Business Innovators Radio - The Inspired Impact Podcast with Judy Carlson-Interview with Polly Letofsky, Author, Speaker, Publishing Mama, and Owner, My Word Publishi

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Polly Letofsky left her home in Colorado and headed west across 4 continents and over 14,000 miles—by foot—to become the first woman to walk around the world.As an awareness campaign for breast cancer, strangers welcomed her into their homes. But it was never an easy road. Polly struggled with earthquakes, muggings, languages, even religious riots. The ultimate challenge came in the middle of Polly’s journey when September 11 flung us all into a crossroads in world history and she found herself navigating a vastly changing world.Polly shares her story with humor and honest reflection, in this award-winning book, 3mph: The Adventures of One Woman’s Walk Around the World.Polly has taken her book writing experience to a whole new level. After a bad experience with a publishing company, she took a deep dive into learning every aspect of the industry. Her goal… to protect authors from many of the same mistakes she made. Today she runs a very successful book publishing business with an award-winning team of editors, marketers, and designers.https://www.pollyletofsky.com/https://www.mywordpublishing.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/pollyletofsky/https://www.facebook.com/polly.letofsky.7*************************************************************Judy is the CEO & Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group. She helps her clients design, build, and implement fully integrated and coordinated financial plans from today through life expectancy and legacy.She is an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner who specializes in Wealth Decumulation Strategies. Judy is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, Life and Health Insurance Licensed, and Long-Term Care Certified.Judy’s mission is to educate and empower her clients with an all-inclusive financial plan that encourages and motivates them to pursue their lifetime financial goals and dreams.Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, an SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-polly-letofsky-author-speaker-publishing-mama-and-owner-my-word-publishing

Welcome to the Inspired Impact Podcast, where dedicated female professionals share how they inspire impact every day. Authentic stories, passionate commitment, lives transformed. I'm your host, Judy Carlson. Welcome to today's episode of the Inspired Impact Podcast. Today I'm excited to introduce you to Publishing Mama. She left her home in Colorado, headed west across four continents, over 14,000 miles, and became the first woman to walk around the world. Imagine that.

We get to talk to her today. Welcome, Polly Latofsky. Thanks for having me. You know, I find it funny that now my commute is about 10 yards from my back door to my garage. I walk 10 yards every day now. Oh, my gosh. Oh, well, I'm dying to learn more about how you got to doing that and how your life started and what prompted you to be inspired to do that.

So let's get started. You want me to just do a riff? Oh, sure. Okay, here's the riff. I was growing up in South Minneapolis through the 60s, which was really the age of the feral child. So parents kick you out and say, you know, come back when it's dark. And first you get into all kinds of mischief with all your buddies and all. Right.

Yeah. Fun days. The, you know, when I look back, it's like that really helped with, I think, imagination and problem solving and creativity and, you know, you're making up games and exploring and this kind of thing. So I'm very grateful for growing up in that era. And I remember one morning, well, I really got into reading about the rest of the world because this is how I grew up, right? And I started reading the newspaper, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune and picking it up off the porch every day and sitting at the breakfast table, feeling like quite the grown up, reading the newspaper.

And that was in the 70s. And that was, you know, the era of the Vietnam War. And I was reading about places where kids were not living the same 12-year-old's life that I was. And it just really got me curious about the world and how it ticks and the why and the why and the why. So one day I'm reading the newspaper at the breakfast table. And I see this big photo of a man pulling a buggy behind him down an empty road. and I leaned in to read the caption and it said, David Kuntz, walking down Highway 6 in Colorado

on his way home to Minnesota to become the first man to walk around the world. I was like, say what? And I just stared at that photo thinking, gosh, all that man is doing is putting one step in front of the other. And one step when you're just, chain together becomes so powerful that it can serve as your transportation across borders through different kinds of terrain, different politics, different history, different languages and religions and ideas. And I thought, well, I can do that. You know what I did? I swear I have

this picture in my head that I put the newspaper down, quite taken with that idea. I walked outside and I walked around the house for three hours. Oh, wow. And I'm like, okay. It's like, proof of concept. Sure, I can do this. I can do that. So it was in my head.

And my mother says she never remembers me talking about it. I don't remember ever talking about it, but I also remember it being my head constantly. Oh, wow. You know, so I'm sure it was one of those things that if I say it out loud, then I have to do it. You know, like I'm making a promise to the universe as if anyone in the whole world cares. I wouldn't do it or not.

Playing it to your heart. Yeah, I never said it out loud. And I don't know what pop more into the forefront of my head as I got older. I was only 12 at that time. Yeah. And it was so outside the box, that idea. for a 12-year-old girl from Minnesota, 1974, that's not going to happen. Probably why I didn't say anything.

But anyway, yeah, I remember then years later, 20 plus years later, I was living in Vail, Colorado. And I was at the library one day, and I saw this walking magazine. And there was this woman on the cover, and it was headlined, Greatest Walker Ever. I think there was a question mark in the back of it. greatest walker ever. And there was this woman that had finished her walk around the world. I'll say, well, I'll be doggone. This woman did it. How'd she do that? And I became fascinated by it. And maybe a couple months after seeing that, there was, I don't even want to see an article. It was like a, you remember newspapers, like page A13 and a paragraph saying, in fact, she admitted to cheating.

Oh, no. Accepting rides and whatever. And for whatever reason, I thought, now is my time. Mm-hmm. I got to tell you, it never, ever entered my mind that I want to be the first woman to walk around the world. That never entered my mind. It was just, you know, I give her credit for doing what she did. Even with the accepting rides on occasion, she still did more mileage than I did.

And, you know, she still did a heck of a walk. but also she proved to me that it could be done. So I started planning it. And again, I didn't tell anyone. And I remember the first day I told someone, they said, why are you walking so much? Because I didn't have a car. So, you know, I was walking everywhere. And I said it out loud, some random dude, you know, he's not going to hold me to it.

But I said, well, I'm planning to go walk around the world. And they just kind of, oh, okay. as he would. Okay, right. But for me, that was a moment in that I said it out loud. I put it out into the universe. You did. Yeah.

And then I thought, well, now I've got to do it. Like, this guy will remember it or care. Right. But for some reason, that triggered. Got to do it now. So I started pulling it together. And the thing is, I didn't have any money. I worked at the front desk of a hotel for $10 an hour.

And there was no prototype on how to do this. You don't go buy the book, how to. There's no coaching group. There's no, you know. So I had to, I remember reading books about people that had been in these sort of endurance situations. Usually accidentally, for example. I remember reading a book about this British couple that bought a sailboat upon retirement, sold everything in the house and everything and bought a sailboat and traveling around the world. And in the middle of the Pacific, they got hit by, I don't know what, I'll just make it up and say, a whale.

I don't know. But they got hit by something. Yeah. And they realized that they had 15 minutes to get off this boat. before it sinks. Oh, wow. And so they quickly took what they wet, put it into their dingy. Yeah.

And that included things like dental floss, because it's going to be their fishing wire, you know. Oh, wow. And the scissors and the, you know, just all survival gear. And they just kind of roamed aimlessly through the South Pacific for, I believe it was like five months. Five months. Don't quote me on that, but that's my memory of a book I read 25, 30 years ago. Sure. But they were saved by a Korean fishing vessel that happened to be then in that fishing lane,

and they were saved. And I thought, no matter how bad it gets for me, I will never be out floating aimlessly through the South Pacific, catching sea turtles with dental floss. So I am many steps ahead of this situation. And at the end of the day, all I need to do is, you know, worse gets to worst, flagged down a car because I'm going to be on roads and, you know, pay with a credit card for a hotel if I needed to.

Sure. Because I had those as emergencies. But, yeah, should I keep laughing? gathering or? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, keep going. You're planning. You're pulling it all together. No books, no how-toes. You knew you could do it. So what happened next? Well, I had my studying, because I've always been in shape. I've always worked out and I'm living at the base of Ville Mountain. So I'm working out every day. So to get in shape wasn't the question. The question was more about nutrition and diet and culture and mental toughness and what do I do when the inevitable

loneliness hits I had to get used to that idea definitely and as far as nutrition I'm entering different countries languages gestures good grief you know send the wrong gesture, which means one thing in one country and a completely opposite thing in another country. Boy, you better watch those. Wow. So. You had no knowledge of those prior to getting into those countries. Is that right? Or did you read about it?

I had a knowledge that existed, but it simply wasn't possible for me to learn everything. So what I did, and I don't know that it was a conscious decision, but I thought what happened was I would enter one country and learn. I learned the top 100 words and phrases you needed to know. Okay. So you needed to know the salutations. Hello, goodbye, thank you. But I also had to learn phrases like which way to fill in the blank. And I had left and right straight ahead how far to and understand the answers.

So you got to know numbers. You know, 12 miles up, take left. I need to know that. Oh, wow. Right. How much is it? Where's the bathroom? The obvious ones like that.

But I learned the simplest phrase, let's go. And oh, my goodness, that was such a hit with people because they'd come up and walk with me. And I'd learn, let's go. Let's go for a walk. And slow down, please. Because people thought that I'm some fast walker just because I'm walking. So I had to learn those terms. So if so many questions pop into my mind like, how did you plot your route?

What did you do when you came to the side of an ocean? How did you know which countries you were going to go through? How can you figure all this out? Yes. I'll back up again. So all that was the planning stages. And this is, what, 1997, 98, 99, I was planning. I can take you back technologically.

The world was just getting online. Yeah. We were just hearing about this thing called the internet. What does WWW mean? And, you know, people were getting emails and, you know, at the time, get a load of this. At that time, if you can remember back to the very, very first days of email and all that, your email was assigned to your computer. So you couldn't pick up your email anywhere on any computer.

I don't think that lasted. long, but I was like, how am I going to pick up email? And I remember the day, someone told me about Yahoo Mail. I must have been the first person ever to get Yahoo Mail, man. I got that. I saw this article. It was called a web-based email, so you can pick it up anywhere in the world from any computer. I was like, you shut up. What? I was like, oh, that's going to cost me an arm and a lag, will I be able to afford it? No, it's free. Say what? You shut up. Well, I get on right away. I still have that email today. That's great, yeah, which I got in the spring of 1999, so I still have that email. That's great. Yeah. So my timing when I think overall, because I was 37 when I left,

I mean, it was, the timing was stunning. Because I always knew even when I was 12 that I was, I had to be old enough to have the experience underneath my wings, so to speak, to take what the world was going to throw at me, know how to handle it, no how to make smart decisions, yet young enough to physically take the journey and what the world's going to throw at me. So apparently for me, that was the age of 37. But the timing was so good. When I now, all these years look back on that, I had cell phones. smartphones didn't exist yet. When I left, texting didn't exist yet. In fact, you couldn't even call overseas yet.

I went to great lengths. Remember Erickson phones? Erickson phones. We're going way back. At the time, Erickson was one of the big ones, Nokia and Erickson were the big one. And Erickson gave me an international phone. And it came in this big... I was going to say, how did you get that around?

Like a big suitcase. And so I didn't like set up a satellite. So it was for emergencies. I never used it. Because right when I got that and right then when my first overseas New Zealand, they were just starting to then you could make international calls on your cell phone. So I never actually used it, but I put a lot of energy into getting that sponsorship. So the timing again, these things were rolling out fast, you know, digital cameras.

cameras. Sure. And even digital cameras, when they started, they had that little itty-bitty chip in it. What was that called? I know what you're talking about. Yeah, it was an itty-bitty little chip. And it could take like 60 photos. And this was stunning development because we could only take 24 or 36. Remember you get a roll of film and it was 24 or 36. And so these little chips could take 30. And then you had to go to your computer and download your 60 photos. and then, you know, you could start your chip over again. Right. So that was very exciting.

So it was the very early days of technology. I had a little computer. I remember I mean, I think I got some, I don't know, computer magazine or whatever that was. And I did the research into the best laptop ever built, right? And I'm like, wow, it's only six pounds. and a two and a half hour battery life. This created number one in Toshiba. This was the number one computer.

I must have it. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And that was the best we had at the time. I really, I couldn't even take that with me. So I ended up getting this itty-bitty two-pound. It was by a Hewlett-Packard. What was that called?

And Jornata. that's what it wasn't H.P. Heleapacker Jordan. So it was like a little mini version. And the software it had was Microsoft Pocket Word and Pocket Excel, which meant it had Times Roman and Courier. And you could do 10-point font or 12-point font, you fancy girl. And you could bold and italicize. And that was it. That was it. Didn't have any of the fancy-pancy, but that was perfect for me. I just wanted to write on it. Yeah, I was going to say, how you journaled. Yeah, because it was like a 75% keyboard and it was super lighten. Right.

And the problem was it didn't have a hard drive. So you had to use those little chips that we used for the phones. And I'd have to stick that in there. And then send it by courier when it got filled because I'd have nightmare visions that. It would get lost. It would get rained out. Yeah, lost, forgotten, left behind, stolen. and whatever, and that's the journal of my life on the road.

Right. Yeah. And so did people along your journey know you were on your way? Yeah, here's what happened. So it took me three years to plan this. I had decided to do it for a cause, knowing that I had traveled before. And when you're just wandering aimlessly, you just, you know, it's not worth anything. You lose focus.

It's just not fun and it's annoying. Right. Yeah. So there had to be a cause. There had to be a passion involved. And I learned over the course of a year of thinking about what I should do this for. In the meantime, there was two aunts who had breast cancer. One died from it. One survived it. Very prominent community member had breast cancer. And I went to the doctor because it was so all around me. So I'm like, I'm supposed to get one of those, what are you called there? mammograms. I'm supposed to get one of those. The doctor says you don't need to get a mammogram because it doesn't run on your mother's side of the family. What do I know? I said, oh, fantastic, can't get breast cancer. And my friends at work really gave me hell about that. Of course you can get breast cancer. Every woman in the world is at risk for getting breast cancer and they really let me have it. Who told you this? How dare they tell you that? So I was walking home that night when I had my light bulb moment.

I thought that's what I'll do that walk for. Duh. Yeah. Breast cancer is in every nook and cranny around the world. It's just not in the big cities of America. So that's when I got serious about it. When the breast cancer cause got involved. And I quickly learned, too, that organizations don't sponsor a one person.

event. Okay. Well, they might give a product or a service, but they don't give money. So I was working about 100 hours a week just trying to save money to do what I need to do. Perfectly prepared to camp out every night in the middle of nowhere. And on August 1st, 1999, I headed west from Vale. And I walked to L.A., which took three months. and I had decided that in every country, I walk through, I work with the breast cancer organization in that country. The funds will stay in that country. I will spread the word that they want spread

because there's different health care organizations, different cultural sensitivities I need to be aware of, et cetera. So walking through a Muslim country, you know, you don't talk about self-breast exams. And this might be different in various countries, too, at this point, because this is now 20, 25 years ago that I was in some of these countries. But at the time, you couldn't walk through Muslim country and tell them to go see a doctor, because Muslim women will not go see a doctor.

So I had to be careful of that. So the big two turning points, because I know I don't got to be here all day, but the two big turning points in my walk were, one, when I hit New Zealand, no, Australia. So I went from L.A. down through New Zealand, up through Australia. When I hit Australia, I was pushing a little buggy. I named it Bob. Bob the buggy. Yeah, because Bob was the name of the company.

They made baby strollers and bike strollers. So they put their logo across the front. I naturally started calling him Bob. But, yeah, when I hit Australia, the fourth. day up the coast, I met this woman on the side of the road who said, what are you doing? And I told her what I was doing and where I was from, at which point she heard my funny accent and said, oh, son of a gun. Let me introduce myself. My name is Margaret, and I'm the president of the local Lions Club. The Lions Clubs have got to get involved with this. Come on home with me. So I followed

Margaret home with my Buggy Bob, and she called all of her Lions Club buddies. And they took me out to the pub because anyone who's been to Australia knows the culture, everything happens at the pub. Everyone from guys night out to girls night out to the wedding ceremonies to the children's birthday party and everything happens at

the pub. So they take me out to the pub and sure enough the whole town's there. And Margaret stood up on a stool and she announced to everybody, this is Polly and this is what she's doing and all the funds raised here, stay here and help Australian women. So let's Show her some Aussie spirit.

And she leaned over and she plucked the hat right off a guy's head. And she started passing this hat around. And, you know, it's nothing you can get a photo of. But I had this great vision in my head of people throwing money into this hat as this hat is floating through the pool hall and the dining hall and the bar and the dartboard competition. And it made its way around. And the bartender counted it all out and announced to everybody, we've just raised $340 for the Breast Cancer Network Australia.

Yay. That's cheering. And the next day, Margaret called the next Lions Club up the road. And they said, this is Polly, and this is what she's doing. Can you help her out? And they said, sure. And I walked up to the next town. And all the Lions Clubs were meeting me there with their gold vests.

And they took me to the pub and they passed a hat around. And that started a chain effect. What? Passing me village to village around the world. Oh my gosh, really? Yes. And while that is what happened, it's not quite as easy as it sounds because if you hit a weak link in that chain, the chain's broken. So I had to nurse that relationship and then it became more official.

But that was one of the big turning points is when the Lions Club got involved. And then I hit, let me see, it was about six months into my eight-month journey. Australia when I hit the Mackay North Lions Club and they invited me to become a member of their club. So that was awesome. What it meant for me is that I have a connection with the Lions Clubs officially now. So that was cool. Yeah. And they started reaching out ahead of time. Like they started reaching out to the Singapore and Malaysian Lions Clubs. Okay. And so that was one of the big turning points is getting their support.

Huge. And then, and of course, really up-leveled the breast cancer advocacy work as well as the fundraising. Yep. So that was a big game changer. And that went on well after I was gone out of Australia. For years, they had. an annual global walk for breast cancer day, which meant that the Lions Clubs across Australia, which was tens of thousands of members, were raising money for the beneficiary there,

which was the Breast Cancer Network Australian. So that went on for years. Wow. And the other big turning point was when 9-11 hit. I was in my first Muslim country. and that's when I mean loads of Lions clubs now the Rotary Clubs got involved as well and so when 9-11 struck yeah they all got involved and I asked them these the Lions Clubs and Rotary Clubs are so highly regarded in Southeast Asia so highly regarded that everybody listens to them even the president, even the politician.

Wow. I was getting so much press because now there are huge crowds with me every day walking. Wow. Okay, because they are so highly regarded. Okay. They said, everybody come out and walk. And so, yeah, that's, I mean, I was like Forrest Gump out there, just walking with crowds and crowds of people.

It was crazy. And, uh, I asked the Lions Clubs one morning. I was like, you know, 9-11 happened in the world is, you know, walking on egg shells saying what's going to happen, what is the U.S. going to do? And is the whole world going to war now, et cetera, right?

So it was a tricky time, and I'm in a moderate Muslim country that was treating me very, very well. I very did, very quickly had police escorts the entire way and at my hotel doors every night, which is one of the mysteries to this day. It's like, who ordered that? Lions Club say they didn't order that. I was not in touch yet with the American embassy because there hadn't been a reason to because I was surrounded by all these hovering caretakers. From that point on, I was in touch with the American embassies through

in suing Thailand and India and Turkey, etc. But at this point, I'd not been. Interesting. So that is one of the mysteries is where did that police escort order come from? Wow. Yeah. But I asked the Lions Club one morning right after 9-11, like first or second day, I said, could you guys help me contact the International Lions Club president

to ask if he would consider an international sponsorship? And they said, okay. And they met me for dinner and said, done deal. He loves the idea. So he wants your route and he's going to contact all the Lions Club's along the way. So those were the two big turning points. And then it took me a total of five years. It was one day shy of five years.

It was 14,1124 miles, 22 countries, and four continents that I walked across. And it took you one day shy of five years. years? Yeah. The reason I couldn't make it five years on the nose was because I started in Lionshead Village in Vail and they had a really big event going on the day that would have been five years. I was like, all right. I'll just finish the day before. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So now you're 42, Polly. And five years of your life. I mean, when you look back on that today, what does it mean to you? What does it mean to you? What does it conjure up? How do you grasp that? You did that. I always wonder how long it would take me to get back into that frame of mind and that comfort zone. Because it was such a

a part of my life that became such a comfort zone. Really? Interesting. Yeah. And now, of course, my world is much smaller as far as geographically. Sure. But I own things now and I have pets. And so that's my norm now. But I truly wonder if I would, if someone were to

kick me out on the road with a buggy, I could just carry on. I know I could. It's just, uh, the mystery of that has been solved. Yeah. I know how to do it. I know what to expect. Although I'll tell you, I have the occasional, meaning a handful of times a year, a nightmare, I wake up in a cold sweat, thinking, oh man, I forgot to walk across Wyoming. I'm not done yet. I have to walk across Wyoming. And of course, I don't have to walk across Wyoming, but that's the nightmare, is that in this dream, I'm planning my trip across Wyoming. Just Wyoming. I don't know what the heck it is about Wyoming, but I forgot to walk across Wyoming.

Yeah, it wasn't on your path from Colorado to Colorado. Have you ever had that dream where you wake up in a culture going, oh, I forgot to graduate from high school or something like that. things like that. Yeah. So everybody, what was it like when you walked into Lionsgate, you know, five years later? What was happening there when you walked in? Well, the festivities started about a month prior. It's quite obvious I'm making it at this point. Yeah. Friends were coming in and walking with me. Oh. I had a couple of friends with an RV who, um, You know, the woman would walk with me and the man was taking the RV to the next spot. And so I never had to worry about then where am I going to stay that night?

Sure. How am I going to eat and all that? And I didn't have to carry Bob the buggy. And so it was right through the Rocky Mountains. I think we walked up and over five passes in the last two weeks, you know. Yeah. The birth had passed and Loveland pass and Vaila pass. and we just kept going up and down and up and down.

Oh, man, right at the end. Yeah. But, well, of course, I was in tip-top shape at that point. And friends are calling and the media is calling. And I'm going to make it at this point. Of course. So then, you know, what's funny is someone came up to me after my walk was complete. And she said, I have to tell you that I was sitting behind you,

in the booth behind you at a restaurant before you left. left and I heard you talking to a friend about your walk. And you said that you had a fantasy of having the last night of your walk to have a celebration up at the top of Ville Pass. The top of Ville Pass for those who don't know, there is a set of three different cabins that you can rent out, right? They're bones basic. And so nothing fancy at all. But that's where people snow shoe into and cross-country ski into and stay the night. It's those kinds of happens.

And then it's about 13 miles into town from there, all downhill. And so she said, I heard you talking about that. And so I just thought I'd bring that up and say, someone heard you say that dream out loud. I was like, well, son of a gun, because I remember saying that to a friend. And that's what happened. So you have to book these cabins well in advance. So I was finishing on, I think it was July 31st, then 2004, but it was January 1st. The minute those reservations were open, I was on, I was like, I want rent all those cabins for these two nights, right?

29th and 30th of July. They're like, wow, you plan in advance. So I had to plan that I might be held back for a week maybe, or, you know, it's hard to plan to be exactly there. at that date six months in advance. Right, exactly. But I did. So, all friends and family, the instructions were, here's the exit. Bring food, bring water. There's 13 beds and plenty of room on the floor.

So come one, come all. And they did. And that was the last night. And then a bunch of us walked in together. So it's not as if I was plucked out of India and dropped into veil. I had a year and a half to get used to the American culture again. And I had it planned.

The thing is that you're at such an altitude. I think that was 11,000 plus feet altitude and the anxiousness and meeting all the people that are, you know, friends I hadn't seen for years and all the rest of it. So there wasn't much sleeping. I was wondering about all the same. So I was really getting dizzy that last, that last day I was getting to sit down for a minute. I need to eat something. So I was like, oh, God, am I going to faint?

Like, you know, oh, she almost made it. She painted right before she got there. He paints 100 yards in the finish line. But, yeah, and then more people gathered when there was just a mile left. And, yeah. Do you know if you've inspired. other people to do something as remarkable? Yeah, because they contact me and, you know, I've sort of become unbeknownst to me,

the matriarch of the long-distance walker. Someone just sent me an article about another woman who finished. And they're like, do you know anything about this? I'm like, I don't. I must reach out to her. Right. You know, how often does that happen? But, yeah, and when people reach out, I try very hard, of course, not to give advice.

not necessarily asking advice, you know? And even if they do, I'll give them very little. Yeah. You know, just my one piece of advice to people doing this is, or something like this anyway, is take every single opportunity that you can to not be stupid. You know, these people that go hiking near the North Korean border, it's like just, you're stupid. Yeah. You don't have to be stupid. You can have plenty of adventure and open your mind and other ways. You don't have to go walk the, you know, Iranian border. Right. Exactly. So, yeah, that's my advice. And so you've transitioned. The occasional text. Okay. Yeah. So you've transitioned obviously since then to, like you said,

I own stuff and I have pets. So after you got back, how did you decide? I mean, you wrote your book, of course, and you got a DVD, both of which I read and watched. But yet there's something to making money to live on after you get back. And so tell me just in a little bit here so we don't run over your time, what that looks like or looked like for you. Yeah, it's a good question because when I got back, it took me five years to walk around the world and then six years to write the book about it. And I don't want to pretend that big publishers were throwing themselves at me.

They were not. However, I was talking to two of them. And when I finished the manuscript, they both said, but we need some romance in it. Well, there wasn't any. So do you want to, me to make something up? And they kind of giggled and say, well, there's literary license. I was like, well, okay. Now, I had promised myself when I sat down to really tell the story that I wanted to tell a very honest, vulnerable story, meaning I'm going to talk about when I don't look good, okay?

When I overreacted, made the wrong decisions, lost my patience. You've got to write an honest story. So I was like, oh, that is not good. So I decided I really didn't want to go that route because I'm writing one damn book. Yeah. Right book. And I want to do it as good as I can. And so I'm not going to make stuff up.

When I look back at that now, I think that was the era of the E. Ray Love and Sarah is Elizabeth Gilbert. Yeah. And so I think they were trying to mimic that best-selling genre. Yeah. Yeah. This isn't that. There's plenty of memoirs without romance, for God's sakes.

But I think that's what they were going after. Oh, geez. I think my timing was bad. Anyway, so I thought, well, there was this thing called self-publishing, but those books just didn't look good. And then I found this thing called hybrid or partner publishing. Okay, so they have the knowledge.

I have the story. Let's join together, and we split the royalties. And so I found a woman that did that. I know now, please, Lord, if anyone's hearing me now, please don't do that. Please don't do that. worst mistake of my life. Someone essentially hijacked my story.

Now, there are bad decisions, and then there's other people ripping you off. And I think there was a little bit of both in my bad decision. Okay. First of all, I learned that publishing contracts are a one-way street. Okay. There's no exit date. So this relationship we have goes on forever.

Like a marriage where you sign on. and there's no getting off it unless there's attorneys and crying and a lot of money involved. So I made that horrible, horrible mistake. And so everyone told me about copyrights. You've got to have your copyrights. I'm like, okay, so I asked if I could keep my copyright. She says, yes. I was like, well, that was easy.

What no one tells you about because they don't know about is all the other rights, the biggest one being sales and distribution rights, which mean that all the sales go through them and you share the royalties, you get your check every six months, only if your royalties add up to $75 or more. Otherwise, you have to pay to get your royalty check. And in today's world, you don't have to do that, but I'm jumping ahead. So then I thought, I was like, I have to get out of this horrible contract relationship. I made a horrible mistake. And I was like, well, one of my options now, this self-publishing. Ugh.

So I see this ad about the self-publishing course over a weekend that wasn't too far from me. So I walked in there, annoyed at the world, and that this is what it's come down to. And I sat in the back with my arms folded and an attitude on my face. Like, prove it. And they did. Like right away. What I heard was going on was that the big publishing houses, this is now around 2009, 10, 11, right in there. And so self-publishing was starting to like really make a name for itself.

Not the first self-publishing books that I had seen in 2008, seven, that kind of thing. Way, they were still pretty bad. But anyway, they were telling me in this class that, the big publishing houses were downsizing and going out of business and merging. Therefore, all the people that worked in that industry were flooding into the self-publishing world. The editors, cover designers, layout designers, all these professionals that have come from that world are now in the freelance world of self-publishing. So I'm like, so do you mean that I could put out a book just as good as a New York Times bestseller? It looks good. It has proper editing.

I'm on it. So I did the deep dive into that. My attorney, actually, how I got out of that deal, I didn't really get out of it. The attorney says, we've tried to send her a certified email to just, like, cut ties and take care of it. And she's not answering. So your choices are to either run for your life or work things out. I ran for my life, thinking, well, what are you going to get? I don't own anything.

I have two cats, and I double dog dairy it. I'm after them. Bring it. So I self-published my own book under a publishing company that I just started. And then it's gone on to do pretty well. And I learned all the horrible lessons and watched as people were making the same stupid, dangerous, expensive mistakes that I was making. So one day, I'm sitting at Panera.

And I know you've heard the cliche story. Promise it was real. I started brainstorming like, well, there's got to be a way for authors to be protected. And I thought, oh, I guess that's me. And I pulled out a napkin. I didn't have a pen. I was like, can I grow a pen? And I just started writing down what people hate about the publishing world and I'll do the opposite.

Right? I don't know what that meant, but I was going to do the opposite. I set up a model to just help people. So what do people hate about the publishing world? They hate that you have to be in a contract with a one-way street. They hate that the publisher gets so much in royalties. And they hate that there is not an exit opportunity. In the event, we don't get along.

In the event, the publisher doesn't do what they say they're going to do, et cetera. Then instead of the publisher having the final say called final edit, the author would. So I put together this new plan. And now I have the right people in place. I'm hanging out with the right crowd. It's like, okay, I like these editors. I don't like those. And I'm going to say, you know, don't work with those people.

I, you know, at this point, I don't care because people were saying, oh, yeah, she's good. No, she wasn't. And they would tell me afterwards. Oh. Yeah. She was kind of, why wouldn't you tell me? Yeah. So they have to, people that work with us now have to go through a whole vetted process.

And there's, you know, I don't know, proper hiring anyway. For sure. So eventually, people started calling me and I started helping them. And I was putting together my system. And this woman named Barbara Oliverio called me through a friend. I understand you could help me self-publish. I said, yeah, you know what? I got a proposal for you. Meet me over here at the Panera. She says, okay. I said, listen, here's my story. This is what happened. And now I've self-published my own book and now my mother's book. And I want to start a company. where I manage an author's project, but I take no ownership. Would you be my first beta test girl?

She says, yeah, sure. That book went on to win two national awards and become a movie at the Hallmark Channel. So we were off to a roaring start. My timing was perfect as I just, the self-publishing world was getting ready to explode. My word publishing opened in the fall of 2012. And to date, we've done over a thousand books and have four consultants, publishing coaches and about 40 editors. And yeah, we do it differently.

And then we customize your project. You get the final say. We don't do contracts. We just do agreements with the understanding you can get out. But we can get out too. You start abusing anyone on our team, your history. Yep. And P.S., you don't get your money back.

Right. You treat people. We're helping you. Yeah. So, and that's happened twice in a thousand books. So I don't mean to scare people. But yeah, that's happened. And one, frankly, is in jail.

Not because of what they did to us. But we don't know why he's in jail, actually. I can only assume. Yeah. But it was not the right character. I've been on those front line jobs enough that I see the abuse that they take. And I'm like, if I ever own a business, I'm not going to take that. Well, of course, you take.

your hits, but, you know, you start abusing and threatening and all this. So that's the model that we have is that we're managing your project, doing everything a publisher does, but we have no ownership you pay us to do what we do. Yeah. And so we, in September 2022, we were submitted into the U.S. congressional record for being a new model of publishing that helps protect authors. Wow. And last spring, spring of 2024, so it's been a year.

we were awarded the, gosh, what's it called the Global Recognition Award for Small Businesses worldwide. Wow, congratulations. Yeah. So it worked, and that's how you bridge a walk around the world to owning a publishing company. That's how it's done. I love the story. That's great. Wow.

Well, thanks. Wow. I am overwhelmed at all that I've learned today, but it's been so exciting and I can't wait to share it. So there may be listeners who want to do what you, you know, have you helped them with what they want to do? Because what did you say, 1% of all people who want to write a book actually write the book? Yeah, yeah. It's 0.083%. So if 81% of people want to write a book, how many actually do?

There's a percentage that start and don't finish. and there's, you know, all that. But the amount of people that do our point. 08%. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. Well, if they want to, you're the woman to reach out to, let me tell you that.

So how do people get in touch with you? Mywordpublishing.com. You can take a look at our website and our endorsements and services and things like that. there's also my book called Three Miles per Hour The Adventures of One Woman's Walk Around the World and great read

thanks yeah love it all right my dear well this has been fabulous thank you so much for joining us thanks for your time and is there anything else you want to share before we sign off

I want to make an offer that if someone wants to publish a book, if you get offered a deal, and this has nothing to do with me pimping my word publishing, it's me protecting authors. If you want me to review a contract, I will do it because you don't know what you don't know. That's right. And what you should be negotiating, what you shouldn't put up with, or what's a good deal. And I want you to know that. that is nothing to do at all, just forget that I do what I do.

Right. And let me review that contract and keep you safe. So you'd reach out P-O-L-L-Y at mywordpublishing.com. That's amazing. That's a wonderful offer. And many should take heed. I'll tell you that. There's a lot out there that we don't know, we don't know, no matter what it is.

And this is huge. There are three different organizations out there. that are trying to give awareness to crooked publishing organizations. It's an industry that can be a hot mess. And so there are some of us that are protecting people as well. So there's three organizations and then me. I guess that sounds like that, but at least let me do my part then. Right.

Wow. Well, this has been wonderful. Thank you, Polly. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you bet. Good way to start the day. It is. Thanks, honey.

Thanks so much for joining us for the Inspired Impact Podcast. To listen to past episodes, please visit theinspiredimpactpodcast.com.