Kylie Zeal is a Book Coach. She wrote her first book in 2013, and wishes she knew then what she knows now about how to plan, draft, edit and publish a book, not to mention how to manage her time so the writing happens faster. That knowledge would have saved her more than two years of meandering, confusion and self-doubt.
Fortunately, Kylie persevered, driven by the experience of how much books had helped her transform her life and a desire to have the same impact on others, and eventually published her book. It became a valuable asset in her business, coaching industry leaders and entrepreneurs.
Kylie continued to write and publish books and discovered that she wanted to spend more of her time immersed in the world of writing and publishing. So, after more than a decade of executive and leadership coaching, Kylie formally changed her title to Book Coach and underwent training to become an accredited book coach.
Now, Kylie feels like she is living her best life. She gets to spend her days helping clients around the world capture the important and valuable ideas, knowledge and expertise in their heads and write their book. Her signature phrase is, “You can write a page-turner book, even if you have a day job and other responsibilities.”
Kylie also enjoys the freedom of being location-independent and has been travelling full-time since Nov 2018.
To learn more about Kylie Zeal and schedule a no-obligation chat to explore your idea for a book, go to www.kyliezeal.com
_ _ _
Chris Carlin's Links
Website: https://masteryourmoneynow.com.au/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/masteryourmoneynow
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/masteryourmoneynow
IG: https://www.instagram.com/masteryourmoneynow/
_ _
Aired on August 4th 2021
——
For show-notes and other resources, visit https://www.larksong.com.au/podcast
For all podcast episodes, visit https://getoutofteaching.buzzsprout.com/
Get Out of Teaching website (Larksong): https://www.larksong.com.au
Join the ‘Get Out of Teaching!’ Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/getoutofteaching
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-out-of-teaching/id1498676505
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-diacos-career-transition-coach-for-education-leaders-get-out-of-teaching/
Connect with me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.diacos
This podcast is a member of the Experts on Air podcast network https://expertsonair.fm/
Kylie Zeal is a Book Coach. She wrote her first book in 2013, and wishes she knew then what she knows now about how to plan, draft, edit and publish a book, not to mention how to manage her time so the writing happens faster. That knowledge would have saved her more than two years of meandering, confusion and self-doubt.
Fortunately, Kylie persevered, driven by the experience of how much books had helped her transform her life and a desire to have the same impact on others, and eventually published her book. It became a valuable asset in her business, coaching industry leaders and entrepreneurs.
Kylie continued to write and publish books and discovered that she wanted to spend more of her time immersed in the world of writing and publishing. So, after more than a decade of executive and leadership coaching, Kylie formally changed her title to Book Coach and underwent training to become an accredited book coach.
Now, Kylie feels like she is living her best life. She gets to spend her days helping clients around the world capture the important and valuable ideas, knowledge and expertise in their heads and write their book. Her signature phrase is, “You can write a page-turner book, even if you have a day job and other responsibilities.”
Kylie also enjoys the freedom of being location-independent and has been travelling full-time since Nov 2018.
To learn more about Kylie Zeal and schedule a no-obligation chat to explore your idea for a book, go to www.kyliezeal.com
_ _ _
Chris Carlin's Links
Website: https://masteryourmoneynow.com.au/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/masteryourmoneynow
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/masteryourmoneynow
IG: https://www.instagram.com/masteryourmoneynow/
_ _
Aired on August 4th 2021
——
For show-notes and other resources, visit https://www.larksong.com.au/podcast
For all podcast episodes, visit https://getoutofteaching.buzzsprout.com/
Get Out of Teaching website (Larksong): https://www.larksong.com.au
Join the ‘Get Out of Teaching!’ Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/getoutofteaching
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-out-of-teaching/id1498676505
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-diacos-career-transition-coach-for-education-leaders-get-out-of-teaching/
Connect with me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.diacos
This podcast is a member of the Experts on Air podcast network https://expertsonair.fm/
Elizabeth Diacos 0:00
Welcome to Season 4 of the Get Out of Teaching Podcast presented by Larksong Enterprises. I'm your host, Elizabeth Diacos. I'm a career transition coach who guides overwhelmed teachers through a 5-step process out of Education and into a life they love. In this season, we'll be meeting experts from many different sectors who help people to change careers, as well as a few ex-teachers who forged a pathway into something new. I'm sure it won't surprise you to learn that what keeps people in teaching when they'd rather leave is often financial pressure. That's why today's show is sponsored by Chris Carlin, financial planner and mortgage broker from Master Your Money Now.
Chris can help you sort out your cash flow, pay down debt, and plan your financially strategic exit from teaching, making sure you take good care of everything you've worked so hard for. Chris understands personal insurance cover, and can help you to make a successful claim. So you don't have to deal with the insurance company yourself. A huge relief if you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed by money concerns. Chris is not about taking risks. He's careful to help you keep your money safe. And his fees are very reasonable. He can even help you plan for retirement. Chris cares for the caring professions, teachers and nurses, helping you to shore up your financial resources so that you'll be in a good position to leave when you're ready. Go to masteryourmoneynow.com.au to book a free 30-minute chat with Chris Carlin, and master your money now.
Episode 4. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the show. On today's show. I'm very pleased to be interviewing Kylie Zeal. Kylie, thanks so much for coming on the show today.
Kylie Zeal 1:50
Thank you for having me, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Diacos 1:53
It's great to finally get this opportunity to interview someone who's really working in this space where I think a lot of teachers want to go. So tell us about what you do Kylie?
Kylie Zeal 2:05
So I'm a book coach. I've been a coach for 12 years. And more recently, over the last couple of years, keep focusing more and more around book coaching until about 12 months ago, I just said right, this is all I do now. I don't do anything else besides book coaching. So it's been a bit of a transition over the last. It feels weird saying 12 years that I've been a coach, I feel like my life flashing before my eyes when I say that. But yeah, I think through the process of publishing two books for my coaching business, I just discovered how much I love writing and publishing and everything about being immersed in words that I realized I can continue both coaching and being immersed in words if I become a book coach.
Elizabeth Diacos 2:55
So I this is a fairly new term to me. And I've just, you know, full disclosure, I met you via another friend, Sandy McDonald, who's actually I've worked with about around storytelling and getting real clarity about messaging and that kind of work, work. And Sandy said, "Oh, my gosh, you have to meet Kylie, your audience would love to listen to her and hearing what she has to say," what does a book coach actually do?
Kylie Zeal 3:24
Mmm. So there's, I think, three key elements to being a book coach. One is the editorial help, we're actually helping someone with the structure of the words of the book, or depending on what program I'm taking one of my clients through, will depend on the type of editing work that I do, but it's the actual polishing of words help. And the second part is like project management and time management. You know, to get a book done, you need either a lot of self discipline, or you need someone like me to coach who can help you manage your time, which is both the factual logistical parts of the process, but also the mindset.
Some people don't necessarily have the assertiveness, assertiveness skills that are required to say no to other things so that they can make time for their book coaching, or the emotional. That's the third part, by the way, the emotional coaching that comes with just feeling confident and that you are worthy of getting words down on a page and turning that into a book and sharing that information with the world. So that's the three main things that I help people with when it comes to book coaching.
Elizabeth Diacos 4:44
It's really interesting that that last part for me, that's probably the thing that really resonates more with me, I think, when I did my Masters I've talked about this in an another episode about time management, that that I used to get up at five o'clock in the morning before the house was kind of noisy and do a bit of work then. I wrote a book of poetry while I was running my masters.
Kylie Zeal 5:05
Oh, great.
Elizabeth Diacos 5:05
And I would do anything I could to not write the actual assignments. Also, my Tupperware drawer was really tidy. But it was, it was it was a real discipline. And like you said, I used to block out, like, I'd say to people "Oh no, I've got an appointment that night, I can't come out for dinner" or whatever. But it was an appointment with my Masters. So I know, like, I know, it's possible to do that. But you're right, it's, there's a lot of self discipline. And then the other thing is the self doubt, like, "Who's gonna want to read this anyway?" How do people get around that problem?
Kylie Zeal 5:40
Yeah, well, there's, there's both the tangible and the intangible. And so when I say the tangible, there's the practical element of actually doing the research, when we say "Who's gonna wanna read my book?" Well, we can do research and find books that are similar to your books and who's reading those books and, and then what are you bringing to the market that is new. So it could be similar to other books. And it's bound to be similar books, right? Because nothing's new these days, every idea has been covered, it's just that you're going to bring something new to it as the author of this, and so based on the research of comparative titles, we can see, well, literally, who's going to want to read this book.
And then there's the emotional sort of confidence side of, well, who wants to read my book, because it's feeling like I don't have anything worthy to say. And quite often we're comparing our draft to someone else's polished copy, that's been through seven edits, and proofread and the developmental, all the kinds of editing that can be done, because there's more than one type of editing. And it would have been through multiple prices of that to be come out with this great book. But when you're in the process of writing your first draft, it's one of the worst things you can do is compare word for word, this amazing, polished version to your draft.
So that's where we can really get realistic about what's a first draft look like, whilst also knowing what's possible.
Elizabeth Diacos 7:13
Yeah, so you're talking about so you're talking about, like the word smithing is one aspect. But and like the grammar and the spelling, is that what you mean? Well, that's once the one aspect of the edit. But there's, there's the kind of more big picture, like the flow of the book as well is that different types of editing.
Kylie Zeal 7:34
So, I'd say there's three key types of editing. One is the developmental edit, where you actually look at the structure of the book. And that's often what I'll do when I work with clients who are writing, we're just right at the beginning of writing their book is, we start with the structure to begin with, and put a lot of work into that, so that they're not going to need much developmental editing later. Compare that to someone who comes to me with a book that's finished, but they never did that work in the beginning, they're going to need a developmental edit to confirm that the order that they've put their book in is the most appropriate order. And everything that's in the book aligns with what is supposed to be in the book. So that's one is developmental editing.
And there's also line editing, where we look, as the term suggests line by line, and there's all the grammar makes sense, and how the words are put together. And then we have copy editing, which is each one gets a bit more detailed around the words and the writing. But if you don't have your books and your word sorted from a developmental perspective, there's not much point in getting into the finer details, right. It's like having a polished mud cake, right? It's still a mud cake. At the end of the day, you want to make sure you've got the right ingredients and have a nice delicious chocolate cake ingredients first and then refine it and polish it once the bones are right.
Elizabeth Diacos 9:01
Yeah, I actually thought you meant a literal mud cake. Like, you know, when I was eating that kind of a mud cake for a second. Okay.
Kylie Zeal 9:08
Well, I was thinking about as well like, because, you know, some cakes are just terrible. We might as well be eating dirt. Right.
Elizabeth Diacos 9:14
Carly, what inspired you to start doing this? You mentioned that you'd written a couple of books. Maybe tell us about those. And then and then tell us how you got into this because I you know, it's a fairly, it must be a fairly new field.
Kylie Zeal 9:30
Book coaching is a new field. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah, it is actually. I mean, I didn't know until around the time that I was exploring how can I stay more in the world of words because I'm also a writer, which started to answer your question when I wrote my first book, because I was just I was helped so much by books that I read on my journey, my self-development journey. And I wanted to have the same impact on other people through having written a book. And I also had my own thoughts on how to live an effective life and to be happy. And I took everything that I believed and knew and had learned over at that stage, probably six or seven years of coaching and put it all into a particular structure, which turned into being Seven Freedom Elements, which is the title of my first book.
And it was such a journey, writing my first book, which I often tap into now, when I'm working with new clients to try and remind myself what it was like to be a new writer. Because it took me years literally to write my first book, because I didn't really know how to write, I would have got through the whole process a lot faster if I had, like me who I'm now helping me, but I guess I thought that I could do so much of it on my own. And I spent a lot of time alone with my book before I hired anyone to do any editing. So even though it's a long process, I still loved the process, I still loved capturing my thoughts and putting them into words and, and I love the way words can play with each other and how the impact that they can have on the way that I feel. And when I when I finished and published that book, I just knew that I wanted to write another book.
And that became an interesting experience as well, because I got to see what it was like to write a second book compared to the first because I learned so much through the first book that it took me nowhere near as long to write the second. The first book, I literally learned to be a writer, I learned how to write through the first book, and my editors ended up helping with that too. Like I spent quite a lot of money on editing with my first book because I needed a lot of editing. I spent probably about a quarter as much on editing with my second book. Because I'd learned how to write better basically, right.
I'm just trying to remember what your question was... So I have two books. And yes, so I learned how to write. And I also just learned how much I love writing. And so then I also wanted to explore writing fiction, and I just I wanted to stay immersed in the world of words. And I thought it was going to need to be something that I did on the side until I discovered book coaching. And I had the same "aha!" moment that I had when I first discovered coaching 12 years ago was like, wow, like, this is an actual job like you can get paid for doing this type of thing that I feel called to do. And believed that I would enjoy. And then once I had been doing coaching for a couple of years, I confirmed you actually this is something I love. And to this day, I still feel blessed that I can be paid to do this work as a coach. And so it was interesting to note that I had that same kind of thrill when I discovered book coaching, like wow, I can I can stay immersed in the world of books. But I can continue to be a coach as well, which for me meant ongoing income, because it, because I've been coaching for 10 years already, it was a relatively easy transition compared to when I first got into coaching.
Elizabeth Diacos 13:26
Right. Okay, so if someone wanted to become an author and write, is there a way for them to do that? Like say, yeah, I'm thinking about our audience here today of teachers, who are, you know, working in education, they love books, they're into information, they love reading, they're there, if they're in a primary setting, they're probably reading picture books or short stories or short novels to their students. They're immersed in that world of words the way you are. And I speak to many, many teachers who want to become writers, is there a way to do it without going into crippling debt?
Kylie Zeal 14:11
Yes, and it would be, I think, the same answer regardless of what business you are going to going into. It's depends on how quickly you want to transition in and you wouldn't necessarily quit your day job. Especially, I mean, if your goal is to make money from being a book writer, there's quite a journey ahead of you, because you need to produce a book. And that in itself takes time. So in many cases, even like, so many of the most well known writers write their first second even third book, whilst they were still doing their day job. And that's similar to when I first started my own coaching business 12 years ago as I had a day job while I was first, starting my business and getting clients, I had a few clients before I decided I could transition to doing coaching full time.
So, yeah, I wouldn't necessarily quit your day job straight away, even though I know this podcast is specifically for people who are looking to get out of their jobs. So it's not about saying, stay in a job that you don't enjoy. But at this, at the same time, not necessarily thinking this is going to turn into all the money that I need straight away, because it really takes time to do that. Have I answered the question?
Elizabeth Diacos 15:36
Yeah, I think you have, and I, yeah, I talk to a lot of teachers who really do want to just, you know, have a have a new job yesterday. But actually, the reality is that you need to plan your exit strategy. And if you're planning to become a writer, I think you're, you know, you make a really good point, it might take you two or three books before you get to the point where you're actually a writer, and then you then you can consider, you know, leaving and doing something making that into your living. Even Stephen King was a teacher actually, and, and wrote, his, I think he wrote Carrie while he was still teaching, before he, you know, became famous. So...
Kylie Zeal 16:16
Yes, no, I think you're right, Carrie, but he threw it in the bin after he'd written it as well. And his wife pulled it out of the bin. So he was suffering from that same kind of confidence issue that so many of us writers deal with, especially in the beginning.
Elizabeth Diacos 16:34
I was a big fan of him in my teenage years, so I can, I'm glad she pulled it out of the bin.
Kylie Zeal 16:41
Yeah, yeah, I think everyone's glad for that.
Elizabeth Diacos 16:45
So Kylie, a lot of teachers often say to me that they want to write a children's book, or they're into that, like young adult fiction. Have you got any advice or any insights into how they might go about doing that?
Kylie Zeal 16:58
Hmm. And that makes so much sense as well. I think a lot of teachers go into teaching because they love and appreciate children. And that doesn't go away. And I also get just excited about anybody who wants to write a book. So, so your question is, though, the practical about how to go about writing a children's book, is that correct?
Elizabeth Diacos 17:18
I think so. Yeah. I mean, I don't know, what should I be asking you?
Kylie Zeal 17:24
Okay, yeah, that's such a great coaching question. By the way, whenever we get stuck in coaching, what questions should I ask you right now? Because people know what they need to hear. Yeah. So, look, I'm thinking about Sandy right now, I mean, that to you someone that you know, and she's the person that introduced us. And I'm working with Sandy as she writes a middle grade novel that I'm really excited about. It's got fairies, and all kinds of exciting things in it, and anyway. But what Sandy needs to do is actually in many ways, not different to what you need to do in any genre when you're planning out your book. And that's doing the book blueprint. So I'm, I'm working with Sandy through the book, blueprint to be clear on what is the point of the book, because there's so many things that could potentially go into the book. But you need to be decisive about what's going to belong in this book, in many cases.
And you've probably discovered this in the book that you're writing as well, that as you decide what goes in the book, you're also deciding what gets left out. And sometimes I make my peace with what's getting left out by saying that will go in the next book. So it's like saying, it's, it's not disappearing, you know, disappearing forever. It's just, it just doesn't have a place in this book. And that's something that we had to think about even more clearly when we're thinking about a children's book, because that they do need to be simpler than adult books. And you don't want to get too complex. And so get clear on what are the key, two or three topics that are going to go into the book. And so that's one of the things that we've worked through in the blueprint, we also do market research and, and we look at the character arc, which is really important when you're writing fiction is what journey does the protagonist go on.
So these, if teachers are wanting to write children's book, they need to think about all these kinds of things. But those things are also true, regardless of whether you're writing a children's book, or an adult's book. But if you want to write children's book, we were saying before about how important it is to read, make sure you read a lot of children's books to understand, like, the style of them and just because you know how children are because your teacher that doesn't necessarily mean you know how children's books are. And I've, I've had conversations with a surprising number of people who tell me the type of book that they want to read and they'll tell me what it's like for example, I spoke to one woman who wanted to write a memoir. And she said, I want my memoir to be either like Michelle Obama's or - and I can't remember who the other person was - but there was two memoirs that she wanted hers to be like. And when I asked if she'd read those books, she hadn't even read them, right? But she just knew who Michelle Obama was. And, and she knew the sorts of things that Michelle Obama tends to speak about. So she, I guess she was making up in her head, what would the book be like, but you can't say I want to write a book that's going to be like Michelle Obama's, if you haven't actually read that book. Yeah. So and it's, it is surprising the number of people I come across who's talking about the type of book that they want to write, and they just have not done any research at all.
Elizabeth Diacos 20:46
Right? Yeah. That's really good advice, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I actually have I've audio booked Michelle Obama's book. And I think, well, I love that it's her voice. But yes, I feel like she sounds depressed. And I kept getting more and more sad with every chapter. And I'm like, and then she'd start the next chapter. And she was a bit more like, hyped up again. And then as as the chapter went on, the audio got sort of more slow, and I'm like, oh, my goodness, "are you okay?", you know, I wanted to kind of, pat her on the back in sight. It's gonna be okay. Keep going.
Kylie Zeal 21:25
Interesting! Do you listen to your audios on normal speed? Or do you speed them up at all?
Elizabeth Diacos 21:29
No, was normal speed.
Kylie Zeal 21:31
Oh, I'll tend to be listening on about one and a half. So maybe I don't pick up on the slowness that you're talking about? Because I-
Elizabeth Diacos 21:38
Yeah, ok. There's probably a couple of readers that I would speed up but mostly Quick. Ironically, I've sped him up. Because he speaks quite slowly. But But yeah, I just found that interesting with her book that I found it kind of, yeah, a bit depressing. I once heard Mem Fox, who's the author of a whole lot of Australian children's books. And she talked about the first line in her book, Koala Lu, which was a big favorite at our house. That and she said she wrote it and she started out by by saying, "There once was a baby koala so soft around that everyone who saw her loved her". She said it took her a whole day of saying it to herself over and over again. And there's something wrong with it. There's something wrong with it. And then she realized that all the words were round words. So "There once was a baby koala, who was so soft and round" and then you got to everybody or everyone and it just was so jarring and then she realised she didn't say "all", that "all who saw her loved her". And so now it says "There once was a baby koala. So soft and round. That all who saw her loved her." It's just perfect. But it took her a day to write one sentence. It's excruciating.
Kylie Zeal 23:01
Yes, but just have a go as well. Like, I mean, I'm concerned now that I'm sort of giving this advice to teachers who might want to write children's books, and I'm saying all the things you need to think about and do but number one is just have a go as well. If you've got an idea that you're passionate about and and that you think could be a book, it probably can, you might need to like learn about story structure, but anyone can learn it. Right? If I can learn it, anyone can learn it, I do not consider myself like highly intelligent and a genius in any way. I just apply myself and learn things. If I can do it, anyone can do it.
Elizabeth Diacos 23:38
So what are the highlights of working in, with what you're doing now in your, in your book coaching field?
Kylie Zeal 23:46
Number one hands on is doing work that I love, like, I love my clients, I love, I mean, I'm good at coaching. So I think that has a interactive, you know, like we, we are good at the things that we love and vice versa. And, and I've kind of known from the beginning that I was good at coaching. And so I guess that's number one for sure. Work that I love. Second is probably the flexibility that that often comes with just having your own business. And that's sometimes a trade off like people sometimes think I'll start my own business and then I can make a lot more money, where the reality is a lot of people make less money when they're working for themselves in their own business. But it's a trade off you have so much more flexibility and creative freedom and the things that you want to do. And you're going to at least go through a period of time where you're dealing with that trade off.
The, the awesome days come when you hit that point where you are making more money than you were making in your day job, but you've got all this freedom. I remember that day for me when I hit the point where I was making as much in my business as I was in the day job that I was working, that was huge for me. So the freedom and in my case, I think I've told I was telling you about how I travel full time, because this is a job that I can do from absolutely anywhere. And I have been traveling full time for two and a half years now. And even despite all of the issues that we've had, and travel restrictions, I haven't been able to head overseas, like lots of people who've had to cancel holidays and things like that. But I've been traveling all around Australia, while I've been running my business, and I love that freedom.
Elizabeth Diacos 25:47
That is amazing. Just like, I just I'm so envious of that lifestyle. Because I'm you know, planted here in Melbourne with my big mortgage in my house that is now too big for our family, they've all moved out, and I'm like "Oh, I'd love to do what you're doing." It must be quite the, you know, amazing. So how do you like I know we talked about this before, but just share a little bit like what's a day look like for you?
Kylie Zeal 26:12
The shorter answer is, whatever I want, which I love. The only caveat to that is do I have coaching sessions scheduled. So I have usually have quite a few sessions scheduled every week. But outside of coaching hours, I love that I can do what I want, when I feel like it when I feel like it's time to get up and go exercise I go and do that when I've literally feel like it's time to get out of bed I get up I I never tire of not having to live by an alarm clock and I eat really well. So spending time in the kitchen is also a big part of my day. I like to eat a lot of home cooked food. I love roast vegetables.
And an important part of my day is also spending time reading. So thinking of Stephen King, again, it's an he's someone who comes to mind who says if you want to be a good writer, you need to read a lot. There's no exception to that. So I actually carve time out of my day as well to read, which often feels like a joy, it's almost tempting sometimes to think I should go just write some more emails or look at my social media plans and marketing stuff or some of the admin type work because it feels a bit luxurious to sit down and read. But when when you're a book coach, and even when you're a writer, you have to read. So I'll make time for that every day as well.
Elizabeth Diacos 27:44
Thank you, you just validated me reading books. Thank you, because I've got a stack there ready to go. And I do feel like it's a guilty pleasure sometimes to read. I saved my binge reading for the summer holidays. Usually, I can remember knocking out the Game of Thrones in two weeks.
Kylie Zeal 28:04
Wow, well you're a faster reader than me.
Elizabeth Diacos 28:08
My family were thoroughly neglected. Three weeks after Christmas, whenever they came out, whenever there were five books whenever that day came, and I was able to read them back to back. Yeah, my poor family then were neglected. So if someone was wanting to write a book, what what are some of the pitfalls or the challenges that can crop up? In that process of writing.
Kylie Zeal 28:36
Yeah, sure, I'd say number one is resistance. Whatever goal you take on if it's something that you are passionate about, in fact, the more passion you're passionate you are about something, the more resistance you're probably going to incur. Because if you're passionate about something, it's important to you. And if something's important to you, you get into all kinds of self doubt and worrying about what it is that you're putting out into the world. And then there's resistance just around the discipline, there's the energetic resistance, you know, because we only have so much energy as well. And if so, if you're not getting enough sleep, not eating well, it's all going to have an impact on your energy. And when your energy is low, it can be harder to concentrate for periods of time. So number one is just resistance and probably everything else is connected to that anyway. And so it's about being clear on what is your goal. So shall I get into the antidote to resistance now?
Elizabeth Diacos 29:38
Yeah, go for it, right.
Kylie Zeal 29:40
So it's about getting clear on what is the goal and making it achievable. Because no matter what you want to achieve in life, you are going to have to let something else go because we live in a time where our lives are full. You probably don't have many minutes of your day which are just free to do nothing. It might look that way, sometimes, because we can find ourselves scrolling through the newsfeed on some social media platform, suddenly you realize you've just killed half an hour scrolling on social media. And that might make it seem like you have all these spare minutes. But you know, you probably could have and should have spent that time doing something else. So really, our minutes are full, which means if you want to bring something new into your schedule, like completing a book, you're going to have to look at what are you going to give up in order to get that done? Yeah.
So what is the price that I'm willing to pay to complete this. And then once you are clear on what the goal is, and what you're going to give up, then putting in a practical plan for making it happen, because it doesn't happen overnight. And people often want to get everything done fast. And like you were just mentioning before about how people want to leave their job yesterday, and you said, "No, you need an exit strategy." Not that different. What I'm saying is you need a book writing strategy. So I will literally sit down with my client will plan out. Okay, when would you like to have this book done by? How long does the book need to be? How many days a week are you going to write and then we do the math, like the number of words divided by the number of days is going to tell you how many words you're going to need to write a day, then you could actually make decisions about how realistic that is, as well.
Elizabeth Diacos 31:19
Yeah, that's scary. Because I'm in the middle of writing the get, The Teachers Escape Plan, which is like a handbook. When I say in the middle, really, in the middle, I'm probably in the middle of the total process. But I'm at the start of the actual writing part. It's all the hurdles, the mental, the barriers that you were talking about earlier, that I've been there, and then I need to go, then I say to myself, well, now you've got a choice, you can get up and write, or you can go to the gym. And I'm like, "Well, if I don't have if I don't go to the gym, I won't have the stamina to do all the things." And suddenly, I'm in this quandary of how do I use my time every day, I have the same argument with myself like I could right now. This morning, I actually woke up really early. So that was awesome. I, I did a little bit of writing not that much, but half an hour. And then I went to the gym as well. And I'm like, "Yes, I've won the day!" So that was cool.
Kylie Zeal 32:12
That is as awesome. That is a, that's a that is a win for sure. I literally track all the minutes of my day, I have an app on my phone, and I track how I spent my day. And that has been quite invaluable to me, one around being accountable for my time, literally, because I'll get to the end of the day and I can see the pie chart of how I've spent all the minutes of my day. And and I've got to account for that I can I can literally see to the minute how much time might have been wasted. And own that and decide well, do I want to do it differently tomorrow. And because I never beat myself up about doing things, it's just being aware of what I've done.
Elizabeth Diacos 32:57
What's the name of your app that you use?
Kylie Zeal 33:00
It's called ATracker, it's great, I do recommend it. I recommend the paid version, which is only like $8. And just means you've got a lot more categories that you can set up. And so one, it helps me be more accountable for my time. But what it's also done that I wasn't expecting, was helped me be more realistic with my time. Like, the comment I made before about eating healthy and spending time in the kitchen is something I probably never would have said before I was using a tracker because it wasn't until I started tracking my time that I actually knew how much time I was spending in the kitchen. And so I get to the other day and I go well, I spent like two and a half hours in the kitchen today. And that that would be on a day, for example, where I chose to roast a whole batch of vegetables. So I'll do about three days worth because I love them.
And having that information means "Okay, do I want to do that differently?" You know, in three or four days time where I feel like I want another big batch of veggies? Would I forego that and have say, you know, an eat, a cook-quick meal. So I can have two more hours in front of my computer to do writing? The answer is no. Because I also know that my number one asset above everything else that we talked about today is my health. Which means I make sure I get plenty of sleep. All the things that we know right, the cliche stuff, sleep, eat plenty of water drink, sorry, eat well. And so I say no, that time that I spend in the kitchen is actually contributing to the results that I'm getting in my business as well.
Elizabeth Diacos 34:36
That's how I feel about the gym too, like I, for my listeners, you've probably heard me talk about this before, at least on a Facebook Live. I'm trying to get 5000 steps before breakfast, which means I walk to the gym and then do the thing and then walk back and by the time I've done that, that's about 8000 steps. And then without too much trouble. I get to at least 12, maybe 16 a day, which is great, you know, and right, triple what I used to know, probably double what I used to get. And so that's awesome, you know, and I feel like it's increased my stamina and made me more alert and, you know, etc. But the downside is, that's a two and a half hour time commitment, probably, it's takes me, that's probably a two hour time commitment to do that.
And then you got to come back and, you know, have a shower at all. So I feel like, I just need to make sure I'm, you know, honest with myself about the amount of time I spend doing that, and is that a priority? And I don't do it every single day, I don't do the walk to the gym every single day, I avoid the cardio days. And just don't do the strength days. But still, it's still I usually go four days a week. So on those four days a week I'm spending, you know, two hours going there and back. And so, yeah, it is something to think about, isn't it? Just how you account for that time? I love that idea of, of using an app that shows you all that stuff? And like, ya know, doing your washing and hanging? I don't know, I'm learning that.
Kylie Zeal 36:13
Yeah, I have an item on the app called housework. And so when it's time to spend some time on housework, I track that too. So I can see how much time and yeah, some people would say, "Oh, that's too much." I was chatting someone about the other day, and they're like, "Oh, I don't want to be you know, tracking all the minutes." I'm like, that's fine, each have their own but for me, makes me a lot more productive or, and it makes me feel good. And that's, that's the number one question that I ask in terms of how I spend all my time throughout the day is will this make me happy? And it makes me happy because I get the end the day and I'm like hang on, I'm looking after my health, I'm eating well, and I didn't waste a lot of time. So yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos 36:54
Yeah. Nice one. Alright, so if someone wanted to work with you, as a book coach, what would they need to do, like what's the process to get in touch with you to engage you what it what do you what do you do?
Kylie Zeal 37:09
Yeah, at this stage, at this stage of my business, the very best thing is just getting in contact with me, right? Because I'm, I'm setting up some courses and things like that. So that might be another way that people can be connected to me, but do some of the other work that I'm doing. But absolutely, I like to get all potential clients on a call with me because I want to know that we have rapport and I've been coaching for 12 years, I've coached hundreds of people I can tell quite quickly if I've got rapport with someone and if we're going to work well together. So that's always number one. For me, and I don't have any issue these days about just saying no and recommending a different coach if I think I'm not the right fit for someone. So yes, absolutely just get in contact and schedule a call with me and I love always talking to new people anyway. So even if it doesn't turn into a coaching engagement it's always great to meet new people.
Elizabeth Diacos 38:04
Yeah. Awesome. And so how would we do that? Like your website or...?
Kylie Zeal 38:10
Yeah, so I can be found on all the social media platforms if you're, if anyone has a preference for that just search for Kylie Zeal on all of them, or kyliezeal.com is my website. So that's an easy one to remember.
Elizabeth Diacos 38:21
Okay, and so I'll put all those links in in the show notes for this episode. So if people want to find it, they can they can get them that way. And as a final question, what's your favorite song?
Kylie Zeal 38:34
Oh, my favorite song. Right, so I don't have a favorite song, but I like lots of songs for different reasons. And you know, the first song that's come to mind is the new Ed Sheeran song. And that's partly because it's at the time of us recording this. It's a fairly new song and I love Ed Sheeran because he is genius songwriter. And so I often like listening to the words that he puts in to his songs. I'm mentioning that now because it probably relates to the the conversation that we're having about books and writing. So his new song is called Bad Habits. And it as I listened to those lyrics, it also gets me thinking about the concept of bad habits and how they land us in a particular place. Like I think the lyrics are "my bad habits always lead to you", but they're always going to lead somewhere. So if we want to be successful writers and good books, and we definitely need to create good habits, but yeah, that's one of my favorite songs at the moment, the new Ed Sheeran song.
Elizabeth Diacos 39:35
I love it. Thank you very much. that's a that's a great way to to wrap up our interview Kylie Zeal. Thank you so much for coming on the Get Out of Teaching podcast.
Kylie Zeal 39:43
Thank you. Yeah, it's been great. Thanks.
Elizabeth Diacos 39:48
You've been listening to the Get Out of Teaching podcast presented by Larksong Enterprises with your host Elizabeth Diacos. Do you know someone else who could benefit from hearing more stories of hope and transition from teachers all around the world? Please take a moment to share this and other episodes via your podcast app. Each share helps me reach listeners just like you who can benefit from this content. The Get Out of Teaching podcast is proud to be part of the Experts on Air Podcast Network. For show notes and other resources please visit larksong.com.au/podcast
Transcribed by https://otter.ai