Partway through our conversation, Nicola said she had noticed she was looking off into the distance while she spoke, letting whatever was coming just drop in. We had been talking about waffling. Nicola told me how often a woman in conversation with her stops partway to apologize for it, saying sorry, I’m waffling, I’ll get to the point in a minute.
She is the author of four books and the founder of The Unbound Press, which she calls a publishing community more than a publishing company. She left finance in her late thirties, retrained as a hypnotherapist and a coach, and wrote her first book, Heal Your Inner Good Girl, in her mid forties. She is writing the fifth one now, in her mid fifties, and she told me she would not be able to write that first one today.
Nicola calls it the magical middle, the stretch where a woman is in the void and certain nothing is happening. She said she gets excited when a client tells her nothing is happening, because she knows there is always something happening under the surface. I hear the same thing from my business coaching clients. They tell me it is not working and ask what else they could be doing, when often they are in a season of needing to descend, go inward, pause, or rest. Before we sat down, Nicola named herself a Prolific Alchemist. In our conversation, she described trusting a story to arrive before she knows what the story is for.
“Each book becomes what it wants to be.”
“I wouldn’t be able to write that book now.”
“I picked up the message, oh, it’s not for people like us.”
“I’m a recovering lone wolf.”
“I want to hear you waffle. There’s magic in there.”
“I often reframe that as the magical middle, because that is where the magic is.”
“If I’m going to hold space for others, I need to have space held for me.”
“Just open your mouth and see what wants to come out.”
“There’s always something happening under the surface, and those are often the most powerful times.”
“I always needed something to back it up, and now I just know in my bones.”
“It’s simply a dry spell, because there is a universal tap on the shoulder of you’re not looking at something.” — Sora
“You don’t need to have a question. I promise you, I will just love you up.” — Sora
Nicola Humber is the author of four transformational books, Heal Your Inner Good Girl, UNBOUND, Unbound Writing and The Abundant Author Playbook. She’s also the founder of The Unbound Press, a soul-led publishing imprint for transformational books. Nicola helps midlife women to write the book their Unbound Self is calling them to write, whilst growing a community of soul-aligned readers and clients.
Website: https://nicolahumber.com
The Unbound Press: https://www.theunboundpress.com
She Finally Wrote It: https://unboundwriting.co/she-finally-wrote-it/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicolahumber
Substack: https://substack.com/@nicolahumber
The Unbound Press is a soul-led publishing imprint founded by Nicola Humber in the United Kingdom, publishing transformational nonfiction by women. Nicola describes it as a publishing community rather than a publishing company, with authors continuing to join group calls after their books are out in the world.
If you listened to Nicola describe the stretch where nothing looks like it is happening and felt something recognize itself, the Magic and Medicine Quiz is the doorway. It is free, it takes a few minutes, and it emails you your Devoted Archetype so you have somewhere real to stand. https://soraschilling.com/quiz
And if you are the woman holding space for everyone else while nobody holds space for you, LUSH Business Academy is where I teach you to fold your scattered gifts into one container that carries them. https://soraschilling.com/lush-business-academy
Nicola named herself a Prolific Alchemist before we ever sat down. If that one landed in your body while you listened, the Devoted Archetype Blueprint for the Prolific Alchemist is $47 and it goes deeper than the quiz result does. https://soraschilling.com/quiz
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