Meet Skin Care Specialist & Upcoming Author Maisha Pulliam

Avoid mistakes and learn from authors who have already (or are on their way to) self-published incredible nonfiction books!

Or in the case of skin care specialist and upcoming author Maisha Pulliam, learn how to get started.

During the pandemic, Maisha’s childhood desire to write surfaced! She wasn’t sure what she would write about.

What was one of Maisha’s biggest challenge? How to push through the fear that her words wouldn’t resonate.

“Trusting that what’s in my mind and heart can translate into words that will resonate with people. That was a challenge. I just had to trust that that it might not be for everyone but it will be for many.”

Book coming soon: Skin Care Always: Feel Beautiful in your Skin, Starting Within. Find Maisha on social media.

Transcription Text

Andrea: (00:04)
I'm very excited to be here today with Maisha Pulliam. And she is the owner of a skin care studio in Oakland, California called Skin by Maisha. And she is a skin expert, but I'm going to ask her if you, if do you want to talk, introduce yourself a little bit too, cause you know much more about you?

Maisha: (00:39)
Sure. My name is Maisha Pulliam, as Andrea mentioned. And I, as she said also, I'm the owner of Skin by Maisha located in Oakland, California. And I specialize in skincare. I love helping women with improving the health and appearance of their skin and helping them maintain and preserve their skin for years to come. Just youthful, healthy, beautiful skin. And, my thing is really that it starts within, so I work within, to help them achieve their goals outward.

Andrea: (01:10)
Oh, I love that so much. Oh my goodness. So Maisha is writing a book and so we are going to be talking a little bit about her book and it's a work in progress. So first thing, first question I have for you is what got you started writing a book. Like how did you even get that idea?

Maisha: (01:27)
It's funny, Andrea, because really as a child, I always saw myself as an author. I love to read. I've always loved to read. So I always envisioned writing a book one day. I just never knew when that was going to happen during the pandemic, that, that vision, that dream, that childhood desire, and I thought, oh my God, what am I going to write about? And as I started asking and just within, I just was asking and knowing is always within, right. Um, it came out and it, it, what I heard was write about life, write about your journey and write about skincare and that that's how it all started.

Andrea: (02:11)
Oh my God. I love that so much. I got goosebumps listening to this. The thing is, I have the same thing, the same love of books, the same. I knew that at some point I would write a book, but not knowing when or what would it would be about, but this is very unique because not all, I mean, I work with authors, but not like some people don't even really read books. They don't, it's not, it's not for everybody. Right. It's very unique and it's very special. And, um, and what would you say has been so far the biggest challenge of, of writing the book, trusting

Maisha: (02:47)
That what my words are, um, that my words will, that what's in my mind in heart can translate into, that will resonate with people. That that was a challenge for me, you know, the fear, the fear that it wouldn't, you know, and, and I just had to trust that, you know, it may not be for everyone, but it's going to be for many. Yeah.

Andrea: (03:15)
Wow. I love that. And also it will be for also at specific group of people. Maybe we can talk about that, but when you were talking about how you got started, it seems to me that for some people, it's almost a calling this writing of a book, that's that you feel it's like an imperative. It's like, it's, you're going to do, you know, you're going to do it at some point. And then you have to kind of jump into the, you have to jump in and just trust, like you said, like that's a really important

Maisha: (03:40)
For sure. Pushing past that there, because it, you know, it's really scary. You're putting yourself out there. You're, you're, you know, for me and my book, you know, when you read, um, you'll see that, you know, I'm, I'm being transparent in, in, uh, in many ways and that's really scary to put yourself out there to people.

Andrea: (03:59)
So yeah, definitely, especially, it might even be more scary for people that don't have the traditional, I don't even know if there's a traditional writing background, but like, I don't think you studied journalism and then did create backlit, right? So it's like a totally different kind of path where you you're, you're very clearly an expert in something. And now you're, you're switching to this activity. That's not something that you're trained and experienced and comfortable and doing every day.

Maisha: (04:23)
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and, you know, and that's where, you know, you come in and you've been very instrumental. Diane, my writing coach has also been very instrumental. So you know, that their support in,you know, to help you through that.

Andrea: (04:42)
Amazing. That makes me see the writing coaches and the author coaches, that book coaches is becoming a more, like a more well-known vocation. They act almost like a bridge between people that just know that they are going to write a book, like what this book is going to get written. And a writing coach is like a bridge to get what, you know, you don't even know what you want to say necessarily, but get that onto a page into this new media of a book, because I mean, you could have started a YouTube channel. You got to start, there's so many things you could have started, but you really want to try to book. And so having someone so familiar and comfortable with that media specifically to get that into book format so that it can become a book is so important for many people. Absolutely. There's like an insecurity there for people that aren't writers in the sense of like traditional writers that I don't know if you experienced that, that kind of like imposter syndrome, like who am I to write a book.

Maisha: (05:38)
Totally, totally. I was like, I'm not, you know, I'm not, you know, you think of all these like amazing authors and you just, you, you know, when you stop comparing yourself and just say, you know, I am who I am and I am an author. Everyone starts somewhere. And honestly think everyone has a coach, you know, as an author, you know, when I, when I really studied the different authors, they all had writing coaches, you know? So it's, it's not a bad thing. So yeah,

Andrea: (06:12)
Amazing. That is so cool. That's so interesting that this comes up, that everyone really is everyone who really wants to feels that imperative to write a book. Like they are, they are more than qualified,

Maisha: (06:27)
Qualified, and supported. Yeah. You know, the support is there, so yeah.

Andrea: (06:32)
And I think the support ranges in its’ spectrum, like some people hire a ghost writer, this celebrities do this. Right. They hire a ghost writer who just basically the author is giving input on the other person's writing. So in this, like the book coaching is it's you learning almost you learning how to write. Absolutely. So cool. So do you put, do you imagine writing more books after this book?

Maisha: (06:55)
Do I do? This was the first that I said, okay, let me start here and I want to go deeper. So, I certainly do intend continuing this.

Andrea: (07:09)
I love it because it's also expression, right? Absolutely. Like one coach that I love to read, his name is Gay Hendricks.

Maisha: (07:22)
Oh my God, I love The Big Leap. Yes. A big leap. Yeah, my I read that before I did this, that this is totally the bigger leap for me.

Andrea: (07:30)
He has a new book coming out, but I have one older books that I found at the thrift store. Oh, wow. And he talks about this, that like that this is really a part of becoming a happy person is to be able to, to be creative, expressing yourself, like to be creating and expressing yourself and writing a book. So even though sometimes people might think, oh, this doesn't make sense. How does this make sense in my career? But it does make sense because you feel this like creative urge to express yourself and share your experiences and share your stories. And that is the motivation for just so much beauty that comes newly into the world. Like your book. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I have goosebumps.

Maisha: (08:12)
Absolutely.

Andrea: (08:14)
And we had quite a bit of a journey coming up with the title of your book. Do you want to talk about the title?

Maisha: (08:21)
Yeah. Well, you know, skincare always, um, that, that is my tagline that I've been using most of my career and, um, you know, beauty starts within, you know, that, that we've been kind of playing around with, with the title and subtitle, but the title certainly

Andrea: (08:39)
Skin Care Always - yeah. Yeah. That's good. And that's going to be, so your clients, let's talk about, um, you're going to have this book and your clients, we're going to find it and read it and they're going to see it and how are they going to feel when they find it and see it and how like, how's it going to impact them?

Maisha: (08:56)
Well, you know my hope is that people find themselves, that they are able to be, feel supported and, feel understood, seen, and that it helps them along their journey that they're not alone. And not just how to care for your skin, but also caring for yourself with them. So that.

Andrea: (09:23)
I love that so much because we think, I mean, I think a lot of times people think of genres so rigidly. And so it, I mean, this, in some sense is a business book, but it's also more than that. Right. It's so much more than that. It's something where the reader is going to identify themselves in a book and feel seen and feel cared for. I guess the word care is perfect to have in the title.

Maisha: (09:47)
Absolutely. Absolutely. Actually, actually,you know, really, you know, self love is a big one, you know, and, and that's what I really touch on a lot because as women, I just find that we really are challenged with loving ourselves in the way that we should really learning what love is learning, how to love ourselves. Um, and then, you know, loving people in the way receiving laugh from people in the way that we should, um, or can, or are allowing of that. So there, there's a lot of, a lot of, uh, of, uh, of that.

Andrea: (10:22)
Yes. Oh, I love that because that's my biggest, like, I think almost that's like the ultimate, most important message for everybody right now is this self-love, self-compassion like it's so that message is so dear to my heart right now, too. My that, yeah. And that's something you probably thought of this already, how you're going to need to shine that on yourself as you move forward, because you're still in the reading process. So for example, I just launched my book called almost, uh, oh my God, what's my book called . Almost Done Writing: Now What, and one of my big messages in my book awesome is self love because it's so there's so much vulnerability required when you're putting a book out into the world, because you're basically asking the world to look at you. You're like, look at me, I'm doing this.

Andrea: (11:18)
This is for other people. And you're, you're basically inviting attention and you're inviting scrutiny and all those things, if you want to get into it. So I find that when I was launching this book, that self-love is the absolute, the self-compassion like if I started to get stressed, which everybody does, you know, worrying all the worries and everything is that I would have to go back to self-compassion self-compassion okay. Notice I'm getting worried. What can I do now? Take a break, go for a walk until you feel better, but it's really a nerve-wracking experience putting a book out into the world. And so you're sort of at the cusp of that right now. Absolutely all that stuff. Absolutely.

Maisha: (11:57)
It is. It's a, it's a tough one when you are experiencing it yourself, you know, just everything you just said and you know, and at the same time encouraging others, it's a tough one. But as I find for me, as I encourage others, I encouraged myself. And I felt that if that is a vibration that just United, we, we all need to be a part, you know, we could all benefit for sure. Right. Encouraging others as we do that, we encourage ourselves. That is really my

Andrea: (12:30)
Truth. Yeah. I love that. Oh my gosh. I love that so much. How did your photoshoot go last week? I'm dying to hear.

Maisha: (12:38)
Oh my God. It was amazing. I had the most amazing photographer, um, Allison Graham and she, she was just so special. Um, and it's so interesting. When you take on a project like this and you really just, you know, drop in the universe and, you know, ask, you know, I just want everything to align. Right. Perfectly. And, and everyone that has, is coming into this is just perfect. And oh my God, the photo shoot could not have been more. So I definitely know there's a photo there for the cover, you know, all the photos we took, but it was, it was really amazing.

Andrea: (13:17)
That's amazing. That's great. I cannot wait to see, I can't wait to see them. So what's the, you're going to see, you're getting, you've seen them already.

Maisha: (13:24)
Um, no, just as we were, um, you know, do you know, during the shoot, she would turn the camera to me and let me see the images, but, um, it'll be next week. I should get the proofs back. Okay. That's exciting. I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

Andrea: (13:44)
And did you have, did you wear different outfits or did you, yeah,

Maisha: (13:48)
I did. No, no, no, no. I brought, I'm like overdo everything. I put my entire closet and, um, you know, we had a location, a really beautiful location and, um, I had a bunch of work of changes, so it was a very taxing that, that day, but it was so fun at the same time. Um, so we have a lot of pictures to choose from, so I'm sure we'll be able to get a cover out of it.

Andrea: (14:14)
Oh, that's great. That's very exciting. Okay. Can we just do that? And that's going to really help you with everything in your business from now on. Right. Like I find that when I level up and get the new photos and then that, that just goes out best the photo you can use. So when it wants to interview you,

Maisha: (14:32)
Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's what I was hoping for, for photos, not just for the cover, but for marketing in general. So I'm very happy. Very pleased. Yeah. Yeah.

Andrea: (14:51)
That's wonderful. That's great. Oh my gosh. Well, it's been wonderful speaking with you. Um, do you have any, maybe I'll ask you, what, is there anything special that's kind of extra inspiring to you right now that you're just like, oh, I love these something. Ask me that again. I'm sorry. Yeah. If there's something extra special, that's inspiring you right now.

Maisha: (15:17)
You know, just that this, the completion of a book, the idea of the reader, holding my book and feeling inspired, that's inspiring me. Um, you know, just helping someone, touching someone's life in a special way, um, that they could feel more empowered, um, feel more love, um, fear, more courageous happening, I just want to touch lives.

Andrea: (15:47)
I love that so much. Oh my gosh. Well, that's amazing. And an amazing way. I love that. That's great. That's such a great vision too, because you like you, I think you, you obviously are so passionate about caring, helping, and caring. And so a book is almost like a stand in for that. Like you're sleeping and then someone's holding your book and they're getting that same love and care and that you, that gives me goosebumps. Oh, I love it. Okay. That's great. Well, that's what happens. I think when peoples put their heart and soul and energy into a book, even when it is a beast, I mean, there's this idea that a business book would be so sterile or something, but no, that's not what I see at all. People that are writing, it supports their business. It can still have all their love and their, everything, their energy in the book. Right. Cause there could be amazing. Okay. That's okay. So I'm super happy to have talked with you today. I do want to give, I don't want to put you on the spot, but if you have any questions that come to your mind that you wanted to ask me, you're more than welcome to ask me questions or we can just kind of wrap up.

Maisha: (16:51)
Yeah. No questions. Um, yeah, no questions. You you've been amazing. Andrea. I'm just looking forward to the book cover – holding the book. I can't wait to see your design. I'm so excited.