From Teacher to Writer: Mary Boza-Crimmins' Journey

Welcome to Media Minds with your host, David Wolf.

Welcome to Media Minds. I'm your host, David Wolf. Joining us on this segment is Mary Boza Crimmins. She's the founder of Crimmins Communications and the author of Taking the Holy Spirit to Work. Mary also publishes Ourselves, Our Posterity, which is a Substack newsletter, and she focuses on helping businesses and individuals with a wide range of writing projects, including ghostwriting, online courses, editing, coaching for authors, and even research. Mary Boza Crimmins, welcome to the program.

Thank you, David, and congratulations on your new podcast. It's so exciting.

Yes, it is exciting, and it's been many years since I've done a podcast, and we're finding that, you know, podcasts are a wonderful way to connect with the, with your universe, uh, um, in a controlled environment, which I need.

Yeah, so it's great.

Anyway, it's great to have you, and, uh, I want to learn about the work you do. I know we spoke a couple of years ago, and, uh, And so this is a good catch-up for us and also really good to provide our audience with some insight from you, the expert in all things writing. So this seems to me from the notes we took before we rolled that this is kind of a second or maybe third career for you. What motivated you to start this business at this stage?

Yeah, so it is actually, I guess, my fourth career if you really start counting from back in my early days of being in retail management. And then moving into business and being a purchasing agent. And then I was a teacher for 28 years. So part of what motivated me is I always wanted to be a writer when I grew up, but it's something that takes discipline. And while I could write for— I wrote for every single employer I ever had. I wrote their policies, their procedures. I wrote, you know, whether it was in, in the schools or in the other businesses. So I did that kind of writing, and I did a lot of writing for my students. I wrote stories, and I of course wrote curriculum. So again, I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, but it takes great discipline. And then I taught during COVID and decided that my 28 years was enough. I, I, I love teaching, but being a classroom teacher— I'm still a teacher But being a classroom teacher just wasn't my thing anymore. And so I was just thankful that my husband supported me in this jump from that career into trying to write for others and writing for myself. But again, I just wanted to be a writer when I grew up, and I'm still, you know, pursuing— now I'm able to pursue that.

How fabulous. What a great story to just come back to. Your original dream, the thing you love to do, the passion, as they say. Um, and I've gotta believe that all this experience you had doing procedural writing and even in, in retail and in business and in life at large, how did those experiences for you inform the work you now do for authors, writers, content creators, and the like?

You know, um, each client that I have is so different. So for instance, I'm currently writing, uh, um, working on one project for a, a for an organization where I'm doing research and then pulling it all together and writing the, writing the report on it. I've done— I did a previous, previous project with them, which was pretty cool, where I interviewed 23 experts on aquatic invasive species from around the country and put that into a report for the boating industry. So my business writing that, you know, that the analytical, the taking information that others would be like, oh my gosh, that doesn't sound interesting. I love to do. So I have that brain and then I have my creative brain. I have both sides. But I think a lot of what I used to do also is that I know the value of due dates. I was a teacher. I used to tell my students, get your doo-doo together. You got to do before you do. I always honor that with what I'm doing. But I just had, um, a lot of varied experience, um, that I'm able to bring now into what I'm doing for others. But every client is so different.

I've got one— I love that pivot because I was curious, like, as you work and you bring in your— the, the, the multiple sides of your brains and skill sets to each author, each project. Let's take book authors, for example. Are there certain— is there a through line in terms of what the challenges seem to be? Is And this, I'm sure it varies depending on what the nature of the material is, but talk to us a little bit about what, how you help authors or content creators overcome whatever the blocks are for them.

Yeah, so again, one of the biggest challenges is that people have a goal, they have something they wanna do, but either their time or their skill set won't allow them to do it. So I'm there to help them achieve that goal. But a lot of times, you know, it's also that I'm trying to get them to understand the reality of situations like, you know, no, no, no, your book can't be for everybody. We've got to hone that down. Who is, you know, who is your ideal reader? There's always that resistance. And I'm used to dealing with resistance because I worked with middle school students for a million years, you know?

Right, right. Logistics, project management, the practicalities of the release of a book. I love this marketing insight. You know, you really can't be for everybody.

So giving that pushback, I'm not afraid to push back on it, you know, because what I'm looking at is their best interest. They're not looking for a yes person.

Yeah.

Yeah. And they're not going to get a yes person with me. It's their best interest. And some trying to get them to, you know, focus in. Also keeping people, you know, just keeping them, you know, right. Well, you've got to get this done so we can get closer to that. To that goal that you wanna achieve, you know?

Right, you're helping them achieve what they want and they need the guidance. Yes. They need the guidance. Are there certain types of projects right now that are in your palette or is your business more heavily weighted on one type of project than another or is it pretty evenly spread across the spectrum for you right now?

It is so diverse. It is so diverse. Yeah, I'm developmentally editing a book right now. Yeah, I'm doing a lot of other things for that. I'm going to also be creating the end of chapter questions and, you know, things to sort of embed a workbook. I just ghostwrote, was ghostwriter for a book, and now I'm helping that client get to launch. And then for, you know, I'm also doing the research on, you know, for another client regarding just different aspects of the industry and trying to bring in a report for a market survey. You know, every client is so different.

Do you ever work on fiction at all?

You know, that's interesting you ask that. I, I have developmentally edited a, um, a historical fiction book. I've done that.

Okay.

Um, and then I actually have a conversation later on this week with a woman who's looking for a, um, an author, a ghostwriter for a historical fiction book. You know, I'm willing to explore that and see if that's something that is a fit. I'm willing to take on the challenge. But fiction's hard because it's dialogue too, you know?

Oh, yes. And that's a very— Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I think dialogue, to make it sound real, is definitely a skill.

It's absolutely deep, deep, deep skill. I'm somebody who's like a film buff, so I like to read the scripts the shooting scripts while I watch a film. So, you know, you can find a lot of them online, especially old films like film noir. It's really amazing to watch what happens between what's printed on the page and what actually happens in front of the camera. Similar situation here. I'm curious about—

it's—

I read that you had been using Substack. Tell us about your experience with Substack. Has that like revolutionized your connection to your market, or just, you You know, give us the sense of it.

Yeah, I'm pretty new with Substack, and what I've just recently done is I'm currently getting certified with an organization to be a guided autobiography instructor. And so what I've recently done is I rebranded my Substack to go along with that. Yeah. So I'm no longer calling it Ourselves, Our Posterity. I found that people were having a lot of issue with that word, with words, and you know, not so much they didn't know what posterity is, they wanted to say prosperity. So I'm calling it Life's Seasons and Moments. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to use that Substack to tell people's stories. And I'm also going to be creating that offering for people who they want to tell their story, but they don't need a ghostwriter, you know, but they want to tell their story. And so I'm going to create the course for people who want to do that. And it's really cool because not therapy, but it's very therapeutic. Um, you know, it's very relational. So yeah, yeah. So I'll be launching that soon. I'm very excited about it because I can go back into teacher mode as well.

Yes, yes. I also read that you have— you've developed courses for others, right? That's been part of your services that you offer?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's the craziest thing, David. It was, um, my first one was a course on, um, For professionals in the parasailing industry.

Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. You're going down a narrow vertical there. Yeah.

Yeah. I have never parasailed before, you know, but you know, there was an expert that gave me all of this content. And so I, you know, brought it all down, you know, using my teacher skills and my writing skills and, you know, created the quizzes and created all the assignments. So I love that. And I'm looking forward to when part 2 of that, because it was part 1 and we're gonna, we just, did the beta on part 1, so I'm looking forward to part 2.

Yeah, yeah, that's an interesting thing because it really does pull on your actual teaching experience. What makes a course— when you're writing a course, whether it's video and etc. for Kajabi or whatnot, um, what makes a course— is there something that makes it engaging, that makes it work?

It, you know, the thing is, you know, um, you know, I'm always a big believer in, you know, one-on-one— not one-on-one, but being in person is, is, is the best way to learn. But, right, but for professional development, you know, for time and for efficiency, um, obviously doing things online is, is, is a trend. So what you have to do is you have to vary— you have to make the units small. Yeah, you have to vary it as much as possible, as much as you can, you know, with video and, um, you know, with the short quizzes. To keep that attention span going and make it as varied as possible. Because otherwise it's kind of— it's also hard to follow because you and I are dialoguing. So if you don't understand something I say, you know, you can ask me a question. So I have to really think what question might they ask and address that embedded in there, you know?

Yeah, you're like anticipating the question they make.

That's fascinating.

So atomize the content, chunk it out into small bits so it's easy, easy to digest. And then multi-channel, downloadable PDFs, video, audio, everything.

If there's any other channels you can explore there, you know, everything that you could possibly use. I even have them do, um, notebook, you know, assignments, you know. So just, um, you know, just kind of pulling that whole arsenal and bring it in, everything that you can possibly use.

And it sounds like with your natural curiosity, you're, you're, um, subject matter agnostic, shall we say.

Yeah, yeah, I don't do that yet for curiosity. I have to rein myself.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, cool. Well, it sounds like you're very much in the zone. We're visiting with Mary Boza, Crimmins Communications. It's Crimmins Communications. We'll have everything in the show notes for everyone. And tell us again your Substack.

My Substack is Life's Seasons and Moments.

Okay.

And what I'm focusing on is it's really geared toward 55+ community of living your best life and, you know, and also leaving a legacy.

Ooh, can we unpack that a little bit? So, yeah, I'm getting up there in age, you know, and I think about these things more and more. Legacy, being meaningful? Am I chasing money and transactions, or am I actually building a business that transforms people's lives? It's all of those things. What are some of the themes that are coming up?

The themes?

Yeah, the themes in the work that you're doing for this sort of advanced age group, if you like. 55 and up.

Yes, the 55 and up.

I'm actually 10 years north of that, so yeah.

Yeah. So the theme that we are in the course of the class tonight that we're going to be addressing is that will be gender and sex, you know, which I thought was really interesting, you know, because, you know, obviously I'm not going to reveal a bunch of personal things, you know, to people, especially when it's right. Yeah, you're in a class.

Places you're not going to go.

Came up with a lot of fun, you know, like a lot of fun memories. I like, you know, of, oh my gosh, you know, my mother let me see that movie or They let me read that book, you know, or, you know, my dad, you know, I wasn't allowed to go around in a, I wasn't allowed to go around in my bathing suit after I got out of the pool, you know, kind of thing. And I was able to pull all that in into what I think is a good example of how I grew up, but still appropriate because I'm trying to read, I'm trying to write with my grandchildren in mind, you know, as well.

So is it autobiographical? I mean, is that?

Yeah, yes, it's Diamond Autobiography. So the themes, you know, are anything, you know, money, um, a treasured item, you know, something that you, you know, um, you— if God forbid something were to happen, you'd be like, oh my gosh, I want to grab this item even before I walk out, you know, leave my house, um, you know, um, obviously family, um, you know, so there's different themes, but the themes are, are are expansive. Like, you know, the more I think about it, and again, that's part of that creativity, the more I have to rein myself in to kind of focus on it. Yeah. But the themes are just— can go anywhere.

That's very cool. Yeah. I've contemplated doing, you know, an autobiographical work, and I know how that is. It's like you sort of remember a scene And then as you crawl into the memory of the scene, it opens up and new details reveal themselves. It's almost like a treasure hunt of your own memory, in a sense.

Yeah.

And I would imagine that's— I haven't yet done this. I've nibbled at it over the years. And, you know, I don't know that I liked anything I was doing, but maybe at some point.

Well, you know what? When I launch that course, you should take it.

There's absolutely— and there's always this sense, and I know a lot of people have this, the self-conscious sense that Who's going to care? You know, particularly when it's an autobiographical. Can I find nuggets? Can I find a treasure trove of helpful things to help others transform their life or inform how to live differently or provide affirmations about, yes, they did do it the way they should do it. So it's all very interesting.

Yeah.

So you're a psychologist, you write procedural stuff, you help with websites too, right? I mean, it really can be any type of content, right?

Yeah, yeah. So I've done, I've done several websites where I've written and designed them and then I work with somebody who builds them, you know?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

The, the, the WordPress or whatnot part of it, you stay out of that, but you, the content itself, you can really do. That's so fun.

Right. Yeah. You know, and I think, you know, what, what it is is that I've been in the same area, you know, in the, in the Orlando area, basically in the same part of town. Um, and I taught for 28 years. Um, in this area. So people know me, they know they can trust me, they know that I'm going to, you know, I'm going to come through for them, they know that I'm going to meet a deadline. And yeah, so, um, thankfully so far it's all been word of mouth, you know.

Um, it's been funny, so many of us, you know, will spend on lead generation and we'll try this and we'll try that, and there's LinkedIn and email and SMS and robocalls and whatever you can do to get more stuff in the door, right, for a business. But So, and we find it the size we are too at Autovida, it's so much of it is referrals. And so you're enjoying that. You know, that's your brand. That's where your brand lives is that trust you just mentioned. And people know that when they call you, they can count on you for the things you do.

Thank you for pointing that out because I haven't always thought about that as being part of my brand.

But yeah, that's the experience they have of you, I believe, is the brand. That's the way I think about it sometimes. Very cool. Well, crimminscommunications.com is the website. Give me the Substack again. I didn't note it here.

It is Life's Seasons and Moments.

Okay, excellent. Yeah, we'll have all of that in the show notes. Thank you so much, Mary, for doing this, and we'll do it again soon. And good luck with all the— I mean, no shortage of projects for you, right?

Yeah.

You know, it all makes sense to me because, you know, I got the client work and then I've got, you know,, yeah, my other work, you know, my own writing. But then my own writing is going to support my client work, you know.

So that's a beautiful mixture.

Look at me like, you know, you haven't slowed down since you stopped teaching. I said, oh yeah, I walk the dogs in the middle of the afternoon, I watch a couple television shows in the evening. Couldn't do any of that when I was teaching. So, oh yeah, I sunk down.

Exactly. You're in a zone right now where there's like, you're managing your own time, you're Having fun with all the projects. This is what we all want, really. I think, well, I should, I shouldn't speak for all of us, but it's desirable to me. One of the things I treasure the most about everything in my life is the time, being able to control time. Yes, I hear you.

Definitely.

Thanks for joining us today. And we'll, uh, thank you, David. I appreciate it.

You've been listening to Media Minds with your host, David Wolf. Media Minds is produced by Audivita Studios. A premier production company producing audiobooks and podcasts for clients worldwide. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about the team at Audivita Studios, visit audivita.com.