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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If memoirs, done right, tap the right sort of personal journey to ignite fresh insight and inspiration into the human journey, then what better way to humorously and poignantly illuminate the sequential steps and stages of life than with shoes?
“My Feats in These Shoes” is an exuberantly spunky woman’s spirited and irrepressible romp—slips, missteps, leaps, scuffs, and twirls—toward becoming something bigger, something better, something more.
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.
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Welcome to My Bookish Pleasures. We would
love to get to know you and your book! When did you begin writing?
As a university professor and international speaker, I
was writing all the time, but not for me, not as an art or expression of my
“self”…when I turned 40 I wrote my first book, “You’re Only Young Twice” as a
reaction to my own ageing and then my writing took off from there!
Describe your writing process. When and
where do you write?
I have a hectc and varied life, so I commit to one
hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon, and I stick with that
everyday, seven days a week until I get ‘er done.
Can you tell us about your most recent
release?
My latest book, “My Feats in These Shoes” is my second
memoir. It was inspired by so many people asking how I built the life I have
and wanting to show them that nothing comes easy! Life demands that you step
forward and up, and if you stay standing in one place, none of your dreams will
come true.
How did you get the idea for the book?
I am a bona fide shoe-aholic, I have an entire shoe
wall at home, and it occurred to me that each pair is a memento, a souvenir, a
reminder of where I was going and what I did when wearing them.
What was the most challenging aspect of
writing your book?
Delving into my weaker moments, my mistakes and
missteps…not fun, but critical to being a whole person. No one who has lived
any kind of life is unwounded.
Do you find it easier to write nonfiction?
Yes, I think real life and real characters are vastly
more interesting than fictional characters! I can relate to a real person with
real problems.
Do you have plans to write fiction?
I never say never!
What projects are you currently working
on?
My next book will either be about my college teaching
career or, and I am leaning toward this one, a memoir about building a family
compound and living with my son and his family on one piece of land, called
“Haul in the Family!”
What advice would you offer to new or
aspiring nonfiction authors?
Write for one person, one person you care about,
direct your ideas and ideals toward them. For example, I wrote both my memoirs
thinking of my grandchildren, who would never know me as a young person. Once
you can get your story on paper with that person in mind, you can be sure
others will enjoy and benefit from your creativity and expression.
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