Business coach Christie Hunter Arscott has spent much of her career counselling women to dream big and overcome limiting beliefs.

Still, while writing Begin Boldly, about the importance of courage to female success, she could not help feeling some doubt.

“Writing the book was a hard process,” she said. “I questioned the impact during the time I was writing it, for sure.”

She need not have worried.

Ever since its launch last August, Begin Boldly has been rocketing in popularity.

In March, Forbes magazine included Begin Boldly in a list of top ten books about women in the workplace. This month, Ms Hunter Arscott is making the rounds on Washington daytime television.

“Last week, I was on WUSA9, a CBS affiliate,” she said. “I was a guest on their morning show Great DayWashington. On Thursday I was on Fox5 Washington DC’s Lion Lunch Hour show.”

She described going on American television as “nerve-racking”.

“I was nervous and I felt self doubt, but I used all the tools in my book to psyche myself up,” she said.

One of her coping mechanisms was to focus on her why.

“My why was never to be an author for the sake of it,” she said. “It is because I want to get these tools and techniques that are research-driven, and have power to be life-changing, into the hands of more women. The more I can do that, the more impact I can have.”

Ms Hunter Arscott said it was an article in Forbes in March, written by Ruth Ann Gotian, that got her international attention. The article was headlined Why Are We Still Telling Women They Lack Confidence?

In it, Dr Gotian stated that women see failure as evidence that they are a failure; while men see it as data collection.

In July, Ms Hunter Arscott was also included in a list of 120 books written by Rhodes scholars, drawn up to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Oxford University award.

She was on the list with the likes of former president Bill Clinton and famed medical writer Atul Gawande. She received the Rhodes scholarship in 2007 to pursue a master’s in women’s studies at Oxford.

However, the biggest buzz for her are the private messages she gets regularly from women worldwide.

“They write and say I changed their life,” Ms Hunter Arscott said. “Sometimes it is just a line on Instagram and sometimes it is an e-mail or a letter. Some women say they had never advocated for themselves, but realised how, thanks to the tools in the book. Some people say they used to fear networking, but are now able to make it much more meaningful.”

Ms Hunter Arscott said women are often told that they need to be more confident to succeed.

“If we wait to feel confident before doing something, we will be waiting for ever,” she said.

While researching Begin Boldly, she travelled the world talking to women leaders.

“They did not necessarily show as confident when being interviewed,” she said. “They would often start by asking why I was interviewing them. Then they would blow me away with their stories. I realised it is not confidence, but courage that is the prerequisite for success.”

She said women are treated differently in the business world, so they need tools specifically calibrated to their needs.

“Mind you, I am not absolving organisations or society from change, but if we wait for the world to change without flipping ourselves, we will be waiting for a long time,” she said.