The Day My Shoes Melted: A Powerful Lesson About Persistence and Finishing What Matters This is my official entry for SKOOLx, and it's now live for voting. My talk is about taking that next step to get to your goal. I'll be honest, putting this together pushed me. I wrote this over so many times and focused on it for days. Then, I practiced it for hours and hours. But I'm proud of myself for finally allowing it to be finished. Sure, it needs work. But isn’t that why they’re having this competition, to help us make it better? If you feel that this resonates with you, I'd really appreciate your vote. Every vote counts and my dream is to make it to the finals! So, I'd love to have your support behind me with your melted shoes! 😉 (No shoes were harmed in the making of this talk) Vote here: https://forms.gle/bbqBf65BFVQaqvmP7 Voting ends on Monday, June 22nd! Check out the other competitors at The Public Speaking Community! Many great speeches to choose from! Thanks for your support! What did you think of my talk? Share in the comments! I’d love to hear your thoughts! @Shirley-Louise Daniels @Abby Davin @Akua Powell @Aisha P @Barbara Walsh @Bettina Lovas @Andrew Belock @Linda Brand @Andréanne Brault @Larisa Kocsis @Amber Griffiths @Karin Olson @Lawrencia Abugre @Linda Thomas @Carol Jenkin @Carly Wiggins @Caly Rohar @Danni Armstrong @Debi Lynn @Elizabeth O'Carroll @Elizabeth Veronique Hoka @Eliza Marin @Eileen MacDonell @Eirini Kapsidou @Elias McQuade @Frances Scully @Diana Frank @Katrin Differt @Danni Armstrong @Karen Dennis @Kevin de Haan @Faizan Ahmad @Faith Adebayo @Faith Romen @Hanni Meier @Mariam Kipiani. MD @Maria Leeper @Gwynne Conlyn @Gouree Gupta @Gaby Sanin @Hanalei C @Harris William @Hafsah Ahamed @Ian Darley @Iam Christian @Irina A. @Dorela iEPAN @Jasmine Collins @JeanAlbert Arnold @Jaime Glasser @Karen Sarmento @Karen Strauss @Kady Adamson @Meriliis Kivimägi @Kris Rather @Kristy Kelley @Ladavia Savoie @Lisa Black @Lisa Steenberg @Me ch Immelman @Aura Mengel @Mercy Helen @Nathaniel Parant @Nika Nika @Natalie Horseman @Naseef Hale @Nikki Hillhouse @Noelle Hyzy @Burcu Onaranel @Chevy Patrick Oneil @Amanda Owens @Phillip Mackey @Pravin Choudhary @pineappleCITI Works @Rachael Bermingham @Rachel Harmsworth @Rachel Yu @Rafaela Moreno @Salma Samaha @Scott Aksamit @Sean Daly @Shawn Helgerson @Sharon Prahl @Shemmiah Lewis @Talya Ring @Tamara Fogle @Tara Hayes @Johannes Tamegger @Kathryn Traff @Uday Sarma @Vasi Smith @Birger Verpeten @Anna V. @Cinthia Varkevisser @Wendy Wiseman @Barbara Walsh @Yulia Drummond @Yan Lin @Yo Me @Kaushik Yadav @Candy Zulkosky@Ryan Clark @Chanie Twersky @Steve Belanger @Steven Cruz @Chris Hanlon @Christina Morales @Joseph Isosaki

Be honest. Think of the book that you are working on. What part of your book are you avoiding? This could be writing specific scenes, working on the book cover, or writing the author bio. Maybe it's the marketing. Drop it below. 👇

Anyone else signed up? The goal is simple: 50,000 words in 31 days. (That's ~1,613 words a day.) You'll be able to watch your word count climb alongside other writers in the Freewrite community. They’re also hosting live sprints, handing out prizes and sharing advice from prolific authors. It's genuinely a great time. You can find all the details and register (for free) at 50KMay.com. Whether you're working on a novel, a memoir, a collection of essays, a screenplay, or something you don't even have a name for yet ... May is your month. 50K is just a number. What matters is that you'll finish May with more pages than you started with. If you don't have a Freewrite device, you'll be writing in the free in-browser app, Sprinter, for this challenge.

Most writers do. ✍️ Or at least… they think they do. They sit down, open their document, and something just… doesn’t click. The words feel slow. The scenes feel off. The story doesn’t quite land the way they imagined it would. So what do they do? They question themselves. “Maybe I’m not good enough.” 😔 “Maybe this idea isn’t strong enough.” “Maybe I need a better story…” And then it happens. They start over. A new document. 📃 A new outline. A new version that feels like it might finally work. But a few weeks later, they’re right back in the same place. Stuck somewhere in the middle. Unsure where the story is going. Feeling like they’ve lost the thread completely. So they start over again. Not because they’re lazy. Not because they don’t care. 🫤 But because something underneath it all… isn't aligned. And that’s the part most writers never get shown. It’s not a writing problem. ✍️ It’s a clarity problem. Because when the core of your story isn’t locked in that's when everything else starts to wobble. The scenes feel disconnected. The middle collapses. The ending feels out of reach before you even get there. So you keep trying to fix it on the surface… Better sentences. Better opening. Better ideas. But the real shift doesn’t happen there. It happens when you stop asking, “How do I write this better?” And start asking, “What is this story actually trying to do?” That’s what I guide writers through the paid tiers in The Storyteller’s Path. Not just writing more. But understanding your story deeply enough that it can finally hold together. Because once that clicks? You don’t feel stuck in the same way anymore. You move forward with direction. 🧭 With intention. With something that actually carries you through the middle. If you’ve been restarting your book over and over again, this might be the shift you’ve been missing. And if you want help seeing where your clarity gap actually is, book a call with me