Well, hello and Happy Valentine’s Day!  (And Happy New Year since my last email was right before Thanksgiving!)

Exactly one year ago today was the deadline to support my book proposal campaign for The Smoothie Principle here on Publishizer.  The saying “time flies” is an understatement, because I honestly can’t believe it's twelve months later, but here we are!

Thinking back on that time, I remember what a huge stretch this was for me – I was totally pushed out of my comfort zone – but the response from you all was amazing and I cannot thank you enough for helping me build the foundation for this book project.

Hopefully you’ve been following all my updates since then; if not you can click here to catch up: https://publishizer.com/the-smoothie-principle/#updates

The purpose of these updates is to take you along on the publishing journey with me.  My previous book Personal Growth Gab (https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Growth-Volume-Thought-provoking-inspirational/dp/0692336966) was a different animal, because I had already written the 131 essays and just needed to put them together in book form, so it was more of a technical enterprise, and it was self-published.

The Smoothie Principle is a book that I need to sell and write – and I am learning about the whole process as I go along.  As you know (again, see updates), I spent most of last year working on the proposal, revising the proposal, filling out marketing information etc and waiting on the folks at Publishizer to pitch editors and get a deal and a deadline.  Right before Thanksgiving I finally learned that a traditional deal wasn’t likely going to happen (for now), so I needed to pursue other options. My conclusion (and some advice) was to just finish the manuscript first and then use that to get a deal.

The two and a half months since then cue: a little disappointment/wind out my sails followed by the holidays, the impeachment hearing and trial, building a much needed new website (you can visit that here: http://kristinaleonardicoaching.mystrikingly.com/), technology upgrades, and getting involved in a political campaign for the first time in my life = barely working at all on the manuscript.  Are these valid excuses, distractions, or procrastination in full force? I think a little bit of each.

But at this moment, the holidays have passed, we have a verdict in the impeachment, the new website is done for the moment, I have a more portable laptop and my candidate dropped out this week. (You can see my Instagram story highlights if you’re interested in that!). This all means I will be able to focus much more on The Smoothie Principle now :)

The good news is that I have an solid outline and both written and raw material/thoughts down in every chapter; I simply need to sit down and flesh it out.  Going forward, I plan on doing that in a much more disciplined manner, and as always will keep you posted along the way with any significant updates.  I’m just keeping it real, folks.... Please know I want to see The Smoothie Principle in the world as much as any of you who are anxiously awaiting it! I am also listening to myself and trusting the timing of all (i.e. the main theme of the book!)

Since this is a much longer process than anticipated, I’m happy to extend the deadline to the end of this year to anyone who hasn’t used their coaching or workshop bonus – just contact me whenever you’re ready.

That is the scoop for now, please let me know should you have any questions, otherwise I will continue to check-in with you on the status from time to time.

Thank you again for support and patience and I wish you a truly special Valentine’s Day, filled with love and appreciation for yourself and all of the special people in your life.  Thanks for being some of mine! <3

Big hug,

Kristina