beautiful writers - The Real Sam Bennett

Beautiful Writer’s Group

For my last installment in this “backstage” look at the world of email and personal development, we’re looking at my dear friend Linda Sivertsen and the Beautiful Writer’s Group.

Linda Sivertsen and The Beautiful Writer’s Group (and me!)

The Beautiful Writer’s Group is a community of writers who get support, insights, cheer-leading and practical advice from our private Facebook page and a monthly coaching call run by me and Linda. It’s super-inexpensive and lots of fun.

—–> Click here to check it out

Linda’s Unique Style

Linda is known worldwide as the Book Mama because she is so genuinely loving. She adores writers and has a true calling to support them. She has published several bestsellers herself and she is friends with every cool agent and publisher in the biz. Several times a year, she leads her Carmel Writing Retreat, where she spends a week with 6 women writers and a gourmet chef, helping them craft their book into something writable and, moreover, salable.

If you look in the “Acknowledgments” of some of your favorite books, you will probably see Linda’s name – that’s how influential she is. She is forever connecting writers with agents, agents with book proposals, and publishers with agents. Because she doesn’t charge for any of this matchmaking, she is trusted by one and all.

She also hosts the Beautiful Writer’s Podcast, which features such guests as Elizabeth Gilbert, Dr. Brené Brown, Seth Godin, Glennon Doyle Melton, Marianne Williamson, Arianna Huffington, Steven Pressfield, Martha Beck, Dani Shapiro, Mary Karr, Leeza Gibbons, Gretchen Rubin, Jillian Lauren…all of them going deep and telling the real TRUTH about their writing practice. It’s a great show, and you can find it on iTunes, SoundCloud and here: http://bookmama.com/category/beautiful-writers-podcast/.

Linda’s Smart Strategy

The Beautiful Writer’s Group is what’s known as a membership site. Membership sites are endlessly flexible (you can tailor your own to whatever audience you like), and Linda’s is delightfully simple.

For a low monthly fee or annual subscription, writers get:

Monthly Q&A Coaching Call with me and Linda – giving straight-up honest answers to questions about publishing, platform, marketing, editing, motivation, gremlins and everything else that a writer needs to know.
Private Facebook Group – a wonderful, active and supportive group of writers who get to ask ANYTHING and get answers from each other as well and Linda and me.
Archived Recordings – exclusive access to previously recorded Q&A calls as well as Expert Calls, many of them with the original co-founder of BWG, the marvelous Danielle LaPorte.
Resources List – our own private list of trusted resources to help you wrangle your muse and get published.
Bonus Surprises – you never know what new goodie might show up!

You can find out more and join us here: The Beautiful Writer’s Group

Idea You Could Borrow for Yourself

Think about ways that you could:

1) Create a community that supports your tribe

– Private or Public Facebook groups are easy and free

– MeetUps allow you to create and advertise live local events for a low cost

– Zoom Conferencing allows you to easily video conference online

2) Provide ongoing value to that community

– Offer wisdom, resources and outside experts

– Perhaps most meaningfully, a way for them to connect with each other – a directory, perhaps?

– Send a free daily email to inspire them and keep them on track

3) Create ongoing recurring revenue for you

– If you have 100 subscribers at even just $10/month, that’s an extra $1000 without too much additional work

– You can offer your membership special deals, up-sells and opportunities to generate even more revenue and serve them better

– You can generate affiliate and sponsorship revenue by giving trusted businesses occasional access to your tribe

I hope you’ve enjoyed this 12-part series, and I hope it has you dreaming up ways you can grow your business, make more moolah and help more people.

Let me know what actions you’re inspired to take, OK? You know I love to hear from you.

Yours,

Sam

P.S. If you’re looking for a cheap and effective way to support your journey as a writer, I deeply recommend The Beautiful Writer’s Group – try it and see for yourself! – S

P.S. I am proud to be a friend, colleague, student, Big Fan and affiliate for many of the teachers, writers and healers I’m discussing in this email series. I trust that you will trust your intuition, do your own research and only get involved in things that are right for you. Good? Good. Thanks. – S.

So You Wanna Write A Book? (with Lisa Tener)

WOW – I have never done a free call where so many people had so many questions about book writing, publishing and marketing…clearly, this is HOT : ) And while the wonderful Book Coach Lisa Tener (www.LisaTener.com) and I tried to answer as many questions as we could in the 60-minute call, we wanted to see if we could cover even more ground… So for this week, Lisa & I will be answering questions on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BringYourBookToLife?sk=wall#!/BringYourBookToLife (link doesn’t work? search for, “Lisa Tener: Bring Your Book To Life) Here’s some of the nice feedback we received during the call —

“Awesome teleconference. Thank you. [Samantha] and Lisa are absolutely wonderful; the wisdom you shared fell upon very attentive ears. I am reignited! Thank you again.” – Angela O.

“GREAT call with Samantha Bennett [and Lisa Tener] today about publishing. The call fortified my resolve to get the book out there right now…all of them!” – Anna S.

“Great info in small time frame. Good work!” – Brian L.

Here’s the downloadable recording – let me know what you think! (Click on the player to listen now, or right-click (or for Mac users, “control”-click) and select “Save As” to save the MP3 to your desktop.)

Because We Trust in the Rightness of the Timing

Attribution Some rights reserved by mira66 on flickr

I got this AMAZING email to day from Patti, who first got the “home study” Overcoming Procrastination Toolkit and got so much out of that that she’s now enrolled in the Get It Done Teleclass that starts tomorrow.

“Dear Samantha –

A short tale:

Awhile back, about 18 months, when I started grad school, I misplaced my morning prayer practice, along with my creative soul and writer self. (They got buried under piles of intellectual material.)

Recently, via your help with ‘pure preference’ (from the toolkit which I bought, and which inspired me to just take the live class!) I was able to recognize that I don’t want to be in grad school. At all.

So I’m leaving it. I want to get back to my creative writing. My prayer practice is part of that for me. It’s the way I center, pray for the life of the world, attune my gratitude, make space for the divine to come in, align with life, let go of sorrows.

A few days ago I started it again. I feel much better, needless to say.

And yes, the angels noticed. Quickly.

After I finished this morning, I checked my email, and first up was one from the editor of a lovely small journal asking me if she could use one of my poems in the upcoming issue, because it’s about mandalas and she felt the poem spoke to that. Appropriately, it’s called ‘Morning Glory.’ It reminds me of these morning classes, as well…of your teachings. I’m so looking forward to tomorrow. Blessings. –Patti in VT”

Here is the poem:

Morning Glory

In the morning’s garden glory

a small fern, the size perhaps of a thought,

begins to uncurl, opening itself to an as yet unknown world,

lacy fronds from its spiral core, a dancer awakened and unfolding.

It does what so many of us cannot do:

trust in the Godness of itself and this divine movement,

in the undeniable rightness of the timing

that tells it now is the moment to begin revealing its soul—

On this morning, like so many others

I sit under the oak and watch it, surrounded by a dozen

ordinary sparrows who flutter and chit. They land nearby

rightly ignoring me. The air

is a gospel of call and response

against a background of song pure and perfectly in tune—

a harmony that refuses to be undone

by human savagery or neglect.

The sun moves over the mountain by inches

warming the mist which draws back into itself

invisible again like its cousin, the wind.

Overhead thousands of leaves create a holy canopy

as if a bride and bridegroom are standing underneath

vowing solemnly to love each other without restraint.

Every creature, every song, every stone and leaf stalk

is a word of God, a gift, an eternal communion—and now I know

that it is only when we become insignificant and vast

we discover we must no longer beg to partake,

or break ourselves apart in order to carry the shame

of what we do, and leave undone

Instead we can listen and watch with each new soul

for the constant unfolding of Godstuff.

We can do what we must do—now—

not because a frenzied terror has gripped our hearts

but because we trust

in the rightness of the timing

and because we know that our smallness

is precious, and enough.

–Patricia Frankel, June 2009
www.pattifrankel.com

Totally GLORIOUS, Patti! This just thrills me to my bones.

Anybody else want in on the Get It Done Teleclass? www.GetItDoneTeleclass.com/winter