Thriving Authors Podcast

In this episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m excited to feature my interview with life coach Amber Curtis, PhD from her talk, Top Productivity Tips for Getting Your Book Done, during last year’s Thriving Authors Summit.

If you want to avoid procrastination and anticipate the obstacles that might get in the way of you actually getting your book written and into the world this episode is for you! 

Amber has all the productivity tips for you, including 2 contrasting approaches: the domino versus snowball strategy, so you can choose what works for you!

About Amber: Amber Curtis, PhD (Founder, Solutions for Simplicity) helps ambitious, high achieving women maximize their time and energy for who and what they love. A professor by day, business owner by night, and mom of four throughout, Amber knows all too well how challenging it is to juggle life’s many demands and opportunities. She shares an array of science-backed resources for living a more purposeful and productive life.

In this solo episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m sharing what I do at the beginning of each month as I reflect on my writing routine to see if there is anything I want to adjust or work on moving forward.

There’s nothing like the clean slate of a brand-new month to check in on YOUR writing goals! This is not a time to judge yourself, criticize yourself, or feel guilty for what you haven’t done. Instead, this is meant to be an inspiring & encouraging time!

Listen to the episode as I describe why this practice of intentional reflection works and how it has helped me to adjust my writing routine. Then grab your journal, brew a hot cup of tea, and light a cozy candle. Here are 7 questions to reflect on:

1. What emotions or adjectives would I use to describe my current writing routine?

2. How do I WANT my writing to feel? What emotions or adjectives come up?

3. When is my ideal creative time? When do I feel most alive and inspired?

4. What project lights me up the most right now? What do I want to devote my time to this month?

5. What is a big writing goal I am working on? What would be an amazing smaller goal to accomplish by the end of the month that would really move me forward toward that big goal?

6. What affirmation resonates with me right now in my writing life?

7. Bonus: block off time on the calendar to write! Even if it’s just 10-15 minutes!

I hope this exercise was helpful for you to acknowledge where you are, take stock of your goals and dreams, and make a plan to get there!

And if you are an entrepreneur who wants to write and publish the book inside your heart, I’d love for you to join me in my Facebook group called Women Entrepreneurs Becoming Best Selling Authors. This free community is the perfect place to share what came up for you with this exercise and any goals you have so we can cheer you on – and also to provide a little extra accountability for you, too!

In this solo episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m giving you my best tips for a successful, fun, and fabulous book event! Coming off two recent book launches and a joint book event with my dad (whose debut novel, The Butterfly Tree, came out earlier this year) at Timbre Books in Ventura, CA, I have a lot to share!

You’ll hear ideas around mindset and practical strategies, including:

• How to make it as easy as possible for bookstores to partner with you.

• The difference between a book signing and a book event.

• My favorite format for book events and how to prepare.

• Logistics that are important to work out with the bookstore before the event.

• Ideas to spread the word about the event to make it as successful as possible.

• A list of what to bring the day of your event.

I hope these tips inspire you to get out there so readers can celebrate you and your beautiful book – in a way that allows you to soak in this special memory and truly enjoy your book event.

Here’s the link I mentioned I’d share: Episode 137: Tips for Your Author Photo Shoot. And also, make sure to grab the pdf with all the tips here: Tips for a fantastic book event.pdf

In this solo episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I share a little love note from my heart to yours. I also reflect on my daughter's namesake, my Grandma Auden, and how so many of us have no idea how far our legacies extend, the ripples that we create, the ways that we touch other people's lives.

I touch on: 

• Why being a book coach is so important to me.

• How I’m trying to show my children the power of building a life around my creative energy. 

• The huge shift that happens when we start to put ourselves, put our joy, put our creativity first in our lives.

• What feedback I received from people in my Facebook community and on my newsletter list that helped me create a new program.

And if you’re looking to write a book as part of your legacy, let’s make it happen!

Join Your Book Roadmap for the next round that starts August 4, 2025, and by the end of our eight weeks together you’ll truly see yourself as an author. You’ll have the first chapter of your book DONE and all the momentum you need to continue! It’s a small group with limited spots so grab yours today at https://www.dallaswoodburn.com.

Or you can grab YOUR BOOK MATTERS: 52 love notes from my creative heart to yours, to help you write the book inside your heart. Part reflective journal, part motivational cheerleader, part accountability guide, YOUR BOOK MATTERS (available on Amazon) will give you a little burst of inspiration every week of the year, so that you can feel supported as you go through the natural ups and downs of the creative process.

In this episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m talking with my wonderful friend Greta Woolley about her incredible book “S.O.S.: Survival Guide for Teachers, Old and New.” I was honored to be able to support her in writing this book over the course of my 8-week writing program Your Book Roadmap. (And Greta recently published her second beautiful book, "Grief's Child: The Ups and Downs and All Arounds of Love, Loss and Life.")

It was really so beautiful and incredible for me to witness and journey with her as this book poured out of her!

Greta shares:

• How she knew she was ready to write her book and how it wasn’t the spectacular moment she thought it would be.

• The challenges she went through during her writing process and what kept her going.

• Her favorite writing exercise to implement when she was worrying about her book.

• What she feels and how she’s different now that her book is out in the world.

I think you’ll be inspired by this conversation and what you can do when you allow yourself to be supported along your writing journey.

About Greta:

Greta Woolley walks alongside students, families, and educators to create needs-fulfilling environments that positively support academic achievement while growing students’ social and emotional competence. She has spent the past 35 years working as a front-line teacher in the trenches for both general and exceptional student education settings, as a District Trainer, ESE Specialist, Instructional Mentor, and Site-Based Behavior Specialist. She lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband Chris and two daughters, Julia and Jaclyn. Connect with her on Instagram @themindfulmentor_ and her Substack https://gretawoolley.substack.com/

Join Your Book Roadmap for the next round that starts August 4, 2025, and by the end of our eight weeks together you’ll truly see yourself as an author. You’ll have the first chapter of your book DONE and all the momentum you need to continue! It’s a small group with limited spots so grab yours today at https://www.dallaswoodburn.com.

Listen at https://www.thrivingauthorspodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this solo episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain around what I do as a book coach and sharing three reasons why having a book coach is a game-changer in getting your book written.

You’ll hear about:

• The hardest part of writing your book and how I will help you move through it.

• The amazing shifts that happen when you have clarity on your writing project.

• Who the biggest enemy is when it comes to writing a book and how I support my clients with this.

• How my program will set you up for continued success and why I structured it the way I did.

I hope this episode gives you a sense of what a book coach is, what I do with my clients and how a book coach can really help you move forward in your journey.

And remember, your book is a whole new beginning in many ways. It's the first step of a really exciting new chapter for yourself, for your business, for your authority and your expertise. It creates so many ripples and you have no idea how far those ripples will go!
Ready to see what ripples your book creates? Join my program, Your Book Roadmap, and by the end of our eight weeks together you’ll truly see yourself as an author. You’ll have the first chapter of your book DONE and all the momentum you need to continue! It’s a small group with limited spots so grab yours today at https://www.dallaswoodburn.com

In this solo episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m reflecting on how welcoming a second baby relates to birthing a second book. Becoming a mom of two reminded me so much of the mindset that I talk through with my clients related to writing another book.

I delve into:

• The parallels between a second baby and a second book.

• Why you can expect to have mindset challenges when writing a second, third, fourth book.

• What to do when external pressures and critical voices in your head get louder when writing your next book.

• My Steph Curry analogy to growing as a writer.

• How we can lean into the creative process throughout the unknowns and even if we are afraid.

• The truth of why it's never too late to invest in yourself and your writing.

I'm hoping that some of these insights are useful for you, whether you are working on your first book, or your second, or your third or down the line!

And I’d love to share an exercise that all of my clients do when we begin working together. It's called Getting to Your Why. Send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll send you the three-page downloadable PDF with some questions that you can journal about to really help you try to get to the why of your book.

In this solo episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m talking about what I call Overflowing Ideas Syndrome. It’s when you have so many ideas that it's really hard to commit to one idea and easy to get distracted.

This will be a great episode for you if you have a bunch of half-finished manuscripts, but you don't have a completed book!

I delve into:

• Why nothing is wrong with you and how you can reframe this into a strength.

• Tools that will help you focus your energy on one idea at a time.

• The importance of tuning in to the book YOU most want to write.

• What happens when you pay attention to what gives you energy and excites you.

• Journaling prompts that you can use whenever you need to find clarity about what direction to go in.

After listening, I think you’ll understand why it's really common to get distracted by shiny new ideas and to abandon projects halfway – and how joining a container of support with a writing community and working with a coach can help you stay accountable to finishing your book.

And if you are an entrepreneur who wants to write and publish the book inside your heart, I’d love for you to join me in my Facebook group called Women Entrepreneurs Becoming Best Selling Authors. This free community is the perfect place to share what came up for you with this episode and any goals you have so we can cheer you on – and also to provide a little extra accountability for you, too!

In this solo episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m excited to share what has helped me write my back cover and my longer book descriptions. I even give an example of the description from my book “Your Book Matters: 52 love notes from my creative heart to yours.”

On the surface, writing your book description seems pretty simple…but it is super common to struggle with this task because you need to condense so much into a short space! To write a compelling book description, you need to 1) give the reader a sense of what your book is about; 2) introduce the reader to your own authentic voice and style; 3) sell your book; 4) grab the reader’s attention and leave them wanting more!

I dive into:

• The distinction between your book description and your back cover description.

• Some exercises that are really helpful with taking away the pressure and stress of writing the description of your book.

• Why I recommend writing your book description before you reach the end of your manuscript.

• How to grab the reader’s attention in your book description.

• A little trick I use to hone in on how to write to the ideal reader of your book.

Check out the back cover description from my latest novel BEFORE & AFTER YOU & ME...

Emma blames herself when a freak accident at a pool party leaves Hunter, the town’s rising track star and her former boyfriend, paralyzed from the waist down. As she struggles with anxiety, loneliness and regret, she begins to obsessively paint portraits of legs and feet—Hunter’s legs and feet—and for the first time receives critical acclaim and notice for her artwork.

But what started as therapeutic for Emma ends up deepening her guilt. Does creating meaningful art require retreating inward toward self-expression, or striving outward toward recognition—or can it somehow be both?

Searching for one whole, authentic identity, Emma grapples with love, ambition, grief, homecoming, and—ultimately—redemption.

In this episode of the Thriving Authors Podcast, I’m sharing my own personal experience of coming out of a season of book launching–a topic that comes up a lot with my clients in Thriving Authors Academy.

Do you ever wonder how you can:

• Create a sustainable creative practice

• Build a career as a writer

• Actually get to the finish line of your book

• … without burning out?
  

My answer: build plenty of self-care into your writing routine.

In this episode, I delve into my TOP EIGHT self-care tips for writers. Listen, bookmark, and enjoy! This might be an episode you want to save and come back to when you need to hear it again. I always like to pause and reflect on my self-care practices after a book launch, after I finish a big project, when I hit a milestone in my life like a birthday or anniversary, or even with the change of seasons.

You can also download a FREE PDF with all eight of these tips!