How to Have Conversations You Care About
Want to skip right to the guide? Download the PDF here–that’s free. Interested in going deeper? This hour-long webinar explores how to have conversations you care about, connecting what brings you joy with effective and genuine marketing content that makes an impact. At your service–for just $11.
Time and again, followers of this blog or fellow writers enrolled in my courses tell me they don’t know what they have to contribute or say to the world. Here’s my response: If you’re interested in having conversations you care about, or engaging with an audience of friends or followers that expand your worldview, a bookstore is a great place to start. A few years ago, I blogged about how to give a good public reading. Establishing a relationship with a bookstore and creating a clutter-free relationship with yourself are the first two keys to success in these types of events. Whether you’re a reader or a writer, a blogger or a freelancer, on tour or never planning to tour at all, these relationships still matter.
When I was touring for Flashes of War, I put it this way: “I can read slow enough to give a good public reading. I can enunciate. I can drink water without dribbling at the podium and I can create Facebook event invites and look up bookstore locations on Google Maps. But it’s the deeper, quieter work I’m talking about here. The kind that creates space. Just as raking leaves from waterbars will save my driveway, clearing a mental space will let my best self grow.” Eliminating distractions and disarray between your best self and the world makes deep conversation readily accessible. Taking a moment to consider what those conversations might be about is not only fun, but rewarding.
Recently, I spent my lunch hour with a handful of creative entrepreneurs, writers, readers, and self-employed folks to talk about all of this. Together, we worked through a series of 4 brief exercises that helped us identify the conversations we care about. The end result? By the end of our lunch hour, we were making connections between the things that bring us joy, the things that help our businesses, and the things that we can often find in bookstores (in the case of writers and readers, at any rate). The best part? Many of these things were one and the same. Suddenly, what felt like a big topic–how to engage, how to connect, how to reach out–was not only manageable, but inspiring.
Want to try this exercise? Download my free PDF guide, How to Have Conversations You Care About, and freewrite your way through a series of engaging questions.
