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

Niki, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

I never intended to write a book, let alone be an author of multiple books. For people whose dream is to be published, who’ve spent countless hours honing their manuscripts late into the night, I know it’s deeply frustrating to hear. So let me give you the back story.

At heart I’m a science nerd who traded her dream of being the next David Attenborogh for marketing thanks to the dogey advice of a college romance. It was a fast fun life -the 1990s with its excesses and big hair in full swing, but eventually the shine faded and I longed for a life of more depth and substance. Fast forward twenty years, and I was married, we’d come to faith, had three growing kids, and were living in Charlotte, NC, having moved from London to plant a church.

Having lost my mum and sister to cancer, when I was diagnosed with rectal, yes, rectal cancer, it felt like the family heat-seeking missile of death had locked in on me. But as a Brit I was determined to keep calm and carry on, to survive. Until surviving was all I was doing.

With family and friends all over the world, I began a Caring Bridge site to keep everyone up to date on medical news, the ridiculously hilarious things that happen when you have my kind of cancer, and how we were doing emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

As my treatment ended, everyone said the same thing; keep writing, telling me how helpful and encouraging, funny and authentic my posts were. So I did.

That’s when I felt God ask me to write a book and not just share my story, but encourage others that life doesn’t have to be pain-free to be full. Being the great woman of faith that I am, I laughed and said no. Who was I to write a book? I hadn’t written more than an email, thank you note or science paper since I was sixteen. There was no way I could write an entire book that people would actually read.

But God’s nothing if not persistent and likes to encourage you into all he has for you, so eventually I wrote a proposal.

The only problem was, it was TERRIBLE!

The premise was unclear, the writing was all over the place, the structure was confusing, and I had no idea who my reader was. Rookie mistakes, yes, but I didn’t know any better until a gracious agent took pity on me and told me the harsh reality of what lay before me.

That’s when I knew I needed help. God might have called me but I still had to do the work so I invested what felt like a small fortune on a writing coach. By the end of my time with him I had a clear, well written, motivating, book proposal that was snapped up by a traditional publisher at the first writing conference I attended. No one was more shocked than me but investing in my craft and the business of selling my work to those who give the yes/no to whether it makes it into book shops, was life-altering.

Since then, that proposal has become a book, the gracious agent who was honest with me about my writing asked me to write a devotional for women with cancer, and my writing coach’s wife is now my current agent and she’s seen me through the publishing of my third book, God, Can We Chat?

For a girl who gave up English at sixteen years old, it’s been a wild and unexpected ride.

Niki, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As you might have guessed, writing isn’t my first love. Nature and speaking are.

Most of us agree that we feel more present, less stressed, and closer to God when we’re in creation yet many of us worry that doing more than chatting with God on a walk or playing worship music as we take the dog for a stroll, is woo woo, unbiblical, or New Age. However, that’s simply not true. Through my writing at WildlyKnown I help the spiritually thoughtful encounter God in nature so they can become more of who they were made to be while feeling calmer, more confident, and able to hear God’s voice more clearly. Want to know what WildlyKnown Type you are? Take the quiz at nikihardy.com

There are writers who speak, but I’m more of a speaker who writes. Whether it’s at retreats, conferences, or events, I’m all about leading people to discover the calm, confident person they were created to be (without having it all figured out first). I love encouraging folks in their life and faith, and whether an audience is feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, battling doubts, questions, anxiety, or fear, or wants to unpack biblical truth to grow their trust in God, I’m your girl!

Saying yes to God has never backfired. I won’t try to tell you it’s always been easy but it’s led to the fullest, wildest, calmest, and fun-filled ride I could have imagined. I want that for you to.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Tom, a close friend and spiritually thoughtful educator, paused graciously before saying to me, “I don’t like the term doubt. It implies negative bias; minds already moving towards the exit. Semantics matter. I prefer wonder.”

I smiled the smile of someone finds a kindred spirit. I prefer wonder too, don’t you?

The word doubt has such bad PR and it wasn’t just the key pain point of my new book, it had been my story of the last few years.

We assume doubt means

🙋‍♀️Our faith’s weak and we need answers to get it back on track
🙋‍♀️Trusting our inner voice is risky and staying stuck is better than making the wrong decision
🙋‍♀️If we’re not careful, our faith will start to crumble entirely
🙋‍♀️And God’s probably not best pleased with us

But that’s hogwash my friend.

If you’ve got the odd doubt or question for God, what you’re called to be and do, or about anything GodFaithChurch,
here’s what I know about you…

✅You care. Your work and faith are important to you. It’s why you want to figure things out.
✅These questions feel heavy and hard because your relationship with God matters to you
✅You don’t want to slide out the side door of faith but you do long for a way to hold it all together

And that’s what I wish I’d known sooner, because Jesus didn’t come back to life for the ones who never doubt. He came back for the hiding, grieving, and confused. Remember the disciples locked away in fear on Easter morning? Remember what Jesus said to them as he walked in? “Peace be with you.” Not shame. Peace.

Maybe, if I’d have taken this to heart sooner, I wouldn’t have felt more lost than found when my faith began to shift and change.
Maybe I’d have trusted the direction my creative work was taking when it took on a life of its own.
Maybe I wouldn’t have worried my faith was dying by a thousand paper cuts.
Maybe I’d have chatted with God sooner.

Yet, doubt I’d have learned how to reimagine my doubts as my faith’s greatest strength, not its biggest weakness, and silence the lies keeping me from pressing on and chatting with God.

And I certainly wouldn’t have written God, Can We Chat?

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It feels a bit grandiose to say I have a creative journey, however, I guess I do. Intentionally or otherwise.

So what drives me?

Yes, things like passion, compassion, and the frustration of seeing people stressed, anxious, and disconnected from who they’re created to be and what they were born to do, drive me, but it’s more than that.

The fuel behind what I do is the transformation I’ve experienced personally and my desire for others to experience it for themselves.

Having discovered how to crack the code on what really drives us, I want to help people show up to every part of their life fully and wildly “them” confidently doing and being everything God intended.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nikihardy.com
• Instagram: @niki.hardy
• Facebook: @nikihardyauthor
• Other: Grab a copy of God Can We Chat? or start reading today with the first 3 chapters at godcanwechat.com

Image Credits

Patrice Squirewell