Insights from a Book Coach with Kylie Zeal

July 25, 2022

I've been busy the past twelve months writing THRIVE BY DESIGN, and not long after the manuscript was finished, a contact of mine introduced me to an amazing book coach! (just a little late!) But even though she normally helps move people from idea to finished manuscript, as a twice published author, she's still been super helpful. An abundance of knowledge and insight, I thought I'd love to introduce you to her in case YOU are getting ready to write YOUR BOOK!

Meet Kylie Zeal.

Kylie was attracted to positive psychology, which then led her to coaching, which she's been doing for fourteen years now. She has done executive coaching and health coaching in the past but decided to focus on book coaching after publishing two books and realising her love of immersing in stories and words. She wants to help people create wonderful books to put out into the world.

In this interview, she shared about her journey in writing her own books, which hopefully can inspire you to write your own as well.

What are her favorite books and how did they impact her life
How did the experience of writing her first book go and how did it inform and improve her next books?
How different is writing fiction from non-fiction?
How does she define success as an author?
How does she define her client's success as a book coach?

As someone who is at the end of publishing a book, I really appreciate the nuggets of wisdom that she's been able to offer and I wish I knew some of those sooner. It was really great talking to Kylie. If you are thinking about writing a book, or that maybe you might have a book in you, I urge you to connect with Kylie. She's easy to talk to, generous with her time, honest, and candid and tells you exactly what you need to know. I highly recommend her ability to help you to sort through those big questions about whether you should go on and write your book.

To learn more about Kylie's Book Coaching:

Follow Kylie Zeal on Facebook

Visit Kylie's website

I'm on the end of publishing my first book!

"Thrive By Design: A Blueprint for Abundant Living" will be out this September...

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Podcast highlights:

[02:35] At the start of her reading journey: Self-development books changed my life. They changed my way of thinking, they changed my perspective. It was quite amazing and profound to me that a book could change someone's life like that.

[03:26] Kylie's favorite self-development books:

The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth by M. Scott Peck M.D.

The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie

[08:40] The Seven Elements of Freedom book: It's about experiencing a life of freedom, which has a lot more to do with how you experience your internal world than the external world. In most cases, our internal world is what creates our external world. I've boiled it down to seven core elements that I think you need to develop and be strong to experience that internal and, therefore, external freedom.

[10:43] On writing her first book: It was a lot of trial and error with the first book. The book that I started writing was not the book that I finished writing. I started writing a different book just because I had the desire to write a book.

[12:14] What she learned in writing her first book: I always look back and say now that the money that I spent on the editing of that book wasn't just for editing, it was for learning how to write. I would send the content to the editor, they'd send it back to me. All their feedback was teaching me what I should've done differently and so I always valued that experience. When I wrote my second book, I wrote it better, to begin with. It cost me a lot less in editing. I learned to be a better writer in many ways.

[11:14] Just going through the experience where you force yourself to sit down and try writing is a wonderful learning experience.

[13:30] On finishing a book: It's an ongoing process of refining and editing before you land on what is the final result. One of the biggest, most wonderful lessons I learned is it's never really finished. Even now, I can look at Seven Freedom Elements and I can be simultaneously proud of it, (its content has stood the test of time and has a lot to teach) and simultaneously feel like it's not finished like there are so many things I could've done differently.

[14:35] On editing your book: A piece of advice from someone was to not try to be the writer and editor simultaneously. Switch that editor off in your head. This is good advice for anything you do. Switch your editor off, let yourself create, let yourself flow, let yourself get out there and then after that, you can come back and edit.

[19:55] Lessons from fictional stories: The best fiction of all has amazing lessons for us to learn even if it's just following along on the journey of the protagonist. It makes us think about our own lives, which may be similar or contrasted.

[24:37] Defining success as an author: I feel most successful when I receive messages from people that I've never met telling me that they've read my books and what kind of a difference it made to their life.

[27:22] Defining a client's success as a book coach: Success for a client is when they are in tune with and acting in their own voice. The role that I play as a coach is making sure that what they defined as success for them really is a success, not some externally motivated definition of success.