Anna Lundberg Author Bio:
Anna Lundberg is the founder of One Step Outside, where she helps experienced professionals around the world design a career, a business and a lifestyle that brings them more freedom, flexibility, and fulfilment – outside of the conventional 9 to 5.
Voted ‘most likely to succeed’ and graduating top of her class aged 17, Anna studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford and then continued on to do a post-graduate degree in International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.
Having ‘ended up’ in corporate marketing after her studies, she spent the formative years of her career in beauty and luxury brand management. Leaving her role at multinational Procter & Gamble to start her own company in 2013, she began her new entrepreneurial path by providing digital marketing consulting to well-known brands like Burberry through to exciting new start-ups and solopreneurs.
Anna now combines her decade of experience in corporate marketing with her training in coaching and positive psychology techniques to help people reimagine the next phase of their career, with a blend of life coaching and business mentoring.
She is the host of the Reimagining Success podcast and author of Leaving the Corporate 9 to 5 and, new in 2023, Outside of the 9 to 5.
What inspires you to write?
I've wanted to be a writer ever since I can remember. When I was little, I was always writing short stories or creating made-up magazines and newspapers. At university, I contributed to the students' newspaper and had my first article published on the front page. And, over the years, I've done all sorts of creative writing courses as well as a diploma in magazine journalism.
I don't think I really understood what it meant, however, to "be a writer".
I pictured being a best-selling author, sitting there at my desk in my lake house with a pile of books to my name. It was an ideal, without any real consideration as to what it would take to get there. It turns out that one of the key elements of being a writer is writing!
So, ten years ago, I started a personal blog. Initially, I was quite haphazard in my posts, taking inspiration from whatever random thoughts and experiences came to mind. Over time, the themes crystallised, initially covering my sabbatical as I journeyed across South America and then continued to travel after quitting my corporate marketing job. As more time passed and I started gaining traction, my focus shifted into personal development and in particular the area of setting life goals and making the right career choices.
Ultimately, my blog became a foundation for my business website, and it continues to be a key medium for attracting an audience. I've not focused on it as much as I *should*, but I have had articles published in online and print publications. I've also written two books, Leaving the Corporate 9 to 5 – a collection of stories, interviews with people who quit their 9 to 5 like me to explore another version of success – and, more recently, Outside of the 9 to 5 – a consolidation of all the practical strategies and frameworks that I've developed in that decade of exploring and working for myself.
Today, I have no shortage of ideas, with inspiration coming from my clients and my broader community, the media, as well as my personal challenges and goals.
Tell us about your writing process.
I love a whiteboard and a bit of mind mapping. I'll put the theme in the centre of the page and get pretty messy with the sprawling network of ideas that develops. Having said that, once I have an idea, I do tend to dive straight in and just write. With a first draft in front of me, it's easier to refine and restructure and turn it into something that's compelling. So, blog articles and social media posts tend to be quite informal and fluid.
For my latest book, I was much more structured and strategic. I have a framework called the 5 pillars of building a life and business outside of the 9 to 5, and each of those pillars consists of 4 steps. This gave me a robust skeleton on which I could build out the meat of the book, adding an introduction and conclusion, along with book recommendations and next steps. In fact, I even used the AI-generated transcripts of my course videos on these 5 pillars as a starting point for my writing.
Who are your favorite authors?
I mainly consume non-fiction, and I always have several books on the go across devices – audiobook, paperback, and Kindle! I'm quite obsessed with everything in the area of life satisfaction, purpose, work-life balance… So, for example, I recently finished Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, and I'm reading 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam as well as Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat.
Having said that, I've just been gifted a subscription to Books that Matter (on my own request!), and I'm making an effort to read more novels to come back to my original love of books.
What genres do you write?
Non-fiction, Business, Personal development, Self-help
How did you choose the genre(s) you write?
Although my dream to be a "best-selling author" probably initially referred to writing novels, I fell into non-fiction in an organic process that evolved from my personal blog into writing for business. I write about the topics that are relevant to my business and my audience – but the good news is that these are also the topics that are relevant and interesting to me!
What three things are on your writing desk at any given moment?
I'm a messy one I'm afraid, although I do aspire to be tidier.
First, I'll always have a pile of notebooks and big pieces of paper (along with lots of pens, of course) where I've been mind mapping and scribbling ideas and to-dos.
Second, I tend to have a pile of my own books. What can I say, I'm proud of what I've created, and I often want to pick one of them up and refer to something or wave it around in one of my webinars or video calls.
And, finally, I'll usually have a hot beverage of sorts, whether it's one of my two daily cappuccinos or a tea to keep me going in between.
What hobbies do you have when you need a break from writing?
I've been prioritising exercise since having my second baby, and so a big focus is strength training and getting my daily steps in. More fun is that I've started both tennis and racketball coaching, and my favourite activity is running. Recently, I've found a running partner in a mum friend, and we've just run two trail runs locally in the beautiful coastal area where we live.
What formats are your books in?
eBook, Print
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All information is provided by the author and is presented as it was submitted so you the reader get to hear the author’s own “voice” in their interview.
