Rebellious Thoughts #83 - 🤘 Working Title

Hey!

Before I get into the newsletter I need your help!

PLEASE hit REPLY and give me your thoughts on the following questions so I can find the subtitle of my book!

• If you heard me at a keynote and you couldn’t remember my name but you do remember I wrote a book…what keywords in a Google search or AI prompt would you write?

• If someone describes a business or life problem and I am the perfect solution for it, what would it be? Like, when would you say to someone “you need to get this guy called Gus” or “have a look at Gus’ stuff it may help”.

• I need the above but If you also want to have a shot at the subtitle of my book that would be amazing! Send me whatever it’s in your head! The subtitle is meant to catch the attention of a person scanning a bookshelf in 3 seconds - “that sounds like something I’m interested in or could fix a problem I have or we have in our business”

Ok let’s get going!!!

Sooooooooo long since I wrote a newsletter, feels like I have to start all over again and welcome all the new people… I think there are around 1,200 new followers since the last one (all my previous newsletters are here make sure you do go and check them out!)

Anyway, I’ve been busy, writing a book, and that’s the main reason why I let go of the newsletter! Remember I always talk about letting go and how important it is!

If I start writing a book, inevitably something has to go.

I don’t know if you are going to find this interesting at all, but perhaps some of you are considering writing a book or never thought of it and this is the catalyst for you to do so! Let me dive into my experience and what’s it has been like. If you have questions please fire them back at me!

The process started years ago, Wiley approached me like 8 years ago to write a book. It’s quite common for publishers to approach speakers, or speakers to be encouraged by their agents to write a book. Normally most get a ghost writer and smash it out. But it was just not my vibe. To write a book I felt I had to polish a message for long enough to truly prove that it was worth putting it down in a forever medium. Also, I felt it had to be me writing it because I speak in a way that is peculiar…second language and all…so I wanted my voice to come through.

So I waited and avoided the book for years…wrote a few things here and there but never in any serious way. When I started writing the newsletter and I managed to stay on it for longer than a year, I realised that I could write (not well but write nonetheless!).

So what was still stopping me? Probably impostor syndrome. So I sat on it and did nothing for longer than what I should have. My EA tried to find spots on my calendar to write, but I still didn’t do it.

Last year I succumbed to the ghost writer idea and hired someone, as I predicted it didn’t work! Fuck I love it when I am right about me! Hahaha…

Anyway in December last year, I had enough and over the summer I sat down and drew a mind map of the book… effectively 20 years of concepts and topics and views I have on a page. At that stage the book looked like a collection of thoughts, but as I picked the structural elements and designed the architecture, it started to fall into place.

Once this was in place the process of writing actually became enjoyable, almost inevitable. Some people say “just start writing”. In my case that didn’t work, I needed a visual architecture, a logic, a thread that held the book together. A concept I wanted to contribute to the world which I felt would advance or provide a new perspective. Once I had that, I was able to start writing. Deeply thinking about something is an amazing privilege…I don’t think many of us do it often enough….think the last time you spent say 3 hrs…4…5…8hrs thinking and writing and rewriting about a single thing. It’s so cool…getting tied up in knots, adding colour and caulk to concepts that perhaps you skim through in a keynote, changing your mind about something! I have the added advantage that I can test anything almost immediately in a keynote in front of a huge audience and see how it lands!

The next challenge: the publisher. Generally a solid book proposal with a solid keynote speaking sales platform is well regarded by publishers so it’s a bit easier to land a deal. I tossed around a few ideas but settled for a small imprint whose owners were good friends. It’s far easier to work with people you’ve known for a long time, feels nice. So no, I didn’t go back to Wiley.

The contract is a little scary, there are forever elements you have to really think about and generally speaking publishers need a fair bit of power to birth a book…otherwise authors can get really stuck in their own heads and go around in circles. My cousin is a writer, editor and commissions books in Spain so it was handy to have him on my corner…though he kept telling me “just don’t be a pain in the arse author, do whatever the editor tells you to” hahaha

Anyway, I am looking forward to sharing with you over the next few months snippets and seeing how you respond! Would be awesome to organise an event and invite everyone to come to a book launch! Fun…like a party book launch!

At this stage, Jun27 is the publishing date, but the crazy timelines of publishing mean I need the cover, title, blurb, kinda confirmed in the next month and the book ready for print before Xmas!

Hope everyone is well, it would be nice to hear from you…like if something in my keynotes impacted your life and you made some changes, or nice words of encouragement or whatever…for some reason I am feeling a little shy behind the keyboard! Haha…weird that keynotes feel easier!

Love

Gus!

Below is the podcast I recorded earlier this year, just in case you missed it - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

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