Hoo boy, it’s been a while since I’ve given an update on my book, Everything I Learned About Leadership I Learned From Filmmaking. My last update was in February of 2019. At that time, I was zeroing in on a pretty good draft. And then shortly after that I landed my current job as CEO at Brightside Community Homes Foundation. It seemed pretty silly to publish a book on leadership when I was just about to embark on a brand new adventure in a new leadership position. So I put the book away and focused on my new role and organization.
Over the Xmas holidays at the beginning of this year, I pulled the book out again. Enough time had gone by and I felt settled into my new role to the point that it felt right to work on the book again.
It was a worthwhile break, because I could look at the writing from a fresher perspective and wrote several drafts, incorporating lessons I have learned since early 2019 when I put the book aside and started my journey as a CEO. I showed drafts to a few people for feedback and think I have now narrowed in on a final draft (fingers crossed).
I’m looking into self-publishing options to get it into digital bookstores like Apple Books and Kindle. When I was at Vancity, I felt an internalized pressure to get the book out there and get some sales. I think I saw the book connected to my next career phase. Now, it feels a lot more like I used to feel when I made films. I worked on a film because I fell in love with a concept so much I couldn’t not make it. And then I put it out there to do whatever it was going to do. I tried to remove a lot of the pressure of the marketplace and just focus on putting out work that I liked and was proud of.
Similarly, I wrote this book because it felt really good to write it. I truly enjoyed the process of thinking through the similarities, overlaps and parallels between making films and leading people. Soon I’ll put it out there, not because I hope it’ll see like crazy (it won’t), but because I’m proud of it and want people to be able to read it. I feel fortunate that I love what I do enough that I don’t feel a lot of pressure to push it and get sales going. For me, this isn’t a commercial activity.
I’m happy to get an update out there, and hopefully soon I can put out a concrete plan for releasing my book so those of you who want to get it can read it.
Stay tuned…