You Should Write A Book About That™

Comedian and recipe blogger Anna Vocino is super funny for someone who eats no gluten, grain or sugar. Many of us would be in a bad mood all around. She was pushed to change her diet and her life when she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. In fact, she made a full time living inspiring thousands of people with her eathappykitchen.com brand where she creates the sauces and spices from her cookbook. She is a perfect example of how we can take an illness and turn it into a gift.

Listen in to hear her advice on how to best food blog (and not leave lots of money on the table - SEO 101), why recipes on line sometimes don’t work, and her journey as a cookbook writer into a traditional publishing deal.

You can catch her weekly as a co-host on the podcast Fitness Confidential with Vinnie Tortorich.

If you enjoyed this show, may we suggest other similar episodes you may like? Check our Naomi Joseph on writing about her long battle with Binge Eating and Ethan Bach writing a memoir about five psychotic breaks. Again, people using their adversity in their writing to help others.

Subscribe to not miss any upcoming guests, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show!

You can find me at kimohara.com as well as IG @kimoharacoach

You can find Anna at https://eathappykitchen.com

A third of people will have a diagnosable anxiety disorder at some point in their lifetime. There are also people who have subclinical anxiety which is distressing but doesn’t quite rise to the level of a disorder. So in other words, there are a whole hell of a lot of us out there feeling quite anxious and looking for solutions!

Book Host Kim O’Hara met clinical psychologist Dr. Bonnie Zucker in their weekly writing cohort, where Zucker shared pieces of her book proposal for "The Anxiety Club: 7 Ways to Deactivate Your Membership.” Since Host O’Hara has a special interest in this topic, diagnosed with panic disorder, she felt Bonnie’s book was important to highlight on the show. Zucker describes the book as a general anxiety book which is missing in the marketplace that is not disorder specific, appealing to anyone who has panic or anxiety in any situation. They talk about the decision authors in the self help space make to write the book or the proposal first, and how in both scenarios there is a waiting game when it comes to the timing of getting published. O’Hara points out that some people just need to write the book to get it all out.

Dr. Zucker leaves the listeners with some incredible solutions for anxiety management:

• Acceptance of the anxiety. There are many situations where you actually should feel anxious, and you are not alone! Validate yourself and find the kernel of truth.


• Identify what types of behaviors you are doing that reinforce the anxiety like reassurance.

Subscribe in your fav podcast platform to not miss any upcoming guests, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show! Like our music on the show? Shout out to LUXXURY and the track “Somebody Tonight” (Nolita Records, Expensive Sounding Music)

Want to know more about show host Kim O’Hara and the authors she has helped write books? Check out her website at astoryinside.com.

When I jumped into the interview with ice cream brand Coolhaus founder Natasha Case, I didn’t expect our conversation would run so wide a gamut of topics. While the impetus was to lay out the story of how she came to found a LGBTQ woman-run ice cream business, we delved into some of the more discreet parts of being an entrepreneur. She discovered her desire to create an innovative ice cream business pursuing an education in architecture and a love for food. When an assignment to create student housing came out more like a model of a layer cake, she ran with it.  She speaks about the road to raising money, and while few queer women would speak about benefits in a white man’s world, but she did see she had more of a seat at the table than a straight woman because she was less of a threat to the wives.

When we spoke about her writing a book (or books) on her journey, she revealed her passion in the exploration of less traditional couplings in relationships. She is currently, in fact,  in a thruple with her partner, co-parent and woman of color co-founder Thea. She would also speak about her desire to expand her reach in politics, and the transferable assets from being an entrepreneur to success as a politician. She is considering a bid for Mayor of Culver City, CA, where Cool Haus has its headquarters. What’s the parallel of politics and entrepreneurship? A smart entrepreneur sees the value and importance of building a community and contingency… which is what a savvy political candidate builds their platform on.

If you haven’t tried Coolhaus ice cream, no longer stand in the frozen aisle at Whole Foods or Ralphs in a decision daze. Grab their latest unique flavor, you won’t be disappointed.

Subscribe in your fav podcast platform to not miss any upcoming guests, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show! Like our music on the show? Shout out to LUXXURY and the track “Somebody Tonight” (Nolita Records, Expensive Sounding Music)

Want to know more about show host Kim O’Hara and the authors she has helped write books? Check out her website at astoryinside.com.

On today’s episode, host Kim O’Hara talks with Nu-disco song-writing wizard and DJ Blake Robin about his career creating dance music for adults with his brand LUXXURY, as well as songs for film, TV and gaming. He shares the nuances of creating live DJ sets on location in places like Mexico City, as well as curating his Spotify playlist Good Morning, Disco! with gems that span four decades of groove-first music.  He is currently known for his viral TikTok videos about “Interpolation” that go “Inside the Song.” A musicologist of his own kind, he explores stems of classic hits and “reports” on his findings.

Blake, who started as a pop song writer, has a “newfound earnestness of expression but a lifelong love for the craft of disco.” His debut album “It’s Not Funny” (Nolita) blew past 6 million streams on Spotify. Last Call with Carson Daly audiences were treated to luxe live renditions of "Take It Slow" and "Hold On." SPIN praised the music's sensuality. Complex said it sounded like Nile Rodgers DJing a rave. You can find him at https://www.tiktok.com/@luxxuryxx.

Subscribe in your fav podcast platform to not miss any upcoming guests, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show!

Want to know more about show host Kim O’Hara and the authors she has helped write books? Check out her website at astoryinside.com.

How do you know if your next most brilliant idea or divine download is book worthy?

You just had an incredible epiphany and madly filled three notebook pages with the idea, the whole time thinking, I could write a whole book on this topic! I can’t believe how clear I am on this subject! The possibilities are endless! You are energized and inspired but then the writing stops, and quickly a counter voice rushes in to fill the now empty space with the warnings that halt many great potential books… what if I don’t actually have the authority to speak on this topic at all?What if that is it? I am not a PhD or anything, you think, discounting yourself from the natural writing process which is timing and time. What was a high is now a creative low and you cut yourself off from the big open flow you have created.

It happens to the best of us. Join Host Kim O’Hara, an experienced author and book coach,  who takes to the mic solo in this episode to talk about her very personal experience with this writer mindset as she grapples with whether she could write a book about “feeling safe” (her download topic) and the weeks (or a lifetime really) that led up to her seeing the importance of this topic and her agency with its exploration.

Subscribe to not miss any upcoming guests such as music producer Blake Robin and Coolhaus founder Natasha Case, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show!

Can you survive five psychotic breaks by 30 and live to tell about it in a sane and sober way? Ethan Bach sure did, and feels like he is just starting to live with a big story to tell. Ethan was living a fairly normal teenage life. Sure, he played too many video games, was exposed to porn at a fairly young age, and had seen his fair share of violent films, but it wasn’t until he was diagnosed with a deep and perilous brain tumor that he slipped into what was described as a Steroid Psychosis at age 18. Despite trying to ‘live normally” with college, and girlfriends, he fell down a dark path with drinking, weed, spice and porn which led to more of a breaking of the mind.  Four more psychotic episodes ensued, each one crazier and harder to believe than the last, and usually including "The Truman Show Delusion.” Today he is recovered, on medication and sober, and writing a book about his experiences. You can find Ethan at IG @ebach_writer.

Subscribe to not miss any upcoming guests, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show!

Want to write a book? Check out Kim O'Hara's web site astoryinside.com, and find her on IG @astoryinside.com

Tiffany Yu is the founder of Diversability, an award winning community business that elevates disability pride through disability community, visibility, and engaged allyship. Tiffany, at the age of 9, was in a car accident where her father died and she lost the use of her arm. In one felt swoop, the dynamic of her body changed as well as her family structure. She was physically disabled, but also not facing the PTSD of witnessing the death of her father and her own survival. 

Years later, and through several evolutions of Diversability, she is addressing the topics of sorrow and grief, as well as the PTSD she never knew to face. In today’s interview, we walk through several significant age turning points with her disability, and how each period was one that informed the powerful and inclusive work she does today to educate and support others in her community.

At some point in her journey, she even questioned whether she was disabled enough to do this work!  We can relate this to how people avoid writing books because they don’t know if they are worthy enough to be an expert! She gets super honest about the feelings of exclusion in terms of stepping into being a writer.

Ladies, you know you all have a basket of dirty little secrets you are keeping. You may not have slept with the UPS guy but you are married 26 years and still holding a torch for that first boyfriend in high school. You’ve guzzled champagne to give a speech or peed yourself when you laughed too hard. Secrets big and small create shame and play on our expectations that we have to be perfect as women. Our judgements hold us back from living our best life. Author Gretchen Hydo, a Certified Master Coach, says it’s time to stop. Enough stuffing secrets, and then creating more. As a coach to business owners and coaches, she is tough and results oriented, helping men and women exponentially increase their income. She turns that passion now towards secrets, and like many people who wrote books, is driven by her own personal story with secret-keeping.  She saw a deficit on the book shelves for a Secret-Breaking System so she wrote the book!  On this episode, we are going to talk about her big secret, the inner workings and stages of  her powerful Secret -Breaking System to help women get free of their dirty little secrets, and what came up for her as a first time author.

You can find Gretchen at gretchenhydo.com to inquire about her upcoming Secret-Breaking One Year Program and to get notifications on the 2022/2023 release of her book.

If you are interested in knowing more about how Gretchen was coached by Kim O’Hara through her book, head over to astoryinside.com or check out Kim’s program Own Your Authorship at astoryinside.com/own-your-authorship

Just because the barrier of entry to podcasting is low, creating good thought-provoking content is where the pros separate from the amateurs. Also, podcasting the right way for good sound isn’t necessarily quick and easy. One needs to understand the various technologies like a good microphone and an excellent reliable remote recording platform. Our podcast in one year has gone from Skype on a cell phone, to full on remote with Squadcast which is why it was such a thrill to interview Squadcast co-founder Rock Felder. He helps provide the forum for creatives to have engaging conversations and spread their message in a professional way.  We cover a lot of ground in this interview from how Squadcast was founded by Rock and high school friends Zack and Vince who were like brothers to him, to the fire one walks through when creating an out of the box original innovation.  You need to have growing pains, and come out stronger. Plus he drops some great remote recording tips that are free and intuitive! 

Drop comments in the chat! Are you still friends with folks from childhood? Did you grow up listening to the radio? What are some of your favorite podcasting stories where your ass was in the fire!

Susan Paulhus-Roper, a highly successful Senior Regional Director for a major shoe chain, was relocated to the East Coast.  Upon arrival, and after buying a million dollar house in Jersey, her husband left and she decided she didn’t gel with the company culture.  She found herself needing to downsize, collect unemployment and lean into her local parent community.  

She networked her butt off, called in strong relationships she had made over the years, printed spreadsheet after spreadsheet and landed as a Regional Manager to 180 Starbucks Licensed Stores. She shares incredible tips about how to look for a new job, and not just any position, but one where you can feel happy.  It’s not all about the money, but at the end of the day, who are you helping, where are you growing and who are the people around you.

We can take the power back in our lives even when the best laid plans fall apart and Susan does it with humor and a no bull crap approach.

How do you stay positive looking for a job?  What are some of the tools that you used when you were replaced? Drop your feedback in my social, or comments on the episode. Susan admits it is a really lonely time, so find a few people also looking for jobs to flip jobs to you, and you them!  Also to be there for you when you get rejected!