Tyler Erickson's Blog: Listening to Yourself

I’ve been learning that promoting a book is an entirely different skill set from writing one. Writing Listening to Yourself was deeply personal and honestly joyful. Promotion, on the other hand, is a strange mix of courage, anxiety, and long stretches of emailing people who may or may not ever reply. It’s harder than writing by a mile. But it’s also been unexpectedly encouraging.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve sent the book to professors, colleagues, counselors, ministry leaders, and even a handful of aspirational endorsers I admire from afar. A number of people are currently reading it, and this week I received my first official endorsement! It genuinely moved me. Here’s what he wrote:

“Tyler Erickson’s Listening to Yourself: How to Hear Your Own Wisdom is a beautifully written and wonderfully compassionate guide for anyone seeking greater self-awareness and inner peace. Erickson draws from his rich background in counseling and ministry and invites readers to approach their inner lives with curiosity, grace, and courage. Through vivid storytelling and reflection exercises, he helps us quiet the noise of shame and fear. This book is more than a resource — it is a companion on a journey toward authenticity and healing.”
-Dr. Verona, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Counseling

He then forwarded the book to 100+ other faculty members. I don’t think I was prepared for how meaningful that kind of generosity would feel. To know the book is being shared from one scholar to a whole department—I’m still taking that in.

There have been other surprises as well. I found out that I’ll be featured in the University of the Cumberlands' alumni magazine in the spring! For someone who still feels like a new author, these small moments feel huge.

I’m also on track to have my next title ready in February. Writing continues to come naturally; the promoting part continues to stretch me. Maybe that’s the point. The book is about listening inward with honesty and courage, and I’m having to practice that same courage in real time as I put the work into the world.

Thank you to everyone following along here. Your encouragement means more than you know.

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When I first released Listening to Yourself: How to Hear Your Own Wisdom, I thought I was done, like it was mission accomplished. But finishing the book wasn’t the end. It was the beginning of a process I’ve grown to love: learning, revising, and growing as a writer.

A few weeks after publishing, I read through my book again and saw things I wanted to change—sentences that rambled, transitions that could flow better, and sections that needed clarity. My first reaction was embarrassment. But soon, I felt something else: gratitude. I realized this wasn’t failure, but it was progress. I was seeing my work with new eyes, which meant I was growing.

So I got to work. I cut repetition, refined ideas, and made the book breathe a little more. Revision, I discovered, isn’t about fixing mistakes, but it’s about caring for your message and your readers. It’s about caring enough about what you write to continue working on it.

Writing has taught me humility. It reminds me that growth comes from openness, listening to feedback, and the desire to keep learning. It’s the same lesson I see in counseling: awareness is the first step toward transformation. The moment you stop pretending you’ve “arrived,” you create space to become something new.

And something new is what I'm doing. Revisions have been made to my first book, and I am already headlong into my next book. My next book won't have me "arriving" as a writer either, but it will be another step toward improvement.

And that process of progress as a writer (I'm discovering) gives me great meaning and joy.

Writing "Listening to Yourself" was vulnerable for me. Since writing it, questions have crept in: Is it good enough? Will others like it? Did I edit it enough?
You know it’s strange to realize that once your words leave your hands, they no longer belong to you. Readers will interpret, question, and experience them in ways you can’t control, and that’s part of the beauty and terror of art. A book, like any creative work, is never truly finished. It’s simply the moment you stop working on it.
When I finally set the manuscript down, I felt a mix of relief and anxiety, but mostly gratitude. And since finishing it, hearing from readers who found encouragement or clarity in its pages has been deeply humbling. A few have even said it helped them reconnect with themselves, and that alone makes it worth it.
So, to answer my own questions that are in my head, “no, it probably wasn’t good enough for everyone, some won’t like it, and I certainly could have edited more. But it is enough. And it was my first book. And I’ll get to write more. And anyway… there’s always a 2nd edition!”
So, in the end, Listening to Yourself became what I hoped it would be: a companion for anyone learning to hear their own wisdom. Moreover, writing it taught me that the goal isn’t perfection, but honesty. And honesty is a big step in the process of growth and self-understanding for everyone.