284: Live from the Emotional Confidence Book Launch Party!
My book Emotional Confidence has officially been out in the world for a week and I want all of you to join us in celebration! I hosted my very first book launch party to celebrate with those who live locally and have been supporting me through this journey. Today I wanted to share the speech I wrote about what can happen when we trust God to work through us, a prayer from my friend Carlie Kercheval, and six ways that you can pray for this book.
If you haven’t already, make sure to grab your copy of Emotional Confidence and write a review so this book can get into the hearts of those who need it most.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
- [00:39] Hosting a Book Launch Party For Emotional Confidence
- [02:44] An Example of What Can Happen When We Imperfectly Follow God and Allow Him to Work Through Us
- [12:22] A Prayer Over Emotional Confidence By Carlie Kercheval
- [15:58] 6 Ways That You Can Help Us Pray For This Book. Make Sure to Grab Your Copy of Emotional Confidence Today!
[00:39] Hosting a Book Launch Party For Emotional Confidence
As many of you know, my book Emotional Confidence: 3 Simple Steps to Manage Emotions with Science and Scripture came out last week on November 12th. As part of this, my family and I decided to plan a book launch party. This was my first time hosting one because I never officially launched a book before and I quickly realized there are many different ways to do something like this. I kept coming back to the idea of it being a night where people gather together, pray for the book, give glory to the Lord for how He has brought this book to life, and make it a time to say thank you to the people who live locally and have been encouraging and helpful to me on this journey. I recorded the speech from that night and my friend Carlie Kercheval also recorded a prayer that I will be sharing within this post.
[02:44] An Example of What Can Happen When We Imperfectly Follow God and Allow Him to Work Through Us
Celebrating the book was not about me, it was about celebrating God and how He has shaped my life to a place where I could be used by Him to share His message. By His grace, that story is still continuing and is much bigger than me. This is about what God wants to do in all of our lives and what happens when we imperfectly follow Him. I wanted to share a few touchpoints about how I got to this place.
My parents know that I have always loved to write. I went to school for journalism and as I told my dad in the acknowledgments of the book, “I'm using my degree, Dad, do you finally see?” When I went to school, I did not know what my future was going to look like. I knew I wanted to work with women but at the time when I graduated in 1997, there were not a lot of options.
I left the University of Missouri, where I went to school, and I ended up moving back home to work for Warner Brothers in Burbank, CA. Part of my degree was in publicity so I was using my marketing and publicity skill in this position, but I very quickly realized that this was not a fit for me. I was told by the people at Warner Brothers that I was really stupid for leaving that job because I had a guaranteed executive position – but I knew this was not what God wanted for me. If you have ever seen “The Devil Wears Prada” then you would remember that the main character is told “A million girls would kill for this job” but she ends up walking away because this was not the life she saw. That was exactly what happened to me.
I left that job and I ended up meeting an amazing man (my husband) and we got married. I started working at a Christian magazine, which was great. But we started having kids and I quickly realized I needed to be home with them. As the years passed, even though I was happily homeschooling them, there was still a part of me that was asking “What about this dream to write, God? Do you still want me to work with women?” So in 2011, I started a blog about homeschooling and my journey as a mom. This eventually became Vibrant Christian Living (which is now Alicia Michelle) but I still felt called to write more.
Then in 2017, something really horrible happened to me. It was one of those moments where I realized that I had been running from a lot of things inside of me which had built up into a physical manifestation of breaking down. I became very sick and my entire life had to stop. God spoke to me about what needed to happen next in my life and I had to get serious about what was going on inside of me – without quick fixes.
As I started to face these emotions, I realized that no one understood the brain science aspect. I asked myself “Why could I think something but not act on it? Why was that different from what God told me about myself?” So I began studying more about brain science and got certified as a NeuroCoach. I then saw Him switching what I was talking about with women from homeschooling to this discovery within myself.
Even at this time, I was asking God “What about this writing thing?” I remember I talked to an agent and they were kind of like “Oh yeah, that is cute that you want to write a book.” Even though I saw that it still wasn’t the right time, I knew in my heart that writing a book was part of His plan eventually.
As I continued to work with women and develop specific coaching techniques that were really helpful, one day I realized what I needed to write about was right in front of my face. There was a method I was teaching for years and I saw all of these women responding to it. I thought “What if I write a book about that?” So I wrote this proposal and I got picked up right away by Baker, which was an ideal publisher. I want to say that this book is not just me who wrote it, it was written through every past client and their stories. I am celebrating what God has done in others to help have those testimonials to bring this book to life.
My friend Carlie, who is my Friday morning prayer partner, taught me this concept of thanking God for what is to come. I am praising Him right now even though I do not know what He is going to do with this. I will never see the changes in every person this will reach. I am blessed to have a podcast that has an audience in nearly every country in the world, and I am honored to do this work and let the Lord take care of the rest.
I am deeply thankful for the incredible opportunities God has brought through this book and for what is still to come. One exciting opportunity is being featured on a major radio show this week. Additionally, a chain of Christian bookstores in South Africa is running a special promotion for the book – an amazing blessing I never anticipated. I have also been overwhelmed by the incredible testimonials from women who have read the book and shared how it has been life-changing for them. My heart is full of gratitude – not for what I have done, but for what God is doing in and through this work.
I want to close by sharing one last story about Target. Many of you know that this book will soon be available in Target stores! For those familiar with the publishing world, you will understand how unusual this is, as Target rarely dedicates shelf space to Christian-based books. This is part of a special New Year's spiritual promotion they are running – a reminder that this is so much bigger than me. This is God at work. Without His power and for His glory, our efforts mean nothing. My hope through this story is that you see this journey as a testament to what can happen when one person chooses to imperfectly say “yes” to God, allowing Him to turn past struggles into something beautiful for His purposes.
As I shared earlier, I once worked at Warner Brothers in Burbank. Recently, as I recorded the audiobook for Emotional Confidence, I found myself in a studio just a mile away from Warner Brothers. It felt like God’s way of reminding me: “When you follow Me, I fulfill your dreams in ways far beyond what you imagine.”
[12:22] A Prayer Over Emotional Confidence By Carlie Kercheval
Here are the words and the prayer from my friend Carlie:
I am so excited and honored to be a part of launching our dear sisters' book into this world, Emotional Confidence by Alicia Michelle. Now this book is something that I am thrilled about for many different reasons. Number one, because I have watched our dear sister impart wisdom, be faithful, and go after the things that God has put in her heart. And for her to be able to pour this out in this way, on this platform, through this medium, is just an answer to prayer. I have had the honor of knowing Alicia for quite some time and throughout our friendship, the one thing has remained the same: She has been faithful to God. She has loved her family well, and she is constantly seeking ways that she can help our sisters in Christ. So without any further ado, I want to go ahead and kick off this amazing celebration with prayer
Father God, we just praise you. We worship Your holy name. We thank you, God, for the wisdom that flows from heaven to earth. I praise You, Father, God for the gift of this book Emotional Confidence. I'm asking you, Father, to draw the women and others to this book that you have called hallelujah, to have healing in their emotions. God, the world has been a mess for a while. It has been a mess, God, but you have remained on the throne so God of heaven and God of Earth, we just love that we can trust and know that through our obedience that Your kingdom is being built on earth as it is in heaven. Father, I just pray that not only will this book bless those who read it, but it will translate this emotional healing, this understanding that these people will gain, and will translate down for generations, God. I thank You for healing that will be flowing from generation to generation, and I thank You for an impartation of your Holy Spirit, a fresh anointing and understanding that will go forth with this book. God, I'm asking You to bless the celebrations. We're celebrating Alicia, we are celebrating her obedience, we are celebrating this amazing project being birthed into this world. I am asking God that you will bless everything tonight and that people will have fun in your presence. But I also ask God that you will help us to understand how we can help carry this baby into the world? What part can we do God? Speak to our hearts. Who can we share this book with God? Who do we know that will benefit from the anointed words on these pages? God show us what to do, Father, show us how we can be a blessing to our friend who has been such a gift and a blessing to us. Father, we love You, we bless You, we praise You, we expect great, great things today and forevermore. In Jesus, mighty name, I praise You. Amen and Amen.
[15:58] 6 Ways That You Can Help Us Pray For This Book. Make Sure to Grab Your Copy of Emotional Confidence Today!
I am so grateful for those who were there to celebrate the book and for all of you too! I know many of you are cheering the book on so I wanted to invite you to celebrate and participate in the book's launch in two ways: Praying for the book and purchasing the book.
First, I have six ways that you can pray for this book:
1. Pray that the readers feel seen, known, and loved by God in these pages.
2. Pray that readers can be brave enough to trust God with their tender emotions as they implement this three-step emotional management tool known as ADD.
3. Pray for non-Christians or those who have walked away from God to get their hands on this book, to come to salvation, and to a closer walk with God. My heart is for this book to go way beyond the Christian audience and to reach those who are on the fringes. Pray that these people see God in a fresh new way and see Him at work in their everyday lives.
4. Praise God for the many speaking engagements that I am doing and pray that He will use these to expand the book's reach to the ends of the earth.
5. Praise Him for the incredible New Year's promotion with Target. Pray that the books in those 500 Target stores in the Sun Belt states will be ambassadors for the Gospel to those who would never normally come to church. Pray that they meet those people who are Christians but may just be wandering the aisles of Target and can now see God in a new way.
6. I would love protection over our family, our health, our marriage, and our home. This is because the enemy loves to attack when we are bold for Jesus.
Thank you for partnering with me through prayer to get this book launched! If you have not picked up a copy of Emotional Confidence, I’d be honored if you would grab a copy for yourself, a friend, or a family member. The more people who read this book, the more people who can spread it to others.
I would also be so blessed if you could leave a review on Amazon (if you bought it from there) and/or on Goodreads. This is so helpful because all book retailers are going to show people books that have higher rankings and more reviews. Our heart is for the book to get into the hands of as many people as possible so they can find the freedom found in Christ.
Thank you all again for helping me celebrate the gift of being able to write a book and to bring it into the world. And thank you to God in advance for this incredible opportunity, for the great ways He is going to be using this book to reach thousands of women and men.
RESOURCES:
Tired of up-and-down feelings stealing your peace, sabotaging your relationships, and filling your mind with self-defeating thoughts? If so, make sure to get my new book, “Emotional Confidence: 3 Simple Steps to Manage Emotions with Science and Scripture”.
RELATED EPISODES:
