You Don’t Have to Wait with Beth Walker (Re-Air)

In this episode, you’ll also hear:

• The long journey that led Beth to find her calling – and the common thread she found throughout all of her many pursuits 
• The importance of having a mentor who can both challenge and uplift you
• Why you shouldn’t write in isolation
• Which numbers and analytics really matter from a digital marketing perspective
• Beth’s experiences with both traditional publishing and self-publishing

No Need to Wait

As a coach’s wife, Beth Walker says she has seen many fellow coach’s wives shrink back out of the limelight as though waiting for their turn to shine – only to realize when they finally get the chance that they could have been working on their own careers all along. 

That’s why, with her book, Lessons from the Sidelines, her mission is to let women know they don’t have to wait. They can go ahead and work on the “building blocks” of their own calling, even while supporting their husband’s endeavors. 

“There seems to be this need for a cheerleader of sorts,” Beth says, “or someone to just point these women to resources. So I felt like Lessons from the Sidelines could be that space to say, ‘You've got a calling. God created you with a voice and skills and talents before you married this amazing man. And none of that went away!’”

Nothing Is Wasted

As is the case for many people, Beth’s journey to discovering her calling was a long one. “Figuring out exactly that sweet spot of where God is calling you is not always going to be this light bulb moment,” she admits. But through the seven-step action plan outlined in her book, she hopes to help give people a shortcut to discovering what God may be calling them to do. 

Beth’s own journey carried her from one job to another. Eventually, she realized that although these jobs were all very different – from swim coach to administrative assistant to stay-at-home mom – there were some common elements among them, and each job gave her some skill or experience she could add to her resume. 

‘Nothing is wasted,” Beth says. “Even if it feels like we’re taking a step back, we can always take that opportunity to say, how can we better ourselves? There are some moments where we have to take what we would consider a space where we’re settling… but sometimes we need people to shake us out of those.”

Beth’s story is a powerful reminder of the intentionality of God in preparing us for our unique purpose. No matter where you are right now, He can use this circumstance to develop and refine the skills you’ll need later on – even if you can’t see a connection right now.

And throughout her long, sometimes difficult journey, Beth says God has always brought people into her life to help cheer her on. One of these people was a fellow coach’s wife who Beth describes as a mentor and a voice of wisdom. 

This woman had already written a book of her own to help coach’s wives, but she encouraged Beth to become a new voice in the space, and she also supported Beth with prayer, advice, and much more. Ultimately, she wrote the forward for Lessons from the Sidelines.

Other important “cheerleaders” in Beth’s author journey were her editor and her mastermind group, all of whom helped her develop and refine her work. “There were certainly chapters that were more difficult to write than others,” she says in retrospect. “But I had a good structure in place, and I had people holding me accountable… I don’t think it could have gone any better.”

Editing Matters

When it came to the editing process itself, Beth says she learned that you have to be humble if you’re going to have someone else edit your book – but it’s well worth the difficult conversations and the discomfort of letting another person critique what you’ve written. 

“I know that it is the best book possible because of my editor’s input and her willingness to pull more out of me