O’Sullivan’s brisk, upbeat debut shares her methods for making meaningful change in life, drawn from a lifetime as a proud “disrupter” dedicated to turning “the ‘impossible’ into the ‘possible.’” Part memoir, part self-help guide, and part journal, From Doubt to Do finds O’Sullivan (and several women she has profiled) sharing key moments from her experience, demonstrating how she learned to believe in her own “magic” to make transformation possible in seemingly impossible situations. Her tone is sunny and encouraging, at times even irreverent (“When people do ask me where I graduated, I reply, ‘MSU,’ as in, ‘Make Stuff Up’—the school of experience and results”).

As she cheers readers on to face their own desires for change equipped with the four “C”s (courage, clarity, commitment, and capacity), O’Sullivan shares inspirational quotes from sources familiar in the genre (Steve Jobs, Dale Carnegie) and some welcome wild cards (Lady Gaga, Beyoncé). Her goal, she notes, in chatty prose, is for the book to be both rousing and practical, showcasing two keys to change-making and seeing yourself on the other side of challenging situations: “the courage and a roadmap to say, ‘Hell, YES!’” O’Sullivan’s zeal for life jumps off the page as she shares her journey from a child born into mysterious circumstances, to a teen that wanted to perform with a traveling group of inspiring performers, to using what she refers to as “The Bob Hope Method,” which “is about believing the seemingly impossible is possible and being brave enough to ask for what you want.” (Rest assured, younger readers, she explains who Hope is.)