It’s scary to go from having an itch, desire, or dream to bring a THING - a course - a book - a product -

into the world…

It can feel ALIVE for you - a ball of energy asking to be brought into the world…

SO you MUST DO IT, right?

AND it’s incredibly scary - requiring courage that you might think you don’t have…

If you’ve ever been there, you’re going to love this week’s podcast - an interview with author & intuitive coach Patty Lennon…

She openly, honestly speaks about bringing her new book, Make Space for Magic, to life -

What it took to make it happen - in a No BS way, Patty uncovers the journey and brings us behind the curtain about how she brought her new book to life.

Listen in, feel inspired, and learn the ways to Make Space for Magic!

And don't forget to connect with Patty on other platforms...

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Full Transcript

Jen Liddy
So I have to admit that I'm really nervous about today's interview. I don't know why, because I'm interviewing a woman I've known forever!

I'm interviewing her, and she's even been on the podcast before. And people love our conversations.

I've invited Patty Lennon back, who is my intuitive coach, but she's also an author. Today we're talking about her new book, the journey she took to write and publish her memoir.

We’re going to talk about the kind of courage it takes to write a book, to publish a book and all the transformation she's gone through as she's become the published author of this particular book!

Thank you for coming Patty and putting up with my nervous nonsense!

Patty Lennon
Thank you for having me. And I will say like, you know, she's being so kind, and I'm like, Jen, could you have me on your podcast? Please? I know I was there just a few short months ago, but now, I've got a book.

Jen Liddy
I know. So just I'm throwing you a bone Patty, You're so welcome. Okay, first of all, let's talk about the book, what is it called? And where can people get it? Let's start there.

Patty Lennon
The book is called Make Space for Magic. And ideally, if you're listening to this during our launch period, which is October & November of 2021, go to the link on my website, because then you'll understand how to get some of the bonuses associated with buying right now. That’s www.pattylennon.com/makespaceformagic.

That’s where you can get the book, along with any major book retailer

Jen Liddy
I'm excited to have you on because my audience is always interested in putting their words out there, however that comes, whatever format that is.

I'm curious why you needed a book. I know that you have a lot of platforms. So why a book?

Patty Lennon
Yeah. And so I didn't come at it from the place, I have books that I wrote in the past that were written for to be of service to my business, you know that that's what I would call the old model, there's plenty people still doing it.

And, and it's not that the model doesn't work. I just think that feeling of creating to get something - like you and I were talking about transactional relationships in business - is a space that we're evolving from, and it's not a space I expect to play in again.

So it wasn't that this book was being written to do something for my business, or to do something for my brand. It was sitting inside of me for years, in one form or another.

And then finally, it was the death of my father which really started to kind of transform my business.

A lot of the downloads I got around that time made me feel like, “Oh, okay, here I am, I'm at the starting line of the next place.”

The book is, is part of that story. And so I just, you know, understood now's the time, even though I would say it was sitting inside of me from two years before that, and that we're more talking about, like, when I started writing was 2019.

So we're talking about like, 2016 2017.

Jen Liddy
When you say the book was sitting inside of you, what did that feel like? And how did you know?

Patty Lennon
Well, it felt like when you have the experience of birthing, because I know the audience here is primarily course creators, coaches, you have some type of offering you're putting out into the world, and you're writing to kind of bring awareness to that to connect to your audience.

If you've ever had that delicious experience, where you actually found a program, or a course, or an offering, or even just sales copy that really just feels alive for you, that you're not just putting something out there as a variation of something you're already doing.

But like all of a sudden, you connect to something you feel it almost it's like a ball of energy at first. And you feel it like kind of like whispering to you and then pulsing to you. Then you start to get questions coming at you about this thing. And you know, it's asking to be brought into the world. It felt just like that.

Jen Liddy
I've had that experience and sometimes on the journey of making of birthing it. There's a there's like an irritation because I just want it done. Did you have that too?

Patty Lennon
Oh, God. Well, first of all, no matter what reason you write a book for I can tell you when I wrote the books I've written for my business to like, be like, here's what I do.

This book that was more of like a, here's my insides, let me put them on my outsides and you can all buy it for whatever book costs.

You're always going to have that irritation with writing a book for sure. Because the, the risk reward relationship is so different with a book, like there's just so much heavy lifting, without any guarantee, and you have to trust what's coming through.

It's not something like with a course where you can start as like, float it out there and see if anyone wants to buy that shit or not, you know?

So, but yes, deep levels of irritation, like, Why? Why did I even sign up for this?

I paid a lot of money for my publishing contract, I did a hybrid publishing, we can talk about why do one over another. But I was talking to my friend who went a different route went though traditional publishing, which then you're waiting more like two to three years to have your bookshelf, which was my main reason for not going that direction.

And I said, I think it might be different for you, because she was talking about her irritation. I suppose it's different for you, because you actually have a like, you got paid, whereas I'm paying someone and honestly, if I decide not to do it, I'm just sort of like, out the investment.

But she was like, I'll just pay them back. Like, if I don't do it, she's like, I think it's just equal for all of us. It's just writing a book.

Jen Liddy
And it's not like you can validate your book because like, this is my soul.

And you can do validation calls to see if it's gonna work.

It's like, can you validate my soul that this thing inside of me is coming out? And can you tell me you're gonna like it and want to buy it?

That's scary. Yeah.

So can we talk about what the book is about. And I also want to talk about the courage that it took to create it!. So tell me, I know that there was an evolution to this book. Can you talk a little bit about that first?

Patty Lennon
Yeah. So when the book became an idea, you know, back 2016 2017, it was really the result of I had been through such a huge transformation, leaving corporate banking and becoming an entrepreneur.

And then finally being open and honest with my community that I had intuitive gifts. That I felt this, what I saw from a lot of people is they felt like if you have intuitive gifts, whether it's like true, like bold clairvoyance, and you're talking to ghosts, and dead people all the time, or you just have this really like, honed sense of what's right, and what's next intuition and to the point where like, it has nothing to do with like data.

It's like, you know, go left, go, right.

You know, a lot of people felt that you were born with that there were like magical beings on the earth that were just like this from birth.

And if you weren't like this, and you didn't have memories of as a child having these gifts, then you couldn't be this person. And I really wanted people to understand No, I was climbing the corporate ladder, I was successful, I not just that I didn't have them, I had no desire to like, it wasn't like I was sitting around buying Tarot sessions all the time, you know, I was very successful in the traditional linear world, and happy being there.

And then all of a sudden, woke up. Basically, one day, I mean, it happened over a few months, but, and I was like, Oh my god, this is not me, I'm supposed to be going somewhere else. And I just really wanted people to have an experience of the journey to really understand you could have walked this very traditional path and wake up at 35 or 40 or 50, and access these gifts.

So that was the start of it. And that was where it was just like that was the question I kept getting when I did a lot of speaking gigs, that was always the question and I just wanted to gift people my story arc.

Jen Liddy
One of the things I think you do incredibly - well one of my favorite things about talking with you - is when I like there's some times when I feel a little muddled about something and I'll just say, Why is this happening? Or what are your What's your opinion about this? and you just have this really clear way of making it very concise and understandable, which you just did.

You said it was a lot of us are just walking this linear muggle path, and we think that's for other people, people who have had visions as children and I really understand & identify with that.

And just like knowing that there's another option; you can learn it, that you can step into it. It's very accessible. Even if you've been climbing the corporate ladder. I love the way you said that.

Jen Liddy
So why did you want to write the book? And can you talk a little bit about the iterations of the book?

Patty Lennon
Yeah, so at the time, where this book starts to become a thing for me, I was very squarely in the business coaching realm. And so it was almost like my business would be here, but my ICA would be maybe 10% of my readership.

Because you didn't really need a business. It didn't matter if you had a business, if you're at home with children, if you were in corporate, in education, the ICA of the book has never changed since I envisioned it.

And it was always an ICA core reader, you know, target reader, I've always written it for a woman who's in midlife, who is a caretaker on some level, who's always felt like she had to, you know, take up as little room with her problems as possible.

Felt financial pressure, whether she was bringing income in or not. That was my target reader.

And as an entrepreneur, that's who my target was, but then the book I knew could serve anyone that fell in that world. So then that's really why I think the book never got birth to be for my dad died, because it was when my dad died, that there was a line in the sand.

And my spirit guide said, “You're done with business coaching, you need to step firmly into sharing the message that there's magic available for everyone: magic miracles, God, Source, Universe, and, and give them the courage to believe in it. This is now going to be your full work.”

And even though it was a piece of my business, it was going to now become my full business. And once I fully dropped into that making space for the book just became a lot easier,

Jen Liddy
So your dad passed in March of 2019. And then, how long did it take for you to allow in the full message that he had to share?

Patty Lennon
He just kind of helped me see the message. But that process took like six to seven months. And then at that point where I launched The Receiving School, which is my kind of my anchor program now.

It was once I launched that, that I started writing the book, because it that sort of was like the line in the sand. And that was October 2019. I start writing November 2019. Went inside a coaching relationship with a book coach & was finishing it through the pandemic, the beginning of the pandemic, and then finish the book in April of 2020.

Jen Liddy
Okay, so I want to talk a little bit about the iterations of this because April 2020, it's, it's done, but it doesn't get published until the fall of 2021. So what happens there?

Patty Lennon
Yes. So what happens there is it's a memoir, and I read it and realized some of the stories were so raw, that I didn't my kids at the time, were 12 and 14, going into a pandemic.

And none of us understood what this meant for anyone at that point. We didn't know if we were going to be in it for years. We also didn't know what kind of crisis it was going to put our kids and they were learning from home.

And to have this book out there with the stories that I had been I had healed from but they'd be reading it in real time. To me, it didn't feel right. And so we started the editor and I start working, pulling out the stories there were only a few that I just felt like I just needed the book to be without those stories.

And once those were pulled out, the book sort of fell apart. Because these key times really had a lot to do with the arc of the story and without them or even with them, like the pain sort of dialed down on them. It didn't really serve the journey. Okay. So I took a step back.

Jen Liddy
Um, that’s more irritation at this point more than like, Are you freaking kidding me?!

Patty Lennon
I mean, if the book had been 70,000 words, edited down to 50,000. And I'm like, I just put it down, I literally put it down, I'm like, I'll be back to you.

And I didn't touch it again, I tried, I kept, I was like trying to work and trying to rework the existing book, up until about May, and then just stepped away from a completely until, I think, January of this year, or even then in January, was when I said, Oh, now I had gone through a whole year, almost of the pandemic. I had run Receiving School twice already, I done tons of free trainings.

And I started to realize people kept asking me, But how did you do that?

I was telling a lot of the stories were in the book. But I would keep getting this like, But how, but how did you find the faith? How did you find the courage? Like, what can I do?

And I realize, Oh, the memoir actually didn't do that. It didn't serve that purpose. What I had hoped to do with the memoir was to say, here's my story, with all its gory details, here is me, snot running down my face, drinking wine out of a bottle, eating chocolate, when we just found out that my mom's cancer is back, and I had no faith.

And here's what happened to bring me back to Faith.

But it didn't give the reader this the exact steps like it just showed in my journey. And I'm like, Oh! Because my reader needs to understand a process.

And I'm like, Oh, okay. Now I get it. So without those key stories, but with the teaching, it became a nonfiction book that made sense. And it had to be rewritten.

I mean, there were, you know, probably about, I think I had about 15,000 words that have story that I could place into the nonfiction book. But then it was rebuilt and rewritten, and then we finished it. In April, I started the editing process. So we did, and we did five rounds of edits.

Jen Liddy
I love the journey of this book. Because I think when people want to birth, something that they look at other people and compare and think like, Oh, it's so easy for that person, or she was she was obviously guided, or she followed a method.

And I love that there is not a one size fits all method, and that you even did use a method and then you're like, No, I have to redo this. Honoring yourself. Yeah. Yeah. curious how at this point, do you describe what the book is about?

Patty Lennon

Well, let me just say, at this stage, I am not literate. So I don't try to describe it because I don't even seem to be able to put sentences together fluidly.

It's really, it's, you know, the underlying storyline of the book.

Well, let me take a step back and say, You and I, Jen, share this, we read a lot, right? So I am very critical of books, only from one place, which is, if I read it, I want it to feel like a journey, especially nonfiction books, nonfiction books that make you stop at the end of every chapter and have reminders of the 7000 things they need you to do before you move on or there's no way you're going to benefit from this book.

To me, it's like I don't need another job. I have teenagers I have a business I have people that depend on me.

I did not want to pick up 270 pages and have another job right? Right.

So nonfiction I wanted to be nonfiction that transforms through the process of reading, where it gives you small shifts to make in the way you're approaching your world and your life.

But that you're really finding transformation through people's stories. So that the work the heavy lifting is being done for you.

So I really think we did that. Like I'm very proud of the fact that because it took a lot of editing to get it there but I'm really proud of the fact that it gives you a process but it's not a process where you have to like put the book down it's like you know in one chapter it offers you, Be honest - if you are reading this and you're hearing me say how important it is to rest is. And you’re you know, resisting rest, then that’s one of the biggest ways we block the universe from helping us.

Can you see where you need more rest?

And can you make space for that, you know, when it just offers you that.

Or it just considers it, right?

So it's taking you on my journey, and then letting you understand what you could be doing in your own life along that journey. To sort of allowing more help from the universe, allowing more that magic, and then it then drops in the way that looked for my clients who have done this process, and you know, so then you get to see it, then act it out in someone else's life.

Jen Liddy
When you're writing this stuff, I imagine it takes an immense amount of courage to put yourself out there in lots of ways. How do you how did you garner that courage? And what does that look like for you?

Patty Lennon
So writing it, I did tell myself, just because you put it down on the page doesn't mean the page has to be published, but start by putting it down on the page.

And then from there, if it felt like scary, but exciting, scary, I trusted that. But if I felt like if I ended up keeping that particular story in the book, would keep me from talking about it boldly, and, and being willing to, like, be excited about it, then, you know, then I tempered that story.

And you know, that that's the great thing of an editor where you can say, you know, what, but for the most part, the courage came from, you know, the more you start to tear up, us, like people will ask anyone, you know, a, if you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self.

I feel like, the thing that's always given me a reprieve from like heartache and challenges is that they have served other people so well.

I know that if I can share this openly, that people's lives will change, because the only way for us to release shame is to either speak what we're ashamed about out loud, or to hear or read the story of someone who has walked the walk we have, so that we know we're not alone.

So it really is community that gives us a sense of peace in our hearts. And so each time I did it, it was just I said, you know, if you can't share this, then there's someone who's experiencing it, and will hold that darkness inside of them. You know, and, and that's what usually put me into that space.

Jen Liddy
Something that I see in a lot of my clients and my audience members, when I asked them in their pieces, their content pieces, whatever it is to show their audience, the pain, or what it took.

They'll tell me, “I don't want to agitate their pain, I don't want to talk about their pain.”

So I've been asking my clients to think of it in a different way as instead of agitation, mirroring, just saying it out loud for somebody, because it might be the first time that that person is able to hear it or be heard or see themselves in another person. And that's what I'm basically hearing you say is like the courage comes from knowing that you're mirroring something that somebody else needs from us.

Patty Lennon
Yes, that's beautiful. And I mean, there is a bit of agitation in the book in that when I say, be honest, when I tell you that, you know, when you're pushing through all the time, you're blocking magic, like be honest, do you need rest, and for some people, that's going to feel agitating, because they're going to feel like I don't know if I can give myself that rest.

But a book is a much more intimate, gentle process to because you have them for 273 pages, and they can choose to close the book, but if they finish the book, no one's gonna know. Right? They, they get to decide what they do with it. And so you're not needing to, to create transformation in a in a blog post or in an article. You get all these pages.

Jen Liddy
Yeah - it's like luxurious. Though, I'm sure it didn't feel luxurious.

Patty Lennon
Right up until the final read. I was pretty sure it was shit.

Jen Liddy
I wanted to talk about that because I remember you and I talking on the phone and you were like, this is complete shit and it's garbage. And then you got it back and you read it and you were like, I'm really excited about what I wrote!

Patty Lennon
And let me just say, I would say I always knew like five of the chapters were solid, solid writing that I was super proud of. And probably three of the chapters weren't like the most bestest writing, but they were good delivery of content.

They taught & did what they were meant to do. But then there were like five or six, that was like some janky shit, like I don't even know when we're going to fix this.

I just kept thinking, I’m kicking the can down the road. And like, eventually, I was going to hit one round of edits, or someone was going to call me on it. And because when you're doing edits, really that many rounds of edits, there's very tight turnarounds, so there wasn't time for me to read the book from start to finish.

With each round of edits, I had to just drop into where the editor wanted me to be fixed what they wanted me to fix and get back to them.

Jen Liddy
That’s like, no context, no heuristic, and also I have all this other shit zooming around me, hold on, let me drop in. Where was I? And where am I going? That must have been really disorienting.

Patty Lennon
It is and I'm really glad that I allowed myself to be disoriented and didn't do my usual thing of like, staying up all night to read it and like really walking my thinking your own medicine and trusting that like and keep handing it over to the universe and say if you need me to read it, please like make it clear.

And then on what happened was they it was we were having we were supposed to be doing I'm forget the type of editing but it's where they edit the paragraph structure.

Then a separate round of editing is the line editing where they actually edit the ground, like the periods you know, the actual syntax, right?

Well, I get it back. And she was like good news. It was in such good shape that they were able to do the line edits as well. And I was like, Oh my God. No.

I was I was convinced like, one more person is letting me down. Like, they didn't even do a good job. You know, they're they gave me a crap editor who you know is mailing it in, they're killing two birds.

Now I'm gonna have to do the heavy lifting. So I sat down all I was like all like churning inside. It kept me up, actually. So finally I didn't, I fell asleep at like, like, I got it back on Friday. And I fell asleep that night at like, whatever, one o'clock in the morning, and I woke up at like, 530.

And I was like, and I knew I wouldn't get back sleeping. I'm not a person that works in the early hours of the morning. If I happen to get up, I take care of me. Like I look at nature and drink my hot coffee.

So I was on, sat down with my coffee. And I just started to read it. And I'm like, I mean that the weights just the only thing that you know, and I finish it in like five hours.

And I'm like, Oh, my God, it's good. Like, it's actually good. I couldn't believe it. I really was astounded.

Jen Liddy
It's like, it's like you had to freakin take your own medicine though, like you needed a little space for magic. When you were reading it.

Patty Lennon
It was sort of just astounding to me. I couldn't believe it. And I was and I'll just say to translate that for all of you for you watching you. You know who you are. You can you can think your copy is not good.

But you know what, when you've been in the middle of it and inside of it for too long, you can't see the forest through the trees and you do need to trust that the soul of you that birthed it into the world and really just let it go out into the world and have its day.

Jen Liddy
Many people don't put their stuff out there because they just don't have the confidence or the courage. So I want to just speak back to you:

The transformation that I’ve had: you know this already but I'm saying it for the benefit of people who may not the benefit of working with you over such a long period of time and being able to because I was certainly a muggle walking in a straight line, and just wanted the information.

I didn't make time for any kind of magic, and I didn't really believe it could happen for me, I didn't believe it could be a thing.

And I also believed, and I may cry if I say this. I believed that if I became that person who was leaning into her intuition and became more spiritual and softer, that I would lose my edge.

And what made me so good was my edge. It made me smart and funny, and a good writer and clever, and I'm so afraid of losing my edge.

And leaning into all of those aspects of myself - the softer, kinder, more restful, I'm still working on it, aspects of myself, I just like myself better.

It's just so easy, it's much easier to be in my own soul than it was ever before. I've seen it with my husband and my son that I just feel easier in the world and the things that used to just my edge used to cut against everything, I think, traffic, right, like people being idiots, like everything was a cutting edge, and I just don't have that anymore.

Everything in my life is so much easier, because I've been on the journey with you. And I feel like if people could indulge themselves, and learn what's in this book, and start to follow you and listen to your podcast, that it really could happen for them. And it's, it's not like you lose a part of yourself. It's like you get better.

Patty Lennon
Thank you. Yeah, cuz I had that edge too. And I get what you're saying, even as I started to walk this path, I was like, the thing that makes me fabulous. Like, yeah, I was a VP in banking, you know, like that thing.

And what you come to realize is that edge, that's stuff that that edge is cutting through is all shit you created that like, it could just go away, dude, you could use all your power to actually birth and create magnificence in the world. You know, and it's really hard to, like think that, that there's something better than your edge, right?

It really is when you lived with that edge. But I'm telling you that the excitement and the energy and the like feeling like you're on like, the brink of something that comes with having an edge, you get to have all of that. But without the like the gross negativity and annoyingness. I mean, there's irritation, there is but how you step into that irritation looks very different.

Jen Liddy
But it's so different. And it's just, I'm always looking for great ease. And having my edge did not create ease. But I really feel ease.

And I also want to speak to this idea of, it's not all bullshit rainbows and unicorns, and toxic positivity. Like, in fact, I was listening to Module One of The Receiving School today and in it, you remind us, you're allowed to feel your feelings, you don't have to pretend there's nothing wrong, you are allowed to feel them.

But it's just so much easier to move through. So I'm so glad that this is in book form that people can consume. And I also really want to encourage people to listen to your podcast Space for Magic.

So how can people find you?

Patty Lennon
You can find the book at www.pattylennon.com/makespaceformagic.

The other place that I would send you is especially if you like consuming podcast content is my podcast Space for Magic, which you can find on any app.

Literally, if I find out there's an app out there, we put my podcast on it.

Jen Liddy
I highly recommend getting into Patti's world if you're looking to lean into more ease in your life. And if you are starting to believe that life could be different for you, or you are craving that you want it to be different. There's no one format, but she works in she really helps so many people.

Patty Lennon
Yeah, and. I will say like that's one you just mentioned something a few minutes ago that I would love to like leave people with, like a message because you hear this like making space for magic and bringing in and releasing the edge.

The thing I realized: I thought the big message of the book was everyone has intuition. Everyone can have this magic. It's just we were taught to believe there's this special group of people that are really good at it, and then there's the rest of us.

But what I've come to understand is like the biggest, like game changer, is we're taught to believe that when we feel bad that we're creating bad when we feel bad, we're drawing in bad, when we feel when we're angry, we're bringing more negativity into our life.

A lot of these messages that are very much the linchpin of both the spiritual world and the personal development world are not accurate. And the thing that changed for me was finally letting myself be exactly who I was at every moment. And that's really what gives you true peace.

And also abundance, right? Like, you know, I think when you're in lack, whether it's money lack or time lack or romance lag, you think I can be happy as soon as I get my pile of money, as soon as I get some time, as soon as I find my romantic partner or my partner stops being such an A hole, you know…

Jen Liddy
It really works the other way.

Patty Lennon
Yes, it all happens at the same time.

Jen Liddy
It really does. It really, really does. Anything else that you wanted to share before we sign off?

Patty Lennon
No, thank you for having me here.

Jen Liddy
Thank you for coming on is having such a fun conversation. Thanks, everybody for listening. And please go check out pattylennon.com because you can find everything you need there from her.

Thanks, Patty. Bye, everyone.