You Should Write A Book About That™

On today’s episode, host Kim O’Hara talks with Nu-disco song-writing wizard and DJ Blake Robin about his career creating dance music for adults with his brand LUXXURY, as well as songs for film, TV and gaming. He shares the nuances of creating live DJ sets on location in places like Mexico City, as well as curating his Spotify playlist Good Morning, Disco! with gems that span four decades of groove-first music.  He is currently known for his viral TikTok videos about “Interpolation” that go “Inside the Song.” A musicologist of his own kind, he explores stems of classic hits and “reports” on his findings.

Blake, who started as a pop song writer, has a “newfound earnestness of expression but a lifelong love for the craft of disco.” His debut album “It’s Not Funny” (Nolita) blew past 6 million streams on Spotify. Last Call with Carson Daly audiences were treated to luxe live renditions of "Take It Slow" and "Hold On." SPIN praised the music's sensuality. Complex said it sounded like Nile Rodgers DJing a rave. You can find him at https://www.tiktok.com/@luxxuryxx.

Subscribe in your fav podcast platform to not miss any upcoming guests, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show!

Want to know more about show host Kim O’Hara and the authors she has helped write books? Check out her website at astoryinside.com.

On today’s episode, host Kim O’Hara talks with Nu-disco song-writing wizard and DJ Blake Robin about his career creating dance music for adults with his brand LUXXURY, as well as songs for film, TV and gaming. He shares the nuances of creating live DJ sets on location in places like Mexico City, as well as curating his Spotify playlist Good Morning, Disco! with gems that span four decades of groove-first music.  He is currently known for his viral TikTok videos about “Interpolation” that go “Inside the Song.” A musicologist of his own kind, he explores stems of classic hits and “reports” on his findings.

Blake, who started as a pop song writer, has a “newfound earnestness of expression but a lifelong love for the craft of disco.” His debut album “It’s Not Funny” (Nolita) blew past 6 million streams on Spotify. Last Call with Carson Daly audiences were treated to luxe live renditions of "Take It Slow" and "Hold On." SPIN praised the music's sensuality. Complex said it sounded like Nile Rodgers DJing a rave. You can find him at https://www.tiktok.com/@luxxuryxx.

Subscribe in your fav podcast platform to not miss any upcoming guests, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show!

Want to know more about show host Kim O’Hara and the authors she has helped write books? Check out her website at astoryinside.com.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kimohara.substack.com

How do you know if your next most brilliant idea or divine download is book worthy?

You just had an incredible epiphany and madly filled three notebook pages with the idea, the whole time thinking, I could write a whole book on this topic! I can’t believe how clear I am on this subject! The possibilities are endless! You are energized and inspired but then the writing stops, and quickly a counter voice rushes in to fill the now empty space with the warnings that halt many great potential books… what if I don’t actually have the authority to speak on this topic at all?What if that is it? I am not a PhD or anything, you think, discounting yourself from the natural writing process which is timing and time. What was a high is now a creative low and you cut yourself off from the big open flow you have created.

It happens to the best of us. Join Host Kim O’Hara, an experienced author and book coach,  who takes to the mic solo in this episode to talk about her very personal experience with this writer mindset as she grapples with whether she could write a book about “feeling safe” (her download topic) and the weeks (or a lifetime really) that led up to her seeing the importance of this topic and her agency with its exploration.

Subscribe to not miss any upcoming guests such as music producer Blake Robin and Coolhaus founder Natasha Case, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show!

Can you survive five psychotic breaks by 30 and live to tell about it in a sane and sober way? Ethan Bach sure did, and feels like he is just starting to live with a big story to tell. Ethan was living a fairly normal teenage life. Sure, he played too many video games, was exposed to porn at a fairly young age, and had seen his fair share of violent films, but it wasn’t until he was diagnosed with a deep and perilous brain tumor that he slipped into what was described as a Steroid Psychosis at age 18. Despite trying to ‘live normally” with college, and girlfriends, he fell down a dark path with drinking, weed, spice and porn which led to more of a breaking of the mind.  Four more psychotic episodes ensued, each one crazier and harder to believe than the last, and usually including "The Truman Show Delusion.” Today he is recovered, on medication and sober, and writing a book about his experiences. You can find Ethan at IG @ebach_writer.

Subscribe to not miss any upcoming guests, or check out the diverse and amazing people we have had previously on the show!

Want to write a book? Check out Kim O'Hara's web site astoryinside.com, and find her on IG @astoryinside.com

Tiffany Yu is the founder of Diversability, an award winning community business that elevates disability pride through disability community, visibility, and engaged allyship. Tiffany, at the age of 9, was in a car accident where her father died and she lost the use of her arm. In one felt swoop, the dynamic of her body changed as well as her family structure. She was physically disabled, but also not facing the PTSD of witnessing the death of her father and her own survival. 

 

Years later, and through several evolutions of Diversability, she is addressing the topics of sorrow and grief, as well as the PTSD she never knew to face. In today’s interview, we walk through several significant age turning points with her disability, and how each period was one that informed the powerful and inclusive work she does today to educate and support others in her community.

 

At some point in her journey, she even questioned whether she was disabled enough to do this work!  We can relate this to how people avoid writing books because they don’t know if they are worthy enough to be an expert! She gets super honest about the feelings of exclusion in terms of stepping into being a writer.

Ladies, you know you all have a basket of dirty little secrets you are keeping. You may not have slept with the UPS guy but you are married 26 years and still holding a torch for that first boyfriend in high school. You’ve guzzled champagne to give a speech or peed yourself when you laughed too hard. Secrets big and small create shame and play on our expectations that we have to be perfect as women. Our judgements hold us back from living our best life. Author Gretchen Hydo, a Certified Master Coach, says it’s time to stop. Enough stuffing secrets, and then creating more. As a coach to business owners and coaches, she is tough and results oriented, helping men and women exponentially increase their income. She turns that passion now towards secrets, and like many people who wrote books, is driven by her own personal story with secret-keeping.  She saw a deficit on the book shelves for a Secret-Breaking System so she wrote the book!  On this episode, we are going to talk about her big secret, the inner workings and stages of  her powerful Secret -Breaking System to help women get free of their dirty little secrets, and what came up for her as a first time author.

 

You can find Gretchen at gretchenhydo.com to inquire about her upcoming Secret-Breaking One Year Program and to get notifications on the 2022/2023 release of her book.

 

If you are interested in knowing more about how Gretchen was coached by Kim O’Hara through her book, head over to astoryinside.com or check out Kim’s program Own Your Authorship at astoryinside.com/own-your-authorship

Just because the barrier of entry to podcasting is low, creating good thought-provoking content is where the pros separate from the amateurs. Also, podcasting the right way for good sound isn’t necessarily quick and easy. One needs to understand the various technologies like a good microphone and an excellent reliable remote recording platform. Our podcast in one year has gone from Skype on a cell phone, to full on remote with Squadcast which is why it was such a thrill to interview Squadcast co-founder Rock Felder. He helps provide the forum for creatives to have engaging conversations and spread their message in a professional way.  We cover a lot of ground in this interview from how Squadcast was founded by Rock and high school friends Zack and Vince who were like brothers to him, to the fire one walks through when creating an out of the box original innovation.  You need to have growing pains, and come out stronger. Plus he drops some great remote recording tips that are free and intuitive! 

 

Drop comments in the chat! Are you still friends with folks from childhood? Did you grow up listening to the radio? What are some of your favorite podcasting stories where your ass was in the fire!

 

Susan Paulhus-Roper, a highly successful Senior Regional Director for a major shoe chain, was relocated to the East Coast.  Upon arrival, and after buying a million dollar house in Jersey, her husband left and she decided she didn’t gel with the company culture.  She found herself needing to downsize, collect unemployment and lean into her local parent community.  

 

She networked her butt off, called in strong relationships she had made over the years, printed spreadsheet after spreadsheet and landed as a Regional Manager to 180 Starbucks Licensed Stores. She shares incredible tips about how to look for a new job, and not just any position, but one where you can feel happy.  It’s not all about the money, but at the end of the day, who are you helping, where are you growing and who are the people around you.

 

We can take the power back in our lives even when the best laid plans fall apart and Susan does it with humor and a no bull crap approach.

 

How do you stay positive looking for a job?  What are some of the tools that you used when you were replaced? Drop your feedback in my social, or comments on the episode. Susan admits it is a really lonely time, so find a few people also looking for jobs to flip jobs to you, and you them!  Also to be there for you when you get rejected!

You can do something as simple as buy a house and write a whole novel around it. We think we need these epic tragedies or great successes to justify writing as our unique selves. Look around!  There is material happening everywhere and self-awareness is key to developing a commentary and a narrative about your life. When we tune in creatively, the world is real time offering us endless amounts of material. Let that endless monkey mind work in your favor and get it down in the computer.  In today’s episode, host Kim O’Hara shares her creative journey writing about her house buying experience and her first year as a single woman homesteader in Los Angeles. Called a mix between Pema Chodron and Anne Lamott (which makes her blush), Kim shares how she allows life to unfold over the year and makes a point to write about each experience from a gunman on her roof (and the crappy boyfriend who never checks on her), to an evolving and spiritual battle with nine foot palm fronds. She doesn’t miss a bit of detail and peppers in comedy, as well as her continual struggle with faith, fear and loneliness. 

 

Don’t wait ten years to start writing about your emotions and observations while they are happening real time, especially if you have taken a leap in your life. For Kim, buying a house was a huge accomplishment, and her trials and tribulations that range from micromanaging growing grass to stray cat management gives courage to others to step up and make a leap as homeowners, or whatever area in their lives that calls for meaning!  Go towards what makes you happy when you write, and what thematically fills your writing cup, instructs Kim. Your desire to land your experiences on paper will be infectious and equally connect with your readers. 

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Start writing about those relationships.  If you are like host Kim O’Hara and her guest dating coach Kindra Murphy, you have a lot of material to reap!  So stop worrying about whether someone is your person, and get honest about your own patterns and relationship with intimacy.  The right special someone will come when your emotional house is in order.

 

We are in a time when the essence of spontaneity in romantic relationships is waning with the Facebook stalking, constant texting and this subterfuge that is actually codependent behavior.  Then when you are ghosted after being smitten with the smothering of early attention, you feel all the bad emotions of being dumped… even in a relationship that hasn’t even gotten legs. Relationships could use some time in between the messaging and checking in to build the solo self. 

 

In today’s podcast Kindra Murphy, returning for a second time on the show, shares tips on how to prevent false intimacy in relationships new or established. We get really clear on what texting should truly be used for. As a writer, personally, host Kim O’Hara admits she is uncomfortable answering honestly to the "How are you?" text. What are they expecting?  A paragraph?  She and Kindra agree, if someone really cares about how you are they would be calling on the phone and making plans. 

 

The best action when it comes to finding that special someone is to continue to  look at ourselves and our behavior in relationships what  our actions are that in some way keep us safe.

You can watch the video portion of the podcast on You Tube at https://youtu.be/ky4mBzXB7WQ