The Lazy Genius Podcast - #162 - A Peek Inside The Lazy Genius Way

Episode Date: June 15, 2020

This is a very exciting and surreal episode for me to share because in case you didn’t know I wrote a book, and today is the first real day that I’m going to tell you about what is inside! On August 11th, you’ll get to read those words if you want, and in this episode I’ll actually share a couple of ways you can read those words sooner, but for now, I’m going to tell you why I decided to write a book, what my writing rhythm was when I was writing it, how I wrote 60,000 words that were never used, what kept me from quitting because I almost did a couple of times, and what’s inside the book. Helpful Companion Links Preorder The Lazy Genius Way and claim your preorder bonuses here. Download a transcript of this episode. This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 162, a peek inside the lazy, genius way. This is a very exciting and surreal episode for me to share, because in case you didn't know, I wrote a book. And today is the first real day that I'm going to tell you about what is inside. If you've ever wanted to write a book or have just been curious about what the process is like, you'll really enjoy this episode, I think. I'm going to give you a quick but meaty, behind the scenes,

personal account of how I wrote the book, like how I actually got the words on paper. I will likely do another episode in a few weeks about more of the publishing side, pitching, working with a publisher, the editing process, marketing, all the machinery behind getting a book into the world. Because it is very fascinating. But today is just, about the words on the page. Okay, so on August 11th, you'll get to read those words if you want. And in this episode, I'll actually share a couple of ways you can read those words sooner. But for now, here's what we're going to cover today. I'm going to tell you why I decided to write a book, what my writing rhythm was when I was writing it, how I wrote 60,000 words that were never used. And for context, 60,000 words is a book. So that's fun. What kept me from quitting because I almost did a couple of times.

And then what's actually inside the book. So first, why did I want to write a book in the first place? Okay, to be honest, writing a book has never been a dream of mine. And anytime I say that, I feel a little gross. Because there are so many people, and you might be one of them, who really want to write a book. you feel like you have a message to share, a story to tell, a way to make the world better with your words, and that's fantastic. I always thought that only people like that were allowed to write books. Otherwise, we're just taking up space from people who actually care. But here's what I learned, and I hope that this encourages you if you're a writer and also if you're a reader. I think it always helps to recognize the different kinds of writers and people when we're browsing the library

shelves or at our local bookstore, which will be at again one day, you guys will be there. again. So some authors are authors only, right? Writing books is what they do. Now, some authors have a book or books that support a broader business or message that's shared in a broader way. I think of Brunay Brown. She's a writer with several fantastic books, but she also is still a researcher. She's a public speaker. She's now a podcast host. She owns a business that equips companies, like big companies, to create a culture of vulnerability in the workplace and therefore make those companies stronger and more honest and more sure of what they're about. If Brene stopped writing books, we would all be sad, but we would still hear from her. But then there are authors who that's not the case. If they stopped writing,

that's pretty much it. I'm like Brene Brown. I mean, I'm not really like Brne Brown, but you know what I mean? No one is like Brne. But I have a broader business that this book, the lazy genius way, is going to support. And that is why I wanted to write a book to support the lazy genius community. Now, I wanted to write a good book. Don't get me wrong. And if I may be humbly honest for a second, I think I did. I think it's great.

And it's great because it's going to impact your life in super tangible ways. And I had gotten to a point in my business and in communicating with you all on social or over email where I realized that we needed a resource. The lazy genius community needed a resource that's bigger than a 10-page PDF or a blog post. I also wanted you to have a book that you could grab from your shelf and flip to the page you needed to help you lazy genius whatever your problem was at this time. That's why this book is a casebound hardcover book. Casebound just means that the art of the cover is printed on the book, not on like a book jacket or a dust cover or whatever. and the reason I wanted that is because I'm anticipating that you will pick this book up often, that you will underline, you will use it as a reference.

You will see it as almost like an owner's manual, but for lazy genius in your life. I anticipate it being a little worn. I'm hopeful about that. So I wanted the cover to reflect all that action, you know. But yeah, that's why I decided to write a book proposal and see if I could get someone to pay me to actually write the book. I wanted you to have a resource. now I will get into the publishing aspect like I said in another episode and I'll talk about the book proposal process and how the book I pitched is very much not the book I wrote but we'll do that

in another episode so that'll be a specific very specific kind of fun to look forward to okay so next I will share a bit about my writing rhythm when I was writing the book so when you sign a contract a book contract, you have a deadline for your manuscript, right? Your words are due by this date. Well, I signed my contract in October of 2018. And my manuscript wasn't due until May of 2019, so a little over a year ago. And I thought that because I was really sure about what the book was going to be, that I would be better served waiting to start writing it until after the holidays, until after we were in 2019. I didn't want to like fit this brand new massive thing into a time of year that's already a little crazy.

You know, I love October through December is my favorite. And I didn't want to be distracted by the book and trying to write it and fits and starts in the middle of all of our fun family things and my regular work on the podcast and all that. So I was like, yeah, I'll be fine. I'll wait until January. Five months is no problem. I know what the book is about. I can do that. So my rhythm for the first month was, honestly, it was working at the, I guess it was the first

couple of events. It was working at the like Starbucks cafe at my Target. It was tucked back into the store. It had a wall of windows. So the light was so great. No one ever came back there. And the windows faced the front of the store, like they faced the parking lot. And so sometimes friends who were shopping, they would see me and they would like knock on the glass and wave and give me a thumbs up. It was really nice. It was really, really nice. Plus, there's coffee, obviously, because it's attached to the Starbucks. And then if we needed like milk or bananas or if I forgot my earbuds, which did happen one day, I could just run down the aisle and get what I needed. So I worked really well in that space for a month or two. Now, this isn't true for everyone,

but I find a lot of comfort and grounding in writing in the same place for the most part. Now, that's not always possible or practical, but there is something helpful for me mentally to return to the same spot to do a specific job. So that back table at Target was that spot for the first few weeks of writing. Now after that, I ended up getting an office space inside like an existing office. I don't have that office anymore, but it served me so well in writing the book because again, it was a place I could go that was the same. It just also happened to have friends in a cleaner bathroom. and adore and such. So it was a level up from Target for sure, and I am so grateful I had it when I did. Now, in terms of writing the actual words and the rhythm of that, it was interesting. It was for sure

the hardest thing I've ever done in terms of like work and effort and struggle. I am a recovering perfectionist, and I like to see the final result of something pretty quickly. That's why I love podcasting. I can go. I can go. go from nothing to a finished episode in three hours if I'm in the zone. Books don't work that way. You're not finished. Kind of ever. The only reason the book is finished now is because there was a deadline. You know, you can't change any more words, Kendra, we're done. It's like Saturday Night Live. Lauren Michaels said, we don't go on because the show is ready. We go on because it's 1130. and that energy is really difficult for me.

I learned I can do it. I learned I can write garbage words for weeks on end and not die. It felt a little like I was going to, but I did it anyway. You know, I can do it. Now, I mentioned this in the intro, but I wrote 60,000 words that were not used. I basically wrote a book in order to find the book. that you will hopefully read in a few weeks. And it was really hard. The thing that you don't realize about writing a book until you sit down to write one is that structure really, really matters.

You can feel when a book is just a collection of essays or blog posts. There's no through line. There's no structure that's taking you from point A to point B to point Z by the end of the book. Good books have good structure. And you might not even notice the structure because that's what the structure is for. You're on a path. You're on a road. You know where you are. And as you travel with author, you don't get lost. You know, you know what's happening. That's what it's like to read a well-structured book. We all, I couldn't find a structure. I couldn't find it. The number of chapter outlines that I drafted is astounding. I cut up so many index cards with like various chapter titles and topics written on them, trying to kind of tetris a book together. And I,

I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it. And I almost quit. It was that hard. And it wasn't that I wanted to quit because I couldn't do it. I mean, that was part of it. I definitely felt like I could not do it. But I didn't think I could hold up my end of the contract, right? I felt like I was going to let my publisher down. I couldn't do it. My brain and the linear way that I think, it does not match well with writing a book. And it still doesn't, to be honest. At least those early stages of writing when you're just throwing words at the wall. It just doesn't work for me. Well, it doesn't work emotionally for me. But I knew for a while there that my book was not good. It was really bad. And I didn't want to submit a manuscript that was bad or sell a book that I wasn't proud of. It was so conflicting and kind of

creatively dark for a while. And I know that that's a relative thing and it's different. And it's different. in a very specific context, right? But your problems are still your problems. Perspective helps mitigate some of the intensity of your problems. But my reality, in that time from January to about April, it was rough. I cried a lot. I just couldn't find the book. I kept starting over. I kept reorganizing. I kept trying to build the machine. Now, some things need a machine. And even a book does eventually. You need a structure. You need a machine. the structure matters. But sometimes you have to start small rather than building a big machine. And as you start small, you see what you need the machine to be in a more clear way. And that is what

happened. My agent Lisa, she got a lot of stressed boxes from me saying that I couldn't do it, that I was really struggling. I was worried about not making the deadline or, you know, turning in anything good because I couldn't find the book. What I pitched was not the book. And I discovered pretty early, but I didn't have an alternative yet. I knew that what I pitched wasn't right, but I didn't know what was right. And Lisa said to me, just write words. They don't have to go in an order yet. You might not use them all. They will not be linear. But unless you start writing, you won't find it. RBC Training Ground has discovered potential in over 20,000 Canadian athletes and counting. Your story could be next.

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So I started writing. And y'all, this was like end of March. Like, this was dire. My manuscript deadline was like eight weeks away. And I didn't have a book yet. So I started writing. And I wrote 60,000 words that no one will ever. see. But, and here's where I get to tell you what's inside the book. I found it. You know,

I found the book. Writing the words, it helped me see something that made this book something I'm incredibly proud to put into the world because I think it's good. I do think it's good, but it's good because it's going to help make your life better. It's going to help you be a whole person. It is a guide to being soulful and efficient at the same time. This is what we want, you guys. We want to live well and care about things that matter, but also not feel constantly tired and underwater with everything there is to do. This book helps you not just get your head above water, but your whole body. Our goal here is for you to be chilling on like an inflatable flamingo or something. Now, you're still getting stuff done and you're doing it better than you did it before, but you're not like hustling and stressing and managing more things. Then you need to. to. That is not the lazy genius way. So in writing the book before I found the book, I saw a thread that I had never noticed before. In all of my podcast episodes and all of my blog posts and everything I share in living like a lazy genius, there are principles. There are 13 consistent principles

that are the foundation for everything I share and teach here. Everything, every single thing. when the principles started to emerge from those 60,000 words, like one of those magic eye posters, I was so thrilled, but also a little skeptical. Like, could they really work everywhere? So I went back to past episodes, things I've said and wrote, and I looked for lazy genius principles that had emerged. And they're everywhere. They're in everything. So basically, with these 13 principles that I lay out in the lazy genius way, you can lazy genius anything. I get messages all the time asking for advice on how to lazy genius something or how to LG something, as the lazy genius Facebook group often says, which I love so much.

And while I love helping you all figure out a lazy genius way for your challenge, this audience is growing and I simply just don't have time to respond to every request for help with specific personal solutions. But the book, it takes the place of that. The book teaches you how to think like a lazy genius and it gives you actual principles that you can use like a Swiss Army knife and create a system or a solution or a deep breath around whatever is stressing you out. One challenge might only need one principle and another challenge might need four or five working together. But the point is, this book teaches you how to think like a lazy genius. I say this in the book, but you do not need another list of things to do.

You need a new way to see. So many self-help-ish books, they don't work for very long because it's a list of what to do, how to spend your day, what your morning routine should look like. And often that rubric matches the authors and the author's stage of life and job and priorities. well what if you're different from her? What if you don't have kids? What if you aren't a morning person? What if, what if?

That's why a lot of these books have tips that help for a season, but once your season changes, they don't help anymore. This book is different. These lazy genius principles are lifelong because they're principles. They're not tips. They're not checkboxes. They're tools. I'm not a tool person, so this analogy might be very incorrect.

but like a hammer, a hammer does a few things, right? You know, you have like an actual toolbox with tools. Wait, hold on. Kitchen tools. I can talk about kitchen tools. Let's do that. This feels very much more of my speed. Okay. So kitchen tools, like a bench scraper. A bench scraper. It has many jobs. It can fulfill many needs. It scrapes off the counter. It cuts bread dough into pieces. It helps get dried grime off of a pan. it is a surprisingly effective tool to get a bunch of Lego off the floor, by the way.

It's size and shape and general purpose are the same, right? But depending on what your challenge is, you might use the bench scraper in a specific way. That's what these principles do. They're tools. They can be used in a variety of scenarios and their functions change when they're paired up,

when you use two or three principles together. I'm just really excited about this book because it teaches you not to live my life, not to follow my system, but to build your own in whatever stage of life you're in, with whatever your priorities are while still being a lazy genius, being a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. So that's what's in the book. And that's how I found it. That's how I wrote it. And once I found the principles, the book came together so much easier.

Now, did my editor help me tremendously put even more structure to the book once we found out what the book was? For sure. Again, I can share more about the editing process and all that in like another behind the scenes episode down the road. But in book writing and in life, once we name what matters, once we see what we're after, things fall into place more easily. Now, does that mean the work itself is easy? No, not necessarily. But it makes you excited to keep going because you're going after what matters. It makes sense. So that is a peak inside the lazy genius way. Now, before we go, a couple of book related details if you are interested. So starting today, June 15th, all the way through August 10th, which is the day before the book releases. It releases Tuesday, August 11th. Did you know all books release on a two?

Tuesday, by the way, all of them, every single one. Okay, so from today until the day before the book comes out, you can go ahead and order it from wherever you like. I personally dig a pre-order from a local bookstore myself, but you are not evil if you order from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It's a thing. It's totally fine. But starting today until August 10th, if you order the book and then go to the lazy genius collective.com slash book, you can enter your order in It's very simple. And you will get a major thank you pre-order bonus from me. I am giving the complete digital lazy genius library away for free to anyone who pre-orders the book. So that includes newly designed and edited the swap, the lazy genius guide to decluttering for life. The meal plan. The lazy genius guide to happy dinners at home. The holiday docket. The lazy genius guide to to celebrating well, which I know it's summer right now, but it's going to be September real fast. And the brand new, the clean slate, the lazy genius guide to keeping your home.

So you get all four of those, which when I sell them and I do sell them and we'll continue to sell them in the future, all four of those together are a $122 value if you were to just buy them and you get them for free as a thank you for pre-ordering. Okay, now a couple of quick questions or answers to questions that you might have. Okay, so first, what if you already ordered from Amazon or your local bookseller before June 15th? First, thank you. But you might be wondering if you can still get the lazy genius library bonus. Yes, for sure.

As long as you have an order number from an email or from your list of orders, you know, in your Amazon account, you're good. it doesn't matter when you bought it. The timeline of June 15th through August 10th is really only related to when this digital library is offered and available. That's the only window that it is available. But if you ordered before then, you can still get it. Next question. When will I get the digital library? Immediately. Now that leads me to a question you might not ask, but I need to answer anyway. this bonus is not connected to where you buy your book. Amazon and your local book store and wherever else, they have no idea about this bonus. This bonus comes from me. So sometimes pre-order bonuses feel confusing because you order, but then nothing happens from the author

who promised this thing. Now, that's because the author doesn't yet know that you bought the book. you have to tell her and you can tell me at the lazy genius collective.com slash book. You'll enter your order information and then we have this big old email machine that's built that will deliver the digital library to you pretty much right away. If it doesn't hit your inbox like in the first minute or two, just hang tight. It might take a few minutes but it's coming. If you have trouble with anything, email Kendra at the lazy genius collective.com and Leah who is my girl Friday and takes care of a ton of things behind the scenes, basically everything behind the scenes, she will get you fixed up. Now, if you are on the fence a bit, or if you're the kind

person who just does not buy books side unseen, which I get, I have really fun news. My publisher, which is Waterbrook Multnomah, has the intro, the entire first chapter, and part of the second chapter up on their website for you to read right now. We will put a link at the show notes for that, or you can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash book to read the sample. Everything you need regarding the book. FAQs, the sample, pre-order claims once they're available, which is now actually, all of it is at the lazy genius collective.com slash book. We will keep it real simple.

It's all right there. Okay. This is really special. And if you're listening right now still, that means you care enough to still be listening. and I deeply appreciate that. I am so excited for you to read this book. Like it's deep in my bones how excited I am because I believe in it. I believe it has such power to legitimately help your life. And not in a like trying to grab the air kind of way and not in a rah-rah way, but not also in like I'm not trying to turn you in a robot, right? The lazy genius way is system and

soul. There are so many mixed messages on what it means to live well, and this book helps you live well by your own definition. I'm just so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. So thank you for being excited with me. Thank you for pre-ordering. I hope that you enjoy the lazy genius digital library as you wait for the book. And I mean this when I say that this book would not exist without you because this book is for you. It's for you. And I can't wait for you to read it. I can't wait.

Especially like getting it right before school starts up again. Guys, the time could not be better because we have a lots of lazy genius than the rest of 2020. And I'm so honored to be part of it. All right, that's all for today. Thank you for listening. Thank you for buying the book. Thank you for being excited.

Thank you for being truly delightful humans. What a beautiful, cool community we built here. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it.

You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me. but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to becoming you wherever you get your podcasts.