AJ Harper
AJ Harper is an editor and publishing strategist who helps authors write foundational books that enable them to build readership, grow their brand and make a significant impact on the world. As a ghostwriter and as a developmental editor, Harper has worked with newbies to New York Times-bestselling authors with millions of books sold. Through her fourteen-week live course, Top Three Book Workshop, she helps authors develop, write, and edit must-read books.
As co-founder and senior editor for a small, award-winning LGBTQ-focused press, Harper acquired and edited scores of novels that helped change the publishing landscape for LGBTQ fiction and launched the careers of several bestselling Young Adult authors. She is a steadfast advocate for representation in literature. Harper and her fellow-founders sold the company to Chicago Review Press in 2021.
The Head Writing Coach for Heroic Public Speaking, Harper helped develop their 1st Term speech development program. She was part of the coach team for TEDx Cambridge, one of the longest-running and largest TED events in the world. She has coached renowned economic research scientists from Harvard, Yale, MIT and the World Economic Forum, and has helped create keynotes for bestselling authors, award-winning thought leaders, and inspired agents of change.
Harper is writing partner to business author, and This Sustainable Life podcast guest Mike Michalowicz. Together they’ve written ten books, including Profit First, Clockwork, and All In. She is the author of Write a Must-Read: Craft a Book that Changes Lives–Including Your Own.
850: AJ Harper, part 1: Write to change lives, including yours
Two core elements of leadership are effective communication and creating community. AJ has done both. I can attest from taking her writing workshop and participating in her author community since. I wrote the first draft of Sustainability Simplified in her workshop.
I also valued the book she co-wrote with her writing partner and podcast guest Mike Michalowicz. As you’ll hear in our conversation, their podcast is one of the only ones I’ve listened to every episode of.
I’ve wanted to bring her on the podcast for a long time since I learned so much from her and value participating in her community so much. If you’re here to build community to change culture, I believe you can learn from AJ’s journey and building her community. I see them based on honesty, integrity, doing the reps, self-awareness, and the things that many people talk about but not all do. If I’m not too direct and blunt to say so, environmentalists in particular not only lack these leadership properties, many of them shun them.