Marisa Peer talked about "Using Belief, Confidence, Even Hypnosis to Help Get Over the Hump & Write your First Book".
It was a very interesting talk based on perspectives I'd never thought about.
Words that stuck in my mind are faith, self-belief, passion and enthusiasm.
The ideas that most impressed me deal with
- the faith in yourself and your work
- the power of the mind, and
- always having a positive attitude.
Towards the end I really loved the human touch, the caring and respect for her readers. This is something I relate to 100% and believe to be especially essential in the online world, a world made up of machines and human beings, of machines and human interaction.
Let me expand a bit on these aspects.
Marisa believes that writing a book in a month is possible if you have passion and absolute faith in it. She kept saying to herself: I can do it, I can write a book. Later she added another curious aspect: Your faith grows with every book you write.
Being a therapist, she says there are three things about our mind that we need to know:
- it does what we want it to do
- it only responds to the pictures in your head and the words you say to yourself
- it likes what is familiar.
So to write your first book, you need to tell your mind "I want to write this book". This is even more important, because she said that science has now proven that the words you say to yourself have more impact than the words others say to you. Don't wait for the (self-)belief, put it into yourself. Fill yourself up with it and write.
"Self-belief without talent will get you further than talent without belief, but if you have both, you are unstoppable." When Marisa said this, I felt energized.
Another interesting thing she said: our potential expands as we move towards it. We have no idea what our potential is until we move towards it. With writing, we never know what will come out the moment we open up our creative pore. So we must have faith in our work and our material(s) above all things. And if we don't, we must fake it till we make it. Say things to yourself like: I'm an amazing writer, a phenomenal writer, an awesome writer. My words make sense and people love what I have to say.
Her style changed from her first book to her second, third and fourth. In her first book she was technical. Since all her books are self-help books, she was more focused on making sense and proving everything she said was true. Making it scientifically perfect.
In her second book she said to herself that she was an expert who knew that what she was saying was true, based on her daily practice. So she became a warm, funny, witty, enthusiastic writer.
Finally, the human touch. In her second book she started
- connecting to her readers by thanking them for taking the journey with her
- engaging with people who review her books on Amazon
- replying to as many email messages as possible
- engaging with readers at the personal level at conferences.
She loves it and they love it.
Before I go, two words of advice from Marisa:
- If you want sell books / be a commercial writer, write what people want to read, not what you want to write, unless you know it's what people want to read
- For a first time writer, take a leap of faith. Don't hold back, do it. Go for it with faith.
Thanks, Marisa, for a very energizing and encouraging webinar full of positive thinking!