Guest Post: From Podcast to Book by Kate Brenton

When life is calling, often we need only the space and the support to remember our way. Sometimes we lean into our expansion, and sometimes we bolt from our greatness. The biggest shock is that big change happens in small choices. In Rebirth you will find real-life stories of people who made courageous leaps, inspiring you to make your own. It’s time to step out of line and back into the spiral of life—that’s where the alchemy is. This book fits right into the side pocket of your bag + your life to inspire you as you read others’ stories of how they listened and learned to make embodied changes in their own lives.

 

From Podcast to Book

“Katie,” my decades old friend says into the phone, as I walk with my child, sling-snuggled, on my chest. “I think you would really like a podcast.”

“Why?” I ask. I mean, yes, I do like to talk, but I am 41 years old with a newborn and not a whole lot of time.

“Because our video is getting the most hits and I think people would like it, but I think you’d like it.”

I have always been a hardworking, curious-of-life, person and capable of making the best of everything. I still was, but it seemed different now. How I could hop a plane from Hawaii to Japan to travel and teach holistic healing with my Kumu (teacher in Hawaiian) and fellow apprentices but was having difficulty straddling the world of the doer to the very real surrender of motherhood when this call came. I still couldn’t figure it out. Why would I sit and talk in a microphone about it?

With very little free time and less financial resources, I started a podcast with my friend’s borrowed microphone. In the first chapter of my book, I talk about doubling down with the Universe when a conscious popsicle company, Mompops, agreed to be on my podcast, which was then called Rebirth: women saving lives by living their own.

I loved it. It was my creative outlet, talking to amazing people who made courageous leaps while inspiring others to do the same. And although we did celebrate their passions and successes, we focused on how they knew to listen to the voice inside against all others. About a year and a half after the podcast was born, I got a call from a friend, announcing that she was starting a publishing company and she was signing authors and wanted to sign me. Someday was when I was going to be author, not necessarily when I was parallel parking my car with a sleeping child in the backseat whom I was still breastfeeding, but I said yes and told no one. I had a small book that I could write and figured I would just make it work.

Fast forward six months, I have a book contract and tremendous writer’s block, when I invite my publisher onto the podcast. We have a great show; she calls me the next day and suggests excitedly: “The podcast is the book.” It all clicked into place. The subtitle of the book changed to: Real-life stories of what happens when you let go and let life lead. When I spoke with a marketing professional, it went something like this:

“So, this is a how-to book?” the dark-haired man asked on Zoom.

“No,” I answered.

“Is it a process book? You teach a branded process?”

“No,” I answered again.

He moved in his chair, “So it’s more like a 5-step, how-to? Like how to Reb-, how to do something and it will…”

“No.” I squirmed. “No, it’s not like that at all. It’s a compilation of stories for the reader to be reminded of their own fortitude, and the worth of their dreams. Five steps don’t work here because if your path is different, and the steps don’t happen prescriptively, you will think you have failed.”

That’s really what the writing of book and the creation of the podcast were all about—the worthiness of listening to the voice inside, and not leaning out to make sense of it for others and forsake your own intent.

Somewhere between writing the last piece of the book, which came almost like a thunderclap, and this marketing conversation, I realized that the act of writing the book which started as a resource for others became a mosaic of my own rebirth. The alchemy of the process in some ways restored several cracks in my foundation of perception, of what was failure and what was necessary learning. Sometimes our greatest strength comes from the lessons we learn in the deepest surrender, with only the whisper light of faith to lead us through to an ending we would never have been able to write alone.

 

 

About the Author: Kate Brenton, Ed.M., educator, author, mama, and healer, used to climb trees in her childhood to sit in and read books. A lifelong teacher, from secondary English to spiritual development, Kate has the archetype for sharing wisdom to empower and elevate through online courses, inspirational speaking, and retreats. Come say hello or listen to the Rebirth podcast at www.katebrenton.com. You can also follow her on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Substack.