Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

In this final installment of my conversation with award-winning book coach (who has helped dozens and dozens and dozens of experts get five- and six-figure book deals) and author of the brand-new book “Breathe. Write. Breathe.” Lisa Tener, we get a look at what’s coming up for her, and she answers my fast five final questions.Wa talked about:The trippy experience of re-reading something you first encountered years ago and having a completely new and different take on itHow discovering Sark’s books felt like a gift from the universeUsing Human Design as a tool to help you figure out what to do nextManifesting teaching a retreat at place like Kripalu, Omega, or EsalenThe shift she’s working that “makes life juicier”Why she’s feeling drawn to write more poetryLisa’s recipe for her all-time favorite teaHer favorite dish at her favorite restaurant that sounds so good it inspired us to make a dinner date to go get itVisit Lisa at listener.com.For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this second part of my interview with Lisa Tener–award-winning book coach and author of the brand-new “Breath. Write. Breathe.”--we get into the squishier parts of writing.Warning, this part of our conversation is super juicy! Not in a sexy way, but in a “wow I’m really thinking differently about stuff that’s been plaguing me forever” kind of way.You’ll learn:Her least favorite part about promoting her work, and how she works with that resistanceFinding the right balance between taking on work for clients to pay the bills and saving time and energy for your own workPractical ways to get out of the fear of not making or having enough moneyTipping your internal scale to be more weighted toward surrender, and less weight toward trying to control everythingHer ninja trick for dealing with difficult peopleHow she’s used Family Systems Constellation Work to work through blockages both in life and in her mindVisit Lisa at listener.com.For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I am talking with award-winning book coach and award-winning author–of the books The Joy of Writing Journal and the brand-new Breathe.Write. Breathe.--Lisa Tener.Lisa served on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School’s continuing education course on writing and publishing books for over a dozen years. And she has helped hundreds of experts and thought leaders write and publish their books and secure five and six figure book deals.I was so happy and honored to write the foreword for Lisa's new book, which draws a lot on Lisa's in-depth studies and practice of qigong. And if you've been with me since the “How to Be a Better Person” days, you may remember Lisa when she came on as a guest and walked me through her “meet your muse” exercise, which helps you get in touch with your intuition and receive messages from your subconscious that can help you move forward in your creative work or get insight into anything you may be facing, where you could use a little guidance.And lest you think Lisa is all about the woo, she also, I just found out while researching her for this episode, has her bachelor's and master's degree from MIT.We covered:How getting sick put her on the path to becoming a writerHow writing down her dreams helps fuel her writingWorking with the difficulty of earning a living from your writingA peek inside the small village of people it takes to publish a bookThe easy but powerful qigong move Lisa teaches to get you loosened up and ready to writeA look at the tools, places, and times of day that help Lisa get her writing done.Visit Lisa at listener.com.For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this third and final installment of my interview with Donna Russo, author of “Vincent's Women, the Untold Story of the Loves of Vincent Van Gogh,” as well as 10 other award-winning and internationally bestselling historical novels, we get a peek at what’s coming up next for her and she answers my fast five questions about what she’s stayed up too late reading and watching.How she’s feeling now that she’s on the verge of becoming a grandmotherA sneak peek at her next book, which is already in the works–as well as how she’s challenging herself in new ways with this projectThe great authors she learned the importance of descriptive settings fromThe screen play she wrote that got tabled by COVID and the writer’s strike, despite winning awardsThe music that gets her going when she needs a boostVisit Donna at donnarusso.com.For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter, and get a free 3-year warranty (and $84 value). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this second part of my conversation with Donna Russo, author of “Vincent's Women: the Untold Story of the Loves of Vincent van Gogh, as well as 10 other award winning and internationally best selling historical novels, we explore the thoughts, ideas, and attitudes that influence her work.We talked about:Why the time period just before your book comes out is the most nerve-wracking, “like walking out naked and the world gets to comment”The thrill of being in the same room as a group of your readersHow she takes her mind off the anxiety that comes pre-book releaseHer biggest fears as a writerWhy being 66 is an asset to her writingHer best advice for young writersHow historical fiction reminds us that there are always multiple points of view to every storyVisit Donna at donnarusso.com.For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter, and get a free 3-year warranty (and $84 value). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up this week is Donna Russo, an internationally best-selling author of 11 multiple award winning historical novels, including “Gilded Dreams” and “Gilded Summers”, a trio of books about Leonardo da Vinci, including “Portrait of a Conspiracy,” “The Competition,” and “The Flames of Florence.” Her newest book, “Vincent’s Women” is just out, and tells the story of everyone's favorite tortured artist through the lens of the women in his life.(I have to point out Vincent's women managed to get 4. 3 stars on Goodreads, which is not easy to do. Goodreads readers are very sparing with their five star ratings.)Donna is also an award winning screenwriter, a ghostwriter, and an editor. And she's an actor who appeared in Martin Scorsese's “The Departed,” as well as Showtime's “Brotherhood.” And, she's a painter” I’m so thankful she joined us, because she clearly has a lot of things that take up her time!We covered:How reading “Gone with the Wind” and “The Thorn Birds” as a kid sparked a devotion to historical fictionHow a ‘grand pity party’ after yet another bad date led to the idea for “Vincent’s Women”How meeting Diana Gabaldon (author of The Outlander series and historical fiction OG!) at a conference spurred Donna onHer first gig as a writer–that happened in sixth gradeHow she sold her first book quickly and easily–and pretty much everything since then has been a struggleThe truth about why she does so many different thingsThe brass tacks of how she writes her book, from which chapter she writes first to how she lays out her computer monitor so that her research is always right at handHow she wrote her friends into one of her booksThe food and drink the fuels her writingVisit Donna at donnarusso.com.For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter, and get a free 3-year warranty (and $84 value). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part three of my interview with Marlon Weems, author of the prize-winning essay "How Starting an Investment Business Almost Landed Me in Federal Prison" and founder of The Journeyman Substack, where he covers American culture and anti-Black racism, we get a peek at where his throughline is leading him next.I had to leave out the meandering and enlightening and fun conversation we had about the upcoming presidential election, but now we're thinking about starting a separate podcast on that! Who knows if anything will come of it, but all I can say for sure is, I loved chatting with Marlon and know you will love hearing him, too.We covered:- Marlon's unexpected detour into becoming a voice actor in his 60s- Being your own role model- Manifesting an appearance on "Good Morning America"- The AMC TV series Marlon's currently bingeing, based on books by one of his favorite authors (that he listens to as audiobooks because they are read by his favorite voice actor)- The two songs from wildly different genres that get Marlon going when he needs a pick-me-upVisit Marlon at thejourneyman.substack.com.Thanks to this week's sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter and get a free 3-year warranty ($84 value).For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this second part of my interview with Marlon Weems, founder of The Journeyman newsletter on Substack, where he covers American culture, anti-Black racism, and growing up Black in the Deep South, we talk about the mindset side of writing, including:- The best place to look for your closing paragraph- How having to make cold calls for a living is excellent training for dealing with (read: ignoring) trolls- The story of how he almost went to federal prison after getting entangled with some primo money launderers- The story of how THAT story became one of Medium's best articles of the year (and has inspired Marlon to start writing a book)- Why he has 50+ drafts of articles in his Notes app at any given time, and how he decides it's time for a particular article to see the light of day- Writing to leave a legacy, and hearing the clock ticking as a motivator to keep going- The myth that if you just work hard enough, anything is possible- The difference between anti-Black racism in the North and in the SouthVisit Marlon at thejourneyman.substack.com.Thanks to this week's sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter and get a free 3-year warranty ($84 value).For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I am talking with Marlon Weems, a former Wall Street trader who started his career in finance in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he founded the first Black-owned asset management firm and the first Black-owned venture capital firm in the state.Since leaving the industry in 2012, Marlon has transitioned to writing. His essay, "How Starting an Investment Firm Almost Landed Me in Federal Prison, was named one of the best stories of 2023 on Medium.Marlon now writes about American culture, anti Black racism, and growing up Black in the Deep South in The Journeyman, his Substack newsletter, which is where I discovered him. He is currently writing a memoir about his experiences in finance and, fun fact, Marlon recently made his theatrical debut in the role of Uncle Ben in a local production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.We covered:- How he made the transition from Wall Street trader to full-time writer- The freedom in being close enough to retirement that you're not worried that something you write might prevent you from getting another job- Being friends with people whose political views differ from your own- How most of his articles he writes on his phone at 3 am--the others he writes either in his car or at a barVisit Marlon at thejourneyman.substack.com.Thanks to this week's sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter and get a free 3-year warranty ($84 value).For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this final part of my interview with Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, we get a look at what's coming up for her--and how that might not involve being in the public eye at all after 11 years of being 'the tip of the spear' as a common sense gun law advocate. I also ask her what's she's reading, watching, listening to, drinking in her morning cup, and what she'd have for dinner tonight if she could have anything in the world.We talked about:- Her voracious love of podcasts (including a shortlist of her faves)- Knowing that it's time to shift into a different way of being, but not yet knowing exactly what that looks like- The reality show she watches until the wee hours whenever her husband is out of townVisit Shannon at shannonwatts.substack.com.For full show notes (including bonus photos!) visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices