My next book is on marketing for photographers and it is just about done…at least my part is. My editor is hard at work churning through my odd prose and hopefully my designer will get moving on the layout shortly. I will, of course, let you all know when it is published.
My days are pretty much consumed with the book now. As law school looms, I want to make sure all the “heavy lifting” work of the book is completely done before classes start…and that is next week. I figure for the first month or so, I will be in a cave called “the newbie 1L” (a 1L is what first-year law students are called), only emerging to write here, write a Manual, and record another Creative Lube podcast. After a month I’ll have a better idea of what I will and won’t be able to reasonably do. But for that month, I won’t be doing any one-on-one work.
Of course, just like going on vacation or already being booked up, suddenly it seems like everyoone wants to work with me. I’ve been having to say “no” to an awful lot of you lately and I can tell you, it sucks. I certainly am feeling the loss of income (that was expected, of course), but I also feel frustrated that I have to say “no” and can’t directly help those of you in need.
However, this is exactly the time for me to keep my eyes on my goals and to reach those, I have to say “no” now. Even though my pocketbook makes a sucking sound when I open it and the guy at the bank looks at me oddly these days, I know that I am doing the right thing to make my business what I want it to be in the long run. I know that in order to be the best lawyer I can, to be able to serve this community better with legal advice as well as the marketing and business advice I already offer, I need to disappoint some of you now. Just know that I’m not ever “gone” or completely out of touch. I hope to serve you with the materials here and in the books and videos and podcasts, etc., that I offer. And you can always email me your questions, as long as you give me lots of time to respond.
I don’t like having to let some of you down now, but like getting a vaccination, better to suffer the pain now to ensure a better future.
What I hope is that many of you can learn from that. Some of the choices we have to make are often difficult, especially in the short term. But when that unpleasant thing is the right thing to do, in the long run, you must do it. As they say, one must keep one’s eyes on the prize.
For your businesses, that means things like not panicking during the downturn, doing your marketing when you’d rather do almost anything else, and holding firm to the usage licensing model for your business. It might also mean going back to school to learn new skills like producing video (and editing, etc.), which would cut into your income now but which could be a great boon in the long run. Keep focused on the long term, and even though things might be very rough now, you can get to a better place.