How To Turn Your Project Into A Book

A Mini Guide

Hi everyone, 

In addition to the main book, I have added a short guide to help folks who will later try to turn their project into a book. These pointers from my experience of how to do that.

Yet speaking of turning experiences into actionable reading material, I believe the challenge of doing that, packaging it all for someone else, is a great experience everyone should try at least once.

Here's a sample out of that guide.  

 

Introduction

Okay, let’s get straight to the point. You are done with your project, or are thinking of starting one. Projects abound and for different purposes. Every project is with a defined goal and time frame. Whatever the purpose, save for a few classified exceptions, the lessons of every project should not stay with the individual or group who undertook the gig. Out there are folks who will find the lessons useful, and the story should get to them. Someone’s whole life could be turned around with a single line of counsel from a project. So share the juice.


Personally, I love projects for their ‘seasonal’ nature — you start them, create something out of it (value), and then sit back and consider what the next one will be. That opportunity it provides to finish and take a breather is crucial, and I value it greatly. 

Why? Even God himself rested a bit after His work, and also designed days to have nights when we all turn in for a rest and wake to a new day. Projects are like days — we finish them, rest up, and wake up to a new or related one, with a renewed energy and with time taken to collect the lessons of the past one and apply them to the upcoming one. I am not one for the forever project — without an end, draining you of all creativity, and leaving no room for reflection.

My Story

So in this guide, I share the lesson I came away with as I sat to package the contents of my personal project, a 21-day local interview project of small business owners in my local community of Austin, Texas.

Towards the end of last year, I was in the middle of a difficult time, working a job I didn’t like. It took a toll on me, and made me think long and hard about how to create a change. I sat down and collected my thoughts on what I liked, loved, and could do, and put it all together. Out of this gathering, I created a 21-Day project of venturing out there to see how I could be useful to small business owners in my community.

After a few considerations, I decided to simply have conversations with them. Initially, I was hoping it could turn into some sort of side gig where I will be able to solve a few problems for small business owners for a fee, and possibly grow from there. But after a few considerations, I decided to hear their stories instead, sort of a long term thinking approach to create relationships instead of a one and done deal, or a touch and go thing.

This led a to a number of interviews with some of the finest small businesses in the city of Austin, Texas. Also, I came away with and gained greater insight into some essential skills in blogging, writing, communication skills, and dealing with people in general.

After the project, I realized what a useful project it is to challenge myself and step into the unknown, while using my skills. In that spirit, I decided to share it. Why? This happened in my local community, and realizing there are local communities everywhere, and so the opportunity for others to do something similar is all over, I decided to package it all into an actionable guide/book that shares my story and teaches at the same time.

Recognizing Value

This is when I started packaging my project into a book, or turned it into a book. And having gone through the process, I know projects and abound with their unique lessons. But for lack of packaging or an inability to turn them into a single source product, their lessons vanish or end up staying with only those who were involved in the project or the single individual who did it. There’s a way to overcome that.

First thing to think about is this: The earth is full of value, or things that are useful. Whatever good thing that you set out to do, it always leads you to take on challenges, and in taking on challenges, you figure out how to do something that probably has never been done, been done by a few people, or has never been done the way you did it, or intend to do it. That’s value.
So how you see something, and how you do it, how it helps you solve a problem, and how well you solve it are all unique forms of value. Value in the end is perspective.

How Do You Eat An Elephant?

I know, I know, the value conversion process is not always easy. Questions like “where do I start?”, “What do I say?”, “How do I know I have lessons?”, “How do I arrange it all?”, “How I do I know it’s even useful to someone else?”, and others can be stop you entirely from even attempting. But take heart, even an elephant can be eaten, entirely, and that’s what book-writing can be sometimes, a giant amorphous task.

But like all things, they are never as bad as they first seem. With thought, planning, and with a one thing at a time approach, you’ll see it coming together. Do the first thing, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and then the sixth, and you’ll see your courage growing to match the task. And with a rise in courage, an elephant could soon become a fly. But you have to start first.

For example, let’s say you are done with your project, and want to package it all, and you sit down to start. You could start with the end in mind: The book. Okay with that, let’s start with the first thing you did to work on your project, write that down. How did you end it, or what did you achieve? Write it down. What happened and what did you learn? Write those down, too.

With those 3 you have the basic pieces of any journey: A beginning, what happened along the journey, and how you got to your destination. Same way with a book — An introduction, a body, and conclusion. This is the same 3 things in life itself — birth, life’s work, and value created. The great 3.

Now, with this start, the elephant is now laid on a table, the butchers table, and ready to be sliced into various pieces. These very pieces are what we are going to eat one bite at a time to finish this elephant and give birth to the book. Now, we have perspective, right? Good.

As the saying goes, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Marie Curie.

Now, what’s a book, really? Okay, a book is a written material that contains chapters that express thoughts on different things or recounts an experience, fiction or non-fiction. Now, what are chapters? You probably know chapters are most simply one, two, or three short essays that breakdown an idea. So they are short essays, right? Okay, what, then, are essays if not short 3, 4, 5, or 6 paragraphs that make a point or flesh out an idea? And on and on, till you realize that it all starts with a single letter, an a, b, c…

This is what writing is, at heart. A few letters become a word; words are strung together to make single statement. A group of words become a paragraph expressing more on an idea. Like this one you are reading. And then paragraphs become essays, and then put together into chapters. The book is on the way.

How do you build a skyscraper, if not a brick at a time? Got it, right?

(Note: This is not to belittle the art of writing, but I write it with the understanding that anyone who has finished a worthwhile project or thinking of starting one has a decent writing ability, or a fair understanding of what makes up a book.)

Nothing To The Grave

Yet, some may to me, “Nah, Kingston, I can’t write. I don’t even like it. It’s too difficult.” Or, “I don’t think I have the patience nor the time.” Or, “I cant sit and comb my mind to bring up value or lessons, nor document my journey while my project is ongoing, if I were to start one.” Still, “I am just a verbal guy, I am good with saying it, or just speaking.” Okay, okay. What I say to you is this: Does that mean the value of your project dies with you, or your lessons go to the grave?

No. Have you seen those books that are written by the author and someone else? No, not the one that both authors wrote together, like co-writers. But the one that says, By Mary Beth with John Grisham — meaning Mary Beth worked with or hired John Grisham to put the whole thing into written words. Yeah, that one. There you go: There’s almost a way around the mountain, and the value of your project should live on.)

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What Do I Get?

Okay, now let’s put the carrot ahead of us. Let’s flesh out why it’s even beneficial to turn your project into a book. What’s the benefit of a book?

For The Store

One, a book is your own personal way of storing your story. You did something worthwhile, that you enjoyed, and challenged you. That must be saved. If for nothing at all, for review and a way to measure your progress. Review? Yeah, how can you build on something that’s not clear? It’s difficult if the only place it is stored is in your mind. A book makes things clear and puts it in a ‘safe’ for later.

Also, for personal reasons, it’s good for that nostalgic feeling we all have when we look through our personal journal or diaries after a few years and realize how far we have come or have grown. That look-back often leaves most people with tears, and surely that good smile and head-shake that says how thankful we are for what we did, went through, what we overcame, or what we learned. Whatever is not recorded is almost surely lost.

Sure, a book is not a diary, but it’s a way not only to share with others, but the day may come when you may sit and pick up your own book a few years later and see what you wrote. Also, if your book is published and distributed, there’s no way it will be lost — even if a storm comes through your town, pulls up trees, washes away homes, takes people’s belongings with it, and damages your one and only personal manuscript or laptop that has your book file.

Give To Others

It’s usually $3.97, $5.99, or $12.00, the price of a book. But when you pick up a good book, more often than not, the value you get out of the book far outweighs what you pay for it. That’s if your see the value and can apply it someway in your own life. Critically looking at the tradeoff, you are actually giving to readers. What may have taken you more time and money to make, go through, and learn, you give away at a fraction of the cost, if you strive to load with value in your writing so it’s a blessing to your reader. And Giving far outweighs receiving.

Your Book Will Go Where You Cannot

Okay, let’s talk a little bit about who we are as human beings and our situation. We all have have limited resources and ability. We cannot be everywhere at the same time, and do not have unlimited ability.

Yes, we all have something to say, but have limited hours in a day, and can only speak for so long.

This is where a book comes in — It can speak and go where you cannot, it takes over and carries your message when your limits come into play. This is exactly what I talk about in the book itself, when I talk about Warren Buffett’s recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Connect

Warren Buffet once picked up a book written by Benjamin Graham. Warren loved the ideas in the book so much that when he wanted to go to graduate school he chose Columbia University after learning that Benjamin Graham was a professor there.

This ultimately led to a mentor-ship and friendship that Warren Buffet credits much of his understanding of value investing. What does all of this mean, the principles of value investing in a book is what has contributed to the making of one of the smartest investors on earth.

I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen to you, but there’s a chance a book you write will connect you to some important people that could help you and you them.

Opens Doors

Yes, you are writing your book to share your knowledge and discoveries with the world. But you know what? The book being out there is actually a living and breathing resume, or portfolio. And since one of the constants in life are problems, there is never a lack of people looking for problem solvers. But to find a problem solver, there’s a “get to know” process, a time to find the right person. This is what we all know as an interview.

What’s fear, doubt, and uncertainty’s great nemesis? Knowledge. While an interview may be a good way to present your abilities, it’s too strict and formal a process that may not reveal much about who you really are. Neither can a written resume, which has space for only a few things, and often is only one page.

Folks looking to hire are above all interested in your thinking process, how you approach problems, how you present things, and your communication skills. And writing a book on your project shows all that without you having to say a word. It’s all in there in the book.

A diligent recruiter will take a few days, and quietly go through your book and find out what you really know about the topic, how you approach problem solving, and how you communicate in teaching through words.
So in that case, while you are asleep, your book is talking.

How?

Yet how do you turn yours into a book or guide that others can pick up and learn from? Books are containers, and are a great single location source of information.
Also, projects have stories in them, besides just technical how-tos. How? Every project that involves people definitely has a story. We are all walking stories, and whatever we set out to accomplish automatically sets a story in motion.
A book is simply a gathering of that content into a single manuscript.

Two Ways To Gather Project Content

1. During the project: Take daily notes/blog posts while the project is ongoing.
2. After the project: Write all about it in after the project. This can be done through a writing project of 14 days, 21 days, or 30 days after the project is done. This is what I call the pour down.
   
   

Okay, below are somethings I have found useful in turning my project into a book. Though they are my personal approach, I’m sure a couple or more do apply to many others. Please take what works for you.

Start With The Pour

Whether you took notes/documented your project during the project or when the project is over,I go through a time when I ‘pour’ everything out on the paper. Sometimes I physically use a pen and paper, and other times I type.

So in the same way, at this stage, just pour your thoughts on to a page. Don’t even think about editing, just pour out. Don’t let perfectionism get in the way. There’s a a reason we say “ I will improve upon it,” but you can’t improve upon nothing. So get something onto the paper. Write with your pen, pencil, or simply punch the keys.

Afterwards you can correct it all, but now just unload. Don’t even think about the final reader. You have a vague idea in your head, and just work with that. All things evolve, and so are books, they evolve, and as you work on it, you’ll come up with ways to add to it.

End Of Sample

What The Book Contains

Hi everybody, 

A quick share of the table of contents for the upcoming book. Thoughts & feedback welcome.

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Table Of Contents

Notices

Swords In Their Sheath, Please

About Me & Why

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Intro

1. I’ve Got To Find A Way!
   The story behind my start
   
   
2. Early Adjustment
   A key change that set me free
   
   
3. The List
   Who I talked to?

Chapter 2: Why This?

1. Who Is This For?
   Anyone who lives in a community
   
   
2. Benefits
   It's more than a buck
   
   
3. Doable?
   Are you up for this?
   
   
4. Mini Camp?
   For your focus

Chapter 3: Go

1. Getting Started
   A a phone, binder, and microphones
   
   
2. Timing & Tools
   Things conspire for good
   
   
3. Why The Local Shop?
   Approach breakdown & what happens. 
    
4. Walking Into The Unknown
   Creating the foreign at home

Chapter 4: Platform

1. A Platform
   Start A Blog
   
   
2. Steps To Set Up A Blog
   If you need it
   
   
3. Going With What You've Got
   Banana Republic & Crate and Barrel
   
   
4. Why Write?
   What Marco Polo, Warren Buffet & President Barack Obama have in common

Chapter 5: The First & The Mind

1. Setting The First One
   My Stop At Oh Boy!Print Shop
   
   
2. Friends In Waiting = Strangers & A First Meeting
   Strike conversations with others
   
   
3. Why Prospecting Is A Skill
   Mastering the unknown is value
   
   
4. Win-Win
   Is it a fair trade?

Chapter 6: Takeaways

1. What Did You Learn, son?
   Other lessons
   
   
2. Can You Chat?
   How to do interviews
   
   
3. What I Learned From Each Owner
4. Will You Go To Their Funeral?

Chapter 7: Connections & Writing

1. Spurring Community
   Connecting business owners in your community
   
   
2. Daily Logs, Some
   What I wrote everyday during the project
   
   
3. Wrap Up
   Final thoughts

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

1. What’s Your Lowest Hanging Fruit?
   What's getting in your way!
   
   
2. Tools
   The make-shift tools I used
   
   
3. Project Done = A Product Ready?
   Any packaged value is a product
   
   
4. Resources: Book-Writing & Add-on Products
   What I used to put all of this together & other helps

Credits &Conclusion:

1. Why Walk Alone?
   My friends at work
   
   
2. Going Forward!
   What to expect from me: updates & editions

Why Write?

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book Get To Know Your Backyard Opportunity, a guide that shares my story of interviewing small business owners in Austin, Texas, and a guide to help anyone anywhere interested in doing a similar project in their own local community. This is a chapter on why blogging/writing is key to making the most of the project.

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Why Write?

Grammar is to writer what anatomy is to a sculptor, or the scales to a musician. You may loathe it, it may bore you, but nothing will replace it, and once mastered, it will support you like a rock. — -B.J Chute.

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Okay, first thing, we are not talking about grammar, not entirely. Yeah, it will come in handy later, but let me draw a bit from the quote above.

Writing is a ‘flesher’ of thoughts. It brings order to things said, and is one of the greatest skills you can develop. Anything that has to be put into writing challenges the writer to think carefully — he has to put one word after the other to make a point — and brings out what’s not necessarily clear.

Why not just say it, you may ask? Well, you could, but the spoken word unless written down gets taken up by the air, and though could be collected in the memory, in time the memory fades. So to rely on it is to leave you scratching your head when it comes time to recollect it for use. Herein comes the point of this saying: A short pencil is better than a long memory.

But in saying this, for our purposes here, I do mean excellent writing. I mean a decent record of your thoughts that others can read and see what you mean, and at this point mistakes are allowed. This is why I do not stress grammar, but the ability to start practicing now.

Marco Polo

Okay, let’s look back a little. Let’s see why you know Marco Polo, or the Marco Polo sheep:

Growing up as a kid, I heard a bit of the Marco Polo sheep but didn’t quite understand why the sheep was so named. Later in life, I read a piece somewhere of Marco Polo, and why he is renowned worldwide for his documentation of his travels to Asia, and how his book — “The Travels Of Marco Polo”— was Europe’s introduction to Central Asia and China.
But wait, was he the first, or was he the most knowledgeable about that region of the world, at the time? Enter Wikipedia:

Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China (see Europeans in Medieval China), but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. This book inspired Christopher Columbus and many other travellers. There is a substantial literature based on Polo’s writings; he also influenced European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map. — Wikipedia

There, is the power of the pen, which is said to be mightier than the sword. Well, in our day, it will be punching the keyboard, right?
Yet you may say to me, “Kingston, nah, I am not Marco Polo, I am not that big.” Well, we all have to start somewhere, right? We all can’t be great from the outset. We have to start where we are, though; use what we have, build a muscle for whatever skill we desire, and see what opportunities come our way to use it. I am sure Marco started writing, or had a great appreciation for it at a much earlier time before he penned the famous book. Plus, his expedition to Central China or Asia, in a large sense, was a project, too.

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What About This Project?

In this case of a project, how useful is writing? One, it’s a way of creating a story for yourself while you go about the project. There are many things that will happen during the project, and not recording it means a lot is lost along the way. I see value in all things, and so the chance to record my discoveries, conversations, observations, and even mistakes, gives me a record to look back on. This record is a store of things to learn from, things to improve on, and proof that this actually happened.

Two, you need a platform. This is why I talk about starting a blog. When you start a project like this one, with the few people you may share it with or who will know about it ( or even the professionals you end up interviewing), they will like to follow your progress, and reading is how they do that.

So in that sense, reading is how they consume what you are creating. Reading, then, is consumption. It’s like eating, and proper eating demands that food be served on a plate. Your project is a service you are rendering to others. Serve it on plate, a platform — which is simply a “form” of “plate,” and writing is the tool you use to put it on that platform.

This very book you are reading itself is a platform. There has to be a ground upon which I share my story and the lessons. The story is my ground, and the book is my writing pad, my platform, and I typed the words onto the “plate.”
Three, writing on a platform like a blog, sets you up to share your findings. The project will lead you to discoveries, not only about your neighborhood, people, or situations, but your own self. Make sure you note those. And when you will like to share some of these, a blog gives you a tool with share buttons ( Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and others) to easily distribute it.

Also, the more you write, do projects, and share your thoughts, the more the right people will come to you. The reason people are hesitant to come to connect with others is a lack of information. Lack of information is like walking in the dark. Few people like that. Knowledge is light, and the more you share, the more people know about you, and makes it easy for others to decide how to connect to you. This is how writing improves your chances of getting where you want to get by connecting you to the right people.
The president of the United States, president Barack Obama, is a writer. I have heard stories here and there about how he sometimes writes his own speeches. How does being a writer help him? Well, in a few key ways.
I’m sure some folks read his books — “Dreams From My Father” and “ The Audacity Of Hope” — especially during his first campaign for president, and saw his thinking process. They checked if they agreed with him or not on most issues at play. For those who did, they easily voted for him. That — writing, someway, somehow, helped pave the way for his election. It supported him and connected him to the right people.

So it is with all of us. Your ability to gather your thoughts, package it, and use it to make a point is a rare skill. Not everyone can do that. But you can start small, and with a project that you enjoy, and can write all about it. In time, you’ll get better.

Even the great God Himself who created all things, when He sought to record His thoughts, He put it in a book for men to read. This is how we know His will. 

End Of Sample

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This is a chapter on why blogging/writing is key to making the most of the project. For free updates and sample chapters as I build the book, go here.

7 Steps To A Local Interview Project

1. Get Ready, Get Clear
   

Get ready by deciding what you are interested, or what you’d like to learn about — this is key because almost all of your time on earth should be spent harnessing your gifts and talents, and what interests you are clues to it. After this, figure out if there are people already in your neighborhood/ or close to you who are already doing something similar or the same thing. If not turn the tables and pick a few worthy folks you are not already friends with and interview them on their thoughts on something you are passionate about.

A good example will be interviewing people about my desire for a local “little or no sugar” bakery/pastry shop. An interview like this validates the idea and gets people thinking about it.

One of my questions will be this: If a shop like that existed in Austin, would you come check it out? If they say “yes,” I would go on to keep them in mind if I end up doing something about my desire. My next question would be this: Okay, this is not a promise, but if I end up starting something like that would mind that I let you know?
Based on the response I get, this gives me a chance to get peoples opinion and a decent list of people to contact if I were to go through with it. Anything is possible.

Why a “little sugar or no sugar pastry shop”? Well, I love pastries but dislike how almost the pastry shops I go to have very little options for people like me, so I have thought about starting a shop like that in Austin. You could have a similar desire, or one entirely different, but starting a conversation about it can lead to interesting results.

But back to the scenario where you have people in your neighborhood who are already doing something you want to learn about. This was my case with small business. Start with them.

How do you reach them, though, and upon what grounds?
This is where you build a platform. When I say a platform, I mean creating a basis for why you would like to interview them.

This was my platform: To hear and document the stories of small business owners in Austin, Texas. To learn from it myself, share it with others — on my blog (I talk about that below) and online, and possibly be of help in one way or another.

This is a sensible platform and it’s win-win — I want to learn, provide value, help, and share the lessons. With this sort of clarity, you can start a conversation with almost anyone.

2. Go

Now, it’s time to go. With you blog set up, a clear platform in mind, and a few useful tools, you all set to get out there in your local community and talk to people.

I assume that you do know your local community fairly well, or at least know where to find people. With this fair understanding of your local community, or where the pros you’d like interview hang out, decide how you’d like to contact them. Will you make contact in person, via phone, or via email? 

I chose in person by walking up to the shops directly and introducing myself and sharing the purpose of my project — -it’s more weighty, and shows seriousness.

Now, go out and meet them.

3. Connect

Whether you contact your prospects — the people you’d like to interview — in person, by email, or by phone, on your first encounter present your idea or grounds for why you’d like to interview them. In other words, your reason for connection.
This again goes back to the platform you set in step 1.

An example, in person: Hi, my name is Kingston, and I’m currently doing a 21-Day project of interviewing small business owners in Austin about their journeys as business owners and what makes them unique. The hope is to document it, share it on my blog and online, and learn from it myself. Would you have 20–30 minutes to share your story with me?
With this mini presentation, most business will ask a few questions to get to know, or check out your blog, and try to find a good time and date to sit with you. That’s the appointment setting time.

After this, you’ll decide on a date and time that works for you both. But generally, set appointments on what works for your subject and work around their time.

4. Firm Up

With an appointment set, consider it to be tentative, not set in stone. Why? That gives you a reason to make sure it happens. This is precious time, not only to you but to the business owner/ or professional, and making sure it happens is good use of time on both ends. So confirm it.
Confirm appointments via email and phone. Canceled interviews don’t happen, and time is wasted in the process. Guard against it by confirming ahead of time.

5. Chat

Do the interview. Have a guide of sorts, one that’s loose yet shows the way. Use questions that are useful to the subject and gets them to share their story. Look for lesson points by asking good questions — what was difficult in starting your profession or business? What didn’t you anticipate? How did you overcome challenges. What will you like to teach others from your story?

An interview that focused on stories always makes for a good chat. Good for the subject, since they get to talk about their own stories; and you, as it gives you a chance to know them more, brings up lessons most people can learn from, and eases the atmosphere by making it more of a conversation than a stiff interview.

Note: Every interview should be recorded. I use my smartphone’s voice recorder and a lapel microphone.

6. Write/Inform

Package the experience into words and audio. With the interview done, you not only now have an interview on record, but a story to tell as well. 

How? With each owner, you went through a process of contacting them, setting the appointment, firming it up, and then doing the interview. All this took you through some steps, emotions, encounters, even mistakes, and all this is a story you now have. Write about it.

What’s more, every interview you do will have a story behind it. So with every interview you have writing material in the form of the by-product. This is what you practice your writing with, and what gets posted on your blog.

So write about it on your blog and upload the interview to your blog and share it with others — your friends, family, online friends, and others you may know. Also inform your subject — the professional you interviewed — of the upload, and begin sharing it on social media, if you want.

7. Repeat

Rinse and repeat it for your next interview. Learn from the first one, prepare for the second one, and do it again.

Value Of Local Interview Projects

This is part of an email course I am building: Thoughts welcome.
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Let me start with a hypo a hypo example: Let’s say you want to build a school for low income children in your community. Sure you know a few people in your community. But you don’t have much money, and not many significant relationships to help you make it a reality. Where do you start?

You must at least get the idea out there, right? Why? Because you can’t do it alone. So a good way of giving yourself a chance to succeed is to start a conversation about it among people who know something about what you want to do, care about it, and know other people, and could help.

Is it a bad idea, then, to start an interview project with these people about what you want to do and how it could be useful to them? Can you discuss with them what your plans are and how you may need their help, and what they will get out of it? Can you put it in win-win terms, the conversation? And to make it more earnest, is it a good use of your time, their time, and for results if you put it into a project with a defined goal and a definite time frame?

Yet you cannot do this with your current range of relationships you have, if the project is sizable enough? This is where you will have to step outside of your comfort zone and approach people you do not have prior relationships with but know have knowledge and resources that could be useful to you. So in a sense, go out and talk to strangers. So it is with interview projects, and that’s the value of this course: People and communication skills that will come in handy for useful causes.

An interview project gives you an opportunity to pick up some valuable people and communication skills that is rarely taught at schools: stepping out of your comfort zone and engaging with others. What’s more, if you document your journey, you also strengthen you writing skill.

What else is an interview project good for?

If you were to start a project like I did (which was definitely not to build a school) and document your experience and share it online, here are a few things that you could come away with.

Initiative

It’s a show of initiative. This is good for all work positions. But if you were looking for work, this is a good notch on your resume. This doesn’t mean you should not look for work, but it gets you in a position to add to your skills besides a show of initiative, which almost all job ads require from applicants. What’s more? Write about it, document it, share it online, and when an employer were to ask, simply point them to your site (and you can get a site up in 10 minutes for free to use to do this). How many of the other job applicants can say that?

A Good Word

When your project is done, providing you conduct yourself well, and provide value to those you interviewed, they’ll likely speak well of you when you ask them to give you a recommendation on how you did your project. This is not to fake it, but when you go out there with a sincere desire to learn from others, add value to your community, learn from the experience, and possibly teach others by sharing it, you’ll definitely have a few people say a few good things about you when you need it.



     Find A Suitable Job

Looking for work? Why not turn the tables and interview employers instead. Rather than wait to get calls for interviews, why not go out and interview people who could hire you, or know others who could?
During one of my interviews — -the one with Mr. Matt Lacey — -at the end, he jokingly remarked on his desire to offer me an application to work with him. I didn't take the offer, but the reason he offered is not far-fetched. He saw my joy in talking with him, the value of my questions, and my initiative to do something like this. The same opportunity could be next door in your community, while you may be looking for work.

Discovery Opportunity

As the interviewer, the ball is in your hands, since you will be the one asking the questions: One of the questions you want to ask is what they are currently having a difficult time with. Out of 10 employers who answer this, one of them most probably will have a challenge that falls right in your wheelhouse of skills or desire, and you can offer your skills to the employer to help them solve it. You can do this after you have completed the project, or start a side gig to help them out.

Improve Your Writing Skills

I recently read in Basecamp’s book, Rework, on how they’ll recommend that business owners hire writers. Why? Life is all about communicating, and without effective communication, nothing will be done effectively. Copywriting, essays, books, even web design/programming is all language based, an ability to clearly and creatively get a point across. So write.
You may say, I’m not that good at it. Yeah, no one starts out excellently, but how do you build a skyscraper? A brick at a time, right? What about eating an elephant? A bite at a time? Okay, so is writing, as is walking, one step after another.
Also, as the saying goes, writing makes a man exact, and refines your thinking. So keep a daily journal of what happened. Few people can do this, and of those who can, few will take the trouble to: this separates you froma lot of people.

Startup Chance

Again, you’ll come across problems that some of the people you interview may be struggling with, and if you have the skills offer it to help them solve if for a fee. If you come across a problem, you can’t solve, see if you can find someone else more qualified than you are to help solve it. But probably more important than all of this is, if you find out that you will like to turn this into some sort of start-up, you can. Simply figure out how you can turn it into consistent revenue through more marketing or referrals.

Volunteer Spirit

Since you will not charge anyone anything for your time and effort, this demonstrates a good degree of a volunteer spirit — the ability to do something for another person for free. Who doesn’t like a person like that? Most employers want someone like that on their team, who can take something upon themselves without asking, and do it without asking for anything in return. Remember, almost all worthy professionals did many things for free when they first started out. Everyone would like someone like that for a friend, a coworker, or even a boss — A generous spirit is a great treasure.



       Relationships

If you do something like this, you’ll end up with relationships with people you did not know previously. Life is all about connecting, and most will come in handy later, if you genuinely set out to help them, and they in return.
Finally, this means you are giving something, and it’s more blessed to give than to receive. Give instead of receiving: Many are waiting for someone ( an employer) to give them a job, but you package a value and give it to employers instead.

Skill Gathering & Demonstration

Demonstrate some of the skills employers are looking for — -email writing, diligence, follow up, packaging ( in packaging the project), people skills, audacity, initiative, leadership, and others. This paves the way to easily show some of these skills and gather others while you are at it.
Since it may be your first, it will not go perfectly, but there’s always the opportunity rinse and repeat to for the next one.



        Take Advantage of Time

Most folks are left in the job-hunt routine for a month, 3 months, 9 months, sometimes years, and often are left without work for want of initiative. 21 days is less than 30 days, and definitely less than a year. So why take the 21 days (or less, if you will) and do something with it? It’s a win-win either way you look at it. It improves your value, exposes you to employers, gives you people to turn to for recommendation if you need it, and afterward you’ll have a better resume

      Where Do I Start?

An Important question: Where do I start, and how do I go about an interview project. My desire with this course is not only to do an interview project, but also to use it as a vehicle to explore more of what you love, and to help you get a clearer idea of what you want to do (if for some reason, that’s not already clear). To that end, first figure what you want to learn a lot about. Are there people in your local community already doing that? Start with folks in that industry.

For example, I wanted to learn about business, so I started with small business owners in my community. Get clear on yours and see how an interview project could help you learn a lot more about that and build relationships.

Sharing Some Tools

I stepped in this month to Host Our local Live Your Legend Meetup of creatives in Austin, Texas, and I shared some tools there that could help other people with their personal projects. 

This month's meeting had 3 people show up. We had Roy Hughes​, Kaylyn Morgan​, and myself. Both Roy and Kaylin are in the app building business and have a few apps in the app store.

A short list below.

1. For book launch, you can use www.booklaunch.io
    
2. For writing your book, you can use www.pressbooks.com, or www.scrivener.com
    
3. To edit your book, you can use www.grammarly.com
   
   
4. To sell your products right out of your website, you can use www.gumroad.com
   
   
5. To promote your work by sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, you can use www.sumome.com
   
   
6. To collect emails/sign ups on your website, to create a contact form that can be placed anywhere on your site, or check your site's heat maps so you know where folks are clicking the most, check out www.sumome.com
   
   
7. To create an automated series of emails that go out when someone signs up on your website, check out www.gumroad.com and www.mailchimp.com.
   
   
8. To sign online documents if you were to hire someone for a freelance gig or sign a document with a client check out www.docusign.com or www.rightsignature.com
   
   
9. To sell packages or products and still get the contact information of folks who buy from you, use www.gumroad.com. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others do not give your that information.

After this we also took sometime to fine tune our thoughts on what our messages are for each of our projects and make it connect with the right people.

Individually, Roy is a musician and currently has songs on Soundcloud you can check out here: https://soundcloud.com/royestel

Kaylyn has a blog she co-runs with her daughter, a new mom, about the experience of new moms. You can check it out at www.mrsweetie.com and she is also fine-tuning her message for her lead blog “Awesome at any age.” It's focused on health and wellness.

As you already know, I am working on my upcoming book on how to start a small project right in your neighborhood that involves you learning from folks in your neighborhood who are already doing something you'd like to learn about. 

Thanks, everybody, and all the best.

PS: If you know of other tools that we could use, please let us know in the comments.

7 Things I learned From Writing My First Book

1. Begin With The End In Mind---Use A Book Cover, in 3D

When I set out to write the book/guide, I began with an outline of my potential reader's thought-flow. This thought-flow is simply what I expect readers to ask upon picking up the book. Obviously, their first encounter with the book will be with its cover and the title. Since the title is actually a call to action, it's grabby and the word “backyard” also makes it personal since virtually everyone has a backyard and can take advantage of this opportunity.

So upon picking up the book, readers will like to know what this backyard opportunity is. This is where I talk about my experience with my project, which I did right in my local community, which is my backyard if you will. The next question I think might come up is whether this project is for them and what can they get out of it, the benefits of it. So next I wrote out a short chapter on the benefits of doing a project and who exactly it's for. Based on that thought-flow, I began writing out the chapters: Introduction, the benefits, and etc.

2. Use An Outline For Chapters

I used an outline, or sorts, to write draw out a road map of where the book should go in content. Take a look here of what I wrote, in the beginning:

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction 
    
2. List
   
   
3. Who Is This For?
   
   
4. What Are The Benefits?
   
   
5. Getting Started
   
   
6. Nuts & Bolts
   
   
7. My Lessons And Why Other People Could And Should Do It
   
   
8. Technicals---how to introduce yourself, set an appointment, emails, follow-ups, interview, interview structure, survey, etc
   
   
9. My Daily Log
   
   
10. What All Of This Means
    
    
11. Why I need your help for review---If you would like to read the whole book and help me with feedback, send me an email here: acouplethings70@gmail.com.

With this rough outline, I I now have a map in mind and can simply follow it. I like to write with a finish line in my head, and seeing the table of contents laid out like that tells me the book is already finished. All I have to do now is flesh it out with value, the contents.

Update: The outline has since changed a bit, and rightly so, because you remember things to add to it and change to make it better, but the basic outline is what got me started. 

3. Write A Little Everyday

I'm sure you have heard of the saying that a little bit goes a long way, or a bite at a time eats an elephant. I applied the same thing to writing my book. I took each chapter, sat down and wrote it out . I didn't do this perfectly in the beginning, but I simply poured out my thoughts on to the paper and stepped back. 

At this point I am not worrying about how good my writing is, all that matters is that I have something sensible on paper. With that done, I set the ball rolling---I know I have a rough chapter down. In a few hours or the next day, I sit and rewrite it to make it clearer in language and add things I forgot or missed on the first write. This is how all of my chapters came together.

4. Always Think About How To Improve

Another thing I found useful during this whole process was thinking throughout the day about how to improve the content. I go throughout the day thinking about how readers will think of the book , and if I am answering all of their questions. I actually put myself in their shoes, and ask if I would get value out of reading my own book. If my mind says no, then I ask what I can do to correct that. 

 

Questions like this help:

1. Is my writing clear enough?
2. Can it be easily understood?
3. Am I using too many unclear words---I like to write with simple language that many people can understand.

This bring me directly to my next lesson: Take something to write with wherever you go.

5. Carry & Pen and Paper/Notepad With You At All Times

This lesson is not only for writers, but for all creative people. Why? You never know when an idea could hit. I know ideas could hit when I sit to write, but when I am out and about, when going about daily things, my mind takes in many things and with me thinking about my book, I come up with things that I could add or take out of my book. This is how I came up with the idea of launching my book in packages.

I came across this idea from reading a Nathan Barry post about the power of packages, and I found it clever. Nathan talks about how he himself heard it from Chris Guilleabeau, and applied in the sales of his products---the App Design Handbook, Designing Web Applications, and Authority.

But without thinking constantly about how to present my book or how to package, I may not have remembered that. And by carrying something to write with I was able to make a note to myself to do that when I get back home to my laptop.

6. Share Your Ideas With Others

Besides thinking and writing things down throughout the day, I also took the opportunity share my book with others. I would meet random people at the Starbucks where I usually go to write or at The Barnes & Noble Bookstore and discuss different things with them about my book.

How do I do this? If I notice someone reading a book or working on something similar, I would simply would introduce myself and ask a few minutes of them to help me think through something. 

An example was my meeting with a lawyer at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore a few weeks ago. We sat across from each other, and after a few minutes of working on my book,  I had a question about the cover I wanted to use.

I show him a picture of it on my laptop, and after sharing his thoughts with me on the cover, he pointed out a small issue with my title.

Initially,  I wrote the title so: Get To Know, Your Backyard Opportunity. I wrote it this way to mean "Get To Know," as a noun that meant your backyard opportunity. Obviously this didn't make sense. He pointed that out, and I took away the comma. 

See? Little things like that could change a whole lot. But I wouldn't have known if I didn't take the initiative to get this opinion on the cover I was working on.

        

       7. Learn From Others

This goes back to checking out Nathan Barry's Sales page on his website. I wanted to see how someone else had gone about theirs and learn from it. Not copy, but simply figure out the reasoning behind it, and see if  I can apply some of it to my own.

Keep in mind, though some people may claim original rights to an idea, no idea really is new. Ideas get recycled over and over again throughout time, and show up in a different guise as a new one. 

This is what the great book meant in the book of Ecclesiastes when it said this: There's nothing new under the sun. 

Okay, Go To The Next Shop