March 5, 2024 • 40 mins
On today’s episode, I’m sharing a BIG announcement about my latest book that comes out on May 7th. You don’t want to miss it (especially if you like free stuff). But the book is just one of three big things that are happening for me this week. Listen in and I’ll give you the dish on all three.
For more info, go to: writeyourstory.com/book
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pick up the pieces of your life, pulled them back
together with the word to write all the beauty and
peace and the magic that you'll start too fun when
you write your story. You got the words and said,
don't you think it's time to let them out and
write them down and cover what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And write your story.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Write you, write your story.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Welcome back to the Write Your Story Podcast. I'm Ali Fallon.
I'm your host, and on today's episode, I don't really
know what we're going to talk about. I have I
do know what we're going to talk about. I have
a few things that i'd like to talk about. I
have a really big announcement to share with you about
my book that's coming out in just a couple of months,
and so I'm so excited to share that announcement. But
(00:50):
leading up to that, I don't know. I was driving
over here to the studio where I record these episodes.
I record in my friend Amy studio, and always on
the way here because I live a bit of a
distance away. It's usually about a thirty minute drive, depending
on traffic, and always on the way over, I'm thinking about,
you know, if I'm interviewing a guest, what do I
(01:10):
want to cover? Where do I want to take the conversation.
If I'm doing a solo episode, I'm thinking about what
do I want to talk about on today's episode, and
I like to approach it as a question, you know,
just sort of like send the question out into the
ether and then wait for what comes to me. And
usually I'm hit with some kind of an insight about
what I'm supposed to talk about on that day's episode.
(01:32):
And usually it comes in almost like an outline for
the episode, So it will be like, here's what you're
going to talk about. Here are the three or four points,
and then I can kind of fill in as I go.
And this is how usually for me, how it works
with writing too, that I sit down to a blank
page and I don't really have to think about it
in the way that you would assume that you have
(01:54):
to think about a piece of writing. It's almost like
I'll get hit with an inside or an inspiration and
that just kind of comes through me and flows through me.
I don't know if you have an experience like that,
but that's just kind of how I experience the process
of recording a podcast episode or writing a book, or
writing anything. So on my way here this morning, I
asked the same question I always do. I'm driving and
(02:16):
I just was like, Okay, what do you want me
to talk about on today's episode? And the insight that
came through was just this sentence. You never know why
you're being asked to embark on an adventure or a
creative journey of some kind. So whether that's writing a book,
or starting a business, or starting a podcast, or starting
(02:39):
a family or whatever it is, whatever the creative journey
that's set in front of you, I'm sure you're in
the middle of one right now.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
All of us are.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
So you're in the middle of at least one creative
journey right now, and you never get to know why
you were asked to embark on that creative journey. And
like I said before, usually when I get these insights
for what an episode should be about, it comes through
like an outline, and this morning, that's not how it
came through.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It just was that insight.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You never know why you're being asked to embark on
a creative journey, So I want to talk about that.
I was like, anything else that you want to share
with me that I should share on the episode, And
it's like, Nope, just that. So we're going to run
with that. I'm going to improv it a little bit.
I do have some life updates that I would love
(03:30):
to share because it's been a really big week for me.
This second week of March is a big week in
my house and my family, starting.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
With last night.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I'm in Level six of improv classes, which is the
final level at the theater where I'm taking classes. I
started in level one in January of twenty twenty three,
and I've been taking classes with pretty much the same
group of people ever since, so it's been a little
bit over a year now. We did an improv showcase
after level three, which was great and really terrifying and scary,
(04:03):
I think I talked about it on the show at
the time, but was exhilarating also in fun. And so
we did that showcase after level three, and then I
told myself I was going to do levels four and five,
but not six because I knew that there was another
showcase coming after six.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
But here I am.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
We did Level six and I just did my first
Level six showcase. It's the first of three showcases, so
I have one down and two more to go in
the month of March, and that will be the culmination
of my six levels of improv classes. This is like
our capstone sort of performance, and then our group that
has been practicing together and taking classes together for the
(04:41):
last year plus. I think a healthy portion of the
group is going to form a troop and perform more.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Regularly at the theater.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I think that's what the talk has been about, so
it sounds like that will be happening. I don't have
plans to join the troop, but crazier things have happened.
I did not think that I would end up here
at level six of improv. I started taking improv classes
at level one because an author who I really respect
(05:10):
suggested that creative people take improv classes as a way
to you know, access more freedom and more creativity in
their lives. And that sounded really fun to me, and
so I was like, sure, I'll sign up for a
level one improv class that's really low stakes. And I
did that and just kind of got swept up in
the excitement of it and the fun of it, and
(05:31):
never intended to go beyond level one. But sure enough
I was in level two and then level three, and
at one point actually probably at several points. I kept saying,
you know, this is where I get off the ride,
and I kept having people in my class be like,
why wouldn't you go to the next level, Why wouldn't
you come with us?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Come on, you can do it, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So I think it was a little peer pressure and
a little bit just other people reflecting back to me
that there was no reason why I couldn't go to
the next level. I think I had kind of opted
myself out as if everyone someone else was much better
at the craft than I am, which I still kind
of feel like they are. But it's been such a
stretching experience for me. I have grown so much. I
(06:12):
had a couple of friends come to the show that
I performed last night, and one of them said to
me afterwards, I feel like we just saw a different
Alley come out, and I was like, yeah, it feels
like my alter ego that's been, you know, secretly practicing
this thing on Monday nights for over a year, and
I just got to come out and be really goofy
and ridiculous and have a great time with it. And
(06:34):
it's definitely a side to myself that I haven't given
a lot of space to breathe. So, like I said,
I don't know if that resonates with you at all,
but what I know for sure is that it feels
really really vulnerable for me to first of all, just
to be in a group of people and play silly
games and be stupid. But then to do that with
(06:55):
that group of people where there's a ton of safety
that we've created together, to do that in front of
an audience is like an added layer of it just
feels really exposing to me. And so it's been really
really good for me and has stretched me beyond what
I thought was possible, and I think is really going
to give me an added skill set that I can
(07:15):
bring into my work. But more than that, it's not
really even about bringing into my work. I mean, I
think that's like icing on the cake, But I think
the cake itself is just having more freedom in that
area of my life. I'd have to dig into that
to know where that even came from. I don't know
where it came from, but I do know that I
have like a deep seated insecurity about looking dumb in
(07:38):
front of people. And so for me, it's like sound smart,
be intelligent, be thoughtful, articulate, yourself well, and if you
don't do those things, then you should be embarrassed or shamed.
And improv is really you know, it's stretching me on
that front for sure, and I'm having a lot of
(07:59):
fun just stupid and not sounding intelligent with everything that
I say and just saying the first thing that comes
to my mind. It also has built a lot of
self trust for me that there's an ability to just
trust the next thing that wants to come out of
my mouth, that I don't have to think through it
or really overthink it. I don't have to strategically plan
(08:21):
everything that I'm going to do, every step I'm going
to take. That I can actually lean into my gut instinct,
to my first gut response and just do the thing
or say the thing that's coming to my mind, and
that that is really trustworthy. So improv is growing that
skill set in me too, and it just gives me
a lot more freedom in all areas of my life,
including recording a podcast episode by myself alone in a
(08:44):
room talking to you without really any idea what I'm
going to say. This is the only thing I know
I'm going to say, is that you never know why
you're being asked to do the thing that you're being
asked to do. Speaking of which, the other thing that's
happening in my world this week is there's a big
meeting happening by the time you're hearing this episode. So
(09:05):
I'm recording this on Monday, you're gonna hear it on Tuesday.
There's a big meeting happening Tuesday night, So by the
time you're hearing this, it's tonight. For the project that
my husband's been working on, we talked about it on
an episode he and I did. If you haven't listened
to that episode, it is the episode from September twelfth,
twenty twenty three, so season one, episode thirteen.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's called the Story.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
We are writing a surprise interview with my husband and
we tell bits and pieces of the story there. There's
a lot that we haven't been allowed to talk about yet,
just because there are many things hanging in the balance.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
But if you want to hear more.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Of the story, you can go back and listen to
that episode. But we've been working on something. Really, he's
been working on it, but I say we because it
does feel like a family project. It's something that he
and I have both felt really inspired by and it's
really more than a job for him. In fact, it's
not really a job because he hasn't taken a paycheck
from this project in you know, he's been working on
(10:00):
it for over three years, so it's not really a
job in the traditional sense of the word. It is
how he's spending you know, his working hours during the day.
But it feels like this task that has been put
in front of him is having an impact. It's on
our entire family unit. You know, it's a family affair. Definitely.
(10:21):
We're all contributing and we're all making collaborative decisions about
how to move forward at various points in the project, because,
like we talk about in our episode, it's been a long, crazy,
wild ride of a journey. It has been the nuttiest
thing I've ever done. There have been so many different
points along the way where I'm like, I don't think
(10:41):
this is worth it. We should just give up, we
should walk away, and then things will happen. That just
cement for me that this is the path that we're
meant to be on, that we're being asked to walk
this journey by something that's bigger than us, and I
don't understand it. It's a complete mystery to me. But
I can tell you that I've had experiences like having
(11:03):
a dream that is so clear that gives us a
directive about what we're meant to do with this project,
and that's not something that happens to me on a
daily basis. I can tell you maybe two or three
times in my whole life that I've had a dream
like that where a directive came in through a dream,
and so something like that will happen, and it's it's
(11:24):
a reminder that this is the path that we're meant
to be on. It's the path we're being asked to
be on. And this concept of you never know why
you're being asked to take the creative journey that you're
being asked to take feels really poignant for me in
one area of my life in this project, because, like
I said, there have been so many times where I've
(11:44):
been like, let's get off the ride, like it's a
huge tax on our family. It's causing us a lot
of stress. My husband is like up in the middle
of the night at times for hours, worried about how
things are going to turn out, or you know, are
they going to get the approvals that they need to get.
Are they going to get the funding that they need
to get? And I'm like, Yo, we don't have to
do that. We could just you could just go get
(12:06):
a regular job and we could just do that, you know,
and it would be a lot less stressful for our family.
And then after I think of backing out, then something
will happen that just reminds me that this is where
we're meant to be. And so I think sometimes when
we're on a creative journey like this, we can get
stuck thinking that the point of the creative journey is
(12:28):
to bring to fruition the creative thing that we're working on.
So if it's a book, it's just like, the point
is to publish the book. And I think a lot
of times we get even more specific than that. So
we think the point is to publish the book to
inspire people. I want to inspire as many people as possible.
I want to sell a hundred thousand copies of this book,
you know, I want to be a New York Times
(12:49):
bestselling author. Or in the case of this project, it's
like we're going to build this community, you know, we
get we got to get our approvals from the county.
We got to get the funding that we need so
that we can build this thing. We got to get
this specific partner or that specific partner or this you know,
very specific thing needs to happen. And the fact of
the matter is you probably have had an experience like
(13:11):
this where you've walked a creative journey and the thing
that you wanted to happen, the outcome that you were
hoping for, didn't actually happen. And so that begs the question,
what does that mean. Does it mean that it was
pointless that you walked the journey. No, it just means
you don't get to know ahead of time why you're
being asked to do the thing that you're being asked
to do, the creative thing, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Here's a quick example.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
So this podcast, for example, I had been feeling for
a couple of months that I wanted to get back into.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
The world of podcasting.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I had been feeling for a couple of months that
I wanted to get back into the world of podcasting.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I had a podcast before podcast.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
It was called Find Your Voice, and we recorded I
don't know a few hundred like really lovely, amazing, fantastic
episodes of that podcast. They were all interviews with really
incredible people. We had so much fun doing. My team
and I worked on that together, and I had so
much fun having the conversations and the interviews were amazing.
(14:22):
And then there was a point where I had to
step back and take a break because things were happening
so fast in my life between having two babies back
to back and just other work stuff going on, and
then what Matt was working on. There were just there
was so much happening, and I was right on the
edge of a complete burnout, and so I had to
(14:42):
step back from that podcast. So I took a break
for a long time, for almost two years, and I
was feeling like it was about time for me to
step back in the game. And that's when my friend
Amy asked if I would come do a podcast on
her network, and I was like, of course, you know,
it's such an honor to be part of her network
and with so many other amazing women who are doing
really incredible shows as well. So it was a big
(15:06):
yes for me, like a resounding yes. And then I
had to think through, Okay, what do I want the
podcast to be about? What do I want to talk
about on the show. And I was at the time
working on the manuscript for my new book called Write
Your Story, and I was really having a lot of
fun with that, and there were just so many different
directions that I could go with that content that I thought, Okay,
(15:26):
we'll do a podcast called Write Your Story. And as
I was spending time in quiet just thinking about what
I wanted the podcast to be like or to look like,
I kept getting these insights about how the podcast was
supposed to go, one of which was that I was
supposed to do these solo episodes and I hadn't done
solo episodes on a podcast before. And also what I
(15:48):
knew to be true in my conscious mind about podcasting
was that a big way that you grow an audience
with podcasting is by having guests on the show. And
you have a guest on the show, and then they
bring their audience with them, or even you know, people
from your audience see this familiar name, and so then
they want to come here what this person has to
say or is to share. And that's one of the
(16:09):
ways that you grow your audience on a especially a
new podcast. So the idea of me doing solo episodes,
was like, wait, hold on, that's not going to work
because how would I grow an audience on this show?
And then the second reason I thought it's not going
to work it is because the thought of sitting alone
in a podcast studio without someone to bounce ideas off
of or ask questions to. I just thought, like, how
(16:31):
am I even gonna be able? I can't just like
riff on my own. That was a huge growth edge
for me, and so I wasn't sure how that was
going to go. I wasn't sure if I was going
to be any good at it, and I kept kind
of arguing with the insight that came through, wondering maybe
it was wrong, maybe I should do it this other way.
But I've been doing this for long enough to know
(16:52):
that when an insight like that comes through, you roll
with it, you go with it, you just say yes,
and you figure it out later.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So I did.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
That's what I did, and that's the way that I
have structured this podcast. I've done some interviews, yes, and
some coaching episodes, but the majority of the show is
just me in a room talking to a microphone because
that's how I was told this show is supposed to go,
and you never get to know ahead of time the
why why am I being asked to do this thing?
(17:22):
Why am I being asked to do it in this
kind of a way. It may not be because doing
it that way is gonna inspire the most amount of
people possible. I don't know. It's really hard to measure that,
first of all. But second of all, I think one
of the big reasons why we're asked to go on
a creative journey that we overlook is because of us,
(17:46):
because of me. And I know that sounds like a
bit of a self centered way to look at it,
but just go with me for just a second. One
of the reasons I was asked to start doing solo episodes,
I believe, is because this is a growth edge for me,
because I needed it. It's right in the same category
as taking improv classes. This is part of what my
(18:09):
life and my journey is trying to teach me, or
trying to show me right now, is that I can
trust myself, that I can trust the thing that wants
to come out of my mouth, that I don't have
to have everything perfectly structured or scheduled or strategized or
planned out ahead of time. Or be perfectly prepared for
every single thing that I do. I can just sit down,
I can tune in to what's you know, what's coming in,
(18:32):
the insights that are coming in, and then I can
just say the first thing that comes to my mind.
And I'm not saying that the first thing that comes
to my mind is always going to be like you know,
perfectly witty or insightful, or that it's going to change
someone's life. I don't know for sure if it's going
to do that. But what I know for sure is
that I'm being asked right now in my creative journey
(18:53):
to learn that skill. And I'm being asked through improv
and I'm being asked through this podcast, and I'm being
asked through a dozen different ways to learn the skill
of just showing up quote unquote unprepared and just saying
the first thing that comes to my mind and trusting
my first initial gut response. So we don't get to
know the reasons why we're being asked to take the
(19:14):
creative journey that we're taking. It may be to inspire
someone else. It may be to sell a bunch of copies.
It may be to build a community. It may be
for some reason out there, but I find that most
of the time, the first and foremost reason is for you,
for the creative person and the insight that wants to
(19:34):
come through you.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And this feels like a good.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Time to talk about this topic, which I've had kind
of in my little mental file folder for a couple months.
I've been like, do I talk about this on Instagram?
And now this feels like the perfect fit for it.
I wanted to talk about this idea of channeling art
because I had a client recently who told me that
her book was channeled, and it made me think about
(19:59):
an ext aperients I had a long time ago when
I went to an event where an LaMotte was speaking.
It was a panel discussion and there was an opportunity
to stand up and ask questions. And this young kid
stood up and held up a binder with I don't know,
a few hundred pages of like eight and a half
by eleven sheets of paper that was in the binder,
and he said, you know, An, I channeled this book
(20:19):
and I really want you to read it. I feel
that you're supposed to read it. And she basically told
him no, She was like, I'm not going to read
it if I took the binder from you and said
I was going to read it. It would be the wrong
thing to do because I'm not going to read it.
I would throw it in the trash. It was such
a memorable moment because I felt like it sounds kind
of harsh, but actually it was her giving the gift
(20:41):
of honesty. And memorable too because this was probably when
I heard that, probably twenty thirteen, and I was very,
very new to the idea of channeling. It felt like
a super bizarre I hadn't heard that term many times
in my life before, and I think I probably felt
a little judge mental of it at that point. By
(21:02):
the time my client mentioned this to me a couple
months ago, I am not as new to the idea
of channeling, so and I've heard that term a lot before.
And my take on channeling is that's what all of
us are doing when we do something creative, whatever it
is that you're doing. I don't know how that client
of mine, or that kid who stood up that day,
(21:24):
or how anyone else would define the act of channeling
or the art of channeling, but in my mind, channeling
is about kind of like cleaning out your own personal agenda,
clearing that out and being still so that you can
hear a wider, a broader, a more infinite agenda that's
(21:49):
trying to come through agendas, not even the right word
for it, like a whisper, that's trying to come through
each of us to express itself here on this planet
where we are. So that's what we're all doing when
we're being creative. When you're doing any kind of art,
you know, if you're painting, if you're writing a book,
(22:10):
you know, if you're really intentional about it, this probably
would work for writing an Instagram post, making a reel,
filming a YouTube video for your YouTube channel. It would
be the same for growing a business, starting a business,
marketing your product that you sell, whatever it is that
you're doing, if you're approaching it from a creative posture,
(22:34):
then you're channeling it. It's not coming from you. Here's
one example. Maybe you were reading through old journals or
old writing of yours and you read something that you
wrote and you were like, WHOA, I wrote that.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I don't even remember writing that.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
That's crazy, that's insightful, Like that's a beautiful piece of
poetry or prose.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
That's channeling you wrote.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Something that you didn't come from your didn't come from
your logical mind. It came from someplace else that's mysterious
that none of us really understand, and in my view,
that's channeling. The thing to note about channeling is that
it's really hard to know about yourself how well you've
(23:21):
done at clearing your own agenda. All of us have
personal agendas that are going to conflict with the thing
that's trying to come through us. And when that personal
agenda conflicts with that, it can muddy the waters, and
the thing that comes through is either not as interesting
as it could be, it's not as impactful as it
(23:41):
could be. It is in some cases could be I suppose,
dangerous or hurtful to someone who reads it. So it's
just really hard to know. It's very hard to be
objective with yourself about whether what came through was it
your agenda or was it the greater agenda, the greater
sort of beauty that's true to be expressed. That's a
(24:01):
better word than agenda. I don't think that the broader
thing that's trying to come through, I don't think is
about agenda.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I think it's love. I think it's beauty.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So it's sometimes hard to assess for yourself was what
came through your agenda or was it the universal and
infinite beauty and love and all that is that came through.
But in my view, the purpose of the creative process,
so going back to the theme, you never get to
(24:30):
know why it is that you're doing the thing that
you're doing. You don't get to know ahead of time,
and that's it's built into the design in my opinion,
because part of the purpose of the creative process is
helping you as an individual to clear out your own
personal agenda, to clear out your ego, to clear out
(24:53):
what's getting in the way of you really hearing the beauty,
the love that universal, all the business that's trying to
be expressed through you. That is the purpose of your
creative process. So if you write a book and it
never gets read, it doesn't matter, It doesn't matter. That
(25:14):
wasn't the purpose anyway. The purpose was to clear out
your agenda so that the love that blankets all of us,
the love that covers all of us, could come through
clearly through you. If you go on a journey to
build a community and you spend three plus years of
(25:35):
your life giving forty hours a week of your time
and all of your savings and then some and you
go on this journey and you give everything that you
have to this project and the project doesn't happen. If
it never gets built, it doesn't mean that you've failed
at what you were being asked to do. It means
that you never get to know ahead of time why
(25:56):
you're being asked to do the thing that you're being
asked to do, and usually the reason has something way
more to do with you than the thing that you
were trying to create. So right now is a good
example because I walked into the studio today and I
had no idea what I was going to share on
this episode, and all I knew was that I was
supposed to talk about how when you go on a
creative journey, you never know why you're being asked to
(26:16):
go on that journey. And this is literally for me.
This message was for me. The words that are coming
out of my mouth are for me, which is that
this journey that we've been on is The reason I
started talking about what Ma's been working on is that
there's a big meeting happening tonight. The reason I started
(26:42):
talking about what Ma's been working on is that there's
a big meeting happening tonight. By the time you're listening
to it, it will be tonight. That is just a really
big climactic moment in this process for us. I wish
I could say more. There are a lot of absolute
and utter miracles that have taken place to bring us
to this point, and approvals that we have been waiting
(27:04):
for forever came through a couple of months ago, and
it feels like a really climactic moment in the story.
And I'm obviously hoping for a positive outcome, or what
I would call a positive outcome, but it's really good
for me to remind myself that it's really not about
a positive outcome. It's not about going in with an
agenda that's my own personal agenda that I'm coming in with.
This process is here to teach us something, and I
(27:28):
don't I mean, I do have a sense of what
that something is. Maybe I could record a whole episode
about that, of what we have come here to learn,
but it's really not about getting my personal agenda fulfilled.
It's much more about what we've been learning, the posture
that we've been learning, the growth that has come from
this for us individually and as a couple and as
(27:49):
a family. So that's such a good reminder for me
as we walk into this really really really big meeting
this week. And then finally, the third thing that the
update I want to give, and this is the big
announcement that I was talking about at the beginning of
the show, is that I have a book coming out
May seventh.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
You know that already.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
It's called Write Your Story, a simple framework to understand yourself,
your story, and your purpose in the world. This book
is the culmination of work that I've been doing in
my career for the last twelve or thirteen years. I
really started this in two thousand and eight when I
decided I had always known I wanted to write a book,
but I decided to leave my full time job in
(28:30):
favor of going out and actually getting the manuscript written.
And one of the things that I wanted to do,
or that I decided to do to help myself kind
of kick off this journey is I decided to go
on this really long, adventurous trip with my friend Sharrea
and drive across the country to visit all fifty states.
(28:51):
That was the plan we drove to forty eight of
the lower continental states and then flew to Alaska and
Hawaii as a capstone of our process. It took us
a year to do this, and the big reason for
doing it was to give us something inspiring to write about.
Shirea was a musician is a musician still is, and
she was kind of trying to launch her career at the.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Time, and I knew I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Write this book, and I wanted to come up with
some inspiring things to write about and really give myself
a lot of material. And so we decided to quit
our full time jobs, sell everything we owned, pack our
things into my super out back, and spend a year
driving all over the country to have some crazy experiences.
The book, that first book I wrote is called Packing
Light Thoughts on Living Life with Less Baggage, and it's
(29:38):
really a reflection on what does it mean to be alive,
what's my purpose in the world. It's a memoir, creative
nonfiction is what the genre is called. And that was
my first experience writing a book and my first experience
writing a memoir and really kicked off this passion that
I have for telling personal stories. So then of course
I wrote Indestructible, which is the story about leaving my
(30:02):
abuse of marriage and finding myself on the other side
of that. I also wrote a book called The Power
of Writing It Down that came out in twenty twenty one.
Beginning of twenty twenty one was Zondovin, and that book
was really it's a book about journaling. It's a book
about the power of writing about our experiences, but was
directed specifically at people who wanted to create a journaling
(30:23):
practice and then write. Your story is the culmination of
all of that which teaches you to take an experience
from your life and actually turn it into a piece
of writing that you can feel proud to share. So
I want you to be able to tell a story
in a compelling way from your life and share that
piece of writing with your therapist, Share it with your spouse,
Share it with your kids someday. Share it with your
(30:46):
ten closest friends. Share it with your Instagram community, share
it with your book club, share it at church, share
it in your Bible study, share it from a stage,
do a Ted x talk, do a Ted talk, write
a book. You could turn it into a memoir. There's
all kinds of things you could do with your story
once it's written, and this book is going to teach
you how to take an experience from your life and
(31:07):
turn it into a story. But really the most important
thing when we were talking about where this book belonged
in a bookstore, and some people on my publishing team
were saying, well, I think it should go in the
writing section.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's the thing that makes the most sense.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
And there are a lot of times with publishing decisions
where I just defer to the other experts, especially when
it comes to that sort of a choice. I feel
like I'm just not necessarily the right person to be
making the choice. But in this case, I was like, no,
this book has to go in the self help section,
because this is really not a book for someone who's
looking to learn how to write better, although it will
(31:41):
teach you that, but this is a book for anybody
who feels like they've lost the thread of meaning in
their life. So I don't know if you've had this
experience where you're just kind of going through the motions
and maybe you really do have a sense that there's
a bigger meaning or a bigger story happening, but you've
lost the thread, like you can't see how all of
(32:03):
these disparate pieces of information fit together. This book is
for you if you have had that experience, or if
you're currently having that experience, because the act of writing
your story is going to help you find the one
golden thread that holds it all together. That's the most
important thing that writing your story will do for you,
even if you never share it with another human soul.
(32:24):
Writing your story will help you find the thread that
holds it all together. And so I wrote this book
to give you a framework that you can use to
do that. To take seemingly desperate experiences from your life,
to put them to page, and to see how all
of them connect together, to see the themes that show
(32:47):
up again and again and again, to see the patterns
that are inevitably there. Because there is like a geometric,
intentional pattern, like a thumbprint, on every single one of
our lives. And I understand this both from writing my
own story, but also from now almost fifteen years of
sitting down with people and helping them tell theirs. As
(33:09):
a ghostwriter and as a book coach, I worked with
thousands of people through my online courses and through my
coaching practice to take experiences from their life and turn
it into something that someone else would be interested in reading.
So if you wonder about your life, if your life
is even interesting, because I get this a lot, people
(33:31):
will say, I don't know, my life isn't really that interesting.
I don't know what I would have to write about.
The process of writing will show you exactly what is
interesting about your life. And by the way, if you
don't think your life is very interesting, then you're going
to have a hard time feeling engaged while you're even
living it. So wouldn't you want to look at what
(33:51):
actually is so fascinating about your life so that you
can feel riveted at every second, riveted at every single turn,
every every single moment, everything that takes place. Don't you
want to feel engaged and riveted by it? And this
process can help you to do that. The big news
is that pre orders are alive now and you can
(34:11):
go to any of your favorite retailers and pre order
the book. This is a very exciting moment in the
life of an author when you finally get to say,
go buy my book. A couple things about preorders. Number one,
I put together a really incredible pre order bonus package
for you because I wanted to make it an absolute
no brainer to buy this book before it comes out.
I know that spending twenty dollars on a book is
(34:34):
a big deal. Spending twenty dollars on literally anything right
now is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
I don't take that lightly.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
And spending twenty dollars on something that you're not going
to have in your hands for a couple of months
is an even bigger deal. And so I wanted to
make it a no brainer for you. So I'm giving
away literally eighteen hundred dollars worth of free resources to
anyone who pre orders the book. So if you go
to your favorite retailer and pre order the book, and
then you go to write yourstory dot com slash book,
(35:00):
you can enter your order number into the form on
the website and I will automatically send you all of
the bonuses, including you get the first three chapters of
the book for free to get started reading right now,
so you can start reading the first three chapters, and
then in a couple months you'll have the physical book
in your hands. One of the reasons that I did
this is because I just wanted to make it a
(35:21):
total noe brainer for you to go and order the book.
Another reason I did it is that, and I'll just
give you a little inside scoop on the publishing industry here.
Pre orders are really, really, really really big deal for
any author, but especially with this book because I took
a chance on publishing with a hybrid publisher, it's even
a little bit more of a big deal. The publisher
(35:43):
and the distributors are going to take my pre order
numbers and they're going to calculate how many books that
they want to print in total. So pre order numbers
tell the publishers this book is popular and we should
print plenty of copies. So the publisher prints plenty of copies,
and that way the book comes out. There's a lot
more opportunity for selling books. So anyway, those are the
(36:04):
two reasons I wanted to make it a no brainer
to pre order. Number one because I know it's a
big deal for you to spend twenty dollars on a
book that isn't in your hands for a couple of months.
But number two because I just want to give this
book every chance I can to fly, and I know
that pre order numbers are a huge, huge part of that.
So would you please go to your favorite retailer and
(36:25):
buy a copy of Write Your Story by Alison Fallon.
Write Your Story a simple framework to understand yourself, your story,
and your purpose in the world. And go tell people
about it. Go tell your mom, like someone in your
life who you're like, I want them to write their story.
I want to know more about you, know why they are,
the way that they are.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I want to.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Understand where they come from, and the way that they
see the world, the lens through which they see the world.
So text that person and send them a link to
the book too, or buy a copy for them and
send it to their house and tell them that you
think that they're fascinating and that you want to know
more about their life, and that you'd want them to
write their story. So send a text message to that person. Also,
another really great way to engage with this book would
(37:05):
be to put together a little book club or writing club.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You could put together.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Like ten or twelve or fifteen people and all of
you could buy a copy of the book and you
could read it together. You could write your stories together.
You could pass your stories around the circle, give each
other feedback. That would be a really amazing way to
engage with this book. Another incredible way to engage with
this material is to use it if you're already in therapy,
(37:29):
to use it with your therapist. Maybe share the book
with your therapist and tell them you're reading this and
that you'd love to write bits and pieces of your
story and share it with them. It's a fabulous way
for a therapist to get to know you a little
bit better and for you to continue the work that
you're doing in therapy between Let's say you go to
therapy on Tuesday, So between Tuesday and the next Tuesday,
you have a way to continue to metabolize what you're
(37:53):
learning in therapy and to continue to integrate it. And
writing about your life is an absolutely fabulous way to
do that. So I won't get into all the data
today right here, right this minute, on how powerful a
tool writing is to change your life, but it's one
of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal
to create meaningful change in our life. And so if
(38:14):
you're feeling kind of stuck, if you're feeling like lost,
if you're feeling like you've lost the thread of meaning
or purpose in your life, or this is how I
feel right now, there's a lot that's happening a lot
of really interesting things in my life. I feel like
there's literally miracle after a miracle that's happening. There's like
synchronicities taking place at every turn. I feel like guided
(38:36):
in a really deep way. I feel reassured all the time.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I feel like.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
These amazing things are happening in my life and in
my world, and I'm afraid I'm gonna forget them if
I don't write them down. And I also want my
children to know about this. I want them to understand
the tiny little universe. By that, I mean our family
universe that they were born into and the inner working
of their mom and dad. And I want them to
(39:02):
have that as a legacy that I can pass down.
So if any of that sounds like you go pre
order write your Story by Alison Fallen, it would mean
the world to me. And then make sure you go
to write your story a dot com slash book and
you enter your order information in there, and you'll get
all your pre order bonuses, including the first three chapters
of the book, which you get to start reading right away,
so you never get to know why you're being taken
(39:24):
on the creative journey.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You're being taken on.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
It probably has something to do with you more than
it has to do with other people who need to
be inspired. Although other people are inspired when you're inspired.
When you come alive, they come alive. When you feel loved,
They feel loved. When you're filled up, they're filled up,
and there's an incredible ripple effect there. So I believe
that's what the creative journey is all about. I don't
know what creative journey you're being asked to take right now,
(39:48):
but whatever it is, you can trust it. It's a beautiful,
beautiful thing. It's terrifying too, but it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
And this is part of how that fear gets burned
out of us, is by just saying yes to it
and trusting ourselves and trusting the path that we're being
taken on. So I hope this is an inspiration to you.
(40:10):
I know for sure that it is to me. The
words that are coming through me and out of my
mouth are not from me, and I needed to hear
it today, So I'm grateful that you're still listening. I
hope you'll go for your order copy of Write Your Story,
and I'll see you next week.
Pick up the pieces of your life, pulled them back
together with the word to write all the beauty and
peace and the magic that you'll start too fun when
you write your story. You got the words and said,
don't you think it's time to let them out and
write them down and cover what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And write your story.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Write you, write your story.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Welcome back to the Write Your Story Podcast. I'm Ali Fallon.
I'm your host, and on today's episode, I don't really
know what we're going to talk about. I have I
do know what we're going to talk about. I have
a few things that i'd like to talk about. I
have a really big announcement to share with you about
my book that's coming out in just a couple of months,
and so I'm so excited to share that announcement. But
(00:50):
leading up to that, I don't know. I was driving
over here to the studio where I record these episodes.
I record in my friend Amy studio, and always on
the way here because I live a bit of a
distance away. It's usually about a thirty minute drive, depending
on traffic, and always on the way over, I'm thinking about,
you know, if I'm interviewing a guest, what do I
(01:10):
want to cover? Where do I want to take the conversation.
If I'm doing a solo episode, I'm thinking about what
do I want to talk about on today's episode, and
I like to approach it as a question, you know,
just sort of like send the question out into the
ether and then wait for what comes to me. And
usually I'm hit with some kind of an insight about
what I'm supposed to talk about on that day's episode.
(01:32):
And usually it comes in almost like an outline for
the episode, So it will be like, here's what you're
going to talk about. Here are the three or four points,
and then I can kind of fill in as I go.
And this is how usually for me, how it works
with writing too, that I sit down to a blank
page and I don't really have to think about it
in the way that you would assume that you have
(01:54):
to think about a piece of writing. It's almost like
I'll get hit with an inside or an inspiration and
that just kind of comes through me and flows through me.
I don't know if you have an experience like that,
but that's just kind of how I experience the process
of recording a podcast episode or writing a book, or
writing anything. So on my way here this morning, I
asked the same question I always do. I'm driving and
(02:16):
I just was like, Okay, what do you want me
to talk about on today's episode? And the insight that
came through was just this sentence. You never know why
you're being asked to embark on an adventure or a
creative journey of some kind. So whether that's writing a book,
or starting a business, or starting a podcast, or starting
(02:39):
a family or whatever it is, whatever the creative journey
that's set in front of you, I'm sure you're in
the middle of one right now.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
All of us are.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
So you're in the middle of at least one creative
journey right now, and you never get to know why
you were asked to embark on that creative journey. And
like I said before, usually when I get these insights
for what an episode should be about, it comes through
like an outline, and this morning, that's not how it
came through.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It just was that insight.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You never know why you're being asked to embark on
a creative journey, So I want to talk about that.
I was like, anything else that you want to share
with me that I should share on the episode, And
it's like, Nope, just that. So we're going to run
with that. I'm going to improv it a little bit.
I do have some life updates that I would love
(03:30):
to share because it's been a really big week for me.
This second week of March is a big week in
my house and my family, starting.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
With last night.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I'm in Level six of improv classes, which is the
final level at the theater where I'm taking classes. I
started in level one in January of twenty twenty three,
and I've been taking classes with pretty much the same
group of people ever since, so it's been a little
bit over a year now. We did an improv showcase
after level three, which was great and really terrifying and scary,
(04:03):
I think I talked about it on the show at
the time, but was exhilarating also in fun. And so
we did that showcase after level three, and then I
told myself I was going to do levels four and five,
but not six because I knew that there was another
showcase coming after six.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
But here I am.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
We did Level six and I just did my first
Level six showcase. It's the first of three showcases, so
I have one down and two more to go in
the month of March, and that will be the culmination
of my six levels of improv classes. This is like
our capstone sort of performance, and then our group that
has been practicing together and taking classes together for the
(04:41):
last year plus. I think a healthy portion of the
group is going to form a troop and perform more.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Regularly at the theater.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I think that's what the talk has been about, so
it sounds like that will be happening. I don't have
plans to join the troop, but crazier things have happened.
I did not think that I would end up here
at level six of improv. I started taking improv classes
at level one because an author who I really respect
(05:10):
suggested that creative people take improv classes as a way
to you know, access more freedom and more creativity in
their lives. And that sounded really fun to me, and
so I was like, sure, I'll sign up for a
level one improv class that's really low stakes. And I
did that and just kind of got swept up in
the excitement of it and the fun of it, and
(05:31):
never intended to go beyond level one. But sure enough
I was in level two and then level three, and
at one point actually probably at several points. I kept saying,
you know, this is where I get off the ride,
and I kept having people in my class be like,
why wouldn't you go to the next level, Why wouldn't
you come with us?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Come on, you can do it, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So I think it was a little peer pressure and
a little bit just other people reflecting back to me
that there was no reason why I couldn't go to
the next level. I think I had kind of opted
myself out as if everyone someone else was much better
at the craft than I am, which I still kind
of feel like they are. But it's been such a
stretching experience for me. I have grown so much. I
(06:12):
had a couple of friends come to the show that
I performed last night, and one of them said to
me afterwards, I feel like we just saw a different
Alley come out, and I was like, yeah, it feels
like my alter ego that's been, you know, secretly practicing
this thing on Monday nights for over a year, and
I just got to come out and be really goofy
and ridiculous and have a great time with it. And
(06:34):
it's definitely a side to myself that I haven't given
a lot of space to breathe. So, like I said,
I don't know if that resonates with you at all,
but what I know for sure is that it feels
really really vulnerable for me to first of all, just
to be in a group of people and play silly
games and be stupid. But then to do that with
(06:55):
that group of people where there's a ton of safety
that we've created together, to do that in front of
an audience is like an added layer of it just
feels really exposing to me. And so it's been really
really good for me and has stretched me beyond what
I thought was possible, and I think is really going
to give me an added skill set that I can
(07:15):
bring into my work. But more than that, it's not
really even about bringing into my work. I mean, I
think that's like icing on the cake, But I think
the cake itself is just having more freedom in that
area of my life. I'd have to dig into that
to know where that even came from. I don't know
where it came from, but I do know that I
have like a deep seated insecurity about looking dumb in
(07:38):
front of people. And so for me, it's like sound smart,
be intelligent, be thoughtful, articulate, yourself well, and if you
don't do those things, then you should be embarrassed or shamed.
And improv is really you know, it's stretching me on
that front for sure, and I'm having a lot of
(07:59):
fun just stupid and not sounding intelligent with everything that
I say and just saying the first thing that comes
to my mind. It also has built a lot of
self trust for me that there's an ability to just
trust the next thing that wants to come out of
my mouth, that I don't have to think through it
or really overthink it. I don't have to strategically plan
(08:21):
everything that I'm going to do, every step I'm going
to take. That I can actually lean into my gut instinct,
to my first gut response and just do the thing
or say the thing that's coming to my mind, and
that that is really trustworthy. So improv is growing that
skill set in me too, and it just gives me
a lot more freedom in all areas of my life,
including recording a podcast episode by myself alone in a
(08:44):
room talking to you without really any idea what I'm
going to say. This is the only thing I know
I'm going to say, is that you never know why
you're being asked to do the thing that you're being
asked to do. Speaking of which, the other thing that's
happening in my world this week is there's a big
meeting happening by the time you're hearing this episode. So
(09:05):
I'm recording this on Monday, you're gonna hear it on Tuesday.
There's a big meeting happening Tuesday night, So by the
time you're hearing this, it's tonight. For the project that
my husband's been working on, we talked about it on
an episode he and I did. If you haven't listened
to that episode, it is the episode from September twelfth,
twenty twenty three, so season one, episode thirteen.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's called the Story.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
We are writing a surprise interview with my husband and
we tell bits and pieces of the story there. There's
a lot that we haven't been allowed to talk about yet,
just because there are many things hanging in the balance.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
But if you want to hear more.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Of the story, you can go back and listen to
that episode. But we've been working on something. Really, he's
been working on it, but I say we because it
does feel like a family project. It's something that he
and I have both felt really inspired by and it's
really more than a job for him. In fact, it's
not really a job because he hasn't taken a paycheck
from this project in you know, he's been working on
(10:00):
it for over three years, so it's not really a
job in the traditional sense of the word. It is
how he's spending you know, his working hours during the day.
But it feels like this task that has been put
in front of him is having an impact. It's on
our entire family unit. You know, it's a family affair. Definitely.
(10:21):
We're all contributing and we're all making collaborative decisions about
how to move forward at various points in the project, because,
like we talk about in our episode, it's been a long, crazy,
wild ride of a journey. It has been the nuttiest
thing I've ever done. There have been so many different
points along the way where I'm like, I don't think
(10:41):
this is worth it. We should just give up, we
should walk away, and then things will happen. That just
cement for me that this is the path that we're
meant to be on, that we're being asked to walk
this journey by something that's bigger than us, and I
don't understand it. It's a complete mystery to me. But
I can tell you that I've had experiences like having
(11:03):
a dream that is so clear that gives us a
directive about what we're meant to do with this project,
and that's not something that happens to me on a
daily basis. I can tell you maybe two or three
times in my whole life that I've had a dream
like that where a directive came in through a dream,
and so something like that will happen, and it's it's
(11:24):
a reminder that this is the path that we're meant
to be on. It's the path we're being asked to
be on. And this concept of you never know why
you're being asked to take the creative journey that you're
being asked to take feels really poignant for me in
one area of my life in this project, because, like
I said, there have been so many times where I've
(11:44):
been like, let's get off the ride, like it's a
huge tax on our family. It's causing us a lot
of stress. My husband is like up in the middle
of the night at times for hours, worried about how
things are going to turn out, or you know, are
they going to get the approvals that they need to get.
Are they going to get the funding that they need
to get? And I'm like, Yo, we don't have to
do that. We could just you could just go get
(12:06):
a regular job and we could just do that, you know,
and it would be a lot less stressful for our family.
And then after I think of backing out, then something
will happen that just reminds me that this is where
we're meant to be. And so I think sometimes when
we're on a creative journey like this, we can get
stuck thinking that the point of the creative journey is
(12:28):
to bring to fruition the creative thing that we're working on.
So if it's a book, it's just like, the point
is to publish the book. And I think a lot
of times we get even more specific than that. So
we think the point is to publish the book to
inspire people. I want to inspire as many people as possible.
I want to sell a hundred thousand copies of this book,
you know, I want to be a New York Times
(12:49):
bestselling author. Or in the case of this project, it's
like we're going to build this community, you know, we
get we got to get our approvals from the county.
We got to get the funding that we need so
that we can build this thing. We got to get
this specific partner or that specific partner or this you know,
very specific thing needs to happen. And the fact of
the matter is you probably have had an experience like
(13:11):
this where you've walked a creative journey and the thing
that you wanted to happen, the outcome that you were
hoping for, didn't actually happen. And so that begs the question,
what does that mean. Does it mean that it was
pointless that you walked the journey. No, it just means
you don't get to know ahead of time why you're
being asked to do the thing that you're being asked
to do, the creative thing, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Here's a quick example.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
So this podcast, for example, I had been feeling for
a couple of months that I wanted to get back into.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
The world of podcasting.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I had been feeling for a couple of months that
I wanted to get back into the world of podcasting.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I had a podcast before podcast.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
It was called Find Your Voice, and we recorded I
don't know a few hundred like really lovely, amazing, fantastic
episodes of that podcast. They were all interviews with really
incredible people. We had so much fun doing. My team
and I worked on that together, and I had so
much fun having the conversations and the interviews were amazing.
(14:22):
And then there was a point where I had to
step back and take a break because things were happening
so fast in my life between having two babies back
to back and just other work stuff going on, and
then what Matt was working on. There were just there
was so much happening, and I was right on the
edge of a complete burnout, and so I had to
(14:42):
step back from that podcast. So I took a break
for a long time, for almost two years, and I
was feeling like it was about time for me to
step back in the game. And that's when my friend
Amy asked if I would come do a podcast on
her network, and I was like, of course, you know,
it's such an honor to be part of her network
and with so many other amazing women who are doing
really incredible shows as well. So it was a big
(15:06):
yes for me, like a resounding yes. And then I
had to think through, Okay, what do I want the
podcast to be about? What do I want to talk
about on the show. And I was at the time
working on the manuscript for my new book called Write
Your Story, and I was really having a lot of
fun with that, and there were just so many different
directions that I could go with that content that I thought, Okay,
(15:26):
we'll do a podcast called Write Your Story. And as
I was spending time in quiet just thinking about what
I wanted the podcast to be like or to look like,
I kept getting these insights about how the podcast was
supposed to go, one of which was that I was
supposed to do these solo episodes and I hadn't done
solo episodes on a podcast before. And also what I
(15:48):
knew to be true in my conscious mind about podcasting
was that a big way that you grow an audience
with podcasting is by having guests on the show. And
you have a guest on the show, and then they
bring their audience with them, or even you know, people
from your audience see this familiar name, and so then
they want to come here what this person has to
say or is to share. And that's one of the
(16:09):
ways that you grow your audience on a especially a
new podcast. So the idea of me doing solo episodes,
was like, wait, hold on, that's not going to work
because how would I grow an audience on this show?
And then the second reason I thought it's not going
to work it is because the thought of sitting alone
in a podcast studio without someone to bounce ideas off
of or ask questions to. I just thought, like, how
(16:31):
am I even gonna be able? I can't just like
riff on my own. That was a huge growth edge
for me, and so I wasn't sure how that was
going to go. I wasn't sure if I was going
to be any good at it, and I kept kind
of arguing with the insight that came through, wondering maybe
it was wrong, maybe I should do it this other way.
But I've been doing this for long enough to know
(16:52):
that when an insight like that comes through, you roll
with it, you go with it, you just say yes,
and you figure it out later.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So I did.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
That's what I did, and that's the way that I
have structured this podcast. I've done some interviews, yes, and
some coaching episodes, but the majority of the show is
just me in a room talking to a microphone because
that's how I was told this show is supposed to go,
and you never get to know ahead of time the
why why am I being asked to do this thing?
(17:22):
Why am I being asked to do it in this
kind of a way. It may not be because doing
it that way is gonna inspire the most amount of
people possible. I don't know. It's really hard to measure that,
first of all. But second of all, I think one
of the big reasons why we're asked to go on
a creative journey that we overlook is because of us,
(17:46):
because of me. And I know that sounds like a
bit of a self centered way to look at it,
but just go with me for just a second. One
of the reasons I was asked to start doing solo episodes,
I believe, is because this is a growth edge for me,
because I needed it. It's right in the same category
as taking improv classes. This is part of what my
(18:09):
life and my journey is trying to teach me, or
trying to show me right now, is that I can
trust myself, that I can trust the thing that wants
to come out of my mouth, that I don't have
to have everything perfectly structured or scheduled or strategized or
planned out ahead of time. Or be perfectly prepared for
every single thing that I do. I can just sit down,
I can tune in to what's you know, what's coming in,
(18:32):
the insights that are coming in, and then I can
just say the first thing that comes to my mind.
And I'm not saying that the first thing that comes
to my mind is always going to be like you know,
perfectly witty or insightful, or that it's going to change
someone's life. I don't know for sure if it's going
to do that. But what I know for sure is
that I'm being asked right now in my creative journey
(18:53):
to learn that skill. And I'm being asked through improv
and I'm being asked through this podcast, and I'm being
asked through a dozen different ways to learn the skill
of just showing up quote unquote unprepared and just saying
the first thing that comes to my mind and trusting
my first initial gut response. So we don't get to
know the reasons why we're being asked to take the
(19:14):
creative journey that we're taking. It may be to inspire
someone else. It may be to sell a bunch of copies.
It may be to build a community. It may be
for some reason out there, but I find that most
of the time, the first and foremost reason is for you,
for the creative person and the insight that wants to
(19:34):
come through you.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
And this feels like a good.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Time to talk about this topic, which I've had kind
of in my little mental file folder for a couple months.
I've been like, do I talk about this on Instagram?
And now this feels like the perfect fit for it.
I wanted to talk about this idea of channeling art
because I had a client recently who told me that
her book was channeled, and it made me think about
(19:59):
an ext aperients I had a long time ago when
I went to an event where an LaMotte was speaking.
It was a panel discussion and there was an opportunity
to stand up and ask questions. And this young kid
stood up and held up a binder with I don't know,
a few hundred pages of like eight and a half
by eleven sheets of paper that was in the binder,
and he said, you know, An, I channeled this book
(20:19):
and I really want you to read it. I feel
that you're supposed to read it. And she basically told
him no, She was like, I'm not going to read
it if I took the binder from you and said
I was going to read it. It would be the wrong
thing to do because I'm not going to read it.
I would throw it in the trash. It was such
a memorable moment because I felt like it sounds kind
of harsh, but actually it was her giving the gift
(20:41):
of honesty. And memorable too because this was probably when
I heard that, probably twenty thirteen, and I was very,
very new to the idea of channeling. It felt like
a super bizarre I hadn't heard that term many times
in my life before, and I think I probably felt
a little judge mental of it at that point. By
(21:02):
the time my client mentioned this to me a couple
months ago, I am not as new to the idea
of channeling, so and I've heard that term a lot before.
And my take on channeling is that's what all of
us are doing when we do something creative, whatever it
is that you're doing. I don't know how that client
of mine, or that kid who stood up that day,
(21:24):
or how anyone else would define the act of channeling
or the art of channeling, but in my mind, channeling
is about kind of like cleaning out your own personal agenda,
clearing that out and being still so that you can
hear a wider, a broader, a more infinite agenda that's
(21:49):
trying to come through agendas, not even the right word
for it, like a whisper, that's trying to come through
each of us to express itself here on this planet
where we are. So that's what we're all doing when
we're being creative. When you're doing any kind of art,
you know, if you're painting, if you're writing a book,
(22:10):
you know, if you're really intentional about it, this probably
would work for writing an Instagram post, making a reel,
filming a YouTube video for your YouTube channel. It would
be the same for growing a business, starting a business,
marketing your product that you sell, whatever it is that
you're doing, if you're approaching it from a creative posture,
(22:34):
then you're channeling it. It's not coming from you. Here's
one example. Maybe you were reading through old journals or
old writing of yours and you read something that you
wrote and you were like, WHOA, I wrote that.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I don't even remember writing that.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
That's crazy, that's insightful, Like that's a beautiful piece of
poetry or prose.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
That's channeling you wrote.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Something that you didn't come from your didn't come from
your logical mind. It came from someplace else that's mysterious
that none of us really understand, and in my view,
that's channeling. The thing to note about channeling is that
it's really hard to know about yourself how well you've
(23:21):
done at clearing your own agenda. All of us have
personal agendas that are going to conflict with the thing
that's trying to come through us. And when that personal
agenda conflicts with that, it can muddy the waters, and
the thing that comes through is either not as interesting
as it could be, it's not as impactful as it
(23:41):
could be. It is in some cases could be I suppose,
dangerous or hurtful to someone who reads it. So it's
just really hard to know. It's very hard to be
objective with yourself about whether what came through was it
your agenda or was it the greater agenda, the greater
sort of beauty that's true to be expressed. That's a
(24:01):
better word than agenda. I don't think that the broader
thing that's trying to come through, I don't think is
about agenda.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I think it's love. I think it's beauty.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So it's sometimes hard to assess for yourself was what
came through your agenda or was it the universal and
infinite beauty and love and all that is that came through.
But in my view, the purpose of the creative process,
so going back to the theme, you never get to
(24:30):
know why it is that you're doing the thing that
you're doing. You don't get to know ahead of time,
and that's it's built into the design in my opinion,
because part of the purpose of the creative process is
helping you as an individual to clear out your own
personal agenda, to clear out your ego, to clear out
(24:53):
what's getting in the way of you really hearing the beauty,
the love that universal, all the business that's trying to
be expressed through you. That is the purpose of your
creative process. So if you write a book and it
never gets read, it doesn't matter, It doesn't matter. That
(25:14):
wasn't the purpose anyway. The purpose was to clear out
your agenda so that the love that blankets all of us,
the love that covers all of us, could come through
clearly through you. If you go on a journey to
build a community and you spend three plus years of
(25:35):
your life giving forty hours a week of your time
and all of your savings and then some and you
go on this journey and you give everything that you
have to this project and the project doesn't happen. If
it never gets built, it doesn't mean that you've failed
at what you were being asked to do. It means
that you never get to know ahead of time why
(25:56):
you're being asked to do the thing that you're being
asked to do, and usually the reason has something way
more to do with you than the thing that you
were trying to create. So right now is a good
example because I walked into the studio today and I
had no idea what I was going to share on
this episode, and all I knew was that I was
supposed to talk about how when you go on a
creative journey, you never know why you're being asked to
(26:16):
go on that journey. And this is literally for me.
This message was for me. The words that are coming
out of my mouth are for me, which is that
this journey that we've been on is The reason I
started talking about what Ma's been working on is that
there's a big meeting happening tonight. The reason I started
(26:42):
talking about what Ma's been working on is that there's
a big meeting happening tonight. By the time you're listening
to it, it will be tonight. That is just a really
big climactic moment in this process for us. I wish
I could say more. There are a lot of absolute
and utter miracles that have taken place to bring us
to this point, and approvals that we have been waiting
(27:04):
for forever came through a couple of months ago, and
it feels like a really climactic moment in the story.
And I'm obviously hoping for a positive outcome, or what
I would call a positive outcome, but it's really good
for me to remind myself that it's really not about
a positive outcome. It's not about going in with an
agenda that's my own personal agenda that I'm coming in with.
This process is here to teach us something, and I
(27:28):
don't I mean, I do have a sense of what
that something is. Maybe I could record a whole episode
about that, of what we have come here to learn,
but it's really not about getting my personal agenda fulfilled.
It's much more about what we've been learning, the posture
that we've been learning, the growth that has come from
this for us individually and as a couple and as
(27:49):
a family. So that's such a good reminder for me
as we walk into this really really really big meeting
this week. And then finally, the third thing that the
update I want to give, and this is the big
announcement that I was talking about at the beginning of
the show, is that I have a book coming out
May seventh.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
You know that already.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
It's called Write Your Story, a simple framework to understand yourself,
your story, and your purpose in the world. This book
is the culmination of work that I've been doing in
my career for the last twelve or thirteen years. I
really started this in two thousand and eight when I
decided I had always known I wanted to write a book,
but I decided to leave my full time job in
(28:30):
favor of going out and actually getting the manuscript written.
And one of the things that I wanted to do,
or that I decided to do to help myself kind
of kick off this journey is I decided to go
on this really long, adventurous trip with my friend Sharrea
and drive across the country to visit all fifty states.
(28:51):
That was the plan we drove to forty eight of
the lower continental states and then flew to Alaska and
Hawaii as a capstone of our process. It took us
a year to do this, and the big reason for
doing it was to give us something inspiring to write about.
Shirea was a musician is a musician still is, and
she was kind of trying to launch her career at the.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Time, and I knew I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Write this book, and I wanted to come up with
some inspiring things to write about and really give myself
a lot of material. And so we decided to quit
our full time jobs, sell everything we owned, pack our
things into my super out back, and spend a year
driving all over the country to have some crazy experiences.
The book, that first book I wrote is called Packing
Light Thoughts on Living Life with Less Baggage, and it's
(29:38):
really a reflection on what does it mean to be alive,
what's my purpose in the world. It's a memoir, creative
nonfiction is what the genre is called. And that was
my first experience writing a book and my first experience
writing a memoir and really kicked off this passion that
I have for telling personal stories. So then of course
I wrote Indestructible, which is the story about leaving my
(30:02):
abuse of marriage and finding myself on the other side
of that. I also wrote a book called The Power
of Writing It Down that came out in twenty twenty one.
Beginning of twenty twenty one was Zondovin, and that book
was really it's a book about journaling. It's a book
about the power of writing about our experiences, but was
directed specifically at people who wanted to create a journaling
(30:23):
practice and then write. Your story is the culmination of
all of that which teaches you to take an experience
from your life and actually turn it into a piece
of writing that you can feel proud to share. So
I want you to be able to tell a story
in a compelling way from your life and share that
piece of writing with your therapist, Share it with your spouse,
Share it with your kids someday. Share it with your
(30:46):
ten closest friends. Share it with your Instagram community, share
it with your book club, share it at church, share
it in your Bible study, share it from a stage,
do a Ted x talk, do a Ted talk, write
a book. You could turn it into a memoir. There's
all kinds of things you could do with your story
once it's written, and this book is going to teach
you how to take an experience from your life and
(31:07):
turn it into a story. But really the most important
thing when we were talking about where this book belonged
in a bookstore, and some people on my publishing team
were saying, well, I think it should go in the
writing section.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's the thing that makes the most sense.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
And there are a lot of times with publishing decisions
where I just defer to the other experts, especially when
it comes to that sort of a choice. I feel
like I'm just not necessarily the right person to be
making the choice. But in this case, I was like, no,
this book has to go in the self help section,
because this is really not a book for someone who's
looking to learn how to write better, although it will
(31:41):
teach you that, but this is a book for anybody
who feels like they've lost the thread of meaning in
their life. So I don't know if you've had this
experience where you're just kind of going through the motions
and maybe you really do have a sense that there's
a bigger meaning or a bigger story happening, but you've
lost the thread, like you can't see how all of
(32:03):
these disparate pieces of information fit together. This book is
for you if you have had that experience, or if
you're currently having that experience, because the act of writing
your story is going to help you find the one
golden thread that holds it all together. That's the most
important thing that writing your story will do for you,
even if you never share it with another human soul.
(32:24):
Writing your story will help you find the thread that
holds it all together. And so I wrote this book
to give you a framework that you can use to
do that. To take seemingly desperate experiences from your life,
to put them to page, and to see how all
of them connect together, to see the themes that show
(32:47):
up again and again and again, to see the patterns
that are inevitably there. Because there is like a geometric,
intentional pattern, like a thumbprint, on every single one of
our lives. And I understand this both from writing my
own story, but also from now almost fifteen years of
sitting down with people and helping them tell theirs. As
(33:09):
a ghostwriter and as a book coach, I worked with
thousands of people through my online courses and through my
coaching practice to take experiences from their life and turn
it into something that someone else would be interested in reading.
So if you wonder about your life, if your life
is even interesting, because I get this a lot, people
(33:31):
will say, I don't know, my life isn't really that interesting.
I don't know what I would have to write about.
The process of writing will show you exactly what is
interesting about your life. And by the way, if you
don't think your life is very interesting, then you're going
to have a hard time feeling engaged while you're even
living it. So wouldn't you want to look at what
(33:51):
actually is so fascinating about your life so that you
can feel riveted at every second, riveted at every single turn,
every every single moment, everything that takes place. Don't you
want to feel engaged and riveted by it? And this
process can help you to do that. The big news
is that pre orders are alive now and you can
(34:11):
go to any of your favorite retailers and pre order
the book. This is a very exciting moment in the
life of an author when you finally get to say,
go buy my book. A couple things about preorders. Number one,
I put together a really incredible pre order bonus package
for you because I wanted to make it an absolute
no brainer to buy this book before it comes out.
I know that spending twenty dollars on a book is
(34:34):
a big deal. Spending twenty dollars on literally anything right
now is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
I don't take that lightly.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
And spending twenty dollars on something that you're not going
to have in your hands for a couple of months
is an even bigger deal. And so I wanted to
make it a no brainer for you. So I'm giving
away literally eighteen hundred dollars worth of free resources to
anyone who pre orders the book. So if you go
to your favorite retailer and pre order the book, and
then you go to write yourstory dot com slash book,
(35:00):
you can enter your order number into the form on
the website and I will automatically send you all of
the bonuses, including you get the first three chapters of
the book for free to get started reading right now,
so you can start reading the first three chapters, and
then in a couple months you'll have the physical book
in your hands. One of the reasons that I did
this is because I just wanted to make it a
(35:21):
total noe brainer for you to go and order the book.
Another reason I did it is that, and I'll just
give you a little inside scoop on the publishing industry here.
Pre orders are really, really, really really big deal for
any author, but especially with this book because I took
a chance on publishing with a hybrid publisher, it's even
a little bit more of a big deal. The publisher
(35:43):
and the distributors are going to take my pre order
numbers and they're going to calculate how many books that
they want to print in total. So pre order numbers
tell the publishers this book is popular and we should
print plenty of copies. So the publisher prints plenty of copies,
and that way the book comes out. There's a lot
more opportunity for selling books. So anyway, those are the
(36:04):
two reasons I wanted to make it a no brainer
to pre order. Number one because I know it's a
big deal for you to spend twenty dollars on a
book that isn't in your hands for a couple of months.
But number two because I just want to give this
book every chance I can to fly, and I know
that pre order numbers are a huge, huge part of that.
So would you please go to your favorite retailer and
(36:25):
buy a copy of Write Your Story by Alison Fallon.
Write Your Story a simple framework to understand yourself, your story,
and your purpose in the world. And go tell people
about it. Go tell your mom, like someone in your
life who you're like, I want them to write their story.
I want to know more about you, know why they are,
the way that they are.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I want to.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Understand where they come from, and the way that they
see the world, the lens through which they see the world.
So text that person and send them a link to
the book too, or buy a copy for them and
send it to their house and tell them that you
think that they're fascinating and that you want to know
more about their life, and that you'd want them to
write their story. So send a text message to that person. Also,
another really great way to engage with this book would
(37:05):
be to put together a little book club or writing club.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
You could put together.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Like ten or twelve or fifteen people and all of
you could buy a copy of the book and you
could read it together. You could write your stories together.
You could pass your stories around the circle, give each
other feedback. That would be a really amazing way to
engage with this book. Another incredible way to engage with
this material is to use it if you're already in therapy,
(37:29):
to use it with your therapist. Maybe share the book
with your therapist and tell them you're reading this and
that you'd love to write bits and pieces of your
story and share it with them. It's a fabulous way
for a therapist to get to know you a little
bit better and for you to continue the work that
you're doing in therapy between Let's say you go to
therapy on Tuesday, So between Tuesday and the next Tuesday,
you have a way to continue to metabolize what you're
(37:53):
learning in therapy and to continue to integrate it. And
writing about your life is an absolutely fabulous way to
do that. So I won't get into all the data
today right here, right this minute, on how powerful a
tool writing is to change your life, but it's one
of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal
to create meaningful change in our life. And so if
(38:14):
you're feeling kind of stuck, if you're feeling like lost,
if you're feeling like you've lost the thread of meaning
or purpose in your life, or this is how I
feel right now, there's a lot that's happening a lot
of really interesting things in my life. I feel like
there's literally miracle after a miracle that's happening. There's like
synchronicities taking place at every turn. I feel like guided
(38:36):
in a really deep way. I feel reassured all the time.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I feel like.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
These amazing things are happening in my life and in
my world, and I'm afraid I'm gonna forget them if
I don't write them down. And I also want my
children to know about this. I want them to understand
the tiny little universe. By that, I mean our family
universe that they were born into and the inner working
of their mom and dad. And I want them to
(39:02):
have that as a legacy that I can pass down.
So if any of that sounds like you go pre
order write your Story by Alison Fallen, it would mean
the world to me. And then make sure you go
to write your story a dot com slash book and
you enter your order information in there, and you'll get
all your pre order bonuses, including the first three chapters
of the book, which you get to start reading right away,
so you never get to know why you're being taken
(39:24):
on the creative journey.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You're being taken on.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
It probably has something to do with you more than
it has to do with other people who need to
be inspired. Although other people are inspired when you're inspired.
When you come alive, they come alive. When you feel loved,
They feel loved. When you're filled up, they're filled up,
and there's an incredible ripple effect there. So I believe
that's what the creative journey is all about. I don't
know what creative journey you're being asked to take right now,
(39:48):
but whatever it is, you can trust it. It's a beautiful,
beautiful thing. It's terrifying too, but it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
And this is part of how that fear gets burned
out of us, is by just saying yes to it
and trusting ourselves and trusting the path that we're being
taken on. So I hope this is an inspiration to you.
(40:10):
I know for sure that it is to me. The
words that are coming through me and out of my
mouth are not from me, and I needed to hear
it today, So I'm grateful that you're still listening. I
hope you'll go for your order copy of Write Your Story,
and I'll see you next week.
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