Tina Asher wanted to write a book for stressed-out professionals, but needed guidance to get it done.
Tina Asher knows what it’s like to feel off-balance. Her entire world was unbalanced for decades as she rode the “hamster wheel” of a demanding career. It left her overworked, unhappy, and with little time for the things she truly valued.
Through soul-searching and determination, Tina changed her life. She left her corporate career to become a career coach and arranged her life around her true priorities. Balance restored!
With her new book Teetering: A Frazzled, Overworked Person’s Guide to Embrace Change and Find Balance,Tina helps readers make similar changes to their own lives.
The book recounts Tina’s story and the stories of others who’ve rearranged their lives to find balance, and it offers readers a path forward into a more enjoyable lifestyle.
Stuck in the Rat Race
Tina became a career coach for mid-level professionals who want to take their careers to the next level or make a career change. Soon after she began coaching, she was struck by how many clients had stories similar to her own.
“There were so many people who were stuck in the same rat race,” Tina remembers. “[They] just kept going day to day, not knowing how to make a change, feeling that they didn’t know anything else, that they’re not good at anything else.” Her clients recounted the things that kept them stuck: bills to pay, pressure to pursue a certain lifestyle, intimidation at the thought of starting over.
Tina had given herself permission to leave a lifestyle she disliked and prioritize her own values. Now she was helping some of her clients through that same process.
But Tina knew she could help even more people if she wrote a book.
Needed: A Roadmap
“I’m someone who generally does not like a lot of structure in my life,” Tina says with a laugh. “However, with writing a book, I needed to have a roadmap. I needed to know how to get it out of my head onto paper.”
When Tina found The Book Professor®, she knew we offered the precise balance she needed: a roadmap for writing that included deadlines but no strict prescriptions for when to write.
The Book Professor® encouraged Tina to write whenever and however—so long as she blocked out the writing time on her schedule. That meant no meetings or phone calls during writing time, and no skipping writing sessions to run to the store or vacuum the rug.
Tina appreciated the freedom to set her own writing time. She and the members of her Group MASTERMIND cohort met for scheduled video chats once per week, but otherwise set their own writing schedules. Some got up early in the morning to write, or stayed up late. Some worked over weekends, some were able to carve writing time into workday breaks. For Tina, it worked best to set aside a day for writing immediately after the scheduled Group MASTERMIND calls. With the feedback she’d received from her cohort fresh in her mind, she would tackle the writing assignments in large chunks. She usually blocked off another time later in the week to finish.
It was tough to protect that writing time, but one thought continued to motivate Tina: I have people to help with this book.
Tina says that The Book Professor® program is “the only way I would have gotten the book out.” It forced her to set and maintain a schedule, offered a collaborative environment to hone ideas with other writers, and gave her a chance to perfect the book in front of a small audience before releasing it to the public.
Reaching Readers
When Tina finished her book, she cried tears of joy and exultation. She’d done it. She’d written an entire book herself, from idea to printed page.
The book found an eager audience. Since Teetering was published in August 2020, Tina has implemented two different book studies to explore topics covered in the book, including how to embrace change and how to find balance and organization in one’s day-to-day life. Several clients have found her coaching business because of the book.
Tina has been asked to speaking engagements where she can spread her ideas about change and balance. She was also a recent guest on The Strategic Edge podcast, which interviews entrepreneurs and business owners.
Other results of publication were less tangible but no less valuable. For one thing, Tina gained a fellow author as a new friend.
She and one of her cohort members were writing on similar themes during their time with The Book Professor®. They stayed friends and stayed in touch after the program ended. They check in with each other about book sales and about work.
Tina says this friendship is unique. “We’ve been through the struggle to write, and then the excitement and celebration of getting our books out to the world.” The two authors understand each other’s journey in a way that family and friends don’t.
Tina is proud of her book’s potential to help others. Although her coaching business focuses specifically on mid-level professionals, she wrote the book to appeal to a broader audience. It contains principles for life change that can help anyone, from a stay-at-home mom to a CEO. Tina believes it can help anyone who balances many responsibilities.
Write to Help Others
Do you want to help others navigate a journey that you have completed?
Many of our authors write because of a deep conviction that their story can benefit others. Maybe you want to write the book you wish you’d had during a difficult time.
Give others that gift. Contact us today to learn more about writing your book and getting it into the hands of those who need it.