NOW Conversations - Featuring Conversations with Book Authors with Guest Natalie Born

Step into a space where stories unfold, purpose is revealed, and the journey behind the book finally gets a voice.

NOW Conversations invites you into meaningful dialogue with book authors who are doing more than writing books — they are sharing lived experiences, lessons learned, and messages that were meant to be released into the world.

In each episode, we go beyond the surface to explore the real moments behind the manuscript — the doubts, the breakthroughs, the unexpected turns, and the deeper “why” that shaped the words on the page. Through thoughtful questions and authentic conversation, we create room for honesty, reflection, and inspiration.

Whether you're an aspiring author, a leader with a message, or someone who simply loves understanding the story behind the story, NOW Conversations offers a welcoming space to listen, learn, and be encouraged.

Because sometimes, the most powerful part of a book… is the conversation it begins. #NOWConversations #BookPublishing #CEOBookPublishing #LizaMarieGarcia #PublishedAuthor

Publish@cbpteam.com

Liza Marie Garcia | LinkedIn

CEO Book Publishing

CEO Book Publishing

If YOU would like to be featured as a guest please reach out! 

Liza Marie Garcia | LinkedIn

CEO Book Publishing

CEO Book Publishing

publish@cbpteam.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Joining me um for your early Saturday morning book publishing conversation. I'm I'm very excited to be here. Yes, I've had multiple cups of coffee at this point. Let's see, I probably had at least three K cups. So you might hear it in my voice and is how fast I'm talking. So the good news is you can always replay this a little bit slower. So before I bring um our guest uh on stage, I want to welcome her. Her name is Natalie Bourne, and she comes to us from Atlanta, Georgia, born and raised, and she's got more than 20 years of experience as a strategy consultant. Uh her book is Rockstar called Set It on Fire. We're going to talk about everything surrounding that book, which I have read from word one to word end, is what I say to my clients. I always read all of our uh client author books from word one to word end. She's the founder of Innovation Meets Leadership, IML Advisors, and IML Media, where she advises organizations and executive teams on growth, transformation, and strategic alignment. Um I met her in a conference. We're going to talk a little bit more about that. Um, but she has held executive roles, including VP of Innovation and Senior VP of Business Development for large-scale uh enterprise size clients. Um, and she's uh even worked to uh approve two uh U.S. patents. So there's so much I could read about her. Uh, but uh let's let's let's meet her and let's welcome her to the stage. Uh welcome, Natalie Warren. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Well, I it's so nice to see you again. We saw each other in person. We met for the first time in April. So that's a year ago, but not really, but seems like that's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

And and I have to say, when when we met, we were wearing the same outfit and then we came online this morning and we did it again.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Is that so funny? And and oh, oh darn it. I was gonna have a uh an in I was gonna have an image ready for this morning's stream because last night I was at a CEO exchange event I'd never been to, and everyone was in black and gold, which was their colors. I didn't think about it. I'm in royal blue, and some gal head to toe walks in. So I actually got a picture of her because I'm like, you know what? Someone taught me about being a twin, and it was you. And so I took twin pictures because it was so funny when we met and you called me out because I was listening kind of to you. You were in this, it was an amazing, it was one of my favorite parts of this conference as your speaker there and on the panel. And um let's let's talk about that for a minute, but anyway, you called me out, um, so to speak, because I was on my phone and all of a sudden I hear a twin, twin, and I'm like, what is she talking about?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

And it's because we were in in head to toe, red pant long suits, yes, pants suits dance suits, head head to toe, and then we both had a white top underneath. I mean, we were twins. Twins.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yes, and I'm happy to be your twin because you're beautiful. And I'm like, yes, I am related to her. Look how gorgeous she is. So that's so funny. And then today, yeah. So great minds. Love it, great minds. All right. Well, actually, um, since I brought up the conference that was in Orlando, um, tell everyone about what you talked about. Uh, because it was it was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

So obviously, I'm in the innovation space with a book called Set It on Fire, The Art of Innovation. And so Crystal Parker asked me to come and speak on the topic of AI and innovation. And as you know, this space is moving so fast. Um, so we kind of broke everybody up into smaller groups because we didn't want to just talk to you guys for you know an hour like a talking head. So we wanted to break it into smaller teams and have everybody actually engage with the content, figure out what is a problem, a real problem I can solve using AI. And then we talked about AI agents and all these different ways that we can actually uh engage AI in order for people to be successful in their day to day. So it was a blast. I had a really good time um talking to everybody and just hearing people's ideas around how they wanted to use AI.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Well, it was definitely interactive, which is always the best kind of, you know, um speaker situations, at least for me. I'm I'm I'm I love that as opposed to, like you said, talking head. And I know that it was very well received because after uh your your speaking, I, you know, was was waiting to get your book signed that uh that I got that I love and read. Um, but what I loved is I listened to the feedback from the people that were in line. And they, you know, you know, no one, like you said, it's so changing. I mean, this is such a, you know, so dynamically, you know, changing in huge ways in huge at huge speed that no one knows everything. No one can, right? But and but then also then I try to step back and not be surprised so much when I take on clients that haven't used it or when I talk to colleagues that don't know this or that benefit. You taught me some new benefits, and I'm sure there's like a gazillion more since then.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

It's really and I'm constantly learning too.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah, and here you're in that, you know, that field and that. And you know, I I I think it's just exciting. I think it's exciting times, you know, for all of us to be honest. It's it's incredible. But um, all right, so let's jump into your book because this is all about book publishing and your book, plus okay, I've there's so much I love about your book in addition to the content. So I'm gonna talk about that to start with. First of all, I love the title, set it on fire, is so rock star. Um, I did read your book um from start to finish. And overall, if someone asked me, you know, what is this book about and why would I like to read it, I would say here's the thing. It is absolutely a business, fundamental, new way to look at business type book, but it is also practical what you put in there with your own experience and what you saw and taking people through product development, time with you, you know, to to leadership, uh, you know, dealing with personalities, to, you know, recognizing personalities. It is it it's so practical and so great in the format. And I love, and I've got into the content, but I love that the the pages look like they're on fire and all of that. So I mean, it's it's an excellent book. And you know, and the other reason I love it and loved it when I read it was that I um this is one of my favorite genres to read, and it always has been. I've been a business girl since I was in high school. I read Liaya Coca's um memoir. I love business books, and so I just I love this book. So tell us about how it came to be, how you put it together, and kind of just give someone that has never seen this set it on fire before, uh, if you would talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Yeah, so you know, whenever I talk to people about the process for writing this book, um, you know, it does feel so I think hard on the surface to write a book because you're like, oh my goodness, how am I gonna sit down and write 200 something pages? And the way that I started this book was I actually started by writing um blogs and articles and things like that. So I was published in two different um journals. One is called Aveil and one is called Thrive Today. And I was constantly writing and writing and writing and writing. And then I started blogging on LinkedIn. And after a couple of years, I looked back and I said, if I pulled all of these articles together, I think I have the beginning of a book. And that's not to say it still wasn't a little bit hard because you know, after you get your first draft ready, you'll send that off and usually you'll get some feedback. And the feedback from the publisher at the time was, you need to lengthen this by double. And I'm like, oh no, I thought I was at the finish line. I'm I'm actually at the halfway point. So I had to go back and say, how do I lengthen this and add value without repeating myself? Because I think for some people, that's their concern with books, right? Like, how do I write a book that doesn't just repeat what I'm saying over and over again? And so I had to really think about what are some things I can talk about that will give value to the people that I want to read it. And so I'm you know happy to hear that, you know, you saw those different angles in the book because there's so many different facets to leadership, especially in innovation. It's not just create something unique, it's also how do you lead through challenging times with challenging people and you know, how do you sit in challenging meetings and actually make those meetings productive? So there's so much that goes into um what was written in this book, just thinking about 20 years almost in product development and how do I bring all that together to help people think about themselves as an everyday innovator?

SPEAKER_00 8:58

So much to unpack there, but let's stay with the book journey. So, what was that tipping point? Like you said, you've done all this, you knew you wanted to write a book, you know, what was that tipping point that made that say, okay, I'm doing it?

SPEAKER_01 9:09

I'm gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

You know, um, yeah, so part of it too, when I moved into consulting, you you kind of have this aha moment of um, I'm having the same conversations over and over again. And wouldn't it be nice if we could package my experience in a way where I could just hand it to people and almost get them up to speed really fast so that a lot of the concepts I'm introducing to their organization, they can just kind of begin to understand and ideate around. And so I just felt a need to get this in the hands of people. And I think there's this point where you're like, it's not just that I need to do it, I need to do it now. And so often I think we miss our moment because of fear, because we hold our own selves back, we tell ourselves we can't do it, we can't accomplish it. And so oftentimes the biggest barrier that stands in the way of our success is ourself and our own self-doubt. And so it was really moving all of that out of the way and saying, I believe I have a book that will help people work better together, and I need to get that out there.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

I love it. Well, I I guess I've heard hashtags are dead, but I don't care. I was still finding a hashtag for the show. Hashtag I need to do it now. I mean, it's it's true. And I have something that I've been putting off. It's actually not that far around the corner. And finally, I just actually said out loud to myself, okay, just do it. You know, get it done. Why am I dragging my feet? I mean, there's a hundred reasons why I'm dragging my feet. And you know what? There is a fear factor. You know, thanks for bringing that up. As much as I want to tell myself that no, it's not that, you know what? There is, there's an element in there, and a lot of times that overtakes us. So thanks for sharing that. And you had shared too, you know, what you said is something that comes up very common. And um, I've had this happen with uh new authors, potential authors, where they say, Yeah, the books, I, you know, I'll ask them, what is the manuscript state in at this point as they come to us? And I have authors that say, um, yes, it's it's done. And I'm like, okay. And then I look at the word count and it's 10,000 words. I says, okay, well, like you said, you're halfway there. So, you know, yeah, it's important to know. And you know why? So there's two ways, there's two factors that's involved from the publisher standpoint. One is it's got to be within the word count for the selected genre that a book distributor will accept, that a book retailer will put on the shelves potentially, that um also what a reader will buy. Yes, right. I'm not gonna, I mean, there's no way I can tell you right now if your book was 100,000 words, there's no way I'd be in the stream saying I read it from cover to cover. Absolutely not. So there's that factor. But then the other way that we've always looked at it, I think a little bit differently, maybe not the the the most common way that book publishers look at word count is this. I used to never give my potential authors a word count because I what I would say is, I want the content. I want you to download the content. And once you download it and our content editor looks at it, she or he is going to prompt you for more and say, okay, you said this story now, dig in a little bit more on this angle. And we always want more content than less, yeah, right? We always want more. So I really hesitated on saying it should be a certain word count because I don't believe you should ever be writing towards a word count. You should be writing towards the point you're trying to make, and then we can edit it down to that. It's always been so so you know, but it is it's a struggle, and there are, you know, it is a struggle because you've got those other elements involved. So I'm so happy to that we're talking about that because it's it's a factor that comes up.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Um I do, you know you said something important that I wanted to mention when you in the business genre, it has to stand up next to the other books that are in the business genre. So one of the things that I did when I first kind of was in the process of writing is I just went and sat in Barnes and Noble. And I set from far away, and I just stared at the shelves and I was like, what's popping out at me? And it was for me, it was the red books and the orange books. And I was like, ooh, those are just popping off the the you know, page at me. I want to go over and grab one of those off the shelf. And so that's why I thought one, I mean, my brand is orange, but two, I just really enjoyed, you know, being able to get a book that kind of pops off the shelf. And so, um, so yeah, I mean, I think that there's a whole psychology that goes into it, right? If it's too flimsy, people will think, I don't want to pay this much money. There's not a whole lot in there. If it's too large, people are like, I don't have time to read all of these pages, you know, 50 chapters. Like, so I do think that there's a psychology to the end user um in terms of what will be enticing for them when they're thinking about your book as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Um, a hundred percent. It's called the anatomy of the sale. The psychology is the anatomy of the sale, right? And there's like four or five steps. I think I'm gonna cough here. Hang on for one second. Talk about what you do today while I cough.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Yes. So while she coughs, um, so you know, my background is in product development, and that's why I wrote this book, set it on fire, um, in the innovation space. But really, my premise was a little different where I want everyone to believe and know that they can innovate. And so um, that is really the premise behind this book. That's why I wrote it. Um, is I just want people to know that they can be an everyday innovator. And I start this book out talking about like, do you ever feel like you're missing something? Because I know growing up, you know, it felt like there was a secret club that people were in that I didn't know about, right? Maybe it's if you work with um, you know, maybe in a male-dominated environment, you're like, everyone goes plays golf on Friday afternoon and I'm not invited because I don't know how to play. It can feel the same way with innovation. And I want it to just give people a business innovation playbook that they could wrap their arms around and that they could use in order to be successful in whatever they do, whether you're an entrepreneur starting a new business, or whether you have been in a corporate setting for 20 years, just giving people a fresh perspective and a fresh way of looking at um innovation. And so that's that's kind of why I love love this book and this content, is because I really want everyone to be able to get their arms around what it means to innovate.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Thank you, man. So that's a first one. I guess I get to have a first all the time of coughing on on the live stream. Um, I want to unpack a little bit though, because you you you brought up another great point, and that is that you went to Barnes and Noble and you looked in your genre section at the other books. Yeah. So what we do at CEO Book Publishing is we have when we're trying to define the book cover, right? Which again is so important and part of that anatomy of the sale, we have a uh book cover intake form, of course, you know, and basics, like what color do you hate? You know, what color can't be on there? What color do you love? You know, you know, what is the general feeling? All of that. But then there is, I think it's like question nine. It's not, it's like maybe 11 questions. Question nine says, go to go to a retailer, go to some bookstore if you're able to, and go to the genre of your book. You know, people say, Well, I went to the fiction section. I'm like, we're writing a nonfiction, you know, cookbook. So go to the cookbook section. So go to the section where your book is resident and go to the shelves and then pick out the books that grab you and then put them on the shelves and then sit back. And why does it grab you? Is it the orange color? Is it the font? Look how great your font is. You know, what is it? Is it that you know it's it's just loud and big, or is it that you like the the cursiveness and the subtleness of the background, you know, so that you can really define it because no one, it's hard to describe that unless you're actually looking at it and seeing it there. And then and we're all drawn to what we like and what we don't like, you know, just instinctively. And you've got to love your book and and so and it's got to be a marketable, amazing book cover that encourages people to grab it. So um, and then we tell, you know, authors that don't necessarily have a book retailer by them, then to go online, you know, search online online for that. But so yeah, you did uh no one even had to tell you that. You just um figured it out. You're so smart. So let's um oh, we're getting close to the end here, but let's talk what I'd like to. There's so many. Um, I remember I was telling you I I dog earred a bunch of pages, which a lot of times I don't do that, but I was a combination with your book of I would put my bookmark in, I'd put my highlighter, I'd circle, I dog eared. So there's so much I loved about your book. And and um what was your maybe favorite or one of your most popular um chapters that you wrote? Did you share that?

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, this is always hard, right? But um, for me, I think it's chapter seven, because I talk about failure being innovation's training ground. And a lot of the reason I think that people don't innovate, they don't, you know, go outside of their comfort zone is because they're afraid of failing. They're afraid of looking really dumb, right? They're afraid of messing up, they're afraid of um public humiliation, right? You go back to the top five fears that we have. The same fears we have today are the same fears people had 20, 30, 40 years ago. Public speaking, um, being you know, publicly humiliated. I mean, all of these things are the reasons why we don't um step outside of the box that we've been put in. And so my whole premise for the book is I say break the box and then set it on fire. And that's why that's where the the phrase set it on fire comes from, is because oftentimes either people through their words spoken over us, maybe when we're young or even you know older, um, have created a box. And we every day wake up and decide if we're gonna live in that box that people have put us in. Sometimes the person's long gone and we're keeping ourselves in the box that they put us in. And so they put us in a box and we're we're deciding knowingly to keep ourselves in that box. So what I love about the chapter on failure is because it is innovation's training ground, um, we have to learn how to fail fast, fail cheap, and fail often. And if we fail small, then we don't fail big. And so my big thing is like get out there, try it small. Get out there, launch it imperfect, get feedback, and then continue to build, but keep moving, right? It's so much easier to move a car that's you know in drive than it is to move a car that's parked and it's been parked for a long time. So what we really need more than we know it is momentum. And momentum is what actually moves us to be successful and do the things that we feel called to do. So in order to do that, we have to start moving. We have to start putting one foot in front of the other. So um, I have a joke that I tell one of the girls I work with, I tell her, find something to do every day that just makes you uncomfortable. And that's the goal, is that every day we're just making ourselves uncomfortable so we can move. And that's why I love this. Um that's why I love this chapter, is because it's all about how do I get out of my own way and just try it. Like, like try it small, fail small.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

That's a huge challenge. And I'm actually putting up um, you know, your website because as people listen to you, then they say, oh, she is a very smart, insightful person. This is what I need. This is the kind of advice I need. This is kind of um, you know, uh leading that uh that you can do, and very strategic, obviously, but that's a huge challenge. Um, find something that makes you uncomfortable every day. I mean, that's that's big. You know, I remember years ago, one of my New Year's resolutions, this is a few years ago, and it's probably I should probably keep it every every year, but it was, you know, find a way to be kind to someone every day, you know, in some way. What and well, you know, and whether it's opening up the door or just saying hello or just acknowledging anything. And you know, it's you know, anything we do every day is a challenge, can be, unless it's part of our behavior. That's right. Right. And so, you know, so if you ask, you know, well, let's see, what do you do every day? Well, I drink coffee every day. You know, I have caffeine in some format, in some way. So, you know, it's not a struggle for me. It's something I do, it's something I like to do, it's something I feel the benefits of. So you could take that, you know, anytime you start something new or you have a goal, it's the discipline to get there. And the discipline to get there, right, is making it a habit. Um, you know, I wanted to run a full marathon. How to get there? Well, it took me a year, you know, and it took, you know, running around a track inside, you know, whatever, 18 times it was a mile, and say, oh, I don't know if I can even run outside. What's it gonna be? I mean, it seems so ridiculous now, but the idea is the same also when you're gonna write a book. You you've got to just say, okay, and okay, Monday, I'm gonna spend 10 seconds on looking at books. I'm gonna get on the road towards my goal, whatever that looks like. And like you said, you know, um, um, you know, you you just you just you have to make a decision, then you have to do it every day. So thanks for sharing that.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

That's so good.

unknown 22:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Well, so um what would you, you know, so we have, you know, in my job, which I love, we're actually 10 years old in September. How did that happen? Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I like I said, I can't believe it. And you know, so for me, you're gonna probably laugh about this. So, you know, so I was an employer, you know, a little bit about my background. I was an employer for 18 years as a tech CEO in Seattle, Portland, and actually had many, maybe maybe that's why I was thinking of you as California, had many clients who were Southern and Northern California, moved to Tampa about 11 and a half years ago, now part of the now publishing group. So I've been, you know, uh around business and been, you know, Minnesota for many, many years. So as I as I was hitting the 10-year mark, I was like, okay, maybe it's time for a career change. And I'm like, really? But you know what, right? But because you have to be agile in business, period. You know that. And the people that aren't, they're dinosaurs and they're not in business anymore, right? And so I'm like, oh, maybe 10 years of doing books is too much, but you get your try too. So what would you what do you think about that concept, business concept?

SPEAKER_02 23:06

I love the concept of reinvention. There's something I say in the book, which is like you have to disrupt yourself before you're disrupted. And that's exactly what you did with your mindset. You said, let's think about something completely different, let's disrupt my normal pattern of thinking and think outside the box. And that's one of the things that's so critical in business. And I do share some stories in the book about people who did not disrupt themselves. And so how they spent millions, millions and millions of dollars on things that were obsolete, that were no longer relevant. So I think it's so important that we get ourselves in an environment where we're constantly learning, podcasts like this, where we're constantly learning and growing from one another. Also, reading is so important, I think, in our journey, listening to podcasts, doing what we can to get our thinking up to a higher level. You know, we are the top 10 people we hang around, right? So when we think about who we're we're hanging around, if they're not growing, we're not growing. So we've got to be around people who are growing, who are thinking differently, and we have to constantly be expanding our horizon, doing something that we are, you know, is going to make us uncomfortable every day. And so I know that sounds crazy and maybe a little hard, but I think that's the power of innovation, that's the power of growth, is that we're constantly pushing ourselves outside of our boundaries. So if you're thinking about writing a book, here's your sign. You need to do it, and you need to do it now. Because um, the you know, some of some people I talk to, they're like, Oh, you know, I kind of missed my moment three years ago. I'm like, the next best time is now. So you got to get started today.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Your first chance is your best chance. I just heard that the other day, and it's it's so right. And um, and you know, if anything we learned from 2020, and I've said this a few times, maybe even on the stream, um, that you know, that who knows, this world is treacherous, this world is dynamic, and change is inevitable. So, you know, there's no perfect time to write a book. So I I appreciate so much that you said do it. And you know, what really gets me is that since we're on this topic and we're almost ended here, is that you know, I've I have had clients, I think I had five, I stopped kind of counting or remembering um that were in the midst of writing a book and something unexpectedly happened and they passed away. And yeah, and so you know, in 10 years of of doing work and how many, you know, hundreds and hundreds of people that I've met with over the years, of course, that you know, the stats are going to be there, but um I love it. So, Natalie, um, I just let me put your book back on stage. I highly recommend it, and I'll tell you, let me make sure that people know how to buy it here. So we've got um Innovation Meets Leadership.com is her website, but here also is the book. You can buy her book on the website as well. Um, but I gotta tell you, I don't always read from cover to cover my guest books. I always read my clients, my book publishing clients' books from cover to cover, of course, because that's our our business and our company, but I don't always have the time. I'll sometimes skim, but your book was very interesting, was kept me engaged, was dough ride on. I'm like, yes, 100%. And like you even just shared in that story. You know, you you showed a story that is, I think it was a team that you were the lead of that was building a product that no one asked for, which seems obvious, but yet I mean it can happen to very smart, smart people. You know, so again, growing and learning and knowing and innovation and all tech that you share. I thank you so much for um being a part of this um stream. And uh thank you all. Please connect with Natalie. She's got wonderful um content on LinkedIn as well. I'm a big LinkedIn fan, so please connect with Natalie Warren and thank you for being our guest author.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Oh, thank you so much for having me. This was an absolute blast. And um, I just want to read this quote to us real quick from Les Brown. It says the graveyard is the richest place on earth because it's here where you'll find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared. Um, so let that not be true of us who listen to this today. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Thank you. Thank you. And bye, twin, until we twin again.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Until we twin again.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

All right, but bye. Thanks everyone for joining. See you next Saturday.