August 24, 2024
Eight years ago, a miracle happened. I opened my computer and wrote a book. In less than 3 weeks. I wrote it in a language that wasn’t mine.  I didn’t care it was far from perfect. I created art for it, designed a cover, started a publishing agency - because why not  -,  and published The Wonderfully Weird Woman’s Manual. How to Thrive & Bloom when You're Fiercely Bright, Feel Too Much, and Have Way Too Many Passions.

Less than 48 hours later,  1200 people had bought my book. Women and quite a lot of men -. Readers passed it around to family members and friends: “Read this and you understand who I am.”

I received wonderful reviews and emails from women who finally recognized themselves. 

They told me they cried and laughed, they showed the book to loved ones and told them: “Look, I’m not just stupid weird. I’m Wonderfully Weird!“  Wonderfully Weird became a hero’s name. I started a club, people signed up, and there were t-shirts, bags, and buttons. 

Yay, Big Success. Well done me! 

And then something mind blowing happened. I forgot all about the book. I fell out of love with everything ‘wonderfully weird’ but most of all - I experienced deep stomach-gutting shame. 

It had been too easy. 

It only took me 3 weeks. It was worthless. A stupid fluke. Not real. A big fat mistake. Maybe I didn’t just forget about the book. Maybe I just forced it back into the bottom drawer of my memory, under the box with widowed socks and keys from houses I had no access to anymore.  

I replaced all mentions of the book, erased it from my website, and moved on to less sensitive pastures.  

I wanted to be normal. Well, of course not boring normal, but more contained creative chic. Like having hands with paint on them, but in an artistic Instagrammable way. Not the grey dirt under your broken fingernails. Not the pain. Not the nights of hyper focus. Not the mess. Not the mountain of clothes or the mountain of books and unfinished projects. Not the anxiety. Not the shame of forgetting to send a message to a friend. Every night while brushing my teeth: I must reply. I must reply. I must reply. I’m sure she hates me.

Not the explosions of anger when my team didn’t understand me or when a plan failed to work. Not the self-destruction. Not that. I wanted Wild in a Box. 

Trying to be non-wonderfully weird paid off! I surrounded myself with very non-wonderfully weird people. Real entrepreneurs who were making real money. Work hard, don’t nag, don’t complain, high energy, positivity only. And go! My business grew, serious amounts of money were coming in, and I had a team of 7 people from all over the world. 

I launched a program and made 100K in one week. I did it again a month later. This time it was 120K. 

I had a business meeting in Paris and people wanted to know what I had been up to the previous month. “Oh, I had another 100K launch. Well, it was 120K this time.” Everyone looked at me. They wanted to know how I had done this, but all I could say was: “I don’t know, it was really easy.” 

Now, there’s a thing you need to know. Just to get a better feel for the situation. 

Just a few years before I had made no money for 2,5 years - I will tell you about that later -, but I took my business online, worked day and night, and made a little over 1.000 euros. I know what money fear feels like. I know what working really hard feels like. I’m the opposite of the spoiled little princess.

But these two launches had been too easy. Something that easily can’t be worth anything. You’ve got to fight, push, scream. It had been what I had heard my entire life. 

* “Esther, can you stand up and sit with the other slow-learning children? Sit there in the corner. You can’t look outside anymore. Stop dreaming and start working.” 

* “We have been working on this assignment for weeks! You just show up, make up a story, and the entire art department loves it.” 

* “There’s no way you have written, published, and sold a book in 3 weeks and then forget all about it. You’re just saying that.” 

Of course, there was the end of the easy launches. It was the end of easy anything. The universe had a couple of big surprises for me. It took me a couple of years to see it. But ‘Easy’ is our natural state. We all have our own easy. It’s hidden under a layer of life itself, education, trauma, sadness, and misconceptions.

We all have our own Easy. Your Easy differs from mine. Because your brain, body, talents, purpose, skill set, and unfair advantage are uniquely yours. But, once you’ve found it: Baby! The world is your oyster. I call it your Real You Genius. It’s a bit like ‘The Zone of Genius’. But much - much - better. 

In this completely new edition of The Wonderfully Weird Woman’s Manual, you learn how to decode your Real You Genius and make Easy your new Wonderfully Weird Normal.