Q: When did you start writing, and what inspired you to write?

A: I started writing a newsletter called Career Boost News about 6 years ago.  I wanted to offer more value to my clients and my network.  I started writing the material for the book about 3 years ago as I had something unique and valuable to share about the topic of work-life balance.  I was inspired by many of my clients’ challenges around their personal and professional priorities, and I wanted to offer them solutions.

Q: How long did the book take you from start to finish?

A: I developed the content of the book over a two-year period as I was offering teleclasses and live workshops.  To actually take that material and expand it into a book took about a year.

Q: Where do you write?

A: I wrote in my house – either at my office desk, or on my dining room table when I was ‘old-fashioned’ and writing with pen and paper.

Q: What’s the best thing about being a published author?

A: Sharing my information with a wider audience and being able to offer solutions to more people.

Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?

A: In the self-help genre: Martin Seligman, Marcus Buckingham, Marshall Goldsmith, CJ Hayden.  For my fiction interests: Ann Patchett, Ian McEwan, John Irving.

Q: Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

A: I do hear from readers and other interested in work-life balance mostly through my 7 Keys Facebook page.  One common theme is that there is no easy fix for work-life balance challenges, and that small changes in your life and your perspective can have a significant impact.

Q: What are your current projects?

A: I am speaking, presenting workshops, running teleclasses and providing group coaching around my book’s content and work-life balance solutions.

Q: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

A: Professionally, I coach individuals to achieve greater career and work-life balance satisfaction.  Personally, I play the piano, do yoga, just started tennis lessons, read and spend time with my son, husband and our beagle, Wolfie.

Q: How did you come up with your title?

A: The first part of the title, Your Work, Your Life … Your Way, just came to me.  I believe I was in the shower, thinking about what the book was about and it just popped into my head and felt like it fit.  The sub-title, 7 Keys to Work-Life Balance, evolved over time.  The initial teleclass I presented before I wrote the book was called Overcoming the 7 Barriers to Work-Life Balance.  With input from my editor, we decided to change the focus of the book, and therefore the title, to something more solution oriented and positive – thus 7 Barriers became 7 Keys.

Q: Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?

A: That work-life balance is unique to each one of us.  We need to get clear on what matters most to us – our values, priorities and goals – and then make choices to support that.  I also want to re-frame the concept of work-life balance to be viewed as a journey that we’re on as opposed to looking at it as a destination we must reach.

Q: What’s the hardest part of writing a book?

A: For me it was getting to a place where I was ready to say ‘it’s done!’  There was always more I thought I could add – provide another exercise, share another case study, etc.  Getting to ‘finished’ was really tough.

Q: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

A: No!  Right now I feel pretty good about it.

Tags | Julie Cohen, work life balance