A Roadmap to a Book and Public Speaking

I’ve not been shy about my realization that my unique story and past and current career path has had me interested in exploring the possibilities of writing a book and beginning to engage in some large scale public speaking events in the future.  I’ve also been shoring up the behind the scenes things needed to support this as well as beginning to build a portfolio and platform to anchor what the actual reality and focus of these endeavors would be.

Yesterday, I took another big step and began to build the team around me that has the talent and experience to transition this from being a desire into something that is reality.  I met with a facilitator/agent/big thinker/connector who is engaged in both the speaking world and the publishing world to help me bring together my story into a more orderly fashion and create the content needed out of them.  It was one of those meetings where I knew it was either going to be a brutal reality check of somebody in the industry saying “you aren’t interesting” or a bit of reassurance that I have a “tangible product”, and I’m certainly glad it was the second one over the first.

I’ll be doing some serious pondering here on the office couch

So, over the next couple of months I’ll continue to work on So Much Life in Such Little Time, and I’ll also begin building a couple different speaking concepts that include one focusing on my personal story and the winding path it has taken with the ultimate realization that “life always sorts” (so, it’ll mirror a lot of what the book is about–overcoming/finding a new path/kicking some ass in the world) and I’ll also begin to aggressively pursue some non-profit speaking as Nine13sports reputation continues to flourish under our different business model.

It’ll be two years next week since the NCSR video came out, which is hard to believe.  Some of these goals are things that came to me after doing that piece and receiving the feedback that encouraged me to become more engaged in the media and public world.  I think it’s time to bring this all together and pursue the dream of writing and speaking once and for all.

If you know me and are thinking “How the heck are you going to have time to start pursuing this with everything else on your plate?” I can’t fault you.  Yesterday alone I had 4 hours of programming, 3 hours in the office, a 2 hour meeting, a political fundraiser I attended for the school board and a suite at the Indians game.  These leaving the house at 7:30AM days, having somebody come play with the dogs for a few hours in the middle of the afternoon if I can’t sneak away and not getting home till 9 or 10PM certainly is not welcoming to adding more to my plate and creating what is essentially a whole new business.

and whenever I get stressed out, I think of this quote engraved into my favorite building–for some reason it truly calms me

I know there are a lot of ways I can be more efficient, from hiring my marketing and grant-writing folks to being more selective in the meetings I’m taking.  I also need to approach it like anything else, put a priority on the writing (that’s the big one) and get it done over a couple month period.  So, I’m going to be scheduling blocks of time to write throughout the week just like I would any other meeting or event.  I live and die by my calendar, and it’ll be a good way to hold me accountable to myself.  Most importantly, I know I’ll need to keep finding new spots for inspiration beyond my usual digs.  I’ve found that changes in scenery help me focus and continue to write well.

The other thing I plan to start doing is creating some content that will be seen on this blog documenting the process of writing (yes, writing about writing).  At some point, as things begin to grow, I’ll most likely spin off a separate website for my professional stuff and take that content there while keeping this as my more personal/daily type writing method; but blending the two in the short term will simplify the need to build a new website that nobody will be reading yet anyways.

You ready to go on this adventure with me?

Cheers,

-th