I published my first book in 2015, Living with a SEAL. We took it to 14 publishers, and they all passed, saying things like:
"You have 700 Instagram followers. Pass.”
“This isn't funny. No thanks.”
“You hired a Navy Seal to live with you? Why? Oh, and this isn’t for us.”
“You're a nobody. Close the door on your way out."
But we kept going and going and going until one person, the 15th, said yes and gave us a chance.
This is a classic example of knocking on doors. Don’t quit before the miracle happens. Sometimes you just need one person to believe in you.
It's easy to get discouraged. It's easy to feel like you're no good. It's easy to tell yourself, "Wait. If these gatekeepers of the industry don't think I'm good enough, I must not be good enough." And that's not always the case. Sometimes you just need one coach, one person, one producer, one podcaster, whatever, to give you that shot. And Kate Hartson at Hachette Book Group was my one yes.
It’s incredible what one yes can do... if I don’t sell my first book, perhaps I don’t pursue speaking, and then I don’t start coaching and I don’t write a second book and I don’t start this newsletter. One Yes!
And by the way... you can be the one person that believes in somebody. There have been plenty of people I believed in that nobody else did, and just my confidence breathed some life into them. Be someone's one yes!
