3 Ways to Take Action and Visualize Your Author Platform

Building an author platform is akin to creating a vision board. You need to creatively visualize each of the parts that can help you take action. When you post an image on Facebook relating to your book, how do you want to feel? When you share a meme from your book on Twitter, do you feel inspired? Because Facebook and Pinterest are visually driven social media platforms, it makes sense for authors to put energy into creative visualization process with the ultimate test using a vision board to motivate you to stick with the process of building your author platform.

When it comes to building an author platform that will also translate into book sales and building an online readership, you have to play the long game. Every day, authors and writers take a stab at writing a book or some other creative project. At first, they get excited by the possibilities but somewhere along the way, they lose steam. They move on and when they don’t see immediate success. This is where visualizing your author platform as a vision board can help you take action and commit to your goals and differentiate yourself from most people who pursue your craft. Use these 3 self-inquiry type questions to help get you thinking about the creative visualization process as an author.

What images will help you stay inspired or motivated?

Creating a vision board is more than just cutting and pasting a bunch of images; it actually can inspire you to take action towards your goals. Here’s a few questions to keep you focused:

· If you’re writing fiction, is there a character you can put on your board that embodies a positive trait such as optimism or inspiration? You can cut out an image of that can help you stay inspired?

· If you’re writing memoir, consider cutting out an image of yourself perhaps at a pivotal scene that shows a breakthrough. For both genres, use uplifting and positive images that support the emotions you want to experience each time you give voice to putting yourself as an author out there.

If you are the kind of person who needs further convincing as to why you need to get in the right mood to let your creativity run loose, consider asking the WHY question. Why is it important for you to feel a certain way?

Which images will help you marry your vision with action?

Using a visual to support the development of your author platform is a powerful way to stay committed and focused. For example, if getting a 1,000 Facebook and/or Twitter fans a month is your goal of showing evidence of a platform to publishers and agents, what image will help you support that? A good way to stay in the creative flow, would be to hop over to Pinterest and enter a few search terms that illuminate how you want to feel each time you post to Twitter or Facebook keeping in mind you need people energy to build a strong following; it’s not about crunching numbers but getting readers to care enough about your book. This is why passion and curiosity are the two most powerful elements you need to get emotionally grounded with the creative visualization process of any endeavor.

Which images will give voice to your passion?

The ultimate test of doing anything that isn’t a sprint, but a marathon. Just like building an author platform.

Passion is what will fuel you on those tough drabby days when you aren’t moved to get moving and going. But more importantly, passion is what will keep you, your work and your vision sticking together. It’s the “glue” behind the reasoning that gets in the way of doing the hard work.

I love this quote by high performance coach Tony Robbins who says this about passion:

Creativity, decisiveness, passion, honesty, sincerity, love. These are the ultimate human resources and when you engage these resources, you can get any other resource on earth.” Lucinda Cross who has graciously agreed to host me here for her blog, is powerful thought leader who understands how developing your passion can be cultivated. Our deep conversation on developing the right mindset can be listened to here on our podcast.

Choose images that will truly connect you to cultivating your passion. Passion for your craft of writing, where you want to eventually end up for 2017. Do you want to go on a 17 city book tour? Then cut out images of your favorite cities and an image speaking in front of a large crowd. You can also write the word “travel” and the names of those cities to evoke passion.

As you can see, getting into a creative mindset is necessary for cultivation the energy you need for giving voice to you work as an author as well as the author platform.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, I am doing a free teleseminar during the month of December on how to build an audience creatively for your book launch. Register here — it’s absolutely free.