Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

Latest Episodes:

[Lisa Tener, inner stuff]: Practical ways to get out of the fear of not making enough money + embracing surrender Ep 1096 Jun 19, 2024

Show notes

In this second part of my interview with Lisa Tener–award-winning book coach and author of the brand-new “Breath. Write. Breathe.”--we get into the squishier parts of writing.

Warning, this part of our conversation is super juicy! Not in a sexy way, but in a “wow I’m really thinking differently about stuff that’s been plaguing me forever” kind of way.

You’ll learn:

Her least favorite part about promoting her work, and how she works with that resistance

Finding the right balance between taking on work for clients to pay the bills and saving time and energy for your own work

Practical ways to get out of the fear of not making or having enough money

Tipping your internal scale to be more weighted toward surrender, and less weight toward trying to control everything

Her ninja trick for dealing with difficult people

How she’s used Family Systems Constellation Work to work through blockages both in life and in her mind

Visit Lisa at listener.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Lisa Tener, practical matters]: The tools that help Lisa get her writing done + an easy and fun physical exercise that gets you in the flow Ep 1095 Jun 17, 2024

Show notes

This week I am talking with award-winning book coach and award-winning author–of the books The Joy of Writing Journal and the brand-new Breathe.Write. Breathe.--Lisa Tener.

Lisa served on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School’s continuing education course on writing and publishing books for over a dozen years. And she has helped hundreds of experts and thought leaders write and publish their books and secure five and six figure book deals.

I was so happy and honored to write the foreword for Lisa's new book, which draws a lot on Lisa's in-depth studies and practice of qigong. And if you've been with me since the “How to Be a Better Person” days, you may remember Lisa when she came on as a guest and walked me through her “meet your muse” exercise, which helps you get in touch with your intuition and receive messages from your subconscious that can help you move forward in your creative work or get insight into anything you may be facing, where you could use a little guidance.

And lest you think Lisa is all about the woo, she also, I just found out while researching her for this episode, has her bachelor's and master's degree from MIT.

We covered:

How getting sick put her on the path to becoming a writer

How writing down her dreams helps fuel her writing

Working with the difficulty of earning a living from your writing

A peek inside the small village of people it takes to publish a book

The easy but powerful qigong move Lisa teaches to get you loosened up and ready to write

A look at the tools, places, and times of day that help Lisa get her writing done.

Visit Lisa at listener.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Donna Russo, what’s coming up]: How to keep writing fresh (11 books in) + a love song to lobster Ep 1094 Jun 14, 2024

Show notes

In this third and final installment of my interview with Donna Russo, author of “Vincent's Women, the Untold Story of the Loves of Vincent Van Gogh,” as well as 10 other award-winning and internationally bestselling historical novels, we get a peek at what’s coming up next for her and she answers my fast five questions about what she’s stayed up too late reading and watching.

How she’s feeling now that she’s on the verge of becoming a grandmother

A sneak peek at her next book, which is already in the works–as well as how she’s challenging herself in new ways with this project

The great authors she learned the importance of descriptive settings from

The screen play she wrote that got tabled by COVID and the writer’s strike, despite winning awards

The music that gets her going when she needs a boost

Visit Donna at donnarusso.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter, and get a free 3-year warranty (and $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Donna Russo, inner stuff]: How to get yourself psyched to start a new project + stay steady through the pre-release nerves Ep 1093 Jun 12, 2024

Show notes

In this second part of my conversation with Donna Russo, author of “Vincent's Women: the Untold Story of the Loves of Vincent van Gogh, as well as 10 other award winning and internationally best selling historical novels, we explore the thoughts, ideas, and attitudes that influence her work.

We talked about:

Why the time period just before your book comes out is the most nerve-wracking, “like walking out naked and the world gets to comment”

The thrill of being in the same room as a group of your readers

How she takes her mind off the anxiety that comes pre-book release

Her biggest fears as a writer

Why being 66 is an asset to her writing

Her best advice for young writers

How historical fiction reminds us that there are always multiple points of view to every story

Visit Donna at donnarusso.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter, and get a free 3-year warranty (and $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Donna Russo, practical matters]: Writing through trauma + taking yourself seriously as a writer in a culture that doesn’t value artists Ep 1092 Jun 10, 2024

Show notes

Up this week is Donna Russo, an internationally best-selling author of 11 multiple award winning historical novels, including “Gilded Dreams” and “Gilded Summers”, a trio of books about Leonardo da Vinci, including “Portrait of a Conspiracy,” “The Competition,” and “The Flames of Florence.” Her newest book, “Vincent’s Women” is just out, and tells the story of everyone's favorite tortured artist through the lens of the women in his life.

(I have to point out Vincent's women managed to get 4. 3 stars on Goodreads, which is not easy to do. Goodreads readers are very sparing with their five star ratings.)

Donna is also an award winning screenwriter, a ghostwriter, and an editor. And she's an actor who appeared in Martin Scorsese's “The Departed,” as well as Showtime's “Brotherhood.” And, she's a painter” I’m so thankful she joined us, because she clearly has a lot of things that take up her time!

We covered:

How reading “Gone with the Wind” and “The Thorn Birds” as a kid sparked a devotion to historical fiction

How a ‘grand pity party’ after yet another bad date led to the idea for “Vincent’s Women”

How meeting Diana Gabaldon (author of The Outlander series and historical fiction OG!) at a conference spurred Donna on

Her first gig as a writer–that happened in sixth grade

How she sold her first book quickly and easily–and pretty much everything since then has been a struggle

The truth about why she does so many different things

The brass tacks of how she writes her book, from which chapter she writes first to how she lays out her computer monitor so that her research is always right at hand

How she wrote her friends into one of her books

The food and drink the fuels her writing

Visit Donna at donnarusso.com.

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Thanks to this week’s sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter, and get a free 3-year warranty (and $84 value).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Marlon Weems, what's next]: Manifesting an appearance on "Good Morning America" + the two wildly different songs that get Marlon moving Ep 1091 Jun 07, 2024

Show notes

In part three of my interview with Marlon Weems, author of the prize-winning essay "How Starting an Investment Business Almost Landed Me in Federal Prison" and founder of The Journeyman Substack, where he covers American culture and anti-Black racism, we get a peek at where his throughline is leading him next.

I had to leave out the meandering and enlightening and fun conversation we had about the upcoming presidential election, but now we're thinking about starting a separate podcast on that! Who knows if anything will come of it, but all I can say for sure is, I loved chatting with Marlon and know you will love hearing him, too.

We covered:

- Marlon's unexpected detour into becoming a voice actor in his 60s

- Being your own role model

- Manifesting an appearance on "Good Morning America"

- The AMC TV series Marlon's currently bingeing, based on books by one of his favorite authors (that he listens to as audiobooks because they are read by his favorite voice actor)

- The two songs from wildly different genres that get Marlon going when he needs a pick-me-up

Visit Marlon at thejourneyman.substack.com.

Thanks to this week's sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter and get a free 3-year warranty ($84 value).

For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Marlon Weems, inner stuff]: Turns out growing up Black in the South in the 60s is excellent training for writing about topics that tend to invite trolls Ep 1090 Jun 05, 2024

Show notes

In this second part of my interview with Marlon Weems, founder of The Journeyman newsletter on Substack, where he covers American culture, anti-Black racism, and growing up Black in the Deep South, we talk about the mindset side of writing, including:

- The best place to look for your closing paragraph

- How having to make cold calls for a living is excellent training for dealing with (read: ignoring) trolls

- The story of how he almost went to federal prison after getting entangled with some primo money launderers

- The story of how THAT story became one of Medium's best articles of the year (and has inspired Marlon to start writing a book)

- Why he has 50+ drafts of articles in his Notes app at any given time, and how he decides it's time for a particular article to see the light of day

- Writing to leave a legacy, and hearing the clock ticking as a motivator to keep going

- The myth that if you just work hard enough, anything is possible

- The difference between anti-Black racism in the North and in the South

Visit Marlon at thejourneyman.substack.com.

Thanks to this week's sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter and get a free 3-year warranty ($84 value).

For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Marlon Weems, practical matters]: Writing in odd places, at odd times, using only your phone Ep 1089 Jun 05, 2024

Show notes

This week I am talking with Marlon Weems, a former Wall Street trader who started his career in finance in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he founded the first Black-owned asset management firm and the first Black-owned venture capital firm in the state.

Since leaving the industry in 2012, Marlon has transitioned to writing. His essay, "How Starting an Investment Firm Almost Landed Me in Federal Prison, was named one of the best stories of 2023 on Medium.

Marlon now writes about American culture, anti Black racism, and growing up Black in the Deep South in The Journeyman, his Substack newsletter, which is where I discovered him. He is currently writing a memoir about his experiences in finance and, fun fact, Marlon recently made his theatrical debut in the role of Uncle Ben in a local production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

We covered:

- How he made the transition from Wall Street trader to full-time writer

- The freedom in being close enough to retirement that you're not worried that something you write might prevent you from getting another job

- Being friends with people whose political views differ from your own

- How most of his articles he writes on his phone at 3 am--the others he writes either in his car or at a bar

Visit Marlon at thejourneyman.substack.com.

Thanks to this week's sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save up to 30% off an amazing indoor air filter and get a free 3-year warranty ($84 value).

For full show notes, visit katehanley.substack.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Shannon Watts, what's next]: Being OK with not exactly knowing what's coming up next + the recipe for the perfect cup of coffee Ep 1088 May 31, 2024

Show notes

In this final part of my interview with Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, we get a look at what's coming up for her--and how that might not involve being in the public eye at all after 11 years of being 'the tip of the spear' as a common sense gun law advocate. I also ask her what's she's reading, watching, listening to, drinking in her morning cup, and what she'd have for dinner tonight if she could have anything in the world.

We talked about:

- Her voracious love of podcasts (including a shortlist of her faves)

- Knowing that it's time to shift into a different way of being, but not yet knowing exactly what that looks like

- The reality show she watches until the wee hours whenever her husband is out of town

Visit Shannon at shannonwatts.substack.com.

For full show notes (including bonus photos!) visit katehanley.substack.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Shannon Watts, inner stuff]: When your inner critic is terrified you'll come off as corny or woo-woo + taking aim at mom guilt Ep 1087 May 29, 2024

Show notes

In the second part of my interview with Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, author of "Fight Like a Mother, and host of the Substack newsletter "Playing with Fire" (where she addresses overlooked topics head on, such as ADHD in women and girls and the benefits of hormone therapy for relief of menopause symptoms), we get into the mindset side of writing.

We covered:

- Reckoning with the enormity of needing to produce 60,000+ words for a book

- The "small miracle" or crystallizing a thought in a way you hadn't been able to articulate before

- How getting reiki helps her write

- Shifting out of perfectionism and into flow

- The huge difference in the lived experience between Gen X women and their mothers

- Taking aim at mom guilt

- The woo woo retreat that almost made her run for the door, but turned out to be a much-needed entryway to being playful

Visit Shannon at shannonwatts.substack.com.

For full show notes (including bonus photos!) visit katehanley.substack.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices