InUPress Notes
Written by Kenneth Shumaker
for InUPress
on September 23, 2018
You know, I’ve been here barely stalking the internet as I haven’t been feeling well while working with clients on their projects. Because of over working with clients and poor health I haven’t followed up with other people in contact or groups in reviews or contact. I also haven’t been writing properly. Today for the first time in four weeks the severe migraine has lifted, the bronchitis has faded along with the infections, my vision is clearing.
So today I ran a Zoom recorded session for two hours with a client and actually want to write and attend our various groups for the first time in over five weeks, So hello my friend, my last effort in writing was a partial episode’s first draft of 2,100 words four days ago and a full four-thousand word episode’s first draft a week before that. Which is sad as I was writing over two thousand words a morning up until five weeks ago.
Our video sessions with Del Rey will be shared with the public, soon as, DelRey & InUPress’ Writer’s Education, on Patreon, and InUPress Ltd at www.inupress.ca as a series of fifteen-minute videos addressing writing and publishing. I am also building my personal author and business brands and platforms again with online and local promotions and advertising.
Any feedback or suggestions from you for any of this are most welcome by me.
Thank you for reading, yours, Kenneth Shumaker.
May the words stay with you!
Motivating for productivity!
The novel, ‘Larret Army,’ is the first of three tales in the ‘Lost Souls‘ series of medieval fantasy. The ragtag group, Black Swan’s, challenge the terrorizing armies of the horrid new god, Tearmain, with the loss of many lives to both sides. Few escape the ravages of this war.
The novel can be bought on Amazon, Kobo, Apple and InUPress as well as stores and elsewhere online in book or ebook format. With enough formal requests, we will also create audio or hardcover editions.
All your comments are welcome and are read.
Written by Kenneth Shumaker.
May 2, 2018.
Hello, in our April closing newsletter I had stated I would tell you a bit about the 7-Levers, 7 weeks with 10% increase per week: The Next 100-Days double your profits 10% increase per week challenge: which was started with a challenge start date of February 26, 2018, and ending April 16, 2018. The challenge was set by Kevin Appleby from the Next 100 Days podcast.
I completed the challenge and succeeded well, with mixed results in the challenge.
Have you ever had a goal or challenge you desired to complete? Where you aimed for an end result but missed?
I’ll let you in on my secret sauce to my success which I’ve used in my different careers and in my life to attain what I want. It’s a mix of patience and goal setting; mixed with an addition of 80% strong drive. But without setting clear, precise, measurable, achievable goals, none of it would have likely been possible to achieve.
I see people all over with tonnes of drive, many people with worlds of patience and they get nowhere in life. They’re attaining and achieving little. True, quite a few are happy this way. Many aren’t.
I’ve worked with colleges in security and as an instructor and also as Chairman of the Board for years of a mental health outreach program for the province of Alberta. I was a crew foreman and then a field supervisor of a three-crew team for a province-wide company for years.
I attained these through setting goals and mixing patience, understanding, drive and adaptability together. The glue was always goal setting.
My particular method I use is a six-goal tiered system.
I set one, two, five and ten-year goals, as well as monthly, weekly and daily goals.
Each tier is set with six goals which I desire to attain.
You ask … so what? It doesn’t matter if you set goals! No one ever achieves goals!
Well, I use a carrot and stick method. If I fail to achieve at least four of the six goals in a set time period, there is a penalty. These were set at the time I had set up the goal system.
Most of the sticks are financial penalties with the money going into an account which in December is given to a charity as a gift. My current pot sits at $80.00. I had a big fail last month. My monthly fails are $50.00, while weekly fails are $10.00. Year fails I set at $200.00, so far this hasn’t been an issue. The goals for the year are accountable by November 30th. This starts on November 30th the previous year running to November 30 of the current year.
My weeks are from Sunday night to Saturday night. So, really, I only give myself a six-day week.
A four or five points success is a partial success or minor achievement and gets a small reward. So, for example, being as I recharge by being alone but I enjoy observing people interact in society, my weekly minor reward is to go for coffee by myself. This is also where I can take a study course on my tablet while occasionally observing people AND enjoy the peace and a coffee without clients/customers interrupting me, or my family! I may even take the opportunity to write. I hand wrote three chapters in a two-hour session once.
The big win is getting all six points and is a major achievement which earns a big reward. As an example; my weekly reward is to take a friend or family out for a meal, plus take two days off from work. What a bonus!
Now I made a pact with myself not to abuse the system, but I also set it up so I could stack all the penalties and reward. For examples, the penalty account is at $80.00, while the coffees are accumulated to 12, and the big wins are at 5, being as some were held over from last year still. I’m thinking of saving for a vacation.
So, regarding the results from the challenge, I told you about in the closing newsletter last month: when all bookkeeping was tallied at the end of April we had a win of a profit margin totalling $586.76 between the three business entities. This is up from our first win of $11.68 in February. Some of this was from royalties for content I produce, some was from computer repair work, some was from InUPress work.
Two of my businesses consistently lost money in 2016 and 17 as we are still in the startup development phase of our growth, while in the third business has been making a profit from day one in 2014 and has been operating in a community where four others tried to startup similar businesses and folded in less than eight months each.
Because the two entities lost so much in 2017 as I was developing them, my total margins were a loss, until February 2018. In April I saw my best month in three years. This was due to the challenge and the system of profits it advances.
There was no carrot or stick for me on this other than to use the 7-levers presented in episode 110 of the Next 100 Days podcast to achieve a profit margin of $60 or more in April.
I like challenges so I set the goals necessary, with setting up an editorial calendar and drive sheet after mud-mapping through the processes that would be necessary.
I believe in my processes, but they’re not for everyone. Many would struggle to try to use the systems. But if you think my systems might help you, just contact me to ask me more about how I work and how you might apply them. I’ve worked with others in the past, and they went on to own and run their own businesses and homes. This may not happen for you, but you never know until you take YOUR steps forward.
My intention for these opening newsletters each month is to present to you our goals and the tasks we set out to do for the month.
For May 2018 our goals of intention which we are to be held accountable for are:
Our monthly carrot/stick system accountability ending for May 30th, 2018:
So, now we’re also being held accountable to all of you.
May the words stay with you!
© 2018 by Kenneth Shumaker with Inevitable Unicorn Press.
inupress@inupress.ca www.inupress.ca www.kennethshumaker.ca
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Issue 005
Written: July 10, 2017.
Published on Virily: September 30, 2017.
Published on InUPress: December 3, 2017.
‘My journey blogging!’
Hi, I’m the wayward writer, Kenneth Shumaker. When I was in my twenties and thirties, I loved to get out and travel, exploring the world. I would think nothing of getting a couple of the guys together and taking a five-hour road trip just for coffee and a movie in the next city. Or taking a weekend drive for eighteen hours, ending up sleeping in my vehicle at the foot of a glacier at midnight because I had become too exhausted to drive any further. Then, in the morning turning around and driving back on a different route, observing the scenery the whole trip. This is how blogging for me is now, but on a more professional basis. I take these journeys through the world, now sharing my knowledge and experiences with you.
I’ve been blogging since 2009 when I started with the Owerton Challenge blog at www.owertonna.com/blog which I posted every Friday. The blog was a writing challenge for me to write a fictional post of 500 words, a post based on three words supplied by the blog’s readers. The blog lasted until 2015 when my traditional publisher made it part of our contract that I cease writing for the blog, as she felt the blog was competing with our publishing work that I would be writing for her.
Through various reasons, I started blogging other blogs, such as Bard & Dragoman at www.barddragoman.com, which I was invited to co-author with my editor, Aria. Other blog publishings were started over the years and continue still. I currently write for Virily, Medium and Scriggler among others.
In 2016, I opened up a new Owerton Challenge at www.owerton.ca. I have written sixteen posts in two new series. However, I’ve been remiss in posting these as I’ve been too divided by my many publishing efforts over the last two years: growing my new business, publishing, and setting up my network and contacts. But I’ve been missing you, my readers. The original Owerton Challenge had over 1,800 readers by 2015. Bard & Dragoman has grown to over 3,000 followers over various platforms. But, so far, I’ve been too fragmented and inconsistent in other places to develop your trust here and your readership. This is going to change with my new working schedule and with more consistent post publishing. Virily, Bard & Dragoman (Which is renewing as Ever Bard), along with the renewed Owerton will see me as a regular publisher of posts with new schedules.
On Virily I will publish two fiction series: the ‘Eren’s Challenge’, a sci-fi fantasy serial series, as well as ‘Morgus’, a medieval fantasy serial series. I will also publish a nonfiction post, called ‘Notes from InUPress,’ which are interesting notes written by me, and the occasional polls.
This is our journey together, sharing our trust in each other and guiding the travel of our quest. I’d like to hear from you with you writing us your comments with your ideas and feedback. You can leave your comments in the comments or as an email. Even phone me. I’ll respond to you as soon as I’m available.
These notes are written by, Kenneth Shumaker and published with Inevitable Unicorn Press at Rusty’s Den.
Thank you for reading, please leave us a comment.
May the words stay with you!
© 2017 by Kenneth Shumaker with Inevitable Unicorn Press
www.inupress.ca inupress@inupress.ca
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Awesome! You finished episode 005 of Notes from InUPress.
Let us know what you think of Notes from InUPress by going to www.inupress.ca While you are there, you can join the Inevitable Unicorn Press e-mail subscription list to receive news and updates about work from our authors such as Aria, Eric J Kregel, and Kenneth Shumaker. When you first signup for the e-mail list, you will receive a free document. This free pdf changes with time. Recently, the gift was a copy of Kenneth Shumaker’s biography of the protagonists, the Black Swans, from his epic fantasy novel, ‘Laret’. Later, the bonus was an episode from the epic fantasy serial series, ‘Markus’.
While on the home page of InUPress leave a comment, telling us what you think of our author’s work or our website.
Thank you for reading Notes from InUPress.
Yours,
Kenneth Shumaker with Inevitable Unicorn Press.
We would like to acknowledge the following for their contributions:
Our author is Kenneth Shumaker.
Our graphics designer of covers and headers is Kenneth Shumaker.
Editing is by Donna Shumaker.
The distribution, marketing, production, promotions, and publishing is by Inevitable Unicorn Press (InUPress).
About the author: Kenneth Shumaker (Rusty Knight)
Following a long break from writing, I recovered my passion for writing in 2009. I write science fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, fantasy, and nonfiction as an author with Inevitable Unicorn Press (InUPress). I am writing on Virily and other blog sites and publications. I have available a medieval fantasy novel, titled, ‘Laret: Darkness of Souls.’ I also write several serial short story series and novels. My two businesses, wife, two adult children, and six grandchildren keep me busy.
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Thank you, Kenneth, for Inevitable Unicorn Press (InUPress).
