Blog Archives
Reclaiming Your Voice
In The Permission Mission, you encourage readers to stop seeking approval for the life they want to live and grant themselves permission to make their own choices. Why was this an important book for you to write?
This book was important for me to write because I kept seeing the same pattern in so many capable, talented people, especially women. These women are smart, accomplished, yet they were still waiting for someone else to say, “You’re ready,” or “You deserve this.” They were waiting for permission to speak up, ask for more, try something new, or even sometimes trust their own instincts.
At some point, I realized just how deep that pattern runs.
Many of us (especially women) were raised to follow the rules, be agreeable, and not rock the boat. Those lessons may have served us at one point, but they tend to stay with us and can quietly hold us back later in life. So, I wanted to write a book that helps people recognize those invisible limits. I wanted to help people realize that the permission they’re waiting for isn’t coming from outside of them. It’s something they already have. Once you realize that, it changes the way you move through your life.
What made you decide to frame the journey toward confidence as a “mission” rather than simply personal growth?
A mission requires action. Personal growth can sometimes sound passive, as if it happens over time if we read enough books or listen to enough podcasts. But reclaiming your voice doesn’t happen by accident; it requires decisions, courage, and taking a few uncomfortable steps forward.
That is why I chose to call it a “mission” because this journey asks something of us. It asks us to question old beliefs, challenge the voices in our heads, and sometimes step outside the expectations that have shaped us for years.
But the beautiful thing about a mission is that it unfolds one step at a time. One decision at a time, one foot in front of the other. You just have to choose to trust yourself a little more than you did yesterday.
You identify those who tend to stifle our progress as “backup singers.” What is the first step we can take to recognize when they are running the show?
The first step is simply awareness. Most of the time, “backup singers,” those voices in the back of our minds that seem to echo lessons from the past, feel so familiar that we think they’re our own thoughts. But when you pause and listen closely, you start to recognize them.
Maybe it’s a parent’s voice saying, “Don’t get too big for your britches.” Maybe it’s a teacher who once told you that you weren’t ready. Maybe it’s a cultural message about what someone like you is supposed to do.
When you hear yourself thinking things like “I shouldn’t say that,” “Someone else is probably more qualified,” or “I don’t want to make waves,” that’s often a backup singer stepping forward.
Once you notice that voice, you can ask a powerful question: Is this belief still true for me today? That moment of awareness is where the shift begins.
If readers remember just one idea from The Permission Mission, what do you hope it will be?
I hope they remember this: The only permission you need is your own. And you already have that. You just need to realize it.
So many people spend years holding themselves back because they believe they need approval from a boss, a family member, a mentor, or society before they can move forward. But the truth is that most of the time, no one is standing in your way.
When you give yourself permission: to try, to speak, to lead, to change your mind, to go after what you want, you step into a different relationship with your life. You stop standing in the background. You start trusting your own voice.
That single shift can change everything.
Author Links: GoodReads | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Book Website | YouTube | Amazon
Polite. Agreeable. Grateful.
You did exactly what you were told—and it cost you your voice, your choices, and your life.
If you’ve been biting your tongue, over-apologizing, saying yes when you meant no, or following “rules” you never agreed to…The Permission Mission will help you trust your own voice and take your life back.
This isn’t your life. It’s the result of compliance.
You’ve walked away from conversations thinking, I wish I had said something? You’ve talked yourself out of the raise, the boundary, the opportunity, the dream—because a louder voice (yours or someone else’s) told you not to make waves?
The Permission Mission is your wake-up call and your roadmap if you’re tired of living a life that works for everyone but you. Dr. Cindy McGovern helps you identify the “backup singers” in your head (the old voices, expectations, unspoken rules, and borrowed beliefs that keep drowning out what you actually want). Then, she hands the microphone back to the only voice that matters: yours.
You’ll embark on your own personal permission mission, where the insights you gain actually become the momentum you need, even when you second-guess yourself. Because confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you build, one brave decision at a time.
On your journey, you’ll learn how to:
• Spot the invisible rules you’ve been living by—and break the ones holding you back.
• Clean out your emotional closet and ditch the old stories, rules, and doubts that are holding you back.
• Turn fear into forward motion by using imposter syndrome and self-doubt as your launchpad, not your limitations.
• Own your worth without shrinking, over-explaining, or self-editing.
• Say no without guilt, yes to what matters, and speak up where it counts.
• Get out of your head and out of your own way.
• Advocate for what you want—at home, at work, and in the conversations that shape your future (yes, even negotiation and “selling”).
• Give yourself permission instead of asking or waiting for it.
So, whether you’re just starting out, starting over, or simply sick of playing small, The Permission Mission gives you the strategy, support, and spark to finally go after what’s yours.
These pages won’t tell you who to be. They remind you who you already are. This book is your invitation to come back to yourself.
The only permission you need is your own.
Get Your House in Order
In Back to Basics, you emphasize strengthening the basics of operation before focusing on marketing. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Honestly, frustration was a big part of it. Over three decades in business, I watched good people fail — not because they lacked passion or ideas, but because they skipped steps. They’d spend a fortune on advertising before they’d even sorted out how they answered the phone. I felt like someone needed to say it plainly: get your house in order first.
Have you seen examples where something as simple as cleanliness or presentation dramatically changed customer perception?
Many times. I remember visiting a small service business that was struggling to understand why they weren’t getting repeat customers. Within five minutes of walking in, I could see it — the place was tired-looking, the staff seemed disengaged, and nothing felt looked after. We made some simple changes, purely cosmetic and behavioural, and the feedback from customers shifted almost immediately. People notice when you care. And they notice just as quickly when you don’t.
Your writing style is very direct and stripped down. Was that simplicity intentional from the start?
Yes, because I’m not a fan of padding. I’ve sat through enough seminars and read enough books where the core message could have been delivered in a quarter of the time. I wanted every page to earn its place. If a reader is busy running a business — and most of them are — they don’t have time for filler. Get to the point, make it useful, and respect their time. That was the brief I gave myself.
What do you hope readers change in their businesses after reading Back to Basics?
Their standards. Not dramatically — just raise them a notch. Start noticing the things that have become invisible through familiarity. The scuff on the wall you’ve stopped seeing. The way a team member speaks to customers when they think no one’s watching. The process that made sense five years ago but doesn’t anymore. Small improvements, done consistently, add up to something significant. That’s really the whole message of the book in one sentence.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Back to Basics is a clear, experience-driven guide to what actually holds businesses together when things get busy or messy.
This book is not about trends or tactics. It focuses on the unglamorous but decisive elements that determine whether a business runs smoothly or constantly feels like hard work: cleanliness, consistency, recruiting, training, standards, systems, service, and discipline.
Written for owners, managers, and operators of people-driven businesses, Back to Basics offers a calm, practical philosophy rather than step-by-step instructions.
It is designed to be dipped into, revisited, and shared, not skimmed once and forgotten.
If you want fewer surprises, fewer fires, and a business that holds together under pressure, this book will help you get the order right.
We Are as Gods: A Survival Guide for the Age of Abundance
We Are as Gods argues that we now live in a world where technology has quietly given ordinary people godlike powers, from AI and robotics to biotech and planetary-scale climate tools, and that the real bottleneck is not the tech itself but our ability to think clearly, emotionally regulate, and act wisely at this new speed. The book walks through how exponential technologies created real material abundance, how our Stone Age brains mis-handle this flood of power and information, and then offers a psychological survival guide that mixes neuroscience, game design, and grand challenges to help readers build agency, meaning, and resilience in what the authors call an age of abundance.
The book is energizing. The stories are vivid and sticky. The opening riff that compares modern breakthroughs to biblical miracles lands hard, and it actually made me pause and look at my phone with fresh eyes. The structure is clear. Part 1 sets the stage, Part 2 shows real companies and projects surfing the waves, and Part 3 shifts into a self-help gear that feels more intimate and practical. I liked the way authors Diamandis and Kotler weave myth, cognitive science, and startup lore. The analogies help. Comparing information overload to a wrecking ball hitting our nervous system is simple, and it rings true. Their explanation of bias and attention feels grounded, and it helped me name things I only had a fuzzy feeling about before.
I enjoyed how bold the style is. The prose comes at you fast, like a live keynote talk poured straight onto the page, and it keeps the energy high. The constant drumbeat of examples gives the book a sense of momentum. Miracle after miracle, chart after chart, and it all adds to this feeling that you are racing through a highlight reel of the future. I still found myself curious to explore a few of the tougher stories, especially in the darker chapters where surveillance, bio risk, and inequality show up and then get lifted by the next hopeful case study. Their strong faith in entrepreneurs and incentive prizes comes across as a clear, confident stance, and while I could imagine an even deeper dive into policy and power, I liked that those themes are at least present, even if they stay mostly in the wings. I finished those sections impressed by the ingenuity on display and energized by the big questions that remain about who benefits, who pays the price, and how we can guide abundance so it feels intentional, fair, and shared.
The discussion of learned helplessness, attention collapse, and victim mindset resonated with me personally. I recognized my own doom scrolling, my own habit of telling myself the future is something that just happens to me. The tools they offer in the final chapters are not completely new, but the way they frame them inside this huge story of accelerating change gave them more weight for me. Agency, awe, and grand challenges sound like big abstract words. Here they come with clear explanations, concrete examples, and a kind of gentle shove that says: you do not get to sit this era out.
I would recommend We Are as Gods to readers who sit at the intersection of technology, leadership, and personal development, and who want a hopeful but not naive story about the next few decades. If you are a founder, an executive, a policy thinker, or simply someone feeling overwhelmed by AI and nonstop change, this book will give you language, metaphors, and mental models that can help you feel less like a victim of the future and more like an active participant. If you want a big, loud, data-heavy pep talk wrapped around some solid psychological advice, this is a very timely read.
Pages: 320 | ISBN : 978-1668099544
Back to Basics: Why the Fundamentals Still Win in Business
Back to Basics: Why the Fundamentals Still Win in Business is a short, focused book that argues that most companies do not need clever marketing as much as they need strong basics. It moves through cleanliness, consistency, hiring, training, standards, systems, safety, service, and word of mouth, then ends with a simple sequence. Get the operation right first. Turn the volume up later. The author, Greg Keane, writes in tight chapters that read like field notes from service and sales environments, and he keeps coming back to one idea. Exposure only helps when the underlying business is solid.
I enjoyed the writing style. It feels calm and direct. The sentences are clean, and the chapters are lean, so I never felt stuck. I also liked the way each chapter hooks into one clear idea, like “cleanliness is a sales strategy” or “training is risk management.” Those lines stick in my head. The tone feels seasoned, almost like a manager walking a site with you and pointing at small things that matter more than the big campaign you want to talk about. I would have liked more stories or specific examples. Even so, the clarity works. The book feels like a checklist in prose form, and that makes it easy to remember and use.
I found a lot to agree with, and it hit a nerve more than once. The link between cleanliness, trust, and sales feels spot on, and I have seen teams ignore that simple point for years. The sections on recruiting and training also land well. Calling training “risk management” feels honest. It captures what happens when you throw people into work and hope for the best. I especially liked the line that states if you are the system, you are the bottleneck. That one stings a bit, in a good way, because it calls out a common ego trap in small and mid-sized businesses. I would have welcomed a bit more detail on how to build some of the systems it describes, not just the case for why they matter. Even so, the core message feels true, and it is delivered with enough repetition that it is hard to ignore.
I would recommend Back to Basics to owners, managers, and operators in service, retail, hospitality, and any people-heavy business who feel tempted to chase the next marketing trick while everyday basics slip. It will nudge you to walk your own sites, look at your bathrooms, watch handovers, and listen to how your team speaks when no one senior is around. If you want a short, practical reminder to get your house in order before you ask the world to look at it, this fits that need very well.
Pages: 45 | ASIN : B0GJ3LQNLM
This Car Sux!: Tales and Tips From a Life of Wheeling and Dealing
This Car Sux! is part memoir, part how-to guide, and part history lesson on the American car business. Author Randy Pressgrove walks through his forty-plus years in dealerships and corporate roles, from the showroom floor to the inner world of factory finance, while explaining how cars move from assembly line to dealer lot to driveway. Along the way, he breaks down sales tactics, add-on products, financing tricks, the role of banks and in-house lenders, the impact of recessions and oil shocks, and even the chaos of Covid, all threaded with road stories and character sketches from a lifetime on the road.
I felt pulled in by the voice right away. The writing has a straight-ahead, front-porch style that fits the subject. Pressgrove sounds like the seasoned rep who has seen every stunt in the book, and he is not shy about calling people bastards, bandits, and bozos when they earn it. The stories about “protection packages,” disappearing trade-in keys, and finance managers squeezing every last dollar out of a deal had me half laughing and half wincing, because they feel very human and very plausible. At the same time, he steps back often enough to explain the mechanics in plain English, so even when he gets into loan terms, floor planning, or leasing, I never felt buried in numbers. The pacing does sag a bit in spots, especially when he follows the history of interest rates and factory politics in detail, but the next colorful anecdote usually arrives just in time to wake the reader back up.
Pressgrove is tough on dealers who prey on unprepared buyers, yet he is just as blunt about customers who walk in with no research, no budget, and no plan, then complain later that “this car sucks.” That balance resonated with me. I liked how he connects personal horror stories to bigger themes, like how easy credit traps both buyers and dealers, or how manufacturer incentive programs change behavior on the ground. There are moments where the book leans on nostalgia for the old days. Older readers will relate, while younger readers will still be able to appreciate it.
I came away feeling both entertained and better armed. I would recommend this book to anyone who is about to buy or lease a car and wants to walk into the showroom with eyes wide open, and to people thinking about working in sales or management at a dealership who want a candid look at the culture they are entering. It will also land well with readers who enjoy behind-the-scenes business stories told by someone who lived the job, not by a consultant from the outside. If you want a technical finance text or a dry academic history, this is not it. If you want a sharp, funny, occasionally grumpy tour of the modern car circus from someone who clearly cares about the trade, This Car Sux! is worth your time.
Pages: 328 | ASIN : B0FVB8W9SM
Literary Titan Gold Book Award: Nonfiction
The Literary Titan Book Award recognizes outstanding nonfiction books that demonstrate exceptional quality in writing, research, and presentation. This award is dedicated to authors who excel in creating informative, enlightening, and engaging works that offer valuable insights. Recipients of this award are commended for their ability to transform complex topics into accessible and compelling narratives that captivate readers and enhance our understanding.
Award Recipients
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
I Was Tired of Starting Over
Side Hustle & Flow: The Daily Grind – 365 Days to Shine is a yearlong guide of short, daily reflections designed to help creatives, entrepreneurs, and side-hustlers build momentum without burnout. Was there a moment in your life when consistency finally “clicked” for you?
Yes. It was not some glamorous breakthrough. It was when I was tired of starting over. I had talent. I had ideas. I had big goals. But I kept relying on motivation. The real shift happened during my health journey when I reversed Type 2 diabetes and lost 50 pounds. I realized it was not about intensity. It was about daily reps. Same with sobriety. Same with building my music catalog. Same with scaling operations at Beautytap. Once I saw that small, boring, repeatable actions compound into freedom, consistency stopped feeling restrictive and started feeling empowering. That is when it clicked.
Your background spans music, business, and operations. How did those worlds shape this book?
Music taught me rhythm and discipline. You do not get better on stage. You get better in rehearsal. Business taught me structure. Systems beat willpower every time. Operations taught me leverage. If something is not documented and repeatable, it does not scale.
This book sits at the intersection of all three. It is creative but structured. It is motivational but practical. I am an artist who also thinks like an operator. So The Daily Grind is not just inspiration. It is about building frameworks that help creatives, entrepreneurs, and professionals win long term. Whether I am producing a record, hosting Deeper Grooves, or managing digital operations, the principle is the same. Show up. Execute. Improve.
What does “showing up” actually look like on days when motivation is gone?
It looks smaller than you think. It might mean writing one paragraph instead of ten pages. It might mean walking instead of crushing a two-hour workout. It might mean sending one email instead of building the whole funnel.
Showing up is protecting the streak. It is voting for the identity you want. On bad days, I lower the bar, but I do not remove it. I focus on one non-negotiable action that moves the needle forward. Momentum is easier to maintain than to restart. Most people quit because they think showing up has to be dramatic. It does not. It just has to be consistent.
How do you recommend readers use this book—morning ritual, night reflection, or something else?
I designed it to be flexible but powerful. Morning is ideal because it sets intention. It helps you frame the day before the world gets loud. But night reflection works too. It can help you audit how you showed up.
Personally, I like pairing it with a short daily planning session. Read the reflection. Identify one action for the day. Then execute. Every 30 day,s there is a deeper challenge, which I see as a reset point. It is not about perfection. It is about rhythm.
The goal is not to finish the book. The goal is to build a life where you do not need motivation to move forward.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Website
Side Hustle & Flow: The Daily Grind – 365 Days to Shine is your year-long guide to consistency, clarity, and momentum. Designed for creatives, entrepreneurs, side-hustlers, and anyone chasing a better version of themselves, this book delivers 365 short, powerful daily reflections to help you stay focused, motivated, and moving forward—even on the hard days.
Written by entrepreneur, musician, author, and VP of Digital & Operations Cliff Beach, The Daily Grind blends real-world experience with practical wisdom. Each day offers a concise lesson, mindset shift, or action prompt you can apply immediately—no fluff, no overwhelm.
This isn’t about hustle culture burnout. It’s about intentional progress, sustainable habits, and showing up for your goals one day at a time.
Inside, you’ll discover:
Daily motivation you can read in under two minutes
Practical insights on discipline, confidence, health, creativity, and money
Honest reflections on doubt, failure, growth, and resilience
Monthly reflection checkpoints to recalibrate your direction
A steady reminder that consistency beats intensity—every time
Whether you’re building a side hustle, leveling up your career, improving your health, or simply trying to stay inspired in a noisy world, this book meets you where you are—and helps you keep going.
You don’t need a perfect plan.
You don’t need permission.
You just need to show up today.
One day. One page. One step closer to shining.
Depth, Honesty, and Context
Through the Lens of an Ancient Yisra’elite Bible Study walks readers through the history, language, culture, and theology of the ancient Yisra’elites. What inspired you to write this theological guide?
Writing a book was never my original intention. My goal at first was simply to research, gather data, and develop a study I could teach in local churches or through online platforms. Over time, people who attended those studies offered thoughtful feedback and repeatedly encouraged me to publish the material in book form.
What ultimately inspired me was a growing concern that much of modern teaching approaches Scripture through a Western lens that ignores the linguistic, cultural, and historical world of ancient Yisra’el. I saw pastors avoiding difficult topics and doctrines being taught without a solid scriptural foundation, often because that ancient context was missing. The more I studied, the more I realized how much meaning is lost without it.
After prayer and reflection, it became clear that transforming the study into a book was the right choice. My intention is not to argue for novelty, but to help readers engage Scripture as its earliest communities would have understood it—with depth, honesty, and context.
Did you learn anything that surprised you during your research for this book?”
Absolutely. The research process was full of surprises. One of the most eye-opening discoveries for me was realizing how differently ancient Yisra’elites understood concepts we often take for granted—things like covenant, identity, honor and shame, communal responsibility, ritual purity, and even time itself. These ideas do not translate neatly into our modern Western categories, and I was often surprised by how much meaning is lost when we try to fit them into our own frameworks.
I also encountered linguistic surprises. Hebrew names, idioms, and expressions that modern translations flatten—sometimes for readability—carry layers of meaning that change the tone of a passage entirely. For example, understanding terms tied to covenant language, marriage imagery, or the “appointed times” of Yahweh revealed connections I had never been shown in church settings. Even the way ancient Yisra’el measured days and months reshaped familiar timelines, such as the biblical festivals or the crucifixion and resurrection accounts.
Another area that surprised me was how much clarity emerges when we consult non-canonical literature—not as Scripture, but as cultural context. Works like Ḥanok (Enoch), Jubilees, or Jasher reflect the worldview, vocabulary, and assumptions of Second Temple Judaism. These writings don’t replace the Bible, but they help us understand how ancient communities thought about angels, the afterlife, judgment, marriage customs, and cosmic order. When you combine that with linguistic study and the biblical text itself, the result is a fuller and more coherent picture of the ancient world.
All of this taught me how much beauty and continuity live beneath the surface when Scripture is allowed to speak from within its original cultural world. Passages that once seemed disconnected suddenly fit together with remarkable clarity. That realization humbled me and reminded me that the Bible was written within a real historical context, to real people who shared a worldview very different from ours. Honoring that world not only deepens our understanding but also brings us closer to the heart of the text itself.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
If there is one thing I hope readers take away from this book, it is a deeper appreciation for how transformative Scripture becomes when we honor its original context. The Bible did not emerge in a vacuum, and when we approach it through the language, culture, and worldview of ancient Yisra’el, we begin to see truths that modern traditions often overlook or soften. That awareness can bring both clarity and curiosity—clarity in understanding what the text is actually saying, and curiosity to keep asking hard questions without fear.
At the same time, I hope it renews a sense of awe for the God who reveals Himself within that context. My prayer is that readers walk away not only with stronger historical and linguistic insight, but with a deeper faith—one rooted in truth, not assumption. If this book encourages believers to read with fresh eyes, greater humility, and a sincere hunger for the heart of Scripture, then it has accomplished its purpose.
Author Links: Goodreads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
More than a devotional guide and more grounded than a theological essay, this book functions as a lens-cleaner for students of Scripture who want to see the biblical text on its own terms. With clarity and accessibility, it explores how concepts such as honor and shame, communal identity, covenantal relationships, Hebraic idioms, and ancient Near Eastern worldview shaped the original meaning and intent of biblical passages.
Written from within a Hebraic worldview, and with a commitment to both historical integrity and discipleship, the study reframes familiar themes through the eyes of the ancient Yisra’elite community. The result is not speculation or novelty, but restoration—helping modern readers hear the biblical message as its first audience would have understood it.
In this study you will explore:
How the ancient Yisra’elite worldview differs from modern Western assumptions
Why concepts like honor, shame, covenant, kinship, and communal ethics are essential for understanding Scripture
The impact of Hebraic language and idioms on meaning and interpretation
How the Bible communicates through patterns, cycles, and narrative structures rather than abstract doctrines
The difference between covenantal relationships and modern contract-thinking
What happens when Scripture is read within its own cultural soil rather than through later philosophical frameworks
Ideal for readers who:
Want to understand the Bible in its historical and cultural context
Sense a disconnect between ancient Scripture and modern Western interpretation
Teach or lead Bible studies, small groups, or discipleship courses
Are exploring the Hebraic roots of the faith
Desire a deeper, more grounded approach beyond commentary-driven theology
Are curious how honor-shame culture shapes biblical narratives and ethics
