was talking about before? I always say do one or two networking things a week. This is especially important for introverts who don't love it. You could say you do one or two each week, then you get to take a week off. That's a rule. You have to work X number of hours each week on this. That's a rule. And then you could do little rewards for little wins and big rewards for big wins. You want to do things that are going to make you happy, keep you motivated and moving forward. Because it's really all about keeping a momentum, keeping yourself excited, motivated, and also always trying new things. We're writers. We're creators. We want to get our work out there. And rebooting your writing goals is really just all about taking a step back, looking at what's possible, and then creating that for yourself. Okay, I just want to take a minute. Please join my email list or connect with me. I also wrote an article on this. I was feeling very, very into reworking goals. So I have an article link I can also send. So please feel free. And I don't know that we need this. This is me. If you want to, I know we're going to talk a little bit longer. If you want to connect with me, my email, I have a Twitter chat on Sunday nights, which is all what are your goals for the week? What do you accomplish? And then we talk about a special topic. I do a Facebook live every Monday from the make of publishing Facebook page, my write on online community, which I want to invite everybody to join. I'll put in the chat, but it's facebook.com slash group slash write on online. That's the one I was talking about where every day there's a different thread to bring people together to share their goals, their wins, their plans, because you never know when a connection will be made. And then I also have a Facebook page for write on online and the depth of it. So I'm everywhere. Connect with me wherever. And I guess it's time for questions. Thank you, Deborah. That was fascinating. And I was feverishly writing some notes down. Yeah, we have some questions here. Let's see here. Looks like one person asked Melissa asked if you were referring to the pages idea by Julia Cameron has she been an influence in your, your thinking. I'm familiar with I personally have never done the artist way. And all of my systems are from my 20 years of coaching and leading writers groups, but yes, it's the same thing. The idea is, just jump everything out of your brain and then look at it. So you're objective, objectively looking at it. Another question and that brings up people asking when is the best time to write in the morning in the evening. And I just say, when are you motivated to write. When do you have 1520 minutes, the time that you can write that you're comfortable that you can have a little bit of peace and quiet. That is when you should be writing. Can I answer that one. Oh, sure. Can I like throw in one other tip that that I love. I also have something I call the five of seven role, because a lot of people will say you should be working on your projects every day you should be writing every day. I think that's a really good idea in theory. I think that people do not have that time every single day. And let's say you say okay 15 minutes every day I'm going to work towards my goals. Well, you miss it Sunday so it's a half an hour a Monday and then it's 45 minutes on Tuesday and it's up to an hour on Wednesday. If you didn't have 15 minutes on Sunday, you don't have an hour on Wednesday. If you reset yourself and you realize, okay, I can do this amount of time these days. So, figure out what you need to do to set yourself up for success. So you get the work done and you make progress towards your goals. Yeah, you know, I'm really curious about your, your coaching work with companies are those like companies related to writing like not sure is or not necessarily what what I and I do most than one on one I work like a fitness trainer. So, I will work with someone either they have too many ideas to hone in on what they should be pursuing, or someone who this was a client a week that he has put his self publishing his children, a series of children's picture books. And he just needed a signing board and help making a plan beyond getting lost in all the clutter of the web and all the links. So, and with companies, I'll go in if they've got a big project that they can't. They don't have the manpower for so let's say this client I used to work with for they wanted to do a special. I'm trying to figure out how to describe it without giving away who they are. They wanted a special feature at their conference. And he said, can you make this happen. And I did so mostly my joy my pleasure is helping people make a plan to do things themselves. And then I keep them motivated, whether they need to talk every week or every month to just keep moving forward until they hit done. So you crack the whip basically. Pompoms. Pompoms, okay. James Harris has a question regarding LinkedIn. He is wondering if there's a specific group that he should join that you recommend or does it really depend on what your genre is my senses there's a lot of groups out there. There's a lot of there are a lot of groups out there and there are a couple articles that I can also send if you email me from a different workshop I did on social media goals. There's a list of LinkedIn goals for I'm sorry LinkedIn groups for writers. Facebook groups for writers minus on that one. There are good Pinterest pages for writers and good YouTube channels for writers so I'm happy to share that information, but it's not just about the writers groups, you know, there are alumni groups there are groups from businesses. Another wonderful way to use LinkedIn is just to jot a high how are you note to somebody you worked with 10 years ago. I love this story one of my friends who's a LinkedIn or gig is linked in. She told me how she gave this advice to someone to just reach out to old bosses and colleagues, because it's also if you're looking for work. You don't know who's looking for work unless you and it's not a hi how are you doing I'm looking for work hire me it's a hi how are you doing. How are you. Oh I'm fine I just rebranded on doing this that any other. What about you. Oh well we're looking for writers for this. Oh what a coincidence. I have some time. So, you want to use LinkedIn to start conversations, because you don't know. So back to that story. This woman reached out to someone she worked with I think it was five or 10 years before. And he said, Oh, we're doing an RFP for a new project did you submit you really should submit. It was like a ridiculously high budget project that she never would have known about. Had she not been like hey how are you. So, you just never know. And you really have to dip your toe in the water to see if that group is really going to jive with your. Yeah, exactly. Well the other thing too is LinkedIn groups are fine. I, I like using LinkedIn for just posting articles and resources and just being out there and even if you just do an update once or twice a week, you're doing more than most people, you're going to start showing up and people's feeds. If you're really looking for good groups. I look on Facebook. And there are a ton and enjoy mine, of course, but for every genre, there are writing sprint groups there. I think I'm in like five different podcasting groups, there are a lot of different things, it really just depends on what you are interested in. Oh, there is a really good group. It's called the gray zone. And it's Steve Dotto Dotto tech. And what he does is he teaches, he calls them boom Xers so it's generation Xers and baby boomers who need help on technology. He's got resources for everything. It's like ridiculous. So that's another one that I highly recommend. They don't need to be writing groups, because yes, you need writing support, but you also need to be in places where they're looking for writers. Yeah, the gray zone is interesting they're co promoting some events that we are hosting at Mechanics Institute so I haven't had to look into them but but I'm glad to hear they're good. Oh, and I did an interview with Steve Dotto for Gold Chat Live. He was the first one I did when I launched the series and just a lot of great tips for video. I'm there. So if you follow me, I'm always sharing resources because I love to help. I want everyone to succeed. So I just put all the cool people out there so others can learn and embrace and thrive. Right. It's all about the thriving. One of our viewers had a call that that really resonated with me is that, yeah, you're home, but you're actually working harder and longer and it's draining. How do you, if you do have 15 minutes, how do you transition from your work to your novel that you're writing. Well, two words, dance breaks, or met or whatever that means for you. I mean, I'll always do like, before I go on camera, or even if I'm like, oh, like this, I'll just like say, I don't hey al exa play whatever music. And I'll just go through a song and then it's back to work. So you have to figure out what that thing is that's going to get you out of your head and into writing. The other thing that's very helpful for a couple other things to schedule breaks, like I said, move them you can't delete them. And I talked about maybe you don't need to be writing every day you should be thinking about your project every day you should be finding me time every day because self care is so important. The other essential is to have a start in a stop time for your day. Use your weekends. Remember when weekends were weekends. Make them weekend. It goes back to the rules and rewards things. Okay, and I every now and then I cheat. I know I cheat, but I try to stop work at six and then my second stop time is eight. Every now and then. And then I pay for it because I can't sleep because my brain's working too hard. And if you're a night writer, then maybe you start your days later and you take your mornings off to do fun things. You can figure out what schedule is going to work for you but give yourself a schedule. Because, yes, we can work all day I have a friend who said that her husband or she and her husband are working from home they work in their different offices. She never remembers to eat lunch and a dinner time he comes in and says this isn't a dinner time, because she has been just connected all day with the typing. If you have to set alarms to remind yourself to get up and eat lunch, do it. Lunch is very important. So it's dinner so it's snacks so it's taking a walk around the block. And I think you're supposed to get up like every 20 minutes to not like, you know, or hurt your body. So even, you know, in the dance breaks you want to take them in your chair and keep typing. Go for it. Figure out what works for you and do more of that. I had see something here from Francis about using a writing partner. How do you bring in a partner into what you're doing to set goals. Well, it depends on the partner. There are some people who use accountability partners where they have a five minute call either once a day or once a week. What did you do. Okay, great. What did you do. Okay, great. What are you going to do. Okay, great. What are you going to do. Okay, great. Bye. There are people who actually do that. I have on my write on page every Sunday night I put what did you accomplish. How'd you join your goals this week and Monday I'll put what are your goals for the week. And usually a bunch of people set goals and don't report on them and the people report on them are not the ones to set goals so it's always really kind of interesting to see that. But in my group I have Mondays are what are your networking goals Tuesday are what are your goals for the week. Wednesday is Blockshare Day Thursday is my favorite to go on Thursday. This is going to be mine because I love doing things like this. And photo Friday, share a picture from your week, and then weekend plans so a different thread because when people respond. And for example, one woman's two year one Thursday was, I finally launched by podcast studio in my house. And I can now record audio books. And three months later someone said I'm looking for someone to record my audio books so I had to have the person who had the studio made the connection. I think they did work together. You don't, you don't know where the people are, if you're not out there. I love Rose comment that you know her husband is essentially a partner in her life and her husband tells her it's okay to take the time to do the things to reach her goals. That's beautiful. I love that he gets a total gold star for me. And yes, when I meet people in real life. I do bring out the gold stars. So what about when you're alone. Chris has a question. Not that not that Chris is alone but that he has a first novel and how no one, you know there's no one out there waiting to read it so how do you sort of set goals for yourself and keep, you know, and milestones moving forward how do you keep those goals ahead when you don't have a community behind you rallying you to help help you Well, Well, the first thing too is if if your books on the side, you should be writing another book. If there's no place for your book to be write a book, write short stories, write essays, write articles, create your social media presence, because those other things, especially the last one the social media presence. If you're looking to get your book out there and get a book deal, they're going to look at your social and you need to have a very nice author website. You need to have a social presence. So, when you say you know if my books out there I have this community that's interested in it, and you're ready and ready to go when they're accepting manuscripts again. And at the same time, yes, be writing other things. How do you keep yourself motivated, set deadlines. So it goes back to the rules and rewards. I have to work X number of times this week. I have to set X number of appointments, whatever you think you will do. Those should be your rules, because you want to be successful. It's the name of the game for setting goals is figuring out what you want, make a plan to achieve it, and then set realistic lifestyle changes. You have to move forward and make progress. And you have to double check and reread those goals over and over again. That's why you need to post them everywhere, everywhere. And it goes back to, I was talking about the motto before, there's three things that you should have either on your computer or behind your computer. One is your motto. One is your goals. And one is some sort of visual representation of what you're trying to achieve. So, if your goal is, if your goal used to be to speak to sold out crowds, then your goal now is to speak to full Zoom chats. That's the picture of that. You know, get a photo or if you're attending something with a whole lot of boxes, take a screenshot and like Photoshop yourself as a speaker. Or if you want to be a New York Times best seller, you should have that list on your board with your book and your name on the top of it. I want to write a screenplay that's major award winner, mock up a poster, but these are the things you need to be looking at as you work because if you can see a reality, you can create the reality. It's there, it's there. You know what you're working for. I love that. So, going back to LinkedIn, Colleen has a question, how do you utilize one's LinkedIn profile and LinkedIn activity to help with with these writing goals. Any thoughts on that. The reason for utilizing LinkedIn is again to develop community. The more people you know, the more people are out there. Let's, and if you've got an author community, you can be. Ready to submit my script. Does anybody have any recommendations for agents or I want to learn about this who knows this person on this area or who has resource for this, or it's you're sharing links, like I wrote this article the five hours of refreshing your goals. And because that's the name of the game right now is refreshing your goals. It's someone is going on LinkedIn and sees Oh, who wrote this article and refreshing your goals. Oh, I need to learn more about that person. So, it's finding information, but also you want to be sharing information. So people can can say Oh, I need to know this person let's connect. I don't know if I answered that question. Did I. I think you did. I mean, it's a tool for helping to develop your platform develop your wider community develop develop all of those things are persona right I mean, right. Basically you can't just put your resume up there or whatever it expected all to come to you you've got to give as well. So basically, you are being a resource in for your LinkedIn profile, your, your headline, it should be what you do, how you help so mine says helping people rethink their goals when change happens. Before this happened I said helping people figure out what they want and how to get it. What is it that you do for people, educating people through a variety of writer friendly workshops and events. What is your thing. How do you help. What do you want people to come to you for. That's what your, what your headline should be about. And also in your headline, you should put your website, it fits and like any keywords or light. If you, if you host a podcast you want to put that in the headline, if you are an author, put the book title in. What are the things that are going to grab people because you want people to come to you. You're like doing them a favor, you're giving them all this information. They don't have to think, Oh, who's that person. I need them. Thank you. Think about it, just flip things around. Francis has a question about nano RIMO. Have you ever worked with anyone. Going through that process. I have done the first time I did nano RIMO. I wrote, I wrote, I think it was a little over 50,000 words. It was awesome. I think the reason I love nano RIMO so much is because it's just giving you a tracking system for words. You don't need November to write 50,000 words in a month, but it's a great option for people who are not going to take the time otherwise to do it. And the best way to succeed at nano RIMO is to figure out your plot and your characters before because that way you don't have to think the idea is to just write. You can edit anything, but you can't edit nothing. Right. It's like a month long, free right session. Just go. Yeah, just go. And would I ever show my nano novel first draft to anyone? Probably not. But I get to say I wrote a novel in a month and someday that back burner project is going to make its way. Yeah, after. I don't know a few months of editing. And there's an article. I know that they're, they're famous books that the first draft was written at nano and you don't have to use nano for it. You can cheat, you can write nonfiction, you can use it for blog posts, you can use it for articles. And again, you don't have to wait until November. You can do it whenever. Yeah, that kind of ties in with another question from somebody who's asking about, is it worthwhile to write articles for medium, or, you know, wherever, but you never know where it's going to reach the right people. Yes, no. Now medium, I'll be honest, I've never gotten on the medium bandwagon. I know people who love it they swear by it. That's another, it's another example of setting yourself up for success. You can't be everywhere. I have two blogs, I've got one for right on I've got one for the depth of it and I lead to Facebook groups and several Facebook pages and I'm all about LinkedIn. Whenever you are comfortable with whatever your, your happy place platform is, do more of that. And, and I had this conversation just the other day, should you write for free, if it benefits you. Sure. If it does benefit you if you're writing for free, right for yourself right for your blog right for LinkedIn. Sometimes the long form linked the long form went to articles used to be like a big thing. I don't think they're as indexed as well anymore. But if you like the platform of medium and you don't want your own blog right on medium, figure out what you're going to do and what works for you. Have you had success with medium. And I have not done anything on medium. I know people who love medium. I, again, I believe that I'm writing something. It should be for publications or for my blog. But again, personal choice. There's so many, there's so many tools out there. It's really a matter of what are you going to do more of and what's going to excite you so you can put that enthusiasm into it. Right. And maybe the, maybe it's better to post things on your blog because it's, you know, driving traffic to your own personal space. I guess you can do that through medium to somehow but yeah, it all depends on what you're looking for I guess as far as with your writing. Let's see, do we have any other questions here there's a lot of conversation going around in the chat. There's an interesting comment from Colleen she said, do you ask permission from the source before you share an article or link. I once reviewed a book and didn't go well. So I once reviewed a book I read and the author contacted very angry that I didn't ask them. It was a nice review not negative. Okay, there's something wrong with that author. The more reviews the better the more reviews the better. I, it's, if you're sharing a link. No, because especially if it's on social the person who wrote it is going to find it. Something else that you can do is you can do on list posts and and link to different articles so let's say you wanted to write. Best soup recipes that you can make in five minutes and you search and like you pick one from each website. And these are the best soup recipes you can make for five minutes and you write the post, and then you're going to want to tell the people this is a whole rabbit hole. You're going to want to tell the people that you cited that you use them because they're going to want to share your article and then you get exposed to their audiences and it's different ways to do that or if you want to do an advice post and you write to five people you know in a certain area. What are the best alternatives to watching live sports and you have five different people and you quote them with their pictures and then you send that out to them and they share and again, you're getting in front of their audiences. So, yeah, that's the point of social media right. Yes. So, whoever this person is who said don't why did you review my book. I have out this is like you got the one person on the planet. Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that. No why did you write the book if not to have someone read it and think about it. I got something I have never been criticized for reviewing a book without permission tends to be whenever I would mention people on Facebook or whatever people would just be very happy to be mentioned and I developed relationships that way. But one thing I did notice is that if I took content from somebody's blog I mean not passing it off as my own I mean crediting that person and saying, you know this person said blah blah blah blah blah blah and I agree and I think in that. This was similar oh this was way back in the day is a live journal before you were just sharing links. You know then I found sometimes people wanted to be asked if the message could be reposted somewhere because they wanted to see, you know what they didn't want to be reposted on some site where they wouldn't agree with or it didn't fit their aesthetic. That's interesting. Yeah I guess with cases like that it's not. It won't hurt to ask because you're going to let them know that you quoted them anyway, or even I worked for my kids adventures which was a kids activity site for a little over a year it was so much fun to do these eight is the activity posts where I would just pick links for each letter of the alphabet on the theme. It was like playtime is really great. But then afterwards it's it wasn't taking drag quotes it was describing the activities and learn more here. And then I would say oh by the way you're in this new post on this website and that if you're talking about a resource and then linking to it. I think it's different than quoting from a resource. Yeah and I think it was the amount of text that I quoted if I just put in a sentence or two from that guy it would have been one thing but then I think it that it was a couple paragraphs and that person wasn't. And they said that he said he was okay sharing it he just would have wanted to be asked first was a PR person who wrote me. I tried to ask permission when I'm going to use something like that. And I think I, I enjoy hearing from people saying they're going to use my stuff because then you can track it I think he said something about that Taren. Well it's an opportunity to forge a relationship with the author so. Yeah. Yeah. Use it to advantage. Who knows where that relationship will go. Exactly. You don't know. Ding ding ding ding ding. Absolutely. And here's another thing. Don't be afraid to like reach out to people who are like your heroes because all I could say is no. Yes. But if you don't ask. The answer is always no. And a lot of. You're saying when you reach out to people you meet and the things they do for each other is beautiful. And it's you're doing them a favor and you don't realize that if you say hey I read this is it okay if I do this. You're probably going to make the author's day. Right. Right. Right. Flattery never hurts. No. No. No. Denise. Denise has a question again about LinkedIn. Do you recommend having a separate account. One for your professional. Writing. Let's say you're a writer, but you have a professional writing career, but then you also have a fiction writing career. Do you recommend having separate accounts or somehow finding a way to. To merge those. I believe in the umbrella approach. I mean, you can if you want. For LinkedIn, maybe you have a page for your writing. That's that. But to have two separate people accounts that doesn't usually work too well. You want to be. You want to be known for, for who you are in. Years and years ago, if you were several things, it was a problem. If you're not like five hyphenates, people look at you like you're nuts. So it's much more accepted now. I did a stint in corporate. Well, I was in corporate for many years. And this was the last job that I didn't tell people I freelance for. Because my boss came into work one day and said, oh, I was at a restaurant and I picked up a magazine. Did you know there's a Deborah Eckerling who's a freelance writer. And I'm like, it's me. And I had to convince my boss. That I was a freelancer because I kept those worlds so separate. Unless something is really hot button or you write. Um, Racy content. There, there really should be no reason to separate your personas. I think. Yeah, I tend to agree. I mean, people these days kind of own their own their life, own their vocation, you know, they are not, you know, like you said, unless you really have a reason to keep one aspect of your career separate, it's all who you are. And why not find a way to provide a balance on your social media. Exactly. And again, whatever works for you works for you. This is why it's such an exciting time right now is there are tools everywhere. There are resources everywhere. And we all own our background, our experience, our interests. So there are like a gazillion food bloggers, but every food blogger is a little bit different because they come from different backgrounds. There are a ton of people who write about writing. We, we all, all of us write a right. I mean, mine is very specific. It's tools and resources, but it's for achieving your goals. This is my slant. And there are different kinds. Figure out what works for you. Embrace it. Love it and work it. You know, I think that's a great note to end on. Love it. Embrace it. And you are always going to, and no one is going to love your projects more than you are. Love your projects. Love what you're working on. But all of, and you're going to always have more ideas, right? Take what you want to create and make it happen because you can. The only thing that stops you was you. So set the time, make the time, claim the time, live the life you want because you can. Right. Well, thank you so much, Deborah. You have really given us all a lot of food for thought. And I'm looking forward to the weekend. So, so I can focus on some of my goals. And you know, I definitely think that there is interest for a, for something on LinkedIn. So we'd love to have you back and we can talk privately about that. But yeah, I just want to say thank you so much. And thanks to all of our audience as well for, for coming out. Yes, thank you for having me. It would be my pleasure to come back. And again, you can, I think you shared my links with DevMethod.com, right on online.com or your gold guidebook.com. Or just Google me and you'll find me. I think your Google stats will, will jump today. Thank you. And thank you so much. It's really been my pleasure. And just a quick note next week, we're going to have Jim Azevedo, one of my favorite guys from over at Smashwords. He's the marketing director. And he's got a lot of new data for us. After COVID-19, what's happening in publishing? All right. Yeah. That's Thursday at noon. And I'm going to put the link for that in our chat space right now. Thanks again, Deborah. And I look forward to talking with you further. Wonderful. Thank you all. And good luck everybody. You can do it. All right. Yay. Go team. Go team writers. Well, thank you. All right. Let me get that next event in the chat space. Here we are. There we go. All right. Cheers everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye.