Touching Two Worlds (Book)

Dr. Sheri Walling spent years living in two worlds simultaneously. While her career as a psychologist, entrepreneur, and host of the Zen Founder podcast flourished, she was privately navigating devastating personal loss. Her father was diagnosed with esophageal cancer at the same time her brother experienced a severe mental health crisis and descent into addiction. Within six months of her father's death from cancer, her brother died by suicide. Rather than compartmentalize this grief, she decided to write about it—not just as memoir, but as a guide combining deeply personal stories with tactical, therapeutic practices for others experiencing loss.

Walling spent over six months writing the initial manuscript, then endured a grueling 12-month editing process. The book wasn't self-published like her previous work; she pursued traditional publishing, cold-emailing approximately 30-50 publishers before securing a connection and eventually signing with a traditional publisher. The relationship with her publisher added another 18-24 months of refinement, scrutiny, and preparation before the July 2024 launch date.

Walling executed an unconventional launch strategy that began months before publication. Starting in November 2023, she systematically reached out to high-profile contacts and accomplished people in her network asking for book endorsements and quotes. She created a comprehensive spreadsheet tracking every podcast she might appear on and every professional and personal contact, noting what she might ask of them—introductions, endorsements, book purchases, or inclusion in book clubs. Working with a launch strategist named Elizabeth Marshall, she prioritized contacts based on accessibility, connection strength, and message alignment. She committed to spending at least one hour daily on outreach, customizing emails based on individual relationships rather than using generic templates. In May, before the official July launch, she hosted an unconventional circus-themed launch event featuring circus artists to tell her story, inviting her entire network to experience the book's content in an immersive format.

Walling discovered that reframing her outreach helped overcome her natural discomfort with transactional conversations. Rather than asking for favors "on behalf of myself," she asked "on behalf of the book," which allowed her to speak with integrity about work she genuinely believed would help people. However, she encountered a significant challenge: the book's topic—grief—isn't inherently what her target audiences actively seek. Both Andrew Warner (Mixergy) and Channing from Indie Hackers expressed support for her work but couldn't justify featuring it on their platforms because their audiences weren't searching for grief content. Walling respected these gatekeepers' positions and didn't force the message where it didn't naturally fit. She acknowledged that marketing a book people don't know they need is fundamentally harder than selling products or courses with clear value propositions.

What did work was her relational approach. By leveraging genuine relationships, speaking to the specific interests of each potential contact, and offering her book as a thoughtful resource rather than a hard sell, she built momentum. She reframed cold outreach as an art form akin to what sales development representatives (SDRs) do in SaaS—with systematic tracking, prioritization, and persistent follow-up on responses.

As of July 2024, the book officially launched and is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible, and at touchingtwoworlds.com. The launch marks both a finish line—completing the multi-year writing, editing, and publishing process—and a starting line for the book's life in the world. Walling is in the active phase of her podcast tour, conducting interviews and pitching articles to maintain momentum. She described the book launch process as essentially a part-time job requiring constant relationship management, strategic prioritization, and the willingness to navigate rejection gracefully. The book itself combines short personal essays about her experiences losing her father and brother with practical tools including journaling practices, breathing exercises, and letter-writing techniques, all written with humor, humanity, and psychological insight that makes it resonate with audiences beyond grief specialists.