1096: How to Break Into Writing Books With Grace Gong, Smart Venture Podcast [Espresso Shots]

Grace Gong is an author and host of The Smart Venture Podcast, which features interviews with top investors, founders, and tech company executives from Silicon Valley.  Earlier in her career she worked in venture capital and private equity focused on consumer tech and real estate investment. Her first book, The Last Key To Success, features 21 founders from Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016 who share how to start a company. In her next book, How To Be A VC, Grace interviewed 22 investors from Forbes Midas List about how they got into investing and shared tips on making good investments. Grace got her B.A. from the University of Illinois in sociology and communications in 2013. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE: How to start writing a book and why Judd Apatow inspired Grace to start writing (3:34) Why Grace believes soft skills are the new hard skills (5:58) Why your college major doesn’t matter if you want to get into writing books (8:18) Why Grace says to believe you always have a story in you as a writer (10:31) Why you should push yourself out of your comfort zone (12:21) What Grace finds the worst part about her job as a writer and podcaster (14:08) What Grace says would surprise you about being an author (19:33)