The image above shows what my book would have looked like if I had designed it myself.

Below you can see the magical touch of Ms. Jacquelyn Tierney. 

I will forever admire and be thankful for Jacquelyn's compassion and skill, but it is her gumption that I am in debt to. Without it, this book may never have existed. 

I was so scared of this project that I allowed myself to be distracted to the point of actually forgetting I was even working on a book. Below is an excerpt from Creators 2.0 where I speak of this.

It had been weeks with no movement, not one word written. That’s when I realized that Resistance was at work. I was going to have to fight to make this book happen, but the fact that this was a requirement meant that this was indeed the direction I needed to head in.

Before I went to bed that night, I set my alarm for 5 a.m. and grabbed my phone to message a lovely and insanely talented designer named Jacquelyn Tierney. I asked her to design this book, point blank. I knew that I wanted her to design it, and more importantly, I knew she would move it forward without even knowing the particulars. Most designers would want to work out a budget or some of the parameters. Jacquelyn got it right away. She gave me a date to have the draft in her hands so she could start the work. 

The next morning I didn’t shut off the alarm and go back to bed as I had done every morning for the past three weeks. I had a deadline. Resistance had given me a very clear sign, so I turned my ship into the strongest wind and urged my crew forward.

If you are looking for an AMAZING designer and partner for your project, look no further than Jacquelyn Tierney.

This week I am speaking with Richard Derham. Richard is a Canadian lawyer and the principal of Derham Law. We are speaking about his journey and the social enterprise he launched to help at-risk youth. We spend quite a bit of our talk answering the legal questions you submitted.

Derham Law – Richard's law practice
Turnaround Couriers – Richard's social enterprise and Toronto courier service

The CIPO Guide to Copyright (Canada specific)
Pixsy.com - a new entry into tracking down copyright misuse and getting paid
Digimarc - a paid service for tracking down copyright infringement

The Music!

I love this group. They came together in an abandoned orphanage in the mountains of Guatemala to self-produce a stunning album. A big shout out to MagnaTune for the find! Follow them on Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp and more. Purchase the album on iTunes or Amazon.

Lion or the Bee, Mountain Sounds from their Mountain Sounds album
When You Have Money, Mountain Sounds from their Mountain Sounds album

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Help change the world for less than a coffee a month!

Taking the Leap! podcast by Sean Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

I listen to something while I walk. I bounce between multiple windows while I work. I'm in a constant state of stress about looming deadlines, even as I waste time on remembered tasks of little importance.

I spent an entire weekend reading a sci-fi pulp series. I raced through each book, completely immersed. As Monday loomed, the sickness found it's voice. I had wasted my weekend. I had procrastinated the work I needed to do.

But what if I have it backwards? What if my soul craves long periods of time where I am able to immerse myself and be fully present – even if that involves space knights falling from the sky like iron rain.

Productivity is a sickness. It is the quality of presence that holds our desired reward.

The past two days I have awoken to the insanity of my daily existence. How I struggle to be present. Even as I write these words, I feel the urge to listen to something on my headphones or to check my email. I'm waiting to hear from a client, aren't I? Was that the beep of a chat message?

I always blamed my procrastination for that horrid panic of cramming all my effort into those last few precious minutes before a deadline. Now I see that I have been tricked. Blaming procrastination traps me in the paradigm where I am forever distracted and unsettled.

It is life spent alternating between distracted and panicked. The only constant is the voice of blame in my head, chiding myself for procrastinating yet again.

The culprit is not procrastination. It is a lack of focus and presence. It is an inability to take a deep breath and just be fully here with what is happening or needed in the moment. 

I tell myself that I am better when I am doing three things at once. I dash to email, fire something off, remember a task, launch my browser, log into a service, check my stats, spend 2 minutes manically trying to remember the task that brought me to my browser, remember it, log into a different service, do the task, then drift aimlessly between all my windows wondering what was next.

I am a machine of disconnection. Or rather, I was.

Now I am learning to breathe. I keep my task list handy. When something comes up, I simply add it to the list. Then I let it go and return to what I was focused on doing. Slowly, less interruptions surface. A calm focus begins to emerge, freed from the bouncing distractions, the fear and the malaise.

I expect to slip back into my old ways. I hope only that I grow better at catching myself and returning to the present moment.

How do you stay focused? Do you have a ritual? A practice? Methods? Tools? Please share.

Photo credit: 長谷部 八恵子

This week I am speaking with musician, web developer and urban exploration photographer extraordinaire, Chris Luckhardt. We are talking about slowing down, finding lost passions and dealing with interests that grow beyond being hobbies. Chris outs himself in two surprising ways in this episode.

Show Notes

Chris and His Work

ChrisLuckhardt.com

Click to see Chris Luckhardt's Six Flags New Orleans photos

Click to see Chris Luckhardt's Hashima Island photos

Nara Dreamland

The Awesome Music

I loved the music this week and I encourage everyone to connect with Neem on Soundcloud, Facebook and iTunes. Such a lovely group and so kind to allow me to use their music on this episode.

Tracks you heard:
Ray of Sunshine, Neem
Whistle Blower, Neem

Please consider becoming a supporter of the show via Patreon!

Help change the world for less than a coffee a month!

Taking the Leap! podcast by Sean Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

I love hanging out with my artist and creator friends. They have a passion for life and get more done in a day than most get done in a week.

The problem is that most of us are scrambling to promote ourselves at any cost. Buy my art. Support my work. Here's a coupon. Act now! Going fast! We are desperate to make a living or just support our coffee habit. Sadly, we have it backwards.

I see so many amazing promotional ideas that are just too early. More often than not, these tricks fail to generate any real revenue, or worse, backfire and cost the artist a subscriber.

This is because we can't see the forest through the trees. We would be far better served if we took better stock of the size and health of the communities we are a part of. 

Promotion's won't create a rabidly passionate community that desires to support us and our work. Shouting offers ad nauseam is only going to cost us what few supporters we do have.

That's why I like the investing metaphor. I'm investing in building a tribe that values me as much as I value them. When this tribe is large enough, marketing will become something I don't have to think about that much. My job is simply to feed my community and allow them to support me and my work in exchange.

This is not a new concept. The world is full of people who have invested years in building a community that now supports them and their work. These people don't spend a lot of time thinking about promotions and marketing. They spend their time considering how to bring value to their tribe.

Brooke Shaden
Joanna Penn
David duChemin

So why isn't everyone doing this? Because it's insanely hard work. What can I do today to be of service to my tribe? The list of To Do items explodes and there aren't enough hours to get it all done.

We want a pill. A blueprint that we can just duplicate for great results. So we look to the successful artists and entrepreneurs. The problem comes when we try to copy what they are doing. First, this may not be our way. But the real problem is that they have spent years building value with their tribe. What works for them with 500,000 avid supports is likely to backfire when tried with a not so interested 1,000 followers.

You don't have to take my word for it.

Here's what Brooke Shaden says when asked how to get followers.

And David duChemin on how being of service to others is what really matters.

Flip things around. Focus on being of service and let the promotions rest until there are people worth marketing to. Something tells me you won't have to think about promotions when you've built a tribe in the hundreds of thousands.

Looking for more like this?

Check out my Creators 2.0 ebook. Sign up to receive your free copy!

Or my Building a Community that Supports us video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdkPEr5nvbM