Public Speaking: Trouble With Writing Podcast
I was thrilled to join Philip Charter and his team on his podcast Trouble With Writing to talk about my journey as a published author.
In this episode, we talked about unleashing the passion for writing and how you can develop skills and competence to overcome challenges, get rid of limiting beliefs and grow as a writer.
My writing journey started when I was 41 and found myself unemployed in a new country, facing constant rejection from recruiters and head-hunters. I had a lot of free time, and I decided to use it to my advantage and started writing. First and foremost, I wrote to express myself and channel feelings, emotions, and frustration. In the process, I discovered that my words resonated with many others who were also struggling, and it slowly grew into something bigger, much bigger! I now have two published books on Amazon, one co-authored and my memoir, The Flight Home: Nine Countries, Nine Values, is on its way. I started from zero.
Tips & Mindset
These are some of the tips and learnings I shared:
- Think incrementally, in building blocks: I started with baby steps, publishing short posts on LinkedIn. From there, I started writing longer articles on Medium; then I launched my newsletter. A big milestone was writing my first ebook, The Lemon Tree Mindset, which is now also a printed book. Nothing happens overnight, but something happens every day. That’s the mindset to become a writer: little incremental steps every day.
- Invest in writing: just like any other skill, if you want to improve your writing, you have to invest in it. You have to dedicate time and money. I write every day between 60-120 minutes, adding up all my channels. There’s no magic number you have to hit daily, but the more you write, the more you write! Getting feedback is also critical. I use the software Grammarly, which keeps my spelling honest, and I also invested in a writing mentor with whom I have been working since December 2022. Vicki Bennet is an Australian best-selling author and we have been working together on my memoir. As a non-native English speaker, it was transformational, and she gave me guidance to improve my writing on things like cohesion, “show versus tell,” and incorporating dialogue in an engaging way. If your dream is to be a best-seller, I suggest you work with one.
- Celebrate the small wins: writing can and will lead to a lot of frustration. You will put your heart into an article, spend hours curating it, and then you hear crickets. It’s part of the journey, and you have to embrace the claps as well as the silence. My best advice is to celebrate the small wins along the way. Your first book is worth a huge celebration, your first 100 followers, your first featured article. Celebrating the small wins will keep you humble and hungry for more. Stay positive and have a winner’s mindset.
If you would like to watch or listen to the episode, you can find the links here:
Philip is a fantastic coach specialized in helping multilingual writers build authority through their words. Follow him on LinkedIn for great tips and resources.
