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Author and coach April Davila.

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Tell me about your vision.

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Okay.

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So my vision is to help writers get through their first draft a little more quickly with a little less suffering.

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In a nutshell, that's my vision.

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How did you go about getting started as an author, coach, writer, publisher?

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Feel free to throw any other titles in there that you've gained along the way.

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Yeah.

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Well, as a writer, it was kind of a long journey.

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I always kind of liked, I've always loved writing, but Denver took it very seriously.

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And it wasn't until about 2010 when we moved and we were new parents.

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And I was like, what am I doing with my life?

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I had one of those moments and I didn't, I was unemployed at the time.

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And what I found I was doing to fill my hours was writing short stories.

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I just loved it.

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And then I had this light bulb moment of like, writing is a thing people do.

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I could do this.

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And I decided to go back to school.

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I got a master's in writing, graduated in 2010 from USC with honors.

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And I wrote the first draft of my novel as my thesis project.

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But then I just kind of, I struggled a lot with it.

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I did get a job after graduating, which is nice for someone.

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With a master's in writing, it's not always a given.

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But at that point, then I had two little kids, a full time job.

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And I was getting up at five in the morning to work on the novel.

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And I could not figure it out.

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I was like going in circles with it.

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And I was writing short stories that were just getting rejected time after time.

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It was very frustrating.

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And then around 2016, things started to shift for me.

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I figured out the novel.

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I got an agent.

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We sold the book.

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I wrote a couple of short stories that got published.

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One of them was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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The first book won an award while I was writing the second book that

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was far more complex.

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And I wrote that one in just about three years versus the eight years

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it took me to write the first book.

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Everything just kind of started falling into place.

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And when I looked back at what had changed around 2016,

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that was when I had started meditating regularly.

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And at first, I thought, well, that couldn't be it.

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That doesn't make any sense.

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But the more I thought about it, the more I kind of

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came down to these very specific things that my mindfulness practice had either

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taught me or trained me to do that made writing less painful.

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It made it more fun.

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And it made me more productive.

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I got through drafts faster.

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I edited much more effectively.

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I do fewer rounds now in terms of revisions.

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So yeah, and that's where it comes down to that list

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that I shared with you of the six ways that mindfulness can make you

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a happier, more productive writer.

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And actually, I'm working on a book right now with that title

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so I can share it widely with the world.

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That's awesome.

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I appreciate the applicable tip, too, of meditation

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and how it's not always an instant solution.

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But you realized over time the value that that gave you,

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kind of like vitamins did for me, as well as getting rid of my blackout

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curtains.

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That has made a massive difference in my life.

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And yeah, natural light and its effect on us is, I found, very important

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and helpful.

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So as far as your book, what's the name of one of your books?

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So my first book that was published is called 142 Ostriches.

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That's what I thought.

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I wanted to make sure.

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Move forward.

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Before I open this.

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Wow.

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Go ahead.

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I love it.

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It came out in March of 2020, so it did not get a whole lot of press.

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Yeah, I actually paused my book launch because of that.

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Yeah, it was a rough time to try to launch a debut novel.

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But it did get a lot of really good reviews.

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And I heard from a lot of readers over the pandemic that they loved it

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and they really enjoyed being able to escape for a little while

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with a good book.

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So that was flattering.

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That is so cool.

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And a lot of people are publishing books these days.

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And as a strategist, it's one of the most painful things.

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How many of them have published their book and have one to two reviews

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on their book?

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And I'm like, I know you feel the pain.

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I know that's not the launch that you wanted.

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And we protect ourselves and say things like, oh, well,

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I didn't want to be New York Times best.

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That's not true.

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That's exactly what you want.

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You didn't publish this book for nobody to read it.

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That's not what happened.

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But I understand the desire to protect ourselves.

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And we don't know how to go about getting the results that we want.

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That's why it's so important to find people like you in our life who

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can help, whether it's you, Michael Hepple, Ashley Dutteo, Amber

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Villahour.

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There's so many options.

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We need to know those options so we can gravitate

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towards the ones that are best for us.

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So thank you for that.

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Moving into a different topic, this is a pointed question.

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I'll do two at a time to speed us up a little bit.

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So you're welcome to ask this question how you see fit.

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It is a leading question, so you can challenge it too.

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But why do leaders hide from funding their visions?

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And the two pointed question, how do leaders

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lean into funding their vision?

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What are the secrets to that?

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Well, in addition to being a writer, I'm also an entrepreneur

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because my coaching business is what I do.

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I write in the morning, and then I run my business

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in the afternoon, which is helping people write.

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And I think one of the reasons people don't lean into funding

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or anything to do with their business is just straight up fear,

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particularly if you're doing something that's a little unusual.

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This is something I've had to really push through in the last few months.

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But when I first started coaching, even after I did a two-year teacher training

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program in mindfulness certification because I knew how much it had helped me,

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I wanted to bring that into my coaching.

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And I didn't mention it at all.

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It wasn't on my website.

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It wasn't anywhere.

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I was so afraid that people would dismiss me

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if I brought the word mindfulness evokes a lot of things

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in different people's minds.

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And so I totally shied away from it.

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And I think it's a very similar thing of what would keep people

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from seeking funding.

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And I think the number one thing you can do to get over that

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is to deal with the mindset issue of what is it that has you afraid?

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And there are a lot of parallels between that and writing.

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So I've been working with this both for myself and with my clients.

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But the fear part of when you're doing something

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that feels big and bold and a little bit scary, how do you get out of it?

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So how do you deal with it?

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What are some ideas for how to deal with that?

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Mindfulness, I mean, it's probably not a surprise that I say that.

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But one of the things I work with with my writers

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and that I have worked with as a business person with my coach

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is meditation, being able to recognize the anxiety or the fear that comes

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and being like, OK, I'm afraid of this.

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I don't want to ask for this funding or I

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don't want to take this big leap, whatever it is,

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and be able to say, OK, that fear is a very normal thing that

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should be happening if I'm stepping out of my comfort zone.

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And then you can step back and be like, is there anything legitimately

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like a threat right now?

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And you can assess.

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Is there a legitimate reason to not take this next step?

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And if there isn't, if it's just fear, then you go for it

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and you take that leap.

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And it's so scary, but also so fun when you actually do it

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and when it works and you're like, oh, I did the hard, brave thing

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and it worked.

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It's just very vindicating.

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What about when it doesn't?

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That's also a place for mindfulness.

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So you can when something doesn't work, and I've certainly

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had this happen with writing and with business,

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you have to first calm down the recrimination or the self-doubt

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or the emotional part of it.

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You have to sit with that and just feel it.

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You got to feel it.

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Let it just pass over you.

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And then you take a deep breath and you're like, OK,

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why didn't it work?

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes

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continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.