My brain is feeling like it might explode. Metaphorically, of course. I’m stuffing it so full of so much information. The courses on life coach certification are dense, not in a bad way, but they’re packing a lot of content into some short videos. When you look at it, you think, “Oh, a six minute video. It will take me six minutes.” But many of them take longer than that because of the thinking and processing and taking notes and questioning stages.

Still, they’re mostly good classes. I wouldn’t mind editing some of their scripts and transcripts, and I’m really not a huge fan of PowerPoint presentations with only bullet points, but the content is good.

Beyond that, though, I’ve been reading a ton and watching a ton about marketing, sales and branding. I think life-coaching may be a lot like self-publishing, where it’s easy to say, “I’m a coach,” or “I’ve published a book,” but it will go exactly nowhere unless you somehow manage to convince people that they should try your business/book.

I have not done well on that in self-publishing. I really haven’t even tried. In part, I understand, that’s because I read advice and I know it’s good advice, and yet I don’t like it. For example, it’s fundamental — really, so BASIC! — to write in a specific genre and stick to it. That’s probably the first piece of advice I would give anyone trying to break into the world of self-publishing, and yet… it’s not fun.

With self-publishing, I know I’m doing it wrong and yet I just can’t bring myself to do it the way I should, the “right” way. My first tagline for my business, Rozelle Press, was “an independent publisher: bending, blending, and breaking genres”  – and that’s really what I wanted to do. I wanted to write romances that weren’t like typical romances, I wanted to write paranormal that had nothing in common with the other paranormal books out there. No vampires!

I wanted to write things that would surprise me as a reader.

And actually, I think I succeeded in that. The problem is that readers look for the familiar. Readers — especially the kind of readers who read romance or fantasy or paranormal — don’t really want to take a chance on the unexpected. Some of them do, of course. Most likely you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t one of them! But the best marketing advice for self-publishing is to find your lane, stay in it, and make everything you do support the readers’ ability to know what lane they’re in if they join you for the ride. And I just… I just can’t. Alas!

Marketing a coaching business might be sort of similar. People like to know what they’re getting. But the way to reach clients will be different than anything I’ve ever done before and so I’m trying to make sure I learn a little about it every day, so that I’m ready a few months from now when I actually have a business to launch.

Meanwhile, I’m also trying to figure out video. I want to create a course, tentatively titled Choosing Happiness: A Depression Management Tool Kit, and, of course, it’s going to involve at least a little of me being a talking head. Theoretically, that’s fine. In practice, I’m not particularly comfortable videoing myself, and I’m not at all comfortable with the process of making cool videos. There’s a ton of technology out there to make it easier, so I just need to learn how to use it.

Just.

Ha.

Beyond all my self education, I’m actually brainstorming the products I will create, of course. Also trying to figure out things like design, logos, names, a website, or more than one. That’s all fun, but it’s also sort of overwhelming.

Fortunately, I’m taking life coaching lessons! I’ve already learned that the way to approach a big goal is to break it down to manageable steps. (I did know that already, of course — you can’t write a book if you can’t separate yourself from the end goal, and focus on the words in front of you.) But the lesson I just finished in the coaching course was about setting a yearly goal, breaking it down into monthly goals, breaking them down into weekly tasks, and then making daily to-do lists in order to make sure that every day you’re progressing towards your big goal.

I read those instructions, but I did not then do the work.

Today, however, beyond some more life-coaching certification classes; another couple of chapters of notes from the Marketing Made Simple book (<–affiliate link) I’m currently reading; and some practice videoing myself, trying to get more comfortable with talking to my phone (and not feeling ridiculous); I believe I will do some work on that big goal setting.

I don’t think it was too ambitious to say that I would have a couple certifications by the end of the month — I’m fairly committed and working hard at it – but I do think establishing a timeline for things like when will I choose a name, when will I make a logo, when will I have my first website, when will I write the course, (although that’s best broken down into smaller pieces, so write the module on sleep, write the module on vegetables, etc.)…  Anyway, a goal for today may be to establish timelines for all those things, so I know when I’m on track and when I’m off track.

Bizarrely enough, four days into the month I already feel like I’m off track because it’s taking me longer than I expected to go through the life coaching certification lessons.

And also because my head is going to explode.

Anyway, all of that is what I’m up to.

In a fairly delightful, and unexpected way, I’d also like to take a little time to go back to the Tassamara book I was last working on, because a character sprang full-fledged into my head the other night. When I woke up in the morning, I immediately needed to take notes about who she was, and what she was doing. The book has a dead girl in it, in the way that books do, and this character is her mother. I don’t know her name yet, but somehow I feel like I know a lot about her. I’m looking forward to spending a little time getting to know her better.

I also, lucky me!, get to spend some time over the next couple days with the BBE, aka the Best Brother Ever, who is here in FL until tomorrow night. That’s all fun, but we’ll be dealing with some practical stuff, too, ie, the DMV. It makes this move feel very concrete and permanent. I guess it did already, but still, there’s some processing of emotions that go with that reality. I really did love my tiny house. And the dogs and the cats and the chickens and the friends. Ah, well. 

Moving on! I don’t expect the next two days to be the most productive of my life, but I hope by next Monday, I will be close to finishing my first certification in life coaching <— goal setting. Yay, me. Sadly, unrealistic goal setting, so I’m going to change my goal immediately: by next Wednesday, I will finish my first certification. That’s about 10% of the course per day, and it’s feasible if I stay focused, without making my head explode. More than it already is, that is.

Meanwhile, it’s time to play ball with Sophie.