The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Some of It Was Real by Nan Fischer

Episode Date: July 3, 2022

Some of It Was Real by Nan Fischer A psychic on the verge of stardom who isn’t sure she believes in herself and a cynical journalist with one last chance at redemption are brought together by secrets from the past that also threaten to tear them apart. Psychic-medium Sylvie Young starts every show with her origin story, telling the audience how she discovered her abilities. But she leaves out a lot—the plane crash that killed her parents, an estranged adoptive family who tend orchards in rainy Oregon, panic attacks, and the fact that her agent insists she research some clients to ensure success. After a catastrophic reporting error, Thomas Holmes’s next story at the L.A. Times may be his last, but he’s got a great personal pitch. “Grief vampires” like Sylvie who prey upon the loved ones of the deceased have bankrupted his mother. He’s dead set on using his last-chance article to expose Sylvie as a conniving fraud and resurrect his career. When Sylvie and Thomas collide, a game of cat and mouse ensues, but the secrets they’re keeping from each other are nothing compared to the mysteries and lies they unearth about Sylvie’s past. Searching for the truth might destroy them both—but it’s the only way to find out what’s real.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. The Chris Voss Show.com.

Hey, we certainly appreciate you guys coming by the show. I hope you're all strapped in, as the announcer radio guy says at the beginning of the show. I don't know why you'd want to be strapped in. I have this picture in my head of everyone sitting in their office chairs, not doing their work today, and they're just, like, putting on a seatbelt. Like, is that a thing? They probably have those at work, too, but they're probably more like the strap-in at work is probably more like you're locked down to your desk on some medieval sort of torture chamber.

It's like, do your work, and your boss is whipping the chain or something. I don't know. I've created just a whole thing that goes on. Clearly, I'm self-employed and don't go into the office. Anyway, guys, thanks for tuning in. I don't know what that round was about, but we improvised the B-Mirror show, so there you go. Have fun with that.

I've just created just an imagination of horror in people's minds. Like, why did I tune in today? Hi, folks. Chris Voss here with a little station break. Hope you're enjoying the show so far. We'll resume here in a second. I'd like to invite you to come to my coaching, speaking, and training courses website. You can also see our new podcast over there at chrisvossleadershipinstitute.com.

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We certainly appreciate you listening to the show and be sure to check out Chris Voss Leadership Institute dot com. Now back to the show. Anyway, guys, we have, of course, an amazing, brilliant multi-book author on the show. But in the meantime, go to YouTube.com, Fortress Chris Voss. Hit the bell notification button. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortress Chris Voss. Go to all our groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, the big LinkedIn group,

the LinkedIn newsletter, and all those fun places. Go also to my consulting speaking website, Chris Voss, LeadershipInstitute.com. Today, our amazing author that we have on the show, Nan Fisher is with us today. She's a multi-book author. We'll find out how many here in a bit. She has a new book coming out, a novel on July 26, 2022. Wait, it was just January yesterday. Why is it July now?

I don't know. The new book is called Some of It Was Real. And she's going to be talking about that book and everything that goes into the book and what her thoughts are. And we're going to be talking about what we should be doing to read that book. So let's get into her bio here, which I have lost. And she is the author of Some of it was real but berkeley publishing coming out july 2022 and the young adult novels when elephants fly and the speed of falling objects additionally author credits include junior jedi knights from the star wars

series there a middle grade star Wars trilogy for Lucasfilm, and she co-authored sports autobiographies for elite athletes, including number one ranked tennis superstar Monica Sellers and a triple crown race winning jockey Julie Crome, Olympic gold medal skaters, legendary gymnastics coaches, and Olympic gold medal gymnasts. Welcome to the show, Nan. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me.

Awesome, Sauce. I'm looking through your awards list here that are in your bio, and it is amazing all the awards you have. You've just killed it when it comes to doing books. How many books do you have? I have 11 out, and I think the next one, some of this real, will be my 12th. 12th. 12 books. Oh, my gosh. That's awesome sauce.

So give us your dot coms, wherever you want people to find you on the interwebs and get to know you better. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at nanfisher, F-I-S-C-H-E-R, author, and nanfisherauthor.com is my website. There you go. So what motivated you on to write this book?

Well, I am obsessed with psychics. First of all, I find what they do incredibly fascinating, and I've had some experiences with psychics in my life that have stayed with me. I'm also interested in imposter syndrome. Do you know what that is? Yes, I do. We've had one. Yes, it's a big one. I think we all suffer at times from a crisis of confidence and right now I'm having one being on your radio show. You're fine. And I'm also really interested in origin stories, which are the stories that we are told from our childhood, the memories we have

from childhood, and sometimes even the lies we're told that we use to define who we are in life. And if your origin story is faulty, then you don't have the opportunity to live an authentic life. That's true. That's true. My engine story was, let's see, I was born, I don't know, I can't come up with anything. Trying to come up with something funny. It's Friday today and I didn't have a podcast, so I'm off my game yesterday. So like I get, you give me a day off and my brain goes, woo goes so uh give us an overall arcing story uh line you know at least uh overall arcing of the uh book well without giving anything away some of it was real it's about a psychic named sylvie who is on the verge of stardom but

is unsure of her gifts and a journalist named Thomas who has one last chance at redemption if he can prove that Sylvie's a fraud. So he sets a trap for Sylvie and she falls into it and he gives her an opportunity to prove she's the real deal by spending a week with him before his expose is published where she's not allowed to research her audience members before her next show. So they play this game of cat and mouse during the week, but discover a very dark secret from Sylvie's past. And if they can figure out what that secret is, they have the opportunity to live more authentically. If they can't, it may destroy their lives unless they can figure out what's real. Ah, now there's two people holding hands on the cover of the book.

Do they have a romantic relationship, those two individuals? Definitely. Sylvia and Thomas definitely have a romantic relationship, but much of the book is about a game of cat and mouse where they're forcing each other to question their origin stories to face their own imposter syndrome and to they're giving each other the opportunity to live an authentic life whether or not they end up together in the end of the book. Do they start out together, or is this something that evolves in their cat and mouse? They definitely don't start out together. Sylvie is fighting for her life. She's fighting for her identity because Thomas is basically trying to prove she's a fraud and ruin her career. Thomas is fighting for he's had some missteps in his journalism career. And this is his last chance with the L.A. Times to write an expose before he's going to be demoted to obituaries.

And he decides he's going to basically out her in his in initially. Yes. Given his past, his mother is basically a victim of grief vampires, which is what he calls psychics, because they prey on people's grief. And so he has skin in the game. He really wants to prove that psychics aren't real at all. So what made you choose the structure of this? I mean, you mentioned earlier that you like psychics. Do you believe in psychics, or have you just kind of been always interested in them?

I'm curious if you believe in psychics. There's a joke here somewhere about, I knew you'd say that, or something else. I'm not sure that I do. Let's put it that way. But I believe there's people in Tudor, but I've watched a lot of different things. Penn and Teller, I think. So I'm not really sure, but I respect anyone's opinion if they believe in psychics. I have lots of friends who believe in religion, too.

So I'm an atheist. Right. Well, I don't know what I believe. And I don't think that when you read this book that you need to believe in psychics. But when I was in my early 20s, I was on a flight from Denver to Aspen. And it's called the Vomit Comet because the mountain air is really turbulent. And so whenever I would take that flight, I would look for the barf bag in the front of my seat. And I would take it and then I would turn to the person next to me and I would apologize before the flight took off because I have a weak stomach. And so I turned to this one woman,

she was this elegant gray haired lady and I apologized and she asked for my palm. And for the next hour, she read my palm. And at the end of the flight, it turned out she was a really well-known psychic who was going to a glitzy party in Aspen to read people's palms. And at the end of the flight, I asked her if I was ever going to get married. And she said, if you wanted enough. And that just stuck with me throughout my entire life, because here was this famous psychic who was telling me I had control of my destiny. And I think that's kind of the gift that some psychics can give people. They can both alleviate their grief, but they can also give them ownership of their own life.

And what she said to me changed the course of my life. I was a ski bomb in Aspen after having worked for Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in my life. And she made me question what I really wanted and gave me ownership of my life. And I left Aspen and I moved to San Francisco and I tried on a lot of different jobs. I was a grant writer for UCSF. I wrote Star Wars books. I wrote sport autobiographies and it led me on the path to discover what I really, really wanted, which is actually where I am now, writing adult fiction. Awesome. I mean, it's interesting the journey that we go on in life. And that's one of the

things I love about the show is seeing how people, you know, navigate their journey of life. Because it's a wilderness of mirrors. It's an interesting thing that people go on, and I'm always curious as to why people choose what they do. Yeah, it's interesting. So you spent a lot of time studying psychics for the book? I did. I read a ton about psychics. I watched a lot of documentaries and fun TV shows like Tyler Henry's show. And there's a YouTube show called Seatbelt Psychic. And what I discovered through that is whether you believe in what a psychic does or not,

it doesn't really matter. Like all these people are looking for closure. They're looking to alleviate their grief. And, you know, some people do that through religion. Some people do that through adrenaline sports. You know, everybody has a way to do that. But what these people provide is another way for people to get through and move on in their lives. So I started out writing this book not knowing what I believed. And I realized by the time I'd finished that it doesn't matter what you believe. What matters is the gift that people can give other people.

That's true. A lot of people, you know, a lot of people embrace a lot of things to get through life and kind of lay their, you know, different fears or insecurities or, you know, and I think you're right. It helps people get empowered and stuff. And so would you call this a romantic book as well? Because, I mean, they kind of end up in a relationship together. I would call it more of a mystery with lots of twists and turns and a page turner. So when I was a kid, my parents, before I could read, used to read a chapter out of a Dickens novel to us every night before bed. And what people don't know about Charles Dickens is that he started by writing for newspapers, and every chapter that was published was a cliffhanger so that you would buy the next newspaper. And so that's what I try and do in my writing.

Every chapter, I want people to want to turn the next page. So more than anything, I would say some of it was really is a page turner with some interesting twists, but that also leaves you questioning your own origin story and realizing that even if your origin story is true, you can still be the architect of your life. You can still be the hero of your life's journey and make decisions regardless of your past and what created you. Do you think it creates a good lesson for that where you, you know, you, a lot of people have, you know, weird origin stories, you know, maybe their origin story is more from their ego and how, what their ego maintains is their PR presence as opposed to, you know, what really happened.

Like me, I was raised as a, you know, a son of a Arabian King and, and whatever, but we all know that's BS. Uh, the, uh, but you know, I, I don't know what that, but, but, uh, do you, do you think it's a good, uh, I don't know, allegory or some sort of a good way to show people that maybe you should check your sex on your own origin story? I think so. I think we go through life sometimes allowing life to happen to us. And I think that as far as I know, you only get one opportunity. So taking control of your narrative is super important. You know,

I, my origin story is obviously everyone, like everyone's, it's, it's a lot of different things. But one thing for me in my childhood was I had someone who said to me a lot, I love you, but I don't like you. And I grew up, you know, for some people that would just be a throwaway. For me, I'm a sensitive person. And like, I grew up really, truly believing I wasn't likable. Yeah. And at some point in my life, I just took ownership and said, that's not going to define who I am in the future. If you go through life trying to be likable it's really difficult and i think i spent most of my 20s trying to be likable i still want you to like me but um but it's but it's not how i define myself i understand that that's a belief set that i have and that's part of my origin story

but that happened as a child seen through the lens of a child. And you get to decide as an adult how to look at those experiences and then how to move past them. So I guess I do hope that this novel makes people look at their own lives and decide who they want to be. So we're excited to announce my new book is coming out. It's called Beacons of Leadership, Inspiring Lessons of Success in Business and Innovation. It's going to be coming out on October 5th, 2021. And I'm really excited for you to get a chance to read this book. It's filled with a multitude of my insightful stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character.

I give you some of the secrets from my CEO Entrepreneur Toolbox that I use to scale my business success, innovate, and build a multitude of companies. I've been a CEO for, what is it, like 33, 35 years now. We talk about leadership, the importance of leadership, how to become a great leader,

and how anyone can become a great leader as well. Or order the book where refined books are sold. There you go. You know, my parents told me they liked me, but they didn't love me. Oh, that's even worse. Get the hell out of our house as soon as possible. Right. Yeah, they weren't that bad. It was close, though.

I don't know. My dad, I don't know. Sometimes he'd look at me funny and be like, I know my mom used to say, I wish I had more daughters because you boys suck. Something to that effect. But I can blame her. We were awful children too.

I doubt that. Well, we were trouble. Me and my brother were trouble. We would come up with stuff to drive my mom completely insane on purpose. And so, I mean, we earned some of the crap we got. But I don't know. We're just boys, really. Right.

That's your job, pushing boundaries as a kid. Yeah. I mean, you got to, I mean, if there's something to do around the house, piss off mom. I mean, it's fun. We used to play this game with mom where we would, she'd be in the kitchen or something cooking and we would go in and start picking at her or try and figure out something to say that would set her off. And we knew there was kind of a few things that would, that always set her off. And then what we would do is we'd get in a runner's kind of stance, sort of readiness. And the game was to see how close we could get to mom, be able to piss her off to where she'd start chasing us with whatever sort of wooden handle, spatula or whatever she had in her hand,

and to see if we could get away and not get beaten. And the game became, after time, a matter of distance where, okay, well, five feet, four feet. And then, of course, when we lost that game, you knew that four feet was too close to piss off mom that you had to figure out the game was to see how, how close you get to mom and still be able to outrun her without getting a severe beating. You probably got faster too, I would imagine. We did. There was probably, I mean, maybe I, maybe I missed my calling as a track star or something. There you go. Something there with your mom. uh yeah because we are we were we're something else's kids um but back to your book uh so pissing off mom your next book um yeah how to survive anyway um so a lot of

psychic stuff a romantic story between the two um and then I guess there's probably some real tension over the publishing of the story because, I mean, if you're going to get romantically involved in someone, it's probably best not to be publishing stories about them, right? Yes, there is a definite conflict of interest, not only with Thomas getting involved with Sylvie, but also with what Thomas believes. He's a very logical, color-in-the-lines kind of person. But getting pushed by Sylvie allows him to broaden his horizons. He still may not believe, but he opens himself up to the possibilities.

But yes, it provides a huge conflict of interest and gives Sylvie the opportunity to kill his story. So you have to wonder, is she really interested in him? Is she trying to create a situation where she regains hand? So you have to decide as the reader what's actually real in the story. Is there any twists at the end? Yes. Ah. There is.

Definite twists. Definite twist. Definite twist. Okay. Well, that sounds like it. Have I hooked you yet? I hope so. Yeah, that's the hook, right? It just went right in and got me.

Right. Anything more you want to tease out about the book? Was there any characters, maybe Hollywood characters you thought of as you were writing it, or people in your life or yourself that you thought of as you were writing it or people in your life or yourself that you thought of when you're writing it? Well, I think all authors imagine what actors or actresses would play the parts of their characters. But more than anything, I mean, I think I could see Zendaya as Sylvie for sure. But, you know, more than anything, I just want people to read the story and come away with the fact that it's a my dad used to always say when he finished a book he loved, that was a great yarn well told. And that is a great yarn well told something people fly through, love reading, and that makes them think a little at the end and and comes back to them at different times

in their life yeah it's it's uh you know it's always an adventure people love these sort of books and they love romance they love uh complex stories and stuff do you see it uh uh ever becoming something you see on the big screen or maybe TV? I mean, I think everyone hopes for that. And every time I write something, I see it first as kind of a movie in my mind. But that's, you know, lightning in a bottle and kind of like winning the book lottery. I just want people to go out and hopefully pre-order and buy it and enjoy it and, and follow me and, and be excited to read. I have another book coming out with Berkeley, um, in August, 2023.

So my, my hope is that, that people like what I write enough that I get to keep doing this, this gig. Cause it's really fun to sit and imagine. And do you want to know what the next one's about yeah sure tease us out um well it's uh it doesn't have a title yet because i'm terrible at titles so i depend upon my agent and and the publishing house to help i always i give so many titles like and and no titles in all the books that i've ever written have actually none of my titles have actually been chosen,

which is fine. I'd rather write 500 pages than come up with a three-word title. I find writing the novel much easier. But this next book is about this woman named Constance, who just desperately wants safety and love in her life. And she is dating a man who she is kind of doesn't really know that well, is kind of unsure of. But when he proposes, she says yes, because she wants to be married and she wants the happily ever after. He gives her an antique engagement ring. And in the process of researching that ring, she discovers that the long dead man who created the ring was an American ambulance driver in World War I. And he wrote letters home from the war. And those letters had been compiled into a book. So Constance goes to the library to read those letters.

And she senses a kindred spirit. And so on a whim, she writes a note to this long dead man, um, telling him about her fears about getting married. And she returns to the library to read more letters and discovers that this long deceased man has written her back. And that's the beginning of the story. Wow. Whoa. The hair on my neck just kind of stood up there. Oh, good what i want that's the reaction i want i just kind of went uh so there you go there you go well it's been wonderful to have you on the show we really appreciate it and uh give us your dot com so people can find you on the interwebs sure um instagram at nan fisher author f-i-s-c-H-E-R, and my website is nanfisherauthor.com.

There you go. And thank you very much for coming on. We really appreciate it. You've been a wonderful guest today. Oh, thank you so much. I love your show, and it was really wonderful to be here today. Thank you very much. So, folks, order up the book.

You can preorder it now. Wherever fine books are sold at fine bookstores, but don't go to those alleyway bookstores because they're dangerous. You can pre-order it now wherever fine bookstores are, wherever fine books are sold at fine bookstores, but don't go to those alleyway bookstores because they're dangerous. You might need a tetanus shot if you go into one or you might get stabbed. So don't go into the alleyway bookstores. Only go to fine bookstores. Order it up. It's going to be available July 26, 2022. The book is called Some of It Was real and sounds like you're going to really love it. And there's a good spin at the end.

So definitely pick it up, pre-order it now. So you'd be the first one on your block to take and say you read it. Go to youtube.com. Fortune has Chris Voss. It, uh, everything over there with the bell notification button,

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that the show is at. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to be good to each other. Stay safe, and we'll see you guys next time.