Brilliance Unboxed seeks to unbox the magic that we all have within us, and is an invitation to truly connect with our brilliance through unabashed reclamation, cell-level, soul-led fist pumps, and a side order of air guitar.
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Jo Gifford's journey with the Unbound press is a magical one. She knew Nicola from being on each other's email lists and internet orbits, and had worked with Nicola on her messaging, just before UNBOUND was published. When Nicola sent Jo a copy of UNBOUND, it resonated to her very core; Jo read it in one sitting, and immediately contacted Nicola to be part of the UNBOUND Press.
Jo's book, Brilliance Unboxed, is the story of the reclamation of your brilliance. It takes us through the journey of rediscovering what our brilliance is, of learning to own it and to tear down expectations that we have inherited from society, from our culture, and even from our own minds around who and what we can be in life.
Brilliance Unboxed is a natural follow on from Jo's first, Brilliance Ignition, but stands alone in its own right.
Jo's story and her book is one of legacy and of an important reclamation by women of our brilliance as we step into acknowledging who we are.
This is a powerful book filled with journal prompts to help the reader unbox their own brilliance, and to experience a whole new unbound level of life as they do so. Brilliance Unboxed is published by the Unbound Press on March 26th 2020.
Meet the Author:
Jo Gifford lives near Cambridge with her family. She is a yogi who has also found her happy place in the gym, and is usually found beside her cat with a cup of chai and a journal in hand. Jo helps founders and CEO’s to develop and manage content that creates change.
The Unbound Writing Process: When she first signed up with the Unbound Press, in January 2019 Jo had a spacious diary with some great projects but plenty of time to write. As she committed to writing her book, she began leading big teams for some huge content development projects in 2019. She had to rethink how this book was going to come to life, whilst working full time, managing chronic health conditions, and parenting to 10 year old twins.
Jo wrote this book in the tiny moments of life. She set herself the habit of recording a voice memo every morning while she did her makeup, and to brain dump thoughts for the book. She then had those transcribed. She pulled in older blog posts and Instagram posts that she had written. She called on her prolific archives of content from blogging over the years and realised how much of her book was already out there in the world.
As Jo started to put the book together and the chapters began to form, she realised that this book felt like it hadn't even been written by her. She truly felt the book had arrived through her, and when she made space for the book, the book showed up for her.
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Here at the UNBOUND Press, we love to encourage our community of UNBOUND women to express themselves through the writing process.
Whether you become an author with us or not, our heartfelt wish is that you begin to find your voice in life, and to express yourself as fully as possible.
Use these journal prompts to spark some ideas in your own journal - whether you take pen to paper or finger to keyboard, feel free to use them to spark your writing process.
We love to hear about your ideas, so if it feels good to do so, please share with us what comes up from your journal prompts via Instagram @theunboundpress using the hashtag #unboundjournalprompts.
Journal Prompts:
Jo began to create content creatively as life was busy. For her, dictating audio to her phone voice notes helped to process the book. What parts of your day lend themselves to thinking space, and how can you use them to output some thoughts?
What content have you already written that feels good to revisit? It might be as part of a journal entry, an old blog post, a video, or a note to yourself. Sometimes the breadcrumbs of magic are already in front of us and we just need to see them with a fresh light.
Have you ever felt as if an idea or a concept has arrived “through” you, as Jo did with this book? Can you identify where you were, and how that happened? Once we can identify the conditions that helped to create a flow state, it becomes easier to encourage it to happen.
How might you approach “writing” if you allowed yourself to get UNBOUND with the process? Does using audio, video, or journaling as starting points feel different to you? Consider playing with different ways of creating, and notice how each one makes you feel in your body and your soul.