Show Transcript:
Build Yourself a Network of Supporters for your Author Path
How authors can utilize their connections to create a network of people to help with accountability and marketing.
Today’s Invisible Stories guest is the multitalented Elayne Fluker. Elayne is a coach, speaker, entrepreneur, and advocate and leader for women looking to grow their businesses. She is the author of the brand new book, Get Over ‘I Got It’, which launched in early May 2021. According to her book, too many ambitious women strive to accomplish all their goals alone, leading to dangerous levels of stress and anxiety. Elayne’s book teaches women how a strong support network and meaningful connections are crucial not only to long-term success, but to peace of mind. As a coach and advisor, Elayne helps her clients get over what she calls “I Got It!” Syndrome, clarifying their vision, growing their support network, and determining what that next chapter can look like for them.
In this podcast, Elayne and I talk about empowering women of color, and her story-telling roots. Elayne gives us insight into:
- How she uses her platform to amplify the voices of women of color, particularly through her podcast Support Is Sexy.
- How she managed to overcome plenty of rejection when it came to her book, and to persevere and find herself a trustworthy publishing agent. She also talks about using her industry knowledge of publishing to navigate getting a traditional publishing deal.
- The methods she used to increase her wordcount and enhance the content of the book without adding fluff or filler. She added meaningful content by taking inspiration from the women she interviewed.
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Get Over ‘I Got It’: How to Stop Playing Superwoman, Get Support, and Remember That Having It All Doesn’t Mean Doing It All Alone
Today’s women are ambitious and excelling in every way. But many still believe that asking for help along the journey is a sign of weakness, ignorance, or incompetence, so they go it alone.
Author and podcaster Elayne Fluker believes this mindset is partially responsible for the increase in suicide rates for girls and women and the reason so many women end up depressed, overwhelmed, isolated and unfulfilled. To combat this alarming trend, Fluker helps women learn how to build their own networks, make meaningful connections, and understand how even some of the most successful women in the world, like Oprah Winfrey and Spanx founder Sara Blakely, had tremendous support networks that helped them achieve their dreams.
Key Takeaways
[00:23:29] Elayne: In my group, the same mastermind. Every morning at 6:00 AM. I’m going to get on here and I’m going to write my book for an hour or whatever it was. And I invite you all to do it to less support each other, less work on quote, unquote, that thing. So I was telling them we’re going to work on that thing. And I showed up every day, every morning.
[00:23:46] At 6:00 AM every morning and forced myself to write. And the thing was, people joined me, Jenn, they joined. And then folks, folks, during that time, another woman wrote a book, a poetry book. That’s now a bestseller on Amazon. Another person launched their website. [00:24:00] Someone else started a business. So we all were getting into cars.
[00:24:02] People were getting up, you know, before the kids get ready and all these other things that I didn’t even think of, it was just like, I’m going to go live and do this thing. But again, bringing in community like. I invite you to do this with me. We all started conversations. And even that led to me creating a coaching group and all these other things that I didn’t plan.
[00:24:18] The thing that it really helped me do though, was finished that book. Hm, an interview. And then I incorporated the women that I talked to on the podcast and all these different gyms that they had given me along the way, support it, basically what I was saying in the book. But it was like, here are examples of this women in different way.
[00:24:33] And it just, honestly, the book is so much better. Not only is it longer, but it’s so much better having incorporated those stories because they are a gems. When people ask me about episodes or different people, I talk to, you know, there are certain things you bring up because it really resonated with you.
[00:24:46] So that’s what I tapped into and then structured a book around that idea.
