S3 E1 - Turning Adversity into Advantage and Thriving During Disruptive Times

05/18/21 • 42 min

Today’s Invisible Stories guest is executive coach, public speaker, and author Gerry Valentine. With 27 years of fortune 100 leadership experience, Gerry is a trusted advisor to corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and high performing individuals of all kinds. His book, The Thriving Mindset: Tools for Empowerment in a Disruptive World, was published in March 2021 by Publish Your Purpose Press.

In this podcast, Gerry and I talk about what it was like for him to publish his book during a global pandemic. He wrote the book prior to the COVID outbreak, but his work happened to be directly related to how to thrive through disruptive, difficult circumstances. Gerry discusses his emotional experience with writing, something he wasn’t expecting to have when writing a business book. We talk about:

How Gerry rebranded his business and reworked his book so that it not only reflected his work, but also drew on more of his life, his personality, and his personal experiences.
The ways in which Gerry drew on his personal experiences with adversity to write a book that would appeal to many people from all walks of life.
How to take the words of destructive distractors, those people who sow doubt about what you can and can’t do, and turn it into fuel to push yourself to defy expectations.
How Gerry changed his mindset about his dyslexia, recognizing it as a learning difference, not as a learning disability, and how despite the setbacks he was able to use this to his advantage when writing and understanding the bigger picture of his book.

How Gerry rebranded his business and reworked his book so that it not only reflected his work, but also drew on more of his life, his personality, and his personal experiences.
The ways in which Gerry drew on his personal experiences with adversity to write a book that would appeal to many people from all walks of life.
How to take the words of destructive distractors, those people who sow doubt about what you can and can’t do, and turn it into fuel to push yourself to defy expectations.
How Gerry changed his mindset about his dyslexia, recognizing it as a learning difference, not as a learning disability, and how despite the setbacks he was able to use this to his advantage when writing and understanding the bigger picture of his book.

Previous Episode

S2 E13 Putting Passion Back Into Publishing

In today’s episode of Invisible Stories, I speak with award-winning author and owner of HALO Publishing International, Lisa Umina. Lisa founded HALO Publishing to publish the voices of authors around the world. Lisa created The Milo and Lisa Show after writing her first children’s book, Milo Finds His Best Friend. Her third book, Milo and the Green Wagon won the national Christian Indie Publishing Award. Lisa traveled and performed with Milo and as a motivational speaker all over. Writing led to her full-time career as an international publisher.

Lisa blended a number of her different passions together (writing, speaking, comedy, and publishing) in order to create her business and brand. She shares her knowledge on the publishing industry, and how she helps authors to find their own voice and get it out into the world. Lisa and I chat about:

Why it is so important for speakers to write a book and get it published as a resource for their audience.
How the publishing industry has changed over the years, and why indie publishing and hybrid publishers are oftentimes a better alternative for authors.
How social media has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for authors to market themselves and their books and brand.

Next Episode

S3 E2 Learning to Adapt and Collaborate as an Author

Today’s Invisible Stories guest is speaker, writer, scholar, and facilitator Dr. Joy Wiggins, who, through the company she founded, promotes racial and gender justice through compassion and open dialogue to ignite equitable, empowering and transformative practices. Joy Wiggins is the co-author alongside Kami Anderson of the book From Sabotage to Support: A New Vision for Feminist Solidarity in the Workplace. As CEO of Joy Wiggins, PhD: Equity and Inclusion Consulting, Joy provides speaking, facilitation, and mentorship opportunities on the topics of power, privilege, racial and gender justice and liberation. She has spent the last 20 years working on understanding our cultural identities and perceptions of how we navigate the world through our cultural identities.

In this podcast, Joy and I delve into the process she went through with co-authoring a book, coming from a mostly academic writing background. She discusses:

What it was like to partner with seasoned author Dr. Anderson, and how she learned to adapt from writing academically to creating their joint book on intersectionality and female solidarity.
How she was able to strike a balance between explaining concepts succinctly within her writing to guide her readers, while also learning to let go and not include every detail.
The collaborative process of working with a developmental editor, and the flexibility that comes with getting to choose an editor.
How Joy had to pivot in her ideas for a second book once COVID-19 hit, and how the pandemic has influenced the way she is researching and writing about women during this period of time.