Have you ever dreamed of entering the book publishing world to share your wisdom as a best-selling author? If you’re ready to turn that dream into reality and amplify your message globally, you’re in for a treat. In this enlightening episode, I sit down with Cathy Derksen, an international speaker and 18-time number one best-selling author, to explore the power of collaborative books and how they can elevate your visibility as an entrepreneur.
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Show Notes | Transcript“We all have a story that could help somebody else getting through similar challenges or overcoming a similar obstacle in their life.” – Cathy Derksen
Cathy shares her journey from being a first-time author to creating a platform that empowers women to share their inspiring stories. We discuss the surprising benefits of collaborative publishing and how it differs from traditional solo book projects.
In this episode, you’ll discover how to:
- The unexpected advantages of collaborative book projects over solo ventures
- How to leverage your author status to boost your credibility as an entrepreneur
- The mindset shift that occurs when women transition from aspiring authors to published best-sellers
- Common pitfalls to avoid when seeking publication and how to navigate them
Key insights include:
- Why your unique story matters and how it can inspire others
- The importance of vetting collaborative publishers before committing to a project
- How to assess the value of different publishing opportunities
- The potential of using your book as a powerful marketing tool for your business
Cathy also introduces the concept of author retreats, combining writing workshops with self-care and networking opportunities. She shares her vision for future projects, including exciting international destinations for these transformative experiences.
Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur looking to expand your influence or a spiritual healer yearning to reach a wider audience, this conversation offers valuable insights on how to share your wisdom through the written word. Tune in to learn how you can become a published author and open doors to new possibilities in your personal and professional life!
Resources:
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Connect with Cathy:
website: inspiredtenacity.com
LinkedIn: @cathyderkseninspiredtenacity
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TRANSCRIPT
Gloria Grace Rand
Namaste. Imagine turning your wisdom into a best selling book that opens doors worldwide. Well, if you’d like to do more than imagine and actually get your message out in the world in a bigger way, you’re going to want to stick around to hear my conversation with today’s guest who helps women publish their stories. But first, if this is your first time to Live Love Engage, I want to welcome you and introduce myself. I am Gloria Grace, founder of Align to Shine Academy and I work with spiritually minded women entrepreneurs to break free from self doubt and step into their highest potential. And joining us in just a moment is Cathy Derksen and she is an international speaker and an 18 times number one best selling author. That’s amazing. Kathy has created a platform for women to share their wisdom and inspiring stories in collaborative books and her programs allow you you to expand your global network, build your business and increase your visibility while becoming an international best selling author. And I am going to bring her on right now so we can get to talking all about the wonderful world of publishing and books and all that good stuff. So welcome to Live Love Engage, Cathy.
Cathy Derksen
Thank you for having me.
Gloria Grace Rand
Well, I appreciate, appreciate you. We just met recently and I was just really impressed by all the stuff that you’re doing and I love that you’re focused on helping women to get their message out. But I was wondering if you could maybe before we dive into really the nuts and bolts why this is important, can you take us back maybe to your first book and what inspired you to take that leap and maybe what surprised you most about the journey?
Cathy Derksen
Well, as most people that get into these multi author books, the first book that I was in, I was just one of the authors in somebody else’s book. And before that one, I had actually never really thought of myself as becoming an author or getting involved in the publishing world at all. And really the main reason I got into that book, it was a local group here and I’d been aware that they had been doing some books, I think that was their fifth book that I jumped into. And it was at that point I had just been through a divorce, a complete career change. I was now a single mom with two teenagers and had I had gotten to the point where I felt like the dust was starting to settle on all of that. And I knew that my story could help other women going through a similar thing to really get through their own challenges and struggles and get through that kind of thing. So that at the time was really my only goal was just that knowing that that my story could help other women. And from there I loved the process of being in these multi author books where you’re collaborating with a group of people, you’re all putting your story and your wisdom out in the world. And as was mentioned, I am now have just on Friday hit 18 books that I have been part of and now seven of those are my books. So they’re books that I have started with the theme and the title that I’ve created. I brought together the group of authors, I’ve you know, really coached them around developing their chapters and, and yes, release them out into the world as best selling authors.
Gloria Grace Rand
Oh, that’s amazing. What, what types of categories have your books been in? Is it kind of stayed in one area or do you have a broad range?
Cathy Derksen
Well, all my books have a different theme. So based on that we do vary a little bit. And I don’t know the names of the categories off the top of my head now there are several hundred of them so they’ve really diversified the categories. But some of the books that I’ve. And I’ll focus mainly on the books that are my projects. So like I said, there’s seven of them now. The first one was Embrace Courage, Midlife Awakening, Ripple, Effective Impact. The last three that I just had released actually in the last couple months were all focused on women in leadership in different areas. So one was focused on women in leadership or transforming leadership in business and community. One was on how women are impacting leadership in science and tech. And then the last one that we just released was specific to a community called Lead Hership Global. And, and so that book was Lead Hership Unveiled. So, so those ones being more on the leadership business side, other ones being more on the personal development and getting through challenges. But definitely a lot of focus is on women’s biographies, women in business, personal development, but many categories. And that’s part of the fun too of going through the Amazon launch and is that you can hit several categories with the same book. So you start with say three and as you hit number one of those ones you move to other categories and hit number one and some more categories and becomes almost part of that game of, of the Amazon system.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, absolutely. I know having well published my own book and, and with, well, I didn’t publish it myself, I did have a publisher but he was, yeah, picking out the, the categories that he thought for sure that I would be able to hit that number one status so I could, I could put that label on my book. In fact, there it is, it says Amazon number one. Bestseller. But actually, and speaking of that, I, I would love to know what you think about the, like, the power of collaborative books and how they differ from like solo books projects, especially maybe in terms of reach and impact.
Cathy Derksen
Yeah. And I think for a lot of people, they have the idea that they need to just focus on a solo book. But what I’ve seen is I would say the vast majority of people who start a solo book never finish it. Or they might finish it, but they never publish it. Or if they publish it, they don’t do a bestseller campaign. And also, when you are in a solo book, it’s just you and your community getting the activity and the visibility out there. Whereas with a collaborative book, you have all of those people’s communities working together, building visibility and collaboration and connection. And most of my books, I have 20 women per book and they’re, they are literally from all over the world. In the last book that we just released, we had us, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Dubai, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany. So all over the world. So imagine you’re in a group of women from all over the world and you’re each. If you go back and look at my social media over the last couple weeks, we are all liking sharing, reposting, you know, so everyone’s community is just blending together. The last post that I did, I had over 1500 hits on it. And you know, that’s because we are all meshing together with all these different ones. So, so I, I won’t say that it’s an easy thing to do to hit international number one, but when you have 20 people working together, it makes it a lot easier.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, absolutely. And I do know it is, it is challenging to write your own book. I mean, it took me five years from the time that I first got the idea to when I finally even started to write it, and then, and then get it done.
Cathy Derksen
Yes.
Gloria Grace Rand
Whereas I have been in some collaborative books as well. I’ve been in, I was in, I was in this one. It’s called Conceived to Lead. Not my picture on the front on the cover. But, but my story is in there and I’ve been in a couple of others as well. And I know why I did it. But why do, why do authors come to you? What, what other than this, you know, global visibility. But what is sort of like maybe the one or two, like, key reasons that people, you, business owners, in particular, entrepreneurs. Why, why should they decide to do a collaborative book? What’s their benefit? What are they thinking they, they’re going to get out of it.
Cathy Derksen
Yes. I think one of the key things is these women all do believe and know that our stories really do inspire and motivate and re-energize other women. You know, I think as women, we really, we do learn from each other’s stories and we do create role models through sharing our story. So that’s always a big part of it. But, but yes, when we look at, especially as an entrepreneur these days, I would say it’s almost become expected that you’re an author. So when people look at your profile, say they are comparing you, I, I hate comparing or saying we’re competing against each other. But if someone were looking at a couple of different people that do similar things and comparing you, you know what their credentials were. If one’s an author and the other one’s not, it definitely shifts how they look at you. And for those of you who are looking at becoming speakers as well, it’s definitely a huge thing that the people that are looking for speakers also look for. Do you have a book? Do you have something that you’re promoting? Something that the members of that group can then also go and follow you in another place. But those are a few of the main things that really working on being a speaker, sharing your story as a role model and expanding your community with all of those other communities.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, it’s so funny that you, that you mentioned that as I attended a networking meeting today, it’s actually my group that I host, the Soulful Women’s Network, and someone brought up the fact that someone they knew was offering a webinar about how to write a book or how to get into a book. Because if you want to be a podcast guest, for instance, that being an author is a great way to do it because again, as you just said, it lends that credibility. And I know I always enjoy talking with authors as well. And in fact, I’m, I’m devouring a book right now of a future podcast guest. Watch out for. I just, I’m going to be leaving him an amazing review on Amazon because it’s just. I’m so, so impressed. I was impressed during our interview, but now that I’ve read the book, even more. I kind of wish I read the book first, but. But it’s all, but it’s all good, you know, and. Because it’s, but it’s great. So, yeah, that is a huge benefit of it. You know, one thing, and I, and I know this, I think sometimes, you know, we’ve got, you know, if you’re a creative person. If you’re a spiritual entrepreneur, you, you may think you’ve got like a whole lot of messages that you want to share and how. What’s your advice on helping someone to maybe find that one compelling story or teaching or something that they should focus on first?
Cathy Derksen
Well, I like to kind of take people back to what they’re doing as an entrepreneur because I would say the vast majority of entrepreneurs are doing what they’re passionate about and there’s a story behind why they’re doing what they’re doing. And to me that’s always a great place to start. And again, part of it depends on the theme of the book and what you’re focus is that you’re expected to write around. But one of the things that I always encourage my writers to think about is our chapters are a combination of your own journey, what you’ve learned along the way, what your process has been, and some tips or tools or strategies that you would want to share with the reader. And so looking at it from that point of view that when the person has finished reading your chapter now they know a bit about you, they understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. And by the end they’re thinking, I need to talk to her. And so it really becomes a powerful lead magnet in that way that you’re sharing your passion, focused on what it is, why you’re doing what you’re doing in a way that now that reader feels inspired to learn more about what you’re doing and hopefully that also feels inspired to sign up for your course or buy your next book or get involved in your community. So to me that’s a big part of it is just that, that taking someone from where your passion is, why you’re doing what you’re doing, and then have them think, I need to talk to her.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I think I remember hearing somebody one time talk about that how like a book is sort of your, your business card on steroids. I’m not sure they said that, but I kind of like that. So that’s what I’m going to call it, on steroids. Because now this is a way for, to, to demonstrate, as you just said, you know, what your expertise is, why you, why you do what you do. And I tell you they’re also great for, I know so many networking events are, are still online, but for the ones that are in person, they make great door prizes. If you go to a networking event and you can, you know, have a, have your own book to give away, I know I’ve done that many times. And, and again, you know, even though you’re giving it away as opposed to selling, it’s always nice to, to sell books, but if you can give it away and then again, that, that’s endearing yourself to someone, I think. What, what, what do you think about that?
Cathy Derksen
Oh, definitely. And actually, over the summer last year, I, I joined our local Chamber of Commerce. And a, A big part of that was because I lived my life on zoom. And I just realized I need to have some real people time too.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yes.
Cathy Derksen
But that’s what I’ve done. I’ve given the, the Chamber of Commerce organizers a few of my books and, you know, pretty much at every event, they’re giving them away. And kind of going back to that point too, around, should your focus be on selling the book or should your focus be on building the visibility and credibility of the activity around being an author? And I find that that’s one thing that, that trips up a lot of new authors, is that they feel like they have to be focusing all their time and energy on selling the book. So selling one at a time and all, they’ll go do events and they’ll travel all over the place pushing their book. But to me, that’s not the best use of having the book or of their time. And yes, we always do our Amazon launch campaign, we always hit our international number one. But once that’s done, we don’t really focus on the selling numbers. We actually give away the PDF copy of our books to all of the authors to then share in any way they want to so they can then give them away to their community. They can, you know, if they want to, they could even sell them on their websites and that sort of thing. But to me, it’s more about getting it out there, getting your story out there and using your energy on that side of getting your message out, amplifying what’s in the book that other people will want to know and not focusing on selling copy, copy, copy. The, the reality is very little money is made from the sale of books.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, absolutely.
Cathy Derksen
For, and especially these days when most copies are sold in Kindle, if you’re selling a Kindle for $1.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Cathy Derksen
You’re not making much per book. And even with the paperbacks, you know, if your book is being sold at 12 or $15, only a couple dollars are going back to the actual producer of that book.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Cathy Derksen
And that’s why with all of my books, what we do is we take all the Amazon proceeds and we donate it to a non profit. That makes sense because there just isn’t enough revenue made from selling the books to be starting to share it back among 20 people, especially around the world. Well, you’re now dealing with all kinds of other.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Cathy Derksen
Complications. So.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. You know, I’m curious about something else. Have you noticed a maybe a mindset shift in the women that you work for as they go from being this aspiring author to now becoming a published bestseller?
Cathy Derksen
Oh, definitely. And to me, that is one of the big focuses on why I’m doing this in the first place. Is part of my big focus really is around supporting midlife women to step into new opportunities and possibilities and to see that we are surrounded by opportunities and possibilities. As we mentioned earlier, so many people have it on their bucket list. I think they say 92% of people have it on their bucket list to be a published author, but only 3 to 5% ever do. And so what I see is that for the women who do get into these collaborative books, we get the book published, they hit their number one bestseller status and it just, it turns on a light bulb of, wow. I didn’t think I would ever accomplish that, but now I did, so now what else can I do? And one of the new things I’ve started adding to my projects too is we’re doing billboards in Times Square. So we’ll have the, the book and the images of the authors and, and that’s another one too. That, that’s another one of those check marks, those things that they thought would never happen in their lifetime. So now they’ve got the book, they’re a published author, they’re a bestseller. Check. Now you’re on a billboard. Wow, here I am. Check. You know, so it’s, to me, it, it just opens up a whole new thing about what’s next. What else can I do?
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah. And. Yeah. And you know, what’s, what’s possible for me. Right. You know, yeah.
Cathy Derksen
Possibility is huge.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah. What are some of the common mistakes that you see entrepreneurs make when trying to get published? And, and how can our listeners avoid them?
Cathy Derksen
I think one of the things I’ve seen, people still have the idea that it’s so much better to get picked up by one of the big publishing houses and they look at hybrid publishing as lesser, whereas I would get them to really review their facts and really get a better understanding of what they are stepping into. In most cases, if you get picked up by the big publishers, they now own your copy. So you no longer are the owner of what you’ve written. And another big part, people look at that check that advance that they’re hoping to get, whereas most of us, most people think of that as money they’ve just given you to go write your book. But really it is an advance against the sale of your book. So if they give you that money, then you release the book. If it doesn’t sell very well, you owe them that money back in most cases because it’s against the sale of the book. But one of the other big things that I’ve noticed that people think is around marketing the book. Most big publishers do not do significant marketing for you. One of their criteria of taking on an author is how big is your active community right now? Because they are using your community and marketing to get the book out there, not theirs. So think about that as well. It’s not about a big marketing campaign. Obviously, if you’re some of these big authors that they know are going to sell millions of copies, they are pumping those out. But for people who it’s your first book or you’re not very well known, it’s all around you and your community, not around the publisher and what they’re going to do for you.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, that’s for sure. Yeah. I learned that when I first started looking at doing my book. I had signed up for a writer’s boot camp with Hay House. And that was one of the things they emphasized was that, yeah, you need to be able to, you know, well, you have to create a whole. I forget what it is, but. But some sort of thing that goes in. In front of the book where, where you list out, like, you know, how many followers do you have on these different platforms? And what is your. I think in a way it’s like, what is your marketing plan for this book? Because, yeah, they’re not doing it unless you’re, you know, somebody like, you know, Mike Dooley who’s, you know, pumping out, you know, bestseller after bestseller. And so they can. They can give him that advance. They know they’re going to get it back.
Cathy Derksen
Or one of the other big ones, too. Is part of the contract in a lot of those groups is that you have to purchase X number of copies of your book.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Cathy Derksen
And in most cases, then the author ends up with their garage full of boxes of their books that they can’t get rid of.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Cathy Derksen
So that’s the other thing to look out for. Do not sign something that says that you now have to go buy a thousand copies of the book.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Cathy Derksen
Because now that advance they gave you has just been put into purchasing your own books that are now in your garage?
Gloria Grace Rand
Yes, absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Another question I want to ask you. And, and because, like I said, I’ve been involved in a couple different collaboratives. One it wasn’t. Didn’t turn out very good. There was a lot of people that were kind of grumbling about the person who was running it. And then the, the. Another one I did was, you know, it turned out fine. And I know, of course people are going to want to work with you naturally, but, you know, if for whatever reason they’re not going to. How can you go about vetting a collaborative publisher? I guess, you know, and. And to decide whether this is somebody that I want to work with.
Cathy Derksen
Well, I think part of it is, you know, looking at how often have they done this? Have they done this before? Is this a new thing? Part of it too. You can look at their system of publishing. So basically, with the publishing system, I have, I have one publishing group that I work with most of the time where a collaboration where I do the front end. I come up with my themes and titles and together my team of women, and then they take over with the actual publishing and marketing piece of it. And I would also ask, and I get this quite often people will ask to talk to other authors who have been in my books previously, so you can get some direct feedback from people that have been directly involved in those books and, and really getting a feel for the community as well. Like right now, we had a book that just launched on Friday, and if you go back into my social media, you’ll see a bonanza of activity. And so that’s really something I would look for because another publishing group that I’ve worked with before, they released the book, but there was like, nothing. It was like silence. And it’s. It’s like, this isn’t how it should be. And it’s funny that you’d mention that because that’s actually what sparked me getting into doing this as my business. As you mentioned, I’ve been in 18 books so far. I’ve worked with over a dozen different publishing groups with, you know, being involved in other people’s books where I was just one of the authors. And at one point, I was involved in two different books at the same time. One of them was kind of like the one you were describing. It was verging on nightmare. Yeah, sure. Is it going to get released? Is it not? Where did she go? You know, things like that. And at the same time, I was involved in another book where it was wonderful, the publishing group was active. They’re telling us what’s going on. They had everything organized for us. It was like they were building a community with us. And I was literally in this position with these two projects thinking this should be easy and fun. This should not be a nightmare. And it hit me, I thought, this is what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to create these opportunities for women to do this where it can be easy, it’s mainly done for you, it’s not a stressful thing. And I actually went to that publishing group that I loved working with and I said, hey, they’re the one. I propose this collaboration with them where I do the front end, they do all the publishing end, and we’ve been doing this now for three years. And I love it.
Gloria Grace Rand
I love that. That is so cool. And that’s interesting too, because I just recorded an episode recent recently where I talked about the power of collaboration and how, and how sometimes it does start out like that. It’s where you’re. Where you’re doing business with somebody, you know, or maybe you’ve partnered with them for something or other. And then, you know, and then later you decide, you know, maybe, maybe we need to actually team up.
Cathy Derksen
So, I mean, we work well, together.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, absolutely. Now, I know the other thing that sometimes trips people up and I know sometimes it’s tripped me up in the past as well, is the cost to participate. So. Because sometimes some of them can be quite pricey and I think depending on who’s running it, sometimes I think I’ve seen, because I’ve seen like some bigger name people, you know, offer this collaborative opportunity and they want a lot of money to participate. So how would you advise someone again on, you know, trying to, you know, I guess, you know, figure out what would be, you know, the ROI and how much should I really invest. What do you, what do you have to say about that?
Cathy Derksen
And there, I mean, there is definitely something to be said for a book where there is some big name person, like say if Jack Canfield’s name is actually attached to the book, obviously you’re going to get a lot more visibility in that community. With the last book that I just did that I mentioned, it was with the leadership global community that is a very active group of women in that community. So it was almost a given that all the women in that book now are, you know, riding that wave of that whole community. So there’s definitely something to be said for ones that do have, I guess, you’d call them a ringer that’s, you know, really kind of add that value. But in a lot of cases, I’d be really careful about what you’re paying for. I always do my best to keep my investments as low as possible, to keep it accessible to women in all sorts of different situations in their life. And so with mine, I’ve around 2,000, under 2,000. And that includes everything from coaching with your chapter right through to all of the professional editing, publishing, formatting, all of the Amazon work, all the marketing materials. So we do all of that and keep it around 2,000 or below. And so once that push up into 3,000, 5,000, 10,000, I would definitely be asking what exactly you’re getting from this. And they could be promising some bells and whistles, but look for the evidence of whether that has happened previously with other books that they’ve put out.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah, definitely. And, and I think it is important. I know because again, sometimes I, I think I’ve. Well, I’ve deal with some of my clients and not only in the present, but in the past have been, are spiritual entrepreneurs. And sometimes they’re, you know, they’re real healers and, and, and sometimes they’re struggling to be able to be profitable in their business. And and so I know that sometimes that price can seem like a lot when you do factor in all of the different things that go into marketing a book. It’s, it is, it’s, it’s time consuming and there is a lot to go in it. So, so you really are getting your money’s worth and you need to think of it as a marketing tool. And so it’s a marketing expense. So, you know, factor into your marketing.
Cathy Derksen
Budget and consider that it could be tax deductible as a marketing expense.
Gloria Grace Rand
That’s right. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I appreciate you mentioning that. That’s really a good point that we sometimes, sometimes don’t think about always. But yeah, I love that. So I’m gonna just switch gears on you, just a quick second here and ask you, ask you something else because I like asking my guests these questions. So what are you curious about right now?
Cathy Derksen
See, what am I curious about? I would say what I’ve become curious about lately has been travel. And I’ve actually started adding retreats, more retreats into what I do. So what’s kind of my curiosity lately has been where do I actually want to go? Let’s make a retreat and go there. And so that’s kind of what I’ve been curious about lately. I’ve Been listening to a lot of people that are traveling places and talking about different locations and thinking, oh, that sounds nice. We could go there too.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah. So would this be a writer’s retreat then? Or would it be a. I’m actually playing. I need a break. I need a break from writing. I need a self care retreat and then I can go back and finish my chapter.
Cathy Derksen
But yeah, so they’ll actually be kind of a combination. So like I mentioned with one of my books, we did a billboard in Times Square last month and so we did a little mini retreat around that. And that’s definitely something we’ll be doing more of. And so we’ll be doing the billboard retreats. And the other one is I’m looking at doing some writing retreats as well with those. I’m playing around with the idea of would I only. Would I want everyone to be contributing to one of my books? So we’re coming together just to write that book.
Gloria Grace Rand
Right.
Cathy Derksen
Or would I have it that people can come together working on all kinds of different things that they’re writing, but coming together to support each other in our writing and learning about writing. So I’m kind of playing with those two models. Okay. And then the other side. Yes. I’m thinking of doing some retreats that are just for fun and getting together. And I mean, I always like to throw kind of that mastermind collaboration piece together where, you know, obviously you want the women in the group to get to know each other to you really make real connection with each other.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Cathy Derksen
But so I’ve. I put a stake in the ground that we’re going to New Zealand next year. That’s. That’s what I’m working on.
Gloria Grace Rand
Wow.
Cathy Derksen
2026.
Gloria Grace Rand
All right. Sounds good. My goodness. All right. And. And I like all of those ideas I think, I think would be really work. Well, I could see either one. You probably just have to, you know, talk to your community and find out what they want.
Cathy Derksen
Exactly.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah. Is there anything else that I should have asked you about this process of publishing that I didn’t or any other last words of wisdom you want to leave our audience today?
Cathy Derksen
Well, I would. One of the things I often get with women when they’re thinking about joining the books is they. They think that their story’s not significant enough or important enough or different enough. And I just want to remind everyone that we all have a story that could help somebody else getting through similar challenges or overcoming a similar obstacle in their life. So don’t let yourself play that game of playing small and Thinking small and letting especially imposter syndrome as well get in the way of you stepping forward, raising your voice, standing with that community, and really understanding the value of your story.
Gloria Grace Rand
Agree 100 percent. Because it is so gratifying when someone does say, ah, I, I really, I really got what you had to say because I, you know, I’ve gone through something similar and I’ve had, you know, several people have, you know, told me that when they read my book. And it’s, it, it’s, it’s nice to know that, well, here’s the thing, too, is that we all think we’re, you know, we are all unique. And I do teach that, you know, to value your uniqueness. And at the same times, we’re also a lot similar, a lot more similar than we think. And we, we all have certain types of trauma that we go through and, and, you know, and they look different with, with everybody. But your reactions to it, I think, are. There can be a lot of similarities there. And people could say, oh, yeah, I felt that way too when this happened to me. It wasn’t the exact same thing, but I get it.
Cathy Derksen
Exactly. Exactly. And even one of the examples, too, that really touched my heart. Like I said, my first book was called Embrace Courage, and that was two years ago now that we released that one. And I got a message from one of the women that was in that book, and her friend had sent her a clip on social media. This friend was going through chemotherapy and had chosen that book to help her through it. And so the image she sent was her in the chemo chair with that book on her lap and saying how this has got her through this. And, you know, it. Even just talking about it, it, you know, makes me cry.
Gloria Grace Rand
I know. I’m, I’m, like, tearing up as well because, because I, I’m picturing my sister in the chemo chair and it’s like.
Cathy Derksen
Exactly.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah.
Cathy Derksen
I mean, our stories, like you said, whether it’s an exact story or a common thread or just, just that, that inspiration that you get from hearing about somebody else taking on a big challenge or overcoming a big obstacle, like, even if there’s nothing else in common, I think we just, we find that inspiration and that motivation from stories.
Gloria Grace Rand
Yeah. Oh, wonderful. I’m so glad I had you on today. I knew this was going to be. Be good because we, you know, we, we chatted a little while ago and I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes. You got to come on the show. So if someone does want to connect with you and maybe find out, you know when. When you’re launching your next book and maybe they want to get involved, what’s the best place for people to. To learn more about you?
Cathy Derksen
Yeah, so my website is inspired tenacity.com and as far as social media goes, LinkedIn is where I am most active. I’m in a couple other places, but I don’t spend much time there. So LinkedIn is definitely the best place to connect with me. And. And yes, and I always have more books coming along, so as some roll off and get published and other ones get started and. And I’m also developing new ideas all the time. So if you’ve got a specific theme that you think we should do a collaborative book on, then definitely let me know because we could develop that idea.
Gloria Grace Rand
I like that. All right. All right. Well, you heard it here, folks. If you’ve got an idea and definitely consider doing a collaborative book, especially, I think also what’s great about it, which we didn’t mention, but I think it does. Even if you do have that desire to write your own book, once you start writing chapters for these collaborative books, I think that also helps you to then give you that confidence of going, well, you know, maybe I could actually write my own book, because that’s what happened with me. I. I definitely was in collaborative books first before I tackled my own, so.
Cathy Derksen
Exactly, too.
Gloria Grace Rand
All right, well, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate you spending some time and. And I know that our audience really receive some value from it today.
Cathy Derksen
Well, thank you very much for having me. We’ll have to do it again sometime.
Gloria Grace Rand
Absolutely. And I do want to thank you for watching and for listening today. And I hope that you will, you know, start taking action, jot down some ideas about what you want to. What do you want to. What’s your story about? Yeah, that’s what I want to say. And make sure that you are subscribed to the podcast, if you aren’t already. We’re on all the major platforms and you can subscribe on YouTube as well. And until next time, I always encourage you to go out and live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically.
