Author and coach April Davila.
Tell me about your vision.
Okay.
So my vision is to help writers get through their first draft a little more quickly with a little less suffering.
In a nutshell, that's my vision.
How did you go about getting started as an author, coach, writer, publisher?
Feel free to throw any other titles in there that you've gained along the way.
Yeah.
Well, as a writer, it was kind of a long journey.
I always kind of liked, I've always loved writing, but Denver took it very seriously.
And it wasn't until about 2010 when we moved and we were new parents.
And I was like, what am I doing with my life?
I had one of those moments and I didn't, I was unemployed at the time.
And what I found I was doing to fill my hours was writing short stories.
I just loved it.
And then I had this light bulb moment of like, writing is a thing people do.
I could do this.
And I decided to go back to school.
I got a master's in writing, graduated in 2010 from USC with honors.
And I wrote the first draft of my novel as my thesis project.
But then I just kind of, I struggled a lot with it.
I did get a job after graduating, which is nice for someone.
With a master's in writing, it's not always a given.
But at that point, then I had two little kids, a full time job.
And I was getting up at five in the morning to work on the novel.
And I could not figure it out.
I was like going in circles with it.
And I was writing short stories that were just getting rejected time after time.
It was very frustrating.
And then around 2016, things started to shift for me.
I figured out the novel.
I got an agent.
We sold the book.
I wrote a couple of short stories that got published.
One of them was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
The first book won an award while I was writing the second book that
was far more complex.
And I wrote that one in just about three years versus the eight years
it took me to write the first book.
Everything just kind of started falling into place.
And when I looked back at what had changed around 2016,
that was when I had started meditating regularly.
And at first, I thought, well, that couldn't be it.
That doesn't make any sense.
But the more I thought about it, the more I kind of
came down to these very specific things that my mindfulness practice had either
taught me or trained me to do that made writing less painful.
It made it more fun.
And it made me more productive.
I got through drafts faster.
I edited much more effectively.
I do fewer rounds now in terms of revisions.
So yeah, and that's where it comes down to that list
that I shared with you of the six ways that mindfulness can make you
a happier, more productive writer.
And actually, I'm working on a book right now with that title
so I can share it widely with the world.
That's awesome.
I appreciate the applicable tip, too, of meditation
and how it's not always an instant solution.
But you realized over time the value that that gave you,
kind of like vitamins did for me, as well as getting rid of my blackout
curtains.
That has made a massive difference in my life.
And yeah, natural light and its effect on us is, I found, very important
and helpful.
So as far as your book, what's the name of one of your books?
So my first book that was published is called 142 Ostriches.
That's what I thought.
I wanted to make sure.
Move forward.
Before I open this.
Wow.
Go ahead.
I love it.
It came out in March of 2020, so it did not get a whole lot of press.
Yeah, I actually paused my book launch because of that.
Yeah, it was a rough time to try to launch a debut novel.
But it did get a lot of really good reviews.
And I heard from a lot of readers over the pandemic that they loved it
and they really enjoyed being able to escape for a little while
with a good book.
So that was flattering.
That is so cool.
And a lot of people are publishing books these days.
And as a strategist, it's one of the most painful things.
How many of them have published their book and have one to two reviews
on their book?
And I'm like, I know you feel the pain.
I know that's not the launch that you wanted.
And we protect ourselves and say things like, oh, well,
I didn't want to be New York Times best.
That's not true.
That's exactly what you want.
You didn't publish this book for nobody to read it.
That's not what happened.
But I understand the desire to protect ourselves.
And we don't know how to go about getting the results that we want.
That's why it's so important to find people like you in our life who
can help, whether it's you, Michael Hepple, Ashley Dutteo, Amber
Villahour.
There's so many options.
We need to know those options so we can gravitate
towards the ones that are best for us.
So thank you for that.
Moving into a different topic, this is a pointed question.
I'll do two at a time to speed us up a little bit.
So you're welcome to ask this question how you see fit.
It is a leading question, so you can challenge it too.
But why do leaders hide from funding their visions?
And the two pointed question, how do leaders
lean into funding their vision?
What are the secrets to that?
Well, in addition to being a writer, I'm also an entrepreneur
because my coaching business is what I do.
I write in the morning, and then I run my business
in the afternoon, which is helping people write.
And I think one of the reasons people don't lean into funding
or anything to do with their business is just straight up fear,
particularly if you're doing something that's a little unusual.
This is something I've had to really push through in the last few months.
But when I first started coaching, even after I did a two-year teacher training
program in mindfulness certification because I knew how much it had helped me,
I wanted to bring that into my coaching.
And I didn't mention it at all.
It wasn't on my website.
It wasn't anywhere.
I was so afraid that people would dismiss me
if I brought the word mindfulness evokes a lot of things
in different people's minds.
And so I totally shied away from it.
And I think it's a very similar thing of what would keep people
from seeking funding.
And I think the number one thing you can do to get over that
is to deal with the mindset issue of what is it that has you afraid?
And there are a lot of parallels between that and writing.
So I've been working with this both for myself and with my clients.
But the fear part of when you're doing something
that feels big and bold and a little bit scary, how do you get out of it?
So how do you deal with it?
What are some ideas for how to deal with that?
Mindfulness, I mean, it's probably not a surprise that I say that.
But one of the things I work with with my writers
and that I have worked with as a business person with my coach
is meditation, being able to recognize the anxiety or the fear that comes
and being like, OK, I'm afraid of this.
I don't want to ask for this funding or I
don't want to take this big leap, whatever it is,
and be able to say, OK, that fear is a very normal thing that
should be happening if I'm stepping out of my comfort zone.
And then you can step back and be like, is there anything legitimately
like a threat right now?
And you can assess.
Is there a legitimate reason to not take this next step?
And if there isn't, if it's just fear, then you go for it
and you take that leap.
And it's so scary, but also so fun when you actually do it
and when it works and you're like, oh, I did the hard, brave thing
and it worked.
It's just very vindicating.
What about when it doesn't?
That's also a place for mindfulness.
So you can when something doesn't work, and I've certainly
had this happen with writing and with business,
you have to first calm down the recrimination or the self-doubt
or the emotional part of it.
You have to sit with that and just feel it.
You got to feel it.
Let it just pass over you.
And then you take a deep breath and you're like, OK,
why didn't it work?
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.