Case Study: Establishing the Habits that Led to the TODAY Show, with Teri Case

Teri CaseTeri Case is an author whose work includes ghostwriting memoirs, literary fiction, and children’s books.

Our Goals

At age 43, Teri made a bold decision — she left her job, and using her ‘rainy day’ savings, set out to explore whether her dream of being a writer was genuine and achievable. “I needed to find out if I really wanted to be a writer and how committed I was to ’the dream,'” Teri says.

Although she was building experience and confidence as a writer, Teri found herself with lots of questions about how best to grow her career as an author. When we began working together, we dug into these questions.

The Solution

Through our work, Teri identified several key things to work on:

  • Establish clear goals on who she wanted to be as a writer and how she would measure success. For her, one of these was identifying a charitable organization to support through her writing.
  • Move past feelings of vulnerability by giving herself permission to experiment with a website and social media. What she found was that through this process, she was able to learn more about herself, the industry, and her audience.
  • The courage to tell people about her work and where they can connect with her online. It may sound simple, but she says, “This was huge for me, an opportunity for me to test my own comfort zone.”
  • To realize that her writing routine needed to involve a world outside of writing. She started working out in the mornings, which gave her the confidence to have new professional photos.
  • Narrow down the topics she would talk about online and off, and via channels such as her newsletter and blog. One of her biggest realizations: “I did have something to say.”

In the end, these solutions led to her most important takeaway: “Nothing happens if you don’t share your work with someone or somewhere.”

The Results

Today, Teri writes and publishes with a new level of confidence and purpose. And she continues to take action, daily.

“I actively experiment on almost everything — my website, my newsletter, sharing, joining groups, self-publishing…you name it.”

As Teri continues to implement what she learned through our work together she’s picking up signs along the way that let her know she’s on the right track. One powerful example of this is an action relating to everything above that led one of her books to be featured by Kathie Lee Gifford on the TODAY Show.

Incredible, right?

She cites her TODAY Show mention as a direct result of our work together. When Teri sold her house and was moving, she decided to thank her neighbors and give them a signed copy of her children’s book for their grandchild. When she visited with them, she described how so much of the book is meant to support a charity. This deeply resonated with her neighbor, who herself was involved with some charities.

It turns out, the neighbor was the sister of Kathie Lee Gifford, and she ended up telling Kathie Lee all about the book and Teri’s passion for supporting her charity.

Kathie Lee took it upon herself to feature the book on her show:

Teri’s work with her writing continues, including publishing a regular newsletter, and interacting with people more, both in-person and through social media.

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