Our Book Launch

trigger warning, the Resilience Project provides an open space for people to share their personal experiences. Some content in this podcast may include topics that you may find difficult, the listeners discretion is advised.

Hello friends, welcome to radical resilience, a weekly show where I Blair Kaplan Venables have inspirational conversations with people who have survived life's most challenging times. We all have the ability to be resilient and bounce forward from a difficult experience. And these conversations prove just that, get ready to dive into these life changing moments while strengthening your resilience muscle and getting raw and real. Here we are. Welcome back to another episode of radical resilience. I'm your host, Blair Kaplan Venables, and I am here today to share some awesome news. And if you hear banging, a little bit of banging in the background, it's because my husband is doing renovations. And you know what, that's what I love about these podcasts. I'm not in a fancy studio, maybe one day, I'm at home in my home office, and my husband is here. We're both currently working from home. He's I'm working from home, he's working on home. But basically, I have been on the biggest journey. I mean, like, I've been almost on a 37 year journey. But at the end of 2018, when I learned that my father was terminally ill, the global Resilience Project was born. So

I learned he was terminally ill, I felt very lost very ungrounded not sure what to do. And then I started sharing my story, our story of forgiveness, acceptance, resilience, forgiveness. And what was happening was that story was helping inspire others, I would go for coffee with a friend, they would hear my story and then let me know they felt inspired and got a therapist, where they felt inspired to fix things with one of their parents, or that they work with children because they're a social worker. And they took something I said, and, you know, share that message, things I wish I would have known as a kid. And what I realized was that our story was helping people. And so I said to my dad, and at this time, we thought he had about a year and a half to two years left to live, dad, like, why don't we publish a book, let's gather stories of resilience from around the world. And let's bookend it with your story and my story. And let's create a resource to help people move through their problems. And you know, loosely when I say we, it's me, I was like, let's do it. But he was just like, Yeah, okay, that's cool. And so it began, how am I going to gather stories? Well, I'm a social media expert. So I was like, well, we need social media. So I built out the social media, I built out a Twitter, a Facebook and Instagram. I built out a website, because how are people going to give us their stories? I'm going to build a website with what the details of the project are, I'm going to collect, you know, stories via the website via a Google Form super simple, nothing super sophisticated. And so I built it. And what was really cool is that, like, there was no actual plan like this is full passion project. Now you see from when I started this project, I thought, okay, no big deal. I'll start gathering stories, the book will be out within a year. And did that happen? No, my friends. No, because this was the end of 2018. So you can imagine what I've been through. So I start writing this now what I've learned over the years is one I'm resilient as fuck. My hammering is so loud, I'm so distracted, so that I'm resilient. Like, I know, I'm resilient, I learned that you can get through the hard stuff like you will, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it's a bit further, but sometimes you get there faster with the right support. And I also learned about all these different ways to strengthen my resilience, muscle to be more resilient to get through things. I also learned about how powerful manifestation is I am a manifester Holy smokes. And so it started off as the I am resilient project. And then I my life got very, very chaotic. And recently, we changed the name to the global Resilience Project. Because I didn't want to attract any more resilience are as situations where I had to be resilient or flex my resilience muscle into my life. And my husband Shane, who doesn't really you know, not so much believing in the same things as I do when it comes to the metaphysical space spiritual space. He even said Blair, you're attracting all this stuff in like, You got to end this project. And you know what, I almost ended this project a few times. Because after I started it, I learnt not not only was I navigating my father's end of life, but I chose to be sober. I lost my grandfather on my house. Ben's birthday on the way home from his funeral. We got in a car accident and I got a brain injury. A few months later, my husband Shane had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery. I'm trying to get him on the podcast to talk about it. But we'll see it's a work in progress. You know, a year later, we had a miscarriage. Three weeks later, his father died after a very short battle with cancer. Three months later, my mother died after a very short battle of cancer. And not even a year later, my dad died for a very long three and a half year battle with COPD, lung cancer addiction. So trying to write a book about resilience. Well, having to really be resilient was challenging. Did I get the book out in a year? No.

But the time has come. And also at the beginning of my book writing journey, what was really cool is that I was like, Okay, we're gonna write a book. But I have no idea how to write a book, I have no idea how to self publish a book. And I was drawn to a workshop and I took this workshop. And I was like, I want 365 stories in this book, and it's gonna be hardcover and coffee table style. And, you know, Mike script, Nick, who did this workshop was like, That is a big book. That's a lot of work. That's a lot of stories, you're gonna have to manage all the people. And I was like, You're right. I was like, Hey, maybe I want 52. I was like, What a story per week. And guess what, we have more stories in that online and being submitted, but we are a round 52 story. So we're close to that goal. But also, I realized, you know, what, why don't I write a practice book, to learn how to write a book and self publish while writing a book. Now that seems a little like cuckoo cuckoo. Like, yeah, I wrote a book to learn how to write a book. But I had all these ideas inside me. And I knew a lot about being an entrepreneur. So I wrote a book pulsing through my veins, raw and real stories from an entrepreneur as a practice book. And while going through all these losses, like while going through the loss of my grandfather having a concussion, Shane's heart attack, I wrote a book during all of that. And then when I launched it, it was COVID. I was so excited to do this big launch party and celebrate the fact that I wrote a book because it's a huge deal. Like, it's a lot of work. But it was COVID. And I couldn't, so I persevered, I, you know, made a little fun marketing video, I got some press, which was super cool, became a best selling author, was able to coach a few other entrepreneurs in the process of how to write a book and share my coach with them. And all this time, me and I brought my sister who was a therapist into the project, the global Resilience Project, we've been gathering stories, we've been writing content, we've been curating the tools needed to be resilient and to help you navigate those hard times. And so and we've had a couple other bumps in the road that I think are maybe stories for later times, but you know, supply chain issues, people issues, personal issues, you know, the members of our team, delays, life grief, like writing a book well, grieving is hard, and like well grieving, three parents and a baby while writing a book about resilience and like managing a business, not the easiest thing to do. But I did it. And I really understand all small actions, move the needle, every little micro step, you know, adds up to a macro step and gets you towards your goal. And so the current plan is by the time you're listening to this, this episode is coming out on June 3. Oh, no, I lied. This episode is actually out at the end of May. So

next week, mark your calendars June 3. In fact, you know, go to I am resilient dot info and subscribe to our mailing list so we can keep you in the loop. You can follow me Blair Kaplan Venables? absolutely everywhere you can sign up for our social media, all the links are on the website, I am resilient dot info. But the plan now is on June 3, our ebook is finally going live on Amazon. So exciting. So the goal is for all of us to purchase a copy of the ebook, I'm going to heavily discount it for a few days, but I'd like everyone to purchase it on the third. So we can try and be a best seller. And not just that. But when we're best seller, the algorithm on Instagram on Amazon shows our book to more people. So let's get our message out there. So if you're listening to this, and it's before June 3, please join us June 3, probably in the afternoon. Sometime. I'm just solidifying those details. But I'm too excited to wait. And this podcast only comes out once a week and I have amazing guests lined up for the next couple of episodes. So we're going to launch the ebook. And then about a couple of weeks after the ebook launches, we'll make some tweaks, modifications hopefully add to the cover. We're a best seller, because that would be so awesome. And then we're going to launch a printed version. So the printed version is really beautiful. There's resources in there to help you navigate difficult times. There's stories of resilience from around the world. And it's a really beautiful piece. There's a quote in there from my late father in law there's a story from my mother in law There's my father's story, my story, a beautiful write up about my mother. So this just is a legacy piece about me and my dad. But this is a really beautiful book, to honor the parents that helped shape who I am and really drove the purpose of this project. So, you know, if you set a goal, and you don't accomplish the goal in the time that you want, or it doesn't look like the end result doesn't look like what you originally anticipated. That's okay. Like Life is full of challenges, you know, wars and COVID and family things and life and health. And, you know, it's been quite a few years. But we can do it, we can do hard things. We are meant to be resilient, we all have the ability to be resilient. So the book is called the Global Resilience Project. Again, I invite you to subscribe to our email list. I'm resilient dot info, or follow me. I'm Blair Kaplan Venables. There's links in the show notes, but help us become a best seller. Just remember, you are resilient. And if you love what we're doing, and you want to potentially be in another and one of these books, if we get enough submissions, we're gonna put another book out and it won't be in three years it'll be a lot sooner now that we have systems in place. Or we'll just tell your story online. Or maybe you know someone who could really use this resource you want to use it as a gift coffee tables. You know, in waiting rooms at doctors offices. This book is so beautiful. So thank you for tuning in to another episode. I'm Blair Kaplan Venables and remember you are resilient you got this.