EP 370 - Questioning & Reflecting with Becca Syme

<p>Mark interviews Becca Syme, an author and a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach who has been helping writers with coaching success alignment for more than a decade.</p> <p>Prior to the interview, Mark thanks Patrons and Buy Me A Coffee buddies, shares comments from recent episode, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor.</p> <p><img alt="" height="584" src="//assets.libsyn.com/show/110600/CruisingWriters-PromoGraphic.png" width="563" /></p> <p>Learn more about this <a href="https://cruisingwriters.com/retreat/writing-cruise-7-day-western-caribbean-cruise-february-22-march-1-2025/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">self-publishing/WIDE-publishing focused</a> cruise.</p> <p>In the interview Mark and Becca talk about:</p> <ul> <li>How Becca deals with unexpected situations such as someone being late for a virtual meeting (Mark was 20 minutes late getting to this interview) and how this aligns with her strength of "Arranger"</li> <li>The Clifton Strengths personality metric and how Becca uses it to help writers</li> <li>Mark's top 5 strengths and Becca's top 5 strengths</li> <li>The pros and cons that come with a strength such as Empathy</li> <li>How emotions can have residue - that emotions are not false just because they're fictional</li> <li>Becca first taking the Clifton Strengths in 2005 and then immediately wanting to become certified and to figure this out; which is when her coaching began</li> <li>The "Dear Writer"/"Question The Premise" books that Becca has written to help writers</li> <li>How Becca's first book "Dear Writer You Need to Quit" has become a running joke, especially from people who have never read the book and have only heard the title</li> <li>The challenge related to the new place Becca lives and trying to get audiobooks recorded</li> <li>People who are pressure-prompted and the leveraging external motivation VS internal motivation</li> <li>A look at home office versus having an office space separate from the home and how that can work better for some people</li> <li>How our visions of ourselves are not correct because so much of it is based on impressions we were fed before we were able to effectively grasp a more pure vision of ourselves</li> <li>Being able to look at what's often seen as a weakness as a strength</li> <li>How even the more benign moments and experiences in childhood can have a dramatic life-long impact upon us</li> <li>The way that Becca questions almost everything, including the thoughts and feelings that she has</li> <li>Being an intuitive writer verses writing a book to outline</li> <li>How 100% of the things that "everyone says" are for everyone, are definitely NOT for everyone</li> <li>That most people are not lying to you, but they are lying to themselves, often because they just don't understand</li> <li>How a person who NEVER questions themself is a major red flag</li> <li>The "reach for my phone" game that Becca plays when she's traveling or out in public</li> <li>The 12-Hour Walk</li> <li>Becca dating someone who was comfortably disconnected from their phone, rarely ever reaching for it, but just being in the moment</li> <li>The problem with interrupting the thought cycle and being able to get all the way to the bottom of the cognitive process</li> <li>And more . . .<br /> <br /></li> </ul> <p>After the interview Mark reflects on a handful of things that came up in their conversation, which he felt was a lot of good therapy for him.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Links of Interest:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://betterfasteracademy.com/links" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Becca Syme's Better Faster Academy Links</a></li> <li><a href="https://betterfasteracademy.com/blog/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The QuitCast Blog</a></li> <li><a href="https://betterfasteracademy.com/podcast/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">QuitCast Podcast for Writers</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/beccasyme" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Becca Syme YouTube</a></li> <li><a href="https://starkreflections.ca/2024/07/05/episode-369-the-diy-author-with-kaye-lynn-booth/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">EP 359 - The DIY Writer with Kaye Lynn Booth</a></li> <li><a href="https://dropcapmarketplace.com" rel="noopener" target="_blank">DropCap Marketplace</a>  <ul> <li>Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off</li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://cruisingwriters.com" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Cruising Writers</a></li> <li><a href="https://buymeacoffee.com/markleslie" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Buy Mark a Coffee</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.patreon.com/starkreflections" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Patreon for Stark Reflections</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212055866-Subscribe-to-your-Audio-RSS-link-on-the-Patreon-app" rel="noopener" target="_blank">How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/workingwithlibrariesandbookstores" rel="noopener" target="_blank">An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/relaxedauthor/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Relaxed Author</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/w7Gg1" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Buy eBook Direct</a></li> <li><a href="https://payhip.com/b/QK4ks" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Buy Audiobook Direct</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/b/publishingpitfalls" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Publishing Pitfalls for Authors</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/b/workingwithlibrariesandbookstores" rel="noopener" target="_blank">An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Wide for the Win</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener" target="_blank">This Time Around (Short Story)</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener" target="_blank">A Canadian Werewolf in New York</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Stowe Away (Novella)</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Fear and Longing in Los Angeles</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.panoramaproject.org" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Fright Nights, Big City</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/loversmoon" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Lover's Moon</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/hexandcity" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Hex and the City</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/onlymonstersinthebuilding" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Only Monsters in the Building</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/b/thecanadianmounted" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles</a></li> <li><a href="https://books2read.com/diehardtrivia" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard</a></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><strong>Becca Syme</strong> (MATL) is a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and has been coaching success alignment for more than a decade. She is the author of the Quitbooks for Writers series and the popular Write Better-Faster course. She also writes mystery novels in her spare time and lives on one of the thousand lakes in Minnesota.</p> <p> </p> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-dark-gray-background-color has-dark-gray-color" /> <p><em>The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of <a href="https://incompetech.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">www.incompetech.com</a></em> <em>and is Licensed under</em> Creative Commons: By <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Attribution 3.0</a></p>