Stop Stumbling Through Book Publishing - Becky Norwood

YBOP Intro/Outro: 00:00:06

Welcome back to Your Brain On Positive. All the love and support you need is residing inside of you. And we're going to make it easier to turn it off. This is Jackie, and yes, it's your brain on positive. And what I'm positive about is that you have a message to bring into the world, and that most people bring your message into the world, especially with a book are stumbling over some things that maybe they don't have to stumble over, that maybe there are some simple solutions that would help them make a bigger impact sooner. And to help me sort through the what people could stumble over. And the things that are in their way when they're publishing their own book is none other than my publisher, and the biggest supporter of the teen suicide prevention society who publishes every book for that organization. And I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you.

Becky Norwood: 00:01:19

It's my pleasure. It's wonderful. I just adore what you're doing to, you know, the, the work that you bring to the world is so important, so vital, and wow, my hat's off to you.

Jackie Simmons: 00:01:33

Like most authors, there are two sides to everything that I do. There's the mission to make suicide, not just teen suicide, but all suicide a thing of the past. And people know me for that mission. And then there's my business, which is I teach coaches and healers, how to guarantee results for their clients so that clients trust them immediately. And those are the two aspects of me and you've been able to walk in this world of, okay, you're publishing a book? Where is it for? Who is it going to impact? What do you want it to do? Becky, most people write books for cathartic reasons. This is what I understood. Most people write books to work through stuff for themselves. If that's what they're doing, what's the first step that they could take, to actually make an impact in the world?

Becky Norwood: 00:02:36

You know, it's much bigger in today's world, there's so many tools and resources that are available. But first, they really, truly need to Yes. And I need to back up just a moment or so and talk about that cathartic thing that they're doing. Because I know when I first started, before I even started in the publishing, I first spoke was what I did completely on my own. And that's what launched my new career. But it was very cathartic. And it was like releasing, having written my book and releasing it to the world was like it released a lot of the heaviness so that were that I had been holding, but you haven't sell. There's more to it than that. And quite by good fortune, I started out in this career that I have, by taking a lot of courses through my paintings who had a tooth who taught you everywhere now. And what he meant by that is using all the tools and resources that we have that are at our disposal, to to really get our message out to the world. And so I think that we do have a lot of tools and resources, but your first and foremost is not only number one, why are you writing this book? But who is your book for? Who do you want to read your book, and being very, very clear, and the big why that's so important. Because if if you're reading a book, and you're you're really wanting to get that special message out to the world, then there's a lot of groundwork that you need to to lay in order to make that happen.

Becky Norwood: 00:04:23

Oh, okay.

Jackie Simmons: 00:04:25

So I'm kind of from the world of I get an inspiration. I write a book, I launch it, and you're saying, wait a minute, you get an abrasion. Before you write the book, you might want to what what is this idea of groundwork?

Becky Norwood: 00:04:42

The groundwork is, who is your audience knowing very, very clearly who your audience is. The next step is to you know, we have pretty amazing tools. We have tick tock, we have Facebook, we have LinkedIn, we have Instagram, we have all these places, but start building your audience. What is building your audience is, you know, one of the things that I encourage my authors to do is when actually one of the first things that we do is create the book cover. Okay, and the title and the subtitle. And why? Because I want them to start thinking about what they're doing. I want them to convey and reach out and attract people that would be interested. And they start by talking about it.

Jackie Simmons: 00:05:27

Okay, so I met someone recently, and I was blown away. They, they're working with a publishing house, and they're getting ready to publish a book. And again, the intent is the big list, the New York Times The Wall Street Journal. And when I asked them their title, they didn't know.

Becky Norwood: 00:05:50

Oh, yeah,

Jackie Simmons: 00:05:51

their book is 99% written, and they hadn't come up with the title. And you know, me wordsmithing and taking massive amounts of information and delivering something really simple. That's my gift. So after listening it to him for about 15 minutes. I'm like, What am pure that? What if it's about this? And he's like, What do you mean? And I'm like, what if this was something you just played with as a title? And he's like, that's actually a really good title. So he was writing this down. So we'll see. But the reality is that for him, his book is going to launch a few months out. And he had no way to talk about because he didn't have a title in place. So I love this that you start with, who is it for? And what are the words? What's the title? That they're gonna say? Oh, wait a minute. Whoa, tell me more. Yeah, I mean, we never wavered. From the title that we started with, when you first started helping us, which for the teen suicide prevention society is, make it a great day, the choice is yours. It's not what they're saying in schools. What they're saying in schools is make it a great day or not, the choice is yours. And we took out the option to do anything other than understand that you could choose to make it a great day. What you're doing in the world is helping authors and all of us just get really clear about where we have clutter in our messaging. So once we get clear on our who, and our message what did it take for you to actually write a story because you knew who you were, and, and who you wanted to help? Correct. And you knew what your message was? Because I knew you a long time ago, you knew that your message was one of you're not stuck where you are. Right? What was your house? What was the next step?

Becky Norwood: 00:08:21

The how was that I started very early on. And they started talking about it to my following. At the time I was I formed a group and I formed a page with the title of the book on Facebook,

Jackie Simmons: 00:08:38

can you find a social media group and a social media page with the title of your book?

Becky Norwood: 00:08:45

And then it started inviting people to join in. What was interesting about that, is it it created a conversation piece. And, you know, I started I also researched what other groups were out there that at that time that were talking on the same subject matter. I talked about people, I looked for people that were maybe expressing that they had gone through similar things to what I had. And I started reaching out, I really list started laying the groundwork. By the time my book launch came along. And it became a number one international bestseller. Just it totally blew me away. But I had done so much of the groundwork, those people that were in my groups in my my group and in my on my page. Usually the page was the starting point. If they want to go deeper, then I was offering more on the back end with a group with more discussion and more, more. More, more in depth conversation about the subject matter. And what that does. They all supported me on the book lunch. It was too Really amazing. And I, you know, on any subject matter mine was on, you know, really getting unstuck from where we were I was because I had come from quite a background of abuse in my early years. And it took me till I was a fully grown, more mature woman before I could start understanding that there were things I could do to to rise above it all. And I discovered that I was certainly not the only fish in the sea, and that there were many that have experienced the same thing. It's a very common issue. And so I just tapped into it in the book cover was striking. There were a lot of different things that we did, but start to then read little excerpts of what I was doing and talk about the process of writing and talk about what it was doing for me to be able to write and then in engage other people in conversation. And then what that does is it you build, you build a following, because and that's where that's where the strength is a support system that comes from that, you'd be amazed at how people want to support others that have gone through their own things. But it's also just taking advantage of the tools and resources that we have. We're an amazing world.

Jackie Simmons: 00:11:20

Alright, so we are an amazing world, and we're not stuck in our own little village anymore. So what you're describing is how to engage with a global village, I'm gonna slow you down, peel back the layers and let people actually see how simple this might be. Because for me you know, I'm not so engage. And I'll just be bluntly honest, if somebody is waiting for me to respond, or Facebook message, they could wait a long time. If somebody's waiting for me to respond on LinkedIn, or any other social media platform, I have to bring people into my world who are very engaged in social media to actually help me look like I'm engaged. And yet, I'm on a mission to help people's messages be heard in the world. And I do that through my podcast. And so social media comes after that. The message I really want people to hear from our discussion is that you can not do it wrong.

Becky Norwood: 00:12:34

No, you can't.

Jackie Simmons: 00:12:37

So give us a story of someone. Cuz I know you know them. All right, let's just go with somebody who had no email list. And if somebody has no email list in their back could be an author and a solo book, or an author and a compilation book, your multi author book, and they don't have a list, how can they participate? How can they be a meaningful contributor?

Becky Norwood: 00:13:03

Well, we all have, we all have friends, though, if we start with just the friends that we have, if we're not active in social media, and start with where you are, start with the people you work with, start with the people that you're friends with, start with family members that no love, and no one love you. Start there, start small, start small, and keep on working. And be unafraid to share, be unafraid to share. And one of the things that I'm doing now with my authors is asking them having some really in depth conversations, and I call it the 10 by 10. Now, maybe more 10 by 10. So 10 by 10 is 10 frequently asked questions about your subject matter. Okay, so what this does is, so we really go in depth, especially for those that that maybe they're new to this world of getting their message out to the world. And they just it's they're struggling to get that that foothold. So I help them to become really, really clear on their messaging. So what we do is, okay, what are 10 frequently asked questions, I make them and I make them I ask them to really start digging deep. And think of the questions that people somebody might ask about that subject matter. And then could ask the question, answer the question, but put the question and answer in a video. Using too simple.

Jackie Simmons: 00:14:32

I Whoa, tell me more. App, ask the question, find out the answers to the question. The question is, hey, what's in the way regarding whatever social media answer the question, and do put both of those into a video recording,

Becky Norwood: 00:14:53

right, but they're very short to the point. But what happens is as they become clearer on their quest sense and the answers to those questions, they became very much more clear on their messaging, and who they're speaking to the audience they want to reach. And it, it's what that what I encourage them to start putting out on social media to start building the following. And because video is a powerful tool, and then when they get through the 10, by the first 10, then I say, Okay, now what are 10 questions that should be asked, but people don't know to ask. That's a little bit tougher. But but it helps them with it, what it does is it helps in their own mind and in their own pulling things together to become crystal clear in in the messaging that they would want to get to be putting out there. And what's interesting is that these become marketing pieces that become evergreen, meaning that they could post one, the first one today, and three months later, it's not going to be the same people seeing these posts, they could post the say, and keep repeating it, and then build on the conversations thathappened as a result.

Jackie Simmons: 00:16:13

All right, I'm gonna call a spade a spade, you're talking about people putting their content out there, they're having an engagement with people. And all of a sudden someone's responding. And yet, they're responding in a way that says, Oh, you're off the mark. And what you're recommending is that they go, you might be right, what, and get those people engaged in the conversation. And in the meantime, the people who are going, oh, I want more information, go ahead and book them for a call

Becky Norwood: 00:16:50

with them for a call, engage, have conversation. Show that you're interested in, be compassionate, be be heartfelt, speak your truth. These are very important things because if we're going to send up in, you know, the thing that I've learned over the years is even for myself, is that when we decide we're going to write a book and put it out for the world to read. There's there's there is building blocks, there's pillars, that if we realize what that those pillars and building blocks are, it changes even our own feeling about what we're doing. Number one, we become an advocate, maybe somebody is gone through going through a similar, very similar situation to you. And yet you're able to put your story on paper and publish it out to the world. And their eyes read this and then that touches their heart and their thinking. I didn't know there was another way. I didn't know there's some some way and so you're so what I did with my with my book and with it was called the common Island. And which meant that I had to learn me

Jackie Simmons: 00:18:07

hold it, you got to blow that down and title with a little more enunciation plays. It's called what

Becky Norwood: 00:18:16

the woman I love. That was learning meaning that I had to come to learn me to learn to love myself, before I could learn be loved by anybody else. In the depths of love, but the that that means self discovery, and you know, in reading our books, there's a lot of self discovery.

Jackie Simmons: 00:18:38

I'll get back to one of the reasons to write a book is for Tharsis, or for self discovery.

Becky Norwood: 00:18:46

The writing the book is one of the most healing things that we can do for ourselves than having the courage to put it out there. Oh, entirely another thing?

Jackie Simmons: 00:18:58

Oh, oh, you mean the writing the book is not the end of the story.

Becky Norwood: 00:19:03

Um, for some it is, but but then who's going to read it and who's going to see it and who's going to benefit from

Jackie Simmons: 00:19:11

So tell me more, who could possibly read it, see it and benefit from it.

Becky Norwood: 00:19:17

Think about what is going on in our world. Think of the subject matter. If somebody was to pick up a book and they're struggling with life, they're gone, they're going through something maybe very, incredibly similar to what you went through. And you offer a fresh perspective of what you learned. You're not just telling your story. You're also saying telling, sharing what you've learned from the story and how, where you started and where you are now.

Jackie Simmons: 00:19:45

All right. Just for clarity. You're not talking to me, Jackie Semmens, because most people know that my story went out there, both on the TEDx platform and in the book last year. So Uh, that's not what you're talking about. You're not talking about something with that kind of branding,

Becky Norwood: 00:20:04

you're talking about? Hey, you wrote it. You shared it.

Jackie Simmons: 00:20:11

Now, are you willing to be part of a community to build a bigger audience for it?

Becky Norwood: 00:20:19

Absolutely.

Becky Norwood: 00:20:20

All right. Marketing begins the moment you put pen to paper.

Jackie Simmons: 00:20:26

Okay, marketing my may begin, I'm just gonna say it marketing may begin the moment you put pen to paper. And yeah, no, I'm not buying that. I wrote several books and several chapters for books without that understanding. And so anyone who thinks they're gonna write a chapter for a book, or write a book and build a business from it without this understanding, I'm just gonna say it from my perspective. No, that's not what happens. Tell everyone the tangible stamps for what you just said, about the moment you put pen to paper,

Becky Norwood: 00:21:09

the moment you put pen to paper. I think there's a mindset that that comes into play. Because it goes right back to the why is your why big enough to do what you're doing. And, and, and truly, many people start, and I have been a speaker in many groups of bragging circles. And often these these people end up being becoming my authors. I have many writing coaches that that that that's a wonderful referral source for me. And yet, I was in one group of women writers, and the question repeatedly came up, who would want to hear my story? Oh, who

Jackie Simmons: 00:21:58

would want to hear my story? Well, okay, that's a question I asked myself a decade ago. So the question I asked a decade ago was, I'm just me, I'm not anybody special. And I got lucky, Becky, I was in the audience at the time. For Bernie's fly girl. She's the first African American fighter pilot in the United States military. And she was taking q&a and I am a firm believer, if there's a microphone walk towards it, you'll figure out what you're going to ask when you get there. So I got to the microphone. And she's like, what's your question? And I'm like, Well, I'm not the first anything. You know, I'm not the first African American woman to do this. I'm not the first woman to do this. I'm a single mom.

Becky Norwood: 00:22:56

Actually, I didn't even tell her I was a single mom.

Jackie Simmons: 00:23:00

I just, I was just sharing the fact that I didn't see where I was special. And most of the presentation was about how being unique how having this niche, how that, and I couldn't see how it applied to me, because I'm a kind of generic white bread. Class America. Yeah, white bread is my guy. He's Jewish. He thinks white bread is really bland, compared to like Jewish rice and other things. So alright, so I'm just this white bread. And Bernie said, she asked me if I knew Lisa Nichols. Well, Lisa Nichols, and then the secret. And she wrote a book called, you know, whatever it takes, and I have multiple copies and these kinds of things. And Bernie said, Jackie, you know, Lisa,

Becky Norwood: 00:23:53

this whole story is that she's a single mom. Her entire narrative.

Jackie Simmons: 00:24:01

And what made Lisa Nichols Lisa Nichols is that she was willing to share her journey as a single mom. And I'm standing at the microphone going. I'm a single mom, I was a single mom. And my mom was a single mom. And up until that moment, I did not understand that being the single mom of a single mom or even just being a single mom might be a niche. That the journey that I went on to move from being a single mom to being a successful business owner, which is 90% mindset, and 10% Getting the kids out of my house, but that's a whole nother story. I mean, there was just like, oh crap, really, that's all that I need in order to have a compelling story. And she's like, Yeah, you just need for peace. supposed to be able to relate to you? How many times is that tripped up your authors? Becky?

Becky Norwood: 00:25:06

No way too many. I have probably six authors right now, they come back to me after I think we're moving along at a pretty good clip book. And they're saying, but who wouldn't want to read my story? But do you think it's good enough? Do you know? Do you really think that somebody wants to know this stuff? And? And so who are you not to share your story?

Jackie Simmons: 00:25:32

Oh, there we go. I like that question. Who are you not to share your story?

Becky Norwood: 00:25:40

Who would you say, to not share their story?

Becky Norwood: 00:25:48

I never thought of that, who would just say not to share their story? I don't think anybody should not stand there. Sorry, unless they're just lacking in a lot of courage. But I'm sure that the courage would come as they started that step. You know, but for me, you know, I really hesitated to share my story, because it was concerning my family. And there's a conversation I'm having with a lady right now, who has not decided yet to do it. Because there are a lot of names and a lot of people that were involved in, in this story. And so we're discussing do we write with? Does she write with a pen name? Does she? Does she change names and have different people that were involved in locations and everything else? A lot of consideration on the best ways to do that, and no implications back on you should because hers was had to deal with some court orders that, that were very traumatic and devastating. And so she's having to be very, very mindful of how she, she shares this message. But her one of the biggest things is when we come to the point that we're reading a book, and we want to get this out to the world, if it's on our heart, there's a reason to do that. And do we listen to the promptings? There? Do we pay attention, and maybe it will take us 10 years to do it. So maybe it does. But maybe it'll take us. But maybe by that time, we've, if we continue on the path, we use that waste their time wisely, and we grow and heal ourselves. Because there's a lot of us out there. And I don't think there's not really truly I don't think there's one person on the face of this earth that hasn't gone through something devastating and difficult and gotten knocked to the ground and had to get themselves back up. And it's a choice, it is a choice to get back up. There's a choice to step ahead. It's a choice to lead. It's a choice to be someone that shines a light for somebody else.

Becky Norwood: 00:27:55

Well, I

Jackie Simmons: 00:27:57

know that that is what you believe. I mean, the Make it a great day with choices, your book project for the teen suicide prevention society that your company supports every year. It's absolutely proof that this is what you believe what you believe is about people exploring where they have choices about people understanding that, hey, write it whether or not you publish it as a choice, whether you publish it with real names, or you change the name to protect the innocent or the not. So an asset is your choice. Whether you publish it in a background that is totally different from what your memory it is your choice. And there are all of these choices people can make. And the end result is that the story gets told, and people who would resonate with that story. Can you hear it?

Becky Norwood: 00:28:58

They can. And what's so beautiful about that, is think about storytelling since the beginning of time. There's been times in our world, especially our modern world, where you can go to a restaurant and see an entire family sitting around the table at a restaurant and they're all on their devices and they're not talking to each other. And yet storytelling is one of the most vital pieces of teaching our generation from generation. You know, I keep

Jackie Simmons: 00:29:29

thinking we used to do storytelling around the dinner table. That's

Becky Norwood: 00:29:33

right. That's right. And I keep thinking about there's a PBS series by William Henry Gates Jr. It's called Finding Your Roots and what strikes me and that every person that he does this finding the roots thing then usually it's movie stars and politicians and people will have you know, that are out there. You know that most most people don't know anything about their family. pasture parents, and maybe they don't even know anything really, truly about their own parents. And when did this when they go through the roots and finding their food, so much talk over where their roots came from and who they became, but why are we not sharing from generation to generation? Why are we hiding these things? Okay,

Jackie Simmons: 00:30:23

I'm gonna share a story that I've never shared, like, my mom has started digging into the roots of our family. When she got to Abraham Lincoln, I, she was very excited. Because she now had this genetic lineage to Abraham Lincoln, who she greatly admired. She went a little deeper, and hit like red beard, the pirate, I think, somebody who was, as Abraham Lincoln was famous for bringing equality into the conversation for red beard was n bummis. And she stopped her search there. What I'm wondering is, how many people are afraid to go on this journey? Sharing what's true for me what I remember what's me and what's not me? Because they're afraid of somebody standing up and say, You're wrong, and our history is bad.

Becky Norwood: 00:31:30

There's probably a lot of a lot of people that feel that way. What would you tell them, you have to stand on your own truth and what is true for you for your life experience, because I can tell you, there can be four people standing on different corners, and that witness an accident, and each one of them are going to say something completely different about what they saw happen. And that is true about every fiber life, every person in life. And what my perception, I was recently visiting my mom and my brother started this conversation. And the way he related this story, which I was very familiar with, it was in our youth, I was like, where did you get that? Where did that come from? And my mom looks at me and she goes, Man, you two have different perceptions of what actually happened. Now there was three of us in that conversation. And we're in the same family, we went through the same thing. But we each had a very, very different memory of the situation. And so we have to speak our own inner truth for what we know.

Becky Norwood: 00:32:40

So why did it

Becky Norwood: 00:32:42

or how it affected us?

Jackie Simmons: 00:32:44

Ah, all right. So writing a book, or writing a chapter for a book is a chance to own that real estate, to say, This is my experience during this period of time period, and starting to, um, and create some integrity around who we are. And the reason I want to highlight that is because it is so important

Becky Norwood: 00:33:15

to be able to say,

Jackie Simmons: 00:33:16

this is how I saw it, even if it's different from how you saw it without making either person wrong,

Becky Norwood: 00:33:30

right? Just different. It's just different. And

Jackie Simmons: 00:33:35

we all good that your perspective on from the mountain down is different from your perspective from the valley up. And anybody who doesn't believe that's true, could just Google mountain down Valley up and you will get some very interesting images even at the same place. Yes. And when it comes to writing a book, what I discovered is that my relationship with the words was very different as the person putting it out than it was as the person reading it. Even though I was reading my own words. It was very bizarre for me.

Becky Norwood: 00:34:14

And you know, what happens is because now I look at the book that I wrote, what, 10 years ago, I would write it completely differently now. That's where I was, that's where my growth was at that point in time. Doesn't make it irreverent doesn't make it bad doesn't make it like it's not a good book. It touched a lot of lives. But I've matured and I've grown and I've reached out i Things have changed for me over these years. I would read a different book, the same book, but it would be very different.

Jackie Simmons: 00:34:48

I'm gonna say two things, one to the listeners and one to so first to the listeners. Hey, welcome to your Brain on positive I am positive you have a book inside of you and it You think you don't think again? Because what you've been through what you've survived what you've learned along the way, might inspire someone else if you were willing to write it today. That's my message to you the listeners. All right now, Becky, here's my message to you. What was true then is not true now. So write your next book.

Becky Norwood: 00:35:27

I am ready. I'm just starting out.

Jackie Simmons: 00:35:30

Ah, okay. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Everybody heard it here. First. You all heard that this is the elephant in the room. You know me, the elephant in the room language. Did you hear it? I'm just starting to write it. Okay. Those of us who struggled to get our first books in print, we're just starting to write it for a long time.

Becky Norwood: 00:35:56

We guess then. Yes. And, and the, the flip side of that. One thing is I work with a lot of people writing a lot of books. So for the to today I'm going and right.

Jackie Simmons: 00:36:09

Alright, so I'm just gonna weld something with you. All right, I'm going to book another interview with you for August of 2023. Perfect, where we're going to talk about the sequel to the woman I love.

Becky Norwood: 00:36:28

And you know, I already know it's the sequel is not going to be called the woman I love just because I already had something that I call it a download or whatever. I don't know what you call it.

Jackie Simmons: 00:36:40

I call him knowing Okay, you got the got a vision,

Becky Norwood: 00:36:43

right? The tapestry of wisdom, the tapestry

Jackie Simmons: 00:36:47

of wisdom. Oh, darn. Good title, wish I own that domain name, tapestry of wisdom. So a year from now, or sooner that book will be out into the world? Is that a solo book or a compilation book? No, it's a solo. Awesome. Yes. It's a silent. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a solo book by Becky Norway. So we have something to look forward to. If you've never read the woman I love go get a copy of the woman I love. If you have read the woman I love, get ready for

Becky Norwood: 00:37:30

this tapestry. The reality is Becky,

Jackie Simmons: 00:37:35

I only interview people who I believe have something to say that can change the world that can help the world get their brain on positive.

Becky Norwood: 00:37:44

And one of the things

Jackie Simmons: 00:37:47

that I know is that everything that you do, touches people's lives in a way that turns on that positivity switch so their brains become more positive. And what you've done in partnership with my company success journey Academy, and with the team suicide prevention society with teaspoons, and their group boat project, make it a great day, the choice is yours. What you and your company have done is nothing short of amazing. And I'm standing over here now having multiple books published through your company going. If I had known it was this easy, I might have done it sooner. So now that I've broken this wall that says publishing a book can be easy. It can be simple. It can be just where your friends and family know about you. And it can be where the world knows about you and the transformation you bring through your company. The choice is yours, and you can't do it wrong. What's most important is that people write it.

Becky Norwood: 00:39:06

The writing itself is one of the best medicines you could take.

Jackie Simmons: 00:39:11

So instead of going to the pharmacy and getting another prescription of pills, write your book, how's that for a message in the world?

Becky Norwood: 00:39:21

That's a beautiful message because it the writing, there's something magical about it. There's a certain healing that comes from putting the the words on paper and, and, and really getting into the groove of just expressing yourself and maybe that is that initial piece is far from perfect. It needs to be edited. If it's going out to the world. There's a number of things that has to still happen. But that very act of tapping those keys or putting pen to paper

Becky Norwood: 00:39:55

is phenomenal. What it can do for you

Jackie Simmons: 00:39:59

i Absolutely agree with you. And it's a process that very few people are willing to go through. Because it requires them to speak their truth. So I'm gonna just make an invitation and I don't usually make an invitation on my podcast. Oh, yeah, we just did a three hour workshop on getting to know like, and trust yourself. And I firmly believe that if people get aware of this know, like, and trust yourself journey for themselves, that they will be more willing to write. So here's what I'm going to ask you to do, Becky, and I know that this is an evergreen, it's a podcast, it's going to be out there for a while. But if someone buys the $200 workshop on getting to know like, and trust themselves, would you give them a credit off of the writing and publishing process with your company?

Becky Norwood: 00:40:55

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jackie Simmons: 00:40:58

Let's help people tell their stories back in, because not every story is the right fit for the compilation book that we do it in teen suicide prevention society. And every story deserves to be told, because we don't know who we might be one step further ahead of we don't know who's who someone might choose to be inspired by us not that we're trying to be inspiring, but then someone might read our story and choose to be inspired by it.

Becky Norwood: 00:41:35

When I first wrote my book, I said if I just helped one person, it was worth it. One person, but that one turned out to be many ones. And what I've learned is that there's four main pillars well actually there's a fifth pillar to it too. You become an advocate you become a truth teller you become a Wayshower and you unite people and then the fifth is you leave a legacy

Jackie Simmons: 00:42:02

way shower I'm writing it down. Okay. Way shower wayshower choose teller Oh truth teller

Becky Norwood: 00:42:12

Yeah, hi for that. Okay.

Becky Norwood: 00:42:14

unifier?

Jackie Simmons: 00:42:16

There we go. All right. So advocate truth teller wayshower. unifier

Becky Norwood: 00:42:20

and legacy maker.

Becky Norwood: 00:42:22

And legacy maker. Oh, my goodness, I love that. Okay,

Jackie Simmons: 00:42:31

aggregate truth teller way shower unifier legacy maker, most people stop it two or three of those that they get that far? Well, the,

Becky Norwood: 00:42:40

the, the realization, I think, I personally feel that nobody is born bad. And I think at the core, most people are really good. And most people really want to make a difference in some way, in the lives of others. I think it's just something that is inherently within humanity. And I believe that when they realize that there there is those, those five pillars are that that is the stepping stone for helping them to gain the strength and the courage to stand up and, and really shine that light to show the way and make a difference. Because if I had known Honestly, when I had finally was coming around to finding a better way for me, and and overcoming the things that might have kind of transpired in my life. If I didn't know that there were other people going through these kinds of things, didn't understand that wish we didn't have the social media at that time. And I live pretty rural and you know, all the other things. But I had no idea. And what I've discovered, definitely not the only one, and I don't hold the corner on the market to the things that went went on. But some people when they're in the throes of these dark things, if they get caps, if they even pick up for one reason, they've been guided to pick up a copy of your book, and it makes a difference in their life and it gives them shines the light of truth on what they're facing. It shows them a better way. And you've in the meantime made things that were available to them to unite them for so that they're not feeling all alone and that they have the courage to start stepping up themselves. But what more can we ask for more. And usually, those little follow first steps, small steps of our own lead to the bigger steps as as we continue to grow ourselves and we see the results of the work that we do.

Jackie Simmons: 00:44:44

I love what you just share, and all I could think about is however far I am is far enough to share because there's somebody looking for a guy can get this far and I've got a client who says I didn't get this far just to come this far. And that's why they keep studying. And there's a space in the middle, we're young, I'm on my own journey. And it's incumbent upon me to leave breadcrumbs. Because that's part of the journey. It is not just, I'm over here, it's also, hey, this is how I did it. And I believe that the online marketing group has kind of tried to take over this space a little bit, where they're going, this is how I did my marketing. And so you could do it too. And I peek behind the curtain or several of those and realize that what they're saying about, you can do it too. And what they're teaching is not the same thing as what they did. Some of them built their audiences with a radio show, and then launched a product. And now they're teaching people how to launch a product, but they're not teaching people how to build an audience with the radio show with just how they successfully launched a product.

Becky Norwood: 00:46:11

There's so many stepping stones that make all the difference in the world, but you got to start where you are.

Jackie Simmons: 00:46:17

So that's what I want to just nail down for everyone. Wherever you are, it's good enough, whatever you've done is the right things. And your willingness to be in this conversation, to write your own story to share your own story is your fastest path to change the world on book it from any monetary considerations and recognize that there are things you can put into your book that will make it more of a profit vehicle for you. And yeah, that's not the reason,

Becky Norwood: 00:46:52

it's not the reason to write a book, that is not the reason.

Jackie Simmons: 00:46:56

So we agree completely there, Becky, wrap it up for us.

Becky Norwood: 00:47:01

You know, I had an author that I'm her book will be out in a couple of months. And I told her about my book. And she text messaged me and said, I got your book, I went out on the patio. And in three hours, I had read the entire book, and I and awestruck. You told me about it, but I never would have been able to understand what you what the true depth of what you wrote this 10 years later. So you never know, when you when you make an impact on people. You know, and maybe the people that pick up your book, you never know what an impact. But that doesn't matter either. It's because you're shining your light, you're making a difference. And in so doing, you have a ripple effect, that the positive vibes that come out are a ripple effect on if you impact just one it's worth.

Becky Norwood: 00:48:00

And if you're willing to share what it took

Jackie Simmons: 00:48:04

for you to write the book and impact just one, you will impact more because you just might inspire someone else to tell their story.

Becky Norwood: 00:48:16

And Becky, that's

Jackie Simmons: 00:48:17

what you do every day, every day. I can't say thank you enough.

Becky Norwood: 00:48:22

Thank you. It's been it's been quite a journey. And I there's not one author I don't learn from there is just such magnificence and what, what people are bringing to the world, and and even being able to shepherd them to have the courage to take it all the way.

Jackie Simmons: 00:48:40

Well, there we go. What it takes to take something from an idea to a game changing to something that people can interact with and can relate to

Becky Norwood: 00:48:56

is a worthwhile journey

Jackie Simmons: 00:48:58

to go on. No matter what stage of business someone is in no matter whether they're in business or not. The reality is that your words matter. And thank you, Becky, for bringing that light into this conversation. Because we know that what we say and what we write can impact other people. After all, we've all been impacted by it.

Becky Norwood: 00:49:26

We really truly have and you know, what better time to live than the Lord the world that we live now because we have the ability to get these books published in a whole different way and get them up to the world that years ago would have never happened. Not this way.

Jackie Simmons: 00:49:44

You know what reality is for anyone wanting to share their message into the world now is when it is the easiest time in history ever. Yeah, ever. Alright, so we'll put all your links in the show notes Becky, and people can get Your gift because you have all of these tips and tricks for how to self publish and get published. And I just really appreciate you today for sharing your journey and your story. Thank you.

Becky Norwood: 00:50:13

Thank you for the work you do. Jackie, you're amazing.