Speaker 1: 0:04

So what I tell people, if they want to write a book in a week or in a month or in three months, is just write the basic thing, whatever you have, in whatever form you want to or can, and then you can. With each iteration you can make it better, and particularly if you're self-publishing it. That is the beauty of self-publishing you can always upgrade your book. You can get a new version out every six months, if you want to, every two years, three years. So get the story out it doesn't matter how many pages it is, and then go from there.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Hi friends, this is Read and Write with Natasha podcast. My name is Natasha Tynes and I'm an author and a journalist. In this channel I talk about the writing life, review books and interview authors. Hope you enjoy the journey. Interview authors. Hope you enjoy the journey. Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Read and Write with Natasha.

Speaker 2: 1:14

Today's guest is Neera Mahajan, who's an author, book coach and a passionist advocate for writers, ready to turn their ideas into impactful books. With six self-published titles to her name and years of hands-on coaching experience, neera empowers aspiring authors to write, publish and market their work without burning out. She's the force behind a thriving writing community and a popular weekly newsletter that delivers practical tools and strategies for every step of the author journey. Wow, neera, so happy to have you with me today, thank you. Thank you for having me. Of course, I've been following your work on Substack and LinkedIn and others, and you know great, great work, and thank you for accepting my invite to come to my show. So, neera, I just first I want to talk about your books. So you have six self-published books it's actually eight, eight, oh, wow, now they're eight. Okay, that's good to know. I stand corrected. Yeah, I guess. Whatever info. I found they were outdated, but all right, so let's see. So what are the books about and why did you choose the route of self-publishing instead of traditional or hybrid publishing?

Speaker 1: 2:36

Okay, so I must say the story behind me becoming a writer is actually a very unusual one, and which will explain why I chose the route of self-publishing. I came to writing because I couldn't write well. But 25 or even more years back, when I was working full-time employment and I was a middle-level manager, and my boss one day in a performance review told me that the only thing standing between you and the senior management position is your written English. So that was quite a blow to me because I really wanted to progress in my career. So I took his word, not as a discouragement but a challenge. I said, ok, I'm going to get better at my English, written English at least. I had probably not that much problem with my speaking, because I was in Australia for about 15 years by that time, so I had pretty good at it. But the written English you don't get to do it unless you are in a management roles and you're writing for living, basically over there. So what I did was, rather than just concentrating on the business English and writing white papers and all that, I enrolled myself in a storytelling course, a live storytelling course. We were writing stories from our life and that is something I stick to for about 15 years. That group kept on meeting in my home every month and I learned telling stories from there and I use that in my work as well. And it took me a long time to gain command of the language. But I did get my senior management position.

Speaker 1: 4:43

But the writing bug had bitten me hard by that time. I loved writing in my journals. I loved to express myself and my feelings and whatever I was going through mostly internals for about 15 years or so. So when it came closer to my retirement time, I had this burning desire to become a full-time writer. I just wanted to write a book and publish it, because I couldn't call myself a writer until I had a published book with me. So at age 57, I took early retirement and I started writing on my blog and then I started writing for Mediumcom. You're familiar with that probably. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:32

And while writing there for about two and a half years after my retirement, I woke up one day with this voice in my head saying if you want to write a book, write it now and write it fast. It was literally someone telling me just do it. And I said okay, I'm going to do it. And that very morning I said to myself I'm going to write a book in a week and I'm going to publish it before the week is over. And I announced it on my Medium writing because I was writing an article a day for a long time on Medium and I announced it there.

Speaker 1: 6:12

And then I went to LinkedIn and asked people okay, I'm going to write a book on, these are the four or five topics, and what do you think I should write about? And one of the many people responded and most of them went for the topic was how to write a book, how to write and publish a book. And I was very surprised because there is so much material and so many books on that topic already. Why do people wanted me to write on that? And I asked them back the same question and one of the ladies came back and she said because you explain things in a simple way and you make them easy. And I said, okay, there is something in there. She's right, that's my way of doing things. I simplify things basically, yeah, yeah. So I said, okay, that's the topic, that's the topic I would pay for. I would want to learn how to write quickly and publish my work. So I started with that book. I wrote it one week and every day I was writing my update on Medium, telling people what's happening, and within the book I also have an author's diary and where I was giving my progress during the day, how everything was happening, and before the midnight was over half an hour before I hit the publish button on Amazon and the book was live. Oh wow, and I created the basic cover myself in Canva and I just wanted to put it out there.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Okay, once I had done that, I knew the process and then it became smoother. I knew what I was doing and from there on I came across another writer who wrote a book. Her name is Michelle Kalb and she wrote a book called 28 Books to 100K and she introduced this concept that most of the writers who are making $100,000,. They had 28 books on Amazon or out there and she was racing to write 28 books by writing and publishing a book a month. She called it WOM and I said what a great idea. I'm going to do the same.

Speaker 1: 8:35

So I started with that, but I wasn't Michelle, so I couldn't do it. I just I published a few more books, but I couldn't keep doing it every month, and so there are many books I have already started. I published a few more books but I couldn't keep doing it every month, and so there are many books I have already started. They're half written or in various stages but I have been sidetracked into different things and I haven't been able to publish it. But my goal is to write and publish 100 books and I can't do that with traditional publishing.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Yeah, that's true. And how are the books selling? I mean, how are you selling them, how do people find about them and how are you marketing them?

Speaker 1: 9:16

Yeah, I am. My primary marketing earlier was through my content, through Medium and my newsletter and LinkedIn, and then I got into Amazon advertising. So I have the longstanding ads which keep on doing giving me a fair amount of sale not the best, and if I could put more energy into it, I can do better. But my energy goes into the writing part. I'm not very good at marketing at all, so that's the problem I have to solve at some stage. Yeah, but I'm pretty pleased with my first book because it is still the bestseller. Out of my all eight books, it's the most, for some reason, and it's got all five star reviews so far. So I don't know, maybe it was written from heart or something. And what are the topics about? Most of them are about writers. Give me a second, I'll show you. Sure, I have them here. So my first book was this one. The topic is how to write and publish a book in one week. Oh, wow, okay.

Speaker 2: 11:27

That's a good one. It's an e-book in one week. Yes, yes, yeah, that's that. Yeah, yes.

Speaker 1: 11:35

And then the next one was Eight Steps to Be an Author Paneer. So this is talking about the business side of the writing and also talks about the different models of writing. And after that my book was is a motivational book. It's a dare to create. Oh, wow, it's a good topic. Yes, it's for creatives, mostly writers, but any form of creativity.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Then my next book was Become a Productive Writer. So it is my own challenges of how to become productive in my work. So all those things I put into place are in this book. And there is an adjoining journal as well I call it Author's Bullet Journal and Planner, which is by my bedside at the moment so I use it every day which I have explained in this book, and that journal and this book go together. And my next book is Writer's Toolkit Okay, journal and this book go together. And my next book is writer's toolkit. Okay, this is. This is about not just the software tools and all that. It's more about the mental tools, okay, okay.

Speaker 1: 12:51

And my most more recent one is a writer's guide to craft travel stories. Oh, so this has got my. Half of it is memoir and half is the lessons on how to write travel stories. So each chapter has got a lesson where I talk about how to use a particular skill, and then my own story from my travel to India explaining and incorporating all those things I'm talking about. And last one sorry to interrupt, but this is my most recent one it is the my Life in 100 Objects. It is a memoir, so where I have taken 100 objects around my house and told my story through them. Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 13:38

So okay. So how do you write so fast? I mean, what is your process and how can authors write a book in one week?

Speaker 1: 13:48

Good question. One thing I learned is that of course, I couldn't write fast. When I started, it would take me to write one blog, probably about four or five paragraphs long. It will take me a whole day and I would agonize over it and just couldn't form the sentences. Couldn't form the ideas from my brain onto paper, wouldn't come the way they would appear in my brain. But I think the practice makes it perfect. And the other thing was the online writing. So when I couldn't write well, I challenged myself to write every day and publish it in whatever form it comes. So, and that online writing has helped me form my views, say things in the manner I want to say and then negate them, probably in a few months time. So when you're writing on online, on different platforms, you are constantly a narrator in your head, and I feel that narrator is very important because once that narrator turns off, it's very hard to form or say something, it's very hard to form ideas, but once that narrator is speaking, it's very easy to. Sometimes the whole thing comes in my head in full, fully formed. I don't have to do anything, I just type. It comes off. So and I'll share a secret with you All these books I have written.

Speaker 1: 15:20

I have written them as blog posts before. I see, not in the current form, in different form. But then when I sat down and outlined the book and said this is what I want to write in there, I knew I wrote about this bit there. I wrote about this bit there and I bring it from there, put it together, refine it and put it in the book form. And even my 100 Objects one I have written it in my sub stack. Once I started a challenge I would write a book every three months, so I would divide a book into 12 chapters or 12 topics and I write a blog post about thousand word blog post there every week and 12 weeks later I have enough material to go into a book. That's the simplest way I could find to be productive in terms of writing books.

Speaker 2: 16:12

And how many words is each book that you publish?

Speaker 1: 16:15

Each book is minimum 20,000 words. Okay, so 100 pages is my target. How many pages? 100. 100 pages, 20,000 words, but the last two are much bigger. It's about close to 200 words, 200 pages.

Speaker 2: 16:34

And what formats are these books in? Print and e-book? What about audio? They're e-book and paperbacks, okay, okay. So how can like?

Speaker 1: 16:50

what are the secrets that you teach in the book, if you want to share them with us about? Oh, they are in the book.

Speaker 2: 16:55

There's no secret Writing a book in one week. I mean for you. You had like the foundation, which is the blog post. What if someone does not have the foundation? Can they still finish a book in?

Speaker 1: 17:06

one week. You need to be a very prolific writer to be able to finish a book in one week, but what you can do is you don't have to write a hundred page book. A book doesn't have to be. I have come across books and I'll give the example. In my book as well. There is a book which sells on Amazon and it's a bestseller. It has sold millions of copies and it's called it Works I-T-I-T-W-O-R-K-S Works and it's a one page book. Oh, really, okay, in one page there are five finds and then there is a bit of preface and then there is a bit of post book pages. So that altogether makes it about 17 pages. I think Okay. And the author of the book has name, doesn't exist, someone has put that book up there for that author's behalf and if you read the reviews of that book, which says it works, the five points they have given they work if you use them and incorporate them. So my point is it doesn't have to be 100 pages or 200 pages or 300 pages.

Speaker 1: 18:29

Then another example I'll give do you know Nawal Ravi Kant? Yeah, I follow his work, yeah, yeah. So Nawal Ravi Kant has a brother whose name, uh, is escaping me. Um, he's also Ravi Khan. He was a business, he ran a business and he was very big, uh was doing very well and then all of a sudden things started falling apart. His business was going um, he had to sack so many people and he was mentally very low. He was so low that he physically fell sick and couldn't get out of bed for weeks. Then he, during that time, he taught himself to love himself. So he will get out of the bed and stand in front of mirror and say to himself that I love you. And that simple exercise and because he hated himself for what he had done to other people by sacking them and failing in business and all that. So slowly, slowly, he came out of that phase and he wrote a book of. He wrote all his story on 40 pages and he put it out as a book. That book sold millions of copies and he then beefed it up later on because there are so many stories got associated with that book and people told him how that book has helped them immensely.

Speaker 1: 19:59

So what I tell people, if they want to write a book in a week or in a month or in three months, is just write the basic thing. Whatever you have, in whatever form you want to or can, and then you can. With each iteration you can make it better, and particularly if you're self-publishing it that is the beauty of self-publishing you can always upgrade your book. You can get a new version out every six months, if you want to, every two years, three years. So get the story out, it doesn't matter how many pages it is, and then go from there. Finishing a book is more important than the length of a book and how you go about it.

Speaker 2: 20:49

So you think people can publish the book and then they can add to it later, especially if it's on Amazon?

Speaker 1: 20:55

Yes, and I wouldn't say that you go and put a very low quality book which is not readable, because my book, my first book, I was doing it that way, but within a month or so, because I know nobody would buy it other than a few people who are following me on the medium I pulled it all back and I sent it to the editor. It's got it edited. I hired a cover designer to get the cover designed so, and then I added a few more chapters and then I put it back on Amazon. For me it was an experiment, and that is what I say to my students as well Write your first book as an experiment to learn the process, okay, but if you don't have to publish it, fulfill the experiment. I was crazy, but you don't have to do it that way.

Speaker 2: 21:55

So you also have a writer's community writing community.

Speaker 1: 22:00

You also have a writer's community writing community, where do you host this and what do you offer to people in this community? So my writing community is on Substack. They are the followers of my newsletter. Basically, my writing community is a bit broader than paid subscriber or foundation members, as they call them in Substack. I call anybody who is a consistent reader of my newsletter as my community. So call them five star readers, because Substacks allow you to actually see who are the people who are consistently reading your newsletter.

Speaker 1: 22:45

Yeah, I write to them separately, um, by email. Um, I can send them straight. I get questions from them, I get their advice, I listen to their problems and I write posts in response to that. I write sometimes. I write products, digital products, what they are looking for, the answer to the questions. So basically, I nurture them like that. Oh, wow, there are people who actually are running communities in school or a circle, their platform. I am a member of many of them. But the problem I find with that is you have to get out of one platform and go to the other platform and then engage there. It takes up so much time. Yeah, that's true. So I try to build my community within Substack itself using the tools it provides me the chats, the notes and the emails and which is least time consuming for me as well as for my community members.

Speaker 2: 23:54

So it's not only for paid subscribers, because the five star can be free members, correct, yes, yes, true so. I subscribe to your newsletter. Does that make me a member of your community? Of course it does, and you know what?

Speaker 1: 24:10

Yeah, what happens is that your paid member comes from your community only Person who doesn't even know you is not going to come start paying you and become a paid member and or hire you as a coach, or hire you, um, as as your uh, trainer. They, they will. They will be the one who are reading your stuff and they say, okay, I need help and this is the person who can help me with it. So that that's why I call this whole people and I wrote it recently. I wrote a post on it that I found my 115, two subscribers, two fans. I saw it.

Speaker 2: 24:56

When you put their pictures.

Speaker 1: 24:58

Yeah, I made a swatch of their photos and I said, okay, these are the people I'm talking about and that's basically to encourage people who are on Substack and writing newsletters and all that. Don't look for zero in on payment and all that. When you have 115 people and in my case now they have grown so much exponentially just in a few weeks when you have that many people listening to you, reading you consistently, that means something. Put them in a room, those people, and you will see what a big platform you have. And that is what I'm so happy and feel satisfied that I'm able to do that. So it's coming from the point of not being able to write anything to be able to help others go through their writing journey.

Speaker 2: 25:54

Yeah, and the book coaching you still like you do as well. Book coaching, that's part of your kind of business strategy, correct?

Speaker 1: 26:04

Correct. So on LinkedIn, I basically I'm as a book coach, because there I'm trying to help people to build their authority through a book. Their authority through a book, Because I believe and this is the truth that the fastest way to develop an authority in any area is by writing a book on it. So when you're an author, overnight people's perception about you changes, and I've seen that happening with me. So when you write a book, you're not just writing a book and putting it out there. You are thinking through what you know about your topic, you are organizing it, you are questioning it, you are answering people's questions about it. You're doing all this work beforehand.

Speaker 1: 27:00

And when you write a book and publish it, you already have so much material for your blogging content, writing anything else you want to do it. Podcasting. Now it means I can do a podcast at a moment. No notice, notice, because I have all these things figured out in my head. I can talk about it for hours. So that is what a book writing do to you. It clarifies your own thoughts and gives you so much material that you become an authority on your topic. And when you put a book out, that's how others start seeing you as well.

Speaker 2: 27:39

So what is the main driver of income for you? I know you're retired, but if you know, in terms of the writing income like, is it the paid members? Is it selling the books? Is it the book coaching? Where is? Like you know, where is the gold mine in your business?

Speaker 1: 28:17

and sometimes there's a surge in paid membership, because recently I ran a launch of my 90-day write grow monetize program and I had a surge of paid membership which brought me which bumped me up on the leaderboard of Substack and royalties. They come steady pretty much over the month and also I have a number of digital products coming, so they keep on selling. Depends upon when there is a certain article written about and there's a mention of my digital product in there, so that starts selling again, and then it slows down and something else starts selling. So it's all over the place, but it keeps on going up and down. Of which form is producing more than the other?

Speaker 2: 29:19

So where are most of your clients coming from? Substack or LinkedIn or Medium.

Speaker 1: 29:26

That again it changes. So previously most of my clients came from LinkedIn and Substack was steady. Nothing was happening in Substack. Basically, substack was a place where I wrote and I wasn't monetizing it and I wasn't growing there. I only started my focus to monetize Substack from this year, start of this year and more so in last couple of months. But now Substack has overtaken LinkedIn.

Speaker 2: 29:59

Oh, wow. And I'm looking at your LinkedIn now and it says write your signature book, build authority, attract client, grow your business. And then your description I help you write your signature book that attracts clients and builds authority. So do you do ghostwriting or do you write the book for them by, like, if you're a ghostwriter, or just help them to write their own book? I?

Speaker 1: 30:27

help them write their own book. No, I don't ghostwrite a book. My belief is nobody can write your book better than you. And also my other belief is if you want to build an authority in a topic, you better write your book yourself. That's how you will become authority. It's the process, it's not the end product. Just so you got to go through that and I guide and I coach and I help wherever is needed, because writing book is not everybody's cup of tea. Finishing that big manuscript it still takes a lot of effort. In spite of all the tools we have available to us the computer, the Google, the chat, gpt and all that it is still a mammoth project and when you have a guide with you, you do it better and faster.

Speaker 2: 31:26

So how do you feel about AI and how do you use AI if you use it in your writing?

Speaker 1: 31:31

Yeah, so I am from an IT background. I worked in IT for 20 plus years, so I'm actually never against the tools and technology. I think they are the part of our life and going to become more and more so in future. I started playing with chat GPT about two years ago, not fully understanding its power I still don't know. But the two things it helps me immensely with is number one, editing, because I'm very bad at editing.

Speaker 1: 32:10

I can't edit my own stuff and I have to put things out quickly and so, for which I need an editor, and so I just write my stuff, not whole, and that's another thing about AI is that if you give it a whole chunk, it also it messes it up, but if you give it paragraph by paragraph, two paragraph or 200 words or something, it does a job beautifully. So I give you a simple command please edit for grammar and spellings. And I put the stuff in there and it turns back and I check it again and I put it up. The second thing it helps me with this ideation, the ideas. So if I get to give me 10 things about that and it will get that. So I'm a very basic user of ChatGPT or AI and I would encourage anyone who doesn't know about it to hop into it and play with it, but I'm not a big prompt writer and all that Nowhere near that.

Speaker 2: 33:15

Interesting. Okay, I want to talk a bit about Substack, and you mentioned that it was quiet and then suddenly, first is where do you see the community going with Substack now for writers, and how did you grow so quickly?

Speaker 1: 33:48

quickly. I think Substack is what Medium used to be in 2018 and 2019. That was a heaven for writers. Medium was a heaven for writers. But Medium had a major problem and which became bigger and bigger is that it had an algorithm and it selectively sent your articles to people it wanted to and then they had their whole lot of other caveats. You got to write this and you can't do this and you can't do that. But on Substack is a playing field that. But on Substack is a plain field. It depends totally on your skill and what you offer to build your network and keep it that way.

Speaker 1: 34:25

So I'm seeing in the last five months I have been active on notes. So many new people are coming there and they're following you and they're writing comments on your posts and on your notes and I go to check their profile and there is nothing there. They're just reading at the moment and let's say they keep reading for a couple of years and then they will get ready to write and start their own sub-stacks. So sub-stack community is not going to go anywhere. It's going to get bigger and bigger and that it is the only platform which does not limit your reach with its algorithm.

Speaker 1: 35:11

Notes might be the only place where algorithm comes into play, and maybe God know what will happen in future, but you can still build your following or your newsletter subscribers without notes if you can start connecting with people and able to bring them over to you with your writing. So writing is the powerhouse from which everybody comes, and through writing, what are you offering? Basically, what are writers? In my book, writers are problem solvers. We solve problems through our words. So if you are able to do that, you can always build a following, communities, subscribers, either way.

Speaker 2: 36:01

So what are your let's say top tips to grow on Substack For me? I would love to have as many reactions to my notes as you. I've been on Substack for a while. My notes get I don't know two, three likes. Maybe you know not that much. So how do you get lots of engagement?

Speaker 1: 36:23

I was like that too, natasha, not so long ago. It's only happened very recently that my note went viral and I have been observing notes and writing a lot of them and reading a lot of them, and I have observed two kinds of notes do really well. One is storytelling, where you are telling a story, and the one which mine, got viral and the few others which went semi-viral, they all had stories. My story this was what before and this is what I did, and this is what happened. Simple stories before after stories this is what before and this is what I did and this is what happened. Simple stories before, after stories. So those are the notes which do well. The other notes which do well are the ones where you are giving some sort of advice or or something soothing to say, because I think people are so bombarded with all the information and the facts and do this, do that kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 37:30

And when I was working, I used to have a website where I would used to go and read something good to make me feel good, and that site was Goodreads quotes area. Do you know Goodreads? Yeah, I know Goodreads, yeah. So if you go to their quotes, all of a sudden, whatever quotes they have highlighted. It appears on Goodreads and I used to go and read those quotes and I used to feel good about that and I'd say, okay, I'm in a best state of mind now. I can go back to work now, and this is the kind of notes also do well, which make people feel good mentally, and then they can. So I'm observing that and I'm pulling out some of the quotes from my own code books and I'm just putting it out there and they they're the one who are doing well for me.

Speaker 1: 38:26

Um, for, for your question was um advice for substack. My number one advice for Substack is make your offer clear, very, very clear. That's the only reason people will follow you, because now they have so many choices, so many people putting their stuff out there. If your offer is not clear and if it is not what they are looking for, they won't follow you. They won't give you their email address. Yeah, so two-step, I encourage people to do it. Write in one little sentence what are you or who you are Like. I say I'm an author of eight books and I help aspiring writers write their own books. That's fine.

Speaker 2: 39:16

Yeah, I'm looking at it now. I help creative professionals turn their knowledge into income streams through my 90-day Write Grow Monetize program so that they can build a business with clarity, confidence and clear law. It's pretty precise. I mean, there's a lot of learning. It's yeah, it's pretty. It's pretty precise. Um, um, I mean there's a lot of like learning lessons here to see, like, if I look at my sub stack, it's kind of all over the place, but, um, yours is, is is pretty, pretty clear, which I like yeah, so that is when and this is the bio which gets shown every time someone checks your profile.

Speaker 1: 39:58

Yeah, so they will make a decision on this sentence only whether they want to subscribe to you or not. Yeah, that's true. Other place from where people subscribe to you is from your notes. So if their notes tell you something, they they want to read again the stuff you write. They will subscribe from there. So there's a subscribe button right next to your note. When it appears on a subject app, if they like it, they'll just hit subscribe yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:32

so what does the future hold for Neera? What are your future projects? Like, I'm really impressed by what you're doing and I love the fact that you started this in your 50s, which is great, because many people that I talk to they always have this like oh, the ship has sailed. And some of them are like in their 30s and they think it's already too late. Like the ship has sailed is like too late and all of that. And I'm curious to see what are you working on and how do you envision your future, especially when it comes to your writing business, and how do you?

Speaker 1: 41:17

envision your future, especially when it comes to your writing business. Well, I believe I'm in my golden period of my life where I can do whatever I want and there is nothing stopping me or nothing other priorities taking me away from it. What I am planning. You can't plan anything more than a year or two years. Now it used to be five-year plans. I think we are lucky if we can stick with six-month plans, but I try to look two years in future and plan for six months, so two years. I would want to see my sub stack community grow to multiple thousands and I want to.

Speaker 1: 42:03

I'm able to help a lot many people to write their book or launch their writing career or their business through writing. That is in terms of that. But I also have a plan to write a hundred books, um, and I'm getting into fiction writing, uh, as well. So there's a novel I've been writing, um, for about 10 years now. I put it aside, then come back to it. Put it aside, I'm planning to finish it this year, the next six months, um, and then I'm going to put it out there. And there is what about three or four half written novels sitting in my desk and my desktop and I want to work on those then, once the first one is out, um so yeah, plenty of projects and who are the people that you currently follow, uh, to inspire you, or that you basically try to emulate them, especially in the same field, whether they're writers, authorpreneurs, book coaches?

Speaker 2: 43:07

You mentioned Michelle. What was her last name that you mentioned? Michelle Kopp, the woman who wrote the 2018 book? Oh, Michelle Kopp. Yes.

Speaker 1: 43:16

Michelle Kopp. Michelle Kopp, the woman who wrote the 2018. Oh, michelle Karp. Yes, michelle Karp, michelle Karp, yeah, yes, she's a good friend now, and so I would start.

Speaker 1: 43:27

The first person who inspired me most was Joanna Penn. Do you know Joanna Penn? Yeah, I know. The podcast the creator, oh God, she's the one. The reason I'm a writer, really. Yes, I listen to her podcast religiously, even when I couldn't find any time to write, and whenever I was walking I was listening to her podcast.

Speaker 1: 43:54

Another big name which inspired me and gave me permission to write was Austin Kleon. So everybody, I think we all, are thankful for him and his book. Still, like an Artist giving us a permission to, particularly when you're starting and you have no idea what, what to do, yeah, um. Then, and there are um in the recent ones, um, I am very much uh, working closely with the, with the one people who are in my um genre and area are the? Um and anna cullen. Um an area are the? Um and anna cullen. Um, you aware of anna cullen? She grew very fast on the sub sub stack and she's got beautiful stuff on her uh site. Uh, veronica, uh, larkas smith is another one, and then there is Sarah Fay. Sarah Fay is another woman. I worked with her and learned from her initial stages. Christina God and David McClary I have interviewed quite a few of them in my podcast as well. Oh, you have a podcast.

Speaker 2: 45:21

I didn't know that, oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 45:25

Yeah, I do. But there is one thing I travel a lot because both my husband and I are retired and we try to get away. Every three months we go exploring the world, so my things get a little bit disrupted in between. So I haven't recorded any for for three months now, but I'm going to get back into recording my podcast as well yeah, oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 45:52

Yeah, david was on my podcast and Christina came and spoke to my cohort, so it's yeah, so it's. It's actually that's why I love the Substack community. Like I met you through Substack, I met the number four and so, like you, you sort of like take it, you know from, you know seeing them online, and then you build this network and that's that's why, like, I love Substack. It gives you all the tools. Yeah, it gives you all the tools. Yeah, it gives you all the tools and it keeps growing and growing.

Speaker 2: 46:20

And you know, as you said, like sometimes it's just I get distracted by client work. I do a lot of client work and I just forget about substack. I was like no, no, I can't. I have paid subscribers, I have to give them content. So, near this, this been really amazing and I'm just like taking these mental notes and I'm definitely gonna go back to our conversation and get the transcript and come up with all these learnings. But it's been very inspiring. And how can people reach you if they want to, like hire you as a coach or buy your books? How can they get in touch with?

Speaker 1: 46:55

you, yes. So two very easy places Substack. So DM me on Substack and become the subscriber. That's the free thing you can do. You'll get my at least once a week email article and then, if you want to hire me as a coach, just reach me via LinkedIn, linkedin or even through substacks. That's fine, um, so we can take it from there.

Speaker 2: 47:23

Yeah, this has been amazing nira, and uh, I will, uh, definitely, of course, stay in touch with substack and we will continue the conversation and for anyone who's watching or listening, thank you for joining us for another episode of Read and Write with Natasha and until we meet again, thank you for tuning in to Read and Write with Natasha. I'm your host, natasha Tynes. If today's episode inspired you in any way, please take the time to review the podcast. Remember to subscribe and share this podcast with fellow book lovers. Until next time, happy reading, happy writing.