a website & community for women who write & blog
Sometimes the Universe speaks to us through blog posts.
The other day I read a post titled “Women At War With Their Bodies and How It’s Impacting Their Businesses” on the Boss Babe blog and I felt like the author, Wendy Porter of Crowned for Success, had read my mind and was spilling all my secrets. (more…)
Last week I had the privilege of attending the 8th annual Blogalicious conference in Atlanta, Georgia. One of the keynote speakers for the weekend was media mogul Nely Galen. Galen was the first Latina President of Entertainment for a U.S. television network (Telemundo). She is an Emmy Award-winning producer of over 600 episodes of television in Spanish and English, and is the founder of the nonprofit The Adelante Movement, which seeks to train and empower Latinas to become entrepreneurs.
I have been blogging in some capacity for nearly a decade.
I’d like to say that when I started blogging I did so just for fun or for the love of writing. But that would be a lie.
I first started blogging for the newspaper at which I was working at the time because I thought it would help me make a name for myself at the paper and in the city. I wanted to be Louisville’s top features reporter!
Then I soon started a blog of my own because I had always dreamt of starting a magazine and this was my way of doing so — kinda, sorta — without the overhead.
My point is from the day I published my very first blog post I did so with a business mindset. But it wasn’t until last year that I started making real money with my blog. LAST YEAR!
So what was my mistake? Failure to launch.
And I bet this is the same mistake you’re making, too.
Allow me to explain.
On Monday I published a blog post stating my case for “Why Writers Must Be Entrepreneurs.” The next day a See Jane Write member very honestly shared this: “I saw the post about writers being entrepreneurs, but I just don’t know how to get started.”
And for this particular woman it is crucial that she get started because she recently quit a soul-draining job to pursue her dreams.
I realized that I needed to design a clear path to help give some guidance for this crazy, but beautiful journey called entrepreneurship, a path that you could follow whether you’d left your day job or not.
As a writer and blogger you need three things to become an entrepreneur: your platform, your people, and your product.
A friend of mine recently gave me one of the best compliments I’ve ever received. She said that when she met me she knew that our friendship would force her to take her writing career to the next level.
When she said this I was shocked. This friend is no amateur. She’s a highly accomplished poet and creative writing educator and is one of the smartest people I know. In fact, when she became an official member of See Jane Write this year I was a bit worried I wouldn’t have anything of value to offer someone of her caliber.
But my friend said I have taught her things about marketing and personal brand building that she could have never learned in an MFA program.
I’ve come to realize that this is a major part of the See Jane Write mission. You are Jane and I want the world to see your writing. But that won’t happen if you don’t put yourself out there. That won’t happen if you don’t learn to think like a boss.