Trusting your author voice - Christine Kloser interviews Ulcca Joshi Hansen

"When I made that choice to write the book, I wanted it on my terms as opposed to somebody else's."

Ulcca Joshi Hansen adds,

"That felt like a really important moment for me as an author because it was saying, you know, my gift, my voice, my ideas are important, and I need to trust them enough to put them out in the world in the ways that I think are right."

In this excerpt from their much longer podcast episode, Transformational Author mentor Christine Kloser talks with author Ulcca Joshi Hansen - a "mother, educator, researcher and advocate working to change the way we think about and do education.

"She believes each young person deserves the chance to discover their unique potential, and to explore what that means for how they contribute to the world. An internationally-recognized expert on educational transformation at the level of instruction, assessment, organizational design and policy systems, Ulcca has a BA in philosophy from Drew University, a PhD from the University of Oxford, and a JD from Harvard Law School."

Her book: The Future of Smart: How Our Education System Needs to Change to Help All Young People Thrive by Ulcca Joshi Hansen.

Hear the full episode "091: Ulcca Joshi Hansen – How to Succeed on Your Author Journey" in the Podcast section of the Get Your Book Done site by Christine Kloser.

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Transcript

Christine Kloser  0:01  
Now Ulcca is a an author, of course a mother, an educator, a researcher and an advocate who is working to change the way that we think about and do education. 

She is an internationally recognized expert on educational transformation in the areas of instruction assessment, organizational design and policy systems. 

She also has her PhD from the University of Oxford, a JD from Harvard Law School, and is a two time TEDx speaker and also has been recognized nationally for her leadership as a Harry S. Truman Scholar, a British Marshall Scholar, and Paul and Daisy Soros fellow. 

So Ulcca is the real deal. And again, she is the author of the amazing book called The Future of Smart, which you can link over to in the show notes. 

But welcome, welcome. I'm so excited that you're here to talk about your journey and help others succeed in theirs.

I always like to get started asking the question about like, why authorship, how authorship like how did you get here?

Ulcca Joshi Hansen  1:05  
It was a long journey. So the book itself is sort of a compilation or the the culmination of about 20 years of work. 

So I'm a teacher by training. But I think I really started thinking about publishing the book when my first son was born, and today's his 15th birthday. 

But I remember thinking that there was so much I was learning and synthesizing it and thinking about it, and putting it out into the world for other parents felt like something I wanted to do. So that was back in 2007. I published in 2001. 

But, you know, my work is very much about how we create places for people to thrive. And my focus is a lot on schools and young people. 

But I think about the work that you do, and a lot of your authors do, which is helping adults to kind of find their voice, find who they are, and put their gifts out into the world. And that feels more necessary than ever, the way the world is today. 

So that is why authorship, and I'm excited to talk about that journey a bit more.

Christine Kloser  2:06  
That is exciting. And happy birthday to your son, oh my gosh, that's so amazing journeys, people here. And I'm sorry, I got a little frog in my throat for a second, I took a sip of water while you were talking. And it just went down the wrong pipe. So I apologize for that. Here we are, like we just recorded as it is. 

So the main thing that I want to get started with because right we talk here in our world 'Get Your Book Done land' is all about transformational authorship. 

And that transformation, you know, happens on four levels for the readers, for the author, for their readers for their business, and ultimately for the world, especially what you know, when you're looking at a book like this called the Future of Smart, I would love for you to share, like what you learned about yourself as a writer, like through this process, like how did you grow and evolve and transform through this journey.

Ulcca Joshi Hansen  3:00  
So in the book, I talk a lot about fractals. For people who don't know what fractals are, it's this idea think of like broccoli, where you have the big thing, and then you take the pieces apart, and each piece looks the same as the largest bit. 

And so for me, there was a real sense in which the journey of this book was the journey that I talk about in the book of wanting to create and provide for the for our young people, our children, our students, as well as the adults who support them. 

So a large part of it was being able to sit back and begin to trust in my voice, which felt like the most important part of this. 

I first started going to trade publishing houses in 2014. And we went through four different rounds of proposals with an agent. And I kept getting 'Nos' and everyone was like, nobody wants a big ideas book, you know, parents just want you to tell them what to do for their kids where to send their kids to school. 

And at each moment, there were a couple of times where editors said, Well, if you could write this book, then maybe we'll take it. 

And it was a really hard journey to trust that the book that I felt I wanted to write was the right one to write even though the world couldn't maybe see it at the time or the industry couldn't see it at the time. 

And so when I finally came to [Capucia Publishing] and made that choice to write the book, I wanted it on my terms as opposed to somebody else's. 

That felt like a really important moment for me as an author because it was saying, you know, my gift, my voice, my ideas are important, and I need to trust them enough to put them out in the world in the ways that I think are right. 

So I'm happy to keep talking but you may have a sort of more prompts but so that was the first is really being talking just myself.

Christine Kloser  4:46  
I'm like, go okay, this is what authors need to hear. So keep keep going for now.

Ulcca Joshi Hansen  4:53  
Okay. And part of the journey of sort of saying I was going to go with your team, but It was also I think, believing that I deserved the experience that I felt I was going to get with you and your team, I think I wrote, at some point to them, like it was just an elegant, kind of joyful journey, as opposed to friends that I have, who are doing this writing journey in other ways where they're feeling stressed by kind of external deadlines, or by editors who keep kind of trying to change what they're doing. 

And I felt like I took your course, the kind of work the the workshop, or the classes that took me through the process. I let go, I trusted your order. You know, when you had us going to the bookstore first before you even started writing, I trusted it, I did it exactly that way. 

And I got to the point where basically we're saying, Okay, now you got to write, that's it. And that was that was a really important part of it. Because I think going through the process, let me grow into myself.

I used to put your recordings on and I would like walk around the neighborhood as I was just kind of like, thinking about the ideas.

I didn't always listen to the whole thing, but I listened to the beginning part where you had us just like, close our eyes and like think about our message and really get into ourselves. 

But by that point, I was like, when I thought about publishing, I thought I deserve this kind of an experience - an encouraging one, a supportive one one, where I feel like we're a team that believes in the message that I have and that I'm trying to get out into the world. 

And it wasn't the usual path right? I think there were ways in which I was like, Oh, well you know, is this right? Should I do it some other way? But again, it was trusting in the journey and the experience that I deserved. So that was the second part.

Narrator (synthetic voice)  6:45  
This material in an excerpt from a longer podcast or video, follow link in description to learn more.