The Story of Our Book (and The Chapters That Almost Didn’t Make It)

Makena: Hello, everyone.

Gigi: Hi. Good to see you, Makena.

Makena: Good to see you, Gigi. We are super excited because our book comes out in less than a week.

Gigi: Yay.

Makena: So we decided to do an episode about that, about the story of how this book came to be, the chapters that almost didn’t make it in, and what this whole journey has been. 

Some of you have asked, and I know some of you want to write books of your own and might be curious about the process. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Gigi: Yeah. And when did we start? When was this?

Makena: I think it was three years ago.

Gigi: Years ago. I think it was three years ago, almost exactly.

Makena: Because it was at Brianna’s wedding.

Gigi: Oh my gosh.

Makena: Wow.

Gigi: And that was in February, right?

Makena: It was in February. So my sister Brianna got married in Mexico three years ago, and it was there that I remember having the initial conversations with you about our first idea for the book and how we thought to approach it.

Gigi: Yeah.

Makena: Three years.

Gigi: Oh wow. Three years. I didn’t realize it took that long. Hopefully it doesn’t take that long for all the other books.

Makena: No, no.

Gigi: Yeah.

Makena: This was a big one, I think. Just a big undertaking to do your first book. Right?

Gigi: Right, right.

Makena: Yeah. So, what can we share about the process? We started brainstorming, and initially we were going to have the stories. We always knew we wanted it to be story-based, not necessarily just a straight-up personal growth kind of book, but really to have story elements. 

Originally, you wanted to include stories of several of your clients that you’ve mentored, right?

Gigi: Yeah, yeah. I think you went out and interviewed everyone, and we kind of got a theme. Everybody was going to have independent chapters, not one story.

Makena: Yeah.

Gigi: So yeah, you went out and interviewed them. We got the content, and I wrote.

Makena: A good deal of it.

Gigi: Yeah. I think it was just too complex.

Makena: It was way too complex. I could try to follow five different storylines. By the time I wrote one chapter for each of us, I was like, this is already almost like a whole book or half a book. I’m like, how? I’ve only started to tell our stories. How am I going to go back? This is going to be a 500-page book. So pretty quickly, I was like, this might be a little too complex. Even though the stories were great, and it was so cool to hear. I’m so glad we did that part of the process because I think it helped me reflect on parallels in our stories, in these women that you’ve mentored, some for 10, 20 years.

Gigi: Twenty years, yes.

Makena: I think that was the journeys.

Gigi: And I think that’s why the stories were so long. All the women were over, I think, over 12 or 13 years I had worked with them, except for maybe one of them. There was a lot of life that we’d been through together, and I started mentoring most of them when they were in their 30s.

Makena: So anyway, that was the first draft of the book. In 2023, I think.

Gigi: 2023, I think.

Makena: That’s where we started. The big value that came out of that was really hearing everyone’s stories and finding the parallels, and going, “Oh, okay, I had something similar on my journey.” Of course, not every aspect, but that was still really cool because something we wanted to do with this book, even though it did end up being my story and stories from my life, we really wanted it to reflect the biggest lessons that you’ve taught me and also that you’ve helped a lot of other women you’ve mentored.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: So we wanted to really reflect that.

Gigi: Yes. Because there were common themes that every woman is going through. Our problems aren’t the same, but we all have problems. They’re just at different times, in different areas of our lives. One thing is, we really wanted women to, through those stories, be able to see in their own lives how they could make changes and shifts, and how other women had done it. So, yes, maybe someday.

Makena: Yes. I think some of those themes are in the current version of the book, which are things like the longing for something more, even if you have a great life. That’s something we saw in all their stories and in mine as well. 

A lot of the women also had the experience of being stuck in “go mode” in their lives and being very career-focused and different versions of that, whether it was burnout, anxiety, or just having trouble unwinding from that intensity. The themes that did end up in the book were in that early version. 

Then we said, okay, this is way too long. What are we going to do? 

So I said, maybe it’s a semi-fictionalized story. That was sort of my story, but not following it exactly. At that time, it was a dialogue between me writing in a magical journal, or the main character writing in a magical journal and the journal writing back.

Gigi: Which was really fun. I loved it.

Makena: Yes, it was a fun idea. It’s kind of like AI now, right? Like we’re all having these conversations with AI. But AI was just starting to hit the scene.

Gigi: Yes, we could have made it AI. It’s true.

Makena: I could have had a conversation with a magical AI robot. So that was the second version: it’s sort of my story and you were in the book as my mom in certain areas, but it was more like this magical journal had the essence of your teachings. So I wrote the entire draft of that book. That one I wrote from start to finish; it was a full draft. And then I sat on it for six months.

Gigi: Well, we sat on it, right? We sat on it. The funny thing is, we both came to each other in summertime. I kept thinking, there’s just something that’s not right here, something that doesn’t feel right, something that doesn’t connect completely because it’s not—it wasn’t completely the truth. I mean, it was true, but a lot of the pieces were missing about the journey.

Makena: Well, it was interesting. There were a lot of pieces missing, but then there were too many pieces. There was the other side.

Gigi: That’s right. It was confusing.

Makena: I remember, I tried to put everything in there; every tool, every lesson, everything you’ve taught me. I thought, “This is all going to go in here.” It ended up being long, and for me, it wasn’t even like something wasn’t right at first. 

I just got busy doing other things, and then when I went to go back and try to edit it, I felt really overwhelmed and it wasn’t flowing. 

I was getting stuck. Then you were having those feelings, and finally, we didn’t end up fully bringing in an editor, but we had an editor who very kindly offered to just read the first couple of chapters and give a little feedback. 

When we talked to her, she said, “It’s great, but if you want me to be fully honest with you…” We said yes. She said, “It’s missing the mother-daughter element, remember?” She was like, “That’s so core to your story, and it’s almost missed in the way this has been written.” And we were like, “Oh, yes, that’s true.”

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: So that’s what kind of made us think, do we go back to the drawing board?

Gigi: Yes, but you had written—we have to share the story where you had written, on an airplane, a letter to me. That was before, though, before we went into…

Makena: That was before we had the conversation with her. 

We were flying back from a retreat in Italy. We were hosting our retreat in Italy that year, and this was late 2020. I just had one of those moments of inspiration on the airplane flying back, and I started writing. What I started writing—someone said the line, “Write the book that’s on your heart.” Someone said that in the retreat. I started thinking, what is the book that’s on my heart? If I really wrote that book, what would it be? 

So I wrote a letter to you. It was kind of written to you; it was essentially what became the first chapter of the book. It was our story: about what it was like to be raised by you, what I witnessed in you, and also your forgetting—the time where we both went through a dark night of the soul and just what that experience was like. It was written very poetically, very different than anything I had written in the book, very from the heart, very vulnerable. I shared it with you, and you were like, “Wow, this is beautiful.” But then, same thing, I just sat on it. It wasn’t until we had the conversation with the editor, maybe six months or a year later, that you came to me and said, “Maybe that needs to be in the book.”

Gigi: Yes, right.

Makena: I was like, “Oh my gosh, you guys, when you’re writing something like this and you’ve written one and a half full books already, and you’re thinking about going back to the drawing board and doing it again, it’s like, oh my gosh, am I really going to do this?” How do I weave this all in, what’s this going to be? 

But I knew you were right in the sense that that was the book on my heart. That’s when version three began.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: About a year ago, I think I started it.

Gigi: Was it that long ago?

Makena: Early last year.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: I was pregnant with Sienna, my baby girl. So again, I thought, all right, we’re doing this thing and went back in. I had always had this idea to write a book that was chapter-based, meaning people could open it to any chapter and it’s almost a self-contained chapter. The book flows, stories do connect, but it’s not necessarily 100% linear, and you don’t need to have read every chapter to read another one. 

Something I found for myself in nonfiction is that I don’t always finish the book, but if it’s a chapter I can sit down and just be with, one chapter at a time, it’s so much easier for me. It was really important to me in writing this book that it was the kind of book I would read. That’s why it wasn’t, again, straight-up personal development—it was more memoir-based and chapter-based. Then I thought, what are the ten themes, the ten major lessons or experiences that I’ve learned from your mentorship that I want to share with people? That’s how we got to the structure that we landed on.

Gigi: Yes, and then it came out easily.

Makena: Then it flowed very easily. The writing flowed easily. It’s not that it wasn’t challenging, but it was like, “Oh, yes, this is what it’s meant to be,” and there was very little editing.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: From either of us on this version of the book, and we both felt, okay, yes—and I wanted it not to be me sharing something, but just sharing my experiences. 

Then there’s a section at the end of every chapter called “What I Know Now,” which is just, as I reflect on this in hindsight, here’s what I see: lessons learned, or something you might take away if it serves you. I really liked that as well, instead of being like, “I’m an expert and here are all these things for you to learn.”

Gigi: Right.

Makena: Because I’m really not the expert. It really came from you. So, that was a little bit of that experience. Gigi, what was it like for you when I brought you the new version? How did it feel?

Gigi: I think, first of all, like you said, we both really felt it, especially with the letter. I kept going back to the letter because it had so much passion and was so touching for me. I thought the message to other women, other mothers—what we got down to is our relationship has been so multifaceted, with ups and downs, but we really have this mission together, something we want to do in the world. Through my mentorship and our relationship there, you’ve been one of my greatest students because you’ve worked so closely with me. 

So I’ve had the time and space to really work with you, and you made me look good. It’s always great when a student can share what you do and learn it to the depth you’ve learned it. For me, it was a relief to know that we were going to share the truth about what our journey has been, especially in our journey of working together. 

So, it was super exciting right from the beginning. I had a strong feeling like you—it was the right direction, and I think you did a beautiful job writing it—it’s easy to read and flows. It’s simple, not complex at all.

Makena: Yes. I literally had index cards with all the original chapters and exercises, and then the themes I wanted, and I was just crossing things out to get the outline. Once I had the outline, I started writing. But like you said, I cut a lot from that original version. Was there anything for you, though, Gigi, that felt—it’s pretty vulnerable. I’m honest about our life and ups and downs, arguments we had. Was there anything you were unsure about including at first, or anything you felt hesitant about?

Gigi: Of course, the vulnerability about the forgetting part and everything I went through—financially. I mean, you were very kind in the book; there were a lot of times in showing up as a mother that I failed miserably. 

But the other thing, too—I think it was really great to go through, like with your “healing the mother and father wound”—because everybody has that to some degree. So, I think the uncomfortable part is probably the first three chapters. That’s the uncomfortable part for me.

Makena: Which were “A Forgetting in Two Parts.” If people are listening and haven’t read the book yet—by the way, I don’t think we’ve even said the name of the book. We’re so far into this episode. It’s called “The Wisdom That Raised Me: A Daughter’s Journey Into Wholeness, Wisdom and Womanhood,” and it will be available on Amazon on February 5th. 

So if you’re listening before that date, February 5th, 2026, then it’ll be out in just a few days—mark it on your calendar. And if you’re listening after, you can go find it online. That’s—we probably should have led with that. For anyone who hasn’t read it, the first chapter is “A Forgetting in Two Parts”—really telling the story of our dark night of the soul, Gigi’s and mine. That set the stage for a lot of things in our life, and then it’s sort of this awakening process that happens throughout the rest of the book, especially for me and especially with your support, Gigi.

Chapter two is “The Soul Reveal,” and that’s where my key turning point moment happened. I’ve had multiple, but this was the biggest one, where I was burned out, having anxiety, panic attacks, struggling to get clear on what I wanted to do next in my life and my career. We had a profound experience in Costa Rica where you guided me through this, and it really woke me up: “This is what I want, this is the direction.” It set me on a path I’ve been on now since 2018—eight years ago.

Gigi: Is it eight years?

Makena: That was in February, too. February, eight years ago.

Gigi: 2018. Oh yes, right.

Makena: February. That’s—

Gigi: This is our month coming up. Remember that?

Makena: Yes. So that was chapter two, sharing that experience and how people reading can start to come to their own clarity or just see the things that bring them alive and in their own life, even if they can’t fly to Costa Rica with Gigi and have this experience. Chapter three is especially vulnerable, which was healing the mother and father wounds. So for context, those are what the first three chapters are about.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: Do you have any questions for me?

Gigi: Yes. What was the chapter that felt the most risky for you?

Makena: For me, being vulnerable is actually pretty easy for some reason. I don’t mind sharing; I’m a pretty open book. So, what felt the riskiest were the chapters that had to do with other people and their vulnerability. I would say the first chapter about our childhood, the mother and father wound, and then marriage and money.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: The first two I mentioned, because they had very vulnerable things for our family and for you, I wondered, how is she going to feel about this? I just wrote it; I didn’t edit myself or try to change things to sound a certain way. I didn’t know how you’d feel about putting all that out there, and I appreciated that you liked it and were open. The Marriage and Money chapter, which I think is chapter seven, was very vulnerable for my husband. That was some conversations.

He asked, “Are you sure this has to go in the book?” and I said, “I really think it’s going to help a lot of people. Please.” He was super gracious to share very vulnerable things. It’s interesting being a writer who writes in this style. I was just listening to Glennon Doyle the other day; her vulnerability is incredible—not just for her, but for people in her life. The conversations that must go on for people to be okay with her sharing at that level! Her writing is so touching. I had my own, mini version of that experience where I thought, “Okay, this is going to go down.” So those were the riskiest.

Gigi: And acknowledge your husband for going, yes! That’s amazing.

Makena: A lot of courage on his part. Such a great soul. Really grateful.

Gigi: In healing the mother wound, I felt you didn’t all the way say something about healing it with me. I made you go back and put more in there.

Makena: You actually made me put more in there! You said, “I think you need to go deeper into how we fought, or not fought—we didn’t really fight a lot—but how you felt you were mothering me,” or some of those things that were really hard. It’s true; even though I wrote it from the heart from the beginning, of course I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so it was great that you had me go a level deeper there.

Gigi: Is there any other part you wish someone wouldn’t read—family, your audience—you got uncomfortable thinking about?

Makena: The only other thing that comes up is when I wrote the “Mean Girls” chapter, chapter eight. I wrote about an experience where I had some mean girl experiences, but I also wanted to include somewhere I had perpetuated a kind of mean girl experience. That felt vulnerable, because it’s something I’ve grown up aware of and tried to be conscious of. Then there was an experience where I talked about someone behind her back, she overheard it, and I didn’t even realize—it was unconscious, right? 

It wasn’t anything terrible, but it still made her uncomfortable. She came to me, and I was grateful she did. We were able to talk and clear the air. That felt vulnerable to write about and at the same time, very important, because—even for me, who was raised with you, Gigi, who always took such a stand for us not gossiping and not bringing other women down but lifting them up—I still did it. How did that happen?

Gigi: Oh my gosh, and I’ve done it. We’re not perfect, right? But if we go for trying our best to be conscientious and not do that, we’re way ahead of the game compared to what most people do.

Makena: Yes.

Gigi: Set a good example.

Makena: Maybe I should tell you the easiest chapters for me to write. They were all easy in different ways, but the ones that were just fun and light. “The Soulmate Secret” was very light for me and fun, and then “Defining My Soulshine.”

Gigi: Yes. That’s really your development out of the work we’ve done.

Makena: So, I was bringing a lot of things together. It’s interesting, writing it this way, I feel like so many of these chapters could be their own books. We could easily write a book on Go Mode and Flow Mode.

Gigi: Absolutely. We will. That’ll be the next one, everyone.

Makena: We probably will. We could easily write one on the soulmate, on relationship communication dynamics, which is so much of your work and your brilliance, Gigi, and Soulshine could be a whole book. There are so many books within this book, but it’s a good sampler.

Gigi: Yes. I think we should talk about, too, just to be transparent. We’ve been filming—it’s awesome—in the book, there are exercises and links to go to, right Makena? Where they can go and have a page and videos of us, where you interview me and we talk more in depth about the different parts, the different chapters.

Makena: Yes. So basically, at the end of every chapter, as Gigi’s saying, there are reflection questions or an exercise. We give a lot of that in the book, so you can do it straight from the book. But I wanted to make it—there’s so much more we could cover. So I made sure you have a worksheet version you can download, and, like Gigi said, a video of us talking about the exercise, talking about the themes in the chapter. It’s like a little mini-program that goes along with the book and it’s completely free.

Gigi: So we got on to film that—the first part, first four chapters one day. Then last week, I was a little stressed because of other things, and maybe you were a little tired from not sleeping. We got on and started recording, and oh my gosh—to say we are far from perfect in this is an understatement! At one point, we’re arguing on the video.

Makena: We got into such a little tiff. I thought, “What is going on? I’m going to take a break.” Gigi’s like, “I’m going to take a break too.”

Gigi: In between, we’re texting each other: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Then we get back on, and go professional again.

Makena: Yes. We were laughing so hard when we got back on. I sent it to our assistant who’s editing the videos and said, “You’re going to get to see us have a whole fight and then make up and start laughing really hard. You’ll get to see the whole journey.” Thankfully, we get to cut those pieces out of the video because they don’t help the content!

Gigi: So in all this, like we talk about in the book, our relationship has—we fight, we disagree, whatever. The biggest thing is we know we’re on each other’s team, so we don’t spiral and lose trust in each other. We know we have the best intentions for each other, which is huge.

Makena: Yes, absolutely.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: So, anything else you want to share about this process, Gigi? For me, I’m just really excited.

Gigi: I’m super excited too.

Makena: Such a win. It feels really good—even though it took a long time, something about it being the first book and wanting to do our story justice and these lessons justice, touching on different things, because we don’t know what’s going to resonate most with people. I’m excited because I want to hear from you guys reading what chapters touch you the most; that gives us information. 

We might think, “Oh, the next book should be this,” but you might tell us, “This topic is what I need to know more about.” I’m fascinated to hear that because I think there are several books where we would go deeper, but which one we write next, I wonder what people will tell us.

Gigi: I love that, Makena, so much better when it comes from the audience—when you all read and think, “Wow, this is something I want to go deeper into, this touched me deeply, I’d learn more.” For us, we’re not trying to sit here and figure out what connects. We’d love to hear your feedback; it would be awesome.

Makena: Yes. So tell us, write in to us—support@wayofthemuse.com—and tell us what you loved, what resonated, what you’d like to hear more about. And if you didn’t love it, you can still tell us, or just keep that to yourself! I’m sure we’ll get all kinds of emails.

Gigi: I’m sure we will.

Makena: Yes. Please help us in knowing what else to share because there’s much more we could go into on all of these topics.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: Anyway, we hope you enjoy it. Please, if you feel called, read the book, and do the exercises. If you do the exercises, it makes it real; you can have shifts and breakthroughs in your own life. If that calls to you, you’re not just listening to a story, you’re having an insight that creates profound change, which is our hope with this book, and those videos will help as well. And share it with your friends, please.

Gigi: Absolutely. Your mothers, your daughters. Absolutely.

Makena: Write us a positive review if you liked it on Amazon. It helps because we’re just here self-publishing, figuring this out on our own. The audiobook I’ll be recording in a few weeks; it probably won’t come out the same time as the book, but two to three months later, we’ll do a launch for that. For those who love audiobooks, you’ll have a chance to get that version.

Gigi: Nice.

Makena: And I want to acknowledge Makena. Of course I wrote the book; you really wrote the book. I did some editing and told you to change things or do this differently, but it was really your beautiful ability to put pen to paper and express—which is amazing.

Makena: Thank you so much for your patience with me, Gigi. I definitely needed some kicks in the butt along the way, but you were super patient and loving. Thank you for all the lessons and teachings.

Gigi: Yes, thank you.

Makena: It’s a momentous occasion. First book for me, anyway.

Gigi: Yes.

Makena: All right, see you next time.

Gigi: See you next time.