Blog Archives
Solving Problems, And Working Hard
Careering Off Course takes readers through a working life filled with unexpected detours, questionable choices, and enough entrepreneurial mishaps to make even the most optimistic business coach nervous. What prompted you to frame the book as a work of self-criticism rather than a traditional career or entrepreneurship guide?
Simple really, I know friends have described me as a success, but I’ve never felt like that. I suppose I just didn’t feel qualified to write about entrepreneurship. I’d spent too much of my working life trying things, changing direction and making a mess of it to start handing out lessons. The more I looked back, the more I realised the story wasn’t really about a single dramatic failure. It was about all the small decisions that seemed sensible at the time: staying comfortable, putting things off, or convincing myself I’d try something properly later.
Writing it as a self-critique also let me be honest about my part in what happened. It’s easier to laugh at the mistakes when I’m the one making them. There’s also less chance of offending people. If readers recognise themselves in some of the choices, perhaps they’ll find a useful question or two in the book. But I’m not standing at the front of the room telling anyone what to do, I don’t think I even did that in my teaching days!
What originally attracted you to entrepreneurship, and how did your expectations compare with the reality of running a business?
I think the interest began with my dad, who ran a small vending business. I saw the practical side of it early on: buying and selling, solving problems, and working hard to make a living. Even as a kid, I liked the idea of earning money for myself. Washing cars, selling fruit and vegetables from the drive all made business feel exciting and full of possibility. I just loved the freedom money gave you, not having to rely on mum and dad, being able to make financial decisions myself.
My expectations, if I’m honest, got rather ahead of the reality. I liked the idea of being an entrepreneur: the independence, the money, the freedom. I was less prepared for the patience, focus and ordinary hard work involved. I had plenty of ideas, but I was often tempted to jump to the next one before I’d given the current one a fair chance. I wanted the result more than I understood the process.
Looking back at your experiences across retail, sales, hospitality, customer service, marketing and teaching, what patterns do you recognise in the decisions that shaped your career?
The biggest pattern was drifting. I often made decisions to avoid discomfort rather than to move towards something I really wanted. I stayed in jobs because they were safe, hesitated to apply for roles to further myself, and sometimes when I did change job is was just a change in scenery instead of facing the underlying problem.
That pattern followed me into business too. I could get excited about an idea and explain how brilliantly it might work, but I wasn’t always as good at sticking with it, testing it properly or doing the less exciting work. For a long time, I was busy but was I making progress? Not really!
Looking back, there were occasions where I manned up and got on with it, but I was very inconsistent and often got distracted. I can see that I was often chasing an idea of success I hadn’t examined very closely. It took me a while to understand that money and freedom matter, but so do time, family and feeling that the life you’re building actually suits you.
What can readers expect from the broader How to Get Things Badly Wrong series, and how do you envision the themes developing beyond this first volume?
How to Get Things Badly Wrong was originally intended to be one book, but I found I had far too much to say about my career, so I decided to split it into a series. The books will all share the same basic idea: we often understand things more clearly after we’ve got them wrong.
Careering Off Course explores work and entrepreneurship. Future books may look at parenting, teaching and education, family, and health. I’m still working through some family concerns about the parenting and family topics, so those may have to wait for now. Health is one subject I’m keen to explore. I’ve had a few health issues and struggles with alcohol, and I’d like to write about them as another cautionary tale.
When I get back to writing, I expect the approach to stay much the same: personal stories, honest reflection, and humour wherever I can find it. I want to show what our mistakes can reveal about us—and what readers might recognise in their own lives.
This one involves a fire, a £30,000 click, twenty-nine unwanted wind-up willies and enough bad business decisions to test the limits of compound stupidity.
He worked ninety-hour weeks for less per hour than the people he managed, opened one email attachment that IT still claim took down the company network, and completed a remarkable hat-trick of rejection from the RAF, the police and the Civil Service.
After careering through retail, sales, hospitality, customer service, marketing and teaching, he finally returned to entrepreneurship — armed with experience, enthusiasm and an apparently indestructible capacity for poor judgement.
Had he finally run out of ways to get things badly wrong?
Not remotely.
If you haven’t worked it out yet, this is not a self-help book.
It’s a self-criticism book.
Careering Off Course is a brutally honest, funny and frequently ridiculous forensic examination of bad decisions, weak excuses, failed businesses, misplaced ambition, fear, procrastination and the extraordinary human ability to spend years working without ever stopping to ask where you’re actually going.
If you’ve ever stayed in the wrong job, talked yourself out of an opportunity or wondered how everyone else seemed to have life figured out…
…you may recognise rather more of yourself in this book than you’d like — although, statistically, very few readers will also have been their own sales lead.
Book One of the How to Get Things Badly Wrong series.
Effective Leaders
The Future of Higher Education offers a practical guide to navigating financial pressures, evolving student needs, and technological change while preserving the educational mission of colleges and universities. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I’ve spent nearly two decades working in higher education, and I can honestly say that I’ve never been more optimistic about its future. That might sound surprising given the challenges facing colleges and universities today, but it’s something I believe strongly.
Higher education is navigating an extraordinary period of change. Financial pressures, shifting student expectations, declining public confidence, and the rapid development of artificial intelligence are forcing institutions to reconsider longstanding assumptions about how they operate and serve students. These issues are often discussed separately, but in practice, they’re deeply connected. Decisions about finances affect academic quality. Technology influences how students learn. Institutional culture shapes whether meaningful change is even possible.
I wanted to write a book that brought these conversations together and offered leaders a practical way to think through the decisions ahead. Throughout my career, I’ve seen how much good higher education can accomplish, and I’ve also seen how difficult it can be for institutions to adapt, even when the need for change is apparent.
I believe higher education remains one of the most powerful forces for individual opportunity and societal progress. Its future, however, will depend on the choices we make today. My hope is that this book encourages leaders to approach those choices with greater clarity, confidence, and a willingness to challenge assumptions that may no longer serve their institutions or students.
Your background in clinical psychology informs your discussion of burnout and belonging. How has that training shaped your approach to academic leadership?
My background in clinical psychology has had a tremendous influence on how I think about leadership. It gave me a deeper appreciation for human behavior, motivation, relationships, and the ways people respond to uncertainty. Those lessons have stayed with me throughout my career.
One thing I’ve come to appreciate is that institutional change is deeply personal for the people experiencing it. When leaders announce a new initiative or organizational restructuring, they’re often focused on the strategy, timeline, and anticipated outcomes. Faculty and staff may be thinking about how those changes will affect their work, their relationships, or their sense of purpose. Both perspectives matter, and effective leaders need to understand that.
I’ve also become increasingly concerned about how we talk about burnout in higher education. We sometimes frame it as something individuals need to manage through better habits or greater resilience. While personal well-being certainly matters, we also need to examine the organizational conditions contributing to exhaustion. If workloads are unreasonable or expectations are constantly changing, encouraging people to practice self-care only goes so far.
I try to approach leadership with an understanding that people want to feel respected, supported, and connected to something meaningful. That doesn’t mean avoiding difficult decisions. It means recognizing that how we make and communicate those decisions can be just as important as the decisions themselves.
You recommend recognizing mentoring and course redesign in faculty workloads. What practical steps can resource-constrained institutions take to make those changes sustainable?
I think we need to begin by being more realistic about what we’re asking faculty to accomplish. Over time, we’ve added expectations around mentoring, student engagement, technology, assessment, and course redesign, often without taking much off their plates. Even when these initiatives are worthwhile, the cumulative workload can become difficult to sustain.
For institutions operating with limited resources, my first recommendation would be to take a serious look at how faculty time is being used. Are there administrative processes that could be simplified? Are we asking faculty to participate in committees or activities that no longer provide meaningful value? Could instructional designers or shared academic resources help reduce the time required for course development?
We should also consider how mentoring and course redesign are recognized in workload assignments and faculty evaluations. If we say these activities are institutional priorities, our policies and practices should reflect that commitment.
Of course, there are financial realities to consider. Institutions can’t fund every worthwhile initiative, which makes prioritization especially important. I’d rather see an institution make meaningful progress on a few well-supported priorities than launch a dozen initiatives that leave everyone stretched thin.
Ultimately, sustainability requires leaders to make deliberate choices about where to invest their resources, including people’s time. Sometimes the most responsible decision is to stop doing something that no longer contributes enough value to justify the effort.
Your book emphasizes trust and collaboration during institutional change. How can leaders rebuild that trust when faculty and staff have experienced unsuccessful reforms?
I think leaders sometimes underestimate how long the effects of an unsuccessful change initiative can linger. Faculty and staff remember when they were promised improvements that never materialized, when their concerns were overlooked, or when an initiative was abandoned after considerable time and effort. Those experiences shape how people respond to the next proposed change, regardless of who’s leading it.
The first thing I’d encourage leaders to do is listen. Take the time to understand what happened, why people are frustrated, and what they believe needs to be different. And be willing to acknowledge past mistakes. I’ve found that people generally appreciate candor, particularly when it comes from someone in a leadership position.
From there, the focus needs to shift toward follow-through. If you make a commitment, honor it. If circumstances change and you can’t deliver on something, explain why. Be transparent about the decisions you’re making and the constraints you’re working within. You won’t always get everyone to agree with you, but you can still earn their respect.
I also believe there’s tremendous value in starting small. Identify a problem that matters to faculty or staff, involve them in developing a solution, and demonstrate that meaningful progress is possible. Those experiences help rebuild confidence and create momentum for more significant changes.
Trust takes time to develop, particularly when it’s been damaged. Throughout my career, I’ve found that the strongest professional relationships are built through consistency, honesty, and a genuine willingness to listen. The same principles apply to institutional leadership. People pay attention to what leaders do, and over time, those actions establish whether their words can be trusted.
Author Links: GoodReads | LinkedIn | Website | Substack | Amazon
The Future of Higher Education: Strategic Leadership for Academic Transformation examines these intersecting forces and offers a clear framework for navigating institutional change. Drawing on nearly two decades of leadership experience across public and private institutions, Eric Klein, PhD, presents actionable strategies that help academic leaders move beyond reactive crisis management toward thoughtful, mission-driven transformation.
Organized around understanding the landscape, leading through change, and adapting to the future, the book addresses the challenges confronting provosts, deans, department chairs, and senior administrators. Each chapter integrates current research, real-world leadership experience, and practical tools that support strategic planning, decision-making, and institutional innovation.
As colleges and universities redefine their role in a rapidly evolving society, The Future of Higher Education provides a forward-looking road map for leaders committed to sustaining institutional relevance, strengthening student outcomes, and shaping the future of higher education.
The F*ck Them Theory: Self-Help for People Who Are Done Being the Bigger Person
Keltie Knight has a message for anyone who’s ever been told to calm down, let it go, or be the bigger person: What if you’re allowed to be pissed off? In The F*ck Them Theory, the Emmy-winning television host, author, and LadyGang co-creator turns that deliciously rebellious question into a wildly entertaining, refreshingly candid approach to personal growth. Knight has spent decades building a career in industries that thrive on rejection, impossible standards, and the exhausting expectation that women should make everything look effortless. She’s learned a thing or two about using disappointment as motivation. With the confidence of someone who’s survived plenty of public humiliation and the self-awareness to admit she’s occasionally been her own worst enemy, Knight makes a compelling case for embracing the messy emotions we’ve been taught to suppress. Her philosophy is simple: Anger can be useful, spite can be productive, and caring too much might be one of your greatest strengths.
Knight’s greatest asset is her voice. Reading this book feels like having a long, gloriously unfiltered conversation with your funniest, most successful, slightly unhinged friend, the one who’ll tell you exactly what happened, including the parts that make her look terrible. She’s funny, dramatic, self-deprecating, and remarkably willing to expose the insecurities underneath her polished public image. Drawing on her experiences as a Radio City Rockette, entertainment journalist, entrepreneur, and podcast host, she takes readers behind the scenes of a life that has included glamorous red carpets, ambitious career gambles, romantic disasters, and some spectacular emotional spirals. Her stories are packed with the sort of wonderfully specific details that make you laugh out loud, often just before she delivers an observation that hits surprisingly close to home. There’s an appealing intimacy to her storytelling. She’s willing to admit how desperately she’s wanted approval, how hard she’s worked to appear confident, and how complicated success can feel when your inner critic refuses to shut up.
Across seventeen chapters, Knight tackles an impressive range of experiences, including body image, mental health, romantic relationships, friendship, family dynamics, professional rejection, money, and the pressure to be endlessly likable. The book’s irreverent humor makes these subjects approachable, while its emotional candor gives them substance. Knight is particularly effective when she explores the tension between outward achievement and internal insecurity, and when she speaks openly about therapy, medication, perfectionism, and the emotional cost of constantly chasing the next accomplishment. Her willingness to acknowledge her own contradictions gives the advice a lived-in quality. She can celebrate ambition while admitting how exhausting it is, champion boundaries while recognizing that relationships require grace, and advocate for self-confidence while confessing that she still struggles to find it. The practical exercises scattered throughout, cheekily labeled “Do the F*cking Work,” invite readers to examine their own habits, confront uncomfortable truths, and translate emotional energy into meaningful action.
What makes The F*ck Them Theory especially engaging is the surprising amount of tenderness underneath all that profanity. Knight’s fierce, funny exterior protects a deeply human message about self-acceptance, resilience, and the freedom that comes with allowing yourself to be a complicated person. Her writing will resonate with readers who’ve spent years trying to earn approval, soften their personalities, minimize their ambitions, or make everyone around them comfortable. There’s something genuinely liberating about a book that celebrates the woman who tries too hard, feels too deeply, asks for too much, and still shows up ready to give life everything she’s got. Knight brings humor, hard-won perspective, and infectious energy to the conversation about what it means to build a life that actually feels like your own. Fierce, funny, and gloriously unapologetic, The F*ck Them Theory turns the art of giving a damn into an act of rebellion.
Pages: 304 | ASIN: B0GN636JJ6
Be Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
How Not to Fuck Up Your Kids offers twelve practical “cheat codes” to help parents strengthen relationships with their children while examining how their own childhood experiences shape the way they parent. How did your experience as a therapist shape the advice you wanted to give parents and caregivers?
Before I was a therapist, I was a client myself. That’s how I shape my delivery of information as a clinician and as an author. I try my best to be aware of how best to convey information to others that is accurate and conscious of the intersectionality of their identities. I feel that therapists and clinicians can become so used to speaking with other professionals that the crux of information can be lost when speaking to someone without that level of insight or education. It my opinion, I think it is beneficial, when able, to reflect on your position in a relationship. All adults were once kids, professionals were once students, and the knowledge we have gathered over the years was not always ours.
How can adults recognize when they’re reacting to something from their own past rather than simply responding to what’s happening with their child, and what does breaking an unhealthy generational pattern actually look like in everyday family life?
I wish there was a quick and simple answer to give, but it takes time and practice. Someone has to be willing to be comfortable with being uncomfortable for a time. It may not feel good to realize that as a caregiver, you are reacting to your own past rather than what is happening in front of you. The truth is that it may happen and the kiddo in your life may not understand. Which is why I included child cheats like “say. you’re. fucking. sorry” and “ask for help”. Those two cheats, as an example, are so very important in breaking generational traumas and patterns. By being able to take accountability with genuine compassion for the injured party and a plan of action to improve can do wonders for repairing a relationship at any age.
Why is a parent’s ability to regulate their own emotions so important when helping a child manage theirs, and what can parents do when they recognize that they’re too angry or overwhelmed to handle a situation constructively?
Parents and caregivers are a child’s first teacher. For much of their developmental years, a child looks to their caregivers for how to navigate the world at large and their internal world. Emotions can feel large and unwieldy as an adult with a better handle on language and autonomy. However, a small human may feel entirely overwhelmed and lack the ability to accurately convey what they are experiencing and why. No one can learn while they are highly dysregulated. Similarly, when someone is drowning, that is not the time to teach them to swim.
What would you say to a parent who reads this book and realizes they’ve already made some of the mistakes you describe?
I would tell them that’s good! Not the mistakes bit, but the fact that they realized it and want to make changes. That’s one of the hardest bits and I hope they are proud of themselves. I would let them know that there are plenty of people who have made mistakes mentioned in the book and that’s in part why I wrote it. I would remind them they aren’t alone and there is a community ready and willing to help!
Author Links: GoodReads | Instagram | Website
Inside the book, I share some of my personal experiences that fostered growth in my own process. Let’s face it: you never outgrow your inner child, and they need some love from the adult version of you! That’s why this book is also full of helpful information that you can use to process any lingering wounds from your own childhood while you pave the way for a brighter future for your kiddo at the same time. I have hand-selected the latest science in both child psychology and neuroscience to ground the material in real-life situations with advice that actually works. With plenty of field notes from my years in the helping profession, it is appropriate for children and their parents to grow alongside each other for helpful, down-to-earth tips.
Heart Frequency
Heart Frequency by Adrea Peters and Dr. Karen Weaver is an engaging blend of self-help, personal development, and spiritual wellness that explores what happens when we start paying closer attention to our hearts. The authors introduce the idea that our hearts do more than keep us physically alive. They also play an important role in how we experience emotions, navigate relationships, and make decisions. Drawing on concepts from neuroscience, psychology, physiology, and spirituality, Peters and Weaver encourage readers to recognize the connection between their internal states and the lives they’re creating. Their central concept, Heart Frequency, revolves around developing greater coherence between the heart, mind, and body. It’s an inviting approach to self-discovery that asks readers to consider how their emotions, habits, and intuition influence their everyday experiences.
One of the book’s most interesting features is the way it organizes personal transformation into a recognizable process. The authors introduce seven Heart Frequency Steps, beginning with Spark and moving through stages such as Ache, Arrow, Friction, and Commitment before reaching Resonance. These stages give readers a framework for understanding the emotional challenges that accompany meaningful change. Peters and Weaver also explore three levels of awareness: Micro, Meso, and Macro. This structure allows them to examine personal growth from the perspective of individual biology, interpersonal relationships, and our connection to the wider world. Throughout the book, the authors share experiences from their own lives, including moments involving health concerns, financial challenges, and emotional upheaval. These personal accounts help make the material relatable, particularly when the discussion turns toward complicated scientific concepts. Their conversational writing style gives the book a warm, encouraging personality that suits its self-help and mindfulness themes.
The book becomes especially practical as it explores three major areas of life: health, wealth, and relationships. In the health chapters, readers are encouraged to develop a more compassionate relationship with their bodies through awareness, movement, rest, and self-love. The discussion of wealth takes an interesting approach by connecting financial wellbeing with personal worth, generosity, and the emotional patterns surrounding money. The relationship chapters examine how self-awareness, boundaries, and emotional regulation contribute to stronger connections with others. Each section includes activities called activations, which range from brief daily exercises to more involved opportunities for reflection and personal growth. Breathing techniques, visualization, gratitude, and intentional changes to familiar routines give readers ways to experiment with the authors’ ideas. The book’s scientific explanations are ambitious, particularly when linking established physiological research with broader claims about energy, frequency, and human connection. Readers may find it helpful to approach these connections with curiosity while distinguishing scientific findings from spiritual interpretations.
What makes Heart Frequency appealing as a spiritual self-help and personal growth book is its consistent emphasis on living with greater awareness, compassion, and intention. Peters and Weaver write with genuine enthusiasm for their subject, and their use of rhythm, music, and nature imagery creates a sense of continuity across the different chapters. The recurring focus on love gives the book an emotional foundation, while its structured exercises make the ideas accessible to readers interested in putting them into practice. Some concepts are revisited frequently, reinforcing the central message and encouraging readers to think about how it applies to different parts of their lives. For anyone interested in holistic wellness, mindfulness, emotional wellbeing, or the relationship between science and spirituality, this book offers plenty to reflect on. Heart Frequency encourages readers to listen more closely to themselves, cultivate meaningful connections, and make everyday choices that reflect the lives they genuinely want to lead.
Pages: 220 | ISBN: 1923612050
Make Your Break
Make Your Break by Jai Long is a personal, energetic book about building a creative career and taking ownership of the decisions that shape it. Long mixes stories from his life with advice on resourcefulness, money, confidence, relationships, and the work of getting an idea into the world. His central belief is that opportunity grows through action: asking questions, making connections, learning skills, and giving yourself permission to begin while you’re still figuring things out. The three-part structure moves from foundations to taking a chance to developing mastery, and the voice stays direct throughout. Reading it feels like spending time with an enthusiastic business coach who’s willing to talk openly about the experiences behind his convictions.
The personal material gives the advice its weight. Long writes about hardship, family, ambition, and self-doubt with a candor that makes his interest in creative independence feel deeply rooted. I found the book most engaging when he connects those experiences to the everyday choices involved in running a business. His discussions of listening to criticism, looking after existing clients, and learning the skills that support your craft are especially useful. There’s also a generous view of professional relationships here, with collaboration and sharing treated as sources of growth. The distinction between your larger purpose and the particular business or project you’re using to pursue it is one of the book’s clearest ideas. It gives readers a useful way to think about changing direction without dismissing the work they’ve already done.
Long’s style runs on short sentences, pointed questions, humor, occasional profanity, and repeated encouragement to act. That rhythm makes the book easy to pick up and gives its exercises a welcome sense of immediacy. The reflection questions invite you to look closely at your habits, assumptions, and use of time, so the reading can become quite personal. The repetition does become noticeable across the chapters, especially around commitment, fear, and persistence. His confidence also sometimes turns lessons from his own experience into sweeping claims about how success works. The passages on risk and burnout have that same forceful quality, and I wanted more room for the different obligations readers bring to those decisions. These tensions make the book most convincing when its practical examples and personal observations lead the discussion.
I’d recommend Make Your Break most strongly to creative freelancers and small business owners who have an idea they keep postponing, or an established practice they’re ready to rethink. Photographers, designers, musicians, and other people balancing their craft with the demands of earning a living will recognize many of its concerns. It’ll also appeal to readers who enjoy a candid personal story alongside questions they can apply to their own work. Long’s enthusiasm is a big part of the attraction, particularly if you respond well to direct encouragement and a coach who keeps asking what you could try next. For me, the book’s lasting value is in how it brings ambition back to specific behavior. It encourages you to choose a direction, make something, listen carefully, and keep developing the judgment and skills to carry it forward.
Pages: 323 | ASIN : B0GX32MWZC
Grief Is Messy
Welcome to the World’s Worst Club shares an intimate collection of stories about loss, family, friendship, and the memories that remain after someone is gone. What are some common misunderstandings about grief that you wish people would reconsider?
I think the biggest misunderstanding is that grief is something you’re supposed to get through, as though it’s a project with a beginning, a middle, and a completion date. We’ve been taught that grief comes in five neat stages, and somehow, if we do everything correctly, we’ll eventually graduate.
That’s not how it works.
Grief is messy, unpredictable, sometimes completely absurd, and occasionally downright funny. You can be devastated in the morning and laughing hysterically at a memory by lunchtime. You can feel anger, guilt, relief, gratitude, and overwhelming love, sometimes all in the same afternoon.
People are uncomfortable with grief, so they want to tidy it up. They want to fix it, explain it, or put a pretty bow on it. But grief doesn’t need fixing. It needs room to exist.
That’s really why I wrote this book. I wanted people to know they’re not crazy, they’re not doing it wrong, and they’re certainly not alone. Welcome to the club nobody wanted to join.
What would you say to someone who feels pressure to grieve in a way that meets other people’s expectations?
I’d tell them to stop auditioning for the role of the perfect grieving person. Seriously. Who decided there was a correct way to fall apart?
Some people cry. Some people don’t. Some people clean their entire house, throw themselves into work, or spend three days in pajamas eating cookies. Some people laugh at funerals. I know because I’ve experienced firsthand just how ridiculous life can become in the middle of something heartbreaking.
There is no trophy for grieving beautifully. You cannot overachieve grief.
And perhaps the most important thing I would tell them is that other people’s discomfort is not your responsibility. You don’t have to make your grief more palatable so someone else can feel better about it.
What role do everyday memories, personal traditions, and small gestures play in keeping our connections to loved ones meaningful?
I think those little things are where our loved ones continue to live in our everyday lives. It’s not necessarily the big holidays or anniversaries that catch you off guard. Sometimes it’s a familiar expression, a favorite food, a ridiculous family story, or hearing something that you know would have made them laugh.
My grandmother had a wonderful way of looking at life, and some of the things she said still find their way into my everyday conversations. Those moments make me smile. They’re a reminder that someone can be gone and still be such a significant part of who you are.
I believe grief is love with nowhere to go. But perhaps that’s not entirely true, because we continue to find places for that love in our memories, our traditions, our humor, and the stories we tell.
What advice would you give someone who wants to support a grieving loved one but worries about saying or doing the wrong thing?
First, stop trying to find the perfect thing to say. It probably doesn’t exist. When someone loses a person they love, they don’t necessarily need wisdom, advice, or another explanation about how everything happens for a reason. Please, for the love of everything holy, stop telling people their loved one is in a better place.
Sometimes all someone needs to hear is, “This is awful. I’m so sorry.”
And then sit with them.
You don’t have to fill the silence. You don’t have to make them feel better. You certainly don’t have to compare their loss to something that happened to your neighbor’s cousin.
Show up. Bring food. Remember their loved one’s name. Check on them after the funeral, when everyone else has returned to their normal lives and theirs will never be quite the same.
One of the reasons I wrote Welcome to the World’s Worst Club was because I realized how desperately people need someone who understands, without trying to fix them.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Michele Leigh Greene | Constance Vaughn | Amazon
Welcome to the World’s Worst Club is a deeply compassionate, raw, and honest companion through the harrowing landscape of grief and profound loss. Written with raw authenticity and heartfelt grace, this book offers a sanctuary for anyone navigating the overwhelming weight of losing someone irreplaceable.
Grief isn’t linear, neat, or easily fixed by clichés-and this book doesn’t try to pretend it is. Instead, it offers a gentle, validating hand in the darkest hours, helping you process the unthinkable while honoring your unique journey toward healing.
Inside this compassionate guide, you will find:
Validation for the Unspoken: A safe space that honors the anger, numbness, confusion, and deep sorrow without judgment.
Gentle Encouragement: Thoughtful reflections that gently guide you through day-to-day survival when simply existing feels impossible.
A Beacon of Hope: Reminders that while life will never be the same, healing, remembrance, and peace can eventually coexist with loss.
Whether you are seeking solace in your own journey or looking for a meaningful gift for someone experiencing profound heartbreak, Welcome to the World’s Worst Club serves as a comforting reminder: you are not alone, your feelings are valid, and there is a path forward.
My Testimony
The Restoration of Man is a Christian discipleship book that helps men confront emotional wounds, develop healthier habits, and rediscover their identity in God through biblical teaching, prayer, and practical exercises. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The Restoration of Man was important for me to write because it came out of my own breaking, healing, and rebuilding with God. For most of my life, I carried emotional wounds I didn’t know how to name, let alone confront. Those wounds shaped my identity, my relationships, and the way I showed up as a man. When God met me at fifty, He didn’t just save me—He began restoring parts of me I didn’t even realize were lost.
As I walked through that process, I realized how many men are living the same silent battles: father wounds, shame, unhealthy habits, spiritual confusion, and a deep sense of not knowing who they are. I wrote this book because men need a path that is honest, biblical, and practical. They need discipleship that speaks to the heart, not just the behavior. They need tools, prayer, and truth that help them rebuild their identity in God piece by piece.
This book is my testimony, but it’s also a guide. It’s the roadmap I wish I had years ago. And if it helps even one man step out of performance, confront his pain, and rediscover who he is in Christ, then the journey of writing it was worth every moment.
The book encourages readers to listen carefully and put down their phones. Why are these seemingly small actions so important to spiritual and emotional growth?
Men often look for dramatic spiritual breakthroughs, but transformation usually begins with tiny, consistent choices. Putting the phone down for ten minutes. Sitting with Scripture. Paying attention to what’s happening inside. These small acts create space for God to do the deeper work.
The phone isn’t the enemy — but distraction is.
And distraction is one of the greatest threats to emotional and spiritual maturity.
You include journal questions, weekly assignments, and prayers throughout the book. What led you to choose this practical, participatory format?
I chose to include journal questions, weekly assignments, and prayers because restoration doesn’t happen just by reading about it — it happens when a man engages with God, his story, and his habits in a real, personal way. Men often carry wounds that sit beneath the surface, and those wounds don’t move just because we understand them intellectually. They move when we slow down, reflect, name what’s happening inside, and invite God into the process.
The journal questions help men confront what they usually avoid.
The weekly assignments give them small, doable steps that build new patterns.
The prayers guide them into conversations with God many men have never had.
I wrote the book this way because discipleship is participatory. Jesus didn’t just teach; He invited people to walk, practice, respond, and follow. I wanted this book to mirror that — not just information, but formation. Not just concepts, but change. The exercises create space for God to work, and they help men experience restoration instead of just reading about it.
Who do you most hope will read The Restoration of Man, and how might pastors, mentors, or men’s groups use it to encourage meaningful conversations?
I wrote The Restoration of Man for men who feel stuck, wounded, or spiritually disconnected — especially those who have spent years carrying pain they’ve never talked about. It’s for the man who looks strong on the outside but feels lost on the inside. It’s for the man who knows God is calling him deeper but doesn’t know how to get there. And it’s for the man who wants to grow but needs guidance, structure, and a safe place to start.
I also hope younger men read it so they don’t have to wait until mid‑life to confront the things that quietly shape their identity. And I hope older men read it because it’s never too late for God to rebuild a life.
