Most people don’t stop to think about the path they’re on. Not really. Life gets noisy. Responsibilities pile up. And before you know it, you’re knee-deep in a routine that doesn’t feel like yours — but you keep going.
Gary Ljamin (Lyamin) knows that feeling well. After years of building a successful career in digital marketing — helping companies craft their brand identities and scale their reach — he felt something shift. It wasn’t burnout. It was deeper than that. A quiet discomfort. A question: “Is this really it?”
Instead of ignoring it, he leaned in. That question became the seed of his book, How to Become the Person You Were Created to Be, now available on Amazon Kindle. It’s not just a book about self-improvement. It’s about waking up. Letting go. Coming home to yourself. We spoke to Gary about the story behind the book — and what he hopes it will spark in others.
What pushed you to go from marketing into writing a personal book?
Gary: I didn’t completely quit marketing, but I did slow down. Writing takes space — emotional space, especially. For me, the deeper reason was legacy. Not in the big, dramatic sense. I just felt that I had something important to say. I’ve learned a lot, sometimes painfully. And if any of it could help someone else, especially my kids someday, I didn’t want to keep it to myself.
Did your background in marketing shape how you approached writing and sharing the book?
Gary: Definitely. I’ve seen incredible ideas crash because people didn’t know how to tell their story. For me, promotion wasn’t the scary part — it’s a process I understand. But writing? That was new territory. It forced me to be still, which is hard for someone who’s always in motion.
What do you want people to walk away with after reading it?
Gary: I want people to stop performing. We live in this culture of constant presentation — even with ourselves. But the truth is, we all had an inner voice before the world got loud. If you can find your way back to that voice, everything changes. That’s what I try to guide readers toward. Not a perfect version of themselves — just the real one.
What was hardest about becoming an author?
Gary: Honestly? Believing I could. I didn’t go to school for writing. Never studied storytelling. I started with nothing but a strong feeling that the book needed to exist. The first pages were rough. I second-guessed every sentence. But eventually, it started to flow. I stopped trying to “sound like a writer” and just started telling the truth.
What would you say to someone who feels stuck in a life that doesn’t feel right?
Gary: Quiet the ego. That voice that says you’re too smart to need help, too busy to slow down — that’s the one keeping you stuck. If you can learn to listen underneath the noise, you’ll start to notice something simple but powerful: you already know what you need. You’ve just forgotten how to trust it.
Gary Ljamin’s (Lyamin’s) story is not about reinvention for the sake of it. It’s about remembering. Reconnecting. Saying no to the noise — and yes to something quieter, truer, and infinitely more alive. If you’ve ever felt off-course or quietly restless, maybe this is your sign to pause. How to Become the Person You Were Created to Be isn’t a map — it’s a mirror.
And sometimes, that’s exactly what we need most.
