According to CliftonStrengths, my #1 strength is Strategy, so it’s no surprise that 1) I’m writing this series on author strategy, and 2) I love the Enneagram.

If you want to know how to work with a person, you need to know what motivates them at that core level. What are they running toward, and what are they running away from, essentially. And the Enneagram is all about motivation.

So let’s talk about what motivates an Enneagram Type One and how to build a comprehensive and compatible author strategy around it.

I, myself, am a Type One, so I know a thing or two from personal experience about what will and won’t work for our type.

Let’s revisit what a Type One looks like.

Type One: The Reformer

The core motivations of this type are all about goodness. If you’re a One, your top priority will be to hold yourself to high standards of integrity, and the one thing you absolutely want to avoid is being perceived as corrupt or making a move that compromises your values. When you make decisions for your business, you must incorporate the things you care most about into the process.

Some things Ones will care about:

Producing quality work
Telling stories that matter or can effect change
Being perceived as honest and moral by both readers and fellow authors
Not sacrificing your integrity to make a few extra bucks

For a One, looking at this list might feel like, “Yeah, duh. Of course I care about those things. Doesn’t everyone?”

No, in fact. Hard, hard no.

Let’s check out some common reasons Ones might decide to become an indie author in the first place:

“I was born to write, and I have to live out my purpose.”
“I have a message for the world I need to get out there.”
“My words can create change.”
“There’s so much crap out there, I know I can do better and I want to show people how it’s done.”

There will be other reasons, but since most indies I know have more than one reason why they’re in the business, I’m sure at least one of these will resonate with the Type Ones.

It’s crucial to know your reason for why you’re in this business before you can know your strategy.

So ask yourself what you want out of this career. If your first thought is “selling as many books as possible,” it’s crucial to drill down and ask yourself if that’s because you want lots of money (lots of money would always be nice, so don’t let “it would be great” conflate with your real reason), or because you have a meaningful message you want to see reach the most people.

Listen, you’re a Reformer. If someone hasn’t told you that your desire to share something important with the world is grandiose, just wait. It’ll happen. Ones are a grandiose people, but that’s partly because we do have important wisdom to share. That’s our gift: wisdom.

If you fixate on right and wrong and what should be but isn’t all day every day, you’re destined to come up with some great ideas that deserve to be shared with others.

So, let’s return to the question. What do you want to accomplish with your books? What’s your goal?

Here are a few likely possibilities:

I want to make the world a better place with my writing.
I want to help people heal from shame/victimhood/guilt through reading my stories.
I want to show people the gray area of life.

The first option is typical One. Because ones care about goodness and integrity, the lack of it in the world can drive us a batty, and we’re desperate to inspire the same standards we hold ourselves to in others.

The second option is also a typical One. We struggle with shame. A lot. Our inner critics are unrivaled in their ability to paralyze us completely. I often tell critics to take a seat because no one can say worse things about me than I say about me. And I view that as a strength.

Well, now I do. But I didn’t for a very long time. The injuries inflicted by my inner critic used to leave big open wounds festering with shame. I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t nice enough, deserved it when people wronged me, and that one time I should have said something to a hurting friend in middle school and didn’t? That was proof I was No Good.

Thoughts like this wound Ones so deeply, that we will grapple with it our whole lives, and that can lead to wanting to spare others from it.

Or, it can lead to wanting to inflict it on others, too. Some of the most obnoxiously self-righteous people are Ones, and that’s something we have to face, too.

Now, the third goal is that of a One who has been to lots of therapy. Because Ones start out seeing things in black and white, when we grow, we become fascinated, even obsessed, with the gray areas. We like to show those to others and say, “Can you definitely say if this is good or bad?” And then we delight in the moral discomfort that causes.

But back to strategy.

Now that you have considered the things in this business that will matter to you, why you got into it in the first place, and what your goal might be, you’re inches away from putting together a great strategy.

Example:

I got into this business because: I wanted write stories that make people laugh and accept their imperfections rather than feeling ashamed of them (like I did).

Things I care about: Well-edited books, imperfect characters that inspire, making people laugh, not compromising my integrity to earn a little (or a lot of) extra cash or recognition.

Goal: Earn enough money to continue my pursuit of finding my specific tribe, helping them feel better, and inspiring other women to feel less ashamed, too.

If you notice, my goal does include money. Because if I’m going to have the energy to achieve my goal, I need to be going at it full-time, and I can’t do that if I can’t afford to pay the bills. In this example, the money is just a means to an end, and it tends to be that way with Ones unless something in our past has screwed with our heads so we view wealth as a measure of goodness.

So, this might be the strategy that goes with the above information:

Position myself as an example of a shameless female who is imperfect, rough around the edges, and still good at heart. Build my brand around that, and direct the audience through my books, videos, blogs, and paid advertising back to me as a central figure of the brand. Build enough credibility with my audience so when I have a new product, they buy it, I can keep paying bills, and they get to enjoy more of the messages I’m pushing into the world.

The above is a unique strategy, no doubt. And it’s not one you would have just stumbled on without doing the legwork.

So if you want to build your strategy for your Enneagram Type, be sure to start small, with the things you care about (integrity, goodness, right/wrong) and don’t let the big, flashy marketing gurus (who are almost all Threes, by the way) throw you off your course. Yes, making a ton of money is nice, but for Ones, that won’t be enough. Not even close. Accept it, embrace it, and strategize for it.