How to Build a Reputation

Why reputation matters in the creative process

Photo by Storiès on Unsplash

I have started following some fashion influencers on Substack, both as a way to learn more about clothing, my closet, and myself and also as a welcome diversion from the world of books and the world at large. I find it soothing to read about people who care deeply about literal shades of grey. Which color is worth the investment if you are buying, say, a cashmere sweater? And how much does it make sense to spend? And why?

One thing I have noticed is the way the people in this universe tend to lift each other up. They tell you to go follow so-and-so. They say how much they loved the clothes that so-and-so showed in New York. They give credit to so-and-so for an idea or a concept.

From the outside looking in, it feels collaborative. (I was a devotee of Project Runway back in the day and I know this is likely not the whole story, but it’s what I see and feel — and what I want to believe — so I’m sticking with my story.)

A few weeks ago, one big influencer referenced another big influencer in a video that caught my attention. Here are the players in this story:

• Amy smilovic
  , Founder and Creative Director of the cult luxury fashion brand, Tibi, author of The Creative Pragmatist substack and author of the limited-edition $150 book called The Creative Pragmatist: An Intelligent Conversation About Personal Style, which is sold out and you can no longer buy (makes you want to read it, right??)

• Allison Bornstein
  , a stylist, wardrobe consultant, TikTok darling, and author of the book Wear it Well: Reclaim Your Closet and Rediscover the Joy of Getting Dressed, which you can buy — and I did. It’s great. It describes the three-word method, which is a way of understanding your personal style and guiding the curation of your clothes.

I can’t find this video so I have to tell this tale from memory (gah!) but here is what I remember about it and why it stopped my scrolling:

Smilovac said that some people were “accusing” her of “stealing” Bornstein’s three-word method because Smilovav had recently used three words to describe a certain style. And in this video, Smilovac very calmly and with authority and clarity speaks about the reality of creativity — that we are all working with the same raw material, and that what people make of that raw material can be both similar and very different from what other people make.

She explained that the idea of using three words to categorize clothing has been around for a long time and that various fashion influencers using it is no different from various chefs using the raw materials of flour and eggs to make different dishes. She herself might use the raw materials of “three words” to make cake and Allison Bornstein might use raw materials to make pasta. It’s all part of the work of making clothing and fashion and helping people find a way to define their style.

I loved this so much — because you could just feel that Smilovac could have cared less about the “accusations.” She seems so secure in her understanding of the creative process and her particular role in it and she seemed entirely respectful of Bornstein’s process and her particular role in it.

The part that I loved even more than the video itself was that Bornstein commented on it (Was it on Instagram? A Substack post? A YouTube video?? Have I mentioned that it is killing me that I can’t find it?). She said something very close to this: “Everyone loves cake and everyone loves pasta” — which was gracious, clever, and highlighted that same deep and generous understanding of the creative process.

There was a sense in this exchange that these women were both above the level of arguing about who owns what. They are both wildly creative, enormously successful, and passionate about what they do. They are not looking at or worried about what anyone else is doing. That was what I loved — and, it turns out, what I needed.

I Am Not Always So Good At This

I sometimes look around at other business owners and think about what they are doing that I could be doing or should be doing.

I sometimes look at the way my own students are using the tools I taught them and think I should have put higher/stronger/more stringent guardrails up around my intellectual property.

I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that running a business like mine is a zero-sum game: there can only be one winner.

This outward-looking, un-generous stance is the opposite of what Smilovac and Bornstein were doing. They were both embodying the idea that when you are true to your own creative vision and your own values, there can be no competition.

Most of the time, I work in that same space. For most of the ten years I have been training book coaches at Author Accelerator, I have embraced this philosophy — and, in fact, it’s what I teach the coaches to do: take these raw materials and find your own niche, your own style, your own vibe, your own way of helping writers.

I recently learned about a company that is launching a book coach certification program that is quite similar to mine in structure and concept. I had a flash of anger and protectiveness (which feels different from a flash of jealousy, which I wrote about HERE.) This was more of a “Back off, that’s MINE!” energy, which could have been connected to the fact that I am, in fact, involved in a legal fight to get someone to back off something that is rightfully mine. (It’s okay; it’s almost over.)

But then I took a deep breath and thought of my larger mission in training book coaches — which is not to “win” anything but to make an impact in the early days of this business by setting a high standard for excellence. With this mindset, having more well-trained book coaches in the world doesn’t take away from what I’m doing in any way. It might even amplify it. It’s cake and it’s pasta, and everyone loves cake and pasta.

There Will Be No Further Explanation. There Will Just Be Reputation.*

I reminded myself that what I have been building for the last ten years at this company — what any of us is building — is a reputation. (*And yes, of course, this made me think about Taylor Swift — this subhead is a quote from her Reputation album.)

Reputation is not the same thing as brand or point or view, although there is a Venn diagram where those things overlap. It’s the result of what you do in your business — the result of your actions. It’s the impact that you make on people who engage with your work and the impression you leave with them about how you do it and who you are and what you stand for.

It’s this: the other day, the CEO of one of the biggest writing communities in the world — someone I don’t know — sent me a message on LinkedIn saying that the book coaches I’ve trained are outstanding.

A very well-respected writing instructor — whom I do know — sent me a message saying that she is noticing that our book coaches are “everywhere!”

Someone I taught with twenty years ago recommended Author Accelerator in a post about alternatives to getting an MFA.

These ripples of impact can’t be easily replicated.

Someone else can use the exact same raw materials, and perhaps even mix them together in the exact same way, but while I am making pumpkin bread, they are making fettuccini. (I gave myself the fall-themed food because I just had my first PSL of the year at an airport on the way home yesterday!)

No one else can create what I have created, and whatever other people create can be good and useful, too.

This Feeling Will Be Familiar to Your Writers

It often happens when someone is working on a book that someone else is working on a similar book.

When my memoir on breast cancer came out, there were three other memoirs on breast cancer that same season.

When KJ Dell’Anotnia’s third novel, Playing the Witch Card, came out, she had been describing it as Gilmore Girls meets Practical Magic for more than a year. Unbeknownst to her (and vice versa) another writer with a book about witches had been describing her novel in exactly the same terms for about the same length of time.

You know those book round-ups that major publications sometimes do? Three books on trekking in Alaska or five bios on Lincoln or four novels about dystopian societies on the moon? This is proof that ideas sometimes come in waves. Ideas are not always as unique as we think they are.

What is unique is the way the writer approaches their idea — the experience and authority they bring to it, their unique way of looking at it and writing it.

Or as Lemony Snickett says, “It’s never the story and always the way it’s told.”

How to Build Your Reputation

Whether you are building a book writing career or building a book coaching business, I believe that you should consider the reality that you are building a reputation, too.

What you make becomes unique when you allow your vision and values to drive it. Instead of looking outward at other people, you look inward at what you want to stand for, what you want to bring into the world, what you want to say, what matters to you as you create stories and books and businesses.

And then you stand by what you are doing, day after day, client after client (if you are building a book coaching business), chapter after chapter (if you are writing a book), interview after interview, newsletter after newsletter.

The people you serve should be able to recognize the you-ness of what you do. The stamp of your voice and your beliefs should be on everything you do.

It helps enormously to have some kind of a description of the vision and values that drive you so you can refer to it and remind yourself of it when things get hard — or you imagine for a hot second that someone is trying to take something from you.

There are so many different ways to describe this description — a mission statement, a statement of purpose, an author bio, a niche statement. My recent favorite iteration of this is from my new favorite Substacker, Kelcey Ervick (who wrote about one of my podcast episodes HERE.)

She guides you in writing a one-sentence artist statement, using input from a bunch of cool sources including my pal

Dan Blank

! It’s a fantastic thing to do from time to time to make sure you are crystal clear on what you are doing, and to make sure that no one can knock you off your path:

The One-Sentence Artist Statement

Here Is My One-Sentence Artist’s / Business Owner’s Statement

I teach women who love books how to build a business helping storytellers and brilliant thinkers bring their writing to life

It feels good to see it on paper today.

It may be different tomorrow.

But today, it reminds me of my purpose and it helps me to calm down and channel Amy Smilovac and Allison Bornstein.

An Invitation To People Curious About Becoming a Book Coach

If you just signed up for this Substack because you heard about it over at Author Accelerator’s email list, thanks for joining me here! You can ignore this next part — it’s what I just posted over there:

We are raising the price on our Author Accelerator’s Book Coach Certification Program in 2025. The increase will be significant, and there will be some structural changes to the way we present the material, as well. We’re moving to a higher-touch format.

If you are considering joining our program and our community, now could be a good time to make the move. The last day to join the current program at the current price is December 10, 2024.

I will be doing a live webinar about book coaching and our certification program on September 25th at 9 am PST/ 12 EST. You can sign up for that event here: SIGN UP TO ATTEND THE WEBINAR. A recording will be sent to everyone who registers — and I will be making a special offer to attendees because sometimes we need an incentive to take big action.

I will also be holding three Open Houses to answer questions. There will not be a formal presentation and there will not be a sales pitch or a special offer or a recording. It will just be me in a zoom room talking about whatever you want to talk about. You’re welcome to join me for these events whether you attend the September 25th webinar or not.

These sessions will be:

• October 3, 8 am PST / 12 EST

• October 3, 6 pm PST / 9 EST

• October 4, 12pm PST / 3 EST

You can sign up for the Open House events here: SAVE YOUR SPOT FOR THE OPEN HOUSE

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