After 26 years as an FBI special agent specializing in economic fraud and corruption investigations, Jerri Williams retired in 2008 to pursue a long-held ambition: writing crime fiction. But her transition didn’t begin on her last day at the Bureau. It began years earlier, when she made a strategic decision to step into the FBI’s spokesperson role—not only because she wanted the job, but because she knew it would put her in regular contact with the reporters, authors, producers, and TV professionals she would later need.

In this episode of From Expertise to Authority, Jerri talks with host Matty Dalrymple about:

- Why she took the FBI spokesperson role as “a strategic movement” on her part

- The reporter friend who tore apart her first manuscript — and then introduced her to the developmental editor who taught her how to write fiction

- The hard lesson that fiction is “the entertainment business, not the educational business”

- Why mistaking your professional peers for your audience can sink a sideline before it starts

- Becoming an “accidental indie author” after her first novel died on submission

- How a self-published nonfiction book led to TV consulting opportunities with J.J. Abrams

- The serendipitous ThrillerFest meeting that led to her current traditional book deal with Sourcebooks / Poisoned Pen Press

Whether you’re still in your primary career and thinking about what comes next, or already navigating a second act, Jerri’s story illustrates how the moves you make inside your day job can lay the groundwork for everything that comes after.

#ProfessionalDevelopment #SecondActCareer #SidelineCareer #CareerTransition #Sidehustle #FromExpertiseToAuthority

Audio on the From Expertise to Authority podcast.

Article at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple

Video at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple

And if you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority, and if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at matty@mattydalrymple.com.

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