From 140 Characters to 140 Pages

You’ll have to bear with me on this one. This is a very usual post for me, because it’s so personal. I’m not the kind of blogger who bares her soul on a regular basis, so be kind to me :) but I wanted to write it, partly to explain what’s changed with me and my work, and also to inspire you if you feel you’re needing a change as well.

It was at this time last year that I won a prize for a free business coaching session! Funnily enough, I’d been thinking about making big changes to my working life, so it seemed serendipitous to say the least.  It’s funny how things work out like that, isn’t it? Full of excitement, and with not a little trepidation, I worked through my current issues in the session.

And was faced with an uncomfortable truth. I discovered that my work as a freelance social media manager, while rewarding in many ways, wasn’t really what I was born to do.

To cut a long story short, with the help of the wonderful Una Doyle from Creative Flow and the Talent Dynamics test, I discovered my ‘thing’.  My core talent turned out to be in writing, detail and structure – especially in writing in other people’s voices (a skill which I refined during my time as a freelance social media manager). I decided that, given my ability to write in the voices of my clients and my love of big ideas and structures, business book ghostwriting for speakers, coaches and experts was my new mission. After all, these people need a book to build their expert brand, and I knew that I would be the right person to help them.

Someone described it to me as going from 140 characters in a tweet, to 140 pages in a book. Spot on!

So how did I come to this realisation? I focused on the things that frustrate me when I see them not being done effectively. And writing that doesn’t ‘work’ is high on the list! I also decided that I wanted to use my business experience to make sure that the books I write are going to support and grow my clients’ businesses. It all seemed to go together so beautifully.

But I also realised that I would need to add more to my services than just the ghostwriting. Many people aspire to write their own book, so I decided to offer a book writing coaching service as well. Una also convinced me of the value of  my marketing and and social media background; after all, if you’ve got a business book, who better to help you write and promote it than someone who has worked in marketing for 20 years?

Over the past few months I’ve been making major changes to my business. I still love social media, and continue to manage social platforms for my existing clients, but now I’m also a writer. I have coached and inspired some clients to write well structured books, which they said they found incredibly helpful, and I’ve also written some successful e-books for clients in their own voice.

Longer term, my goal is to write 3-4 full length books a year as a ghostwriter, and to help as many speakers, coaches and experts as I can to write their own books. With the ongoing help of another coach, the extremely helpful and clear Rachel Henke, I’ve also packaged up my services by creating my Author Maker Write Your Own Brilliant Book VIP Programme and my Author Maker Ghostwriting Programme.

So that’s my journey. It seems pretty simple now it’s written down, doesn’t it? But it’s been big year for me, and I’m so excited about 2015. I’d love to hear about your hopes and dreams for the year ahead in the comments below, especially if you’re going through some major life and work changes as well.