The Magical Portal Project with Leonie Dawson

This month I’m inviting 30 magical authors to share how writing a book has created transformation in their lives as part of The Magical Portal Project.

And I was beyond excited to have a conversation with international best-selling author, Leonie Dawson.

Leonie was one of my very first mentors when I started my online business and she showed me you can absolutely do things in your own, unique, quirky way AND be wildly successful.

Take a look at our conversation below and you’ll also find a full transcription of the interview if you’re a reader, rather than a watcher.

Find out more and join the free Magical Portal Project here.

Nicola: Hello and welcome to this episode of “Unbound”, I’m Nicola Humber, author of UNBOUND and founder of The Unbound Press. And today I am beyond excited to be joined by the deeply magical Leonie Dawson. Welcome, Leonie!

Leonie: Aw, thanks Nicola! Deeply magical, I’m just, I’m gonna get a t-shirt with that written on it because that thrills me. I love those two words together, that makes me very happy.

Nicola: Yeah, not just magical, deeply magical, there you go!

Leonie: I’m so into it, I’m so into it! As a Scorpio, like, I don’t want shallow magical, I want deep magical!

Nicola: It’s gonna be deep, it’s gonna be deep. Leonie is an international bestselling author, amongst many other things, and this month, throughout August, during these episodes we’re focusing on the transformation that happens when we write books, as part of The Magical Portal Project. And I really wanted you to be part of this, Leonie, because you’ve been such an inspiration to me, as I was saying before we hit the record button. You were one of my first mentors when I first started walking the Unbound path and I’d started my own business, and I did not have a clue what I was doing, or what I wanted to do really! And being part of your Academy and going through your “My Shining Year” workbooks each year really helped me to realize that I could be a writer and it was possible for me to write books so, thank you so much for that.

Leonie: Oh my gosh, I’m so honored, that makes me so, so happy! And this is the thing, all right, we create these things and we have no idea how it helps other people, no idea whatsoever. But, the important thing is that you’ve created it anyway and that sometimes in deeply magical circumstances, you find out years later how it’s affected someone. That just thrills me.

Nicola: Absolutely, it is! It’s gorgeous, isn’t it, when you get to actually hear that. And that’s the thing I love about books is they go out into the world and they have their own relationship with each of the people who read them or use them, and you have no idea most of the time the magic that’s being created there.

Leonie: Completely, completely! And that people get to spend just hours and hours immersed in a world that you’ve created, like that is so thrilling!

Nicola: Exactly, exactly. So, have you always been a writer, Leonie? Is it something you’ve always done throughout your life? I mean it feels like you were probably birthed into the world blogging as you came out.

Leonie: A little bit! A little bit! So, um, I knew– Oh my god!

(At this point, Leonie’s backdrop falls backwards and crashes to the ground!)

Nicola: That’s what happens when there’s deep magic!

Leonie: Deep magic! I’m gonna leave it like this now, like that was how it needs to be…

Nicola: Exactly.

Leonie: You put yourself to bed, backdrop, you put yourself to bed! It’s amazing, it’s never done that before, that’s so great.

Nicola: It’s unbound and free.

Leonie: It is, it’s unbound.

Nicola: That background said, no, I’m not doing this anymore.

Leonie: I’m tired, goddamn it.

Nicola: I’m gonna have a nap.

Leonie: Oh my god. That’s deeply magical. Please make sure you subtitle this “deeply magical”.

Nicola: Yeah.

Back to the original question!

Leonie: So yes, I knew, I think I was about four, that I wanted to be a writer and an artist when I grew up. And I remember one of the first books I wrote, and I think I was about five, and it was about a cyclone that we’d had. Do you call them cyclones in the UK, ’cause I know they call them hurricanes in the US. Or you don’t get them, so you don’t care.

Nicola: Sometimes we get really small, it’s like strong winds and they might call it a hurricane.

Leonie: Oh right, okay, rightio. Though we get the big ones in Australia, and so I wrote a book and illustrated a book when I was about five, about cyclone Charlie. And it was illustrated as well, and that just kind of continued on, and so I was always journaling and creating art journals. And I sent myself off to boarding school when I was sixteen, and it was so great, because I had a ready audience there. I lived in a dorm with about 20 other girls, and I would write in my art journal, and then I would send it around the dorm for everyone to read. The idea of something being private has never occurred to me, ever.

Nicola: Well I’d like to ask you about that, actually. Because through following you for number of years now, probably since about 2012 when I was first introduced to your work. And I feel like I know you so well, because, for your blogs in particular, you share very openly about your personal life and take us behind the scenes in your business. And I was just wondering, do you ever have a moment where you have a vulnerability hangover, and you think, fuck, I wish I hadn’t shared that. Or does that not happen?

Leonie: Doesn’t occur to me.

Nicola: Fantastic.

Leonie: It doesn’t. You know, there are some things now that I don’t share about as much, so my parts where I don’t share about is, I don’t really share about my kids’ development now that they’re past the toddler age. ‘Cause when they’re toddlers, they’re all just pooping, vomiting, like weeing tantrum-throwers. So there’s nothing particularly interesting, it’s not like you have a very individual toddler, you just have a toddler in every way. I try and also allow my husband to have as much personal privacy, I’m not gonna talk about his story. I really only try to talk about my story and if that part of the story correlates with somebody else, then I really, I wanna make sure that I walk an ethical path. In terms of allowing people to have their own privacy. Like one big thing is that my parents got divorced about 10 years ago, and my family of origin kind of imploded. But it’s not something I can really talk about in great detail, because it involves other people’s stories, and I want to be conscious of what’s my story, and what’s other people’s story.

Nicola: Yeah, yeah. So as long as it’s your story, it’s an open book, happy to share.

Leonie: Yeah, I’m happy to talk about all my feelings as being my feelings, but I don’t want to get into the details of other people’s stories, if that makes sense.

Nicola: It does, it makes total sense. Yeah, complete sense. So which of your books feels like it’s created the most transformation for you, in your life?

Leonie: Definitely the “My Shining Year Goals” workbooks. It was something that I actually just created for myself to start with. So I was pregnant with my first child in 2009, and I knew that I was going to have a rough year ahead of me, doing that initiation into motherhood. And I wanted to set goals as something to anchor onto when I forget myself completely in the early days of motherhood. And when I looked around at goals stuff, there wasn’t really anything out there. There wasn’t anything, like there were some really small worksheets that were very masculine and really just like, hustle! What’s your top dream? Goals for your career!

Leonie: I find that women and people who are more in touch with their whole selves, their wholehearted selves, as Brene Brown would say, they’re much more interested in setting goals in a wholistic sense. They have goals for their family. they have goals for their self-care. Well if they don’t have them, they want to have them. And plus I didn’t, like I love rainbows and unicorns and mermaids. Have long before it was cool, will long after it stops being cool. And so I wanted to create something, like super rainbow! And so I created something just for myself in the space of about three days, and I was like, oh my god, this looks so cute! And I thought, oh, maybe other people would find this helpful as well. Maybe I oughta put it online, like maybe 10 people would find it useful, that would be so cool. And about a thousand people ended up downloading it in the next few weeks. And I thought, oh, holy dinger! And since then, I think it’s over 350,000 people worldwide have used them now, which is just insane.

Nicola: Incredible.

Leonie: But it’s not, like there’s so many more people to reach. Like there’s so many more millions and billions of people who need to do it, so I’m just gonna keep on marketing the absolute crap out of them until everyone finds them.

Nicola: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And we’re talking about the transformation that happens in so many different ways, when we create a book and release it into the world. And I’m really interested in the specific transformation that your “My Shining Year” workbooks have created for you. I’m sure that evolved over the years as the books have evolved and they’ve reached more people. What impact has it created for you personally and your business as well?

Leonie: Sure, on a personal level, I always think that, even if I’d never released them in the world, the “My Shining Year Goals” workbooks would have been the book that changed my life, because I created them for me, and they helped me so much. In the years since, they’ve been something that I’ve returned to over and over again. It’s like creating a room of one’s own, a place where you get to remember your own soul and what you want to do in this world. And so, in the really, really, hard years, when that’s really hard to remember, my “My Shining Year Goals” workbook for that year just ends up being so well thumbed, And I’m holding on it like it’s a fucking talisman, right? Because it’s like, I am struggling, and I need to remember what I wanted to do in this world again. So I’m so grateful on that part. And then, of course, in the good years, it just helps you go even further and create even more good things.

Nicola: Yeah, absolutely.

Leonie: On a business level, I think the blessing is that when people start using the goals workbooks, if they use it for one time, they’re kind of addicted for life. Because they use it and they’re like, oh my god, it makes such a big difference. And then they buy the next year’s edition and then the next year’s, and then they also want to tell all their friends about it to try and get all of their friends setting their goals so they can do it all together and have workbook parties. So it just ends up being this beautiful snowball, and it’s such a blessing. And I love that we’ve been able to donate it to nonprofit organizations, so that any nonprofit can write in and tell us what they’re gonna use the workbooks for with all their clients, and we’ll just grant them an unconditional license for them to print and use as they wish with all their clients. And I love getting the feedback from all those nonprofit clients as well, about how it’s completely transformed their lives, and that makes me just so happy.

Nicola: Oh my goodness, that’s gorgeous. The transformation just kinda ripples out in the world in so many different ways. That’s incredible.

Leonie: Yeah.

Nicola: And there are so many planners and things that we can use at the beginning of the year, so many things bombarded towards us as ways that we can kinda tune in to what we want to create in that year. And what I love about the “My Shining Year” workbooks is that there’s so much of you in them, Leonie. It feels like, I can imagine you that very first time sitting down and creating it for yourself. There’s kind of a real freedom around them, in the way that they’re created. How do you maintain that, this far down the line, when you’ve been creating these books year after year, and now they’re reaching so many people, how do you keep that essence of you in them?

Leonie: It hasn’t occurred to me to do anything different. Because I’m like, well this is fun. This is great. People would be disappointed if they became black and white and so more adult.

Nicola: Oh my goodness, can you imagine?

Leonie: Right? So now I’m like, how can I do it even more? But I was also like, the styles, how can I make them as rainbow as possible? It never occurred to me to dull it down a bit.

Nicola: No, no. So what comes through is that you do have fun during the process. As you’re creating it, it’s a joyful experience for you and I think that’s really important for people to hear that creating a book, writing a book, how you feel when you’re creating it, it comes through for the reader or the person who’s using that book, as well.

Leonie: Yeah, and Hiro Boga who’s one my mentors, she always says the energy you put into it is the energy people will feel as well. And of course, that doesn’t mean that I’m like peak joy at every single minute of the editing process. At some I’m like, why am I on edit round number 10? But if you’re setting the intention for these to be something that helps and heals people. And also, enjoy the creating process as much as you can, even though there are some hard parts, it’s like giving birth in some respects, then that will imbue the process. Don’t be like, well I’ve gotta wait to be in a good mood before I create anything, otherwise people will feel this bad mood I’m feeling right now. No, just let the creativity heal you, and it will.

NIcola: Exactly, yeah. Allow yourself to sit right through it, and allow the, or create through it, and allow that to take you from one place to another, and then it has the same impact on the reader as well. I’m loving that.

Leonie: Exactly.

Nicola: I love that. I loved when you started offering the physical “My Shining Year” workbooks, and I was able to have a copy. It’s just different from printing it off. And I always think that this is really magical that when we, when people buy our books that they this physical copy, they have this part of us in their homes. And you were talking about the “My Shining Year” workbook how you’ll go back to it throughout the year, and obviously everyone who’s using them, hopefully, is doing the same thing. So to know that a part of you is out there in people’s homes, and it’s something they go back to throughout the year, what is that like for you?

Leonie: It just thrills me, and it also feels like we’re all in this together because I’m doing exactly the same thing. Getting my workbook out, checking back in with my goals. So I feel like just as much as a reader and a user of the workbook as anybody else. I am the number one beta tester because this is what I needed in my life. This is what I still need in my life.

Nicola: Yeah, yeah. And again I think that’s really important for people to hear, because sometimes we might have the idea that we have to have completely sorted one area of our life before we create something around it. Like we need to have reached the end of the journey, not that we ever reach the end of the journey. Like on your deathbed, trying to write all these books! But people hold themselves back from writing and creating ’cause it’s like, oh no, I need to have this all figured out before I share anything around it.

Leonie: It’s true.

Nicola: Yeah, yeah. So what would you say to someone who’s thinking about writing a book but is like uhn, I feel like I’ve gotta have it all sorted out in my mind before I actually start writing.

Leonie: I don’t have shit sorted out. It’s the writing process that helps us sort shit out, and especially when I’m like, oh god, I feel like I don’t, even just the smallest thing. So I was thinking to myself a few months ago about, there must be businesses out that have quit social media. There must be some out there. And I thought to myself, you know what I’ll do? I give myself a research project and I’ll write a blog article about businesses that are quitting social media, and I’ll do all the research just purely for my own interest ’cause I did, like I wanted to know, right? So I wrote it and sure enough, yes, there are a bunch out there and some really surprising ones, and I thought, wow that was really cool. And then publish the article, yay! And now, that article ended up going viral because it’s something a lot of people are thinking about, like is this even worth my time, all that stuff. And so now people are like, oh you’re like the business who quit social media expert, and I’m like, nah, no no no no, heck no. Okay, sure. We learn by doing it, right? If you want to heal something, write about it. If you want to learn about something, write about it. It’s like that old adage, if you want to learn, teach.

Nicola: Yeah, yeah. And write it for yourself, and then if you want to share, then go ahead, but write it for yourself first and foremost. I love that.

Leonie: I mean, spoiler alert. I’ve never written for anyone else except for me. And so I think that’s, especially about the most deeply personally things I’ve written about postnatal depression or hyperemesis gravidarum or any of the other big things that I’ve been through. I’ve written it to heal me first and foremost, and because I’m like, I need to work through this. It’s such a good therapy for me. And then if it blesses the rest of the world, yay! But first and foremost, I’m writing to heal myself, and if it’s not a healing thing, then I’m writing to amuse myself. I think that’s why my writing can be quite ridiculous and I make up words, I’m like , How can I make this as stupid as possible and funny as possible ’cause I need to laugh. I don’t care if anyone else laughs, I don’t care if anyone else thinks my humor is really wet or whatever, I’m doing it for me. And I’m grateful that there’s other people out in the world who think that that is funny as shit as well.

Nicola: Absolutely, absolutely, that’s so good, so good. I was going to ask something, and it popped into my head and now it’s, oh no, I was gonna ask when you’re talking about writing, about some of these challenging times you’ve experienced in your life, and you’re writing to kinda heal yourself, do you always know that you’re gonna share it? Or how do you decide what you’re gonna share and what you’re not gonna share?

Leonie: Oh, it always gets shared.

Nicola: It’s always being shared.

Leonie: I know that might not work for a lot of people, but oh my god, it really works for me. I think having an end goal in mind of finishing it and pressing publish, right? It’s like finishing the art journal page so I could send it around the dorm, right? I can’t send a half-written one around the dorm. And that was beauty of blogging, I was like , I don’t have to send my art journal around the dorm anymore. I can just press publish and people can read my art journal online, like it’s still exactly the same energy for me. And I also, it was really useful at that really young age because I would get instant feedback, and other girls in the dorm started creating their own art journals. The other girls would say, oh my gosh, I didn’t know that other people felt the same way, or I just felt so inspired, I should be creating and I should be writing. That made me happy and that’s more than enough. Even if it’s not the most perfect and even if it’s, as long as it inspires people to create themselves or to feel less alone, then I am so super bonza. So it’s like those same values sit with me still.

Nicola: Yeah, yeah, fantastic, fantastic. So have there been any unexpected magic that your books have created in your life? Have they taken you in any unexpected directions ever?

Leonie: I think on the business front, it’s still just a huge freaking surprise to me. I had no idea, in the beginning days, that this would turn into a multimillion dollar company. It was not really my intention, I mean it’s great, I’m grateful for it, but my intention was just to be able to earn enough money that I could stay home with my kids and have a creative job. That was basically it and that’s still my main aim. I think that’s been the surprising thing. Everything else is just, well that’s fun.

Nicola: That’s a pretty great surprise, actually, isn’t it? Turns out like a multimillion dollar business, like yeah, I’ll take that.

Leonie: Yeah, that’s okay. I appreciate that.

Nicola: So before we finish, Leonie, the people who are part of the Magical Portal Project who are listening to these conversations and reading the pieces, all have some kind of interest in writing a book. And maybe they’ve written a book or just thinking about it, what advice or encouragement would you give to somebody who has probably been wanting to write a book for quite some time, which was certainly the case for me, to help them get started and to actually sit down at their notebook or laptop and actually commit to writing a book?

Leonie: Honestly, my biggest piece of advice is to do it as quickly as possible. And give yourself the fastest deadline that you can and just pour yourself into it. So for me, like the workbooks in the early days, it was three days that it took for me to write the first editions, write and illustrate and publish and put out into the the world! And even now, when I do a full revision, it has to be knocked out within, it’s usually a two weeks to one month thing. So I’m giving myself a lot more time, like ten times the amount of time of the early days. But honestly, anything that would be over a month for me is too long. That would just mean that I am putting it off. So I’m not somebody that’s like, okay. We’re gonna take six months to a year to write a book. No! Because that would mean I’m not actually gonna write the freaking book. Give yourself a really short, sharp deadline, and just pour yourself into it. I’m actually so passionate about this theory. I created this e-course called “40 Days to a Finished Book”, and everyone just jumps in, and we’re all gonna write books together in 40 days. And it is amazing how quickly people can write their books and you don’t have to be doing it full time, it only takes a couple hours a day and really just pouring yourself. I love that people discover through that process that yes, they can work full time, yes, they can have kids. Yes, they can, there was some people that were dealing with some really big tragedies, like their daughter was going through cancer and was getting treatment. And it actually became a place where they could everyday return to and spend time with themselves. That was really healing for them. And it’s amazing how quickly books can get finished when you actually just sit down and write the freaking book. The time that you spend thinking about writing the book is so disproportionate to how long it actually takes to write the freaking book.

Nicola: That’s so true, so true. To get that momentum going. And like you said, it doesn’t have to take a huge amount of your time, either. I think there’s a myth that you have to sit at your desk for day in, day out writing, and actually I can’t write in that way, that doesn’t feel creative.

Leonie: No.

Nicola: It doesn’t work for me.

Leonie: Nobody can!

Nicola: Exactly. Thank you so much, Leonie, it’s been such a joy to speak with you. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.

Leonie: Right back at ya.

Nicola: Yeah, it’s been amazing, so thank you.

Leonie: Thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me to do this, and bless you, bless you, bless you for all that the work that you’re doing in the world.

Nicola: Oh, and you! And for people who are listening to this, Leonie, what’s the best way for them to find out more about you?

Leonie: Oh, just my website, leoniedawson.com. Don’t bother finding me on social media, because social media sucks at keeping you in contact with people that you like. How many times have you pressed like on someone on social media and then never see them again!

Nicola: Never see them again!

Leonie: Let’s not do that, come to my website, there’s a whole bunch of free shit on there, I have an awesome, awesome mailing list, you 100% should be on my mailing list. Because if I bring out anything out, I always discount my mailing list first. I always give so much free stuff and free resources to help you with your life and your business and all the good things, and writing, and all the magic. So do that, fuck social media.

NIcola: On that note, and you are, you’re so generous, Leonie, so thank you for all you do in the world. Like you said, you’ve been a huge, huge inspiration to me, and I think actually everyone I know as well, that’s doing similar things.

Leonie: Aww, aww.

Nicola: Yeah, like I said, such a joy to speak with you. Thank you.

Leonie: Oh my goodness, thank you, thank you. You’ve touched my heart, this has really juiced up my day.

Nicola: And thank you to your backdrop as well, for getting in on the action.

Leonie: Deeply magical. It did make me go like full Scorpio, like I’m in this dark hermit cave.

Nicola: Yeah. It’s obviously how it needed to be, we’ll trust that.

Leonie: So into it, so into it.

Nicola: Thank you, and we will see you again soon for another episode of “Unbound”. Thanks, Leonie!

Leonie: Bye!

Nicola: Bye.

Find out more about Leonie and her work at: https://leoniedawson.com