Should You Write a Book? My story…

Well, we did it – The Rise of Sustainable Giving is in the world, and the overwhelming reception has blown me away… So much so that the book hit #1 Best Seller in every category it was listed. 🤯🎉

I’m thrilled. 

I’m humbled. 

I’m hopeful.

Growing Generosity

There are 1.1 million charities in the U.S. that have historically been unable to raise stable, recurring giving. They haven’t had one-to-one sponsorship or membership programs to rely on to grow monthly giving. But the good news is that all that is changing. The subscription economy has led to the rise of sustainable giving and is transforming the way donors give to charities. This transformation is enabling charities to create and grow resilient, sustainable streams of income. 

By my estimate, if we look at the staff at charities involved with fundraising, marketing, development, and leadership, nearly 250,000 charity leaders need to hear this message—not to mention those of us who serve charities, including the technology platforms, agencies, consultants, data companies, and so on. 

So we’re just getting started. This week’s launch is barely a drop in the bucket that is 1.1 million charities, 250,000 charity leaders, and the providers who need to hear this message. 

I’m grateful you are on this journey of growing generosity, and every copy you purchase for a friend, email you forward, and story you tell helps move this sector of philanthropy forward. Thank you. 🙏

Should You Write a Book?

I’ve had several people ask me in the lead-up to the book launch, what was it like to write the book. Some of you have told me you’ve always wanted to write a book or have considered doing so. 

It’s a natural question. Our culture is fascinated with anyone who can bring a book into the world. I now understand why, at a whole new level – the discipline it takes to communicate ideas coherently across 40-60 thousand words (in the case of nonfiction books) is impressive. 

But how hard could it be?

Pretty hard, it turns out. 

But well worth it, if my experience so far is any indication.

My Story (So Far)

It’s too early to write the story of this book. After all, it’s been in the world for only four days. My story and the story of this book will continue. There will be twists and turns and unexpected opportunities. I’ll need to bring my A-game and “play up” to a new level – but I love it. 

I think we’re most alive when we have to bring our best and push ourselves just a little bit past our comfort zones. Fittingly given this weekend, I’ve written previously about lessons we can learn from the Super Bowl on playing up, with benefits to our personal health and well-being, but also in leading innovation.

I’m writing this Wave Report as a sort of time capsule – for myself, and for you. I want to look back on this article in the months and years to come and see what I was thinking the week of the book launch. 

Let’s begin by looking at some numbers of what it took to get to today:

20 years of working with charities

9 years of talking about and researching the subscription economy

3 years since deciding I should write a book

2 years since writing my first words

438 hours of outlining, interviewing, writing, editing, reviewing

97 hours of planning, promoting, doing interviews (as of today)

34 people directly involved in bringing the book to life

19 written endorsements so far

15 interviews, webinars, podasts (and counting)

5 months of planning for launch

4 writing “hell weeks”

3 missed launch dates

1 #1 Amazon Best Seller! 🎉🎉🎉

So, should you write a book?

Should You Write a Book?

The best way I can describe writing a book is that it’s like running a marathon. 

I’ve written blogs and articles for most of my career, but not exactly at a prolific pace – perhaps one every couple of months. Writing a blog is like running a 5k – you can just decide one day to write a blog and get it done without too much hassle. Sure, it might be associated with some pain, but you can push through and it’s over in a relatively short amount of time.

Writing a book is like training for and running a marathon. At first, it can seem overwhelming and daunting – where do I even start? Then you get into a rhythm, but are still unsure of yourself. You might have some bad habits that need changing. 

Then race day arrives. The start of the marathon is filled with excitement and anticipation. 

I still remember my first and only marathon. It was the Los Angeles marathon, and there were 27,000 runners at the starting line. 

The energy was palpable.

The gun went off, and it took five minutes just to get to the starting line, there were so many people. The first five miles melted away in a blink. Then ten miles. Then the 13.5 mile half-marathon marker. At mile 18, I called my sister to tell her I was feeling great.

Then mile 21. Oh, sweet, painful mile 21. 

By mile 21, I was feeling fatigued, but I remembered my training—that it was critical to keep moving. It doesn’t matter how fast you are going—just keep moving! Put one foot in front of the other. Do not stop.

At mile 21, my running partner, Adam, says to me. “I gotta go to the bathroom. It’ll just be a minute.” “Dude. A minute?? But Adam, remember our training?”

That one minute killed me. I tried to shift around and jog in place, but when we went to start running again, I hit the dreaded “runners' wall.”  They call it the wall because you proverbially slam into it, and you are toast. My legs were concrete blocks. The pain was awful. I just wanted it to be over. 

Why am I doing this? Why am I here? I’m NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN. 

The next five miles were a blur of pain. I wanted it to be over, but I knew that I just needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other. People were cheering, but it felt strangely lonely. There were tears.

Then, somewhere amidst the pain and self-doubt, I heard the footsteps of another runner coming up behind me. 

She grabbed my arm and said, “Come on, you can do this! Let’s finish this together!” 

My first thought was “NOPE. Nice try lady.”

I tried to explain, “You don’t understand, I can’t.” Except she did understand – we were both at mile 25 of a 26.2-mile race.

I persisted. I didn’t want the help. I didn’t want to be encouraged. I just wanted the pain to stop. 

But she didn’t let up. “Come on, run with me! You can do this!” I could not believe it. This complete stranger, clearly exhausted in her own way, would come alongside a discouraged fellow runner.

I started to break into a jog. 

One step. 

Two steps. 

Three steps. 

I looked up and saw we were less than a half mile from the finish line. It was a straightaway, and there were easily 50,000 people lining the final stretch to the finish (not an exaggeration – over 1 million people line the streets of the L.A. Marathon). 

Before that woman grabbed my arm, I was oblivious to my surroundings, to how close the finish line was, and to the tens of thousands of people cheering. I just wanted it to be over.

The adrenaline started to surge in me. The feeling of “I can do this” quickly overwhelmed the discouragement and pain of the last 40 minutes of my life. I broke into a run.

I crossed the finish line, elated. 

I’m still grateful for that woman and her generosity. I never got her name, and I never saw her again. But she understood what I was going through, and she took compassion on me, a fellow runner.

We all need people like her to enter our lives at times.

Above: The first, and only, marathon that I ran was the L.A. Marathon. I’ll never forget the elation – and the pain – of running 26.2 miles through the streets of downtown Los Angeles, with nearly a million people cheering us on. Surreal.

So, should you write a book?

Should you run a marathon?

People decide to run marathons for many different reasons. For some, it’s about accomplishing something they’ve always wanted to do. For others, running is a social activity – they do it for the community. Still others might run for a cause. Some do it for the competition, or to stay healthy, or the joy of running, or to win. 

Hopefully, many people run a marathon – or write a book – for multiple reasons, because they are hard work!

Why I Wrote The Rise of Sustainable Giving

There were several motivations for me to write the book:

• To shine a light on a trend.
  I was seeing something that I wanted others to be able to understand and tap into.

• To move the sector forward.
  Not just the charities, but also the providers that work with them.

• To combat the generosity crisis.
  I want to do my part to help grow generosity in a time when fewer individuals are giving to charity.

• To establish credibility.
  At Imago Consulting, we serve clients to help them grow, and that includes recurring giving – a book helps establish authority and for good reason – they are hard to do!

• To develop and sharpen my thinking.
  There is a famous quote from Joan Didion – “I don't know what I think until I write it down.” Books are a great way to process and develop thinking.

• To learn.
  Writing a book is a forcing function for learning. This was a trap for me early on, because I thought that I had to know everything there was to know about the topic before the first words were written. Over time, I found that writing was what forced me to constantly keep learning and growing.

• To grow Imago Consulting.
  In addition to the visibility and opportunities that I understood books could provide, I just couldn’t see any ways that the book would not cause growth—it would improve our processes and approach, create visibility, introduce people to the topic, and help potential clients see our way of thinking around growing recurring giving. 

• To open doors.
  I love to learn. I love to teach. I love to advise. From everything I have learned, a book is simply the opening of a new doorway – a doorway to many possibilities. Some of these I can see from where I stand, but still many others I know I cannot. As I step through this doorway, I’m excited about the future.

Many people consider running a marathon. 

Lots of people decide to run one.

Fewer people actually start training.

Even fewer finish the training.

Even fewer run and finish the race.

If you’ve run a marathon, or written a book, my respect and admiration goes out to you. If you are thinking of or working on that book or training for that marathon, keep going. You can do it. 

Part of the attraction of doing hard things is knowing that you persevered. This week, I’ve crossed a finish line. This week, I’m proud to say that I persevered. 

If we stopped right now and nothing else happened, it would have been worth it. Just the benefits to my practice of advising clients, clarity of thinking, and a systematic way of helping charities grow would have been worth it. 

And now, I find myself at another starting line.

I’m looking forward to the journey.

💡 Takeaway: Writing a book is like running a marathon. No one can tell you to run a marathon, but if you do choose to take on the journey, consider why you are doing it, and understand that it’s going to take time, effort, and investment, but that it’s well worth it when you get to the other side.

Until next week… Surfs Up! 🌊

  - Dave

About the Author | Dave Raley

Consultant, speaker, and author Dave Raley is the founder of Imago Consulting, a firm that helps nonprofits and businesses who serve nonprofits create profitable growth through sustainable innovation. He’s the author of the book The Rise of Sustainable Giving: How the Subscription Economy is Transforming Recurring Giving, and What Nonprofits Can Do to Benefit. Dave also writes a weekly innovation and leadership column called The Wave Report, and the co-founder of the Purpose & Profit Podcast — a show about the ideas at the intersection of nonprofit causes and for-profit brands. Connect with Dave on LinkedIn.

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