Remaining Behind-the-Scenes with 16-Time NYT Bestselling Author Hilary Lifton

Hilary Lifton is not one to boast, and I write that with more understatement than you can imagine.I was introduced to her recently at a party by someone who said she was a big ghostwriter. When I asked her about her career, she mentioned working on a self-help book.It was only when I Googled her later that I learned she has written 16 New York Times bestsellers and is one of the most sought-after ghostwriters alive. (While she chooses not to name her bold-faced clients, you can find out

Using Beta Readers Who Disagree with Your Premise with Arlina Allen

Arlina Allen is a force in the recovery movement. Sober for over 30 years, she's been releasing episodes of her top 1% podcast, ODAAT Chat, for over eight.She's also been working on a book for almost that long—and now it's finally here! The 12-Step Guide for Skeptics: Clearing Up Common Misconceptions of A path to Sobriety is out now and for it, she showed her book-in-progress to people who not only didn't agree with what she was writing but who actually disagreed.In this episode, we ta

How a Book is the Gift That Keeps on Giving with Dr. Doug Brackmann

Dr. Douglas Brackmann isn't like anyone else you meet. He's far more intense and brilliant—the kind of person you find yourself telling your deepest and darkest secrets to when you had just planned to ask him about the weather.The author of Driven: Understanding and Harnessing the Genetic Gifts Shared by Entrepreneurs, Navy SEALs, Pro Athletes, and Maybe YOU, Brackmann is revered among top entrepreneurs. And while he admits that he already had "disciples" before publishing Driven, the b

Why the Ex-CEO of a $550 Million Company Did a Book Now with Erika Badan Ayers

Erika Ayers Badan calls herself a “token CEO”, the rare female employee in the highest rank of a bro-roar sports and new media culture—specifically, at Barstool Sports, which she took from a rough-and-tumble sports and betting brand and turned it into a $550 million juggernaut with more than 5 billion monthly video views and 225 million followers. In her book, Nobody Cares About Your Career: Why Failure Is Good, The Great Ones Play Hurt, and Other Hard Truths, she talks about all that a

Why People Lose Steam on Their Books with Jill Ishkanian

It’s truly a crime that there’s no TV series about Jill Ishkanian.The lone female tabloid reporter in a sea of men, Ishkanian has been raided by the FBI, exonerated Meghan Markle and been late to a lunch date with me because she thought she saw Kevin Costner driving. And those are just three of dozens of fascinating facts!Yet, despite the fact that she’s been technically employed as a writer for decades and knows she has a hell of a story to tell, she’s been stalled on writing her book.

How Book Publishing Is Evolving with Agent Mark Gottlieb

While Mark Gottlieb has agenting in his blood—he’s a second generation lit agent—he’s not your typical agent. He doesn’t specialize in any particular genre but bounces between fiction and nonfiction, with some children's books and graphic novels in between. And though he works with the Big Five publishers, he’s open-minded when it comes to self-publishing and the new wave of publishing. In this episode we talked about how being a writer requires audacity, how tough it is to make a livin

Boost Your Business by Sharing Your Story (Solo Episode)

Here's a special release for you: the keynote I recently gave at a mastermind that encompasses so much of what I know to be true about coming up with your book idea. It's short but sweet. Enjoy!FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

How to Use Instagram Reels to Blow Up Your Book with Erin Lee

You know that kindergarten teacher we all wish we'd had?That's Erin Lee. But part of what makes us all wish she'd been our teacher is the fact that in addition to being a teacher, she's an award-winning children's book author.Still, as we discuss quite a bit around here, being an amazing author doesn't always guarantee book sales.But Erin HAS sold thousands of books. So how has she done it? Well, she started dressing up as her five-year-old students to create engaging Instagram reels. T

The State of Publishing Today with Kevin Anderson

Kevin Anderson never meant to get into the publishing business after growing up in a small town in Canada before getting his PhD and graduating summa cum laude from Harvard and starting a tutoring company.Nevertheless, that tutoring company transitioned into what is now a massive publishing company that employs 30 writers and editors that have collectively worked on over 200 New York Times bestselling books and sold over 100 million copies of books by people like Brene Brown, Simon Sine

How to Get Your Book Everywhere with Annabelle Gurwitch

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and the author of the New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort. Her other books include: Wherever You Go, There They Are, and You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up (coauthored with Jeff Kahn). She was the co-host of Dinner & a Movie on TBS and has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, PBS, and numerous CNN and MSNBC programs. Her essays and satire have been featured in The

Make Sure You Write the Right Book with Dave Chesson

Dave Chesson is the creator of Kindlepreneur.com, a website devoted to teaching advanced book marketing which even Amazon KDP acknowledges as one of the best by telling users to “Gain insight from Kindlepreneur on how you can optimize marketing for your books.” Having worked with such authors as Orson Scott Card, Ted Dekker and more, his tactics help both fiction and nonfiction authors of all levels get their books discovered by the right readers. But that's the official bio stuff. The

Get Your Book in Stores with Ashlea Hearn

Ashlea Hearn is not only a 1st Lieutenant in the Army Reserves but also the author of Genesis Mortalis, Book 1 of the Take It Trilogy.We met when she reached out to me about the upcoming release of that book. But here's what's relevant: by that point, I had noticed this lovely person named Ashlea Hearn reviewing me wherever she could—different books, this podcast, on Google...everywhere.But here's what I really noticed: she wasn't just slapping a review up there in order to "do the righ

Make Sure Your Readers Can Afford You with Scott Duffy

Scott Duffy is an entrepreneur and business strategist who's listed as a “Top 10 Speaker” by Entrepreneur and has been named one of the “Top Influential People To Follow” by Yahoo! Finance.'But that's not why I brought him on the pod. I brought him on because he's also the author of three different business books on three different topics, from three different publishers and launched in three entirely different ways. When I was at his mastermind a few weeks ago, he articulated why entre

What It's Like to Be Chosen by Oprah with Greg Behrendt

Greg Behrendt is the #1 New York Times best-selling co-author of He’s Just Not That Into You and It’s Called A Breakup Because It’s Broken. He's appeared on every TV show known to man, including Oprah, The Tonight Show and The Today Show, is a life long standup comedian and co-hosts the relationship podcast Don't Take Bullshit From Fuckers.He's also a life and writing coach, who can walk you through exactly how to write a book like his—as well as how to survive any adversity that comes

Use Your Book to Build Your Brand with Katie DePaola

Katie DePaola is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and the founder of Inner Glow Circle, a company dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs find their glow and live purpose-driven lives.But most relevantly for our show, she is the author of At Least You Look Good: How to Glow Through What You Go Through, the latest release from Launch Pad Publishing. The book is part memoir, part self-help and all love; it's Katie's story about surviving Lyme disease and her brother's death by overdose w

How to Set Up an Author Podcast Tour with Alex Sanfilippo

Alex Sanfilippo is the host of the top-rated podcast Podcasting Made Simple, the founder of PodPros.com, a software company focused specifically on the podcasting industry and the co-creator of PodMatch, a service that matches podcast guests and hosts together for interviews. That's not all! He also co-founded PodcastSOP, a project management tool that helps podcasters keep up with their episode releases.You get it: the guy is POD OBSESSED.So who better to come on the show to talk about

Raising Money for Your Book with Craig Stanland

Boy, does Craig Stanland have a story to tell.It starts with the FBI knocking on his door, followed by two years in prison.But that's not really what we delve into here. Instead we talk about the book he wrote on his experience—and the one major mistake he made.Now that he's at work on book number two (title TBD—we get into that in the conversation), he's approaching everything differently.Find out about that, as well as how he's planning to use videos to launch his next book, in this e

Getting Press for Your Book with Peter Shankman

Peter Shankman is many things, among them a five-time best selling author, entrepreneur and corporate in-person and virtual keynote speaker who focuses on customer service. But in this episode I got him speaking about something so many of you ask me about: HARO, or Help a Reporter Out...the website he started (and sold to Cision many years ago) that helps so many authors get featured in mainstream media.In this conversation, which happened in rapid fire while he was in the throws of sal

How a Book Could Make You $5 Million with Rich Goldstein

Rich Goldstein is a patent attorney, speaker, host of the Innovations and Breakthroughs podcast and, most relevantly for this show, the author of the bestselling book The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent, which was published by the American Bar Association.He's someone who understands through and through what a book can do for someone's business and in this episode, we got into all that as well as how writing a book changed Rich's career, why he sends a copy of the book to anyon

How to Write a Book Everyone Recommends with Rob Fitzpatrick

This may be the most useful podcast I've ever released. That's because it's with a guy who's an expert on something EVERY author wants: getting people to recommend your book.His name is Rob Fitzpatrick and he's a former programmer who dropped out of grad school to go to YCombinator with his first startup.It's that background—along with his nearly decade and a half of experience as an entrepreneur—that helps make sense of the fact that he's the guy who's seemingly cracked the code on how

Use Social Media to Sell Books with Zara Barrie and Dayna Troisi

I literally don't have the words to describe the experience of recording this episode but suffice it to say that it was the most fun interview I've ever done.Back story: Zara Barrie and I knew each other online (I find her incredibly glam and we're mutual fans of one another to the point that I recommended her book, Girl Stop Passing Out in Your Makeup, on KATU). She told me that she and her podcast co-host slash work wife Dayna Troisi were going to be in LA (they're NYC ladies, natch).

The Slow Climb to Selling 100,000 Books with Paul Angone

Paul Angone had an extremely unusual journey to success as an author.First, he tried to sell a book. For eight years. Nary a bite.Then a blog post he dashed off went viral. Very viral. From there, he was able to sell a book based on that blog post to a publisher. The problem was that he had to finish it in a month.Well that book and the next have sold over 100,000 copies and launched a massive speaking career.But that's not even why I wanted to have him on the podcast. I wanted him on t

Build a Twitter Following Using Your Book Material with Jesse J. Anderson

Jesse J. Anderson's journey to bookdom is unlike any other guest I've had on the show. For one, he's not launching a book to help build his business. Also, that book—Refocus: A Practical Guide to Adult ADHD—hasn't launched yet. In fact, he hasn't even finished writing it. Why, then, you may ask, would I have him on the show? Well, Jesse has also built up an impressive Twitter following by releasing Twitter threads of book chapters—a topic we dive into in detail. When he's not writing bo

Turning Your Books Into Movies with Ben Mezrich

Ben Mezrich has sold over 10 million copies of his books.And, by the way, that’s not even the impressive part. The impressive part is that he sells EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS BOOKS as a movie or TV show; in fact, if Hollywood isn’t interested in the treatment, he doesn’t even write the book.Mezrich has gotten into this position because of a chance encounter with some MIT students, which led to his writing Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for M

How to Sell Ads in Your Book with Alex Strathdee

Alex Strathdee is no ordinary writer.That's because he's as much an entrepreneur as he is a writer.How do we know this? Because when he wrote his book, Experience Over Degrees, and it didn't transform the world—or even his life—he didn't just shelve the book and the experience like most people.Instead, he asked: how can I get more people to see this?What followed was a targeted campaign to colleges and then a targeted campaign to businesses to pay for that first campaign. It's an ingeni

Turn Your Book Into a $7.5 Million Product with Mike Koenigs

Mike Koenigs is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, co-host of Capability Amplifier podcast with Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan and 13-time bestselling author, Mike is regular contributor to Entrepreneur and Forbes. He's interviewed, consulted and advised celebrity clients, billionaires and bestselling authors including Tony Robbins, Paula Abdul, Richard Dreyfuss, Dave Asprey, JJ Virgin, presidential candidate Tim Ryan, John Assaraf, Brian Tracy and XPrize founder Peter Diamand

How to Prep for Your Book Launch with Sober Sexpert Tawny Lara

Tawny Lara is a self-proclaimed natural born promoter.She's also a delightful person known as The Sober Sexpert, co-host of the Recovery Rocks podcast and author of the book, Dry Humping: a Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without Booze.This was recorded months before the book's release because I wanted to get a sense of what she was doing at this stage of her launch...turns out, a lot. In this episode, we talk about the ways she's incentivizing pre-orders, why she got a shirt

How to Get on Podcasts to Promote Your Book with John Corcoran

John Corcoran may be my new favorite human. A former White House speechwriter and attorney who worked in Hollywood, he now runs Rise25, which helps businesses get more clients, referral partners and strategic partners through their done-for-you podcast service.In the brief time we've known each other, he's introduced me to countless people, advised me on my business and given me ideas that have sent my head spinning, in all the right ways. This man is a fount of wisdom!And Corcoran isn'

An Entirely Amusing Episode with Joel Stein

Joel Stein wrote a weekly column for Time magazine for 20 years, was a columnist for Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times and is the author of the books Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity and In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You’re Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book. He's also such a funny person that he manages to come across as incredibly likable both while penning a book defending elitism and while dis-inviting me to his book launch party (

How to Get an Influencer to Promote You with Jess Lahey

Jess Lahey can talk about so many things so brilliantly that interviewing her felt a bit like walking through an outlet mall: so many choices and they all look so good!But really, here's what you need to know: She's a former New York Times columnist and current Atlantic contributor, podcaster and New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Failure whose new book, The Addiction Inoculation, is the one that the world has been clamoring for. It addresses the question on pretty much ev

The Secret to Becoming a NYT Bestselling Author with Jennifer K. Armstrong

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is the New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia: How the Show About Nothing Changed Everything; a history of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted; and Sex and the City and Us: How Four Single Women Changed the Way We Think, Live, and Love. She spent a decade on staff at Entertainment Weekly and has since written for many publications, including BBC Culture, The New York Times Book Review, Vice, New York magazine, and Billboard.She's

How to Get Readers to Hire You with Jay Abraham

Jay Abraham is the world's highest-paid marketing consultant, a proven business leader and top executive coach in the United States.As Founder and CEO of The Abraham Group, Inc., Jay has spent his entire career solving complex problems and fixing underperforming businesses. He has significantly increased the bottom lines of over 10,000 clients in more than 1,000 industries and over 7,200 sub-industries worldwide. This is a man who is paid $30,000 for a day of business consulting. And I

Why Authors Should Be On Social Media with Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman is an icon in the publishing space. With over two decades of experience in the business, she is truly considered the world's leading expert on traditional publishing, self publishing and where the twain shall meet. She's the curator of The Hot Sheet, a biweekly paid newsletter, oversees a wildly popular blog and is also the author of The Business of Being a Writer.In this episode, we discussed how important it is to know what you want your book to do for you, how to get bo

The Reality of Traditional Publishing with Jeff Garlin

Do you really need me to tell you who Jeff Garlin is? Well, the simple way to handle that is to tell you that he stars on arguably the most adored show of all time (Curb Your Enthusiasm).But he does so much more than just come to you via your SmartTV. He's also a standup (um, obv), photographer and author. In this episode, he explains what happens when you sell a book to a big publisher but then it doesn't sell the number of copies anyone had hoped (and also has an odd name change somew

How to Get a Big Name to Blurb Your Book with Ed Kressy

Ed Kressy is not your average human.He's much sweeter than your average human and his sweetness emanates from him.He also has a much crazier story than your average addict with a crazy story...and this is coming from someone who's heard every crazy addiction story over the past two decades.The short version: he went into a meth-induced psychosis for 14 years that left him convinced he was involved in 9/11. The longer version is in his memoir, My Addiction & Recovery: Just Because Yo

Blog Your Way to Book Success with Derek Murphy

Derek Murphy is a USA Today bestselling author with a PhD in Literature, who’s been featured in CNN, writes fantasy and sometimes lives in castles. When not trolling obscure bookshops, he prefers to be sipping espresso, surrounded by kittens and pursuing research on what it means to be a successful creative.Now the word unique is overused but this is one unique guy. Looking at the amazing array of material he puts out there is to enter into a tireless brain of myriad interests—including

Selling Your Book Traditionally After Self-Publishing with David Nihill

Originally from Dublin Ireland, David Nihill is the founder of FunnyBizz Conference, bestselling author of Do You Talk Funny?, winner of San Francisco International Comedy Competition, runner up in the Moth’s largest US Grandslam storytelling competition and the first-ever Irishman to have a special on Dry Bar Comedy. His work has been featured in Inc, The Huffington Post, Forbes, Fast Company, Lifehacker, The Irish Times, TED, The Irish Independent, Today FM, and on TV3.He and I met th

Getting Articles Published & Landing an Agent with Estelle Erasmus

Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, writing coach, teacher for Writer's Digest and adjunct instructor at New York University. The former editor-in-chief of five national consumer women's magazines, her work has appeared in dozens of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, Huffington Post Personal, Marie Claire and more.Now she's written a book that can show you how to do the same! Writing That Gets Noticed: How to Find Your Voice, Become a Be

The Scribe Publishing Scandal: What Happens When the Leader in Your Field Goes Down in Flames

This special episode is a solo chat about the implosion of Scribe Media. While it doesn't contain tips about how to launch a book that transforms your career, it's a deep dive into what NOT to do when building a business from your book. Everything in here is, like all episodes, just my opinion but I've been in a unique position where I've been receiving constant updates and information from people who have the inside scoop on the Scribe sh*tshow.

Find Out What People Really Think of Your Cover & Title with John Li

Regular listeners know that I'm obsessed with PickFu, a software that, in technical terms, provides actionable pre-launch feedback on creative options. (How obsessed? I never had ads on the podcast because I wanted to wait until there was something I loved so much that I could recommend it without reservations. And, well, PickFu is it!)That's why I was delighted to welcome PickFu's co-creator John Li onto the show. And it's also why I'm delighted to use PickFu to get feedback on my cove

Lessons Learned from my Most Recent Launch

It was a meta on top of a meta on top of a meta experience to record this episode, which is all about what worked and didn't work for the launch of my most recent book (which happened to be based on podcast interviews I've done on this show).This means that for the launch, I tried out a lot of the things experts have recommended on this very show...some were very effective, some not so much. While it's impossible to say what the end result of all my launch efforts will be because our bo

Making Millions from Your Book with Cameron Herold

Cameron Herold is the Founder of the COO Alliance & Second In Command Podcast as well as the author of five books and an international public speaker. By the age of 35, he’d help build his first TWO $100 MILLION DOLLAR companies and by 42, he engineered 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s spectacular growth from $2 million to $106 million in revenue.So you get it. The guy's a machine. And he's a machine well worth talking to about what a book (let alone five) can do for a career, seeing as his have a

The Power of a Writing Group with Tim Gager

When someone says they're in a writing group, that can mean many things. They may be doing a "write your book in a weekend" class or sitting down with fellow writers once a month.For Tim Gager, it means showing up five days a week, online, for the past three years.That's because Tim runs the writing group I started when the pandemic hit. In those three years, at least 10 of its members have launched books and numerous movie projects, in-person readings and lifelong friendships have come to be.Ye

Why You’re More Important Than Your Book with Nicolas Cole

Nicolas Cole is an author and the #1 personal development writer on the internet with more than 75,000,000 views on his work.Cole rose to internet stardom in 2015 when he became the #1 most-read writer on Quora, accumulating tens of millions of views on his viral articles, and his work being republished in Time, Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider, CNBC, The Chicago Tribune, and more. In 2016, Cole became one of Inc Magazine's Top 10 contributing writers, accumulating millions of views on

Getting Local Love for Your Book with Carlyn Montes De Oca

Carlyn Montes De Oca is a passionate animal advocate, international speaker and multi-award winning author of Dog as My Doctor, Cat as my Nurse who has also been featured on ABC and CBS and in Woman's Day magazine.But it was what she did for her most recent book, Junkyard Girl: A Memoir of Ancestry, Family Secrets, and Second Chances, that we focused on. Rather than trying to tackle the whole wide world, she focused on her local area: Santa Fe, New Mexico. As a result, she got in with t

Using Your Book to Build Your Business with Ian Altman

Ian Altman is one of the world's top expert on sales, with his Same Side Academy rated as one of the top 5 Sales Development programs globally.But instead of focusing on sales, we talked about how he has used the book he co-authored, Same Side Selling, to attract clients to his business.We also touched on having a podcast and everything else with the same name as the book, producing an accompanying book workbook, updating a book five years after its release and so much more.Only listen

22 Words That Will Get You Speaking Gigs (with Joel Weldon)

Joel Weldon is not just a Hall of Fame speaker who's been speaking for over four decades but he is also a true legend in the speaking industry—having been paid to speak at over 3,000 events and personally coached over 10,000 speakers. In this episode, we talked about how to nail your pitch letter if you want to get into corporate speaking (he actually recites, off the top of his head, a letter that you'd be crazy not to type up and send). He also gave us the 22 words that will get you s

The Secret to Launching Your Authority Building Book

This week, I usher a new baby into the world...My book, On Good Authority: 7 Steps to Prepare, Promote and Profit From a How-to Book That Makes You the Go-to Expert, is now out and this week's episode is an excerpt from the audiobook.It's the book's introduction, which is all about how we're in the Golden Age of authority building from a book and how you can take advantage of that.Only listen if you want to build authority with your book. GRAB THE BOOK BY GOING TO WWW.ONGOODAMAZON.COM!

Connect Your Way to a Successful Book Launch with Ryan Paugh

Do the words "networking for your book launch" make you want to curl up in a small ball and rock back and forth?This week's guest will assuage your anxieties...or at least get you to uncurl.Ryan Paugh isn't just a thought leader, but also a community-building, relationship-forging, entrepreneur-enabling force to be reckoned with. And he's a self-proclaimed introvert!The co-author of the book Superconnector: Stop Networking and Start Building Business Relationships That Matter, Ryan shar

Why It's Better to Sell 100 Books Than 10,000

Traditional publishers lie.They tell you that you have to sell 10,000 copies of your book for it to be successful.Or 5000.Or 1000.They're wrong. I'd rather sell 100 copies of my book to the right reader than 10,000 copies to readers who won't really care.In this episode, I explain why.This is another of the episodes based on the book I'm writing. Speaking of, if you want exclusive stories, resources and info about this book as I write it, you can sign up for that on annadbook.com.

Why Podcasts are the Best Promo for Authors (and How to Get on Them)

Good news: going on podcasts is the best way to promote your book. Podcast listeners are eager to learn and read books.Even more good news: Podcast hosts love to book authors.So there has to be a catch, right?Well, here it is: most of us are pitched daily, in the worst ways.Listen to this episode to find out the absolute best way to pitch yourself to the podcasts you want to be on...and then how to slay once you're on there.This is another of the episodes based on the book I'm writing.

Make Sure You're Writing the Right Book with Nicole Kalil

Nicole Kalil is someone who practices what she preaches.A fugitive of the C-suite at a Fortune 100 company, she has coached hundreds of women in business and speaks around the world.When she was gearing up to her launch her book, Validation is for Parking, she heavily invested in social media (to the tune of $9,000 a month!) She also set out to write a book debunking some of the advice doled out by male entrepreneurs. But she realized two things: one, social media didn't make her feel g

Using Affiliates to Launch a Book with Matt McWilliams

Matt McWilliams is the go-to affiliate guy, which means he's very good at helping people—including Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi, Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington and Lewis Howes—get their networks on board to help them sell their products.Now he's launched his first book, and he employed those same strategies to drive pre-sales. While his efforts didn't land him on any bestseller lists, they did help him add numerous people to his newsletter list and sell a bunch of other products.He has

The Business Transforming Book with Tamar Hermes & Carla Moreno

Tamar Hermes is a real estate investor with more than 20 years' experience and the CEO of Wealth Building Concierge. Carla Moreno is a serial entrepreneur, realtor and real estate investor who has more than a decade of experience buying and selling family and luxury real estate.The two have something in common in addition to real estate: they were both published by Legacy Launch Pad. Also, Tamar is Carla's coach! In this episode, we talked about what Tamar's book has done for her busine

Get Over Yourself and Pay for Media with Jay Jay

Jay Jay is tired of people thinking they just deserve media attention.A former magician who now helps personal brands become seen as the number one in their industry, he's also tired of publicists overpromising and underdelivering.And he has good reason to be tired of it: Jay is excellent at guaranteeing people media attention—in publications like Forbes, LA Weekly and Ocean Drive, and even Maxim, WWD and Us Weekly.In this episode, he broke down why media attention matters, how it shoul

How to Manifest a Today Show Appearance with Rachel Luna

Rachel Luna kinda defies explanations and bios.But if you're going to make me put her into one of these boxes, FINE! Here goes: she's an international speaker, podcast host, former U.S. Marine and cancer thriver. In addition to all that, she's a coach who hosts retreats.As if that wasn't enough, she's now also a bestselling author: her new book, Permission to Offend, has not only been creating waves with its unapologetic, brazen and yet hilarious voice but has also landed Luna on the To

Without Readers, You've Written a Journal

Journals are awesome. Been using 'em since I was six. I've even published a few myself.But the difference between the journals I've published and the books I've written is that the journals are not meant to be read by anyone once I've filled them with words.The books are.But Field of Dreams was wrong! Just because you write it does not mean that they will come.You have to determine your audience, find them and write a book specifically for them. This episode breaks down how.It's based o

Sanity in the Time of Social Media

Social media sucks.It's also wonderful.And it's my opinion that you need it if you're going to build your authority around a book.This episode breaks down why I think it's important and how you can do it without going crazy...in fact, how you can use material in your book for your posts, and build your entire online authority in just few hours a week.This is another episode based on the book I'm writing. Speaking of, if you want exclusive stories, resources and info about this book as I

Get Clear (And Not in a Scientology Sort of Way) Before You Write

If someone asks you why you're writing your book and your answer is "To help people," go volunteer.It's much easier, less time consuming and less costly than writing a book!Or you can just listen to this episode. It's another one based on the book I'm writing. Speaking of, if you want exclusive stories, resources and info about this book as I write it, you can sign up for that on annadbook.com.ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH

Why Rose-Colored Publishing Glasses Will Bite You in the Ass

You're not a delusional person.At least not usually.But you may be one when it comes to publishing.And that's why I made this episode.It's based on the book I'm currently writing and it's about the delusions I see first-time authors suffer from. Seriously, publishing seems to inspire more delusions than Hugh Grant movies!So here's your wake-up call. Don't hit snooze! And if you want exclusive stories, resources and info about this book as I write it, you can sign up for that on annadboo

Getting Book Launch Support From Your Peeps with Amber Vilhauer

Amber Vilhauer is a leading digital strategist but she's so much more.The founder of NGNG (No Guts No Glory) has come up with a system more ingenious than any I've ever seen when it comes to helping authors corral their network to support their book launches. Longtime listeners know that I'm a pretty jaded person who's tough to impress so you know how much it means when I say that when Amber shared her system and copy and videos with me, I was as blown away as I've been by any strategy

What a Book Coach Does—and How to Become One—with Jennie Nash

Jennie Nash is the book coach whisperer.Or at least that's what I've named her after talking to her. The founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, a company that trains, certifies and supports book coaches so they can help writers do their best work, Nash has helped clients land top agents, six-figure book deals and make both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.Also the author of 11 books in three different genres, Nash has certified over 130 coaches. If you've ever

How to Launch a Book by Giving First with Kay Allison

Kay Allison is a former Senior Vice President at a global ad agency who increased her income by six, met and married a man she’s still crazy about 21 years later, helped Fortune 200 companies generate two billion in new revenue, adopted a child and invented four successful businesses since going alcohol free over two decades ago.In short, she's learned how to live a JUICY AF life. And now she's written a book it.While we talk a bit in this episode about being AF and her program for wome

On Good Authority: Publishing the Book that Will Build Your Business Trailer

Where Experts Say Publishing is Heading in 2023

The new podcast name debuts with a first-of-its-kind (at least for me) episode: a compilation of thoughts from the different publishing experts who have been on the show. I was able to get both recorded and written thoughts from a bunch of my favorites, including Dave Chesson, Roseanne Cheng, Amber Vilhauer, Shelby Leigh, Derek Murphy and more. And they talked about everything from social media to AI to taking success into your own hands to so much more. Give it a listen and get ahead o

How to Make Writing (or Finishing) Your Book Your NY's Resolution

This solo episode is all about how you can make writing (or finishing) your book your New Year's Resolution. The main points are: Give yourself a month in 2023 your first draft will be doneGive yourself a daily (or weekly) page countHave accountabilityBuild your audienceDon't set yourself up for failureGet clear on your "why"Set up small goals along the wayListen to get all the deets! ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE

Why Authors Should Be Using Pinterest with Roseanne Cheng

Roseanne Cheng is the author of six books, including The Evergreen Author: Master the Art of Book Marketing and Portable Magic: How to Write and Publish a Great Book. The co-founder of Evergreen Authors—an online school that helps authors figure out the business of being a writer—she is also a Pinterest Queen. Or so I have named her. In this episode, she broke down why Pinterest is the mostly-undiscovered platform for book promotion, how to create boards that attract the readers you wan

How Authors Can Master TikTok with BookTok Sensation Shelby Leigh

If you hear words (but are they words really?) like "TikTok" and "BookTok" and go, "Ugh" or "I'm too late" or "I'm too old" or anything of the sort, this episode is for you. Shelby Leigh got into the TikTok game relatively late and, in under two years, has sold 40,000 books as a result of her videos (one video in particular sold roughly 7000 copies!) This success has led the poet and mental health advocate not only to traditional publishing deals but also to a career as a book marketer.

Launch a Podcast to Find Your Readers with Whitney Gossett

Whitney Gossett is a woman after my own heart. A former literary agent who has sold numerous books to Big 5 publishers (including 26 New York Times bestsellers), she saw that traditional publishing was broken. Rather than lamenting that face, she turned around and created an audio company called Content Capital. In other words, if anyone has her finger on the pulse of how publishing is changing, it's her. That's why I paid attention when she told me her firm belief is that authors shoul

Why Publicists Suck with Christina Nicholson

Christina Nicholson has seen all the bad publicity pitches. A former TV anchor who hit "delete" faster than publicists could send her terrible pitches, Nicholson is the CEO of Media Maven, a PR agency that offers an online course and group program to help people get media coverage without having to hire a publicist. Nicholson is also a TEDx speaker and the founder of Podcast Clout, a database for pitching podcasts. And she's offered you—yes you, lucky listener—a 50% off coupon for the s

Publishing in the Time of Cancel Culture with Tony Lyons

Tony Lyons, the CEO of Skyhorse Publishing, is not one to shy away from controversy. He's known, in fact, for picking up books from other publishers when the authors are "cancelled." I'll be honest...I was scared to record this conversation because the times we live in—where anything you say if you don't subscribe to a certain way of thinking can be an opportunity for others to take you down. But the fact is, I believe that everyone should have a right to say what they believe, even if

Trademark Trouble with Brian Sachetta

Brian Sachetta is the author and owner of “Get Out of Your Head,” a brand and book series that seeks to help folks overcome anxiety and depression. As a software developer, he combines his experiences in the tech world with previous mental health battles to draw parallels between computer systems and the human mind in order to give readers practical strategies for evading their own psychological demons. His two books—Get Out of Your Head: A Toolkit for Living with and Overcoming Anxiety

Why to Ignore the Muse with Robert Greene

Of all the interviews I've done, the one I'm asked about perhaps the most often is with the iconic Robert Greene. This, of course, is not surprising. Greene is an icon in the writing world—as adored by rappers as he is by intellectual entrepreneurs for his meticulously researched tomes on power, seduction, narcissism and more. What is surprising is what he revealed in this interview—namely, that traditional publishers don't do anything to support authors, why podcast promotion is so imp

Why a Book Is the World's Best Business Card with Chris Voss

Chris Voss is someone who seems to have popped up out of nowhere before beginning to appear everywhere. A former hostage negotiator, Voss watched his New York Times bestselling book, Never Split the Difference, become an instant classic in the business world as entrepreneurs soaked up his tactics.  But how, exactly, did his book skyrocket to the top of bestseller lists and become so highly quotable? Turns out Voss took a very deliberate approach to his book promotion and it paid off han

How to Fix a Broken Book: Misty McAfee

Misty McAfee is an author, marketer, real estate agent and delightful human. She's also someone who has some writing out there that could be relaunched—in particular a book on codependence she released in 2015 and a play she released in 2021. In this episode, we went through both and discussed how she could change her title, cover, description, publishing company and more. We also discussed what made her launch the way she did, how to relaunch a book while keeping your existing Amazon r

How to Sell 1000s of Books Before Even Writing it with Dan Nicholson

Dan Nicholson graduated summa cum laude from Seattle University with degrees in accounting and information systems before completing a fellowship at the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. He went on to work at Deloitte and various Fortune 500 companies and has been named to CPA Practice Advisor’s 40 Under 40 list of global accountants four times. But, as he might say, blah blah blah. His passion—and what he wrote his book Rigging the Game about—is what he had to unlearn after doin

How to Fix a Broken Book: John Checki

Did you launch a book and have it not go according to plan? That's what happened to John Checki, which is why he's the ideal person to feature on my new type of episode, "How to Fix a Broken Book." He released his book, Spend Time and Save Money, in 2020 and while it's served as a business card for his son JJ (they wrote it together), it hasn't moved the needle nearly as much as it could have. And so we discussed how his title, cover, description, byline, publisher name and reviews, amo

How Authors Can Avoid Getting Sued with Maria Riegger

Many authors are afraid of getting sued. Many authors are confused about copyright. (It's legit confusing.) Many authors don't know that they should establish an LLC. That's why author and attorney Maria Riegger's advice and suggestions were so useful.  In this episode, we talked about how to copyright your book, the risks of writing about someone you know and the importance of setting up an LLC, among many other things. She's also written a book, Legal Issues Authors Must Consider, tha

"My First Launch" (Round Table!)

Oh, wait a treat this one is! Here you're getting four for the (free!) price of one: a round table interview with four of my clients at ONCE: Barbara Legere, Tamar Hermes, Chris Joseph and Lauren Schwarzfeld on the anxieties and excitement of their first book launch. Only listen if you want to hear the disparate experiences authors have on their first book launch! IF YOU'RE WRITING A NON-FICTION BOOK, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.

How to Make Your Book Into a Podcast with Jeremy Enns

Jeremy Enns is the founder of Podcast Marketing Academy, the only growth-focused podcast education platform for experienced creators, brands and marketers looking to build long-term, sustainable audience growth systems. We met five years ago at the World Domination Summit in Portland and I've followed his work religiously ever since. I've had other guests on before to talk about how authors can get booked on podcasts but I wanted to bring him on to talk about how authors can turn their

The Big Mistake You Need to Avoid with Craig Stanland

Boy, does Craig Stanland have a story to tell. It starts with the FBI knocking on his door, followed by two years in prison. But that's not really what we delve into here. Instead we talk about the book he wrote on his experience—and the one major mistake he made. Now that he's at work on book number two (title TBD—we get into that in the conversation), he's approaching everything differently. Find out about that, as well as how he's planning to use videos to launch his next book, in th

Author Newsletter Musts with Holly Darling

Holly Darling is the owner of Holly Darling HQ, a business that focuses on helping authors create and implement their email marketing strategies to sell more books and build their brand loyalty.  In other words, she was the perfect person for me to interview about why you need to start your author newsletter list now—and the most effective ways to do that. In this episode, we talked about so many things, including but not limited to: which newsletter provider is the best one to start wi

SPECIAL EPISODE: Publishing Party Pod!

Dear listener: You're going to notice something quickly: this is not a regular episode. Instead it's an episode of my brand new podcast with iconic writer Zara Barrie.   It's called Publishing Party Pod and you can find it wherever you get your podcasts. But I'm giving you a taste of it—just this first episode—today.   In this season, we talk about all the things you're not supposed to talk about but that we, over the course of our respective careers, have written about.   It's a quickie and whi

The Secret to Getting Amazon Reviews for Your Book with Craig Tuch

Craig Tuch is doing God's work. At least when it comes to the author who really wants Amazon reviews. See, Tuch started a company called Hidden Gems that, among other author services, provides a way for authors to gather reader reviews for their books. As anyone who has managed an Advanced Reader Team can attest, getting people to follow through on actually writing the reviews they've promised is no simple feat. Hidden Gems to the rescue—with very reasonable prices to boot! In this inte

How a Book Can Make You $5 Million with Rich Goldstein

Rich Goldstein is a patent attorney, speaker, host of the Innovations and Breakthroughs podcast and, most relevantly for this show, the author of the bestselling book The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent, which was published by the American Bar Association. He's someone who understands through and through what a book can do for someone's business and in this episode, we got into all that as well as how writing a book changed Rich's career, why he sends a copy of the book to anyo

What You NEED If You Don't Want Your How-To Book to Fail

This solo episode is material from the book I'm currently writing (working title The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Preparing, Promoting and Profiting from Your How-to Book). I'm sharing it with you for several reasons: 1) If you're writing a how-to book, you need it. It is all about the WHY, WHAT and WHO of conceptualizing a how-to book. 2) I am practicing what I preach in this book, which is SHARE WHAT YOU'RE WORKING on with your audience so the people you're writing it for can give you feed

You’re Going About Promoting Your Book on Podcasts all Wrong with Alex Sanfilippo

Alex Sanfilippo is the host of the top-rated podcast Podcasting Made Simple, the founder of PodPros.com, a software company focused specifically on the podcasting industry and the co-creator of PodMatch, a service that matches podcast guests and hosts together for interviews. That's not all! He also co-founded PodcastSOP, a project management tool that helps podcasters keep up with their episode releases. You get it: the guy is POD OBSESSED. So who better to come on the show to talk abo

The 5 Most Common Questions of First-Time Authors

Today, in this solo episode, I'm answering the five most common questions first-time authors have. They are: Do I need a copyright for my book?How many copies of my book will be printed?If I launched a book, and I didn't sell many copies, should I relaunch it?Should I sell my book only on Amazon? Forgive me, that's four. I honestly thought when I recorded it that it was five. I am truly this bad with numbers. Good thing I can do words, no? IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH

11 Reasons Every Entrepreneur Should Launch a Book

This solo episode is focused on 11 reasons every entrepreneur should launch a book. They are: Less money spent on adsLess money and time spent on client acquisitionLess money spent on PRMore effective podcast interviewsLess time spent creating contentLess time spent coming up with keynotes since they can come from the bookLess worrying about the competition, and wondering why someone else got the media hit or speaking gigNumerous opportunities to impress the F out of everyone who hears

The 7 Biggest Mistakes First-Time Authors Make

This solo episode is focused on the seven biggest mistakes first-time authors make. They are: Skimping on cover designNot optimizing book descriptionsNot have a reason why/CTASlacking on editingNot gathering reader reviewsNot getting that it's not about themListening to people who give bad advice once the book is written Listen to get all the deets! IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Why You Need to Make Sure Your Readers Aren’t Broke with Scott Duffy

Scott Duffy is an entrepreneur and business strategist. He is listed as a “Top 10 Speaker” by Entrepreneur and has been named one of the “Top Influential People To Follow” by Yahoo! Finance. He's also the author of three different business books on three different topics, from three different publishers and launched in three entirely different ways. When I was at his mastermind a few weeks ago, he articulated why entrepreneurs should launch books in a way that was clearer than I'd ever

How to Get Over Yourself and Just Promote Your Book with Jerry Stahl

Jerry Stahl is the iconic author of Permanent Midnight (made into a movie starring Ben Stiller), among nine other books (among them, OG Dad, Pain Killers, I, Fatty, Perv, Plainclothes Naked, Happy Mutant Baby Pills, Bad Sex on Speed and his latest, Nien Nien: One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust). A Pushcart Prize–winning author, Stahl’s work has appeared in Esquire, Vice, The Believer, Tin House, Los Angeles Review of Books and the New York Tim

The Business of Being a Writer with Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman has an icon in the publishing space. With over two decades of experience in the business, she is truly considered the world's leading expert on traditional publishing, self publishing and where the twain shall meet. She's the curator of The Hot Sheet, a biweekly paid newsletter, oversees a wildly popular blog and is also the author of The Business of Being a Writer. In this episode, we discussed how important it is to know what you want your book to do for you, how to get

How to Make Your Book Into a TEDx Talk with Bridget Sampson

Bridget Sampson is a Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies, the author of Communication Secrets for Success and the co-author of Communication Training and Development. She's also a TEDx speaker who helps other people write and deliver their TEDx talks.  All of this made her the perfect person to talk to about how to convert your book into a TEDx talk, whether or not you should outline or write the talk out completely, how to book a TEDx slot, how many times to practice, what to w

The Secret to Getting Media Attention with HARO Creator Peter Shankman

Peter Shankman is many things, among them a five-time best selling author, entrepreneur and corporate in-person and virtual keynote speaker who focuses on customer service. But in this episode I got him speaking about something so many of you ask me about: HARO, or Help a Reporter Out...the website he started (and sold to Cision many years ago) that helps so many authors get featured in mainstream media. In this conversation, which happened in rapid fire while he was in the throws of sa

Approaching Your Book Like It's a Business with Bonnie Habyan

Bonnie Habyan is a communications marketing professional with an MBA in banking and finance. She's been a news reporter, a wedding DJ and even a Miss Baltimore Oriole.But now she's taken on a whole new role: as an author. Her book, The World According to Bess, is a true love letter to her 90-year-old mother—a woman who can definitely give the Sh*t My Dad guy's dad a run for his money.What surprised Bonnie the most about the book process is that, despite her history in marketing, launchi

Write a Letter to Your Future Reader with Elizabeth Lyons

Elizabeth Lyons is the creator of the Book Writing Accelerator and a five-time author whose first book, which she wrote because she couldn't find another book on the topic and really needed it, sold over 20,000 copies. As someone who helps aspiring authors write and publish books, she's become a bit of my comrade-in-arms the past few years, where we regularly text each other questions, concerns and the occasional (or not so occasional) gripe. We have so many feelings and thoughts about

How to Sell Over 10 Million Copies (and Have Your Books Made Into Movies) with Ben Mezrich

Ben Mezrich has sold over 10 million copies of his books. And, by the way, that’s not even the impressive part. The impressive part is that he sells EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS BOOKS as a movie or TV show; in fact, if Hollywood isn’t interested in the treatment, he doesn’t even write the book. Mezrich has gotten into this position because of a chance encounter with some MIT students, which led to his writing Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for

Making Books Into Movies with Warner Bros Studio Head Mike DeLuca

Mike De Luca has, arguably, more experience than anyone else out there when it comes to turning books into movies: three of the four times he's done it (for The Social Network, Moneyball and Captain Phillips), he has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and the one time he wasn't nominated for one of his book-to-film adaptations, it was for a little movie called 50 Shades of Gray. He's done several other million things in his career, including discovering Paul Thomas And

How Paul Angone Got a Book Deal and Sold Over 100k Books

Paul Angone had an extremely unusual journey to success as an author. First, he tried to sell a book. For eight years. Nary a bite. Then a blog post he dashed off went viral. Very viral. From there, he was able to sell a book based on that blog post to a publisher. The problem was that he had to finish it in a month. Well that book and the next have sold over 100,000 copies and launched a massive speaking career. But that's not even why I wanted to have him on the podcast. I wanted him

Making a Newsletter Into a Book with Jeff Kober

While Jeff Kober is a terribly successful actor—having appeared on The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, Shameless, New Girl, NCIS: Los Angeles,  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, ER, 24, The Closer and Criminal Minds, among many other shows—it is only one of the many things he does. In fact, although he's a good friend that I adore, I will admit right here and now that I've never seen any of his acting. Sorry, Jeff! But that's because I think of him pr

Writing a Book in Public with Jesse J. Anderson

Jesse J. Anderson's journey to bookdom is unlike any other guest I've had on the show. For one, he's not launching a book to help build his business. Also, that book—Refocus: A Practical Guide to Adult ADHD—hasn't launched yet. In fact, he hasn't even finished writing it. Why, then, you may ask, would I have him on the show? Well, part of the reason is entirely selfish: he's writing a book in public and I want to write my next book in public so this is simply a shameless attempt to get

Yes, You Can Sell Your Book as a Series of NFTs

Elle Griffin is the Editor-of-Chief of Utah Business and a freelance journalist and co-founder of Cryptopia, a web3 festival that debuted in 2022. But I most wanted to talk to her about how she's brought her books into the Web 3 world. See, she's not only crowdfunded a novel using crypto but she's publishing her next novel as an NFT series on Twitter. I first became aware of her through Jane Friedman and began subscribing to her Substack. Then I came across this story in Hacker Noon abo

Is Making an NFT Out of Your Book Ridiculous?

Lee Richter is a business, leader, visionary and entrepreneur since the 1990’s who has built and sold several multi-million dollar companies. Lately she's been schooling me on the whole Web 3.0 space—in particular how authors can get into the NFT world.And that's exactly what we talked about in this episode. She broke down different tactics authors can take—whether it's writing special intros to certain copies of the book, sending physical copies of the book to your NFT buyer, including

How You Can Write a Book Everyone Recommends with Rob Fitzpatrick

This may be the most useful podcast I've ever released. That's because it's with a guy who's an expert on something EVERY author wants: getting people to recommend your book. His name is Rob Fitzpatrick and he's a former programmer who dropped out of grad school to go to YCombinator with his first startup. It's that background—along with his nearly decade and a half of experience as an entrepreneur—that helps make sense of the fact that he's the guy who's seemingly cracked the code on h

Creating the Biggest Audience Possible with Becky Robinson

Becky Robinson has helped launch over 150 books. Now she's launching her first traditionally published book of her own—and it's all about having a lasting impact on your readers.WANT 7 DAYS OF WRITING TIPS? GO TO  WWW.YOURBOOKWRITINGTIPS.COM

How to Figure Out Your Business Book: Case Study Tim Westbrook

Listen in on my "booktervention" with rehab owner Tim Westbrook about the book he needs to write—and how it will grow his business.WANT 7 DAYS OF WRITING TIPS? GO TO WWW.YOURBOOKWRITINGTIPS.COM

Lesbians Gone Viral with Zara Barrie & Dayna Troisi

GirlZ Interrupted co-hosts and authors Zara Barrie and Dayna Troisi on how to turn an online audience into an audience that buys and reads your book. IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Finding the People Who "Get" Your Message with Veronica Valli

Listen in on my conversation with Soberful author and recovery addict Veronica Valli as we discuss listening to that inner voice that tells you that you need to write a book, getting help from the experts and finding the journalists and bookers who "get" your message.WANT 7 DAYS OF WRITING TIPS? GO TO WWW.YOURBOOKWRITINGTIPS.COM

How Authors Can Get Media Attention with Kristin Marquet

In this episode, we discussed how authors can get booked on TV and featured in interviews, the secret websites that showcase what sources journalists are looking for and why it's crucial to figure out your angle.WANT 7 DAYS OF WRITING TIPS? GO TO WWW.YOURBOOKWRITINGTIPS.COM

Become the First Author People Find by Overhauling Your Google Presence with Josh Greene

Josh Greene helps companies manage how they’re found online. In this episode, we discussed the three steps you should take right now if you want to control what people find when they Google you. IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Talking About Your Book on TV and Podcasts with Media Coach Susan Harrow

Susan Harrow is a world-renowned media coach, marketing strategist and author of the best-selling book, Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul (HarperCollins).We met in a cave in Mexico, which isn't untrue but also just makes a better story than the literal truth. And that way of explaining our relationship is highly relevant in this case because our conversation was all about how to tell your story in the media in a way that's compelling—and gets viewers interested in your book. My bi

Make Your Book into a Talk and Get Speaking Gigs with Topher Morrison

Topher Morrison has tips aplenty when it comes to authors getting booked to speak and it makes sense: he is, after all, the founder of Personofi, a firm that specializes in brand messaging for small business owners. He is the author of four best-selling books and was voted one of the top 10 business speakers in Tampa Bay. His extensive speaking career, spanning over the past 30 years, has earned him a global reputation as an expert in mass communication and influence. He has spoken for

Writing a Book About Your Greatest Passion with Robert Sikes

Robert Sikes is one of the sweetest men you'll ever encounter.And that may not be obvious when you first look at him.Because, you see, he's a bodybuilder and massive.And I don't just mean massive in terms of bulk. He's also massively influential in the bodybuilding space, as the leading spokesperson about following a ketogenic diet for bodybuilding. He's a natural ketogenic bodybuilder, author and entrepreneur as well as the CEO and founder of Keto Savage, a health and fitness company t

Is Angela Lauria Right When She Says That Book Quality Doesn’t Matter?

Dr. Angela Lauria is a big believer in using your book to build and grow a business. So why does she say that those who hire you won't ever read your book? IF YOU'RE AN AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Can Being a Part of an Anthology Help Build My Business?

As an entrepreneur, you might think the best way to build your brand is to write and publish your own book. But have you considered participating in an anthology? In this episode, I discuss the three golden nuggets necessary for an anthology to build your business. WANT TO KNOW THE 3 THINGS YOU NEED IN TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO: WWW.LEGACYLAUNCHPADPUB.COM/LAUNCH-YOUR-BOOK-LM

Writing (and Not Publishing) Four Books with Joe DeMaria

Listen in on my "booktervention" with the genius entrepreneur Joe DeMaria about why on earth he hasn't published a book yet. Recorded on the Wisdom app!

Should I Hire a Company to Write and Publish My Book?

A book is an excellent way to build your brand. But what if you're not a writer? In this premiere episode of the Entrepreneur Publishing Academy podcast I discuss why hiring a company to write and publish it for you is a better idea than you may think. WANT TO KNOW THE 3 THINGS YOU NEED IN TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO: WWW.LEGACYLAUNCHPADPUB.COM/LAUNCH-YOUR-BOOK-LM

Entrepreneur Publishing Academy trailer

Make no mistake; if you’re an author, you’re an entrepreneur. You’re selling the world on your book, aren’t you? Of course, it’s not as easy as launching a business and then tossing any old book up on Amazon. Entrepreneur Publishing Academy, one of the best publishing podcasts out there, teaches entrepreneurs to publish books on the specific topic and in the specific way that will launch or grow their businesses.   The show, which has been named one of the best publishing podcasts by LA Weekly,

2021's Most Popular Topics: Media Attention, Book Relaunches & Book Parties

It wouldn't be a year-end episode without some sort of a year-end summary. So please enjoy this compilation of 2021's three most popular Launch your Book podcast episodes: How Do I Get Media Attention from my Book? What Did I Learn from the Party Girl Relaunch? and How Do I Throw a Launch Party? WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

Do I Have to be a Famous Author to Do a Book Store Reading?

In this episode, I discuss how you can have your reading at a book store even if you're not a famous author. I also offer other creative ideas and venues you may not have considered that will make your reading a fun and memorable event.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

Is Creating T-Shirts and Other Swag for My Book a Good Idea?

To swag or not to swag, that is the question—for authors looking for a marketing edge when releasing their books. In this episode, Anna draws on her experiences with the S-word, when it worked and when it didn't.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

What Makes a Great Book Cover?

In this episode, Anna draws on her years of experience as an author and publisher to walk you through every aspect—design, story, marketing, cost, tools—necessary to create a great book cover.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

What 5 Books Do You Need to Read This Month?

What are the five books Anna recommends this month to Portland's KATU viewers? Find out in this audio version of the TV segment.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

Writing about Sex Addiction with Brianne Davis

In this episode, actor Brianne Davis tells all about her roman a clef, The Secret Life of a Hollywood Sex and Love Addict, and how it’s launched her massive coaching business and speaking career.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

The Jeff Garlin Book Soup Event!

Listen in on the hilarious virtual event Jeff Garlin and I did with Book Soup and find out why one of the key elements of getting a movie made is to first write the book.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

The Secret to Writing Success: Finding a Mentor with Ashlea Hearn

Ashlea Hearn is a recent college graduate, a 1st Lieutenant in the Army Reserves and the author of Genesis Mortalis, Book 1 of the Take It Trilogy. She's also my mentee, and a completely delightful one at that. Listen in on our chat, hear how she got her book in countless bookstores and see why I think she's going to take over the world. WANT 7 DAYS OF FREE WRITING TIPS? GO TO WWW.YOURBOOKWRITINGTIPS.COM

Brian Meeks on How NFTs Fit Into the Writing World

Brian D. Meeks writes under his name and the pen name Arthur Byrne. He’s currently working on his 20th novel and has six non-fiction titles, including Mastering Amazon Descriptions: An Author’s Guide. Additionally, he has a thriving author copywriting business. And he's obsessed with NFTs—and how they fit into the writing world. In this episode, we talked about how his NFT project has inspired him to love writing again, why he writes some of his books on Facebook and how we can all star

Ed Kressy on Meth Psychosis and Landing Big Blurb-ers

Ed Kressy has a much crazier story than your average addict with a crazy story. He also got a much bigger blurb-er than the average author. We got into both of those things in this episode. WANT A WEEK'S WORTH OF FREE WRITING TIPS? GO TO WWW.YOURBOOKWRITINGTIPS.COM

What I Learned From the Party Girl Re-Launch

Ohhhhh, does your own book launch teach you some lessons and that goes double when it's a re-launch like my recent one for Party Girl. In this episode, I broke down what went right (fun events out of town, asking someone I knew to help me get in a cool store), what didn't (Launch Squad, I'm talking to you if you said you'd review the book and still haven't!) and what was kinda ehh for the money put out (a publicist). That last question really comes down to...Is this story worth $5k? Hea

A Breakdown of the Bad Art Friend

"Bad Art Friend" is a story that ran in the New York Times last week and it has the publishing world abuzz in a way only the publishing world can be. In this episode, I broke down my thoughts about the scandal and what I think it means for the future of publishing.   WANT A WEEK OF FREE WRITING TIPS FROM ME? GO TO WWW.YOURBOOKWRITINGTIPS.COM.

Erika Schickel on How Friends Make Your Launch

Erika Schickel author of You’re Not the Boss of Me: Adventures of a Modern Mom (2007) and whose work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Tin House and Salon, discusses the launch of her new book The Big Hurt.   WANT TO RECEIVE A TIP A DAY FOR A WEEK THAT WILL GET YOU STARTED WRITING YOUR BOOK? GO TO: WWW.LEGACYLAUNCHPAD.COM/FREE-TIPS

Party Girl Excerpt, Chapter 3

In this episode, I read the final excerpt from my recently re-released first book, Party Girl.     WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

Party Girl Excerpt, Chapter 2

In this episode, I'm giving you another excerpt from my recently re-released first book, Party Girl.   WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

Party Girl Excerpt, Chapter 1

In this episode, listen to the first chapter from my recently released first novel, Party Girl.   WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

Mimi MacLean on Being a Bad Ass Entrepreneur and Author

Mimi MacLean is an angel investor who focuses on female-led companies with something to say. A mom of five, she’s also a CPA, a Columbia Business School graduate and the host of The Badass CEO, a weekly podcast where she interviews entrepreneurs and high-level executives to discuss business strategies, life experiences and what a Badass CEO needs to know. And I'm proud to say that Legacy Launch Pad has just released her first book, How to Be a Badass Female CEO: Slay the Competition and

What to Do 60 Days, 30 Days and 7 Days Before Your Launch

What you do after you've written your book can be just as crucial to its success as writing it. In today's episode, I'll walk you through what to do 60 days, 30 days and 7 days before your launch.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

Sarah Alaimo on Going From "I Can't Write a Book" to Launching Her Book

Career happiness coach Sarah Alaimo wasn't planning to write a book, let alone release it. So how did she come to launch her debut memoir? Listen to this episode to find out!   WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How Do I Re-Launch a Book?

Re-launching your book once it's been traditionally published can be more complicated than you may imagine. In this episode, I walk you through how I did it for my first book, Party Girl.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How Do I Throw a Book Launch Party?

Your party, no matter how awesome, won't help with book sales. Chances are, you'll actually be giving books away! So why do it? In this episode, we explain why it's worth it.   WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

10 Free Ways to Promote a Book

From creating graphics to reaching out to the media, there are numerous ways to bring attention to your book without spending a dime. We go into a bunch of them in this episode.   WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

What Are the Exact Steps to Publishing a Book?

The crucial steps to publishing a book are writing, editing, cover design, layout and back end Amazon wizardry. This episode walks you through them all. WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How to Get on Podcasts to Promote Your Book with John Corcoran

In this episode, John Corcoran explains how you can promote your book on podcasts, when you should be reaching out and why having your own podcast is the best promotional tool of all.    WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How Did Alex Strathdee Get 40,000 Students to Read His Book?

Alex Strathdee is no ordinary writer. That's because he's as much an entrepreneur as he is a writer. And it's how he got 40,000 students to read his first book.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How Does an Author Build a Newsletter List?

A newsletter list is the single most important tool a writer can have when launching a book. But how do you get started—and what do you do once you have? First off, you need to, no matter how daunting it seems and how much it seems like you don’t have time to.   WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BEST SELLING BOOK? VISIT WWW.BESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How Does Pat Flynn Launch a Book?

Pat Flynn is one of the kings of the marketing world and that showed in the way he launched his 2016 Wall Street Journal bestseller, Will it Fly? Because he’s very open about the methods he used, I was able to do research and determine some of his most effective strategies. In this episode, I broke them all down.  WANT TO WRITE AND LAUNCH YOUR OWN BESTSELLING BOOK? VISIT WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM.

How Does John Lee Dumas Launch a Book?

The king of podcasting is also quite kingly when it comes to launching a book. This episode breaks down how he blew his most recent release up.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How to Land a Book Deal With Rea Frey

Oh, do I have a great guest for you today. Rea Frey is the award-winning bestselling author of three suspense novels and four nonfiction books with St. Martin's as well as the CEO of Writeway, a multiple six-figure business that helps connect authors to agents so they can land publishing deals (Writeway does proposal writing, query letters...the whole shebang.) Frey also knows her way around a book launch, having built up an active Instagram through a very specific strategy and landing

How Long Does It Take to Publish a Book?

Obviously, the length of time it takes to write and launch a book varies from writer to writer; Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange while Junot Diaz took a decade to write The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. And I know people who have written massively successful books in a weekend. But the rough statistic I've heard quoted is that if you’re going to write it yourself, expect to spend about 300 hours on the first draft. This episode breaks down how long not just the writing but

Do People Look Down on Self-Publishing?

One thing I need to tell you right off: there was no bigger snob about self-publishing back in the day than the person writing this post. My, how times have changed. This episode breaks down how.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

What Do I Need to Know to Record an Audiobook?

The audiobook market is a $1.2 billion business but recording and launching your own isn't as easy as you may think. This episode breaks down the sound requirements, what it takes out of you and whether or not you should publish exclusively on Audible, among many other topics.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

What's the Difference Between a Ghostwriter, Editor & Coach?

Do you need a ghostwriter, editor or coach—and what's the difference between those three, anyway? I answer all that and more in this episode. WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GRAB MY CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How Can I Use Social Media to Promote My Book?

Social media isn't just for influencers who are shamelessly hawking products. It's actually an amazing tool for authors—provided they follow certain recommendations. I get into all of them in this episode.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GRAB MY CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

How Do I Get My Book Made Into a Movie?

Hollywood is not just going to come banging down your door unless you have a crazy number one bestseller that everybody wants. In this episode, I talk about how to try to make it happen for yourself.   WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GRAB MY CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM

What Does an Author Website Need?

You need an author site and they are so easy to create. But what should be on it?   WANT MY "20 WAYS TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK" CHEAT SHEET BY GOING HERE: WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM.

Can I Get Sued for Writing About Someone?

Are you at risk when you write something less-than-flattering about someone in your memoir? Well, sure. Anyone can sue anyone for anything and even if they don't have a case, you probably don't want to have to deal with the inconvenience of defending yourself. In this episode, I get into my experiences writing about people and not getting sued. PLEASE NOTE: I am not a lawyer, nor have I ever been. While this breaks down advice from attorneys, none of this can be considered a substitute

Do I Need an Agent and If So, How Do I Get One?

If you're trying to publish your book the traditional way, you need an agent. The good news: agents want to find the diamond in the rough. The bad news: They're hammered with a lot of potential diamonds. Here's how you can stand out.   WANT MY 20 WAYS TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK CHEAT SHEET?  GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM.

How to Get an Influencer to Promote Your Book with Jess Lahey

Jess Lahey can talk about so many things so brilliantly that interviewing her felt a bit like walking through an outlet mall: so many choices and they all look so good! But really, here's what you need to know: She's a former New York Times columnist and current Atlantic contributor, podcaster and New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Failure whose new book, The Addiction Inoculation, is the one that the world has been clamoring for. It addresses the question on pretty much e

How to Crowd Fund Your Book Launch with Jesse Krieger

Jesse Krieger knows his way around a book launch. His company, Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press, has published over 100 books in six years. Now he's teaching authors how to raise money for their book launches. In this episode, we broke down that business model and also got into some launch ideas you may never have thought of. WANT TO LAUNCH A BESTSELLING BOOK? GO TO WWW.LAUNCHABESTSELLINGBOOK.COM FOR MY CHEAT SHEET.

How Do I Avoid Hiring the Wrong Editor for My Book?

Unlike doctors, editors do not need a license or even a degree and there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, people out there calling themselves editors who shouldn't be. Don't be like the dozens of clients who have come to me having busted the bank hiring an editor who did nothing. This episode gets into everything you need to ask and consider when hiring your editor. Only listen if you want to avoid spending your whole book budget on an editor when you don't need to! WANT TO LAUN

Samantha Perkins on the Anxiety of Launching Your First Book

Samantha Perkins had all the anxiety that any first-time author has. Except she had more. Her book, after all, is about anxiety—well, anxiety that was exacerbated by drinking. That book, Alive AF: One Mom's Journey to Becoming AF, has not only become a #1 bestseller but has also ushered in a plethora of opportunities—including coaching, speaking, writing assignments and more. And I had a front-row seat through all of it, since I walked her through the process of writing her story and sa

How Do I Get Reviews for My Book?

Readers are a thousand times more likely to buy your book if it has more than a handful of reviews. Here are the secrets to getting people to come through with reviews.   WANT TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH A BOOK? GO TO WWW.BOOKBUILDBIZ.COM.

How Do I Get Media Attention From My Book?

It's actually quite self-obsessed of us to believe our book is newsworthy to anybody; you need to give the media a reason to cover you. Here's how.   WANT TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH A BOOK? GO TO WWW.BOOKBUILDBIZ.COM TO FIND OUT HOW.

How Do I Figure Out the Core Audience for My Book?

Remember that the riches are in the niches and go find that rabid group that will become advocates for your book. This episode breaks down how.   WANT TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH A BOOK? GO TO WWW.BOOKBUILDBIZ.COM TO FIND OUT HOW.

How Do I Make Money From My Book (Aside From Through Book Sales)?

I didn't make a lot of money from book sales but I've probably added a hundred thousand dollars to my bottom line as a result of the book. This is how.   WANT TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH A BOOK? GO TO WWW.BOOKBUILDBIZ.COM.

How Do I Use My Book to Get Email Subscribers?

With newsletters, you are offering readers opportunities to do what they want to do—whatever it is that had them buy your book and then sign up for your list. So how do you use your book as an opportunity to get them to do that?   WANT TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH A BOOK? GO TO WWW.BOOKBUILDBIZ.COM.

How Do I Use My Book to Get Speaking Gigs?

If an event organizer is considering two different people to speak on a certain topic and one of those people has a book and is a bestselling author, that person is going to get the gig. But it is not as simple as writing a book and waiting for these speaking offers to come in. This episode breaks down the steps you need to take.   WANT TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH A BOOK? GO TO WWW.BOOKBUILDBIZ.COM TO FIND OUT HOW.

How Do I Get Blurbs for my Book?

Blurbs, also known as endorsements, are one of the most misunderstood aspects of publishing. Authors tend to prioritize these so much when they need to be asking themselves if they've ever bought a book because of who blurbed it (99% of the time: no). But blurbs are still nice to have so this episode breaks down the most effective ways for authors to get them.

How Do I Use My Book to Get on Podcasts?

Podcasts are one of the best ways an author can reach an audience (as you well know, you podcast listener, you!) But how do authors get on them? Well, there are definitely right and wrong ways to pitch yourself and this episode breaks down both, and also provides information on how you can become a beloved guest.

How Do I Get Clients From My Book?

Experienced authors know that very few of us make money from book sales. Some know, however, that it's quite possible to make a lot of money if you use your book to build your business. Since most businesses don't exist without clients, this episode breaks down exactly how to use your book to get those clients.

Marleen Seegers on Selling the Foreign Rights to Your Book

Marleen Seegers is the co-founder of 2 Seas Agency, which sells the foreign rights of books by authors such as James Altucher. She's also the host of the Make Books Travel podcast. Her team pays regular visits to international book fairs such as those in Beijing, Turin, Guadalajara, Rio de Janeiro, Sharjah, New York, Leipzig and of course Frankfurt and London, combined with trips to major publishing cities including Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Munich and Berlin.   Jealous yet? Well, CO

How a Book Can Transform Your Business with Gene Moran

Gene Moran has helped myriad clients navigate the murky waters of federal sales. As the Founder and President of Capitol Integration and an active duty Navy Captain, Gene has established himself as an expert who consistently brings agility, creativity and results to companies of all sizes: small startup firms, prime and sub-prime contractors, and large multi-billion dollar public enterprises. He is a proven Navy Financial Manager, designated Joint Specialty Officer and was just named on

How Do I Get People to Buy My Book?

Whether authors go traditional or indie, we are all faced with the same issue: getting people to actually buy our books. In this episode, I get into the four best methods: Just Ask Be Strategic Reach Out—and Out Again—to Everyone You Know Don’t Expect Strangers to Care For the show notes, where I break down each of those methods, go to www.launchpadpub.com/blog/buy

How Do I Make My Book a NY Times Bestseller?

It's the question I'm asked more than any other. In this episode, I get into:  Why is it So Hard to Get on the New York Times Bestseller List? How Many Copies Do You Have to Sell to Hit the List? What Happens If You Try to Game The List? If You Still Want to Get on the List... Here's Why I Don't Think It Matters For show notes, which break down all of these bits, go to: www.launchpadpub.com/blog/NYT

Should I Give Up on Traditional Publishing?

Today I'm going to dispel some publishing myths and maybe discourage you a little bit, all in the name of showing you how you can launch a book that will build your brand and your business. But first we have to dispel myths. And so today I am answering a question that came to me from a listener, @michaelcringering is his Instagram handle.   Here's the question: “I started submitting to agents in March because I'm hoping to secure someone interested in my novel. I submitted to 153 agents

Katie DePaola on Building Your Brand with a Book

This is an exciting time for the podcast for several reasons, at least one of which is that WE HAVE A NEW NAME! Yes, this has happened before. Oh yes, AfterPartyPod, Recover Girl, Light Hustler, Struggle to Success and some names I'm forgetting were used at some point. But this is the one we're sticking with and I'm not just saying that!   So why this change? Well, in this episode, I explain that since the show was becoming increasingly about how to build your brand with a book, it seem

How Do I Get My Book in Book Stores?

Today's episode is another one of those Q&A things, where I'm answering either questions people have sent me about writing and publishing or questions that I'm asked over and over. Today's question is: how do I get my book in book stores?   The short answer is: don't rely on your publisher.   The longer answer is in this episode.   Don't forget: if you want me to answer your writing question on this show, DM me on Instagram at @annabdavid.   WANT TO WRITE A MEMOIR? DOWNLOAD MY ONE-P

How Do I Build Up My Profile Enough for a Publisher to Want Me?

The word profile used to mean what we looked like from the side. Nowadays it means what we look like online.   And for better or worse, this has become increasingly important when it comes to selling and promoting a book. So this week I'm answering a question from a listener that's all about how to build a profile, particularly on Instagram, and why publishers may or may not care.   And don't forget: if you want me to answer your writing question on this show, DM me on Instagram at @ann

How and When Do I Come Up With a Title?

Rather than interviewing a guest or breaking down an expert author's way of launching a book, this week I'm answering the question: How and when do I come up with a title?   The biggest problem I see with authors and titles is that some become so committed to the one they came up with originally that they won't consider changing it to something that's going to resonate with readers more. I break that down and talk about how my titles have changed and which I think should have changed in

How Do I Become a Better Writer?

Rather than interviewing a guest or breaking down an expert author's way of launching a book, this week I'm answering the question: How do I become a better writer?   The short answer is: write. The longer answer is: write and read. The still longer answer is in this episode.   And if you want me to answer your writing question on this show, DM on Instagram at @annabdavid.   WANT TO WRITE A MEMOIR? DOWNLOAD MY ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM

How Long Should a Book Be?

Rather than interviewing a guest or breaking down an expert author's way of launching a book, this week I'm answering the question: How long should a book be. The short answer is: it depends. The longer answer is that books are getting shorter. Confused yet? Listen to the episode and you won't be.   And if you want me to answer your writing question on this show, DM on Instagram at @annabdavid.   WANT TO WRITE A MEMOIR? DOWNLOAD MY ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWN

A Play-by-Play Breakdown of How James Altucher Launches a Book

There's no one like James Altucher. Now I get that there's no one like any of us but there's REALLY no one like James Altucher. The hedge fund manager, podcaster and author of over 20 books has one of the most unique writing voices around—a major reason why his book, Choose Yourself, sold 40,000 copies in its first week of release. But there are a number of other reasons he sold so many copies and I break those reasons down in this episode. I get into how he hones his writer's voice, co

Having Curbed Enthusiasm for Publishers with Jeff Garlin

Do you really need me to tell you who Jeff Garlin is? Well, the simple way to handle that is to tell you that he stars on arguably the most adored show of all time (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as well as one of the most mainstream shows of all time (The Goldbergs).   But he does so much more than just come to you via your SmartTV. He's also a standup (um, obv), photographer and author. In this episode, he explains what happens when you sell a book to a big publisher but then it doesn't sell t

A Play-by-Play Breakdown of How Rachel Hollis Launches a Book

Today I'm doing one of those breakdowns of how the experts launch their books (check out my previous one on Tim Ferriss here). And this episode analyzes the moves made by the icon to middle-aged women across the globe: Rachel Hollis.    Rachel has had extraordinary success, by any standards. Her book, Girl Wash Your Face, sold three million copies JUST on Amazon. She hosts a huge conference, has a Netflix documentary and has millions of followers on social media.   But this sprightly li

A Play-by-Play Breakdown of How Tim Ferriss Launches a Book

Tim Ferriss needs no introduction. He not only hosts one of the world's most successful podcasts and maintains one of the world's most successful blogs but he was also an early investor in companies like Uber and Shopify and is the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, including The 4-Hour Workweek and Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers.    Since there's no one alive who's better at launch

Getting Over 5000 Media Hits with Cameron Herold

Cameron Herold is the Founder of the COO Alliance & Second In Command Podcast as well as the author of five books and an international public speaker. By the age of 35, he’d help build his first TWO $100 MILLION DOLLAR companies and by 42, he engineered 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s spectacular growth from $2 million to $106 million in revenue.   So you get it. The guy's a machine. And he's a machine well worth talking to about what a book (let alone five) can do for a career, seeing as his hav

Chris Joseph on Publishing a Book About His Recovery From Cancer

In the last 33 years, Chris Joseph has started and managed three environmental consulting businesses, launched two fan-funded music record companies and founded a non-profit charitable foundation. He has also dabbled in philanthropy, songwriting and magazine writing, and he is currently studying for his real estate license. Chris is an LA native who lives in Santa Monica with his two teenage sons and his longtime girlfriend Susie.    He is also the author of Life is a Ride: My Unconvent

Getting Hollywood's Attention with Sex and the City's Cindy Chupack

Cindy Chupack is a TV writer/producer whose credits include Sex and the City, Better Things, Divorce, Modern Family, Everybody Loves Raymond and I’m Dying Up Here.  She recently directed her first feature, Otherhood, now available on Netflix.  She has written two comic memoirs: the NYT bestseller The Between Boyfriends Book: A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays and The Longest Date: Life as a Wife. Now divorced, her latest “chapter” was published recently in Katie Couric’s newslett

Rebekah ("Bex") Borucki on Going From Food Stamps to Author and Coach

Rebekah “Bex” Borucki, founder of BEXLIFE® and the BLISSED IN® wellness movement, is a mother of five, meditation guide, birth doula, mentor for creative healers and author of books for big and little readers. She has taught meditation and is a mentor to creative healers who have gone on to receive publishing contracts with major houses like Simon & Schuster and Hay House. Rebekah is published by Hay House, the Quarto Publishing Group, and her own imprint, Wheat Penny Press, which s

Meghan Daum on What Happens When Your First Book Becomes a Cult Classic

Meghan Daum is the author of six books, most recently The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through The New Culture Wars. An opinion columnist for The Los Angeles Times for more than a decade, she currently writes monthly for Medium’s GEN Magazine and has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic and Vogue, among other publications. Her new podcast The Unspeakable launched in July 2020.    In this episode, we talked about the mini scandals you can cause

Robert Greene on Using Power and Seduction to Launch a Book

Holy sh*t, it's Robert Greene on the podcast!   Yes, THE Robert Greene came on the show and he talked about the subjects he knows more about than arguably anyone else—power, seduction and narcissism—and how they're relevant when it comes to writing and launching a book.   For you rock dwellers, Greene is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, Mastery and The Laws of Human Nature.   In addition to h

The Oprah Effect with Greg Behrendt

Greg Behrendt is the #1 New York Times best-selling co-author of He’s Just Not That Into You and It’s Called A Breakup Because It’s Broken. He's appeared on every TV show known to man, including Oprah, The Tonight Show and The Today Show, is a life long standup comedian and co-hosts the relationship podcast Don't Take Bullshit From Fuckers.   He's also a life and writing coach, who can walk you through exactly how to write a book like his—as well as how to survive any adversity that com

Jason Pinter on His Journey From Editor to Writer to Publisher

Jason Pinter has had a Byzantine journey through publishing—first as an editor, then as an internationally bestselling author of seven novels and two children’s books and finally as the Founder and Publisher of Polis Books.   So how does one go on that journey? And what does someone who's seen publishing from literally every side have to say about how the industry has changed over the years and the best way to launch a book today?   It's all in this episode, along with invaluable inform

Anna David (That's Me!) on Making Your Message Your Business (Final Excerpt From My New Book)

Here we are at the final week of excerpts from my new book. This one is the final chapter, Making Your Message Your Business. It's all about the ways you can take that memoir you made out of your mess and create something that can support you for the rest of your life.   TO GET THE BOOK, GO TO WWW.MAKEYOURMESSYOURMEMOIR.COM

Anna David (That's Me!) on Always Remembering You’re The Messenger (Excerpt 2 From My Book)

This week's episode features a very special guest: me. I got such a great response to last week's episode that I decided to release a few more excerpts from my new book. This week, it's the 13th chapter, which is focused entirely on how to find, nurture and serve your readers.   TO GET THE BOOK, GO TO WWW.MAKEYOURMESSYOURMEMOIR.COM

Anna David (That's Me!) on Launching a Book (Excerpt From MY Book)

This week's episode features a very special guest: me. Yes, it's me giving you an exclusive excerpt from my new book. It's the 12th chapter of the book and definitely the meatiest. It's also the most relevant for you because it's focused entirely on what to do once you've finished your book and are getting ready to launch it.   GRAB THE BOOK HERE: WWW.MAKEYOURMESSYOURMEMOIR.COM

Blog Your Way to Book Success with Derek Murphy

WANT TO WRITE A MEMOIR? DOWNLOAD MY ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM   Derek Murphy is a USA Today bestselling author with a PhD in Literature, who’s been featured in CNN, writes fantasy and sometimes lives in castles. When not trolling obscure bookshops, he prefers to be sipping espresso, surrounded by kittens and pursuing research on what it means to be a successful creative.   Now the word unique is overused but this is one unique guy. Looking at the am

Why to Read Those A**hole Amazon Reviews with Jay Abraham

Jay Abraham is the world's highest-paid marketing consultant, a proven business leader and top executive coach in the United States.   As Founder and CEO of The Abraham Group, Inc., Jay has spent his entire career solving complex problems and fixing underperforming businesses. He has significantly increased the bottom lines of over 10,000 clients in more than 1,000 industries and over 7,200 sub-industries worldwide.    This is a man who is paid $30,000 for a day of business consulting.

How to Make Your Book Not Suck with Adam Carolla

Adam Carolla is, well, Adam Carolla. The comedian, actor, radio personality, television host and NY Times best-selling author also hosts a podcast you might have heard of since it holds the Guinness Book of World Records record for most downloaded podcast. He was also the co-host of the long-running radio show Loveline, co-created The Man Show and does like 190 other things.    His first book, In 50 Years We'll All Be Chicks, was on the New York Times bestseller list for 10 weeks, while

Neal Pollack on Working with Big Publishers, Indie, Amazon—and Everyone in Between

Neal Pollack, whose alter ego is "the Greatest Living American Writer,"  is the author of 11 books of fiction and nonfiction.   His latest, Pothead, covers his journey from drug-addled literary sensation to sober Austin dad. He's written thousands of articles for publications current and defunct, prominent and obscure, whoever pays. To continue with the randomness, he's a three-time Jeopardy! champion and a certified yoga instructor.    Neal and I have known each other for years, with e

Tyler Wagner on How to Hit the WSJ and USA Today Bestseller Lists

Tyler Wagner is the founder of Authorsunite.com, where he helps people become successful authors.    More specifically what that means is that he does something similar to what we do at Launch Pad—people pay him to write and publish their books.   But he has a superpower we do not—namely, the ability to get books on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.    How does he do it? And how does a college drop-out end up connecting with Gary Vee, Tim Ferriss before launching a

Jeff Goins on How Real Artists Don't Need to Starve

Jeff Goins is a writer, keynote speaker, and award-winning blogger with a reputation for challenging the status quo. He is the best-selling author of five books, including The Art of Work, which landed on the best­ seller lists of USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, and The Washington Post. He lives with his family near Nashville, Tennessee. His website Goinswriter.com is visited by millions of people every year.   He is also an idol of mine when it comes to the fine art of combining writing

Chris Voss on How to Negotiate a Book Launch

Chris Voss may be the coolest guy in the world.   The former lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group, Voss now runs Black Swan Limited, where he brings all the techniques he perfected to the business world.   During Chris’s 24-year tenure in the Bureau, he was trained in the art of negotiation by not only the FBI but also Scotland Y

Nancy Levin on The Role Boundaries Play in a Book Launch

Nancy Levin knows book launches from every angle. The best-selling author of five books was the Event Director at Hay House for 12 years where she oversaw events for mega bestselling authors Gabby Bernstein, Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay. And with her new book,  Setting Boundaries Will Set You Free: The Ultimate Guide to Telling the Truth, Creating Connection and Finding Freedom, she used everything she knew.   In this episode, we discussed the role boundaries play in book launches, why foc

Scott Carney on Switching From Traditional to Self Publishing

Investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney had a blow-out success with his traditionally published book What Doesn’t Kill Us—it was a New York Times bestseller that sold 150,000 copies.     So why would he make the switch from traditional to self with his latest book, The Wedge?     The long answer involves lawyers, shoddy editors, a good deal of hustle and just some old-fashioned common sense. The short(er) answer is in this episode.     So who is Scott Carney when he's n

Gina DeVee on Finding Gratitude When Your Book Comes Out a Terrible Time

To call Gina DeVee a queen is an understatement.   No, Gina is the QUEEN of Queens everywhere.   Her journey from struggling psychotherapist (who lived at home with her parents) to globetrotting entrepreneur has led her to found her multi-million dollar women’s empowerment company, Divine Living.  She has dedicated her career to helping clients connect spiritually, start businesses, create wealth and live life to the fullest.   When her book, The Audacity to Be Queen, was released in ea

Joel Stein on How a People Pleaser Can Promote a Book

Joel Stein wrote a weekly column for Time magazine for 20 years, was a columnist for Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times and is the author of the books Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity and In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You’re Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book.      He's also such a funny person that he manages to come across as incredibly likable both while penning a book defending elitism and while dis-inviting me to his book launch pa

Jen Gotch on How to Pivot Your Book Promotion in a Pandemic

Jen Gotch is one of those people who seems to stumble toward success. She's the first to admit that she figures everything out as she goes along—and it all seems to work out far better than it does for those with PowerPoints, MBAs and the rest. Case in point: band.do, the company she founded in 2008 with no business experience and which is now a beloved multimillion-dollar brand. Then there's her obsessive Instagram following and podcast that she built by being utterly herself—often sha

Create a 7 Million Dollar Franchise from One Book with Mike Koenigs

Mike Koenigs is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, co-host of Capability Amplifier podcast with Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan and 13-time bestselling author, Mike is regular contributor to Entrepreneur and Forbes. He's interviewed, consulted and advised celebrity clients, billionaires and bestselling authors including Tony Robbins, Paula Abdul, Richard Dreyfuss, Dave Asprey, JJ Virgin, presidential candidate Tim Ryan, John Assaraf, Brian Tracy and XPrize founder Peter Diamand

Crashing Past the Gatekeepers with Nicolas Cole

Nicolas Cole is an author and the #1 personal development writer on the internet with more than 75,000,000 views on his work.   Cole rose to internet stardom in 2015 when he became the #1 most-read writer on Quora, accumulating tens of millions of views on his viral articles, and his work being republished in Time, Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider, CNBC, The Chicago Tribune, and more. In 2016, Cole became one of Inc Magazine's Top 10 contributing writers, accumulating millions of view

Why Book Sales Don't Matter with Matt George

Matt George is the kindest man alive.   Don't believe me? Well, consider this. The Peoria, Illinois-based writer, speaker and CEO of the Children’s Home Association of Illinois is the former Executive Director of the Hult Center for Healthy Living and the former President and CEO of Youth Farm, which later merged with Children’s Home in 2007, under his leadership.   In addition to his work at Children’s Home, Matt helps raise funds for local nonprofits, including Neighborhood House, Th

The Live Show With Paul Shirley

After graduating from Iowa State University with a degree in mechanical engineering, Paul Shirley embarked on a nine-year professional basketball career that included stops on three NBA teams, five teams in Europe, and several minor league outfits, some of which even paid him on time.   While playing for the Phoenix Suns, Paul started a blog that led to a book deal with Random House. That book, Can I Keep My Jersey?, was released to wide acclaim in 2007. Paul has since written for Esqui

Why Publishers Suck with David Nihill

Originally from Dublin Ireland, David Nihill is the founder of FunnyBizz Conference, bestselling author of Do You Talk Funny?, winner of San Francisco International Comedy Competition, runner up in the Moth’s largest US Grandslam storytelling competition and the first-ever Irishman to have a special on Dry Bar Comedy. His work has been featured in Inc, The Huffington Post, Forbes, Fast Company, Lifehacker, The Irish Times, TED, The Irish Independent, Today FM, and on TV3.   He and I met

Re Perez on Using Pre-Launch Bonuses to Boost Pre-Orders

Re Perez is a seasoned Brand Strategist, International Speaker, Author and CEO of Branding For The People.   He's also someone I met last year and adored from the get go.   As the founder of a leading branding agency that builds and manages brands for funded startups, high-growth entrepreneurs, Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies, and expanding small to midsize businesses around the globe, Re's shared his insights at numerous conferences.   And with his book, Your Brand Should Be Gay (E

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone to Promote Your Book with Dan Peres

Dan Peres was editor in chief of Details for fifteen years, starting in 2000, when the title relaunched under his leadership. During his tenure, the magazine won many awards, including two National Magazine Awards. Before taking the editorship of Details, Dan spent nine years at W magazine, overseeing bureaus in Paris, London, and Milan. While in college, he worked as a copy boy at the New York Times and later as a research assistant at Esquire. He is the author of Details Men’s Style M

Why to Avoid Traditional Publishing with Courtney Friel

Courtney Friel is best known for her work as a news anchor at KTLA in Los Angeles, where she also hosts the video podcast “Keepin It Friel: Conversations on Recovery.” She previously worked as a national correspondent for Fox News Channel and hosted the “World Poker Tour." She has more than a decade sober and speaks on the topic all around the country. Courtney grew up in Philadelphia PA, but now lives in LA with her son and daughter.    She is also the author of Tonight at 10: Kicking

Multiple New York Times Bestselling Author Gigi Levangie on The New Vs. the Old Ways of Launching

Gigi Levangie is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including the recently released Been There, Married That. She's also the screenwriter of the hit film Stepmom, starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon.  But that's not all! Her novel Starter Wife was made into a USA miniseries and series starring Debra Messing and her novel Maneater was made into a Lifetime miniseries starring Sarah Chalke.      But she's not all work! In fact, she's one of the most fun and hilari

How to Master Book Ads with Nicholas Erik

Nicholas Erik is a science fiction and fantasy author who also writes in-depth marketing guides; this is, in fact, how I discovered him...when I stumbled across this epic guide to free book sites and then went down the amazingly informative rabbit hole that is his website.   While he’s launched over a dozen books in a variety of genres, he also specializes in Amazon, Facebook and BookBub ads. I liked this interview because it was straight-up technical…like you could almost say we were t

How You Can Get Banks, Home Depot and Walmart to Help You Launch a Book

Jane Ubell-Meyer is an award-winning entrepreneur and former television/film producer (TV credits include Good Morning America and Entertainment Tonight, among many others).   She taught at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology for seven years and is a speaker and mentor to authors and entrepreneurs. These days, she sits atop Bedside Reading, a program that places books by the bedsides in luxury hotels and in the media. She's also the most out-of-the-box thinkers I've ever met when

When Your Launch Doesn't Go as Expected with New York Times Bestselling Author Lori Gottlieb

Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is being adapted as a television series with Eva Longoria. In addition to her clinical practice, she writes The Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column and contributes regularly to The New York Times and many other publications. She is also a TED speaker, a ​member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change to Mind and advisor to the Aspen Institute. A contributing

NY Times Bestselling Author Annabelle Gurwitch's 3 Musts for a Book Launch

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and the author of the New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort. Her other books include: Wherever You Go, There They Are, and You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up (coauthored with Jeff Kahn).    She was the co-host of Dinner & a Movie on TBS and has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, PBS, and numerous CNN and MSNBC programs. Her essays and satire have been featured in T

How Julie Reisler Used a Structured Plan to Launch Her Second Book

Julie Reisler, Life Designer®, TV Host, Author and Global Brand Ambassador, is all about helping you to tune into your intuition to be your You-est You.  Julie is the author of the Get a PhD in YOU book series, a multi-time TEDx speaker, the host of The You-est You® podcast and a mindfulness teacher on the popular app, Insight Timer, with over 110,000 downloads. Not enough for you? Julie also has a Master's degree in coaching, more than 12 certifications in mindset, leadership and wellb

The Truth About Traditional Publishing with NYT Bestselling Author Jennifer K. Armstrong

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is the New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia: How the Show About Nothing Changed Everything; a history of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted; and Sex and the City and Us: How Four Single Women Changed the Way We Think, Live, and Love. She spent a decade on staff at Entertainment Weekly and has since written for many publications, including BBC Culture, The New York Times Book Review, Vice, New York magazine, and Billboard.   Sh

Make Sure Your Book is Muzzy Approved with Dave Chesson

Dave Chesson is the creator of Kindlepreneur.com, a website devoted to teaching advanced book marketing which even Amazon KDP acknowledges as one of the best by telling users to “Gain insight from Kindlepreneur on how you can optimize marketing for your books.” Having worked with such authors as Orson Scott Card, Ted Dekker and more, his tactics help both fiction and nonfiction authors of all levels get their books discovered by the right readers.    But that's the official bio stuff. T

Transgender Comic Ian Harvie on Life Changes (Re-release!)

In this episode of the podcast, Ian Harvie joined me on my couch to talk about his childhood in rural Maine, his journey to discovering his true gender identity, his recovery from alcoholism, and his new life in sobriety as a trans comic.

Author Sarah Hepola on Going from Blackouts to Bright Life (re-release!)

Author Sarah Hepola isn’t just a writer but the author of the biggest book about addiction since A Million Little Pieces (as a fellow author of a book about addiction, this pains me to write but only a little because her book is so God damn good).   Hepola’s memoir, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, has been written about in seemingly ever publication known to man, clearly striking a chord among the recovery community and beyond. The Texas-based Salon essay editor has

Jemima Kirke on Drinking After Years of Sobriety (Re-release!)

Actress and artist Jemima Kirke came on the podcast. Yes, those are thrilling words to write. This is not only exciting because she’s luminous, talented and plays Jessa on freaking Girls but also because she has a history with substances that you don’t hear many people share about.   After a wild youth, which included multi-day benders and bouts of depression, Kirke showed up at her mom’s in early 20s, saying she was ready for rehab. She went from one treatment center to the next, findi

Moby on Launching Himself Into a New Life (re-release!)

What is there to say about Moby that hasn’t already been said? The legendary musician, who burst onto the scene with his fifth studio album, Play, is also a DJ, photographer and soon-to-be memoirist (we all know he’s a descendant of Herman Melville, right?) And it’s not just his own music he’s had a hand in; the active animal rights supporter has remixed, co-written and produced music for many of the other greats. But let's talk about how, in his 40s, he launched into a whole new life:

Georgia Hardstark on Life Before She Became a Famous Murder Obsessive (re-release!)

Georgia Hardstark has blown up since she and Karen Kilgariff launched the mega popular My Favorite Murder podcast. But what was she up to before that? This episode—a re-release from several years ago—focuses on exactly that. So who is Georgia Hardstark? Find out everything and more in this ep.

Rich Roll on Recovery, Plant-Based Nutrition, Launching His Podcast and More

Bestselling author, ultra-endurance athlete, plant-based nutrition advocate and sober father Rich Roll has been hailed as one of the world’s fittest men. He also graduated from Stanford and Cornell Law and built up a successful law practice, all while drowning in alcohol. Then, after years of sobriety, he realized he was anesthetizing himself with food the way he had with drinking and what started out as a cleanse turned into—well, one of the world’s fittest men. Here, we talk about fam

Marc Maron on Addiction, Recovery and Launching WTF

Marc Maron appeared on the podcast in 2017, back when the focus of the show was on addiction and recovery. This re-release covers his life BEFORE Obama strolled over to his garage for an interview, before he was starring on Glow...essentially when he was already huge but not the hugest. The legendary comedian and host of the immensely popular WTF podcast needs no introduction but I'm giving him one anyway: Marc Maron has spent a couple of decades honing his craft, has appeared on Conan

Lewis Howes on Releasing Shame Around His Childhood Secret

Professional athlete Lewis Howes and host of the podcast The School of Greatness is also what’s known as lifestyle entrepreneur. The short version of the story is this: sidelined by an injury while playing professional football, Howes had no money, nowhere to live and no interest in doing anything but the sport that he could no longer do.   So he took to his computer and managed to become a social media maven in just a few years, earning millions in the process and then coaching and

Dr. Neeta Bhushan on Surviving Domestic Violence & Much More

Dr. Neeta Bhushan is a former cosmetic dentist turned best-selling author, international speaker, social entrepreneur, advocate of emotional health, and leadership coach.   She helps entrepreneurs own their story, create their message in the form of books to chart their next big chapter.   She conducts Book To Bestseller workshops, and optimizes businesses to scale their message, their business, and their impact. Despite having met Neeta a few times, I had no idea what her back st

Melyna Harrison on Building a 7-Figure Biz After Losing Everything

Melyna Harrison is a 7 Figure Entrepreneur and a business coach. While that's amazing, the craziest part of her story is where she was able to build that from.   See, she and her husband were doing just fine—his business was moving along, they had a couple kids—when, out of nowhere, they lost everything.   She realized she could feel sorry for herself or she could do something.   She chose the latter.   That led to her becoming a network marketing leader, with 300,000 people und

Nick Sonnenberg on How ADD Helped Lead Him to Success

Nick Sonnenberg is a serial entrepreneur, business efficiency consultant, Inc. columnist and author of the book Idea to Execution. He is the founder and CEO of Leverage and Efficient Frontier Solutions, as well as co-founder of the Bullseye Mastermind Group. And he's worked with every big business name in the book, from Tony Robbins to Jay Abraham.   He's also always seemed, to me, to be the ultimate example of someone who's 100% "together," whatever that's come to mean today. He's al

Hal Elrod on Cheerfully Accepting the News He'd Never Walk Again

After surviving multiple near-death experiences and impacting millions of lives through his books, Hal Elrod is on a mission to elevate the consciousness of humanity, one person at a time.   As the bestselling author of one of the highest-rated books in the world, The Miracle Morning, and his newest book, The Miracle Equation, he is doing exactly that.   He is also perhaps the kindest person I have ever met. I learned this when I met him at a college speaking event over a decade ago

Stephan Spencer on Going From Poverty & Foster Care to Success & Love

Stephan Spencer is an SEO expert and bestselling author of The Art of SEO, Social eCommerce, & Google Power Search. He founded the SEO agency Netconcepts (acquired in 2010) and is now part of a multi-billion dollar ad agency conglomerate.   He's optimized websites for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Chanel, Volvo, Sony, and Zappos and hosts two popular podcast shows: Get Yourself Optimized & Marketing Speak. He's also overcome circumstances that would have dest

Shauna Faulisi on Turning Disordered Eating Into a Nutrition Business

Shauna Faulisi is the CEO of Soul Wellness Method, a nutrition and wellness practice that's gained a loyal online following and high-profile clientele by teaching an accessible approach to holistic health. As a celebrity chef and nutritionist, she's been featured in places like Vogue, HuffPost, WGSN, The Zoe Report and PopSugar.   As a former model who moved to New York after college, however, Shauna experienced loneliness, which she coped with by developing some not-so-healthy eati

Emily Fletcher on the Anxiety That Led to Her Meditation Empire

Emily Fletcher is the founder of Ziva Meditation and the creator of zivaONLINE, a powerful 15 day training in mindfulness, meditation and manifesting. She is considered the leading expert on meditation for performance and has spoken at Google, Harvard Business School, Apple and been named one of the top 100 women in wellness to watch.   In this episode—taken from my Apple TV show—we talked about all those accomplishments, but also what led to them...namely being on Broadway, with all

Emily Lynn Paulson on Sharing Her Story of Addiction & Recovery

Emily Lynn Paulson is an author, network marketing leader, certified professional recovery coach, and a member of the long-term recovery community. Formally trained as a chemist and a teacher, she rose to success in the top tiers of a direct marketing skincare company, where she gained her voice and a platform for sobriety and healing. Emily's on Instagram at @highlightrealrecovery and lives in Seattle with her husband and their five children.   Sober since January 2, 2017, her recove

Rory Vaden on the Keys to Success—and The NY Times Bestseller List

Rory Vaden is the New York Times bestselling author of Take the Stairs. His insights have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, Entrepreneur, Inc, on Fox News national television and in several other major media outlets. As a world-renowned speaker, His Tedx talk has been viewed nearly 3 million times, he is a 2x World Champion of Public Speaking Finalist, has been called one of the top 100 speakers in the world by Inc Magazine and was recently inducted into the profess

Brian Kurtz on Surviving Cancer, a Stroke...and Business

Brian Kurtz has been a serial direct marketer for almost 40 years. Just how successful has he been at that, you ask? Well, in his first job, company revenues went from approximately $5 million (in 1981) to a high of over $150 million (in 2006).   His first book, The Advertising Solution, was released in October of 2017 while his second book, Overdeliver: Build a Business for a Lifetime Playing the Long Game in Direct Response Marketing, was released in April of 2019.   Well, that la

Natasha Case on Building the Biggest Female-Owned Ice Cream Biz

Natasha Case is the CEO and co-founder of Coolhaus, which is the is the leading women-owned ice cream business at grocery stores. If you're craving it right now, have no fear: it can be found in 7,500+ gourmet grocery stores.   She has been named a Forbes 30 under 30 Food & Beverage, Zagat 30 Under 30, Linked in 10 under 35 for Food & Leisure, and was recently named UCLA LGBTQ+ 2019 Alum of the Year. She co-hosts the podcast, ‘Start to Sale’ through Eater/Vox Media.   She is

Suzy Batiz on Surviving Trauma to Build a $500 Million+ Company

Suzy Batiz is the founder of Poo~Pourri and supernatural. She experienced some of life’s lowest lows — poverty, sexual and domestic abuse, depression, two bankruptcies and a suicide attempt — which led to what she calls the luxury of losing everything. After harnessing the power of intuition, her journey led her to building her businesses from the ground up without ever taking a dollar of outside investment. Suzy harnessed the power of true transformation and turned ALIVE IDEAS into a

Joe Clark on Finding Friendship, Market Crashes & More

Joseph A. Clark, CFP, is a Certified Financial Planner and has been in the financial services industry for more than 30 years. He is the Managing Partner of The Financial Enhancement Group, LLC, an asset management and financial planning firm based in central Indiana. The firm currently manages more than $450 million serving families in 31 states. Joe is also a former Adjunct Assistant Professor at Purdue University, having taught the Capstone course for the Financial Counseling and Pla

Katie DePaola on How Death & Disease Helped Her Build Her Business

Katie DePaola is an entrepreneur, author and the founder of Inner Glow Circle. Exactly one hundred days after opening her business, Katie’s brother died from an accidental overdose. Also a Lyme Disease survivor, she built her business from her bathtub, taking the company from self-funded startup to million-dollar business. Katie has turned her greatest challenges into her greatest opportunities and says her business is what saved her life. Through certification programs, memberships and

Paul Ollinger on Finding Success After Retiring at 42

Paul Ollinger is a nationally-touring stand-up comedian, author, Ivy League MBA, former Facebook sales leader and host of the podcast Crazy Money.   What this means, between the lines: he was one of the first 250 Facebook employees, which means that...well, he was able to retire at the age of 42.   But does that make him successful? That's what we discussed here—getting into the fact that he discovered he loved stand-up comedy while in business school (ie, the last place on earth yo

Tony Grebmeier on Struggling to Success

Tony Grebmeier describes himself as a husband and father first and then an entrepreneur, podcast host, journal creator, and host of the BEFULFILLED community.   It's this value system that may be what's most responsible for his success. While he's best-known for building a multi-million dollar business, it's his mission in life to create a community where entrepreneurs know they can achieve anything they want despite their past.   Sober since 2008, Tony had gotten to the point where

Lauren and Anna on What The Words "Struggle" & "Success" Really Mean

As the podcast moves into this new incarnation, it felt important to really break down what the words "struggle" and "success" really mean.   Here's why: I've discussed the podcast's new focus with people and I keep finding that they assume I'll be talking to people about their business challenges.   While that will definitely be part of the conversation, the main thing I want to get at here is WHY so many successful people have had life throw so many struggles their way... particul

Anna David on Why Light Hustler is Changing to Struggle to Success

Name change time! Yes, the podcast formerly known as AfterPartyPod, Recover Girl and Light Hustler is now transitioning into Struggle to Success, where I'm going to be interviewing some of the world's highest achieving people about how they've been able to make their greatest struggles into their greatest success. While I'll still be talking to some people about their issues with addiction and journey into recovery, I'll also be chatting with folks about other struggles and journeys.

Coach Mike Bayer on Going From Addiction to Dr. Phil & in the Process, Selling 100K Copies of His Book

Mike Bayer, also known as Coach Mike, is Founder and CEO of CAST Centers and author of the Best Self: Be You, Only Better.   His career began over 12 years ago as a mental health and addiction counselor. After a residency at The Hazelden Foundation, Mike spent five years in the field and became one of the leading interventionists in the country. He did crisis consulting for several of the country’s top treatment programs, including the Hazelden Foundation.   Fifteen years ago, he fo

Lifestyle Business Coach Lauren Wallett Sharing the Shameful

Lauren Wallett is a woman of many occupations: business coach, personal coach, writer and my co-host on SHE-E-O, among other things.   We spend an insane amount of time together and this episode is real fly-on-wall stuff: basically what we talk about when there aren't mics around (btw the mics got screwed up and so the interview was done on my Iphone...sorry if it sounds wonky).   Only listen if you want to hear us confess those things we normally don't—getting into being attracted

Tech Titan Kevin Chiu on Quitting Drinking & Raising Millions

Kevin Chiu is the co-founder of Catalyst, an NYC-based startup that has raised $5.5M from top venture capitalists like True Ventures & Work-Bench to build a customer data platform that helps tech companies reduce user churn and increase product adoption. Prior to starting Catalyst, he led sales teams at fast-growing companies like Greenhouse Software and DigitalOcean. Kevin also recently received the Forbes 30under30 award for Enterprise Technology entrepreneurs.   He is also two

SMART Recovery President William Greer on Alternatives to AA

In 2014, Willam (Bill) Freer launched the first Family & Friends SMART Recovery meeting in Washington, DC. He was elected to the SMART Recovery Board in 2017 and was named chair of its first Communications Committee. That same year, he became a founding Board member of SMART Recovery International. He helped write the SMART Recovery Five-Year Strategic Plan: Freedom from Addiction.   Now serving as President of SMART Recovery, Bill was a guest on our recent Light Hustle retreat where we were a

Todd Zalkins on Being the Worst Case Doctors Have Ever Seen

Todd Zalkins is an addiction specialist, private counselor, interventionist, and public speaker.   The author of the memoir, Dying for Triplicate, Zalkins was the subject of the award-winning documentary The Long Way Back: The Story of Todd “Z-Man” Zalkins, which documented his own descent into addiction as well as his relationship with the band members of Sublime.   Todd is the Founder and CEO of Four Keys, Inc., an integrative enterprise that encompasses four major aspects of reco

Meditation Special with Anna David

We break from our regular programming of stories and interviews for a guided meditation designed to help you get in your body, breathe and then access the part of you necessary to share your story.   If you think you may have a story inside of you but haven't been sure how to access it, give this meditation a try.   We'll be back next week with another interview. But in the meantime, why not give this a try?

The Sober Glow's Mia on Gray Area Drinking

Mia is a teetotaling NYC broad currently living in LA. She gave up drinking in September of 2015 when she finally stopped ignoring the fact that she would never live the life she so craved if she didn't remove the booze. After nearly 4 years of living this unmasked lifestyle, she has organically created a community online of like-hearted women. Mia is currently facilitating alcohol-free adventure retreats, hosting book club circles and will soon be launching her signature Get High Natur

Ruby Warrington on Being Sober Curious

Ruby Warrington is a British writer and thought leader currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Formerly Features Editor on the UK Sunday Times Style magazine, in 2012 she launched The Numinous, a cosmic lifestyle platform that updates all things "new age" for life in the Now Age. Ruby also works as a consultant, while other projects include "sober curious" event series Club SÖDA NYC and spiritual coaching program Moon Club.   Author of Material Girl, Mystical World, Ruby's second book, Sobe

Omar Pinto on SHAIR-ing Sobriety

Omar Pinto is a Life Transformation Coach, Addiction Recovery Specialist and Lifestyle Entrepreneur who hosts the popular SHAIR podcast.   He took his last drink and hit of cocaine in May 25, 2003. This was the beginning of his journey into personal development.   Over the next 15 years he would completely transform his life - Mind, Body and Spirit. It took him four years to successfully complete the 12-Step recovery process in Narcotics Anonymous.   He launched SHAIR in February

Arlina Allen on Sobriety in Silicon Valley

Arlina Allen is many things. A Silicon Valley executive, she is also a writer, the host of The ODAAT Chat podcast and the founder of Sober Life School. Sober since 1994, she's been married for 21 years and is the mother of two teenage boys.   In her own words...   "When I was 25 I hit rock bottom.   I had managed to alienate my family and all my friends. Although I was ambitious, my drinking and using was getting the way of my sales career. My heart was broken after ending a relat

Anna David on Dating a Newcomer Who May Have Still Been High

Anna David is a NY Times bestselling author, journalist, occasional TV talking head, coach, creator of this podcast, CEO of Light Hustle Publishing and the person typing these words.   This story involves the time she opted to respond to a missive from a stranger that read "I'm hot and you're hot; plus, I'm sober and you're sober."   But was he sober? Well, that's something she found out more about when he moved from LA to New York to be with her. Just how did this love story end?

Bucky Sinister on Dating a Mysterious Woman with a Mohawk

Bucky Sinister s a stand-up comedian and author of nine books, including Black Hole: A Novel and Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks and Weirdos.   He's told many stories at numerous shows—including one where he brought a now-deceased friend (in an urn) up on stage with him—but it's safe to say this is the most graphic tale he's told at a Light Hustler show.   Just how does a story about dating a mysterious woman with a mohawk get graphic? Let's just say it has

Lauren Wallett on Flying to America from South Africa for a Date

Lauren Wallet is an award-nominated actress and director who starred on the South African reality show My Top Billing Dream, has been interviewed on national television since she was nine years old, and ran Star Quality Performing Art School and Fame Academy in South Africa.   The story she told starts off innocently enough—a nice night out in South Africa with a few new friends but quickly devolved into flying across the world for a romantic adventure with a guy she met in a blackou

Matt Lieb on Bottoming Out with a Turkey Baster

Matt Lieb is a comedian, writer, and actor from Los Angeles. As a stand up comedian in San Francisco, he was named one of the “2016 Best Comedians in the Bay Area” by SFist and has performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival 2017, SF Skecthfest 2013-2017, and the 10,000 Laughs Festival in Minneapolis.   Matt’s comedy has been featured on the VICELAND, Hulu, SeeSo, and Gabriel Iglesias’ “Stand Up Revolution Radio” on SiriusXM. Currently, Matt is a correspondent on Emmy Nominated short

Matt Gallagher on Doing Acid with a Bull

Matt Gallagher is an actor and comedian who has performed all around New York and Los Angeles. His work can also be seen on CBS, ESPN, The History Channel, and MTV. He created and starred in the popular live storytelling series THE STORY CELLAR with Jessica Wood, and you can see his first one hour special, A Stumble in the Woods, on Amazon now.   In this story, Matt delves into a night he decided to try acid. And then decided to do more acid. And then decided to get into a cage with

Anna David on Babysitting (with) a Movie Star

Anna David isn't just the person writing these words. She's also the NY Times bestselling author of seven books, TV talking head, journalist and blah blah.   In this episode (taken from the Light Hustler live storytelling show), she/I tells/tell a story about an early sobriety "date" with a movie star, who taught her/me that the glamorous life may not be all it's cracked up to be.

Kane Holloway on Why to Not Drunkenly Steal Your Dad's Car

Kane Holloway is a Seattle native who resides in sunny L.A. Kane is a nationally touring comedian, podcast host and he has performed on "Laughs on Fox." He has appeared on VH1's "Walk of Shame Shuttle," "FNX Comedy Experience" and started the Podaholics comedy network. You can hear his comedy album "See What I Did There?" On iTunes.   In this episode, he talks about a night he and his friend stole his dad's car but also delves into a potential answer to the age-old question: what happen

Debi Hall on Handling the Waves of Sobriety

A native of West Texas, Debi Hall has appeared on film and performed in Dallas as well as in Story Salon, BackStory, I Love A Good Story in Los Angeles. She’s written story collections for performance, a collection of screenplays and several novels.   In this episode, she tells a story about the surprising way she found to handle a low point in her sobriety.

Eddie Pepitone on Sobriety During End Times

Eddie Pepitone has appeared on numerous hit TV shows, including It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Kimmel, Last Comic Standing, Chappelle’s Show and Law and Order. He’s performed at some of the biggest venues in the comedy scene including The Improv, Caroline’s on Broadway, Largo at the Coronet, and both the LA and NY Upright Citizens Brigade Theaters. He hosts the popular comedy podcast Pep Talks and is the subject of The Bitter Buddha. In this episode, he touche

Melanie Vesey on Performing for Drunk Trump Supporters

Melanie Vessey co-starred with Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon and performs all over at major comedy clubs and festivals. Her comedy special/album #WildAnimal will be available in November.   She is also a fierce talent who has been sober over two decades—a fact she shares about in ways that may make you pee your pants. To hear her story about long-term recovery, which includes performing for naked Trump supporters, download this episode ASAP.

Anna David on Relapsing on 4.5 Hits of Ecstasy

Anna David is, well, someone who writes about herself in the 3rd person out of the misconception that you will believe someone else is writing this. She writes books and articles, talks on TV and stages and tells stories about things like relapsing on 4.5 hits of ecstasy, which you can hear here...

Author Kristin Casey on Surviving Addiction and Rock Stars

Kristin Casey is a recovered alcoholic and addict who’s survived clinical depression, numerous addictions, the panhandle of Texas and 17 years of Catholicism. Her first book, Rock Monster, documents a tumultuous six-year relationship with rock legend and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, their drug-fueled train-wreck breakup and her ensuing suicidal spiral. Unlike every other affair-with-a-rock-star book I’ve ever read, however, it is as literary and poignant as it is salacious and gripping.

Annie Grace on Gaining Freedom From Alcohol

Annie Grace is the bestselling author of the hit book, This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life as well as the just-released The Alcohol Experiment: A 30-Day, Alcohol-Free Challenge to Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take Control. Her unique approach has helped thousands of people change their relationship with alcohol by looking at their subconscious beliefs about drinking that are at odds with their conscious desire to live alcohol f

Amy Dresner on When She Thought She Was a Lesbian

Amy Dresner is a former professional stand-up comic, having appeared at The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Improv. Since 2012, she has been a contributing editor of the online addiction and recovery magazine TheFix.com. She’s also written for the Good Men Project, The Frisky, Refinery 29, and has been a regular contributor to Addiction.com and PsychologyToday.com, where she has her own addiction blog entitled “Coming Clean.” Her first book, My Fair Junkie, was released in 2017

Anna David on Her Fictional Alter Ego’s Misadventures [Excerpt from PARTY GIRL]

Once upon a time, I wrote a book called Party Girl. I was very proud of it and had high hopes it would be made into an audio book and movie. Alas, those dreams were dashed. But just like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, the dreams are now alive! It’s actually not nearly that dramatic. But there is renewed movie interest in the book (optioned by Martin Scorsese’s producer!) and I decided to make my own dream happen by getting the audio rights to the book back from HarperColl

Jessica Sele on Why Men Should Never Tell Women to Smile

Today’s episode features the very funny Jessica Sele from one of my live  storytelling shows. In her own words, Jessica Sele is a “deeply weird human being and stand-up comedian.” She’s performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival and SF Sketchfest and was described by Bitch Magazine as a “hilarious and talented queer woman.” The story she tells has to do with a fire, a crack addict just trying to be helpful and a very special cat. How do these things tie together, you ask? Well, you’ll

Comedian Matt Gallagher on A Series of Bad, Drug-Related Decisions

Matt Gallagher is an actor and comedian who has performed all around New York and Los Angeles.  His work can also be seen on CBS, ESPN, The History Channel, and MTV. He created and starred in the popular live storytelling series THE STORY CELLAR with Jessica Wood, and has just completed filming on his first one hour special, A Stumble in the Woods, which will be available for streaming soon. While this episode is from his first time appearing in my storytelling show, it certainly won't

Author Dana Bowman on Trying to be the Perfect Sober Mom

Dana Bowman speaks and writes about recovery, momhood and beating the perfection myth. An English teacher for over 20 years, she decided to take up a writing at momsieblog.com while mothering two babies. A chance submission to Glennon Doyle watched her blog go viral and she promptly landed a book deal. Her first book, Bottled, was selected as a Kansas Notable book in 2016. Her second book, How to Be Perfect Like Me, was released in August 2018 and landed her on The Today Show. In this e

Author Kristin Casey on Surviving Addiction and Rock Stars

Kristin Casey is a recovered alcoholic and addict who's survived clinical depression, numerous addictions, the panhandle of Texas and 17 years of Catholicism. Her first book, Rock Monster, documents a tumultuous six-year relationship with rock legend and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, their drug-fueled train-wreck breakup and her ensuing suicidal spiral. Unlike every other affair-with-a-rock-star book I've ever read, however, it is as literary and poignant as it is salacious and gripping.

Writer and Podcaster Tawny Lara on Documenting Sobriety From Day One

Tawny Lara is an entrepreneur, writer and public speaker. She’s the founder of SobrieTea Party™ and Readings on Recovery™ and an award-winning filmmaker of her recovery documentary, Fixed Up. She's also the co-host (along with previous podcast guest and all-around bad ass Lisa Smith) of the hot new podcast Recovery Rocks podcast. But she's also someone who started documenting her sobriety journey from the beginning. With so many people out there wanting to tell their story but scared to

Tennis Pro Murphy Jensen on Changing Treatment Success Rates

Murphy Jensen is an entrepreneur, former professional tennis player and French Open Champion. He’s also the Founder & EVP of Business Development for WEconnect Recovery, an addiction relapse prevention and real-time outcomes data platform that just raised 6 million (yep). He was ALSO one of my first friends in early recovery, back when we would hang out at our friend Allison’s place and really just wander around trying to make sense of our new lives. In this episode (which was taken

Recovery Advocate Tim Ryan on Turning Negatives Into Positives

As one of the world’s leading recovery advocates, Tim Ryan tirelessly tours the country speaking to addicts and their families. The star of A&E’s Dope Man and bestselling author of From Dope to Hope: A Man in Recovery, Ryan found recovery in prison and is committed to sharing a message of hope after losing his son to an overdose soon after finding sobriety himself. The creator of the 501c3 A Man in Recovery, Tim is a regular subject on national media, a Global Goodwill Ambassador an

Anna David on Calling the Cops on Yourself

Anna David is, well, the person writing this. In addition to writing in the third person, she's the New York Times bestselling author of six books, a contributor to The New York Times, Time, Playboy and more, a writing coach and the creator of this site/podcast/storytelling show. In this episode, she/I tell a story about living in West Hollywood in the 90s, giving your front door key to every coke addict in the vicinity and calling the cops on yourself when you become convinced that you

Super Agent Darren Prince on Bottoming Out at the Top

Darren Prince is a sports and celebrity agent who has represented Muhammad Ali, Magic Johnson, Pele, Joe Montana, Smokin’ Joe Frazier, Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan, among many others. He's also sober for a decade after a brutal struggle with opiate addiction. Finally (and most importantly—to me), he's a friend. We've spent the past year working on his memoir, Aiming High: How a Prominent Sports and Celebrity Agent Hit Bottom at the Top, and I'm thrilled to say that it's the first releas

Bucky Sinister on Going to Poetry Readings Wasted

Bucky Sinister is a stand-up comedian and author of nine books, including Black Hole: A Novel and Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks and Weirdos. In this episode (which is from the Light Hustler live storytelling show in LA), he veers from his planned story to regale the audience about what it was like to go to poetry readings completely wasted. To find out if you should be sharing your story, go to www.lighthustler.com/quiz.

Kane Holloway on The Hilarity of Slapping Someone While Drunk

Kane Holloway is a Seattle native who resides in sunny L.A. Kane is a nationally touring comedian, podcast host and he has performed on Laughs on Fox. He has appeared on VH1's Walk of Shame Shuttle, FNX Comedy Experience and started the Podaholics comedy network. You can hear his comedy album "See What I Did There?" On iTunes. In this episode (from the Light Hustler monthly live storytelling show), he talks about how funny it was when he drunkenly slapped someone he didn't know (spoiler

Eddie Pepitone on How Love Went Out a Long Time Ago

Eddie Pepitone is the subject of The Bitter Buddha, the critically acclaimed documentary about his life, and is also occasionally a part of his stand-up act. As a comedian and actor, he’s been on WTF and Conan repeatedly, as well as on The Last Comic Standing, The Sarah Silverman Program, Happy Endings, Flight of the Concords, 2 Broke Girls, It’s Always Sunny and so many more. In this episode—which is from the Light Hustler live storytelling show in Los Angeles—he (hilariously) talks ab

Amy Dresner on Getting Into and Out of the Psych Ward

Amy Dresner is a former professional stand-up comic, having appeared at The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Improv. Since 2012, she has been a contributing editor of the online addiction and recovery magazine TheFix.com. She’s also written for the Good Men Project, The Frisky, Refinery 29, and has been a regular contributor to Addiction.com and PsychologyToday.com, where she has her own addiction blog entitled “Coming Clean.” Her first book, My Fair Junkie, was released in 2017

Kristi Coulter on When a Blog Post Turns into a Book Deal

Kristi Coulter holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. She is a former Ragdale Foundation resident and the recipient of a grant from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The Awl, Glamour, Vox, The Mississippi Review, Longreads, and elsewhere. Her debut essay collection, Nothing Good Can Come from This, was published by MCD Books/FSG Originals in August 2018. She lives in Seattle, where she is working on

Dr. Jamie Marich on EMDR Trauma Therapy

Dr. Jamie Marich is an EMDR bad-ass. Sure, that's a kind of crazy way to identify someone but it's what our medical consultant (and previous podcast guest) Dr. Josh Lichtman (not to mention everyone else) says about her. Her are her stats: she travels internationally teaching on EMDR therapy, trauma, addiction, expressive arts, yoga and mindfulness while maintaining a private practice in her home base of Warren, OH. She is the founder and director of The Institute for Creative Mindfulne

Anna David on Being an Intolerant Ex-Smoker

Today’s episode features a very special guest: me. Since I’m releasing episodes that contain stories from my live storytelling show and I perform in this show, sometimes these episodes are going to feature—well, me. The story I tell here is about the journey I took from two-pack-a-day smoker to the most self-righteous ex-smoker the world has ever seen. If you want to feel better about your own self-righteousness, I highly recommend giving this a listen.

Gayle Saks on Writing About Recovery as a Counselor

Gayle Saks-Rodriguez has been a writer since filling her fourth grade diary with such perfectly crafted sentences as: “Ricky is getting confirmed tomorrow. Since I’m Jewish, I’m not really sure what it does. I should congradulate [sic] him though.” She has graduated to being published in places like The Fix, The Huffington Post, Thought Catalog and Salon and has appeared on HuffPost Live. Now she's working on her memoir, You Ain't No Soccer Mom, about her work with female inmates and at

Dr. Lauren Casey on Falling in Love With a Lifer in Recovery

Dr. Lauren Casey has a fascinating story. The international recovery coach, award-winning author and public speaker specializing in sex industry work, women’s health, substance abuse and trauma hasn’t just learned her area of expertise by studying. Now sober, Casey is a former high-end escort who found sobriety and then, to her utter surprise, found herself falling in love with a prisoner she began writing in prison. They’re still together decades later and now Casey has a book coming o

Brian Finkelstein on Cocaine and Hookers

Brian Finkelstein is a writer who has been nominated for two Emmys. He is also a regular performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and is a host/storyteller for The Moth. You can read his story “Perfect Moments” in the Moth’s first book, 50 True Stories. He has performed eight solo shows in a variety of venues, from the HBO/US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen to the Summer Nights Festival in Perth, Australia and New Zealand. Brian’s told stories on public radio shows including Good

Ken Garr on Competing in the Special Olympics

Ken Garr is a graduate of Second City who has performed at The Laugh Factory, MGM Grand and Hollywood Improv, among many other places, and has been seen on Hulu, Playboy and Funny Or Die. His comedy album, So I’m Sitting in Jail, is now available on the DASH Radio app. In this episode from my live storytelling show, he talks about competing in the Special Olympics, feeling all your feelings in sobriety and burying an idea three levels into someone’s head, among many other topics.

Ally Weinhold On Taking Acid to Get Sober

Today’s episode features the one and only Ally Weinhold. Ally is a Los Angeles-based comedian, writer, and alcoholic. She hosts a monthly stand up show at Bar Lubitsch, called Awkward & Aggressive and recently co-produced a pilot called Murder Roommates with her sketch team, BadAssKnitties, and WhoHaha. This story is about the time she realized she needed to get sober and so she did the most logical thing she could think of to bring on the spiritual experience that she thought getti

Having Miraculous Mornings with Joe Polish

In a rather short period of time, Joe Polish has become one of my favorite people around. The genius marketer (who presides over The Genius Network) and I met in early 2017 and connected over the fact that we were both trying to change the message around addiction. (Related: we also connected over the fact that we were both once active drug addicts.) And so we partnered with Hal Elrod and Honoree Corder on creating a book in the Miracle Morning series that focused on addiction recovery.

Uncovering Shocking Family Secrets with Tina Alexis Allen

You could call Tina Alexis Allen an actor. After all, she recently starred in the hit WGN series Outsiders. You could call her a playwright. After all, she wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed solo show Secrets of a Holy Father and the 12-character one-woman show Irresistible. You could also call her a writer. After all, she's the author of the un put down-able new release Hiding Out: A Memoir of Drugs, Deception and Double Lives. But really the most interesting thing about All

Anna David on Her Three Dealers

Today’s episode features a very special guest: me. Since I’m releasing episodes that contain stories from my live storytelling show and I perform in this show, sometimes these episodes are going to feature—well, me. (By the by, the show, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series.) The story I tell here is about the three cocaine dealers I had during my using days, the different signature moves they had an

Going From Attorney to Author With David Griggs

David Griggs has a JD, an MBA and extensive experience representing and advising clients in matters involving employment, contract, regulatory, licensing, eminent domain, business, injury and other areas of law. But that's not what's interesting about him. What's interesting about him is that he's a sober addict who decided to let some of his most shameful stories out—first through articles, then through a book proposal and now through a book—Taming the Wild Things in My Head, a memoir

Ally Weinhold on What Happens When You Bring a Homeless Man Home for Dinner

Today’s episode features the one and only Ally Weinhold. Ally is a Los Angeles-based comedian, writer, and alcoholic. She hosts a monthly stand up show at Bar Lubitsch called Awkward & Aggressive and recently co-produced a pilot called Murder Roommates with her sketch team, BadAssKnitties. Her story asks a seemingly simple question: what happens if you bring a homeless man home for dinner? If you’re Ally, you make that into a hilarious, ridiculous story. Enjoy.

Laura House on Her Panic Marriage

If there’s anyone who can make a ridiculous drinking story hilarious, it’s Laura House. A headlining comedian who has performed on HBO, Comedy Central, NBC, she is originally from Texas and moved to LA after starring in MTV’s cult-favorite Austin Stories. She’s written on the Emmy-winning shows Mom and Samantha Who, BAFTA-winning Secret Lives of Boys, as well as Nicole Byer’s Loosely, Exactly, Nicole, The George Lopez Show, Mad Love, Blue Collar TV and more. This story is about what can

From Raves and Car Stealing to Recovery and Advocacy with Ivana Grahovac

Ivana Grahovac is a wonder to behold. And she's even more wondrous once you know her story. The Director of Advancement for Facing Addiction and former Executive Director for Transforming Youth Recovery wasn't always the poised spokesperson today. In fact, she's the girl who spent so long raving in Croatia that she decided to drop out of school and move to Milan to model. While living the so-called glamorous life (which she swears wasn't glam), her heroin addiction took hold. Numerous s

How the Unlucky Get Sober with Kane Holloway

Kane Holloway is a Seattle native who resides in sunny L.A. Kane is a nationally touring comedian, podcast host and he has performed on "Laughs on Fox." In this story, told at the live monthly Light Hustler storytelling show, he talks about a number of experiences—being bald at the wrong time, physical pain and what happens when the person rooting for you seems to be giving up on you. The overall theme: even the unlucky can find recovery. And, if that supposedly unlucky person is named

How Getting Sober Sucks and Doesn't Suck with Jules Posner

Jules Posner cut his teeth in his hometown of San Francisco, where he honed his act by yelling over rowdy bar crowds, coffee grinders, and shouty vagrants that have become commonplace in the San Francisco comedy scene. Now based in Los Angeles, he is one of those comics whose writing and delivery make standup seem like it’s just a funny person talking off the top of their head. Reality isn’t far behind the illusion; his riffing paces his written material in quality. This story, which ha

When Your Ex-Boyfriend Takes Out a Restraining Order on You with Ally Weinhold

Today’s episode features the one and only Ally Weinhold. Ally is a Los Angeles-based comedian, writer, and alcoholic. She hosts a monthly stand up show at Bar Lubitsch, called Awkward & Aggressive and recently co-produced a pilot called Murder Roommates with her sketch team, BadAssKnitties, and WhoHaha. Her story asks a seemingly simple question: what happens if you hack your ex-boyfriend's email and then send the woman he's dating a break up email? And what if you follow that with

Going From Zero to Hero with the Comedian ANT

The comedian ANT has been everywhere: a regular on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Tyra Banks Show, he is the only comedian to appear on all five seasons of NBC’s hit series Last Comic Standing. He was the host of VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club and starred in the LOGO series, U.S. of ANT. His hit stand-up DVD, ANT: America’s Ready and comedy CD “Follow my ass!” have sold tens of thousands of copies. On his hit podcast Second Chances, he interviews people about their, you got it, second

Anna David on Eating Space Cakes and Losing Her Mind

Today’s episode features a very special guest: me. Since I’m releasing episodes that contain stories from my live storytelling show and I perform in this show, sometimes these episodes are going to feature—well, me. (By the by, the show, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series.) The story I tell here is about why someone like me should have never smoked pot—let alone gone to Amsterdam to eat a successio

20 Years of Sobriety with John Taylor of Duran Duran

To say I was excited to interview John Taylor would be the understatement of the century. As an allegedly together adult, I resisted the urge to tell him that my adolescent bedroom was papered with his image (covered in lipstick kisses, despite the fact that I didn’t and still don’t wear lipstick). In short, my inner 14-year-old was having a conniption fit while my outer adult had a glorious, insightful conversation with a brilliant, thoughtful man with over two decades of sobriety. Tho

Greg Behrendt on the Night a Burrito Saved His Life

Today’s episode features an absolute doll of a human being: Greg Behrendt. In it, Greg tells a story from the Light Hustler live storytelling show which takes place the last Friday of every other month in LA. His story veers from a night where he was wasted and cold and ended up with a burrito stuck to his hands but also touches on driving a car into the ocean and why we should bring our solutions and not our problems home. When he’s not making Light Hustler audiences nearly pee their p

Feeding the Good Wolf with Brad Vos

Brad Vos is a mental health and addictions recovery advocate who, in his words, "promotes the opportunity, and not the sacrifice, that recovery provides." Canada-based, he's someone who's tried numerous roads to sobriety, including 12-step and SMART Recovery, but finds he has a "bad wolf" who can talk him out of staying on the right path. But he's determined to let the good wolf take charge, something that's evident in his new project—the website Sobertunity, which also includes account

Ask the Shrink: Can You Tell When Patients Are Lying to You?

Most every addict who's been in therapy has lied to their therapist or psychiatrist. The question is...do shrinks know when you're lying? We asked LA board certified psychiatrist Dr. Josh Lichtman for his take.

How to Balance Work and Life with Recovery Elevator’s Paul Churchill

It’s hard to picture Paul Churchill as an active alcoholic. He’s nevertheless got the back story to prove it—including years of destructive drinking, a DUI and a suicide attempt. Yet no one could accuse him of resting on his laurels once he found sobriety in September of 2016. No, sir. He launched the podcast Recovery Elevator soon after getting into recovery and then, 20 episodes in, decided to start an accountability group. Now Recovery Elevator is something of an empire—with retreats

Ask the Shrink: What Do You Do When a Patient is Treatment Resistant?

Some people suffer from depression and other mental issues that doesn't respond to medication. What are they—and their doctors—supposed to do? Double board certified psychiatrist Dr. Josh Lichtman lays out some options.

Natasha Vargas-Cooper on Trying to Seduce a Bipolar Man With a Jesus Complex

We all have stories. Some of us have funny ones. Others have tragic ones. If you're Natasha Vargas-Cooper, you have both. If you listen to the podcast regularly, you know about Natasha but for anyone new around here...she is a wondrous sprite who graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA with a double major in history and public policy and has been published in such places as The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine and GQ, among many others. Her book,

Ask the Shrink: How Do We Break Down the Stigma Around Mental Illness?

Addicts are increasingly more comfortable coming forward and sharing about their problems. But the same doesn't seem to be true for those suffering from mental illness. What can we do about that? Dr. Josh Lichtman, a Los Angeles-based board-certified psychiatrist, breaks down his thoughts.

Losing A Brother to a Heroin Overdose with Stephanie Wittels Wachs

Stephanie Wittels Wachs has endured something a sister should never have to experience. In February of 2015, she lost her brother Harris to a heroin overdose. Her brother wasn’t some low-bottom, down-and-out guy. Quite the opposite. He was actually nothing short of a legend in the comedy business, having been hired as a writer on The Sarah Silverman Show a year after graduating from college. From there, his career was on fire—he wrote on numerous MTV Movie Awards and was a writer and ac

Ask the Shrink: What is Narcissism and NPD?

We live in a world where everyone is diagnosing our president as narcissistic. So what, exactly, are we saying and are we allowed to diagnose someone we don't know based solely on their symptoms? Dr. Josh Lichtman provides some answers.

Ryan Hampton on What Can Happen When People in Recovery Come Together

You surely know about Ryan Hampton by now. Not only has he become one of the world's leading recovery advocates, fighting to take down nefarious treatment centers and shady players but he's also the author of the upcoming book American Fix: Inside the American Opioid Addiction Crisis—And How to End It. He's also one of my closer friends. We work on a lot of things together but the one we're most excited about right now is our upcoming Light Switch: Turning on Your Inner Hustle retreat.

Ask the Shrink: How Do You Separate Depression and Anxiety?

In this episode, I talk to addiction psychiatrist Dr. Josh Lichtman about how depression and anxiety manifest—and overlap.

Developing Healthier Relationships with Laura McKowen

I've long admired Laura McKowen. The sober mama is a prolific writer (you can see her many posts over at LauraMcKowen.com), podcaster (for years she co-hosted HOME, now she's co-hosting Spiritualish) and all-around honest person living in recovery. What do I mean by honest? Well, follow her on Instagram and you'll see more than just Ghandi quotes and hot photos. The woman spills it out there—and people love her for it. While we met at the Unite to Face Addiction rally in the fall of 201

Ask the Shrink: Do You Send Every Addicted Patient to AA?

AA is a controversial topic within recovery circles. Some are all for it, some violently opposed. So where does a prominent addiction psychiatrist stand? Does he tell all his patients who are addicts to go there? The answer may surprise you.

Bucky Sinister on How Addicts Are Scared of All The Wrong Things

Bucky Sinister is a poet, self-help author and comedian, he has published four books of poetry and two self-help books, including Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfists, Freaks, and Weirdos. His journalism, film reviews, and short stories have appeared on The Rumpus, The Bold Italic, and a number of other online and print publications. His novel, Black Hole, is flat out the funniest novel I've ever read about addiction. He's been something of a regular in my world—a repeated p

Making Sense of Sexuality in Recovery with Jen Matesa

Jen Matesa is a recovery powerhouse. Unafraid and unapologetic, she speaks out about two "s"'s that scare some others—namely, Suboxone and sex. She's written extensively about both—Suboxone in blog posts like this one and the sex in two of her four books...especially her most recent one, Sex in Recovery: A Meeting between the Covers (her previous book for Hazelden, The Recovering Body: Physical and Spiritual Fitness for Living Clean and Sober, also got into meditation, exercise, nutriti

Laura House on Going From Bible Loving Texan to Drunk Foreign Exchange Student

If there’s anyone who can make a ridiculous drinking story hilarious, it’s Laura House. A headlining comedian who has performed on HBO, Comedy Central, NBC, she is originally from Texas and moved to LA after starring in MTV’s cult-favorite Austin Stories. She’s written on the Emmy-winning shows Mom and Samantha Who, BAFTA-winning Secret Lives of Boys, as well as Nicole Byer’s Loosely, Exactly, Nicole, The George Lopez Show, Mad Love, Blue Collar TV and more. This story is about how she

Getting off Fentanyl But Continuing to Do Drugs with Drew Grant

I first met Drew Grant through friends, when we both lived in New York. She was a young, dynamic, cool, talented writer who'd worked at Salon and The New York Observer, among many other publications. While I'd always found her somewhat fascinating, that feeling was only enhanced when, during a causal conversation, she mentioned that she had a brief addiction to Fentanyl. I was working at The Fix website at the time and so I did what I did whenever anyone mentioned drugs...promptly assig

Coming Back From Darkness with Sean Paul Mahoney

Sean Paul Mahoney isn’t your average bear. He isn’t your average human, either. That’s because he’s much funnier than your average human. As a blogger, playwright and podcaster, Sean shares his many witticisms with the world?—?including me, back when I used to edit his essays at AfterParty. Just over nine years sober, he’s now working in the mental health and recovery field…and as he says, it keeps life very “real.” In this episode, we discuss hitting (and coming out of) an emotional bo

How to Combat a Tech-Related Addiction with Gabe Zichermann

Gabe Zichermann is an unlikely hero in the addiction recovery world as he literally spent the first half of his career making sure we got hooked on tech. The world’s foremost expert and public speaker on the subject of gamification, user engagement and behavioral design, Zichermann is also the author of The Gamification Revolution (McGraw Hill, 2013), Gamification by Design (2011) and Game-Based Marketing (2010). But, as he observed addictive tendencies in both himself and the people ar

Why AA Doesn't Work with Producer Scott Steindorff

Prolific TV and movie producer Scott Steindorff has convinced authors like Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez to give up the film rights for their books. He's won Golden Globes and been nominated for Emmys. He's worked with Matthew McConaughey, Paul Newman and Nicole Kidman, among many others. But his greatest passion in life doesn't have anything to do with the entertainment business. His greatest passion is related to the fact that, at over 30 years of sobriety, he's watching more

Becoming Accountable with Sober Evolution’s Austin Cooper

Austin Cooper didn’t want to live anymore. Like many people suffering from addiction, he was at the too-scared-to-live, too-scared-to-die crossroads. He’d forgotten that he had people who loved him. When those loved ones did an intervention, he knew he had a choice: to live or die. He chose to live…and in less than five years, he’s become an outspoken recovery advocate. It all started when he discovered some inspiring quotes that changed his life. He thought maybe those quotes could hel

Surviving Columbine and Finding Recovery with Austin Eubanks

Austin Eubanks shouldn't be alive. And he certainly shouldn't be thriving. An injured survivor of the Columbine High School shooting, Eubanks was shot twice as he watched his best friend get murdered in front of his eyes. Afterwards, a phalanx of doctors prescribed him everything he wanted and more, until he found himself on a drug cocktail that included not only stimulants but also benzos and opiates. Marijuana and harder drugs followed soon after. A few trips to rehab didn't do much t

Drunken Escapades with Comedian Jodi Miller

Jodi Miller is what they call bust-a-gut funny (do they call it that or did I make that up?). She's also, as they say, blue. So if you're prone to blushing, you may want to skip this one. If, on the other hand, you don't shock easily and also enjoy laughing, you'll love this one. Jodi has performed on The Tonight Show and America's Got Talent. She's also written on a Cinemax series and been a recurring guest commentator on Showbiz Tonight. In this episode, she tells a night of drunken a

Launching the Global Recovery Movement with Greg Williams

Filmmaker and Facing Addiction co-founder Greg Williams puts most recovery advocates to shame. And he’s one of the most humble people you’ll ever meet. Here’s how the story goes: Williams got sober and was doing just a basic sober job when he started meeting people in the recovery advocacy movement. He was earning a grad degree at NYU that involved studying both advocacy and filmmaking and so he did the next logical thing: make a movie about these impressive folks he was meeting. After

How to Get Arrested and Destroy Your Fraternity with Travis Jones

Travis Jones is a video editor by day and a storyteller by night.  He has performed at The Moth and various other shows around LA. In this episode, he tells arguably the funniest story I've ever heard about getting arrested (and I've heard a lot). Suffice it to say that there are some fraternity brothers who surely regretted every setting eyes on him. He told the story at my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of

From Gutter Punk Rocker to Recovery Hero with Wes Geer

Wes Geer may have once looked like an unlikely recovery hero. The founding member of the band Hed PE, Geer went down the path familiar to many young, wild and crazy dudes in bands...all of which culminated in a trip to rehab in 2004. After finding sobriety in 2007, Geer was asked to join the legendary band Korn and he played with them for years. But just being a rock star wasn't enough for Geer and so, in 2013, he formed Rock to Recovery. Rock to Recovery's mission sounds almost impossi

The Shame Behind Male Eating Disorders with Brian Cuban

Brian Cuban is the ideal recovery advocate. Sober since 2007, the attorney and best-selling author of two books about his recovery is willing to talk about something very few men are: struggling with bulimia and anorexia. And not only is he willing to talk about it—he's willing to delve into how he developed his eating disorder (he writes touchingly about being teased as a kid in this compelling easy for CNN). The brother of Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban, Brian w

Anna David on What Drinking Gave Her (and Then Took Away)

Today's episode features a very special guest: me. Since I'm releasing episodes that contain stories from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, and I perform in this show, sometimes these episodes are going to feature—well, me. (By the by, the show, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series.) The story I tell here is about how, the first time I got drunk, I confessed my love to the big man on campus

Coming Out About Your Addiction with Lawyer Lisa Smith

It’s one thing to be open about your addiction when you’re a writer in LA—aka a person most people assume WOULD be an addict. It’s quite another when you’re a high-powered attorney. But Lisa F. Smith is a trail blazer. The author of the hit book Girl Walks Out of a Bar is also probably my favorite person I’ve never met. (Side note: I’ve slept in her bed despite not having met her; it’s not as sexy as it sounds but that’s something we get into in the interview.) What’s fascinating about

Just How Uncomfortable is Being Sober? As Greg Behrendt Explains, Very

Today's episode features an absolute doll of a human being: Greg Behrendt. In it, Greg tells a story from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. His story captures, perhaps better than anyone ever has before, exactly why being sober is so uncomfortable. When he's not making Hammer(ed) Time audiences nearly pee their pants with laughter, Greg is performing (b

SheRecovers Co-Founder Taryn Strong on Coming Out as an Addict

Taryn Strong was sitting atop the largest resource for women in recovery and keeping a secret: namely that in between hosting retreats in places like Bali, where she and her mom Dawn Nickel were getting women to open up about their recovery, she was doing coke. She'd been honest about her past up until then—about self-harm, about co-dependency, about a drug phase when she was younger—but coming clean about the fact that she was also an addict required a new level of bravery. In this epi

Getting Sober as a Teen with Lindsay Adams

Lindsay Adams is no joke. Yes, she tells jokes but the seriously funny comic also got sober when she was a teenager after surviving—well, some pretty horrific shit. And she bakes! She has a baking show on something I'm too old to understand called Twitch. In this episode, Lindsay tells a story at my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. When she's not charming

Finding the Funny in Binging and Purging with Angela Gulner

Angela Gulner is not your typical actress. For one, the Harvard grad is a multi-talent, having created and starred in the binge-worthy series Binge. Secondly, Binge is about something most people don't talk about—that is, binging and purging. And then there's the fact that Gulner is incredibly open about the fact that this series is based on her life. While I'm not normally a plot summary gal, the plot of the Binge pilot is too hilarious not to spell out. It opens with Gulner waking up

Jessica Sele on How to Get Wasted and Shame Everyone in the Vicinity

Today's episode features the very funny Jessica Sele from one of my live  storytelling shows, Hammer(ed) Time. In her own words, Jessica Sele is a "deeply weird human being and stand-up comedian." She's performed at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival and SF Sketchfest and was described by Bitch Magazine as a “hilarious and talented queer woman.” The story she tells is a basic how-to if you want to know how to get wasted and shame everyone in the vicinity.

Therapist Kelley Kitley on Sharing Your Trauma With Your Clients

Therapist Kelley Kitley could have kept quiet about her own past. She had a thriving practice—first in Santa Monica, then in Chicago—and didn't need her clients knowing about her own experiences. Instead she decided to spill all...in her memoir, My Self: A Story of Survival, a memoir which details her experiences being sexually abused, developing an eating disorder and then struggling with addiction (she's now sober four-and-a-half years). In this episode, she talks about how her client

Anna David on Smoking Two Packs of Cigarettes a Day

Today's episode features a very special guest: me. Since I'm releasing episodes that contain stories from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, and I perform in this show, sometimes these episodes are going to feature—well, me. (By the by, the show, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series.) The story I tell here is about how I went from chain-smoking derelict to sanctimonious ex-smoker who only tr

Making the Decision to Open Up About Recovery With Garrett Hade

Garrett Hade is a guy who usually sits behind the scenes. As the right (and left) hand(s) of prominent recovery advocate Ryan Hampton, Garrett is the one by Ryan's side as they travel across the country interviewing people in recovery, visiting jails and in short doing everything they possibly can to change the way addiction is perceived and treated. Though Garrett and I have become closer over the past year, getting him in front of a camera and mic was a serious treat. In this episode,

Reminiscing About Your First Intervention with Bucky Sinister

Today’s episode features a truly unique soul: author Bucky Sinister. In it, Bucky tells a story from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. His story is about an event not everyone has the opportunity to reminisce about: the 30th anniversary of his first intervention. (Spoiler alert: don't take acid beforehand.) Bucky is the author of not only the hilarious

Mary Patterson Broome on People Who Ask Her If She Really Needed to Quit Drinking

Today's episode features one of my very favorite people I know: comedian and writer Mary Patterson Broome. In it, MP tells a story from our live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. Her story is about something most people in recovery are all too familiar with: those friends from the drinking days who question whether or not she really needs to be sober. When she'

Defying Impossible Odds with John Clint Mabry

What John Clint Mabry has endured would have destroyed most people. John Clint Mabry is not most people. During a tragic car accident when he was 18, he lost both a friend and his leg. The former class clown then got addicted to opiates and thought he was living a terribly exciting life—appearing in movies like Superbad and partying at the Playboy Mansion. Then he lost his brother to addiction and spiraled down that road himself...until he couldn't any longer. Now a sober counselor, mo

Sara Benincasa on Having a Panic Attack in Italy

Today's episode features a woman everyone loves: Sara Benincasa. Benincasa is a screenwriter, recovering stand-up comedian and the author of "Real Artists Have Day Jobs" (William Morrow 2016); "DC Trip" (Adaptive 2015); "Great" (HarperTeen 2014); and "Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom" (William Morrow 2012). She also wrote a very silly joke book called "Tim Kaine Is Your Nice Dad."  In 2017, she adapted "DC Trip" as a screenplay with Bona Fide, Gunpowder & Sky, and Adaptive

How to Brew Miracles with Carly Benson

Carly Benson is a sober wundekind. The voice behind the mega popular website Miracles Are Brewing, Benson is a yoga instructor, coach, leader of a monthly group about intentional living, co-founder (with Kelly Fitzgerald) of the Bloom Club, co-host (also with Kelly) of the Regroup podcast, and all around spiritual badass. While she and I had never met before, we'd both admired one another from afar—and now, frankly, I want to do as much as I can with her. In this episode, we discuss rea

Comedian Greg Behrendt on Hanging Out with Crazy People While Under the Influence

Today’s episode features an absolute doll of a human being: Greg Behrendt. In it, Greg tells a story from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. His story veers from a night where he was wasted and suddenly realized he was hanging out with dudes who had submachine guns into the rage he feels over the way people order from Starbucks to a riff on pudding, all

Wearing a Wire to Bust Drug Dealers with Jesse Heffernan

Jesse Heffernan, the National Outreach and Empowerment Coordinator at Faces and Voices of Recovery, is a Certified Recovery Coach who's over 16 years sober. I was lucky enough to speak to him about finding a toxic community based on similar "woundedness," wearing a wire to bust drug dealers, whether or not he's clean cut and if the word "addict" is good or bad, among many other things. NOTE: This episode is from a Facebook Live interview that I did with Jesse, which means that the audio

Laura House on the 4th of July Party That Lasted 3 Days

Today's episode features the person Louis CK named as one of the funniest female comedians of our time: Laura House. In it, Laura tells a story from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. Her story covers a 4th of July party she once attended that actually lasted three days and included lots of beer, nudity and an eventual police bust. Bonus: it also teaches

The Two Longtime Friends Behind InTheRooms.com

Kenny Pomerance and Ron Tannebaum, or Mr. Clean and RT, are the recovery titans behind the Facebook-for-recovery website InTheRooms. The two longtime friends—who first met when they were in college—launched their site in 2008, when they were both nearly three decades sober. Since then, the site has blossomed—with hundreds of thousands of members attending on-line meetings, watching lectures, using the ITR apps and bonding in ways they never could otherwise. I've been lucky enough to kno

Bucky Sinister (and Urn) on What It Takes to Be a Good Sober Man

Today’s episode features a truly unique soul: author Bucky Sinister. In it, Bucky tells a story from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. His story is about a friend of his who happened to be "the most batshit crazy person" he knew, the sort of person who'd ask, if you told him your mother had breast cancer, "how nice her tits were." He also explains how m

From Workaholic to the Inspiring Woman Behind SheRecovers

Dawn Nickel is a legend in the recovery world. The womab behind SheRecovers, Nickel was in recovery a long time and a self-proclaimed workaholic looking for a change when she realized, while sitting on the beach in Mexico, that what she really wanted to do: help people in recovery. And so she launched a Facebook page. Despite being something of a social media novice, the page took off—attracting hundreds of thousands of Likes as it established itself as the place for women in recovery (

Mary Patterson Broome on Comedy Festival Shenanigans

oday's episode features one of my very favorite people I know: comedian and writer Mary Patterson Broome. In it, MP tells a story from our live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. Her story answers the question many among us may have craved an answer to: what kind of crazy activities go on at comedy festivals? Well, in this one, we learn about "mirror moments," d

Anna David on Her Three Dealers

Today's episode features a very special guest: me. Since I'm releasing episodes that contain stories from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time, and I perform in this show, sometimes these episodes are going to feature—well, me. (By the by, the show, which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series.) The story I tell here is about the three cocaine dealers I had during my using days, the different signature

Recover Girl Talks Creativity: The Language of Recovery

In this episode, Anna David speaks about how discovering the fact that recovery had its own language inspired her to focus her own work on the topic.

Natasha Vargas-Cooper on Taking Ambien in Recovery

Recover Girl takes to the stage again, as I'm giving you another episode featuring a story from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time—which takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. This episode features previous podcast guest Natasha Vargas-Cooper, a wondrous sprite who graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA with a double major in history and public policy and has been published in such places as The New Yo

From Party Chica to Sober Senorita with Writer Kelly Fitzgerald

Kelly Fitzgerald is probably the most successful sober blogger in the world. The voice behind The Sober Senorita, Fitzgerald launched to internet fame when she wrote a post about being sober a year, which The Huffington Post picked up and posted on its home page. Cut to the post going viral, being published in multiple languages and placing Fitzgerald in a position of authority on recovery. She's now been published on sites like Elite Daily, Ravishly and Thought Catalog, hosts her own

Going From Gang Member to World Famous Tattoo Artist with Freddy Negrete

Freddy Negrete is inarguably one of the world's greatest legends in the tattoo world. The former Chicano gang member perfected the art of "prison" black and grey tattoos before going to work for fellow tattoo legends “Good Time” Charlie Cartwright and Jack Rudy in East LA. He logged time working with Ed Hardy (who, for the uninitiated, is a real guy and not just a t-shirt line) and now makes headlines when he tattoos famous folks like Henry Styles. Despite his current celebrity status,

Eddie Pepitone on Neighbors Who Smoke Pot and Being Addicted to Self-Improvement

Recover Girl takes a turn this time, as I'm going to start releasing episodes that contain stories from my live storytelling show, Hammer(ed) Time. It takes place every other month in LA, has been an LA Weekly pick of the week and is being developed into a video series. This episode features previous podcast guest Eddie Pepitone, a national treasure to the part of the nation that knows him. This was the theme of The Bitter Buddha, the critically acclaimed documentary about his life, and

Recover Girl Talks Creativity: Why You Never Run Out of Stories

In this five-minute episode, Anna David talks about how new ideas occur to her every time she thinks she's shared everything she has to say about recovery.

Handling Trauma in Recovery with Buddhist Teacher Dave Smith

Buddhist meditation teacher Dave Smith has been studying the Dharma since 1993 when a series of traumatic incidents (including the death of his sister and girlfriend) motivated him to seek help. Over the next decade, he lived a double life—going on meditation retreats while also living the high life as a touring musician. Now sober over 14 years, Smith has led retreats, mentored people one-on-one and given numerous Dharma talks (you can listen to some of them here). He’s also become an

Recover Girl Talks Creativity: Deciding to Write About Recovery

In this five-minute episode, Anna David discusses how she gently dipped her toe into the waters of writing about recovery—before ultimately submerging herself.

Embracing Creative Dreams in Recovery With Writer Jenna Hutt

Writer Jenna Hutt always knew she had a story to tell. The Colorado-dwelling wife and mother of one had an inarguably interesting life and had been through struggles she knew could help other people: in the span of three years, her father committed suicide and her husband had a traumatic brain injury, all while she struggled with alcoholism. Hutt had always been a secret drinker—her very first drink was a bottle she chugged at home alone, when she was 12—and her secrets caught up with h

Recover Girl Talks Creativity: How "One Day at a Time" Helped Me Write My First Book

In this special five-minute episode of Recover Girl, Anna David discusses how she wanted to write a book her whole life—but didn't make any progress until she learned that writing worked just like recovery.

Going From Anonymous to Recovery Writer with Mary Patterson Broome

It seems crazy that comedian Mary Patterson Broome hasn't been on the podcast before. The Alabama-bred lady has performed stand-up comedy at clubs, colleges and many other places for over 11 years. She's also written for AOL Originals’ Emmy-nominated Making a Scene with James Franco and WE TV’s Sex Box. But most relevantly for me, she's the Editor-in-Chief at RehabReviews.com/AfterParty Magazine. Faithful listeners know this is a website I started and MP helped me run until I left in Ma

Recover Girl Goes to the Shrink: If You Take an Addictive Medication Enough, Are You Going to Become Addicted?

Dr. Josh Lichtman answers a listener's question about whether or not you're guaranteed to become addicted to an addictive medication if you take it enough.

Becoming a Pastor in Recovery with Rock Star Royalty China Isler

China Isler—ne, Kantner—is someone I've known for a while...since I was 10, as a matter of fact. This is because we went to the same grammar school and despite the fact that the place where I grew up was somewhat sophisticated and jaded, our school was often abuzz over the fact that rock star royalty—the daughter of Jefferson Starship's Paul Kantner and Grace Slick—was among us. Despite how China appeared—I remember her being bubbly and cool beyond belief—she had her first drink at two,

Recover Girl Goes to the Shrink: If I Take Medication, Am I Still Sober?

A listener was told by her sponsor that because she takes anti-depressants, she isn't actually sober. Dr. Josh Lichtman gives his take.

Becoming a Writer in Recovery With Paul Fuhr

I'm going to have to be honest here: I'm very invested in Paul Fuhr's recovery—and it's not just because I am a selfless person. I've gotten to know Paul, you see, because he wrote me a fan email several years ago about this very podcast. How lovely was it? Well I'm a hardened soul and it made me cry.  But here's the really fabulous part: after that email, Paul wrote a story on spec for the site I was then editing. And it was brilliant. Cut to: Paul becoming AfterParty's most prolific w

Recover Girl Goes to the Shrink: What is Bipolar 2?

A listener's psychiatrist diagnosed her as Bipolar 2. Then she found out the psychiatrist was wrong. What is Bipolar 2 and how is it different than regular old Bipolar 1?

Quitting Drinking When You’re Not an Alcoholic with James Swanwick

Aussie entrepreneur James Swanwick has been an ESPN anchor on SportsCenter, is the author of ‘Insider Journalism Secrets’ and is the co-founder of international agency, Crocmedia. He has been a print or TV journalist for 20 years, writing for newspapers and magazines in the US, UK and Australia. These include Associated Press, Sky Sports, ESPN, WPLJ radio, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Daily Telegraph, The Sun, Sky Movie Channel, Q104FM, Loaded magazine, Woman’s Day, The Courier-Mail an

Recover Girl Goes to the Shrink: What's a Co-Occurring Disorder?

Psychiatrist Dr. Josh Lichtman answers the question: what the hell is a co-occurring disorder?

From Homeless Skateboarder to Sober Recovery Advocate with Brandon Novak

Brandon Novak shouldn’t be alive. The professional skateboarder, New York Times bestseller author and member of the Jackass crew has hit all the pit stops on the way to the bottom: homelessness, multiple trips to rehab, incarceration and the like. But somehow, some way, the 38-year-old from Baltimore had a moment of clarity on May 25, 2015 and nothing’s been the same since. The guy who once passed a UA in jail by using his cellmate’s urine has transitioned into a recovery evangelist, fl

From Homeless to Grammy-Winning Recovery Advocate with Sirah

In this episode of Recover Girl, Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Sirah, joins me for a brutally honest conversation about her disturbing, crazy, wonderful life of dysfunction, addiction, crime, and music.

Transitioning from Addicted Woman to Sober Man with Ian Harvie

Ian Harvie is the groundbreaking transgender stand-up comedian whom you may have seen in the Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning TV series TRANSPARENT. In this episode of Recover Girl, Ian Harvie joined me on my couch to talk about his childhood in rural Maine, his journey to discovering his true gender identity, his recovery from alcoholism, and his new life in sobriety as a trans comic.

Drinking After Years of Sobriety With Jemima Kirke

Actress and artist Jemima Kirke came on the podcast. Yes, those are thrilling words to write. This is not only exciting because she’s luminous, talented and plays Jessa on freaking Girls but also because she has a history with substances that you don’t hear many people share about. After a wild youth, which included multi-day benders and bouts of depression, Kirke showed up at her mom’s in early 20s, saying she was ready for rehab. She went from one treatment center to the next, finding

Having Carrie Fisher Save Your Life with Mara Shapshay

Writer and comedian Mara Shapshay has had a life of inarguable highs and lows: Growing up outside Boston as the daughter of a sex therapist, Shapshay felt alienated as the only Jewish girl at her school (not to mention the only girl whose mother talked extensively about oral sex). After a traumatic incident in Israel, Shapshay turned to opiates and alcohol; they helped her through film school at NYU, after which she landed in LA and promptly married a gay man. Stints at rehab followed b

Finding Christianity in Sobriety with Author Heather King

Author Heather King puts the rest of us to shame. She's written so many books she literally has no idea how many. She went through law school pretty much in a black out and managed to ace the bar. And she manages to embody the sort of joy that many seek and cannot find. At least part of this surely has to do with the fact that she very much walks the walk. Now sober over 30 years, King converted to Catholicism after having a crisis of faith and now writes a weekly column on arts, cultur

How Pot Can Help Recovery with Joe Schrank

Interventionist, sober companion, Fix co-founder and former proprietor of Brooklyn's Loft 107 Sober Living, Joe Schrank is a somewhat controversial figure in recovery circles. While he's never been afraid to speak his mind, Schrank has just launched his most chatter-worthy business of all: High Sobriety, an LA-based "cannabis included" treatment center that offers, in its own words, "harm reduction through an innovative medication assisted program." The first of its kind in the United S

How Art Helps Addicts with Joe Polish

Marketing guru Joe Polish can't simply be described as a marketing guru. The founder of ILoveMarketing and the Genius Network, Polish is one of the world's leading business coaches (this can happen when Richard Branson is one of your clients) and runs several exclusive mastermind groups. But now Polish has found his true passion: enlightening the world about recovery—in particular the way making art can help addicts. Hence his project, Artists for Addicts. In this episode, we discuss ge

Finding Recovery After a Scandal with TV Journalist Rob Koebel

Former TV news journalist Rob Koebel's future looked bright: he'd won an Emmy and worked his way up to being a reporter at a Wisconsin TV station. Then, in 2012, his ex-wife, a news anchor named Christi Paul who had worked for CNN and HLN, released a book called Love Isn't Supposed to Hurt about her marriage to an abusive drunk—Koebel (though in the book his name is changed to Justin). This set Koebel off on the bender to end all benders—an event which culminated in him getting busted f

From Addict to Political Advocacy with Ryan Hampton

Ryan Hampton was all set up for a career in politics: he made his first political donation at the age of 12, met Bill Clinton at the age of 13 and worked for Al Gore and Janet Reno while in college. All sounds rosy, yes? Well, the reality is that his childhood had been anything but (Hampton's dad not only went to prison but kept his kids in the dark about it for years). After a hiking injury at the age of 23, Hampton became hooked on hydrocodone and, after being labeled a "drug seeker,

Special Episode: Writing Issues: Patrick O'Neil

Regular listeners will notice something unusual here: an entirely new show! I am launching a new project, Writing Issues, where I'll be interviewing authors about their struggles and successes and in order to get it in people's hands (er, ears), I am inserting one of the interviews here as a special episode. The guest, Patrick O'Neil, is not talking about his issues but about his writing career. It's a short episode where he discusses how Ryan Gosling was going to play him in a movie; I

Special Episode: Writing Issues: Kristen McGuiness

Regular listeners will notice something unusual here: an entirely new show! I am launching a new project, Writing Issues, where I'll be interviewing authors about their struggles and successes and in order to get it in people's hands (er, ears), I am inserting one of the interviews here as a special episode. The guest, Kristen McGuiness, has been a guest on AfterPartyPod, but here she's not talking about addiction but about her writing career. I hope you enjoy it and if you don't, I pro

Going From Teenage Delinquent to Treatment Center Owner with Jamison Monroe

Newport Academy owner Jamison Monroe may look like a successful, dashing Southern gentleman and—well, he is. Not only do we rate Newport as one of the top 10 rehabs in the world but Monroe is a sought-after speaker (yep, that was him at the Aspen Ideas Festival) and frequent subject of articles. There's a reason for this: for all that Monroe was born into privilege, his inner world wasn't always so privileged and so, when he discovered in high school that all the so-called cool kids dra

An Argument For Non-Abstinence with Dr. Adi Jaffe

Dr. Adi Jaffe is someone who's well-known in addiction and recovery circles—primarily for his unorthodox approach to recovery. A former meth addict who went to prison for dealing drugs, Jaffe cleaned up his act in rehab and spent three years in 12-step abstaining from drugs and alcohol. And then one day he thought about drinking; he talked it over with the people in his life and gave it a try. It's now 11 years later and his addiction hasn't resurfaced, despite the fact that he's sample

Getting Sober After a Tragedy with Maurice LaMarche

Voice actor Maurice LaMarche is someone you've heard more times than you've possibly heard your own parents. He wasn't only the voice of the Brain on Pinky and the Brain but won an Emmy for one of the numerous characters he played on Futurama. Then there were the parts he played on a little show called The Simpsons. Have we mentioned Zootopia, The Powerpuff Girls, Rick and Morty and Team America? Though he started out as a stand-up who did impressions (in this episode alone, you can be

Managing OCD and Alcoholism with Joleen Lunzer

Comedian Joleen Lunzer may hail from Minnesotta but she's carved her way into the LA comedy scene quite nicely. She was one of three finalists in "Loni's Laugh Off" and produced the LA comedy show "Dissecting the Set." The journey to where she is now—happily married and the doyenne of the website PaleGurl—hasn't, however, been without its tribulations. After following a "slutty" boyfriend to Arizona, Lunzer ended up briefly institutionalized in a place where, on her first night, her tee

From Homeless to Healer with Khalil Rafati

Entrepreneur Khalil Rafati is arguably the least likely entrepreneur out there. Many years ago, the former heroin and crack addict left Toledo, Ohio after getting into some serious scrapes with the law. He ended up living in a shed in Malibu where he and a roommate shot drugs by the light generated by Fast Times at Ridgemont High (which they played over and over again on a VCR that was powered by electricity they were siphoning from next door). Finally washing ashore at Pasadena Recover

Getting Over An Addiction to Money (and Everything Else) With Sam Polk

Author Sam Polk has had an interesting journey to authorship. The former hedge fund manager had traveled what many would consider the picture perfect upward trajectory journey, escaping the confines of a "Willy Loman-like dad" and landing at Columbia University. But an addiction to drugs and alcohol, among other vices, helped him get kicked out. No matter! He landed on Wall Street, where he quickly rose to the top. But then he realized, as some do, that the top was empty and that his li

From Alcoholism to Alcohol Counselor with Erica Spiegelman

Addiction and wellness specialist Erica Spiegelman isn't only the author of the best-selling addiction book Rewired:A Bold New Approach to Addiction & Recovery but also a motivational speaker and counselor. Her focus is on authenticity, in particular how to rewire the brain after substance abuse to become more authentic, and she shares that message not only to her personal clients and in her book but also through newsletters, blogs and her radio show, Rewired Radio, which plays on R

Getting Relationships Right With Luke Storey

Lifestylist Luke Storey is an interesting fellow. A former stylist (he's dressed everyone you can name and plenty you can't), he founded the School of Style, a fashion school for stylists (which teaches everything from the fundamentals of the business and art of styling to experiential, hands-on training) in 2008 but slowly realized that his heart was more in this business called life than it was in styling. Using himself as a "human research lab," Storey has done some, well, out-and-ou

The Double Whammy of Alcoholism & Sex Addiction with Jim Norton

Comedian Jim Norton may, with apologies to Stern, be a rival for the King of All Media (let's just call him the Prince). The co-host of the immensely popular Opie with Jim Norton radio show (he replaced Anthony), Norton's not only been a regular on Leno but also appeared on Letterman and Kimmel. The host of multiple HBO specials and an eponymously titled VICE show, Norton performs stand-up all over the country, is the author of two New York Times bestselling books and has appeared on nu

Switching Addictions with Debra DiGiovanni

Comedian Debra DiGiovanni has had an enviable career: she's been awarded the Canadian Comedy Award for best female comic for the third time in five years, has been called the “Best Comedian to see after a Messy Break Up” and for three years running was named her hometown Toronto’s favorite comedian. Then there's the fact that she was a finalist on the fifth season of Last Comic Standing, performs all over the world and has been featured repeatedly on Comedy Central. But it's not all lau

Making Recovery Your Life with Shane Ramer

Podcaster and musician Shane Ramer has a day job but his passion is recovery—sharing about his journey out of addiction in the hope that he can help others share about theirs. And so one day, he got an idea: why not start a recovery podcast? A month later, That Sober Guy was born; on it, he's interviewed everyone from Paul Gilmartin to Rich Roll to Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach (to yours truly). The father of two kids, Ramer lives in Northern California where he works in customer service

A New Way to Work the 12 Steps with Herb K

Herb K is something of a legend in the recovery community, having discovered a specific way of working the 12 steps in 1988 (when he was four years sober) and then sharing that way with the world. The author of Twelve-Step Guide to Using the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book and Twelve Steps to Spiritual Awakening; Enlightenment for Everyone, Herb didn't know, when he retired from the four-decade career that he'd spent working in human resources, he'd be launched on a path of guiding people

Giving Up Random Sex in Sobriety with Emily McCombs

Writer, blogger, Instagram star, adopted mom of the cat that looks like Adam Driver—there are very few media fame boxes Emily McCombs hasn't checked. The 32-year-old is also the gal who pretty much single-handedly put xo jane on the map back when it launched in 2011, with the sort of mind-blowing traffic attracted by brilliantly written stories on such topics as talking to your former rapist on Facebook. McCombs has been equally open about her issues with addiction, whether she's writi

The Early Days of Sobriety with Fielding Edlow

Writer, actor and stand-up comedian Fielding Edlow may claim she didn't get anywhere in her 20s but she's more than made up for it since: after her solo show Coke-Free J.A.P. killed at the NYC Fringe Festival, it was developed as a half-hour pilot for Showtime. Her plays have been finalists with the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Actors Theatre of Louisville and City Theatre. She voices the recurring character ‘Roxie’ on BoJack Horseman and just created and starred in her web series Bi

Surviving Self-Harm with Christina Beck

Filmmaker Christina Beck's looks may be deceiving: a picture perfect blonde, Beck grew up in the San Fernando Valley and quit high school to became a punk rocker scenester after a crazy night out in Hollywood seeing the band The Cramps. An all-girl rap band called Toe Jam followed, as did acting roles in numerous Penelope Spheeris movies, including Suburbia and The Boys Next Door. Now she's acting in something even more personal: Perfection, a movie she also wrote and directed. Perfecti

Finding Your Biological Father on Facebook with Bill Dixon

Comedian and writer Bill Dixon (who's, by the by, performed in our storytelling show) had a childhood destined to melt the heart of the hardest souls. His parents met in rehab, his dad took off and his mother—after a long struggle with hardcore alcoholism as well as bipolar disorder—killed herself when he was 12. Miraculously, Dixon managed to come out of those formative years and become an incredible Hollywood success story, writing on and producing Hollywood Game Night with Jane Lynch

Where Buddhism Meets Recovery With Noah Levine

Author, counselor and Buddhist teacher Noah Levine is a legend in the Buddhist community—not to mention the recovery one (not to mention the world). The 45-year-old author of Dharma Punx and Refuge Recovery, among other works, got sober at the ripe old age of 17, after multiple incarcerations and a youth filled with suicidal ideation. While in juvie, his dad—famed Buddhist teacher Stephen Levine—suggested that Noah try meditation. Thus began the younger Levine's journey, which saw him t

What Happens When Your Dad Directs Your Drug Movie with Nick Reiner and Matt Elisofon

Writers Nick Reiner and Matt Elisofon, the cowriters of the new addiction and recovery drama Being Charlie, did more than their fair share of research in order to create a compelling, convincing story: the two met when they were roommates at Promises rehab and, after bonding over the usual rehab stuff (that is, making fun of other residents), they started channeling their newfound time and energy into a script. Originally something they wrote for TV (though they confess they truly never

Being Agnostic in AA with Joe C

Author and musician Joe C. is more than a bit of a legend in recovery circles. Sure, he's been sober for over four decades but that's not why he's known. He's known because he manages to question 12-step without ever attacking it—and he does it in a way that speaks to many. The author of the daily reflection book, Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life, Joe also runs Rebellion Dogs, a site which includes his radio show, blog posts and information about his various conferences

AfterPartyPod: Being Bipolar with Rob Roberge

Author and musician Rob Roberge has been prolific for quite a while (five books, guitarist and singer in the band The Urinals, teaching at various universities) but it's his newest work that's got people seriously buzzing. Liar: A Memoir chronicles his journey not just through addiction but also through rapid cycling bipolar disorder. Written in the second person in a non-linear fashion, Roberge says he wrote the book this way because it's how he could best show how his mind works. In t

AfterPartyPod: Avoiding Road Rage with Danny Nucci

Actor Danny Nucci may have played characters who were killed off in three major movies of the 90s (Eraser, The Rock, Titanic) but in real life he's surviving and thriving. Now starring on the ABC Family drama The Fosters (playing Mike Foster, a character who happens to be in recovery), the Italian-Austrian is also 26 years sober. Over the years, he's acted in a bunch of TV movies, a slew of movies and most every TV show on the planet (Growing Pains, Family Ties, Snoops and Just Shoot Me

AfterPartyPod: Growing Older in Sobriety with Screenwriter Jeff Roda

Screenwriter Jeff Roda is not someone who's going to be bragging about his accomplishments. You will, in fact, have to attempt to drag them out of him—and you still won't be successful at learning much. Everything about what he's done career wise must be gleaned through Google. And here it is: he's written screenplays for DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures and New Regency Films, and television pilots for the WB, CBS and Media Rights Capital. He was a producer on Love Liza starring Philip Se

AfterPartyPod: Jack Grisham

Musician, writer and political activist Jack Grisham is a man of many names and even more lives. Perhaps you know him as Alex Morgan or James DeLauge? Maybe you're familiar with him because he's the lead singer for the punk band T.S.O.L. or perhaps it's through his book A Principle of Recovery: An Unconventional Journey Through the Twelve Steps? Or could it be that you know his name from when he ran for governor in 2003? Okay so we've established it: he's an interesting guy. He's also o

AfterPartyPod: Bob Marier

Sobriety coach and interventionist Bob Marier has suddenly became the face of sober coachery (a word we just made up). See, coming to represent a fake word is what can happen when you're hired to work with Toronto mayor Rob Ford, especially when you're accused of kicking a Ford heckler. But Marier had been working behind the scenes long before he ended up on the cover of every Canadian paper and his journey to top sober dog was hard-earned: after destroying three noses and grinding his

AfterPartyPod: Cindy Caponera

Writer, actress and performer Cindy Caponera launched her career at Chicago's Second City and wrote for Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1998, which is to say that she came up with just about everyone, from Stephen Colbert to Will Ferrell to many more in between. She's also written for Shameless and Nurse Jackie and by the way appeared in the pilot for a funny little show you may have heard of called Curb Your Enthusiasm. On the personal front, she's been sober over 20 years and has mad

AfterPartyPod: Vicki Abelson

Author Vicki Abelson has worn many hats: she's been an actress, a director, a teacher, a comic, a manager, a (yes I'm still going), fundraiser, a producer, a workshop leader, a private coach and possibly two or three (hundred) other things. The spitball of energy is perhaps best known for being the grand doyenne of Women Who Write, a renowned literary salon that has featured Jackie Collins, Garry Marshall and Marianne Williamson (not to mention previous podcast guests Marc Maron, Michae

AfterPartyPod: Tony Denison

Actor Tony Denison is best known for his role as Detective Andrew Flynn in The Closer (now called Major Crimes) but was originally launched into the cultural stratosphere back in the 80s when Michael Mann cast him as a mob boss on Crime Story. Over the years, the former insurance agent has popped up everywhere, from Melrose Place to Walker, Texas Ranger to NYPD Blue, CSI and ER, to name just a few (he estimates that about 80% of the time, his characters are either cops or gangsters). He

AfterPartyPod: Mark Pellington

Director Mark Pellington started off directing videos for Pearl Jam, U2, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen, among many other musical icons (his video for Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" is one of the most popular videos of all time and earned him no end of awards). He moved on to films, directing, among others, Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies and I Melt With You, the latter a nihilistic drama about four friends who do more drugs than one might imagine possible and end up...well, you nee

AfterPartyPod: Rob Patterson

Korn and Filter guitarist Rob Patterson isn't only an incredibly talented musician but also, it turns out, a tech wizard who managed to fix the very recorder used for this interview. His journey to rock stardom started with the metal band Otep but his big break came when he played with Korn from 2005 to 2008. After that, he played with the post industrial band Filter. If we were going to be cheesy we could say that the whole time he was also playing with fire—namely heroin—and he veered

AfterPartyPod: Kristen McGuiness

Author Kristen McGuiness may claim not to be a writer anymore but the facts don't lie: the author of the LA Times bestselling book 5150: The Magical Adventures of a Single Life has also been published in The Fix, among other publications, and these days writes grant proposals for non-profits. She's also nearly a decade sober after a bout with alcoholism which took her from LA to Dallas to New York back to LA. Though she looks like the very picture of innocence, McGuiness hardly grew up