Meet Cliff Shiepe

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cliff Shiepe. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Cliff, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience is not a goal in and of itself. It is the byproduct of committing to finding a solution while enduring adversity. The result of taking action with the belief that there is a purpose in the struggle. And that we will be given what we need when we need it.

None of us are focused on building resilience when we are in the fight. We are just trying to solve the problem at hand and find another way around the obstacles in front of us.

For example, four days before I was to start my book tour, every bookstore in America was shut down because of COVID. People couldn’t gather and book clubs couldn’t meet. Every way of promoting a new release was gone. What was I going to do? In that very moment, I wasn’t saying, “Hey I need more resilience now.” I was thinking “I didn’t come this far to give up.

I had spent years on my novel CLIFF FALLS and the reviews were strong. The question of who we are when we are separated from everything we’ve put our identity in was the driving force behind this novel and it seemed more relevant now than ever.

Also, I knew that isolation that people were feeling right then. This book was born out of it. What the world was experiencing, I had already been through when I had endured a health challenge in my twenties. When your world gets so small, you’re forced to confront yourself, asking questions about your value and worth and who are you apart from your job. Challenges are opportunities for transformation.

With this in mind, I had to find a way forward. So I decided to produce an audiobook version of my novel even though I had no experience.

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. I produced from Los Angeles, with my narrator, Frozen star and Tony Award-winning actor Santino Fontana, quarantined on the East coast with little to no cell reception. It was a little like flying blind. But the end result was magic and resulted in an Audie Award nomination.

I had found my way forward. And that movement and momentum flexed the muscle of resilience and like any muscle that was broken down it only became stronger with recovery.

Our push to move forward and our dedication and belief that there is a bigger plan at work, creates the resilience. And only after we arrive at a stronger place, do we see, understand and value the resilience that was born from the struggle.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
“C.B. Shiepe has found that the worst of times can create the best in a person.” – PBS SoCal

At age 26, I went over the falls in my own life when a health challenge landed me in bed with little more to do than write. It was in the midst of this trial God gave me a message that is reaching thousands of people around the world.

With so much of life already on hold, the last thing I wanted to do was write a book, but I had a story to tell, and perseverance won out. Writing in coffee shops at 5:00 in the morning, I drew on my own experiences working in the entertainment and faith worlds.

CLIFF FALLS was part of his restoration and was years in the making. It took several incarnations. Looking back, I never asked myself if I could write a novel, a screenplay, or a limited television series. I just did, and learned along the way, starting a publishing company to boot. Belief is a powerful thing.

C.B. Shiepe’s award-winning novel CLIFF FALLS: The Missing Pieces was recently nominated for BEST FAITH-BASED AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR. Shiepe has garnered much media attention, appearing on NBC, PBS, TBN, Hour of Power, in Guideposts Magazine, at the LA Times Festival of Books, and speaking engagements across the country, including the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, CA where actors performed scenes from his novel.

A coveted speaker, he’s traveled the country, surprised, but thankful, by the response, amazed how people from all walks of life connect with him and his novel in such a deep, personal way. Maybe we’re not so different after all?

He says, “The knowledge that my story is speaking to people who have gone over the falls is especially meaningful to me. In all that isolation, I had to recognize the face of restoration, and trust that God was taking my experience and redeeming the lost years. I know now that none of our life’s experiences go to waste.”

C.B. Shiepe graduated from the University of Southern California and started his career in production for The Walt Disney Company. Founder of Cliff Falls Media, Inc., C. B. Shiepe develops creative content that explores who we are and how we are connected to God and each other. Understanding that “at one time or another we all go over the falls,” he writes and speaks to an intergenerational audience about the CLIFF FALLS experience. “It’s one thing to believe in something when you don’t need it to be true. It’s another when everything is riding on it.”

Above all, he thanks the One who has seen him through. “After you have suffered a little while, He Himself will restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” – 1 Peter 5:10. Whatever that looks like, he’s game.

To book C. B. Shiepe for an interview or speaking
engagement, please contact: [email protected]

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
If I’m proud of anything it is that I don’t give up. As an author, I’ve always felt that I had been entrusted with a story and that it was my responsibly to develop and nurture it so that it could be shared with the world. And not for any personal fame or monetary gain, but because I believed that it would have a positive impact on those who needed to hear the message contained within.

People often come up to me and tell me about a story they’d like to write or a half-written manuscript they have in a desk drawer. And I always ask them the same question: “What would be the tragedy if your story was never completed and shared – on some level – with the world?” And the responses are always telling.

Often people say that they would just move on in life or find another story to tell. Those are the people who will never cross the finish line because nothing is at stake. It is only the ones who believe that their story must be shared or a great opportunity for impact would be lost; those are the ones who will not only cross the finish line but develop the resilience in the process.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
My mom is the best example of belief. While I was writing CLIFF FALLS, I asked her, “What if it isn’t any good once I’m done.” She looked right at me and replied, “It will be once it’s done.” And then she added this, “Even if this novel doesn’t have worldly success (although I believe it will) your commitment to the process will lead you to whatever is next. None of this time is wasted.”

Believe me, you can spend Tuesdays with Morrie, but if you’re smart, you’ll spend the rest of the week with my mom! We all need people who see the gifts we have inside and who believe the impact we are going to make on others.

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