Writing my first book was easy after it stopped being hard
Authenticity, Alignment & Access
Writing my first book, Coach Yourself was easy. Honestly. Because the entire process felt authentic, aligned with my values, and allowed me to share my messages with a wider audience.
I’m not suggesting that I wasn’t scared and overwhelmed at times (particularly as someone with an adult diagnosis of ADHD) but the challenges diminished as I focused on delivering value (I hope) for readers looking to move ahead both professionally and personally. We are all works in progress and this book is a companion on that journey.
Authenticity
Sometimes in previous jobs, I didn’t feel authentic. What I was doing and how I was doing it wasn’t always true to who I am. That was definitely my experience as a management consultant. I remember one long engagement helping a large insurance company reduce their temporary labor costs. It was soul destroying.
At other times, I didn’t have the confidence and self-belief to put into action what I was capable of doing. This happened a lot, so I kept going back to school to get another degree or qualification because I felt it would make me smarter or more qualified or more skilled.(Spoiler alert: that strategy didn’t work.)
Often, I was tired and frazzled, trying to keep things together as a working mother with young sons. I didn't have the energy to even think about my authenticity at work. (As an aside, every day I am thankful that I am not a single parent. They deserve the gold medals.)
Of course, I have experienced great camaraderie at work, many episodes of achievement and satisfaction and I am grateful for them.
Through this journey, I discovered that my authentic self is an executive coach. I was a late bloomer but I needed the education, career and life experiences to get me to the point where I could be a really good coach and live what I was born to do. And so, writing the book just flowed from there, from my authenticity.
Alignment
Another reason this book was easy to write is because I used my values as my north star. (Another spoiler alert: a values exercise can be found at the beginning of the book.) My core values are: gratitude, in service of others’ potential, productivity, positivity and curiosity. Writing this book was a continual expression of those values, especially the critical values of positivity, productivity and service.
I definitely needed a positive mindset to keep me moving forward on the days when I doubted my abilities. That’s when having a sympathetic editor who builds you up is important too! (Shout out to Laura Zinn Fromm.)
Productivity has always been important to me. It’s part of my being and central to my upbringing (which came first, the chicken or the egg?). I believe we are here to work, to produce and that is how we accomplish our goals. Sometimes, I take this belief too far (just ask my family) but in general, being productive has meant I lean in, put in the hard work and usually manage to accomplish important goals.
Finally, for me life is about service. Growing up in a Catholic household played no small part in that orientation! I know I am in service when I am coaching. And I deeply appreciate being able to work one-on-one with my clients. I am grateful to be able to help them dig deep and identify the kind of person they want to be and how they want to show up. Then I’m able to be on a journey with them to take that awareness and translate it into behaviors that help them, their teams and ultimately their companies to be more successful. At the same time, I know the coaching platform is small, narrow and expensive.
Access
I feel strongly about democratizing coaching. Writing this book gave me an opportunity to get my message out to a larger audience through a more accessible platform, and take some of the mystery out of it. Coaching isn’t just for “other people with resources”. I wanted to make my tools available for anyone looking to advance professionally and personally. My book is written as a DIY coaching book. It uses frameworks to provide readers with the foundation to understand how they can embrace change. I have been using these frameworks for 10-plus years in my coaching work, and I have seen the power of these frameworks to help leaders live more successful lives - professionally and personally.
Writing this book would have been much more difficult without all the support and encouragement that I received. Writing a book definitely takes a village. So many people helped me along the way by sharing their experiences and insights. Please know, going forward I will buy any book written by anyone I know. I will read it. I will leave an Amazon review and I will talk it up. Books are an incredible labor of love. I am happy for the support I receive and am committed to supporting other authors. I want to help make this challenging process easier for everyone brave enough to share their message with others.