This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil - 067 / Tell Your Damn Story with Sara Connell

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Our stories have been swept aside by history, society, religion and culture for far too long, but in order to have an impact they MUST be heard, and in order to be heard they MUST be told. I am joined by Sara Connell - Founder of The Thought Leader Academy, where she helps coaches, writers and entrepreneurs become published authors, and in-demand speakers. A best selling author herself, Sara has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The View, The Today Show, and featured in The New York Times, Forbes, NPR, and so many others. Sara shares with us how to make sure our stories get told, and how to take them to the next level. Your story is not meant to stay hidden. Whether you share it with the world or one person you love, it IS meant to be shared. How will you share it? Who will you tell it to? Who gets to be both a witness and a benefactor of YOUR truth? This, the telling of your story...This Is Woman’s Work. To learn more about Sara Connell please visit: www.saraconnell.com To get free access to Sara’s How To Write A Best Selling Book That Changes Lives Masterclass please visit: https://saraconnell.mykajabi.com/writeyourbookmasterclass To learn more about what we are up to outside of this podcast, visit us at NicoleKalil.com

I've participated in many masterminds, study groups, and coaching opportunities, and I'm telling you that the Honor Your Ambition 12-week mastermind takes the best of all of these experiences and puts them in one amazing package. You want to build your business acumen? We've got you covered. Looking for implementable tools and tactics to achieve your professional goals? You got it. Interested in connecting with other women to be real about the hard parts, but also to encourage, brainstorm, and challenge each other? Well, we have a tribe for you.

To be part of this movement of celebrating ambitious women, follow us on Instagram at honoryourambition or go to honoryourambition.com and get yourself registered for an upcoming mastermind. When the world tells you you shouldn't, but your heart tells you you should, always honor your ambition. I've been thinking a lot about stories lately. Their impact, the tingly feeling I get when I hear a good one, their ability to bring home a point, create conversation, change perspectives, and make people laugh, cry, and feel. But I've also been thinking about how many stories go

untold, unshared, unheard, and what a loss that is, especially the stories of women. Are you telling your story? Or are you thinking my story isn't worthy of being told? It's not special or big enough. Or I'm afraid to tell my story. What if nobody listens or if they don't like, believe, or care about it? What if I face criticism and judgment? Or I don't know how to, I don't know where to start or how to best communicate it. Whether it's through a large venue like a TED Talk, an onstage book or a podcast, or a more intimate venue like sharing your truth with a loved one, friends, or even a trusted colleague, your story does matter and it's begging to be shared.

I am Nicole Khalil and on today's show, Sarah Connell is going to share her experience on how we take our stories to those larger venues. But even if public speaking or authoring a book isn't on your bucket list, I hope you listen for ways and opportunities for you to tell your story. Sarah is the founder of the Thought Leader Academy, where she helps coaches, writers, and entrepreneurs become published authors and in-demand speakers. A best-selling author herself, Sarah has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The View, The Today Show, as well as being featured in the New York Times, Forbes, NPR, and so many others. And she's going to help us make sure our stories get told. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today. This is a fun topic. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, my pleasure. Okay. So why are our stories important? Why is a story important? Why is it so powerful? Yeah, I'm tingling. Like you were saying, I think just to be able to talk about story, right? Because it is my sort of mission, life's work to share stories, help others share their stories. And what's fascinating is neuroscience has now even proven, many of you might be familiar with different research that's come out over the last few years, that our brains are wired to heal, transform, learn, expand, grow through story. It's almost like after water and food and it's a base Maslow need, right? It's not on the chart, but there is a way in which our psyches, our subconscious, conscious minds crave story for all the things. And it's interesting,

not just to heal from tragedies, traumas, difficulties, challenges, but to become more of who we're here to be. So there's this really interesting dynamic with the human self and story that's, you know, I think been around since we evolved, right? I, you know, we hear about, you know, probably in the caves of Lascaux, people were telling stories, they were certainly drawing stories on the cave walls, right? So early forms of story, oral and artistic. So, I mean, why are they important? Because for whatever reason, our brains respond to challenges and opportunities, like we need we need guidance. We need examples. And the best way instead of, I mean, we can probably all, you know, think about this. If

someone comes to us and just gives us a bunch of advice, you know what you should do, you know, and dah, dah, dah. It's like, there's a part of us that just rebels, right? We don't want it. I don't, you know, don't tell me what to do, right? Even little kids say that, don't tell me what to do. And, and yet when someone tells us a story, there's this lean in, right? It's like, oh, there's some part of us that drops out of the head, the defenses, goes into the soul, goes into the heart and opens up like, I'm going to learn something. Because we were told stories when we were very young. So why is it important?

Because it opens doors to all those big things in life. You hit so many important things in there. And I'm glad you mentioned the brain science. I, you know, I think, and we're going to talk about this in a minute. I think you and I can both relate to certain stories, literally, literally changing the trajectory of our lives or changing the way you see something or what have you. And I think, you know, sometimes I thought it was just me that had that experience, but the brain science part of it makes it very clear that this is super important. I also think it makes us feel less alone when we hear stories. Yeah. Brene Brown said the most important words in any language, I think the four words, right? You are not alone. And a story is evidence. It's again,

it's, you know, it's the same thing. Like if a parent says, oh, I know you're going through this, but it's okay. I went through it. There's a piece that's like, okay, but, and yet if someone tells us a story, you know, this one time I was 15 and my friends were all stealing stuff from the mall. And I had this, I mean, that's a whole different experience of being told a story to know you're not alone versus someone just saying you're not alone. The show versus tell thing that we talk about in writing. Yeah. So, okay.

You have said that a single book saved your life. Wow. I can relate, as I mentioned. Tell us about that. How did that happen? Yeah. And it's so wild because I didn't know this is what I would be doing, right? I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I never knew I was going to have the privilege of coaching other

people and helping other stories come into the world. And I go back, let's say we go back 17 years really from here. I'm working at my first job at an advertising agency. It was really toxic, very much in the pre-Me Too environment. There was horrific, almost daily sexual abuse. It was really, really rough. And I was, you know, unable to extricate myself. I felt like, you know, I'm on my own. I have no other support. I have to have a paycheck kind of mentality. And the way that I was dealing with that experience was to starve myself, to binge. Food was sort of the way that I was trying to medicate the pain of that situation. And as any of us know who've gone down a road of addiction of any kind, it just keeps getting worse. And so there was this moment where I could really tell I was dying.

I was like, this is killing me to go to this job. And, and I, and I'm not even trying to be dramatic because it was physically taking a toll emotionally, everything. So I was traveling for the job. I'm in the Boston airport, flying back to Chicago and I can hear them calling my flight and there's a bookstore. And as someone who, what I really wanted to be doing was being a writer, but told myself I wasn't good enough and had to take this advertising job. The books are oasis, right? That's church, that's sanctuary. And I don't have time to read the backs. I run in the bookstore, I grab a book randomly, pay for it, get on the plane and I start reading. And over the course of the next few hours on the flight, I read in the taxi home. I stayed up the whole night, like nothing was happening except writing. I don't

even think I took my coat off. I'm reading this book and I read my story. This was a woman whose life was different than mine, but she had a lot of trauma she hadn't dealt with. She developed a life-threatening eating disorder and she shared what she did to get out. And that moment I can now trace back, connecting the dots backwards, as Steve Jobs says, was the one I vowed that night holding that book that I was going to get help. And the decision to get help around the food issues led to me recovering some physical and mental health enough to leave the job, which then led to me pursuing the writing, which then led to Oprah and the New York Times and all the stuff, right? And so that book saved my life physically and then opened the door to living as I really feel called to live, like who I'm here to be.

And like you said, you know, I was different, right? We're different after, and there's other books, right? I could probably come up with at least 10. That was the very tangible, saved my life. Yeah. You are not alone. It's funny that story, nobody can see me, but you, but I'm tearing up over here because I can completely relate. It's funny how sometimes those books or those stories

find us. And I put an air quotes by accident, right. And how sometimes they come just exactly when you need to hear them. I love that. I was in a bookstore one, there was another book that, and I should just say the book, because sometimes people ask me, it's Holy Hunger written by Margaret Bullitt Jonas. I just want to give her a shout out of, you know, since she did save my life, I give her and her book a shout out. And, but it's all about like what book we find at the right time. And I was at a different crisis point, you know, later on and a book actually fell off a bookshelf in a bookstore. I mean, actually fell onto the, there was no wind. There was no, and I remember just seeing this happen and knowing through my whole body, I was like, so I guess I'm reading this.

And it was another change point. So similar Darren greatly by Brene Brown was left in a seat back pocket on an airplane. And I always travel with multiple books and I just kind of looked at it and I was like, you know what, I'll give this one a try, avoid the one, you know, probably had a murder mystery or something in my, in my bag. And it was exactly what I needed to hear at exactly the right time. So, and similar situation, leaving a work environment, maybe not as toxic, but certainly wasn't working for me. Okay.

So how did those experiences shape your work and your mission? Did it have you write the book? And then what had you think about bringing that forward to other people? Walk us through that. A hundred percent. So what happened, you know, once I recovered that health, left that job, I, all that kept emerging is I just want to write. I want to write. I want to write. And probably some of you listening, you just know, you know, you have a book in you, you know, that there's a story you need to, or a next one,

right? You know, it's not like there's one often in us. And so I knew that, but I had this crippling belief, this crippling limiting belief that said like, you're just not good enough. Right. You just don't have what I had a whole story around. Like a teacher was supposed to take you aside and tell you you're special and you get to be a writer. And that's what happens in all the movies. And so like when that didn't happen, it was like, oh, you're not right. And I was so externally focused. Like if, if, if someone didn't validate a piece of work, it was like, oh, it must focused. Like if, if, if someone didn't validate a piece of work, it was like, oh, it must suck instead of like, oh, this is very subjective. Like our

authors now pitch a hundred times, a hundred agents, a hundred articles. I mean, like we don't even consider it having done a due diligence until, you know, we've been so, so I just didn't know any of that then. So what happened though, is I did commit, like, I'm going to start writing. I'm just going to start. I don't think I'm good enough. I probably suck, but like, I've escaped the jaws of like this, you know, I don't know who's the guy that gets his liver eaten at Prometheus, you know, on that, like all eternity, just getting pecked out by the egos. I escaped this fate. Like I have to do something with it. So I did, I wish I could say it was like, and then a year later I had a best seller, right? No, it didn't. I, I was, I had all the resistance, but I worked at it a little bit, a little bit. And I worked my way

up to, um, to, uh, someone who knew someone who knew someone who knew an agent and she got me a call. And again, it wasn't a, Oh my God. Yes. I want to represent you. It was like, here's a whole bunch of revisions and maybe I'll consider you if you do them. And I froze. I completely froze. I couldn't, it was like, again, it was back to, this is going to be the moment when someone's going to say you're not enough. And I, that's when I hired a coach and I didn't want to, I didn't want to, I was like, I don't want to admit, I can't do this alone. I don't want to spend the money. I don't want to spend the time, but anyway, thank God I did. She kind of held me accountable and lovingly walked me through the revisions. My agent is still my agent today. We're close friends and all this. So what happened is, you know, reading that book, let me take some new action. Then I slowly worked my way up to this experience where my agent says, yes, I'll represent you. And that led to a first book contract, which led to Oprah and the New York Times and some, some things that were like the big fantasies, right. That, that we can have as writers. And when I went

through that experience, two things I said, okay, now I know for sure that stories save lives and not just stories by celebrities. I'm so glad that like my book that saved my life wasn't by Elizabeth Gilbert, even though I love her and I read everything she writes because it's just, it was a woman sharing her story. She isn't a household name. She isn't whatever it's like, cause a lot of my clients will say, Oh, but why my story? It's not important. It's not, you know, and it's like, actually you could save someone's life because someone did that for me. And I was so committed to paying that forward. It's like, you know, I want to contribute to this conversation. Like I, I, I'm going to say yes to this calling. And then the second thing that came out of it is knowing that what we tell ourselves here can kill any dream. And I mean, it's not, you know,

mindset. We kind of get it, but I just didn't then I didn't understand that what we believe about ourselves, like absolutely we'll make or break our destiny. And so that's when I made the decision, like, I want to do this for other people because I'd been a coach and a writer, like in separate worlds. And then it was like, the calling was like merger worlds. And I was like, I'm going to devote everything I've got to making sure that the stories that people know need to be told inside them get out and not just for friends and family, unless that's someone's vision, in which case that's beautiful. But a lot of people come to me, they actually feel like they're wanting to make a bigger impact.

There are more people that they want to serve. And so making sure, because it's a lot, it's a lot to even write a book, then think about where do you publish it? And you and I have talked about this, it's overwhelming. How do you get it out? How do you find readers? How do you build a platform?

How do you go speak about it? So that's, I decided like, that is my soul. Just that's your, that's your mission. So one of my favorite things about your story is it's not that you were reading a passage in a coffee shop and the publisher walked in and all of a sudden, you know, like very few stories that are that way, I think sometimes lead us to believe that if it doesn't happen or if, you know, somebody doesn't love it first pass or whatever, that it's almost like we're looking for signs as opposed to, you know, putting in, in the work. I think, you know, Harry Potter has got to be one of the most loved and most read books and like 19 publishers rejected JK Rowling. So how do you hold onto your

confidence? Confidence is my favorite topic to talk about. How do you hold onto your confidence? How do you get past some of the fears and the doubts and the imposter syndrome and all the, the noise that comes in our head when it doesn't happen in that magical walking down the street and you get discovered way. I call it the Natalie Portman. I'm eating in a pizza hut with my family in like upstate New York. And so like, you need to be in movies, right? You know? And it's been most people who are in movies or write books or do whatever we're doing or coach it. It's like you, you actually, there were years of work, you know, not to none that it can happen more quickly, but like there's, there's work. Right. And, and like you said,

we're looking for almost the anti signs, the signs that we aren't allowed, that we're not good at, you know, so, so that's the, so one thing I start with is that the calling is the sign. And I really have to do this as an act as if for myself, because the truth is I always want signs. I constantly want them. I was just in New York city doing some book stuff for getting ready for my new book. And I was like, I want to sign, you know, I'm like, really? Like you're going to, you're, you know, but I do. And they're wonderful. And I say all in like ask for signs and the, the sign is the call. If there's like, I know I've got this book in me or this talk in me or this story I need to share, that's the sign, that's the affirmation. And so then training the mind to, for me, I think of confidence as

something that is built. It's not a state I'm going to achieve. So I just take that off the table. I say, okay, cool. I'm actually not going to feel confident at all. Every time I start a new book, all the fears, every, cause it's a different genre. It's a different thing. Or if I'm going to do a TEDx talk instead of a conference, it's like all the stuff you're not good enough, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I basically look at confidence as something that is gained through empowered action. So if I want confidence, what I get to do is take bold action, acting as if. So the game I play with myself that I have our clients do a lot is if I believed this would succeed, what would I do today?

And so it was like, well, if I believe my book would really help people and get out in the world, I would sit down and write for an hour. But because I don't believe it, I'm going to go eat ice cream or watch Netflix. Right. You know, so it's like, to feel confident or get some affirmations and get some signs. Cause it's so vulnerable to put ourselves out there. And then when that doesn't happen, we, Oh, it's not meant to be, or I am, Oh, see, I'm not good enough. That's what I was doing for years. And so I just flip it. Everything you said is directly in alignment with everything I know to be true about confidence. First it's built through action. You can't think your hope or, you know, wait for signs or way into confidence. You have to act your way into confidence. And it's also a choice over a feeling. I think a lot of times we sit around and think this feeling is going to come to us and then we'll be able to do what we want to do. And it's very much an

active choice we get to make. And it's about trusting ourselves and believing in ourselves. And I love that phrase. The calling is the sign. If the calling is in you, if the desire is in you, then that is the, you know, the, the message that you're waiting for that says, trust yourself, go for it. That's the green light. That's the yes. That's the universe is going, woohoo. You got it. Yay. Divine appointment. I love it. And then that's true, whether it's a, and I put an air quote, smaller action of sharing your story with one person and maybe smaller, bigger isn't appropriate because sometimes sharing your story or truth with one person can be the scariest and biggest thing in the world. But whether it's one person or, you know, sharing with the world, I think that calling that desire is the sign you're looking

for. So how do we share our stories in a way that lands, that changes people that has the impact, um, or potentially even starts a movement? Yeah. Well, I love this too, because then it's like, oh, if we, once we yes ourselves, right? Like I'm going to do this. It's like, oh my God, how the, how of course arises. Right. So, you know, something I really love, whether we're wanting to write a book, an article, an email, sharing a story with one person or talking on a stage or in a small group or with our family, one really cool principle to think about in storytelling in order for it to be impactful. I'm not talking about wowing people with our craft or whatever, even though I geek out on all that stuff. I love it. But I think if we keep in mind

the idea of the individual in the universal, that's something that's really cool. So the idea is if someone's going to write, let's say a memoir, a personal story or personal growth book that has their story, there's a piece about just saying what happened is super powerful. Like you said, people will know I'm not alone. If Nicole can do it, I can do it. You know, there's these different things, but we can also take it a step further and think about how our story is unique, but also represents the universal story. Meaning if, if our personal story is of, um, I have a good friend and client who, um, always moved around different countries. She was, she's, she's from, uh, South Africa originally, and she's lived in London and the United States and Japan and all these. And so the idea of home and belonging is

really, it was a core wound. And now it's actually what she does in the world, which I always find interesting, the whole wound and the, you know, the wounded hero, you know, archetype. Right. But the point is that she ended up turning that into an interior design business where she helps people like create a sense of home anywhere they live. And she specializes in working with expatriates and things. So it's really cool. But like her story isn't just interesting to me if you're into

interior design or you've lived abroad, it's like how many of us don't feel like we belong. I mean, I didn't move around a lot and I didn't feel like I belonged to my own family. We lived in the same city my entire growing up and I never felt like I belonged. So thinking about how our story represents like a greater, you eat, pray, love, right? I haven't been divorced, but I related completely because it was the, I'm not living the life I'm supposed to live. Like something is not aligned here. And then going on a quest to find what is, I mean, hello, sign us up. Right. And so I think that's one principle to, that can be really powerful to think about. Like, how does my individual story relate to greater themes that people face,

you know, in their life, or maybe you're an adventurer, or maybe you're someone who pursued something hard. You know, I haven't hiked Mount Everest, but I like reading about people who do, because I have my own Everest's that I get to summit and they aren't on a mountain because that doesn't appeal to me at all. But like, I have my own Everest's that I get to summit and they aren't on a mountain because that doesn't appeal to me at all. But like I have my inner mountains or my entrepreneurial mountains or my creative mountains. And so thinking about how it relates and the way we draw that out in a storytelling way is to also share like the learnings, even just I'll finish on this, like the hero's journey. Shiro, I'm going to say the Shiro's journey is the Shiro is called to the quest. There's a big challenge crisis mountain to whatever it is. And then the most

important piece to complete the Shiro's journey is she shares what she's learned with her tribe. And so if we think of the story, we're telling not just as a confessional to get something off our chest or revenge, you know, sometimes we want to tell a story for revenge or we want to tell a story, but like, what could I share that could serve others? What did I learn out of this? So it's the specifics yielded some kind of growth or learning in a good story. And any of us who've lived, Flannery O'Connor says, if you've made it to adulthood, you have enough material to last a lifetime.

So that's what I think of Shiro's journey, individual in the universal and focusing on the learnings will make something impactful. There's no way to not add value to someone. If you, if you address those things, I feel like there are like 50 phenomenal tips in, in all of that. But I love the individual universal. I don't know that I ever heard it that way. But a powerful example about the home story. I think, you know, we can all relate and resonate with that. Even the Everest example. It's so funny. I compare confidence to climbing Mount Everest and I have absolutely no desire to climb that

mountain myself. So I get that. You said something, though, that really resonated with me and that I've been sort of paying And I have absolutely no desire to climb that mountain myself. So I get that. You said something though, that really resonated with me and that I've been sort of paying attention to is the wound often creates the powerful, important message. I don't know if this is always true, but I think some of the best stories come from some of our worst experiences or our worst moments, or even as Brene Brown would say, some of our more shameful experiences. How often is that true?

And then if that's true, why do we spend a lifetime trying to avoid pain and wounds? Yeah. Well, I think the exciting potential reframe for all of us, you know, is that there's an incentive to not avoiding it. Right. And the incentive is that it not only might hold the path to creating a work of art or, you know, a story or a career, like the case of a lot of us. Right. But it also the alchemy, right? That's where the alchemy happens. If we're willing to go into the wound and sort of excavate the gold out of it, like that's what, that's what actually heals us and others.

So there's that really cool dual purpose of we get healed in the process of sharing the story, but we also heal others, right? So there's this beautiful, I think that's the evidence of the benevolence of the universe, right? And David Sedaris, who's a writer I love, very funny writer, some of you might know his work. I mean, he says, hey, the cool part if you write or share a story orally, speaking or whatever, is that when crappy things happen to regular people, it's just like a crappy hard thing. But when that happens to someone who's a storyteller, a speaker, a writer, you've got gold. So I think that the issue is we haven't been told the treasures that are waiting for us in that pain. We just naturally want to avoid pain. Who doesn't? I don't enjoy it. It's

not fun. I don't even like feeling mildly anxious, let alone grief or deep you know, deep sadness or deep, you know, pain or revisiting traumas. However, they hold the key. I mean, there have been studies done of how many kids whose childhood wounds influenced their career. And it was shocking. Like it's, it's incredible. If you let it be your guide and your teacher, you'll pull out the gold. Right. So I think the problem is we just don't know that. And we just think, ow, pain, no, thank you. Yeah. And like knowing it doesn't make the pain any less when you're in it. Right. Like I have gotten better at when I'm in it going, okay, this serves a purpose. I don't yet know what the purpose is, but I, I know and trust and believe with everything I have at this point in

my life that it is going to serve a purpose, but that doesn't make it suck any less. It just is awful when you're, it's hideous. I mean, when I, you know, in my first book, I wrote about my seven year fertility journey of, of having my son culminated in a really fantastical way of my mother being our surrogate. So we have a very wild story of how my, my son came into the world 10 years ago. And, and previous to that, I had stillborn twins, you know, through, you know, I, I had given birth to, to twin boys that were stillborn and it was excruciating. Right. And even though I knew that I had tools, I, you know, I, I knew I could get through, I knew all these things. It, it, it, I, I knew I could get through, I knew all these things,

it, it, it, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I would wish nothing like, like none of us would wish any of our losses or traumas on someone. And so I think part of it is we don't know, you know, the purpose at the beginning, if someone could say, oh, Nicole, I know this sucks right now, but like, it's going to end up turning into, you know, this fulfillment and this joy and this impact in the world, like it'd be easier, but we don't, we just think, ow, oh my God, I'm on the floor. And then the other thing is, I don't know that enough of us have the tools to sit with pain. And I think that's where I, it doesn't take the pain away, but it does let you integrate, move through, mine it as you go.

And I think that's the gift of working with amazing people. I've been so blessed to find the right people at the right time to help me through things. And even if the trauma is from decades ago, you know, we can do that work now. We can still, we can still do that work. Yeah. And I think just trusting when those people or those resources or those things come into your life during those moments, you know, to let, let them in, to choose them, to invest, to do whatever you need to do.

Cause I, I, I agree completely with everything that you said, Sarah, thank you so much. This went by way too fast. If you are listening and want to learn more about Sarah and her work, you can visit her website, sarahconnell.com. So S-A-R-A-C-O-N-N-E-L-L.com or follow her on Instagram at Sarah Connell or Facebook. Your first book is called Bringing in Finn, correct? Is there another book? I have a writing guide book.

So for people that wants 21 ways to double your productivity, keep writing and get published. So it's a fun little slim, like you just get a little reading a day. It's meant like a bootcamp. So you get 21 days to keep you writing. And then the new book, we're in negotiations. So I will, I will be able to have an update on that hopefully any minute now. Awesome. So I'm still writing every day and absolutely it's it's you can, you know, the website or Instagram is great. Okay. And you are offering free to all of our listeners. Thank you very much. How to write a bestselling book that changes lives masterclass. We'll put the link in the show notes so people can find it. Sarah, will you just tell us a little bit about

that masterclass? Yeah. So a lot of times, as I, as we shared, it was my experience. We get the calling, even we might say yes to ourselves and then feel completely overwhelmed. How do I write? How do I, what do I do with this book? So we put together this masterclass, which has helped now thousands of writers actually take action on their books and, you know, get published and get the work out in the world. So if a book is calling to you, this is going to walk you through how to pick your idea from like all the things that are rolling around in your head. What structure is it? A memoir? Is it self-help? What are you doing? You know? And then, and then how to create the content, start to outline. And then I teach this

thing called a magic equation because the big other thing is where do we find the time to do this? Where do we find the time to write a talk or a book? It's, you know, Nicole, we're doing, you know, it's overwhelming. So I teach this magic equation to really chunk it down where you could do your book in 12 weeks. If you choose to, you could, you could stretch it longer, of course, but if you want to just know, like, I'm finally going to do this thing, this course will show you how to set all of it up. Thank you for that free gift. And thank you for being here today and for this incredible conversation and message, Sarah, you're the best. I really appreciate it. All right, friends, your story is not meant to

stay hidden, whether you share it with the world or one person you love, it is meant to be shared. How do I know? Because you're here and you're living it, which means it matters. The creator of all things, the creator of all the stories ever told did not mess up on you. You were not created by accident, so neither was your story. How will you share it? Who will you tell it to? Who gets to be both a witness and a benefactor of your truth? Elizabeth Gilbert asks it best. Do you have the courage to bring it forth? The treasures inside you are hoping you say yes. And as Sarah said today, the calling is the sign. Our stories have been swept aside by history, by society, by religion, by culture for far

too long. But in order to have an impact, they must be heard. And in order to be heard, they must be told. This, the telling of your story. This is woman's work.