Book One · Keep It Real Press

Valuable by Design

Breaking Free from Perfectionism, People-Pleasing, and the Need to Prove Your Worth

What if your worth was never yours to prove?

Releases September 20, 2026 · Pre-order now open

The ebook is available to pre-order on Amazon now. Paperback and hardcover pre-orders open soon — I'll send the link the moment they go live.

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You did what was supposed to make you feel like enough. You achieved. You fixed. You carried the room. You kept the peace. Maybe your striving looked like success. Maybe it looked like never measuring up. Either way, one question kept following you:

Am I still worth keeping if I stop proving myself?

Travis Mahoney spent two decades chasing an answer that performance could never give. By his early twenties, he had enough success to look impressive — and enough emptiness to know it was lying to him. Then, on a train platform in Portland, the striving ran out, and something unexpected was waiting on the other side.

Blending vulnerable memoir, biblical truth, and practical insight, Valuable by Design exposes performance-based worth — the belief that value must be earned through achievement, people-pleasing, usefulness, or approval. You'll learn to recognize the patterns that keep you striving, understand why proving yourself once felt necessary, and live from the value God gives rather than the verdict the world keeps demanding.

A book that names The Standing Walk: standing in what Christ has already won, and walking by the Spirit, one ordinary day at a time.

Early Praise

What readers are saying.

This may be your mercy moment. The kind of message that can interrupt a life, awaken hope, and point readers toward a healthier future. Do not pass it by.

— Dr. Tony Colson, Lead Pastor of Icon Church; author of Unlocking Your Divine DNA

He does not rush past the pain of failure, broken relationships, or grief. He shows how the Father meets us there and turns those very cracks into gold.

— Kevin Prince, co-author of The Power Mindsets

An invitation to lay down the burden of proving yourself and embrace the freedom of living from your God-given identity. Every believer needs this message.

— Tammy Hotsenpiller, author of Fasting for Miracles

A personal testimony of the power of God's grace and surrender. I would recommend this book to anyone caught in a performance trap, looking for the right direction to true freedom.

— Peg Willman, Founder of Treasures for the Heart Ministries

More than a book about identity — an invitation to stop striving, break free from the performance trap, and rediscover the freedom of living from worth instead of for worth.

— Michael Ray Morehouse, Songwriter & Recording Artist

Travis offers the reader a fresh perspective on how we approach life — learning to replace performance with purpose, and striving with abiding.

— Nate Truax, co-founder of Financial Guidance for Women

About the Author

A practitioner, not a pastor.

Travis Mahoney is a licensed architect who writes about how we are designed. For more than twenty years he has walked alongside others in recovery and discipleship, learning firsthand how the Father rebuilds what performance and pain leave broken.

He draws on both his craft and his own long road out of performance-based identity to help readers trade striving for the value they were built to carry. He lives in Southern California.

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Print editions

Be first in line when pre-orders open.

The ebook is available to pre-order now. Paperback and hardcover release September 20, 2026, with their pre-orders opening shortly before. Add your email and I'll send the link the moment they go live.

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Questions

A few questions you might have.

Is this another book about being a "better Christian"?

No. The book is explicitly against the idea that the Christian life is about becoming a better version of yourself. It is about discovering that you are already loved, already valued, already named by the Father — and learning to live from that ground instead of trying to earn it.

I've read a hundred Christian self-help books. How is this different?

This isn't a self-help book. It is a witness. The author writes from the recovery side of the table — meaning he is not positioned as a teacher above the reader, but as a fellow traveler who got out of a trap and is offering directions back.

Is this book for men, women, or both?

Both. The Performance Trap is universal. The book speaks to anyone who has built their identity on what they do, how well they do it, or how they're perceived for doing it.

What's the theological lane? Charismatic? Reformed? Something else?

The book is theologically orthodox, evangelical, and Full Gospel — meaning the finished work of Christ is available to the believer in its fullness, including the active gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is grace-grounded and allergic to legalism and license equally. If you love the Bible and you're tired of cultural Christianity that waters down what's in it, you'll feel at home here.

When does the book come out?

It releases September 20, 2026. The ebook can be pre-ordered on Amazon now, and paperback and hardcover pre-orders open shortly before release — add your email above and I'll send that link as soon as it's live.