Don’t Let Your Mind Get in the Way of Your Nonfiction Book Deal

I am the daughter of two entrepreneurs. 

My mom and dad ran a small, independent insurance agency in North Central Wisconsin for nearly 40 years. I grew up answering the phone like a 8-year-old secretary, learning how to smile politely while my dad sold policies to farmers, and watching my mom ask for receipts on anything and everything that could be considered a business expense. 

Growing up, my mom and dad always seemed like confident entrepreneurs building the life they wanted. So it surprised me a couple of years ago when my mom told me that she and my dad had an opportunity to expand their business in the mid-1980s. 

They could have grown the business, she said, but were scared about what it would mean to hire employees. She worried about having to move locations and not being able to work from home anymore. At the time, she had a super-flexible schedule that allowed her to take care of me and my brother when we were sick or had days off school. 

My mom and dad liked their life as it was . . . so they chose not to expand the business.

When I heard this story, I was reminded of The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. (If you haven’t read it, you really should. It’s one of my favorites. And a backlist bestseller.)

In that book, Hendricks describes a phenomenon he calls an upper limit problem. Essentially, we all have a limit to the amount of joy, abundance, and success we feel comfortable with. In the case of my parents, their upper limit problem was having employees. Because they felt afraid of changing the status quo — and everything that came with it, good and bad — they consciously chose to put an arbitrary limit on what they could do.

But here’s the thing. 

As Hendricks explains — and if you haven’t read this book yet, you really should, it’s fantastic — our limits only really exist in our minds. They are not real. My parents could have chosen differently. It’s likely that they could have kept the exact same lifestyle — or gained even more freedom for themselves — by allowing their business to grow.

After I became aware of upper limit problems, I see them constantly. 

Not just in my parents’ lives, but my own. And in the lives and words of my husband, fellow entrepreneurs, friends, colleagues, even the barista down the street. The experience of noticing upper limits can be fascinating, sad, and revelatory — sometimes all at the same time.

But here’s what I want you to know about upper limit problems.

Something I’ve noticed in my most successful clients — the ones who hit the bestseller list, who sell thousands of copies, who grow empires and are highly influential in their niches — is that they know that their mind is full of bullshit. 

These clients ask me constantly — in all different ways — do you really think I can get a book deal? And when I answer yes, they listen. That same question might have to be asked and answered a lot. But over time, I see the upper limit problem in my client’s mind transform. From a figurative concrete wall that will never change, to a clear glass ceiling where it’s possible to see the dream outcome, and then to the spiritual equivalent of Saran Wrap where one day my client stops asking the question because they know — like they know — a book deal is possible for them. 

And that the literary agent and the publisher and the bestseller are all on their way.

Because for my clients and for you — the upper limit doesn’t exist. It never really did.