The New Playbook for Women at Work
Women in Business
Date Published: 03.01.2023
Publisher: New Degree Press
“Pick up this book now! Every woman wants to believe she is on the precipice of something major and this book gives you the tools to get yourself there. Randi Braun has created a fun and practical way forward for women who are looking to channel their inner bad-ass, crack the leadership code, and soar!" - Jen Mormile, Chief Business Officer of Condé Nast
She’s changing women’s lives, one play at a time.
Women are natural leaders but they’ve been taught to play the game by an outdated set of rules. So certified executive coach, Randi Braun, wrote them a new playbook.
In Braun’s book, Something Major: The New Playbook for Women at Work, women will discover how to play the leadership game on their own terms and win when it comes to achieving their goals: whether it’s cracking the code on your self-doubt by ditching perfectionism, external validation, and the tyranny of your inner critic, or learning new tactics for owning your message (don’t miss 16 things she forbids you to say at work). Braun’s book provides a fresh take on one of the most tremendous challenges of our time: empowering women at work to chart their own course to the top — dialing up confidence and fulfillment, and dialing down burnout in the process.
In Something Major: The New Playbook for Women at Work, Braun takes the field and re-writes the plays of the game. She is a sought-after thought leader, speaker, and CEO of the women’s leadership firm, Something Major. Her book delivers stories for today’s women leaders in a conversational style that’s packed with sage advice and wildly entertaining.
Can you tell us a little about the process of getting
this book published? How did you come up with the idea and how did you start?
Years
ago, a woman confessed to me, "I have no desire... in fact, I can't even
remember the last time I was in the mood."
She
wasn't talking about what you think she was talking about. She was
talking about a case of what I call "low work libido" and she's not
alone. Unfortunately, there's just no little blue pill for that and figuring
out how we can address that is what led me to write my book, Something Major: The New Playbook for Women at Work.
What surprised you most about getting your book published?
What
stunned me is that absolutely, positively anyone can be successful.
I
released my book at the same time as Ginni Rommety (the former CEO of IBM who
published in the same Women & Business category at the same time). While I
was traveling on my book tour, the first week of my book's release, my husband
called me freaking out at 10:45pm to tell me that my book was outperforming
hers on Kindle. Then I started freaking out because that’s just insane
to me. I am a regular person. I hope other people will feel empowered to
know that you don’t have to be a celebrity or former Fortune 500 leader to
write a successful book.
Tell us a little about what you do when you aren’t
writing
I run an
executive coaching company called Something Major, where I coach, lead
retreats, and do public speaking on the topics of women’s leadership, thriving
in working motherhood, goal-setting, and well-being. I'm also a mom to two
little kids and I love to travel with my husband. We have trips planned to Asia
and the Middle East this year and I can't wait for them.
As a published author, what would you say was the most
pivotal point of your writing life?
The most
pivotal moment was that there was no pivotal moment. I became a writer slowly
over time: creating small snippets of content through newsletters or articles
gave me the courage to write in a longer format. I think that's the secret to
cracking the code on ANY of our goals and something I write about in my book:
looking for the small "micro moments" that add up to something
tremendous over time.
Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think
that is?
100% on
my morning walk in the woods. Apparently, Thoreau was onto something!
My life
is super busy: I’m a CEO, a coach, an author, a mom to two young kids, and the
spouse of an equally-career-focused technology executive. Taking 30-40 minutes
a day to walk -- rain or shine, blazing heat or winter-morning-cold -- is a
daily moment of “unlock” for me. It’s an opportunity to be creative and
unscripted before returning to the choreography of my daily commitments and
what’s on my calendar.
What is the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
I wrote
an entire chapter on Untethering from External Validation in this back so the
criticism hasn’t hit me that hard -- or at least the way it would have years
ago when I was SO in need of it to feel successful.
If
somebody doesn’t like something or didn't think something worked in the
drafting process, I gave myself permission to get curious about their comments
without letting it become an existential referendum on who I am or the value of
my work. As I write in my book, we need to get clear on three truths about
feedback.
1.
Feedback tells us more about the giver than the receiver.
Often,
it tells us more about the feedback giver’s preferences, priorities, beliefs,
biases, values, and goals than it does about ourselves.
2.
Feedback is, by definition, a subjective assessment. It is not an objective fact. It’s a
reflection of how a specific person is observing or evaluating something they
see or hear from you. While it’s important that we hear feedback, as well as
evaluate what about it could be true or what could be beneficial to improving
ourselves, we must take it as a data point—not a definitive answer.
3.
Feedback is a snapshot of a moment in time. It’s a reflection of your
relationship with another person, a situation, or an outcome in a specific
moment in time. It’s not an unwavering truth about who you are and who you will
always be.
I
believe there is always something to learn from feedback (as a client of mine
says, “don’t throw the wine out with the cork”) but these perspectives keep me
grounded when I get criticism. Especially as a recovering external validation
addict!
What has been your best accomplishment as a writer?
Getting
it DONE and OUT in the world. That honest-to-God felt better than even hitting
the best-seller list as #1 in Women & Business.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
I have
another cooking up in brain about working motherhood… we’ll see where it goes!
Contact Links
TikTok: @something_major_coaching
Purchase Link
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The book sounds fascinating. Great cover!
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