The life of every author is a roller coaster ride full of colorful ups and challenging downs. In this story table discussion, three authors share about their journey of writing, inspiring, and living. Hear the amazing stories of host Haseena Shaheed-Jackson, as well as fellow authors Jordan Richardson and Michelle Ann Collins, together with guest host John Blakley. They delve into the meaning of resilience, how to deal with the editing and publishing process, and what it takes to overcome life’s biggest obstacles. They also emphasize the importance of working with a book coach, the power of supportive communities, and embracing your authentic voice.
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Story Table: Insights And Reflections From Authors
Where Three Authors Meet
Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for joining us. My name is John Blakley. I’m going to be the host and moderator for this anticipated conversation. I’m on the call with Haseena Jackson.
Thank you so much for having me here.
Michelle Ann Collins.
Thank you. I am so happy to be here.
Jordan Richardson.
Thank you for having me.
All of whom are authors. For the next 45 minutes or so, we’re going to talk about everybody’s journey to becoming an author and their why. Most importantly, everybody on the call will share a few words as to what either their current or their past works are about. Without further ado, let’s get started. Let’s dive right in. My first question is going to go to Jordan.
Jordan Richardson: A Double Lung Transplant Survivor
After Jordan answers the question, please feel free whoever wants to jump in and also answer. Jordan, my question to you actually deals with resiliency. For all of us being human beings, it’s very common for us to have big dreams and high hopes for our future. The hardest part about that is taking our dreams and making them a reality. I understand that you are a first-time author. Congratulations.
Thank you.
That must have been an experience for you. Please talk about your resilient attitude in succeeding and making your dream a reality. How did that process look for you? How did that pan out for you?
Thank you so much for having me and for that question. For me, this was something that had God’s hand in it from the very beginning. That’s the only way that I can describe it. It started as me recording a couple of inspirational blogs that I would send to friends, not thinking anything would come of it. Throughout the years, people started liking them more and more. It became more than something I was just doing for fun or whatever. It became something I felt like God was calling me to do. A couple of years later, God put on my heart, “Why don’t you try to expand that? Why don’t you try to turn that into an actual devotional book?” I’ve seen Him open doors in ways I could never have imagined ever since then.
There have been struggles throughout, as there are in every author’s journey, every person’s journey. I’ve been blessed that God has allowed this to happen. He has made way for it to happen. I believe that this is a dream that He put in my heart. All of the thoughts and dreams that I had and that I tried to force fit, none of those worked out. All of those ended up going poorly or weren’t what God was leading me to. I feel like when it’s God’s timing, nothing can stop it. When it’s God’s will, nothing can stop it. I’m blessed to be a part of something that I feel like is God’s will. That’s how this journey has come to be. I’m excited that God has led me to this point where I get to share it with you guys and get to talk about how good He is and how He’s led me through this entire process.
Talk about that dream process, that calling process. Was this a one-time dream that you had, you woke up, and you instantly hit the ground running? Was this a recurring dream, a recurring vision, that you had to let marinate and sit on your soul for a little bit? How did you tackle this dream?
Originally, this was something that God laid on my heart one day. The very day that I decided, another path that I had been trying to force-fit for many years was not going to work anymore. I was dealing with that loss and that “What do I do now that this one road that I’ve been traveling on for so long isn’t working anymore? What am I supposed to do?” I remember saying, “God, if I choose to let go of this road that I’ve been working on, are You going to take care of me? Are You going to show me something else?” I felt like He was saying, “Yes, if you step out on faith and make that decision, then wait to see what I’m going to do.”
It was that day. It was right after I made that decision, “God, I’m letting go of that one path that I’ve been trying to make work.” He laid on my heart, “This is what I want you to do next. I want you to write this book.” I started with one or maybe two to see how it would work. The desire kept growing in me. This is something that God is calling me to do. That’s how the dream came about. Once more and more of them started happening, I started thinking, “This is working. I like doing this. I think this is what God is leading me toward.” That’s how I got the momentum to keep going with it. God led it every step of the way.
My last question, because I do want to get to the other guests. What gave you the confidence to step out on faith? I feel like a lot of us struggle with the fear of the unknown. We always want to be in control of our outcomes. That’s what holds us back from taking a step out on faith and actually doing something that we know in our heart of hearts that we should be doing, that we want to do. A lot of people don’t do that because they don’t know how to control their outcome. What gave you the confidence to step on faith and do something totally new to you, totally different, but you knew that you wanted to do it?
I’m not going to sit here and pretend for one second that I don’t struggle with the same thing. There were plenty of moments where I’m like, “What the heck am I doing? Is this going to work?” My whole life, honestly, I have struggled with fear of the unknown and fear of what’s going to happen next, whether it’s with this book or with every other area of my life. God calls us in the Bible well over 100 times to not be afraid. My favorite Bible verse is Joshua 1:9. It says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid.” Why? Because the Lord is with you wherever you go.
That always gives me confidence to say, “God doesn’t want me to be afraid, whatever I’m going through, because He’s right there with me and He has a plan for this.” There are so many times when I feel like I have hesitated to step out on faith. I understand completely what you’re saying. With this one, it felt so strongly like God was moving in me to do this. When God calls you to something, you say, “Yes, Lord. Here I am. Send me.”
Thank you, Jordan. Michelle, Haseena, whoever wants to take it.
Go ahead, Michelle.
Michelle Ann Collins: A Leading Voice In Grief Education
Thanks, Haseena. Back to the original question of, “Where did this inspiration for the book come from?” Is that where we want to go?
You can take it there. The original question was resiliency, being resilient in taking on this challenge. You are a seasoned author. You can talk about resiliency from the perspective of “keep writing books.” A lot of people are one-time authors, which is fine. To be an author in general is a big accomplishment. You can take resiliency any way that you want to take it.
Thanks for clarifying that. The bigger the challenge that we are called to face, the more resilience we are able to create in our lives. The one thing that I have learned over my time going through before I wrote a book and during the writing process, which for me has not stopped as I have two more in the works, has been seeking each challenge and seeing it as an opportunity. I want to be able to shift into that mindset all the time.
I can’t say that I’m there yet, even though I’ve had my share of challenges. Getting that message out is such a driver for me that everyone can be resilient. Everyone can rise to the occasion. Everyone can learn something. Every challenge is a growth opportunity. If we can change our mindset to that, then we’re going to suffer less. My goal is to help my audiences and students go through life with less suffering.
Everyone can be resilient and rise to the occasion. Turn every challenge into a growth opportunity. Share on XTo go back to what you said, every challenge is a learning opportunity. What was more challenging for you? Was it starting as a brand-new author or continuing to write a book? Was starting your second book more challenging than starting your first book? Was starting something in general more challenging to keep going?
I’m sure that most authors have a different story to answer that question because everyone comes from a unique place. I got the call. Jordan would say, “God put it on my heart.” I’m not quite as comfortable with that verbiage. Something from the universe, some higher power, my higher self, or whatever that is, came in a year after my husband died by suicide. I got a very clear message that almost sounded audible. It was almost like being spoken to, that I needed to write a book about my experience as a suicide widow, for others to gain strength and tools to get through that same challenge. That was in 2017. Unlike Jordan, I completely resisted the call.
I was like, “Heck no, I am going to write a book about suicide loss. That is the least palatable thing I can imagine doing.” Even though I was a writer, I had not written any books. Fast forward a year. I got asked to contribute a chapter to a book by a mentor of mine about how yoga has helped me succeed in life. The next year, I got invited to do another chapter in another book, and then the next year. I had three book anthologies out with 18 to 20 other people who were already out. I used those as excuses to put off the call that I got to write the book about spouse or partner suicide loss.
Once that procrastination was complete, it was banging down my door. There was no ignoring this higher power. I could not avoid it. One of my chapters in one of these books talks about that, which is funny. I got a book coach. I sat down, and I forced it. It was excruciating. Every single page, I’m crying into my keyboard. I realized at the same time that I need to do this because when my husband died, there was nothing like this. There was no map or guidebook on how to proceed every day with the rest of my life.
Finally, we’re talking about 2023, when the first of my solo books came out, the spouse or partner suicide loss survival guide. To finish answering the question, as soon as I finished that manuscript, long before it was published, but on the day that I turned it over to the publisher, that night, I went to bed. I’m like, “Time off.” No, I get the same voice coming in and saying, “You have to write a guide for the friends, family, and supporters of the victims of spouse or partner suicide left.” I’m like, “I couldn’t have had a day off. Seriously?”
In three days, I wrote the second book. It’s a companion book. It’s basically the same structure, but it’s the book I wish I had to hand to my friends who did not know what to say. Nobody knows the right thing to say in a situation like that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of wrong things said that actually hurt more than they help. That was the call for the second book. I decided instead of resisting for five years, I would get that done. Three days later, I had a run. It was rough, but I had the manuscript. That’s my book-writing story.
Would you say that writing your book was a form of therapy for you?
One hundred percent. If there was anything more than 100%, it would be that. I have a chapter or section in my book talking all about how therapeutic the writing of the story was. Most of the writing of my stories did not go into this book, to be honest, because the stories were very graphic. The more detail you get when you’re writing the story, the more healing you will do. In a book that’s supposed to support suicide loss survivors, we don’t want graphic details.
We don’t want to re-traumatize someone. I was very tender in the production of this book. In the writing of the stories, though, the more graphic, the more healing. It was incredibly therapeutic. When you have a trauma, your mind can’t make sense of what happened. To go through step by step, revisit the scene of his death, and revisit the precursor and the post-suicide time in my life allowed me to make sense of it and see it from a perspective outside the trauma. It was incredibly healing. I recommend anyone who’s gone through anything to write their story as a method of healing.
Just listening to your response, I feel as though this process was probably unique for you because you said that before you were an author, you were an avid journaler. Writing this book as a form of therapy was also a form of journaling. It was a two-in-one, which made the process easier because even though being an author might have been new to you or writing a book in that type of fashion, you were familiar with the process of journaling, the process of tapping into your emotions. That piece was good. It was just, “I’m going to cross this author threshold when I get there.” It is the professional side of being an author.
There’s a nuanced difference there. When I was writing my stories after Glen’s death, it was for others. I wasn’t writing it as a journal. I was writing it because I knew I wanted to help others. As I said, the stories ended up being therapy for me. Most of them were not going into the book in their original form. The motivation that I was writing, not just for my journal but for my own mental health, which journaling is good for your mental health, knowing that I was going to put this out there to help others, helped keep me going.
Haseena Shaheed-Jackson: Applying The Three B’s Philosophy
Thank you so much, Michelle. Haseena, how do you want to take resiliency or being resilient?
First of all, thank you, John, for moderating this session for Change Your View. It’s very interesting. I wanted to be more of a contributor versus being on the outside interviewing. When I think about resilience, the things that come to mind for me are how I define resilience. Resilience to me equals believe plus become. When you believe and become, then you can bounce forward.
A lot of times, people think resilience is bouncing back, but you have to bounce forward through the crisis and the challenge. That doesn’t mean that you’re going to bounce forward. I hear these words people say. It makes me cringe. “Going back to the person I used to be.” You’re never going to go back. What you’re going to do is go forward to become the person that you need to be. The crisis adds to your identity.
You can never go back in time. What you can do is to become the person you need to be. Share on XI wrote my books because of the challenges that I had. They helped me to develop that bounce-forward attitude. My first book was a devotional, like what Jordan has. My second one was, too. My third one, Created to Soar, talked about how you can soar above the challenges and crises in your life. My current one is Journey to Sight, which talks about not seeing in the natural, but seeing in the spirit. One of the things that came to mind for me, which was the basis of my book, was that as a kid, I kept hearing this message that said, “You are more. Believe and become.”
I would hit the mute button. That’s not talking to me. One day, someone walked into my life. They pressed the volume up, where it was blaring. “Believe and become.” I had no choice but to listen because it was a calling that I had, that I needed to do more. The heart of my book is about focusing on that volume and walking in your purpose, forcing you to believe and become. I always say belong because we have to surround ourselves with people who support us and embrace our vision. One is a smaller number, but together we can accomplish so much more. What I want us to understand is how we can move forward using those three B’s.
It’s a beautiful response.
Thank you.
I can tell myself. It’s a beautiful response. I do have a question. Talk about who you were before in whatever manner you choose to take that. How did being an author help you to become who you are now? Compare and contrast before being an author, that experience with writing, and how that helped you transition to who you are now. Compare who you are now to who you were.
I always liked to read as a kid. I always had my nose to a book. That’s how I lost myself. It was by taking a book, and I would read it in a day. The next day, I would have to go to the store and buy another book, or I would buy at least three or four books at a time. That was my way of escaping because I was putting myself in the position of my characters. As I progressed through life and went through challenges, I started reading the Word. I love what Michelle said, and Jordan as well. I start then journaling about the Word.
From there, I started sending messages out to other friends. They were like, “Who writes these?” I said, “I do.” It was my way of being a voice in someone else’s head to help them be inspired to become more than what they saw in front of the mirror. I went through challenges similar to Michelle’s. I was in a relationship that was mentally and physically abusive. I thought that by writing messages to my spouse at the time, I could help him, but I was helping myself. I then got a deeper relationship.
I went through a period where my brother committed suicide. I kept thinking, “What could I have done better?” I even wanted to kill myself because he was gone. He was my best friend. I found that writing is a way of releasing that pain because we can’t allow our pain and suffering to define us. Instead, we need to embrace it, and it becomes part of us. You have to release it so that you can move forward to realize the person that you can be.
You can’t allow those challenges in your life to hold you back. Instead, we have to use it as a way to become part of our identity. We embrace it. I was somewhere with Joyce Meyer at a conference. Joyce has been through a lot in her life. She says, “I don’t regret one thing in my life because all the things that I went through helped me become the person that I am today.” That’s where we need to all get to that point in our lives, not looking back, having regrets, and wishing those things didn’t happen.
I’m not saying that your husband’s death or my brother’s death was, but it’s part of the plan that we can’t control. That’s what we need to understand. It helps us become the person that we are today. I have no regrets either. I want to continue moving ahead in my life, being an inspiration to help others embrace their challenges, but see with a different sight, not with their physical, but more with their spiritual sight.
Before you were an author, were you a mentor?
I worked in corporate and civil service for over 30 years. I always mentored my co-workers and people on my team. They would always come to me and ask me questions, “Haseena, what do you think about this?” I don’t tell people what to do. What I do is I ask questions because I want them to think about what it is that they want to do. If you tell someone, then they’ll come back and say to you, “You told me to do this.” No, I want you to have ownership of your own decisions. I’ve always been one who was coaching on the sidelines because I want everybody to be their best self. I am your biggest cheerleader. I’m your biggest fan. That has always been my mantra. It is how I can help you be your best self.
In this world, you have coaches like yourself, and then you have people who need to be coached. I guess you can put your co-workers and colleagues in that bucket or basket. What made you gravitate to being a coach?
I’ve always been excited when I see people get to the point where they want to go. They have this vision, and they don’t believe that that vision can become a reality. I get so rewarded when I see someone get to the point where they never thought they could achieve. I had someone who was on my team once. To give an analogy, let’s say she was waiting tables. She moved up to become the manager of the entire staff, all because I helped her to see.
I prodded her along. I was the one who kept saying, “You can do this. Apply for this position. What do you see for yourself?” That was to help them realize that there’s more because, as I said before, I always heard that message that I kept muting, “You can be more. You can be more. Become. You can be more. Become and believe.” I’ve hit the mute button, but I didn’t hit the mute button once I met my mentor, because then I went to college.
I write about that in my book. In my household, college was not something that we spoke about, but it was because of her that I went to college. I wanted other people to know that you don’t have to hit that mute button. Let that song sing as loud as you want it to sing because you are the only person who stops you from reaching the heights that you want to soar to.
You do not have to hit that mute button. Sing as loud as you want to sing. You are the only person who can stop yourself from reaching the heights you want to get. Share on XOvercoming Challenges As A First-Time Author
Thank you, Haseena. I want to make sure that we have enough time for another round of questions before we do our outros. Thank you so much for your response. Jordan, I want to talk to you, or everybody eventually, about the challenges. You alluded to this in your first response, but if you can go into a little bit more detail, especially being a new author yourself. What were some of the challenges that you experienced? Was it writer’s block? Were there challenges with the publishing company? However you want to take it, what were the challenges, and how did you overcome them to be an author?
For me personally, there was not much writer’s block. I was honestly surprised myself that there wasn’t as much of that as I expected. It felt simpler to me to take one devotional at a time. That’s what this is. My book is a weekly devotional book. I tried to break it down to write one devotional at a time. I felt like God was moving, as I already said. As I was writing, God was moving. God was doing all of the work on this. He was just using me to do it.
I would say as far as challenges, there were times when I stepped back and I thought, “I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know if I’m going to finish this.” Say I do finish it. What then? What are the next steps then? I have to give a huge shout-out to my amazing family. My parents have been so supportive. Every time I thought, “This is not worth continuing,” my parents would read over it. They would encourage me. They would say, “No, keep going. There’s something here. This is good.” I would say encouragement from family and friends helped me keep going.
Having that passion and that deep belief that this is where God wants me to be and this is what God wants me to do helped me to keep pressing forward. A challenge that I didn’t expect was that once I had the book finished, we had to work on editing and publishing. There was a phase when I got probably the most discouraged in my writing journey after the book was done, because I thought I’d finished all the work. I didn’t realize that there was more work to be done. A couple of things I tried fell through on that end as well, but the Lord was faithful. In His time, He opened up doors. He provided ways for me to get all of those things that I needed.
I’m super grateful for the people He connected me with and the way that it turned out. Those are some of the challenges. To any author out there, I would say keep going. If this is something you believe in, and if this is something you feel like, “God is calling me to do this. This is where I’m meant to be,” keep going. Believe that in God’s timing, in God’s way, it’s going to work out if it’s in His will. Keep going and embrace the journey because even the discouraging and frustrating parts are still a beautiful journey that God is taking you on.
Thank you for your response, Jordan. I want to ask. Do you have any writers in your circle, or were you the first author or aspiring author at the time within your personal circle? As far as the encouragement that you received, did you receive encouragement from authors or people who have written books in the past, or supportive family and supportive friends?
Both. My grandmother herself published a few amazing books on my family’s life. I have a couple of friends who are published authors who have been incredibly encouraging and helpful. Neither of my parents was an author. They’re both more math and logic-minded than I am. Math does not work for me. They were very encouraging as far as they believed in me and in this vision that I had that they couldn’t even see, but they still believed in. They kept pushing me forward and encouraging me along the way. I had it from both ends. I was so blessed by the encouragement I received that helped me keep going.
You made it very clear that the process after you finished writing was, in its own right, challenging. Did you believe that the editing process was taking your voice away because you wrote it how it was presented in your heart or presented in your brain? That was the raw version of your feelings and how you wanted to get your message across. The editing part came. Do you think that you lost a little bit of your voice, or did it amplify your voice?
I don’t believe I lost my voice at all in the editing. That was super important to me as I worked with my editor, who was amazing and very kind, to say she wanted to make sure that that did not happen. It was important to me that I kept my voice, that I shared my story, that I kept the focus on God the whole time, and that all the key things that I wanted to come out in this book. It was important to me that nothing took that away. Nothing made it feel like it was muted, taken down a notch, or anything like that. I feel like we kept that voice, which was important to me. I feel like this entire book has that voice that I was looking for in it still.
Thank you. Michelle?
Seeking Guidance From A Professional Book Coach
For me, what kept me going was my book coach. I met her before any of my books were out. In one of the anthologies, she’s the connector, the person who got the anthology together. She runs a publishing company called Saved By Story, which is lovely. It’s all about how telling your story can save you or heal you. That community is what kept me going, and my family and friends. I didn’t have any authors. My parents were authors, but my mom has passed. My dad would give me a few pointers once in a while, but he wasn’t super present with my writing process.
It was this group of authors, some in the process of becoming authors for the first time, and some already having books out and working on another book. I’m still a part of this group. The post manuscript part that Jordan was mentioning, the first time I put a chapter in, and then I realized what post-production was like, seeing the editor’s response and looking down the page, I called my friend who is in charge of the publishing company. Her name is Amanda Johnson. She is in charge of Saved By Story.
I said, “I can’t even look at this.” She’s like, “Never mind. You don’t have to.” She went through and did all of the grammatical, punctuation, and stuff. She had me edit all the things that needed content editing. It made it doable. I never would have gotten through this process without her help, ever. Still, I’m working through these new books that I’m working on. I sent her a draft of something already. She’s a content whiz. Five minutes later, I get an email back with it looking perfect. Before there was AI, there was Amanda Johnson. Having that pre-production and then also publishing all in one place has been invaluable to me.
For our readers and for myself, what is a book coach? How could someone find a book coach? What are the pros of having a book coach? Can someone write their first book without a book coach? Please answer that. This is for me. I’m sure someone is going to have those same questions.
I personally could not have done it without a book coach because I don’t have the internal motivation to get myself on the computer writing, especially when you think about the subject matter. Diving into these stories about my husband and my life right after he died is hard. I needed someone to hold my hand, plus a good therapist. I found her in an interesting way at my favorite coffee shop. I saw a little sign for the upcoming events. It was, “Have you ever thought about writing a book? Come to this meeting on Saturday. Let’s talk.”
There were eighteen people in the meeting. I don’t know how many of them went on with the process. For me, that was perfect. For somebody else, they may not need a book coach, but I definitely needed that. I’m sure you can google book coach. I know I get a lot of people on LinkedIn because it says author in my profile on LinkedIn. A lot of people who help with the book creation process are out there.
My best advice about that would be to be sure it’s someone you click with because you’re going deep with this person. Whatever your book is about, you are going to be spending a lot of time listening to their opinion about your writing. That is so intense. It’s personal and deep. It’s your baby. We talk about it like I gave birth to my book. I’m in post-bookdom. We talk about it like that. It feels like that.
Does your particular book coach take virtual clients?
Yes.
Do you want to drop her information? Maybe somebody might want to take her.
It’s Amanda Johnson at Saved By Story Publishing. She’s great. Again, you have to find someone who works for you. I love that particular thing because we have a community. Every week, we meet. She calls it the cocoon. We meet. There are retreats and all kinds of different ways. We have a WhatsApp thread. We have a Circle community. For me, I needed that. I could not have done this alone.
Do book coaches have genres of topic or book genres that they specialize in, or are book coaches more general?
You’ll find both.
Is your particular book coach’s genre what you were writing for?
In the old days, when she first got started, and she had been in this a while, it was mostly personal growth, what we used to call self-help. We’re like, “We don’t need help. We just want to grow.” It’s personal growth now. She’s doing novels, children’s books, and all sorts of things. It’s very multi-layered. There are definitely some people who are into just personal growth or just novels.
Thank you, Michelle.
I want to correct one thing you said earlier, when you were talking to Haseena about coaches. I’m a coach. I’m a wellness coach and a grief coach, but I need a coach. Coaches might seem like they have their acts together because they can help you, but we all need someone who is expanding us as well, which is what a coach’s job is. I wanted to correct that. It’s not an either-or.
Coaches may seem like they have their acts together. But sometimes, they also need someone to help expand themselves. Share on XStarting Off With A Blank Screen
Thank you very much. Haseena, how about you? A challenge?
I’m going to add a different spin on this. My first three books, I self-published. My fourth one, I decided to go to a publishing company because I wanted someone to challenge my writing. If you are always writing as you see it, you’re not getting the growth that you need. I worked on my fourth manuscript. I sent it to a publishing company. They signed me up. It was funny. She called me up. I love the way she was. Her name was Deb. We got on a call. She says, “Haseena, the book is great, but I think that you should just, and let me say this nicely, start with a blank screen.”
I did what you two did. I went, “What? Start over with a blank screen? What?” She says, “Yes. You have something here, but we could dig a little deeper. We should start over.” That was a tough call for me. I listened to her, and I actually did start over. The book turned out to be a little different than what I had anticipated. To be totally honest, I don’t remember the first draft. It was always a journey into seeing beyond the natural, but she changed my spin.
The book is what it is today. It’s talking about how you journey into seeing beyond your environment, seeing beyond the place where you are now, and seeing beyond what you want, because it’s not all about you. It’s about the greater good, how you can become impactful, making a difference, not only in your life, but in the lives of others, and then about what joy and happiness mean. There’s a big difference in that, and then the community. My biggest challenge was being told, “This is nice, but I think you need to start over with a blank screen.”
To be fair, do you think it was ego?
No, it wasn’t her ego. I was amazed. First of all, I feel like, “I can’t write.” That’s what I was thinking. It spoke to more than my writing. What she was saying is, “You have what people need to read with this, but the angle that I’m taking is not going to connect with readers.” That’s what she was saying to me.
I am curious. After that comment, did you let her look at your other books?
Yes, she still published my book.
I mean the other books that you self-published.
No, she didn’t have to. Did I let her look at the other books?
Yes.
I didn’t think about that because the publishing company looks at your current book. Those books are not underneath their wings. They’re not going to be involved in that process. I’m already thinking about my next book and the spin that I want to take with that one. They’ll be involved with that one. It probably will be a year or so before that when it gets out. I’m already in my mind, playing with how I wanted to start. I’ve already started on an outline of the introduction.
Wherever you are and whatever you are going through, God is there with you. Even if you do not see Him, He is still close to you. Share on XI’m thinking about how it’s going to flow. The challenge is getting outside of yourself and being willing to take constructive feedback to help you connect to the readers that you want to touch. The book is about you in terms of releasing and letting go, but it’s about how your story, or what you’re putting out there, can have an impact on someone else’s life at the end.
Episode Wrap-Up And Closing Words
My dad always told me that in order to be teachable, you have to be reachable. If I can’t reach you, or if I’m talking to you and it’s like talking to a brick wall, you’re never going to learn. You’re going to stay in this vacuum mindset, and you’re never going to grow. I totally agree. Looking at the clock and trying to be respectful of everybody’s time, I’ll give everybody one more go around. We’ll start with Jordan. Anything that you want to leave with the audience or any lasting words? Take this opportunity to promote. You can name-drop your book or anything that you want to leave the audience with before we go, however you want to take it.
Thank you. The first thing I want to say is I’ve so enjoyed this. Thank you guys for allowing me to be a part of this amazing group with you all. My book is called Just Follow Jesus. I have a proof copy.
I love that cover. It looks so beautiful, and that sunset.
Thank you, guys. You’re so sweet. Thank you. This officially comes out on November 2nd. You can order it on Amazon starting on November 2nd, or you can go through my website, which is JustFollowJesusBook.com. You can find out more about me and my book. You can order it starting on November 2nd. Mainly, what I want to leave you with is that I want this book to point you to God, wherever you are in your walk with the Lord, wherever you are in your life. I talk a lot about my own personal health journey because I am a double lung transplant survivor, so I have a lot of my own personal story of my journey in this.
Also, what I want is that wherever you are, whatever you’re going through, know that God is there with you. Even if it’s a hard struggle where you don’t see God, God is still right there. God is still close to you. What I want this book to do is open your eyes to see that God is right here. We get to make the choice to follow Jesus every single day. It’s the most important and best choice that we will ever make. I hope this book encourages you, brings you closer to God, and in your walk with Him, and helps you to realize He’s there. He has a plan for you. He loves you more than you can imagine.
Thank you, Jordan.
That is a beautiful cover. For me, my two books that I have out are Surviving Spouse or Partner Suicide Loss: A Mindful Guide for Your Journey Through Grief, and then Supporting a Survivor of Spouse or Partner Suicide Loss: A Mindful Guide for Co-Journeying Through Grief. The mindful part is because I use mindfulness tools as ways to suffer less and find more joy and more ease in the grieving process. I already showed the book a couple of times. This is the spouse or partner one. The supporter one is the white version.
The audiobooks that came out are available now, which is very exciting. It was a fun and very long process going into the studio, doing the recording, and all that. I also offer individual or group coaching. There’s an endless list of things I do. You can find my website at MichelleAnnCollins.com. I’ll leave it at that. MichelleAnnCollins.com can get you there. You can sign up for a call with me if you want to learn more about me. I have an Amazon author page where all five of my books are available.
I’ll close with, “Be nice to yourself.” One of the things that I find consistently in my coaching practice is that people are their own worst critics. People talk to themselves in ways they would never talk to someone they loved, so try to love yourself. Find self-compassion. You’re going to feel a whole lot better about everything. Thanks again for having me. It’s so great to be in this company. You guys are all amazing.
For me, I was reading my own book again as we were talking before we got on here. I highlighted this one excerpt that stuck with me. It said at the end, and I used to say to myself, and I still do, “I believe in me. I can do what I set out to accomplish today.” We have to say that to ourselves each day. “I believe in me. I can set out to accomplish what I want to do today.” We can’t allow the negative voice or outside influences to tell us what we can or cannot do because we have to know that we are amazing. You have all that you need to succeed and accomplish what you set out to do.
I tell people, “Close your eyes and let that vision that you see be the beacon that moves you forward.” It’s consistency. Resilience goes back to being consistent and persevering. That’s all we have to do. Have that sight that you see not with your eyes but with your spirit. Allow that sight to lead you forward into accomplishing what you want to bring into reality. Surround yourself with people who support you in that journey.
Thank you, everybody. It was truly a pleasure to rekindle with all of you in such a manner, listening to your stories, your journeys as an author, and your nuggets on how to approach this endeavor. I know a lot of people who want to be authors who have not crossed that bridge yet. Hopefully, when this episode is published, I can share it with them as a token of motivation. I appreciated listening to all of your stories and your feedback. I wish we had more time. I definitely have more questions for each of you, but I understand that attention span is important.
Thanks, John. Maybe we’ll have to have a part two.
We might. You never know. We can always come back. I won’t say not to. I appreciate, again, John for being our host and letting me be a participant. I appreciate Jordan and Michelle being here. Jordan and I connected. She makes me see that you have to look beyond your immediate environment. She is my mentor because she told me her story. It so touched me that I said, “How can you complain about anything in your life when you have someone here who’s such a beautiful young woman who has found a way to see past her immediate environment?” She epitomizes seeing beyond the natural. I thank you for that.
I met Michelle through Amanda’s Saved By Story. Sometimes, I go into those campfire conversations. Michelle, we immediately connected, too, because what she’s doing is adding value and helping people know that it’s okay to not be okay. Talk to someone else. Let them know that you’re not okay. For those who are spouses or family members of someone who has committed suicide, there’s a way that you can also recover from that. I thank all of you. I met John. Everybody here, I connected. I see everybody as family. I thank you for being part of my circle.
My pleasure. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Haseena.
Important Links
- Michelle Ann Collins’ Website
- Created to Soar
- Journey to Sight
- Saved By Story
- Just Follow Jesus
- Surviving Spouse or Partner Suicide Loss: A Mindful Guide for Your Journey Through Grief
- Supporting a Survivor of Spouse or Partner Suicide Loss: A Mindful Guide for Co-Journeying Through Grief
About Jordan Richardson
Jordan is a double lung transplant survivor. as one of the rare infant lung transplants in the world, she has survived the complicated transplant life for 22 years and says her Christian faith is the foundation of her joy, strength, and hope.
She volunteers on a National Prayer Line and offers weekly inspirational vlogs through her YouTube Channel, @throughjordanseyes.
She’s recently written a weekly devotional book, Just Follow Jesus, which will be available on Nov 2 and which seeks to refocus your mind and heart on Christ every day.
She’s a native southern girl and loves playing with her two cats, listening to music, connecting with friends and family, and playing a few instruments for fun. Her prayer for each of you is that you will experience the love and hope of Jesus in your life.
About Michelle Ann Collins
Michelle Ann Collins is the founder of Inhabit Joy and a leading voice in the field of grief education, mindfulness, and holistic healing.
Her journey is marked by profound personal transformation following a series of devastating losses—including her husband’s suicide.
As a certified grief educator, mindfulness coach, yoga therapist, and bestselling author, Michelle equips individuals and organizations with practical tools to navigate grief, trauma, and emotional exhaustion and move from grief to growth, pain to productivity and just getting by to joyful.
About Haseena Shaheed-Jackson
With fire for her mission and unshakeable faith, Haseena Shaheed-Jackson, has known for decades that her purpose is simple. Help others to find clarity through her three B’s philosophy – Believe, Become and Belong.
Haseena is a lifelong learner. She currently has a Master’s in Business Administration and Master’s Arts in Human Services Counseling: Life Coach. She currently serves as Division Director in Toastmasters International and has earned the designation of Distinguished Toastmaster.
Haseena has published three books Created to Soar, Messages from the Spirit, Reflections from Within. Release of her fourth book – Journey to Sight is scheduled for October 7, 2025.
