GUEST

Kwame McPherson - authorpreneur, writer, book coach, poet and publisher

The first Jamaican to be awarded The Bridport Prize writing bursary for flash fiction in 2020, Kwame MA McPherson has made a name for himself as a content creator and marketer, author and international speaker on the Science of Storytelling. During his more than eight years as an authorpreneur, Kwame has created content for articles, blogs and websites for a variety of clients including entrepreneurs, corporations and business owners. He has written a variety of manuscripts (fiction and non-fiction) and also coaches other writers and authors as well as provides ghost writing services.

Kwame’s publications include several books and guides including, Deep Roots, Strong Tree, To Our Fallen and Service Please: 10 step guide to a successful restaurant.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• Recently published his latest book, A Date with Depression: From Mental Uncertainty to Self-fulfillment, which examines his experiences battling depression. “Men on a whole, and me at the time, we are not taught to express our feelings or thoughts, the stress and the challenges that life has to offer.”
• He mainly worked in the public sector throughout his career until he outgrew the 9-5 routine and delved into entrepreneurship. He is now fulfilled through his writing career. “I not only write for myself, but I help other people to write and publish. So, that is satisfying.”
• He first started writing as a hobby, creating personalized poetry for persons to gift to loved ones, then expanded into longer form writing. He never envisioned at the time that writing would be a business for him.
• “At the time you didn’t think of writing as being a career, as a business, especially back then. But now, since the evolution of the Internet, you can see how you can actually create something from it.”
• “We are now living in an age of creation, so you can create anything that you’re passionate about because of the Internet.”
• While still a part of the 9-5 work world, Kwame shared how he became stressed out and sick. He attributed this to the fact that he was still struggling to find and  settle on his passion. “It’s trying to get traction behind the passion and having people believe in you,” Kwame said about challenges faced in his journey as an entrepreneur.
• In speaking about his passion for stories and storytelling, and how they fundamentally reflect how people live their lives every day, Kwame said he realized that his entire world was his market. “My life’s purpose is to touch as many people’s lives as I can through storytelling.”
• Kwame discussed a new genre in storytelling called flash fiction, in which writers must tell a compact story using a finite number of words ranging from 100 – 5,000.
• He encourages everyone to identify their passion and purpose and create for themselves. In light of the age we live in, Kwame believes success is what each person is willing to make it, as we can all define what we want to do and achieve in life on our own terms.

RESOURCES

Website: www.kwamemcpherson.com

Shop Window: www.lulu.com/spotlight/baobabtreebooks
Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @KwameMA

YouTube: Kwame McPherson

The Bridport Prize: www.bridportprize.org.uk