Authors Who Lead - Learn to write a book from bestselling authors and leaders

Send us Fan Mail There are many fears that we face as creators. Steven Pressfield calls these fears “resistance.” Although unpleasant, I don’t believe we should eliminate fear altogether. In fact, I think in some cases we can reframe them and turn them into motivation and inspiration. On this week’s episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I will talk about the seven types of fears we face as writers and ho...

Send us Fan Mail One of the biggest struggles that most creators face when writing and sharing their work is the notion of imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome isn’t something new and isn’t even something to be afraid of, but it is something you want to understand so that you can attack and destroy it. On this week’s episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I share six secret strategies that can help you de...

Send us Fan Mail I had a university friend once who needed to borrow my computer. He sat down at it early in the morning, and by the time I got back home that evening, he had no more words in his document than he had when he started hours before. He had spent the entire day writing, editing, deleting, and rewriting, only to have zero progress by the end of the day. On this week’s episode of “Autho...

Send us Fan Mail The idea of artificial intelligence has been around for a long time, but what does it matter to writers and what can we do about it? A.I. is starting to revolutionize how people think about creating any work like writing books or even designing book covers. This new tech brings out fears, concerns, and controversy among creatives, educators, and anyone whose lives may be affected....

Send us Fan Mail Steve Sims wrote his newest book out of pure aggravation. After he wrote his first book, he told me on an earlier podcast, Episode 19 , that he didn’t ever plan on writing another book. But then the pandemic hit, and Steve suddenly didn’t have to travel every month. He had time to be with his family and to breathe and to think. But what he saw happening around the world angered hi...

Send us Fan Mail Daria Vodopianova turned down two invites to speak on TEDx stages because she believed she didn’t have anything to share. A nonprofit group talked her into telling her story, and there she realized that she did have something to share and she could indeed be an example to others and make an impact as a speaker. In this episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I talk with Daria about speakin...

Send us Fan Mail Do you feel like you’re wasting your time creating content for social media? Stepan Hlinka felt like that a few years ago, but then he went from 700 Twitter followers to 50,000. He heard all the advice about how to increase social media followers, but he came from an advertising background and decided to try something different—and it worked. In this episode of “Authors Who Lead,”...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever felt stuck while writing? Whether it’s a blog, essay, short story, or novel, sometimes we just feel stuck and can’t move forward. Steve Vannoy and I are here today to talk about how you can get unstuck and step back into your writing genius this year. On today’s episode of “Authors Who Lead,” we talk honestly about why I felt stuck writing the third book in our ficti...

Send us Fan Mail After witnessing 9/11 from her office on Wall Street, Miriam Schulman decided to quit her job and make a full-time living as a creative. She now teaches other artists around the world to develop their skills and create more time and freedom to do what they love. In this episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I talk with Miriam Schulman about her journey making a living as an artist, as we...

Send us Fan Mail While still working full-time as a teacher, Dominic Carrillo has written and published several award-winning books, both as a self-publisher and recently with a small indie publisher. Dominic has also had one of his books released in translation in Bulgaria. In this episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I talk with Dominic about his journey through both types of publishing and his newest...

Send us Fan Mail Once you reach your goals in life, then what do you do? What’s next? This question is what inspired Bruce Turkel to pivot from running a successful ad agency for decades to selling it and becoming a public speaker. He had experienced burnout as most people do in their careers and needed to change something in his life. As a public speaker, he has found ways to use all of his talen...

Send us Fan Mail Writing a book isn’t one of those things that you should wait for. You shouldn’t put it off until a future “someday” because writing a book can really change your life today. You might have started with planning and plotting your idea but then didn’t feel it was good enough or you aren’t ready to write. But the truth is no one is ever ready to write a book. You just have to make t...

Send us Fan Mail In this time of hustle, sometimes it takes certain events to show us that we need to slow down and focus on what is really important. In Teresa McCloy’s life, it was her son’s drug addiction and death and her own workaholic addiction that forced her to reevaluate her life and how she was living it. She now intentionally lives a deeper and more meaningful life, slowing down and lea...

Send us Fan Mail Mari Ruddy is not only a celebrated endurance athlete, but she has also survived childhood trauma, breast cancer, multiple suicide attempts, and type 1 diabetes. She encourages and trains people with diabetes to be endurance athletes, and has run over forty-two triathlons herself. In this episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I talk with Mari about her passion for being an athlete and ho...

Send us Fan Mail Have you been thinking about writing a book, but wondered if it was worth the time and effort, or if there was any money that would be made from writing a book? Have you thought about what it takes to become an author who's successful, not just in selling books, but also in building a business? Then, this episode is for you. On this week’s episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I tal...

Send us Fan Mail Omar Zenhom realized he was only getting his MBA because he was seeking permission to become an entrepreneur. Upon that realization, he left his university job and dropped out of his MBA studies to focus on his $100 MBA Show podcast , where he helped other people like him learn the basics of marketing, sales, finance, and idea validation so they could start their own businesses an...

Send us Fan Mail I met Chris Ducker at a mastermind in San Diego where we needed to show up with a business idea. I realized I didn’t have one at the time, so I wrote my first book in thirty days and showed up with the idea and the book of the same name, The Art of Apprenticeship . This was the start of building my personal brand and a real friendship with Chris. In this episode of “Authors Who Le...

Send us Fan Mail Jadah Sellner, along with a co-founder, took the business “Simple Green Smoothies” to six- and seven-figure success. But although their work was built on love, fun, creativity, and connection, they gradually lost sight of why they built their business and were soon overly focused on metrics. This all came at a high cost to their relationships, health, and families. It took Jadah s...

Send us Fan Mail Chris Benetti has been in the marketing industry for over six years but has recently narrowed his focus to helping authors market and sell their books. He found that plenty of people helped authors write and launch their books, but no one offered a service to do the “boring stuff” to help sell books. He positioned himself in the market to help business and nonfiction authors with...

Send us Fan Mail There’s never been a better time to write a book. We no longer have to wait for permission, wait for an agent to accept you, or wait for a publisher to accept the agent's query. This doesn’t mean that traditional publishing isn’t still around, but you can write and publish your book right now without waiting for a gatekeeper. On this week’s episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I ta...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Avanti Kumar-Singh was well into her twenties before she became aware that her parents had raised her in an Ayurvedic lifestyle. Her parents had immigrated from India to Chicago, and to Avanti, this lifestyle was just a normal daily routine and perspective on life that became culturally ingrained in her as she grew. It was only when she went from being extremely healthy to hav...

Send us Fan Mail While Dr. Ryan Gray was still a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force, he became a podcaster and entrepreneur on the side. When he retired from the military, he decided to write a book. He had the time, and it seemed the next best step to take with his business. In this episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I talk with Dr. Ryan Gray about his entrepreneurial journey, how he decided which...

Send us Fan Mail The inspiration to write his first book struck when Geoffrey Neil stopped to give money to a homeless man on a freeway offramp. He wondered why we’re still dealing with the social issue of homelessness, and what a world would be like if we were actually compelled to help one another. Writing fiction books became a type of therapy for Geoffrey to work out his concern about social i...

Send us Fan Mail Following her intuition took Laura Michelle Powers from being an unemployed, physically ill divorcee to being a psychic to the Stars. Now, Laura has had amazing experiences overseas, hosts a top-100 podcast in the Apple Store, has published eight books, and is also a psychic, actress, entertainer, world traveler, singer-songwriter, and speaker. In this episode of “Authors Who Lead...

Send us Fan Mail After Melanie Herschorn graduated from college, she ran away to Los Angeles, found work at a PR firm, and then eventually became a successful entrepreneur. As her own boss, she decided to hire a marketing expert, which she says was a “fatal mistake” but one that would lead her to do what she loves. The experience led her to decide to help people like herself in a positive and supp...