Hey, Rebecca, thank you so much for being here today.We're so grateful that we get to interview you.I would love if you could introduce yourself.
Yes, thanks for having me.I am a business consultant and I work with organizations to help streamline their leadership development from emerging leaders all the way to the c-suite and I have had a career as a consultant.
I've owned my own consulting firm for a little over five and a half years but have been self-employed my entire life running independent 1099 teams so
I love what I do and I love digging into leaders to help bring the best out of themselves so that they can bring out the best in others.
Love that.I would love if you could tell us what your books are about.
Yes, so right before COVID, February 29th of 2020, I had released my first book called Beyond the Board, How to Achieve Your Vision Board Goals in a Fulfilling and Sustainable Way.
And that book was really, I was new into my business and I was honestly trying to get all of my thoughts together on how to achieve success, but not in success in the way other people think,
It's like fulfilling success sustainable success and so that was a book written on how to achieve goals and not just to set up and look at him on a vision board but actually what do you do to get on and in that beginning of that book i dedicated it to my kids i have a.
I have to think now with the birthdates that are happening this summer, this makes me sound bad, but I have a 10 and a 12 year old.That's what I have.And so they were young and I wanted them to know what their mom stood for and was about.
And so they love seeing their names in print. The second book, Leaderboard to Leadership, How to Earn and Excel in Your First Sales Leadership Promotion.
So this is specifically about a niche that I had found that was not being served, was this emerging sales leader specifically, but you could read this book
as an emerging leader so you're an individual contributor and then you go should go for leadership what should i keep what should i throw away what's going to get in my like all of the stuff right all these assumptions that people make and i just um had a lot of clients who were really good at their jobs and then set up to fail because they weren't
just the common things weren't talked about.And so it's really a blueprint for individual leaders and also organizations to go, how are we streamlining this development at every stage as we rise up the ranks in leadership?
How are we helping support leaders and what they really need to succeed?
Love that.What inspired you to write your books?
So the first one, I always thought it'd be cool to write a book, and you know the stats on this better than I do of the percentages of people who want to write a book someday.
I had a conversation with a former coworker of mine right before I wrote my first book, and I had met him at a, I hadn't seen him in years, and we had met at a networking event, and we somehow started talking about, he said, you know, I've always wanted to write a book.
I'm a go home and write a book and literally an hour later i had beyond the board outlined that's kind of my process right outline first and then i start filling in and it was written in two months the second book i knew i'd write a book.
My first book i didn't know what i was getting into so it was. My second book, I had the fear of the known of how much work this is going to be balancing a much higher client load.
Because my first book I wrote when I was consulting firm was getting off the ground and it was a lot of building, right?Not a lot of client work at the beginning as a lot of consulting businesses go. But I knew I needed to write it.
We cannot work at Rise Up Consulting.We cannot work with every emerging sales leader or every org.Just that's not realistic.
And so I thought, what would be a really neat way to kind of support those who we can't reach or don't have the budget to work with us or don't have just giving them something?And so I'm excited that the second book is done.
Love that.When you were writing your books, who were you thinking of when it comes to who your books are for? Love that.How long have you been writing and what made you really sit down and start?
The, I don't, this is fine.I don't consider myself a writer by any means.I, I read some marvelous books and I go, Oh, They are really good at writing.I write how I speak.And so what you know, too, the success of a book is not the quality of the book.
Sometimes it's not the quality of the writing.It's how it resonates with people, how it's marketed.And I don't mean that my book is not well-written.I have a lot of help with editors and formatters.And I've got a team that's helping.
It is, it's a process.So it's funny.I'm like, Oh, I guess I am a writer.I have a couple of books.I, I, you know, I do, I do write, um, What was your question?I kind of went on a tangent there.Like what was the process?What was the actual question?
Sorry.I went on a tangent.
What made you really sit down and start writing?
Okay.Thank you.Thank you.Um, it is this, um, when, when thoughts swirl around in your head and it gets overwhelming, I need to get them out of my head.And how I do that is, is I write.
I had a, and I, not a fear, but I have this belief that if we don't, when we take, when we get ideas, if we don't do something with those ideas, someone else is going to take them.
So I came from this from a scarcity and an abundance in mentality where I'm like, if I don't get this out, someone else is going to.Um, and I know that there's no new thoughts, right?
Everything's been said it just how it said and how it's communicated.So that was the scarcity mentality of like, I got to get this done, but also from an abundancy mentality of this is how we continue to scale this business.
This is how we continue to help people who really need it. And, um, the more well-equipped, the more equipped leaders are in general, the better everyone else's, whether.That money makes it to my pocket or not, right.
Whether that revenue hits the business or not.And so, um, that's what I was like, I finally have to do this, but again, the second book. I knew what I was getting into.
And so I got very creative about how I avoided doing the work where, Oh, I have my client loads too much.I'll just all right later.And then it just became months later.And I went, I'm becoming the person I coach my clients not to be like I was.
Amazing.What is your schedule like when you are writing a book?
I tend to write everything in the morning.That is my best time to write this.The second book, I gave myself a goal of writing.I think it was like 2000 words a day and some days I hit it and some days I didn't, but I find that.
the writing the work helps be more creative.So even in the writing blocks or as I was reading it, I'm like, this is not good.You know, like what am I actually trying to say?
I still powered through that because it helped subconsciously the thought process, but that's, I write during my best energetic time of day and that's mornings.
Love that.What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused?
the phone off, the kids not coming in.There were a few times that I couldn't get it done during the week.
So there, there were a lot of Saturdays and Sundays, which is a lot of sacrifice for the family to, you know, when mom's in the office and the door is closed.So there, there was that, but I need quiet space.
I can't have, I can, I didn't listen, I didn't listen to a ton of music for the second book, but I cannot have any sort of music.
Cause I know every song I can't sing, but it's really distracting to have, you know that type of music around, but that's what it is.Really good lighting that energizes.I didn't get too crazy with like a, not that it's crazy, but any sense or like a,
I don't, do you know what I'm talking about?Like the aroma.Yeah.Yeah.Yes.I didn't get too crazy with that, but I think anything like that quiet room, morning time focused, no distractions, um, that produces the best ideas.
And then when I'm able to go back and fact check and, um, find more research to back the intuitive thoughts, I guess, um, to help make it stronger.So.
Amazing.What is your favorite writing snack and drink?
Coffee.Coffee is my favorite.And I like nuts, because if I, like a light snack, because if I eat too many heavy foods, and I'm a gluten-free person, but if I have too much heavy food, it really dulls my brain.So cashews and coffee, yeah.
Love it. What type of books do you personally enjoy reading?
I am a little bit of a nerd, so I stick most of my time in nonfiction.And the books that I read are about organizational health and strategy.And I have a few favorite authors in that type of space.I do track. I track the fiction books I read as well.
And this is funny, right before we recorded this, I was looking at some of my summer months and I'm planning it out to which my son said, there's two types of people, mom, there's planners and people who just roll with it.I said, I said,
I can't go with it, but the, um, I was looking at my schedule.I'm like, I need to read another fiction book.So, um, that'll be on the docket.I don't know what that will be, but, um, I, I like, uh, suspense.
So I don't read, I don't read a lot of, um, Danielle steel.I don't know.I don't read that genre anymore.I don't read, um, that type of book, but I like a good, good suspense book. Love that.
Are there any books or authors that inspired you to become a writer?
No, I think not directly because I never thought I would become a writer.I think the more that I've read and I've always been, I mean, I remember I'm making my mom drive me to the next town over his library and eighth grade.
I was the only like eighth grade high schooler.No one like went to the library.That wasn't really a thing.Um, but as I've read a lot of books and I think when good and bad, I think I've, I've, I've looked at every author and
and felt how bold that they were, that they had the gumption to put their words out into the world.And I think I drew inspiration of like, I can do this, right?
Because I'm sure you read books too, sometimes you're like, okay, good or bad, you go, that is amazing that they were able to do that, or I could do that too.So no book or author in particular,
But I think it's just a culmination of building confidence the more I've read to be like, I could probably do that as well.
Love that.What books did you grow up reading?Did you have an all time favorite?
I love the babysitters club.I read every single babysitters club book.I also, um, the Judy blooms, I know these were like very common, but it's fun now to read them with my daughter.
Um, so those were the series and I, I would get stuck on if I would pick an author. I found comfort that I would just go back and get other books by that same author.So I'm not very drawn.I don't know why that is.
But if I if I find one, I'm like, OK, Vince Flynn.All right.I'll read more of Vince Flynn or whatever that is.Mary Higgins Clark.I read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark in middle school and high school as well.
but I probably should explore authors who only have one or two books like myself.I, I, I might be skipping people like me.Um, so that's a good, thank you for that question.Lots of action here.
Love it on the other side of that.And I was an adult.What are your favorite theories or authors?If they come out with something, you automatically grab it.
I, um, I will always read anything new from Ryan Holiday or Simon Sinek, Mel Robbins.Those are people where they've got a new book.
I'm like, I'm going to get that because I know that they do their research and there will be something new that I can use either for myself or for my clients.I will say that.Beyond that, I am just literally
nerding it out, and I go to the business section of the bookstore, the self-help section of the bookstore.There are a few books I read every single year, and every single year I read them, they hit me differently.
So I read Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love every year.I read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People every year.And so I think it's fun We miss things and I don't read a ton of books over and over again.
I'm, I'm really several times I'm a one and done-er, but there are a couple of those books that I will read.And I, I find it interesting where I'm seeing different things where I'm in a different position.
And I'm like, that is not how I read that when I read that 20 years ago.So I think that that's kind of cool to use some of those books to judge our own journeys of, of growth.
Love that so much.What would you tell someone just starting out with reading again?
I would say to set really small goals and find your wins.So it's like any sort of thing that you do of getting the momentum and the motivation.We don't continue to do things when we're not winning.
And I think that there's the question was continuing to read again.
Right not not learning how to read but continuing to read and i think sometimes if we've had success or maybe oh i used to read all the time and then i just stopped i don't know why i stopped and so we compare well i only read three pages today and i used to just it doesn't matter i think comparing old wins to to where you are now that's okay but i would commit to a very small goal
And then build momentum and build upon that.People get so excited around new years or I'm going to do this now.I'm going to be a reader, you know, leaders are readers and I'm going to do this.
And I just go pick something you can, you can follow through with consistently and create a really good habit around and then build from there.So you don't feel bad.You only got 30 minutes in.Right.
You sat down, you got 30 minutes, whether that's a workout or you're reading a book, right?You show up and I think giving yourself credit for that is really important.Love that so much.
On the other side of that, what would you tell someone just starting to write their own book?
I would say that you should get people around you that help pull you out of your self-doubt and the analysis paralysis that can happen.
And I would also, so helping you through it, but then also giving insights to how you can make it better being super coachable, um, which is easy to do when you're new at something, not easy to do when you think, you know, everything you need to know.
I think there's a, we become less coachable as we get older naturally, but, um, that's what I would say would be surround yourself with some really good people.
Love that.What's one thing that people are generally surprised to find out about you?
I think, uh, well, I'm an open book, so I, I don't authenticity is one of my top values.And so I don't think there's a lot of surprises about me.Um, I'm a working married mother, so my life isn't too,
I don't have like these crazy, you know, exciting habits or anything like that.But yeah, I am.I'm an open book, so that might surprise people, I don't know, but there's nothing.I'm just your Midwest.Kind of working mom, you know, you know.
Love it.Is there anything you would like to say or add?
No, I think we covered it.I think, you know, people discovering a love of reading and choosing to read as a way to grow themselves, to develop themselves on this constant journey we're on to become
you know, better people, whether it's better parents, better spouses, better friends, uh, better community members, whatever it is, I think is just really, really good.And you can never underestimate the power of.
Reading and I'll, I'll leave with this.And I know this is something that's been, um, people have, have heard before, but, um, Jim Rohn had always said, like, you're the same person you're going to be five years from now.
Except for the people you surround yourself and the books that you read and so being very intentional about consumption We are very on scrolling is very unintentional, right?
We're like, oh my gosh was that I had to take tick-tock off my phone because I was like I was there for an hour and that freaked me out how unintentional I was about what's going in my brain and
but choosing great books to, whether you're getting lost in a fictionist world or you're going nonfiction and you are intentional about that consumption, but books are a great way to do that and to become a better version of yourself.
Love that. Where's the best place for readers to find your books?I know some readers love signed copies.Is that an option and the best place to connect with you?
So the best place to buy my books is on Amazon.I am always on LinkedIn, so that's a great place to connect.And then when I speak, I have signed copies.I don't choose to sell books
to do the signed copies, but if someone wants one, they can absolutely reach out and I'd get them a signed copy.
Amazing.Well, thank you so, so much for being here today.We're so grateful that we got to interview you.We'll be sure to drop those links in the show notes.That way everyone can find you.And again, thank you so much.
Sign in
