Susan Dean: The power of story and nurturing our feminine

[01:35] Susan: Thanks for having me.

[01:37] Sonya: It's always my pleasure to have my guests on my show. Susan, why don't we kick off and why don't you share with us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

[01:45] Susan: So, yes, my name is Susan Dean and I run a publishing company called Dean Publishing. And it's really about helping people share their knowledge and their stories with the world through a book.

[02:02] Sonya: I love that and I love your work so much. Susan, how did you get into publishing? Why publishing? And what do you enjoy about publishing?

[02:14] Susan: So, yeah, I got into publishing back in the early two thousands when coaching as such wasn't as well known. Nowadays, there's plenty of coaches and people know coaching, and I'm a lover of coaching and a believer of coaching. Coaching to me is someone that can support you to move you forward. But if I do, the really fast version is I was a youth worker. I worked for the Department of Human Services, and I worked with a lot of young adolescent kids. They were called the old wards of the state for people around our age that know that lingo, and the lingo changes as you get older. And I was saying something before to my daughter about, I don't know, I come up with these sayings, normal sayings that I think they understand and they go, what's keeping in the loop or whatever it is, is what I said, what's bigger than Ben? Her? And they go, Who's Ben?

[03:12] Sonya: Who has been a tiktoka?

[03:16] Susan: It's been her a tiktoka, exactly. So I was a youth worker and I used a lot of story. I would share a story with these young adolescents about, say, someone else I'd worked with. Without using that, I said, Look, I knew a friend that had come from a family that wasn't exactly how they wanted it to be, but they decided that they were going to write down everything they wanted and they were going to achieve it, sort of thing. And so Story always just got me through and helped these young adolescents make a shift and say, do you think I could do that, too? So Story has always been really close to me. That my friend John's Story, where people go, well, if they've done it, maybe I can do hence the love of story and the love of books. But from there, I progressed from a youth worker into a life coach. And as I said, that was in the early sort of worked with the famous author, Dr. John Gray, who was the author of Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus. Most people know the book if they don't know John Gray. And I was doing a lot of relationship coaching. I met my husband when I was gosh, I was just before 16 and wow, yes, high school sweethearts, high school swell. We didn't even go to high school together, believe it or not. He worked at KFC. And I looked behind and I went, OOH, that's pretty hot. I think I might.

[04:49] Sonya: Oh, my God. I love that. Your eyes locked across the counter at KFC.

[04:54] Susan: They did, right? It was the cook out the back with all the secret herbs and spices. So that's the whole story on its own. But anyway, I digress all the time, isn't that right? You use that as an excuse, being menopausal, that you lose where you're up to.

[05:12] Sonya: Absolutely.

[05:13] Susan: So I worked with John Gray and I thought, well, I was doing coaching and running relationship workshops, and I remember thinking, well, John Gray's book is so good. There was so much knowledge in there and there was so much that I was able to help people with. And he's written how to get what you want. There's so many different books. And I thought, well, he's written a book, I need to write a book. And I was always writing poetry. Growing up, I loved writing poetry. And then I worked with someone and we partnered, we sort of grew a series, and I'd written in a book, and I'd use that book to sort of share what I did. I was always sharing stories anyway. I was always talking them out, but to put them in print made it so easy to give to someone. And so as I grew my coaching business and as I grew in the publishing business, kind of simultaneously, I thought, I need to get into my own publishing company where I know that I can take someone from concept of idea to written book. Because a lot of people have got great concepts and ideas, but they don't they're not writers. They don't pull it together. So we kind of help people from the very beginning of concept or published book. That's really it to me, it was the core of story and the power of story, and then it was, well, how do we put it into a product that we can hand out our story and we can help more people than just the people that we can maybe see as a coach? Maybe not so many people can pay for our knowledge as a coach, but they can all afford a $30 book. So that's kind of where it got me into publishing and why I love books and audiobooks and interactive books and ebooks and all of those type of things, because essentially they are just products that allow you to share your knowledge forward so that you can help others.

[07:06] Sonya: I love that, and I love that your evolution through that and your link with John Gray I think is a really beautiful story. So where does that place you today? What are you up to today? How has your business evolved? And I'd really love to share with our listeners the type of people that you help when it comes to your book publishing and your book coaching business.

[07:26] Susan: Yeah, look, we just published Dr. John Gray's book called Love and Coaching. So that was a real privilege to be able to not only work with him in such an amazing author, I mean, gosh, he gets paid a million dollars pre retainer to go and write a book. Not a bad incentive. Not a bad incentive. He goes, you know, it's a lot of work to write a book. He goes, but when someone puts a million dollar check in front of you, you kind of go, all right, I'll do it. And that's the thing. What people don't understand is the traditional publishers, they want a manuscript. They want you to supply the manuscript. Well, who's going to get you to that manuscript anyway? And then they'll assess it and decide whether they want it or not. So we sort of take all that out of the way. So where I've progressed to now is loving coaching and helping people. The core of me is making a difference. The core to me is always about, gosh, I'm one person. How many people can I help? But if I can help these authors help their niche, then I'm helping more people by default. And so to me, the publishing and the book is just a byproduct of really making a difference. And I think that we all have knowledge and sometimes we don't have that person to talk to. Sometimes we don't have that friend that might be going through same menopause at the same time as us. Sometimes we are a bit embarrassed to talk to our friends about certain things. Maybe it's mental illness, maybe it's menopause, maybe it's whatever that might be. We're a bit embarrassed to maybe talk to our family and friends.

[09:10] Sonya: I'm going to extrapolate that out a little bit further too. Because if there's the things that perhaps we fear talking to people about because there's something we're going through and we think it's only us going through it. But I think also, and I'll use you as an example, there are things that we desire, there are goals and aspirations that we have that we also don't want to talk to our friends and family about for fear of being ridiculed or made fun of or failed not worthy enough to follow that dream and that goal. And writing a book is, I honestly believe, probably one of those situations because I know I've always had a dream and a goal to write a book. It's been like you I've been in love with stories since I was little. I wrote poetry, I wrote song lyrics. I was your typical lady's teenager in a bedroom obsessed with song lyrics, with.

[10:00] Susan: The radio where you had to kind of go, why are they talking over this? We wanted to receive that song and they're talking before it finished and recording.

[10:09] Sonya: Songs off the radio onto my cassette player so that I could play them back and back when I wanted to listen to them. That was before I could afford to go and buy my own versions. And I know there have been times when I haven't felt comfortable sharing that information with the people the closest to me for fear of that dream or desire being tainted by their beliefs and their stories 100%.

[10:33] Susan: And so it goes both ways. As a person that wants knowledge, again, where's the books taken me, it's just because people looking for knowledge can reach out and grab a book and they don't even have to reach out to the author yet. They can just grab the book. They can read it, they can comprehend it, they can go, oh my gosh, this person is speaking to me through the book. Because when you're writing a book, you're writing it to somebody, it's just everyone's reading it, but you're writing it to a particular avatar or a particular niche or a particular person. So as they're reading it, they build that bit of rapport. They get knowledge. So you're sharing your knowledge with a lot of people where you might only be able to you know, it's the same as this podcast. It gets to share to a lot of people and the book, then they get to read it. But then in some instances, whether that be the author themselves that helps them around that thing, or whether the author is then saying, hey, reach out to a naturopath or reach out to a doctor or reach out to this person. But they're being able to essentially help people. And the reader gets to then build that bit of rapport by reading the book and getting that knowledge that they need and in their own time and then also as the author, they're getting to, like I said, share their knowledge with the world. But you're right, whether you got something that's up for you and you're worried about telling people we've got that real big tall poppy syndrome here in Australia. We've also got that sort of joking ridicule that sometimes can be hurtful when we're in a vulnerable stage. Whereas I think we know ourselves when we help people write their book. And why I love what I do is we hold people's hands from start to finish and again and again we have authors sometimes that are on their auto coaching call and all they're doing is talking out and sometimes crying. And my team are trained around that and they talk to about that because I say to them, you're there to help them get this book out. We've had so many people come back to us and say that the writing of the book was such a healing journey. They didn't realize how healing it was going to be and how they didn't realize how it was going to be. This roller coaster of selfdoubt and perfectionism and vulnerability. It's a really big deal. When someone publishes a book, it's their heart and their soul and their knowledge and they're putting it out to the world, which is scary and everything else. We call it author anxiety and we talk to our authors about that because it really is. You putting yourself out there and it's out there and it's in the Australian Library and it's out there in the world and it's on Amazon and it's a big deal. And so we help nurture the person through that process because I feel that it's such an injustice that people die with their knowledge in them. I feel that we've all learnt something in life. We've learnt and we've become more passionate about something like you about bringing people's awareness that we're not alone going through menopause and that we, you know, that it's okay and we can talk about this taboo subject. And other people we work with talk about mental health and they get very vulnerable and talk about that even talking about sex, talking about menopause, talking about things. If you've got a good group of friends you can have a little bit of a laugh and go yes, if you got your foot out the bed, yeah. But they don't maybe talk about the raw things and the other things that are a little bit more vulnerable. It's more the surface sort of stuff. So when people like yourself that get courageous enough to open up a subject for people to learn from and to feel a little bit easy about, that's what I believe is so important in the world and it changes people's lives and it saves people's lives. And I think that that's why for me books are so important but it's also cherishing the authors that are courageous enough to do this because it's not just about putting a book out there. They're putting their heart, their soul, their knowledge. They're worried about the ridicule that might come. But to me, there is nothing more powerful than being able to leave that legacy in the world as much as it is as a book. To me, it's just so much more. It's saving lives. It's changing lives. It's helping people at the core of everything. So the transition into books, to me is just perfect because I've always come from I've always been a person that wants to make a difference. I was the person that had come home to my parents and say, hey, this friends having a bit of problems at home, they got nowhere to leave. Can they come and live without and say, okay? Yeah. And so to me, the books was just a perfect way, and I've built an amazing team that are all heartcentered, that are there to hold someone's hand every step of the way. And some people come in and it's just knowledge, and they know it, and they just want to get the book out, and that's okay. But there's a lot of females out there now that are so stepping up in the world, and they really are dominating this industry by getting out there. And we're emotional beings, and we just need to have that little bit more nurture and just other women having our backs, saying, you're doing a great job. And I think that's changing a lot now.

[16:31] Sonya: Yeah, I think it is too. For the better. So much for the better.

[16:34] Susan: Yes. Women are just there coaxing each other on, I think because we're getting into starting up our own podcasts and businesses and everything that I think that we know how much work it takes. We know how much obstacles we have to overcome. We know how much courage that it takes to put yourself out there. So when someone else is doing it, we kind of want to lift them up too. And, you know, I think that's happening more and more, which is great.

[16:59] Sonya: I love that. And I think that is also a reflection of women actually feeling much more comfortable to operate in their feminine and as opposed to the masculine, which a lot of us have operated in for a long time because society has kind of forced us into that state. And one of the things that I love when you're really in your feminine is that there is no competition between women. It's women supporting women. It's not, oh, my God, I'm writing a book, and she's writing a book, so oh, my God, like, I don't want to talk to her. I hope that my readers don't read her book. I don't believe that exists within the feminine and the women's movement that we're in right now.

[17:40] Susan: Exactly. And if you talk even with John Gray going back and spending three days with him, it's like sometimes we get on with life and we forget the basics. And just talking to John, I just highlighted that the masculine is that achievement, that accomplishment, that type of thing. And now us as women, we're needing that masculine, that dopamine and everything else that comes with the masculine side. And if we go back to caveman days, men would go out and hunt and they needed the fight and flight and the testosterone and all of those things and they had to achieve an accomplish to capture the food and come back and feed the family. And what the family was doing was that nurturing, that circle. If you look back at communities, when you go to Fiji and different places like that, all the women are helping each other's children, that community. And I think that we forget that. And what's so beautiful is when we're aware, like anything, awareness is the key to everything. When we're aware of that and we do come back to our feminine, our core feminine, no matter how the world has changed. And we know that men and women need to work now. And that's why, you know, a lot of John's Gray's books have, you know, have progressed and you know, you've got mausoleums collide and you've got lots of other things because women now, I mean, it is a double income and I think women are enjoying to work and things but not forgetting our feminine side. And it's like now at the moment, I've got my daughter who's made me a Nana, which is exciting. And I'm obsessed with my granddaughter. What do you mean she's at daycare? It's like we're all sitting and biting at the Beacon. She'll be here this afternoon but she's also pregnant now with a baby boy.

[19:32] Sonya: Oh, wow.

[19:33] Susan: Yeah, we're so excited. I can imagine but just watching that she is a female, watching my husband and her husband say wow, like, gosh, the females go through so much. We're born to nurture and to have these recreate, these beautiful human beings, that is a miracle. But that's sort of who we are. Whether we choose to have kids and we don't have kids, we still have that feminine, which is community, which is connection. And we've got to remember that as women and we're going through so much, we're still going through menopause and pregnancies and all of these things and I think it's just going back and nurturing that and knowing that it's okay. For me, it's like I'm going through menopause now. Sometimes it's like you may feel a bit out of balance and I'm running a company. For me, the big wake up call about going away and spending some time with John was to reignite that, that we have that feminine and masculine side and we need to get back to the feminine side more and we need to nurture that. And if I'm going through this stage of my life, I need to acknowledge that and nurture that and not just push through it.

[20:52] Sonya: Sometimes I think that's so important and that's a really key message to really share with women is this we're always in such a hurry and we're always, you know, like with pregnancy, there's always that rush to get the baby and then be the mother as opposed to just being the vessel that's growing and carrying the baby. And I think that there's a lot of women in the menopausal cycle as well who are similar. They just want to get through it and get out the other side. I think it is such a key moment in our lives where we can actually pause menopause. And I know that's not what it actually means, but I also think it's a key time to slow down, reflect on what you actually want the next half of your life to look like. Because let's be honest, it is still half a life. You've got ahead of you with ages that we're living to today and we're healthy and happy and 100 a lot of people, what do I want that next half of my life to look like? And making choices now that set you up for that as opposed to this just rush, rush, rush to the end of your life sort of thing.

[22:03] Susan: And you know what I found really exciting? And I will look more into it and share it with you. But spending, of course, some time with the master of masculine and feminine energy. Of course I put my hand up and said, but hang on a minute, what about this? Because he was talking about male and females and sex, of course, John Gray, if you've ever seen him, get him on the subject of sex, but you can't stop him, but you sit on the edge of your seat because it's not just about sex, it's about understanding the masculine, the feminine, the serotonin and all of that. Anyway, here's a little secret for you. I'm going out to buy myself a moon shot, by the way, and let me explain why. So John talks about when we all know that when a woman is ready basically for sex in a menstrual cycle and they sort of say, okay, a woman in a menstrual cycle, we know that she has a period and then there's X amount of days and all of this. And I said, what about when you don't get your period anymore? Like, how do you know that cycle? So the cycle that he talked about was the cycle where as females, we want our partner, we want to feel like we're loved and we're nurtured and we're number one. And then there's a time where, OK, that's all now I need my friends, now that the cycle goes along here when you need community. Well, he talked about that from a menstrual cycle point of view and he said for a women's menstrual cycle, as you're going into this, you need your partner. That's why I think it was five days after your menstrual period finishes. That's the most time that you're highly fertile. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, don't quote me on all of that. And then, like I said, I said, but what about when you don't get your period? And he said, oh, well, you all go towards the moon then. So what it is, is it's about measuring instead of measuring your menstrual cycle, you measure the moon cycles. And I'm like, wow, I need to look into that more. And he said, it's the same type of thing. You'll have your time when you're really wanting to connect with partner, feel maybe that little bit, that time where you're a bit vulnerable and you're wanting that to be felt like you're number one now, that's fullblown. Now I need my friends and I need my community. And it was really interesting to know. And I said to him, I'm going to look into that a little bit more so that I understand it more. But it was using the point of the cycle of the moon to know when we're feeling like that. And I think like anything, it's just being aware of other things out there. For us to then monitor it ourselves and know ourselves. And rather than making what I always find is rather than making decisions or making big things in that very vulnerable stage. Or that stage where we're feeling a little bit out of control. Leaving it and going. Okay. I'm going to sit on this for another week or maybe or two. And I'll go back and visit this. Because it could just be an emotional response than a conscious response. So I think that heading to this phase of my life, I've been really conscious that you hear all these horror stories of menopause, but everyone's different, everybody's different, it's the same.

[25:29] Sonya: And I equate it to the same as every pregnancy is different, every parenting experience is different, every birth is different, 100%. And so therefore, every Monopoly experience is going to be different.

[25:42] Susan: Yeah. And I think that I remember once I was in a group of circles and one lady piped up and said, what about when this happens? And everyone went silent and went, no. And I watched this person just shrink, shrink. I thought, oh my gosh, she's so embarrassed now because nobody else had that. And now she felt completely embarrassed that that happened to her. And I thought to myself, oh, well, I'm not going to speak up about that.

[26:13] Sonya: Yeah, because I don't want that experience as well.

[26:15] Susan: I don't want that experience. What if I experience something that they're not? And so then you kind of be quiet and only take something like that. Whether it's to you or someone in the group or someone said something that they went. No. That doesn't happen to me. Or someone's talking about. Gosh. I'm still having great sex all the time and I'm not like that and oh. God. I'm not you know. And it's like all those so. Like. For me. All the horror stories. All my daughters and my husband and that are like. So when is it going to be? I think I need to be in Europe because I've been aware and I've been a little bit more trying to get knowledge around different things like that. And being aware that I think it's stopping it as well. And being aware that I'm not in a good week or I'm not. I need to go nurture me and.

[27:14] Sonya: Honoring that that's how you're feeling today right now, and giving yourself the grace to do what's right for you. Like you say, go into more of a nurturing mode and look after you and show yourself some grace rather than the opposite of grace, which is grit and gritting your teeth and getting through it. Yes. I think when we can show ourselves grace, do ourselves so much more service.

[27:37] Susan: And I think that it's a really beautiful time, I believe, because when there's nothing better than not having to worry about going to buy all those bloody items, it's like it's such a really not worrying about whether you're wearing white jeans or not.

[27:57] Sonya: Oh, I know. I have the experience of my oldest son now has a serious girlfriend, and she spends a lot of time at our place now, which is wonderful, and I love. And I got a phone call the other morning from him, and he was like, Katie needs to ask your question. And he put me on the phone to her, and she's like, do you have any tampons or pads in the house? And I was like, oh, my God, I don't, because I haven't had a period for five years since I went into medically induced period. So it's mental. It's just something that I literally hadn't even given a thought to for five years. And my heart just went out to her because she's this young girl that's obviously woken up and gone, oh, shit, I'm in a strange house. Not that it's a strange house, but she's in a house where she doesn't have access to all her staff. But I was also so proud that she felt comfortable enough to ask me that question as well at the same time.

[28:49] Susan: Absolutely. And I think it is really important. I've had two girls growing up, and so I was always aware of it, and a lot of people don't. I'd always have, like, a little bin in the bathroom, and I would always have one or two little packets sort of at the side or in a little basket next to it. But you're absolutely right. I had my niece come back and live with me for a while, and I'm like, okay, what's in the house now? Because I think it's all cleared out. All the girls have moved out. But that's the thing, isn't it? When you have. Girls, they're so much more expensive. You've got makeup, you've got sanitary items, you've got all that. It's crazy.

[29:33] Sonya: Hair and nails and eyelashes, crazy.

[29:37] Susan: So yeah, no, I think getting back to this being know, I that a lot of your listeners here are probably around that age and possibly like me going into the grandmother age and all of that. So I think that's a good point, to know that, hey, you know, if you got your kids growing up, don't forget you're over it, but their girlfriends might not, or their friends and things like that. But also, coming back to this part of my life, I think that for me, it's really about reevaluating you're in another stage, as I say, like in a book, you're in another chapter of your life and it can actually be a lovely chapter or it can be an overwhelming chapter. And I think it's just aware, being aware. Some people really struggle gosh, I've heard of some horror stories around menopause where people have just really been not right.

[30:36] Sonya: And not enough awareness around how many women in perimenopause menopause have mental health issues as a result. And there's some incredible research that's being done. And I actually recently interviewed Professor Kochani, who is the leading psychiatry researcher at Monash University, about this and the research that she's doing and the treatment options that she's created as a result. And it's heartbreaking to think that there are women out there that are really struggling with mental health, but they don't know who to go to for support or they're not getting the support that they need from their primary carer because they're themselves not aware of this potentially being an issue at this stage of life. And it's an area that I'm becoming increasingly passionate about raising awareness around.

[31:25] Susan: Yeah. And I think that it's just that you may not connect it to menopause. You may.

[31:29] Sonya: No, that's right.

[31:31] Susan: One story was a friend of my sisters had actually this is how dangerous that it got. She actually was in the garage and she can't remember going there and she had a lighter in her hand and it wasn't that her husband or someone had opened the garage door and she sort of literally it was like she was kind of in this trance, she had broken out of it. And he said, well, what are you doing? She goes, I don't know. And he goes, no, what are you doing? She looked down, she had a liar in her hand and there was petrol everywhere.

[32:06] Sonya: Oh my goodness.

[32:08] Susan: And the point was, she didn't even know that she was there. She didn't even have an acrobatin. So there is those odd cases. Cases that are extreme. But I think it's just being really aware and I think that. You know but also on the other hand. It doesn't need to be also a scary thing if we're just monitoring ourselves and sometimes we'll go through I'd love to know the statistics. But I'm sure that there'd be many divorces around because sometimes we don't even know. I'm lucky that I'm in a very open family. We talk openly, we always have. And I also was very aware, but I got myself, I think we put up with less shit when we're at this age. That's what and we're certainly what we want in life, which is a beautiful place to be and we really don't give a shared so much about what people think. So it's a beautiful place to be, but it's also being aware that if you are a little bit grumpier, if you are that little bit angrier, don't try and make those decisions in the go and talk it out with someone. And the reason that I love, like I said, you know, the books, but I also love coaching and just on the published John Gray's book, Love and Coaching, I was one of the very first female coaches in the world with Dr. John Gray as a relationship and Mars Venus coach, which is a great privilege and honor. But a lot of the people I work with, the coaches, they're educators, they're teachers like yourself, they're sharing knowledge. Reach out to these people, talk to them. If it's not a friend that you're saying, hey, I'm not feeling right, you know, reach out to people and talk to people because sometimes when you talk it out, if you've got a good friend, there's always that good friend that tells you you're out of line. They're the good friends, the friends that just say, oh, you're going to be okay. It's sometimes not the friends that you go to. You need someone to say you are being a bit irrational, you know, that it's menopausal time. Maybe go and have a spa day. Go and have something that brings you back to a little bit of clarity. And I think that we've still got to take ownership and responsibility for ourselves.

[34:28] Sonya: And I think the next step on from that, which I'm always talking about, is also go and have an appointment with your primary carer, which for most cases here in Australia, for women, it's their GP. And I got some great advice from a GP I interviewed recently around the difficulty that some women have with those appointments. And she gave some great advice, which was when you make the appointment with your GP, bring up and make your appointment. First of all, ask for a long appointment because the GP is going to need the additional time to unravel everything that's going on for you. And secondly, tell the person that you're on the phone to, which often is your receptionist or your head nerve, I need to talk to my GP about menopause. So when you have done those two things, you've given your GP the heads up that that's what you're coming in to talk about and you've made the long appointment, you are going to be so much more supported by your GP than if you just rock up. You've got a 15 minutes appointment and it's like, hey, I've got these 300 things going on and I need your help. So that I thought was some really great advice.

[35:35] Susan: So your friend advice, because I really feel that sometimes people will go in and they'll just blurt and they may think that they're depressed and the next thing they're doing is writing a script out for you.

[35:51] Sonya: Unfortunately, we do live in a society where we're quick to medicate, but you've also got to look at it from the GPS perspective as well and, you know, a little bit like, you know, anybody can give you better advice and guidance and information when they have had time to process what it is that you're coming in for and the information that you're going to need. And I love that advice around. Just give them the heads up, tell them, this is what I'm coming in.

[36:18] Susan: And even if it's not a GP, it's a natural partner. Yeah.

[36:21] Sonya: Whoever it is, whoever your primary carer is.

[36:24] Susan: Absolutely. So I'm excited. It's like I say, I'm about halfway through life. Don't know if I'll make 110, but.

[36:35] Sonya: 100 happy, healthy and 100 I'll be happy with.

[36:39] Susan: Yeah. But it really is just about knowing ourselves and knowing that we are putting everything aside. We're miraculous creatures that can create another human being and our body is made to do that for so long and now our body is saying. Okay. We're going to give you a rest from that. Whether you are producing babies or whatever it be that the point is. At the end it's like. Okay. We're now going to give you a rest and we're going to allow you to just enjoy the second half of your life.

[37:13] Sonya: And that's the power of being a woman.

[37:16] Susan: The power of being a woman. And now it's like, bring it on. It's an exciting, exciting time of life, I believe.

[37:24] Sonya: Excellent. And I 100% agree with you, Susan. I think that's a fantastic note to finish our chat up on today. So I ask all of my guests this question. Actually, before I go into this question, I am going to ask you to tell any of my listeners that are interested in Dean Publishing how they can best connect with you. And I'll also link through to that in the show notes.

[37:44] Susan: Yes, so you can catch up with us on Dean Publishing, on Facebook, LinkedIn or your Social. But our main website is Dean publishing.com pretty easy and there's a great connection there called Jump on a Call. And that's even if it's just for a ten minute chat to see if it's something that you're interested in, you know, jump on the Call, connect with an expert, you'll talk to me and I'll just get to know a little bit about who you are, you know, and, you know, obviously with ours there's an investment for the team to pull your book together. So make sure that you're ready to invest in your book that you want to share with the world. But really just a 1015 minutes chat, click on Expert Call and you'll come through to me and I'd love to chat with you and share your knowledge forward.

[38:38] Sonya: Beautiful. I love that. Thank you so much, Susan. All right. What is the one thing that you are reading, watching or listening to right now that is bringing you joy?

[38:46] Susan: You know, that's a hard one for me, right. I'm reading my books, but I suppose something that I'm reading that is bringing Joy that's a little bit different at the moment is we've got one of our youngest authors that's just come through and she's written a book and I'm just trying to see if it's on the wall yet. I've got all my books on the wall and it's called The Truth in Lies and it's something that I don't normally read because it's your fiction book and I think she started writing it when she was about twelve.

[39:30] Sonya: Oh, wow.

[39:32] Susan: Can you repeat the truth in lies?

[39:36] Sonya: The truth in lies. Okay. Amazing.

[39:40] Susan: It's one of those ones that it's more of a teenagey type book and it's that type of thing. But I think what brings me joy is that she's done so well in that book, so that's bringing me a bit of joy. But of course all of my books bring me joy because I just feel that it's so courageous for each author to share. I only have time to read my.

[40:06] Sonya: Author'S books at the moment and that's completely fine. So I love that. I'm going to add that through into the show notes. And if anybody is interested in other books that Dean Publishing have published, they're all on your website. And I know that you're very generous in sharing all of that across your social media as well. And there are some books there by some brilliant authors. Yeah.

[40:26] Susan: And especially for some of the readers, if they want to read From Invisible to Invincible from Jennifer, that would be a really great one. And another one that I think you should really add, that is another book that comes to mind for your readers is called Real Talk, Real Change, and it's from one of our authors, Natasha Davidson, and she is a psychologist turned coach and hers is a real practical book that I think your readers would love and of course Wear Your Warrior. There's so many great books jump onto our website, even if it's not you to become an author. Jump on our website and have a look at our books. You can go into our library and have a look at our books. They're amazing authors that are authors that share from the complete heart and they share massive knowledge in there. So they're just a couple off the top of my head that I think your readers would benefit greatly from. Probably more so than Truth and Lies, that's kind of more of a teenager type book, but it's just one that's bringing me joy at the moment. But the other ones are definitely something that I think your readers would get massive value from.

[41:42] Sonya: Amazing. Susan, thank you so much for your time. And thank you for everything that you've shared today. I have loved our conversation so much. We went down all sorts of twists and turns.

[41:52] Susan: We did. Unfortunately, that's me and my brain is being a bit entrepreneur.

[41:55] Sonya: No, not unfortunate at all. I love these chats. Perfect.

[41:58] Susan: Thanks so much. Bye for now.