Toni Purry author of My Hype Book

By Ora Cook

An interview with Toni Purry author of My Hype Book.

For Toni Purry life was good. She was running Purry Communications Group (PCG), a successful public relations agency with top-notch clients in the hospitality, travel, and food and beverage industries. Then one day she realized that though her business was doing well, she was unhappy.

Unsure of what to do next, Toni says her confidence and self-esteem plummeted. Instead of focusing on all she had accomplished through her PR firm, she began to dwell on all the things she felt she hadn’t done right.

She knew she had to make a change and that change happened through My Hype Book.

My Hype Book is a self-empowerment workbook Toni designed to help other women regain their confidence and conquer self-doubt.

Through journaling exercises and other confident building exercises, My Hype Book urges readers to examine their perception of themselves, celebrate their accomplishments, and learn how to view themselves as survivors instead of victims.

By doing the same exercises found in My Hype Book, Toni restored her confidence and her ambition. Toni is currently working in her second company as a visibility strategist and consultant helping others build their brands and teaching them to attract the clientele and media coverage needed for building their businesses. In addition to being an author, Toni is also a speaker and workshop facilitator.

I had a talk with Toni recently about how My Hype Book came to be and how she hopes it will help readers.

What prompted you to write the Hype Book?

The book was produced out of a very challenging period in my life when my confidence and self-esteem was almost non-existent.

I have always been blessed to be the person who is confident and ambitious, to live life with a can-do enthusiasm. I could always see the possibilities. I was the one that could make something exciting happen for myself. I always set big goals and went after them, finding a tremendous amount of fulfillment in doing that.

After about eight years of running my agency, something changed. We were a successful agency. We won many awards, had an impressive roster of clients like the Hyatt, Hilton, and Intercontinental hotels. The work was really fulfilling. But after a while, I found myself in the position of running a business as opposed to dong the PR work that I loved.

I did not know how to give myself permission to pivot away from the business. I called my business my baby for eight years. So, to come to a place where I didn’t want the baby anymore felt terrible. It did a number on my confidence because I no longer wanted to continue with the business. But I didn’t have a plan B. It is one thing to say I’m not going to do this anymore because I am going after that. But I had no “that” to go after.

All I could do was think about my failures. I even started thinking about a fight I had in elementary and said I should have fought harder! I was doing a pretty good number on myself of making myself feel as unhappy as I possible could. I was letting my inner critical voice torment me.

One day I was walking through the living room while my husband was watching a documentary of Muhammad Ali. I am not a boxing fan, but I found myself absolutely captivated by Muhammad Ali’s confidence. I wanted to understand how this man maintained his confidence. How he maintained it in the face of defeat, how he maintained it when the country hated him because he did not support the Vietnam War, and how he maintained it with Parkinson disease and having lost his ability to speak.

I became really fixated on the show. I saw his corner man, Bundini Brown, in Muhammad ‘s face yelling at him, reminding him of all his wins, knock outs and that he is the greatest of them all.

I began to think what would it be like if we all had a hype man constantly reminding us of our victories? We would have a pretty different perception of ourselves as well. In that moment, I thought I need to make myself a hype book. It was doing a hype book that brought me out of that space.

Working on it taught me about the power of perception. How we see ourselves is how we carry ourselves. And we have a responsibility to God to see ourselves the way God sees us. He is very aware of our flaws and mistakes, but He still loves us and sees us for all the glory that He put in us.

How did that lead to the development of the book?

For the next two days I sat down and intently looked at my successes and my victories going back to when I launched my company, which was in the beginning of the recession of 2007 and still making it very successful.

I sat on my floor and cut out pictures reflecting my successes, I journaled in detail, and learned to celebrate those successes.

That experience built up my self-esteem. I was now looking at myself through my success lens verses that critical lens. I don’t believe in magic, but it was like magic because just like that, I saw myself differently.

During those two days a friend texted me and asked what was I doing. I said working on a hype book. After explaining what a hype book is, she said, “Everyone needs one.” I said, “Yes, and that’s why you should make one.” She said, “No, Toni, everybody needs one and you should write that book.” This led to my nine-month journey of writing what I call My Hype Book.

What is the purpose of The Hype Book?

It is a guided empowerment journal that motivates you to see yourself through your success lens, to take responsibility to track yourself, take inventory of those strong gifts you have, and spend time reflecting on those things. Once you acknowledge your success, it teaches you to take time to celebrate them, regardless of what they are. It could be checking off everything on your to-do list to landing a gig or new client.

 

Many Christians will have problems viewing themselves in such high esteem. They will feel it’s going against Biblical teachings. How would you address this concern?

While writing the book God gave me this thought.

The presence of humility should not mean the absence of personal accolade.

The book is not saying to stand on the roof and say, “I am an obnoxious person” It’s designed to be a very discreet book, to be used in your own personal private place. It enables you to see who God created you to be and use that to have the confident to do in life.

King David did this very thing. As he was running toward Goliath, he was hyping himself up by saying “I have slain a lion and a bear.” If God allowed David to hype himself reminding himself of his victories, this means He is OK with that practice of encouraging ourselves.

My Hype Book can be purchased at MyHypeBook.com.

You can follow Toni Purry at:

instagram.com/tonipurry

instagram.com/myhypebook

facebook.com/MyHypeBook