How to Write a Book: Conquering Your Fears: an Interview with Kate Beeders

My colleague, Success Coach Kate Beeders is a genius at helping people break through blocks—something that can plague aspiring authors. If you’ve read my posts from last year, you may have seen my interview with her on making money as an author.  Here, I interview Kate about the main fears that stop aspiring authors in their tracks—even those who have already published.

Lisa: Many people are stopped by fear of failure. How might you work with someone like that?

Kate: I’d like to break that down into 3 steps:

1. First, it’s important for a person to get clarity and understand why you’re writing a book:  To educate people? To grow your business? To get publicity? To share your story? Someone, like a coach, told you to do this?
2. The second step is to uncover what you’re afraid could happen if you write your book.  Sometimes people are very aware of their fears and sometimes we uncover such fears through our work together.  These fears are typically from past experiences or things people are taught as children.  These fears can often be so overpowering (especially on a subconscious level) that a person would rather stay in their comfort zone than risk trying something new and failing.  Examples of some fears are: What if no one reads my book? What if my book isn’t any good? What if people laugh at my book and me? I’ve failed in the past and don’t want to fail again
3. The third step would be to clear out these fears so the person is able to move forward and write their book.  The technique that I am an expert in and that I highly recommend is called “tapping.”

Lisa: Many bestselling authors use tapping. I’ve heard Jack Canfield recommend it. Can you explain tapping for those  who are unfamiliar with it?

Kate: Tapping is a powerful technique where people “tap” on parts of their face and upper body with their finger tips while saying certain phrases that I give them.  It sounds goofy, and having come from Corporate America, I definitely thought it looked silly, but I’ve never seen anything or heard of anything that gets the results that this technique does.  Every time someone tries it and sees their changes, there’s another convert into the world of tapping.  It’s been used with hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to help them release all sorts of fears.  This technique is able to work very quickly, powerfully and gently and get lasting results.   Once the fears are released, I help people replace those negative thoughts with positive ones, and my clients are quickly able to get into action and achieve the success they want.

Lisa: Thanks for breaking that down into such a detailed answer. Kate, often, the same people who fear failure also fear success. How do you help people overcome that?

Kate: It would be the same process as the fear of failure except that the fears would be different, such as:

• What if I lose my privacy?

• What if others start to want/expect too much from me?

• Who will I be if I become a successful author?

I encourage readers of this blog to ask themselves, “What are all of the good things that will happen once I write my book?”  Some wonderful results, would be:

• You can help so many more people than you can now working 1-1
• Profits from the book can be used for personal use, savings, or a charitable foundation
• This will elevate you to a whole new level providing you with all sorts of wonderful experiences

Lisa:  I can attest to that. Just one example, a recent Bring Your Book to Life Program graduate just published her book this fall and within weeks was invited to be keynote speaker at a dance therapy conference in Hawaii. But go on. Before benefits we were talking about fears…

Kate: Our subconscious mind is very powerful and it holds all sorts of fears, some real and some perceived.  These fears will cause a person to procrastinate, which is why many people start to author books and can’t get past “Chapter 3.”

Lisa: How about someone who’s specifically experienced an authority figure–parent, teacher or other–who told them they can’t write or “children should be seen not heard” or who somehow taught them not to express themselves. How do you help people break through that kind of block?

Kate: Lisa, I’m so glad you mentioned that.  I’ve helped so many clients that heard things like that as a child and now find it very difficult to “shine their light” and put themselves out there.  As a child, to be good, meant to be quiet, well-behaved, basically blend-in to the scenery, so it’s a huge conflict now as an adult, to write a book and then promote it.  By doing that, the author would make themselves very visible, the opposite of being “seen and not heard.” Through tapping and other mindset techniques, I help my clients reprogram their subconscious beliefs, since what they were told as a 4-year old child does not apply to them now as a 30-40-50 year old adult.  If they stay quiet and keep that book inside of them, they won’t be able to get their message out to all of the people that need to hear it.

Lisa: Kate, thanks for sharing these tips. And for our readers, Kate has a workshop coming up: Quick Cash Infusion Workshop:  3 KEYS to ACCELERATE Your CASH, CONFIDENCE and RESULTS on Friday, Feb 22  3-5pm in Newton, MA Click here for more info!