Zibby Owens on Why Rejection Should Never Stunt Your Goal, Ditching Type A Perfectionism for Happiness, and How She Rewrote Her Own Story at 40

“The path you are on is not necessarily the path you are going to stay on” is a lesson Zibby Owens wants to pass on but one she had to learn. Zibby always knew she wanted to be a writer, but when she tried her hand as an author, she was met with rejection after rejection– for years. Refusing to give up, she pushed past the pain and shame of countless nos and finally made her dream a reality. Her deeply personal book, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, shares a transparent tale of her life, its ups and downs, and twists and turns, including motherhood, leaving the workforce for over a decade, divorce, and a surprising second chance at love at 40. As an award-winning podcast host, entrepreneur, publisher, author, reader, and mother, Zibby’s life has all the makings of a movie and enough inspiration for moms everywhere or anyone striving for something they have yet to attain.

As the founder and CEO of Zibby Owens Media, Zibby is determined to help busy people live their best lives by connecting to books and each other. Her brand Moms Don’t Have Time To, is the home for Zibby’s award-winning podcasts (Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books and Sex Tok), publications (including two anthologies), and communities. Zibby Books is a publishing home for fiction and memoir, which she co-founded with Leigh Newman. She’s also a regular columnist for Good Morning America, Katie Couric Media, and Moms Don’t Have Time to Write on Medium.

In this episode, Zibby transparently shares her advice for pushing through the pain of rejection, how every day she learns how to let go of her Type A personality, and why when things go wrong, it’s not the right time for them to happen. Zibby continues to make the joy of writing and her love of books the centerpiece of her own bookends.