The Beautiful Climb Podcast

A lot of the writing advice I found online didn’t work for me, starting with writing every single day.

This is part two on how I actually wrote and self-published my first book. I get into the three-path system I used to decide what kind of writing day it was, why most of this book was spoken out loud before it was ever typed, how I used AI as both a transcriber and an editor, why I pay attention to my cycle when I’m creating anything, and the full story behind the cover and its 80 iterations.

In this episode:

Why writing every day failed for me, and what a decade of bulk creating had to do with it

The three paths: write, change location, or dictate

How I used AI as a transcriber without letting it write for me

Why I didn’t hire an editor, and what I did instead

Writing with my cycle, and saving logistics for the low weeks

Telling my family when I was in it

Creating in the margins of life

The cover: the couch photo, the upside-down sunflowers, the freckles, and the four words on the back

Mentioned:

Part one, on what it actually felt like to release the book

My article on why I chose self-publishing over traditional publishing

The Beautiful Climb is available now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. A hardcover is coming soon. brandmerry.com/book

If you’re interested in featuring The Beautiful Climb in your book club, email [email protected].

I wrote a book, and I was not prepared for what releasing it would feel like.

One week out from launch, I’m processing the whole thing out loud: the Amazon account lockout the day before, the holy-shit moment on launch morning, the love I wasn’t ready for, and why I made myself sit in it instead of moving on to the next thing.

The Beautiful Climb is available now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle: brandmerry.com/book

Full post and video: https://themichelleknight.substack.com/

I always thought burnout would look like the stories I’d heard for years online…entrepreneurs ending up in the hospital, a dramatic crash that finally forced them to stop. That’s not what happened to me. Mine was quieter, and I think a lot more common than the crash version we’re used to hearing about.

The Beautiful Climb is back. Not as a new podcast, but as the continuation of something I started in 2019, in an RV, in the middle of grief, without knowing it would one day become a book.

In this first episode, I’m talking about what writing this book is actually requiring of me. Not the steps needed, not the how-to, but the stripping away of layers to get to the heart of what this book stands for. The vulnerability, and the version of me that has to show up to make something this personal. I’m also sharing more about my business rebuild and why I finally know it’s time.

In this episode, I get into:

* How a podcast I started in 2019 quietly became the chapters and the title of my first book coming this October

* The three storytelling books sitting on my desk right now that shaped how I think about telling a story (none of them the ones you’d expect and none are business-related)

* The September pattern I didn’t notice until I was already inside it. From signing my first client in 2016, hitting six figures a year later, and the “what do I have to lose” energy I’m feeling again after a decade of entrepreneurship

* Why launching this book, and this next iteration of my business, feels like grieving the identity I built over ten years

* What I’d say to you if you’re in a season where you can feel something shifting, and you’re white-knuckling what used to work

If something in this episode stirred something in you, come tell me in the subscriber chat. I’ll be asking questions there and going deeper on what you want more of.

This is The Beautiful Climb.

Michelle

P.S. Come join the subscriber chat