Writing Your Book in 90 Days with Kath Walters

#124 - Kath Walters (EDITED)

Mon, Mar 03, 2025 7:25AM • 47:07

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Emma, do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell, show a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world, and now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure too. It's possible, and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams, to create a life you love and to live it now, not wait for a time and or someday in the future, I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, the wins, the challenges, and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love.

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I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place, now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land, waterways and skies where I work, live, listen, learn and play from here on, you can bear country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present.

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Emma Lovell show today. I have the brilliant Kath Walters coming on the podcast, who is an expert book coach, founder of brain to book in 90 days, she is also my editor, or was my editor for the art of pleasure, and someone that I will be forever grateful for for making my book better. We have a wonderful conversation today about that. And if anyone is thinking about writing a book,

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Cath book and her coaching programs are just sensational, and so you can get all of the links to those in the show notes. A bit more about Cath. She is a book coach and the founder of the brain to book in 90 days program. She has over 25 years of experience as a professional business writer and author, and she's written more than 1.6 million words, including in three books. Her byline is familiar to readers of top Australian publications like The Australian Financial Review, Smart Company. But today, Cath helps accomplished business professionals turn their ideas into impactful books, establishing them as the Go to Authorities in their field. And fun fact, Cath writing read 40,000 readers a week during her 14 years as a business journalist, and she's making such an impact on many more lives. I get a bit emotional on this one, because it was quite the journey to get the book done, and I'm just so, so grateful for kath's Brilliant expertise. So tune in and enjoy this very, very passionate conversation.

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Welcome to the podcast. Kath Walters, thank you so much, Emma, lovely to see you in the new year. Yes, now I'm going to open with a thank you.

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I shouldn't have done that, because I'll get emotional.

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Calf was a huge part of my book journey, and I'll just forever be grateful for your part. CAV,

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my book, The Art of pleasure, came out in August 2024

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and you really came in at the 11th hour.

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We had a changeover of of my team. And thank you to fabulous Anna Featherston introduced me to wonderful Michael Hanrahan at published Central, who happened to have had a message from you saying, I'm available. So thankfully, you came on as my editor, and you made the book better.

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Fortuitous, you know, was a really sort of a, it was a series of events that just seemed to come together. And, yeah,

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you know, I am a bit of a deadline girl, you know. So part of me loves it, part of me hates it, but, but you are such a delight to work with Emma. So it was an absolute pleasure to to work on the book. And yeah, I think it came out really well. So congratulations. Thank you so much. And yes, we had to kick off with that, and we'll get to a little bit more about how you work and how we work together. But first, I always like to ask people, who are you? In your words,

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who am I? I am a former business journalist. So I started out as a visual artist, actually,

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you know, in community arts and poster making in my early years,

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and then I sort of made a transition into writing, which was sort of my first love, but I felt a bit sort of,

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I.

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Shy about it. You don't think a lot of people do. I felt a bit shy about having that as an aspiration. It felt kind of, I don't know I was just a bit shy about it, but then I sort of just moved into it and started to write. And the first pitch I ever made to a publication was the Canberra Times I pitched a story to them, and they said yes. And I was so excited, I sort of jumped all around the room, and yeah. So I followed that joy into journalism, and ultimately into business journalism, which sounds really dry, but it's not. It's just all about stories. You know, it's all about journeys like yours and mine, and you know a whole bunch of people who we set out to make a service or a product. And then, when did you head into the world of books? I mean, obviously writing and books, but not everyone. Actually, I know some writers who are, you know, more features writers and things like that, who say, No, I don't, not interested whatsoever in writing a book. So when did you sort of gravitate towards that? I left traditional journalism.

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I'd been at Fairfax for about 1112, years. I think I went to a sort of an online publisher for a year, and then I left,

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and I was sort of thinking, Oh, that master actually closed. And I'm like, Oh, wow. What happens now? Do I kind of go back into

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another, you know, journalist role, or do I sort of do something for myself where I feel more in control of my destiny, I guess. So I started doing that. I started with what was called emerging at the time. Was called Content Marketing. You know, it's everywhere now, but at the time, it was kind of emerging and,

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and I joined a group called the thought leader business school, and they sort of said, you have to write a book. And I'm like, really? And, and

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then a couple of people within the the

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the group that I was in said, Can you help me write my book? And I was just at the point of saying yes, you know, to things that came up. And so I helped a couple of people, and then I sort of got a sense of what people needed, and I sort of developed a system to get the book out of your head and onto the page that was based on my sort of approach, journalism approach, yeah. So I sort of, I developed a system, and lo and behold, it worked. It does work. I mean, you wrote your own book as well. What So, what you did was that was that, did that kick it off, or you, you already helped people, and then you sort of did this. I wrote this. I wrote the overnight authority somewhat into the process, and I wrote it using my process, and I wrote it within 90 days, and yeah, so I did the whole sort of thing.

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It's funny, you know, like I'd seen it work again and again and again, but you sort of, yeah, I guess some I just wanted to absolutely be 100% clear. And

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I was able to draw on the experiences that my clients had had, to put them in the book. So I knew the problems that people encountered and the questions that they had, and I was able to channel those into the book. Yeah, so you sort of do have to do that right, like you go through it, and you have to have taught it and experienced it and in order to and tested it, in order to put it in there, otherwise it's, it's a theory. And I do wish I had had this book. Cath, have you? I don't, I don't. I would say a year ago, no, a bit longer would have been helpful. No, a year ago would have been great. But I think that 90 days is about right, because it's a question, it's a frustrating question, and it's a question I address in basically every interview about the book, about writing a book. Because everyone says, How long does it take to write a book? And I'm like, you're asking, you're asking one question. But I think the question that should be asked is, How long does it take to publish a book? Yeah, the writing and the publishing, and then what I experienced with you, the editing process like that, is it's just that they're very different things. I'm sure you address it, but I think, I think the 90 days writing, I think that is, that would be, it's very achievable. And bang on. Yeah, i i When I first started, and I sort of said it as 90 days, and then people would come and ask me, oh, can I do it in 10 weeks? Can Can I do it in a year? And I sort of said yes to different things. And ultimately, I really came back to the 90 day rhythm. I think it is fast enough to maintain momentum. I think writing is 99% momentum. We just, you know, the quality comes from from momentum.

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But.

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10 weeks is too fast. It doesn't really own anything. Yeah, for my clients, I've found and a year you just don't have the momentum. You sort of lose the pace. And so it probably takes about six to eight months to get a book published. If you, if you do self publish, if you, if you go into the publishing system, it can take longer, but the actual writing,

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I find that pace sort of really keeps people moving,

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stops them getting into that sort of quagmire of perfectionism, and gives them a sort of a draft to work on and polish that they can sort of respond to.

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You get to a point and we knew it was the right point where you can't look at it anymore, and they're like, Yeah, that's the manuscripts done. Like, when you can't look at it anymore, and you're like, whatever. And literally, the moment I decided the manuscript was done. I was very protective of it. And then moment I decided it was done, I was like, Oh, that paragraph is probably not needed. Oh, that thing's not needed. But while I was in it, I was like, every word I was guarding with my life. And I got a very lovely piece of guidance which really helped, which was, the first draft is for you. The first manuscript is for you. Now, we know again, had I had to process a bit earlier. Mine was very beefy,

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very meaty, and that's probably because, yeah, I didn't have that sort of guidance through

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mine was to keep, keep writing, and so writing writing to 92,000 words, but understanding I was going to lose some but, but they were probably, structurally, some things that I could have done that would have been better. But I think in terms of that time, like, I say it took me 12 months to write the book, but I I really started probably writing January, and then I'd say, like the solid writing period, or like the where it got the crux of it was like April to June, yeah, and then June, yeah, I think almost like five or six chapters were probably, and some of the more like ones that stayed like they were, or the ones that needed less work, they were written in June. Yeah. Was, I simply get a book,

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and you know what we all get to the end of our books and think, wow, I could have done this differently. I could have added that. I could have done this. I should have done it the other way. You know, like it is sort of part of the world of orthodont

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and the very best thing to do is the thing that you did, which is set your sights on the next book. Because, you know, I mean, it's the first book that you've written. I had written a couple of books before, overnight authority, excuse me, um, I'd written, I'd sort of written a book called Sticky content that was all about content marketing, but was more a compilation of short it was without blogging. So it was done as blogs. And I'd written a book with other authors and those sort of things. So it had some experience. But, yeah, like,

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especially with that first book, it feels really important to get everything in. And I think once we sort of have got that book out,

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and you know, it's great, your book is really well structured, and there's a lot of, you know, clear thinking, and it takes us on a narrative journey. And yeah, so it's solved a lot of the structural problems that any book sort of struggles to do. And

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whether, you know, you may have written it with yourself in mind, but it's very it's a very generous to the reader. It gives the reader a lot of help to do the things that you do. That's very kind. Cath, yeah, it was, well, that was some advice I got early on. That was it kind of blocked me. And I think that it I was in a I got a bit stuck. I think we all get a writer's block at some point, and my block was when I was told to write for the reader

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like but I'm, but it's my book. Like, well, it had included stories about me and then find, the way that

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Anna Featherston put it to me was it's, it's a how to with heart. It's just got a bit more heart at the moment. So we just needed to balance out the How to and that was a very kind way of saying it.

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And like I said, as soon as I finished the manuscript, I did relinquish some of that, you know, personal stuff, and I'm glad that I've got it all down. Because the other thing is, all of that original document I can still use. You know, nothing's wasted. No word is wasted. No absolutely. And, yeah, I think, you know, you sort of start to see with that book the potential directions too, for deepening certain parts of it. And as far as I understand, that's your next step. And that's, yeah, I a really great evolution of.

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For your sequel to the first book. So wonderful. When I did talk to I went when we first were connected, I went onto your website, and I saw 25 years of business experience, and I was like, perfect. I also saw three people that I know personally. One of them was a client. Two of them I know through speaking and just the business world. And I was like, sold. You know, if you're working with them, I know that they're books. And it was funny, because, yes, I did write with future books in mind. I don't some people's goal is to write a book and to be a thought leader and to just do that in line with their business. But for me, the role and title of author was very important, and I know that there's a future of books. So writing with those future books in mind was really helpful. And then speaking to one of those other authors who kind of did focus so much on the first book, and then it's like, oh, what's the second book is almost starting again because it doesn't, it didn't necessarily flow on. So it's like, oh, how do I then make this a series? Or how do I, how do I build the next one on? And understandably, because sometimes the first one is, is just a big piece of work. But I think if you're the first time author, and you think that this is potentially a future, I think having that seed planted is really helpful. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I guess there's a couple of ways you can do a sequel. One is to think, Okay, I've kind of captured that. What's what's next in my thinking, what am I thinking about next? And the other is to take an aspect of what you've done, you know, possibly a chapter, and really think, Okay, actually, there's probably a whole book in that chapter, and that's, yeah,

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yeah. So, for example, I could write another I could write my next book about the marketing process, which is part of what I think is really important. I think it's very sort of misunderstood in in orthodontism, as to how we sort of get our book out there and help, help,

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let the book help us build a business.

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Or I could take the Chapter plan and write a whole book about that. I love that sort of, you know, like I could talk about that until the cows come home. So, yeah, I mean, well, and, you know, I think your book is overnight authority, and you have a course, a membership called author to authority. And I think that authority piece is really like when you're thinking about that. And that's a great question to ask yourself, like, do I want to be the authority on pleasure? Do I want to be the authority on retreats. Do what can I be an authority on this? You know, yesterday I got offered to pitch for being in a packing article, and I was like, I am not the authority on packing. I am. It's not my don't I like luggage, but I do not like the inside. I do not want to talk about that as as my lane, where it's frequent fly points. I'm like, Oh, I love that being a highlight, or a piece of, like, a sort of a sub authority that I can, you know, really dig into. And so I think that's a really great question. And I did actually have six chapters of a past book when my focus was personal brand. I think I'm going to release them as a freebie. Like, here's a book that I was writing that will never become a full book, but I guess it's an e book.

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But I was like, do I want to talk about this at length? Am I going to be em? Is there a spot in the market for me to become like a real authority and and it didn't eventuate because it didn't, it wasn't stacking up. Whereas this was like, Oh yeah, I could talk about this till the cows come home. Yeah, lovely. I mean, that's, I think, where your reader sort of decision does come in. Because the I always think, you know, like, I think, as intelligent people, we all resist the idea of a sort of a reader that we're writing for, somehow it feels too narrow. And, you know, there's some sort of science around this idea that we sort of really as human beings, we always want to leave a sort of a kind of a critical decision to the last possible moment. You know, it's like when people are sort of driving down there on both lanes of a sort of Melbourne road, and you're like, could you just do one or the other? But no, they're going to kind of keep it open until they must make the choice.

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And it's not because they're stupid, it's because they're really smart, because, you know, in a sense, we're why should we make that choice if we don't have to the thing I the couple of things that I find really useful to think about with readers is, who do I love working with? So who would I love to have? Like, knocking on my door all the time coming to see me, you know, like, knock, knock. Oh, my.

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God, you that's, that's the sort of feeling. And

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the other one is, who really values me, or who really values you? So who values you is, yeah, it's about money. It's like, do they do? They sort of see the money that you need to make your business run and think, okay, yeah, no worries. That's incredible. Fantastic, Emma. But also, do they value by doing what you say? So do they take what it is that you offer and sort of

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and run with it? That is sort of like a the real so when I'm thinking about readers, that I look at the people, I asked my clients to think about the clients they've had who've really taken what they've shared and run with it. So I love that. Well, I have two examples of that, Cath, which is such a testament, you know, like, I think, as an author getting that back, you know, like, but as a coach as well, you and I both coach, like, and I know that feeling is like, it's very Yes, unfulfilling when someone yes, they paid for your course, but then they don't show up and do anything. It's like, not here to just take your money, as much as people believe. That's what the industry is about. It's like, I'm not here to do that. I want to see the results and the outcome. And if you're not seeing the results or outcome, and people aren't taking what you've said and doing it, yeah. So am I even that good at what I'm doing? If they're not, you know, not fulfilling, and it's not value. But I had two people, one whilst I was writing the book, who said she's taken the pleasure message, and she went and did a trip, and both freelance writers, which is great, because they were one of my audience, because that's what I used to do. So it's like, I'm showing you, you can do what I've done. And she got went on a trip to Italy where she got a free trip on the tour in exchange for doing content, social media, content, fantastic. That was amazing. That was, well, I was writing. And then I got an email the other week when I announced my next international retreat. And this another freelance writer said, I love it, and I'm really keen to come on your retreats, but I was so inspired by pleasure that I'm actually going to go do a month living overseas, and I've chosen those dates, so I'm going to live and work in this place overseas, so I can't come on your retreat because of that. And I was like, well, obviously sad, but I'm not sad. I'm so like, I'm smiling ear to ear. It's like, oh my gosh, it's working. You know, people are making changes because of something that you've written. It's fantastic, amazing feeling, isn't it? And, you know, it's almost worth all the blood, sweat and tears just for those couple of things. It's not quite but, you know, yeah, it's always a there's always a lot of work and,

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and as you say, I mean, I there's nothing more exciting for me than holding the book at the end of the process. Like, I love working with people. I love coaching them. They all go through this terrible sort of up and down. And, you know, there's, there's a lot of, there's, it's very confronting writing a book. I shouldn't say that, because it makes it sound terrible, but it actually just, is it just, you know, there's things come up,

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but that moment at the end of holding the book and saying, Oh, my God, I actually did it. So love that for my for all of my clients. And I love receiving the book well, so it's a very clear, you know, sometimes we do projects, and I wrote about in my newsletter today, like it's very unfulfilling, because whilst you're doing it and you're doing all this behind the scenes work, nobody knows all this work that you're doing. Nobody knows what you're going through by the people who are working with you and literally seeing the tears and the frustration. But you know, to then to see, like a book is such a clear project. I think, I think I really helped me to understand timeline, you know, setting dates, working backwards, understanding when we need to have it printed by. We need to start saying tickets to the launch by this date. Okay, well, we need to be doing media from this date, the photos need to be already on this day. Like,

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all of like, you really have a clear, although it's, it is a bit haywire at points, but there really is a clear. Like, we do this and this and this and this, and then at the end, yes, you do actually hold something. Whereas being a service business, you know, the work gets delivered, but you don't really like hold it. Your retreats are nice in that way too. I'd deliver it and it's finished and you see the completion. But I think that is such a is such a wonderful process. And I don't think it's bad to talk about the challenge. I think it's we need to. It's a kind as a coach for you to educate people and to say, like, are you serious about this? Because it is a financial, energetic, emotional, mental, physical, it's an investment. It's huge. I mean, yeah, and, and sort of Yeah. People think it's all about the time.

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And I think that's.

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Totally legitimate, like you think of this. This project is all about time, but it's not. It's about

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the thing of putting your words on the page and then seeing how they look like. You sort of have to look at them and think, Oh, how do I how do I make them as robust and meaningful to me on the page as they are when I talk about them without the you know, with my clients, because we have this when we're face to face, we have this huge advantage. This is the only thing that is is not the advantage of a book, is that you're not there, you can't smile and check how your you know your reader is responding, and adjust how you give a message. You have to think all that through before you write the book. You have to think, okay, my reader might be thinking that now I need to kind of get in there and see my book from their point of view. What do I need to do to sort of smile and keep them engaged and to to sort of show them who I am as a person? Yeah, yeah. And that's, you know, it's a huge it's not like 1000 word article, you know, it's like 70,000 words, 50 to 70,000 words that you're putting in and then hoping that it lands right. And so that's having, I think, valuable people along the way right, having readers, having editors, having people who are

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checking that for you. But I'd love to come back to your author, to authority work, because,

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you know, I think socially, for people like me and probably some of my audience, if you're thinking about putting this into your business ecosystem, like understanding, you know, and people saw the promotional campaign I did and talked about it, and it's like, but that didn't and people laughed when I was selling tickets to an event that I hadn't written the book for you, like I hadn't finished the book, But he said that that's the journey, and I was fully aware from when I was writing that book, like five years ago, that this was a one to two year commitment to this book, and that that the writing was only part of it, that the PR and the promotion, and maybe my background in that helps, but that was the success of the book. Yeah? Like, I think there's so many people who focus so much on writing the book, get the book, and then they're, like, everybody my books here, and it's like,

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cool. Like, so how's it going to work in your ecosystem? And then, like, I know that you talk, yeah. So we talked to, what do you do with orthodont authority? And why is that so important? So orthodont authority is something that I've established more recently.

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I think there's nothing sort of sadder, in a way, than a book that comes out that doesn't get that continuous support. The thing is, it doesn't need to be this huge thing for us to build a business around our book. We can use the book really strategically. So, you know, in my world, I use the my book. I share my book with I give a copy of my book to every single person who does a clarity call with me. So if you're prepared to spend 45 minutes with me, sharing what you're planning, listening to how I work, I think we then have that relationship going. And for me, this is a relationship builder. It's about sort of like, okay, here is my gift to you, whether or not you do my program, this will help you towards the the plan that you're doing. This is a very simple strategy. You know, if we think about cost of acquisition, you do it's relatively low cost. I have a book printed off, and I send it off. I mean, I've already done all the expensive stuff.

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And it builds a relationship, of a reciprocal relationship, but also, people can read the book and they think themselves, Oh, do I like this person? Do I like this woman? Do I like the way she thinks and talks and her approach to books? Because, you know, there's a lot of book coaches out there, and maybe I'm not the right one, you know, so we want to get a book coach who's fully on our side, right behind our ideas, and who you can really, sort of, you know, I end up with quite

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deep relationships with my clients after three months of writing a book together, with all that they go through and I we go through together, yeah? So you've got to got a really, yeah. You've got to test that that relationship is going to work for you. So it's a really simple strategy. But of course, you can use the book to repurpose into your proposals, into your social media. You can use it to open doors to speaking. What I find the reason I established author to authority is when.

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Meet fortnightly as a group. There's some fantastic people in this you know, people who are traveling the world, doing speaking gigs and stuff as a result of their book.

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It's the sort of the rhythm of it. So we all do a bit of a flurry after we kind of do our book, and we have a launch, and that's great. I think they're really good.

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But the rhythm of just consistently, once a fortnight, doing something towards getting your book out there, using your book in a really constructive way, standing behind your book in a really solid way. Because, you know, you've you've talked about it, where we all think, Oh, I could have done this better. I could have done that better. I'm writing another book, but that book has its own value for your audience that's going to be so, so useful for them. So you have to sort of like say, Okay, who? How can I get it to those

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readers? Yeah. And I spoke to a fellow author the other day, Kate Christie, who's written five and she was talking about, it's like surfing. It's like waves, you know. And your book comes in waves, and so, you know, something will happen, and then the book gets another wave, and then, but not only just something happens, like, you can make that thing happen. And yes, those first three months are so intense. And like said, Bucha COULDA, but it doesn't mean it's too late. And so there's things like, I went to a market the other day and a woman had a banner, and I was like, Well, I never got around to printing a banner. And I would like to do, we'll be doing more events this year. We'll be doing speaking. But also, I would love to try markets as a great little market on the Gold Coast, wouldn't do every week, but we're not a great little it's a huge market, actually. But I'm like, why don't we try that? That's something fun, or

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libraries, you know, I just we got it into libraries. It's something you have to do, but doing a bit of a library campaign, you know, getting more people going around and talking at libraries, I'd love to do some readings and things. And it's that just, there was a moment, yeah, where I thought, Oh, I haven't done these things, but it's like you simply cannot in those first three months. And it's such a lovely way to give that second wave, third wave, forward wave, fourth wave to the book. And I've had to constantly remind myself, I mean, here we are at the 14th of Jen, I mean, the book's still only been out five months,

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and it we, we took out a lifetime with this thing. And so it's that you reminding yourself, but that you can't just go, sit back and go, oh sweet, like Amazon will do all the work on my web. It's on my website. You know, it does that. People do that. We think that Tony Robbins and all the famous authors around the world, but they don't. There's a marketing machine behind everybody. And if we're not at that stage of having that marketing machine, we have to be it and, and I find the easiest way to think about it is, okay, just do one thing fortnight. Just do one thing or and you that one thing might be building it into your business process. Mm, built into my business process. There's a step in my, you know, project management system that says, Send the book, you know, it's literally, sort of actually there.

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And there's many, many ways you can build the book into your business process so that it's kind of a solid piece of your business. And, you know, one thing that I did that was really hilarious. I think at one stage i i took my whole book and I summarized it as an ebook, and I offered that on social media. And that was, you know, people love that. And I was like, Why write a book? And then, but, you know, it was just another way of, kind of alerting people to the process, to the content, and yeah, or I might share on social media PDF of a chapter of

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different chapters, because I get questions about how, what's, what's the difference between self publishing or independent publishing and traditional publishing and Hybrid publishing, and I have a whole chapter on that. I can just send that chapter. And so look, this gives you a detail. Um, look at that. So, yeah, beauty of it, and that's the beauty of being a self publish. Self published is that you get to repurpose that content. And yeah, we've just, I had that beautiful Stroke of Genius the other day where I was, like, setting up my company for retreats, and it was like, Oh, why don't we give the excerpt of of that chapter from the book as the download? So if you're interested to, you know, take this. There's no reason why a they won't buy the book, because they go, Oh, I like this. I'll read the rest of it. So it's not I think we think we're going to sabotage or you're like me, to sabotage the sales. But you know, then it's like what you said, you know, coming back to what, what do I want from this? I want. I want people. I want to be an Australian bestseller, because I want that title. But I also want 5000 genuinely, 5000 copies.

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Out in the world, in people's hands, changing their lives. I want people to leave it in community libraries. I want them to leave it in hotels or leave it on planes, and somebody else to discover it. And I put a section in the back of the book saying, Please actively pass this on. And there's a moment where you go, Oh, am I going to lose a sale if they give it to their friend? But it's like, but that friend probably never would have found my book had they not been gifted it. And who knows, that might be the person that then introduces me to a speaking opportunity, or comes on my retreat, or just changes their life and and does everything that I wanted the book to do. So, you know, you kind of got to get out of that thinking, don't you? It's like, how can this book live and get you know, how can we make the most of it? And I love the excerpts. The other thing I got told was like, don't I was doing podcast episodes around the chapters, and said to me, don't do that. You're giving away your content. Or I wrote a book, and it was basically the podcast in a chat, like episodes in a book format, and it's like, But not everyone's going to listen to those episodes. Not everyone's listen to them sequentially. Not everyone's going to read it in that way. And maybe sometimes they've read the chapter, and then they hear the reinforcement when I talk about it, and that actually helps them to kind of go, oh yeah, I remember that. Oh, I'm actually going to do it, yeah, just in such an interesting like, protect your content. And I was like, the ones that's in the out there, in the book, it's,

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it's out there. Why not just use it in a like, present it in a different way? Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's a question that people often have about, sort of, how, how much am I supposed to kind of do a teams up and get people, you know, like, give people sort of half of the information. But I think there's a covenant that we unconsciously have as readers, that we're not going to be sort of half we're not going to be sold in a book. We're going to be educated and informed and entertained in a book. We're not going to feel like, oh, wow, they're holding out the best bits, so I have to pay them for more. We really that that communicates, well, to me, that communicates the wrong message. I don't want to be seen that way as somebody who is I want to be seen as generous, to be honest. You know, if you want, I have had someone who took my book, followed everything I did, and wrote a book, and I'm like, Yes, great. Never had to come anywhere near me. The whole program was $35 or whatever the book was, I think it's $30 um, so yeah, and I think of readers. I have this bit in the book where I talk talk about three types of readers. There's the walrus. So the walrus reads your book, um, loves your book, tells everybody about your book, and then rolls over in the sun and goes back to sleep, right? So they they love your book, but they don't do anything. And there's the beaver. And the beaver reads your book, loves your book, tells everyone about your book, and does it all themselves. And they are DIY people. They never pay for

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for you to come and be their coach. And there's the I call her the sorcerer now, so we don't have any genders, but yet, she reads your book, or they read your book, love your book, and they see the chemistry, and they think, I've gotta make magic with this author, and they're all already that way. Yeah, already that way. But the wars and the beaver still love your book and share your book and talk about your book, and that's how it gets out to the sorcerers. I love that. What a beautiful analogy. I'm going to think that I, I've heard people give them different names, and I, you know,

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profiles, but I love the visualization of that and the high priest as the sorcerer. It's amazing now. Kath, I just, like I said, I'm so grateful for everything you've done

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in my book journey, but it's been wonderful to see you and get to know you and learn a bit more about you. And the question that I always ask in line with the book is, how are you living a life you love now? Okay,

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well, it's sort of behind me.

39:19

So I this, this room, this, this apartment is part of

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a building to develop by a not for profit developer called Nightingale housing. I have had a sort of a seven, eight year sort of love affair with the with the nightingale housing model, which is all around building housing for people to live in. So, you know, these, these apartments are all lived in by owners who want to form a kind of community of people who kind of care and, you know, are trying to achieve certain things around being sustainable.

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All and being sort of looking out for each other, and, yeah, growing gardens. The whole building is covered in in gardens. We have a rooftop garden. We have communal sort of facilities and things like that. We sort of sacrifice our own laundries to have laundries on the roof, to give ourselves more space. But also just sort of like, Hi, I'm doing my washing hello and chatting with people. So this is, it was a really long held dream. I was building my business, and I just simply couldn't afford to to kind of ballot for the apartment until this one.

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I nearly missed out, but then it kind of came back to me. And yeah, so this is a really big part of my journey. I my very first house I bought was a commute. Oh, wow, yeah. When I was 17, I couldn't even put my name on the title. And

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I've sort of come back. I'm so very middle class, middle aged kind of commute, but, but it's got a lot of those principles in it of working together and living together and and making housing about housing, and not about investment and money and returns and not that. You know, that's bad, but it's not the primary thing about housing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh, I love that. And I really love the synergy in our timelines, because you had a we had a very firm deadline, which was great because the book had a very firm deadline, and your deadline was strict because you were moving in exactly you were like, I have to finish your book. I have to be done on this day. We have to make the changes, which was great for me, because otherwise I can really stretch out. So I really love that. Yes, no, get it done. You had a fit. It was like, Alright, I can't got it on that. And we did it. And I also must thank you as well. So congratulations. That's a huge thank you. Love that philosophy. It's wonderful to learn about. But I also must thank you because you gave me some the most sage advice. And, you know, I was in a very tricky time.

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The book had, you know, come up against the challenges. I changed my team. It was feeling very pressured. And then

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my nephew died, yeah, it was so sad. And he was, well, he was very close when we're talking, and I wrote to you, and I said, I'm going to

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in the weeks leading up. And I said, I'm going to push the deadline. And you wrote back very kindly and compassionately, but you said I would strongly, if you can muster it up,

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strongly advise you to push forward with the deadline, because you've done most of it like you've done the bulk of the work. It's time to hand it over. We're committed, you know, the team is committed to the deadline. You and Michael, amazing. We're ready to go. So if you can stick with it, we'll get it done. And we did. And it was everyone was Ellis was telling me no, and you said, if you can, and that actually always plays into my challenge sort of personality. And, you know, yeah, just the book. I just the thought of pushing the timeline and going back into the uncertainty of when and picking other dates actually felt harder then, then forging ahead and being and not getting to do it all the way that we wanted to. So it came out courageous. Oh, thank you, but I it's just the biggest advice that I give you. Cannot do this alone, and I'm so forever grateful for the team that I got, and for the universe lining it up, because this is the the book that I wanted, the book that I'm proud of.

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And, you know, I just thank you.

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Thank you. Yeah, as I say, it was a beautiful serendipity and and just look, I think, you know, high pressure deadlines are, are only really awful if everyone gets awful about them. You were just so wonderful, you know, so wonderful to work with. We had some laughs, which was really amazing, given that the circumstances we were both facing but you in particular. And yeah, I think, yeah, I'm just really grateful that you have the doubts to do that, to believe in yourself for that. In that way, it was a very tough time. Thank you. I think, as everyone says, a book in the making of the book,

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a book about writing the book. And I'm like, I don't, I don't know if we're ready for that, but there's certainly many a podcast which is wonderful, content upon content. So it's the gift, it keeps on giving. Now, wonderful. Cath, how can we connect with you? And how can we find you too? Yeah, so my website is my name, so.

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Cath with a K so Cath walters.com.au,

45:03

so you can come there. There's a little sort of helpful quiz that kind of gives you a feel for whether or not you're sort of ready to write a book, and takes you through some questions that are helpful and allows you to sort of connect with me. You can just, you know, give me a call or email me again. My email is just my name. You can also buy my book there. That's a great place to start if you want to, as I said, If you're happy to kind of have have a conversation with me where I kind of really help

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my clients get some clarity around their book. You'll get a free copy of the book anyway. So, so there you go. Um, yeah. So yeah, just simply come to my website. I I'm fairly regular on LinkedIn. I've had a bit of a holiday lately, but, and so yeah, you can read my thoughts on LinkedIn as well. And again, it's just my name. I love it. Cath, and yes, if you need endorsement, testimonial, if this podcast wasn't enough, come and chat to me, because I'll sing your name from the rooftops. And, yeah, really excited to look at future projects with you. Kath, but

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yeah, just thank you. And, oh yeah, thank you. Okay, is there anything else? Thank you? Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure. Lovely to be here and to talk with you, Emma, thank you.

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Thank you for listening. Lovell one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected. Come and join the live a life you love. Group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au the same as my website, but all the details are in the show notes. Lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom seeking. Now, go out there and live a life you love, you.