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Yesterday J.C. Hutchins told his personal tale of survival. Today I asked him to say a few words how we might use his model in our own lives.

So J.C.’s brought us this.

Your Personal Tale of Survival — and Success

by J.C. Hutchins

Now to your personal tale of survival and success. We all have had a creative idea, or business model, or blog concept that we’re ferociously passionate about. Often, we don’t pursue that passion because it is untested — in fact, it probably appears to be doomed before launch, when viewed through the filter of conventional wisdom. After all, if it doesn’t already exist, how could it possibly be profitable?

My suggestion: If you are soul-certain that your idea is a great and sustainable one, tell the world to bugger off. Ignore the “no” noise. Say Damn It All and make the leap of faith in yourself and your work. And if you make it to that point — the edge of the precipice, the moment before you take that leap — remember these things:

You’re going to work harder for this than you’ve worked for damned-near anything else in your life: In the beginning, this passion project will be yours, from soup to nuts. You’re the one-man band: the boss, the employee, the cheerleader, the bookkeeper. It’ll suck more time than you’ll anticipate, it’ll be in your capillaries, and it’ll be exhausting.
You’re going to doubt yourself, your idea, and the commitment you’ve made: It’s okay to slip into “what am I doing?” mode. That’s human nature, particularly if your project’s success hinges on the long tail (as so many online businesses do). But as Journey once famously sang, “Don’t stop believing.” You’ve got a killer product, and you’re soul-certain of it. Which leads us to …
Do everything you can to evangelize your work: You’re a one-man band — a frickin’ maestro! — but what good is that if you’re playing to an empty room? Reach out to friends and family to spread the word. Invite online influencers to either blog/podcast about — or participate in — your endeavor. Find creative ways to engage your audience and these influencers. Answer every email. Make yourself available on platforms such as AIM, Twitter and Skype, should it be appropriate for your project. Promote your availability.
Empower your audience to become participants: If you do indeed have a killer product, and you’re funneling your energies into promotion and making yourself available to consumers, you will indeed find an audience. They’ll be supportive, emotive and hungry to contribute. So let them! Welcome them into your sandbox, beyond mere blog comments. Liz does this with great effect with her Open Comment Tuesdays, in which she’s there, interacting with you, during the experience. For “7th Son,” I solicit fan-created fiction, artwork, music and voice mail recordings that are inspired by the story, and post them on my site. This builds a community that defies the geography and ones and zeros that separate you from your consumer.
Ask your audience to evangelize on your behalf: There is no shame in questing for success, and there’s no shame in asking your consumers (who are now hopefully “fans”) to spread the word. Doing all of the promotional on your own will likely burn you out … and worse still, denies another opportunity for your audience to contribute. If appropriate, create an online street team and offer fun incentives for your community to participate. (I have a “Ministry of Propaganda” that offers branded swag to helpful evangelists.) If you’re audience is engaged, they won’t be spreading the word for the prizes. They’ll be doing it because they believe in you, and what you’re doing.
Don’t be afraid to experiment: Be wily with your promotion, your content and your relationship with your audience. Find what techniques work best to further your influence in the space, and enhance your relationship with your consumers. If you’re a blogger, try releasing a pod- or vidcast post, just to shake things up. Be daring. Never sit still. Solicit feedback. See what sticks.
Finally: Don’t be afraid to shift your goals: If your project is more (or less) successful than you originally anticipated, don’t be a bonehead and squander an opportunity to ramp-up (or scale back) your ambitions. Too often, we commit to a course of action and — through either stubbornness or inertia — forget that we are empowered and can control the direction of our endeavor. When I launched my podcast novel in 2006, I did it as a lark, to see if I could find an audience for my work. When that goal had been attained, I shifted priorities and began questing again for publication. I heard more than 100 more “no’s” from literary agents my second time around, but I persisted and eventually found an agent, and a publisher. You can similarly find opportunities to change your own course when needed, while remaining faithful to your original concept.

Remember that you already are a walking, talking survival story, and that you claim victories every day in your life. But if you have an idea for a great business, service or blog — that untested thing inside your mind that just won’t shut up — and have the gumption to pursue it, do it. Let your passion drive you, and know that you’re doing a brave thing, one that may be filled with risk.

But bravery, risk and beating the odds are the best part of every story of survival — and success.

What’s your great idea? What other suggestions do you have for saying Damn It All, making the leap of faith, cultivating communities and evangelism, and realizing your goals? I’d love to hear them in the comments.

——
Thanks, J.C.! This is just what we need to do to invest in our ideas.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Invest in Yourself! Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

I met J.C. Hutchins at SxSW, but I’d heard of him weeks before that. His is a powerful story. So I was delighted to meet him and to have a chance to talk with him about how he made his success happen on his own.

J.C. choose a path that the big publishers said wouldn’t work. He took it anyway and won. I’ve asked him to tell his story. This is Part 1 in a two part series.

The power of survival stories, saying “damn it all” and tuning out the “no” noise

by J.C. Hutchins

Stories of survival capture our imaginations like no other.

We’re awestruck by the life-and-death struggles seen in man versus nature tales (such as “Into Thin Air”). We’re smitten by the stories of underdogs overcoming insurmountable odds (“Star Wars”). Equally captivating are tales of forbidden romances that thrive, despite the establishment’s protests (“Romeo and Juliet”). A great many of us are fascinated by nature documentaries, too: primal survival, right there on your TV screen.

Why do we love these stories? It makes for great drama, no doubt. But I have my own pet theory: Survival equals success. And in a world where the odds are often stacked against us in nearly every endeavor we pursue — be it in business, love, parenting or personal relationships — we hunger for that, for victories. (“To Do” lists rock for this very reason.) The world is programmed to tell us “no.” Every day, we scrap and scratch to make it say “yes.” Even with our creature comforts, we are all walking, talking tales of survival.

Since you’re a reader of this blog, you know that Liz regularly provides insights on how to transform your blog or business into a more successful one — how to turn little “yeses” into bigger ones. But I’d like to share a lesson I’ve learned during my two years as a podcaster and blogger. It’s the lesson of “Damn It All,” of tuning out the noise of “no,” and taking the greatest gamble in your personal tale of survival: making the leap of faith in yourself, and your work.

In 2005, I completed a thriller novel of epic length titled “7th Son.” It took me three years to write and edit the 1,300-page manuscript … and a year of hearing dozens of no’s from literary agents to realize that my novel, as clever as I thought it may be, wasn’t going to get published. It was too long. Its mashup of genres (present-day thriller, science-fiction, human cloning, government conspiracies) wasn’t marketable. My aspirations of being on bookshelves was DOA, baby. “7th Son” was deader than disco.

And yet, I’d seen podcasting blossom that year, and keenly observed the word of mouth success of three novelists (most notably Scott Sigler, http://scottsigler.com whose novel “Infected” will be in bookstores everywhere this April). These writers were releasing their independent books as free serialized audio podcasts. In 2006, I realized that if I couldn’t sell my novel, I could share it in a similar way. I’d let people — not the publishing establishment — decide if the work was a good read or not.

I wanted my book to survive.

Thanks to that decision and a great deal of zero-budget social media marketing, my free “7th Son” podcast audiobook now has nearly 40,000 listeners worldwide. Next year, the first book in the “7th Son” trilogy (I chopped my monstrously-long manuscript into thirds for podcast release) will be published by St. Martin’s Press. I’m currently writing the debut novel in a new thriller series, which will also debut next year from St. Martin’s Press.

I’m no braggart, and I don’t intend my story to be a shill-fest for my work. Rather, view it the recollection of a guy who got so sick of hearing the word “no” — and was so convinced that his work deserved a chance to be enjoyed — that he said Damn It All and did whatever he could so see it soar.

Which brings us to back to your personal tale of survival and success. What are your great ideas? I’d love to hear them in the comments.

——
Thanks, J.C.! Your story still inspires me. Tomorrow, in Part 2, “Your Personal Tale of Survival — and Success,” J.C. offers a few words on how to do what he did.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Be Inspired. Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!