ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Publishing a book is like reliving your middle school years. It takes about three years from ideation to publication. You have no idea what you’re doing. You feel like everyone is staring at you and whispering about you behind your back for your stupid outfit choice, dumb comment in class, or a hundred other narratives that are not remotely happening in reality. Every day feels like you are about to get your (first) period. It’s like riding an actual hormonal roller coaster where, in the span of just one school week, you can go from fully in love to devastated, back to flirting, and back to heartbroken again. Everything is dramatic and extra, and the feels are for reals. You’re embarrassed; you’re pumped; you’re hopeless; you’re ecstatic; you’re frustrated; you’re bored; you’re never alone; you’re lonely. No one understands you, and yet there are other times you feel completely seen. It’s absolute inconsistent chaos, which is exactly how writing this book felt to me. Doesn’t it sound sooooo fun to hang out with someone reliving a middle school mentality in her late thirties? Yeah, exactly. And for that reason, this Acknowledgments section contains the most important words of this entire book. If you’re reading this and you are one of the individuals who had the love, loyalty, and creativity (and quite possibly temporary insanity) to stick by me throughout a process this tumultuous—you deserve to be canonized. Or at least preserved for posterity in print. So before they start playing the walk-off music . . .
First, an enormous thank you to my readers. You didn’t just inspire this book; you invented it. Let’s just say you all really put the direct in direct messaging and I deeply honor your audacity in doing so. Yes, we first fell in love back in 2017 with Digital Persuasion: Sell Smarter in the Modern Marketplace, but it was your DMs after I gave after speaking at your conventions on digital communications where you really held my feet to the fire. After almost every event, a weird phenomenon kept occuring. You would send message after message asking about entrepreneurship, leadership, mindset: essentially every single other topic under the sun except for the one that I had just shared with you on stage! (Marketing? We want to talk manifestation! #Noted.)
Thank you for challenging me to go deeper beyond my composed “marketing expert” persona and wade into these scary, arctic waters of vulnerable stories and tough truths. I pray that the chapters of this book, structured using the questions you’ve bravely sent over the years, are exactly what you’ve been looking for. Because as Emma Thompson says, “Books are like people—they show up in your life when you need them the most.” That has been 100 percent the case for me in my life, and it’s my hope that the same is true for you. Thank you for allowing me to be the diametric opposite of perfect on the internet with you. Thank you for always showing up and sharing my Highlights podcasts, my Muse-letters, and my Lives and for trusting me with your most precious resource. Thank you for participating in our endless loop of digital love. Every message of triumph, of breakthrough, of joy, of reinvention, and especially of recommitment is truly #MyWhy.
A massive thank you to my agent, Jill. Your refusal to let me just phone anything in, skip a detail, or just say something was “good enough” (no matter how hard I tried to sell you on all of those) pushed this book to a level that would not have been possible without your vigilance. Thank you for never making me feel like my inexperience with the traditional publishing world was embarrassing or stupid. Thanks for letting me rant and rave ideas over the phone to you. Thanks for shooting down most of them. Thanks for identifying and unearthing the worthy nuggets buried deep (deep!) in our dialogue. Thanks for holding my hand through this whole process and being so patient. Saint Jill levels of kindness were exhibited, and I’m so grateful. Most of all, thank you for believing that this book possessed stories that needed to be shared with women around the world.
A massive thank you to my publishing team at McGraw Hill. Donya and Johnathan, you were fantastic to work with; thanks for guiding me through the process until Cheryl could rejoin us. Cheryl, your energy on this project was a godsend—thank you so much for taking the extra time to polish it for a Big Deal finish. I’m honored to be the recipient of your freshly rested momma brain and at the receiving end of your incredible energy to not settle for anything short of epic. You and your team totally rock.
To my friends and fam who suffered through 90 million rounds of feedback requests on everything from covers to titles to chapters—I can never repay you, but thank you for being so generous with your time and creative opinions. Mom, Seg, Bri-man, Lodg, Thelma, Mer, MKF, Aunt MB, Charlotte, Magpie, Sargie, Kimmers, Molly Murphy, Mike Ganino, Brian Fanzo, Jen Gitomer, Judi Holler, LGO—your opinions and thoughts were invaluable. There is no way on God’s green earth I could have ever made these big scary decisions without you retweeting or deleting every step of the way. Thank you for not blocking my phone number or Instagram. Yet.
To the first audacious woman I ever encountered: my mother. Mom, thank you for letting me ramble on and on about this book without taking a breath for months on end. Thanks for being brave enough to let me include our story in this book, even though you deeply value your privacy, and even though being “featured” in this way is legitimately your nightmare. I will never forget you sharing that Carly Simon moment back in the seventies sitting in your Chevette where she sang, “That’s the way I always heard it should be.” Recalling that flashback, you told me: “This is a message women needed to hear then, and they still need to hear it—now more than ever.” That was a transcendent moment of unity and connection. That minute in time, with us working together as a team united by a shared mission, is seared lovingly into my brain for all time. I’m not sure whether or not you dug out your dog-eared nineties copy of Parenting Your Strong-Willed Child to sustain your sanity during the writing of this book, but if you did, I wouldn’t fault you in the least. Thanks for the endless vocab flashcards, thanks for encouraging my love of reading (even into the wee hours of the night), and thanks for always telling me that as long as I spoke the truth—that you would always have my back. You again stood by that promise with your unconditional love and support during this project. I admire your fierce loyalty to our family and your unapologetic refusal to settle for anything subpar. You are the original Big Deal woman. One thing we will always have in common is our unbreakable love for each other: because our relationship is forever worth fighting for. I love you, Momma.
To formerly known as Babygirl Seg: thank you for sharing your level-headed Libran diplomacy in helping me mold the stories of this book so they would not only ring true but also preserve peace and harmony within our ranks! Your honest, on-demand feedback these last few years was absolutely vital to this finished product. Thanks for actually reading all the massive multiscroll text messages and letting me word-vomit to you while I untangled the necklace of nuts that is often my mind. Your creativity, honesty, and generosity of time really meant the world to me. Your superpower of making everyone feel seen and not judged is truly a gift. I love you so much and can’t believe I won the lady lottery of life to have you for my sister.
To the other ladies of the Trifecta. Sheena and Meredith—God must have been out of his mind the day He decided to bring the three of us together forever. No matter distances or life changes, the moments and milestones we have shared are the highlights of my life. The amount of wine, love, and laughter we’ve shared has to be illegal. At least in the country of Italy. Or in the state of Wyoming. Pretty much every story of my life (particularly the stories shared in this book) either begins or ends with our Trifecta. (Or at least has been analyzed, dissected, rehashed, and rewritten until the narrative is more to our liking.) My soul sister skates are still down in the garage. Let’s just pray we have no need for them (or the dreaded onesies) for at least another 50 years.
To Sargie. Your love, support, and, most of all, spreadsheets have been the lifesaver of launching this book. Ever since our Baltimore TV station days, I’ve admired your tenacity, your honesty, your hustle, and, of course, your incomparable heart. After almost 20 years of friendship, I can honestly say there’s no one I’d rather put my toe on in the middle of the night than you. Not even Hartman. Thanks for being a champion of the mission behind this book, for allowing me to share your inspiring story, and for teaching me your winning ways. I adore you!
To Kimmy. You believed in me and helped me get this business off the ground at the most absolutely make-or-break pivotal point. Whether we are working together or not, are living in close proximity or not, have talked recently or not, we are always connected and you are always my heart. So far you have a 100 percent show-up rate in my books because you are the one when I first stumbled into the “real” world that I learned everything from. (And still do!) Thank you for letting me channel your superpowers for years until I discovered my own. Also, we need some new stories as Todd and Hartman are completely over the Amos collection. Hopefully, my readers feel differently. Love you, Kimmer.
To my SheNoters: Neen, Tamsen, and Tami—thank you for allowing me open access to your brilliant, award-winning brains. But beyond your generosity and creative wisdom, thank you for supporting me emotionally through this process and always dropping everything to work on a story or an idea, no matter how much you had going on with your own books, coaching, keynotes, families, and all. You were each just a text away reminding me that I was smart, capable, and good enough to actually make this thing. Thank you for inspiring me beyond words. I’m still not exactly sure how I got invited into a crew of this caliber, but fingers crossed I can keep fooling you all a little longer because we really do have all the fun.
Finally, the biggest Grand Teton–sized mountain of gratitude goes to my Harpi. Ever since that day on the beach when you told me I wasn’t a particularly good manager, you rolled the dice of me dumping you on the spot to help me reveal what I was actually meant to do with my life. Thank you for never being scared of disappointing me with the truth. You showed me that I could lead from my experiences without investing so much time in spaces that stole my joy, spaces that were someone else’s definition of success, and, most of all, spaces that were dumping my strengths down the drain instead of harnessing them. You helped me stop judging myself for my innumerable weaknesses and stay laser-focused on the light. You’ve always believed in me and my mission way before I ever even knew what it was. Thank you for always challenging me to “Google it” instead of allowing a single one of my BS excuses to take up an ounce of precious mental real estate. You constantly exemplify what it means to live as a true “student of life.” Thank you for picking me up every single time I fall. Like, literally. Like the time you actually saved my life in the backcountry of Wyoming, and that other time with the fainting in France, and that other time with the panic attack, and . . . and . . . you are my actual, real-life superhero. Thank you for listening to me talk (endlessly) about this book, even though you would rather be programming AI computer vision machine-learning robots. (Did I get that right?) Thank you for doing anything and everything to build this business with me, one video editing session and DJ Ocean dance party at a time. You are my rock. You are my whole heart. I love you so deeply. Thank you for being my forever Renaissance man. You are the Biggest Deal of them all.
(Wait, actually, that’s not technically true. There’s just one Bigger Deal than you.)
Thank you, God, for all your blessings and protection, and for the guidance of your angels that I feel every day. With You all things are possible.