The Leadership Line

Create For Meaning, Not Hype

• Tammy Rogers and Scott Burgmeyer • Season 7 • Episode 6

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0:00 | 11:45

Stuck between “I could write a book” and an actual manuscript? We unpack the messy middle with a candid look at purpose, process, and the practical moves that turn ideas into finished pages. From the spark that pushes you to write to the systems that keep you going, we share what truly matters when the goal is to publish work you’re proud of.

We start by interrogating motivation: legacy, learning, credibility, or pure creativity. That clarity sets your scope, shapes your voice, and protects you from chasing vanity metrics or empty trends. Then we get tactical—choosing the right format for your stage, whether it’s a single ebook chapter, a series of blog posts, or a full-length manuscript. You’ll hear how outlines, freewriting sprints, and strict time blocks help overcome perfectionism, and why early feedback from the right readers beats late-stage panic edits. We talk openly about editors, critique groups, and accountability cohorts that hold you to weekly word counts and turn “someday” into scheduled work.

Money myths get a reality check. A book rarely showers you with instant cash, but it can pay off through reputation, speaking, workshops, and new clients. We also dig into tools: dictation for talkers, distraction blockers for focus, and AI for structure and clarity—with frank guidance on ethics and disclosure now required by major platforms. Along the way, we share a first-draft story that proves momentum starts with one strong chapter and grows with honest feedback, patience, and persistence.

If you’ve been waiting for permission, this is your nudge. Pick a purpose you can defend, choose a format you can finish, and guard time like your book depends on it—because it does. Subscribe, share this with a friend who keeps saying “I should write,” and leave a review telling us your next concrete step.

Karman:

Good morning, Tammy and Scott.

Tammy:

Good morning, Karman.

Karman:

Scott's just smiling.

Scott:

I'm not even going to respond. Yeah. And so why why why respond? I can't win.

Tammy:

Oh man. Today's gonna be interesting, Karman. We have a we have a grumpy Burgmeyer.

Karman:

No. You're not grumpy? No. Just obstinate. Last year, you guys wrote a book. It's called Think. It is not your first book. I think you would say, and don't let me put words in your mouth, but like you get better at this every time.

Tammy:

Practice is very helpful.

Karman:

Yeah. I bet sometimes people say to you, I've been thinking I should write a business book. What do you say to them?

Scott:

Well, there's two most common comments I hear. I could write a book or I should write a book. Now I want to address the first one. Um when I was in art history in college, had this college professor, and she was fantastic. And she would pull up different things, and you'd look at you, and she would say, you know, many of you are probably thinking, I could paint that. The point is, you didn't. So to me, every time someone's like, Oh, I could write, yep, you didn't though. So, like, move on. All right. Now, oh, I should, then to me, it's what's stopping you.

Tammy:

Do you know, Scott? Um, there is uh a consultant who I actually think quite a bit about. Um, and her name is Sy Wakeman. And she wrote a book called The Reality-Based Rules of the Workplace. And I remember that the first time I read that book, I was ticked off. And I was ticked off because she wrote a book that literally described so much of how I see the world philosophically from a leadership standpoint and a leader's roles and responsibilities and the like how to address kind of the realities of what happens in the workplace. Her suggestions, her point of view, her research actually supported the things that I had been teaching for 20 years. And I remember thinking at that moment, I should write a book. And we did. Now, different topic. She she took that one and it's good. I mean, if you haven't read that book, it's worth reading in that space. And we needed to find our own thought leadership and our own kind of methodology of what that is. You don't go and repeat what somebody else has done. But I remember that was the like, here's a little nudge, Tammy. Cy Wakeman, she's a consultant, she is based out of Nebraska. She has a small firm and she is creating something. And this was her creation that then helped propel her and propel her business. And I knew then that I needed to get off my duff, right? Yep, there's the painting. I could have done that. It's time for me to do it. And if you have thought leadership and it's new and it's different, and you're not just, you know, rinse and repeat of somebody else's story, you know, it's a matter of then planning, making the time for it, prioritizing it, and getting it done. And even though you might not be the best writer, the more you practice and the more feedback that you get, the better your editor, i.e. Karman, right? The better the work is going to be. So could you? Should you? I think it's a matter of saying, just do it.

Scott:

And here's the thing: writing a book might seem really, really huge or taxing. Write an ebook. It could be a chapter. You wouldn't have to write an entire. I mean, you start to think about if you want to get your thought leadership out there, there's lots of ways. Article, an article, a blog. And that may be a place to start if you need a place to start or something. But I think it's it's really looking at it and saying, what is what is truly stopping you from doing this? If you really want to do it. And maybe it's even backing up and saying, Why do you want to? So is it because you really want to share your information? Is it because you want to leave a legacy of something? Is it because like what is that? Because if you can't answer that, I would tell you, don't waste your time.

Tammy:

Well, and if your answer is because you want to get rich, I think you might want to rethink that.

Karman:

Buy a lottery ticket instead.

Scott:

Yeah, a lottery ticket, only fans account, something like that may allow you to make a little more money, yes.

Tammy:

But I mean, the piece about that, you know, Michael, my husband, he actually has written his first book. It is a young adult novel, and you know, he actually just he has this creative thing. He wants to take what's in his head and he wants to share it with others. And I will tell you that he wrote his the first chapter, and he's been writing since I've known him, but he wrote the first chapter after he retired. And I read this chapter of this particular storyline, and I was like, baby, this thing has legs. And I'm not sure he was even thinking he was gonna really write right, but he got some feedback that this one has legs, and he went after it. And he it's not published yet. He hasn't gone through, he's just done his first draft in that particular spot. It's not perfect, but it's darn good, right? So even if it's you just want to write to write, that's okay, right? It doesn't have to be anything more than that. In that space, though, what's your plan for taking it from your head to paper? What's your timeline? What's you know, your writing style? Some people write off an outline, some people just write, right? You got to find your thing. But I think part of it is just taking the time, make the decision. I'm writing for this reason, then take and set aside the time and write. And don't worry about perfection, worry about getting it on paper, right? And that's the other thing, I think.

Scott:

Well, and if you're serious that you you really, really want to write a book and you really, really want to publish it, you're like, I don't think I'm a good writer. I don't know that I have time. There are people out there who will ghost write. There are there are clubs out there where you could join and they they do like, okay, your goal, they kind of hold you accountable to writing so many words a week or a month or whatever that is. So there are things like that to kind of push you along if it is that important to you. Some of them have a cost associated with it. You know, a ghost writer, for example. But a lot of times writing clubs are just like just like groups of writers that get together and they do critiques and they do feedback and like, oh, I read three chapters, and you know, it's a way to to do that if that is a path that you want to go.

Tammy:

There's even software if you don't want to type it out, you know. You there's even software where you talk out loud, right? Yeah.

Scott:

And then, you know, if you if you really, really want to write a book, you just go on chat GPT and say, write a book about this topic, and you're gonna have a book right away.

Tammy:

Well, that I would consider that cheating, but reality is that AI will write it for you.

Scott:

I mean, right now, and the generally accepted practices, you just put it in the foreword. This amount, and now on if you publish on Amazon, it asks you what percentage of your content is AI generated, and it asks you that up front. So that's another way.

Tammy:

So the piece about that is is could I? Yes, you can. You you can write a book, all right? Should I? If it's important to you, if it's something that you have a desire to do, if you have a creative outlet need, right? You have a legacy, you have an idea, thought leadership, yeah, go for it. But don't think that you're gonna make a million dollars. Don't think that it's gonna necessarily hit the internet and all of a sudden you have a million followers in that particular spot. Do it for something that has more meaning for you than popularity or cash. Right. And if there is a purpose for you that's great enough, then it's just like everything else. Is it important enough to prioritize it? Because in the end, in order to have a book like Think, we had to say it was the number one priority, otherwise, it wasn't gonna get done. Scott and I carved out the time and the effort to put that through, and it was not a matter of hours, it was a matter of hundreds of hours, right? In order to have that done. And it was also, you know, not our first book. And I have to say, our first books are good, right? The first few that we did, think is the best.

Scott:

So far.

Tammy:

It wouldn't surprise me if the next one is better than think.