Living Simple
We have all seen the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle on television. We look at these beautiful people who have it all and wish it was us. We don’t even stop to think about how most of what we see is choreographed to make us lust after them and what they have. We just know that we don’t have it. And we want all that nice looking stuff they have. We long for their lifestyle, real or not.
But there is a problem for anyone of us that pursues that kind of false beauty or fool’s gold. It’s shiny, but it’s not really real. And we’re going to spend a lot of money that we don’t have chasing it. And this is going to put us in heavy debt and make us miserable.
This same sort of thing can happen to us self-publishing indie authors if we’re not careful. Service providers contact me every day with done-for-us services that want me to hand over my money for. They’re probably contacting you too. They tell us that we can be big, rich, famous authors if we just buy their products and services.
Their promises to us really aren’t true, just like Hollywood’s promises to us really aren’t true either. And if we’re not careful, we can end up in a heap of debt and trouble that will compromise every decision we have to make going forward.
The shiny object syndrome will steal our liberties right out from under our noses. We’re supposed to be authorpreneurs, not indentured servants. We’re not supposed to be slaves where we live. Slavery was outlawed here a long time ago. But, unfortunately, financial slavery hasn’t been banned yet.
If we stray too far from the simple lifestyle of someone confident in their abilities who doesn’t need all the shiny stuff to prove their self-worth. We may indeed be trading away our freedom to financial slavery. We may be giving away all of our profits to the distributors of products and services out there. These people are really not looking out for our best interest. Rather, they are trying to make a buck on the emotional attachment we have to our book. Our books are supposed to benefit others and profit us. Not the other way around.
Let’s find our niche to narrow down our focus and our time and resources so we can live a simpler life. Also, let’s avoid credit cards. Credit cards will trap us under a heavy load of debt and force us to do things we don’t want to do. Elbow grease and YouTube tutorials help us keep things simple and live our own life. Content marketing is free and helps us do a ton of marketing while still learning and adding more content to our war chest for future books. Relationships are essential. They are what good simple living is all about. Create relationships and have these friends either barter with you or teach you what they know, so you don’t have to go into debt.
Most businesses fail in the real world. You probably already know that. But do you know why they fail? Many times it’s because they have a huge overhead. As authorpreneurs, we are fortunate. We don’t have to have a huge overhead. We don’t have to pay rent for a building. We don’t have to pay for a bunch of employees. As a matter of fact, as long as we have a computer, we can pretty much work for cheap right out of our own homes as solopreneurs. We even get some tax write-offs for this.
Why would be put all that in jeopardy by trying to go too big, too fancy, too fast? Keep things simple, my authorpreneurs. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t quit your day job. Your day job income gives you the freedom to take it slow and steady. It gives you options. Look at the big picture.
Okay, so, you can’t help yourself. You’re just drawn to the glamor of the big leagues. Okay, I get it. So, because I understand the allure of the rich and famous, or the big leagues, or the movers and shakers, the influencers, I’m going to give you a simple strategy to have a simple taste of that lifestyle.
Many times you can satisfy your craving through associations. After all, association kind of makes it look like you hang out with the big boys and girls. It sort of makes it look like you have important friends. So, here the secret to that slightly more glamorous lifestyle while still keeping it simple.
Write reviews for influencers. Maybe even create video reviews for influencers. This will put your name next to their name. Some people will think you’re pretty cool. And some will feel that you must be at least a little bit successful because of your association with the influencer. This strategy gets even better when the influencer notices you, and a relationship begins with them.
To take this strategy and relationship to the next level, ask the influencers if you can review their courses or take notes on it. Reviews are great. They’ll probably appreciate this and send over their course to you with their awesome content for free. What is better than learning some fabulous new material from an influencer who you really respect for free?
Also, taking notes on a course and then handing the PDF over to them for the influencer to include this free PDF as part of his or her package deal is a win-win. You get to cement the relationship with your influencer and learn for free while being more associated with him or her. You are now living the glamor life of an authorpreneur. There is also an excellent chance that down the road, they are going to publicly endorse something you’re doing. Look out Hollywood or authorpreneurwood! Here we come!
So, let’s grow our business slowly from our profits and not from debt. Let’s use sweat-equity and build relationships while living the simple life so we can sail into the good living of a life of meaning that we were meant for.
*Check out the free video lesson on this chapter!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOvCyOT3jjE&list=PL_-39bUXJitwL8cHUpiZ5mO0-JJuaPOVl&index=37
https://tinyurl.com/y6neuegu https://tinyurl.com/tx5wphz http://tinyurl.com/y8opavl8