Alexandra Franzen is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. She has been writing professionally for about 10 years, and her work centers on the topics of creativity, productivity, communication, goal-setting, entrepreneurship, and how to deal with difficult situations in your life and career. Her work has been featured in Time, Forbes, Newsweek, and The Huffington Post, and she’s been mentioned in places like The New York Times Small Business Blog, The Atlantic, and Inc. Her next book, You’re Going To Survive—a collection of true stories about adversity, rejection, and discouragement—will be released on November 1, 2017. This book feels like a comforting chat with a friend — a friend who wants you to stand tall and strong, shake off discouragement and disappointment, and keep marching towards your goals. Alex is an incredible writer, a wonderful person, and one of my dearest friends, and I’m thrilled to have her back on the podcast for a second time. In this episode, Alex shares honest stories about her experiences of rejection and disappointment throughout her career – everything from receiving mean emails to not selling enough spots in a workshop, and more. She also talks about how to bring a project from idea to completion, and tells us all about the 27 tries it took to get her new book published. I love Alex so much, and I could listen to her tell stories all day long, forever and ever. There’s even a point about halfway through this episode where it starts to downpour in Portland, which is where Alex lives, and the sound of the beating rain comes through in the recording. So heads up on that, but don’t worry, you can still hear her beautiful stories just fine. (more…)