Writers: Unlock Your Creativity!

In the book Change Your Mind:  57 Ways to Unlock Your Creative Self, it’s as if author Rod Judkins is talking to each and every one of us.  If you’re looking for guidance, insights, and words of inspiration, look no further than these passages:

If You Can’t Find A Way, Make One

“Inner belief and conviction creates resilience.  Self-belief carries the creative through troubled times.  It is a shield from the negativity of others.

"The creative person’s refusal to compromise can make them unpopular, but the important thing is to create at all costs…

“You have to believe in yourself and your work.  If you don’t, how can you expect anyone else to?”

Join Forces To Be A Force

“Having someone else to bounce ideas off can help the flow of inspiration.”

Be Proud To Be Different

“Don’t worry if people think you and your methods are odd or unusual. It’s an advantage to be unique.  Original thinkers don’t automatically adopt the practices of others in their field of work.  They develop their own working methods.  This leads to different ways of thinking.

Be Unreasonable

“It’s ok to be unreasonable.  To solve an exceptional problem, to get people to think in an entirely new way, or to crack an impossible task, you need someone driven not by logic, but by emotion, passion, and desire.”

Don’t Hurry Time

“You must live at the speed that suits you.  Don’t force things.  To be truly creative you must work at your own pace…Don’t impose a time frame on yourself.  Let your work tell you how long it needs.”

Go With The Flow

“Do not devise a plan and then slavishly follow it.  To live creatively you must go with the flow and see what evolves.  Listen to the work you are producing and it will tell you how it wants to progress.”

Be An Extremist

“How far can you take things?  Be extreme, rapid, intense, and excessive.  Whatever you are doing, push yourself and your work to the limit…What can be exaggerated, overstated, or understated? How would you approach your project if you had all the resources in the world, or no resources?"

Be Certain Of Uncertainty

“Everything around you is constantly changing.  Nothing is fixed.  Nothing is forever.  Successful, creative people don’t work against this knowledge but work with it. Everything is in a state of flux.  Boundaries between disciplines break down, values become increasingly blurred and change accelerates.”

Turn Fear Into Fuel

“All creative people feel dread and panic.  The difference is that they feed off it.  They turn it into a positive force.”

Make It Happen

“If you want something to happen, you will have to make it happen.

“While everyone else is thinking of reasons why a task is too difficult, impossible, the creatives are thinking of reasons why it’s possible.

“A creative mind is proactive, not passive.  Things happen around creative people.”

“Confidence is contagious.  But so is lack of confidence.”

--Vince Lombardi, Superbowl Champion Head Coach

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

--Voltaire

“The important thing is somehow to begin.”

--Henry Moore

“Writers see the world differently.  Every voice we hear, every face we see, every hand we touch could become story fabric.”

--Buffy Andrews


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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.

Where Can You Sell A Book?

On a hot sunny day, people will sell cold soda on the sandy beach. At concerts, people will hawk T-shirts. Outside a political rally, people will sell pins. It seems many opportunities to sell pop up everywhere, often based on timing and circumstance. How can an  author capitalize on similar opportunities? What should you do to sell your book beyond the bookstore?

Give it some thought. Identify who your reader/buyer is and then determine where they will be – not just where they normally hang. Will they be at an upcoming event or occasion, and if so, can you maneuver to sell your book there? Of course, many places are inappropriate for selling books, including:

• Any place where you need to get a license or buy a booth (don’t try to crash the party).
• Funerals, angry demonstrations, or any situation where there could be violence or people are less in the mood to buy a book and more in the mood for something else.
• Places where you will get lost – such as where there are too many other vendors or peddlers next to you.
• Any place so loud that you can’t be heard if you need to speak to the customer.

You have to be creative when it comes to pursuing sales. If you want to find out about local events, consult various newspapers, community web sites, and local listings posted at public places like a library. Seek to understand  how many people would attend and if their demographic matches somewhat , or a lot with your book’s targeted reader. Think about what type of message they would need to hear from you. Find out what your competition might be at the event. Determine if you want to hand out fliers or sell your book – or do both. Maybe you want to network at the event or inquire on speaking opportunities. Perhaps you can strike a deal with existing vendors and see if they will carry your book for a decent commission.

You must always figure out what you can buy, barter, or profit-share with someone so you can make a buck.  Plenty of people are just like you and welcome an opportunity that you could be presenting to them. No need to be shy or make wrongful assumptions -- reach out, experiment, take a chance, and analyze how to improve the situation after it takes place. Then repeat these steps, and do so on a larger, more frequent scale.

“To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.”

--Anatole France

“The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”

--Aldous Huxley

“You cannot avoid a decision, because even the avoidance is a concealed decision.”

--Karol Irzykowski

“Don’t just count your years, make your years count.”

--George Meredith

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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.

Crisis Book Marketing Strategy

There is something called crisis PR, which is the art of someone responding quickly and effectively to a major issue. When an oil rig leaks oil, that’s a PR crisis. When a company  has a lawsuit it filed against it or it issues a product recall, a CEO ouster, or an industry setback, PR crisis teams are assembled. There is no such thing as crisis book marketing but I will use the term to define how every author feels.

The crisis is that you want your book to sell and to boost your career as high and as fast as you can. Start thinking of how you can do things with a sense of urgency (but not panic) -- and to get ahead of any setback or fear.

If you act as if there is a crisis, you may ignite a fire to your book marketing outreach. But don’t panic, do anything drastic or act out of desperation. Just feel a sense of initiative and take it daily. Do some of the things one would do to develop a crisis PR plan -- but differ your marketing to:

1.      Draw a comprehensive action plan (to market!).

2.      Keep a small, trusted team of advisors to focus on your marketing.

3.      Seek not containment of a bad story, but exposure and expansion of a good story and positive message.

4.      Identify your allies and seek third-party assistance.

5.      Think short-term always, but don’t ignore a long-term strategy.

6.      Develop a worst-case scenario response strategy. If you approach A or enlist B, or try organization C – and all are ineffective, what’s the back-up plan? You cannot just say you tried and failed. That’s not good enough. The goal is to succeed, no matter how many setbacks you suffer.

Do not panic -- but act with a sense of urgency.

“Truth for us nowadays is not what is, but what others can be brought to accept.”

--Michel de Montaigne

“It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.”

--Baltasar Gracian

“There are no gains without pains.”

--Benjamin Franklin

“It’s better to write about things you feel than about things you know about.”

--L.P. Hartley

“An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story.  It should say:  Listen, Come in here.  You want to know about this.”

--Stephen King

“Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.”

--Author Unknown

“Creativity requires the courage to let goof certainties.”

--Erich Fromm

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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.

Because Internet: The Bastardization Of English?

Do we communicate differently online than in person?  Do we write differently from how we speak?  Are online communications different than penning written litters or writing books?

Of course, to all of the above. A new book examines how we are now influenced by the Internet’s use of language and how our language is becoming more fluid than ever before.

Because Internet:  Understanding the New Rules of Language presents the view that the rules of language get bent by the Internet and therefore, rather than chide these violations, we must go with the flow.  Accept the changes at rapid speed or remain on the sidelines, voiceless and frustrated.

Gretchen McCullogh, a linguist with a podcast who writes a column for Wired magazine, highlights in her book just how the digital world will transform the English language.  In fact, it already has and will continue to do so.

You may not lol after reading her book.  You may want to tweet something with the hashtag #EnglishScrewed.  But you will feel like you understand the world that now lives on new words spurred by new technologies to describe a cyber-human experience.

The world is changing – quickly.  Perhaps no faster than in how we communicate online – and what we say – with letters, words, emojis, and punctuation (or their lack thereof).

“Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed, while we adapt our conversations to meet character limits and conduct our public debates via @replies," says the book's jacket copy. "But social media isn’t just an engine of linguistic change – it’s also a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch our language evolve in real time,” says the bock’s jacket copy."

Indeed, who needs a dictionary, grammar or style book anymore. Just let the world collectively show us, in everyday usage, how we should speak properly Emoji here, acronym there, cap letters, or slang there and look, you have shared what you wanted and someone understood you.  Or did they?

I agree that English and writing styles evolve over time but I don’t believe that we crash the system to evolve and pay hefty weight to how the ignorant choose to grunt at us.  Take your misspelled, emoji-laced, unedited, incoherent word vomits and filter them until they conform to not only the standards of English, but of how normal, sane, reasonable people talk!

Some sample excerpts from the book include these:

1.      “The Internet, then, makes language change faster because it leads to more weak ties, you can remain aware of people who you don’t see anymore, and your angst to know people who you never would have met otherwise.  The phenomenon of a hashtag or funny video going viral is an example of the power of weak ties when the same thing is shared only through strong ties, it ends up merely as an inside joke.”

2.      “The first year that over half of Americans used the Internet was 2000, according the Pew Research, although usage rates were already over 70% for those that were college-educated or between the age of eighteen and twenty-nine.  In 1995, a mere, 3 percent of Americans had visited a web page, and only a third had a personal computer.”

3.      “The first iPhone come out in 2007, and American smartphone sales first surpassed sales of non-smart cellphones inn 2011, with the same shift happening globally in 2013. Most of us find that it’s worth trading away some privacy for the sake of having a life.  Instead of embracing hermithood, we seek a balance: one study found that people differentiated between the kind of information that they’d share in a post versus in a chat message rating information about their hobbies or favorite TV shows as less intimate and therefore more likely to be shared in a post than their fears, concerns, and personal feelings, which they preferred to share in a private message, if at all.  In other areas people disagreed, such as about the privacy of political or religious opinions and life events like births or marriages, which probably explains why it sometimes feels like others are oversharing or overly reticent.” 

4.      “We’re used to the idea that language changes, at least somewhat.  One generation’s new slang is another’s tired cliché.  We don’t talk like Shakespeare.  And so on.  But what’s less apparent is that macrolevel conversation norms have changed and will keep changing.  Sometimes they change because new technology arises; sometimes the underlying technology is practically unchanged but its social context is different.  Telephones changed our greetings, and smart-phones changed them again.  Business communication spent a whole century getting less ornate, from memos to emails to chat.  Posts have a long and complicated relationship with the public sphere.  Chat became more intimate and conversational as more people started using it.  Videochat may be switching in the opposite direction: becoming more like a third place hangout with the rise of video “chilling” apps like Houseparty, which lets you drop in on a group videochat with whichever of your friends happen to be around.  The current configuration of sites that provide us with first and second and third places has changed before and will, in all likelihood, change again, but the appeal of having friends in your pocket is unlikely to go away.”

5.      “We know that language as a human ability is so very old – some hundred thousand years older than any form of writing – and what that means is that language is incredibly durable.  We know that we’ve met many societies without any form of writing system, but we’ve met any without spoken or signed language at all.  Furthermore, linguistic complexity is unrelated to the complexity of the material culture it comes from.  Language has existed with or without all kinds of technology – writing, agriculture, aqueducts, electricity, industrialization, automobiles, airplanes, cameras, photocopiers, televisions – and the internet is no exception.  In fact, language’s only known predator is other people:  many languages have been stamped out or imposed on others through war or conquest.”

6.      “The changeability of language is its strength:  if children had to copy exactly how their parents spoke in order for language to be transmitted, language would be brittle and fragile.  It would be losable, the way that ancient techniques for art or architecture can be lost.  But because we remake language at every generation, because we learn it from our peers, not just our elders, because we can make ourselves understood even though we all speak subtly different personal varieties, language is flexible and strong.

“But now that we can think of language like the internet, it’s clear that there is space for innovation, space for many Englishes and many other languages besides, space for linguistic playfulness and creativity. There’s space, in this glorious linguistic web, for you.”

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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.

What Makes For A Great Author Website?

An author’s website is his or her storefront.  It both tells and sells.  It’s your brand.  It’s your foundation for your books, blog, social media, and marketing materials.  Your site anchors your message and persona.  So how will you make sure it is very good at what it is supposed to do?

Authors do not have to have flashy, $10,000 websites, but they can’t settle for bottom-of-the-basement free sites either.  But I’ll leave that up to authors to find a decent hosting platform and web designer. Let me tell you of the things you should think about, including best practices.

Let’s start with the core basics. 

You will likely have these following elements on your site:

·         Home page.

·         About you.

·         About your book(s).

·         Blog and/or newsletter.

·         Contact information (include social/media handles).

·         Testimonials (for you/your book/your company).

·         Something free to sign up for.

·         About your company/services (if you have one).

·         Media/appearances (past and upcoming).

Your site should best represent your brand.  The font, typeface, colors, images, sound clips, video, and text combine to form a picture of who you are.

Your site should be:

·         Easy to navigate and find things.

·         Able to answer questions one’s likely to ask.

·         A tool to sell something.

·         A place for people to connect with you.

·         Interesting but not complex.

·         Full of information but not overwhelming others with it.

·         Better than competing authors in the same genre.

Your website should be logical in how it presents you.  No one will be standing next to the visitor to your site to explain what to do or where to go.  It should speak for itself.  Say what you mean and mean what you say.  Use your words judiciously – less is more – but make sure you state what you are about and explain your unique selling proposition.

If your site is just as good as anyone’s – or worse – that it is not good enough.  Competition is fierce.  Just as you wrote the best possible book, had it edited professionally, and had a great title and cover picked out, put together a really good website.  It is an extension of who you are.

Your website needs to take the user on a journey, one that informs, enlightens, inspires or entertains.  It’s your chance to really excite people about what you can do for them.  People will decide whether to buy your book or do business with you, based heavily on your website.

Ask yourself these questions about your site before it goes live:

·         Does it present a focused, well-articulated brand promise?  Is it presented in a compelling way?

·         Do you offer a consistent voice or message that rallies around a catchy slogan?

·         Do you present a special or irresistible offer, test sample, or free item?

·         Are your claims credible, accurate, important, and reasonable?

·         Is your site SEO optimized to reach your target readership? Does it include popular keywords?

·         Does it come off as too salesy – or as a resource?

·         Is everything spelled correctly and edited properly?

·         Does it use inviting headlines, bullet point-filled content, and clear calls to action?

Your website doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should be pretty good.  You can always add to it and modify content but make your introduction to people a successful one.  A good website is just as important as a good book.

“According to a report by the International Publishers Association (IPA), the UK publishes more books per capita than any other country.  The annual output of just under 200,000 new and revised titles is roughly four times the figure of forty years ago, and works out at around twenty new books per hour.”

--For the Love of Books Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters and More by Graham Tarrant

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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.

Great Book On Real Estate & Entrepreneurship!

  Empowering New Book Shows The Principles Of Financial Success – And How To Succeed In Real Estate – As An Entrepreneur, Real Estate Agent or Home Owner

                                               

Can real estate – owning it, selling it, working in it – change your life the way it has for preacher-turned- real estate entrepreneur, Dr. Brian P. Simon? 

A new book shows how all facets of real estate can spur wealth, success, and fulfillment, The Real Estate Journey: From Dreaming and Home Buying to Realty and Entrepreneurship (Morgan James Publishing).

“Anyone can grow wealth with real estate, via one aspect or another,” claims Dr. Simon, who owns multiple real estate–related businesses, including construction, mortgage, and realty.

“Succeeding as an entrepreneur and real estate investor has much to do with the mind game and emotional endurance,” he says.

The Real Estate Journey dives into the multiple facets of real estate on both the personal and professional level to help readers succeed in unpacking their real estate dream, serving as a guide for those who want to get started on achieving their goals.

Dr. Simon also talks about what it takes for entrepreneurs to succeed:

·         How to overcome dream busters.

·         How you can cultivate the power of belief in yourself.

·         The skills needed to succeed in business.

·         How to turn your dream into a S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time specific) goal.

·         How to overcome risks by embracing them and not avoiding them.

·         The financial aptitudes that must be developed.

A serial entrepreneur the past 17 years, Dr. Simon honed his communication and leadership skills as a leadership coach and adjunct professor at Regent University School of Divinity.

For those struggling with believing that real estate is a viable option for building wealth, Dr. Simon offers reassurance that once people connect with their ambition, unpacking their dream and claiming their piece of the pie is simple with the guide and principles he supplies.  With authentic leadership, Dr. Simon shares a realistic outlook for entrepreneurs by sharing his own failures and successes and invites real estate agents, every day investors, and entrepreneurial spirits alike to spread their entrepreneurial wings and fly.

For more information about Dr. Simon, who is promoted by the PR firm that I work for, please consult: www.briansimon.com.

Here is a Q and A with him:

1.      What inspired you to write The Real Estate Journey: From Dreaming & Home Buying to Realty & Entrepreneurship? Portions of the book I initially began writing for real estate agents at my brokerage, Fit Realty. In the last 12 years, I have seen so many agents get inspired into entrepreneurship. I have watched many with great talent come in and make a boat load of money in their first full year in full-time real estate, but by the middle of the second year they began crashing, either because they did not understand the raw grit and endurance/mind game or because they lacked very essential core business philosophies, which I have attempted to weave into the book. Also, I started thinking and came to the realization that nearly every person I have spent time with over the last 10 years has been sparked into entrepreneurship. It was our time together that helped to strengthen the fire of a dream they had, but they lacked the confidence to pursue it. I wanted to help create a guideline for that. Lastly, my childhood friend, John Garvin, was transferred by the military and lived near me for a couple of years prior to me writing the book. Dr. Garvin, who is currently a professor at West Point, and I spent a ton of time catching up over those couple years that he was stationed here, and he began pushing me to write the book to help spark other people’s dreams.

2.      Your book, in part, discusses why real estate is a viable wealth option.  Why is real estate a favorite investment vehicle? The awareness of how simple it can be to retire well as a result of owning rental property was instilled into my life as a young man by my father.  Also, Kenton, my home building partner, and I learned quickly that “a builder is only as good as his land” as we jumped headfirst into the industry as young, naïve and foolish dreamers. That began the pronged journey of seeing all of the many ways in which money is made by various parties, starting from the land to a finished residential home. I have watched a lot of people with very little, if any, money accumulate storage units, rentals, multifamily homes, real estate wholesaling, and/or real estate agency over time. The cheapest real estate education available is to get a simple real estate license and help a few folks make their dreams come true.  Beginning there, serving others in property purchase, will help make the journey into property investment much safer than when they are led to go it alone.  Bottom line: you make money when you buy, not when you sell. Buy the property at the right price and you lock in your equity. Each time property trades hands, whether raw land, residential or multifamily, there are large chunks of money moving hands. 

3.      You are a serial entrepreneur, having started over 10 successful businesses.  What advice do you have for those who seek to create a profitable business?  First, try to only focus on getting one business (the one you believe will succeed the most) and push it into true success with money in the bank, a solid structure, and systems being executed before diving into another business. Second, decide what problem you want to solve. Many years ago, in my early twenties, I accepted the reality that people had constant problems, and if I could solve those problems I would get paid and others would appreciate having their problems solved. Plumbers solve plumbing problems; car salespeople solve car problems; nail technicians solve finger and toenail problems; military men and women solve war and peace problems; real estate agents solve home buying, selling, and rental problems. I later learned that if you solve problems but don’t have time to keep solving them, you can hire someone else to do it. That’s how a business system perpetuates itself: solve a commonly experienced problem, empower leaders and managers to solve that problem, and then pick a new problem to solve. I love solving problems.

4.      You provide some strategies for managing finances while on the entrepreneurial journey.  Can you share some of those tips with us? Yes, here are some tips:

·         Plan ahead – I like to plan five to ten years ahead. It comes very natural to me.

·         Create a budget – Get honest with yourself about how much debt you have, how much money you make, and how much money you need to afford the lifestyle you want to live.

·         Save – Make sure you save enough to pay your taxes, for investing, for a rainy day, for college accounts, and for vacations/luxury purchases.

·         Invest – There are a ton of ways to invest, including index funds, certificate of deposits, annuities, and of course, real estate.

·         Allocate your income – Take your income into account to get a complete picture of your budget. Think long-term and allocate wisely.

·         Increase your income – Get creative. Use your talents to work a side hustle. Sell items online. Or, get involved in real estate, and learn how to increase your sales.

5.      How does one create a “vision of success”?  Grеаt асhiеvеrѕ have a habit. Thеу ѕее themselves living the life of their dreams. Thеу imagine аlrеаdу having what they want. Teach yourself to visualize уоurѕеlf succeeding. See the light at the end of the tunnel bеfоrе еvеn starting. Create an inner dialog of ѕuссеѕѕ and аllоw уоurѕеlf to already fееl the fееlingѕ of achievement.

6.      How does one turn a dream into a goal?  To turn your dream into a goal, it needs to be SMART! It needs to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Specific. Specific, meaning not broad. Measurable, meaning you need to be able to tell when you have accomplished the goal. Attainable, meaning it cannot be lofty or unachievable. Relevant, meaning it should be important to you and reference your values. Time-Specific, meaning it is not open-ended. 

7.      You were a teacher and an academic dean at a Bible College.  How did faith shape your views on business and wealth? As I mention in the book, it was during my time at YWAM that I embraced the concept of the father heart of God. The core of that has remained at the center of my strength to get up and fight another day regardless of how bad things may get along the way. Whether my businesses succeed or fail, I know ultimately that my father God will give me the strength and wisdom to rebuild. While at Regent getting my master’s degree in church history and doctrine, I fell in love with some of the great biblical warriors, including the Davids, Sampson, and Joseph. They all struggled and made huge mistakes, yet they got up and did great things. Business is a little bit like old testament warfare to me; business is my way to be a fighter, a warrior. Most call it competition. To me, business is personal. It does matter. I fight for my companies as a whole as aggressively as I would fight in hand-to-hand combat, old testament style, donkey bone in hand, let’s slay our enemies. Biblically speaking, failure is part of every successful person that God honored by having them mentioned in the scriptures. Failure is part of an entrepreneur’s journey, but most don’t want to accept that reality.

8.      What traits do many entrepreneurs share?  What aptitudes are needed? Key aptitudes that entrepreneurs should have include perseverance, self-assurance, creativity, tolerance for ambiguity, an attitude towards failure, action-oriented, and, most importantly, flexibility. “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.” This is a must and takes time to develop. Our world is rapidly changing, and businesses must stay on their toes at all times. There are times to be as stubborn as an old mule, but there are many more times that an entrepreneur must remain flexible.

9.      On the subject of home ownership, you say, there’s “no perfect spouse, no perfect house.”  So how should one decide which home to buy?  First find a real estate agent you can trust. Then find the home and neighborhood that meet your needs. Make the mоѕt of уоur rеаl еѕtаtе agent, as thеу саn hеlр еduсаtе уоu оn what to lооk for and what to аvоid, and they can рrоvidе уоu with reliable references for оthеr еxреrtѕ you’ll nееd аlоng the wау, ѕuсh as inѕресtоrѕ and lеndеrѕ. View as mаnу hоuѕеѕ in your price range and in your targeted location аѕ уоu possibly can. Talk to friends and family аbоut thеir real еѕtаtе experiences, and rеаllу listen. Реорlе can раѕѕ on invaluable аdviсе and rесоmmеnd gооd рrоfеѕѕiоnаlѕ in the trade. Kеер the faith that you’ll find the right hоuѕе for уоu. Wherever уоu go, kеер аn еуе out for properties. The реrfесt hоuѕе may just pop up and ѕurрriѕе you when уоu lеаѕt expect it. However, don’t forget: no perfect spouse, no perfect house! There is no such thing as a perfect house. Trust that the house you choose will be a great next step for you in this season of your life. Lastly, use your agent to negotiate to get the best price

10.  What are some of the key steps that home buyers need to be aware of?  Don’t choose just any real estate agent. If your region has new homes, be sure that you explore both new and re-sale homes. Decide in advance whether you are buying this house primarily as an investment or primarily because it suits your family. Do you want to buy a home you can make $100,000 profit over two to four years or do you want to buy a home because it will make you happy while you raise your family, use it for a tax write-off, and make a small profit in a few years? That core decision will swing you one way or the other on the final decision. But either way, make sure that you get all of the necessary home inspections and that you shop for homeowners’ insurance to protect your new home, Remember the time уоu tаkе when buying a home is a gооd invеѕtmеnt. The time you invest will pay you back 100-fold during your lifespan, and what you can leave in knowledge and assets to your children or a favorite charity will help you and others make more money over the long haul.

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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.