Puerto Vallarta Top 15 Women of Influence

This week I am interviewing Sul Ra who just moved here from Canada to start a new life living her passion of empowering women to step into their power of Influence.

Sul Ra is a celtic name that means Visionary (Sul) Ra (Fire) and she certainly lives up to that name.  She was the publisher of a women’s magazine in Vancouver for 4 years and she created events for women with a focus on the ocean and awareness of our environment.

She will be working at the House of Influence on our book project ‘Puerto Vallarta Top 15 Women of Influence’ and she is ‘on fire’ about seeking out the Women Influencers in Puerto Vallarta that are helping to change the lives of other women and giving back to their community through their authentic connection and awareness of the needs of the people that live here.

What is the kind of women that will be featured in this book?

At the Women’s Networking event last night there was a wonderful turn out of women who live in the community.  There was a representation of elders that have lived here for over 20 years and have consistently given back to their communities.

We met women who were involved in fund-raising for the local artisan businesses when the hurricane destroyed the bridge of the River Cuale, and musicians who donated their time to perform.

There were Mexican women who have chosen to leave the big cities of Guadalajara and Mexico City to pursue a different lifestyle and get established with their new Solopreneur Businesses.  Canadians and American women who had left their countries of birth to start a new life, some with young children, some single mum’s and some who had escaped abusive relationships.

English, European, Asian, African Americans, Latino’s, Chinese, Iranian and many more nationalities were represented.  Puerto Vallarta is becoming a melting pot of many cultures and backgrounds.

Many women are looking for mentorship and guidance to settle in to their new country of residence, to understand the cultural differences.  Those that have been here for several years are happy to step into that leadership role to give a hand up to those looking for some guidance.

How can you get involved?

We have an application process to apply to be in the book.  We want to know why you think you are a Woman of Influence and what you are passionate about. You can contact Julie Ann or Sul Ra at the contact info below and answer this question and tell us about your business or passion and how you are service to others in your community.

The first workshop will be Sunday Sept 17^th and therefore the application deadline is Thursday Sept 7^th.  It is a very tight deadline because we already have many of our applications already submitted.

There is a cost involved of $1495 USD to contribute to the editing, design, training and publishing costs as this book will be a fund-raiser for RISE Orphanage. All proceeds after costs will go to RISE.

There will also be a publicity schedule for each author that includes a radio and podcast interview, interview in this column, social media Amazon Best Seller campaign, content creation and radio training workshop, speaker training and speaker spot at the Business Expo and Book Launch fund-raising event on March 16^th 2024.

Do you have to be a good writer to be an author in this book?

That’s the great thing about this project, we have a wonderful editor who is very experienced at taking stories and representing them in the written word.  A good author is one that can tell a good story, if you can talk, you can write!

Then the editor takes that first draft and weaves her magic with grammar and sentence structure!  Our editor for this project is the one and only Arizona!  As you know, from the interview I did with Arizona, her book was published by one of big publishing houses, MacMillan and she is presently a ghost writer for a HayHouse Book that she wrote the proposal for.

She is a very experienced writer and editor, and she is also going to be featured in the book as one of the Women of Influence!  With our editor present at the first writing workshop, she will be supporting all the women in the book as I take them through a series of questions to help them get focused on writing their first draft.  Once the first draft is complete, Arizona then works with each writer to weave her magic with words!

What is involved in writing a book?

The first workshop with all the authors is the opportunity that each woman has to share her story.  In a mastermind style meeting, the group gives one another feedback and connections and collaborations start to form.

As the Publisher, I help to give structure and focus to the story and use a series of questions to help the writer with their first draft. There are usually two or three rounds of edits with the editor and then the book is ready for all the other metadata such as author bios, author photos, table of contents with chapter titles, Introduction, testimonials, synopsis, isbn number, barcode, pricing, copyright page, and of course the design of the cover and interior layout of the book!

The authors will be guided through the process of writing their 200-word biography and there will be a photo-shoot for professional head shots!  The authors then write the synopsis of their chapter. It will be used in marketing material and the publicity media kit for each author. They are in turn used for their podcast and radio interview (that’s how the host introduces you) and the interview for this column!

For this group, we will then have training for the radio, podcast and article writing and everyone will attend a one-day speaker training to turn their chapter into a speech!  Everyone will get training on social media for our Amazon Best Seller online campaign and the grand finale book launch event will be on March 6^th where all the authors will stand on the stage and speak!

The book launch event will be a fund-raiser for RISE and it will also be Business Expo where the authors and attendees can display their products and services for sale.  With the local media covering this event, we will be giving all our authors a lot of publicity!

This will be a weekly column where we will be inspiring writers and featuring local authors that live in Puerto Vallarta.  We will be giving you an inside look at the purpose of their writing and how they crafted their story to have an impact on their readers.

Julie Ann is the founder of Influence Publishing Inc, corporation from Vancouver, Canada.  She has lived in Puerto Vallarta for 5 years and is the owner of the Mexican Corporation, Casa de Influencia S.A. de C.V. which is a retreat and event center based in Old Town, Puerto Vallarta.  She hosts writing retreats and writing classes at the center. Opportunities to be a contributing author in one of the many Anthology book projects she is publishing can be found at www.casadeinfluencia.com