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You can't peer at a person through a straw and see who they are. You have to take the whole person into account. And I did that with my students, and I do that with my writers.
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Welcome to Shout Your Cause with Sally Hendrick, a digital magazine where you can get found, get heard, and get inspired with content that challenges us to be globally minded. Our focus is on raising awareness around social justice issues, cultural differences, and to bring you, the people dedicating their lives to tackling challenging topics as their way of giving back. Let us be your advocate to make your voices heard around the world.
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Hey everybody, welcome back to Shout Your Cause, and today we're talking with Judy McNutt, holistic book coach. And I can't wait to hear what you're working on these days. Hey, welcome.
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Thank you very much. Aren't you're gonna ask me what a holistic book coach is?
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Yes. What is a holistic book coach? How, let's just start with that question.
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Yeah, that's, uh, the, the idea that the holistic idea has been important to me really for many, many, many years. And that's the idea of, and this goes back to, you know, working with students in, in elementary school in special ed. It's that it's that idea that, um, you can't peer at a person through a straw and see who they are. You have to take the whole person into account. And I did that with my students, and I do that with my writers. And then I take that holistic idea, you know, and blow that up inside of the, the publishing industry and really look at everything from the soul of the writer all straight, all the way through to the, to the reader. And that's a whole relationship. And in between there, um, is, you know, the publishing industry and all that's, that's in between, it's not the mecca, it's not the important thing. The important thing in my world is the soul of the writer and the reader that making that connection. So to me, that's holistic.
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So what is your background and go into that and then into what you're doing now.
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Okay. Uh, I've had several careers and I, in, in my estimation, all of them brought me to where I am. Uh, today in college I got interested in theater. So there's that whole aspect. Um, I was very active in the theater department in, in high school, in junior high. I started with singing in high school, in theater, in college, and in theater. And then I branched over into radio. And the idea of that, that that mass, uh, communication idea is the idea of reaching more people and, uh, and the change that that could bring about in the world, starting from a person's day-to-day moment, uh, you know, on into perhaps changing their mind about, about the world and their relationship with it and their role to play in it. And so it got really interested in, in the idea of, of bringing our gifts into the world for a purpose. Now, sometimes the purpose for some people is just pure joy, and that's okay, because when you bring pure joy into the world, that's world changing. But somewhere along the line here, I realized it would be, it would make much more change in the world if I were to work with more people. So done, I started, uh, holding writing groups and encouraging people to bring their gifts into the world, their writing gifts, their written gifts into the world, because there's nothing sadder than an unwritten book.
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So who are these people that you're actually working with and to help with writing books?
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Um, well, okay, so I'm glad you asked that because it's, that's another thing I decided I, uh, on purpose was who do I wanna work with? And, um, and I just started calling those type of people to me. I, I enjoy working with intuitive creative teachers and healers, uh, people who are, um, interested in bringing their work online. Um, and I've done a lot of that. I, I had already been doing that before the pandemic, and so I didn't even miss a beat. You know, other people went on a business in the pandemic, mine flourished because I had already taken it online and I didn't have to catch up with anything. So, um, I met a lot of people, uh, online. And, um, then the pandemic just fueled that fire. People were more willing to sit in their pajamas, in their, in their study and, you know, link with me for a writing group and instead of driving across town and to, you know, meet somewhere. And, uh, so all of that, uh, fueled my fire and I found the type of people in, in that way.
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Are your people writing fiction or non-fiction, or both, or what's going on?
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Um, they're writing everything from children's books to, um, historical fiction, um, fictionalized memoir. And then in between the healers are bringing their stories and their healing gifts in, into the world in some different ways. So that's the, that's the gamut. The, the two, um, children's books, so, so cute. Um, the first one, uh, she just wanted to tell the story of the little song she used to sing, uh, to her son when he was, uh, a little, a wee little boy. And, uh, the other one, um, which is not out yet, but coming out soon, uh, she had a lot of trouble, uh, during the potty training phases with her, her children. She said she failed miserably with the first one, and she wanted to change that. So she put her creative juices to work on on that. And then now she's sharing that story with the world. It's called Sally and the Peepee Princess. It's a nighttime dead wedding story, . And I did not, I did not influence that name that she came up with that on her own.
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You know, nobody's named Sally anymore. And, uh, but what I do hear from people is they're pets are named Sally . So this doesn't surprise me at all.
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My, uh, my brother had a, um, an imaginary friend named Kevin Sally. I don't know. So the other people I work with now, uh, that you asked, um, so that was the children's book, uh, story. And then, and then I worked with Sheila, and her story is a story of kind of that late bloomer kind of story. She awakened pretty much the day her mother died in her living room, where she had been taking care of her in a hospital bed for six years. And, uh, after a lifetime of sh shoulding all over the place, she started to wake up to give herself permission, even to just go, well, what, what would I like? And so she tells that story, and it takes us all the way through, um, that discovery and that, um, uh, I mean, she, she, she sold insurance. She was the furthest from woowoo, you could imagine.
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And so the, the waking up is just miraculous, uh, to see and for her to share. And she, her audience is really, um, other women who quote, did everything right all their lives and woke up one day and realized they were miserable and never did one thing for themselves. And, uh, so that's, that's she, she, she sticks with that story and tells that journey and she goes, journal style. She's got questions in there directly to the reader. She formed a relationship directly with the, the reader. And that's, she knows who she's talking to. And, uh, so she's, she's sharing, sharing that awakening. So it's, it's fabulous. Another one of my writers is, um, she woke up to her her own magic. And she is, her audience is sensitive. People who don't realize some, some of them don't realize, haven't embraced their own magic. If, if you're sensitive, that's magic, trying to come out into the world. And, uh, so she's, she's, um, helping people. She's actually, she, in her book, she actually teaches energy work right inside of her book. She's so generous. She's not, um, shy at all about teaching people how to, she teaches people how to select a pendulum, how to get your yes and no answers, and then on from there, discovering your magic. It's, it's gonna be a, a world changing book cuz she's really empowering people to, to learn to check things energetically and take care of themselves.
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So what about you? What is your writing style and what are you writing and working on these days?
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I'm honestly, I'm largely a poet. I'm a very prosy kind of a poet right now. But I've been writing poetry since I was 11 years old in my journal. And it's just, for me, it's the most magical type of writing. It's, it's where you follow the energy, right to the place where it began, right? Where it wiggles and then, and you look at that and, and, and bring that into the world, that magic, that power, that energy. And I think, I think poetry does that. It's a, it's a shame that almost everybody has poetry, trauma. And the minute someone sees even piece of writing and the shape of a poem, they all of a sudden, I don't know what happened to all of us in, in school . I don't know why our teachers traumatized us about poetry, but I, I don't find it painful. I find it magical and, and beautiful and I try and make my work accessible. I, I do that, I follow that same approach that I coach other writers, which is to step into the shoes of the reader and listen from their perspective and feel and see like, how does this land? Is it hitting the place? Have I cracked their code? Are they waking up or do they feel it? Do they see it? Do they smell it? Do they taste it?
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Um, so I am, I am, uh, I'm very, very, very much a poet. I'll write stories, but I had to really force myself to do that. I had to really decide, I'm going to write a story, a long thing with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And it's going to tell a story. My first, um, my first experience was that it ended up being a long poem, but it was the story really of my life. So I, I wrote my own saga, poetic saga
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Go like, like you see that sometime,
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I'll, I'll send it to you if, if you're um, if you're interested it. Um, it doesn't, it doesn't, uh, it's not my whole life. Um, that's too long. It's not Giles, you know, , it's just Judy . But I, um, I love writing, I love helping mostly, honestly, what really blows my skirt up is helping other people sound like themselves only better.
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So let's circle that around then. Is there any type of cause that you have, what you know, why, why you do what you do?
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I think we all have gifts. I used to say, and I still do, there's not a single person on this planet that I couldn't sit down with and help them find their book. You know, back in the day, 19th century and so on, it was very common for people to write books. We just got out of the, the habit, the, we got out of a lot of good habits, but the, uh, chief among them is bringing our gifts into the world. That was just a given back then. I mean, you were supposed to. And I still think it's true. And, um, so, you know, my mission, I think is to get people to bring their gifts into the world. In my particular part of the world, it's writing based, because I, I love to bring stories into the world and see how that, you know, changes things. And I, and I love to help people wake up to their own, their own magic and tell their their own stories. It's just like the, honestly, the most fun thing I do is to wake those stories up. Cuz I tell people their, your book is already written. We just have to sit down and and allow it to come out. Did I tell you that when you first started that your book was already written?
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Probably. I know I've heard you say it before.
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I think it's true. I do. And uh, you know, I have lots of evidence now for it. So I'm not dissuaded. You know, I start talking, uh, the other day I was, uh, uh, in the, um, over at the car repair place and one of 'em happened to ask what, what I did. And I started talking about it. And before you know it, every guy in that place was in the office standing in line waiting to tell me their story. They all have stories, they all have fascinating stories. Stories of, you know, their childhood of working hard, of of, of how much of an influence their dad or their grandpa was on their lives or, you know, I mean, you know, the, the struggle of, you know, growing up in the ghetto, um, you know, every one of 'em had, every one of 'em has books of course. You know, I don't know that they're necessarily convinced that was a, that was, you know, the magical day in Judy's garage, you know, . It was fun.
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That's funny. Yeah. I wanna turn just a little bit in towards your quiz. I want you to tell me about your quiz. How did you even come up with it and come up with the answers and everything that I, I really love how it takes you through and then really nails you with your personality type or what type of writer you are or whatever it is that your outcome is.
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It stems from decades of watching people and listening to them and seeing what happens and how, how they interact with the world and what stops 'em dead in their tracks and what opens the flow. So I had a lot of background in, um, a lot of it comes from my experience in, uh, working in radio, starting with my college days and going right the way through 20 years of experience with radio and how audiences listen and how they respond to things. So it became a real student of human nature, human uh, you know, human joy, human passions. Um, and uh, so all of that really filters into this idea of types, types of people. And then, you know, I started working with writers and so, you know, I had to kind of narrow that down. Um, cause I had a lot of types, you know, floating in my head that I learned just from observation.
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But I wanted to call in a certain type of, uh, person to work with me. And so I designed a quiz that really effectively does it, does that. So that's why it's so effective is because I asked questions that I knew would get me the answers I was looking for. That's oversimplifying. But that's, you know, it in a, in a nutshell. And I studied, um, I studied other archetypes and you know, and that's something that's been in the world for eons of time. I mean, that's not, that's nothing new that some on online people thought up. No, that's, this is an old, this is an old concept. There's many books, many, many stories about, there's many archetypal heroes and, and all that. But I had to narrow it down to five types cuz you know. Yeah. And what are your five types? Okay, there's the, um, there's the visioner and, um, I equate, I equate everything sort of to the chakra system, like the energy, the body energy system. So, um, the, the visioner is all, um, up in their head. They're spirit connected. Think of the visioner as bringing heaven to earth.
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But sometimes we just, uh, stay in heaven too long. the, it's so fun cuz you can, you know, it's vision, but let me tell you, without vision, nobody else can do anything. Nothing happens without vision. Everything is vision first. And so the, that's the visioner, the, the, um, the true heart is like now that's embodied, but that's, that's bringing, um, that's bringing, uh, your heart to, into, um, into connection with your vision. That's the truth. That's love. Um, so you're very much embodied if you're, if you're in your heart, um, and you're the throat chakra, is that speaking your truth, speaking from the heart or speaking your truth? So, so that's the, um, true heart. And then, um, the conscious creator, uh, that's the busy bee person. That's the, that's the queen bee, that creative calling in, uh, community. Um, that's, uh, that's where you, uh, create and build your power from.
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So that's your conscious creator. Uh, the conscious creator, creator type person is, think of Oprah. That's my, um, that's my go-to, uh, image for the conscious creator. And then there's the, um, uh, the, the pleasure person, the, um, the butterfly. She likes to be seen. Um, she likes to take, take center stage and she, she does almost nothing unless it pleases herself or others. She likes to please and be pleased. And, uh, that type of a writer is mostly would write, um, novels. We'd really be into artistry, but she might be coaxed into telling her story. Um, if, if it suits her, if it suits her purposes, and if she gets pleasure from that. Um, and then there's the clever catalyst that's at the root of, of everything. Um, uh, she, uh, builds empires. Uh, um, she, uh, creates a lot of structure. Um, and, uh, it's probably the most intelligent person in the room at any given time.
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I think those are also creative and, and they, well, it encompasses everything. So I think it's really neat how you were able to pull all that together and come up with these definitions.
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It's really fun. I have tweaked it over time. It's not exactly, it wasn't born like it is right now, the first day. Uh, because I, um, you know, I, I ran the quiz for a while and I chatted with a lot of people and got feedback and made adjustments, you know, accordingly. And um, you know, I narrowed it down to nine questions. I think now at this point, I could probably ask one question, but the nine questions makes it more interesting for a conversation afterward. It makes it, you know, more fun cuz we can, we can tease the stories out and, you know, have an enjoyable time When, when, uh, after you've taken the quiz and you get together with me for, uh, for the quiz results, it's like the most yummy conversation ever. Cuz a who doesn't like to talk about themselves, right? and find out more new things and how, you know, and how, um, how awesome their gifts are, especially if they don't they have any. And then all of a sudden they're talking about many gifts. Some people cry cuz I love them so hard, , they just get overwhelmed. I had no idea. They say I had, I don't know. I feel so seen and yet I'm, it's so surprising, . It's great. It's great, great way to, to work.
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Now are you working on a book project right now that, um, that you are publishing?
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Yeah. Um, I'm, I'm, uh, co-publishing with, um, 14 other fabulous women, all luminaries in their fields. Um, my, uh, each of us took a chapter to write in this book, and it's called The Queen Bee, which so, so funny because it aligns with the conscious creator in my mythology because the soul, the soul guide for, um, for the conscious creator in my world is the queen bee. That idea of serving and being served, um, and that queen energy of creating community and, and structure. Um, and, uh, so, um, I didn't ni name the book. I was so surprised when she told me, uh, the, that was gonna be the, the, the title of the book. So anyway, each of us isri writing a chapter. Mine is on tuition because although it hasn't so much come up in this conversation, I teach people to, to use their intuition, to write their books, to just listen and don't edit. , don't edit, Sally, just start writing. Let your magic come out. ,
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Getting on to me
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and onto you. And in, you know, in our writing groups, we just are opening up boxes and boxes and boxes of magic every single week. And, uh, it
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Really surprises me sometimes that you'll say something and I'll, I will read it and I may or may not consciously pay attention to what you've prompted us with, but I'll just start writing. Something will come to my mind and I'll just start writing and, and then I've long forgotten what you've said previously as I've, as I'm 3, 4, 5 paragraphs in. And then I get, we get to the end of the writing session, and then I go back and look at the prompt and it, it worked. somehow it worked.
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Yeah. And sometimes, and like you said, sometimes you won't even realize that it did work until I pointed out. Oh, you followed the prompt. No, I didn't. Yeah, yeah, you did. . Oh, well, I didn't mean to . It's pretty funny. It's,
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It's kinda neat that way
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And it's always magical. It just, it is, it's just, it's just a testament to getting out of your own way. Let, let me just tell you the, the, let's just define intuition in my book. Okay? In my book, intuition is nothing more than the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. What intuition is the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. Why is it a valuable tool? Because it can help you make decisions, uh, right on a deadline, solve problems, buy the right thing at the grocery store, surf on that delicate web of working with others, sometimes with whom you have almost no affinity navigating, you know, complex situations. But everything from, from that to the, to just being really simple. And it starts with just being willing to be quiet a minute, feel it, and listen. Sometimes the intuition comes from the body. Sometimes you hear it, you'll hear a voice. Um, and uh, sometimes it's just a feeling. Uh, many people say, oh, it was a gut feeling. Well there's a reason for that. That's a, that's an old expression and that's the reason for it. Oh, I just had a gut feeling. Well, can you explain that? Can you tell me logically why? No. Then it's intuition.
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Why do you think that everyone has a book in them? Because I hear you say that all the time.
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Look at your thumb, the thumbprint. If you can kind, you can kind of see it even in bad light. You can see your thumbprint there and realize this is the only one in the universe. It's like that your experiences in life, your experiences before you were born, your experiences in other lives, all completely and a hundred percent unique to you. And there's stories there. So even if you tell the story, let's say you tell the story, Sally of the, your first day of kindergarten, your experience of that. And you think, oh, well, how boring everyone's been to kindergarten on the first day. But if we all wrote our stories, they'd all be different. Are there some areas that, you know, we might have in common? Yeah, but that makes it, even, that makes it even more magical because now you're speaking the truth of, you know, other people. And so my experience with, with uh, writing is every book has readers. They're searching for your book right now. They can't find it cuz why you didn't write it yet, .
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So I guess that's the reason why we all have something, right? We all have a story.
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We all have many stories. And, and, uh, the, the trick is to sit down and, and just write one without editing it or judging it. That's the important part. Because grammar is grammar, spelling, who cares? All of that stuff can be fixed by someone that, um, needs a job doing that. So so we hire them to make, to make it, you know, perfect. It's not your job to know how to spell. If I, if I had one thing, uh, that I could erase from everybody's brain and ego is that if you can't spell, you're not a, you're not a writer. Well, that's just not true. Writing is just talking on paper publishing. No. That, that it does have to go, it goes through some things to make it the best it can be and so that the reader has a enjoyable experience. But, um, my thinking is tell the stories that the, that the, um, readers want to hear. And that doesn't mean being anything other than authentic telling your true story cuz it's gonna resonate with them. It's part woowoo. Not that idea of there's people out there looking for your story. But I haven't seen anything that proves me wrong about that.
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Speaking of how we want to present ourselves to the world, what is your hope for the future, the near future of what's going on in, in your world with your clients? What's your hope
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Is that they all write their stories and don't let the dark times stop them. You just gotta keep, keep going. I, I, I coach people that a stuck point is just a space through which you move. And I learned that from painting cuz I was a painter for many years and I put many a painting in the closet only to get it out later and finish it. Sometimes it takes some time, but you just have to be willing that, that's the main thing about writing is even if you start with the assignment today, is to tell the story of my summer vacation. I often hated my summer vacation. I don't even, I don't, I don't wanna tell this story. It was so horrible. First of all, we all fought with each other by the end of the first day. No one was speaking to anyone, and the cabin wasn't big enough for everybody to have their own room. So that was a problem. You see how it can just unfold from there, but you just have to be willing.
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You just, that probably would've been the best story of the whole, the whole room of everybody in class. They've all been like, oh wow, listen to this. There's conflict in this story,
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Right? It starts right out , right?
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So how, what's the best way to get in touch with you? Or how does somebody get to your quiz?
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Oh, okay. Just go to judy mcnutt.com and look at the top of the website where it says quiz and click that.
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Okay, well that's easy enough.
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Easy enough. Yeah, that's easy enough. And I am on, uh, Facebook, um, much as every once in a while I have a fight with Facebook and think I'm gonna get off there.
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, uh, just be, just
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Be there. It's like super easy way to get in touch with, um, people, people of like soul. I just created, um, less than a month ago, I created a whole new Facebook group called Intuitive Teachers and Healers. Um, why? Because one day I just went, I just wanna connect with a bunch of intuitive teachers and healers. So being, I just typed that.
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There you go. And
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I just created the group that minute and I thought, wouldn't it be neat if I could get like about 20, uh, people together where we could, you know, talk about intuition, how we use inter intuition in our businesses because many, many, many people do. They just don't talk about it. And I thought, wouldn't that be fun to discover and uncover? Maybe I could find around 20 people we could have a relationship. Well, there's 158 in the group already.
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Wow. And it'll probably grow even more
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Probably because, uh, people are telling other others about it. Now, are there 158 daily active people? No, but none of 'em have left so far. And, you know, they're, they're staying involved. The neatest thing we do now is, um, get together on Zoom and share and share our gifts, whatever they are. Some, uh, sometimes people will do. Just, you know, a couple weeks ago, um, I challenged a woman to do group healing. She'd never done such a thing. She'd actually never heard of it or thought of it. And she did a beautiful, beautiful job. She plays the harp and she uses the harp as a healing tool. And so she told us our stor her story, talked about her magic, um, asked us, asked us what we needed. She envisioned that for the group. She started playing the harp. We all went on this journey. Everybody felt fan by the end of that journey of something she had never done in her life is so
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Cool.
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Yeah. So, um, I just love the, uh, I just, like I said, I just love opening up boxes of magic. And in that case, that Facebook group, it's just a box of magic. I don't even know what's gonna come out of it. Next
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no telling. And it'll probably be the stepping stone into whatever that next thing is for you, which I'm so excited about seeing. So thank you so much for coming today. I'm so glad that you let me interview you for this podcast. If anybody wants to get in touch with Judy McNutt, mc M C N U T T, then please do because you're gonna want to be in her world.
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The second T is only important to me.
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Okay,
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. Thank you, Sally.
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All right.
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Thank you for listening today. My name is Sally Hendrick. Be sure to visit our website for show notes and more information on how you can inspire others. If you would like to contribute content to our magazine, please apply on our [email protected].
