In this solo episode of the Million Dollar Grit podcast, host Julie Chenell shares a candid, multi‑year story of battling resistance while trying to write her book. She traces the origins of her procrastination back to uncertainty about the book’s genre and purpose, recounts how a virtual Donald Miller event and mentorship from Nick Pavlides (Ghostwriter School) and Sherri Ward (Square Tree Publishing) helped her get started, and describes the cycles of progress and stalls that left her with roughly 25,000 rough‑draft words. Julie then details a breakthrough experiment using AI tools—ChatGPT‑4 (nicknamed “Chatty G”), the higher‑priced OpenAI Pro (“Chatty O”), and Descript transcription—to turn spoken ramblings into chapter outlines, which reignited her momentum. Despite the AI boost, she still faced resistance, which she identifies as a deep‑seated dislike of what she sees on the page and an inner critic. The episode culminates in a simple, actionable insight: committing to open the manuscript document once a day, regardless of motivation, can generate small wins (re‑ordering chapters, noting missing sections, recording short lessons) that cascade into progress. Julie frames this as a practical tactic for entrepreneurs and creators, encouraging listeners to embrace tiny daily actions, leverage AI as a partner, and recognize resistance as a daily beast to be managed rather than eliminated.
Chapters
Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie Chenell, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories. It's about the grit it takes to get there. Hey, good morning, everybody. This is Julie Chenell with another episode of Million Dollar Grit. Today, I want to talk about resistance. and just what a liar it is and what a shapeshifter it is. And I know, uh, Steven, I think it's Steven Pressfield, wrote a book called The War of Art about resistance. So he's, he's going to talk about it way better than me, but I'm just going to tell it to you in a real-life version of what happened this morning. So, and by the way, if you hear my dog in the background, it's because she has decided that sitting on my lap while I record podcasts is, uh, her spot of choice for a nap. So I've been working on my manuscript, and I started talking about writing this book years ago, and the amount of resistance that I've had to writing this book is just insane. I've never procrastinated on something so gloriously as I have writing my book, and I think some of it started with not really sure what book to write, and then some of it started, you know, and then it progressed to Well, is this a business book? Is this a memoir? Like, what genre is this? And then, so I got stuck there and then I kind of got over that. And I think it was the Donald Miller event I went to with Kathy. It was a virtual event that finally kicked me into gear to starting to write the manuscript. So the amount of resistance I had even getting to this point is like years long, but let's say it was 2013. 2023, I think, or maybe 20— no, yeah, 2023. Actually, maybe 2022, which is pathetic, but whatever. Anyway, I started writing. I felt like, you know, Donald Miller had given me some, some good nuggets about the outline. I also have clients like Nick Pavlides from Ghostwriter School and Sherri Ward from Square Tree Publishing. You know, they've given great advice and talks. You know, like, I had no excuses, no excuses except my own damn mind in the way. So I started writing and I got tripped up pretty quick because even though I had put aside this idea that, you know, it was going to be kind of a memoir, but also a business book with lessons, like I got over all of that and I came up with a title called Million Dollar Grit, which is what this podcast is about. And I thought, you know, I'm going to talk about the grit and the stories and the lessons that it took me to hit a million dollars. And because my journey was very messy and I feel like it's a journey that a lot of people can relate to. So I got stuck because my journey is so messy that I was like, I can't write this. There's so much drama and per— in my personal life. And so I got stuck there for a while and I got probably about 20,000 words in. Which is, you know, whatever, 6 chapters for me because the chapters are short, and I just panicked and I put it away. And it wasn't until May of 2024 or July, actually July. So like fast forward an entire year almost, and I had a late night conversation with a couple of clients. I was talking about my book and just how stuck I was, and Sherri Ward from Square Tree Publishing, was, you know, is my client. So she was here and we just had this sort of late night therapy session about how this book has to come out, whether no matter what happens, no matter whether it gets published or it lives in the, you know, bowels of my Google Drive, it needs to come out and I need to write it and I need to not worry about who's reading it. And so that really helped. And so I started writing again, but I found myself so tired, and I don't know if it's reliving the stories, I don't know if it's bringing back like memories or what. And you know, it really doesn't make sense why I'm having so much trouble because number one, I build courses in my sleep at this point. You know, the amount of presentations I build and teaching I do and blog posts and emails and Facebook posts. I mean, I write constantly. Writing is not a hard task for me. So why would writing this book be so difficult? I don't know, you know? And so I hit another wall. I got maybe to 25,000 words and I hit another wall. So I put it again on the back burner until in the last couple weeks, let's say, I don't know, last month, I have been tinkering around with AI, and OpenAI came out with Opro, and I've been using ChatGPT-4 for a long time. It's the $20 a month one. I love it. Feels like a friend at this point. Kathy calls him Chatty G, so that's his name. Chatty G is ChatGPT-4. So I saw Opro come out and it was $200 a month, and I'm like, what? Like, why is Opro so expensive? And, you know, curiosity killed the cat, so I bought it. And I thought, okay, let's see. And so, holy cow, you guys, does Opro like blow ChatGPT-4 away, but it's slower than ChatGPT-4. So we've got ChattyG and ChattyO. And so I thought, well, wait a second, you know, I'm so stuck here on my book. What if I just start talking on the mic about these stories because I can talk more than I can write. And then I'm gonna transcribe it, and then I'm gonna give it to ChattyO and have it kind of chunk out an outline for the chapter for me and kind of get the stories out. 'Cause I have this weird fear that I'm gonna forget the stories and then the book is gonna sound all disjointed. And so I tried it. So I went for a walk, a 45-minute walk, and I basically just talked, rambled, into my microphone about a couple things. I wrote, talked about the Expert Secrets contest, and I talked about, you know, getting on Russell Brunson's radar and all this stuff that happened in 2017. And then I came back, I put it in my laptop, I uploaded it to Descript, got the transcription, and then I went over to ChatGPT and I said, listen, I'm really having trouble writing my book. I said, here's the manuscript. I gave it the 25,000 words that I'd already written, which by the way, are very, very rough. Like, I would not let anyone see, let anyone see these, but I let Chadio see it. I said, here's my voice. I've written 25,000 words. I said, here's a 45-minute transcript of me talking about 2017. I need you to outline 3 chapters here because, and I knew the lessons, like, because as I told the stories, I was like, oh, that's a good lesson. Oh, that's a good lesson. Oh, that's a good lesson, right? And so it took about 20 minutes, you know, like, oh, Pro has to think. It doesn't just automatically respond, respond. And you guys, it, it busted it out. And I was like, this is a game changer. Now, of course, I have to write the chapter. Like, I can't, you know, it's, it's an outline, it's got some great stories. I have to actually go write it. But it's like, I'm not starting from scratch. So I thought Okay, this is the ultimate breakthrough. And I texted Kathy and I told AC and I was like, I'm not going to have resistance anymore because I just unlocked it, right? This is going to get me to the finish line of like a rough draft and then I have to go through and edit. But that's like a whole different process. So you'd think I wouldn't have any more resistance, right? Well, that was like, I don't know, a week ago. Well, guess who didn't sit down for a week and touch her manuscript? This girl. And so this morning I woke up and I woke up early and I did what anyone who wakes up early does, which is scroll on your phone for an hour thinking that's going to make you go back to sleep, which it doesn't. So I woke up at 4, I got out of bed at 5, I took the dogs out and I was wrestling with myself. I said, okay, it's 5 in the morning, I've got quiet. And there are literally 15 things on my to-do list that have to get done today. I mean, it's not like these are 15 things that could be done later. And I'm like, okay, I could do this, I could do this, I could get all I could get all this done before William even wakes up. This is going to be amazing. You know, Sabina's not here this week, so I've got to like— there's all these extra chores I've got to do. I could exercise, you know, a million things. And there was this little voice that was like, you should do a chapter in your book. And I was like, no, I don't want to. Why? I've broken through every single resistance at this point, from what type of book should it be, so to like, oh my God, my stories are so dramatic, to 25,000 words in, to now chatty-o in my Like, why am I still resisting? And it's at its core, I don't like what I see on the paper. And I think this is where the resistance happens with any artist, painting, drawing, writing, whatever it is. You don't like what you see and you don't like what you see because of either what it means, what it brings up in you. Maybe you have a really critical, like, inner voice. You think nobody cares, whatever it is. I don't like what I see. So when I open up the manuscript, it's like, oh yeah, the thing that's not very good. Oh yeah, the thing that needs so much work. Oh yeah, the thing you said you were going to do, right? So it's like, I don't like what I see. And no matter what resistance I've broken through, it's still there. And so I sat down and thought, okay, what if, what if this isn't about motivation? You know what I mean? Like, what if this isn't about Do I feel like writing? What if I just open the document? I commit to opening the document. And so I was like, okay, I can do that. I can click on the document and I can open it. So this morning, just before recording this podcast, I clicked on the document and I opened it and I cringed a little bit. I'm like, ugh, I don't like that. Uh, I read that. I'm like, oh, that needs work. And then I went back up and I was like, you know, the chapters that there's a couple out of order here. And so I moved them around. So just something little tiny, I wasn't writing, I moved them around. And so then I was like, okay. And then my brain was like, you know, there's a couple other chapters here you're missing. I was like, oh, that's right. So then I wrote it down. I was like, this chapter, this chapter, this chapter. And before I knew it, I had basically come up with, you know, 7, 8 chapters. My chapters are going to be very, very small of different lessons. I didn't actually write anything, but I was like coming up with ideas of lessons and got them on the document. And it was at that moment that I was like, well, this lesson right here will only take me a few minutes to record because it's a pretty short lesson. Let me record it. And next thing I knew, I had recorded the lesson. It was uploaded into Descript and ChatGPT was building the outline. I had no intention of doing that. I just picked the one thing that I knew I could do, even if my emotions didn't feel like it, and it was open the document. And so we'll see what happens tomorrow. And I am no fool. I know that resistance is a strong beast that I must fight every day. But is it possible that I've discovered that all I have to do is commit to opening the document once a day? And letting that be the action I do, whether I feel like it or not, and then letting things happen after that. Because today I have a chapter outlined that I had no intentions of outlining, and that was because I found that tiny little action that I could do. So I hope that helps somebody today. Um, I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you soon. And there you have it, folks, another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit, and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie Chenell, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.
