5 things

Some nights when I can’t sleep I do the very thing you should not do when you can’t sleep: I reach for my phone. I know that staring at the light from the screen is going to keep me awake till daybreak but I do it anyway. I grab my phone and binge read blog posts.

1. That’s how I read every single blog post published on TheKonfidential.com, the blog of Boss Babe CEO Natalie Diver. Her posts on how to be productive, successful, healthy and happy always inspire me while also offering practical, actionable advice. If you’re feeling stuck in your business, you should definitely read this week’s post, “Working Hard and Getting No Results.

2. See Jane Write member Brianne Patrice recently launched a new blog and I’m loving it. Brie does a wonderful job of blending personal stories and practical advice, which is something I’m striving to do more of here at See Jane Write. If you’ve been struggling with getting inspired to write or blog, check out her post “5 Ways to Spark Your Creative Energy.”

3. My goal is to turn See Jane Write into a six-figure business and I’m not shy about sharing that with anybody. One of the boss lady bloggers I admire most is Mattie James of Mattieologie.com. So while I love getting outfit ideas from her style posts, I read her posts about blogging and business like a student studying a textbook before a big exam. Earlier this month Mattie published a post, “The L Word in Business & How It Made Me 6 Figures,” all about the idea of leverage. To sum it up, Mattie stresses that you’ve got to give more than you take to achieve the success you desire. Read more here.

4. I have to admit that when I first stumbled upon Mariah Coz of Femtrepreneur I thought she was an “overnight success.” And I’m not gonna lie — overnight success stories frustrate me to no end because I’ve been growing See Jane Write for more than five years. So it was refreshing and inspiring to read her recent blog post, “An Overnight Success 8 Years in the Making.” In this post Mariah details every step of her journey sharing how she went from living in a closet in house with the members of her punk band to being a six-figure earning infopreneur. Despite knowing her 8-year journey, I am still in awe of Mariah because she started 7 business before the age of 25! But instead of getting frustrated by her success I’m encouraged by it because as she writes, “We all start from the bottom.”

5. Blogs aren’t the only things I read. I’m an English teacher by day so I often have my head in a book of early American literature. But I like to read contemporary works, too. This week I started the novel Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile. The book is the inspiration for the upcoming television series, created, directed and executive produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey. The series follows the life of two sisters, Nova Bordelon, a journalist and activist from New Orleans, and Charley Bordelon, a modern, city woman, who, with her teenage son Micah, leaves her upscale apartment in Los Angeles and moves to the heart of Louisiana to claim an inheritance from her recently departed father – an 800-acre sugarcane farm. Queen Sugar is set to debut on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network Tuesday, Sept. 6. and you know I’ll be watching!

What did you read this week?