I didn't sleep well last night so today I've felt pretty meh...which immediately tailspins my thoughts. "You're going to fail" "you're a failure" - I mostly kept these thoughts at bay with my morning cup of serotonin (coffee) long enough to get words, but in the afternoon the energy slump brought them back. It is entirely possible for me not to get 2000 preorders by the end of the month. But getting even 1 more would be awesome. And although the goal is a stretch, I bet I can get 2000 total by launch, which is Dec 26th. *exhausted cheer* But that's all logical thought. And my fear/feelings aren't logical. They are coming because, frankly, I didn't eat enough before 1 pm. I swear I'm back to kindergarten with self care: - did I eat something? - drink water? - take my meds? - go outside/get some sun? - connect with a loved one? - go to the bathroom (my bladder gets ignored when I hyper-focus)? It's quite possible you also need to drink something not caffeinated or eat something that's not a simple carb. But you also might have a habit of these "I can't do it/I'm a failure" thoughts. I find it useful to write them down and become the observer right away. This switches the mind from stress (amygdala) to critical thinking (pre-frontal cortex) and possibilities come flooding in. But I also need to eat protein! And just shrug off everything until I've had some good sleep. Posting in case this is helpful. Also, I know that if I focus on the ditch, I will steer into the ditch, so I'm going to keep thinking about 2k preorders and how it will look and feel. And complete one task on my tactics list (give my assistant new back matter for book 1 in the series, back matter that points to the new book) Hope to see you for the tactics call Monday! Also, the recording from yesterday is up and it's 9 hours long! 😆 JK. And did you see we're going to have an Author Gala/Month end celebration on the 30th? Halloween costumes expected but not required. PJs are costumes too. ;)

Does anyone know (or does anyone offer) someone who is either based in the US, or has a seamless US setup, that could create US-based TikTok accounts? I currently "rent" accounts on Mira (similar to AuthorScale), but I'd like to try AuthorScale, and I'd like to have more options that I don't have when renting the accounts. I'm located in Canada and tried doing this myself with a VPN/SIM cards but it's a hassle and I'm delegating. This wouldn't involve long-term account management and posting, as I'm hiring a VA for this.

Tomorrow starts 10x-tober in the Bootcamp! We're doing a kickoff call to brainstorm strategies and tactics but also take a deep look at our limiting beliefs. First we set our goal of what business metric we want to increase. Some of you have said: - 10x word count - 10x (or 2x or 5x) page reads - 10x direct store sales - 10x subscribers on Substack - 10x newsletter subscribers! - I'm going for 10x preorders by Nov 1. Any goal you set is great! The next step isn't to jump to tactics. It's to calm any fears your nervous system might have about achieving the goal. Will your body feel SAFE arriving at the end destination? Because if not, you'll do a whole lotta hustle but sabotage your results. I've seen it in my business. Example: I was afraid of posting videos of myself because I didn't want to get r@pe threats. I avoided it for years. Then I started forcing myself to do it, but anytime I'd get more than 1000 views, I'd stop. Why? Because my brain thought that posting videos would literally kill me. Great news, I'm working through this. I just posted a video that got 30k views, and although recording the video was like slogging through mud, I did it and now it's a marketing asset I can use forever. Okay, your turn. Imagine you woke up and your goal is done. You did it. You hit it. What comes up for you? If there's any fear, doubt, hesitation, icky-gut-churning feeling, no amount of "work harder" will get you there. Because your mind doesn't think it's safe to be more visible and have more success. That's why you take all these courses and then nothing changes for you. You try an ad, it doesn't work, and then you quit. (You probably will have to test lots and lots and lots of ads to find the 20% that bring in 80% of the money). So what can you do? Here are some things I do: - Imagine and feel into the end result (I'm visual so I picture it as a movie and play music as a soundtrack) What does success look like, taste like, smell like? - decide how you will celebrate and imagine that - celebrate now - write out a list of things you're grateful for (evidence that good things can happen for you) - write out a list of hard things you've achieved (more evidence you can have success) - Tap on it - listen to a hypnotherapy meditation - Go for a walk on think on all this. Bilateral stimulation works wonders - Journal on it - Watch the kick off tomorrow and I'll walk you through some belief busting exercises!

We're going to keep talking about this in detail (and I hope to coach some of you LIVE on here around your fears about hitting the goal) but here's an overview: - set your goal (10x or increase an area of your business) - get excited about your goal (to program your unconscious mind that the destination is SAFE and FUN - Follow the nudges to do all you can do towards your goal - also expect the magic to kick in ;) My goal is 2000 preorders by Nov. 1st on my Dec 26th release. I've done that before so a real challenging goal is 10,000 total preorders total. But first let me get through October. 😆 I like to visualize the goal and also celebrate it to make sure my unconscious knows the end result won't kill me. I'm celebrating with a new candle, so I'll probably buy that NOW and light it every day and visualize the end result. We've done some mindset work in the Bootcamp already, and people could feel how once they relaxed and started to think about the possibilities, ideas and inspiration started dropping in their heads. That's why step 2 is so freaking important. My tactics: - incentivize my marketing team with a bonus if we hit 2000 Amazon preorders by Nov 1st. :D - test covers w FB ads - test blurbs w FB ads - test hooks on all social media using Author Scale - Test the best hooks as blurbs - Blast socials (Tiktok, Youtube shorts, FB page, FB group, Reels, Trial Reels) with the hookiest excerpts and taglines, also my newsletter and Patreon - Weekly plaintext newsletters with longer excerpts and only one link - Weekly fancy newsletters with giveaways and author swaps - Set up author swaps to push both the preorder and the book launch (I prefer to do swaps when the book is live and in KU, but I also want preorders now) - Run ads to book one in the series so I profit while getting more preorders on the new book - Try some sales on book 1 or even the rest of the series - Do a bookfunnel promo with dark romance authors only to increase newsletter subscribers - Multi-author giveaway to increase eyeballs - Any other idea my team or I come up with

Once you've got your goal, the next step isn't to figure out how to hit it. It's to get excited about it. Dwell on the end result, imagine it, decide how you will celebrate it. Some of you are already doing this, and you can tell how it's working: Once your unconscious mind deeply understands what you want to go for AND that it will be a fun and SAFE destination, your reticular activating system kicks in and starts showing you paths you can take. Ex. You talk to a friend and hear how they got a 1000 pre-orders on their book doing reels, and you decide to try them. You get an invitation to a promo that doesn't quite fit your books, so you decide to run your own and invite authors with even bigger audiences than you to participate. You retake some of the book marketing bootcamp and decide to create a big boxset of your books with a more clicky cover, title and blurb....and 10x your page reads. (These are real examples. Also, there are many paths to take. So relax and know you have endless opportunities coming to you). So the steps are: 1. Set your goal: what are you going for in 10x-tober? (I'm shooting for 10x pre-orders). Any goal that stretches you a bit is good. 2. Get excited about the goal any way you can. How will you celebrate once you hit it? What are the benefits of hitting this goal? Once you've arrived, what will look like? Feel like? Taste and smell like? (Seriously, you can get all your senses involved. Your unconscious mind doesn't really understand language, but it does understand symbols, images, scent, sounds... All the sensory details we put into our books to make the world come alive for readers) 3. Do this until you're unconscious mind starts giving you ideas of how to hit your goal. We will definitely be covering more of this in the kickoff call and I'm confident you're going to hear some other people's ideas and get excited about them. If not, go back to step two. :) Use this post to tell me how you're celebrating and what hitting this goal will do for you. How will your body benefit? Your family? Your dog?