She ran away at 5 years old and was gone an entire week. She came home riddled with fears and, in turn, became a people-pleaser. At age 51, she decided to face one fear every day for an entire year. In doing so, she gained an exorbitant amount of confidence and now uses what she learned to fulfill her mission of empowering 5 million women and men to write their stories to make a greater impact on the planet. Lynda Sunshine West is the Founder and CEO of Action Takers Publishing, a Speaker, 22 Time 1 International Bestselling and Award-Winning Author, Executive Contributing Author at Brainz Magazine, Executive Film Producer, and Red Carpet Interviewer.
Lynda Sunshine West, Book Publisher
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I’m a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, and aunt. I ran away when I was five years old and was gone for a week. I only went to the neighbor’s house, so I was safe, but I would have been gone forever had my mom not brought me back home. Something happened during the week I was gone that changed my life for decades to come. No one came to get me, so a belief locked in tight into my brain and that was the belief that no one came to get me because they didn’t love me and didn’t want me around. The majority of my actions in life were based on that one belief. I basically crawled into a ball and didn’t share my voice. I had so many fears that stopped me from living. At the age of 51, I hired a life coach and that is really when my life started. One thing led to another and to another and seven years after working with my life coach, I landed on my business, a book publishing company. I am the Founder and CEO of Action Takers Publishing. Although I was never a reader or a writer, I fell into book publishing. If you told me three years ago, I’d be a book publisher. I would have laughed in your face. It’s not something I ever imagined I’d do, but I’m so glad I had an epiphany in August of 2021 that landed me on the publishing road. I had put together two collaborative books and decided to launch them eight days apart. They both hit 1 International Bestseller status in under eight hours. At the end of the day, I looked at that and said, “WOW! I love this. I know what I’m doing. And I’m damn good at it. This is what I’m going to do, book publishing.” And that’s when Action Takers Publishing was officially born. What do I do for fun? While my business is a LOT of fun for me, I love playing bass guitar and singing in our rock band, UselessRhetoric. I also love going to the beach with Wheatie (my husband) and spending time with Pup Pup and Mason (our Maltese and poodle). What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
Action Takers Publishing is on a mission to empower 5 million women and men to share their stories with the world to make a greater impact on the planet. By sharing our stories, we can positively impact more people. We help our clients get their messages into the hands of eager readers. What kind of audience do you target your business towards?
We believe in collaboration and cooperation over competition. We work mostly with entrepreneurs who are in service-based businesses and are interested in collaborating with other entrepreneurs. The focus of our book publishing company is building community through our collaboration books of 15 or more people. The connections that are made in these collaborative books have been phenomenal. What are your current goals for your business?
We are a newer company and published 12 books in 2022 and our goal for 2023 is to double that number (or more). With a mission of empowering 5 million authors, we have a long road ahead and are excited to take on the journey.
What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future?
With Action Takers Publishing, I am building a legacy. Our books are inspirational and motivational. You can never have too much positivity in the world. On a personal level, I’ve been working on my mindset in relation to a chaos state versus a flow state. One thing I realized at age 59 was that I was causing my own chaos in my life. Having that awareness has taken me on a path of moving into calm and flow. It’s been a weird feeling because my mind and body was in chaos for so many decades. I’m embracing this part of my journey and experience a flow state more and more each month. Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?
My husband is by far my greatest supporter, my mentor encourages me to strive for more, and I am grateful to both for believing in me. What is your work inspired by?
You know what? I was never a reader or a writer. As a matter of fact, I spent most of my life saying, “I’m not a writer. I suck at writing.” But in 2015, at age 51, I decided to break through one fear every day for the entire year because I realized fear was stopping me from living my life. Embarking on that journey was one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever given to myself. Two months into breaking through a fear every day, I was invited to share my story in a book called Footsteps of the Fearless. I was scared because “I’m not a writer,” but I said “yes” and did it anyway. That was the start of something that I had no idea would happen. After breaking through those fears every day, my mentor suggested I write my own book called The Year of Fears because “there are people out there, Lynda, that need to read your story to help them break through their own fears.” So, I wrote the book. After self-publishing The Year of Fears, I had an idea to put together my own collaboration book by bringing together some of my friends and self-published Momentum. I had so much fun bringing those incredible people together in a book, so I decided to do it again and again and again. Fourteen books later, I’m going strong and still loving what I’m doing and am still inspired by the stories that our authors are telling. They motivate me to keep going and sharing. Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
I worked in the corporate world for 36 years and had 49 jobs, which evidences that being an employee really wasn’t for me. At age 51, I quit my 49th job to embark on the journey called entrepreneurship. The first seven years were hard. I had no idea what I was doing or how to make money. I was a terrible entrepreneur. But I kept after it. We almost went homeless during the journey, so I had to go back to a job to avoid that from happening. I never felt like a failure for going back to a job because it was necessary in order for me to keep going. I needed to figure out the triad formula (KNOW what you do, LOVE what you do, and be damn good at it to the point that people will pay you) and would never figure it out if I quit on myself. While I was working at my job, I was saving money because I knew I was going to quit again. I just didn’t know exactly when. I truly believe I needed to go through those first seven years the way I did them in order to experience what I experienced in order to be where I am today. My greatest achievement so far? NEVER GIVING UP on myself and my dreams. If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
The judgment. In the book publishing industry, there are a bunch of people who believe you need to be a literary genius in order for your book to mean anything. I say that’s a bunch of bull. Here’s the truth. Our stories matter and can inspire people, but we must tell them for that inspiration to happen. My book, The Year of Fears, isn’t written very well because “I’m not a writer,” but my book was written and published. When Carrie told me she bought my book, “read the first fourteen pages, and already broke through five fears,” I realized that it’s not about being the perfect author, but is about being a published author so people can find your book and effect transformation in their lives. I used to allow my fear of judgment stop me from making a living. I no longer have room in my life for people who are judgmental. It no longer serves me and my higher purpose, which is about sharing people’s stories.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
The greatest pivotal moment in my life was the day I raised my hand and said “YES” to myself. That was the day I hired a life coach who helped me to see who I am, what value I have to offer and to help me learn how to take action on my dreams and desires. I will be forever grateful to Liz Stone for helping me unlock the brilliance that was inside of me all this time, but I was too scared to let it out due to fear of judgment.
Hop on a call with Lynda Sunshine West and find out how you can become a published author with Action Takers Publishing. Simply go here and book your free consultation today.
