Becky Robinson's Blog, page 14

Episode 64: Minal Bopaiah’s Author Journey

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Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Minal Bopaiah—Author, Equity Strategist, and Founder of Brevity & Wit. 

Today’s episode is continuing the “Author Journey” series, based on Becky’s book, which is scheduled for release from Berrett Koehler publishers in April 2022. The book is called Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause.

Key Points From This Episode:

[00:54] Minal shares about what her experience has been like growing her influence online.

[02:09] Minal discusses building connections on LinkedIn, what’s worked well for her, and how she has expanded the reach of her work.

[04:16] Minal shares the challenges she faced on the journey to getting her book contract.

[05:16] A challenge for marginalized voices in the business books space, is that it seems you almost have to be making six figures in order to be able to get the book deal and afford the extra publicity and marketing around the book. Minal shares her experience that led her to that belief. 

[07:09] Minal discusses her perspective on difficulties that people from marginalized communities might face.

[11:59] We hear about what people from dominant identities might be missing about the challenges that people from marginalized identities face.

[14:31] For those who recognize that they are part of a dominant community, with the privileges associated with that, Minal shares what they can do to elevate marginalized voices.

[20:11] Minal shares her final thoughts as it relates to publishing and amplifying voices.

Action Steps:Mobilize your network. One of the things Minal mentioned was that she realized, in the publishing world, it’s more about relationships and networking, than it is about the quality of your work. So I would encourage you to think about your network and the ways in which you can mobilize them to help you. We do have a network mobilization resource available to help you think through this.Read outside your comfort zone. As it relates to equity and inclusion, Minal recommends getting a different perspective, having those difficult conversations, reading books from people that don’t look like you or from people who are outside of your comfort zone, just keep reading and read profusely.Bring awareness to the areas where you are dominant. Another thing mentioned in today’s episode was doing some research in order to become aware of the complexity of your identity among all of the dimensions. Minal mentions Theequitybook.com, which is her website for her book. On that page, you will be able to download the Group Identity Wheel and do the exercise to raise awareness of your own identity. Doing that exercise will help you understand the ways in which you have privilege and the ways in which you’ve been marginalized.Resources:

Learn more about Minal’s company, Brevity & Wit.

Learn more about Minal and her book, Equity: How to Design Organizations Where Everyone Thrives, here.

Connect with Brevity & Wit on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Connect with Minal on Twitter and LinkedIn.  

Tweetables and quotes:

As a marketer, I think it’s really important to make decisions that allow you to use your resources wisely. – Minal Bopaiah

I think a writer’s job is to tell the truth in the most authentic voice possible. And so even though you want to be cognizant of your audience, you also want to be true to yourself. – Minal Bopaiah

If we only read books from people who look like us, then it’s not going to be possible for us to amplify the work of someone who doesn’t look like us. – Becky Robinson 

It’s really a need to influx and to have more of these voices out there. Because there are so many stories we’re not hearing and so many perspectives that we’re missing. – Minal Bopaiah

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 64: Minal Bopaiah’s Author Journey appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 63: Bev Kaye’s Author Journey

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Click here to listen on your device and subscribe! 

Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Beverly Kaye—Author, Speaker, and Thought Leader.

Today’s episode is continuing the author journey series, based on Becky’s book, which is scheduled for release from Berrett Koehler publishers in April 2022. The book is called Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Book, Message, or Cause.

Key Points From This Episode:

[02:08] Bev started her business and thought leadership career before the rise of the Internet. Bev shares the different experiences that she’s had in building reach for her work, both before she had online tools, and now after.

[04:05] From fax newsletters and mail newsletters, Bev shares how that transitioned over once people began using email and other approaches, and what her marketing team did as she started to build reach for her training company in the 90s.

[05:19] Bev tells us about her entry into using online approaches to reach her audience.

[08:49] We hear about some of the ways that Bev’s continuing to invest in her thought leadership brands.

[11:19] Bev shares the principles she followed that helped her become successful and have impact with her ideas.

[15:04] We’re reminded by Bev that we need to be opportunity minded, not opportunity blinded.

[15:12] Bev shares her final thoughts. 

Action Steps:Make a list of what you can let go of. Bev mentioned that she could not do what she does without help from others. So what I would encourage you to do is make a list of what you feel energized about, what you might need help with, and what you can let go of. This is something that we talk about a lot as an organization, because you only have so much as it relates to time, energy and money. Make a list and decide what you can do, what you could have others do, and what activities may not align with your marketing goals. And those are the activities that you’ll let go of. Ask for help! Bev mentioned only her first book was with her alone, but from then on, she consistently involved others. Think of who you can involve in your work, whether that’s asking for endorsements, reaching out to your lists to help share your book or message on social media, or even sharing with others who might benefit from your work. You can even ask others to buy your book. Resources:

Learn more about Beverly Kaye and the work she does, here.

Connect with Beverly Kaye on Twitter and LinkedIn.  

Click here to download our ebook, Network Mobilization Cheat Sheet. This free resource will help outline everything that you need to do to get started with your asks, including a free template where you can start making your list of people and what you can specifically ask from them.

Tweetables and quotes:

We can teach as much through conversation with one another, or with an audience, as we could by using our wonderful slides.

You have to be opportunity minded, always. Too many are opportunity blinded.

Be an opportunity miner, mining for ideas. Not an opportunity whiner. 

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 63: Bev Kaye’s Author Journey appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 63: Bev Kaye’s Author Journey Copy

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Click here to listen on your device and subscribe! 

Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Beverly Kaye—Author, Speaker, and Thought Leader.

Today’s episode is continuing the author journey series, based on Becky’s book, which is scheduled for release from Berrett Koehler publishers in April 2022. The book is called Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Book, Message, or Cause.

Key Points From This Episode:

[02:08] Bev started her business and thought leadership career before the rise of the Internet. Bev shares the different experiences that she’s had in building reach for her work, both before she had online tools, and now after.

[04:05] From fax newsletters and mail newsletters, Bev shares how that transitioned over once people began using email and other approaches, and what her marketing team did as she started to build reach for her training company in the 90s.

[05:19] Bev tells us about her entry into using online approaches to reach her audience.

[08:49] We hear about some of the ways that Bev’s continuing to invest in her thought leadership brands.

[11:19] Bev shares the principles she followed that helped her become successful and have impact with her ideas.

[15:04] We’re reminded by Bev that we need to be opportunity minded, not opportunity blinded.

[15:12] Bev shares her final thoughts. 

Action Steps:Make a list of what you can let go of. Bev mentioned that she could not do what she does without help from others. So what I would encourage you to do is make a list of what you feel energized about, what you might need help with, and what you can let go of. This is something that we talk about a lot as an organization, because you only have so much as it relates to time, energy and money. Make a list and decide what you can do, what you could have others do, and what activities may not align with your marketing goals. And those are the activities that you’ll let go of. Ask for help! Bev mentioned only her first book was with her alone, but from then on, she consistently involved others. Think of who you can involve in your work, whether that’s asking for endorsements, reaching out to your lists to help share your book or message on social media, or even sharing with others who might benefit from your work. You can even ask others to buy your book. Resources:

Learn more about Beverly Kaye and the work she does, here.

Connect with Beverly Kaye on Twitter and LinkedIn.  

Click here to download our ebook, Network Mobilization Cheat Sheet. This free resource will help outline everything that you need to do to get started with your asks, including a free template where you can start making your list of people and what you can specifically ask from them.

Tweetables and quotes:

We can teach as much through conversation with one another, or with an audience, as we could by using our wonderful slides.

You have to be opportunity minded, always. Too many are opportunity blinded.

Be an opportunity miner, mining for ideas. Not an opportunity whiner. 

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 63: Bev Kaye’s Author Journey Copy appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 62: Karin Hurt’s Author Journey

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Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Karin Hurt—CEO, Speaker, and Award-winning author.

Today’s episode is continuing the author journey series, based on Becky’s book, which is scheduled for release from Berrett Koehler publishers in April 2022. The book is called Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Book, Message, or Cause.

Key Points From This Episode:

[00:44] Karin shares about her work in the world and her four books. 

[02:20] Karin shares about the beginning of her author journey and how and when she decided to begin growing influence and connections online.

[07:37] For people who are in the beginning of trying to grow a following, create reach, or build a platform, Karin shares when she started gaining traction and how she knew when that was all starting to come together.

[10:57] Karin shares surprising insights she’s gained along her journey.

[15:20] In addition to the principle of consistency, Karin shares other principles that she’s found to be critically important in growing her online influence and the building her business.

[17:55] Karin shares advice for those people who might be struggling to create this type of online presence.

Action Steps:Map out a schedule to show up consistently. Karin mentioned many times the value of showing up consistently and generously. We would encourage you to think about what a reasonable consistent cadence looks like for you and for your content marketing. That could be blogging, videos, webinars, social media, there are a number of different things that you could choose to focus your efforts on. But what we suggest is to take out a piece of paper or open a Google doc or an Excel sheet and map out what you realistically can commit to. We all have these really lofty dreams about these content marketing goals that we’d like to be able to hit, but we hear a lot from authors that time is a limiting factor. So map out a schedule to keep yourself on track and keep showing up with that consistent cadence.What does success look like for you? Karin talked about what success looks like and she touched on it a little bit when she was talking about her blog, and that maybe getting a bunch of views or comments on the blog wasn’t the right measure of success for her. What she really needed to look at was if her content was reaching the right people. So before you get started on your marketing journey, really think about what success looks like to you. And once you know that you can really pivot your marketing strategies and practices to align with those goals. If you’re setting out on your marketing journey without really having thought about what success looks like for you, it can be very confusing to know where to focus your efforts. But if you have clear goals outlined you’ll be able to focus your attention to the areas that can create an impact.Resources:

Learn more about the work Karin is doing in the world. 

Connect with Karin on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Join Karin every Friday at 11:30 AM (ET) for Asking for a Friend, her weekly video blog.

Connect with Let’s Grow Leaders on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. 

Tweetables and quotes:

If you really want a platform, you have to show up consistently. 

Other thought leaders are not your competitors. They actually might be your competitors, but there is space for everyone. Support their books, support their ideas, as much as you’re supporting your own, and it will come back.

I think sometimes people are generous to the people they think will be able to help them as opposed to just showing up generously to help people.

Don’t get discouraged and really be patient. And then make sure you’re writing for the right people, and that you really care about the quality.

Do we have work that we love to do? Do we have clients that we love to be with? Are we making an impact for those clients? And are we making the revenue that we need to grow? That’s how we measure success now.

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 62: Karin Hurt’s Author Journey appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 61: Selling vs. Marketing Your Book

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Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Todd Sattersten—Publisher at Bard Press, “Producing One Best-Selling Business Book At A Time.”

Key Points From This Episode:

[0:00] Todd shares about his work in the world and his books. 

[0:00] What is required for an author to successfully market and sell their book?

[0:00] Todd talks about the idea that you have to get the problem right and how he thinks the book, The ONE Thing, demonstrates that principle. 

[0:00] What’s the difference between selling books and marketing books?

[0:00] Todd shares, as it relates to sales and marketing, tactics that he recommends that apply universally.

[0:00] Todd explained that a business book author who can sell 10,000 books in the first year is more likely to sell even more across the lifetime of the book. He talks a little bit about that data, how he gathered it, and why that number of 10,000 is so important.

[0:00] Todd believes that it’s critically important for authors to invest in a book over the long haul. Can you talk about why and how that relates to the 10,000 copies in the first year?

Action Steps:Take a look at your book description.  If your book is already out or if you’re in the process of preparing for a book proposal or a book, you can really think through your book with the three questions: 1. What? 2. So What? 3. Now What?Create a Sales Plan. If you have a marketing plan, it’s not enough. You also need a sales plan. Todd’s recommendation around a sales plan was to open a spreadsheet and start thinking about the people who can buy your book, and how many copies they might buy of your book, and to not only think about the people who need the answer to the problem that your book is solving, but also the people who just care about you personally and what you’re doing in the world. Resources:

Learn more about Todd Sattersten. 

Check out the book Todd Sattersten co-authored, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.

Get a copy of the best-seller book, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results. 

Sign up for Todd’s free newsletter for detailed and unique riffs about what he sees going on in business book publishing.

Connect with Todd on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Tweetables and quotes:

I think that if you don’t get the book right, it doesn’t matter how much advertising and marketing you do. The book is not going to be successful. So make sure that you get the book right.

I think your ability to pull the message from the book into the marketing and selling, if you do it right, ends up becoming, I’m not gonna say easy, I’m gonna say easier.

Marketing can do lots of things for the author, it can raise profile, it can create other business opportunities, but just remember, when we’re launching the book, we want to connect it as much as possible to the actual selling of the book and the selling of the product.

The combination of the book, the author, and the audience, they’re so context specific, that we need to build a marketing and sales plan that matches that.

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 61: Selling vs. Marketing Your Book appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 60: Sabrina Horn’s Author Journey

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Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Sabrina Horn—CEO of HORN Strategy and author of Make It, Don’t Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success.

About Sabrina Horn

Becky: I have the privilege of talking with my friend and client, Sabrina Horn. We happen to be recording this in early spring, but this will be live on the day of her actual publication date for her book. So we’re doing this as a way of celebrating, and as a way of you hearing about her book on the very first day that it’s available on Amazon. I personally can’t wait to hold mine in my hands. 

So Sabrina, could you introduce yourself and talk about your work? And tell us about your book as we start today’s conversation?

Sabrina: Sure and thank you, Becky, for having me on your podcast. I love it! It’s been an interesting journey to get to this point. Prior to writing a book, I was running a public relations company for 24 years, which I started when I was about 29 years old. After selling it, and working for the company that bought my company, I decided it was time to reassess and do some different things. I thought, “What better than to write a book?” ‒ in part about my career and the mistakes I made, and the lessons I learned, but also to help others avoid those mistakes and to help other entrepreneurs and executives run their businesses with integrity. That’s really the central message to the book, Make It, Don’t Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success.

Becky: I love how easily your book title rolls off your tongue, and I bet you’ve had to practice that.

Sabrina: Yeah, sometimes I mix it up and I say, fake it, don’t make it. It’s like no, no, it’s the other way around.

Why is writing a book at this point in your life and career so important to you?

Becky: That’s so fun. So Sabrina, can we dig a little deeper on why writing a book at this point in your life and career is so important to you?

Sabrina: Sure. So in addition to writing the book, I also decided to start a new consulting practice, because you can’t be idle in life. And that consulting practice is all about helping entrepreneurs navigate the early stages of their startup businesses, from how they go to market, to how they hire a leadership team, how they get venture capital, and other things in between. So the book is really in parallel with that, in terms of helping entrepreneurs and executives lead with authenticity and integrity. 

Why now? I think that the mantra, “fake it ‘til you make it,” honestly, is the worst business advice I’ve ever heard. I think right now in the world that we live in, making a hard U-turn back to integrity, and dispelling the merits of that horrible mantra are absolutely paramount. So coming from the perch of public relations, most people would think a message of integrity and authenticity coming from a PR person is kind of a joke. But actually, public relations done right is all about the truth, and about authenticity and getting to the truth. So I’m conveying this message and providing this guidance and the strategies from the perch of my career of a person who had to deal with fakery all the time. And, ultimately lead with integrity and in my own business, and in my own profession.

What insights have you uncovered along your journey?

Becky: Sabrina, that is so inspiring. If we have listeners who are aspiring toward entrepreneurship and thinking about writing a book in the context of a new business, you could have no better role model than Sabrina. So another plug to go out and get Sabrina’s book today. 

So now what we want to do, Sabrina, is focus a little bit on this author journey. We have authors who listen to this podcast, and I’m curious if you can share some of the insights that you’ve uncovered along the journey, what surprised you, what’s been exciting, all of those ups and downs of your author journey thus far?

Sabrina: I’m a first time author and it’s a whole new landscape for me. I really thought it was important to get as much help as possible to make the book a success, right? I mean, why write a book and watch it, if you can’t put everything behind it and make it successful, to achieve your goals with it. So part of it is really understanding the process, but having the right kind of marketing in all aspects, to get the word out to as many people as possible through the right channels at the right time. And all the while you’re trying to achieve certain kinds of interim business goals, which to me, as I understood them, were the pre-order campaign, and then the actual launch of the book when it comes out, the day that it comes out. So there’s definitely some nuances in that process. I think my biggest challenge has been managing, getting the excitement around a pre-order campaign for a book that people can’t get yet, and managing the potential fatigue that people might feel like, “Oh, there’s another post from Sabrina. There she goes again,” and having people excited about it and anticipating it.

Becky: That’s such an interesting observation, Sabrina. I think having partnered with authors along the journey, one of the things that I would encourage you with today, if you don’t mind, can I give you a bit of advice? What I’ve noticed is that authors always think that they’re posting too much, and that people are going to get tired. Then I’ve worked with some authors who will say, “My book’s been out for months. I’ve been posting for months.” And then someone will say to them, “What, you have a book? I didn’t even hear.” So I think we always overestimate people’s attention to what we post or their fatigue with what we post. Now, it makes sense to me, Sabrina, that you might feel tired, “Oh, here I go again, posting.” But I think probably our audiences are kinder, and noticing less than we actually think they are.

Sabrina: Right? Well, I mean, it’s sort of like going back to my days running a PR firm, like, public relations was 100% of what I did, but it was maybe 5% of what my client did. And same here, this book is, at this time, basically, almost 100% of what I’m doing. So that’s all I see. But in reality, everybody that’s learning by hearing and reading about my book, it’s what, 30 seconds of their day. So I get it, it’s just a balancing act. 

I would add one other thing, and that is, as a business person, you spend your career trying to develop a big footprint and get big deals and bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan. And now with a book, you’re not bringing home $100,000 deals necessarily in book sales. You’re selling one copy of your book to one person, and hope that they’ll spread the word. So it makes you appreciate the value of one person so much more, and the effort that it really takes to sell one book to one person. It also makes you appreciate the value of bulk orders, which is something that I’m also working on.

How have you applied strategy to this process yourself?

Becky: Indeed, it’s definitely faster to sell 100 copies at a time than it is to sell one at a time. So I know because you have this background in PR, Sabrina, and because you’re a consultant now to entrepreneurs, that you have a strategic mind, and I’m curious about how you’ve applied strategy to this process yourself?

Sabrina: That’s an interesting question. I think the strategy comes from thinking that every move I make is an anticipation of the next move and that there’s a sequence to all this. And so if the end goal is XYZ, then you have to work your way back to today and what are the steps you have to take to serve? Build that snowball effect, that crescendo of excitement, and then the big pop the week of your launch. And you can’t just fly blind, like you’ve got to think about there is a strategy that you have to thread together and piece together.

What do you see as the most important things that you’re going to do between now and the day that your book goes live?

Becky: So, looking ahead to the future, this podcast is going to air on your launch day. And so looking back, if everyone can take that journey with us looking back, we’re recording this about two months before launch. So what do you see Sabrina as the most important things that you’re going to do between now, the day that we’re recording, and the day that this goes live?

Sabrina: Yeah, I think the most important thing is two things. For me, personally, I’ve been a little bit quiet since I left my job in 2018, to kind of take a break. I’ve been off the grid. I’ve been off the grid since basically 2018, and COVID, of course, everybody was kind of off the grid, because there was no grid. So for me, what is really important is getting back in the flow, reconnecting with people, and those individually customized emails, to 500 or 600 people to tell them what I’m doing and to get them to help me share the news about my book, are important because they’re also helping me reconnect with people. As much as I’m doing podcasts with you, and interviews with you and other people, I’m also doing Zoom calls with people, my friends, who I haven’t talked to in a couple of years or more. So that is really, really important, because that is the power of the network. Like, you can never underestimate the power of your network as an author. And, dialing that up again, is something I work on every day, I chip away at it every day. And then I think of new people that I can add to that list that I then email the following day. 

The second thing that is critical between now and then is getting those bulk orders and kind of lining up opportunities to get them. I’m experiencing some challenges there because people want to read the book before they want to sign up for a bulk order. And so in those cases, I’m sending them a galley copy through a PDF and making sure that I trust them enough not to share that PDF with other people. I’m also booking myself as a speaker for events that are coming up after the launch, to sort of continue the love and the journey beyond the day of the book launch, and in doing so I’m hoping that, as a speaker, people will be interested in a bulk buy. So I think those two ends of the spectrum from feeding the network to then extracting something out of it, is my focus.

What challenges have you faced so far?

Becky: That’s really helpful. So on a not so happy note, I know, it’s always helpful to talk about the frustrations that we experienced on the journey, because it can help those who might be following behind us to know what to expect and maybe avoid some frustrations. Would you be willing, Sabrina, to share a few of the challenges that you face so far?

Sabrina: Yeah, I think, personally, it’s talking to someone and they’re like, “You know what, I’d love to buy a couple. Let’s do a bulk order.” And then they just want like two or three copies of the book, and I’m like, “Okay, how about 100? How about 200 books? You want 200 books?” So, that has been a frustration. But that’s the reality, right? One person doesn’t need 200 books, and there’s only so many people they’re going to send them to at Christmas time. So that’s been a frustration.

I think the other part of it is kind of left brain, right brain side of thinking strategically. For example, in writing an article and creating content and having it be thoughtful and targeted to the audience that it’s for CEOs or entrepreneurs, and then going back to the very tactical aspect of making sure each person has gotten their galley copy, print or PDF, or did you get the headshot? Did you get my bio? And to me, that’s a bit of busy work, but it’s all part of the process.

Becky: So balancing that strategic approach with just the reality of the tactical requirements of launching a book. That is a very helpful insight. 

Action Steps

Becky: So Sabrina, we always wrap up the podcast with a couple of action steps that our authors can take to move forward to market their books. 

Explore the idea of bulk orders. I think the most obvious action step that I’d like to challenge our listeners with today is related to this idea of bulk buys. Sabrina, you shared with us a lot about your own approach to asking for bulk buys, and so the first action step I have is if you are an author who has a book that it would make sense for people to buy in bulk, if you’re a fiction author listening, that might not be as appropriate. But if you’re the author of a book that could be available and valuable for people to buy in bulk, make an ask. Think of one person you can email today to ask for a bulk purchase. And like Sabrina said, it can be frustrating. You want to sell 100, but most people might want to buy two or three, think about the correct quantity that that person may be able to buy and be willing to make the ask for a bulk purchase.Reconnect with someone. My second action step that I’m taking away, Sabrina, is this idea that you shared about the power of your network and this individual outreach that you’ve been doing to reconnect with people. So if you’re listening today, and you’re an author at any stage of the journey, whether you’re preparing for a launch or after your launch, why don’t you think of one person that you’ve been out of touch with and look for a genuine reason to reconnect and, if possible, be able to share part of your journey as an author? 

So what do you think about those, Sabrina? Anything you’d add?

Sabrina: No, those are two really important recommendations and takeaways and those are two things I didn’t really fully grasp when I started this process, and right now they are the most important. So that’s right on the money.

Resources For anyone who’s a leader who wants to live a life of integrity, what a joy to be able to read about Sabrina’s journey and the insights that she has for leaders. Get your copy of Make It, Don’t Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success, here. If you want to make a bulk order at a discounted price, learn more here. Click here to learn more about Sabrina and the work she does in the world. Connect with Sabrina on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. 

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 60: Sabrina Horn’s Author Journey appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 59: Mark Miller’s Author Journey

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Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Mark Miller—Author and Vice President of High Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A.

Today’s episode is continuing the author journey series, based on Becky’s book, which is scheduled for release from Berrett Koehler publishers in April 2022. The book is called Reach: Creating Lasting Impact for Your Book, Message, or Cause. 

About Mark Miller

Becky: The interview that you’re about to listen to is a part of my author journey series. I’ve been working on the first draft of my book, due to be released in April 2022 by Berrett Koehler publishers. My book is Reach: Creating Lasting Impact for Your Book, Message, or Cause, and throughout the process of writing my first draft I’ve been interviewing some past clients, authors, and nonprofit leaders to get their insights on my topics. I was so excited to have the opportunity to reconnect with Mark Miller. Mark Miller was an early client of my company, we started to work together in 2012 and our team served him through eight or nine book launches. We’re anticipating supporting him with the launch of his newest book, which is going to be released in 2022. I was so happy to catch up with Mark and I think you’ll enjoy this thoughtful conversation. 

So I want to let you know a little bit about Mark. He is the Vice President of High Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A. He’s also the author of many best selling books, including The Secret, The Heart of Leadership, and Chess Not Checkers. His new book is coming with BenBella Press in January of 2022.

How did you measure your goal of reaching leaders with your content?

Becky: So Mark, when we were working together, you wanted to quantify a goal about how many leaders to reach with your content. Can you tell me about that big goal and how you’ve measured it?

Mark: Well, as you’ll recall, it’s always been an aspiration to reach as many leaders as possible. I mean that’s actually why I’m doing what I do. Even though some people still to this day, look at me and go, that’s kind of a strange goal. I feel like I’m on the planet to encourage and equip leaders, and I can’t encourage and equip anyone I can’t reach. So reach has always been a desire and a quest. 

As you and your team tried to help me figure out, there are a lot of ways to measure that. And my scorecard continues to morph. I’d like to reach 100 million leaders before I die. In fact, I think I’ve got something written down about 2030 to add value to 100 million leaders. And, I know books are important, but you can’t reach 100 million people with the book, more than likely. I don’t think there is anything other than the Bible that’s probably sold 100 million copies. So I think the books are a piece of that reach, but social media is going to have to be the anchor.

And as you recall, we’ve tried to look at that, almost like a sales funnel, where you have Twitter and Instagram and Tik Tok, and whatever you want to put at the top of that funnel to get people in, and then you’re probably gonna get a smaller percentage of those men and women who will actually go to your website, or read your blog post, or download your free resources, or purchase resources that you have for sale. But for me, my scorecard is still a composite of all of those things, and as you recall, we have toyed with and continue to tweak this idea of weighting those things, which I know this may be over complicating it, but it’s not the same for somebody to read a blog post as to buy a resource. So if you’re really trying to have impact, that’s our latest quest, is do you actually assign point value to the different levels of impact or engagement? So still working on the scorecard, but the ultimate end is to reach people.

Becky: Any idea how many you’ve reached so far?

Mark: Well, we had some years when we were probably reaching 8, 9, 10 million people. So, we haven’t done as much recently. I don’t know if you know, I kind of went dark for a little while, for a lot of reasons, but hoping to relaunch a refreshed brand, maybe in the next 30-45 days.

What’s the difference between reaching people online and in person?

Becky: That’s exciting stuff, Mark. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between reaching people online and reaching people in person, and how you feel about that? 

Mark: Yeah, that’s a fantastic question. I want to add value, and if I can add value in any arena, I’m up for it. I think that based on some of the skills that I’ve been able to develop over the years, I might have a higher probability of impact if I’m in a room with somebody than if they’re reading a tweet halfway around the world. But I’m not quite so sure that’s true anymore. That’s probably my personal paradigm. I’ve got a few anecdotes that make me think that might not be the case. 

One story you’ve heard before, it was right after I got started. This was 8 or 10 years ago in the whole social media space, and I got pushed and pulled there by my team. They actually got me a Facebook account and brought the password into my office and said, “You’re now on Facebook.” I mean, I sort of got pushed into it, and they told me I needed to start blogging and tweeting. And I said, “Well, I got the blog, but why should I do Twitter?” And they said, “We’ll take it on faith.” And I said, “You know, I’ve got faith in a lot of things, but I’m not sure Twitter’s one of them.” And they said, “No, you’ve got to do it on faith.” And so I remember again, you’ve probably heard this story. I had been writing blogs for about two weeks. I was doing three a week and those first couple weeks went really well, from my perspective, because I had 30 years of content built up so it was easy to write 8 or 10 blog posts that I thought were really good. And then I got to week three, week four, and it was like, oh and I wrote a post, and I said, I’m not sure this is that good. I mean, it didn’t feel as good as the stuff I’ve done in those first few weeks. I had a moment where I needed to decide what to do. I remember you and others had coached me that it’s about authenticity. It’s about transparency. Are you telling people what you’re thinking about? How are you failing? And I said, “Okay, it’s probably not, A work, might be B- work, but I’m gonna send it anyway.” And within 24 hours, that blog post had been re-posted, retweeted to about 400,000 people. And that was the moment I began to understand the power on a big scale. 

And then a smaller example, not too long after that. One night about midnight, I got a message from somebody saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, for helping me start my day. You’ve inspired my entire team.” And I’m thinking, it’s midnight. She said, “Good morning,” what’s going on? And of course, you had taught me a little bit about how to do some analytic discovery and she was in China or Thailand or somewhere. They had started their day with my content and so even though I want to be in the room with people, and I believe I can have more impact, I’m not sure that’s the world we live in anymore. I think I can probably have more impact if I can continue to develop the requisite skills to touch people through social media.

What is your point of view related to spacing out book launches? 

Becky: Those are some amazing stories, Mark. I’m going to shift a little bit. As I was starting to put together some thoughts for the book, one of the things I was thinking about was these conversations that you and I had about spacing out the launches of your books and products over the years, because we together launched about eight of your books, I believe. I’m curious if you’d be willing to share with our listeners about your point of view related to the spacing out of launches?

Mark: I’m not sure my point of view on this is going to be helpful, because I don’t know the right answer. Let’s go back to I’m doing this to serve leaders and so when I’ve got resources that I think will serve leaders, I want to release them to the world. Now, I have talked to many authors, and many publishers, and there is a conventional wisdom I would say, in the traditional publishing world, that if you’re doing a book a year, you’re oversaturated. But that’s not universally held. I would rather say I’ve got a new resource that’ll serve a leader, and the publisher says, “yeah, but you’re going to cannibalize sales of your previous resources, and you’ll never reach the peak sales.” Well, what I have always wanted to believe is that new resources would actually help the backlist, and I would say we’ve had mixed success with that. 

I mean, I could sell more books if I spaced them out. But book sales are just one indication of success. Again, if it’s about reach, if it’s about impact, if it’s about serving leaders, maybe it’s that new content that’s going to serve a new segment of the market or serve leaders that weren’t served by previous titles, because many of my titles are relatively narrow. A book on engagement, or a book on creating a leadership culture, or a book on building teams. Well, if you’re not trying to build a team, or if your team’s great, and it’s two years before I share something with you on engagement, maybe I could have served you earlier. So I don’t know the right answer. I just want to get resources out into the world.

What has writing and publishing books over the past decade taught you about creating reach for your work?

Becky: Actually, I think that’s a really helpful perspective, Mark. So I’m curious if you can share a little bit more about what writing and publishing books over the past decade or more has taught you about creating reach for your work?

Mark: You know, it’s actually been two decades now. When we did, Ken Blanchard and I, it’s not quite been 20 years, but it’s been 20 years since we started the research that became The Secret. I learned this from Berrett-Kohler and you’ve probably said it as well, I think books are seeds and if you don’t plant seeds, you’re never going to get a tree. If you don’t get a tree, you’re never going to get fruit, and not all the seeds are going to produce fruit. Not all of them are even going to produce trees. Right? Some of them get returned to the publisher, which breaks my heart.

But a book, I think, does a couple things. One, is it forces the author to codify their point of view, which I think matters. I think there are a lot of smart people in the world that have never organized their thoughts in a way that they are transferable. There’s been stuff written over the years about having a teachable point of view, you can have a point of view, but is it a teachable point of view? And I won’t say that everyone that writes a book instantaneously has a teachable point of view, but I think they’re a step closer, because they had to organize it, they had to illustrate it, they had to distill it down to something that they could put on paper. So I think that’s one thing it does for you, which helps reach, right? Because if you have a codified body of work, if you have a teachable point of view, whether someone else buys the book or not, they may be able to share that with someone else. “Let me tell you what I learned.” “Let me tell you about something I read.” So I think that’s one great reason to write a book. 

Another, and you’re about to experience this with your new book, your IQ is going to go up 50 points in the eyes of the world when you’re a published author, which of course, is nonsense. I mean, in my case, it is nonsense. Yours may really go up 50 points. But people give you higher standing, they give you more credibility, they give what you say more validity. It’s a little bit scary. I mean, I’ll even have people want to talk to me about topics I’ve not written on and I’m really quick to tell people, that’s not my area. I’m not an expert on that. I could introduce you to an expert. I’ve literally had people say yes, but you’re an author, like answer my question, you’re an author. And so be careful with that, I would say to your listeners. But it helps with reach, because when you show up, and you’re a published author, people listen more intently to what you have to say. So those are a couple of things that I think books actually help an author with reach, beyond the obvious that somebody bought the book.

Becky: Well, and Mark, I have to admit that I use that idea of books or seeds in my work all the time. I met with a woman yesterday morning, who’s written her first book, it’s a Bible study. I was encouraging her to give away as many as you can. Books are seeds. If they’re not out there, they can’t do the job they’re meant to do. So thank you for that. Because every time I use it, it’s a nod to you.

Mark: Well, and let me say this, as far as giving away books, I appreciate that you’re encouraging that. I’ve always felt like I’m an outlier on that, and thankfully, I’m in a position I can do this. I’m not assuming every author can do this, but I love to give away books. And historically, my publisher, they’ve actually said that I’m crazy. And I said, “Well, let’s don’t debate that I’m crazy. I know, I’m crazy.” Remember, my objective is to serve leaders, and if they don’t have the book, I can’t serve leaders. Now, if they buy them, that’s great, because I’m gonna give the profits to charity, that’s great, too. But my historical practice has been, you better give away at least 10% of what you want to sell. Last I heard, they said we’re chasing 2 million books in the world. And I wish I’d have kept up with it. But I have given away tens of thousands of books. It wouldn’t surprise me if I’d given away more than 100,000 books over 20 years. We give away a lot of books, but again, I think they’re seeds. And when somebody reads a book, they may buy 100 copies for their organization or they may give it as Christmas presents to 20 of their friends. And even if they don’t do that, you’ve hopefully had an impact on their life.

What are some challenges you’ve faced along the way?

Becky: So Mark, I’m wondering if you could share with our listeners about some challenges you faced along the way?

Mark: Well, it’s hard to sell books, and it’s frustrating to me as an author. I would say to any author because you’re writing the book because you want to share it, and I just think that’s been a challenge and one that I would say, I’ve tried not to succumb to, and you’ll know this from the conversations we’ve had over the years. If something doesn’t work, let’s try something else. I don’t know that we’ve ever done two book launches alike. In part, because I was always saying, we’ve got to sell more books, we’ve got to sell more books, and I’ve had conversations with publishers and other authors and they’ll say, “Well, I got 500 likes on Instagram on my book summary,” or whatever. I said, “Well, I’m proud of your likes, but aren’t you trying to sell books?” So I think that gets lost sometimes, and that’s been a challenge for me. I think some of it’s an industry situation and where the book world is today. I think part of it is me as an author having unrealistic expectations. When somebody comes back and says, “We sold 100,000 copies.” I said, “We’ll have a party when we get to a million, right?” I mean, I’m not excited about selling 100,000 books. And they’ll say, “Well, the average book only sells 3,000 or 4,000 copies,” and I’m going, “We’re not trying to write average books. We’re not trying to help 200 people.” So, I think, for me, the biggest challenge is the challenge you live with every day, it’s just hard to sell books, for many, many, many reasons. 

That’s probably another whole podcast on all the reasons it’s hard to sell books. But I think for authors that believe passionately in their content and their message, you just have to accept that challenge. And you have to keep finding new ways to try to reach. I mean, I’ve got an upcoming book and we’re now talking about, do we include a free digital, if you buy the hardback, you get the digital free? Or if you buy the leader’s journal, do you get a free assessment? I mean, these aren’t things that other people haven’t tried. These aren’t new ideas. But we’re now saying, what are other people doing to try and sell books? We’ve talked about, do you do enhanced ebooks and embed video, all this stuff? Some of it is probably gimmicks and gadgets, but if it helps sell books, I’m up for it. To me, the challenge is, how do you get people to buy books in today’s world? And I’m looking forward to reading your book, I’m assuming it’s gonna have some more answers in there to help us do that.

What has surprised you along your author journey?

Becky: Let’s do a bit of context setting, Mark, you’re saying that selling books is really hard. And you have an executive level position at one of the most iconic brand companies in the United States. So for those of you who might be listening, who are new or emerging authors, I want you to let that sink in. Because if it’s hard for Mark Miller, those of us who are really just emerging as authors, need to realize it’s going to be hard for us too, and it doesn’t mean that you’re doing something wrong, it just means that it’s difficult. 

So Mark, what are some surprises that you’ve seen along the journey? You mentioned some with your earlier stories about the ability of content to reach people around the world and have an impact. What else has surprised you?

Mark: I mentioned the fact that people are gonna think you’re smarter once you’re published, that surprised me. I don’t think that I necessarily think that about authors, maybe because I know too much. They may be people who’ve worked really, really hard to create a book, but I don’t attribute any enhanced IQ because they went through that journey. So that was a surprise. 

Another surprise is how hard it is to sell books. It’s just been surprising, particularly when people tell you that the book is amazing. “It changed my life.” “It changed my organization.” It’s like, “Oh, yeah, that’s great. I mean, that’s fantastic.” And then you’ll go out and you’ll sell 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 books of a book that is potentially life changing, organization changing, it’s like we ought to sell millions of a book like that, right? If it’s good, then why can’t we sell it? So that has been not only the challenge we faced, it has been my biggest surprise over the last 20 years as an author. And I actually think it’s getting harder. There’s more noise, there are more channels, there are more distractions, I think attention spans are shorter. People are now asking me, can I create some two minute videos that will change lives? And I’m going, “I don’t know that I’m that good to create two minute videos that will change lives.” I mean, somebody can probably do that. So maybe the rate of change, the acceleration in the rate of change has probably been a surprise to me. 

I was surprised that the posters we bought for the airport promotion didn’t help us sell books. That was very expensive, by the way. It was one of those things where we were trying because it’s like, well, let’s try to sell some books a different way. It surprised me that we didn’t sell a lot of books, with the big posters hanging all over the Atlanta airport, which my friends liked. They all took pictures of it and sent me pictures of the posters, but I don’t think any of them bought a book.

Any parting advice or wisdom? 

Becky: I’m wondering if you have any parting advice or wisdom for authors or aspiring authors who might later listen to this interview?

Mark: The world needs your content. I mean if you’ve got an idea, if you’ve got a concept, if you’ve got content that you think will serve people, whether that’s one hundred people, one thousand people, or millions of people, you need to do the book. You need to write. Then do what you can, with Becky’s help, to extend your reach. But that’s not your first responsibility. Your first responsibility is to get the book finished, because the world needs it.

Action Steps

Becky: I want to leave you with a few action steps that we do on every episode of the Book Marketing Action podcast, and part of my conversation with Mark centered around the idea of creating metrics. How are you going to measure success? How are you going to measure the reach of your ideas? 

So what I’d like to encourage you to do, is to think about what success looks like for you. Maybe open up a Google doc or get a piece of paper and a pen, and in light of what Mark said about his scorecard, think about what a scorecard looks like for your book and your success. As a second action item, I would encourage you to take a look at the various resources that Mark has created that help to expand the learning from his books, and you can find those at tmarkmiller.com. Mark has a variety of field guides, quickstart guides, and assessments that go along with each of his titles. I would encourage you to take a look at those and to consider what else you might do as it relates to creating complimentary resources to go with your books. ResourcesLearn more about Mark Miller and the work he does in the world. Get started with his free ebook, Leaders Go First: 10 Ways You Can Set The Pace For Those You Lead, here. Connect with Mark Miller on LinkedIn. 

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

Click here for our free resources. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. 

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The post Episode 59: Mark Miller’s Author Journey appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 58: Jon Gordon’s Author Journey

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Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Jon Gordon—11x Best-selling author of 23 books, speaker, positive leader. 

Today’s episode is continuing the author journey series, based on Becky’s book, which is scheduled for release from Berrett Koehler publishers in April 2022. The book is called Reach: Creating Lasting Impact for Your Book, Message, or Cause. 

About Jon Gordon

Becky: So the interview that you’re about to listen to with Jon Gordon is one I recorded as part of my book writing process. I interviewed Jon to talk about what he’s learned about creating lasting impact for his books and ideas in the world. Jon Gordon is an author of best-selling books and a keynote speaker, and he’s worked with fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and nonprofits. He’s authored more than 23 books, and his timeless classic, The Energy Bus, has sold over 2 million copies. So Jon knows quite a lot about creating lasting impact for his work, and I think you’ll find this conversation to be really valuable to listen to and enjoy.

What has been the most important tactic in gaining reach for your books, ideas, and work?

Becky: Hey, Jon, thanks so much for taking some time to talk with me today. I’d really love to learn from the great success you’ve had authoring over 16 books. So, Jon, I’m curious what has been the most important tactic for you in gaining reach for your books, ideas, and work in the world?

Jon: Hey, Becky. I think the number one thing that we’ve done over the years is my newsletter. We have a weekly positive tip. I started it in 2002, right? And so years ago, I’ve been doing this newsletter every week for let’s see, 18 or 19 years now, and so every year, every week, over and over again, the repetition of it, more and more followers, more and more readers, people share the newsletter to others. And over time, that consistency, that focus, that value add to people, sharing constant value is something that people share with others, and it grows and grows. So I would say that newsletter is probably the best thing I’ve done. 

Also, I would just say showing up every day, and doing the work. Sharing a quote every day on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram. Sharing encouragement, providing value, sharing content to hopefully help people. Doing it over and over again, as I said, every day, every week, for the last 18 years, over time you get, reach doesn’t happen overnight, but the reach then exponentially grows and you reach more and more people. When you show up and do the work you earn trust that way. And then when people trust you, they show up and they tell more people about you.

Becky: Wow. So if we could just dial that back and slow it down a little bit. You started in 2002?

Jon: Yes, 2002.

Becky: Yeah, I’m guessing that was before a lot of thought leaders were out there doing newsletters. So did that predate your writing and publishing any books, Jon?

Jon: It did. So when I decided I wanted to write and speak, I knew I wanted to do this. I started with a newsletter, and initially it was a fax. I was sending out faxes to people, getting their fax number, then I would get their emails and I would actually send emails out, and it was not really professional. I would write something up and then just email it. And I think it was like 5 people initially, then 20, then 100, and eventually, we started using Constant Contact, which was just beginning at that time. And no one was really doing newsletters back then. There were no blogs, there was no social media, it was the way to reach people was this weekly, positive tip. Now, it seems like everyone has a newsletter. Everyone’s on social media. But back then it was very early on and I was just beginning.

Becky: So tell me about where your newsletter list is right now.

Jon: 250,000, I would say. 

Becky: Amazing, and they get a weekly, positive tip from you?

Jon: Right. We do a weekly positive tip and then, mid week, we’ll do a promo for something that we have upcoming, an event, a training, or a launch of a new book. Our power of positive summit is this week, so we’ll be promoting that. So we’ve added that promo piece and people don’t seem to mind that. We don’t want to bombard people with too many things, so we try to keep it with a newsletter and one promo per week. We started the promo about two years ago. So for years it was just the weekly newsletter, and we started the promo because we had so many things going on that we couldn’t fit it all into just the newsletter. So we added the promo piece and I think that’s worked out well, as well.

How did you convert people who saw you speak into staying connected through your newsletter?

Becky: So I know Jon, that you’ve also been, prior to COVID, traveling a lot and speaking a lot. In what way did you convert the people who saw you speak in person to stay connected to you long term through the newsletter?

Jon: When we’re on stage or giving a talk or something like that it was always “Hey, sign up for my newsletter.” There’s always a PowerPoint slide at the end giving a contact information for people to sign up. We do a free seven step action plan for people to sign up, so we’re always offering that. The goal is to provide ways for people to connect. They either have read my books, or they’ve seen me speak, and then from there, if they want to connect even more, we provide these other avenues for them to connect. And so during COVID, it was the newsletter. It was my social media following, all the people that have connected to me through my books, my work, and also the podcast now as well. And from that was an audience that we were able to reach during this time. I did a lot of work this past year, virtually. A ton of virtual events, probably the result of all the years of work I’ve been doing, reaching out, conducting, speaking, going everywhere and anywhere to do the work. It just shows you again, over time you build up an authentic, real, genuine, and organic following. My following is very organic because I don’t do a ton of advertising. It’s a lot of people who have either seen me, heard me speak, or read my books.

When did you start publishing books and what have you learned along the way?

Becky: So talk about the books a little, when did you start publishing books and what have you learned along the way, as it relates to how each book increases your reach in the world? 

Jon: Well the book that really kicked off everything for me was The Energy Bus, and that came out in 2007. I would say the book, talking about the book, speaking on the book, really built up my following and also created a lot of interest in the book. So I would speak about the book, and then people would buy the book, and then they read the book. And then a lot of people who read the book, who didn’t see me speak, then invited me to speak. So one built the other. I always tell people, when you’re starting out, speak on your book, make your topic that’s in your book your speech topic. And that way, it will be a flywheel effect, your talk promotes the book, your book promotes the talk, and then you’ll grow that way. 

So for me, initially, it was really focusing on just getting the message of The Energy Bus out there, and then as I would speak, and meet different leaders and organizations, I would get new ideas. And that would lead to another book, which would lead to another book. So for me, it wasn’t writing a book to market myself. I was writing a book to share something and say something that needed to be said. And so each book was something I wanted to say. But that book would then reach more people and build on the following because some people would read The No Complaining Rule or Training Camp, or The Carpenter, and not even know about The Energy Bus, and so people found me through other books that I wrote and then they’d come in and then read the other books. So having a lot of different books creates synergy. It’s like you go to a town center and there’s one store you’re going to see, but then you see, oh, they got these other stores here, and you go check out the other stores, and the synergy builds. That’s why a lot of restaurants want to be near each other. You don’t want to be isolated as a restaurant, you want to be near the other restaurants, so you can try all the other places.

What are some pivotal lessons you’ve learned along your journey?

Becky: So Jon, could you share some pivotal moments or lessons you’ve learned on your journey?

Jon: So many. I mean, just getting rejected by over 30 publishers when I wrote The Energy Bus, that was a pivotal moment. Just staying with it, trusting, believing, a lot of prayers, finally getting that publishing deal from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. It coming out. Bookstores wouldn’t carry it, but it was a best-seller in South Korea. So that was a big moment. Being told I wasn’t very good as a speaker early on, that was a pivotal moment. I should have given up many times, but I didn’t. I kept doing it even when I wasn’t good. Working on my craft over time, feeling like I had a message to share, knowing I wasn’t great. The wanting to get better, wanting to improve, so that was a pivotal moment, as well. Being on the big stages initially was a really big moment in terms of being in front of all these people, and not really performing great in those big moments, like being onstage and not being your best, the moment was almost too big for me. And then learning from those moments, growing from those moments, and then being on the big stage again and being ready for that moment. And bringing the content, the passion, and the gift that you developed over years and the talent…that was pretty cool to be able to then rise to the occasion in those moments. Knowing those tough moments, difficult early moments, led you to this moment. Getting on TV and The Today Show was a big moment. 

For the first time, early on in my career, I got into The Today Show and did a four week series with them, and that really created a lot of exposure. Doing the governor’s conferences in Texas and reaching all these different audiences as part of those big conferences was great. And then just getting called different times when you least expected it. Someone would reach; they heard about you, they read your book, and it was a moment that maybe you were having a tough week and all of a sudden you get invited to a big stage event. And you go, “Okay, I’m meant to do this.” And now years later, you go, “Okay, this is what I do.” But back then it was like, “Okay, am I meant to do this?” and then you get the gig, you get the book deal. One thing after another leads you to realize, “Okay, I’m doing what I’m called to do.”

How valuable is your email list when releasing new books? 

Becky: That’s really helpful. So I’m thinking a little bit Jon, just about my own observing of your work over the years. Because I work with authors to market their books, I’ve watched when you’ve had various book launches, and I can’t remember which book it was, it was probably several years ago, and I remember it was your book launch day and I saw an announcement on social media, I went over to Amazon, the book was selling like crazy. But I didn’t see any massive promo coming out from you the way you often do with authors. And I asked Daniel Decker, who I know is someone that you’ve worked with, and he said, “Well, all Jon needs to do when a book comes out is to send out an email, and he sells a lot of books.” 

So I’m curious how accurate you think that is, and what your experience has been like, in terms of the value of your email list, in helping you at those moments of releasing your new books along the journey?

Jon: Oh, it’s huge. Because they are loyal followers, because they’re people who read your books, and you’ve built up a lot of trust with them because you are always providing value, always sharing weekly content. You’re not asking for anything. You’re not charging for your newsletter, you’re just providing value over time. You build up the trust, and a lot of those people wind up reading your books. So when you come out with a new one, and in your email, as you say, “Hey, I have a new book coming out,” those amazing people who support you wind up getting your book. And so it goes a long way in selling a lot of books. That list again, started out at five people, and is now over 250,000. That’s a lot of people, right? And so a lot of people who read your books now, a lot of them don’t though. So there’s a lot of people when a new book comes out, they may read it, they may get a book for the first time. They’ve been following you for a while and they finally decided to buy your book. I’ve had people on social media say, “Hey, I’ve been following you for a year now. Love your content. Decided to buy one of your books.” So again, I’m not asking for anything from that person. I’m just doing what I’m here to do by providing content. Same thing on social media, right? Twitter, constantly share it, but then it leads to that person buying my book, great. So I never started this to sell books. I always started to provide content and value, and the newsletter was a great example. I didn’t know the newsletter was going to lead to all these great people who buy my books. I never knew it would lead to the growth of that. You asked me what’s the number one thing I’ve done. That’s it. I didn’t know that when we started this, it was just to be able to reach people to share information with, but it’s led to so many speaking engagements as well. So it’s the number one thing we’ve ever done, but it was not intentional. Now there’s a lot smarter people who know what they’re doing, know how to do it, and all that. So it really came from a good intention and a good state of mind. 

The other thing is the launch team that we do with Daniel, that’s been huge as well. Every book now we have a launch team that helps us promote the book, support the book, and those are the people who are, again, people who like your work. They might be considered fans, readers, whatever you want to call them. They love your work. We ask them to join our launch team and we’ll get between 1000 and 2000 people to join the launch team now. And the launch team markets the book to their list, to their audience, to their page, to their friends. They get to read the book in advance, they get to be part of the community, and they even buy the book to help support it. And so the launch team has been very helpful and successful in getting our initial thrust out there when the book first comes out. So very thankful for the launch team and all the people who have followed me all these years who support the books, obviously couldn’t have done it without them.

Any surprises on your journey? 

Becky: So any surprises on your journey, Jon? Besides ones you’ve already mentioned in terms of you didn’t set out to do the newsletter knowing the great benefits it would bring, but only just to add value?

Jon: Yeah, I think surprising for me is just that I’ve written so many books. Like, I never expected to do this many books, right? So we’re up to 23, now 24 actually, I think with the new one, and 5 children’s books, 11 bestsellers. So I think for me, it’s surprising that we’ve reached as many people as we have, and surprising that I said the newsletter because that, again, is probably the biggest surprise. But also surprised that when I don’t think a book is going to do well out of the gate, it does a lot better than I expected, because sometimes I won’t even promote a book hard, because I’m like, alright, we already promoted this other book and I wasn’t planning on writing a book this year, but I did. I don’t want to promote it too much. I don’t want to be too promotional and yet, the book will still do really well. It’s been fun to try out different books like alright, The Coffee Bean, I’m going to do an illustrated little fable that you can read in 20 minutes, let’s see how that does. And you get surprised at how well the book does, even though it’s just a little book like that. So I won’t write a book to just write a book or to try to sell a book. Like my publisher one time, maybe four or five years ago said, “Okay, we need a book out this year!” I’m not ready to do one. I’m not going to do a book unless I need to say something or want to say something, and then I’ll do it. I’m not gonna write a book just to write a book. The minute I do that, I’ll be done. So I’m thankful, and what I’m proud of is that people say the quality, like people say that I haven’t written a bad book. You know, most people, if you go to Amazon, you’re gonna find some reviews that just don’t like it and they just don’t like you. But for people who know my work, like, yeah every book he does, there’s something valuable there, and that I take pride in. I don’t want to just put a book out there. I want it to be meaningful, and I work a lot on them and I’m involved in every aspect of the book until it gets launched.

Favorite book you’ve written? 

Becky: So do you have a favorite amongst them?

Jon: Training Camp, for sure. I mean people always ask me and definitely Training Camp, just the story. The main character has to overcome his fear, find his faith. The emotions I had in writing it. The Energy Bus, the most popular by far, but Training Camp is probably my favorite. People say The Carpenter is probably my best work or The Garden, my newest one. But definitely, definitely The Training Camp. 

Anything you want to share that you haven’t had the chance to say yet?

Becky: So Jon, is there anything that you want to say about reaching people with content that you haven’t had a chance to say yet?

Jon: Just show up and keep delivering it. A lot of times people reach out to me, “Hey, how can I build up an audience? How can I build up my brand? How can I grow it, it’s really small right now?” You have to start and just do the work every single day. It’s gonna take a while. It doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be where you provide the value in the content, you are consistent, you build trust, and over time, your following will grow. You want to be able to reach the right people who then will share it. But for the most part, you have to just continually produce the content and get it out there so people can see it. So whatever that takes for you, it might be again, social media, Twitter, Instagram, putting stories out there. Now there’s so many different ways to do it, but it’s continually doing it. And over time, you become known as a go to person in that area. 

Also finding your niche, and standing out with that niche doing something unique and different that is not being done. So you’re known for that. What are you known for? Becky, what would you say I am known for?

Becky: Either positivity or leadership

Jon: Yeah, you nailed it. So for me, it’s like you just said it’s positivity and it’s leadership. I was positivity in the beginning, then moved towards positive leadership, and really knew I wanted to be focused on that positive leadership. So much so, that’s what I will drive and drive and drive and share and share and share because I know that is what I want to be known for. It’s also what I am meant to be known for, what I’m meant to share, and being clear on that is key. Clarity leads to focus action. So really being clear on the message you want to share, and what you want to be known for, is really helpful in building your brand and reaching more people.

Action Steps

Becky: I want to share a couple of action steps with you as we wrap up today’s episode. 

One of the things that Jon talked about was the multi-channel approach that he has to marketing his work, with the most valuable one being his newsletter. If you do not already have an email newsletter, I want to encourage you as an action step today to watch my free webinar about the value of creating a permission based list. We’ll put the link to that webinar in the show notes for you, here. I would encourage you also, if you haven’t yet started a newsletter, to subscribe to one or two. And why don’t you start with Jon’s? He has a highly valuable newsletter, and you can sign up for it here. As another action step, what I want to encourage you to do is think about the long term impact that you can have, by being consistent with your approach over your journey. You know, Jon mentioned that he has been doing a newsletter in one form or another for more than a decade. And it’s that ongoing effort that has helped him to reach so many readers around the world with his books. So I would just encourage you, after listening to today’s podcast, to think about what it might look like for you to invest over the long term in your book and ideas. Resources Learn more about Jon Gordon and the work he does in the world. Get Jon Gordon’s “The Power of Positive You” Free 7 Step Action Plan, here. Connect with Jon on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Sign up for Jon Gordon’s newsletter, here. 

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

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The post Episode 58: Jon Gordon’s Author Journey appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Jon Gordon’s Author Journey

Photo by Bartolomiej Pietrzyk / 123rf.com

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Welcome to Season 2 of The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson, where we give you information that you can immediately implement to increase your influence and market your books more successfully. In this episode, we are joined by Jon Gordon—11x Best-selling author of 23 books, speaker, positive leader. 

Today’s episode is continuing the author journey series, based on Becky’s book, which is scheduled for release from Berrett Koehler publishers in April 2022. The book is called Reach: Creating Lasting Impact for Your Book, Message, or Cause. 

About Jon Gordon

Becky: So the interview that you’re about to listen to with Jon Gordon is one I recorded as part of my book writing process. I interviewed Jon to talk about what he’s learned about creating lasting impact for his books and ideas in the world. Jon Gordon is an author of best-selling books and a keynote speaker, and he’s worked with fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and nonprofits. He’s authored more than 23 books, and his timeless classic, The Energy Bus, has sold over 2 million copies. So Jon knows quite a lot about creating lasting impact for his work, and I think you’ll find this conversation to be really valuable to listen to and enjoy.

What has been the most important tactic in gaining reach for your books, ideas, and work?

Becky: Hey, Jon, thanks so much for taking some time to talk with me today. I’d really love to learn from the great success you’ve had authoring over 16 books. So, Jon, I’m curious what has been the most important tactic for you in gaining reach for your books, ideas, and work in the world?

Jon: Hey, Becky. I think the number one thing that we’ve done over the years is my newsletter. We have a weekly positive tip. I started it in 2002, right? And so years ago, I’ve been doing this newsletter every week for let’s see, 18 or 19 years now, and so every year, every week, over and over again, the repetition of it, more and more followers, more and more readers, people share the newsletter to others. And over time, that consistency, that focus, that value add to people, sharing constant value is something that people share with others, and it grows and grows. So I would say that newsletter is probably the best thing I’ve done. 

Also, I would just say showing up every day, and doing the work. Sharing a quote every day on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram. Sharing encouragement, providing value, sharing content to hopefully help people. Doing it over and over again, as I said, every day, every week, for the last 18 years, over time you get, reach doesn’t happen overnight, but the reach then exponentially grows and you reach more and more people. When you show up and do the work you earn trust that way. And then when people trust you, they show up and they tell more people about you.

Becky: Wow. So if we could just dial that back and slow it down a little bit. You started in 2002?

Jon: Yes, 2002.

Becky: Yeah, I’m guessing that was before a lot of thought leaders were out there doing newsletters. So did that predate your writing and publishing any books, Jon?

Jon: It did. So when I decided I wanted to write and speak, I knew I wanted to do this. I started with a newsletter, and initially it was a fax. I was sending out faxes to people, getting their fax number, then I would get their emails and I would actually send emails out, and it was not really professional. I would write something up and then just email it. And I think it was like 5 people initially, then 20, then 100, and eventually, we started using Constant Contact, which was just beginning at that time. And no one was really doing newsletters back then. There were no blogs, there was no social media, it was the way to reach people was this weekly, positive tip. Now, it seems like everyone has a newsletter. Everyone’s on social media. But back then it was very early on and I was just beginning.

Becky: So tell me about where your newsletter list is right now.

Jon: 250,000, I would say. 

Becky: Amazing, and they get a weekly, positive tip from you?

Jon: Right. We do a weekly positive tip and then, mid week, we’ll do a promo for something that we have upcoming, an event, a training, or a launch of a new book. Our power of positive summit is this week, so we’ll be promoting that. So we’ve added that promo piece and people don’t seem to mind that. We don’t want to bombard people with too many things, so we try to keep it with a newsletter and one promo per week. We started the promo about two years ago. So for years it was just the weekly newsletter, and we started the promo because we had so many things going on that we couldn’t fit it all into just the newsletter. So we added the promo piece and I think that’s worked out well, as well.

How did you convert people who saw you speak into staying connected through your newsletter?

Becky: So I know Jon, that you’ve also been, prior to COVID, traveling a lot and speaking a lot. In what way did you convert the people who saw you speak in person to stay connected to you long term through the newsletter?

Jon: When we’re on stage or giving a talk or something like that it was always “Hey, sign up for my newsletter.” There’s always a PowerPoint slide at the end giving a contact information for people to sign up. We do a free seven step action plan for people to sign up, so we’re always offering that. The goal is to provide ways for people to connect. They either have read my books, or they’ve seen me speak, and then from there, if they want to connect even more, we provide these other avenues for them to connect. And so during COVID, it was the newsletter. It was my social media following, all the people that have connected to me through my books, my work, and also the podcast now as well. And from that was an audience that we were able to reach during this time. I did a lot of work this past year, virtually. A ton of virtual events, probably the result of all the years of work I’ve been doing, reaching out, conducting, speaking, going everywhere and anywhere to do the work. It just shows you again, over time you build up an authentic, real, genuine, and organic following. My following is very organic because I don’t do a ton of advertising. It’s a lot of people who have either seen me, heard me speak, or read my books.

When did you start publishing books and what have you learned along the way?

Becky: So talk about the books a little, when did you start publishing books and what have you learned along the way, as it relates to how each book increases your reach in the world? 

Jon: Well the book that really kicked off everything for me was The Energy Bus, and that came out in 2007. I would say the book, talking about the book, speaking on the book, really built up my following and also created a lot of interest in the book. So I would speak about the book, and then people would buy the book, and then they read the book. And then a lot of people who read the book, who didn’t see me speak, then invited me to speak. So one built the other. I always tell people, when you’re starting out, speak on your book, make your topic that’s in your book your speech topic. And that way, it will be a flywheel effect, your talk promotes the book, your book promotes the talk, and then you’ll grow that way. 

So for me, initially, it was really focusing on just getting the message of The Energy Bus out there, and then as I would speak, and meet different leaders and organizations, I would get new ideas. And that would lead to another book, which would lead to another book. So for me, it wasn’t writing a book to market myself. I was writing a book to share something and say something that needed to be said. And so each book was something I wanted to say. But that book would then reach more people and build on the following because some people would read The No Complaining Rule or Training Camp, or The Carpenter, and not even know about The Energy Bus, and so people found me through other books that I wrote and then they’d come in and then read the other books. So having a lot of different books creates synergy. It’s like you go to a town center and there’s one store you’re going to see, but then you see, oh, they got these other stores here, and you go check out the other stores, and the synergy builds. That’s why a lot of restaurants want to be near each other. You don’t want to be isolated as a restaurant, you want to be near the other restaurants, so you can try all the other places.

What are some pivotal lessons you’ve learned along your journey?

Becky: So Jon, could you share some pivotal moments or lessons you’ve learned on your journey?

Jon: So many. I mean, just getting rejected by over 30 publishers when I wrote The Energy Bus, that was a pivotal moment. Just staying with it, trusting, believing, a lot of prayers, finally getting that publishing deal from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. It coming out. Bookstores wouldn’t carry it, but it was a best-seller in South Korea. So that was a big moment. Being told I wasn’t very good as a speaker early on, that was a pivotal moment. I should have given up many times, but I didn’t. I kept doing it even when I wasn’t good. Working on my craft over time, feeling like I had a message to share, knowing I wasn’t great. The wanting to get better, wanting to improve, so that was a pivotal moment, as well. Being on the big stages initially was a really big moment in terms of being in front of all these people, and not really performing great in those big moments, like being onstage and not being your best, the moment was almost too big for me. And then learning from those moments, growing from those moments, and then being on the big stage again and being ready for that moment. And bringing the content, the passion, and the gift that you developed over years and the talent…that was pretty cool to be able to then rise to the occasion in those moments. Knowing those tough moments, difficult early moments, led you to this moment. Getting on TV and The Today Show was a big moment. 

For the first time, early on in my career, I got into The Today Show and did a four week series with them, and that really created a lot of exposure. Doing the governor’s conferences in Texas and reaching all these different audiences as part of those big conferences was great. And then just getting called different times when you least expected it. Someone would reach; they heard about you, they read your book, and it was a moment that maybe you were having a tough week and all of a sudden you get invited to a big stage event. And you go, “Okay, I’m meant to do this.” And now years later, you go, “Okay, this is what I do.” But back then it was like, “Okay, am I meant to do this?” and then you get the gig, you get the book deal. One thing after another leads you to realize, “Okay, I’m doing what I’m called to do.”

How valuable is your email list when releasing new books? 

Becky: That’s really helpful. So I’m thinking a little bit Jon, just about my own observing of your work over the years. Because I work with authors to market their books, I’ve watched when you’ve had various book launches, and I can’t remember which book it was, it was probably several years ago, and I remember it was your book launch day and I saw an announcement on social media, I went over to Amazon, the book was selling like crazy. But I didn’t see any massive promo coming out from you the way you often do with authors. And I asked Daniel Decker, who I know is someone that you’ve worked with, and he said, “Well, all Jon needs to do when a book comes out is to send out an email, and he sells a lot of books.” 

So I’m curious how accurate you think that is, and what your experience has been like, in terms of the value of your email list, in helping you at those moments of releasing your new books along the journey?

Jon: Oh, it’s huge. Because they are loyal followers, because they’re people who read your books, and you’ve built up a lot of trust with them because you are always providing value, always sharing weekly content. You’re not asking for anything. You’re not charging for your newsletter, you’re just providing value over time. You build up the trust, and a lot of those people wind up reading your books. So when you come out with a new one, and in your email, as you say, “Hey, I have a new book coming out,” those amazing people who support you wind up getting your book. And so it goes a long way in selling a lot of books. That list again, started out at five people, and is now over 250,000. That’s a lot of people, right? And so a lot of people who read your books now, a lot of them don’t though. So there’s a lot of people when a new book comes out, they may read it, they may get a book for the first time. They’ve been following you for a while and they finally decided to buy your book. I’ve had people on social media say, “Hey, I’ve been following you for a year now. Love your content. Decided to buy one of your books.” So again, I’m not asking for anything from that person. I’m just doing what I’m here to do by providing content. Same thing on social media, right? Twitter, constantly share it, but then it leads to that person buying my book, great. So I never started this to sell books. I always started to provide content and value, and the newsletter was a great example. I didn’t know the newsletter was going to lead to all these great people who buy my books. I never knew it would lead to the growth of that. You asked me what’s the number one thing I’ve done. That’s it. I didn’t know that when we started this, it was just to be able to reach people to share information with, but it’s led to so many speaking engagements as well. So it’s the number one thing we’ve ever done, but it was not intentional. Now there’s a lot smarter people who know what they’re doing, know how to do it, and all that. So it really came from a good intention and a good state of mind. 

The other thing is the launch team that we do with Daniel, that’s been huge as well. Every book now we have a launch team that helps us promote the book, support the book, and those are the people who are, again, people who like your work. They might be considered fans, readers, whatever you want to call them. They love your work. We ask them to join our launch team and we’ll get between 1000 and 2000 people to join the launch team now. And the launch team markets the book to their list, to their audience, to their page, to their friends. They get to read the book in advance, they get to be part of the community, and they even buy the book to help support it. And so the launch team has been very helpful and successful in getting our initial thrust out there when the book first comes out. So very thankful for the launch team and all the people who have followed me all these years who support the books, obviously couldn’t have done it without them.

Any surprises on your journey? 

Becky: So any surprises on your journey, Jon? Besides ones you’ve already mentioned in terms of you didn’t set out to do the newsletter knowing the great benefits it would bring, but only just to add value?

Jon: Yeah, I think surprising for me is just that I’ve written so many books. Like, I never expected to do this many books, right? So we’re up to 23, now 24 actually, I think with the new one, and 5 children’s books, 11 bestsellers. So I think for me, it’s surprising that we’ve reached as many people as we have, and surprising that I said the newsletter because that, again, is probably the biggest surprise. But also surprised that when I don’t think a book is going to do well out of the gate, it does a lot better than I expected, because sometimes I won’t even promote a book hard, because I’m like, alright, we already promoted this other book and I wasn’t planning on writing a book this year, but I did. I don’t want to promote it too much. I don’t want to be too promotional and yet, the book will still do really well. It’s been fun to try out different books like alright, The Coffee Bean, I’m going to do an illustrated little fable that you can read in 20 minutes, let’s see how that does. And you get surprised at how well the book does, even though it’s just a little book like that. So I won’t write a book to just write a book or to try to sell a book. Like my publisher one time, maybe four or five years ago said, “Okay, we need a book out this year!” I’m not ready to do one. I’m not going to do a book unless I need to say something or want to say something, and then I’ll do it. I’m not gonna write a book just to write a book. The minute I do that, I’ll be done. So I’m thankful, and what I’m proud of is that people say the quality, like people say that I haven’t written a bad book. You know, most people, if you go to Amazon, you’re gonna find some reviews that just don’t like it and they just don’t like you. But for people who know my work, like, yeah every book he does, there’s something valuable there, and that I take pride in. I don’t want to just put a book out there. I want it to be meaningful, and I work a lot on them and I’m involved in every aspect of the book until it gets launched.

Favorite book you’ve written? 

Becky: So do you have a favorite amongst them?

Jon: Training Camp, for sure. I mean people always ask me and definitely Training Camp, just the story. The main character has to overcome his fear, find his faith. The emotions I had in writing it. The Energy Bus, the most popular by far, but Training Camp is probably my favorite. People say The Carpenter is probably my best work or The Garden, my newest one. But definitely, definitely The Training Camp. 

Anything you want to share that you haven’t had the chance to say yet?

Becky: So Jon, is there anything that you want to say about reaching people with content that you haven’t had a chance to say yet?

Jon: Just show up and keep delivering it. A lot of times people reach out to me, “Hey, how can I build up an audience? How can I build up my brand? How can I grow it, it’s really small right now?” You have to start and just do the work every single day. It’s gonna take a while. It doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be where you provide the value in the content, you are consistent, you build trust, and over time, your following will grow. You want to be able to reach the right people who then will share it. But for the most part, you have to just continually produce the content and get it out there so people can see it. So whatever that takes for you, it might be again, social media, Twitter, Instagram, putting stories out there. Now there’s so many different ways to do it, but it’s continually doing it. And over time, you become known as a go to person in that area. 

Also finding your niche, and standing out with that niche doing something unique and different that is not being done. So you’re known for that. What are you known for? Becky, what would you say I am known for?

Becky: Either positivity or leadership

Jon: Yeah, you nailed it. So for me, it’s like you just said it’s positivity and it’s leadership. I was positivity in the beginning, then moved towards positive leadership, and really knew I wanted to be focused on that positive leadership. So much so, that’s what I will drive and drive and drive and share and share and share because I know that is what I want to be known for. It’s also what I am meant to be known for, what I’m meant to share, and being clear on that is key. Clarity leads to focus action. So really being clear on the message you want to share, and what you want to be known for, is really helpful in building your brand and reaching more people.

Action Steps

Becky: I want to share a couple of action steps with you as we wrap up today’s episode. 

One of the things that Jon talked about was the multi-channel approach that he has to marketing his work, with the most valuable one being his newsletter. If you do not already have an email newsletter, I want to encourage you as an action step today to watch my free webinar about the value of creating a permission based list. We’ll put the link to that webinar in the show notes for you, here. I would encourage you also, if you haven’t yet started a newsletter, to subscribe to one or two. And why don’t you start with Jon’s? He has a highly valuable newsletter, and you can sign up for it here. As another action step, what I want to encourage you to do is think about the long term impact that you can have, by being consistent with your approach over your journey. You know, Jon mentioned that he has been doing a newsletter in one form or another for more than a decade. And it’s that ongoing effort that has helped him to reach so many readers around the world with his books. So I would just encourage you, after listening to today’s podcast, to think about what it might look like for you to invest over the long term in your book and ideas. Resources Learn more about Jon Gordon and the work he does in the world. Get Jon Gordon’s “The Power of Positive You” Free 7 Step Action Plan, here. Connect with Jon on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Sign up for Jon Gordon’s newsletter, here. 

If you found value in today’s episode, we hope you’ll take a moment to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here.

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The post Jon Gordon’s Author Journey appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Go Ahead: Have Fun with Marketing Collateral

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All of our book marketing efforts have one goal…to sell books.  There are thousands of books published each year which means getting a book to stand-out in a cluttered market takes creativity and tenacity.

We recommend a strong book page or website, a vibrant and consistent social presence, digital advertising, public relations outreach, and more.  We also recommend collateral-that’s marketing speak for branded materials.

While there’s no clear ROI, there is research that shows consumers trust printed collateral 55% more than other types of marketing which is why we often recommend bookmarks and postcards to clients who send out books to a launch team, or to clients who do a lot of speaking.  Leaving an audience with something tangible can help drive awareness and book sales. 

Traditional collateral items work, but sometimes, you need something a little more memorable. Depending on the audience for a book,  there is a world of creative, fun collateral items that will keep people talking about (and buying) a book.  

Taking a page from the world of running,  t-shirts and other wearables are a sought after collateral item.  Most authors send launch team members an advance copy of their book, but sending them a t-shirt, too, could drive more engagement and greater participation.  I’m imagining a Got Motvation? t-shirt now!

A client of ours has an upcoming book focused on strategy.  He’s created promotional poker chips to go out with his books.  He also plans to give these out at speaking engagements.  It’s a fun item and sure to get people talking about and remembering his book.  

Flashlights, coffee mugs, drink tumblers, golf balls…the list of items available for branding is nearly limitless.  Using these items to thank a launch team,  as a giveaway at speaking events, or on social media,  creates excitement and interest, and could be just the thing to cut through the book glut and get your title noticed.

Collateral is an investment but we think it’s often a great way to drive long-term interest, loyalty, and ultimately, sell some books.

The post Go Ahead: Have Fun with Marketing Collateral appeared first on Weaving Influence.