Welcome back to Alchemy for Authors!
In this week’s solo episode, I’m sharing a big decision I’ve made for my author career and why sometimes stepping back is the key to moving forward. If you’ve ever felt stretched too thin juggling your writing with life’s demands, this episode is for you.
I’ll be diving into the power of focus, the importance of making tough decisions in business and creativity, and how pressing pause on one thing can create space for exponential growth in another.
Tune in for an honest conversation about burnout, balance, and the next evolution of my indie author journey.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Listen to Episode 91: Pivoting & Sustainability in Your Author Career with Troy Lambert, here: https://jobuer.com/episode-91-pivoting-sustainability-in-your-author-career/
- Listen to Episode 1: Finding Your Writing Why, here: https://jobuer.com/episode-1-finding-your-writing-why/
For other resources you can check out my Author Resources page here: https://jobuer.com/author-resources/
Join my Alchemy for Authors newsletter and download your FREE copy of Manifestation for Authors here.
Download your FREE copy of Affirmations for Authors with a Day Job here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/dnj980xva5
If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe, rate and review. You can also support the show by buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jobuer. Your support is greatly appreciated.
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If you enjoy Gothic Suspense, you can join my reader’s newsletter and download a FREE copy of my short story collection, Between the Shadows, here. You can find all my books at https://jobuer.com or visit https://Books2Read.com/JoBuer for links to your favourite store.
Find the full transcript of this episode below.
Episode 102: The Power of Focus: Why I’m Pressing Pause to Level Up My Author Career
Hello my lovelies, welcome back to Alchemy for Authors. Thank you so much for joining me again, I love that you take the time out of your writing week to tune in to this show.
Today I have a bit of a different show for you. This is episode 102: The Power of Focus: Why I’m Pressing Pause to Level Up My Author Career. So the purpose of this episode is twofold. It’s to share with you a big decision that I have made regarding this lovely podcast of mine, Alchemy for Authors. And it is also to hopefully provoke in you some reflections on what it is in your life that you may need to change up or press pause on to level up your author career, or bring you closer to your goals.
So, as I’ve talked about lots on this show, being an author, particularly an indie author, requires from us the fearlessness to be flexible and to pivot along the way, to reflect often upon what we’re doing, what’s working for us, what isn’t working for us, and what will ultimately move us closer to our goals. It is also a bit of a theme in many of my episodes that I talk about the power in knowing your creative ‘Why’, your writing ‘Why’, why you’re doing and why you’re fighting for those things that you want. Why do you want to be an author? Why do you want to publish books? Why do you want to be indie published or traditionally published or whatever it may be? And that ‘Why’ is usually more than just for fiscal returns. It is usually, if we’re reflecting correctly, tuned into our soul desires. Our ‘Why’ tends to feel like a calling. It feels like something that we’re meant to be doing.
And as you may have noticed more recently on these episodes as well, I’ve been talking a lot about my desire to refocus on my author career after a couple of pretty harrowing years, one with, back in 2023, a lot of family things going on, the passing of my stepfather and navigating prolonged illness and that in my family. Fast forward to 2024, last year, where it was a pretty drama-filled year in other areas, and what really hadn’t been happening was me doing a lot of writing. So between balancing, or trying to balance the day job, life in general, and family, and this podcast, I had found that there was really nothing left in the tank. I had no mental, emotional, creative capacity to move that needle closer to my actual, real goals of being an author. So last year was a little bit sad for me in that I did not get any books written or published. This year, it’s been a bit of a struggle to make too much grounds on either of those things as well. And, in the back of my mind I’ve had to do some serious reflecting on what it is that I can let go of to put myself back in alignment with my writing goals. And as much as I would love, love to leave my day job and have that be the thing to say goodbye to, unfortunately, financially, that is not a possibility just yet. So, what I am having to do is take a little bit of a break from this podcast. That does not mean, and I really want this to get through to people, this does not mean that this is the end of Alchemy for Authors. Not by a long shot. I feel like it’s going to be incredibly hard taking a bit of a break because I’m going to be itching to dive back in at any moment. However, it’s more important to me right now that I start to make a little bit more traction with my writing career. That I get more books written, more books published, less deadlines missed, less cancellations on my part for book events and whatnot as well.
So what I’ve been finding is that, particularly over the last couple of years with everything, I’ve really been spreading myself thin. And what that means is I feel like I’m not really able to show up and give my best to any one thing in my life. I think we all know at the heart of us that there is a power in focusing in on one or two things and going pretty much all in if we want to make any kind of traction. And this is the same with our writing. When we’re able to focus in on one major goal at a time, we’re more likely going to get those bigger results. And that is what I want for my writing career. It is also what I want for this podcast, in that I feel that stepping away for a little while, taking a bit of a break, will mean that when I come back, I have so much more to share with you all. I will hopefully have more books written, more books published. And no doubt, a lot of learning and a lot of up and downs along the way, but it will all make for wonderful conversations in the future. I also envision having a lot more wonderful guests on the show to share their learning as well. I love being able to network with other authors, to hear their stories, their ups and downs in their careers and to get other perspectives than just mine on this show to be shared with you. So my hope going forward is that this will be the last episode for a little while, for Alchemy for Authors, and that I will be back by January 2026 with a fantastic revamped show with so much more energy and learning and experience to share with you all. Because, I have to admit, that over the last little while, I feel a little bit like a hypocrite talking about the author life and all of that, when in my real life, I feel like I’m doing so little of the authorly stuff.
So I know this concept of pressing pause isn’t new to you. There was a wonderful episode, Episode 91, where I had Troy Lambert on the show and he was also discussing his need to pivot a little bit in his career. And with it came a bit of grief, but also excitement because he was taking back time where he had gone off track a little bit and was spending his time in the wrong areas of his author career. Or not necessarily the wrong areas, but he was taking from his one true love, which was writing and publishing books. And that’s where I feel like I’ve been going.
You would have heard me say many times how much I absolutely love this podcast. It has been the most amazing experience for me and opened up so many doors and pushed me out of my comfort zone like you wouldn’t believe. And that’s why I’m really finding it hard to even just take a little bit of a break, but the idea has been percolating in the background for quite a while now. And with anything I do, I want to bring the absolute best of myself. And for me to do that, I think I need to get back in touch with my creative side a little bit more. Open up the time and the energy to be that creative person, to really go deep with my writing and get further along the path than I’ve really allowed myself to get the last couple of years with my author career.
And yeah, so in sharing that with you, sometimes I know that people’s personal experiences can also resonate with other people. And so maybe you’ve been battling with the idea of pushing the pause button on something in your life, on just taking a little bit of a temporary step back, or maybe it’s a complete step back, and that’s totally fine, too. But maybe, like me, you’ve been hesitating, because these things can be a little bit scary. And, when you’ve done something for a while, and I’ve surprised myself in that I’ve done this for three years now, Alchemy for Authors has been around for three years, it can be hard even taking a break. The unknown is always a little bit scary. However, again, I want you to go back to your ‘Why’, why you chose this career, why you chose this life that you are living right now. Is it aligning with where you saw yourself at this time? Or what could you be doing differently to get you closer to your dreams and your goals and the things that are truly important to you if you’ve gone off track a little bit?
So I think it’s worthwhile being encouraged to just get honest with yourself, to take a little bit of an inventory about what you’re doing, whether you’re spending your energy and your time and maybe even your money in the right spheres. What needs to be tweaked? And maybe you also need to ask yourself, whose permission are you waiting for? Because sometimes I think that really is what it comes down to is that we’re waiting for somebody else to give us permission to take a leap of faith or to make a change. And let this be me saying to you, you don’t need anybody’s permission to do what you know innately and maybe have been avoiding admitting to, but for doing that thing that scares you a little bit. So let me be the one to tell you that it is okay to take a break. It is okay to press pause on something that you really, really love, something that you’ve built up momentum for. It is okay. The world will not end. You can always come back to things later on. No door is ever really officially shut, I don’t think. So, maybe this is your time as well to take a chance, to realign your goals. And take back the power in your life, and your time, and your attention, and refocus them in the direction that you want to be going.
There’s a quote said by so many personal development gurus, and business people, and entrepreneurs, and authors, and manifestation teachers and all of that. And that is: Energy flows where attention goes”. Right now, my attention has been spread in far too many different directions. And there are directions where I rather it wasn’t being spread. There are directions where I wish I wasn’t having to put so much of my attention. But as we still have to get by and live in this world with all the crazy that’s going on with the politics and the economy and everything like that, then sometimes we’ve got to make tough decisions about removing some of our focus from things that do bring us joy, and redirecting that energy to things that we know will light us up even more. This is hard as a multi passionate because I like to do all the things, and there are so many things that I love, but I know it’s not healthy or sustainable in the long run.
And again, it’s just not giving me the traction that I want in my life to move closer to my real goals. So, like I said before, this podcast isn’t really disappearing. I am seeing this as a temporary hiatus while I try and make a little bit more traction on my author life. And the thing with that is the more traction I can get in that direction, the more opportunities I think for income are available to me and that in turn will, my hope is, eventually allow me to move away from requiring a full-time day job to financially sustain me. And, in which case, there’ll be more time for podcasting! Because again, like I’ve said, in my ideal world, this would be my life. I would be podcasting, talking to authors, talking about writing, doing all this fun stuff, and having a successful author career, writing and publishing my own books as well.
So, in pushing pause on the Alchemy for Authors podcast, I thought it fair that I kind of share with you some of my intentions of where I want to be directing my energy. Uh, it is, of course, with writing more and publishing a few more books. I have another book that I’m still in final edits for that I’ll be publishing, a gothic suspense novel, Broken Lies, and so that should be out hopefully over the next few months would be ideal. I’m also writing what will probably be a novella, a kind of gothic-y horror side novel that has been speaking to me so loudly over the last six months that I couldn’t not write it if I tried. And then, of course, I’ve got my paranormal cozy trilogy that I need to finish off as well. So I do have lots of book plans.
Also, with just the way that the world is changing up a little bit at the moment, I also want to up my email game. The Alchemy for Authors newsletter will still be continuing. I want to still stay in touch with all of you. So make sure that if you haven’t already, you sign up for that in the show notes, that way you’ll also be around for the announcement of when this podcast comes back. And I’m hoping that Alchemy for Authors 2.0 will be even better than it has been the last three years and will continue to grow from there. But, yeah, so I’m hoping to just up my newsletter game a little bit better, still having lots of wonderful reflections and resources and whatnot to share with you as you go along your author journey, and just useful titbits there as well. And I want to up my newsletter game for my readers as well. The last handful of months, for the first time in years, my consistency has really dropped there. And that’s simply as I’ve been just experiencing a bit of burnout and overwhelm with everything going on. So this is a way for me to manoeuvre my way through and fuel up again after some serious burnout.
I still have the intention of selling direct. I think that’s more important than ever to get properly established with that, and so of course there’s some big learning goals I’ve got in the background there as well, which is exciting for me because I love learning. So there’s some courses to help my author business and that that I really want to dive into. So yeah, I hope to not only have more product but also more control over my product and not having to be so reliable to other platforms and their ties to political chaos. I don’t think I’m really stating that correctly, but I think you probably know what I mean.
So I want a little bit more autonomy with my career. I want to experiment a bit more. I want to connect with my readers a lot more. I want to be more present and I want to just refuel the creativity that’s really taken a little bit of a dive here and there because I’ve just been spreading myself too thin. So there’s definitely lots that I want to be doing. I’m very aware that I’m not going to be able to do it all, probably, and have it all up and running before I come back to the show in January, but I know that along the way, just pressing pause on this podcast will free up for me a little more time and a little bit more money as well. There are some costs associated with putting this podcast out every fortnight. And being in little old New Zealand, our exchange rate is, um, we hurt a lot when we have to pay for software and that in American dollars, let’s just say that. It’s almost double here in New Zealand. So, that will free up a little bit more money to put into things like covers and editing and marketing and whatnot for my books as well.
And, like I said, this is not a goodbye, this is a I’m so sorry, but I have to press pause for a while, I hope you understand, but just know that I am going to be coming back and I am going to have so much more real life experience to share with you, and also hopefully more wonderful author interviews as well. Yeah, so it’s really exciting.
So, with that, as I choose to focus on other things, I do, as always, encourage you to also reflect upon where you’re at with your author career, what needs to change, what you’re really happy with and maybe want to double down on, where you can maybe steal more time or more money or something from different areas of your life to fuel these goals of yours. And to consider what you need to press pause on in your life. And it doesn’t necessarily have to even be in your author life. Maybe it’s your personal life you need to press pause on something. Or is there something that you just need to let go of in its entirety, so that you can move ahead for those things that are truly important? So that your energy and your creativity isn’t spread so thin, that you’re kinda, how I’ve been feeling and doing a bit of a mediocre job on everything, instead of really doubling down and going all in on the things that are important to me.
I think it’s also important to consider how you’re managing your time and energy. I know that for myself when I am really overwhelmed or burnt out or struggling with too much on my plate or juggling too many plates, on the rare times that I do have down time, I have very little capacity to do much more than binge watch TV shows or doom scroll through social media. So, if we are struggling in our lives to manage our time and our energy well, that’s going to show itself in those down times as well. So it’s worth considering how you’re spending your downtime, and is that how you want to continue spending your downtime? Or would you rather that you had more downtime, more energy, so that when you did have downtime, you could use it in more creative ways.
So, if there is something you’ve been considering taking a break from, or moving your focus away from for a period of time, then take this as maybe the encouragement to take a leap of faith. Give it a go. I don’t believe in failure. We can make mistakes, but I think they’re ultimately for our higher good. We learn from them and we pivot and we try again and generally, things tend to work out in our favour somewhere down the line. That’s what I’m hoping for myself anyway, that’s what I’m hoping for you as well.
So I hope that you will continue to support this show and that you will not forget me, not forget Alchemy for Authors. You will relisten to maybe some of the earlier episodes or listen to them for the first time if you haven’t because there’s still some real gold in there. I admit I have to go back and relisten at times too, just to be reminded of just the wonderful advice and things, particularly from guests, that I was lucky to be able to record in some of those episodes. Make sure that if you haven’t already, you are signed up to my newsletter, so that we can stay in touch, so that you will be one of the first people to know when Alchemy for Authors rereleases again. You can also follow me and stay in touch through social media. I am primarily on Instagram. It’s @jobuerauthor, if you’re interested in my books and whatnot, and @alchemyforauthors. So you can follow along and I’m going to try and get a little bit better with being on that platform more often. And also, if for any reason I end up having to change platforms, then you will be in the know as well. So, I hope we can keep this connection going.
I hope that the rest of 2025 is amazing for you, that you make real progress with your goals and you’re able to focus in on what’s really important to you, whatever that is, even if it’s outside of writing and publishing, even though this podcast is about that, but refocus in on what’s important to you, and not be afraid to take a break here and there, to say no to things, even if it’s things that you love, and yeah. And know that whatever happens, you can always pivot, you can always change direction, and try something new.
So thank you from the bottom of my heart, my friend, for following me on this wonderful podcasting journey. It is crazy to me that it has been three years. It’s crazy to me that I’m taking a break like this. It was insanely hard to even go down to putting out fortnightly episodes instead of weekly episodes. And so I know I’m going to find it tricky reminding myself to refocus my energies on my writing as I go forward a little bit here, and to just take a little bit of a break and enjoy the moment of the break away from the podcast so that when I do come back, I feel like I’m gonna be a better version of me. This will be a better version of the podcast for you as well. So thank you again, my friend. Please make sure that you sign up to my newsletter, make sure that you check out my website for a list of recommended resources. It’s got some discounts and things there as well. That you follow me on social media. You recommend this podcast to friends or family or anybody else who might be interested. The cool thing about podcasts is that even on breaks all those episodes are still there to be listened to as if it was the first time around. So do go back and relisten to any episodes that interest you, or listen to any that you might have missed, and yeah. And I look forward to chatting with you and sharing my successes, and of course, probably some struggles along the way with you when I’m back in January, 2026. Thank you so much, my friend.
Until next time. Bye for now.
author mindset, Creative Break, indie author, pivoting, Pressing Pause