Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Fallon.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Allison. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I always knew I wanted to be an author, but for a variety of reasons—including a lack of self-confidence in my own abilities, advice from mentors and parents about what was the most lucrative path, an attempt to “fit in” with my peers—I found myself on a different path by the time I finished my schooling. I got a BA in English and a Masters in Teaching (with an emphasis in writing) and taught in the public school system in Portland, Oregon, where I grew up. Then, about 2 years into my teaching career, I realized I was depressed, frustrated, and stuck in a career that was honorable but not a fit for me.
So I quit my job, moved out of my apartment in Portland, sold pretty much everything I owned, and spent the next year of my life traveling across the country writing my first book (which published in 2013, called Packing Light).
That launched me into my dream of publishing, which turned out to be less “dream” (or dreamy in a different way) than I expected. Since then I’ve written 12 books, coached hundreds of authors to outline their work, to get their words on paper, to understand a narrative framework, and to find their voice. It’s been challenging and messy and confusing at points and engaging and exciting and all of the things you want a career to be. It’s pushed me and given me opportunities to grow and have experiences I never thought I could have. To this day, it continues to stretch me out of my comfort zone and I’m thrilled and grateful to get to do the work I do.
Meanwhile, as all of this was happening in my professional life, my personal life took a major and unexpected left turn. I had been married for about 4 years at the time, working really closely with my husband. He was a Christian pastor, we had worked at a church together, started an online magazine for Christian authors, and were working in with several popular Christian authors when I found he had been living a double-life. We quickly divorced, but when you’re an author of personal memoirs, your personal life doesn’t get to be exactly personal, so not only was I left with all the obvious personal questions and doubts a woman faces when she goes through divorce, but also trying to figure out what this meant for me as a woman who had a small but growing forward-facing persona.
What this left me with, in my mind, was really one choice—which was to tell the true story, including the parts of the story I didn’t want to tell. We had a “whirlwind” romance story, the kind you tell at parties that gets people to lean in and listen. But what no one had known about our marriage was how miserable it had been for me the entire time.
It’s taken me a long time to use the word abusive as it relates to my relationship—although that’s what it was—for all the reasons women cite that they hide or ignore or tolerate abuse. I was scared of him, first of all, I didn’t want to be seen as weak or dramatic, and because my brain was impacted enough by the trauma of our relationship that I wasn’t reading the situation accurately. Also, I was never rushed to the ER with any obvious injuries… which made it hard for me, even after admitting to friends that our relationship was terrifying and emotionally abusive, to call it physically abusive.
It’s amazing how far we’ll go to sanitize our stories to make them palatable, even to ourselves. I can still remember sitting at dinner with a friend long after the marriage had ended, telling a story of a time my ex-husband had become very angry with me, grabbed my arm and slammed me up against the door when I tried to leave the room. My friend looked at me and said, “Ally… that’s physical abuse…”
I knew it was… but for some reason, I realized I had never really let myself admit it.
Now one of the things I’m most committed to doing is helping women to gain confidence and use their voices and LEVERAGE their weight in the world to bring the fullness of themselves to their life. Women aren’t the only ones who need this help, obviously, but I find so many women (and especially women who have grown up in a faith community) are struggling to figure out who they are, what makes them matter, and to give themselves permission to go after it.
It’s such an interesting an amazing crossover between the work I did for a decade with authors, and the work I’m doing now—since what you’re doing with an author who is writing a book is to help them stand outside of their story for a minute, to see it more objectively, and to begin to “write” the ending they desire for themselves is an incredible way to empower a person. It’s rewarding work and I’m grateful every day to continue to work with authors who want to publish books, and also to help people leverage the power of writing to generate positive change in their lives.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Not even close to smooth.
No, in fact, I am of the belief that anytime you try to do something that matters in the world you’ll be met with great resistance. I have yet to meet a person I admire who hasn’t truly suffered, although suffering looks different for everyone. It’s easy to think the person who has multiple vacation homes and millions of dollars and is driving the fancy sports car hasn’t suffered, but at the end of the day, human suffering, for the most part, looks like this: we’ve loved, we’ve lost, and we’re trying to find our way home.
When you love someone or something—a child, a spouse, a business, an idea, a group of people—there’s just no way that you won’t suffer for the sake of that thing, but I think that this is what love is teaching us: it’s trimming our egos, rounding out the rough places, showing us how strong we are, and also how soft, and ultimately it’s breaking us free so we can bring the highest versions of ourselves to the world.
Some of my biggest obstacles:
1. Money. I didn’t come from money, and never planned to make more than a teacher’s salary. I’ve never raised any capital for my business, and never carried any debt on the business. So I’ve had to learn to be a little bit scrappy and resourceful to get what I need—and there have been many moments where it felt like it was all going to fall apart.
2. I have no formal business or marketing training. My entire education has been a hands-on experience, which I have come to believe is a far more helpful education, but you “pay for it” in failure, frustration and setbacks.
3. Because my first book published in the Christian book industry (Moody Publishers), one of my main struggles has been getting this most recent book published. I’ve been met with all kinds of resistance because the content of this book doesn’t fit the traditional Christian paradigm and because I think it’s a story most Evangelicals would rather ignore.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
The best way to explain what I do is:
1. I write books
2. I help people write books
3. I help self-proclaimed “non-writers” use writing as a tool to generate positive change in their life.
The research is incredibly compelling on this.
Studies show that if you write for as little as 20 minutes per day for four days in a row, you can see a measurable improvement in your mood. But writing can help with more than just mood. Studies say it improves your sleep, your relationships, your career, your finances, your mental and emotional health, and even your physical health (literally participants who wrote regularly made fewer doctor’s visits, and got sick fewer times in the year than those who weren’t involved in a regular practice of creative writing).
Writing is this incredibly powerful, totally free tool that anyone can use to get unstuck in any area of their life. It’s just that most people don’t know where to start, so I help them get started.
I have helped 100’s of writers, from NYT best-selling authors to total beginners get their words on paper, not to mention I’ve used this process in treatment centers (research shows addicts who journal are much more likely to stay in recovery), with second language learners, trauma victims (writing is a fantastic way to bring the brain back to equilibrium after trauma), with corporate teams, creative teams (writing accesses your limbic system, which makes you more resourceful, creative, “out of the box” kind of thinker).
I think what sets our company apart is how truly versatile and wide-reaching this process is. I’ve never met someone I thought wouldn’t benefit from a regular practice of writing.
What were you like growing up?
I always knew I wanted to be an author.
I remember in the 4th grade a teacher gave us the assignment to write a story and it was supposed to be one page, front and back. I wrote nine pages front and back, and she was so impressed with the story she had me read it in front of the class. That was the first time I realized that I was writing for the joy of writing, not because I had to do it, and I also sensed that this was a thing I was good at. At the end of that year, the teacher gave me a composition notebook with a note written in the front cover that said, “You’re a great writer. Keep it up.” I never stopped writing after that point.
I was a social, happy kid. I had tons of friends, and always really loved being around people. But it also wasn’t uncommon to see me retreat to my bedroom with a book, or a journal and pen. I started writing poetry in junior high, and all through high school and college kept this up. A poetry professor in college introduced me to Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Li Young-Li and so many of the poets I know and love now.
I danced. I was part of a ballet studio and took several classes each week, even from a very young age. These days I incorporate yoga into so much of what I do, based on the research that shows yoga is a powerful way to unlock creativity. So I use yoga at my writing workshops to help people get back in touch with themselves, to get in touch with what they really want and are really trying to say and it’s unbelievable how effective it is.
People are always nervous about the yoga up front, and after the workshop, they’re the first ones to say, “I was skeptical that was going to work but I can’t believe how much moving your body helps you to find the right words!”
Pricing:
- I coach authors to help them get their books outlined. I call this a “Book in A Day” because we literally outline your entire book in a single day. I charge $3500.
- I have a digital course I offer that helps people leverage the power of writing to get unstuck in any area of their life. Relationships, career, finances, health, creativity, etc. I am currently running a special for this course ($99) but the price will go up to $149 the first week in June.
Contact Info:
- Website: allisonfallon.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/allyfallon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allisonfallonwriter/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/missallyfallon
Image Credit:
Taylor Volkens, Gracie Moakler, Brittany Cornett
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