Unleash Your Inner Author with Amy Collette

Good day, good day, good day everyone, and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio. I am so excited about this conversation today. We're gonna help you unleash your inner author. Hi Amy, how are you?

Hi Bernadette, I'm great. Nice to see you.

Nice to see you as well. And where are you calling in for— yes, where are you calling in from?

I'm in the Denver area in Colorado.

Nice, very nice. Nice weather out there today?

Oh, it's gorgeous. I'm looking out at the blue sky in the mountains.

I bet. I'm actually sitting under some skylights, and yet at the same time, it's cloudy today here in Atlanta, which actually works well when you're actually, you know, video recording something. But I'm excited to talk with you. Excited, excited, excited. And but before we do, everyone, I just want to remind you of a few of the episodes that we've had recently. Uh, last week we talked to Steve Gavatorta, and he talked to us about leading and managing through adversity, uh, and how you can be very successful in just confronting and dealing with those ambiguous times. Then our Ask Me Anything episode is the first Tuesday of every month, and I basically take your questions, stories, and challenges, and I provide you tips, advice, and sometimes tough love. And this past episode, we talked about what do you need to do if you think you're being fired? And the key is you think you're being fired. The second question that we addressed was all around how to negotiate your salary and/or a new compensation package. Other question was about the pros and cons of franchising. Someone wanted to be buying into a franchise and based on my experience as a franchisee and expertise around it, they just wanted to know the pros and cons of that. And then lastly, and take a listen to it, lastly, someone wanted to dig deep and really understand how to stop getting attacked on social media by raising her voice and her opinions. So check out that episode of Ask Me Anything, and you can check out all the episodes either on sheddingthebitch.com/radiopodcast or go to our Shed the Bitch YouTube channel, which is Bernadette Boas Shed the Bitch TV, and you can see all of our video recorded interviews as well. All right. All right, but today we want to talk about unleashing your inner author and how sharing your story creates deep human connection and powerful impact. So we're going to talk about how we all have unique passions and perspectives. Combined, those things have led to transformations in your life. Now more than ever, your story is not just important It's urgent. People are looking for guidance. They're looking for being able to relate. They're looking to see, you know, how you did the hard work of changing your life that they may be able to do. And now we can help others find the same kind of transformation in their lives. Now, what I want you to be listening for as we introduce our guests as well is the fact that you do have a unique perspective that you can use to create human connection and profound impact. I want you to also understand from this conversation how writing a book is doable. It's a doable endeavor with the right mindset and support, which is key, and how people with a message can write powerful books even if they are not world-class writers. Readers are actively looking for inspiration, motivation, and guidance, and therefore your story would be important to them. As well as lastly, we're going to talk with Amy about how to go and get free resources and support for you unleashing your inner author. Now Amy, and for those of you who are listening for the first time, I like to ground our listeners in, in a rich question, a question that's relevant to the topic so then they can kind of listen for how to connect and relate. To the tips, advice, and guidance that our guests would be providing. So your rich question for today is simply, what is that one story— now you may have many, but what is that one story or experience that you've had that could either inspire or educate or both other people, other individuals, other individuals? So what is that one story or experience that you have that you could be using to inspire and educate other people by authoring your story and unleashing the author within, right? Right, Amy?

Yeah, so the story that comes to mind when you ask that, Bernadette, is the story of how I became an author myself. Okay, so I had gone— I had been running a business. I think probably everybody listening who's a business owner can relate to this. I was running a consulting business and I had gotten kind of complacent. I wasn't, I wasn't out networking and marketing a lot. I had my two big clients and a few other small clients. Things were going great, gangbusters. Everybody was happy. We're just rocking it. And then my two big clients left within two weeks of each other.

Oh, mercy.

Yeah. And it was through no fault of my own. It was one, one got acquired and one lost their venture funding. Yeah, so dead in the water, and my business was dead in the water too. I mean, it was just bam, like the rug got pulled out of me, from under me, all of a sudden, right? So instead of— I didn't have the tools then. I didn't have the tools to be as resilient as I needed to be, you know?

Yeah.

And so I sort of fell into this state of anxiety, constant anxiety. That's all I was focused on was Oh my God, what happened to my business? How do I get it back? And I'm desperately calling everybody I know. And you know that energy that you have when you're just needy?

Yeah, yeah.

It's not attractive.

No, or desperate, or when you're desperate. No, it's not.

It's desperate, yeah. And that desperation energy comes across. 'Cause I was, at that point I was realized finally through some, calming down enough to get my heartbeat, you know, under control and be able to just calm down a moment to go into meditation. I got, I said, you know, obviously the common denominator is me. I've got to change, right? Because I was used to building business very easily and all of a sudden that wasn't happening.

Right.

So I said, okay, what's going on? And I got this message that fell in that said, 'You're being a bad date, Amy. A bad date in business.' Wow.

Right?

Just like— and that made me laugh enough and be able to see myself and go, 'Oh yeah, okay, that's it.' Yeah, yeah. You know, because what happens when you, when you are with somebody who desperately wants you to like them and is just talking about themselves constantly?

Yeah.

You call them back? You go running away.

Right.

And that's what I saw was happening to me. That's not cool. That's not building a relationship, you know. So I knew something had to change, and that's when I started practicing gratitude. And it changed my life so dramatically and so quickly that I started trying other little habits like that, other just positive changes in my life that didn't take all day long. They took a few minutes a day, and I ended up being so inspired and so transformed by that that I wrote a book about it.

Yes, nice, nice, nice, nice.

So, you know, I had— it brought together a lot of skills I already had as a writer and an editor, right? But then this was my personal transformation. This was the story that I had to share.

Yep.

And it goes to all the stuff I talk about. I had a unique perspective. I had a passion for gratitude that I had to share and get out to people. And so that was, you know, that's changed. It literally changed my life and everything I've done since then.

Yeah. Well, yes. I mean, and I can so relate. And those types of yearnings, those types of I have to do it regardless of anything. I must do this. That why, you know, becomes so palpable that we just, we just have to, we just have to go after it. That's awesome. But I want to make sure everyone understands who we're talking to as far as Amy and what and how, not only that book, but also what she is going to be able to bring to you in your world so you too can get, take that that guttural feeling and say, mm, I do have a story I need to tell and to inspire and educate other people. So Amy, a little bit about Amy: entrepreneurs who never thought they would write a book become success— successful first-time authors through Amy Collette's Unleash Your Inner Author coaching program. Driven by a need, as she just discussed, to share transformative stories. They'll even discover how to take their powerful messages to the world in a bigger way as authors. Amy is a book coach. She's a publisher and author whose purpose in life is to raise— I love this— the positive vibration of the planet by helping thought leaders increase their impact. Amy's bestselling book, You can hold it up again. That's The Gratitude Connection. Features inspirational stories and practical tools to help you reframe— reframe— wait, I'm sorry, retrain your brain. I knew I was going to get that. Uh, for happiness and success. Retrain your brain for happiness and success. Um, and please, throughout this conversation, I want you to go to unleashyourinnerauthor.com to learn more about Amy, her work, her book, and, and even she has a lot of other authors and books and experiences that she shares on her website as well. So Amy, I am so thrilled that you're here with us today. Thank you so much.

Thanks. I'm always, I'm always happy to talk about what excites me, which is getting people's stories out there.

Right. Well, and so this is what I'd like to understand first is, so you have this aha moment and you said you were an editor and, you know, so you have this aha moment that you have a story that you need to share and a gift. Actually, I want to call it what you give is a gift to other folks. How did that translate to then you saying, okay, so I want to I want to, you know, be a book coach. I want to help authors tell their stories, but more, not more importantly, but then to close the loop, you also then say, oh, I want to help them actually get it published. So what kind of took you down that path?

Yeah, well, there's another story too. So I, you know, I took a long time to get this story out of me and put it together in a way that I thought was really helpful, useful. And potentially transformational for people. So then I went to a local publisher here in Denver, is no longer around, and I had a bad experience. I was— I came away with a book that I wasn't happy with. It did not look like this at the beginning. The COVID wasn't what I wanted, the interior just— it just, it didn't have the energy. I'm all about energy and it didn't have that excitement, that positive, powerful energy that I wanted it to have. So I wasn't very excited about it. And you know, if you're not very excited about it, it's hard to sell to people, it's hard to—

Oh, that'd be heartbreaking.

Get them involved, right?

Yeah, it'd be heartbreaking, heartbreaking.

It was heartbreaking and I never want to have another author go through that. So I took a step back and I said, you know what, I have a huge network of people. I know wonderful editors, I know graphic designers. I bet I could put together a team that could do this better. Fortunately, I had retained the rights to my book, which was awesome because then I could republish it.

Right, right, right.

So I started my own tiny publishing business just to publish my own book initially. Put together this fantastic team of people and came out of that experience knowing a whole lot. The learning curve was amazing, but, you know, I came out of that with knowing how to publish a world-class, professional, beautiful book that made me cry when I got it in my hands. Aww. You know, cry with happiness.

That's awesome.

And that's the experience that I want to deliver Right. To everyone. So I had been book editing at that time, and I realized I was bringing in a lot of my life coaching experience in the editing experience. So I thought, you know, if I could start with people before they write the book, right, instead of having to do so much rewriting after they've written the book, that would be so much more effective, right? So you want to get it for them as writers too.

Right, absolutely. So you want to get them, even, even when they might not realize they have something to share, do you, you know, and you kind of highlight to them what, what it is? Or do they have kind of a slight idea that they have something to share but they're just not sure about how to go about it?

Usually the people that come to me, Bernadette, are like burning to get this book out of them. You know, it's this desire like, I've got this story, I have to share it, but they don't know how and they're afraid of doing it wrong, you know, or taking too long, or just the, the process is, is, you know, everybody can self-publish these days, right? Like I said, the learning curve is huge, and you can make a lot of wrong decisions along the way, like I did the first time around. So, but there's also that getting that story out of your heart and your head and onto the page.

Yeah.

You know, so that's the first part of the process is really helping people create some structure around that. So then, then it's like rocket fuel when they actually go to write. They know what to write, they feel great about it, they have some confidence, and that process can be much more smooth than if they just agonized about it for years on their own.

Right, right. Well, and I have to admit, um, and for everybody listening, you know, even learn from my own mistakes, uh, but I wish you were in my corner when I did mine. And Simply, in Simply, which is part, a big part of what I understand you do, is simply to make sure that I'm looking at it from not only like you were expressing how you needed to write your, write your book, right? You know, and that's how I was. I needed to write this book. Yeah, it was an apology and an explanation. At the same time, you know, in hindsight, you know, is the fact that I was being selfish in that I had to write it for me and therefore didn't really take the reader in consideration. I mean, I did, but not to the extent that I've learned since what it is that they really wanted from my story. And so someone like yourself, I would expect, you know, knowing that I have this drive, or knowing that someone listening or watching this episode has this drive to write a book, you would ensure that they're looking at the 360, you know, view of what it is that they really, you know, not only want to do but need to accomplish and the why in order to make sure that they're going down the right path. Would that be the case?

Yeah. So Bernadette, what I hear you saying, because I'm coming at, you know, I'm listening to you as, as a book coach and I'm thinking, oh yes. So what you, what is so important is, and that's what so many of the stories, the books that, that I help publish are like, it's very much partly memoir, right? You're telling your own stories, you may be sharing other people's stories too, but the— where the rubber meets the road for me as a reader is how do I take those lessons from your life and from your experience and bring them into mine? Yeah, so that, that might be the missing piece, and that's, that's the missing piece for a lot of people is that how do I tell people How to, to take this, this learning that I don't want you to have to go through the pain to have to learn it yourself, right? I want you to be able to take your life experience and give you some tools to bring that and embody that into your life, into your business, and make a difference in your own life.

Well, especially because you, your target market for from what we, you know, what we discussed is entrepreneurs. So entrepreneurs who are business-minded. Now I'm not saying that they're writing a business book, but what they're writing is that combination, like you're saying, of that memoir with tips and lessons learned and best practices and the how-tos or how-don'ts.

Right, right, right, right.

Yeah. So Then help, help me understand too. Help all of us understand too. Uh, so you give them structure, you help them with the plan. Now, as you and I know very, very well, uh, there is a lot of, um, emotion that goes into, uh, and a lot of questioning and doubting and what we call bitches here in the Shedding the Bitch community, you know, fears, negativities, doubts, insecurities. So what is your role, uh, do you play as you take your, your clients, your future authors, uh, through the process?

Yeah, I'm glad you asked that, Bernadette, because, you know, people are burning with this passion. There's always— I call it the legend behind the leader. Okay, it's, it's what, it's what made them who they are, right? You know, like your story. Your hard times and the transformation that you made, the changes that you made, are your backstory. That's the legend behind you as a leader, right? We all have that. As thought leaders, as entrepreneurs, we didn't take this step to do the hard work of being an entrepreneur and a thought leader without having a lot of passion, a lot of fire behind that.

Right.

You know, ball of fire. You know, we have that ball of fire burning in us. We don't necessarily know how to bring it out and how to make it transformational for the readers. And so that's where it helps to have a coach, right? That's where the coaching, the life coaching comes in. Because an author just the other day, we're just about through with her coaching program, and she said, wow, I had no idea how much self-development I this was going to entail, you know, how much growth on her own part. So get ready, authors out there. It is, it is just like building your business is a fast track to self-growth and self-development. You have to be on it all the time or you're not going to keep building your business, right? You're not going to keep magnetizing and attracting the people that you want to. Right. Same thing as an author. You got to dig deep. You got to be vulnerable if you really are, if you really want to raise the positive vibration of the planet and change the world one reader at a time. You got to bring yourself to the table, and sometimes that can be a little scary. You know, it's kind of like I talk about, like getting on the stage, same as writing a book. You're, you're kind of taking off your robe and being naked to the world and saying yes. Here it is. I'm awesome. I want you to be awesome too. You know, so it's that it helps to have that supportive coach. So you mentioned the structure. I like to create that structure so that you can then create, you have a roadmap, you don't have to worry about all the details. You can just go. I'm watching your dog walk around in the background. And, you know, so it's, I call it the adventure of becoming an author because it really is a journey. Even if you think you know you know what to expect, it's gonna give you some gifts along the way.

Absolutely, absolutely. So that person, that individual comes to you and they have this like unbelievable, you know, yearning, you know, to need to write, you know, something. Yeah. How do they actually— how do you get them and work with them to identify what it is that they're going to talk about? Because some of us have a lot we could be talking about.

—right?

And yet you, I would think it, that you would be guiding them to kind of solve a certain problem or do something. So what is your process and what do you need to do with, um, first-time authors to get them in that space?

Right, that's another great question. So, um, I think people, like I said, they're burning with passion but they don't necessarily have everything figured out at that point, right? So one of the ways that my program is different from a lot of other writing programs is that we take that time to figure that stuff out first so that they meet— they end up meeting the goals by the end of the book that they might not have had they just written the book by themselves. Right, right. So first we define what's your mission, how do you want to make that impact on the world, you know, digging really deep for that. And we have a whole process that we go through to figure that out. Number 2 is deeply understand and connect with your ideal readers. I call it your soulmate readers, the people who are gonna absolutely love your book and really it's gonna change their lives and they're gonna tell everybody about it, you know, they're your biggest fan. Yeah, that's who you want to provide the value to, you know, there'll be other people who will get something from it too, but your soulmate readers are your You know, that's probably who you want to work with too. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So that's who you're most wanting to connect with and really getting into their heads. We have another process for that. Then third is turning the focus on yourself as an author to say, what are my goals? You know, how do I want to build my business? Who do I want to attract? Do I want to build or create a speaking career? Yeah. Do workshops, all those kinds of things. So we get that really clear, and then we have something to go back to every time you have a question. We're going to go back to those things. Does it define your mission? I mean, does it, does it meet your mission? Right, right. Does it, does it help your reader soulmates? And does it help you meet your goals? So that's the first part. Then there's this really, really fun exercise that we go through to do a huge brain dump. 'Cause almost nobody has too little content. Almost everybody has so much they don't know what to do with it. How do I hone it? Right. You know, so those first 3 questions help you understand that. And then you can create this roadmap. And we go through this crazy brainstorming session, and then I call it the book talking to you. Kinda tells you how it wants to be, you know, out of that comes a structure. Anything that doesn't fit into it maybe is a blog post, maybe it's marketing, maybe it's another book, maybe it's a speech. You know, there's all different kinds of things that you can do with all the massive content that you are holding, but honing it to be that perfect container for your message is what we do in the book coaching. So that's the start of it, and then, then you start writing. Yeah, right.

You haven't even gotten to the writing process yet. Right, right. Because you need to get those things in place. Right, right, right. So once you get all those things in place, which is kind of the broad stroke, I'll call it, right? I, I just want to put it in my head as to— I'm very visual. Uh, so what is it that propels them, or what do they do first when they sit down at their desk? Uh, you know, like, what do you tell them in regards to just getting started?

Yeah, then that's— then the focus of the coaching really shifts to you as a writer, right? And some people really love writing, but most people are still first-time authors. Other people don't really love writing. Maybe they're— I work with a lot of professional speakers, so they are fantastic on their feet. They can put those things together in their head and come off up with it with the top on the— off the top of their head. So for those people, maybe they don't write, maybe they speak, they record it and have it transcribed, and then we massage that into readable, you know, something readable. Right. You know, it's different than written, than spoken word. Sure. So, but other people just, you know, we set goals just like any other coaching program, you know, you set goals. I review writing every time we meet. And give you some, some comments. So I'll start with maybe something you've written before and say, okay, this is great, here's how you could make it stronger, here's how you could target it more for your reader, here's, you know, so I can kind of give you some, some help and, and guidance so that you become a stronger writer along this adventure, right? Well, aren't they becoming—

we just have to start. Aren't they becoming a better storyteller as well?

That's a huge part of it because, you know, that's how people connect, right? That's how humans have always connected. You know, just think about the last time you got to know somebody, uh, you know, where you're sitting across the table for coffee or on a Zoom meeting these days, you know, getting to know somebody. You trade stories, you know, you ask about your weekend and you ask about, you know, your dog and, and what you like to do for fun and what gets you so fired up about, about business. What's what gets you excited and who are your ideal people that you want to connect with? You know, all those kinds of things are the, are the basic. Then once you build that relationship, you go deeper, you know, and you start sharing more personal things about yourself and more, get a little more vulnerable. And that's exactly what you do in the book, too. You start out by building a connection a relationship with your reader. Yeah. So I think, you know, some of the biggest compliments my authors get is, you know, I felt like I was sitting on the couch with you and you were just telling me stories. Nice, nice. You know, because— and the other part of that is that when we share those stories, when we're getting to know each other, I can, you know, we find some touchstones that we can relate to. Yeah, yeah, you know, like we both love dogs, right? So we can talk about that all day long, and then we find some other different things that we can relate. Yeah, relate. And I think, okay, maybe I want to take this relationship deeper with Bernadette Boas, right? That's really what you're doing, you know. It is sort of a one-sided thing in a book, but really you're— you've got your reader in your heart and mind all the time as you're writing. So it really is a two-way relationship, but you're building that. So, you know, you tell, you tell some stories about why are you so passionate about this? How'd you get into this? Right. And then you go deeper and deeper and deeper. And then, you know, maybe that most transformation doesn't come through everything being happy and good all the time. No, no, no. It usually comes through facing some adversity. It usually comes through some trauma or hard time that you had to deal with. Absolutely. And, and, you know, everybody sees themselves in those stories. Yeah, yeah, you know, so you, even if it's not the same kind of trauma, you can go, oh yeah, God, that feels like when I went through that experience 5 years ago. Exactly. And maybe it helps me reframe it.

Yeah, absolutely. Because I also want to make sure, because when people hear stories, they're always, they're thinking that this is like a fiction, you know, fictional type of of thing, but actually what we're also— we're predominantly talking nonfiction anyway, whether it's a memoir or it's a business book that has a combination of memoir slash how-to in it. And those stories are, you know, are used to kind of take those very— I'll call them academic, you know, those very technical business topics and make them relatable. So like you said, yeah, kind of see ourselves in those stories as it relates to whatever topic it is that they are talking about. Say it could be sales, it could be starting your own business, it could be, you know, writing a book, it could be shedding your corporate bitch, whatever it is. Is that right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's really personal stories. Yeah, it is nonfiction. Yeah, primarily. So we're talking about our own stories. Maybe we have— like in my book, I talk about some of the people I was working with at that time as a life coach, right? And I was trying these things out on them too, the same things I was learning, teaching them to other people right away to see what impacted people, what works, what makes a difference, what helps make that transformation so people can get to the next level of where they want to go. You know, so that's what everybody is doing is saying, you know, there's also, I think there are books out there that are just all about complaining or, you know, it's telling a sad story but not, not the takeaway. What's the silver lining? What's the gift? What's the benefit? Right. You know, so I'm all about helping, helping people bring that benefit into their own lives. Yeah. Like I have several people who have had traumatic brain injuries or near-death experiences. Well, I wouldn't wish that on anyone, right? Mm-hmm. But I want to help take their stories and help them bring that kind of transformation, that love for life, that gratitude into their own lives so that they don't have to go through that same kind of trauma to be able to at least get some of the benefit from the author's experience. Absolutely. That's awesome.

That is, that is, that is so awesome. And yes, storytelling is just a beautiful, beautiful way to transform our hearts, our minds, and our lives as a whole. Um, so tell me something, because, or, you know, the listeners are out there going, well, I do have something I want to write about. And I am passionate about it, but I've never put pen to paper or fingers to computer, you know, and I'm not Shakespeare. So how does one need to be Shakespeare to write their own book? And/or what, what support, what resources are there to help them turn their story into just, right, nice little clouds of, yeah.

Yeah, that's, that's interesting because most people who have never written a book are worried about that. That's one of the main questions I get is, I don't consider myself a world-class writer, so how am I going to do this? Right. So that's why we have— so there's layers and layers of help that you get along the way with Book Coaching. So first part really is primarily storytelling. Everybody can sit around and tell stories to their friends. We, we, we as humans are, are made for that. We're wired for that, right? You know, so I want to tell a little bit of a story about an author I'm working with who she would tell, I would think, about a third of the story. She'd say, she'd set the scene, she'd say, this is what happened, that's it. And I'd say, And she says, "See, I don't have enough for a book. I don't, I can't, there's nothing more to tell." And so I said, "Well, just tell me a little bit, like what exactly happened after that?" Right. And after that, and then how did you feel? How did she feel? What was going on between the two of you? I just drew more and more out of it. And finally she told me the story. I was literally crying on a Zoom call with her. With how deep and affecting this story was. Nice. And I said, I said, "Something in you is telling you that you can't tell stories. What is going on there?" So we did a little coaching practice with that, and she came away with an aha moment that she had thought nobody was interested in her stories, because in her family, she would always get interrupted. You know how that is? Yes. I see that in families where people are excited to share their stories and they jump right in, or somebody just has a more dominant personality, they've got to, you know, take over the conversation. And so that would shut her down. Wow. And so once she realized, oh, I can tell stories and they're like actually having a an emotional effect on people, right, it helped her let that go. Yeah. So that was an amazing— that was a combination of, you know, teaching her to bring that story all the way through. Like, let me experience the story with you. That's really all you've got to do as a writer is take me through your own experience. Yeah. You know, take me all the way through, right? You know, the tears and the whatever, the laughter, the joy, whatever's happening, I I need to feel it. I need to experience. So when you do that, you know, you can, you can draw that story and it goes along with the personal development of getting over some of those humps of why don't you think you can write a book? Why don't you, you know, what are the, what are your fears? What are your, you know, scary roadblocks? Why you've never done this or allowed yourself to do it before. That's part of your journey. Everyone's journey as an author, as you know, You know, it's pretty scary being, you know, taken off the robe and being vulnerable. But when you can keep your eye on the prize of having that impact, that can make it worth it.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I'll just tell you real quick, as I was writing mine, and that's why somebody like you— so everyone listening, you need Amy in your corner— because I was working with an editor, purely as an editor though. And yet she recognized when we got to one— when I got to one part of my story that I needed to write about, um, it was like 2 months later, and she's like, uh, I'm sorry, but where are your pages? Like, you know, why haven't I gotten anything from you? Or, you know, why aren't you writing? And I'm like, I'm writing, what are you talking about? I'm writing. She's like, well, I haven't received anything in like 6 weeks. She's like, meet me down at the Chick-fil-A down the street. She lived relatively in the same area. So I meet her down there and I didn't expect this at all. And I sat down and I said, "Okay, so what's up?" She's like, "Why aren't you writing? What's going on? What block do you have?" And the next thing you know, she's like giving me some, some, you know, kind of coaching, life coaching. And she's like, "What is it about this part of the story that you don't want to be writing about?" And all of a sudden I'm like, "Oh my God, she's absolutely right." There was one part that I just wasn't sure how deep or how shallow I was going to go. And yeah, so everybody, you need an Amy in your corner because you will go through those things and she's there to just pull you forward and to be as successful as possible.

And yes, I love it. And the other part of that, like you said, Bernadette, is editing. That's part of those layers. The first part is the really the important part is just getting it out of your head and onto the page, right? Without worrying about how perfect or how readable or whatever it is. That all can be, we can work on that. I always say the magic is in the rewrite. Like the authors I work with, they always roll their eyes when I say that, because I say it all the time. The magic is in the rewriting, which may not be it. I'm not talking about a complete rewrite, but I'm talking about going back and editing and tweaking and refining. And then you hand it over to editors who do more and more layers of that so that you come out with a book that you're very proud of. Very professional and easy to read and can change lives. Yeah, absolutely.

But that brings me to, okay, so you have this story, you now have this content being developed in this, this book being crafted, but how do you help them define whether or not there's even a market or there are readers for it? Because forget about the insecurity about, will anybody want to read my stuff? It's whether or not there's even, you know, a market for for it.

How do you help them with that? Yeah, and that's part of what we do right up front, Bernadette, with the defining your reader. Like, who do— what are, what are these people reading? What else are they reading? What's out there in, in the realm that you're talking about? And what makes you different? You know, so you definitely want to know. We start talking about marketing before we— long before we talk about writing, you know. So yeah, we talk about that because Yes, you know, everybody has a story, but we want to make sure that that story is targeted to be able to help people. Yeah. You know, that it's not just out there, just random and discombobulated. Right. That it's a story that actually meets a need, that solves a problem, that helps somebody find a solution to their pain that they're experiencing. Just like any product, really. And I hate to talk about that as just a product because it really is your, your your heart that you're sharing. But it is a commodity out in the world that has competitors and that kind of stuff. Right. But the reason there are so many business and self-help, self-growth, self-development books out there is because people need them. Yes. People read them. People don't just buy one. Right. You know?

Right, right. They're always looking for something. They're looking for something. Right.

Right. And at different stages in our development, we're looking for something different. Yeah. You know? Absolutely. So there's a huge market out there for it. We just need to make sure that, that yours is targeted towards the people it can most, most affect and impact. Right. And so then you have a marketable book too. Yeah.

Yeah. Yes. Very, and very important, by the way. Very important. So, um, for those, for them, what are their free resources? We mentioned that that is something that they were going to be, you know, hearing about free resources, free support they could be getting. How does one even go about, before they even were to contact you, although I want everybody to go to unleashyourinnerauthor.com and reach out to Amy, uh, have her as part of your team, but you know, what free resources and support are out there.

Right. Well, there are actually, there's a lot of noise on the internet as there always is, you know, and that's why I've compiled a bunch of free resources, some of which I've developed myself, some of which I just put out there as really valuable resources for authors. So it's on my website, as you mentioned, unleashyourinnerauthor.com, and there's a place called Author Resources on the website. And you can go there and see what helps. There's also blogs that you can go and sort of dabble in and play and see what, see what fits for you and how you can see how other people have taken their ideas, become an author. Right. You can see all the authors that, that I've worked with on the author spotlight on that page too. So there's a lot of— you can kind of go and dabble there and see if this, this is something that you want to, want to do someday, write a book.

Absolutely. But I do also want to mention a couple of programs that she has as well. And again, go to unleashyourinnerauthor.com, learn about Amy, check out all of her resources, check out those, her clients and those, their books. She has a whole spotlight, author spotlight out there. But coming up, which is perfect timing, so great, perfect timing. Coming up on June 24th, she is kicking off her Unleash Your Inner Author Mastermind live online group course. You could find more information, go to unleashyourinnerauthor.com. But that's June 24th, so jump on it, jump on it. Unleash Your Inner Author Mastermind live group online course. And trust me, if you even have an inkling of a kind of a kick that you have a story that you want to tell and you want to write a book, this is going to be the perfect environment for you to be able to get that kick started and get that done. She also has a freebie, Daily Positivity: 30 Days to a Positive Mindset. Trust me when I say, when— if you're going into the space space of writing, you definitely want to continue, always be working on your mindset. Um, and then she mentioned it, but I'm going to mention again, on her site as well, there is a section for free resources. So go to unleashyourinnerauthor.com/author-resources. You're going to see it right there, right, right on the top of her website. You're going to see all that. And of course, And I love when my guests make it easy for us. Of course, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. So Facebook, and Facebook is Unleash Your Inner Author, and Twitter is Amy Collette TWT. You don't need to worry about that, just put in Amy Collette, you're gonna see her lovely face and you're gonna find her very easily. And then LinkedIn, obviously Amy Collette. Instagram, Unleash Your Inner Author. She's everywhere you want to be. And which also tells you that when it comes to the marketing side of your, of your book, she knows what is needed in order to not only get your book written, but also what it's going to take for you to be able to market and be successful and achieve your goals when it comes to, comes to your book. So unleash your inner author. All right. One last, what one last tip or one last piece of advice or story do you have for us?

Oh boy, I'm thinking the one that drops in on me is an author who just finished her second book working with me, Sarah Hart. She is— she markets all over the internet, but also she picks up the phone. She picks up the phone and connects with people. Oh wow, yeah, unique idea, what an idea, what a great idea, you know. So she does a lot of speaking, uh, I think that's one of the best ways to get your book out there is speaking, connecting with people. Your book really is about connecting, just like sales, any of those things that we're trying to meet the people that we most want to impact, that we most want to have a profound— make a difference in their life. Right. It's all a connection. It's building connection. So however you do that, your book is a great way to do that. And it's my favorite way to do things too. So I would encourage your listeners, Bernadette, to call me. Let's talk. Let's have a conversation. If you're wondering If you have a book in you, if it's worth putting it out there, what's involved, that kind of stuff, I love to have a conversation. Yep. So that's really where it all starts for me too, is in that human connection. Nice. Awesome. So I'm happy to get on the phone, get on a Zoom call, and connect. Yeah. Let's talk it out.

Talk it out and just see where it goes, everybody. You have nothing to lose, but you have so much to gain. So much to gain for yourself and for the readers and, you know, the others that are out there that want and need. Like she said at the very beginning, it's not only important, it's urgent that you get your story told and that you share it because you can inspire and educate and motivate and, and just lift up, you know, someone else, even if it's one person. Person, but it'll be a lot more than that if you work with Amy. So go to unleashyourinnerauthor.com to learn all about it. Amy, I'm so excited. I'm so grateful and thankful that you are here. Uh, thank you so much for participating and being part of the program.

Yes, Bernadette, thank you so much. It was just a joy to talk with you.

Yes, it was fabulous. Okay, June 24th, everyone, her mastermind Make sure, go to— yeah, it's exciting. Unleash your author, unleashyourinnerauthor.com. Learn all about it. And for everyone here in the Shedding the Bitch community, thank you so much everyone for being part. And, uh, leave your comments, even leave questions for Amy here, or go right to her, um, excuse me, or go right to her, um, on unleashyourinnerauthor.com. Reach out to her directly, but let her know that You saw her as part of the Shedding the Bitch radio program. All right, everybody, until next Tuesday at noon Eastern time, have a rich and prosperous week, and we'll talk to you then. Bye, everybody.

Thank you for listening to Shedding the Bitch radio with Bernadette Boas.

Join Bernadette every Tuesday at noon Eastern as she helps you shift your bitches to riches, and the dialogue is always going on at sheddingthebitch.com. See you next week.