On International Women’s Day, I want to tell you about the woman who inspired me the most.
My mother once sat beside me on a stone bench and said,
“You know what I want? I want to learn a computer.”
On her next birthday, I bought her a laptop.
She held it like it was something precious and said,
“You do not know how happy you’ve made me.”
This was 2009. She was 75 years old.
Over the next few years, she learned to write emails.
She opened a Facebook account and reconnected with distant relatives.
She watched YouTube videos. She even took online courses.
That small laptop opened a whole new world for her.
She passed away five years later.
But before she left, she learned one more skill:
How to stay curious about life until the very end.
If you’re thinking:
“It’s too late for me to learn something new,”
Just imagine my mother at 75, exploring the internet with the curiosity of a child.
Age is never a barrier.
The barrier is the story we tell ourselves about what is still possible. 🌸
Category: Personal Story
My best friend’s husband died last week
At his funeral, no one mentioned how full his calendar was.
No one spoke about the properties he owned.
No one listed the size of his investment portfolio.
They told stories.
How he taught his sons chemistry during their college years.
How he became “Uncle Bank” to his nieces and nephews.
How he took his grandchildren for walks every morning.
And in those stories, his core values quietly surfaced:
Authentic.
Brave.
Curious.
Deeply loving.
Playful.
Grateful.
It struck me deeply.
At the end of a life, no one reads out your résumé.
They retell your stories.
Which means:
Your real legacy is not your achievements.
It is the meaning people experienced through you.
If a life is ultimately remembered through stories,
what stories will yours tell?
What beliefs have shaped you?
What lessons did you learn the hard way?
What philosophy do you live by but have never written down?
A book is not just a business tool.
It is a crystallisation of your life.
A permanent record of what you stood for.
Long after meetings are forgotten and metrics are irrelevant,
your words can still guide someone.
If there’s something you want to leave behind, don’t wait.
Capture it.
If you’re ready to write the book that becomes your legacy, join my March cohort.
Let’s turn your lived experience into something that lasts.
Message me on LinkedIn or Substack, and I will send you the details.
Every chapter of my life began with the same question:
Will I bet on myself again?
At 23, I pursued a master’s in Biochemistry
…and enrolled in a PhD.
At 25, I got married
…and moved to a new country.
At 37, I went back to university.
New degree. New career.
At 57, I bet on words.
I wrote books.
I coached.
I built a community.
At 64, I’m doing it again—
helping 100 aspiring authors write their books.
Your story isn’t over.
You’re just standing at the next chapter.
Just Turn the page. 📖
P.S.: If writing your book feels like the bet you’ve been circling for years,
my March cohort is where we turn intention into action—together.
https://onebookto100k.com/
7 Things I Will Be Doing In 2026
In 2026, I’m no longer treating my writing as a side project.
After six and a half years of writing online, I’ve learned something important: Consistency builds skill. But strategy builds a business.
If I want my writing to generate $10K/month, and not just admiration, comments, or “this resonated,” aren’t enough.
I have to operate differently.
So here’s what I will be doing in 2026:
1️⃣ Build my entire business on the back of one strategic book. The book isn’t a credential. It’s the foundation.
2️⃣ Design and lock in a clear offer stack. One audience. One core problem. A logical path from free to paid.
3️⃣ Prioritise high-ticket, high-impact work. Fewer clients. Deeper transformation. Sustainable income.
4️⃣ Write content that relentlessly reinforces my business niche. Everything points to one positioning: turning a book into authority and income.
5️⃣ Attach a clear next step to every piece of content. Not aggressive selling, just leadership and direction.
6️⃣ Work exclusively with committed creators. People who have decided. People who finish what they start.
7️⃣ Operate daily like a business owner not a hobbyist writer. Metrics matter. Revenue matters. Clarity matters.
This isn’t about working harder in 2026. It’s about building something intentional, where writing supports the business, rather than floating around in hopes of it turning into one.
If you’re rethinking how you use your writing this year, try treating it like a business this year, with a book at the centre of it, and see the difference.
Same writing. Different decisions.
7 things I will stop doing in 2026
After six and a half years of writing online, I’ve learned this the hard way:
Growth doesn’t come from doing more.
It comes from doing things that matter.
In 2026, I want to build a $10K/month business on the back of my book, ‘One Book To $100K’
I can’t keep operating like a hobbyist, even if I’m a consistent one.
So here’s what I’m deliberately stopping:
1️⃣ Waiting until I feel ready
Ready is a feeling. Results come from decisions.
2️⃣ Creating scattered content
Everything I publish now points to one clear idea and one clear outcome.
3️⃣ Building multiple products instead of one focused offer
Depth beats breadth. Always.
4️⃣ Selling to people who aren’t ready to buy
I’m done convincing. I’m here to support decision-makers.
5️⃣ Confusing activity with progress
Busy isn’t the same as effective.
6️⃣ Underpricing my thinking
Experience is not content. It’s capital.
7️⃣ Believing that writing more content will solve everything
Less content. More intention. Clearer pathways.
This isn’t about working harder in 2026.
It’s about working at a different level.
Next week, I’ll share the flip side:
7 things I will be doing in 2026 to build a $10K/month business—on the back of one book.
If you’re rethinking how you show up this year, you’re not late.
You’re right on time.
Write your book in 30 days here.
25 things I’m proud of achieving in 2025:
25 things I’m proud of achieving in 2025:
1) Published 153 newsletter issues, 8 podcast episodes, 10 Lives, and 300+ Notes in Substack. Showed up even when consistency felt boring or was a lot of effort.
2) Took my Substack newsletter from 958 to 2,135 subscribers, and paid subscribers from 14 to 59. A slow but steady growth.
3) Wrote 137 LinkedIn posts, including 17 solo video posts, and got over my inhibition of speaking to the camera.
4) Started a LinkedIn newsletter, expanding my writing beyond Substack.
5) Stepped into fiction writing and wrote and published 26 short stories on a Substack publication called Neera’s Fiction (to stretch different creative muscles).
6) Did a 30-Day Notes Challenges on Substack in January and quietly kept going for 60 days.
7) Developed my own content calendar, which genuinely 10x-ed my productivity and saved my sanity.
8) Published my 7th book ‘A Writer’s Guide To Write Travel Stories’ and hosted a virtual launch on Substack, one of my favourite moments of the year.
9) Published my memoir, ‘My Life in 100 Objects,’ a deeply personal milestone.
10) Travelled through Spain, Portugal, Morocco, London, and Uzbekistan, collecting stories instead of souvenirs.
11) Wrote and published The Ultimate Guide to Simple Book Marketing Strategies on Substack (to be published in the future).
12) Wrote another book on Substack on Author Branding (to be published).
13) Launched the 90-Day Write Grow Monetize program in July and then again in October as live cohort training for three months to 50+ paid subscribers of my newsletter.
14) Ran another 60-day Notes Challenge across June and July and then again in October.
15) Lived in India for two months as a senior nomad, proof that work and life don’t have to be opposites.
17) Wrote and published 6 novellas plus a reader magnet, entering a completely new publishing rhythm.
18) Built a fiction mailing list from 0 to 235 subscribers, one reader at a time.
19) Started writing monthly reports on Substack, creating a habit of reflection.
20) Created 5 digital products – ‘Substack Notes Playbook’, ‘LinkedIn Playbook, 90-Day Reusable Content Creation System’, ‘How To Create Your First Digital Product In 3 Hours’ and ‘How To Turn Your Expertise Into Income With A Paid Newsletter.’
21) Took up singing lessons, something I’d wanted to do for years.
22) Ran ’20 Minutes Exercise To Solve Your Hardest Problem’ sold out workshop in collaboration with another creator.
23) Rebranded my Substack, aligning it more closely with who I’ve become.
Launched my 2026 program, Book-to-Business, with clarity and conviction.
24) Wrote the first draft of the book, ‘One Book to $100K: The Proven Book-Led Path to a Six-Figure Business,’ due to be published in March 2026.
25) Conducted a workshop, ‘How to Write a Book and Turn It Into a Business’, closing the year by opening a door. (2 more planned in January).Activate to view larger image,