October 31, 2024 • 54 mins
Claire E. Jones (she/her) is a queer fantasy romance author who has sold her books in six countries and has produced over a dozen journals, planners, and workbooks. She is also an experienced guide that supports other writers in getting their works into the world. As an established small business and entrepreneurship expert of 20 years, she has launched four of her own businesses and now services creatives of all types in achieving their goals in less time with less stress. She works from Seattle WA, where she lives with her precious pup, Karma
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Thank you for listening to Pictures Media Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rat you readying to me?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Will bad alone? I need so suplasson alone?
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Is it dead?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, Welcome back to everybody. Our next guest is actually,
uh well, we've had her on the show before. Claire
is a publishing coach and she helps authors actually get
their book out there. But guess what, she is also
(01:57):
a published off author and we get to hear a
little bit about her next book in this next interview
as she talks about who she is as an author,
and it explains a little more about who she is
as a person also, So this is going to be
a really cool opportunity to see who Claire E. Jones
(02:22):
is as a person and not just as a publishing
coach and a excellent business person. So Claire is a
queer fantasy romance author who sold her books in six
countries and has produced over a dozen journals, planners, workbooks.
(02:44):
She is experienced a guide that supports other writers in
getting their works out there into the world, and as
established business, small business and entrepreneur expert of twenty years,
she has launched four of her own businesses and is
(03:06):
now now services creatives of all types and achieving goals
in less time and with less stress. She's a Seattle
based girl, so, which means this from my studio to
where she lives is about maybe two hours.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
So let's see what she has to say, ALcom claire
(04:04):
and maybe say congratulations on a new book.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, thank you. Yes, it is my third and it's
coming out next Thursday. And I've been just a busy
little bee over here.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, it's especially in the Negative Woods where we live.
The great rainforest that it is is either you get
busy doing something or you just drown yourself and all
the Yeah, and that's not cool either.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So yeah, we are slowly transitioning to the rainy season
and some people love it and some people hate it.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah. Yeah, well in our Negative Woods it's been a
little more dangerous than usual. Mm hmm. Yeah. So but hey,
you know, atmospheric rivers happen.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yes, that is true, that is r.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So yeah, so first off, let's let's talk about about
your new book going on there? You know, yeah, a
gay fantasy.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, yeah, that's accurate. It's queer fantasy romance is what
I call it. Yeah, for sure. It is book three
of an eight book series that I've been writing for
a while now, and so I'm in the middle of
writing book four at the moment. But it started out
as a D and D setting actually for a Dungeons
and Dragons game. I just kind of wanted to start
(05:42):
my own game at a certain point and wanted to
like homebrew my own world, and this was in the
middle of the pandemic, so I had one to play
with at that point in time. But I later repurposed
it for this fantasy romance setting, and so I put
much crafted a romance story around it, and then realized
(06:04):
I had a fully fleshed out eight book series in
this world that I could explore because there are eight
classes of magic in the world, and so I decided
to write a book from the perspective of one person
who wields a certain class of magic. So Book one
(06:25):
is from the perspective of the woman who wields the
blessing from the Goddess of Death, Book two is from
the perspective of the woman who wields the blessing from
the Goddess of Water, and Book five is from the
hero who wields the blessing of the Fire God. And
so each book progressively tells the story where they're fighting
(06:48):
against evil forces and fighting love along the way as well.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Okay, the blessing of from the goddess of Death. Yeah,
it's an interesting twist.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Mm hmmm. Yeah. So I created a pantheon of eight
gods and goddesses and they are more or less elementally based,
like there's you know, water, fire, earth plants, but there's
also life and death as well. And the magic system
in this world stems from a divine blessing that was
(07:24):
bestowed upon a bloodline at a certain point in time
in the history of this world, and so certain people
of this bloodline can wield those magics.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Wow, Okay, sign me up. I need a copy of
Holley Books.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I love pantheons in general.
I've always loved the whole Greek system, the Roman system,
but especially Egyptology. I've been a huge fan of Egypt
for a very long time, and I actually got a
chance to really dive into it in the third book
because of the homeland where the third book's hero is
(08:05):
from is very much ancient Egypt inspired.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Wow. I always got to kick out of out of
people's belief systems. M I always found it found a
uh found it interesting how how how different natural events
brought about a a belief system, and it's it's pretty cool. Yeah,
(08:35):
but that sounds sounds like a really good book, good
series of books to read. On top of which is
like that, I will label myself, uh the uber geek.
Also I used to play Dungeons and Dragons myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Mean I am a huge geek for Dungeons and dragons.
So you are in welcome company.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, I think, I think so where I still have
my little sack of dice around something.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, I'm actually blessed with a group right now. We
formed it about two years ago and I'm the dungeon
master for my group, and we have three fairies and
a human paladin. Who are my players?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, I used to have. My favorite character was a
wood elf. He was also a thief, a thief with
a conscience though yes, yes, no man, you shouldn't have
done that, And I had to steal that back from
we give it back to the right people, and then
(09:38):
we cause all kinds of trouble in uh in for
our group because because I would all of a sudden
like pocket something then and then have to give it
back and the whole group would have to come along
with some pretty fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, you can get up into all kinds of high
drinks in D and D. My players are currently reorganizing
a pirate headquarters. They've taken over as the bosses of
this pirate organization and they are now doing reorg team
building activities with said pirates. And they spent thirty minutes
(10:15):
of our last session arguing about how to form a
union for said pirates as well and who exactly gets
union member votes in this pirate union.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Wow. They also starting to sound like some like like
some real life issues too, you know, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, I mean that's the thing about tabletop role playing games,
and I think role playing games in general, I mean
art and creativity in general. It's a reflection of the
real world. I mean, that's where we go to grapple
with heavier topics that might be more stressful to deal
with in the real world, but it's the safe world
(10:55):
of fantasy that we get to experience with them.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
And hopefully every now and again something comes out of there.
They can actually be used in the real world too,
like help better humanity itself.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
So absolutely, Dungeons and dragons is using is being used
more increasingly in group therapy sessions as a tool to
help people somatically work through their issues.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Well, I didn't know that, mm hmm, And I can
see how it can work. Uh, definitely towards towards it better. Yeah,
so so you created this world, I mean, assuming it
took more than just a few roles of the dice.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That come over yes.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Books. So yeah, what what what else you inspired? How
the how the magic should work, and how the the
the energy of that magic should work and everything.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah. Well, you know, I've always, like I said, loved pantheons,
and so I love the idea of divinely granted magic.
I've always loved that in books that I've read. But
when I was younger, I was a huge fantasy wader.
I'm still a huge fantasy reader, and particularly when I
was younger, I loved books that and still to this day,
(12:24):
focus on different characters, and so I often get tired
if it's the same protagonists all throughout a series. It's
like I understand their point of view, and I want
another person's point of view for the next book, because
they tend to repeat the same emotional themes over and
over again, if they're the same protagonists throughout the series.
(12:45):
And so I really liked the idea of kind of
passing the baton between these different magic users, and so
that gave me a chance to play with more character types, honestly,
and I've honestly had a really fun time trying to
(13:06):
coordinate the magic that they use to their personalities as well,
Like what are plant characteristics that show up in the
person who wields the magic of plants? What are fiery
characteristics that show up in the person who wields fire
like For example, my second book, the One who wields
(13:27):
the Water Blessing, is very emotional. She has very deep
emotional experiences in the way that she interacts with and
perceives the world, and throughout the book, I've specifically used
water based descriptives to describe her emotional experiences. So I
use words like the emotion washes over her, or her
(13:50):
anxiety drips out of her, And so I'm using descriptive
words that match her magic class in subtle ways. But
she also has a temperamental aspect to her as well,
which water like the ocean can be. You know, it's
a vast place the ocean. So how can I match
(14:14):
the characteristics of the magic class to the magic wielder.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Wow, it's it's a lot of imagination.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Oh, all I do is imagine I spend my whole
day and in my imagination many.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
And that can be a really cool place to be,
you know.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
You know, yeah, I mean it gets maladaptive at certain
points in time, or something as maladaptive daydreaming. But I
try to say, on the adaptive side.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
How often do you fail? No, don't answer, I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Getting better at it. I mean, my therapist did graduate
me a couple of years ago, so I feel like
I got her blessings graduate.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
There you go. No, I don't think my therapist is
ever going to let me go. It's like it's like, uh,
he says, I get to or just say they say
I get too deeply involved in the issue at hand. Hey,
(15:23):
you know it's human rights, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I mean we all have our nerd zones. I like
to call them.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah. Yeah, speaking of one of your nerd zones, We're
going to dive away from the book for a second
to talk about because you're like the one of the
most serial of entrepreneurs I've ever met was how many
different businesses, right.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, publishing is my fourth that I've founded.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, and ah have seen some level of success or everything.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
So yeah, I mean they've all provided me with great
learning opportunities and great lessons, and that in itself, I
find is a success to me. And they've all made
money in some shape or form, which is also a
success to me. So I started out my first business
(16:25):
was a general store devoted to local goods. It was
a brick and mortar location in West Seattle, and that
really was birthed from my love of local warism at
the time, which is the concept of trying to consume
as much of your daily consumption needs locally as possible.
(16:45):
Typically it's relegated towards food consumption, like how can you
eat local produce, meat, et cetera as locally as possible,
But I extended it to basic goods as well, and
so I sourced my store with ninety five percent goods
that were produced and in the Pacific Northwest, and five
(17:07):
percent was US in general. So like I imported coffee from Hawaii,
for example, and so that was more of like an
extended local warism.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Well, coffee is a tough one for the area that
we live in, because coffee will not grow.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Here, yeah exactly, So there were in the same.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Rain bars they won't.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Grow here, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
That's a tough one. But from what I understand though, uh,
over fifty percent of your goods in that store when
you had that, uh didn't have any more than a
two hour truck ride.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yes were Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah. So yeah, which that's that's an amazing thing to
actually be able to do.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, And you know what I found, what the two
cansumer pains that I was trying to solve for was
like one, the amount of time and effort that it
took to research where products were made, and to the
amount of time and effort it took to track all
of those items down, because typically you have to go
to several different shops to get everything on your list
if you are looking to buy as much as your
(18:17):
stuff locally as possible. And so that's why I made
it a general store format, so I had, you know,
notebooks to ornaments, to jewelry, to t shirts, to soups,
to coffee, to pretty much as much as I could
find in a variety of goods so that you could
buy it all under one roof and trust that it
(18:39):
was locally sourced without having to do the research yourself.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, just kind of an off to walk question. Yeah,
you rate your relationship building skills to be able to
do something like that.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well, that was honestly my crash course that first business
because I had worked in retail since a teenager, and
so I knew how to run a retail store logistically,
but I didn't necessarily know how to promote a retail store.
I'd never really been in that kind of position, is
(19:16):
to be in charge of the marketing efforts of a
retail store. And so when I looked around for mentors
in the space, I went to places like SCORE, you know,
through the SBA, which is a small business association that
the government provides. But I also found organizations like the
Small Business Development Council SBDC, and I found a free
(19:40):
mentor through them that I was instantly a fan of.
And he introduced this concept of networking to me, and
I was like, what is this word that you speak of.
I have never heard it before. And so that store
was a crash course in me learning how to network
(20:01):
and how to develop business relationships in a fruitful way.
And I made a lot of mistakes, to be fair,
when I was starting out, But yeah, that was officially
ten years ago at this point, and I would have
to say my score nowadays is miles beyond where it
(20:21):
was back then.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah. Well that's the whole point of entrepreneurship. It isn't like,
it isn't the nine to five grind. It is a
daily learning experience.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Right absolutely. I mean I was working sixty hours a
week in that store because I had to man the
store myself. I had to physically be there in order
for the store to be open day in and day out,
and so it quickly overtook my life.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah. Well that's the other secret of entrepreneurship. We all
work what is it, half days, which twelve hours?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah yeah, I'm like, how about like we sleep like
a quarter of the day and three quarters of the
day is left over for exactly yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
So from there, I actually went into business consulting because
it was such a huge crash course for me.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I suddenly realized that after two years of doing that,
two years of learning the ropes, two years of learning
as much as I could, it was basically my crash course.
MBA and I could then go to other small businesses
in the area and be like, hey, this is what
I learned, this is the research that is behind what
I learned, and we can also improve your operations and
(21:56):
marketing and systems and stuff like that to benefit them.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, you had that special kind of NBA though it
wasn't It wasn't a university NBA. It was the street
NBA exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I joked that I got my MBA via Google, you know, like,
I honestly think it's more worthwhile these days than a
paper MBA from a university because it's hands on, on
the job learning and you learn so much more from
that than you can from a detached spreadsheet lecture.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, don't say they don't misunderstand everybody listening that we're
not saying you shouldn't do that sort of work. It's
an important work also, but hey, look for the real
world stuff also because it's going to one helped you
build relationships because you have to join in with people
(23:00):
in order to make that work.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Absolutely, I mean that's one of the ways that I
really truly learned the meaning of the phrase it takes
a village.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, yeah, it does. It does take a village. Yeah,
so that led us to which next business.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
So I started working more in other small businesses, kind
of as an employee, but more of like a consultant
employee for a few years. And from there I was
actually working with a leadership team of a small business
who were kind of failing at being leaders in their business.
(23:44):
Like this is very common in the world of small businesses,
is that they are an expert in the skill that
they build the business around, whether they're a contractor or
For my example, they were dog walkers and trainers, but
they weren't necessarily skilled in leading the businesses that they
built around those skill sets. And so as a result,
(24:09):
I was doing a lot of research into leadership skill
development for them to try to help train them into
being better leaders in the companies that they were leading.
And that's when I found the neuro Leadership Institute. I
stumbled across their research one day when I was doing
leadership skill development research. And they are an institute over
(24:31):
in New York that combines the science of neuroscience and
the soft skills of leadership skill development. And so they
pretty much use the scientific method They use fMRIs, they
use psychological studies, they use as much hard science as
possible to study what goes into making a good leader,
(24:53):
and they have founded about four facets of neuro leadership.
I believe one is making decisions, two is collaborating with others,
three is facilitating change, and the fourth I think is
self regulation. I want to say, if I'm remembering correctly.
(25:15):
And so finally I found research that gave me hard
science behind those soft skills, because often when you come
to leadership skill developments, it's anecdotal and observational and more
often than not based on a very privileged perspective.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah it that ors it from the armed forces.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, exactly, And so I was hooked once you gave
me that hard science behind soft skills, Like, I was
absolutely hooked. So I ended up becoming a neuro leadership
coach as a result, and studied under the institute, got
a certification and opened up at set Out my Shingle
(26:00):
as a neuro leadership coach. And so that's when I
then started doing coaching programs with leaders in businesses who
wanted to improve the way that they led their companies.
And so that was my second business.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Wow, well do you eventually wind up doing because you
currently coach creatives and how to get their work out there.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, that's a different iteration of it. The neuro leadership
coaching morphed a couple times in terms of my focus.
I morphed into business consulting for a time in that business,
and I also morphed into wellness coaching for executives as
well during that business and kind of a transition coach
(26:49):
of sorts, because I was finding the root causes to
a lot of these leaders' problems didn't necessarily have to
do with their business know how or their leadership know how,
but their self management was often what it boiled down
to in terms of time management, wellness management, and mindset management.
(27:12):
That was more often the case in terms of where
they were falling short in how they could improve the
way that they were running their organizations. And so that
business morphed a few times. And so I have taken
the vestiges of those coaching practices consulting practices and kind
(27:35):
of integrated them into my publishing company now where I
work with authors and other types of creatives in their
business management.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
And then for a short, hot minute, I had a
sweatpants company, Yes, sweatpants. That was during the pandemic, but.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
That I can see that being your your brand of fashion. Yeah,
I always look so comfortable. You always don't understand this
for for everybody who's who's watching is a you know,
the plaid shirt, the scarf and everything, but you always
look it may be eclectic, but it's put together.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Thank you, thank you. It has taken me years to
get to this point. Thank you. Yes, my fashion sense
did evolve rapidly during the pandemic, as I think everyone did.
Prior to the pandemic, I thought it was a cardinal
sin to wear sweatpants in public.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I generally don't, although okay, I do spend a lot,
a lot of my time in especially since we're getting
into the colder weather with with our our plenty of
going into the shadow of the sun, of the fleecy
(29:07):
warm leggings.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So yeah, yeah. And so in the pandemic, you know,
sweatpants were becoming more and more of an acceptable public
wear item, and I thought, why couldn't we have fun
sweatpants out there? You know, sweatpants and bright colors and
bold patterns, and that kind of sweatpants hadn't really hit
(29:33):
the level that it is to do this day. Because
the whole athleisure industry was transformed by the pandemic and
people going for more comfortable wear out there in the world.
And so I started a sweatpants company that was based on,
you know, more fashionable sweatpants, but were also high quality
(29:55):
make and made in the US as well. So that
was kind of my attempt at reviving the whole local
warism thing that I had going with the General store,
while also trying to tap into my creativity which hadn't
really been well fulfilled. With the consulting and the coaching,
(30:17):
I kept finding myself, I'm a creative at heart. Every
bone in my body is a creative bone, and I
just have this generative creative need that I need to
address day in and day out. And so the sweatpants
company was my first attempt at finding a business model
to encapsulate that.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
This sounds like fun.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
It was. I mean, I had a ton of fun
designing the sweatpants. But the thing about fashion brands, especially
with custom fashion brands and not white label fashion brands,
is that they are very expensive to start.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yeah, because you still do need to find someone to
actually physically make the sweatpants.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yes, and in order.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
To quantities to be consumed by the public exactly.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And so for my first run of inventory, just to
launch the company itself, I had to invest two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars into sweatpants.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yeah, let's not go down to two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars road too often though, because the person sitting
on this side of the of the zoom call. We
put two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into a TV
show only to be told is never going to be made? Yeah,
(31:43):
and then't imagine it. Could you have a significant other? Right?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Uh? No, actually I am single with my dog.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Oh well, I actually had to go after hearing that
the TV show was not going to be be made
for error or any of that sort of stuff. I
had to go home and tell my wife that I
spent two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from out or
savings account to a project that wasn't ever going to
(32:14):
happen and there was no recoping the money. Yeah, that
was one of the downfalls of entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
But yes, that was the era of my life where
I learned the phrase it's not a life lesson unless
it counts costs. At least ten thousand dollars. It's a
good saying, and that honestly changed my relationship to what
a whole lot of money meant, you know. And I
(32:41):
think that that was a great mindset shift for myself
as an entrepreneur as well to truly understand, like, you know,
five hundred dollars here and there sure might make a
difference in my bottom line, but at the end of
the day, it's not a true life lesson unless it's
over ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah. Uh, I'm just gonna say that there is a
question right going to tip my tongue about that. How
important is it as an entrepreneur to expand our idea
of what a large sum of money is.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I think it's very important, and I think it's a
piece that a lot of starting entrepreneurs and starting small
business owners forget because I think we waste a lot
of worry energy on small sums. Like don't get me wrong,
it is definitely a good idea to budget and to
(33:46):
track your expenses and to understand where each dollar is
going in your businessess and where it's being used and
how it's being used. That is definitely fundamental to running
a business. But I think you have to have a
more expansive approach to those smaller bills and those smaller
(34:13):
expenses because I run into so many people who waste
so many hours a day sweating the small stuff and
at the end of the day, like to use the
NBA example for example, like an NBA costs thirty to
fifty thousand dollars right out of a university. That's usually
(34:35):
what you expect to pay for thirty for an MBA.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Really, I thought it was the price tangle was a
bit higher, but hey, let's go with it.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Let's go with it.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, I mean it honestly depends on the university you
go to, for sure, and whether you're in state or
out of state, and whether you have laid and you know,
so on.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so okay, But.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
What is the difference between spending thirty thousand on an
MBA or spending thirty thousand on a business? What is
the difference between spending thirty thousand dollars on a new
bathroom and spending thirty thousand dollars on a business. You know,
at the end of the day, you can choose which
(35:21):
expenses are going to propel your goals further and which
expenses are going to give you the most ROI return
on your investment versus you know, like we spend what
forty grand on a car, sometimes fifty grand on a
car sometimes when it's often a status symbol, right, And
(35:46):
so you can look at spending thirty thousand dollars on
a business as an investment in yourself rather than an
investment on a status symbol. Or if you just really
need a good, big, better bathroom, like if your bathroom's
fallen apart, you know, there's nothing wrong with spending the
thirty forty fifty dollars it takes to remodel your bathroom.
But it puts those types of expenses into better perspective
(36:12):
so that you understand what you're choosing to spend your
money on, because the money is going to be spent
either way, right.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And that's the money should be spent. Because one of
the I think one of for our public in the
US and Canada, one of the most expensive things that
people have is a savings account. It costs some more
(36:45):
money than they think.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
Yeah, so we have to be careful about that, yeah, exactly,
And it's I'm.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Sure you're gonna go to agree with this one. Also,
it's it's okay to sock money away for the rainy day. Sure,
nothing wrong with that, but it's a when you make
yourself suffer the rainy day just to have the rainy
(37:22):
day money, you may kind of rethink that, right.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
So yeah, I mean it's a fine balance to make,
and each person is going to have to make that
decision for themselves. Is what kind of balance of risk
and safety you're willing to accept in this endeavor of
this entrepreneurship cycle, or even just how much you spend
(37:48):
on expenses versus what you save in the bank or
wherever you save it. And I think a lot of
people are reluctant to spend money on unusual things like
business ownership, and are more willing to spend money on
usual things like cars, bathrooms, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. We we have a sitting
and sitting in our in our driveway because I keep
the business truck here. It costs but but it it
costs us uh something like one hundred and fifty thousand
(38:34):
dollars for a for a truck. Yeah you, oh, but
that truck can haul a whole TV set like like
like a a talkshow TV set forth in it to
get from point A to point and B so that
(38:55):
we can actually provide entertainment for an audience. And with
that entertainment we get money, lots of money from sponsors.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Right, hopefully you have to make really conscious decisions on
the strategic use of money at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Let me ask you this because because because we're talking
a lot of language, the only only entrepreneurial creatives are
going to catch on too, So to to to create
our art rather be the book, the painting, uh, the documentary,
(39:40):
whatever it is, it's it costs, there's a cost to it,
and balancing the costs versus the return and how to
spread the cost throughout the community so that you can
actually live mm hmm. How do you help people figure
(40:01):
all that out?
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Well, I mean I think the first thing is looking
at their resources. Like when I said that before, is
like the st strategic use of money. I think it's
more the strategic use of resources and that involves money,
that involves energy, that involves time, that involves community. Is
(40:26):
who do you have access to? What are they willing
to provide? What time do you have access to? What
time are you willing to commit, what energy do you
have access to, and what energy are you willing to
commit to it? And what money do you have access to?
And what money are you willing to commit? Because the
more intentional and strategic we get about those decisions, the
(40:51):
more we're able to plan accordingly, Like you start to
accept the consequences of the decisions you make, which it
sounds so simple, but it's actually a really radical concept
to a lot of people these days, is that they
don't equate consequences and decisions. Often is like decisions to
(41:18):
purchase cable versus a decision to invest in a financial
course or something like that. They think that cable is
the automatic answer oftentimes, but financial courses may have a
greater reward in the long term. So in terms of community,
(41:41):
you can also intentionally strategically tap into your community in
the same way. Is who is also resourced enough and
willing enough to help you in this endeavor and how
can you I don't honestarily want to say use your
community because that sounds credit for but tap into the
(42:09):
well of resources that are available when you bring multiple
people together. And I think a very specific example of
this to make it a little more concrete, it's crowdfunding.
I think crowdfunding is becoming more and more of an
option for people nowadays, whether it's funding a creative endeavor
like art, music, books, TV, so on and so forth,
(42:33):
or whether it's just funding lifestyle expenses. I recently donated
to a friend who did a crowdfunding campaign for medical
expenses for her dog, and I think it's an attempt
to go back to more village centric ways of living
that we've had in the past, where people pitch in
(42:55):
when a member of the village is in need because
they believe that they would also pitch in if they
were in need.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Well, okay, toss out a large university kind of word.
We are a gregorious species.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Mm hmmm. Yes, do you mean gregorian as in the
calendar or do you mean gregarious as in loquacious.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
As in social We got to be part of a society, gotcha?
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Yeah, which also means that only do we have to
talk to each other, we have to hang out with
each other, but it also means that we have to
lift each other up. Yes.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yes, I think we've gotten too isolated in this world
of technology that we live in. And I think we
can see that in the mass difference between how families
stick together in different countries versus in the US and Canada.
We have got very isolated in our family structures.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yeah, I have a really good example of that, but
I'm not going to share it with you at this
particular time.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
You're definitely officially on a tangent.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yeah, it's going to lead down a huge political tangent.
And this is not a political show. So hey, with
what we time, we have left character lists for your
books because I want to get back to the book,
because hey, we want to promote the heck out of
your book, because hey, we want you to sell you
(44:39):
sell a billion copies.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Yes, that would be nice for sure. Yeah. I mean
in the first book, we have Kila, who is the
moon blessed, the goddess of death blessed. We have Nesima
in the second book, who is the water blessed. Then
we have rock Meant in the third book, who is
(45:02):
the fire blest.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Now going back to the because I've kind of feel
drawn to this water character. Oh yeah, which is kind
of funny because because if we were to look at
my numerology and my and my zodiac and all that
kind of stuff. I'm air air air air, just floating
(45:25):
away air. But there's something that you said about about her,
did at least to did you actually paint her like
like as an impact or something like that, because.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, I mean she feels everything very deeply, and I
think she picks up on other people's emotions more so
than other characters in the book for sure. Like you know,
Rock met because he is the fire blest I had
a lot of like fiery impulsiveness built into his character
as well, and he's a bit blind sometimes when it
(46:04):
comes to people's emotional experiences.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah, so it also makes it How do you see
each element developing inside of a person.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
In terms of the magic mechanics or for like me
developing a character.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Well, it's going to be a little bit of both,
I think, okay, because how you view a firing personality,
it's going to be how you're going to write the
fiery personality.
Speaker 6 (46:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, I should see those elements developing people.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Yeah, I mean I chose the elements first. I chose
the magic abilities first, and I also chose their genders first.
I knew going into it, like whether I wanted a
hero or a heroine or even non binary is going
to show up as well later on in the novel.
(47:10):
And from there, I sort of crafted the characters around
like not only the elemental influences, but also certain personality
traits that I wanted to play with. Sometimes they're inspired
(47:31):
by other characters that I've seen out there in the world.
Sometimes they're inspired by songs that I've come across. But
I usually have a element. I have a gender, I
have a sexuality usually that I begin with for the character,
and then I have different tropes, different relationship dynamics, different
character traits that I think align with those first three
(47:56):
choices that I then assign to those various characters.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yeah, So I have like a whole playlist of songs
that are all character songs for me that put me
in the mood and the perspective of the various characters.
And that's what really truly drives home my connection and
understanding of the characters themselves.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
To create a whole environment around yourself in order to
write the character.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Oh yes, absolutely, like because I'm feeling from their perspective.
Like when I was writing the Water character, I was
in the fields all the time because she was in
the fields all the time, and she was just so
emotional that I had to tap into that aspect of
myself to be emotional as well. And so, for example,
(48:50):
for Book four's character that I'm writing right now, she
is very angry with where she is in life at
the moment, and so I've kind of had to work
my rile myself up in order to write from her
perspective in order to tap into the anger that's inside
of her. And so songs definitely help with them.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, hit that part kind of is a quasi actor.
You know, you gotta find that and you can't keep
replaying the that same emotion because then thin gets tired
and tack me.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
And yeah, I mean, I definitely have to play the
playlist a few times in order to sync into the
character's point of view. But once I'm there, that's where
the flow starts.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
For sure. Sounds like a lot of fun too, it is.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
I mean, I get so much dopamine from writing, like
I I'm not one of those writers that can do
short chunks every day. I honestly hate the advice to
write every day. I think it's un sustainable and puts
you like sets you up for failure. But that's a
whole nother rant. I like to have long blocks of
(50:08):
writing time, and so I schedule at least three to
five hours per writing block because that allows me to
fully sync into the flow and fully sync into the
character without having to divert or distract my attention to
other things going on.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
Sounds like a lot of fun, and I do actually
look forward to to getting a hold of the book.
But hey, I need that special link that guides me
to where the book.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Is link Tree slash Claire.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
Giants that would be in the show notes. Guys, So
I want you to when it would be October?
Speaker 2 (50:54):
What October thirty? First, it's Halloween every.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Year, Halloween. Halloween. Yeah, I was gonna say it sounding
like Halloween. Yeah. So if you're listening to this before
Halloween in twenty twenty four, you know, given another couple
of days, it'll be up there. If you're listening after Halloween,
(51:18):
go get the book. It's gonna be fun, it's going
to be enjoyable, and if you like fantasy fantasy romance
in general, you're gonna really love with Claric's writing. So
go check it out. It is again, the link is
link Tree.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
What flash Claire joyants, there you go.
Speaker 1 (51:42):
All right, thanks for listening everybody, Thank you Claire for
coming on.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Yeah, thank you, happy to be here, all right.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
That's so bad. So I don't know, so I shun action.
(52:22):
So why say this?
Speaker 4 (52:31):
He says?
Speaker 3 (52:35):
A reason.
Speaker 4 (52:42):
Should be like cho wah, we can't wait, so.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
Will yees?
Speaker 1 (53:31):
She go to.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
It? St ST ST.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
I know.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
The show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please contact
us at depictions dot media for more information
Thank you for listening to Pictures Media Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Rat you readying to me?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Will bad alone? I need so suplasson alone?
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Is it dead?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay, Welcome back to everybody. Our next guest is actually,
uh well, we've had her on the show before. Claire
is a publishing coach and she helps authors actually get
their book out there. But guess what, she is also
(01:57):
a published off author and we get to hear a
little bit about her next book in this next interview
as she talks about who she is as an author,
and it explains a little more about who she is
as a person also, So this is going to be
a really cool opportunity to see who Claire E. Jones
(02:22):
is as a person and not just as a publishing
coach and a excellent business person. So Claire is a
queer fantasy romance author who sold her books in six
countries and has produced over a dozen journals, planners, workbooks.
(02:44):
She is experienced a guide that supports other writers in
getting their works out there into the world, and as
established business, small business and entrepreneur expert of twenty years,
she has launched four of her own businesses and is
(03:06):
now now services creatives of all types and achieving goals
in less time and with less stress. She's a Seattle
based girl, so, which means this from my studio to
where she lives is about maybe two hours.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
So let's see what she has to say, ALcom claire
(04:04):
and maybe say congratulations on a new book.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, thank you. Yes, it is my third and it's
coming out next Thursday. And I've been just a busy
little bee over here.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, it's especially in the Negative Woods where we live.
The great rainforest that it is is either you get
busy doing something or you just drown yourself and all
the Yeah, and that's not cool either.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So yeah, we are slowly transitioning to the rainy season
and some people love it and some people hate it.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah. Yeah, well in our Negative Woods it's been a
little more dangerous than usual. Mm hmm. Yeah. So but hey,
you know, atmospheric rivers happen.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yes, that is true, that is r.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
So yeah, so first off, let's let's talk about about
your new book going on there? You know, yeah, a
gay fantasy.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, yeah, that's accurate. It's queer fantasy romance is what
I call it. Yeah, for sure. It is book three
of an eight book series that I've been writing for
a while now, and so I'm in the middle of
writing book four at the moment. But it started out
as a D and D setting actually for a Dungeons
and Dragons game. I just kind of wanted to start
(05:42):
my own game at a certain point and wanted to
like homebrew my own world, and this was in the
middle of the pandemic, so I had one to play
with at that point in time. But I later repurposed
it for this fantasy romance setting, and so I put
much crafted a romance story around it, and then realized
(06:04):
I had a fully fleshed out eight book series in
this world that I could explore because there are eight
classes of magic in the world, and so I decided
to write a book from the perspective of one person
who wields a certain class of magic. So Book one
(06:25):
is from the perspective of the woman who wields the
blessing from the Goddess of Death, Book two is from
the perspective of the woman who wields the blessing from
the Goddess of Water, and Book five is from the
hero who wields the blessing of the Fire God. And
so each book progressively tells the story where they're fighting
(06:48):
against evil forces and fighting love along the way as well.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Okay, the blessing of from the goddess of Death. Yeah,
it's an interesting twist.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Mm hmmm. Yeah. So I created a pantheon of eight
gods and goddesses and they are more or less elementally based,
like there's you know, water, fire, earth plants, but there's
also life and death as well. And the magic system
in this world stems from a divine blessing that was
(07:24):
bestowed upon a bloodline at a certain point in time
in the history of this world, and so certain people
of this bloodline can wield those magics.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Wow, Okay, sign me up. I need a copy of
Holley Books.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I love pantheons in general.
I've always loved the whole Greek system, the Roman system,
but especially Egyptology. I've been a huge fan of Egypt
for a very long time, and I actually got a
chance to really dive into it in the third book
because of the homeland where the third book's hero is
(08:05):
from is very much ancient Egypt inspired.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Wow. I always got to kick out of out of
people's belief systems. M I always found it found a
uh found it interesting how how how different natural events
brought about a a belief system, and it's it's pretty cool. Yeah,
(08:35):
but that sounds sounds like a really good book, good
series of books to read. On top of which is
like that, I will label myself, uh the uber geek.
Also I used to play Dungeons and Dragons myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Mean I am a huge geek for Dungeons and dragons.
So you are in welcome company.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, I think, I think so where I still have
my little sack of dice around something.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, I'm actually blessed with a group right now. We
formed it about two years ago and I'm the dungeon
master for my group, and we have three fairies and
a human paladin. Who are my players?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, I used to have. My favorite character was a
wood elf. He was also a thief, a thief with
a conscience though yes, yes, no man, you shouldn't have
done that, And I had to steal that back from
we give it back to the right people, and then
(09:38):
we cause all kinds of trouble in uh in for
our group because because I would all of a sudden
like pocket something then and then have to give it
back and the whole group would have to come along
with some pretty fun stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, you can get up into all kinds of high
drinks in D and D. My players are currently reorganizing
a pirate headquarters. They've taken over as the bosses of
this pirate organization and they are now doing reorg team
building activities with said pirates. And they spent thirty minutes
(10:15):
of our last session arguing about how to form a
union for said pirates as well and who exactly gets
union member votes in this pirate union.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Wow. They also starting to sound like some like like
some real life issues too, you know, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, I mean that's the thing about tabletop role playing games,
and I think role playing games in general, I mean
art and creativity in general. It's a reflection of the
real world. I mean, that's where we go to grapple
with heavier topics that might be more stressful to deal
with in the real world, but it's the safe world
(10:55):
of fantasy that we get to experience with them.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
And hopefully every now and again something comes out of there.
They can actually be used in the real world too,
like help better humanity itself.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
So absolutely, Dungeons and dragons is using is being used
more increasingly in group therapy sessions as a tool to
help people somatically work through their issues.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Well, I didn't know that, mm hmm, And I can
see how it can work. Uh, definitely towards towards it better. Yeah,
so so you created this world, I mean, assuming it
took more than just a few roles of the dice.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That come over yes.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Books. So yeah, what what what else you inspired? How
the how the magic should work, and how the the
the energy of that magic should work and everything.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah. Well, you know, I've always, like I said, loved pantheons,
and so I love the idea of divinely granted magic.
I've always loved that in books that I've read. But
when I was younger, I was a huge fantasy wader.
I'm still a huge fantasy reader, and particularly when I
was younger, I loved books that and still to this day,
(12:24):
focus on different characters, and so I often get tired
if it's the same protagonists all throughout a series. It's
like I understand their point of view, and I want
another person's point of view for the next book, because
they tend to repeat the same emotional themes over and
over again, if they're the same protagonists throughout the series.
(12:45):
And so I really liked the idea of kind of
passing the baton between these different magic users, and so
that gave me a chance to play with more character types, honestly,
and I've honestly had a really fun time trying to
(13:06):
coordinate the magic that they use to their personalities as well,
Like what are plant characteristics that show up in the
person who wields the magic of plants? What are fiery
characteristics that show up in the person who wields fire
like For example, my second book, the One who wields
(13:27):
the Water Blessing, is very emotional. She has very deep
emotional experiences in the way that she interacts with and
perceives the world, and throughout the book, I've specifically used
water based descriptives to describe her emotional experiences. So I
use words like the emotion washes over her, or her
(13:50):
anxiety drips out of her, And so I'm using descriptive
words that match her magic class in subtle ways. But
she also has a temperamental aspect to her as well,
which water like the ocean can be. You know, it's
a vast place the ocean. So how can I match
(14:14):
the characteristics of the magic class to the magic wielder.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Wow, it's it's a lot of imagination.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Oh, all I do is imagine I spend my whole
day and in my imagination many.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
And that can be a really cool place to be,
you know.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
You know, yeah, I mean it gets maladaptive at certain
points in time, or something as maladaptive daydreaming. But I
try to say, on the adaptive side.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
How often do you fail? No, don't answer, I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Getting better at it. I mean, my therapist did graduate
me a couple of years ago, so I feel like
I got her blessings graduate.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
There you go. No, I don't think my therapist is
ever going to let me go. It's like it's like, uh,
he says, I get to or just say they say
I get too deeply involved in the issue at hand. Hey,
(15:23):
you know it's human rights, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I mean we all have our nerd zones. I like
to call them.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah. Yeah, speaking of one of your nerd zones, We're
going to dive away from the book for a second
to talk about because you're like the one of the
most serial of entrepreneurs I've ever met was how many
different businesses, right.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, publishing is my fourth that I've founded.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, and ah have seen some level of success or everything.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
So yeah, I mean they've all provided me with great
learning opportunities and great lessons, and that in itself, I
find is a success to me. And they've all made
money in some shape or form, which is also a
success to me. So I started out my first business
(16:25):
was a general store devoted to local goods. It was
a brick and mortar location in West Seattle, and that
really was birthed from my love of local warism at
the time, which is the concept of trying to consume
as much of your daily consumption needs locally as possible.
(16:45):
Typically it's relegated towards food consumption, like how can you
eat local produce, meat, et cetera as locally as possible,
But I extended it to basic goods as well, and
so I sourced my store with ninety five percent goods
that were produced and in the Pacific Northwest, and five
(17:07):
percent was US in general. So like I imported coffee from Hawaii,
for example, and so that was more of like an
extended local warism.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Well, coffee is a tough one for the area that
we live in, because coffee will not grow.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Here, yeah exactly, So there were in the same.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Rain bars they won't.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Grow here, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
That's a tough one. But from what I understand though, uh,
over fifty percent of your goods in that store when
you had that, uh didn't have any more than a
two hour truck ride.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yes were Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah. So yeah, which that's that's an amazing thing to
actually be able to do.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, And you know what I found, what the two
cansumer pains that I was trying to solve for was
like one, the amount of time and effort that it
took to research where products were made, and to the
amount of time and effort it took to track all
of those items down, because typically you have to go
to several different shops to get everything on your list
if you are looking to buy as much as your
(18:17):
stuff locally as possible. And so that's why I made
it a general store format, so I had, you know,
notebooks to ornaments, to jewelry, to t shirts, to soups,
to coffee, to pretty much as much as I could
find in a variety of goods so that you could
buy it all under one roof and trust that it
(18:39):
was locally sourced without having to do the research yourself.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, just kind of an off to walk question. Yeah,
you rate your relationship building skills to be able to
do something like that.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Well, that was honestly my crash course that first business
because I had worked in retail since a teenager, and
so I knew how to run a retail store logistically,
but I didn't necessarily know how to promote a retail store.
I'd never really been in that kind of position, is
(19:16):
to be in charge of the marketing efforts of a
retail store. And so when I looked around for mentors
in the space, I went to places like SCORE, you know,
through the SBA, which is a small business association that
the government provides. But I also found organizations like the
Small Business Development Council SBDC, and I found a free
(19:40):
mentor through them that I was instantly a fan of.
And he introduced this concept of networking to me, and
I was like, what is this word that you speak of.
I have never heard it before. And so that store
was a crash course in me learning how to network
(20:01):
and how to develop business relationships in a fruitful way.
And I made a lot of mistakes, to be fair,
when I was starting out, But yeah, that was officially
ten years ago at this point, and I would have
to say my score nowadays is miles beyond where it
(20:21):
was back then.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah. Well that's the whole point of entrepreneurship. It isn't like,
it isn't the nine to five grind. It is a
daily learning experience.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Right absolutely. I mean I was working sixty hours a
week in that store because I had to man the
store myself. I had to physically be there in order
for the store to be open day in and day out,
and so it quickly overtook my life.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah. Well that's the other secret of entrepreneurship. We all
work what is it, half days, which twelve hours?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah yeah, I'm like, how about like we sleep like
a quarter of the day and three quarters of the
day is left over for exactly yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
So from there, I actually went into business consulting because
it was such a huge crash course for me.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I suddenly realized that after two years of doing that,
two years of learning the ropes, two years of learning
as much as I could, it was basically my crash course.
MBA and I could then go to other small businesses
in the area and be like, hey, this is what
I learned, this is the research that is behind what
I learned, and we can also improve your operations and
(21:56):
marketing and systems and stuff like that to benefit them.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, you had that special kind of NBA though it
wasn't It wasn't a university NBA. It was the street
NBA exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I joked that I got my MBA via Google, you know, like,
I honestly think it's more worthwhile these days than a
paper MBA from a university because it's hands on, on
the job learning and you learn so much more from
that than you can from a detached spreadsheet lecture.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, don't say they don't misunderstand everybody listening that we're
not saying you shouldn't do that sort of work. It's
an important work also, but hey, look for the real
world stuff also because it's going to one helped you
build relationships because you have to join in with people
(23:00):
in order to make that work.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Absolutely, I mean that's one of the ways that I
really truly learned the meaning of the phrase it takes
a village.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, yeah, it does. It does take a village. Yeah,
so that led us to which next business.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
So I started working more in other small businesses, kind
of as an employee, but more of like a consultant
employee for a few years. And from there I was
actually working with a leadership team of a small business
who were kind of failing at being leaders in their business.
(23:44):
Like this is very common in the world of small businesses,
is that they are an expert in the skill that
they build the business around, whether they're a contractor or
For my example, they were dog walkers and trainers, but
they weren't necessarily skilled in leading the businesses that they
built around those skill sets. And so as a result,
(24:09):
I was doing a lot of research into leadership skill
development for them to try to help train them into
being better leaders in the companies that they were leading.
And that's when I found the neuro Leadership Institute. I
stumbled across their research one day when I was doing
leadership skill development research. And they are an institute over
(24:31):
in New York that combines the science of neuroscience and
the soft skills of leadership skill development. And so they
pretty much use the scientific method They use fMRIs, they
use psychological studies, they use as much hard science as
possible to study what goes into making a good leader,
(24:53):
and they have founded about four facets of neuro leadership.
I believe one is making decisions, two is collaborating with others,
three is facilitating change, and the fourth I think is
self regulation. I want to say, if I'm remembering correctly.
(25:15):
And so finally I found research that gave me hard
science behind those soft skills, because often when you come
to leadership skill developments, it's anecdotal and observational and more
often than not based on a very privileged perspective.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah it that ors it from the armed forces.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, exactly, And so I was hooked once you gave
me that hard science behind soft skills, Like, I was
absolutely hooked. So I ended up becoming a neuro leadership
coach as a result, and studied under the institute, got
a certification and opened up at set Out my Shingle
(26:00):
as a neuro leadership coach. And so that's when I
then started doing coaching programs with leaders in businesses who
wanted to improve the way that they led their companies.
And so that was my second business.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Wow, well do you eventually wind up doing because you
currently coach creatives and how to get their work out there.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, that's a different iteration of it. The neuro leadership
coaching morphed a couple times in terms of my focus.
I morphed into business consulting for a time in that business,
and I also morphed into wellness coaching for executives as
well during that business and kind of a transition coach
(26:49):
of sorts, because I was finding the root causes to
a lot of these leaders' problems didn't necessarily have to
do with their business know how or their leadership know how,
but their self management was often what it boiled down
to in terms of time management, wellness management, and mindset management.
(27:12):
That was more often the case in terms of where
they were falling short in how they could improve the
way that they were running their organizations. And so that
business morphed a few times. And so I have taken
the vestiges of those coaching practices consulting practices and kind
(27:35):
of integrated them into my publishing company now where I
work with authors and other types of creatives in their
business management.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
And then for a short, hot minute, I had a
sweatpants company, Yes, sweatpants. That was during the pandemic, but.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
That I can see that being your your brand of fashion. Yeah,
I always look so comfortable. You always don't understand this
for for everybody who's who's watching is a you know,
the plaid shirt, the scarf and everything, but you always
look it may be eclectic, but it's put together.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Thank you, thank you. It has taken me years to
get to this point. Thank you. Yes, my fashion sense
did evolve rapidly during the pandemic, as I think everyone did.
Prior to the pandemic, I thought it was a cardinal
sin to wear sweatpants in public.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I generally don't, although okay, I do spend a lot,
a lot of my time in especially since we're getting
into the colder weather with with our our plenty of
going into the shadow of the sun, of the fleecy
(29:07):
warm leggings.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So yeah, yeah. And so in the pandemic, you know,
sweatpants were becoming more and more of an acceptable public
wear item, and I thought, why couldn't we have fun
sweatpants out there? You know, sweatpants and bright colors and
bold patterns, and that kind of sweatpants hadn't really hit
(29:33):
the level that it is to do this day. Because
the whole athleisure industry was transformed by the pandemic and
people going for more comfortable wear out there in the world.
And so I started a sweatpants company that was based on,
you know, more fashionable sweatpants, but were also high quality
(29:55):
make and made in the US as well. So that
was kind of my attempt at reviving the whole local
warism thing that I had going with the General store,
while also trying to tap into my creativity which hadn't
really been well fulfilled. With the consulting and the coaching,
(30:17):
I kept finding myself, I'm a creative at heart. Every
bone in my body is a creative bone, and I
just have this generative creative need that I need to
address day in and day out. And so the sweatpants
company was my first attempt at finding a business model
to encapsulate that.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
This sounds like fun.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
It was. I mean, I had a ton of fun
designing the sweatpants. But the thing about fashion brands, especially
with custom fashion brands and not white label fashion brands,
is that they are very expensive to start.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yeah, because you still do need to find someone to
actually physically make the sweatpants.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yes, and in order.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
To quantities to be consumed by the public exactly.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And so for my first run of inventory, just to
launch the company itself, I had to invest two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars into sweatpants.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yeah, let's not go down to two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars road too often though, because the person sitting
on this side of the of the zoom call. We
put two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into a TV
show only to be told is never going to be made? Yeah,
(31:43):
and then't imagine it. Could you have a significant other? Right?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Uh? No, actually I am single with my dog.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Oh well, I actually had to go after hearing that
the TV show was not going to be be made
for error or any of that sort of stuff. I
had to go home and tell my wife that I
spent two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from out or
savings account to a project that wasn't ever going to
(32:14):
happen and there was no recoping the money. Yeah, that
was one of the downfalls of entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
But yes, that was the era of my life where
I learned the phrase it's not a life lesson unless
it counts costs. At least ten thousand dollars. It's a
good saying, and that honestly changed my relationship to what
a whole lot of money meant, you know. And I
(32:41):
think that that was a great mindset shift for myself
as an entrepreneur as well to truly understand, like, you know,
five hundred dollars here and there sure might make a
difference in my bottom line, but at the end of
the day, it's not a true life lesson unless it's
over ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah. Uh, I'm just gonna say that there is a
question right going to tip my tongue about that. How
important is it as an entrepreneur to expand our idea
of what a large sum of money is.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I think it's very important, and I think it's a
piece that a lot of starting entrepreneurs and starting small
business owners forget because I think we waste a lot
of worry energy on small sums. Like don't get me wrong,
it is definitely a good idea to budget and to
(33:46):
track your expenses and to understand where each dollar is
going in your businessess and where it's being used and
how it's being used. That is definitely fundamental to running
a business. But I think you have to have a
more expansive approach to those smaller bills and those smaller
(34:13):
expenses because I run into so many people who waste
so many hours a day sweating the small stuff and
at the end of the day, like to use the
NBA example for example, like an NBA costs thirty to
fifty thousand dollars right out of a university. That's usually
(34:35):
what you expect to pay for thirty for an MBA.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Really, I thought it was the price tangle was a
bit higher, but hey, let's go with it.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Let's go with it.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, I mean it honestly depends on the university you
go to, for sure, and whether you're in state or
out of state, and whether you have laid and you know,
so on.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so okay, But.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
What is the difference between spending thirty thousand on an
MBA or spending thirty thousand on a business? What is
the difference between spending thirty thousand dollars on a new
bathroom and spending thirty thousand dollars on a business. You know,
at the end of the day, you can choose which
(35:21):
expenses are going to propel your goals further and which
expenses are going to give you the most ROI return
on your investment versus you know, like we spend what
forty grand on a car, sometimes fifty grand on a
car sometimes when it's often a status symbol, right, And
(35:46):
so you can look at spending thirty thousand dollars on
a business as an investment in yourself rather than an
investment on a status symbol. Or if you just really
need a good, big, better bathroom, like if your bathroom's
fallen apart, you know, there's nothing wrong with spending the
thirty forty fifty dollars it takes to remodel your bathroom.
But it puts those types of expenses into better perspective
(36:12):
so that you understand what you're choosing to spend your
money on, because the money is going to be spent
either way, right.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And that's the money should be spent. Because one of
the I think one of for our public in the
US and Canada, one of the most expensive things that
people have is a savings account. It costs some more
(36:45):
money than they think.
Speaker 6 (36:47):
Yeah, so we have to be careful about that, yeah, exactly,
And it's I'm.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Sure you're gonna go to agree with this one. Also,
it's it's okay to sock money away for the rainy day. Sure,
nothing wrong with that, but it's a when you make
yourself suffer the rainy day just to have the rainy
(37:22):
day money, you may kind of rethink that, right.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
So yeah, I mean it's a fine balance to make,
and each person is going to have to make that
decision for themselves. Is what kind of balance of risk
and safety you're willing to accept in this endeavor of
this entrepreneurship cycle, or even just how much you spend
(37:48):
on expenses versus what you save in the bank or
wherever you save it. And I think a lot of
people are reluctant to spend money on unusual things like
business ownership, and are more willing to spend money on
usual things like cars, bathrooms, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. We we have a sitting
and sitting in our in our driveway because I keep
the business truck here. It costs but but it it
costs us uh something like one hundred and fifty thousand
(38:34):
dollars for a for a truck. Yeah you, oh, but
that truck can haul a whole TV set like like
like a a talkshow TV set forth in it to
get from point A to point and B so that
(38:55):
we can actually provide entertainment for an audience. And with
that entertainment we get money, lots of money from sponsors.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Right, hopefully you have to make really conscious decisions on
the strategic use of money at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Let me ask you this because because because we're talking
a lot of language, the only only entrepreneurial creatives are
going to catch on too, So to to to create
our art rather be the book, the painting, uh, the documentary,
(39:40):
whatever it is, it's it costs, there's a cost to it,
and balancing the costs versus the return and how to
spread the cost throughout the community so that you can
actually live mm hmm. How do you help people figure
(40:01):
all that out?
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Well, I mean I think the first thing is looking
at their resources. Like when I said that before, is
like the st strategic use of money. I think it's
more the strategic use of resources and that involves money,
that involves energy, that involves time, that involves community. Is
(40:26):
who do you have access to? What are they willing
to provide? What time do you have access to? What
time are you willing to commit, what energy do you
have access to, and what energy are you willing to
commit to it? And what money do you have access to?
And what money are you willing to commit? Because the
more intentional and strategic we get about those decisions, the
(40:51):
more we're able to plan accordingly, Like you start to
accept the consequences of the decisions you make, which it
sounds so simple, but it's actually a really radical concept
to a lot of people these days, is that they
don't equate consequences and decisions. Often is like decisions to
(41:18):
purchase cable versus a decision to invest in a financial
course or something like that. They think that cable is
the automatic answer oftentimes, but financial courses may have a
greater reward in the long term. So in terms of community,
(41:41):
you can also intentionally strategically tap into your community in
the same way. Is who is also resourced enough and
willing enough to help you in this endeavor and how
can you I don't honestarily want to say use your
community because that sounds credit for but tap into the
(42:09):
well of resources that are available when you bring multiple
people together. And I think a very specific example of
this to make it a little more concrete, it's crowdfunding.
I think crowdfunding is becoming more and more of an
option for people nowadays, whether it's funding a creative endeavor
like art, music, books, TV, so on and so forth,
(42:33):
or whether it's just funding lifestyle expenses. I recently donated
to a friend who did a crowdfunding campaign for medical
expenses for her dog, and I think it's an attempt
to go back to more village centric ways of living
that we've had in the past, where people pitch in
(42:55):
when a member of the village is in need because
they believe that they would also pitch in if they
were in need.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Well, okay, toss out a large university kind of word.
We are a gregorious species.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Mm hmmm. Yes, do you mean gregorian as in the
calendar or do you mean gregarious as in loquacious.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
As in social We got to be part of a society, gotcha?
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Yeah, which also means that only do we have to
talk to each other, we have to hang out with
each other, but it also means that we have to
lift each other up. Yes.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yes, I think we've gotten too isolated in this world
of technology that we live in. And I think we
can see that in the mass difference between how families
stick together in different countries versus in the US and Canada.
We have got very isolated in our family structures.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yeah, I have a really good example of that, but
I'm not going to share it with you at this
particular time.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
You're definitely officially on a tangent.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yeah, it's going to lead down a huge political tangent.
And this is not a political show. So hey, with
what we time, we have left character lists for your
books because I want to get back to the book,
because hey, we want to promote the heck out of
your book, because hey, we want you to sell you
(44:39):
sell a billion copies.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Yes, that would be nice for sure. Yeah. I mean
in the first book, we have Kila, who is the
moon blessed, the goddess of death blessed. We have Nesima
in the second book, who is the water blessed. Then
we have rock Meant in the third book, who is
(45:02):
the fire blest.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Now going back to the because I've kind of feel
drawn to this water character. Oh yeah, which is kind
of funny because because if we were to look at
my numerology and my and my zodiac and all that
kind of stuff. I'm air air air air, just floating
(45:25):
away air. But there's something that you said about about her,
did at least to did you actually paint her like
like as an impact or something like that, because.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, I mean she feels everything very deeply, and I
think she picks up on other people's emotions more so
than other characters in the book for sure. Like you know,
Rock met because he is the fire blest I had
a lot of like fiery impulsiveness built into his character
as well, and he's a bit blind sometimes when it
(46:04):
comes to people's emotional experiences.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah, so it also makes it How do you see
each element developing inside of a person.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
In terms of the magic mechanics or for like me
developing a character.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Well, it's going to be a little bit of both,
I think, okay, because how you view a firing personality,
it's going to be how you're going to write the
fiery personality.
Speaker 6 (46:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, I should see those elements developing people.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Yeah, I mean I chose the elements first. I chose
the magic abilities first, and I also chose their genders first.
I knew going into it, like whether I wanted a
hero or a heroine or even non binary is going
to show up as well later on in the novel.
(47:10):
And from there, I sort of crafted the characters around
like not only the elemental influences, but also certain personality
traits that I wanted to play with. Sometimes they're inspired
(47:31):
by other characters that I've seen out there in the world.
Sometimes they're inspired by songs that I've come across. But
I usually have a element. I have a gender, I
have a sexuality usually that I begin with for the character,
and then I have different tropes, different relationship dynamics, different
character traits that I think align with those first three
(47:56):
choices that I then assign to those various characters.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yeah, So I have like a whole playlist of songs
that are all character songs for me that put me
in the mood and the perspective of the various characters.
And that's what really truly drives home my connection and
understanding of the characters themselves.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
To create a whole environment around yourself in order to
write the character.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Oh yes, absolutely, like because I'm feeling from their perspective.
Like when I was writing the Water character, I was
in the fields all the time because she was in
the fields all the time, and she was just so
emotional that I had to tap into that aspect of
myself to be emotional as well. And so, for example,
(48:50):
for Book four's character that I'm writing right now, she
is very angry with where she is in life at
the moment, and so I've kind of had to work
my rile myself up in order to write from her
perspective in order to tap into the anger that's inside
of her. And so songs definitely help with them.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, hit that part kind of is a quasi actor.
You know, you gotta find that and you can't keep
replaying the that same emotion because then thin gets tired
and tack me.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
And yeah, I mean, I definitely have to play the
playlist a few times in order to sync into the
character's point of view. But once I'm there, that's where
the flow starts.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
For sure. Sounds like a lot of fun too, it is.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
I mean, I get so much dopamine from writing, like
I I'm not one of those writers that can do
short chunks every day. I honestly hate the advice to
write every day. I think it's un sustainable and puts
you like sets you up for failure. But that's a
whole nother rant. I like to have long blocks of
(50:08):
writing time, and so I schedule at least three to
five hours per writing block because that allows me to
fully sync into the flow and fully sync into the
character without having to divert or distract my attention to
other things going on.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
Sounds like a lot of fun, and I do actually
look forward to to getting a hold of the book.
But hey, I need that special link that guides me
to where the book.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Is link Tree slash Claire.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
Giants that would be in the show notes. Guys, So
I want you to when it would be October?
Speaker 2 (50:54):
What October thirty? First, it's Halloween every.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Year, Halloween. Halloween. Yeah, I was gonna say it sounding
like Halloween. Yeah. So if you're listening to this before
Halloween in twenty twenty four, you know, given another couple
of days, it'll be up there. If you're listening after Halloween,
(51:18):
go get the book. It's gonna be fun, it's going
to be enjoyable, and if you like fantasy fantasy romance
in general, you're gonna really love with Claric's writing. So
go check it out. It is again, the link is
link Tree.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
What flash Claire joyants, there you go.
Speaker 1 (51:42):
All right, thanks for listening everybody, Thank you Claire for
coming on.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Yeah, thank you, happy to be here, all right.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
That's so bad. So I don't know, so I shun action.
(52:22):
So why say this?
Speaker 4 (52:31):
He says?
Speaker 3 (52:35):
A reason.
Speaker 4 (52:42):
Should be like cho wah, we can't wait, so.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
Will yees?
Speaker 1 (53:31):
She go to.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
It? St ST ST.
Speaker 2 (53:47):
I know.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
The show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please contact
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