Barbara Field — Embrace Passion, Risk, and Permission
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Barbara Field has published pieces in newspapers and magazines, and her novel attracted the attention of Hollywood for a nanosecond. She also was an instructor, ghostwriter, and keynote speaker. After falling seriously ill and being near death's door, Barbara realized her son did not really know her. While she was recovering at home, she realized we don't know people's life stories and she wanted to help people write their memoirs to leave as a legacy. She now teaches people just how to do that. Find out more about Barbara and her journey in this week’s episode!

Key takeaways:

• How did Barbara become a writer?
• Don’t think you can write? The smartest people Barbara knows are actually terrible spellers!
• Barbara talks about her work with the Afghan Women's Writing Project.
• Barbara learned that by writing a letter and by asking for what you want, a lot of doors open for you. People are happy to accept your help!
• Don’t overthink it. Just leap and do it.
• When Barbara worked on the Afghan project and the OpEd Project, her career skyrocketed and she was asked to speak about her work from all over.
• Barbara’s biggest leap in her career was moving back to New York City at the age of 50 and starting her memoir business.
• Why did Barbara start her own business?
• People remember stories more than they do facts.
• Barbara loves helping people tell their stories!
• Don’t have a story? That’s a lie! We all have stories we can share and give to the world.
• Your legacy can be leaving people you love with your stories.
• You have to get your stories down first, and then you can clean it up a little.
• Who does Barbara love to work with?
• What sometimes stops people from writing?
• Why is Barbara’s writing class so much more fun and engaging compared to others? It’s because it’s guided and intentional!

Resources:

Writinglifestories.com)

Brenda on LinkedIn)

Awwproject.org)

Quotes:

“I was a struggling single mom and I finally gave myself permission to do something that I wanted.”

“A study at Stanford Business School said people remember stories more than facts 22 times more!”

“Most people don’t get their stories down first because they’re intimidated by the writing process.”