The blog post I’ve been waiting five years to write
The story I’m about to share with you is one I’ve been waiting and waiting (and waiting) to tell you.
It’s a story that could have ended in utter defeat—and it almost did, more than once. Instead, it lead me here: To writing a post where I get to tell you about how I achieved a goal beyond my wildest dreams.
Near the end of this post, I have a really special announcement that has been the hardest secret to keep from you, and today is the day I get to share it.
Promise me you won’t skip ahead?
I’m assuming that’s a “yes.” So, let’s go back to the beginning. . .
It was August 31st, 2021. I sat with my laptop on my porch in Michigan, wearing a pink ruffled blouse on an absolutely gorgeous summer day.
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I was getting ready to have the first meeting with my team about my second book, and I felt on top of the world. Ever since my first book, Permission to Screw Up, came out in October 2017, I’d been itching to write another one. I was beyond excited to get to work.
As I soaked up the Michigan sunshine, my team and I explored my ideas and began to discuss the best approach for a proposal that would secure us a publishing deal for Book #2.
This time around, I was determined to make the book-writing process smoother, easier, and most importantly, fun. When I started working on my first book, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted it to be about, and that made the process more stressful and challenging than it needed to be. I worked with a writing coach who saved me in the end, and her wise words still live in me today. She told me, “Clear writing is clear thinking, and clear thinking is clear writing.” I knew I had to get crystal-clear on what I wanted Book #2 to be about so that I could actually enjoy putting my ideas to paper.
After that first meeting, I spent the next few months dreaming, brainstorming, and clarifying my vision. My team and I met regularly to refine my message, and eventually, we created a book proposal we were proud of.
I thought the next part would be a walk in the park.
My agent sent the proposal to two publishers, one of which published my first book. I expected I’d be offered a contract within days, if not hours, and I remember walking to a sushi restaurant to meet my husband, Spiros, to preemptively celebrate my book deal. I thought I had good reason to be confident: I already had one book under my belt with proven success. To date, Permission to Screw Up has sold nearly 60,000 copies worldwide. It earned back the advance I was paid to write it and then some, which is one of the things publishers look for when deciding whether to make an offer. Why wouldn’t I get a book deal?
Soon after my sushi dinner, though, my agent emailed me with the news that the first publisher had passed on the book. Okay, ouch, I thought. Not what I was hoping for. Still, I was certain the second one would take it.
A few days later, my phone rang as I was sitting on a plane, waiting for takeoff. I saw my agent’s name and braced myself. This is it! It’s happening! I thought as I accepted the call. Instead, he told me he had bad news: The second publisher had also decided to pass.
As the plane took off, I stared out the window with my phone in my lap, feeling absolutely crushed.
I knew I could have sent the proposal to other publishers, but my agent encouraged me to take a beat. I wanted to take a pause, too. I thought that maybe I was missing something. My agent gave me valuable feedback about how I could make the proposal more compelling, and my team and I spent another several months reworking it.
By the time we were ready to send out the proposal again, we had strengthened my ideas, and I was certain, once again, that we had a contract in the bag.
This time, we sent it to more than two publishers. But once again, every single one of them passed.
That was the round that did me in.
With the second proposal, I’d put together something that I thought was so clear, so intentional, and something I was so excited about, and yet, it still didn’t resonate. What did that say about me as an author?
Rather than go back to the drawing board, I retreated from the world. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t open that Word doc again.
I wasn’t just defeated . . . I was embarrassed. I’d written post after post after post here on this very blog about how my second book was in the works, and I still had nothing to show for it. I felt like I’d let myself and my team down. I felt like I’d let you down.
When I’d run into someone and they’d ask me for an update on the second book, I’d get knots in my stomach. I didn’t know what to tell them. I wanted to say, Why is this so hard? I’m already an author. Am I just a one-book kind of girl? A flash in the publishing frying pan?
I felt like a failure—and this is coming from the person who’d literally written the book on embracing setbacks and finding the courage to get back up again. But I couldn’t get back up. For more than a year, my Word doc collected dust.
But then, one day, I opened my inbox to find an email from a senior editor at a major publishing house. He said his name was Brian and that he knew I’d written Permission to Screw Up. He was reaching out because he was curious about whether I’d thought about writing another book.
When he sent his message, Brian had no idea that I’d been trying to bring another book into the world. It felt too serendipitous to ignore. His email gave me a spark of hope, and next thing I knew, we were on a call.
A few days after we hung up, I reopened my Word doc.
It was a rainy night in Houston, and instead of joining Spiros and our friends for a night out, I stayed in my office with my music blasting. I scrolled to a blank page in the doc and asked myself what was on my heart. What was the message that I really wanted to share with the world? Not the one I thought would resonate with a publisher; the one that I was most excited about.
I thought about everything I’d learned since my first book came out. Slowly but surely, the words started to come. I tapped out the ones that felt truest to me—even the words that felt scary to write. Thinking about someone else reading them sent a shiver down my spine. But still, I kept typing.
By 2 o'clock the next morning, a new, ten-page proposal was staring back at me from the screen. And then, I felt it: The cloud that had hung low over my head for more than a year suddenly lifted. I was back.
On Monday morning, I shared the proposal with my team. They loved it, and so did my agent. He agreed to send it out again, and within days, I had interest from several publishers, including Brian. Brian loved the concept so much that he quickly made me an offer.
I was sitting in the lobby of a doctor’s office when Brian called me. I tried to contain my excitement, but in my head, I was jumping up and down and screaming, I have a book deal! I finally have a book deal!
He gave me time to think about it—and what I did next surprised even me at first. You’d think that after so many attempts, I would’ve instantly accepted his offer and called it a day. But in writing my new proposal, I’d stumbled upon a new inner voice, one that felt deeper and truer to me than any voice I’d written in before. Expressing myself like that had lit a fire in me. I felt like I was on the edge of something greater, and I wanted to get even clearer on my ideas and create an even more generous book.
So instead of shouting “YES!”, I told Brian I couldn’t accept just yet. I told him I wanted to keep working on my proposal and that I’d send him the updated one when I was done to see if he was still interested.
That next step took me five months. In that time, I took my second proposal from 10 pages to 116, and I loved typing every single sentence. It was a complete 180 from where I was when I was stuck in utter defeat. I was back on top of the world, even though I didn’t technically have a book deal yet.
By the time my third proposal was ready to send, I knew it represented the book I was meant to write. There was no question. The words on the pages were me in my truest form, and I’d left nothing on the table. I’d shared it all.
I also knew that this would be my final time sending a proposal to publishers. I’d already decided that if no one made me an offer, I would self-publish.
But I did get an offer. Guess who made it?
Of course it was Brian. Again. And in July of 2025, I officially signed a contract with him and the incredible team at Wiley to bring my second book into the world.
And today, with tears in my eyes as I write this, I get to share the news that I always hoped I’d get to tell you one day . . . my second book is DONE! Human Leadership: The Courage to Face Ourselves and Each Other is coming out on OCTOBER 27th!
Human Leadership is the most vulnerable and important piece of work I’ve ever created.
I wrote it for anyone who has ever poured everything into others and woke up one day wondering where they went. I wrote it to remind us that the relationship we have with ourselves informs our relationships with others, and that the most human way to lead begins with refusing to abandon yourself.
I wrote it for you.
And it only felt right to share this news with you before I share it with the rest of the world. (It’s our little secret for now!) Thank you for supporting me, encouraging me, and giving me a reason to show up here and write every week. This blog and your response to it are a huge part of why I never gave up on myself.
If you’re as excited about Book #2 as I am, would you support me by pre-ordering your copy today? (Pre-orders are hugely helpful for authors.) You can also learn more about the book here and pre-order from other retailers on our site. (PS: If you do pre-order a book, save your order number because my team and I have some surprises coming soon!)
Your support means the world to me and my team. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
I’m thrilled to share this news with you, but there’s another reason I wanted to share the story of Book #2: I want to remind you of the power that YOU have within you.
I once saw a post on Instagram that stopped me in my tracks. It read, “We think that the opposite of depression is joy, but it’s not. It’s self-expression.” I think that sums up this whole story because that’s what I did: I went from retreating from the world to expressing myself again, and that’s what got me from sad and depressed to bopping my head to the music and smiling again.
When something you really care about doesn’t go your way and you feel knocked down, I hope you remember my story and promise yourself that you’ll keep going. Instead of closing yourself off and stewing in feelings of defeat, express yourself. Share what’s in your heart. Follow where it leads you. Bit by bit, you’ll feel the dark clouds lift. You’ll find yourself working on your dream at 2 o’clock in the morning because that’s where you want to be. And whatever you do, don’t do it for anyone else. Do it for you.
The next time you see a book on a shelf, a painting on a wall, or a booming company and find yourself feeling like you don’t measure up, remember that what you can’t see is what it took to get there. You see the shiny cover and polished words, but not the rejected drafts and countless rounds of revisions. You see the success, but not the struggle. A finished product is not the whole story—which is why I want to share the whole story here, with you.
Between now and October 27th, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of bringing this book to life. I’m going to peel back the curtain and tell you everything. Bringing this book into the world has cracked me wide open and taught me more about leadership than I’ve learned in a decade. And today’s post is just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ve been waiting so long to share all of this with you. And now the moment is here!
YAY! YAY! YAY!
Big hugs,
