The Selfish Gift - Go public with your purpose

CW: drug use, abuse, and assault
So many of us are moved to write books or create other works of art because of a traumatic life experience that we've suffered through. But when those experiences also carry a stigma, it can be tough to navigate the feelings of shame, self-protection, and privacy issues that come up. How do you free yourself to share your story when you're worried that it might affect your reputation or your career? My guest today knows all about it, and she's here to share her insights.
Mary Beth O'Connor is an addiction recovery advocate who's been clean and sober for nearly 30 years. But in her teens and young adulthood, Mary Beth was addicted to methamphetamines, shooting up daily for years. It nearly destroyed her life. Yet after getting clean, she put herself through law school, became a lawyer, and eventually a federal judge. She chronicles her journey and offers hope to others seeking to break free from addiction and level up their lives in her memoir, From Junkie to Judge: One Woman's Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction.
In this episode, you'll learn:

• How writing the book helped restore her self-confidence and self-compassion.
• How she transformed herself from just a legal writer with no experience in creative writing into an award-winning author. (Hint: Lots of reading, writing classes, and workshop groups were involved!)
• What her process of getting an agent and publishing deal was like.
• How she handles criticism from the public.
• The doors that writing a book can open for you—from media appearances to speaking engagements at conferences and events.

For more, check out:
junkietojudge.com
maggielangrick.com
wonderwell.press
And follow:
twitter.com/MaryBethO_
instagram.com/maggielangrick
instagram.com/wonderwellpress
instagram.com/selfishgiftpodcast

Anyone who's ever tried to create something beautiful or important must at times withdraw from everyday life to get the work done, whether that means getting up an hour early every day to write or going on a solo retreat. But how far would you go in pursuit of your art? Whatever your answer, today's guest is about to blow your mind and inspire you to go further than you ever thought possible.
Deanne Whalen is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker, photographer, author, and public speaker. In her documentary films and their accompanying books, she specializes in telling intimate stories from extreme locations. For her first film, This Land, she snowmobiled across the high Arctic. Then she embedded herself in the climbing community on Mount Everest for 40 days at base camp. For her latest film, 500 Days in the Wild, Deanne spent six years traversing the entire 24,000 kilometers of Canada's land and water trails from sea to sea to sea.
In this episode, you'll learn:

• All about her incredible adventure—how she navigated, charged her emergency devices, survived several moments of life-threatening danger (bears! storms!), and more.
• The wisdom traditions that indigenous communities generously shared with her along the way.
• How mindfully reconnecting with nature made her feel safer and more connected to other human beings, as well.
• How the journey affected her relationships—and eventually led to finding love on the trail.
• Her process of adapting 800 hours of footage into a documentary that has gotten distribution with Paramount Plus in Canada and a full Canadian theatrical release, including how she financed everything.

For more, check out:
500daysinthewild.com
maggielangrick.com
wonderwell.press

And follow:
instagram.com/500daysinthewild
instagram.com/diannewhelanphotos
instagram.com/maggielangrick
instagram.com/wonderwellpress
instagram.com/selfishgiftpodcast

Amy Low was a recently divorced mom with two teenage kids when she received some of the worst news a person can hear. She had stage four metastatic colon cancer and a large tumor on her liver with a very low chance of long-term survival. Against the odds, Amy has lived five years with her diagnosis, and the experience has changed her. Incredibly, Amy used this time to write her memoir, a beautiful book, The Brave In-Between: Notes From the Last Room.
The "last room" refers to Amy's way of thinking about our lives as rooms that we move through. We will all find ourselves in that last room at some point, though most of us won't know we are in it. For Amy, it is an opportunity to find the "mundane miracles" in each day. This is a heart-stretching book in which Amy shows us what it looks like to move with resilience and grace through the most difficult and uncertain times. It's a sacred invitation to delve into the depths of the human condition.
Amy and I went into some deep and at times challenging topics. In this interview, she talks about faith and forgiveness, and why she considers herself a "bridge dweller": a person who builds connections with many different types of people from all backgrounds and identities. This episode was recorded in advance of the 2024 election, as the Kamala Harris campaign was in its early days, and she and I were both hopeful of a Democratic win. Amy, who considers herself a liberal Christian, candidly shares her feelings about how American Christianity has changed over the years and how she hopes it might evolve back toward its ideals of love and inclusion.
Of course, we also got into some shop talk about the writing process, which in Amy's case was complicated by the progression of her disease. She is a stalwart writer and an inspiration to anyone who wants to tell their story but feels daunted by the task!
This is a thought-provoking conversation that will inspire you to find the mundane miracles in your life and the courage to share your story with the world.
Find her at:
Amy's Substack, Postcards from the Mountain
Instagram: @amylow112
And find host Maggie Langrick at:
Maggie's Substack, The Underwire
Website: maggielangrick.com
Instagram: @maggielangrick

Have you heard the saying, "The book is the new business card?"—just something you can crank out and put on Amazon in a matter of days, in order to boost your visibility? Well, today's guest is here to explain why that is absolutely the wrong reason to publish a book—and the wrong way to do it. By cutting corners, investing as little as possible, and thinking only of yourself rather than your reader, you'd essentially be creating a throwaway marketing piece (which is exactly the fate of most business cards!) The function of any worthwhile nonfiction book is to change lives, and AJ Harper is on a mission to do just that.

As a developmental editor, ghostwriter, and publishing strategist, AJ has worked with hundreds of authors, from newbies and first timers to New York Times bestsellers like Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First. She is also the author of her own nonfiction book, Write a Must-Read, which teaches you how to conceptualize and write a nonfiction book that will actually make people want to buy and read it. In this episode, you'll learn:

• The hard truth about whether "everyone has a book in them."
• AJ’s proven framework for crafting a life-changing book. (“A book is not about something. A book is for someone.”)
• How to identify your ideal reader. (It's not just about demographics.)
• How to determine which parts of your life belong in your memoir.
• The difference between a book's core message and its promise—and why clearly identifying those two things will set you up for success.

For more, check out:
ajharper.com
maggielangrick.com
wonderwell.press

And follow:
instagram.com/maggielangrick
instagram.com/wonderwellpress
instagram.com/selfishgiftpodcast

Putting your work out into the world can be really uncomfortable—especially at first—and many of us use that as an excuse to never do it. We shy away from discomfort, which is totally understandable, but also exactly the wrong move if we want to get ahead in life and achieve our dreams. As Robert Frost once said, "The way out is through," and when you actually seek discomfort, you put yourself into unknown territory where new, better things can happen in your business and your life.
An adventure seeker who regularly pushes his own boundaries by skydiving, century bike riding, shark diving, and even trekking in the Sahara, Sterling Hawkins is well acquainted with discomfort. In his twenties, he achieved wild success, raising $550 million for his first start-up. Then in his thirties, the company crashed, and he found himself "moving out of the penthouse and back into his parents' house." That crushing experience put him on a quest to find the answer to this question: How do some people create transformative results in even the harshest circumstances? What he learned reveals that the uber-successful actually thrive on discomfort, because they know it can be high-octane fuel for performance or the most direct path to their goals.
Now, as an entrepreneur, motivational leader, and internationally recognized public speaker, Sterling teaches his #NoMatterWhat system for achieving larger-than-life results to Fortune 500 companies. In this episode, he shares:

• What it means to “hunt” discomfort.
• How physical and emotional discomfort are actually experienced the same way in the brain—and can be overcome in the same way, as well.
• The 5 primary types of discomfort that stand between us and the results we want.
• His proven 5-step system for overcoming each of those discomforts.
• Every uncomfortable aspect of publishing his first book—and why it was ultimately such a gratifying experience.

For more, check out:
sterlinghawkins.com
maggielangrick.com
wonderwell.press

And follow:
instagram.com/sterling_hawkins
instagram.com/maggielangrick
instagram.com/wonderwellpress
instagram.com/selfishgiftpodcast