She found me on LinkedIn.
That's worth noting, because if you're reading this, you're probably the kind of person who finds people on LinkedIn and then talks yourself out of sending the message. Rasha Oudeh sent that DM because she had a goal and she was determined.
She already had enough material for a book. What she didn't have yet was the shape, and that gap, between having a book in you and having a book. This is exactly the reason book coaching exists.
So I want to walk you through what we actually did, because it's the clearest example I have of how my book coaching business works.
Who is Rasha?
Rasha Oudeh grew up in Jordan, started in pharma in 2007, and built her way across Europe and the Middle East one company at a time. Today, she's CEO of CEDEM AG, a Swiss healthcare manufacturer she runs from Zürich, with work spanning more than 30 countries. She also founded the Amali Mentoring Network for women entrepreneurs.
She is, in other words, exactly the kind of person who "doesn't have time to write a book."
She wrote the book.
What we actually did on the calls
This is the part most aspiring authors are curious about, so let me be specific. We didn't sit around talking about inspiration. We worked.
I came in as her developmental editor — the person who helps you figure out what the book is before you fuss over sentences. Across our calls, that meant three things:
- We built the structure. Rasha had a lifetime of experience and no obvious order to put it in. We shaped it into a six-phase arc — The Decision, The Cost, Breaking Points, Rebuilding, Continuing, and What Remains. That spine is what turned a pile of hard-won stories into a book a reader can actually follow.
- We decided what to leave out. Every strong book is defined as much by what's not in it. A lot of coaching is permission to cut.
- We demystified publishing. I walked her through the landscape — the real options, what each one demands, and how to choose with clear eyes instead of guessing. Most writers stall here, not on the writing.
My job was never to write her book for her. It was to help her see it clearly enough to write it herself, and then keep her moving when most people quietly stall.
The result
Her book, Leadership Without Sugarcoating, is out.
The distance between "I'm working on a book" and "my book is published" is where the vast majority of books die. In my experience, this is not due to a lack of talent, but to a lack of structure, feedback, and someone to keep you honest about the finish line.
Rasha crossed that distance while running a company across multiple continents. If she found the road, the "I'm too busy" excuse gets a lot harder to defend.
And the book itself is worth your time. It asks one question most leadership books dodge: what does leadership actually cost? Not the polished version. Not the motivational quotes. The real cost.
Born in Jordan as the eldest of seven, Rasha carried responsibility early. She started with $200 a month in Amman and built her path across Frankfurt and Zürich with no safety net, teaching herself export and B2B business along the way. She maps that journey through eight honest stages of leadership:
Responsibility → Decision → The Cost → Breaking → Rebuilding → Continuing → Conscience → What Remains.
This is not a book about perfection. It's about who you become through the decisions you survive. I was personally inspired and learned a great deal about resilience and survival as an entrepreneur while working with her and reading her book.
You can find it here.
If you've been circling your own book
Here's the honest truth: most people who "want to write a book someday" never do. Not because they can't write, because they never get the structure, the outside eye, and the accountability that turns a vague intention into a finished manuscript.
That's the gap I close. It's the exact work I did with Rasha, and it's the work I do with every writer I coach.
If you've got a story, a body of experience, or a half-finished draft stuck somewhere between your head and the page, let's talk about getting it out.
Book a book coaching call
Reply to this email and tell me what your book is about. I read everyone
Until next time,
Stay Creative,