How the Book was Born

The one question I’ve been asked more than any so far, is “How’d you do it?”

The short answer to paraphrase the Beatles is “with a lot of help from my friends”!

Years ago in my 20’s I remember saying that I wanted to write a book, but I had no idea what the topic would be. I guess in my 20’s I thought it would help me become famous and rich. I never did anything about the idea. Never pursued it. Never took one step to reach that goal, until 2016.

In 2016, lots of things changed in my life and the idea of writing a book came back around. I started saving the profound (in my mind) things I was thinking and sometimes even saying. I would email myself these random thoughts and I just kept them in an email folder titled “Book”.

On and off, this went on until earlier this year, when a friend shared with me that he was going to fulfill a dream and start a business. By this time, I had also read two books from my college friend Todd Saylor (Wired Differently and Drift Again) and talked to him about the process. I personally knew other authors and that inspired me to go after it too.

I made it known that I was going to write a book, so I was committed (in my mind). I added it to my Daily To Do List and started by putting all my emails that I had saved into a Word document. I categorized them and the Table of Contents appeared. MY “random” thoughts it turned out were all about my daily habits, having a positive perspective, being aware of your momentum and ultimately believing and telling yourself that you can do whatever you want. You can do whatever you tell yourself you can and believe it!

For six months I dedicated at least two hours a day to taking these random thoughts and making sense of them. I asked a couple of friends who had written books to ready my draft and honestly tell me if it was something that should go in a drawer or go to an editor. Todd and my friend, colleague, and mentor Bill Shreffler (Execute Like a Pro), both said enthusiastically “Do It”.

Todd was kind enough to refer me to his editor, Christopher (Mark Graham Communications) and publisher Colin (Graham Publishing Group). I spoke to each. Shared a sample and away we went. Corey was assigned to my manuscript, and she was incredible at smoothing the edges and helping me fill-in-the-blanks!

Colin’s team took cover design and title suggestions and as a group we gave input and Change Your Thinking, Ignite Your Life: What Are You Telling Yourself? was born on Wednesday, November 16^th (or as my daughter calls it “Happy Publishing Day”!).