Stacey Kulongowski

Authors

Stacey Kulongowski is a former Senior Sales Director at Google turned executive coach, keynote speaker, and founder of The BND Group.

After 25 years leading large-scale teams and driving global strategy, she saw too many talented professionals playing small.

Her book, Bring Your Big Energy, became a call to action for leaders ready to step into their power with authenticity and courage.

This wasn’t a memoir.
It was a movement.

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“I realized I wasn’t just writing a book. I was building a platform for how I want to lead and serve.”

— Stacey Kulongowski

What Changed?

Writing the book forced Stacey to do what she coaches others to do:

• Clarify her message
• Claim her voice
• Move from internal conviction to public leadership

The result?

• 300 pre-launch backers
• A bestselling launch
• A 10-city tour
• Corporate workshops nationwide

The book became proof of concept for the platform.

Goal

  • Build authority or thought leadership
  • Support a consulting or speaking business,
  • Establish a category or methodology
  • Use a book as a business asset

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Balancing book with business or leadership role

Role

  • Consultant / advisor
  • Founder / entrepreneur
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Matt Poepsel

Authors

Matt Poepsel is a leadership scholar, executive practitioner, and former U.S. Marine Corps officer whose career spans military service, software product leadership, organizational psychology, and executive education. He holds a PhD in Psychology, an MBA, and has taught leadership and human flourishing at Boston College. Across boardrooms, classrooms, and combat units, he observed the same pattern: stress and complexity push people toward self-interest and fragmentation.

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“It was humbling to realize how many specialists it takes to create a great book — and how much better the work becomes because of it.”

—Matt Poepsel

What Changed?

Writing Expand the Circle forced Matt to consolidate decades of observation, research, and leadership practice into a single, coherent framework. What had lived across roles, industries, and conversations became The Commitment Cycle™, a system explaining how commitment functions as a form of human energy that counteracts organizational entropy.

The book didn’t just express ideas.
It crystallized a methodology leaders can apply.

Goal

  • Build authority or thought leadership
  • Establish a category or methodology
  • Use a book as a business asset

Constraints

  • Balancing book with business or leadership role
  • Wanted editorial guidance, not ghostwriting
  • Needed structure and accountability

Role

  • Executive / C-suite
  • Consultant / advisor
  • Academic / educator

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Allyson Hernandez

Authors

Multi-passionate writer, performer, composer, and executive coach who has spent years operating at the intersection of creativity and leadership. Trained in musical theater, with professional performance credits and a thriving executive coaching practice, Allyson had already built multiple careers before writing Ballad of Dreams.

The book began as an exploration of her grandmother’s unrealized dreams and evolved into a deeper inquiry about her own, and what happens when ambition, artistry, motherhood, and leadership collide.

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“I needed to read this book three years ago. It was permission to accept that dreams change, and life doesn’t move in a straight line.”

— Allyson Hernandez

What Changed?

The book became an integrative act.

What started as a full musical expanded into a novel with music, allowing Allyson to unify storytelling, composition, and lived experience into one cohesive work. Writing the book clarified that creativity isn’t linear, and neither are meaningful lives.

Goal

  • Publish a legacy or mission-driven book
  • Clarify and organize my ideas
  • Build authority or thought leadership

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Balancing book with business or leadership role

Role

  • Consultant / advisor
  •  Nonprofit or mission-driven leader
  • Memoir & Fiction Project

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Don Sandel

Authors

Founder of GoPositiv and a long-time talent development leader who spent decades inside organizations designing learning experiences that actually worked. A dynamic presenter with a sharp sense of humor, Don became deeply interested in how the brain learns and what enables people to bring their best selves to work.

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“Once I had structure, accountability, and editors holding me to a standard, writing the book went from painful to something I couldn’t wait to do.”

— Don Sandel

What Changed?

A single leadership workshop, grounded in neuroscience and positivity research, unexpectedly developed a waitlist. That signal repeated across internal programs, global conferences, and client engagements. Demand kept growing, but the ideas lived mostly in workshops and talks.

Goal

  • Build authority or thought leadership
  • Support a consulting or speaking business
  • Use a book as a business asset

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • Not a confident writer
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Wanted editorial guidance, not ghostwriting

Role

  • Founder / entrepreneur
  • Consultant / advisor

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Satish Shenoy

Authors

Senior global business executive and award-winning public speaker who has scaled partner ecosystems from seed-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies, generating over $200M in revenue. Parallel to his business career, Satish completed full marathons on all seven continents, including Antarctica.

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“Without the structure, accountability, and editorial guidance, I don’t think I could have finished this book.”

— Satish Shenoy

What Changed?

Repeated speaking engagements revealed a pattern: audiences consistently resonated with the idea of progress through “one more step.” What began as a personal endurance philosophy evolved into a broader framework for sustainable growth, resilience, and leadership.

Goal

  • Build authority or thought leadership
  • Support a consulting or speaking business
  • Use a book as a business asset

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Balancing book with business or leadership role

Role

  • Executive / C-suite
  • Consultant / advisor

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Jennifer Davis

Authors

Senior marketing and strategy executive with decades of experience at companies like AWS, Intel, and Honeywell, known among peers as an “idea machine,” who had long been fascinated by how decisions actually get made, but had never consolidated that thinking into a single framework.

 

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“The editorial process was instrumental in helping me take years of thinking about decisions and turn it into something clear, structured, and usable.”

 

—Jennifer Davis

What Changed?

The book became a forcing function. What had lived as fragmented insights across roles, companies, and conversations was finally organized into a coherent model for better decision-making. The result wasn’t just a book, but a repeatable way to explain, teach, and apply decision discipline across organizations.

Goal

  • Build authority or thought leadership
  • Clarify and organize my ideas
  •  Establish a category or methodology
  • Use a book as a business asset

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • First-time author
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Balancing book with business or leadership role

Role

  • Executive / C-suite
  • Consultant / advisor

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Christopher Veal

Authors

Former Marine Corps officer, executive coach, and leadership development professional with 25+ years of experience working inside organizations, helping leaders build trust, connection, and performance. A Black man who has led in high-stakes environments where strength was assumed to mean control, Christopher had long been doing the work of redefining masculinity and leadership, but hadn’t yet put language or structure around it.

 

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“What I realized through writing the book is that everyone is on their own journey. My job is to keep doing the work, even when vulnerability feels uncomfortable.”

 

—Christopher Veal

What Changed?

The book became a clarifying lens. What had existed as lived experience, coaching conversations, and internal reflection was shaped into a coherent examination of modern masculinity. Writing forced Christopher to move from personal understanding to shared language, from individual growth to collective relevance.

Goal

  • Build authority or thought leadership
  • Publish a legacy or mission-driven book
  • Use a book as a business asset

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Balancing book with business or leadership role

Role

  • Nonprofit or mission-driven leader
  • Consultant / advisor

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Tom Weirich

Authors

Senior renewable energy marketing leader with nearly two decades inside the clean energy transition, deeply embedded in the industry but seeking a more reflective, lasting contribution beyond day-to-day deal flow.

 

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“This writing journey gave me a moment to step back and ask where I’ve been, where I’m going, and where I still want to make an impact.”

—Tom Weirich

What Changed?

Writing We Took the Risk gave Tom space to reflect on the people and moments that shaped the renewable energy industry. What began as curiosity turned into a legacy project that renewed his confidence as a writer, sharpened his thinking, and reignited a sense of purpose for the next chapter of his career.

Goal

  • Build authority or thought leadership
  •  Establish a category or methodology
  • Publish a legacy or mission-driven book

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Wanted editorial guidance, not ghostwriting
  • Balancing book with business or leadership role

Role

  • Executive / C-suite
  • Healthcare or technical professional

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Dr. Laura Streyffeler

Authors

Clinical psychologist, trauma expert, educator, and speaker with decades of experience working across counseling, forensic psychology, and higher education, who had accumulated immense insight but lacked a structured way to transmit it at scale.

 

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“The book helped me bring together a lifelong journey, my personal experience, my professional work, and the healing of others, into one place.”

—Dr. Laura Streyffeler

What Changed?

The book became the mechanism that allowed Dr. Streyffeler to consolidate her personal journey, clinical expertise, and unconventional perspectives into a coherent, accessible framework. What once lived across years of practice, teaching, and speaking was transformed into a durable body of work that could reach far beyond her individual sessions or classrooms.

Goal

  • Build authority or thought leadership
  • Clarify and organize my ideas
  • Publish a legacy or mission-driven book

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Wanted editorial guidance, not ghostwriting
  • Balancing book with business or leadership role

Role

  • Healthcare or technical professional
  • Academic / educator

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Kyle Garman

Authors

Technology executive, investor, and board member of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship who felt a growing responsibility to prepare young people for the future of work. The book emerged at a personal inflection point, driven by fatherhood, loss, and a desire to leave something meaningful behind.

Modern Author Program

“ ”
“I reached a point where I asked myself, what have I done that’s truly about other people? Writing this book crystallized that mission.”

—Kyle Garman

What Changed?

Writing The Entrepreneurial Mindset transformed Kyle’s concern about education and workforce readiness into a clear, accessible framework for students, educators, and parents. The book became a unifying artifact for his advocacy work, earning national recognition and expanding the reach of his mission.

Goal

  • Publish a legacy or mission-driven book
  • Build authority or thought leadership
  • Establish a category or methodology

Constraints

  • Limited time / full-time job
  • First-time author
  • Needed structure and accountability
  • Balancing book with business or leadership role

Role

  • Executive / C-suite
  • Nonprofit or mission-driven leader

→ Read the full case study

Entrepreneurial Mindset Book

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