We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brad Wetzler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brad below.

Hi Brad, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

My first job after journalism grad school was an internship at Outside magazine. My first day was in 1990. During the next six years, I rose the ranks until I was a senior editor, working with some of America’s finest magazine journalists and nonfiction writers. Eventually, I left the desk work of an editor to become a full-time freelance magazine writer. I specialized in adventure-travel and occasional political pieces. After healing from a long, debilitating depression, I wrote less about adventure and more about wellness, personal growth, spirituality, and yoga. I also began teaching memoir writing and coaching individuals to write memoir via Zoom. I built this business from scratch, and now I teach and coach aspiring memoirists independently. If I could start over and do things differently, I would have moved my business online sooner. At first, I was renting space in co-working spaces. I would have started to scale my business sooner, as opposed to only working one-on-one in the early going.
The most essential skills are, of course, writing and editing experience. I have 30+ years now. But empathy and listening skills are also very important. So is being a positive cheerleader for my writers.
What obstacles stood in the way of learning more? Hmm… Time. There never seems to be enough time to do the work and also run the business well.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a journalist, author, and memoir coach. I help people tell the story of their transformation or recovery in memoir form. I started out in the early 1990s working as a magazine editor at a major national magazine. I worked as an editor for six years. Then I left to become a full-time freelance magazine writer. I traveled the world, writing about adventure and adventurers. Later, I became a book editor, memoir teacher and coach, and even a yoga teacher. What sets me apart from others? My deep experience. I don’t know any other memoir coaches who have worked as a professional editor AND a professional writer.
I’ve also published a memoir with a major publisher. My book, Into the Soul of the World:My Journey to Healing, was published by Hachette Go in March 2023. I’m very proud of this book, as it tells the story of my recovery from depression, addiction, and PTSD.
The main thing I’d like my followers to know about me, in addition to my deep experience, is that I, too, have lived the hard way. As I write in my memoir, I’ve had my own struggles. I can really relate and empathize with my clients, many of whom have also taken the hard route through life. But I am here today to tell the story AND to help people tell their stories.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal driving my mission is write my next book, another memoir, and to help people write powerful memoirs about their own difficult paths in life. I wake every day, looking forward to reading my clients latest chapters and coaching them on Zoom. I believe that writing a memoir can help heal a person. It can really change your life by helping you reclaim and reframe your story about yourself, and to let go of the stories that other people might have told about you that were false, and maybe you believed a little too much.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2007, I was practically a shut-in due to overmedication with psychiatric medications I took to treat the depression that had stalked me since my youth. These medications were doing nothing to heal my depression, however. And so, after the suicide of a friend, I began to travel the world, seeking answers to life’s biggest questions and answers to very personal questions about why I felt so depressed, how might I find true healing, and even what form of spiritual life might help me on my journey to healing, as well. I spent 10 weeks crisscrossing the Middle East and a month in India. I also did deep healing work in therapy. I devoted myself to yoga practice, and even became a part-time yoga teacher. I made it. It took me nearly 10 years, but I managed to heal my body, mind, and soul. I now live a healthy, positive life in Austin, Texas. I’m working on my second book and I coach aspiring memoirists to tell the stories of their own transformation or recovery.

Contact Info:

• Website: bradwetzler.com
• Instagram: @bradwetzler
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bradwetzlerwriter/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradwetzler/
• Twitter: @bradwetzler
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bradwetzler4150/featured

Image Credits
Stephen Collector