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 Seven and how to build a comprehensive and compatible author strategy around it.

I’m a Type One, but I admire the heck out of you Type Seven Enthusiasts. When I’m at my best, I go up into a healthy Seven. You’re what I aspire to be!

Enthusiasts have so many natural talents working for you, and as long as you can stay focused on something long enough to see it through (easier said than done for your type), success isn’t far off.

Let’s revisit what a Type Seven looks like.

Type Seven: The Enthusiast

The Enthusiasts’ need for stimulation is pretty much unrivaled. They are fantastic at thinking up big, and I mean BIG ideas, but not always so great with sticking with those ideas to see them through once it’s clear how much time and energy they require. That’s because Sevens are the undisputed kings and queens of FOMO. They’re terrified of being unsatisfied with life, and so they hop on every shiny opportunity they see. But this causes a fear of committing to one path, which can make it tricky for this type to stick with a series for more than a few books at a time.

Some things Sevens will care about:

Maneuverability, being able to make quick pivots to pursue new avenues
A flexible brand
A readership who doesn’t require consistency or frequency in publications
Being where the people are — author conferences, fan cons, etc.

So, uh, right. There’s the biggest challenge of the Enthusiast: staying enthusiastic about one thing for long enough to see it through.

While I’m sure there are Sevens who are not extroverts, I honestly have yet to meet one. Your strength lies in your ability to make people feel fascinating and get others charged up about the things you love.

But when it comes to sitting still to pound out the details or those long hours alone to write book five or ten in your series, let the restlessness begin!

And this can lead to Enthusiasts earning a bad reputation as flakes. Because you’re afraid of missing out, you say yes to every great opportunity that comes your way. But guess what? There are only so many hours in a day, and when you double-book yourself, there’s always either one obligation that gets left undone or two that get half-assed.

But fear not, because there are all kinds of workarounds that can highlight your strengths and downplay your weaknesses. You need not sit in unsatisfied discomfort for long!

To find these strengths, and now that we know what you care about, let’s check out the common reasons Sevens might want to become indie authors in the first place:

“I love thinking up imaginary worlds!”
“I’ve lived an exciting life and I want to tell people about it!”
“Indie publishing is such a new and exciting industry, and I want to take a crack at it!”
“I don’t want to be contractually obligated to write a series I’m no longer excited about. Indie publishing lets me pivot quickly and try new things!”

And yes, these statements require the exclamation points at the end, because that’s just how passionate you Enthusiasts are about everything you do.

Now, your personal reasons for getting into the industry may be different, but at least one of these will resonate with you, I’m certain.

But hold up. Let’s talk about FOMO for the moment, because this is your greatest enemy in this profession. The fear of missing out (FOMO) will run you into the ground. You cannot seize every golden opportunity that comes your way, and there are a lot of them. The most important thing to remember about a strategy is that you need to stick to it. You hear that, Seven? You need to stick to it!

Your type is the most prone to what’s called straddling strategies. It means that you are trying to execute two conflicting strategies at once. This usually happens when you construct a clear strategy but a “great opportunity!” that doesn’t fit within your established strategy comes along and you decide, “I’ll just do this thing, too!”

And then you end up doing neither well. So what you need is a strategy that not only allows you to follow the shiny things, but benefits from that.

But before we get in that deep, let’s look at another important aspect of your strategy. What do you want to accomplish with your books? What’s your goal?

Here are a few likely possibilities:

Making enough money to support my passions of travel and learning new skills.
Growing a big enough following that I can afford to go to cons and am asked to speak on panels around the country/world.
To have a fan base that follows me from genre to genre, so I’m not stuck in a single one.

I love this first goal, because it keeps your career merely a means to an end, and Enthusiasts are great about that. Your work goal works toward your non-work goals. Many types can’t comprehend such a thing, so good on you for keeping some perspective on work-life balance, Seven!

The second goal is great because it will mix your passion for traveling to new locations and meeting new people with the income necessary to sustain that. A trap a lot of Sevens can fall into is jumping into this part of the author life too soon and not being able to actually pay for the trips and booths on the money made from them alone. Cons can be a BIG bust if you don’t already have an audience for it, so don’t count on a bunch of people crawling out of the woodworks to buy your stuff.

This third one is all about the creative freedom you need. Sevens are well suited for jumping from one hot niche to another, and the last thing anyone needs is five or more pen names (re: individual businesses) to manage. But if you build a relationship with your readers that can carry some of them along for the ride as you pivot from, say, dark romance to reverse harem to whatever the next hot trend will be, then you’re in a great place in your career.

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 want to write stories that energize and excite me without having to stick with any one series or genre for too long.

Things I care about: Flexibility in my schedule, making the money I need to pursue my many interests, working my real-life experience into my career.

Goal: Create a flexible brand that can finance my work expenses and my pricy personal life.

Be warned, Seven, you don’t want money. You want the freedom and options money will bring. You have to watch out for this because you like shiny things, and you will absolutely enjoy being seen as a successful writer/jetsetter or whatever it is you love doing in your personal time. But know this: everyone likes having lots of money, but if you get too caught up in the appearance of being wealthy, you’ll blow your money on whatever flashy thing is in front of you rather than the things that really bring you joy and satisfy you. Yikes!

Always keep that in mind: money only equals freedom and options. It’s not in itself a noble goal for you.

So anyway, this might be a suitable strategy for the abovementioned information:

Establish a strong brand prior to going full-time. Position myself as the central point of the brand so readers will follow me out of their usual genre and to my other series. Be consistent in writing short series or stand-alone novels to establish clear reader expectations when they start in on a new story world. Keep exotic locations central to all my series so that my natural desire to travel will produce great behind-the-scenes content that bond the readers to me and save me money (yay for tax write-offs!).

The most important thing here is to make sure you have a strong brand before you go full-time. This strategy won’t work overnight. So consider starting a blog or vlog every time you travel for work or pleasure. Build that following ASAP with that enthusiasm you carry for all things. People are drawn to it, and as long as you can make sure your videos and blogs are short enough not to bog you down, you’re golden. Don’t worry about sticking to specific topics — the topic is you and your life, so anything goes!

So, if you want to build your strategy for your Enneagram Type, be sure to start small, with the things you care about (flexibility, work-life balance, new experiences) and don’t listen to the folks who tell you not to skip around. You were born to dabble, and there are people who want to follow a dabbler! Find them, and just be consistent in your excitement. And be sure to remember that money is freedom and flexibility, not a goal unto itself. So accept that, embrace it, and enjoy the ride!