A Book Coach Is...Always On
Today’s blog post comes to us from Author Accelerator CEO Jennie Nash. If you enjoy today’s content, you can sign up for Jennie's weekly newsletter here.
I was scrolling through Instagram as one does and landed on this simple post from @adamJK. It was just a little bit of text – but it stopped me cold. I was like, “HAHAHA that’s so me!”
And then in the next heartbeat, it wasn’t funny anymore. I was like, “OH NO that’s so me…”
I DO love what I do. I am a book coach and I get to live inside people’s stories and ideas all day long, trying to help the writer catch their vision and pin it to the page. It’s creative, generative, energizing work – making something out of nothing, trying to make an impact in the world, trying to make sense of a sometimes senseless world.
I often do that thing where I think, “If I won the lottery, would I keep doing this?” And the answer is always, Absolutely!”
This work gives my life meaning and joy. It’s one of the reasons that I started Author Accelerator – to spread the meaning and joy to other book coaches so they could spread it to more writers. It’s one of the reasons that I have kept with it through business pivots and through a pandemic. I believe very deeply in this work and I love it.
I also love that I get to work for myself – to set my own hours and prices, choose my own projects, call the shots. I could not go back to working for someone else ever again. I would be the worst employee. I was made to be the captain of my own little ship.
Work Super Hard? Check!
But working for myself and running a small company does indeed mean I work super hard.
My dear friend who is in charge of solid waste management for our town—she’s in charge of the garbage y’all – recently told me she hadn’t taken a day off since Jan. 2. She’s had fires and floods to contend with (these things generate debris, which is garbage), and a massively big landfill project about to go live and then COVID happened and she had to keep her crew safe. I am always in awe of the work she does – it is SO essential and SO tangible – she deals with big equipment and machinery, and emergency plans, and the inner workings of public works for a whole town – and it always makes me feel like my work isn’t quite as “real.” What do I do? I talk to people and think about ideas and look at the way words are conveying emotion. Sometimes it doesn’t really feel like work. But when she said that about not taking a day off since Jan. 2, I suddenly realized I can’t even remember the last time I took a whole day off.
I know this pace is A) my choice and B) not healthy or productive. I read all the productivity and time management articles and talk to family and friends and healers who care about me, and I am working at doing things differently.
Art Is Always an Emergency
But one thing I know for sure is that art – the making of books, the making of a business, the creative process of making things – is always an emergency. At any given time, one of my clients may have just realized their work was a mess and needed to be scratched; or they may be getting rejected or accepted; or a wave of doubt might be washing over them; or they might have just decided they hate what they wrote; or they might have just reached a massive goal – and they turn to me to be in it with them, whatever “it” is.
I feel what they feel – and I can’t help but want to help or to celebrate or to just be present for them. Taking it personally? Yup, I do that, too.
This is what the “no separation or any boundaries” in that Instagram post means. It means NO SEPARATION OR ANY BOUNDARIES between me and my work and me and my client and me and my businesses.
I imagine the garbage collectors know when to turn the trucks off.
Those of you who have followed me for a while know I pay a cost for this lack of boundaries. The price I pay is in migraines. I never take a day off from worrying about migraines, either—well, until recently. I am taking a new medicine and I have so much hope! But regardless of the miracles of medicine, the migraines are a constant reminder about the lack of separation and boundaries. It’s my brain begging me to slow down and take a minute (or hey—maybe a whole day!) and breathe.
Lianne, my smart and efficient and loving assistant, has been scheming for new ways I can work in 2021 without burning myself out (it’s time to plan for the new year, right??? Only 6 months to go until 2021!!) And that is why this Instagram post made me laugh and then freeze. Because yeah—it’s painfully real that a new scheme is required.
What’s the Point, Jennie?
I don’t even know what the point of this post is, which is the cardinal sin! Writing without a point?? What am I doing???
I actually think this post is an invitation: that if, despite hearing about my lack of boundaries and separation and how I take it all so very personally, you are thinking, “Being a book coach actually sort of sounds like the dream, Jennie!” then being a book coach might be the perfect side gig or whole new career for you.
If you love helping writers and being in the creative process and getting down into the muck of the work with people who are creating stories and hammering out ideas – you will find it to be exceptionally meaningful and satisfying work.
Will you care too much and work too much? Probably. But my goal is to teach people how to run sustainable businesses, which means making enough money, getting clear about how you spend your time, and not burning yourselves out. I’ll be right alongside you trying to do a better job of it.
