When someone asks you—anyone—what’s the Vision for your Book, and for you the Author, what do you say? Do you stammer and stutter? Do you feel like you project the “deer in the highlight” gaze? Or are you direct and succinct?
For the visionary founder of Virgin, Richard Branson, he’s been an entrepreneur from the get-go. Virgin was seeded when he was 20 years old—since then; he’s created an empire that includes eight separate billion-dollar companies in eight different industries. He’s birthed a new book, Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School and it is both a good read and incredibly insightful. And yes, he did it all without earning a degree in business. As he writes,
“Had I pursued my education long enough to learn all the conventional dos and don’ts of starting a business,
I often wonder how different my life and career might have been.”
So … my questions for you are:
1.What is your Vision for YOU and YOUR Book?
2.What steps are you taking RIGHT NOW to implement it?
3.What is, or could be, holding you back from going that next, next step?
4.What is the worst thing that could happen if you would just JUMP in RIGHT NOW and get going on bringing your Vision to life?
Most of us have barriers that can pull us off track—and in some cases, stop us flat. When your Vision is in play, they become mere detours—something that you will figure out how to quickly redirect and keep on going. The mega success that Branson has enjoyed had plenty of hiccups, you can count on it. But it had the big picture –what’s yours? And who do you need to partner with, to cheer for you as your stir toward it?
Judith Briles is the Authoring and Publishing Expert and known as The Book Shepherd. She’s the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Author U, a membership organization created for the author who wants to be seriously successful. Judith has been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. She’s the author of 30 books including Show Me About Book Publishing, co-written with John Kremer and Rick Frishman and a speaker at publishing conferences throughout the country. Her next audio and guidebook series, Author YOU: Creating Your Book and Author Platform will be available in the Fall of 2012. Join Judith live on Thursdays at 6 p.m. EST for Your Guide to Book publishing on the www.RockStarRadioNetwork.com. Follow @AuthorU and @MyBookShepherd on Twitter and do a “Like” at Author U on Facebook and join the LinkedIn Author U Group.