Optimize for joy and make money doing it.
Build a more easeful business built for the way you're already built.
FEATURED
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The Easeful Joy Loop
Joy isn't the reward for building a successful business. It's the engine.
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Good chaos: Thriving inside Quantum Capitalism
A mind-bending exploration of why business, creativity, and meaning are built on invisible foundations, and how to succeed anyway.
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The 4 P's of prioritization
Understanding the underlying structure of a sustainable business, and why most entrepreneurs fail to master even one.
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Success is a trailing indicator...
Most entrepreneurs think success is proof they’ve made it, but what if it’s actually evidence of who they’ve already become?
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Freedom to vs. freedom from
An exploration of the difference, and how reclaiming agency can transform your creative life.
How to Build a World Class Substack
If you’re ready to elevate your Substack, engage with your audience, and build a publication that truly shines, turn the page and start your journey to becoming a Substack rockstar.
$10k Secrets
Fourteen successful creators pull back the curtain on the exact strategies, systems, and mindset shifts that helped them hit $10,000+ months, without burning out or selling out.
Advanced Growth Tactics for Authors
Advanced Growth Tactics for Authors (originally called This is NOT a Book) is a collection of essays on creativity and writing written on Facebook and in emails between 2015-2022.
Direct Sales Strategy for Authors
Sell more books, keep more of your revenue, and build a real business around your writing without relying on luck, platforms, or chasing the next trend.
How to Cultivate a Thriving Author Ecosystem
Gain the clarity, confidence, and tools you need to take your writing to the next level and succeed on your own terms.
How to Launch Your Book on Kickstarter
Whether you’re launching your first project or leveling up your next one, this book walks you through every step in the launch process.
How to Thrive as a Writer in a Capitalist Dystopia
Your essential guide to navigating and succeeding as a creative human in the challenging world of modern capitalism.
How to Write Irresistible Books That Readers Devour
Every author dreams of crafting stories that captivate readers from the first page to the last, but what makes a book truly unputdownable?
10x your productivity
Learn how to effectively make a goal that you can measure and achieve, tell if you have a good idea, how to say no to projects, and much, much more.
Direct Sales Launchpad
In conjunction with our direct sales books, this is a self-study course filled with material on how to build a direct sales environment through your website, and at conventions.
How to run a viral giveaway to build your email list
If you can master this single concept, you can revolutionize your creative business and go from struggling to successful in no time at all.
How to set up and run an awesome Kickstarter anthology
Your essential guide to navigating and succeeding as a creative human in the challenging world of modern capitalism.
Kickstarter Launchpad
Plan, market, and launch Your Next Kickstarter with 20+ hours of walkthroughs, screenshares, and resources. This in-depth course is everything you need to succeed.
Write a Great Novel
Master character creation, structure, plot, prose, editing, and more in order to write a great book more quickly than ever before.
Build a Superfandom
You’ll start by developing the right mindset and identifying your unique advantage in the market. From there, the course walks you through defining your ideal customer and understanding exactly what they want.
Finally get clarity on what actually works
No more guessing, no more confusion. Discover your path of least friction and grow your business with confident ease. Start narrowing down your natural growth path today.
Build the way you’re built
14 Growth Strategies That Actually Fit How You Work
Introduction to the SCALE path system
Find frictionless growth and build a business that works sustainably for you.
How each SCALE path responds to trends
How founders naturally respond to market trends, based on the five SCALE paths, and how aligning with your path can accelerate growth.
SCALE paths: (C)ollaborators
You grow by building with others. You co-create products, join collectives, align with complementary brands, and tap into shared audiences. You’re a builder of collectives.
Building a team using SCALE paths
Using SCALE paths to learn about yourself is great, but it's is equally powerful in building out a team around your work.
SCALE paths: Evolution tracks
Knowing your SCALE path is great, but how do you actually use it to have success? Evolution is the key.
How to build a sales funnel and flywheel using SCALE paths
Learn how to find your perfect customers, develop a process to help them fall in love with your work, and keep them happy for the long haul.
SCALE paths: (A)rbiters
You scale by seeing opportunities others miss. You spot rising trends early, leverage platform gaps, follow the data, and build predictable systems around attention. You turn analysis into action, and
How to succeed at live events
Discover why in-person events are the most powerful, marketing tool for entrepreneurs and how hand-selling at conventions can build lasting fans.
Writing nonfiction that resonates so deeply people have no choice but to change
A complete guide to writing powerful nonfiction that builds reader buy-in, creates emotional connection, and actually transforms people.
My Google Search Console monthly stats
...and how to do this yourself to help your growth with less than an hour of growth.
How to automate importing Substack subscribers into Kit through Gmail
Discover how to seamlessly automate Substack subscribers to ConvertKit (Kit) for powerful email funnels, personalized segmentation, and a more profitable author business.
Turning your natural writing patterns into audience growth
Discover how to turn the themes and topics you naturally write about into a strategy for building a loyal, engaged audience.
The Novel Blueprint: Transforming your story from idea to final book
Learn how to transform your story idea into a polished novel with expert guidance on compelling characters, immersive worlds, and professional packaging that attracts ideal readers.
Stop sabotaging your book with bad covers and blurbs
How to make the two most important bit of your book marketing to not suck.
365 Simple Ways to Talk About Your Writing and Keep Readers Engaged All Year
Powerful book marketing strategies, tailored to your unique author ecosystem and marketing style, to attract readers, boost sales, and build a sustainable writing career.
Down with the Frankenstack! : The Indie Author’s Marketing Dilemma
Why indie authors deserve a command center
Selling, Emotion, and the Princess Leia Principle
All writing comes down to one thing, and that one thing comes down to one thing. It's the Force...or at least a force.
3 Reasons Why I Love the Return To Small Town Trope
A justifiable deep dive into the tropes of Justified.
Animal School
The power of finding your thing, obsessing over it, and accepting the tradeoffs
7 Publishing Mistakes I Made So You Don’t Have to
How to avoid the traps most indie authors find themselves befuddled with, and why you should consider coming to Boot Camp for Author Publishers later this month.
Writing History When History Is Fragmented
Crafting Musa: Lion of Mali in the Absence of Certainty
Stop Playing the Part of a Marketer to Sell Your Books
Build the foundation of your marketing strategy like this instead.
The Golden Age of Weird is here
Weirdness isn’t a liability anymore. It’s a career path. The more the average gets automated, the more the extraordinary stands out.
LATEST POSTS
Debrief of our $3,972 Bulletins at the End of the World Kickstarter campaign
We did a campaign, and here is what I thought about it.
It’s a good time to be a ghost(writer)
While it's harder than ever to land a publishing deal and the whole industry teeters on the brink, it might be a good time to consider becoming a ghostwriter.
What's new on Kickstarter since Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter came out
Since we first launched Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter in October 2021, there has been a seismic shift in the way Kickstarter has been perceived in the indie community.
Debrief of the $18,348 How to Build a World Class Substack Kickstarter campaign
Claire Venus and I just finished our How to Build a World Class Substack (H2BWCS) Kickstarter campaign. How did we do?
I know my Author Ecosystem. Why do I even care and what do I do now?
People are often stumped as to what to do once they have their author ecosystem. This is a guide all about what you do with it to get to success faster than you ever thought possible, and it's a lot.
How to supercharge your writing career with Kickstarter
Learn how to validate your Kickstarter idea, build hype for your campaign, and deliver well so backers come back repeatedly.
Substack x Publishing 2024 virtual summit debrief
Wherein I spill all the tea about my summit with Claire Venus for our How to Build a World Class Substack book.
Most of your best readers haven't even been born yet
A seeming contradiction about marketing, sales, and finding your people.
Outward success, inward turbulence
Sometimes, maybe even often, maybe even most of the time, it looks much different than it is behind the scenes.
How to form strong strategic partnerships in publishing
My motto is "do cool things with cool people" but what does that mean in practice?
The era of rapid trend cycles in publishing
AI's Impact on rapid releasing, a decreased ability to find category arbitrage, and the shift in the balance of Author Ecosystems dominance in publishing.
Tana French's In The Woods and the allure of damaged characters
Messy relationships are my jam thanks to the author's Dublin Murder Squad series.
How to increase new subscribers by refreshing your publication
Over the last few months, I have followed the advice of several prominent Substack experts and redesigned my publication to maximize engagement and findability.
Following along with the How to Build a World Class Substack campaign (part 1)
Since most people on Substack haven't heard of and definitely did not now how to launch a book on Kickstarter, I made a series of posts throughout the campaign about what was happening.
Following along with the How to Build a World Class Substack campaign (part 2)
This is the continuation of the previous article.
Mastering the art of attention as a writer
Unlocking the secrets to capturing and sustaining visibility in the creative world
The great Medium vs. Substack debate
The conversation is pivoting on the wrong axis and making the same fundamental mistake we made at Writer MBA for years.
(I)ncome HAPI Compass related articles and resources
Income is about generating the money that sustains your ideal life while fueling the creative work that lights you up.
Daily newsletter testing
In which I keep you updated on the testing and implementation of my daily newsletter, Authoresque.
Should you "write short"?
Ever since I joined Substack, the best practice I have heard was to “write short”. It started as shorter than 1,500 words, and then it reduced to 800-1,100 words. Is that good advice, though?
The new Super Nintendo World at Universal Hollywood is peak late-stage capitalism
Maybe I'm an old man shaking my fist at coulds, but Mario Land hits different than the rest of even Universal, let alone amusement parks, and feels like the start of something ominous.
Craft+Commerce lessons
What I learned from going to my first general business conference after attending 200+ publishing events in my career.