In 2022 I decided to write a book.
Tl;dr: it did not get written the way I thought it would.
I had to:
have new thoughts
make new choices
take new actions
experience new things
feel new feelings
in order to get the book out in the world. That is what I guide my world changing clients through and I had to take hefty doses of my own medicine to get the book out into the world.
On Thursday, June 12 at 9:30 a.m. Pacific / 12:30 p.m. Eastern join me, MJ Halberstadt, the ghostwriter who brought my book to life, and Mel Adamson, CEO of Alder & Company who made the introduction that lead to a real book being out in the world.
I will show you how I did it.
Depending on how well you know me, you may understand that when I decide to do something, it happens.
The decision to write a book was on brand with that part of me.
I did what I had done in the past to write anything longer than an essay:
I made an outline
I googled, one time, a good arc for a self help book about your own work.
I read one article, then created a system to write it.
I unleashed discipline on the task.
That worked really well for about half a week.
Then I got bored.
I ignored the task for months.
I felt guilty. I couldn’t let it go, my mind kept drifting back to it, creating more guilty feelings.
Eventually, I kicked my own ass hard enough that I went back to the system I’d created months before.
I brought some fresh energy to it.
I spoke in a voice to text app so that I could just get stories out into a written document.
I slayed the blank page.
That worked, for about half a week
Then I got bored again.
I ignored and avoided the task. The guilty feeling grew into a sizeable presence in my life. I didn’t like the guilty feeling, so I avoided and ignored that too.
The task sat dormant for months.
I couldn’t leave it alone.
I repeated this cycle of guilt / enthusiasm / novelty for two years.
At the end of two years, my book was a haystack of stream of consciousness stories, half populated structure, and lots and lots of avoidance and guilt.
That is not actually a book. That was the result of me:
having the same thoughts
making the same choices
taking the same actions (or inactions)
having the same experiences
feeling the same feelings.
Can you see how when we do that we get the same results?
Then I took my own medicine
About half way through 2024 I took a good look in the mirror and admitted that I was not going to be the person to write this book.
I mean, I’m a transformation guide and I KNOW the value of brining in expert help to get new results. It is literally what I do all day every day when I’m working.
The first new thought I had was, I’ll find a ghostwriter.
I interviewed a few and was not impressed with what I found. They ranged from wildly expensive and a process that would take a whole year to more “affordable” and systematized like a rubber stamp kind of system.
All the options were five figure consultants.
None of them felt right.
The next new thought
Then I decided to ask my network for help.
I sent out an all points bulletin and admitted that I was not going to write my book on my own and did anyone know someone who could help me.
I realized that I was going on blind dates and getting bad matches and I needed a friend set up.
No more swiping right and taking a gamble.
The introduction
Then Mel came through with a great introduction. She knew a writer who was great and passed me his contact information.
We had one call.
ONE CALL.
I deflated into the safety of knowing that he was the one who could embody my voice, write a book worth reading, and birth this idea into the world.
MJ, with my whole heart, thank you so much for the love you poured into
learning how to portray me while writing
learning about my work
building four incredible characters that represent my clients but do not breach the privacy of my clients
being really fun and easy to work with
holding the vulnerability that is so very challenging for me to express
I was ready for the U-Haul after the first call. I’m not sure MJ was, but I was and we got rolling.
MJ, Mel, and I are talking about all of this on Thursday, June 12 at 9:30 a.m. Pacific / 12:30 p.m. Eastern.
You’ll get to hear, first hand, how I move through transformations that get me massive new results.
Will you join us?