90 | The Herbal Fertility Handbook: An Interview with Liane Moccia

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Hi there. Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman.

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I'm an herbalist and nutritionist. And in this podcast, I share little tips

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and tidbits that might be helpful for other practitioners.

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Today, I'm really excited to share with you an interview with herbalist Liane Moccia.

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And the reason I'm interviewing Liane today is because she has a book coming

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out in September called The Herbal Fertility Handbook, Holistic Strategies to

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Improve Your Chances of Getting Pregnant.

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Now, I know a lot of people listening to this podcast may not be trying to get pregnant.

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And you still might want to listen to this episode, because we talk a little bit about the training.

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How do you specialize in a topic like this when there really isn't,

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and certainly not at the time when Liane and I were learning to be practitioners,

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there's not a lot of formal training for how do you work in the field of fertility.

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So talk to Liane a little bit about how she got the training,

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how she felt ready to write this book, and a little bit more like that.

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I'll also talk to Liane about the process of writing a book.

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So if you are interested or you're thinking about potentially writing a book

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someday in the future, you may want to hear what Liane has to say for folks

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who are authors or considering writing a book.

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Now, I also encourage you to go out and get the book if you have clients in

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your practice who are potentially trying to conceive or in that age range where

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they may become pregnant.

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This is a really valuable resource. I got a little bit of a sneak preview.

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I was able to do a review copy several months ago, and it's such a great resource.

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It's certainly something that clients could have on their shelf to go over the

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basics, but also something that, as practitioners, we can appreciate and get value out of as well.

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So let me turn you over to our interview.

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I hope you'll enjoy this conversation. And as always, let me know if you have

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any questions or requests for future episodes.

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All right, y'all. I'm so excited to have Liane here on the podcast.

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Welcome, Liane. Thank you.

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I wanted to start out. We're talking here, of course, as mentioned in the intro

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about your forthcoming book.

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And I wanted to talk to you at the book is all about herbs and fertility.

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And I know that you have been in practice as a practitioner working on fertility for many years.

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And I wanted to talk to you about how you gained experience and knowledge enough

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to practice and also write this book. What was your background?

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You know, how did you come to be the person writing this book? Right?

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Yeah, it's a good question. Because as we've talked about, there's not a lot

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of information out there for herbalists and fertility and, you know,

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how to improve your chances of getting pregnant.

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So I was highly motivated to work in this area because it's what brought me

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to herbalism in the first place. I had my own fertility challenges many, many years ago.

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I have twin daughters who are now turning 17, so a lot of time has passed.

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But when I first did all of my training as an herbalist, I always had an eye towards, you know,

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understanding the menstrual cycle and understanding sperm development and all

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of things fertility related because I was very interested in it.

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There was a period of time where I spent a lot looking at some of the books

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that were already out there.

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So, you know, Aviva Ram's textbook has always been really helpful for me and

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using that as a resource.

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Conferences, you know, finding as much as I could. But I also did a year-long

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internship with a naturopathic doctor in Boston who specializes in just fertility.

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It was a really, really interesting intersection between herbalism and naturopathic medicine.

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And as herbalists, of course, we don't practice like a naturopath would,

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but it did help give me a broader perspective on thinking about, you know,

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lab work and other ways to approach fertility that I really think helped round it out.

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So it's sort of a long answer to say it was a lot of self-guided reading, being out in the world.

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And then as my practice evolved, I was just attracting a lot of those clients.

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So, so much of the book was informed by my clinical experience working with clients.

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And after, you know, years of seeing what are the things that most people are

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struggling with? What are they asking me about?

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What are some of the common themes that I'm seeing evolving with the people

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I'm working with every day?

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Yeah, I love that. And it does seem like learning how to do this work is a DIY,

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piece it together yourself endeavor right now, because it really isn't covered

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in depth in a lot of places.

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And, you know, I know that for a lot of people, getting started with fertility

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feels really overwhelming because it feels like the stakes are higher.

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It feels like, oh, OK, now we're not talking about one person.

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We're talking about potentially two people or a whole family unit or generational care.

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And I wonder if you have any thoughts on that.

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The why it's special to work with fertility in that context,

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but also why it's a little scary and thoughts for people who might be just getting

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started or thinking about getting started in the field.

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Yeah. Yeah. It was intimidating. And that was, I mean, when I first opened my

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practice, I didn't see clients for fertility for the first year because I thought

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I don't, I was, I was intimidated by it.

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I wanted to be overly prepared and ready.

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And I think the thing that helped me feel most grounded and ready after,

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you know, pulling all the pieces together and studying as much as I did on my

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own was sort of going slow and making sure I was, I was really.

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Being strategic in the clients I was working with and not taking risks,

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being very grounded in that, you know,

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energetics and whole health and remembering that before getting too complicated

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in a fertility protocol.

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The most important thing is to look at the whole person and help bring that into balance first.

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So that was really like a place where I started.

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And then doing so much research on herbal safety. So I was very comfortable

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in looking at research and data.

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What was the latest publications? Going back to the physiology,

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what do we know about how the body is working.

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We can't always find research on herbs because sometimes it just doesn't exist.

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But being very comfortable in digging into that research and knowing where the

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body of evidence lies today, I think was really helpful.

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Yes, absolutely. And it does feel very scary in some ways to get started.

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And so I love that you have compiled so much information into this book because

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I feel like even though it is a book that is,

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as far as I understand, written for the lay public.

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To me, in full disclosure, I've had a sneak peek at the book,

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so I've gotten a chance to review it before it's available.

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But to me, it also felt like it could be a great resource for practitioners getting started.

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And could you say a little bit more about your intended audience,

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how you see it fitting in from a practitioner perspective, and maybe just a

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little bit about what's in the book for people who haven't had a chance to look at it yet.

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Yes. Yeah. So I wanted the book to be approachable for anyone reading it.

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So a non-practitioner could pick it up and feel very comfortable with the terminology and the science.

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But I also, it was very important for me that it be well researched and referenced

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so that a practitioner could read it and feel a lot of value in it.

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It is honestly a book that I wish I had when I first started working with clients,

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because while I might talk about an herb and how it can help with fertility,

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I will include the references if available.

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I will talk a little bit about the mechanism of action if we understand it.

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So I do think that it's a book that practitioners will find value in.

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That was important to me. It's organized in a way where it starts with,

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it's a holistic approach to improving your chances of getting pregnant. So it's not just herbs.

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It starts with understanding the menstrual cycle, understanding how sperm development happens?

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What's the science behind it? We talk about nutrition and supplements.

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I wanted to have supplements covered because I think that's an area that we

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all think about and work in when we're talking about herbal medicine.

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But it also talks about lifestyle changes such as sleep and stress and the environmental

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exposure, so cutting out phthalates and fragrances and BPA.

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So it really is this holistic approach and hopefully woven through it all is

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this balanced approach of helping people not feel overwhelmed by all of the

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things, but really connecting to the things that feel most important to them

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at this point in time on their journey.

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I love that. I love that. And it's for me, as somebody who also works in this

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field, I get so many emails and discovery call requests, reach outs,

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essentially from people who are like, oh, you know, I'm thinking about getting pregnant.

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I don't know what's going on. Do you have any tips? Do you have any references, any resources?

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And before I was sort of like, well, you know, here's a few podcasts you could listen to.

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You could piece it together from this book. But now I feel like I can really

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safely tell somebody, hey, if you're just getting started, why don't you check out Liane's book?

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And then if you need additional personalized guidance, come,

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you know, come talk to me, come talk to Liane, come talk to somebody else,

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and we can guide you through it.

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But I feel like it gives people enough of a foundation to start,

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which to me is really big from the accessibility perspective.

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You know, like people, even if they can't afford or can't access a practitioner,

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I think this is going to get them started really well.

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And I love that it's kind of fitting into that gap that was there before.

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Right. Oh, thanks. That means so much to me. That's exactly what I was going for with the book.

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Just, you know, something accessible, get people started, dig deeper where they need it.

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There's a whole chapter on common conditions that can affect fertility.

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So it goes a little deeper in things like PCOS and endometriosis.

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I mean, those could all be books on their own, of course, but it's enough to

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get someone started and ask the right questions.

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Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Oh, well, I love it.

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Before we leave, I also wanted to just ask you, I know a lot of people who are

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listening have potentially some curiosity about writing a book themselves.

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I'm wondering if you have any tips to pass on about, like, how do you know it's

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time to write a book? Do you have any tips for people who are thinking about books?

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Is there anything you could share with other practitioners who have this on

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their radar for sometime in the future?

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Yes, I love talking about this. So for me, I knew I wanted to write a book about

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this for at least for a while before it came to fruition.

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And I think when I knew it was ready to come out was when I had started like

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a Google folder and every time I had an idea, I would just drop it in and drop it in.

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And eventually that file was getting so large and the narrative was starting

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to come together in my head.

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And I thought, I just felt this like overwhelming.

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You know, feeling of, I really have to get this book out.

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And so that's how I knew when I was ready. And you always will feel a little

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bit of imposter syndrome and you'll always say, who am I to write this book?

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But I think that we all reach a point where when it feels important to you,

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then it's important for someone out there as well.

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I think one of my biggest pieces of advice is to do a little bit of research

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as you start preparing to get the book, whether you want to self-publish it

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or publish it with a publisher, is to do a little bit of the work ahead of time.

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If you're going to go the traditional route, which I did, of getting it published

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with a publisher, to do a little research to understand what they require from you for submission.

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Some publishers will need an agent to present and others don't.

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I ended up story publishing was my first choice publisher because I really connect

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with the other books that they've already published. I think it's right niche.

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And so I did a lot of research to see they don't require an agent.

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They allow for you to submit a query directly.

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But they were very, they had a lot of criteria around what to submit.

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So I spent a lot of time on my proposal, making sure it was very clear.

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And I had done the work that they very clearly outlined.

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So that's my first thing is think about the paths of publishing,

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whether it's self-publishing or within a publisher, and understand what those

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requirements are going to be.

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I think the other thing that I found really helpful in the writing process,

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when you start writing a book, it starts to balloon very quickly where you get

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excited, right, about all the different things that could be included.

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So you could do this either digitally or on a piece of paper,

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but I started like this content map where I had the core of what I wanted the

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book to be, and I had little spokes every time something kind of was like an offshoot of that.

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And every time I had an idea, I would drop it onto that physical piece of paper

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that I had on my desk because it allowed my brain to release it into,

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you know, so I knew I wouldn't forget and it was captured, but it helped me

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visually see where is this going to go and what's the connection back to the main theme.

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And over time, as that happened, I was able to see, okay, these are some really

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interesting ideas, but they don't quite connect to my main theme.

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We're going to put those off to the side for now.

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And I think it helped the book from creeping into, you know,

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a lot of different areas and kept it very targeted and concise into,

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you know, the topic that I had started writing.

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Because I think that's very possible over time. There's so many things you could

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write about. And it helped me keep me focused.

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Oh, I love that tip. That's a really great, that's a really great pointer for

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people. And I don't think I had known that even though we've been in touch throughout

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your writing process. So that's really great.

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I so appreciate those tips. So the book is coming out. It's coming out really soon.

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Can you tell people how to get it? Tell us more about how we can support you

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as you get this thing published. Yes.

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Yeah, it's very exciting. So the book officially launches on September 23rd, 2025.

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It is available for pre-order now. So that's really exciting.

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It's called the Herbal Fertility Handbook.

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And it's available everywhere books are sold.

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So wherever you get your books from, whether it's your independent bookstore,

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bookshop.org, you know, the big box retailers, it's available everywhere.

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And pre-orders really make a big difference for first-time authors.

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They help tell other bookstores that there's interest so that they will stock it.

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It helps the publisher know that there's enough interest in the book and helps

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guide how many print runs they do.

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So pre-orders are a big deal, and it's available now.

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Yay, I love it. Well, we will put the links in the show notes.

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We'll also put a link to Liane's website in case you want to stay in touch there.

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Or I know you're on Instagram as well. Is there anywhere else you want people to connect with you?

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Yeah, those are perfect. Instagram, Liane Moshe. My website is lianemoccia.com

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I am on LinkedIn a little bit, but those are all great places.

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Amazing. Well, we'll get links to all of that. And I should probably mention

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while we're here that Liane and I did a whole course on fertility last year,

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which you can sign up for.

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And we have one on pregnancy coming up this fall as well.

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So if you want to learn even more directly about either of those topics,

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I'll put the links for both of those classes in the show notes too.

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Great. All right. Liane, thank you so much for taking some time to be here

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with us and sharing insights about writing the book, about fertility,

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about being a practitioner, working in fertility.

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This is all such great information, and I'm so excited for your book.

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I hope that people will go out and order it. It's going to be a great reference

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for folks to have on the bookshelf.

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Great. Well, thank you. I love talking today. Yay. Bye.

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All right. I hope you enjoyed that interview. I'll put the links to stay in

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touch with Liane in the show notes as well as to buy the book.

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And lastly, if you'd like to stay in touch with me, I encourage you to sign

00:15:55.251 --> 00:15:57.631
up for my practitioner notes, which go out every Thursday.

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They include a little message from me, as well as three recommendations,

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maybe a book, maybe a recipe, maybe a class, anything along those lines,

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things that I'm enjoying or appreciating lately, as well as information about

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any upcoming events or programs going on at Bloom and Grow.

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You can sign up for my newsletter at camillefreeman.com, or you can go to the

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website for this podcast, intheclinic.com, sign up there, and request any future

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episodes that you would like to see. All right, have a lovely day, and I'll see you soon.