New to Me. What’s New for You?

Leave a Comment / Inspiration, Writing / By Sharon Hughson

Welcome to a new year. What’s new for you (besides the calendar)?

I tried a few new things in 2022, and I have plans to get my toes wet in various ponds this year, too.

It’s a new year, so there’s no better time to declutter our desk and our life. That’s part of my year-end planning process.

So is reflecting on things I accomplished during the year. How did those new things work for me?

YouTube Channel

It’s been nearly one year since I uploaded my first video to YouTube. Have you checked it out?

Episode fifty aired this week. And that means this is one new thing I’ll be keeping for the next year.

I’ve had loads of fun recording the videos and responding to comments on them. The process has reinforced my love for teaching and my excitement about helping writers finish their stories.

It hasn’t been as fun trying to come up with ideas and titles that will gain views. After all, if my most-viewed video has only 47 views, I’m not gaining tons of traction for my author services business with content that has taken hours of time to produce.

What sort of topics would you like to see covered? I’d love to make videos that my audience is interested in viewing.

But even if I don’t get tons of subscribers, I intend to keep making videos this year. My plan is to post every other week rather than every Tuesday.

But if you submit a question or topic, I might film it immediately as an additional episode.

Coaching with hope*writers

Another thing that was new for me was working as a contractor for hope*writers.

If you recall, I completed a certification course through them. I decided to invest the time and money because it seemed like their platform included my ideal audience and they would help me reach those writers. We know marketing and advertising are the bane of this creative’s existence.

Taking the course bolstered my confidence and gave me additional expertise in the field of coaching. I was positive that would garner new coaching clients for my freelance coaching services.

Sadly, this new thing has been disappointing. While I did work with two new writers through the hope*writers platform, neither of them committed to work with me consistently throughout their process.

The best thing to come from the certification program is the coaching huddle that formed after the course ended. We’ve met one or two times per month to brainstorm and encourage each other. We’ve also taken turns peer coaching each other, so I’m getting a writing coach in exchange for being a writing coach.

Which I am. And I love. So it’s a win all around.

I’ve decided to stick it out with hope*writers for one more year, hoping to see a return on my investment.

Write Your Book Intensive

One thing a writing coach helped me commit to doing was run the ninety-day writing intensive. Since I haven’t been able to connect with many writers for one-to-one coaching, I thought I might have better results with a group program.

If you want to know more about it, check it out here.

Although I only had one participant and she wasn’t even from the intended audience, I still consider this event to be a win. Through it, I curated content for my YouTube channel.

During the program, I drafted a novel. That’s something I wasn’t sure I’d ever want to do again, but I promoted the intensive as “write your book with a published author” so I felt obliged to write.

The weekly live classes fed my love of teaching, too. And through that, I’ve landed on something new to do this year.

What’s New for 2023?

Do you plan your entire year in advance?

I used to do this with my writing projects when I was under contract. But now that I’m an indie author, I’ve found that I prefer to plan one quarter at a time.

Oh, I have a soft plan for the entire year. What I want to write and publish. A publishing schedule for my blog and YouTube channel. But the only hard and fast deadlines are for the first three months.

This is what that looks like:

• Rewrite/revise/edit THE PROMISED PLAN and return to editor by March
• Promote Be A Bestseller 4.0 to social media and list
• Brainstorm webinar topics
• Coach client
• Advertise developmental editing services

As for new things, I’m a featured teacher with Be A Bestseller 4.0. The coaching huddle is brainstorming a webinar. I’m planning out a Revise Your Book in 60 Days Intensive, although I’m not convinced I will run it this year.

I’m releasing a new book.

What new things are you planning to tackle this year?