2026 International Book Awards Finalist

Flip the Script on Failure

By exploring your subconscious patterns of response to failure, Faceplant brings a fresh new mindset to life’s tripping hazards. It’s time to edit your story and let the adventure begin. Discover tools to define new patterns for yourself, create fresh opportunities for engaging in life, and support others as they navigate the gravity of their failures.

Dr. Melisa Buie is a problem-solver, lean leader and thought-challenger with 30+ years of experience in industry, government and academia. She can often be found hunting opportunities for improvement in manufacturing or playing with data.

Keeley Hurley is a squirrel-herding multipotentialite who has spent her career in the laser industry, always striving to leave the role, people, company, and industry better than she found it.

Noël Kreidler is an Associate Director of Career Development at the Santa Clara University Career Center and has 30+ years of work experience in talent acquisition, human resources, and career services.

Faceplant is “part confessional, part cultural commentary, and completely relatable. Buie, Hurley and Kreidler write with the kind of wit and emotional honesty that makes you laugh one minute and rethink your entire definition of success the next. This isn’t just a story—it’s a permission slip to rebuild your life on your own terms.”

Chelsea Steen, a highly successful Denver Real Estate Agent (top 1.5% nationally and a ‘Legend’ award-winner), a proven entrepreneur, champion of financial empowerment known for her strategic approach to real estate and financial education, and a passionate advocate for financial freedom

Failures, setbacks, and stumbles are inevitable on the path to success—but they’re only failures if we stop learning from them. Faceplant beautifully captures this truth, offering practical and compassionate guidance to turn missteps into growth. Through their FREE framework—Focus, Reflect, Explore, Engage—the authors provide a roadmap to rise stronger after setbacks. Their message echoes my favorite Japanese proverb, “Fall down seven times, get up eight,” embodied by the Daruma doll—a figure weighted at the bottom so it always rights itself after being knocked down. A powerful reminder that true strength lies in learning, rising, and moving forward with renewed purpose, Faceplant is an inspiring read for anyone ready to transform failure into resilience and growth.*

Katie Anderson, Shingo Award–winning author of Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn and host of Chain of Learning podcast

Faceplant not only reminds us that failing doesn’t make one a failure, but it also gives us the language and tools to face failure in refreshingly practical ways. It’s a must-read for anyone who is courageous enough to turn life’s hardest experiences into pivotal moments of growth.

Kyle McDowell, best selling author of Begin with WE: 10 Principles for Building and Sustaining a Culture of Excellence.

Introduction

PART 1 – Find Your Footing

• Chapter 1: The funk of failure
• Chapter 2: How we learn
• Chapter 3: Learning to flip the script

Part 2 – FREE Yourself

• Chapter 4: FOCUS
• Chapter 5: REFLECT
• Chapter 6: EXPLORE
• Chapter 7: ENGAGE

Part 3 – Foster Others FREEdom

• Chapter 8: How to interrupt the conspirators
• Chapter 9: From Faceplant to the future

Conclusion

FORMAT / ISBN / PUBLICATION DATE / RRP

Audiobook / 9781805760108 / March 18, 2026 / £15.99

Hardback / 9781788607933 / November 25, 2025 / £25.99

Paperback / 9781788607940 / November 25, 2025 / £15.99

Ebook / 9781788607957 / November 24, 2025 / £9.99

Paperback and eBook Bundle / £17.99

Dr. Melisa Buie

Dr. Melisa Buie is a problem- solver, experimenter, lean leader and thought-challenger. She is the author of “Problem Solving for New Engineers”. Melisa has 30+ years of experience in industry, government and academia. She can often be found hunting opportunities for improvement in manufacturing or playing with data.

Keeley Hurley

Keeley Hurley is a squirrel-herding, glass-half-full, perpetual learning, multipotentialite who has spent her career in the laser industry pivoting to whatever role needed her unique brand of spice at the time while always striving to leave the role, people, company, and industry better than she received it.

Noël Kreidler

Noël Kreidler, a recovering perfectionist, is known for passionately supporting college students in finding and succeeding in careers they love. She is an Associate Director of Career Development at the Santa Clara University Career Center and has 30+ years of work experience in talent acquisition, human resources, and career services.