12 Steps to Success Book 2 - Coming Soon!

After the response to 12 Steps to Successful Leadership, I knew there was more for me to say. That book helped me articulate how the tools of recovery could shape not just personal change, but how we lead others; with empathy, clarity, and integrity. But over the last year, a new question has been taking shape within me: Once we’ve rebuilt ourselves… what are we building toward? And that is exactly where book two begins.

12 Steps to Success: Finding Your Purpose is now officially in the works, and I’m excited to give you an early look at where it’s headed. Like last time, the focus is practical, honest, and rooted in real experience but, this time, we go deeper.

In the book I’ll be sharing how I discovered my own purpose - helping people, and championing independent creators across the globe - and how anyone, regardless of their past, can start doing the same.

So, without further ado, here's the first draft of the book's Introduction and a sneak peek into what you can expect...

The Journey to Finding Your Purpose

At some point, most of us reach a moment - or several moments - in life where the questions start bubbling up. They don’t always come loudly. Sometimes they arrive as a quiet discomfort. A vague sense that something is off. You might be going through the motions at work, chasing achievements that used to mean more than they do now. You might be showing up in relationships that look fine on the surface but leave you feeling strangely disconnected. Or you might just have that persistent feeling that there must be more to life than this.

That’s where I was.

I had what many people might consider a dream career. I’d worked in the music industry for years, across multiple countries and continents. I’d built a strong professional reputation, worked hard for a great salary, and held a respected position in a field I was passionate about. On paper, it looked like success. And for a while, I believed it was. I convinced myself that I should be happy. That I was happy.

But as I started doing deeper work on myself, I began to realise something had shifted. Or maybe I had. After going through the process of getting sober, making amends, and clearing away much of the emotional wreckage of the past, I was finally able to sit still long enough to hear the questions I’d been avoiding for years. Is this really it? Is this what I want my life to be? Am I living with purpose, or just performing a version of success I no longer connect with?

Sobriety gave me clarity. And that clarity forced me to take a long, honest look at the life I had built.

The truth was, I didn’t know who I was anymore without the noise. I had always been working toward something, but I’d never really stopped to ask why. And when I finally did, I didn’t have an answer. Or, at least, not a satisfying one. I’d spent years climbing ladders, pleasing people, proving things to others, and probably to myself as well. But once the chaos quieted down, I had to admit that I didn’t feel fulfilled. I felt lost.

It’s something I’ve seen time and again in other professionals - some in recovery, some not. People who have achieved a lot, and still feel like something’s missing. People who’ve been successful by external standards, and yet can’t shake the feeling that they’re drifting. People who want to do something that matters, but can’t quite put their finger on what that looks like.

This book is for them. And it’s for you, if any of that sounds familiar.

Why Another Book About Purpose?

There are plenty of books out there on purpose. Some offer personality tests or vision statements. Others are full of stories and motivational catchphrases. And to be honest, some of them are helpful.

But I needed something different. I needed structure. I needed depth. I needed something that didn’t just inspire me but helped me do something with all that restlessness I was feeling.

That’s why I turned again to the Twelve Steps.

In my first book, 12 Steps to Successful Leadership, I wrote about how the recovery process transformed not just my personal life but my professional one too. I shared how the steps taught me how to lead with honesty, humility, and authenticity. But the more I kept working the steps and the more conversations I had with others about their own paths, the more I realised that this framework could offer something deeper.

Something beyond leadership.

Something that could help people find their why.

So, while the first book focused on looking back, processing the past, and stepping into leadership from a place of clarity and strength, this one is about what comes next. Once you’ve cleared away the noise, once you’ve started living with more awareness, what are you going to build? What kind of life do you want to live? And most importantly, what gives your life meaning?

This book is about helping you answer those questions.

What I Found Through Doing This Work

Through this process, I discovered that helping people is at the heart of who I am. It always has been, but I’d lost sight of it.

Now, I try to make that my guiding principle in everything I do. It shows up in the way I support people in becoming better leaders and in the way I share what I’ve learned so others can benefit from it. It shows up in my work with independent creators around the world; people who are often brilliant and talented, but who get overlooked or blocked by systems that weren’t built for them. I believe every creator, regardless of their background or geography, deserves a real chance to succeed. That’s what drives me now.

And I would never have arrived at that purpose without working the steps, not just in relation to addiction, but in relation to identity, direction, values, and service. That’s the journey this book invites you to take.

What to Expect from This Book

This isn’t a quick-fix guide. It’s not a self-help book full of vague inspiration and Instagram quotes. It’s structured, but not rigid. Personal, but practical. Reflective, but action-oriented.

Each chapter is based on one of the Twelve Steps and follows the same format:

italic 1. Understanding the Step

We’ll unpack what the step really means and how it connects to the process of finding purpose.

italic 2. The Work of Finding Your Purpose

This is where the step gets translated into something tangible. We’ll look at how it applies to your life, and what it invites you to examine.

italic 3. Suggested Actions Going Forward

It’s one thing to have insight. It’s another to live differently. This section gives you practical ideas for how to put what you’ve learned into motion.

italic 4. Self-Reflection Questions

You’ll find honest, sometimes uncomfortable prompts here. They’re designed to help you dig beneath the surface and discover what’s really going on underneath.

You don’t have to rush. You don’t have to be perfect. But you do have to be willing. That’s really the only requirement.

Why This Process Works

Because it’s honest. It asks more of you than just setting goals or visualising success. It asks you to get real with yourself. It asks you to stop numbing, stop avoiding, and start listening to what your life has been trying to tell you.

And it works because it doesn’t ask you to fix everything all at once. It offers a path. One step at a time.

I didn’t find my purpose overnight. There was no big breakthrough. There were just a series of small moments, honest reflections, hard decisions, and eventually, a quiet sense of alignment. A feeling that I was no longer chasing something outside of myself. I was living in a way that made sense from the inside out.

You can get there too. It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from.

What You Might Walk Away With

By the end of this book - if you’ve engaged with the work, been honest with yourself, and stayed open - you’ll likely come away with a few things that matter:

• A clearer sense of what gives your life meaning.
• More awareness of the patterns that keep you stuck.
• New tools to make better, values-based decisions.
• A deeper connection to yourself.
• A renewed sense of possibility for the future.

You won’t walk away with all the answers. But you will walk away with better questions. And from there, things begin to shift.

The Courage to Begin

Let’s be honest. This process isn’t always comfortable. If you’ve read my first book, you already know that. Looking at yourself clearly, questioning long-held beliefs, and trying to live differently takes work. It takes courage. But if you’re reading this right now, something in you is already ready.

You might not feel ready. That’s okay. You don’t have to know exactly where this is going. You just have to be willing to take the next step.

Start with one question. Follow it with one action. Then another.

Let the process take you where it needs to.

You are not broken. You are not too late. And you are not alone in this.

So… Let’s begin!