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Joanna Penn is a New York Times best-selling author who’s written and published over 28 books and sold over 500,000 of them. I invited Joanna on the podcast to talk about the creative business of writing, how she got into it, her writing process, and everything I can possibly learn in less than an hour!

Who is Joanna Penn?

Joanna Penn an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors.

She’s written 28 books and sold over 500,000 books in 84 countries and 5 languages. She’s an independent (indie) author and also runs a small press, Curl Up Press, with her husband and business partner.

Joanna is also an international professional speaker and award-winning creative entrepreneur. In 2018, she was awarded Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.

She’s based in Bath, England although she lived in Australia and New Zealand for 11 years. She’s a travel junkie and am often away on book research trips to interesting places. She likes to go hiking but also loves relaxing with a book and a glass of pinot noir, or a gin & tonic (Hendricks & Fever-Tree). She’s INFJ on the Myers Briggs, and Susan Cain’s book, Quiet, changed her life when she realized that she was not weird in wanting to be alone a lot!

She spent 13 years as a business IT consultant in large corporates across the globe before becoming a full-time author-entrepreneur in September 2011.

Why Should You Listen to Joanna Penn?

There are plenty of reasons why you should listen to Joanna Penn. Let me give the top 3:

1. Joanna worked a full-time job for 13 years before deciding to quit her job to start a creative business and do full-time writing. She shares how she started doing it on the side, and how she made a transition.
2. She talks about her writing process, from idea to publishing.
3. Joanna is a nonconformist in many ways – from how she’s approached writing, her thinking about habits, time management, everything will tell you that.

What You’ll Learn from this Interview?

Joanna talks about a lot of things in this interview. Here are specific things you’ll learn:

1. How Joanna moved from a full-time IT job to being a full-time author.
2. Joanna talks about how she manages her time.
3. She talks about what excites her about writing and why she goes back to it.
4. She throws light into how she marketed her book when she started and how she does it now.
5. Joanna talks about how she had to discard over 1800 copies of her first book, and why she had to do it.
6. How her mother’s influence made a big impact on her, and how she lives.
7. She talks about how she measures success (you’ll be surprised!)
8. Joanna talks about her business model today and how it was when she started.
9. 3 favorite metrics she uses to track her business.
10. She talks about what kind of books she would want to write (and has not got there yet).

and so much more!

How Can You Listen?

Joanna’s interview is available in audio.

Direct Link to Audio

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How to Get In Touch with Joanna Penn?

Twitter: @thecreativepenn

Facebook: @TheCreativePenn

LinkedIn: @joannapenn

Instagram: @jfpennauthor

Website: thecreativepenn.com

Join the Newsletter

If you are running a business as a solopreneur (or just getting started) please do join my newsletter. That’s where I share tips, tactics,  resources and mindset stuff based on my experience as I build a $100,000 business. The link is designyourthinking.com/newsletter. See you inside.

Thanks for Listening!

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• Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one of them.
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Special thanks to Joanna Penn for taking the time to join me this week!