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Kathi Burns  0:04  
Hi there, I'm board certified professional organizer Kathy burns. I'm really glad you're here. This podcast is designed for busy entrepreneurs just like you who want to take better control of your business and move forward with less stress and more success. If this is your first time listening then thanks for coming. The organized synergize podcast is produced for your enjoyment, and show notes are found at V podcasts that organized and energized.com come back often and feel free to add this podcast to your favorite RSS feed or iTunes. You can also follow me on Twitter at organizing energy and Facebook. All links are in the show notes. Now let's get into the show. Hi, everyone. I'm so excited to be here and speak with an award winning author, literary midwife and university professor Cathy Sparrow. She's the CEO of a rideable life publishing. She's also the co author of Ignite your leadership. But I'll tell you what, she's also a certified life coach for Jack Canfield trainer in the success principles and can build methodologies certified be well lead Well, Paul's guide and certified master rim facilitator to say Kathy is accomplished is an understatement. And I'm so excited to get started. So I'd like to welcome Kathy Sparrow. Thanks for being here.

Kathy Sparrow  1:23  
Well, thank you for having me here. Kathy. This is exciting.

Kathi Burns  1:27  
Absolutely, absolutely. So, you know, we go back aways back, but I'd like you to tell our audience, you know, why did you actually start a writable life publishing?

Kathy Sparrow  1:40  
That writable life publishing actually evolved from a writing and coaching business that I had that I've been doing for 20 years, which started with a question, what do you do? And when my answer is and was, I am a writer, I hear the hear the remark, I've always wanted to be a writer. And after listening to it, a number of times I went, Oh, there's something here, I'm supposed to help people, right. So that's when and that started 20 years ago. And then over time, it evolved. And I started helping people write their literary business plan, which is also called a book proposal, and finding publishers for their work. And then just this last year, actually, during COVID, it came to me like why am I doing this? I know how to I know how to help people find published, so why am I not doing it? So? Yeah, because I was a publisher for a while. And I also worked in the traditional publishing world. So it's like, it was a no brainer. So it was an evolution. Yeah.

Kathi Burns  2:43  
So what do you think is the main challenge that people have, that you help solve? You know, where's the glitch? Where's that stop point for one of the author's?

Kathy Sparrow  2:54  
accountability? That's part of it. They, you know, writing as a solo adventure, at least the creation part most of the time. But with me on board, it becomes a collaborative adventure. So they know that they have someone that's going to be waiting for their assignment, right, and waiting and, and to get good feedback. And I think that's also important, the feedback is important, because when we're writing, we, you know, those doubts come up. And we're thinking, Oh, nobody's gonna read this. This is garbage. Right? And it's like, who, who might be writing this? So I help my authors overcome, overcome that challenge of accountability. And those self doubts?

Kathi Burns  3:34  
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And especially his writing, there's a lot of self doubts that creep into it, you know, do people care? Do they care what I have to say? Am I saying it right, and all that good stuff. So having accountability and just having actually that feedback loop from you for for people writing is so hugely important. I knew that to be true for myself as I was publishing my books. So let me ask you, you work with a lot of entrepreneurs, what what's the hack that you help them with? Like, what's the best piece of advice or hack that you tell them to move towards as you're going into the process of writing?

Kathy Sparrow  4:13  
I think it's important to have a writing practice to show up if not every day, as many days as possible or a dedicated time. Once a week, this is this is my writing time. This is when I'm going to work on this project. I because it's easy to let life come in and disrupt us in interfere or we get you know, squirrel. Girl,

Kathi Burns  4:37  
Yeah. So about about the freedom you know, we all do this to create freedom, right? Do you have a hack that you use yourself so that you feel that you have more freedom within your business and your business doesn't consume you.

Kathy Sparrow  4:51  
That I learned just recently, probably in the last year, I've hired my own mentors, and I'm building a team pretty much got the team He built an enum adding extra support just have some buffer in case somebody is too busy to work me, I work with subcontractors for copy editing and the interior design cover design. And I also want to match my clients project with the right designer. So I want some leeway there. But that's been important at one, I'm not a graphic designer, I don't design. And most recently, I added a production manager to take care of following the, the baby through the birth canal, and then I'll be there catching it on the other side. So I'm very involved at the beginning was the creation part, and then have my production team take care of the bringing the form to it, and then I put the bow on it.

Kathi Burns  5:52  
You know, and having a team is what gives us freedom. And it's the hardest thing for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs do is to delegate and to create that team. So I think that's the great, you know, the biggest organizing hack that you've offered is you know, create a team learn how to delegate so that you have freedom, and you're not just trying to do everything for everybody, and going a little bit crazy. What do you think so one lesson in your business has taught you that you think should everybody should learn at some point in their life?

Kathy Sparrow  6:25  
Oh, listen to your intuition. That's, that's been the biggest mistakes I've ever made in my life. And for my business, or I could say across the board business and in my, you know, personal life is overriding my intuition with my logical mind. It's easy to create an argument, Oh, this isn't gonna work, this isn't gonna work. And it doesn't work when I listen to my logic. But if I have the courage to listen to the intuition, my inner knowing, which I cultivate with daily meditation, practice in yoga, and in some quiet, reflective time. Life, you know, that, that's, that's the key, have that practice, listen to your intuition. And and also then bring the mentors in to how to spell ideas off. So yeah.

Kathi Burns  7:14  
Thank you. You answered. My next question was how do you tap into that intuition? So thanks for following that. Because I know a lot of people will be saying, okay, that's easy, but follow your intuition. What does that mean? And, you know, I definitely agree that is quietness and having that dedicated space to listen to yourself. Give yourself space to say something to yourself. Right?

Kathy Sparrow  7:37  
Right. Yeah. And I think exercise too, I take daily walks, I love my walks. And that's the time I can reflect I don't plug myself in, I just walk. And I can kind of feel, think about different decisions I have to make or whether I want to work with a project or not. And having a sense of body awareness to just feeling what feels right. What doesn't feel right. Within our body is helpful. So it all works together. We're writing it's not just a heads up. activity. It's, it's a whole, whole whole enchilada.

Kathi Burns  8:12  
Yeah, the best books are very holistic, and include everything I totally agree. throughout. So you've been an entrepreneur for a long time, what do you feel is your biggest organizing obstacle that you've had to face and overcome?

Kathy Sparrow  8:27  
Paper? I have lots of I'm a creator. So I have lots of notes. I wake up in the middle of night, last night, it was up at 230 Oh my god, I gotta write this down. So I had to, like go scrambling for my pad. But then I better get those notes to where the project is. Right. So keeping notes with projects is the biggest, and I have computer files, and I have paper files because I mind map on paper. So that's, there's a lot of lot of activity going on. And then that's not even counting the business tasks.

Kathi Burns  9:00  
Right. Right. Yeah, paper, you know, as as a writer, author of myself, you know, paper and actually papers, a challenge for everybody. So you're not alone. I mean, we all have those challenges for people who just love the feeling of the paper and, and we like the actual process of writing. You know, I know that a hack that a lot of writers will use is use one one notebook per topic. So if they have something in their brain, and they decided they're gonna write something about that topic, they grab that notebook. And that can be easily done with small small spiral notebooks, you know, one for each type of topic or each book that they're theorizing on or whatever, and also having a spiral notebook for each mentor and each person that they're setting with you know, I absolutely helps. And I know I do that for my clients each client has has their own section within the spiral notebook so I can grab right to it and keep those notes flowing for that individual person. then. So yeah, loose pieces of paper don't work, of course. So having at least spirals is a good is a good way to do it. What? Okay, so you have so much to offer, gosh, I don't know, everybody needs to write a book and everybody needs you know, that wants to write a book needs a publisher like yourself is intrinsically involved with it. What what valuable resource Do you have that you can offer our listeners here today?

Kathy Sparrow  10:25  
So I have a really short white paper that has the top 10 questions everyone must ask before they write their book before they begin writing, because that's in the key point is, before you begin writing, a lot of us go diving right into a project, and then it has to be dismantled. So this paper actually helps overcome some of that dismantling process.

Kathi Burns  10:52  
I love that I think I need that because I as a, as a creator, I just jump right in and start writing. And then it's like, well, what's the purpose for writing this? It's like, oh, my No, no, but I really enjoyed writing it has to do with it. So yeah, I have to read that I have to read those questions myself, for sure. That'll help me stay focused. On my next project of what I'm writing is I love writing so much that you know, you can do this go off into the ethers and then wonder what you're going to do with it. Right, right. Right. Okay, so what I like to ask all my guests is, what's the one question that I should have asked you during this interview that I did not?

Kathy Sparrow  11:28  
So I think the question is, how do you begin writing, since you know, I'm a writer, and I help writers. And I really like starting with Mind Mapping first. That's how I started my day to day I have a new idea for a series of blogs, and I started to write it started. And, and I realized I was going off track. I was like, Oh, this isn't easy. So this morning, our mind mapped five different plugs within this one topic. And it was like, Oh, this is so easy. And now from there, I'll take each of those sections and be able to write it I may outline. Luckily, I've been writing for long enough that I can sometimes skip it, but often mind mapping to outline. And then drafting comes next.

Kathi Burns  12:09  
Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. You know, I think even just you know, we need the movies. You think about the storyboarding the mind mapping is the same thing for your book, you know, all the time, you know, come up with your 10 chapters, you know, what are the topics to start out with? And, you know, and back to your reason of, why are you writing it? And how do those chapters fall into why you are writing it? So does me so, yeah, I love it. Love it. Well, you know what I always enjoy speaking with you always. I really appreciate your time. And everybody makes sure to download the 10 questions, because that's going to really help you super focus on what you want to write next. And of course, you'll have links to Katherine links to all of her as all of her offers and her websites. You can see more about her. If you're getting ready to write your book. Go for it. There's no much more fun than having your book publishing come to fruition. Trust me on this. In fact, it just feels fabulous. So thank you very much. I appreciate your time. And I will see you in the next podcast. Right. Thank you.

Kathy Sparrow  13:15  
Thanks, Kathi.

Kathi Burns  13:16  
Hey, thanks for listening to this podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you want to hear more, feel free to subscribe on the platform of your choice. Also, if you feel so inclined, I would truly appreciate a good rating from you, to me have a stellar day.