Who Is Leah?
Here I am. As corny as that sounds.
For you, Lori Vance I’m writing this, which is quite uncomfortable, but since you asked for it, here I am in video and photo form. You bring up a good point, and videos, even though i love making them, are actually hard for me to make of myself talking. It is easy for me to be “weird” in a video, but quite difficult to be myself, vulnerable. But I did make some that show these qualities. barf.
Here was the inspiration to write my book: verbal abuse from my managers at the car dealership. I dug down deep and recreated the scenarios which tormented me:
And here’s one that explores the scars of me being abused by my sociopathic ex. I act out a scene, even though I was never hit by him, it taps into the horror i felt when I learned that my ex beat up his former pregnant girlfriend. It really shows how i felt throughout my relationship with a sociopath. This one goes out to Brenton Eckersley who wrote about his narc ex.
Some of them show my mania and depression (see video#4), which i experienced when i first started writing my book. Mania allowed me to break out of my depressive cocoon. You can see how nuts I was in the second video. I also look like shit because I was overworking myself: I worked at a car dealership (50+ hours) and I’d write on breaks, or at night. I look really sick and I can see how I have become healthier recently.
I made a number of behind-the-scenes videos throughout the writing of my first book in case anyone was interested, but mostly just to document my progress, to look back, as it were…..
Here’s a really normal one that I made to thank people for subscribing to my newsletter:
Here’s the one which features me as I was first starting to write, coming out of my depressive cocooon, with bags under my eyes:
And this progress update is showing a more healthy, active version of me. I sped up the sound to make it more manic, it sort of captures the energy i was experiencing:
And this one explores the tiny books I gave away at my book release party:
And my Amazon author profile has a video of me as well called, Who Is Stellabelle?
If those videos aren’t enough, you can watch the entire playlist of Un-Crap Your Life videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL13FE3D369A15F277
I suppose all of this is making me realize is that at heart, I’m a documenter, not a marketer? I like to mess around with different ideas, but rarely commit myself to creating one solid piece of work. Instead, I try out lots of different ideas……which, i think, dilutes my message. If I crammed all this into one video, maybe that would work? I have no idea. Anyway, here I am.
I want to end with a super depressing one that I had commissioned. It turned out to be really scary by accident. I hired a guy on Fiverr to make me a book trailer. I chose someone who I thought no one else would be hiring. This man is from India, and he’s in the textile industry. By accident, it turned out to be revealing of many issues, and it’s both funny and tragic at the same time. He says, “Uncrap your life, before it’s too late” and the ironic thing is that he seems to be in need of uncrapping his life more than anyone else, including myself. Of course, that is my perception and I don’t know his reality. It would be cool to meet all the people I hired for my videos. There’s three or four of them. Oddly, I chose all men…hmmm…..
For those just coming into the conversation, you can buy my book here on Amazon USA.
And for international Amazon stores:
Amazon India 60 rupees (I greatly reduced the price for India after learning that 60 rupees was the standard ebook rate)
Amazon China: I couldn’t get the Chinese Amazon to load.
So, as you can see, the Amazon international stores are amazing, that is, if anyone can ever find your book!
Here’s one I made which talks about being a victim and how to stop being one:
