Naima B. Robert – Release the Book Within Challenges Facing my Clients Right Now
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Hey there. This is Naima B Robert here,
award winning author, editor and coach for women
like you who have an idea and want
to turn it into a book.
Today I would like to speak with you
about some of the issues I have seen
coming up with clients and potential clients
around their book.
The current situation that we're in is abnormal
beyond belief.
A lot of people are working from home,
are homebound, are self isolating in quarantine, may
have children home from school and so this
really has represented
some challenges
for the women that I work with. And
so today I would like to talk about
how we can deal with some of those
problems and issues that have come up.
So the first,
the first problem that I'm seeing
is
that people are paralyzed.
People are paralyzed,
with fear.
Fear of the uncertainty, fear of the unknown,
fear of what might happen, fear of the
future,
fear of
things not going back to normal, things, you
know, never settling down, you know. Just lots
of question marks, lots of question marks in
the air.
And this means that
I've had some ladies who have just decided
to shelve their book project for now, you
know, and just give up on that.
Just thinking that it's maybe not important or
not worthy of their time or attention right
now.
And others have just lost motivation, they've lost
hope. They can't really see the future and
therefore don't feel
the need or the desire to invest in
the future.
And I'd just like to offer you this
because
regardless of what happens in the world,
you have a story to tell, you have
a message to share. And there are people
out there
simply waiting for you to stand up.
I'm gonna say that again.
There are people out there in the world
right now
waiting for you to stand up and speak
your truth, to share your message, to teach
them, to lead them, to guide them.
And so
if that is the case,
then consider this.
Double down
on your mindset.
Put even more work into focusing
on
what you can control.
Framing and reframing and reframing,
reframing
using the lens of gratitude, using the lens
of opportunity,
using the lens of legacy,
reframe the situation,
reframe your time, reframe your commitment
and focus on your dream.
Focus on your dream. Go back to it,
plug into the energy of it.
What was it you wanted to achieve in
the first place? What was it you wanted
to put out into the world?
And ask yourself,
is this not still valid?
Is, does the world
not still need what I have to offer?
Is my story still not worth telling?
This expertise that I have, this message that
I have, is it still not needed in
the world?
And I think if you spend some time
thinking about that, you will find that the
answer is yes,
yes, and yes.
So recommit to that.
The second
issue that I'm seeing
is
new time constraints.
This is interesting
because on the one hand some of us
have much more time than we did before
and on the other hand our time is
constrained because maybe everybody's home. We may have
spouses at home, children at home, children need
attention, some of them are homeschooling.
So new time constraints and a new schedule
and a new routine
have meant that many of you have
just not made progress with your book. Does
that sound familiar?
Well the problem with this is that
we
when we have this kind of shake up
in our routine,
maybe we were writing a little bit before,
maybe we weren't. But now I'm finding that
people are just not committing to daily writing.
And
that results in you losing interest
and giving up. And the thing is when
we have a goal, when we have a
dream
and we give up on that dream
because it feels too hard or it feels
it's feeling too uncomfortable,
that is frustrating
and it's disappointing
and it really does drag us down into
a place where we just don't have any
motivation
or any hope.
Does that sound like you?
Because if it does,
I would like to offer you some solutions.
Firstly,
you will want to do what I said
before, which is to recommit.
And then you want to look at your
day
and you want to carve out
30 minutes a day.
If you can't carve out 30 minutes a
day, carve out 20 minutes a day. If
you can't carve out 20 minutes a day,
carve out 10 minutes a day.
You can write a book in just 10
concentrated
minutes a day. What I teach my clients
is how to write in sprints.
So within those 10 or the 20 or
30 minutes, you do nothing but write. You
don't check your email. You don't have Facebook
notifications.
You don't do research. You don't read back
over what you've written.
You concentrate
on exactly
what you are meant to be writing about
in that time and that alone.
And if you do that,
you will find firstly that you do have
time to write
and secondly you will start making progress on
your book again.
And if you would like help with getting
your book idea together into an outline,
and if you would like help with support
and accountability and a community
to help you get this book done while
we are in lockdown,
Then just comment, I'm committed below or send
me an email with committed in the subject
line and let's have a chat. I have
a group of women I'm working with. We're
calling kind of the lockdown experiment.
So we are literally we've had women joining
since the lockdown to really get their book
done now because they can see that this
is actually a perfect opportunity for them to
be able to actually finish their book. But
I have a third thing.
I have a third thing to offer you
and I see this happening as well.
And this thing is
due to, again, the uncertainty of our current
situation,
we are seeing
women
afraid to invest.
Afraid to invest time,
afraid to invest resources,
afraid to invest energy.
And
a lot of people are asking like, you
know, if I invest this money
am I going to see it come back?
Am I going to see a return on
my investment? Is it going to sell? Is
anybody going to buy books anymore?
And this of course doesn't help because,
you know, if you're afraid to invest the
time and the resources then you you won't
the help that you need and you won't
put the time that you need to put
in to actually make this book what it
could be.
And
that leads to a lot of contraction,
internally.
If we are operating from a place of
fear and scarcity
then that's going to permeate everything.
So what I'm inviting you to do is
really kind of open up.
Firstly, do the first step, which was to
recommit. That's the most important thing because when
you are committed to your dream and when
you're really plugged back in
to the importance of this book that you
want to to write,
then it's easier for you to reframe the
investment.
Firstly, what I would say is focus on
the value of the book.
And it's not just the book and I'm
just gonna offer this to you because I've
been working with women now
for a
while to to help them to write their
book and to kind of tease the message
out of them so they can put it
out into the world.
And what I've noticed is that
it's not
just the book they get at the end,
it's the woman they become along the way.
It's their growth, it's their expansion,
it's their increased skill set, it's their increased
confidence,
It's it's how they blossom
as they go through this process
and it's kind of hard to put a
value on that. But another thing I would
say is, you know, take advantage of, for
example, payment plans.
Take advantage of any special,
you know, for example our case study. If
you're getting an opportunity to work with an
expert and they are offering some kind of
rebate or some kind of payment plan, take
advantage of that. Don't say oh no, now
is not a good time', because trust me,
when things go back to normal or will
go back out of lockdown,
those rebates and those payment plans and, you
know, people who are trying to make things
easier for everyone on lockdown,
those things will disappear
and prices will go back up, to where
they probably should have been all the time.
Right?
So
if you know that your message is worth
sharing,
that your story is worth telling
and you, you know, in your heart
that you do want to write that book
and get it out into the world.
Then again I'd encourage you to just get
in touch and see if we're a fit
for you to work in our case study,
our experiment, our lockdown experiment.
And just comment 'committed' below this message or
send me an email with 'committed' and let's
chat and see if we're a fit.
For now, I leave you with this. Stay
safe, stay sane and stay committed to your
dream. That's, Naima B. Roberts signing out.
Speak to you soon.