Category: Blog

Changing the conversation around race relations requires effective leadership, which begins with clarity around the vision. That vision then fuels the goals of the movement and directs the work being done to change the conversation.

For that reason, the leader must be able to clearly and effectively communicate:

• Their vision of what life will be like if their mission is accomplished
• The necessity driving that vision and the urgency of taking action now
• The benefits awaiting those who contribute to turning that vision into a reality
• The steps that must be taken in order to achieve the vision and accomplish the mission

For people to follow a leader, they have to know where they are going and what the benefits are of getting there. They also need to understand the risks they take in choosing to allow themselves to be left behind or of delaying their response to this call to action.

They must also see the benefits of putting in the work required for the vision to become a reality. Finally, they need to know what is expected of them and how to do it in order for them to take the actions that will help turn the vision into a reality.

If the leader doesn’t know these things or isn’t clear about them, it leaves would-be followers without the motivation or direction needed to get on board with that leader’s plans. This is why CLARITY is the first step for all great LEADERS.

Once CLARITY is achieved, CONSISTENCY is needed. Consistency in taking action, consistency in communicating about the vision, and consistency in the expectations for those who join the LEADERS in executing it are all important. It’s what shows confidence, prevents confusion, and encourages others to commit to getting on board with what the leader is trying to achieve.

That’s why we are prepared to offer LEADERS who contribute to our crowdfunding campaign with:

• The right messaging to use in communicating our vision of changing the conversation around race relations for the better through our Study Guide
• Training in Magnetic Thought Leadership so that they know how we expect them to treat those they lead into our movement
• A community of like-minded individuals who will help hold them accountable in their goals and provide support and encouragement to continue making a difference

The money raised through the campaign will be used to fund the publication of PTP Press’s (traditional publishing imprint of Path To Publishing) upcoming novel, The Price We Pay, and to furthering our agenda. We plan to leverage the novel, along with the above-mentioned resources, to help change the conversation around race relations using the novel to create common experiences to use in their discussions.

It is our goal that the next generation does not have to pay the price we are paying, from riots to church burnings and murders, for failing to step up and do something positive to end the racial divides.

To discover more about The Price We Pay and our novel plan to open the doors of communication and change the conversation around race relations beginning with a book, visit https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change and sign up to become one of our LEADERS and #JoinTheConversation.

You can also visit www.ptppress.com to learn more about Path To Publishing’s traditional publishing imprint.

Being able to engage in difficult conversations is the hallmark of great LEADERS. Great LEADERS possess clarity around their vision and mission. They know how to communicate those things to others in a way that makes the benefits of supporting the vision clear.

But they don’t stop there. They are prepared for the opposition. They know that not everyone is going to agree that their plan is the right one. They know that some people will stand against them.

Some people will stand against us because they’re comfortable with how things are or because they are profiting from it. When these people take notice enough of what we’re doing and try to stop us, we know we’re headed on the right path. We aren’t likely to be able to win their support, but we can convert their negative energy into a sign that we’re doing something right and let it encourage rather than discourage us.

Some people will stand against us because they have lost hope that things can change and they’re afraid we’re only going to make things worse for them. By listening to them, we can discover what it is they need to see from us so they can regain hope and have confidence in our plan. We may not win them over right away, but if we keep moving forward without them, we can let our results speak for themselves.

Some people will stand against us because they believe they have a better plan. By listening to them, we may gain some insights into things we could do better. We may also learn from them.

Some people will stand against us because they like the plan but believe we’re not on the right path to succeed. If we listen to them, we’ll learn where they think our weaknesses are and can spot potential problems before they have a chance to derail us and fix them. They may also have ideas we hadn’t thought of that can enhance our plans and make our results even better.

Some people will stand against us because they misunderstand our intentions or misinterpret our meaning. These are the easiest people to win over. All it takes is listening long enough to figure out where the misunderstanding is or where they are misinterpreting our actions and educating them as to the reality.

No matter who stands against us, if we’re willing to listen, we will find that the tools we need to succeed are being given to us just as much by our opposition as by our supporters. Rather than weakening the movement, the opposition can only make us stronger, more united, and more effective.

Conversion doesn’t always mean that we’ll succeed in converting other people to our way of thinking. That is a process that can take a long time and sometimes doesn’t happen at all. Rather, it’s about converting the negative energy thrown your direction into positive momentum that ensures your success.

At Path To Publishing, we are open to the difficult conversations that will come from launching our movement and kicking off our crowdfunding campaign. We know that our goal involves nothing short of changing the conversation focusing on race relations, and that’s bound to meet resistance. We know that not everyone will agree with our methods or see the benefits. We welcome the conversations that will come from our opposition as well as from our supporters, fans, and followers.

To discover more about our campaign and our novel approach to changing the conversation around race relations, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. Sign up to become one of our LEADERS and #JoinTheConversation.

Great LEADERS are magnetic. Rather than pushing an agenda on people, they leverage their knowledge of their ideal audience and its desires to attract supporters to them and to their vision.

Being magnetic, though, does not mean that everyone will be attracted to the leader’s message and the vision it carries. It means that the right people will be attracted to it even as the wrong people are repelled by it.

This is why it is so important for great LEADERS to be trained in handling conflict and conversions. LEADERS need to be able to either convert other people to their point of view or convert the negative energy of their opposition into positive momentum for themselves.

They will gain a benefit from their opposition even if the opposition’s intention is harmful. In this way, no matter what comes, they maintain their forward momentum toward the achievement of their vision and its realization.

It’s one of the main reasons we are including Magnetic Thought Leadership Training as part of our offering to those who contribute to the crowdfunding campaign for our upcoming novel being published on our traditional publishing imprint, The Price We Pay. We know that those who join us in our efforts to change the conversation around race relations are going to meet opposition.

We know that opposition, if not handled correctly, can lead to discouragement, burnout, and giving up. It can even lead to depression and other mental health problems. We want to prepare them for the opposition by equipping them to turn every negative thing they might encounter into something that benefits them and makes them stronger.

That way, our LEADERS become unstoppable, because when the LEADERS are unstoppable, the movement will be, too.

To discover more about our book, The Price We Pay, and our work to open the doors of communication by changing the conversation around race relations, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change.

Become one of the LEADERS by signing up to #JoinTheConversation alongside a community of like-minded individuals who will offer support and encouragement along the way.

You can also visit www.ptppress.com to learn more about PTP Press, which is Path To Publishing’s traditional publishing imprint.

At Path To Publishing, our goal is to cultivate LEADERS who excel at difficult conversations because they:

• Listen to understand the other side’s point of view before responding
• Empathize with the other persons’ positions, trying to see the world through their eyes
• Ask relevant questions to help them clarify the other persons’ meanings and intentions
• Determine the best way to respond based on what is understood about how the other person views things
• Express their own views with clarity while remaining respectful
• Respect the other person and their views even when they disagree with them
• Share a personal story to help illustrate why they believe what they believe with a goal of seeking to serve the other person, not to be served

Toward that end, we are crowdfunding a movement using a novel approach to changing the conversation around race relations in order to generate public awareness and support for our efforts. The money raised will be used to fund PTP Press’s (the traditional publishing imprint of Path To Publishing) upcoming release, The Price We Pay.

As part of that crowdfunding campaign, we are equipping our contributors to be LEADERS by offering four essential resources that will help them step up and make a difference:

• Magnetic Thought Leadership Training to equip them to lead these conversations in a way that creates an inviting, respectful space where all voices are recognized and seen as being of equal value.
• Lessons in how to hold difficult conversations that are productive and meaningful where both sides feel respected and heard, yet challenged and encouraged to find room for compromise.
• A Study Guide to navigating the challenges of discussing sensitive topics in an inter-racial community.
• A community of like-minded individuals who are ready and willing to lend their support and encouragement along the way.

To discover more about the movement and our efforts to stop the growing divide between the races, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. Sign up to #JoinTheConversation and step up to become one of the LEADERS.

The human brain is wired for stories. Research published in 2008 based on fMRI studies of the human brain as it processes stories suggests that the brain remembers and processes a well-told story as if the events in that story happened to the individual reading it in real life. This makes stories an ideal tool for initiating difficult conversations.

One of the things that happens when a person is reading or listening to a story is that the normal belief-based operating system that runs our brains suspends its core beliefs in order to adopt the beliefs of the main character or the primary narrator, at least for the duration of the story. The reader looks at the world through the eyes of the protagonist while experiencing their thoughts and feeling their emotions.

This sets the reader up to be ready to engage in conversation with others about the experiences that took place in the book. Because those experiences are tied to the main character’s life, and not to the reader’s personal experiences, it subtracts some of the emotional baggage normally associated with expressing their thoughts and feelings about situations involving topics like gender, money, race, religion, or sexuality.

When done in a group setting such as a book club, these discussions are based on a shared experience within the book that everyone participating can use as a framework for conversations about those topics. The events, characters, actions, and their outcomes form a common language that they can use to describe how they see and how they feel about things.

We are looking for existing book clubs whose members enjoy a challenge to step up and help us open the door to the difficult conversations by introducing the upcoming novel being published on our traditional publishing imprint, The Price We Pay, to its members.

We’ll offer participating clubs the following resources needed for their members to become LEADERS who reap the benefits of these difficult conversations:

• Magnetic Thought Leadership Training to equip them to lead these conversations in a way that creates an inviting, respectful space where all voices are recognized and seen as being of equal value.
• Lessons in how to hold difficult conversations that are productive and meaningful, where both sides feel respected and heard, yet challenged and encouraged to find room for compromise.
• A Study Guide to navigating the challenges of discussing sensitive topics in an inter-racial community.
• A community of like-minded individuals who are ready and willing to lend their support and encouragement along the way.

To discover more about the book and the movement behind the book — our novel approach to changing the conversation about race relations — visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. #JoinTheConversation

You can also visit www.ptppress.com to learn more about PTP Press, which is Path To Publishing’s traditional publishing imprint.

…and Why a Novel Approach Is Needed

A study conducted by the University of Scranton on people’s ability to make lasting change, as measured by their ability to stick to a New Year’s Resolution, found that only 19% of people who resolved to change stuck to it after two years.

That study highlights the challenge faced in changing the conversation around race relations: Human beings do not find it easy to make lasting, authentic changes even when we know it is in our best interest to do so.

The odds of people succeeding in making a change are against them because of five main factors:

1) Their inability to see possibilities beyond the current point of view.

It’s hard for people to imagine life any other way than the way they’ve currently experienced it, and that difficulty makes it hard for them to keep making sacrifices for something that they aren’t sure will ever happen or is even possible.

2) Their entrenched beliefs and biases based on past experiences running unchallenged and unchecked.

Most people aren’t even aware of the beliefs and biases they hold that lead to the thoughts, feelings, and decisions they make about how to handle interactions with other people. Many of these beliefs and biases were adopted by them at much younger ages and are not something they are conscious of doing.

3) Their established habits of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Habits are hard to break for a reason: the brain finds this behavior to be the easiest and most efficient method of getting a need met, and the neural pathways of having chosen this behavior repeatedly over a long period of time are deeply entrenched in the brain.

Opening new pathways and doing things in a new way require conscious thought and energy, while doing things the old way doesn’t. The effort and energy required to turn a new habit into a subconscious decision is something the brain resists.

An analogy of this process, something that every sporting coach knows, is the creation of “muscle memory.” It takes ten thousand repetitions before it sinks in and becomes a reflex. This works not just for muscles, but for “learned” behaviors as well.

4) Peer pressure from existing relationships and surrounding communities.

Making a dramatic change in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors is difficult enough, but when the person trying to change meets resistance from the people with whom they have existing relationships, such as family and friends or their surrounding community, that change becomes exponentially more difficult.

The person trying to change is often seen as rejecting those existing relationships or their surrounding community. It takes extraordinary strength to stand up and face down the risks of rejection, judgement, and even potential harm that may come from making a dramatic change.

Consider the public acceptance of smoking. In the fifties and sixties, smoking was more than acceptable — it seemed to be endemic to our society. Then, following public pressure and legislative limitations to where people can smoke in public, active addiction to tobacco dropped from nearly fifty percent in the sixties to under fifteen percent today.

Movies and TV show rating warnings about risk factors now include smoking along with sexual activity, violence, and strong language. In addition, smoking on the screen is either limited to historical films or when it’s in “today’s setting,” it’s almost exclusively limited to “bad guys.” This change took sixty years from the Surgeon General’s first warning, but it has become a society-wide behavior and attitude change.

5) Failure, Frustration, Discouragement, Disappointment, and Impatience.

Human beings would like for change to be a linear progression, going from point A to point Z without any stops in between. However, that’s not how change works. Change requires the development of a new set of habits to be formed and a new set of mental, emotional, and possibly even physical muscles to be developed to support those habits. As with a toddler learning to walk, there is a lot of failure that takes place before the change is successful and the transformation becomes permanent.

Human beings are not patient creatures. They are not patient with each other and certainly not with themselves. The expectation that change should be immediate and a straight line leads to disappointment when that doesn’t pan out in reality. Discouragement over repeated failures at the attempt to change can lead to frustration and, eventually, to the person giving up altogether and abandoning the effort to change as being impossible for them or impossible for the other person.

At Path To Publishing, we recognize that changing the conversation over racial inequity and the impact of that inequity upon children won’t happen overnight. It also won’t help without the support of a community.

That’s why we’ve chosen to crowdfund our movement in order to spread the word and invite public participation in this. We’re also working to develop a supportive community around the vision of creating a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable society for all, one that provides room for people to make these changes and practice new habits in an environment that focuses on progress rather than demanding immediate success.

We’re also going to offer Magnetic Thought Leadership Training to help each person who contributes discover and put to good use their personal power to influence others and enact change. We’ll also be offering a study guide to help our contributors navigate the challenges of holding inter-racial conversations around sensitive topics.

Discover more about our crowdfunding campaign and our efforts to start a movement designed to bridge the gap between the races at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. #JoinTheConversation, and thank you in advance for supporting the movement.

It’s a fact that racial divisions are growing in America, with more than 59% of Black Americans expressing a lack of hope that racial relations can ever improve.

There are plenty of reasons to complain about this and more than enough blame to go around, but while those things are easier, they in no way solve the problem.

Path To Publishing and PTP Press are devoted to cultivating bold LEADERS who have the skills, knowledge, and courage it takes to tackle challenges like this head on — not by fighting with their fists but by engaging in the difficult conversations that open the door to lasting change.

Inspired by the way that our team’s relationships changed for the better as we confronted one another about our own internal biases and beliefs while discussing Nikki T. Anthony’s book, The Price We Pay, we knew we had in our hands the kind of book that could spark a movement and begin bridging the gaps between the races.

Respectful conversations like this are not easy to have. It takes the right kind of leadership and guidance, along with the support of a community of like-minded individuals, to succeed in producing authentic, lasting change. Without those, the conversations can break down into accusations and anger, leaving both sides feeling defensive and misunderstood, which ends up causing divisions to grow worse, not better.

That’s why we’re making sure that contributors to our crowdfunding campaign will be given access to specialized Magnetic Thought Leadership Training along with study guides to facilitate inter-racial conversations about sensitive topics, leveraging the book as the starting point. They will also be invited to join the growing LEADERS community we’re building of people committed to helping change the conversation for the better.

Discover more about our new book by visiting our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. Sign up to #JoinTheConversation and support the movement. Change is possible, but only when people commit to taking action.

When it comes to difficult conversations, avoiding the five big mistakes most people make is critical. Most people, not knowing how to avoid those mistakes, will simply choose to walk away from the conversation or avoid it.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t resolve the conflict that the difficult conversation is designed to overcome. The hurt feelings, frustrations, and fears that surround these topics remain, and continue to grow, in secret. Like an untreated infection, these negative factors grow into a lethal, toxic poison that, over time, kills the relationship.

It also doesn’t allow either party to grow from experience. Their blind spots remain, and they learn nothing except to become more cautious in who they choose to open up to about their beliefs, ideas, and thoughts.

There are many benefits to engaging in difficult conversations like these, even if they don’t feel comfortable at first.

1. It forces individuals to re-examine what they believe and why they believe it, allowing them to discard beliefs that no longer serve them and adopt new beliefs that are more functional;
2. It helps individuals to identify their own internal prejudices and biases, allowing them to see the truth more clearly;
3. It ensures they are not blindly following the herd and helps to prevent groupthink from taking over;
4. It will help them to grow in their understanding of why people think, believe, and act as they do, which will improve their ability to persuade others to join their side when the cause is worthy and just;
5. It will increase their skills in explaining their beliefs to others in a manner that is not confrontational and will help them keep their cool when under pressure.

Path To Publishing doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations like those that center around racial divisions and the current state of race relations. We embrace them despite the difficulties, and we want to encourage others to embrace them, too.

That’s why we’ve chosen to crowdfund the book, The Price We Pay (being published under our traditional publishing imprint, PTP Press), and to equip our contributors to take an active role in leading these kinds of difficult conversations with the following resources:

1. Magnetic Thought Leadership Training to equip them to lead these conversations in a way that creates an inviting, respectful space where all voices are recognized and seen as being of equal value.
2. Lessons in how to hold difficult conversations that are productive and meaningful where both sides feel respected and heard, yet challenged and encouraged to find room for compromise.
3. A Study Guide to navigating the challenges of discussing sensitive topics in an inter-racial community.
4. A community of like-minded individuals who are ready and willing to lend their support and encouragement along the way.

To discover more about the novel and our approach to opening the doors of communication, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. Sign up to #JoinTheConversation.

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Remember, many books and publications tackle subject matters that lead to hard conversations to have. This can often be awkward for some authors during readings and signing, or even during panel discussions and live videos.

To learn more about the training we offer at Path To Publishing to help you navigate your role as an author, thought-leader, or change-agent, which includes having, moderating, and leading tough conversations, email info@pathtopublishing.com.

Anyone who studies art soon discovers that perspective is not reality. It is a distorted version of reality based on the limitations of human eyesight and the position of the viewer. The only way for artists to draw with accuracy is to forget all the facts they know to be true about an object and draw only what they see. Nothing more and nothing less.

The hardest part about distinguishing between perspective and reality is that there is no way for individuals to know what they do not know unless someone else tells them. That is the value of engaging in conversations with other people. It can help an individual see the areas of their life where they may be overlooking things or missing things due to their own personal limitations.

The natural tendency of every human being is to assume that their personal experiences are universal to everyone. That assumption can lead to people becoming upset or offended when others don’t see things the same way they do. They can’t understand why someone can’t see it the same way without realizing that it is a literal impossibility for anyone to see things exactly the same way they do.

That’s the value of choosing to engage in meaningful dialogue with people of varying — even opposing — viewpoints. By listening to and asking questions about experiences that differ from their own, individuals are given the opportunity to broaden their own perspectives, incorporating things they’ve learned into constructing a new picture that is closer to reality.

The difficulty in engaging in these meaningful conversations comes when the beliefs that form around those viewpoints are tied directly into an individual’s sense of personal identity. That’s why most people advise against discussions about race, religion, money, politics, gender, and sexuality.

If done without great care, those discussions are too often viewed as personal attacks. These can erupt into arguments that leave lasting emotional wounds. However, shutting down these conversations doesn’t create lasting peace, nor does it bridge gaps in understanding.

It can actually foster the divisions between people and lock everyone down in fear driven by misunderstandings and misinterpretations of behavior. Only when the door to these conversations is open can authentic change begin to take place.

That’s why we at Path To Publishing are leading the way by crowdfunding a movement to change. The funds raised for the publication of our upcoming novel, The Price We Pay (being published on our traditional publishing imprint, PTP Press), is just the beginning. Path To Publishing intends to use our book as an instrument to open the door to these important conversations. We’ll also be providing a discussion study guide to engaging in these kinds of sensitive inter-racial conversations.

To discover more about the movement, the book, and our work to open the doors of communication, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. Sign up to #JoinTheConversation and be invited to join the community.

Many books and publications tackle subject matters that lead to hard conversations to have. This can often be awkward for some authors during readings and signings, or even during panel discussions and live videos.

Difficult conversations are difficult because they are high-stakes conversations. At risk in this moment is the relationship with the other person, the individual’s personal sense of goodness, a need for validation, a sense of identity, and endemic fears of rejection and judgement.

When difficult conversations become productive, they improve relationships and strengthen them. When they go wrong, though, relationships can be permanently damaged.

That’s why it’s important to avoid the top 5 conversational mistakes most people make when trying to engage in difficult conversations:

1. Seeking to change the other person’s view, rather than to expand their own view.
2. Assuming their way of seeing things is the only way to see them and that anyone who doesn’t see it their way is wrong.
3. Listening to respond rather than listening to understand the other person’s viewpoint.
4. Failing to clarify what the other person means by what they say before responding to them.
5. Assuming that the other person is driven by bad intentions or a flawed character, rather than by misguidance, misinformation, or lessons learned in childhood and never challenged since.

While easy to make, when these mistakes are made, conversations inevitably break down and become counterproductive. It can even cause the parties involved to further entrench themselves in their beliefs rather than giving them the room they need to think through the new perspectives presented to them and incorporate those into their existing world view.

Avoiding these five mistakes is part of the training Path To Publishing will be offering to contributors as we crowdfund our novel, The Price We Pay. That book, along with the training, is all part of our plan to equip our supporters and contributors with everything required to help open the door to these important conversations in a way that is respectful and productive.

To discover more about our novel approach to changing the conversation around race relations, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. #JoinTheConversation.

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To learn more about the training we offer at Path To Publishing to help you navigate your role as an author, thought-leader, or change-agent, which includes having, moderating, and leading tough conversations, email info@pathtopublishing.com.