Dr. Ronda Beaman has been Chief Creative Officer for the global research and solution firm PEAK Learning, Inc., since 1990. As a national award-winning educator, Dr. Beaman is Clinical Professor of Leadership at The Orfalea School of Business, California Polytechnic University. She is Founder and Executive Director of Dream Makers SLO, a non-profit foundation granting final wishes to financially- challenged, terminally-ill adults, and serves on the Board of Directors for the National Pay It Forward Foundation. She was recently named a Stanford Fellow at the Distinguished Career Institute.
Her national award-winning book, You’re Only Young Twice, has been printed in five languages. Her memoir, Little Miss Merit Badge, was an Amazon bestseller and was featured at The Golden Globe Awards. Her children’s book, Seal With a Kiss, is designed to improve skills for beginning readers and is offered at Lindamood-Bell Learning Centers internationally. My Feats in These Shoes will be released in Spring 2021.
Dr. Beaman is an internationally recognized expert on leadership, resilience, fitness, education, and life coaching. She has conducted research in a host of areas, written many academic articles and books, and won numerous awards. She was selected by the Singapore Ministry of the Family as their honored Speaker of the Year and named the first recipient of the National Education Association’s “Excellence in the Academy: Art of Teaching” award. She has been selected as a faculty resource for the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) university in Argentina, Kyoto and India, where she received the highest speaker ratings among 36 elite faculty. She has been featured on major media including CBS and Fox Television, USA Today, and is a national thought leader for American Health Network.
Dr. Beaman earned her doctorate in Leadership at Arizona State University. She is also a certified executive coach and personal trainer with multiple credentials from the Aerobic Research Center. Her family was named “America’s Most Creative Family” by USA Today and she won the SCW National Fitness Idol competition.
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❀Tell us about your book! What is it about and what inspired you to write it?
After being told by my father that
I had the ugliest feet he’d ever seen, at age 8, I resolved to reject his
paternal foothold. I found myself, and hard-earned firm footing, in a
hilariously flawed, lifelong, cute-shoe-based revolt.
Far from serving up trauma porn (or emotional bunions), this memoir is an upbeat, humorous, affectionate and affecting coming of age memoir that ends each chapter with a ‘Put Yourself in My Shoes’ section for readers to consider their own strides in pursuing an out of
the shoe box life.
❀Tell us about your publishing process. What was it like? Did you go indie or the traditional way?
I wrote a book
proposal, included three chapters and wrapped it up in a shoe box! I sent the
proposal to small independent publishers in New York and within the month had
offers.
❀How did you choose the title for your book? Did it come to you right away, before you started writing it, or did it come later?
I had the title in
mind for a number of years before I ever decided to write it…I like puns and
shoes, so it came organically, and helped give a form to the memoir.
❀Tell us about the cover design process. Did you have a basic idea of what your book cover would be like?
I had a few artistic
friends give me a couple of ideas, and they were inspired by the passage of
life and time the book involves, so they played with baby shoes to high heels
concept…but it was a photo of my shoe wall at home that inspired the graphic
artist at Adelaide Books and viola! the cover.
❀Who is your cover designer and how did you find him/her?
The publisher
designed the cover.
❀How was your experience working with the designer?
I didn’t use a
designer, I had friends brainstorm and bounce ideas around.
❀What has been the readers’ response to your cover?
My readers and
Instagram family @featsinmyshoes, have all loved the cover, the colors, the way
the shoes already tell a story because they are all different, it’s been well
received and is eye catching, especially to peeps who love shoes!
❀What tips would you give to authors who are looking for a cover designer?
Use friends who know
you and care about you, who have an artistic bent and let them play around a
bit, you will come up with some great ideas.
❀Anything else you’d like to say about your book?
“My Feats in These
Shoes” is a vintage piece, an historical retrospective and an inspirational and
motivational series of stories that will guide readers to think about their own
feats and the accessories of achievement that made them possible.
❀ORDER YOUR COPY OF MY FEATS IN THESE SHOES BELOW!
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