HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A SUCCESSFUL SPEAKER AND THE AUTHOR OF A FIRST RATE BOOK BY FEBRUARY 2026?

Barbara Sher’s WriteSpeak Program continues! Learn more:

Registration opens February 8, 2025.

Part 1: 6-Hour Teleworkshop – (Two dates in March 2025)
Part 2: 48-Week Online Course – (March 24, 2025 – February 22, 2026)
Registration: Opens February 8, 2025
WriteSpeak Grads Write, Speak, Coach, Teach, Succeed
Praise from Past WriteSpeak members

For many years, at the end of Barbara Sher’s workshops, people would stand up and say, “I want to do what you do.” She would ask how many other people wanted the same thing and dozens of people would raise their hands! Her answer was always the same: I want you to do what I do, and I’ll do everything I can to help you!

And she would try to do it then and there.

If you’re one of the people who took notes like crazy while she rattled off the bare bones of her system for finding your own message and the perfect audience, becoming a well-paid speaker and writing a first-rate, successful book that will really help people (without sacrificing years of your life) we think you’ll be glad to hear that Barbara made sure her jam-packed course did not end with her death.

Patrice Jenkins, part of WriteSpeak since 2007 and a published author and speaker, has taught the course with Barbara and will continue teaching it now that she’s gone. WriteSpeak grads and published authors Kandy Sartori and Suzi Larkin now teach it with her. We’re including lots of recordings of Barbara sharing her wisdom and helping WriteSpeakers past their Resistance and all of her 48 weeks of online assignments.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR OWN SUCCESS STORY BY FEBRUARY 2026

This program will begin again in March 2025 with Barbara’s six-hour WriteSpeak workshop by telephone.

You’re in for an exciting and profound learning experience. This Teleworkshop shows you exactly what you must know to bring forth the visionary leader inside you.

“Visionary leader?!” you might be saying. “Don’t let my family hear that one or they’ll die laughing.” But if you’ve wondered about whether you have what it takes to share what you’ve learned with the world, listen carefully.

If you’ve ever confronted difficult problems in your life and you sought and found ways to solve them (from raising a kid to building a home), you know something you should be telling the rest of us. And if you’ve felt the urge to share your knowledge to help others, then chances are very good that you have three of the four essentials you need to be a successful author and speaker.

1. You have personal experience with the struggle to create a good life, so you know how tough that struggle can be.
2. You’ve searched long and hard to find a solution, so you know the steps that are needed.
3. You dream of sharing what you’ve learned and you’re happiest when you’re helping someone with your knowledge.

What’s the fourth essential?

4. You need someone to show you how.

You don’t need another cheer-leading session that creates a temporary surge of enthusiasm; you need to know the actual steps to creating a successful career from those first three essentials.

You need an experienced hand to guide you and keep you on message, someone who will teach you to be a compelling speaker with fire in your words, not by throwing a handful of glib suggestions at you, but by walking you through hands-on experience and making sure you get supportive critiques.

You need someone to bring out the quality book that’s inside you and show you where to find capable, ethical editors to help you organize and polish it.

And you need to know the many ways you can get published, including the traditional route with an agent and major publishing house and the step-by-step process for self-publishing and how to choose between them.

Maybe you’ve been to one of those huge, overpriced conferences with dozens of presenters pitching their products and promising to make you a multi-millionaire. Maybe you’ve gotten something useful there, or maybe you felt disappointed: you know you really need a small class and dedicated teachers who are powerfully motivated to bring out the very best you’ve got inside you because they want you to share it with the world. And you need the learned-it-the-hard-way tips and tricks and wisdom of a best-selling author and world-renowned speaker.

If you’re on the Barbara Sher mailing list, I assume you know about Barbara. If not, click here to read her bio: About Barbara on barbarasher.com. Barbara loved what she did. She never thought she’d be passionate about one career for over 40 years, but that’s what has happened. In that time she designed and gave hundreds of well-received speeches and workshops to associations and Fortune 100 companies, appeared nationally on dozens of major television shows and had five of her own Public Television specials airing year after year.

But when she started running workshops in 1976 she had never heard of a ‘speaker.’ She was completely on her own, a single mother with two little boys and not an extra dime in her pocket. One friend designed small flyers and loaned her the money to print them up; two others helped her slap them up on lamp posts (illegally, perhaps) in the middle of the night. When no one signed up, they wrote “sold out” on that date and slapped them up again the next week. Finally she hauled everyone she knew into the room for no money at all, just so she could give the first workshops.

Barbara had to learn this business step by step, every step by trial and error. She learned how to get written up in major magazines and newspapers because she couldn’t afford advertising. When those articles resulted in calls from literary agents, she learned how to write a book that had her real voice (though she had never done it before) while holding down two jobs and taking care of her home and kids.

She wrote her first book, Wishcraft, in 1978. It was published by a major publisher and has now sold more than a million copies. In the following years she wrote six more books. They have been translated into many languages and have stayed in print and continue to sell well. They’ve appeared on bestseller lists, have won awards, and she was very proud of them. Best of all, Barbara got (and still gets) letters and emails every day from people thanking her for how her work has helped them. Along with her speaking career, her books have also provided her with a comfortable and deeply satisfying life.

Patrice understands completely why you might want to do what Barbara did.

In 2007, Barbara decided to pass on her knowledge to those of us who are talented and as passionate as she was. She ran WriteSpeak teleworkshops, retreats, and telecourses through 2011. And she ran out of steam. It was intense work. And it was more expensive than some with great ideas to share could afford. Now we’re doing it online, in a form lots more of you can afford. And no travel! 🙂

Barbara believed with all her heart that the world needs the talent each and every one of us was born with. If your desires lie in the direction of speaking, coaching, and/or putting your message in a book, there’s a high probability that you have gifts in that area. We want to help you find your gifts and your voice, and, if you find this career suits you, to help give you the start you need. Barbara taught us how to do that. It was one of her gifts.

And it’s the gift she believed she would still owe to the world even after she was no longer with us.

That is why she asked us to help her capture it in a format that would allow us to continue sharing her wisdom with you no matter what happened to her.

 

PART 1 IS A 6-HOUR, SMALL GROUP TELEWORKSHOP

We do these by phone.

You’ll need access to a computer, too.

And there’s an hour or two of mandatory prep work before the teleworkshop.

To accommodate many time zones in many countries, these will be 2-day events starting at different times each weekend.

We will do this three times in March, and we can teach up to 15 of you in each one. You’ll get to know each other. And Barbara (we’ve got her recorded). And us. You’ll discover who you should write for and what you should write about. You’ll learn why speakers need to write books and authors need to speak and how to make both of these a whole lot easier and more fun than you imagine.

Here are the dates. Please choose one. Make your choice in February 2025 and register then, starting February 8th, because we must close each one as soon as we have 15 people registered. The times listed are in the NY time zone (EST or EDT). Click on the links to see when that is where you live.

Saturday, March 8, 9:00am-12:15pm EST and Sunday, March 9, 9:00-11:45pm EDT
Saturday, March 15, 6:00-9:15pm EDT and Sunday, March 16, 6:00-8:45pm EDT

 

PART 2 OF THE WRITESPEAK PROGRAM CONTINUES ONLINE FOR 48 WEEKS

(March 22, 2025 – February 21, 2026)

With help from Patty Newbold and other WriteSpeak grads, Barbara pulled together all the best stuff from her famous 6-day WriteSpeak retreats and her wildly productive year-long telephone course into a beautifully designed, coherent, 48-week online course for you. If you are ready to Write Your Own Success Story and you can devote 10 hours or more each week to the exciting work of writing your book, creating workshops and presentations you’ll be proud to deliver, and telling the many people who need your book and your in-person events who you are and what you can offer them, then this is for you.

Part 2 is where the rubber hits the road. You’ll have learned in Part 1 what you want to say (really, what you need to say and people need to hear), and now you’ll sit down, roll up your sleeves and create your new career.

No time to attend meetings or even webinars? Don’t worry. Part 2 will have step-by-step, online assignments you can do on your own, following your own schedule. They’ll show you exactly how to create your book and your career. You’ll decide when you can do them.

But what you’ll be reading won’t be any book you can buy anywhere. You will have transcripts and handouts and email discussions and audio recordings from Barbara’s six WriteSpeak retreats and two telecourses. Plus recordings of her coaching past WriteSpeakers on the most important assignments. The best of the best, the exercises and explanations that did the best job of getting her earlier students (now author/speakers) where they are today.

And you won’t be on your own. You’ll be part of a community of writers and speakers with vitally important messages, discussing what you’re learning and trying and doing in comments you can pay attention to on your own schedule.

You won’t get the kind of speaking advice you can get from Toastmasters or a public speaking class. You’ll be speaking with passion and purpose about something that matters to you — and matters just as much to crowds of people who will gladly pay to hear you.

Barbara’s approach to book-writing isn’t like anyone else’s. Her goal isn’t for you to make big bucks but to live a life you love and contribute your gifts to the world. What she reveals isn’t how the game is played, but where the shortcuts can be found. Life is short, and we want a published book in your hands next February.

You’ll have some great coaches as you work through her assignments for you. Patrice completed the full WriteSpeak program the very first time it was offered, and has repeated it since then. Patrice joined the Teleworkshop team in 2020, when she had the opportunity to run them with Barbara and Patty Newbold. Now, she is assisted by Kandy Sartori and Suzi Larkin.

We will also be relying on you to help each other. You’ll have optional telephone check-ins to cheer you on, blockbusters to get past your procrastination, scheduled and unscheduled chances to learn from each other, and a built-in audience for your practice speaking.

Most of you will be writing self-help style books, but some of you will tackle narrative non-fiction, fiction, maybe even comic books. There are many ways to share your hard-earned wisdom with those thirsty for it. All are fine approaches.

The length of your book doesn’t matter. Neither does whether it’s hard cover, paperback, print-on-demand, downloadable, or all of the above. If you’re aiming for a contract with a publisher, Barbara would encourage you to self-publish a small book during the course, while your proposal is making the rounds of agents and editors. When you hold your book in your hand or see it on a Kindle, you’ll experience a real thrill.

Book Launch Party and Telesummit

There is another reason we would like you all to finish a book during the course. In week 46 of our 48-week course — on February 7th, 2026 — we will throw a big, online book launch party. Publicity. Prizes for the reading public. Book reviews. Of your book.

And wrapped around the partying, a widely publicized Telesummit: a day of 20-minute and 30-minute teleworkshops by our newly published authors, including you.

You will be a speaker at a Barbara Sher Telesummit, promoted to her many fans.

And we’ll record each teleworkshop for all to listen to at their leisure from the Barbara’s Club website if they cannot be part of your live audience. For a full year. With a link to wherever they can buy your book. Check out our latest telesummit and book launch. We really want to include you and your book in the next one.

There are folks out there who announce you can write a book in a weekend. Maybe, but we’re talking about books that change lives, books that show the way to something better, not those books. So let us be very honest with you. You will need to put in 10 hours a week for 48 weeks. This is enough to write a book, start a blog or newsletter, create a presentation or workshop, start making a name on social media, and all the rest — but only with a good bit of help.

We’ll show you all the places where others can help, and you will need to pay them or barter with them for their expertise and time, as Barbara did and Patrice, Kandy, and Suzi still do. If you are a do-it-yourself sort, please expect to put in twice as much time or keep your book very short. Either way, we’ll give you the training you need to follow in Barbara’ footsteps.

With her assignments, you’ll develop your message, step by step, and create your book and your presentation — a workshop or a keynote speech — using a completely new method of writing that you’ve never used before. When you finish Part 2, you’ll have your published book and your presentation ready to go.

But that’s not all, because throughout the course we focus on letting the world know who you are. You’ll have your own website, mailing list, and blog or newsletter. You’ll be completely comfortable speaking on your subject and setting up teleclasses. You’ll know how to get into print media and be published online as well as setting up a press kit to send to associations and companies that will hire you to speak.

You’re going to have everything you need to create your lucrative speaking career.

Some students become paid speakers by the 10th month of the program!

If you run into trouble on any of this, we’ll help walk you through step-by-step or troubleshoot what went wrong and fix it.

In other words, you’ll be in business, doing what you love, helping your listeners and readers lead better lives, and you’ll be thanked for it. You’ll be paid for it, too. You’re going to make a real difference in this world doing what you love best, and you’ll feel the satisfaction that comes from that amazing combination.

Lots of Support

The discussion of the assignments is written and online, with lots of support from your coach. You will be part of member-run blockbusters (an end-run around procrastination or fear), monthly phone get-togethers (very encouraging), and short teleworkshops you offer each other. You will also have monthly group coaching sessions with Suzi Larkin or Kandy Sartori, who know the program well. There will be twelve one-hour meetings, on the last Tuesday of every month from March 2025 through February 2026, at a time that works for you. If you need one-on-one coaching, Patrice is also available to you for a very reasonable fee.

 

REGISTRATION: OPENS FEBRUARY 8, 2025

You will choose just one of these two Teleworkshop weekends. You can register for the 48-Week Course and Group Coaching for a discounted package price at the same time, or you can add them after you complete the Teleworkshop.

Saturday, March 8, 9:00am-12:15pm EST and Sunday, March 9, 9:00-11:45pm EDT
Saturday, March 15, 6:00-9:15pm EDT and Sunday, March 16, 6:00-8:45pm EDT

 

WHAT WRITESPEAK GRADS ARE UP TO

Here are some of the incredible success stories we’ve heard about from those who completed the WriteSpeak program.

Michelle M. Jacob (Yakama), PhD, Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Oregon and Managing Member of Anahuy Mentoring, LLC published three books about Yakama wisdom during her year in WriteSpeak: Huckleberries & Coyotes: Lessons from Our More than Human Relations, The Auntie Way: Stories Celebrating Kindness, Fierceness, and Creativity, and Fox Doesn’t Wear a Watch: Lessons from Mother Nature’s Classroom. She also runs The Auntie Way Writing Retreat and several workshops.

Kerry Ann Rockquemore co-authored The Black Academic’s Guide to Winning Tenure–Without Losing Your Soul and left her academic position to launch the remarkably successful National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity, with a staff helping her give lectures, workshops and boot camps at universities around the country and the world.

Patrice Jenkins self-published What Will I Do All Day? Wisdom to Get You Over Retirement and on With Living! It launched a speaking career to get people ready for retirement and continues to sell hundreds of copies every month. She also does organizational consulting on the subject.

Rachel Z. Cornell invented a brand-new form of coaching and telecourse business, helping academics and authors “take action when action feels impossible.” She wrote Barbara this: “Thanks to you I not only got clear about my message but also got the support I needed to embrace a unique aptitude I have and turn it into a thriving business.” That business is pronagger.com.

Barbara Richards of visionworkcoaching.com ran a summer webinar series for her solopreneur coaching clients on Attraction Marketing: 7 Steps to Cracking the Code on Attracting (Great!) Clients, Your Way. She’s become a speaker and published Give Your Dream a Plan: 7 Questions to Ignite Extraordinary Results in Your Business.

Edith Johnston has written two books — A Myriad of Ideas : Personal Development for Multi-Talented Individual and Discovering the Intensity of Brillance: A Mandala Journey — and is working on a third. She runs workshops and teleclasses for multi-talented individuals.

Christi Daniels runs group classes and private mentoring sessions. She’s working on an online course. And she’s the proud author of Sabbatical from “Yes”: Reconnect with Your Inner Wisdom, Energy and Creative Fire through 30 Days of Putting Yourself First.

Michele Vosberg created a journal called Morning Messages: 6 Minutes a Day to the Life of Your Dreams and an online course, Ramp Up Your Life 5 Day Challenge!.

Let’s include you on this list next year!

 

WHAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT THE WRITESPEAK PROGRAM

Hi, Barbara!
Wow!
I am overcome. I am speechless. You have showered me with ideas and encouragement…I’m going to pore over this and absorb it today… every nerve ending is crackling!

Barbara,
My immediate reaction was that I was trying to drink from a fire hose! There was so much good information and it was coming at me so fast I didn’t have time to think or digest it all. I have been thinking of almost nothing else since. I am realizing that this workshop is changing the way I talk to myself and to others – everything is lining up behind the desire to finally identify my message and do the work to get it out there.

The Write Speak Teleworkshop is excellent. Barbara’s depth of knowledge is incredible. She truly is a master at what she does. She has so much to offer and she does it with warmth, humour and kindness. In one day, she has helped me to clarify and define my message – wow!

Your insights and approach are invaluable! I keep re-reading my notes and continue to learn even after the session is over.

What an amazing day! While it will take me weeks to fully digest everything that I’ve learned, I already feel that have found a place that feels like home. Surprisingly — to me at least — is that I learned more about myself than specific tools for writing. That was a lovely gift. As an aside, while I very much look forward to meeting Barbara at the retreat in January, I am also very excited about meeting in person the folks with whom I spoke today. What a great group with such amazing energy!

I’ve never heard anyone describe what ’drive’ really is until today, or explain ’excitement’ and its real purpose and why it often awakens resistance and how to work with it in such creative ways! I don’t know where to start listing what I learned today; it was amazing. No one says what you do. I will never forget this.

You always seem to come up with some totally original content and you’ve done it again on this workshop! The way you’ve told us to write and to come up with original content is great. And the process for coming up with a really compelling core message has been moving and revealing. Thanks for telling us we don’t need to have all the answers before we start too! I feel like I’ve now got a good idea of how to come up great content for books and talks.

Barbara Sher is just like a real person, only shorter.