Retellable Book Coaching
It is time for your next great idea -
the work that will change how your audiences see the world,
and how they see your role in that world.
Your book will unfold this idea, piece by piece, change by change,
and story by story.
But let us be clear: this is not just a book.
This is a living story, designed to be told and retold, across media.
The ideas, insights and stories will be tested
and given lift along the way.
The process draws on a dozen years of transformative
storytelling coaching for world-changing leaders.
Retellable Book Coaching helps you connect the dots and
bring them into a purposeful constellation of retellable stories,
insights and lessons that will lead your audience
into a new way of being.
You will have a trusted, time-tested guide on this deep journey into
your next great work.
BENEFITS
Through the process you will:
- Draw out your natural voice
- Receive reflections that illuminate key insight and direction
- Transform your thought leadership into retellable bytes
- Speak directly to your most potent audience
- Stitch together an emergent collection of stories, studies and lessons and tell them into life
- Build on the philosophies of other thought leaders you respect
- Map out the hurdles you see in your present leadership and society
- Refine your work to best guide your audience into the future
PROCESS
Jay's process, drawn from a decade of story-based keynote coaching, centers around three areas:
- Becoming an expert in you. His job is to understand where you come from, what you've learned in your life and in your work, and how it informs how you see the world. Through the intake process, he will learn what you see and what you don't see, and begin to shape your stories - the gems that reveal your wisdom.
- Becoming a student of your emerging audience and where they are headed. This involves understanding who your audience is, where they come from and where they are going.
- Understanding the new world you see, and helping you bring it to life. This is about how your thinking and leadership informs a new way, based on your audience and the stories you gather. It informs your greater work, your idea and philosophy of this changing world, and illuminates how to get there based on what you've learned and what your audience needs.
About Jay Golden
I always knew I was going to write a book; I just didn't know it would take so darned long. When I was finally training some notable companies in the Silicon Valley, my friend Jon, a local entrepreneur with whom I had moved to Aspen to ski bum years ago, convinced me to write an ebook. But I was overwhelmed with managing what I already had on my plate. "Just give it six weeks of your mornings," he said.
So I began. I was just going to write about what I knew. But six weeks in, I remember sitting there in my geodesic dome in my garden in Berkeley (the only home office you could see from space, I mused), I had, well, a unique moment.
I sat there at my little desk looking out at the lemon tree out the circular window, and I realized, I can't just write some six-week ebook. This has to be good.
Now I love hard challenges, but that's mostly because I love finding the natural flow of learning. This was not that at all. I could already tell this process was going to push all my buttons. Brain science that I couldn't grasp, frameworks that I wasn't ready to face, research that I didn't know what to do with. But as I stared at this document, I knew I had to rise to the occasion. This has to be good, I repeated, as if setting off on a journey.
And that's when the voices came.
They came storming in over both shoulders.
One said, Why? It's good enough. This was the old me, the improv actor, the person who threw himself into languages and learned his way out. Show up and bring something great. But I knew this wasn't great.
The other then said, Why even bother? Everyone knows this stuff already. This was the critic speaking. The part of me that worried that what I was working on was so simple, so everywhere already, that it wasn't worth sharing. That what I was working on was so simple. But again I refused to accept the voice.
Then finally, the last voice, the mean voice: You won't be able to finish it. Just another thing you start that just hangs out there.
I knew in that moment that these voices were all reflecting back my own excuses - ones to which I had submitted in my younger life - in order to avoid growing in the way I needed to grow.
I thought about my journey. I had been following my passion for a long time. And I wasn't willing to give up that passion, even now I was not just growing a business, I was growing a family.
And so, my answer came, from my deepest self, surprising even me: I'm a dad now. I have to do this.
And you know what they said?
Nothing. The voices shut up. And they never returned.
I gave myself six months. That turned to a year, then two. I went through five different titles. I workshopped every story I knew. I hired an editor, and got counsel from a dozen friends. I rewrote my intro 183 times - to find the right story that told about stories.
And four and a half years later, I finished.
I still remember, laying in my hammock, reading the next version of the next version and being shocked to find that there were no more edits.
And that's the week that everything changed. The phones started ringing. Not because the book was out. Because it was done. What I hadn't predicted about this process was how much it would change me. How much I would learn about story, about myself, and about what I'm actually teaching. Along the way I had designed an approach that could be used over and over again.
And so it was. In the following few years, I traveled to several continents, speaking and coaching transformative leaders to develop their insights, their lessons, and their greatest gifts into presentations and writings that would change their audiences over and over again.
This work is about helping you bring your greatest gifts to the world. And to help you avoid the pitfalls that took me years to navigate.
FAQs
Q: What if I just want your help to assess and clarify my story, not develop it?
A: You may choose to do the “Right My Story” offering, which lasts 3 months.
Q: How long will it take me to write it?
A: That depends on how committed you are, and how far along in the process. I can give a better answer once I review your work.
Q: I'm very busy. Do you do ghostwriting?
A: We work closely with our ghostwriters. Their support comes largely after we work to hone the stories with you and overseeing their work. The brunt of the work will be building off of what comes from our sessions.
Q: What is the difference between you and an editor?
A: My specialty is diving deep with you to find the stories that want to come out, and then helping you see how they fit together. While some editors offer that kind of hands-on approach, most do not.
Q: Do you only work with authors that are working with major publishing houses?
A: No. I believe in the value of self-publishing as long as you are willing to accept the steps along the way. I self-published my own book Retellable: How Your Essential Stories Unlock Power and Purpose.
Q: Why the story-based approach?
A: This work is drawn from years of developing speeches and stories for leaders around the world. The intent is always to find the retellable stories that carry the key messages, and bring together those key stories. While this process is not just about stories (it may well often be also about studies, philosophies, research) we use stories to carry your messages.
Q: Where can I learn more about your coaching impact? Do you provide references?
A: Absolutely! You can also view video testimonials here.
Q: Do you do the marketing and design?
A: I can refer you to great people for editing, design and promotion. And through the writing process we will distill many key messages and stories that will help you significantly as you put your book out into the world.