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

Although I’m a Type One, I have a slight Two Wing, and I’ve worked closely with some super successful indie authors who are Type Two.

It’s a tough road for a Two if you try to go about this the wrong way, meaning you try to model your strategy after how a Three or a Seven might go about it. You can end up exhausted, broke, under appreciated, and bitter as hell.

So let’s not go that way, shall we?

Let’s revisit what a Type Two looks like:

Type Two: The Helper

The core motivations of the Helper revolve around, you guessed it, helping others. Helpers feel loved by being useful and needed, and they’ll go the extra mile for their readers. On the flip side, Twos are terrified of being seen as selfish or ungenerous, and if they don’t feel like their help is properly appreciated, they can slip into martyrdom in a heartbeat.

Some things Twos will care about:

Making the readers feel like family
Helping other authors
Writing stories that heal
Emails from readers they’ve helped

If you’re a Two, this description might feel like a bit of an attack. “Hey, I’m not a martyr… but also, what’s wrong with martyrs?”

Twos are some of my favorite people, don’t worry. Your desire to help others is great!

Let’s take a look at some of the likely reasons a Helper might get into indie publishing in the first place:

“The world is hurting, and my stories can help.”
“If I gain enough status/money, I can be a more effective advocate for others.”
“I want to give people somewhere to escape to when they’re sad.”

There will be other reasons — people usually have more than one for why they even bother with this crazy line of work — but one of these will resonate with you Type Twos.

So now that you know your reasons, ask yourself what you want out of this career. This is going to be a painful question for Twos, because you often struggle to accept the help of others, even though you’re always the first to offer your own help. “What do I want? How dare you ask such a thing! I’m not selfish!”

This is a safe space, Two. No one needs to know you even thought it. But you have to think it. What do you want? Do you want a fanbase that appreciates the effort you put into creating stories for them? Do you want financial compensation for all the blood, sweat, and tears you put into creating these stories? Or do you want to create a platform that will allow you to raise other indies up with you, ones who deserve to be seen but might be overlooked otherwise?

Let’s talk for a second about martyrs. I won’t lie, Twos can be the biggest martyrs there are. When I mention this pitfall to others, I usually hear, “Oh, my mom was a Two, then,” which, let’s face it, is pretty funny (laugh so you don’t cry?). But anyone can be a martyr, and Twos are only prone because you have this other wonderful thing you can be: an Advocate.

You’re willing to self-sacrifice to help others. And as long as you can keep that in check, making sure you know you have value outside of how much you can help people and learning to give help without expectation of receiving, then you’re a real force of nature.

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 write stories that comfort those who need it
I want to create a tribe of helpers where people feel supported through their hard times
I want to help other authors find the success they desire

This first one is why my friend Jami Albright writes rom-coms. The woman just loves making people feel good, and because she has the gift of the Twos, she can do it with relish. She makes people feel really good. So good that she’s making a steady living with only four books, something most indie “experts” will tell you can’t happen.

The second goal is also right up the alley of a Two. Helpers are great at building community, though they do have to be careful not to get sucked in too much by the trials and tribulations of their readers, as it can empty all the energy right out of them.

And the third goal is also very Two. When a healthy Two makes it big in just about any industry, they like to don a teacher’s hat. They turn right around and either teach others what they know or take a few people under their wing and focus their attention on those.

But Twos, hear me now: you get to charge people for your help. If you want to do community service, go sign up to volunteer. But this is your business, and your knowledge and expertise was hard-earned. You can get paid for it and it’s still helping people. In fact, you’re helping them even more by relieving them of feeling indebted to you for your help!

So now that we know all of these things of the Two, we can look at how they might break down into a cohesive strategy.

Example:

I got into this business because: I wanted write healing stories with HEAs that give people hope.

Things I care about: Making the readers feel like family, creating characters that feel like friends, being properly compensated for the help I give so I don’t become resentful.

Goal: Earn enough money to help as many people as I can in as many meaningful ways as possible.

If you notice, the goal does include money. But it’s nothing more than a means to an end for the Helper. It’s not about status, it’s about resources that can be put to use for meaningful acts of service — whether that’s publishing more books, donating to charities, or providing resources to other indie authors.

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

Position my brand as one of the Healthy Helper by writing stories that attract that kind of readership. Create a place for them to hang out between books, and establish pathways for them to help my books and other people/charities, as well as frictionless ways for them to ask for help when they need it and receive it in an appropriate manner from the community and me. And make the community one where members want to invite those they love into it so that it, and my brand, continue to grow and flourish.

Let me assure you Twos that it’s okay to benefit from the community you built. This is your business, and if it fails, this great tribe of helpers you put together will fade away with it. Your brand helps the group and the group helps your brand. It’s symbiotic and reciprocal, which is the way you’ve always wanted giving to be, deep down, right? It should all equal out on a cosmic scale.

Without going through the steps, it’s unlikely that a Two would end up with a strategy that fits their core motivations and needs, because the Helper doesn’t really love admitting they have needs.

So if you want to build your strategy for your Enneagram Type, be sure to start small, with the things you care about (helping others, being useful, showing love) 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 Twos, that will ring hollow before long. Accept it, embrace it, and strategize for it.