Badassery Magazine October 2017 Issue 17 | Page 41

I
f you had told me two years
ago that I would publish two
books and take them to Am-
azon’s best selling rank simulta-
neously, I would have laughed in
your face, looked at you like you
are cray-cray, and then I would
have said, “Hmmm…tell me
more.”
It is the believing in my dreams
and pursuing my goals (big and
small) relentlessly that’s helped
me accomplish a number of
things, including taking both my
nonfiction books – How to Sur-
vive Elementary school, co-writ-
ten with my sassy and witty
5th grader Morgan, and You did
WHAT now?!, my memoir full
of travel stories, life lessons and
shenanigans – to best selling
rank this past spring.
We know this to be true – noth-
ing worthwhile comes easily. If
you aren’t thirsty enough, you
won’t walk the last few miles to
get to that big watering hole in
the desert.
But this is also true: That be-
fore we get to the coveted huge
watering hole, there are smaller
– some might say tiny – water
stations along the way. They
are the small victories in our
entrepreneurship, in our pursuit
of whatever projects and goals
that bring us happiness and
fulfillment. These small victo-
ries could the leads, the business
referrals that may or may not
turn into viable business trans-
actions for you; they are the great
media exposure that you need
for your business; they are the
next client testimonial that says
you are the most fabulous person
that’s happened to them and it
was so wonderful to work with
you. These small victories come
in many forms, but you know
exactly what they are when they
happen. And they will happen.
The thing is, however, no one
is going to bring those water
stations – or small victories - to
you. You have to walk to them,
despite you are already tired and
thirsty as all hell, despite you are
trying to avoid quicksand along
the way, despite naysayers that
are trying to tell you there are no
watering holes whatsoever and to
keep you from moving forward.
For me, going from teaching and
freelance writing for magazines
to a best selling author of books
was an imaginable road, one for
which I had to create my own
map. And sometimes, that’s
exactly what you’ve got to do –
make your own road map. Be-
tween summer 2015 and spring
2017, my road map consisted of
researching the heck out of pub-
lishing – how would I go about
publishing via an agent’s and a
traditional publisher’s help, vs
how I do it via a small press or
vanity publisher, and how would
I do so if I were to completely go
at it alone as a self or indie pub-
lished author. There was a lot
of I-don’t-know-what-I-don’t-
know. But through a year and a
half of research and putting my
research into actions, I put one
foot in front of another and drew
my own unique road map, one
which I didn’t know what my
next s