Unlocking Indie Author Success with Carissa Andrews: Cultivating Creativity and Confidence

Unlock the secrets of indie publishing success with the award-winning Carissa Andrews in our latest episode of "Is Your Way In Your Way." Our conversation takes you through Carissa's incredible journey from aspiring archaeologist to internationally best-selling indie author, offering a masterclass in managing every aspect of the writing and publishing process. Learn how Carissa turned her passion for storytelling into a thriving career, handling everything from writing and graphic design to marketing and branding. This episode is a goldmine for budding authors looking to break free from self-imposed limitations and pursue their dreams.

Ever wondered how to turn your creative doubts into your greatest strengths? We dive into the challenges authors face, such as imposter syndrome and creative blocks, and how to tackle them head-on. Carissa shares her unique strategies, including the use of meditation, hypnosis, and binaural beats, to boost creativity and productivity. Gain invaluable insights into rewiring your mindset for success by focusing on one task at a time and challenging your self-imposed barriers. This conversation is a must-listen for high achievers seeking to cultivate creative confidence and thrive in their writing careers.

Discover how to manifest your "millionaire author destiny" with actionable advice on shifting your mindset and embracing financial success. Carissa details her three-step manifestation process: deciding on a goal, locking in the positive vibe, and taking inspired action. We also explore the importance of understanding your audience, effective indie author branding, and leveraging technologies like ChatGPT to enhance your writing and publishing efforts. Don’t miss out on Carissa's heartfelt interview, packed with tips and inspiration to help you move forward in your writing journey. Tune in and transform your aspirations into reality!

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Chapters

• 0:26 Indie Author Success and Mindset
• 7:39 Overcoming Doubts and Cultivating Creativity
• 17:20 Navigating Publishing and Creativity Strategies
• 23:44 Manifesting Millionaire Author Destiny and Rom-Coms
• 31:02 Understanding Indie Author Branding and Audience
• 44:06 Utilizing Chat GPT for Indie Authors
• 50:08 Eternal Replay and Author Interview

Transcript

Cassandra: 0:26

Good day everybody. Welcome to Is your Way In your Way podcast, and I'm your host, cassandra Crawley-Mayo. And for those new listeners out there, let me share with you what this podcast is all about. It's for individuals who are stuck, who are ready to do something different in their lives. They actually have, like this fire in your belly and you know it is, but you just can't seem to, you just can't seem to get out of it. Like I said, you're just stuck and you have those what I call self-imposed barriers that's preventing you from living your best life on your terms, and we talk about topics related to personal development, business development and also topics that will enable you to do a little self-reflection. And so today I am super excited about who we have on today, and her name is let me introduce her is Carissa Andrews. Welcome, carissa.

Carissa: 1:24

Hey, cassandra, thanks so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here.

Cassandra: 1:27

Yeah, I am so excited for you to be here, and one reason, listeners, is because, as you know, I also wrote a book. My book is titled Is your Way, in your Way A Self-Discovery Guide for Women on how to Restore Yourself, learn from your Experiences and Be your True Self Again. Well, I tell you, Carissa and I know a lot of listeners out there want to write a book. I've heard it, I hear it over and over and over, but this young lady has written 25 books. Can you believe?

Carissa: 1:59

that.

Cassandra: 1:59

Let me just introduce her a little bit and tell you a little bit about her background. She is an award-winning and internationally best-selling indie author, with over 25 books published. She is the CEO of Author Revolution, an online academy dedicated to helping indie authors becoming publishing powerhouses. As the host of the Author Revolution podcast, carissa discusses topics ranging from a step-by-step strategies for indie authors to mindset techniques that elevate authors to manifest Now listen, manifest their millionaire author destiny. What a bio, carissa.

Cassandra: 2:46

Thank you, thank you Our listeners are really excited to hear about this, because a lot of them want to write a book, and there are some that's written a book and what I hear, some want to write another book, but they just hadn't gotten around to it. Right, yeah, so before you got into this book journey, what was life like for you? Oh, my goodness, okay. So for me, I would say.

Carissa: 3:07

Reading has always been a part of my life, so I never anticipated writing. That was. That was not in my purview at all. I was actually originally on my trajectory to become an archeologist and then I realized that I didn't overly like the process of my teeth, the way that my teachers taught. Honestly it was. It was not a good teaching experience. I was like is this the right thing?

Carissa: 3:27

I ended up going into a degree that was interdisciplinary, so I studied ancient art, history and literature and I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I just knew I loved it. And then I ended up going into graphic design and became an award-winning graphic designer and I hated it. I hated everything about the corporate realm. I was not happy with any of it. And one day my friend was like hey, you know you really like to write, right, why don't you write a blog or a book or something like just write something? And so I started writing blogs. Originally, I had no, no intention of writing anything in terms of books or or anything like that. I didn't think at that point I was capable of it. I loved reading, but I didn't consider myself an author, so that was really kind of my intro to everything and once.

Carissa: 4:12

I started blogging. It kind of was the tipping point right there.

Cassandra: 4:15

Wow. So you sound like a lot of my listeners who really don't really enjoy what they're doing, and you know. But I see you also creat art, design work, and all that which I think is also exciting, and I know a lot of my listeners are very, very creative. Now, you know, we hear, and they hear, about indie author, but they don't really know what an indie author is. Could you tell us?

Carissa: 4:44

what that means. Sure, it just basically means independent author, and I guess in the beginning of indie authorship a lot of people would be called self-published authors. There was a stigma against that, at least a little bit, because they were kind of comparing it to the days leagues, and so they were still going to publish anyway from their trunk of their car or something and then pass things out to their friends and family. Well, that era is gone. Independent publishing is really now more of a business than anything else. It's like an entrepreneurship is kind of how it is considered. So we're looking at it more from a business perspective than anything else at this point. We're writing our books, we're creating products, we're understanding our marketplace, we're advertising our own books, we're understanding reader expectations, we're taking on board pretty much all the different roles that publishing houses and public office and stuff were doing before, and we've become it and embraced it ourselves. And so independent is really just you're in control of your creative work.

Cassandra: 5:57

Okay, okay, so, so, so much for the traditional publishing companies, huh.

Carissa: 6:02

Well they're still out there. They're still doing their thing. They're absolutely there.

Cassandra: 6:05

Yeah, they are, they are, but because you talked about the millionaire author destiny, I know that you're able to do basically what a lot of traditional publishing companies can do very early on.

Carissa: 6:26

First I ended up working for bookstores, Then I ended up working for printers, then I ended up working for publishers, then I became a graphic designer. So I kind of tap danced my entire way around this industry until I finally went. You know what, maybe I could write. Yeah, I could probably write.

Cassandra: 6:42

So what are some of the barriers with the indie authors?

Carissa: 6:47

Oh gosh.

Carissa: 6:48

Well, I guess the first barrier would definitely be mindset, like many people think that it's going to be too hard for them. Number one like it's going to be too hard to understand the entire ecosphere of what it means to be an indie publisher, because there are a lot of hats we wear, everything from you know planning your series, planning your books, planning whatever it is that you're going to be doing, your characters, the works, all the way up through advertising, reaching readers, understanding, um, the marketplace, understanding tropes, things like that. So it can be a little daunting if you're brand new and so your mindset can trip you up, making you feel as though not only do I have to write this big, gigantic thing as a book, you have all these words, all this stuff that you have to plan out and actually put together and publish it but now I have this big, huge, broad spectrum of what it means to be an author in today's marketplace, and so they get overwhelmed and they think that they have to understand it all right away when that's really not the case.

Carissa: 7:38

It's. My experience has been like you start where you're at and each step along the way you're going to be picking up those tools to understand the marketplace more and more. If you think it's going to be a fast win or a fast learn, you're probably looking at it a little bit skewed, because there, if you want to do it well, if you want to have the, the foundation to be able to build that millionaire author destiny a lot of times it does require those extra tools and it requires having a backlist of books and it requires having connections in your genre and readers who understand who you are and what you do.

Carissa: 8:11

So there is a level of you know building that whole process, and so you can't allow yourself to look at the entire picture and assume it needs to be condensed down into tomorrow. Sometimes you have to like work your way through it, but each step reveals itself as you go on.

Cassandra: 8:26

Okay, okay, kind of like when I was writing my book, you're right, I kind of thought I had to know it all. And because I thought I had to know it all, it took me forever to start. You know, because I don't know this, I don't know that you know. So, like you said, just start from where you are and help will come to you or support what you need. So with that, how can one turn those doubts into a powerhouse of creative confidence?

Carissa: 8:57

Yeah. So the first thing that I would do is, when you're looking at a doubt that's niggling in the back of your mind, is not ignore it. So when we have doubts, when we're having feelings that are coming up telling us that we can't do something, or we're worried that we're not going to be able to accomplish something, that's really just our egoic mind telling us oh, maybe we need to be safe. But ultimately, if you look at it closer and you're like, but is that really true? Does this statement have to be true for me? You can look a little closer and go well, no, not really.

Carissa: 9:24

Of course I could write a book. It might take me two years this first time, but I can write it. I could figure it out, I can go through the works and then the next time I'm going to get faster. Or could I really earn a million dollars with my books? Well, there are authors out there absolutely doing it. So your job then is to figure out, like, what are the genres that are actually turning over that kind of profit? Do you want to write in those genres? If not, can you somehow mash up two different genres? Can you reach readers in a way that hasn't been done. Yet Are you more interested in going into something that is going to be like a screenplay or virtual reality, like there are all sorts of ways that authors earn money and it's not just simply from their books.

Carissa: 10:03

So it's about broadening your perspective, and so I would say that doubts really are just there as a reminder of what we've programmed our mind to be right, because we have our subconscious mind that keeps us locked into a reality. That is what we are constantly in. So when we get stuck, it's because our parameters are too narrow and we haven't allowed our mind to expand outward a little bit. So I meditate a little bit. If you're into meditation, chill out, let your mind go blank and not listen to all of the programming, or at least pay attention to when those doubts come up, because they are really just those roadblocks that are keeping you stuck. And if you can disprove them and decide what you would rather think or feel instead and keep rewiring your brain to that, that mentality, eventually your thoughts will shift and you'll have new enlightening experiences coming to you. It's they talk about all the time, like when you, when the student's ready, the teacher comes. That's how it happens, because you start rewiring your brain to that new area Is that?

Cassandra: 11:00

do you use that to also be able to break through imposter syndrome and self-imposed barriers? Absolutely.

Carissa: 11:08

Yeah, how is that going on?

Cassandra: 11:09

Oh yeah absolutely Imposter syndrome and self-imposed barriers.

Carissa: 11:11

Absolutely, yeah, going on, oh yeah, absolutely. Imposter syndrome. It's so interesting because my first book it was originally called author imposter. It's now called right frame of mind. Um, my first non-fiction book, not my first book, but, um, it was called author imposter because we we go over the different imposters that most people, most authors, end up tripping themselves up over.

Carissa: 11:31

But what's interesting and what they found about imposter syndrome is that it's typically high achievers who have imposter syndrome, and the reason they have it is because their awareness is so broad that they can see the things that they don't know, or see at least areas where they might need a broader perspective, and because of that they start to, you know, seize up and they start to feel overwhelmed and overwhelmed. The only aspect of that really is that you, you haven't narrowed your focus and so you can only get overwhelmed when you have all these things that you're allowing your focus to be, you know, spread out onto. So if you can release that and just focus on one thing, like I'm going to make this work, I'm going to write this next chapter you don't have room then to be focusing on. Can I do it because you're so focused on the chapter. Does that make sense?

Cassandra: 12:15

Yeah, that does. Yeah, cause I used to hear that imposter syndrome is is actually individuals trying to keep themselves safe, absolutely, you know. So I don't want to branch out, and it's interesting when you talked about high achievers, now just saying individuals that have imposter syndrome, just knowing that they are high achievers, should also make them feel good, like great.

Cassandra: 12:39

You know, I'm a high achiever, so I know that I can do this, you know, maybe not look at it in a negative connotation way and a lot of people, a lot of people do, and a lot of people I've only heard a couple of people that said they've never experienced that. I'm like, oh, good for you, that's wonderful, right.

Carissa: 12:58

Well, when you look at the archetypes too, it's like you know you've got the perfectionist, you've got the natural genius, you have the rugged individualist. When you just think about those names, that should tell you like, obviously you understand things in a level that probably most people aren't taking a look. And if you're a natural genius, for instance, things come very easily to you, and when they don't, you get yourself stuck because you're like why is this not coming easily?

Carissa: 13:21

to me, you know. And if you're a perfectionist, of course you're going to keep stuck, because you're going to keep trying to refine, refine, refine, refine, so you cycle around and around and around right. Or if you're a rugged individualist, you're going to keep trying to refine, refine, refine, refine, so you cycle around and around and around. Or if you're a rugged individualist, you're trying to always trailblaze when someone's telling you this is how it should be done or this is how you can make this work, and you're like but does it have to be that way? And so then you're so busy trying to find your own way that you slow yourself down because there have been people ahead of you who've made it, made the path clearer.

Cassandra: 13:50

Exactly, and that's when their way is definitely in their way, and I raise my hand because I am a perfectionist, and I don't get much done because it has to be perfect. Sure, welcome to Virgo Dumb. So how do you get those what I call creative juices flowing?

Carissa: 14:20

Oh, for me it's definitely meditation. So I meditate every day and I sit down most of the time. I do a solo meditation. So I have, like my, my earbuds, airpods, whatever and I will sit down with a binaural beat. So I use an app called binaural and I dropped myself into a theta brainwave state so that I can start to slow my thought process down, because weaver girls are constantly thinking right.

Carissa: 14:37

So in order to slow yourself into that state where you're tapping into your subconscious mind and you can allow that creativity to flow, I utilize technology. I'm kind of weird. I love technology on one side and I love manifestation spirituality on the other. So I've always been kind of a fantasy, science fiction mashup person. So I do that a lot with my urban fantasy. But so I sit down and I meditate and I it's typically anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes a day. Sometimes I'll use a guided meditation. Most of the time it's just me tapping into, like, my like.

Carissa: 15:08

What is it that I'm trying to pull in today? What kind of things am I trying to create? What am I? What do I need to know today? You know, what does my body need today? Like, do I need more water today, did I drink enough? Yesterday, did I do my workout like I was supposed to?

Carissa: 15:21

But when you clear away all of the clutter, all the thoughts that are coming through, because if you look at your brain patterns through, because if you look at your brain patterns, we think something like 65,000 thoughts every day and of those thoughts, 90% or so are the exact same thoughts we thought yesterday.

Carissa: 15:38

So we have this sub-programming that's constantly going on in our subconscious mind and we can't become aware of it necessarily until we can quiet our minds and start noticing what our minds are saying. And that's how we get stuck, because our subconscious mind is just repeating the neural pathways and patterns that we've given it right. We create the patterns through our brains and neural pathways strengthen based off of the thoughts you think. So you can, if you don't like where you are, if you're feeling stuck and you want to have a different reality come to you. The first step is really to just look at those thoughts that are repeating so that you can shift them. And then more creativity flows because now you're thinking new thoughts and you're allowing new experiences to come in that you weren't allowing before, when you were thinking the same old thoughts, those old tapes.

Cassandra: 16:23

Yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. And then I read that 80% of the thoughts you have are negative. You know, yeah, yeah, and that's, that's good. So do you? Is there a certain time you meditate, or do you meditate before you start writing? Or the need to tell when? When do you meditate? When does it become a necessity that you need to meditate?

Carissa: 16:47

Yeah, so I just have a routine personally myself. So what I do is I get up in the morning, I read my book or books. So sometimes I have two going. It's either a fiction and a nonfiction, or sometimes, if I'm just really into one or the other, I will just file through the one book. So I read first and then when I reach about nine o'clock in the morning I will go upstairs and I will do my meditation. So I meditate right before I work out. It just kind of centers me, I guess, for the day and it puts everything on the right trajectory. So I'll meditate and then I'll work out and then I start the rest of my day and for me it just it works really great.

Carissa: 17:20

But I know a lot of authors really enjoy tapping into a meditation or hypnosis right before they do their creative work, especially if they're kind of stuck or if they're starting a new project.

Carissa: 17:30

So my partner and I, tammy Tyree she's a board certified clinical hypnotherapist and so for some of our courses and memberships we have hypnosis and member and meditations that we build in for specifically authors. So we'll do things where it's just right before they start their, their work in progress or if they're trying to come up with some new interesting things for their characters. We have meditations or hypnosis on that. We also have hypnosis on the millionaire author mindset and getting them out of a lack mentality. So it really kind of depends on what the author or the person is really trying to bring into their life at that particular moment and if they need a guided meditation or a guided hypnosis we have them covered. But really honestly, even if they just sit down quietly for five minutes and listen to the sound of their like fan or their air conditioner and it allows them to kind of chill out and allow those brains, brainwaves to slow down, it helps tremendously.

Cassandra: 18:24

Okay, that's good. Now you've named an app. You said you do it solo. What's the name of that app?

Carissa: 18:29

again, yeah, it's called binaural and I can get you the link after the show, but it's, it's wonderful. What it does is it puts two binaural, so it's a binaural is meaning two, right? So you're putting one tone in this side, one tone on the other side, and then they're both playing at the same time. And what happens is it allows your brainwaves to fluctuate at whatever frequency you're choosing on the app, so you can go anywhere from alpha beta all the way up through to gamma, if you wanted to. Theta is where you want to be when you're trying to meditate, because it allows you to stay in that awake state without falling asleep to meditate, because it allows you to stay in that awake state without falling asleep, but yet still be compliant.

Carissa: 19:05

If you are listening to like, let's say, a guided meditation or hypnosis, you can tap into that subconscious mind and start to rewire thoughts and get new information for creativity through the theta state. But if you're trying to look, if you're actively trying to create and I do this all the time with the app I'll ramp it all the way up to gamma, and gamma is like it's a fast frequency. It allows you to think quicker and to receive information faster, and so I'll play it behind like my music when I'm writing, and so it just keeps me kind of in that creative flow.

Cassandra: 19:37

Okay, okay, interesting, interesting. So you know, publishing, all of that can be very complex. So, what are some strategies for individuals to navigate through that world of publishing?

Carissa: 20:00

Sure. Well, I guess the first thing I would say is read your genre. Like if you're new, if you haven't really kind of delved into the world of publishing, you're going to learn so much about characterization, story structure, reader expectation, tropes in your specific realm just by reading. And so if you can read some of the ones that are in the, let's say, look just only at the top 10 in your genre on the bestsellers list, that's going to give you a good indication of what readers are looking for right now and really enjoying. And so if you're reading any of those authors, you're going to find the ones that resonate with you, and then maybe you'll go through their backlist. And so as you read more, you're going to start absorbing innately the tools that you need in order to be really good at what you do in that genre. Then what I would do really is just start to. Based off of whether you're a pantser or a planner or a planter, you're going to want to start working on your manuscript and sometimes you can use tools like chat to gpt to help you create an outline for the story. If you have like a vague idea and you're trying to flesh it out, you can flesh it out yourself.

Carissa: 20:56

Obviously, yeah, um, but just start working on characters, making sure your characters are as, I guess, dynamic as possible. Give them as many flaws, as many like awesome characteristics. Use, use everything you can on those characters, because even if the story, if the plot is weak, if you have created really strong characters, the readers don't care because they've now attached themselves to the, the characters of that. When you're reading, when anyone is reading, you're put into a hypnotic state. You're actually your brainwaves slow down to theta and so you're reading this world and as long as the people come alive, the rest of the stuff isn't as important. But if the characters are lacking, it's harder for the readers to stay engaged with the storyline. So that's kind of where I would start, is really kind of in that realm.

Cassandra: 21:44

Okay, when you started your first book, after you wrote your first book, and was that? What genre was your first book?

Carissa: 21:54

My first book. It was definitely urban fantasy, but it was. It was kind of. When I look back at it now, it's YA science fiction fantasy, so it's young adult, it's on a different planet, but it reads more like a fantasy. So my genre matched the two and, um, I knew nothing. I knew nothing about anything. I thought it was dystopian that back in those days. And it does have elements of dystopia in it, but it's not a dystopian, it's definitely science fiction fantasy okay, okay.

Cassandra: 22:41

So, after you wrote your book, what was next for you? How did you know what you should do next?

Carissa: 22:50

Well, it was pretty easy for me because I knew I had three books that I wanted to write, so I went on to the next book. But I did take a break between those two because in the middle of that it was kind of interesting, and I've heard this happen to a lot of different authors that I've worked with as well once I kind of embraced being the author, everything around me fell apart, like my life fell apart. My marriage fell apart. Um, I ended up meeting my now husband, um, we ended up moving and having kids and like all the things kind of happened, and it was just a very chaotic period right after that first book. So I published the first book in 2013 and I didn't publish book two until 2017. But then I published book three immediately after and haven't looked back. So it was like just kind of 2017 onward it was four books a year, pretty much nonstop.

Cassandra: 23:39

Wow, hmm, interesting. Because I'm thinking about, after my book my world went upside down. You know, I was really excited about it because it was my first book and then stuff started happening and it was just weird. You know, you were on high and then all of a sudden you went low, you know. So that's very interesting that you said that let's talk a little bit about manifestations, that let's talk a little bit about manifestations Tell me about that. And you talked about talking about the millionaire's author destiny. Does manifestation have anything to do with that?

Carissa: 24:16

Absolutely how, yeah? So the reason I chose the term millionaire author destiny is that okay. So I've been teaching. I've been teaching indie authors now since what is it? 2017, officially as Author Revolution since 2019.

Carissa: 24:30

And in the indie author spectrum specifically, I see this lack mentality over and over again, where they just feel like being an author, or even being an indie author, is not a real thing, it's not a real job, it can't bring them money, it can't bring them what they're wanting, even though that they desperately want it to be, right. And so what they're doing is like, like you have with your podcast, they get in their own way right. Their, mindset is what's keeping them stuck and keeping them small and keeping them from discovering what is, what more is possible. And so I chose the term millionaire author destiny to be a trigger, because so many people, especially when they're in that lack mentality, are like that'll never be me, I'm not even going to try to do that. And so I wanted to push that button and push that kind of concept over and over again. So that number one, that they get used to the concept that they could hear it, and, even if it grated on their nerves at first, I wanted them to kind of ponder it a little bit, like is it possible? Yes, it is, but why do I think it's not possible for me? And so we'll discuss that through podcast episodes, through some of the courses that I teach, and I'm working on a book right now called Write your Reality, so that we can dive into manifestation and really kind of help authors figure out that their lack mentality is all it is. It's a wiring in their brain. They've wired the brain to feel as though they can't earn more. So what?

Carissa: 25:50

I think, when it comes to manifesting, it's all about number one. In order to achieve something, in order to have something, you have to number one believe it's possible for you. If you don't believe it's possible for you, your job first, then, is to make those beliefs possible. And we look at the fact that a belief is just a thought. You continue to think that's all. A belief is Okay. Why can't you then rewire that thought? Why can't you rewire that belief to be what you actually want it to be?

Carissa: 26:15

So, in manifestation, I teach that there's three steps, and the first one is decide. Second one is lock in the vibe, and the third one is take your inspired action. So when you are deciding on something, you're taking a look at the context of your world around you and you're deciding what happens next, what gets to work for you. And if you don't believe a millionaire author destiny is for you, you're not going to go that path, you're just going to keep doing what you're doing, maybe hoping someday something's going to happen, but you're not taking that inspired guidance towards the true ultimate goal because you haven't made a decision, you haven't given that specificity, say that word very much, you haven't narrowed it down, and so you can't lock in anything if you haven't decided.

Carissa: 26:54

So when you decide, then now, all of a sudden, let's say it's a millionaire author destiny, you've decided that's your thing, you've locked in the vibe, this is what I get to have. This is something better, it's absolutely mine. I'm going to create this, come hell or hot water, I'm going to find a way. Now, all of a sudden, you have creative like nudges that come in. Oh, okay, you want to find a way to make a million, a millionaire author destiny.

Carissa: 27:13

What do you have to do? Well, I personally Do. I have to, you know, write some articles for magazines that are kind of in my field, that I'm trying to get my book out there, for Do I have to do some speaking gigs. Like you, you start getting nudges and insights and they feel like the next logical step when you're doing it, and so that's your inspired action steps. But you don't usually get those nudges if you haven't made a decision, and so you're stuck circling around, circling around because your energy, your, you know, your beingness has is waiting for you to make a decision on what gets to come next.

Cassandra: 27:54

That's very good. That's very good. Once you make that decision, you know, instead of wishing and thinking, and just make that decision and you're right, when the student's ready, the teacher will appear. I do remember when I was writing, I just made the decision that I was going to write this book and then somebody called me and said, hey, I know, I know an editor, she just edited somebody's book. I'm like, okay, I think I do need an editor because I didn't know what I didn't know. So, yeah, right, once you have that made up, mind then the world just opens up for you.

Cassandra: 28:34

It absolutely does. Yeah, because?

Carissa: 28:36

You know, energy goes where attention flows, and so, as you make that decision, your energy aligns with the having of it, and so you're going to find those blog posts. You're going to have someone that knows, someone you're going to. You're going to take some action steps that are going to lead you to more questions. It's like, all of a sudden, there's all these new possibilities that are opening up, but until you make the decision, you're going to sit and circle around until something catches your eye enough to go yeah, I'm going to chase after that.

Cassandra: 29:03

Right, interesting, okay. Do you have a favorite book?

Carissa: 29:11

Oh gosh, like so many Of mine, or a fiction.

Cassandra: 29:16

Yeah.

Carissa: 29:16

Okay, oh, darn Okay. Hmm, that's hard because I just started a new pen name too. There's so many different favorites, so my one of my favorites is obviously the first book I ever wrote.

Carissa: 29:29

Was Pandanus because it was like it was like giving birth, right You're, you have this first new baby. Is it my best book? Probably not. Um, I would say that my favorite, since the first book is going to be in the accidental alpha series. I have a series where a 40 year old mom gets bitten by a warewolf and ends up becoming the alpha of this warewolf pack, even though she had no idea the supernatural world existed. And she's got two kids and is freaking out a bit. That's probably my favorite right now. But I've also I've started a rom-com pen name under Carissa Knight, and so I have two rom-coms that are currently out and I'm working on the third right now, and so it's like, well, I like the first book in that series as well, which is called Dirty Plans. So, yeah, I don't know, it's so hard to pick one. It's like saying which is your favorite. So when you say rom-coms, what is that Romantic comedy?

Cassandra: 30:27

So it's contemporary romantic comedy.

Carissa: 30:28

Oh, okay, okay, so I write under three different genres I write nonfiction, I write rom-com and then I write urban and paranormal fantasy.

Cassandra: 30:35

Okay, when you're writing your book, do you think about or does it happen afterwards your audience? When do you think about who your audience is? When you're writing a book, Do you think about it afterwards?

Carissa: 30:49

Yeah. So for me now, I definitely think about my audience first. So, like when I started the rom-com pen name, I knew what those readers are going to be looking for and what the expectations are. But I still infuse a lot of what I'm feeling called to write. In the beginning it was more. I have this lot of what I I'm feeling called to write. In the beginning it was more. I have this story and I know I have to tell it and I would try to find the audience afterward.

Carissa: 31:10

But it's harder to do that because you confuse yourself with all the knowledge that you have. Right, you have all this world building, all these characters, all the tropes, and it becomes kind of a muddy soup If you don't get really clear on it before you start writing it. I don't know why that is. It just seems to be the case because we authors love to love everything about our worlds and so it's harder to find the right audience if you do it the other way around. So I would recommend any author who's doing it if you can think about your audience first, think about their expectations, and again it goes back to understanding that by being a reader yourself, understanding what the things are, you enjoy the way that you like things to be written the character tropes and things like that and it just makes your life a lot easier. And of course, the books sell better because now you're hitting reader expectation in your genre.

Cassandra: 31:56

Okay. Okay, because I'm finding like my book is nonfiction and you know, in the beginning I didn't really think about an audience. I just started writing. You know, this is my story now. and then I'm like, okay, so now who's who's my audience, you know? So that's why I asked that question. And how you know, by being an indie author, how do you figure out who the audience is? What do you research, or are you just know because you've been doing this for so long?

Carissa: 32:28

I think it's. It's still research for sure. So it for me, it always starts with the genre that I'm planning to go in. So if it's non-fiction, for instance, you're going to need to sub-genre yourself because we're subcategorized, like on Amazon. If you know what your subcategory is, you're going to start thinking about like okay, these people are women, they're stuck in life, they are probably in their 30s to 50s, like we had talked about beforehand. They are women who want to maybe have an entrepreneurial mindset, they want to do more with their lives, they want to bring in more money, have more fulfillment, and so then it's like you start with the genre first and then flesh it out from there so that you can understand who they are from a broader perspective.

Carissa: 33:08

It's almost like creating a what is that called? A avatar for your business right, your ideal avatar, so that you can understand who they are from a more holistic way. And when you can do that, you can speak more their language. You can. In your social media, you're going to speak their language better. You're going to have social media posts. You're going to have newsletters. You're going to have content inside the book that resonates with them, where they feel seen and heard. And so when you can infuse that into all that you do now, all of a sudden, it's not just a book, it's not just this thing that you're giving to someone else, it's literally talking to that person.

Cassandra: 33:47

Okay, okay, that's good Talk about, because branding is really big. People talk a lot about branding.

Carissa: 33:51

What was your methodology for your brand.

Carissa: 33:52

Yeah, so for me, because I have a graphic design background, my methodology has always been to kind of take a look at what the marketplace is doing right now. First, because when you do that branding, not only do you have to stand out in your brand but you also have to look like you belong in that same like group of people, that genre of people, and so you have to find out like who are your big competitors? For lack of a better word, I don't think. I personally don't believe authors are competitors, because I think we're all like one reader can read hundreds of authors, you know. So we're all working together.

Carissa: 34:25

We're just kind of doing our things, but knowing what they're doing and seeing, seeing the similarities and the, the ways that typography looks, the colors that are being used, it's going to help you to discover what you can do for your own brand. And then it allows you kind of think of new ways where you can just twist it just a little bit or break the mold just a little bit. It needs to mostly fit but then be unique just a little bit to you so that people go oh, I know, that's Chris's brand, I know that, I know that's her logo, I know that's her colors without even looking at it.

Carissa: 34:57

And so that you're. When you're designing your brand, you want everything to be very consistent, first, with your genre again. So, going back to your, your main source of like, everything that you're doing, everything you're creating, it needs to be consistent, and typography is huge. So most authors, if you're not a graphic designer, don't think about typography, which is the specific fonts you're using, but you want to be able to look at the fonts and have that consistent through everything that you're doing, whether it be a social media post, whether it be, you know, your newsletter, your headers, your everything. And then, finally, colors are the next thing, because your colors will transcend across all platforms and so if you can use those colors where it's just very obvious in looking at it, in a very brief glance, people will be able to like latch on, go.

Cassandra: 35:42

Oh, this is her book of course I'm going to go grab it. It just makes life so much easier for your readers and for your intended audience, right, so as an indie author, so is it? I mean, no one knows everything, but you, you know, you do. You do your brand, your marketing, figure out your audience, your cover. Book covers are very important. It has to be the right cover. Why is that important?

Carissa: 36:12

Yeah, the cover. Well, when you don't have the right cover, it's a lot like when you're trying to entice a reader who's looking through a sea of other books just like yours on Amazon. You need it to stand out just enough that it's going to catch their eye, but it needs to relay the message of. This is the type of book I'm looking for, because they're going to come in there and they're going to have a specific idea. Yeah, and the first thing they're going to look at is your cover. They're not going to look at your titles and they're not going to look at your book description. They're going to look at your cover first, and if the cover looks like something that is going to fit or resonate with the idea that they have of what they want to read, that's when they click and they go deeper into it. So your cover is so important to be able to match your genre and your brand together that you know.

Carissa: 36:54

If you're not a graphic designer, I would highly recommend that you get one and have someone help you develop your look and your design, because it's going to do you no end of favors all the way through your career, because this is not a one and done thing right. This is a career that you can do for the rest of your life if you want to, yeah. So I mean not that you can't change your brand. I've changed my branding three times I think, and sometimes it just is a new, like revitalization. Sometimes it's because, oh, I've learned more about my myself, what I teach, what I write, what I, all the different things, and so it's like almost like Taylor Swift, you know, when she came up with reputation, she's just like blew up everything she'd ever done before and she's like here's the new me guys. And so that's kind of what we can do as an author as well. We can always reinvent ourselves.

Cassandra: 37:38

Okay. Do people use pen numbers? I mean pen names because you don't really want anybody to know your story, or why are pen names important?

Carissa: 37:54

Yeah, I think that's totally unique to the author because some people don't. They use pen names because people don't like. They use pen names because they don't want their family to know, they don't want their ex to know that they write books they don't want. They don't want anybody to know them at all. Maybe they had an abusive past and they're writing an expose or a memoir, who knows like. There's plenty of reasons why people use pen names, Okay, but I personally use pen names myself because, well, audiences, they know me as all the people, because I'm not hiding behind any of them.

Carissa: 38:22

But the reason I use pen names is so that I can keep everything very separated on Amazon, specifically because their algorithms are constantly trying to find the right readers for that book. And so if you have your nonfiction book and you have your rom-coms and then you have urban fantasy, all is one pen name. While it can work for some people, you're going to probably need to be very big, very, very big in order for that to work, because it's going to confuse all of the algorithms in Amazon's back dashboard and it won't know which audience is the right one to be like showing your books to no-transcript. Oh my gosh, so many people I think right now. So like with manifestation, with mindset work I really love like Joe Dispenza, Amanda Francis, Denise Duffield, Thomas they're all so amazing. When it comes to like the manifestational side of things, Jen Sincero she's another great one. So that's kind of on my author revolution manifestation side of things. When it comes to writing, oh my gosh, megan quinn. As a rom-com author, she's fabulous I love sophie lark, um emily henry.

Carissa: 40:01

There there's so many like amazing authors out there urban fantasy, I love kf breen, I love sarah j maas, so it's. It just kind of depends what, what I'm reading at the time, but those are kind of some of my favorites that really inspire me to to dig deeper and think, think more. Emily graph is another good one. She's not really um rom-com but kind of, but she's. There are so many authors that just in the way that they write and the way that they dig into things can inspire and spark some creativity you didn't even know you were looking for it's great.

Cassandra: 40:35

Okay, I like for you to, for my listeners that always wanted to be an author. While I'm out and about I always hear that. I hear it so often. I always wanted to write a book. Could you ignite something in them that that so they can write and publish a darn good book? You know, please ignite them so they could get started.

Carissa: 41:02

Absolutely Well. It all just starts with that decision. So if you want to write a book, that's you not making a decision to write a book. So just make the decision. Like, even if all you're doing right now is just okay, I'm going to spend 10 minutes just kind of starting to wrap my head around my genre. I'm going to spend 10 minutes just kind of starting to wrap my head around my genre. I'm gonna spend 10 minutes on it. Why not? I'm gonna go to Amazon right now and just kind of dig a little bit deeper, take a closer look at the players in my genre. I'm just gonna get a better understanding.

Carissa: 41:26

Then maybe the next thing you know, you're gonna buy a book in that genre and maybe you're gonna start to understand something more. Like, just give yourself permission to start exploring and being curious about that place where you're trying to go to, and just it doesn't have to be any pressure, it doesn't have to be like, oh, I have to write this thing in, you know six weeks and go, like it can be just like tiptoe into it if you need to. But if you give yourself permission to just start exploring, all of a sudden you're on the path. You're on that path of the next logical step to try to figure out how this thing gets to work for you. And maybe it's maybe today I'm going to write for 10 minutes, maybe I'm going to write for 15 minutes and just see what happens.

Carissa: 42:04

Do it do a 10 minute sprint, set a timer on your phone and if you just stare at your screen the entire and just know that, like each, each step that you're working towards, every time you make the decision to come back in, I tell my students all the time your decision is your superpower. Make the decision and it doesn't have to be a long term decision. It doesn't have to be this huge, monumental thing. It doesn't have to be like I am absolutely going to write this book and it's going to be perfect. It can just be. I'm going to give myself the permission to explore for the next 30 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes, and just see what happens.

Cassandra: 42:42

Okay, Okay, Do um. Would you recommend or suggest that people figure out their title first so they can figure out their end in mind objective, or should they just start writing?

Carissa: 42:57

Honestly, I think when you create your title or your book description first, it it allows you to be very clearly focused on reader expectation versus what you know about your world.

Carissa: 43:08

So, yeah, there's, there's a power in doing it beforehand, because you're not confused or bogging yourself down by all the things and if you know kind of what you're trying to get at and like even, let's say, you just know like your tropes and you know kind of what you want to have happen in the story and you go over to chat GPT, for instance, be like chat GPT, here's all the things that I want to create. I'm gonna create a series or I'm gonna create a book. This is what I want in this genre. It'll write you a book description and you can be like I actually liked that, they wrote it like that, or I want to incorporate that element because it'll create things that you didn't even understand or think about. Or you'd be like no, that has, that sounds absolutely nothing like I want. Then you can reprompt it. But it's really interesting how, when you have, you know, no base reference yet, you're way more clear-minded on what to deliver to your readers and stick to that reader expectation by doing it that way.

Cassandra: 44:03

Uh-huh.

Carissa: 44:04

Okay.

Cassandra: 44:04

So I guess that's where the title comes from. First of all, we talked about overcoming the indie author's barriers. We've talked about that and we understand what the indie author is and harnessing inner wisdom and innovative technologies. You know, it's amazing to me. Before chat GPT, came about, I'm like things have really changed now because you have that chat GPT and I wonder how things were done prior to that. So is that why you say use that in a wisdom and innovative technologies?

Carissa: 44:38

Yeah, yeah absolutely Use both. I mean, so many authors get so stuck on doing like their, their titles or their book descriptions, because they're not quite sure what to do or they don't have the knowledge yet on their, their genre. But chat does I mean. So what's been really nice about because I teach how to use chat GPT for authors as well it's. What's nice about it is that it has the knowledge you don't have yet, and so if you know how to prompt it correctly by saying, like chat, I'm creating a book, a book for rom com genre, I would like to understand the tropes that are the best paid. It can give you that list of tropes and you can be like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna write a book on this with this kind of trope and that kind of trope and then feed it back again and ask it to write a book description based on that.

Carissa: 45:19

What's interesting about utilizing all of that is that you don't have to have all the knowledge up front anymore. You can actually use a tool that has the knowledge and who can talk back to you. Almost it's so funny. It's like it's like what Google could have been. I mean, I know that they're incorporating AI now, but like it's what Google kind of felt, like it could have been back in the day. And now it's like all of a sudden you're getting very specific, detailed information that it goes out and it understands about everything, anything. It's great.

Cassandra: 45:50

OK, now you use the word trope.

Carissa: 45:52

What is that? Yeah, so a trope is really just basically a reader expectation or kind of something that a reader is really going to enjoy within a certain genre. So like in rom-com, for instance, a huge one is enemies to lovers, or forced proximity, where they're forced together, or a fake relationship or things like that. In nonfiction, it's going to be like how to make money. That's going to be, um, how to utilize your knowledge, how to overcome mindset. In urban fantasy, for instance, it's going to be like chosen families. It's going to be or found families, either one chosen, one tropes.

Carissa: 46:32

So it's like each each genre is going to have their own big thing that readers like. If it's missing in your work, the readers are going to be like I like the book, but it just something didn't feel like it was right, like they're not necessarily going to be able to label what was wrong with it, but they're going to feel like something was missing because you didn't hit that reader expectation.

Cassandra: 46:53

Okay. So, carissa, tell my listeners number one how can they get in touch with you and, when they do, share with them your offerings. You know, like I hear you say, you do the training and chat GPT, there's certain things. So share with them what you do and how can they get in touch with you.

Carissa: 47:16

Yeah, absolutely so, for like any of the author stuff for the courses, the memberships and things like that, they can go over to author revolutionorg. So it is author and then revolution, so there are two R's in the middle. All of the stuff is going to be in our course collection. So if you go over to courses it'll give all the information on everything that we're doing. So we do. I do everything, from manifestation all the way through to chat GPT. I have a course on rapid releasing, so learning how to write, publish, promote four books a year. I have series planning with, with and without chat GPT.

Carissa: 47:50

I have an audio books course that's coming out right now because I teach authors how to do their own audio books. I do my own audio books and recording. Um, how to utilize AI audio book narration is coming. That's coming in July. But we also have all the manifestation stuff. So we've got um, the millionaire author manifestation course, which comes out every February. It's a 12 week course, very hands-on, where myself and Tammy join every single week. You know live call. We're doing a lot of hands--on work and then we do live group hypnosis sessions with tammy.

Carissa: 48:19

Um, there's also meditations and stuff within the course, but we also have the abundant author activation, the abundant author alignment, the millionaire author manifestation course. We have quantum manifestation master class coming. So there's, there's, so much that goes on, but we do have like the. The easiest way to like slip in if you just want to get a little flavor is to join the future Self membership, which is kind of the mindset membership where we have meditations and we have hypnosis, and so we have programs every single month that we're dropping into this membership where they can meditate or have a hypnosis based around a certain topic. So right now we're in June and this is the healthy author, so we're talking a lot about how to get into alignment with yourself, how to be your healthiest self as an author, and so a lot of the meditations and hypnosis are geared toward that. But we've done money, we've done NaNoWriMo, we've done um new beginnings, we've done the tools. I don't know if you've ever heard of the tools from.

Cassandra: 49:15

Phil.

Carissa: 49:15

Stutz, but we've got a lot of different things that we incorporate and it's free to join, and then it's $13 a month. After that it's a one week membership for free and then they can join.

Cassandra: 49:27

Wow. So my listeners out there, for those who always wanted to write a book and you have friends that wanted to write a book, and I believe there are a few of you that are listening that have made the decision that this is what you want to do. So don't think that this particular podcast just came happenstance like oh, ok, I think it's something. As I say God, some people say universe, but what more do you want? Right, you have not. Just there, I say God, some people say universe, but what more do you?

Cassandra: 49:58

want Right, you have a resource that's incredible to enable you to do independent writing. We're indie author. It's just so much and it's no excuse and, as a result of that, I just want to thank Carissa for this interview and I just know that my listeners will be contacting you shortly. Again, thank you so much and, for my listeners, this podcast will air in July, actually August the 7th, but know this, there are replays, replays. This will be on forever and a day, so who knows when you'll hear this again and it'll be the perfect time for you to hear it. So thank you again, carissa. I tell my listeners bye for now. God bless you and get started. Make that decision.