108. How to Plan Your Book in 2021

Tips and Tricks for Your Next Book with Author and CEO Leah Berdysz

Leah is on a "mission to empower and educate girls on how to be beautiful from the inside out through discovery of social, mental, and physical components." After graduating from John Carroll University with her Bachelor of Arts in Exercise Science and Entrepreneurship in 2017, Leah founded Empowered & Poised LLC. She is currently working towards her Master of Science in Social Administration (MSW equivalent) with a focus on School Social Work at Case Western Reserve University. She is slated to publish her very first book: Conscious Empowerment: A Guide to Helping Girls Build Self-esteem & Confidence in 2021.

Support the book, Conscious Empowerment: A Guide to Helping Girls Build Self-esteem & Confidence NOW! The goodies deadline is fast approaching! TRANSCRIPT

Massiel: Welcome to the How To Write a Book Podcast. Leah, thank you so much for joining us.

Leah: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Massiel: Us too. I cannot wait to tell my listeners about your journey, about your book. Oh my gosh. So I'm excited. We're so excited. So let me just go ahead and dive into a little bit about, Leah, and then I'll have you take over from there.

Leah: Yeah.

Massiel: Awesome. Perfect. Leah is on a mission to empower and educate girls on how to be beautiful from the inside out through the discovery of social, mental, and physical components. After graduating from John Carroll University, with her Bachelor of Arts in exercise science and entrepreneurship in 2017, she founded Empowered and Poised LLC. She's currently working towards her Master's of science in social ministration with a focus on school social work at Case Western Reserve University and slated to publish your very first book, 'Conscious Empowerment: A Guide to Helping Girls Build Self-esteem and Confidence’, which is going to be published in 2021

Leah: Whoo-ooh! Thank you so much for that lovely introduction.

Massiel: Gosh, thank you. I mean, just reading that and you're like go girl. Yes, yes. That is amazing. I mean, reading your background, reading your organization, it is so beautiful to touch base with someone who wants to empower girls, who is striving to do that and you are doing it, your LLC Empowered and Poised is doing just that. And before we dive more into like your book and your organization, your background includes anxiety and body image issues as well as 10 years of working with youth. So do tell us, what did I miss out here in your background? Tell us how did you get here?

Leah: Yeah. So that's a great question. It's hard to say that there's really one thing that led me here because quite frankly, this is not where I thought I would be if you would have asked me, you know, five, 10 years ago. But I think everything has its way of working out, right? Like I taught Phys. Ed for four years and I never thought I would be in the field of education. I started a business, never thinking I was going to be a business owner. I went to grad school, never thinking I would be in grad school and here I am writing a book, never having thought I was going to write a book.

I think it's been very serendipitous and I'm really grateful that I've been provided with so many opportunities. And it was kind of like, you know, when somebody knocks at your door, you open it up and you walk in, it was kind of like that with me; certain opportunities would just kind of come about obviously, not just on their own, but with hard work, connecting with people, being serious about my education, all of those types of things. But when these opportunities arose, like this wonderful opportunity to talk to you, I really had to step into my own courage and share my story and share my passions and I think that's a lot of what has led me to where I am today.

Massiel: That is amazing. And especially because you're talking about being brave, stepping into things that kind of jump out in front of you, and that is something that we talk about on the podcast, which is believing in a message. And even if you don't know where it's going to go, the opportunities will rise and that's exactly what you're doing here. I mean, you've created this beautiful LLC, right? And you're talking with these people; just touching briefly on the interviews that you have included in your book, I mean, that is just so inspiring. And I'm going to say this again and again, thank you. Thank you because you're showing up, you have this calling and that's something that we always try to do within the How To Write a Book Podcast is saying like, you know, it can be scary, but show up

Leah: It can be scary. It definitely can. I will not deny that. And I think that's where that courage comes into play. It's like ha...