White Hot Truth with Danielle LaPorte
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development, Creativity & innovation
On the eve of launching her new Firestarter Session e-book I sat down with good friend and colleague Danielle LaPorte, of White Hot Truth fame to interview her. Hang onto your fire poker and as we go with the Q &A.
Q: For those who aren’t already in the know, who are you and what do you do
A: “I write about self realization and business on WhiteHotTruth.com
I jam with entrepreneurs on how to rock their careers. I’m launching an e-book called, THE FIRE STARTER SESSIONS: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs. I’m a seeker. And a strategist.”
Your website name is White Hot Truth. Let’s break that down. The colour white as I see it (pun intended) reflects all light and distills things down to their essence.
Q: You strike me as a distiller, one who gets rid of the fluff and drills down. How do you do that?
“One word: INNOVATE. In order for me to stay on my personal edge – my innovative edge, I ask myself the following before I ever press send or publish:
Is this useful? It has to be of service. Sometimes being entertaining can be of service, but I prefer inspiring + practical.
Is this as transparent as can be? My own personal story is what has the most leverage in terms of teaching…and entertaining.
Is this elegant? Am I being loving, uncomplicated, inclusive, and righteous in a healthy kind of righteous way?”
Continuing with the name of your site – hot, on the one hand hot is about having passion for what you do but balancing that out with not so much hotness that you burn yourself out?
Q. How do you encourage people to follow their passion and at the same time not burn out?
A: “You know, I think burn out is part of the creative process – at least it is for me. We need to take the stigma out of it. I don’t believe in balance, I believe in rhythm and proportion.
You work your ass off, and then you need to veg out. Run, rest. Masterpiece, holiday. I think the trick is to do it in spurts, rushes of creativity. Worrying about burnout can hem you in from your creative brilliance. Just go for it and see what happens. I know this sounds manic, but it works for me and I’m both healthy and productive.”
The last word in your business name is truth. Good business practice is all about integrity, those without it eventually get burned, yet it’s easy for folks to hide from the truth.
Q: How do you encourage people to get real and see what’s true as opposed to what they want to believe, what’s easy?
A: “Authenticity is risky business. It’s not easy. Accepting that is key. When you commit to working with the truth, you need the courage to make last minute changes, tough decisions, to walk away, to push through. And the more you do that, the more you show up -sometimes it just takes a whisper, or signature, and sometimes it requires a major crusade -but the more you do it, the more you fall in love with the freedom it brings. And eventually integrity become the strongest muscle you have and you can move mountains with it.”
Q: You get interviewed a lot. What question are you surprised that you’ve never been asked? What’s the answer to that question?
A: “No one has asked me how much money I make a year. Seems like a basic question for someone who teaches people how to monetize their knowledge. (We don’t talk about real numbers enough.) I’m on track to make $300k this year.”
Q: What are three things that people can do to find their white hot truth?
A: “Define how you want success to feel.
Create a stop doing list for yourself.
Pay attention to what people thank you for — that appreciation is directly related to your personal genius.”
Q: Why do we shy away from our white hot truth? Why is it that we still see folks slaving away at a job that sucks their soul, that they hate, that burns them out?
A: “The truth is big, intimate and powerful. We’re trained to shrink away from our power in order to fit it. When you speak your truth you bust structures, status quo and expectations. Scary, but oh-so-worth it.”
Q: You’ve got a hot new eBook that’s launching on May 12th; which includes some creative formats and strategies. How did you come to creatively rethink, repackage your work?
A: “The FIRE STARTER SESSIONS is all about multi-media, baby. It’s a language that’s available to so many of us now – audio, video, downloadable, clickable, emailable. I’m thrilled to have the freedom to broadcast my message in so many formats, so quickly, for so many different learning styles. As for the “process,” my very sophisticated top secret process is: do what you say you’re going to do. Set the date. Make a promise. Launch it.”
Tags: creativity & innovation, danielle laport, e-book, entrepreneurship, fire starter, forum for women entrepreneurs, white hot truth
May 5th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Love this and love Danielle… I love her idea on making yourself a service. That is what I always try to achieve on my blog… ideas and trends come and go, but there is always a need for services. I also just wrote a post on being inspiring vs. be inspired. This is right up my alley this week – GREAT interview!
May 7th, 2010 at 10:41 am
Thanks Jill. Yes Danielle is quite the goddess; am happy to be able to call her a friend. Liked your post; good work. For me part of the challenge is capturing the flotsam and jetsam and not letting it get through the sieve of my brain. As banal as it sounds, having some kind of system for capturing ideas is critical. I’m at the HRMA (Human Resource Management Association) Conference right now and heard Daniel Pink (author of whole new mind) talk about carrying around a design book. I LOVE this & just went out & bought a simple lined softcover to tuck inside my daytimer.
I LOVE the idea of calling it my design book because there’s no boundaries on what I put in it; eg doesn’t have to be neat and tidy. Just full of ideas, concepts, strategies etc. It’ll be with me always.
Loving that it has a lovely design on the cover too.
Simple. Gotta love it.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Your interview with Danielle is inspiring as she is motivational and on target all the time, it seems. I am a fire starter baby looking forward to her new release to continue feeding my fire and maybe start a few more…
You shed some new light on Danielle’s special brand of truth – thanks, I enjoyed the post.
May 10th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Hi Denise, I’m so glad you found my interview with Danielle inspiring (not surprising as she’s so incredibly inspiring herself).
I’m about to head out on a business trip and have her first chapter downloaded and ready to read on the flight. Can’t wait!
Good luck with stoking your own fire.
May 20th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Wow, totally badass that Danielle quoted what she’s on track to bank this year. This is not something in your usual interview or post! I find this utterly shocking, refreshing and not surprising at all…
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:09 am
Yes I love that question – what are you surprised that no one has asked you before. You just never know what folks will say. And I admire Danielle’s honesty, honestly.