Former Urbana resident Traci Bild’s discovery of love letters written to her husband by her younger self prompted her to write a book about work-life balance.
Bild, 45, wrote “Get Your Girl Back,” which will be published Aug. 3.
The book follows the personal story of Bild, who decided to write the book after cleaning out her closet and finding a box of love letters written to her husband by her 20-year-old self. She said she didn’t recognize herself in those letters.
“I realized, ‘wow, I’ve grown up.’ It was sad. I was still happy and outgoing, but something was missing,” she said. “The responsibility of being married, having two kids, owning two companies and trying to care for our home, manage afterschool activities and more had stolen ‘my girl’ and in her place was a grown up woman who was serious, scheduled and always ‘on.’”
Bild owns a national consulting firm, Bild & Company, and spent the last 20 years speaking nationally to companies to grow organizational performance through implementing sales and marketing infrastructure. She has spoken to over 250,000 people, with the majority of them women, and noticed what they really wanted to talk about was creating a better work-life balance.
Bild grew up in Urbana, graduated from Urbana High School in 1988, went to Ohio State University and graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a degree in business administration. She now lives in Florida.
Bild spoke of finding the love letters in a segment on the Today Show in April. As part of her quest to find her ‘girl,’ Bild spoke with other women across the country encouraging them to do the same. The book details strategies to help women find the time in their life when they felt most alive, and then bring that joy to their daily lives.
Bild said she experienced the work-life balance issue while growing a business and managing husband and children. She said she began to write down ideas and solutions to help her create that balance. Her new self-published book was written over a 10-year period, she said.
“My ultimate goal is to help women find their girl so they can make sure their daughters never lose theirs to the chaos of life,” she said.
Bild published “7 Steps to Successful Selling” and “Zero Lost Revenue Days” previously. Bild will speak Aug. 25 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
Bild said she would like to eventually write full time while traveling.
Twenty percent of all book sale profits go to Women for Women International, a global organization that supports female survivors of war (www.womenforwomen.org).
“Get Your Girl Back” can be pre-ordered on Amazon for $15. For more information, visit gygb.com.
