January 5, 2025 • 29 mins
J.D. Barker shares his extraordinary journey from a corporate job to becoming a multi-talented bestselling author and entrepreneur. His insights on risk-taking, creativity, and perseverance offer valuable lessons for aspiring writers and entrepreneurs alike.
• Emphasizing the importance of recognizing and seizing opportunities
• Discussing the challenges of transitioning from corporate life to publishing
• Highlighting the necessity of a strategic support system in entrepreneurship
• Exploring the art of co-authoring and the significance of collaboration
• Offering practical advice for entrepreneurial parents balancing family and business responsibilities
• Sharing strategies for entrepreneurial parents to integrate their journey with their parenting role
• Encouraging consistent writing habits for young authors
• Urging listeners to take the leap toward their dreams without delay
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi everyone, Welcome to the Juggling Entrepreneur
podcast, where you get motivatedby amazing entrepreneurs.
And today, joining us is JDBarker, a New York Times and
international bestselling authorknown for his gripping work,
such as the Fourth Monkey, Dracoand the Sixth Wicked Child.
His novels, blending withsuspense, horror and
(00:24):
supernatural, have earned praisefrom multiple literally icons.
Today, we will explore hisincredible journey from the
writer to entrepreneur,uncovering how he turned his
passion for storytelling into athriving business.
Jerry Barker, welcome to ourshow.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So I gave a little bit intro about you.
Do you want to add anythingmore to our juggling
entrepreneurs, parents andentrepreneurs who are listening
to this episode?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, I've been an entrepreneur basically my entire
life, so I'm not sure where youeven want to start.
I'm on my third career, I'm amillionaire for the third time
over, and I'm one of thosepeople.
I'm pretty sure if I losteverything tomorrow, if you
handed me a banana and said Ihad to make a living from that
banana, I would find some way toturn that into a million
dollars too.
So kind of a kind of arainmaker when it comes to
(01:19):
business.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Amazing, I amazing.
I think that's a very well umhigh pitch start, I would say.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And what actually helped you to build that
confidence, um, that you weresaying right, I have built the
skills and talent to totransform anything that I have
in my hand into a business rightI, I honestly think it it must
have started when I was veryyoung, I'm guessing my parents
(01:47):
probably beat it into my head orsomething, but I just, I don't
take no for an answer and I'mjust one of those people.
I just, I don't give up.
If somebody puts a wall infront of me, I find some way to
get around that wall, or I buildit into my business plan and
the wall becomes part of my planand I and I, I always continue
moving forward.
Um, when I was in college Iworked in the music business, um
(02:09):
, and one of my very first jobsI worked for a BMG distribution,
uh, which is a division of RCA,and I was essentially a
glorified babysitter.
I would have to pick uprecording artists at the airport
and get them to the radiostations, get them to their
concert, get them to their hotel, and you know, I was basically
just a little above minimum wage, you know which.
It was a fun job, but like Iwasn't earning a whole lot of
money doing it.
(02:30):
But then I realized I've gotsome very famous people in the
car with me for days at a time.
So I started interviewing thosecelebrities and then selling
those interviews to newspapersand magazines, which turned into
a very lucrative career.
So I always kind of, you know,look for that bright spot, find
some way to improve my situation.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I think that's an amazing start about your
entrepreneurship journey, whereyou're talking about.
Most of the people who are inthose kind of scenarios will
either be depressed or will tryto find a way but stuck.
But your creative way offinding the solutions during the
(03:09):
tough times is very unique andI think that is the ability that
will help build anyentrepreneurship journey, do you
agree?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
yeah, absolutely.
I.
I think you know any situationcan be improved, but you need to
be the one to improve it.
You can't really wait forsomebody else to do it for you.
You'll be standing around for avery long time if you take that
stance on it.
You know, I just I always wantedto be a writer, so I think
everything that I did kind ofrevolved into that one way or
another.
You know, like I was aglorified babysitter, I turned
(03:37):
that into a writing job while Iwas working for newspapers and
magazines.
You know, I basically learnedthat virtually everybody in that
industry had a novel in a deskdrawer somewhere that they'd
been working on forever.
You know it's 600,000 wordslong.
They've been working on it for10 years.
It's almost done.
I kind of presented myself tothose people too.
I became the go-to guy forhelping them get those
(03:58):
manuscripts finished, because Isaw that as an opportunity.
I was very good with grammarand punctuation and just general
copy editing, so I would helpthose people fine tune their
manuscripts and get them to thepoint where they could be
published.
I just I've always looked foryou know what is the next step,
what is the next thing I can doto improve.
I still do it today.
I mean, I sell a ton of booksyou know, new York Times
(04:20):
bestseller.
I've got movies in the works,I've got TV shows in the works,
but I'm always looking for like,what is that next thing?
How can I take this to the nextlevel?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, and that is not .
Many people have that kind ofequality, unique quality, that
fighting spirit that it's allstarts by from us.
Right, and how we can improverather than blaming the
situations around us.
Let's talk about your firstbook.
(04:50):
What inspired you to write yourfirst book and how it actually
evolved you writing multiplebooks and being the New York
bestselling author.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, I had mentioned I was writing, you know,
working with people innewspapers and magazines.
I did all of that stuff on theside.
I had essentially been told myentire life writing is a fun
hobby, but it's not somethingyou can make a living at, you
know.
You have to go out and get areal job.
So I finished college, I endedup with degrees in business,
another one in finance, I gothalfway through a psychology
degree and I then I was in thecorporate world and I was
(05:24):
working, ultimately as a chiefcompliance officer for a
brokerage firm, which is what Iwould do during the daytime.
But then I would go home and Iwould work on books, and I did
this for about two decades.
I just I loved writing, so Iwould help other people get
their novels published,basically working as a
ghostwriter.
But over that time I had sixdifferent books that hit the New
(05:45):
York Times list and they allhad other people's names on the
cover even though I had writtenthem, which gets old after a
while.
So ultimately my wife pulled measide when that sixth one hit
and she said listen, I know youwant to become a full-time
author, let's find a way to makethat happen.
But we had gotten trapped.
I mean, I had been in thatcorporate job for a long time
two decades.
We had a big house, we had cars, we had a boat, our lifestyle
(06:08):
was expensive and it wasn't justsomething we could walk away
from, not without that salary.
So we came up with this crazyplan we sold everything that we
owned, we bought a duplex inPittsburgh and rented out one
side of the duplex to sometenants and we lived in the
other side and basically got ourmonthly expenses down to next
to nothing.
And I was able to quit that dayjob.
And you know, I remember theday we sat down at the kitchen
(06:28):
table, we looked at the bankstatement and my wife said okay,
we've got enough savings foryou to go for about 18 months to
write that book.
You know, go and you know thatreally put my feet to the fire.
So I hammered out my first bookand ultimately ended up indie
publishing it.
But I got lucky and sold a lotof copies which put me on the
radar of the traditionalpublishers.
They picked up my second bookfor a seven-figure deal with a
(06:51):
movie and a TV show attached.
And once I got on that rollercoaster I wasn't about to let go
, I stayed on.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It's very important that you have shared your
journey because most of thepeople have this idea about
entrepreneurship, thinking likeit's you start with an idea and
boom, you reach the success andnobody actually covers the
hurdles, the pain especiallywhen you have a family and that
(07:23):
hardship of taking a high riskdecisions and sitting as a
family to make that decisionhappen.
And it's very heart touchingthat you are open to share the
tough choices that you havetaken to transform your role
from a confined, comfortablelife into something that you're
(07:51):
really passionate about,something that is really worth
that risk-taking and also thehurdles you have been through,
like downsizing the house.
It's not a small deal, right,you're taking compromises with
your lifestyle, but also youhave your goal towards where you
want to go and how you want tobecome as a best selling author.
(08:13):
How was your experience whenyou went through that tough
choices and your first book hita lot of copies in sales?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, I mean, doing that entire thing was very scary
, you know, because you walk inlike I would never get fired
from that job.
My boss loved me.
I did the job very well.
I didn't like the job but Iknew I wasn't going to go
anywhere.
It was, you know.
It had to be my choice to do itand that was a very frightening
thing, and to have your incomebasically go to zero is very
(08:52):
scary.
I got really lucky with thatfirst book.
Stephen King read it early on.
He let me use some of hischaracters in it and that was
essentially the catalyst behindit.
Publishers Weekly had written astory about how I had gotten
Stephen King's permission forthat book as an unknown author.
And when that story hit, youknow, libraries saw that story
and bookstores saw that storyand then they picked up the
title and that's essentiallywhat lit that particular fuse.
But until that moment I had noidea that any of it was going to
(09:15):
work out.
You know, even once the moneystarted coming in, you know,
once I started selling books, Iwas always very skeptical that
it would continue.
And my wife and I we takeeverything that comes in from
the book side and we put it intoreal estate.
We buy rental properties, webuy, we flipped houses and
basically created passive incomecompletely separate from the
writing income, which we stilldo today.
(09:38):
It was a safety blanket.
It allowed us to continue.
So if the book stops sellingtomorrow, we still have the real
estate income to fall back on.
Now we have other investments.
Working in finance, I learnedhow important diversification is
when it comes to money, sowe've been very careful about
that.
But I run into people all thetime, particularly when I do a
(10:00):
talk as an author, and they'lltell me I have a book in me that
I want to write, I'd love to beable to write a book someday,
or I'd love to be able to paintsomeday, or I'd love to be able
to write music someday or do dowhatever, um?
And my response to them is Iwas 43 when I pulled the trigger
on this.
I don't know where you are agewise, but these years go by very
quickly and at some pointyou're going to be sitting on a
(10:20):
porch, you know, rocking in achair, and you don't want to.
You know wonder what if, like,you want to.
You know you want to try allthese things, but you, you have
to take that, that very firststep, which can be frightening.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, I think the very important reality check and
the point that you have justmentioned is I'm I'm following
my passion, I'm I'm you know I'ma really good book author and I
have plans to do, but I don'tknow when it will stop.
So I'm going to take some smartfinancial decisions to take
(10:57):
care of my family and myself.
Right, and it's not many peoplethink about when they try to go
through that entrepreneurshipjourney, right.
So they they think about okay,it's all in, I will be success
for sure, and it will continue.
Um, what would your suggestionwould be for those kind of
(11:21):
entrepreneurs where they'rethinking like you know what, I'm
all in, it's going to besuccess, and I don't have any
backup plan in terms offinancial management and so on
to take care of my family andthings.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I'm a firm believer in like you need to be in that
position.
I think if your only option isto succeed, you're going to find
a way to succeed.
If you have a plan B, you knowall of a sudden that plan B is
hanging off in the corner andyou know at some point it may
become attractive.
It's better to just have a planA, no other focus.
Put all of your energy intoaccomplishing plan A.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And if you have that kind of energy devoted to it,
you're going to get it done.
Yeah, let's say um, that isvery passionate sentence and
that's very important for thepeople to keep moving forward.
Let's talk about your journeyfrom the book author to
entrepreneur and your art ofjuggling, as we call in our
juggling entrepreneur podcast,where now you're a book author,
you're also writing for themovies.
You have other juggling aspectslike real estate and other
things.
(12:28):
How did you find energy andmotivation to handle all those?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I have a bit of a superpower.
I was diagnosed with a form ofautism called Asperger's when I
was in my 20s and, for better orworse, one of the things that
it gives me is this crazyorganizational skills.
Everything in my life is veryregimented, it's very organized.
You know, even when I, when Iquit that financial job, they
ended up having to hire threedifferent people to replace me,
I didn't realize what kind ofworkload I was actually taking
(12:57):
on.
So, even though it feels, youknow, to most people that I'm
doing a lot of different things,you know to me it's, you know,
just another day, I, I, I feellike I have to be busy.
Like I, I, I'm not good atdowntime.
If I had to fix anything atthis point, something new, you
(13:23):
know, like I had mentioned, likeit doesn't matter what level of
success I hit, there's always abrass ring that's just a little
bit higher.
You know that I that I want toreach for Um, and honestly, I
think if I ever got to the pointwhere I feel like I've
accomplished everything that I'mable to accomplish, you know,
like that might be the day Iretire, you know.
So I think I'm always lookingfor something to up the game and
improve on it a little bit andyou, you have been experimenting
(13:45):
in all different new fields.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
You're exploring all different new fields, the fields
that you're not aware of, likethere is always first time for
the real estate, there's alwaysfirst time for writing, for the
movies and so on.
So it takes a lot of motivationand passion to proceed through
that journey.
I would say your suggestion foryoung authors, like preteens
(14:12):
and teens, as we can see in themarket, you know, when they are
in preteens and teens they havethis interest to write a book
and so on what would yoursuggestion would be for those
age groups?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
as a famous book author, Well, I think the one
piece of advice I tend to giveeverybody is you have to write
every single day.
And a lot of people will tellme I don't, I just don't have
time, I'm too busy.
My family, I have this, I havethat.
But the truth is, if you'rereally passionate about it, you
can find the time.
I was working 60 to 80 hours aweek when I was in the corporate
(14:44):
world and I would sneak off youknow whether it was at
lunchtime I would, you know,write a few words.
If I was standing in line atthe grocery store I would knock
out a little bit more.
But I had a daily goal of twoto 300 words that I would get
done every day and that equatesto roughly about a page, which
means that I would have a noveldone within a year.
You know.
So, I think you know, if youset little goals like that, you
(15:10):
know, like, if you look at abook as a whole, it can be very
daunting.
You know it's a big project.
But if you think of it in thosesmall little pieces I'm going
to do 200 words a day.
That's not quite that bad.
That's only, you know,paragraph, couple paragraphs.
So I often tell people to dothat.
And writing is very much likeexercising.
It's a muscle Like if you do itevery day, you get better at it
, you get stronger, it getseasier If you do it sporadically
(15:30):
.
You know, if you only write onSaturdays for you know two hours
and then you know, a coupleweeks go by you jump back into
it again, you're just.
You know, if you're going tothe gym, like the results that
you would see are basically whatyou end up seeing on the
writing side.
Like you have to be at it everysingle day, I think, to be
successful at it.
And the truth is I mean for mostof us like I know a lot of
authors that have done well.
(15:51):
You know it's a calling, likeit's something we were like
almost driven to do.
You know, like I can't go a daywithout writing.
If I don't write for the day, Ican hear like a little voice in
the back of my head nagging meabout it.
It's something I've always done, you know, just to calm myself,
as a hobby.
It's always been my fun placeto go.
Like I think you have to bethat passionate about it to
(16:13):
succeed.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
A common thing between the famous unique book
authors like you and alsoentrepreneur, which you are
already are, is thinkingdifferently, thinking outside
the box.
What would your suggestionwould be for the audience around
?
Thinking differently, outsidethe box?
How did you start your journeyand how it ended up, and what
(16:38):
your suggestion would be to theaudience?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I mean, I've never been afraid to go against the
grain.
So I indie published my firstbook, but it sold a lot of
copies, like I mentioned, andthen I ended up signing a
traditional deal.
After that I was with a companycalled HMH, which is now part
of HarperCollins, and Ipublished a couple of books
traditionally through them, andwhat I quickly realized is that
even though they hand you a nicebig advance check, the
(17:02):
economics on the back end aren'tquite as pieces.
You also have to give up a lotof control and I liked having
control.
I like creating my covers, Ilike knowing when books were
(17:24):
going to go on sale, I likecontrolling the story, every
aspect of it.
I wanted to maintain control.
So I reviewed that entirebusiness model at some point and
decided to make a change and Icalled my agent and I said OK,
moving forward, I'm going toretain English rights for myself
, I'm going to indie publishthose and you can continue
selling in all the foreignterritories.
(17:44):
I'm in about 150 differentcountries, so you know there was
still quite a bit to do there.
But that allowed me tobasically work as an indie
publisher on the English sideand I did that for a number of
novels and that worked outreally well.
But but I I noticed anotherproblem and that's that's kind
of the way my brain works.
You know, I look at my currentbusiness situation.
You know, like, what's working,what's not working, okay, this
(18:04):
isn't working, how can I fix it?
Um, so in this particular case,you know, the books were, you
know, coming out.
They were, you know, everythingseemed to be firing Okay, but,
like as an indie author, there'sa lot of actually get a book.
It's very difficult to get intoplaces like Target or Walmart or
Costco, the big box stores,grocery stores.
So that became a problem.
It became a problem I had tosolve.
(18:25):
So ultimately, I reached out tosome friends of mine that
worked for Simon Schuster, whichis one of the big publishing
companies, and I ended upcreating my own imprint with
Simon Schuster.
So I basically have my ownpublishing house through Simon
Schuster, which means theycurrently handle my print sales
and distribution, which solvedthat problem.
Now my books are in thoseplaces I couldn't get to before.
So I'm always just evaluatingmy current situation, trying to
(18:48):
figure out what I can do to makeit better, improve on it and
take it to the next level.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I think it's kind of like multidimensional approach
of problem solving, where youare improving yourself as a
person, you're improving yourtalents and skills, but also
you're improving the process,where you see there is a problem
and trying to solve the outsideprocess function of it, which
is not as frequent that we seein entrepreneurs.
(19:21):
So, um it's, it's a multi-facetentrepreneur I would say you
are I I think a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
When they're running a business or working for
somebody else, it's so mucheasier to focus on the stuff
that's working.
You know and, like you're goingto be, you're probably totally
aware of the problem areas andthe things that need to be fixed
.
But when you approach your dayfirst thing in the morning, you
look at the 10 things you haveto do.
Eight of them are things thatyou know are going to work out
properly, work out the waythey're supposed to.
Two things might not.
(19:49):
You're going to put those twooff to the side and try to take
care of them last, if at all,and it just gets pushed off and
off.
And I've always kind ofapproached that from the
opposite mindset.
If I have something that's notworking, you know it nags at me.
It's something you know, it's aproblem that needs to be solved
and I think that's the autisticperson in me.
You know I can put a puzzle infront of me.
I have to solve that puzzlebefore I can move on to
something else.
(20:10):
So you know I'm constantlyfocusing on those couple little
negative things and try go away.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, and what a great and unique quality it is
to improve not only our careerpath but also the process around
changing the process in theindustry.
That is worth improving.
Right, let's talk a little bitabout the mastering, the success
(20:36):
with co-authoring yourexperience with that and what
would your suggestion would beif somebody would like to
co-author a book, whatchallenges or what teamwork
skills that it need to have andwhat's your personal experience
from it?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Sure.
So before I started publishingnovels on my own, I had
mentioned I was a book doctorand a growth writer, so that was
a very collaborative experience.
I was always working with otherpeople, so I enjoy that and to
me it's very much like havingmultiple cooks in a kitchen.
You want one person makingbacon and the other person
making eggs.
So whenever I talk to aco-author it's very important to
(21:22):
figure out where our strengthsare, where our weaknesses are
and then kind of divide andconquer that particular project.
Early on I'd written a prequelto Dracula for Bram Stoker's
family.
So I've worked very closelywith Dacre Stoker, who's Bram's
great-grandnephew was Bram'sgreat-grandnephew, and we
learned very fast that.
You know I was good at gettingthe words down on the page,
(21:42):
creating a tense situation and,you know, basically writing the
story.
Where he excelled is, you knowhe was a history professor.
He knew everything about BramStoker but he couldn't write a
word of fiction to save his life.
So we figured that out veryearly on.
So you know, while working onthe book, to give you an example
, if I needed to know what BramStoker's bedroom looked like, he
(22:03):
could tell me.
He could, you know, name thefurniture.
He could tell me where in theroom it was, and I was able to
take that information and applyit to the book and just make it
seem that much more authentic.
Since then I've written a bunchof books with James Patterson.
You know, who's well known for,for being a coauthor working
with other other authors.
Um, and it's just, it's reallyhit home.
You know a lot of these, thesethings that I've worked on.
You know divide and conquer,figure out what.
(22:24):
You know each, each part,figure out who's good at what
and, and you know, focus on onthose things.
Um, at the moment I've got booksthat I'm working on, solo
titles, but you know I'mbringing in other people.
The one behind me is calledHeavier of the Stones.
It just released about threeweeks ago.
(22:46):
I wrote it with a woman namedChristine Daigle who's a
neuropsychologist.
You know that's her day job.
You know she's not a full-timeauthor.
What that allowed is, you knowshe basically brought that
mindset, that skill set, intothe writing process.
So I could pretend to be aneuropsychologist in a book if I
wanted to.
I can do a bunch of Googlesearches and research and you
know I'd probably come across asyou know, something believable.
(23:08):
But having somebody with thatreal mindset behind me, somebody
who can actually answer thosequestions, it adds a legitimacy
to the book that I couldn't doon my own, to the book that I
couldn't do on my own.
So at the moment I'm currentlyseeking out people in a lot of
different professions, you know.
Basically just to you know, toadd to the books, you know, to
make them more well-rounded.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, and it's a great point.
It talks about divide andconquer.
It talks about the value ofteamwork, right, bringing it to
life, especially around theco-authoring, and releasing the
book together.
Um, we will wrap up thispodcast with three things, um,
(23:49):
which we usually do for, uh,every episode.
Um, we will start with thefirst thing your suggestion for
parents who want to beentrepreneurs.
What would your suggestionwould be to especially the
(24:10):
parents who want to beentrepreneurs but they're kind
of hesitant because they arejuggling their day job, they
need to take care of their kids,and so on.
What your suggestion would be?
Where to start?
What are the qualities theyhave to build?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I think you have to devote a certain number of hours
to it a day.
It's you know it's very trickyto pull the trigger on it.
I don't know that I would havebeen able to do what I did if I
had like.
Right now I've got aseven-year-old daughter, but she
hadn't been born at the timewhen my wife and I made this
decision.
It was a very risky thing thatwe did.
I mean a lot of entrepreneursthat I know they start very
early in life, you know, whenthey have no responsibilities
(24:48):
not real ones, and that'sobviously easier.
But I think, if your parents,you know you have to sit down,
you have to figure out how isthis project, you know, this
thing that you want to do, howis it going to impact the rest
of the family?
And hopefully come up with away where it's not going to be a
negative impact, because thatcan easily go south, it can
(25:09):
create fights, it can createanimosity, not only between you
and your spouse but also withthe children.
So I think you have to.
You know, depending on the ageof your kids, you have to loop
them into the conversation.
You know, if they're old enoughto understand what mommy and
daddy are doing.
I think they need to be part ofthat talk and that gives
everybody in the familyownership on it, because you
know, if your children are awareof what you're doing, if they
feel like they're part of it,they're going to give you a
little bit more leeway.
When you need to, you know, hopon that Zoom call at 730 at
(25:31):
night to discuss it withsomebody you know.
So I feel like you need toapproach it as a group.
You know the second it becomesme, me, me.
I think that's where you startrunning into problems.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Everybody's got to buy in yeah, your suggestion for
the entrepreneurs who juststarted the journey but they
want to go to that next stage,right from um being a startup
trying to figure it out how myproduct is, or so on, and um
accelerate terms of revenue ormarket.
(26:02):
What are the skills that theyneed to improve their startup or
their venture through theirentrepreneurship journey?
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Well, I think you need to take stock on your
current business.
You know, sit down and you know, if you're into lists, make a
list of what's working andwhat's not working and, like I
had mentioned, focus on thosethings that aren't working,
because a lot of times, you know, sit down and you know, if
you're into lists, make a listof what's working and what's not
working.
Um, and, like I had mentioned,focus on those things that
aren't working, because a lot oftimes, you know, if you focus
on those, not only do you solvea problem that's you know exists
in your business model, but youcould take something that's you
know currently a negative, comeup with a completely different
(26:34):
solution to deal with thatproblem and, all of a sudden,
that can become a profit center,it could become become a profit
leader in your business.
You know, I think the thingsthat aren't working tend to have
the most.
You know that you can get outof them.
So, like I always focus on that, yeah, thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
And our last point to the kids around the world who
want to be a book author, justlike you yeah, Like, like I
mentioned, I think you need towrite every day.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
You know I grew up without a television in the
house.
You know, watching TV is goingto keep you from writing books,
you know.
So I didn't have a TV.
We were at the library.
From a very early age I used towrite stories and staple the
pages together.
I had a little library that Imade in my bedroom.
My sister would check out thosestories.
I would charge her late feesLike I'd been doing this for for
a very long time.
(27:24):
My daughter is is, you know,she's seven years old.
She's in second grade.
There they're teaching them howto write books in school, which
I think is fantastic.
They're teaching them how tocreate a beginning and a middle
and an end in a story, which issomething I know plenty of
adults can't do, you know.
So, I think, just understandthat framework.
You have to read a lot, I think, to become an author.
(27:45):
I think the more you read, youknow the framework of a story
gets ingrained in your mind.
You're going to understand howa story is supposed to be
structured, and that's going togive you the tools that you need
to kind of go forward and doyour own.
If you want to just try a simpleexercise one of the things that
I do with a lot of new authors,you know read the first half of
a book and then put it down,and then sit down and write the
second half.
(28:05):
You know, without knowing whereit's going to go, Because it
gives you the characters, itgives you your plot, it gives
you your environment, gives youall the beginning tools that you
need.
So just write the second halfof that book and it's a great
way to get started.
Another thing I tend to tellpeople to do is, if you have
trouble writing dialogue, go toa coffee shop, listen into the
table next to you Don't let themknow you're doing it and write
(28:26):
down everything that you hear.
Write it down on paper, Type iton your laptop, Because
translating an actualconversation and seeing what it
looks like on paper is anextremely important skill to
have as an author.
That's how you createbelievable characters.
That's an easy way to practice.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
There you go, audience the wisdom nuggets by
JD Parker.
Again, thank you so much forbeing on our podcast and
audience.
Please check out and buy hisnew book Heavy Stones.
Really looking forward to readthe book JD Parker and it's me
Hema signing off for thisepisode.
(29:02):
Thank you again for your time.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Thank you.
Hi everyone, Welcome to the Juggling Entrepreneur
podcast, where you get motivatedby amazing entrepreneurs.
And today, joining us is JDBarker, a New York Times and
international bestselling authorknown for his gripping work,
such as the Fourth Monkey, Dracoand the Sixth Wicked Child.
His novels, blending withsuspense, horror and
(00:24):
supernatural, have earned praisefrom multiple literally icons.
Today, we will explore hisincredible journey from the
writer to entrepreneur,uncovering how he turned his
passion for storytelling into athriving business.
Jerry Barker, welcome to ourshow.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So I gave a little bit intro about you.
Do you want to add anythingmore to our juggling
entrepreneurs, parents andentrepreneurs who are listening
to this episode?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, I've been an entrepreneur basically my entire
life, so I'm not sure where youeven want to start.
I'm on my third career, I'm amillionaire for the third time
over, and I'm one of thosepeople.
I'm pretty sure if I losteverything tomorrow, if you
handed me a banana and said Ihad to make a living from that
banana, I would find some way toturn that into a million
dollars too.
So kind of a kind of arainmaker when it comes to
(01:19):
business.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Amazing, I amazing.
I think that's a very well umhigh pitch start, I would say.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
And what actually helped you to build that
confidence, um, that you weresaying right, I have built the
skills and talent to totransform anything that I have
in my hand into a business rightI, I honestly think it it must
have started when I was veryyoung, I'm guessing my parents
(01:47):
probably beat it into my head orsomething, but I just, I don't
take no for an answer and I'mjust one of those people.
I just, I don't give up.
If somebody puts a wall infront of me, I find some way to
get around that wall, or I buildit into my business plan and
the wall becomes part of my planand I and I, I always continue
moving forward.
Um, when I was in college Iworked in the music business, um
(02:09):
, and one of my very first jobsI worked for a BMG distribution,
uh, which is a division of RCA,and I was essentially a
glorified babysitter.
I would have to pick uprecording artists at the airport
and get them to the radiostations, get them to their
concert, get them to their hotel, and you know, I was basically
just a little above minimum wage, you know which.
It was a fun job, but like Iwasn't earning a whole lot of
money doing it.
(02:30):
But then I realized I've gotsome very famous people in the
car with me for days at a time.
So I started interviewing thosecelebrities and then selling
those interviews to newspapersand magazines, which turned into
a very lucrative career.
So I always kind of, you know,look for that bright spot, find
some way to improve my situation.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I think that's an amazing start about your
entrepreneurship journey, whereyou're talking about.
Most of the people who are inthose kind of scenarios will
either be depressed or will tryto find a way but stuck.
But your creative way offinding the solutions during the
(03:09):
tough times is very unique andI think that is the ability that
will help build anyentrepreneurship journey, do you
agree?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
yeah, absolutely.
I.
I think you know any situationcan be improved, but you need to
be the one to improve it.
You can't really wait forsomebody else to do it for you.
You'll be standing around for avery long time if you take that
stance on it.
You know, I just I always wantedto be a writer, so I think
everything that I did kind ofrevolved into that one way or
another.
You know, like I was aglorified babysitter, I turned
(03:37):
that into a writing job while Iwas working for newspapers and
magazines.
You know, I basically learnedthat virtually everybody in that
industry had a novel in a deskdrawer somewhere that they'd
been working on forever.
You know it's 600,000 wordslong.
They've been working on it for10 years.
It's almost done.
I kind of presented myself tothose people too.
I became the go-to guy forhelping them get those
(03:58):
manuscripts finished, because Isaw that as an opportunity.
I was very good with grammarand punctuation and just general
copy editing, so I would helpthose people fine tune their
manuscripts and get them to thepoint where they could be
published.
I just I've always looked foryou know what is the next step,
what is the next thing I can doto improve.
I still do it today.
I mean, I sell a ton of booksyou know, new York Times
(04:20):
bestseller.
I've got movies in the works,I've got TV shows in the works,
but I'm always looking for like,what is that next thing?
How can I take this to the nextlevel?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, and that is not .
Many people have that kind ofequality, unique quality, that
fighting spirit that it's allstarts by from us.
Right, and how we can improverather than blaming the
situations around us.
Let's talk about your firstbook.
(04:50):
What inspired you to write yourfirst book and how it actually
evolved you writing multiplebooks and being the New York
bestselling author.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, I had mentioned I was writing, you know,
working with people innewspapers and magazines.
I did all of that stuff on theside.
I had essentially been told myentire life writing is a fun
hobby, but it's not somethingyou can make a living at, you
know.
You have to go out and get areal job.
So I finished college, I endedup with degrees in business,
another one in finance, I gothalfway through a psychology
degree and I then I was in thecorporate world and I was
(05:24):
working, ultimately as a chiefcompliance officer for a
brokerage firm, which is what Iwould do during the daytime.
But then I would go home and Iwould work on books, and I did
this for about two decades.
I just I loved writing, so Iwould help other people get
their novels published,basically working as a
ghostwriter.
But over that time I had sixdifferent books that hit the New
(05:45):
York Times list and they allhad other people's names on the
cover even though I had writtenthem, which gets old after a
while.
So ultimately my wife pulled measide when that sixth one hit
and she said listen, I know youwant to become a full-time
author, let's find a way to makethat happen.
But we had gotten trapped.
I mean, I had been in thatcorporate job for a long time
two decades.
We had a big house, we had cars, we had a boat, our lifestyle
(06:08):
was expensive and it wasn't justsomething we could walk away
from, not without that salary.
So we came up with this crazyplan we sold everything that we
owned, we bought a duplex inPittsburgh and rented out one
side of the duplex to sometenants and we lived in the
other side and basically got ourmonthly expenses down to next
to nothing.
And I was able to quit that dayjob.
And you know, I remember theday we sat down at the kitchen
(06:28):
table, we looked at the bankstatement and my wife said okay,
we've got enough savings foryou to go for about 18 months to
write that book.
You know, go and you know thatreally put my feet to the fire.
So I hammered out my first bookand ultimately ended up indie
publishing it.
But I got lucky and sold a lotof copies which put me on the
radar of the traditionalpublishers.
They picked up my second bookfor a seven-figure deal with a
(06:51):
movie and a TV show attached.
And once I got on that rollercoaster I wasn't about to let go
, I stayed on.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It's very important that you have shared your
journey because most of thepeople have this idea about
entrepreneurship, thinking likeit's you start with an idea and
boom, you reach the success andnobody actually covers the
hurdles, the pain especiallywhen you have a family and that
(07:23):
hardship of taking a high riskdecisions and sitting as a
family to make that decisionhappen.
And it's very heart touchingthat you are open to share the
tough choices that you havetaken to transform your role
from a confined, comfortablelife into something that you're
(07:51):
really passionate about,something that is really worth
that risk-taking and also thehurdles you have been through,
like downsizing the house.
It's not a small deal, right,you're taking compromises with
your lifestyle, but also youhave your goal towards where you
want to go and how you want tobecome as a best selling author.
(08:13):
How was your experience whenyou went through that tough
choices and your first book hita lot of copies in sales?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, I mean, doing that entire thing was very scary
, you know, because you walk inlike I would never get fired
from that job.
My boss loved me.
I did the job very well.
I didn't like the job but Iknew I wasn't going to go
anywhere.
It was, you know.
It had to be my choice to do itand that was a very frightening
thing, and to have your incomebasically go to zero is very
(08:52):
scary.
I got really lucky with thatfirst book.
Stephen King read it early on.
He let me use some of hischaracters in it and that was
essentially the catalyst behindit.
Publishers Weekly had written astory about how I had gotten
Stephen King's permission forthat book as an unknown author.
And when that story hit, youknow, libraries saw that story
and bookstores saw that storyand then they picked up the
title and that's essentiallywhat lit that particular fuse.
But until that moment I had noidea that any of it was going to
(09:15):
work out.
You know, even once the moneystarted coming in, you know,
once I started selling books, Iwas always very skeptical that
it would continue.
And my wife and I we takeeverything that comes in from
the book side and we put it intoreal estate.
We buy rental properties, webuy, we flipped houses and
basically created passive incomecompletely separate from the
writing income, which we stilldo today.
(09:38):
It was a safety blanket.
It allowed us to continue.
So if the book stops sellingtomorrow, we still have the real
estate income to fall back on.
Now we have other investments.
Working in finance, I learnedhow important diversification is
when it comes to money, sowe've been very careful about
that.
But I run into people all thetime, particularly when I do a
(10:00):
talk as an author, and they'lltell me I have a book in me that
I want to write, I'd love to beable to write a book someday,
or I'd love to be able to paintsomeday, or I'd love to be able
to write music someday or do dowhatever, um?
And my response to them is Iwas 43 when I pulled the trigger
on this.
I don't know where you are agewise, but these years go by very
quickly and at some pointyou're going to be sitting on a
(10:20):
porch, you know, rocking in achair, and you don't want to.
You know wonder what if, like,you want to.
You know you want to try allthese things, but you, you have
to take that, that very firststep, which can be frightening.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, I think the very important reality check and
the point that you have justmentioned is I'm I'm following
my passion, I'm I'm you know I'ma really good book author and I
have plans to do, but I don'tknow when it will stop.
So I'm going to take some smartfinancial decisions to take
(10:57):
care of my family and myself.
Right, and it's not many peoplethink about when they try to go
through that entrepreneurshipjourney, right.
So they they think about okay,it's all in, I will be success
for sure, and it will continue.
Um, what would your suggestionwould be for those kind of
(11:21):
entrepreneurs where they'rethinking like you know what, I'm
all in, it's going to besuccess, and I don't have any
backup plan in terms offinancial management and so on
to take care of my family andthings.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I'm a firm believer in like you need to be in that
position.
I think if your only option isto succeed, you're going to find
a way to succeed.
If you have a plan B, you knowall of a sudden that plan B is
hanging off in the corner andyou know at some point it may
become attractive.
It's better to just have a planA, no other focus.
Put all of your energy intoaccomplishing plan A.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
And if you have that kind of energy devoted to it,
you're going to get it done.
Yeah, let's say um, that isvery passionate sentence and
that's very important for thepeople to keep moving forward.
Let's talk about your journeyfrom the book author to
entrepreneur and your art ofjuggling, as we call in our
juggling entrepreneur podcast,where now you're a book author,
you're also writing for themovies.
You have other juggling aspectslike real estate and other
things.
(12:28):
How did you find energy andmotivation to handle all those?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I have a bit of a superpower.
I was diagnosed with a form ofautism called Asperger's when I
was in my 20s and, for better orworse, one of the things that
it gives me is this crazyorganizational skills.
Everything in my life is veryregimented, it's very organized.
You know, even when I, when Iquit that financial job, they
ended up having to hire threedifferent people to replace me,
I didn't realize what kind ofworkload I was actually taking
(12:57):
on.
So, even though it feels, youknow, to most people that I'm
doing a lot of different things,you know to me it's, you know,
just another day, I, I, I feellike I have to be busy.
Like I, I, I'm not good atdowntime.
If I had to fix anything atthis point, something new, you
(13:23):
know, like I had mentioned, likeit doesn't matter what level of
success I hit, there's always abrass ring that's just a little
bit higher.
You know that I that I want toreach for Um, and honestly, I
think if I ever got to the pointwhere I feel like I've
accomplished everything that I'mable to accomplish, you know,
like that might be the day Iretire, you know.
So I think I'm always lookingfor something to up the game and
improve on it a little bit andyou, you have been experimenting
(13:45):
in all different new fields.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
You're exploring all different new fields, the fields
that you're not aware of, likethere is always first time for
the real estate, there's alwaysfirst time for writing, for the
movies and so on.
So it takes a lot of motivationand passion to proceed through
that journey.
I would say your suggestion foryoung authors, like preteens
(14:12):
and teens, as we can see in themarket, you know, when they are
in preteens and teens they havethis interest to write a book
and so on what would yoursuggestion would be for those
age groups?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
as a famous book author, Well, I think the one
piece of advice I tend to giveeverybody is you have to write
every single day.
And a lot of people will tellme I don't, I just don't have
time, I'm too busy.
My family, I have this, I havethat.
But the truth is, if you'rereally passionate about it, you
can find the time.
I was working 60 to 80 hours aweek when I was in the corporate
(14:44):
world and I would sneak off youknow whether it was at
lunchtime I would, you know,write a few words.
If I was standing in line atthe grocery store I would knock
out a little bit more.
But I had a daily goal of twoto 300 words that I would get
done every day and that equatesto roughly about a page, which
means that I would have a noveldone within a year.
You know.
So, I think you know, if youset little goals like that, you
(15:10):
know, like, if you look at abook as a whole, it can be very
daunting.
You know it's a big project.
But if you think of it in thosesmall little pieces I'm going
to do 200 words a day.
That's not quite that bad.
That's only, you know,paragraph, couple paragraphs.
So I often tell people to dothat.
And writing is very much likeexercising.
It's a muscle Like if you do itevery day, you get better at it
, you get stronger, it getseasier If you do it sporadically
(15:30):
.
You know, if you only write onSaturdays for you know two hours
and then you know, a coupleweeks go by you jump back into
it again, you're just.
You know, if you're going tothe gym, like the results that
you would see are basically whatyou end up seeing on the
writing side.
Like you have to be at it everysingle day, I think, to be
successful at it.
And the truth is I mean for mostof us like I know a lot of
authors that have done well.
(15:51):
You know it's a calling, likeit's something we were like
almost driven to do.
You know, like I can't go a daywithout writing.
If I don't write for the day, Ican hear like a little voice in
the back of my head nagging meabout it.
It's something I've always done, you know, just to calm myself,
as a hobby.
It's always been my fun placeto go.
Like I think you have to bethat passionate about it to
(16:13):
succeed.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
A common thing between the famous unique book
authors like you and alsoentrepreneur, which you are
already are, is thinkingdifferently, thinking outside
the box.
What would your suggestionwould be for the audience around
?
Thinking differently, outsidethe box?
How did you start your journeyand how it ended up, and what
(16:38):
your suggestion would be to theaudience?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I mean, I've never been afraid to go against the
grain.
So I indie published my firstbook, but it sold a lot of
copies, like I mentioned, andthen I ended up signing a
traditional deal.
After that I was with a companycalled HMH, which is now part
of HarperCollins, and Ipublished a couple of books
traditionally through them, andwhat I quickly realized is that
even though they hand you a nicebig advance check, the
(17:02):
economics on the back end aren'tquite as pieces.
You also have to give up a lotof control and I liked having
control.
I like creating my covers, Ilike knowing when books were
(17:24):
going to go on sale, I likecontrolling the story, every
aspect of it.
I wanted to maintain control.
So I reviewed that entirebusiness model at some point and
decided to make a change and Icalled my agent and I said OK,
moving forward, I'm going toretain English rights for myself
, I'm going to indie publishthose and you can continue
selling in all the foreignterritories.
(17:44):
I'm in about 150 differentcountries, so you know there was
still quite a bit to do there.
But that allowed me tobasically work as an indie
publisher on the English sideand I did that for a number of
novels and that worked outreally well.
But but I I noticed anotherproblem and that's that's kind
of the way my brain works.
You know, I look at my currentbusiness situation.
You know, like, what's working,what's not working, okay, this
(18:04):
isn't working, how can I fix it?
Um, so in this particular case,you know, the books were, you
know, coming out.
They were, you know, everythingseemed to be firing Okay, but,
like as an indie author, there'sa lot of actually get a book.
It's very difficult to get intoplaces like Target or Walmart or
Costco, the big box stores,grocery stores.
So that became a problem.
It became a problem I had tosolve.
(18:25):
So ultimately, I reached out tosome friends of mine that
worked for Simon Schuster, whichis one of the big publishing
companies, and I ended upcreating my own imprint with
Simon Schuster.
So I basically have my ownpublishing house through Simon
Schuster, which means theycurrently handle my print sales
and distribution, which solvedthat problem.
Now my books are in thoseplaces I couldn't get to before.
So I'm always just evaluatingmy current situation, trying to
(18:48):
figure out what I can do to makeit better, improve on it and
take it to the next level.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I think it's kind of like multidimensional approach
of problem solving, where youare improving yourself as a
person, you're improving yourtalents and skills, but also
you're improving the process,where you see there is a problem
and trying to solve the outsideprocess function of it, which
is not as frequent that we seein entrepreneurs.
(19:21):
So, um it's, it's a multi-facetentrepreneur I would say you
are I I think a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
When they're running a business or working for
somebody else, it's so mucheasier to focus on the stuff
that's working.
You know and, like you're goingto be, you're probably totally
aware of the problem areas andthe things that need to be fixed
.
But when you approach your dayfirst thing in the morning, you
look at the 10 things you haveto do.
Eight of them are things thatyou know are going to work out
properly, work out the waythey're supposed to.
Two things might not.
(19:49):
You're going to put those twooff to the side and try to take
care of them last, if at all,and it just gets pushed off and
off.
And I've always kind ofapproached that from the
opposite mindset.
If I have something that's notworking, you know it nags at me.
It's something you know, it's aproblem that needs to be solved
and I think that's the autisticperson in me.
You know I can put a puzzle infront of me.
I have to solve that puzzlebefore I can move on to
something else.
(20:10):
So you know I'm constantlyfocusing on those couple little
negative things and try go away.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, and what a great and unique quality it is
to improve not only our careerpath but also the process around
changing the process in theindustry.
That is worth improving.
Right, let's talk a little bitabout the mastering, the success
(20:36):
with co-authoring yourexperience with that and what
would your suggestion would beif somebody would like to
co-author a book, whatchallenges or what teamwork
skills that it need to have andwhat's your personal experience
from it?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Sure.
So before I started publishingnovels on my own, I had
mentioned I was a book doctorand a growth writer, so that was
a very collaborative experience.
I was always working with otherpeople, so I enjoy that and to
me it's very much like havingmultiple cooks in a kitchen.
You want one person makingbacon and the other person
making eggs.
So whenever I talk to aco-author it's very important to
(21:22):
figure out where our strengthsare, where our weaknesses are
and then kind of divide andconquer that particular project.
Early on I'd written a prequelto Dracula for Bram Stoker's
family.
So I've worked very closelywith Dacre Stoker, who's Bram's
great-grandnephew was Bram'sgreat-grandnephew, and we
learned very fast that.
You know I was good at gettingthe words down on the page,
(21:42):
creating a tense situation and,you know, basically writing the
story.
Where he excelled is, you knowhe was a history professor.
He knew everything about BramStoker but he couldn't write a
word of fiction to save his life.
So we figured that out veryearly on.
So you know, while working onthe book, to give you an example
, if I needed to know what BramStoker's bedroom looked like, he
(22:03):
could tell me.
He could, you know, name thefurniture.
He could tell me where in theroom it was, and I was able to
take that information and applyit to the book and just make it
seem that much more authentic.
Since then I've written a bunchof books with James Patterson.
You know, who's well known for,for being a coauthor working
with other other authors.
Um, and it's just, it's reallyhit home.
You know a lot of these, thesethings that I've worked on.
You know divide and conquer,figure out what.
(22:24):
You know each, each part,figure out who's good at what
and, and you know, focus on onthose things.
Um, at the moment I've got booksthat I'm working on, solo
titles, but you know I'mbringing in other people.
The one behind me is calledHeavier of the Stones.
It just released about threeweeks ago.
(22:46):
I wrote it with a woman namedChristine Daigle who's a
neuropsychologist.
You know that's her day job.
You know she's not a full-timeauthor.
What that allowed is, you knowshe basically brought that
mindset, that skill set, intothe writing process.
So I could pretend to be aneuropsychologist in a book if I
wanted to.
I can do a bunch of Googlesearches and research and you
know I'd probably come across asyou know, something believable.
(23:08):
But having somebody with thatreal mindset behind me, somebody
who can actually answer thosequestions, it adds a legitimacy
to the book that I couldn't doon my own, to the book that I
couldn't do on my own.
So at the moment I'm currentlyseeking out people in a lot of
different professions, you know.
Basically just to you know, toadd to the books, you know, to
make them more well-rounded.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, and it's a great point.
It talks about divide andconquer.
It talks about the value ofteamwork, right, bringing it to
life, especially around theco-authoring, and releasing the
book together.
Um, we will wrap up thispodcast with three things, um,
(23:49):
which we usually do for, uh,every episode.
Um, we will start with thefirst thing your suggestion for
parents who want to beentrepreneurs.
What would your suggestionwould be to especially the
(24:10):
parents who want to beentrepreneurs but they're kind
of hesitant because they arejuggling their day job, they
need to take care of their kids,and so on.
What your suggestion would be?
Where to start?
What are the qualities theyhave to build?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I think you have to devote a certain number of hours
to it a day.
It's you know it's very trickyto pull the trigger on it.
I don't know that I would havebeen able to do what I did if I
had like.
Right now I've got aseven-year-old daughter, but she
hadn't been born at the timewhen my wife and I made this
decision.
It was a very risky thing thatwe did.
I mean a lot of entrepreneursthat I know they start very
early in life, you know, whenthey have no responsibilities
(24:48):
not real ones, and that'sobviously easier.
But I think, if your parents,you know you have to sit down,
you have to figure out how isthis project, you know, this
thing that you want to do, howis it going to impact the rest
of the family?
And hopefully come up with away where it's not going to be a
negative impact, because thatcan easily go south, it can
(25:09):
create fights, it can createanimosity, not only between you
and your spouse but also withthe children.
So I think you have to.
You know, depending on the ageof your kids, you have to loop
them into the conversation.
You know, if they're old enoughto understand what mommy and
daddy are doing.
I think they need to be part ofthat talk and that gives
everybody in the familyownership on it, because you
know, if your children are awareof what you're doing, if they
feel like they're part of it,they're going to give you a
little bit more leeway.
When you need to, you know, hopon that Zoom call at 730 at
(25:31):
night to discuss it withsomebody you know.
So I feel like you need toapproach it as a group.
You know the second it becomesme, me, me.
I think that's where you startrunning into problems.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Everybody's got to buy in yeah, your suggestion for
the entrepreneurs who juststarted the journey but they
want to go to that next stage,right from um being a startup
trying to figure it out how myproduct is, or so on, and um
accelerate terms of revenue ormarket.
(26:02):
What are the skills that theyneed to improve their startup or
their venture through theirentrepreneurship journey?
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Well, I think you need to take stock on your
current business.
You know, sit down and you know, if you're into lists, make a
list of what's working andwhat's not working and, like I
had mentioned, focus on thosethings that aren't working,
because a lot of times, you know, sit down and you know, if
you're into lists, make a listof what's working and what's not
working.
Um, and, like I had mentioned,focus on those things that
aren't working, because a lot oftimes, you know, if you focus
on those, not only do you solvea problem that's you know exists
in your business model, but youcould take something that's you
know currently a negative, comeup with a completely different
(26:34):
solution to deal with thatproblem and, all of a sudden,
that can become a profit center,it could become become a profit
leader in your business.
You know, I think the thingsthat aren't working tend to have
the most.
You know that you can get outof them.
So, like I always focus on that, yeah, thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
And our last point to the kids around the world who
want to be a book author, justlike you yeah, Like, like I
mentioned, I think you need towrite every day.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
You know I grew up without a television in the
house.
You know, watching TV is goingto keep you from writing books,
you know.
So I didn't have a TV.
We were at the library.
From a very early age I used towrite stories and staple the
pages together.
I had a little library that Imade in my bedroom.
My sister would check out thosestories.
I would charge her late feesLike I'd been doing this for for
a very long time.
(27:24):
My daughter is is, you know,she's seven years old.
She's in second grade.
There they're teaching them howto write books in school, which
I think is fantastic.
They're teaching them how tocreate a beginning and a middle
and an end in a story, which issomething I know plenty of
adults can't do, you know.
So, I think, just understandthat framework.
You have to read a lot, I think, to become an author.
(27:45):
I think the more you read, youknow the framework of a story
gets ingrained in your mind.
You're going to understand howa story is supposed to be
structured, and that's going togive you the tools that you need
to kind of go forward and doyour own.
If you want to just try a simpleexercise one of the things that
I do with a lot of new authors,you know read the first half of
a book and then put it down,and then sit down and write the
second half.
(28:05):
You know, without knowing whereit's going to go, Because it
gives you the characters, itgives you your plot, it gives
you your environment, gives youall the beginning tools that you
need.
So just write the second halfof that book and it's a great
way to get started.
Another thing I tend to tellpeople to do is, if you have
trouble writing dialogue, go toa coffee shop, listen into the
table next to you Don't let themknow you're doing it and write
(28:26):
down everything that you hear.
Write it down on paper, Type iton your laptop, Because
translating an actualconversation and seeing what it
looks like on paper is anextremely important skill to
have as an author.
That's how you createbelievable characters.
That's an easy way to practice.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
There you go, audience the wisdom nuggets by
JD Parker.
Again, thank you so much forbeing on our podcast and
audience.
Please check out and buy hisnew book Heavy Stones.
Really looking forward to readthe book JD Parker and it's me
Hema signing off for thisepisode.
(29:02):
Thank you again for your time.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Thank you.
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