Ever been told that writing is a waste of time? I mean it’s fine to do it on the side, so long as you focus on more serious pursuits. Right?

That’s what I was told too and for years I believed it. As it turns out, that advice was a load of BS.

Now I know that creative writing is the single most useful skill I could have learnt.

Let me tell you the story of how I ended up writing for a living.

At the age of 18, I graduated from high school, with top grades which, according to the ranking-obsessed Australian university entrance system, would have let me into just about any degree in any university of my choice.

The day after the grades were announced I was in the supermarket with my Mum.

A teacher walked up to us to offer her congratulations.

She turned to me and said: “So what’s it going to be then Marianne? Medicine or Law?”

I shook my head, smiled, and said “neither. I’m going to do an Arts degree. I want to read novels”.

And that’s what I did.

Once at university I took a degree that let me pick and choose stuff I was interested in, creating my own education from a cornucopia (told you I was an English Lit major) of subjects: sociology, psychology, linguistics, film, English, history, and creative writing.

Creative writing was the biggest luxury in that list – it seemed a ridiculous addition to a degree, even for me. It wasn’t like I was going to become a published author or anything.

My friend’s mother warned me in all seriousness “if you were going to write a book you’d have done it by now”. I was 18 so I believed her.

No, I didn’t take creative writing classes out of some desire to write the definitive novel of our time. I just liked writing and wanted to get better at it. I figured it would be a relief from the more serious academic subjects on my schedule.

So I hunkered down, worked hard (again) and entered the university world head on.

4 years later, I graduated with a first class degree, top of my year, president of the debate society and (and this is the kicker) fully qualified to flip burgers for a living.

Turns out an Arts degree isn’t the top of the employability lists. Who’d have thought it?

For a while there I was regretting that decision to take creative writing classes when I could have used that time to use a real skill.

Of course this is not where the story ends. I promised you the story of how writing lead to a real living.

Let’s talk about that part next.

How reading novels can be your best career move

Fastforward a few years and I’d talked my way into a grown-up corporate career, and worked with some of the biggest name companies in the world (of course, I wasn’t writing for a living. There’s no money in writing, right?).

Then a few more years later, I found myself at the helm of a new business.

Suddenly I had to communicate to a whole new audience of people – most of whom didn’t even know who I was.

So I did the only thing I knew how.

I sat down, with a clean piece of paper, picked up a pen and started to write them a story.

Then I wrote another.

I wrote about them. I wrote about me. I wrote about people like us: about how it feels to be like us.

I said those things that all of us think, but that only a storyteller is allowed to say.

There were moments I thought “does anyone want to hear that? Can I really say that?” and every one of those moments were the most powerful stories.

Above all, I just wrote.

Now, my business is based on writing.

Every connection I have made, every client, every opportunity (and every cent) has come via my writing. Period.

The single most useful part of my education was the semester where I sat in that creative writing class, my favourite author in front of me taking a guest seminar.

She sat at the head of our round seminar table, short grey hair clipped to perfection. Pursing her lips at our boorish undergraduate attempts at prose:

“It’s not real”, she said, shaking her head, “your writing has to be real.”

“So you lost your bag on the bus and you were annoyed. What does that mean?

I want to hear about your red shoes, the ones with the scuff mark, that pinched your left heel. I want to hear that you were wearing then on the day you lost your bag on the bus.

I want to hear about how you were thinking more about the shoe and the scuff mark than the lost bag and how you wondered if you could go home and change before going to the police station to report your bag and how you knew that was messed up at the time but that’s just the way it was.

I want to hear about the imperfections of your experience, not the surface of the story.”

She was right. Read the best novels, or the most gripping magazine articles, or that blog post that stays with you, and you’ll see – it’s not the plot or ideas that connect with you, it’s the red shoes pinching your heel on a hot day.

That’s a lesson I use every day.

Here’s why:

Ever had that moment at a networking event, the one where you’ve just shaken hands with Pete, or Mark, or Roy  - whatever his name he’s the balding man in the checked shirt who always shows up to these things.

Anyway. You’re in the first minute of telling Roy what you do… and you already know he doesn’t care.

It’s uncomfortable – partly because you didn’t pee before walking in you’ve drunk too much tea and now you’re trapped for at least another 5 minutes in a conversation about accounts – but mostly it’s uncomfortable because you know Roy should care.

What you’re saying has value and if only he got your message then you could help each other.

But even though he is nodding with that polite half smile, you know he doesn’t care and he wishes he was speaking to someone else.

If you run a business, you need people to care.

If people don’t care what you do, people don’t show up, people don’t buy, and you don’t have a business.

This is the problem:

Roy doesn’t care about you

Sorry. Sure, he heard your tale of ‘this is what I do and who it helps and why it’s important’ but he didn’t have a reason to care. Here’s why:

• You don’t get people to care by listing features of your service.
• You don’t get people to care by explaining and preaching reasons this is important.
• You don’t get people to care by speaking in business-speak platitudes.
• You don’t get people to care because your business card border is a slightly darker shade of blue this time
• You don’t get people to care by copying another person’s style and hoping ‘that works’.

You get people to care by sharing a story that they already care about.

A story about them.

The natural language of humans is ‘story’.

That’s what humans have done since we came down from the trees. Told stories.

If your business is going to rely on humans (and it will), then show them some respect and speak their language.

Speak the human language of stories – stories as real as that day you got on the bus with the scuffed red shoe and the pinched heel. This isn’t about writing the definitive novel of our time. It’s about you, where you are now, connecting with the people you need to reach.

Writing isn’t a waste of time

It’s the most powerful way to communicate the message you care about.

You don’t need a writing degree. You don’t need anyone’s permission. You don’t need an expensive computer.

I know you want people to care about what you do, so forget sticking up ads or adjusting your logo or browsing competitors’ websites. Start with what matters: your people, and you, and the stories you have to share.

Make them real, make them true, make them full of the things you wanted to say to them… but never thought you were allowed to speak.

Above all, start writing.

Now.

Hello gorgeous.

I want you to know something. Yes, starting your own business is wonderful. You wake up when you want, work from where you want and never have to sit through a boring-ass ‘weekly planning meeting’ EVER AGAIN. Rocking.

However. This freedom does not come on a platter. You don’t wake up one and go ‘oh I seem to have stumbled on the perfect life. Ho ho. Tea and toast, Jeeves’.

(Because that’s totally what my mornings look like. Ahem)

So let’s take a down-and-dirty look at what really goes on in a fledgling business. This isn’t a negative article, it’s just the less sexy bits that get left out of the ‘how I made it stories’. I think you deserve to know it all so today I’m sharing these 9 truths with you.

The below is your psychic ball to know what’s up ahead so you can be ready to ride through this messy, beautiful journey and make your free range life happen. FOR REAL.

Let’s get to it:

1. The business you start with won’t be the one you end up with.

The first version of your idea will be wrong. People won’t want it, or you won’t want to do it. More than likely:

Your first website won’t be your last

Neither will your first brand name

And that’s a good thing.

Your business is a living creature, not a statue. Until you’re in the field it’s hard to know what it’s really like to live with, and when you get there you’ll soon learn what you need to change. Sometimes the answer is ‘almost everything’.

So don’t spend too much on that first logo.

2. You will want to quit

More than once you will think you have made a huge mistake even starting this.

You will think you were crazy for even contemplating that you could run a business.

You’ll think you’re an imposter.

That’s when you know you’re on to something good.

3. Your family and friends won’t get it

Start your business and more than likely:

Aunt Maude will think you made a mistake.

Your buddy Sam won’t hold back letting you know how many businesses fail.

Others in your life will be ‘supportive’ but never actually understand what you do.

Many will miss the days they could put you into a box and say “she’s a lawyer”.

At least some of your friendship groups will change.

Honey let’s get real here. What is more important: your happiness every day, or someone else’s mild discomfort at introducing you at weddings? Sticking with the friends who count or the ones who only empathise because you both hate what you do? Following the beige army’s footsteps or living your real life? (you only get the one, you know)

Isn’t escaping from a box that doesn’t fit precisely the reason you are here?

4. There’s no such thing as an overnight success

You will work your butt off to get your first 10 clients. They will be the hardest ones to get.

You might look at a successful person in your field and say “I want what they have… but without doing the graft that let them achieve that”. They will look back at you and say “good luck, and if you find that easy button let us know”.

What counts is DOING (smartly). You can learn all the strategies in the world but unless you DO them they are worth nothing.

The overnight successes out there?

I admit it, they were ‘made overnight’: over many, many nights of late toil. With coffee and the company of streetlights.

They wanted to quit, they thought they made a mistake but they kept going and going until one day someone said “hey you’re an overnight success, I wish I could be as lucky as you!” (you can be, by the way. Just do the above.)

5. Your number of Twitter followers doesn’t count

There are a lot of things you can buy to look like  a business: you can rent an office, get good business cards, have a nice website made up by a hot designer, and yes you can even ‘buy’ Twitter followers and Facebook fans.

There might be good reasons for you to do all of these things. I’m not judging. However. None of these are enough on their own. You can easily sit in your office with nice cards, 10,000 followers and a cutting edge website… with no clients and no money. A business ‘shell’ is not a business.

It is one thing to build something that looks like a business. It is another to build that moment of magic where people love what you do, get it, and hand you money to do it some more.

Know the difference.

6. No one owes you a paycheque

I once heard someone say “no one is buying my ebook. I wrote it and created a website but no one is buying. I put so much time and effort into it already, I shouldn’t have to put any more into promoting it!”

Yes, you should. You are not an employee.

No one owes you a paycheque. No one owes you their money. No one owes you their attention.

It’s up to you to make your offer worth their attention, worth their money and worth a paycheque.

Showing up to work is not enough.

The value you bring is not just the content or the service. A huge whack of your value is presenting what you offer so GET IT. Don’t set yourself up to be ignored as one of the shouting hordes, but create an environment so people WANT what you have on the table. Desperately. Enough to pay for it, now.

Learning how to sell is 50% of the journey (so don’t waste all your start up time on creating a product you have no idea how to communicate and waiting for a  paycheque). Instead, live in your clients’ heads. Learn how to show them the value of what you do so that they want it, really want it, and pay to prove it too.

7. It’s not all cocktail parties and CEO moments. 

In the early days you will do it all. Forget the glamour of ‘having your own business’. For the first few months that just means “I sweep the floors, as well as meet the clients”.

Later you can (and should) outsource the parts you don’t love. But if you outsource something before you understand it, you’ll find it slide to a halt all too soon.

The only way to understand something? Do it yourself, first time round. Keep notes on how you did it and the mistakes you made and what you learnt. Then pass it on. Of course, by then you’ll be taking control and acting like a free range human.

You will also be handy with a broom.

8. Your dream life does not come with your dream business

You’re not doing this just to ‘be an entrepreneur’ (you’d be reading another blog if you were).

You’re doing this for a reason: to build a life that you love. To spend time with the people and places that mean something to you. You have a vision of what you want to contribute to the world, of doing something that makes you come alive every day, and your business is your vehicle to get it.

Never lose sight of that. That groundwork, knowing what you’re in this for, is crucial.

If you just ‘build a business’ without considering ‘you’, then you’ll end up in a cage of your own making. This time there will be no boss to blame.

Getting free is a conscious decision, not a gift that comes with self employment or a job title.

More important than just “I have a business” is sticking true to what you want and crafting each element of your business to suit you and your life.

That takes guts.

You’re not building a business, you’re creating a life. And that, my dear, starts with you.

9. You wouldn’t give this up for the world

Once you get into the free range life, you’ll know two things

1) the above is true and

2) you wouldn’t give this up for the world.

The payoff of being your own boss is bigger than a paycheque.

I read some research recently showing that self employed humans are happier than employed humans, and it clicked instantly.

When you are self employed, you get validated every time someone likes you enough to hand over money and buy from you (when did you ever feel that praised by your boss?).You get to do every part of the business you want to (see that chicken logo at the top? I drew him, cause I wanted to). And you get to be YOU every day.

It’s like becoming a grown up for the first time.

You’ll get addicted to this life. And that’s when you know you’ve made it.

10. You get to make your own rules.

Hey you’re a free range human! Want to include 10 points when the article asks for 9? Do it. Like this

Seriously. I want you to know this honey: the hardest part is understanding, truly understanding, that you make up your own rules. And then grasping that opportunity with both hands.

With no boss to hold you back, and no boss to blame, it’s down to you to make magic happen on your own terms.

To me that is the most wonderful thing in the world.

Ever heard a story of a ‘career cage escape’ and thought

‘They just got on with it… I’m SO PATHETIC for dithering. I should pull myself together and just make a freaking decision.

Why’s it so hard for ME when they managed it?’

If you’ve ever thought anything like that, or said mean things to yourself for not ‘just figuring it out’, then you need to watch this.

(note: you can watch this without sound… although my favourite song kicks in after the first minute so I’d just crank it up anyway )

This is the part most cubicle cage escape stories leave out. And this is the part that makes the biggest difference.

I’d love to hear what you think too – so after watching leave me a comment below, and share it on Facebook or Twitter (below) if you think others would benefit!

Credit to the amazing Bernard Fanning for the music playing in this video. The song is ‘Watch Over Me’ and I recommend his whole ‘Tea and Sympathy’ album.

Today’s message is really important but it’s one a lot of people won’t want you to get. I want to chat with you about some people you and I know (but let’s do it quietly because they won’t like you reading this article ).

These people, the ones we both know, are a type that you come across every day (shh, there’s one in the office with you now!). They prefer tradition and routine to innovation and enthusiasm, and think that your dream of a freer, more fulfilled life is a dangerous fantasy best quashed soon.

They are the Beige Army, and they have more of an impact on your life than you realise

The Beige Army are the managers in the office who can’t see the big picture – they prefer to nit pick on the 1% negative instead: “yes well done for launching that project that might change the world, but you didn’t fill in this line in form 30B. Yes, I know it’s a non-essential form, but protocol is important”.

The Beige Army are the people in The King’s Speech who wanted Geoffrey Rush banned from helping the king, because he wasn’t “qualified”. The letters were not there after his name and he was… unorthodox. And foreign. He had to go. No matter about the fact this outspoken incredible man was making more of a difference than anyone else.

The Beige Army are staid, repressed and terrified of change… but that’s not why I have a problem with them.

I have a problem with them because they want you to be that way too.

They wander around the corridors of your office block (and, perhaps, your extended family reunions) judging anyone who does anything outside of their comfort zone.

Should you be so audacious to consider an option (for yourself) that the Beige Army finds challenging to THEIR beliefs, they purse their lips and say: “are you sure that’s wise?”

They furrow their brows and ask: “Why would you want to do that? Why don’t you just get another job?”

It’s not a question – you know that – it’s a statement: what they really mean is:

“If you do that strange thing you will crash and burn and fail and you will be laughed at. People will laugh at you and no one will be on your side and you will end up in the gutter, miserable, hearkening back the golden days when you were safe here, safe with us in this beige existence where nothing changes, ever.”

That’s what the Beige Army wants you think whenever you consider making a change outside of THEIR comfort zone.

The Beige Army speaks loudly and clearly and they come across as unshakable.  They look solid and impenetrable. Very comfortable ruling out other opinions, the Beige folk are not troubled by difference of opinion because in their view, any opinion different to theirs is simply wrong. Venture to voice an alternative perspective and they’ll curl their lips with a little smug sneer and say ‘yes, alright Marianne, certainly’. And ignore you.

What is really going on (here’s where I unmask the Beige Army)

Lots of us get scared about our lives:

Are we the person we imagined we’d be? What if this is all there is to life after all?

What if we get it wrong? What if we get it right?

What if it turns out we are not good enough after all?

These are big scary questions.

If you’ve asked yourself any of them, and felt the fear, and admitted to yourself that you were scared…. then you are not a member of the Beige Army.

Lots of us get scared: what’s really evil is that the Beige Army won’t own up to their fear. They pretend that the status quo the right way to be rather than consider anything else, because anything else is too scary to contemplate.

The man in the beige army doesn’t look like a terrified animal but he is. His criticisms of others are his weapon against facing up to his life and his feelings.

He is living a lie: he pretends he is doing the ‘right’ thing; he pretends this so much that he no longer remembers he is pretending. All he knows is that if one of those ‘other’ people who are ‘different’ from him come on his turf, he gets het up and angry.  Righteously so, he thinks, because they are WRONG.

What matters to the Beige person is doing things in the way they have always been done, even if those things make no sense.

Whew! Do I sound angry right now? Heck yes I am. I’m freaking SEETHING here. The reason is, I have just got another email from one of my lovely, lovely fledglings who is brave and beautiful and right on the edge of making a change in her life… only to be brought back to average by the Beige Army. Today she hardly believes in herself, her possibilities, her strengths and she’s miserable and stuck because of someone else’s fears.

I am tired of seeing Free Range fledglings told they are wrong for being who they are. That their dreams are less worthy than ‘fitting in’ and living a crappy flatline life that makes you so unhappy you don’t know where to turn. I’m tired of seeing scared people rule your life.

So this me declaring war on the Beige Army

These people hide right now because they don’t have a name. They mask themselves as ‘normal’. And you know what? It’s hard to do something against what ‘most people do’ and how’ normal people act’ . Most of us don’t want to be ‘odd’ or ‘not quite normal’, do we?

But the Beige Army are not the normal ones. They are the sad, sad repressed folk who live their lives barely feeling anything anymore. They’ve turned off their emotions inside and they want you to do that too. They are not the majority, they are just influential and loud.

So let’s call them out for what they are: the people who say “it’s not possible”, “that’s a bit weird” or “why don’t you just get a job” do not speak for society and they do not speak for you.

They are not the normal people. They are just a group: the Beige Army, and they’re dead scared of getting any bright, lively paints on their bland beige uniform.

How to overcome the Beige Army (your battle plan)

Once you’ve named them for what they are (the ‘Beige Army’, not ‘the normal people’), there are three more things you can do to stop them from stopping you moving forward:

1. KNOW YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM

The Beige Army is a big group: mostly because they are so good at influencing others by making you feel small if you act differently. It’s easy to be influenced by that lot and adopt their characteristics (trust me, I’ve been there!).

Here’s the difference between you and them – if you act like a Beige solider you’ll hate yourself a little for it (oh my god I’ve become a bureaucrat!) whereas they pride themselves on being mundane.

Whenever you recognize that in yourself, a moment of difference in attitude, hold on to it, because daring to be different is your shield from their attacks.

2. BE HUMAN

Be enthusiastic and surround yourself with ‘free range’ thinking folk who are too. Displays of passion – be it talking enthusiastically about any topic, or showing emotion – are terrifying to the beige army. They will laugh at it and belittle it “alright, tone it down there darling”, “hmm, getting a bit carried away?”. Passion and authenticity are threats to their bland shell.

So find your true tribe and spend time with them: immerse yourself in their books, their writing, their events, hang out with them and soon you’ll stop seeing the Beige Army as the ‘normal’ ones but as strange creatures to be pitied.

3. THE SECRET WEAPON

Here’s the biggest thing you can do fight them: don’t. The Beige Army are made up of impenetrable people who – in the name of avoiding discomfort – have numbed themselves from feeling.

A Beige person is like a rock: nothing moves them so don’t bother trying.

There is no point trying to convert them, don’t try to push them out of the way or break them down.

Just walk around them.

I’m taking on the Beige Army, but I’m not interested in beating them.

This isn’t about winning an ideological argument with a group of terrified people. It’s about getting around the big, critical, scared blob of a barrier in your way so you can live your own life.

Once you’re on the other side you’ll look back and wonder why they ever had any power over you. And you’ll smile, turn your back on their fear, and walk on forward into your real life.

Photo by miskan

Last Friday, you probably hadn’t heard of Walk Off The Earth. They were a little Canadian indie band – fronted by two street-buskers – adored by their steadily growing community of fans, but pretty much unknown to anyone else.

They were thinking they’d like to do a ‘world tour’ sometime but without a recording contract or much press it was a bit of a dream.

Friday January 6 was a normal day, and the band were editing and uploading a little You Tube video they’d made – not even an original, just a cover version of another band’s song.  (They meant to upload it on Thursday but got too tired and went to bed instead). Just another of thousands of bands out there making and uploading music for their fans.

24 Hours later this new video had 1.5 million views and Walk Off The Earth was one of the best known names on the internet.

Overnight, that new little video had been viewed 1.5 million times and has appeared on the front page of Reddit and You Tube, as well as on news channels and radio stations all over the world.

Overnight, the band had over 60,000 Facebook fans (and counting), Russell Crowe was tweeting them asking to collaborate, appearances on Good Morning America, their own Wikipedia page…

By the end of the weekend Walk Off The Earth went from an indie band most people never heard of, to one of the most downloaded bands on iTunes … and that was just the start.

What happened?

Remember, this wasn’t the band’s first You Tube release. They’d been making good stuff for a while. But there was a twist:

On this video, the band performs with 5 people playing 1 guitar. That’s right: 5 people on 1 guitar. 

Below is the video that made it all happen:

Aren’t they fabulous? Well I didn’t just write this to give you some entertainment (though that’s always a good result, right?)

Seriously, I think there are things we can all learn from this story. These lessons can be used by any business wanting to get noticed – not just bands. You don’t need even one guitar to learn from this.

You see, this is about more than 5 people hopping on one guitar. That alone wouldn’t have got these results. Instead WOTE followed 4 steps which shot them into overnight fame.

4 Steps to Remarkable

Step 1. Do great work (average is not an option).

Uber-viral only happens when there is something worth noticing. WOTE were working consistently to improve their work, and deserved the notice even before they got it. As one of their fans put it a few hours before ‘that video’ went live:

There’s no point having a funny gimmick if there’s no quality to hold attention for more than 5 seconds. This isn’t the story of 5 people on one guitar, it’s 5 people working to do great stuff, consistently. That was the cornerstone to everything else that happened.

But of course there is no point doing great work if there’s no one there to notice, right? So that’s step 2.

Step 2. Build a following

Walk Off The Earth already had a loyal following who they clearly care about. Check this out:

They call their fans WOTE-lings (cute). They include gifts from fans in their videos. They take requests for cover songs to perform on You Tube. They are likeable and funny and interact with their fans consistently. They give a lot of work away for free.

By the time they came up with the idea of putting 5 people on 1 guitar they had earned the attention and social media shares their fans gave them. As one fan said:

Did you notice that comment mentions “the massive amount of free entertainment” the band provided?. Let’s talk about that.

WOTE regularly released their music for free on You Tube (as well as having paid for downloads available for each track – they’re generous, not stupid). This free stuff is key.

Free work is what fuels fandom. If you want people to love you enough to pay and spread the word, you have to love them enough to give away quality for free.

Even if what you sell is information, support or ideas: how can you go viral if there is nothing for your biggest fans to share?

This is going to sound dumb but I’ll say it anyway: if 5 people on 1 guitar was a paid-for download no one would have noticed it.

Yes, I know it’s obvious but think about the implications. Are you afraid of giving away your advice in a free ebook or audio because you think that no one will pay you anything more? Are you holding back out of fear of being ripped off?

It isn’t just about one freebie either. WOTE built up its following through their plethora of free work. People saw it, shared it, loved it and the word spread.

This is how viral happened:

It was the initial Facebook shares by WOTE’s core fans that got the video noticed by other people, who passed it on to their friends, who passed it on to their friends… and that’s how it ended up on the front page of Reddit. Everything snowballed from there… but it all started with the core fans who couldn’t wait to share.

- You only get what you give out. What are you giving out right now?

- If you made this same video today (or an audio or an ebook) how many people would share it?

- If you don’t have a following you need to sort that out ASAP. Luckily that’s something anyone can do.

Start today: give something away, make that something good.

Continue to listen and learn and interact to the people who love it.  Really listen to them, respond to their needs, and love them to bits.

That’s a much smarter way than being one of the million voices on the internet shouting to be noticed.

The next step is giving your people something they can’t wait to share.

Step 3. Do something worth remarking on: 5 people on 1 guitar.

I’ll keep this short: this video got shared because it was so unusual. 5 people on 1 guitar is something else. That’s why it got on the front page of papers, on the front page of social media sites and it’s why people gave it the initial click.

WOTE knew this when they posted the video on Friday:

WOTE had been doing unusual remarkable work for a while (see their old video where they catch a ukelele), they took risks, they didn’t hold back and didn’t pretend to be anyone other than themselves. Their viral video showcased this in bright lights.

You can do this too no matter how ‘serious’ your business. You don’t have to do Richard Branson style stunts to get noticed. What can you do that is just that little bit different from the herd? What are others not saying that actually a lot of your tribe are thinking? What would you do if you weren’t worried people would laugh at you?

Do that. But also know that a gimmick alone isn’t enough, going viral takes one more step:

Step 4. Be freaking amazing

Here’s what happened when I saw this song on a friend’s Facebook page on Saturday morning.

1. I watched the video 3 times in a row. Then I watched it again.

2. I friended WOTE on Facebook, stalked their back catalogue, and paid to download a bunch of their stuff of iTunes

3. Then I went to the shop to get a device that lets you play iphone via your car radio. Yes, I went to get a piece of technology just so I could listen to them while driving.

Turns out that was a pretty normal response. WOTE’s social media is clogged with love-messages from people who can’t get over this piece:

Times that message by 10,000 and they are still rolling in. At one stage I was refreshing the band’s fan page every hour and seeing fan numbers rise by 10,000 every time. This doesn’t happen because of a clever gimmick!

Most people think this is about 5 people on one guitar, but I disagree.

Here’s the real secret behind their success: check the thousand of comments on WOTE’s Facebook page and Twitter stream where brand new fans (like me!) are raving about this video. Read it carefully. Do you see what I see? Yes, almost none of these comments mention the gimmick of 5 people playing 1 guitar.

All of them mention the beauty, quality and depth of the band’s music, and the fabulous personalities that shine through. The comments are “I love you guys, your music is amazing and I can’t believe I just discovered you!”. Not “you fit 5 people on 1 guitar, ha ha”.

The gimmick (5 people, 1 guitar) reels in the attention and then it’s converted to uber-viral status, solid fans and real success by true quality (ie: beautiful voices, and a great cover version, all of which came about from the time spent practicing and refining their work in public, not hidden in their bedrooms waiting for perfection).

The result?

Somehow, I’m betting they’ll be able to justify that world tour after all.

THIS IS HOW OVERNIGHT SUCCESSES HAPPEN.

They happen over dozens of long nights spent building up something that matters. Building up the quality of your work your community and getting clear who you are. Putting it out there rather than hiding in your bedroom waiting to be perfect.

Yes putting yourself out there can be a scary thought.

But, follow this path, and when people look at you and say “you’re so lucky,  you’re an overnight success” you’ll smile because you know the truth is that you did built this over night: over many, many late nights working your heart out for something you care about.

This isn’t the story of 5 people and a guitar. It’s the story of how they created their own ‘overnight success’, and how you can too.

You have the formula right here: do great work, build and care for your tribe, create something worth remarking on and continute to put quality out there.

You have access to the same technology and resources as they do.

You know the secret. Are you up for doing the work?

What should you do if you are desperate to quit your job… but your business is not set up yet and you don’t have the time or ‘space’ to get it going in the evenings? Or, worse, what if you don’t have an idea what you want to do… but can’t think clearly because your job is stressing you out so much?

Of course the ideal is to stick around with a safe salary until we have everything perfectly lined up… but what if that approach just isn’t working out for you?

Watch the video below as I give some honest answers to these tough Qs in the very first Free Question Free Range ‘Free Question Friday’ video!

Like? Share it on Facebook and Twitter, and leave a comment below.

Click here to get on the Free Range Friday love-letter list and get juicy career-cage busting tips in your life every week

Ever wanted to get paid to do more than one thing? Welcome to the world of portfolio careers. It’s a great solution for scanners, multifaceted people, people with lots of interests… but how do you handle your online presence when you don’t just do one thing?

Who ARE you on social media? How many websites can you have? And how do you answer the ‘and what do you do’ question at parties?

Watch this video here as I answer these questions with 3 simple steps (and one little stalking session – hi Mark!)

Like? Share it on Facebook and Twitter, and leave a comment below.

Click here to get on the Free Range Friday love-letter list and get unconventional ‘becoming your own boss’ tips in your life every week

Ever kicked yourself for not being well-rounded enough? Read this

The myth of the perfect all rounder is just that: a myth.

Those successful free range humans or entrepreneurs out there? No way are they a perfectly balanced personality type with textbook inner balance:

• Show me a thought-sparking innovator and I’ll show you someone who can’t tie their shoelaces (or finds it hard to remember to do so ).
• Show me someone who really ‘gets’ what drives people and I’ll show you someone who was bullied at school.
• Show me the most driven, fast creating entrepreneur you know, and I’ll show you someone with a yapping inner critic.

But:

Show me a well rounded totally sorted person and I’ll show you someone who has no need to break free and make waves.

As Seth Godin says:

“Well-rounded and popular people rarely change the world. The one voted most likely to succeed probably won’t.”

Don’t get me wrong: a well rounded person makes a great employee. A bit good at everything, not really great at anything, but really they are ok with that because they are comfortable. A well rounded person is not really interested in taking the reins or breaking the rules and creating a remarkable life.

A free range human is the opposite: they constantly question themselves and their world, (they probably read this and think ‘oh no I’m not great at anything!’ Hint: that probably means you are), they itch to break the rules of their beige world, to create life on their terms.

They aren’t yet another brand of ‘normal’. They know they don’t quite ‘fit’ (even if, to everyone else, it looks like they do).

Up until now they have thought that was something to be ashamed of. Every day they leave the house and pretend to be average, they cram themselves into a box pretending to be less unique than they are.

But bubbling below is someone far more brilliant than that.

No one changed the world by fitting in and feeling normal and perfectly sorted.

To want something more you have to be a little crazy, a little different, a little more like YOU.

You may say that your lack of well roundedness is your downfall. I say, it’s your secret weapon.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS?

“I’ve tried so hard to figure out my passions but I can’t find them. Maybe I don’t have any passions and this job is the best I can expect.”

Desperate email from a blog reader.

Not knowing your passions must suck.

It must mean you’re an empty shell of a human being with no  prospect of ever escaping the flatline ‘bleh’ of commute-work-commute-die existence.

Well that’s a load of rubbish.

Who in the real world ever even THINKS about passions?

Seriously, who says “oh I can’t go out with you tonight because that’s not one of my PASSIONS. Even though it would be fun and all”.

All the fun stuff you do, the moments in your life when you’ve felt completely yourself, happy and in flow. Were they on the list of things you call ‘passions’? Or were they just moments you let down your hair, freed your sexy little soul, and enjoyed?

THE MYTH

The reader who wrote that email was stressing about not having passions.

After more digging, I found that person’s vision of passions that goes something like this: a passion is something ‘out there’ to be found (they thought). It is something you do – like stamp collecting, or baking, or skydiving. It’s a topic you are into, continues this assumption, such as dogs, or cars, or history. Or the history of dogs in cars.

Stop a moment. That’s a list.

Where are you in that list?

The biggest myth of passions is that they are something ‘out there’ to be found. Something you can point to that will give you a purpose to your life. Well I don’t know about you, but I don’t want stamp-collecting-dogs to give my life a purpose.

How sad would it be to have to look to a list of ‘things’ to find out who you are? That’s as bad as being pigeon holed into a career-box!

Passions are a band-aid on the hole labelled “having a life that makes me feel I am alive every day”.

Honey, if you want to wake up every day feeling alive, enthused, and knowing that what you do is worthwhile, then passions are not your answer. They’re a cop-out that are blinding you from valuing yourself.

What’s REALLY interesting is you.

Let me show you what I mean. Here are some of my passions:
- Dogs

- Espresso coffee

- Being outdoors somewhere beautiful

- How the brain works

- Travel

- Interior design

- “The IT Crowd” (esp series 2)

- The LOL Cats language (specifically how to use it everyday in inappropriate situations. Like on legal forms).

There’s more. Some of which is unprintable. But anyway, can you see that this is not the sum of ME? I am more than any one of those 8 things.

If you write down a few things you think you might be passionate about, you’ll find the same. You are more than the sum of the things that you get excited and/or geeky about.

By the way, that list is not a cop-out: these are things that I am really into. I am obsessive about good coffee. I can name every decent cafe in London and rank them and ARGUE PASSIONATELY about the finer points of difference between blends. I am also enraptured by dogs. I see a dog and I stop and grin a stupid grin and then talk to it until people drag me away.

However those things do NOT define me. They are important to me, and yes, I craft my career around some of them (heck, the Free Range project started because ‘my love of being outdoors = I can’t sit in an office all day’! How the brain works is the driving force behind my approach to the career change courses I run).

The things on that list are very important to me.

But they are ‘things’ and I am ‘me’.

And I’m far more passionate about ‘me’ than any of those ‘things’.

They can be a huge part of my life, but I’m not going to let them define my life.

Life design first, passions second.

Want to jack in your ‘I can’t breathe!’ career for a life where you can be YOU?

Then ask yourself that question: who do you want to BE? Not what do you want to DO.

I don’t want to go all cliched and say ‘this is the one life you have to live’… but what if it were? (it is, you know).

Let’s go back to basics. This is about YOU. Who you are and the life you want. Every moment you spend doing something because you think you ‘should’, not because it means anything or leads to anything you actually want, is a moment you’ve taken away from yourself.

Every moment you spend in that office (the one that is sapping your soul), is a moment away from the people you love, from that novel you’ve been meaning to write (or just sitting in the garden looking at clouds). That sort of life  saps your energy and spirit to the point that you don’t have space for anything that feels truly passionate.

You want to get out of the 9-5 grind and feel like you’re living your life every day?

Create (and note the use of the word ‘create’ and not ‘discover’) a business around your life – not the other way around.

Choose to craft a business that lets you be who you are, live it out and come alive every single day. So that every hour you spend on it feels right – you’re no longer spending your days wishing you were doing something else.

And that means straight up, you need to take control. If someone else is no longer defining who you are and what you do, then YOU, honey are the one creating your solution; you are making the rules. And there is no rule that says “you have to be passionate about a specific topic in order to have an amazing life”.

Drop the word ‘passion’ and replace it with ‘things that make me come alive’.

Let’s stop the myth that ‘I can’t find my passion’. Your passions are not OUT THERE to be stumbled across. They never have been. They have always been within you.

The thing that makes you come alive might be performing on stage. Or creating environments that are mindblowingly beautiful. Or it might be dogs. If dogs are your thing, the thing you want to be around and be involved in above anything else, that is awesome. If that is what makes you come alive. Go for it!

But don’t do something just because you say (in a passionless voice) “I think that might be one of my passions”. Do it because you CAN’T HELP IT. Because it’s going to be weighing on your mind forever and anything else would be a compromise.

……. Now you’ve read that are you freaking out a little that you don’t have anything that you simply MUST do?

That’s cool. Let’s breathe and take it down a notch.

Sometimes, what makes you come alive is something softer – maybe you love bringing people together, or you just ‘spark’ during the process of doing something (like generating ideas), or you feel completely energised spreading the word about things you think are Really Important (like chocolate).

More often, what makes you come alive is a totally unique combination of things, not one overwhelming whack.

For example, something that makes me come alive is energising groups of people. But not for the sake of it – I want to get people to wake up to how remarkable they are and grab their lives by the balls and DO something amazing. But not just anything amazing, something that makes them proper money to give them real freedom. And not just freedom, but…

You see where I’m going? Just listing ONE thing that makes me come alive brings up a billion extensions. Getting into the nitty gritty of what something really means to you, uniquely, is where the fun starts. That’s when we start moving baby!

PASSIONS WILL NEVER GIVE YOU THOSE BREAKTHROUGH INSIGHTS. You will end up with a list and no clue of what to do with it. Ask what makes you come alive instead.

Do your soul a favour.

Screw passions. They are overrated and they ain’t helping you out one iota.

You are way better than a boring list.

Stop searching forever for something ‘out there’ and then secretly kicking yourself for not being passionate enough about that passion (you SO just did that )

Instead, take back control. Put that energy into understanding what makes you come alive – every element and crease of its uniqueness – and then take some kick-ass action to create a truly unique business (crafted around you) that lets you be that gorgeous, fabulous person every day.

And THAT’S how we do ‘shakin’ it up and livin’ your life’.

Picture by the incredible Gaping Void

Quitting the cubicle world to go into business for yourself? Congrats! Break out the champagne, hire a brass band to say goodbye to the boss!

Then, let’s talk money. Whether you’re worried about struggling on less money, or confident your venture is going to make a shit-ton of cash (technical accounting term) you’re still going to have to figure out a few things about finances.

Like, how to do tax without going nuts, how to create a consistent income and how to not spend your new money all at once and end up broke. Right?

Straight up: I’m not an accountant, and I’m not a financial expert. I went from being a typical humanities-trained creative (afraid to check my bank balance and avoiding anything involving numbers), to running my own business with consistent income, and building up a nicely increasing pot of savings every month.

And you know what? After the initial shock of ‘gah, numbers!’, it’s really not all that hard. Really.

Look, I’m not going to tell you to skimp on the lattes, there are enough personal finance blogs touting that sort of advice already. This is a list of a few simple things you can set up which can save you time, headaches, and make your finances happy no bulletproof willpower required

1. Sort out your mortgage now.

When you go self employed something happens to all those ‘borrow money now’ offers clogging up your letter box. They dry up. Even if you end up earning more than you are earning now. Crazy huh?

Banks don’t like you not to have a job. So unless you have a super-massive deposit, you will find it near impossible to get a first-time mortgage for the first 3 years. If you definitely want to buy your first property in the next 3 years, and you currently have a job that you want to quit ASAP, then I suggest you get chatting with your real estate friends.

Of course, your alternative is to choose to go into this mortgage free and laugh at your homeowning friends drowning in boilers than cost a month’s salary and plumbers putting their kids through private school from the proceeds of that dodgy kitchen sink.

2. Willpower is a crappy savings strategy

Here’s how most people try to save: a) spend money during the month (trying and failing to keep to ‘budget’) then b) siphon off the leftover to a savings account.

That’s the wrong way around. No wonder it doesn’t work.

In a perfect world spend-then-save might be a good idea, but you’re human and that shiny thing is on sale and there are a billion rationalizations to start saving next month, not now.

Instead of beating yourself up, outsmart your brain with the simple trick of removing money before you have a chance to touch it.

a) Figure out how much you want to save each month.

b) Set up a standing order that takes money from your main bank account and moves it to dedicated savings accounts each month. You might have one for medium term savings, one for long term and maybe one for emergencies.

c) Watch cash pile up.

Simples (this one is so simple that most people skip it but it is by far the best way to save money. No point skimping on lattes if you’ll blow it on a random night out or a DVD boxset or five. Do it now)

3. Tax isn’t a surprise

I’ve always been amazed that some self employed people are surprised by the size of their tax bill. It’s not that hard to predict.

Find out your tax rate. Figure out your average income (once you have started). Then every month use the step above to set up a direct debit for a bank account labeled “tax payments”.

That way you won’t notice the money is there in the first place and tax time is not a mad scramble. Calmness reigns.

My, isn’t this all very zen? Let’s get even more chilled out with the next step:

4. A decent accountant is invaluable, and usually free.

Ask around people in your field. Get an accountant. Hold the ground rule that they should a) save you time and headaches that put you off doing money-making work and b) save you more money than you pay them.

Once they have done that, on balance, they are free. Seriously, it’s tempting to go DIY but paying for a good accountant is a no-brainer investment that pays for itself.

And while we’re on the topic…

5. Tax is not complicated

Amazingly this is true. For example do you know you can be a sole trader, start making money without registering a business with companies’ house, and just file your returns once a year? Do you know that ‘file your return’ can be as simple as ‘send an accountant a spreadsheet of money that came in and money that came out and they do the rest’?

Yes it can be that simple (again see ‘get a good accountant’ above)

6. Don’t borrow

Ground rule. Borrow as little as humanly possible – ideally, borrow nothing. Use your profits from your business, and put them back into your business to grow it.

If this means cutting your spending while you grow, do that rather than go into credit card debt to support a lifestyle you haven’t yet earned. It may sound harsh but credit cards give you the illusion of having money, which makes actually making some less of a priority.

Remember: your business supports you, not the other way around.

7. Get consistent

The biggest fear of most first time self employed people is inconsistent income. One way of overcoming that is to learn how to save what you have and not spend it all at once. Sure that’s important but to me even more crucial is setting up strategies for creating consistent income. Ideally including income that shows up even if you’re not delivering anything.

There’s no single quick answer to consistent income, but it is more than possible (I share some approaches for that here).

Whatever you do remember that self employed finance is not rocket science.

Unless your business actually is making rockets of course. Other than this, this is all about money going out and money coming in.

It really isn’t so hard to take care of both ends so long as you remember you’re human, remember you will probably slip up, and so simply set up idiot-proof systems (like the ‘willpower-free’ savings system above) to take care of your when your less financially helpful instincts take over.

Oh, and try and make a shit-ton of money. That helps too.