Why There’s So Much Power in Sharing Your Story - My First Book!

There truly was a ‘F**k it’ moment when I realised I had to tell my story. That I could no longer put it off, the time was now.

You see, I’d always hidden behind the idea that I wasn’t far enough along in my journey or that I hadn’t enough happen to me to warrant writing a book but that wasn’t the full reason, the truth was I was full of fear and a whole lot of imposter syndrome. Then one day I realized that’s exactly why I had to write this book, to help me see myself for who I really am and in turn help others seem themselves more clearly as well. The self-gatekeeping had to stop.

The Journey to my Story

There are so many things we do and do not do out of fear of others, and the book in a way goes through a lot of that journey. It’s my discovery of wanting to be somebody, becoming that person and then being swarmed with all these fears of questioning whether I was worthy of being the person I’d become.

Always asking am I good enough? Am I worthy enough?

This is all the more impactful on your being, when you’re also living the isolated path of being a women founder. You find yourself stuck in a lonely bubble at the top, reporting to yourself and living in a world where you are only limited by your own mind, which can both be a wonderful and terrible thing. It can become very dangerous, as you go through a lot of emotional distress with all the ups and downs alone. So in writing and exploring my story in this way, it’s been very cathartic to reflect back and see my journey for its worth. There’s a lot of power in just that piece of reflection work.

Pride in Your Journey

Most importantly, the sharing of your story helps you to be proud of your accomplishments and honor who you really are, because through this whole process of writing your story, its all about the words. The words that we speak, the words of what we do, and the words we write. So by documenting those things we are able to give ourselves the biggest gift that you can have. For me, going through this whole process has been such an incredible experience. A true reflection of my journey and in that being able to see how far I’ve come. Being able to be proud of all the things I accomplished whilst standing through the rejection, fear, insecurity and doubts that came with it.

In a way not telling my story would now feel like the failure. That sending this out to the world is also part of my work. It won’t be for everybody. It’s going to inspire some, and probably bore others, but for the people that are feeling like they're failing, that they're not enough or they can't keep it up, this is for them. It’s for the people who are questioning their power, questioning what they’re worth or what they want to do. Most of it , it’s a reminder of how we can all lose our way, but it’s truly in the journey and pushing forward that we find ourselves.

Embracing My Fears

One thing I think I will always struggle with is the fear of what others think, despite of everything I’ve achieved. This is because when you're trying to build and innovate the amount of self-talk you have to do is almost unbelievable, so much comes from you building yourself up.

And the rate of internal pumping up you have to do i.e. ‘You're going to be amazing’ or ‘Everything's going to be good’ or ‘You can do this you’ is near on constant. Then because you’ve to do it so much by time you release your thoughts to the external world, you really need the validation of others to agree that it’s a good idea, because if just one person reacts negatively to it, it can be absolutely devastating to your positive focused mind. The ego can be fragile at times in a founder, even in someone whose achieved a lot, because if it wasn’t positive focus they wouldn’t have been able to move as far forward as they have. The process of writing this book has been about tackling that fear too, knowing that people will have negative things to say about it but I know it doesn’t detract from the good that it will also bring, both to myself and to others.

Something I constantly remind myself of. It’s been a little therapeutic for me too. Through recounting my story, and re-living old experiences in new light, I’ve been able to break down old ideas and rediscover past lessons all over again. I've been able to connect more with myself and understand better what telling your story can do for others. How it can light the way for them. The key is to focus more on the positives of the action, versus the judgment that will come, because there’s nothing you can really do about that, so why waste so much energy on it.

Real-time Reflections

‘The Scale’ is really a book that is like watching in real time someone peel away their old selves, and seeing them move into the new version. The best part you read as it happens in real time. This book was started in the hardest year of my life, and by luck I was connected with the right people to help my story come to life, but really it was in how as we started to write this out and it uncovered moment by moment of my life. Revealing to me, parts of myself I had forgotten or didn’t recognise.

There were days I could barely even get up out of bed. Inside I was so broken, but I just had to keep going and fight. Yet through documenting my life and writing about it, and beginning to recognize my story, it also began to heal me through some of those moments and took some of that weight off from my back. This book in many ways feels like a God-given gift. I was asked to write this in the hardest moments so I could reflect on whether I truly knew my why and my purpose. It asked of me to think on what I wanted to give to the world and what I wanted that to represent.

This book captures those feelings, and when it was written it captured the authenticity of my lived story. So you're not going to get bullshit with this book. You're going to get the full reflection. And trust me, it's very raw and authentic, which I love about it because so many people want to over edit or not speak their truth. This isn't a book created by AI, no prompt, no template. It is in part a discovery, an adventure and a true reflection. Something that is honest and I hope relatable, but really just the documenting of my experiences through the last decade of my life,

Hopes and Wishes for the Book

My biggest hope for this book is for people to be able to read it and feel engaged with the story. For them to want to spend some time to digest it. To look through the chapters of my journey, and find where they connect to it most. I don’t want the readers to praise me or admire me from a far away distance, instead I want them to find the light within themselves to go after their dreams. To see themselves in me. I want this to be a big-ass mirror that reflects back on them to show them, if Alicia can do, then so can they. If she's gone through that, done those things and come out the other side, then I can do them too.

I also hope the smattering of tips, ideas and general know-how I share can be taken to give the entrepreneurs and founders to be a bit of a confidence boost or just the ability to make more confident decisions moving forward. It’s about filling up their cup, so they can go and do what they're meant to do. That’s honestly you know, the intention and the design and the heart behind what’s in The Scale.

The Scale by Alicia Soulier

The Scale isn’t a tell-all, nor a book about why you’re doing this or that wrong. Rather it’s a reflection on my real journey as a non-techy tech women CEO. Of what it means to grow a business, and how your personal journey is as important as the one your business goes on. It’s a guiding tale through the inner workings of a mind of an emotional leader that often has to process a lot of things and how sometimes our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses.

This is an incredibly important story to tell right now, especially as we’re seeing a huge shift in the world of business with more women CEOs every day. We want women to rise and in sharing this story I’m doing my part to encourage more women to do so.

The Scale by Alicia Soulier out Friday 25th October 2024

Pre-Order the eBook from Amazon here → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJ7MSP29

Print goes live 25th October!