How clearing blocks and connecting with the right people transforms your writing journey

Explore the hidden strategies that spark unstoppable momentum and gain the insider edge for a thriving writing career, as shared in this opening keynote from Writer MBA Con 2025.

This speech is adapted from the opening keynote I gave at Writer MBA Con 2025.

Hi,

By any measure, I think at least the people in this room would say I have had a successful career. I mean, if you can’t say that standing up in front of 180 people who gathered in a city because you and your business partner manifested an idea out of thin air, then when can you, right?

That said, I’ve never signed a deal with a Big 5 publisher, I’ve never had a book #1, or even #100 on the Amazon store. If you looked at my rank, you would laugh.

I’m doing pretty alright, though. The last time I looked, I’ve run something like $1.8 million through Quickbooks between all my companies since I started tracking it in 2016. Yet, if you polled 1,000 random readers, there’s a very good chance all 1,000 of them would say “Never heard of that guy.”

Which like…rude…

…Jokes on them, though, because I am the one standing on this stage right now, so there.

Yes, part of saying that was about straight up bragging, because th…