We recently connected with Rachel Huffmire and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
I believe confident people find success. And when I say confident, I don’t mean people with egos or blind optimism. To me, confidence is the ability to face the emotions that come with potential failure. We are never going to get things right all the time. So if we’re crippled by the fear of failure, shame, disappointment—success will be as rare as winning the lottery. Because it means you will only move forward if you are 100% sure of the outcome. But if we are ok to sit down with our uncomfortable emotions, look them in the eyes, and tell them “thank you for trying to protect me, but I’ve got this”, there really isn’t anything we can’t do.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi! I’m Rachel Huffmire and I’m an award-winning speculative fiction author and business coach. I have six published books and am the co-founder of the Author Capital Online Writing Conference. Author Capital is an affordable, accessible, and applicable community for writing professionals. We believe every author deserves to succeed and we want to make it easy for them to find and apply the training they need, regardless of their location, time-constraints, or budget. After Covid took many conference events to a virtual format, we saw the immediate benefits for new voices who usually struggle to attend live events. Our hope is to expand that reach to help encourage greater diversity from new voices in the publishing world. We assembled 15 published, bestselling, and award-winning authors who have pre-recorded hour+ long masterclasses. They also include downloads and worksheets to help new and established authors level up in their careers.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My conference co-founder, Karma Chesnut, and I are constantly making pivots to benefit the conference. We have a running list of potential changes and every month have a “pivot or persevere” meeting to help ensure we are taking our conference in the right direction. This is our response to direct feedback from conference registrants, presenters, or conference faculty. This meeting has been a huge benefit because it constantly keeps us in tune with the user experience, which is ultimately the most important thing. Sometimes we are forced to make a pivot we really don’t want to make, like when our website host stopped offering crucial elements a month before launch and we had to build a new website from scratch. Because my co-founder and I were already in the habit of discussing pivots regularly, it took away a lot of the shock and stress of making such a big change. We were able to re-prioritize tasks and schedules with ease because it was already part of our regular processes. It’s a habit I’m really glad we developed early on.
Any advice for managing a team?
One of the best bits of advice I received was to read a new book every week. Managing so many moving pieces requires a lot of interpersonal skills. It’s more than being organized and having vision. It’s about knowing how to be an influencer, create healthy culture, and lead by example. You need a lot of tools in your toolbox, and that requires a lot of input. Some of my favorite books from this year include Atomic Habits, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Lean Startup, Fair Play, and The Founders Dilemma. The biggest takeaway I’ve found from these books is that management is more about listening than anything else. Finding ways to foster open communication, refining your own listening skills, and genuinely caring about learning more about the people you work and serve seem to be the magic three ingredients in creating high morale anywhere you go.
The second piece of advice that I find crucial is to be deliberate about setting aside ten minutes of positive business-minded input every day. Negativity often comes naturally and regularly. Doubt, fear, imposter syndrome, and frustrations are all natural responses to the trial and error process of working on any project. I believe we have to be deliberate about giving positivity equal opportunity in our lives. It’s really easy to fall into negative thought processes and the last thing we want is to allow that to become the default response. Giving ourselves positive input helps beef up those neurological highways through positivity, making them easier to access subconsciously.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.rachelhuffmire.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelhuffmire/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelHuffmireauthor
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelHuffmire
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfwlCnEFQ5NIZp_bRjjmr1Q
- Other: Www.authorcapitalconference.com
Image Credits
Madi Twede Photography