Meet Suzanne Boothby

We were lucky to catch up with Suzanne Boothby recently and have shared our conversation below.

Suzanne, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I always loved reading and going to the library to pick out new books when I was a child. In fact, I took a class at the local library when I was 9 years old, and we wrote and published our own books. I wrote about my cat and his adventures around the world. While I didn’t know it then, I would go on to write books as a career.

Starting at a young age, I had a few teachers tell me I had a talent for writing, but I didn’t know if I would pursue it as a career. I started journaling and writing poems that helped me developed my love for writing. Writing was how I could grapple my big questions about the world or to complain about my problems or to figure out what I wanted to do next in my life. In high school and college, I continued to learn more about the craft of writing and hone my skills. I studied journalism and learned how to make people feel comfortable when I interviewed them and how to use my writing skills to accurately portray their stories. I learned how to take boring facts and give them a personal story to make them more interesting. I take what I’m curious or worried about and try to make sense of it on the page.

Now, I continue to play with words so that they are interesting to me and hopefully to other people. It’s a lifelong journey that keeps getting better and better.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I work as an author and freelance writer. I started my career as a fact checker for the award-winning investigative magazine, Mother Jones, and I have gone on to cover everything from foraging green juice ingredients to the hidden costs of conventional agriculture. I write blogs, books, newsletters, brand guides, and more.

I am the executive editor of The Brockovich Report, a newsletter from Erin Brockovich that covers the national water crisis, toxic chemicals, and other problems in your backyard. https://www.thebrockovichreport.com

I am the author of The After Cancer Diet, Superman’s Not Coming, and helped pen many successful non-fiction books. I am is currently working on my first novel and have a book currently titled, Juice on the Table, set to come out in 2025.
https://www.suzanneboothby.com

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Curiosity is a desire to learn or know. It’s taken me far in my life. Be curious about yourself and what you really want and be curious about other people and how they have gotten where they are.

Tenacity is what I think is needed to pursue a creative endeavor. Art as a career is not for everyone. It’s challenging! I have had many articles and books published, but I have had many rejections too. The difference between a professional writer and a hobbyist is that the professional just keeps working to get better and keeps going until they find a home for their words.

Self-awareness is such an important and understated skill in our world. Can you tune into your needs? Be honest with your natural rhythms. Push when you need to but also rest when you need a break. It’s a delicate dance. When you know yourself, you’ll have a deeper confidence that will make other people curious about you.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I think it’s so important to pursue getting stronger in the places that feel more challenging. For example, I’m naturally good at meditation in the sense that I can sit and be quiet more easily than most folks. I feel more challenged by breathwork and/or movement. So rather than trying to meditate for longer to show off how well I can sit and be quiet, it’s important for me to find mindfulness practices that challenge me so that I can see who I am when something feels hard and meet the moment. The same is true for my creativity. I can write an okay first draft, but can I develop the strength to go back and rewrite or have someone else look at my work and give me feedback so I can make it better? We must be willing to explore our weaknesses along with bolstering our natural talents.

Part of being able to meet these challenges is having a sense of humor or lightness. It’s so important to be able to laugh at ourselves and say, look how terrible I am at this dance routine or at cooking or whatever it is. With that, you can practice and make improvements. I have started writing many articles in the last year where I thought to myself, “I’m not smart enough to write this story. I need more research or information gathering.” But what I’ve learned is when I can see that challenge and meet it with, “let me just try,” I’m usually happy with the results. I have to get past my limiting thoughts and allow myself to keep going even when I think I’m not doing a good job yet. I have to trust that if I keep going, I will find a way to tell the story that makes sense and that my writing skills are always improving.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.suzanneboothby.com/
• Twitter: https://x.com/SuzanneWriting