Having a great book is not enough. If nobody knows it exists, nobody buys the damn thing.

Publishing and book-marketing expert Sarah Bean joins Branden to talk about what actually makes books sell, why authors have to stop treating marketing like an afterthought, and how a book can become much more than something sitting on an Amazon page.

Sarah has worked with more than 800 authors through Book Launchers, and she breaks down the realities of traditional publishing versus self-publishing, why even traditionally published authors are often responsible for their own promotion, and why a smaller targeted audience can be far more valuable than a massive audience that doesn’t care about your message.

Branden also gets called out by his own damn interview. After publishing five books, he realizes somewhere along the way he basically stopped talking about them—and Sarah explains why authors can’t expect old books to magically keep selling without continuing to put them in front of people.

They also dig into how publishing is changing, audiobooks and digital formats, building authority through a book, and where AI belongs—and doesn’t belong—in the writing process.

This conversation is part publishing lesson, part business strategy, and part reminder to every author sitting on a book they stopped promoting:

Your book can’t work for you if you refuse to talk about it.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why good books still fail to sell
• Why authors need an actual marketing strategy
• Books as business assets and authority builders
• Traditional publishing vs. self-publishing
• Why publishers don’t necessarily market your book forever
• Building the right audience instead of simply the biggest one
• Using books to create speaking, consulting, and business opportunities
• Audiobooks, ebooks, video, and changing reader behavior
• AI’s growing role in publishing
• Why AI can help with research and strategy without replacing an author’s voice
• Why authors shouldn’t give up on older books
• Branden’s realization that he needs to start promoting his own books again

Sarah Bean believes everyone has a story to tell that can help others. She is Book Launchers’ marketing professional with over 20 years of entertainment and publishing experience. She started her career in the literary department of a worldwide agency, before becoming a speaking agent with a roster of best-selling authors, celebrities, athletes and business leaders. She's managed NY Times best-selling authors, produced live events like TEDx and has been an entertainment journalist covering TV/film news and red carpet interviews for leading entertainment websites. At Book Launchers, she has a passion for helping nonfiction authors build marketing strategy that uses their unique story and expertise to help others, build their brand and launch their career.

https://booklaunchers.com/7steps

What if healing isn’t about making the pain disappear?

What if it’s about expanding your capacity to experience hard things without allowing them to completely take over?

In this episode of Listen Bitch Presents: Tell Me Why You’re Special, I sit down with Nicole LeMaster, a somatic therapist, dream coach, author, and publisher who helps people understand their nervous systems, reconnect with their bodies, and recognize patterns they may have been living in for years.

Nicole breaks down what nervous system regulation actually means — and no, it doesn’t mean walking around calm and unbothered 24/7.

We talk about the “window of tolerance,” fight-or-flight responses, shutdown, anxiety, depression, feeling stuck, and why people can become so accustomed to dysregulation that they don’t even recognize it until they hit a breaking point.

Nicole also explains somatic work and why healing can require more than simply analyzing what happened to you. Sometimes you understand the damn story intellectually — but your body is still responding as though the threat is happening right now.

And then Nicole actually walks me through a body-awareness exercise during the interview.

That opened up an entirely different conversation about stress, compartmentalization, resilience, parenting, relationships, and how our lives continually hold up mirrors showing us where we still have work to do.

We also get into something I loved: healing does not necessarily mean erasing pain.

The past doesn’t magically cease to exist. Healing can mean developing a larger capacity to hold difficult experiences, remain present, recognize what’s happening inside yourself, and choose how you respond instead of automatically reacting.

Nicole and I also discuss breathing, emotional regulation, dreams and Jungian approaches, feeling “safe enough,” and how nervous-system regulation can completely change the dynamics of our relationships.

Because when you’ve spent years surviving, chaos can feel normal.

And sometimes peace feels foreign as hell.

This conversation is about learning the difference.

Nicole Lemaster M.A., LMFT, S.E.P.

A somatic therapist, dream coach, author & publisher devoted to helping people reconnect with their bodies, regulate their nervous systems and live a life they LOVE. Nervous system regulation is the foundation of all my work, supporting clients feeling safer, present, and fully alive.

I work with individuals in my therapy practice, offering a space for healing, integration, and lasting change. Alongside this, I lead groups through my nervous system and dream coaching work. As author and publisher, I am gathering a collection of healers for a new anthology series, born from a desire to pour healing into the world and carve out a platform of possibility.

My approach is experiential and integrative, weaving together elements of the nervous system,
mindfulness, chakras, movement, breathwork, and awareness to create radical resilience. I guide people into embodied practices that create real shifts in how they feel, respond, and relate to themselves and others.

With over a decade of experience supporting healing, my work centers on expanding
resilience and capacity - so people can not only navigate life’s challenges, but move toward what
they truly desire with greater ease and authenticity.

In this powerful episode of Listen Bitch Presents: Tell Me Why You’re Special, I sit down with Carolyn Sherrill, author, speaker, former physician assistant, and founder of Cords of Grace.

Carolyn shares an intensely personal story of childhood trauma, dissociation, healing, faith, forgiveness, and discovering who she was beyond what happened to her.

We talk about what dissociation can actually feel like, including Carolyn’s experience functioning as a medical professional while struggling with dissociative trauma. She shares her personal account of trauma-based mind control and ritual abuse, how those experiences affected her identity, and the long road toward healing.

But this conversation goes somewhere even deeper: spiritual warfare.

Carolyn talks about experiencing what she describes as demonic attacks, learning to stand in her identity as a child of God, the power she found in worship and the blood of Jesus, and what she believes it means to surrender the battle to God.

We also get into PTSD, anger at God, forgiveness, justice, breaking unhealthy soul ties, and the difference between forgiving someone and allowing them back into your life.

Carolyn shares how she eventually moved from asking, “Why did God allow this?” toward finding purpose, healing, and a calling to help other people walking through trauma.

We also discuss her book My Personal Holocaust, her ministry Cords of Grace, and the resources she has created for people working through trauma, abuse, dissociation, forgiveness, and faith.

This episode isn’t surface-level motivation. It’s a conversation about what happens when someone survives something that could have destroyed them — and then decides their story isn’t going to end there.
Carolyn is an author, speaker, and survivor whose ministry through Cords of Grace exposes the works of darkness while illuminating the goodness of God. After enduring ritual abuse and mind control in her early life, Carolyn experienced profound healing through God's relentless love, compassionate counseling, and divine guidance. Her journey through a dissociative disorder became the foundation for a powerful testimony of faith, healing, and redemption.

A former physician assistant who practiced medicine for twenty-three years, Carolyn brings both clinical insight and personal experience to her writing and speaking ministry. Her work focuses on the intersection of mental health, emotional healing, and spirituality, offering deep exploration into topics including soul ties, identity, forgiveness, judgment, and the spectrum of dissociation—from simple "tuning out" to the complexities of Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Carolyn is the author of My Personal Holocaust: Triumphing Over the Devastation of Trauma-Based Mind Control, where she shares how yielding to God's gentle guidance led to profound transformation. Her writing has been featured in Pentecostal Evangel magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Bethany House anthologies. Through her books, blog posts, and speaking engagements, Carolyn helps readers and audiences collaborate with God to discover their true identity and understand the supernatural effects on the mind.

Her mission is to help wounded souls develop dependence on God rather than on people, while reminding others that with God, no wound is too deep to heal. A lifelong Colorado resident, Carolyn enjoys her flower and vegetable gardens when not writing or ministering.

https://cordsofgrace.com/