The Essentials of Author Nonfiction Marketing with Sarah Bean and Nicole Johnston

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Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining us today. I am Sarah Bean. I am the marketing professional here at Book Launchers and very excited today. We have a really great YouTube live and many of you know Angela Jones ahead of our operations here at Book Launcher. Say hi, Angela.

Hello, everyone. Happy Tuesday.

So Angela hangs out and she helps keeps things running. And she's also going to be the keeper of the gifts and the keeper of the surprises and the prizes that we do today. So make sure you are paying attention to her. And we have a very special guest, Nicole Johnson. So I will dive into a little bit of an intro for Nicole and Angela. I've actually taken off my comments so I don't get distracted. So just FYI to monitor those. Okay, so today we are diving into some really interesting topics, ones that are very near and dear to me. We are getting into the essentials when it comes to marketing your nonfiction book, which is what I live and breathe every single day. So this gets into what works when it comes to marketing, what authors need to know, what, where are the areas where they're, where they might be struggling. And we are super excited to welcome Nicole with us, who is a Book Launchers client. So Nicole has a really impressive history, actually. After leading $1 billion global businesses at places like Procter and Gamble, Hershey's, Kimberly and Clark Noel Brands, Nicole made the fake jump from fast paced corporate lifestyle to found her startup, Innate Power, which you work as executive and leadership coach for women, right?

Yep.

And so part of that journey is pouring all of that experience you've had into helping others, particularly women, rise with confidence, clarity. You help them overcome obstacles, bring them themselves to the job. And as a coach and organizational development coach, you are also the author of Taboo Topics, Things Women Should Talk About But Don't. And so you have dedicated sort of all of your work now to empowering women. Tell me a little bit about that and how you went from corporate sales and marketing to wanting to help women succeed in these spaces.

I have had the privilege of having a varied career across different companies, different geographies, different products. And through that career, I was frequently the highest rated ranked female in the room. And many times I was the only woman in the room. And I was in the room where it happens when there's discussions on people and personnel and what they need and what we should do and all of those kinds of things. And so many times in those discussions, I saw women being held to a standard that was different than men, that they were having to prove more than men. And women And I really figured out that I wanted to help women accelerate through the curve so that they didn't have to go through all the stuff that I had to go through that many other women had to go through, and that I had the experience, the knowledge, the skills that could help them build their knowledge and skills to do it as well. And candidly, I was the head of sales at my last company, and I kind of realized I hated sales, which is not a good thing to be when you're the head of sales.

I loved the people part, but if.

I had to sit in another meeting where it was, you said you were going to order 100 floor stands and you took 80, why? Yeah, it was not. The amount of chocolate I was consuming was not sustainable. So I decided I would leave corporate and focus on the aspect I love, which is the people. And as part of that, it was trying to figure out how to get the knowledge that I have out to share with others, because I am masterfully full of random knowledge. And I have a lot of people tell me, oh, my gosh, you should write a book. And so when I stepped away from corporate, that's also what I did. That's great.

Let's talk a little bit about that sort of leap from corporate to starting your own personal brand and then creating a book to go with that. I mean, what were some of the things that you struggled with or some of the things that crossed your mind as you started to make that leap? Because I'm pretty sure it wasn't like, oh, let me leave my cushy executive job and go where I've never really been before.

Let's.

Let's do that. I mean, I'm sure it wasn't as simple as that.

No, no, it was not. There was a few different things that happened. One was, you know, going consumer products. You know, the stuff you buy every month, whether it's laundry detergent or dishes or, you know, whatever it is that during the pandemic was chaos because almost everybody bought new stuff for the kitchen, decided to plant a garden, you know, whatever, and it was just chaos. And so the level of stress working on that through the pandemic was just extreme. And I was not a happy person. And my husband pointed out to me that I was not a happy person. And, you know, he said to me, he's like, you know, you can quit, right? And I was like, whatever. And I go back to doing my job and not being happy. And like, a few months after that, again, he's like, I'm serious. You know you can quit, right? And I was like, no, do that.

Yeah.

And I remember going in a meeting and coming out of the meeting thinking, my God, why am I subjecting myself to this? That's when I realized I can quit. And because my background is all working for massive brands. I mean, we're talking, you know, Pampers and Crest and Huggies and just massive, massive brands. That. That's where I started. And luckily, because of my connections and past experience, I had connections with people who did branding for a living. And because when you have a name like Nicole Johnston, like, you know, thousands of others of your closest friends, you can't brand yourself on your name, so you have to figure out another way to communicate what you're about. And so that's actually where I started. And on that branding journey, I was very blessed because the woman who worked with me, her name's Tessa Westermeier, is a branding expert. And she helped me really solidify my thinking with what I stood for, what I didn't stand for, what I wanted to be, and how I wanted to help people. So it wasn't just a logo creation. It was really about who I am, what I stand for, and what is important to me. And that's where I started.

That's great. I mean, I think a lot of, particularly in the nonfiction space, particularly if you're writing books that are either from a personal development level or professional development. I hear this story often. You know, I worked in this space for years, and then I decided to shift gears, and now I'm writing this book and to help aid that journey. And so I want to learn a little bit about what that book writing process was like for you. Because your book is out. It's been out for a little bit of time.

Yep.

And we'll get into how Book Launchers is working with you in a little bit. But how did you get to that point where you're like, I really got to get a book out to connect with my brand?

As I started thinking about the topics that affect women, there are many that are obviously very specific to women, whether it's menopause and pregnancy or menstruation. But then there's a lot of other broader topics that have a very specific skew to women. And for example, do you know that only one third of women contribute fully to their employee funded retirement funds? So 2/3 of women are missing out on free money from their company, and that number is only 4% for men. And so there's some topics that are dramatically skewed toward women. And so, like your annual review, 76% of women get negative feedback on their style. Men get 2%. And so while everybody needs to know how to do an annual review, how women handle it is very different than how men handle it. And what they need to be aware of, what they need to communicate, what needs to come through. And because everything in life is a skill, it doesn't matter if it's baking a souffle or dealing with sexism. And if you don't have the skills to do it, you don't know how. And so as I started thinking about in my coaching practice and my speaking business, what I wanted to be able to convey, I realized that there were a lot of disparate topics that women need to know about. And so you're right. My book is out. There's 24 chapters, and each chapter is a separate vignette completely handling a different topic. But it was all about building, hopefully, skills, capability, and awareness about things you need to potentially handle differently, consider differently, or just for some cases, be aware of. And that's kind of how I started bringing it together.

I love that. And so when you started working on this book, explain some of the first things that you did, some of your first steps in putting this together. Because I know from a book launcher's perspective, where we say to start, but not everybody starts there. So I want to hear from you, like, what were some of the first things as early as when you were writing an outline that you were thinking about?

As I. The first thing I started with was the outline was trying to figure out what topics would I consider to be relevant and what topics would I consider to be impactful to write on. And so I just started thinking about my years of experience, the categories I've worked on, the things that I have seen, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And I started putting it down. And so parallel path. As I was trying to scope out what the topics were, I was trying to figure out how I was going to frame the book. And I chose to frame the book as the first moment I remember being different because I was a girl. And this was in fourth grade where we were coming back in from recess, and one of the little girls in our class, and it was in the fall, so she was 9, had gotten her period. I didn't even know what a period was at this point. Right. But she had gotten it. And somebody during recess had taken all of her pads out and stuck them to her desk. Oh. And I remember looking at her face and just the Tears coming down her face. And I was going, something's going on. I don't know what, but something's going on. Yeah.

Like, I don't get it. Yeah, I know this is bad, but I don't know.

Something here is bad. And my teacher centered or the nurse. And my teacher, this teacher never got mad, and she was furious.

Oh, my gosh.

And I. I was just kind of sitting there like, still don't know what's going on, but. And the way she framed it was not talking about, you know, body shaming, any of that stuff. She's like, this is a thief. Someone just stole someone else's stuff. And you may not be able to get the psychology of body shaming when you're nine, but you certainly understand the concept of mine. And so that event just sticks so strongly in my mind because somebody thought it was okay to shame a little girl for something she had no control over and do it publicly in a way that was purely to cause her.

Pain, meant to humiliate her.

And so as I was writing the book, as I was putting the categories together, I realized that the categories kept falling under three letters. The letter P, the letter M, and letter S. Since periods are what started the journey of me realizing that girls were different, I formed everything into those three sections of PM and S. And as I was writing about it, I was trying to figure out the topics that I could add value to. I have never been pregnant. I can't tell you what it's like to be pregnant, but I can tell you what it's like to manage someone who's pregnant. I can tell you what it's like to help someone plan a pregnancy at work. So I tried to take everything through the lens of where I can add value and where I can maybe give a skill that someone may not be aware of that can help them get there. And I wasn't going to delve into, you know, trauma. I'm not a trauma specialist. I'm not a therapist. I can't help on that. But I can talk about how you handle sexism and what you need to do to be able to respond. And so that was kind of my process that I did was the outline the overall topic and then put it together, which probably completely breaks book launches record.

Not at all. You're pretty close. I mean, I think the one thing that, you know, that we usually hone in on very early is identifying that. That ideal reader, like, who you aiming in for. But, I mean, it kind of sounds like because you're the brand that you're launching and who you worked with as a coach was directly in line with who you were writing to. So it wouldn't. It wasn't as hard to put together that avatar of the ideal reader.

Right? Yeah.

Yeah. But I love that you brought in and focused on your personal experiences, your expertise, you know, your. Your value adds, brought that into the book. Because I think that's an area that a lot of authors, you know, they. They kind of go, well, who am I to write this?

Right?

And it's like, well, no, all of us have experiences that shape us, inform us, and help inform our perspectives. So. Which I think is a major part of marketing. So then explain a little bit about your journey, getting the book out, and then what led you to book launchers in the first place, how you found us. And we formed this great relationship. And truth be told, just full disclosure for everyone. Nicole and I got to hang out. Oh, my gosh, it's almost two months ago now.

That's crazy. Yes.

We got to hang out at nsa, the National Speakers association conference in Phoenix a few months ago, and got to hang out and chat. But she knew about book launchers before that. So I want to hear a little bit about your journey, putting the book together, and then how you found us.

I am very well versed when it comes to launching a product. Whether you're talking about, like I said, dish soap, toothpaste, a pad, whatever, I can. I can tell you everything that needs to happen in that I did not know anything about launching a book. Yes, it's a product, but it's a very different launch channels companies expect. I knew nothing about it. And so I originally partnered with the company to help me on it. That was a very bad choice who I chose because, you know, for example, their editors would add errors to my book instead of taking it out. Just not what I wanted. So through a lot of muscling it, I finally got a book launched. And that happened in May, June, only to figure out that there's still so many things wrong with it, and the company originally worked with was not going to be the ones who could help me. And so parallel path. I am also one of the modalities I use in my coaching business and that I speak on is called positive intelligence, which is the concept of mental fitness and the ability to respond to life's challenges positively versus negatively. And I was in a training for positive intelligence, and it was talking about using positive intelligence for speaking. And the woman who was leading the training was saying, you know, I can't teach you how the business is speaking. That's not what I'm here for. But I can tell you places that have helped me, and one of the places that has helped me is nsa. And so as she's doing this, I'm like, all right, what's nsa? So I go look at, and I thought, oh, my gosh, this could really help me on my speaking business. And one of the great things about the National Speakers association is they have extensive training. They call it the vault that you can go in and learn a ton of stuff about. And one of the things that they had in there was how to leverage your book for your speaking and coaching business. And I was like, oh. And so I went in and did the training, and it happened to be with the Book Launchers founder, and it was just amazing. And I felt like all the information she was giving was super relevant, pertinent, and that she really got what needed to happen. And so I set up a meeting with her, and she walked me through the entire program and talked to me about what could happen. And I explained to her my not so great situation that I had with my first company, and she said, oh, no, no, no. We don't do that. We help you. And so she walked me through, like, what the marketing could look like and what it could be. And so that was absolutely what I thought I needed. And then, as Sarah mentioned, I got a chance to meet them in person in Phoenix at nsa. And, yeah, you guys have put together a great plan to help bring my book to where I always, always hoped it would be and to help basically relaunch it for me. And that's what we're working on now.

I know. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to dive in, because there are so many elements to this book that I think are important that deserve to be out in the marketplace. And, you know, and we see this all the time, where we have authors that come in, and they kind of think like, oh, I know the path that I needed to take, and they make these decisions, and then, you know, usually we get them, like, six, six months later, and, you know, $15,000 in the hole. And they're like, okay, let's go back to the beginning.

Let's.

Let's realign this.

Yeah.

All right. We're going to get into the marketing of your book and kind of how we started working with you. But before we do that, I want to jump and bring Angela back up here on stage and start looking at some prizes. So, Angela, what do you think we should do today in terms of prizes. Do you want to showcase some of them, Get a little preview?

I don't, I don't have any new ones like up here at my desk, but I do have a fresh batch of the journal.

Our mugs.

Those had kind of been MIA for.

Quite some time because we had our little mugs here. There we go. They make coffee and everything. Well, they're, they're for me. It's a really good, you know, holder. But they do make coffee and tea taste better.

I think Julie uses it for the same thing. Like she holds like her glasses and like her, her pens and stuff in there. Mine would be in, in the cupboard, but yeah.

So I've got journals.

I've gotten fresh mugs as well. We also have Julie's books. I have a couple lingering books. There might be some from Dale Roberts, still a few of our other authors. I know Sarah has books behind her that she could.

I have so many books. Oh my goodness. Oh, you know what I could do a giveaway on is Julie. Holler, holler at your dreams. This one that just USA Today bestseller just launched on September 9th. And this thing is gorgeous. It is such a pretty, pretty book. So happy to give away one of these.

Yeah, we have plenty of books. So we've got plenty of things on the docket for you guys to choose from today. And Sarah, we do have. Since it's slower with comments. I do actually have some commenters from past videos that I do need to go over today. So I don't know if you want to do that. And we can do that first. Get more comments in and then save the today's viewers for later.

Want to do that? Yeah, you go for it. She is the keeper of the prizes. So I will defer to Angela on best things here. Sure.

Okay, well, let me share screen. We're going to pick. Go ahead and do two prizes from this list. Okay, so I've got the random name picker pulled up. Except that it's not.

I can tell you that the. Is it the oh so Soft journal?

Yes.

Oh, I love my oh so soft journal. I don't have it within arm's reach, but it's very handy and my daughter keeps it stealing it.

We've got some prize winners who they.

That's the only prize they will choose. That's.

They're like, I can never get tired of it. So it's got a representation for a reason. So. Okay, let me go ahead and pull this. This is from people who have commented on a Video the day it was released. And this is a slightly longer list because we had a few weeks in here since we didn't do it, I don't think last week. No Arias. Nefarious. Nefarious. I am not sure I've seen your comments in there today, so congrats. Please, at Team T A mook launchers dot com, let me know which of the prizes you would like. And I will also need your mailing address and your name, since I have no idea what name is associated with that handle. Okay, let's do one other prize, one other draw, and we'll see who this winner is.

Oh, Kevin Hall. Kevin Hall. Kevin, is there anything you don't have of ours yet? Actually, I've read some books.

Kevin is so kind. He's like Efren as well. Like, just. No, no, no.

It's okay.

Like, give it away. Okay, well, I'll draw another one just in case. But, Kevin, you're welcome to claim one.

I have tons. We've got Money and Liberty by Rick Lynch. We've got Moving to Tax Free by Bruce Hassler. I mean, Kevin, I'm sure you know what? Just email with your favorite type of nonfiction book genre, and I'm gonna send you a book. There you go, Kevin.

There you go. Okay, well, he is still being very kind. I will pick again, but you can still email Sarah because I know she would want to free up some space on her book.

Okay, Please. I've got lots and lots of options here, so if you tell me what you're looking to read, I will send you some stuff. Suggestions?

Absolutely. Joy Young. Yay. I haven't seen you in here, but I know you'll be watching the replay, so please email me at team. Let me know what you would like. It's been a little while since you've won, so that's exciting.

Journals, Julie's books. We've got some of our book launchers. Authors. So just let us know what you're interested in. And again, I'm. I'm happy to do personal recommendations. Recommendations. That's sort of my superpower, is I'm really good at, like, remembering what all the books are about and then being able to connect the dots. So send me what you. What you like when it comes to nonfiction. I mean, you could probably send me fiction, too, but you know, I'm gonna do better with that classic.

A year from now. You can be like, hey, what's Nicole Johnston's book about? And she's gonna be like, oh, it's about this. This this, Nicole, this, this, and this.

Like, that's why Julie takes me to live events, because I'll be talking. She'll be like, sarah, who do we have that covers politics? And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no. You know, like, it's weird. I can do it with TV and movies, too.

I don't know.

So, heading back to marketing essentials. So when you launched your book the first time, like, back in May, tell me a little bit about what marketing was, like, what you were doing on your own. Let's forget about that other company. What are some of the things that you started to do to market the book?

I put together a social campaign that I put on Facebook and Instagram and on LinkedIn that was trying to build buzz around it and do a countdown. And I did a book giveaway, and I was trying to just generate some excitement about it. I reached out to some podcasters about talking to them about the book, and then we also put it for free on Amazon Kindle so we could, you know, get that bestseller status on Amazon Kindle. And that was kind of all I knew to do, and that was all the company helped me with, which is why when I saw the marketing from book Launchers, and I went, oh, that's what. Okay. It was, you know, just a little bit richer and, you know, complete than what I had attempted to get my way to. And so, yeah, definite difference between what book launchers offered versus what I had tried to cobble together.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, and I think, honestly.

But you're.

You're not on the wrong track. I feel like when you did your launch and you had the social media campaigns and, you know, you were looking to run the sales so you can get bestseller, all of these things are looking towards awareness and exposure on the book, right? Just getting that book in front of the right people's audiences. And I think. I think a lot of people, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but coming from your sales and marketing background, I think you can probably relate in the sense that I think a lot of people think marketing equates sales, but in reality, marketing equates awareness.

Right.

It takes a bunch more touch points before the sale happens. You know, I think there was that adage, and you've probably heard this, you know, it's like seven touch points between the consumer and the person before they actually buy. And then I read something recently said that's actually increased, increased due to social media and buying patterns and everything. It's now increased to like 12 to 15 touch points before someone will take a chance on it, you know, so all that to say, there are a lot of different areas when it comes to marketing that we always want to try and take a look at. And so I want to go through a couple of those now. You know, some of the things that we always talk about when it comes to getting a well rounded marketing plan for your book is going to be number one. Like, what are your sales channels? Like, how are you going to sell this book? You know, is it through retail, is it direct sales, is it back of the room sales? Like getting set on those? It's the exposure, obviously, which is you're going to do through media and through, you know, book awards and through, you know, just connecting with other audiences that aren't your own. There's the digital marketing side where you're looking at ads, you're looking at your social media campaigns. Audience engagement is one that I think a lot of people sort of skip over, right. Audience, like, once you've got some people that are paying attention, how are you engaging and hooking them and getting them to engage back with you? And you know, we do this through giveaways and promotions and, you know, helping with the strategic content that is going to encourage a little bit back and forth. Julie's great at this. She's great at the audience engagement. She loves chatting with people in the comments and, you know, just making people feel the real connection between the author and the audience or. But really it's a connection between two people, right? One that has value to provide and one who can use, take that value and do something more with it. And then lastly, you know, we kind of look at events, which covers a lot of those things where, you know, you can do book signings and speaking engagements and libraries and all sorts of different avenues for that. But, you know, so all of this to say that, you know, book launchers here we offer something that's called the marketing essentials plan, which is essentially like, you get an hour with me, you pick my brain for an hour. We talk about Nicole and I remember, I remember we laughed a lot on our one on one and we essentially create that marketing plan for you. We look at all of the arenas in which, okay, what are we doing on the digital side? How are we setting you up for events? How are we setting up audience engagement? Do you have all the sales channels you need? Like, we look at all of those pieces and then, you know, we put together an audit plan and then we also do like website and social media audits, diving Deep. Does your website do what you want it to do? Does your social media hit the mark and connect with the audiences that you wanted? We look at those retail channels. Does your product page have everything the way that it needs to? So it makes it really easy for that buyer to look directly at the page and be like, yes, that's the book for me. So, you know, when you were going through this process, what was it that made the Marketing Essentials plan the right starting point for you? You know, because you came in again, like your book was done.

Yeah.

So, like, what kind of made the Marketing Essentials feel like, okay, that's. That's something I'm going to invest in.

Yeah. There. I mean, a part of it was just the sheer scope of it because, like, you speak channels, when I launched it the first time, it's on Amazon for digital, and I had no idea that it needed to be on all these other places as well to capture the rest of a digital market. I didn't even know they existed. And, you know, I recorded an audiobook, which it's out everywhere, but if it's not, doesn't have awareness, it's hard to get any sales on that. And so just starting, like, with the channels itself, because there's an old sales guy that I worked with at Procter and Gamble, he was kind of famous because he always said, if you don't know what to do, sell another sku. And I'm sitting here thinking, I can't sell a SKU if I don't even know what the channels are. And just starting with the sheer encompassing distribution that you help with because, you know, all of what it needs to be, you know, how to connect, you know, how to set it up, you know, all of that stuff. And I had no clue that was part two was when you talked about the audits and you came back and I have had other people do audits of, you know, my website and other stuff. And it's always been platitudinal, for lack.

Of a better word.

That's, oh, that's nice, that's nice, that's nice kind of stuff. And instead, you guys came back with really valid, actionable feedback about how to make things tangible and better. And that showed me that it was the true effort and partnership that you were putting into me to help make this whole thing better as well. And then the third part was when you came back with the initial marketing plan before we realized we needed to take a couple steps further back to fix all the stuff that was still wrong in the book, it was so well tailored to me, to my audience, to the people I wanted to connect with, with how I wanted to connect with them. It was. I remember actually, as I was reading it, I'm like, they're in my brain of connecting with what I had hoped to do but had no idea how to do it. So it was like really between the channels, between the. Just the conscientiousness you guys demonstrated and then the ability to get in my brain. It was, it was just clear to me that that's what I needed to do.

I love it. I love it. I love that you got that aspect of it. Because I remember when I was reading through your materials and being like, oh, I get exactly where she wants to go with this. Let's see what's missing to get her there so much. Yeah, no, no. You had a lot of stuff. You had a huge. And this is, this is something that I think, you know, you need to acknowledge is that you have a lot in your arsenal already. And I talk about this all the time, like, what are the tools you already have in your arsenal that you can use to. Margaret, you've already got a lot of the great stuff in place. I mean, Nicole, when I was looking through her site, she was like, okay, well, I've got this lead magnet here and it does this. And I've got this lead magnet here and it does this. I'm like, okay, so we've got the right pieces. It was almost like we just needed to shift the puzzle around a little bit. You know, we knew what picture we were going for. It was kind of there. We just needed to look at it from, you know, and sometimes you need that third party objective view to go, hey, no, this is right. It just belongs over here first. And then let's do this. Yeah. So now, out of the marketing essentials roadmap that you got or any, you know, anything from the conversations you've had, is there anything that you've been able to employ right away or anything you've started to use yet?

Yeah, for sure. So the first thing that I actioned on was the feedback that you gave me on my website. And it was all so completely obvious after I read it.

That was Shane. That was all Shane. He's our digital marketing guy and he's. Yeah, he's on it.

Yeah. But it was like, oh, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. And literally as I was going through the list and so all of that, I believe, has been fixed now. Oh, no, there's still one piece that hasn't been fixed, but all to make my website better, stronger, more powerful. That has already been in action. I've been really trying to think through based off of the first run of the plan, which we know we're going to have to redo because of having to redo the book. The thinking that you brought to that about the groups I could interact with, the people I could talk with, the way I could engage, approach stuff, it's really gotten me to think differently about how I'm approaching all aspects of my business and coaching, speaking and everything. And so it's been giving me different ideas about things to consider and approach. And so the website, clearly you can, you can take Shane's feedback and you can see from A to B on that. But then overall how I'm approaching my business has definitely shifted to.

Oh, I love that. Okay, let's talk a little bit about how the book is fitting into your overall business because I think that's really helpful for other authors, viewers like, who are looking at. I know I've got this great tool or they're working on this great tool. Yeah, but how does it fit into the bigger picture for you and how have you used it so far? And then how do you imagine changing that Once we get past these, these edits and things that we're doing on the book, there's.

There's two ways that I'm using it. One is, for example, with my coaching clients, I. I help a lot of people on figuring out what they need to get the skills on in order to set them up for their next role. Then once they get to their next role, they're not sure what to ask for, how to negotiate, you know, those kinds of things. And I can tell them all of that in a coaching call or I can also just direct them to the chapter of what I wrote so they have a reference that they can go back and be like, okay, short term compensation versus long term compensate. Oh, right, I got to get both of them, you know, and have all the details there. So I use it as a reference tool for people. Second thing is that I'm building a series of webinar training for it so that after you read the chapter, then you can go do a quick webinar, 15, 20 minutes per chapter to really help bring in the learning. Because it's adult learning model says you can't just read it and do nothing. You have to read it and then ingest it in new ways. And so I'm trying to get this partner webinar set up with it so that there is different ways to, to ingest it and think about it differently so you can cement the knowledge and practice the skills.

That is so interesting. So basically it's like they can read a chapter and then they, I'm imagining following a link or something and then they go to your site, they can take that 10, 15 minute lesson. Is that going to be free or is that part, is it going to be part of a paid model?

I'm not sure on that part of it yet. So what I'm trying to figure out is as I'm building this because this is obviously going to cost me a little bit of money to build what the best way is to do that. And so I'm thinking that there's probably going to be like my coaching clients will automatically have it for free. For other people it might be part of depending if they take other webinars, what they can get on it. But the pricing on that has not been determined yet. But I do recognize in the adult learning model you need different touch points. I do want to create that.

Remind me. Shoot me an email. I'm going to connect you with Shanks. I think he's got some solutions for, for you. So I think he might have some, some ideas in this regard.

So.

Yeah, he's amazing. I mean Shane is amazing. He's really like the guy, he, he's a jack of all trades. But the thing is is he's master of all of them as well. He's, he's, he's really multiversital like that. So. Yes, but send me a note on that because I'm going to hook you up with Shane to chat about that. But what I'm really loving about what you're building here is it's not just the book and you're just hoping that people are going to read the book and like take away from it. You're really invested in the reader's learning process. You're making it so that it's multi channel for them. They read the book, they come back, they use your resources and then ideally they're able to action that right. Which is part of the journey that needs to happen to be able to build an entire ecosystem around the book and, and use it in a way that it's really going to benefit others. That's fantastic. So as you're using it for your coaching clients, how has the feedback on it been so far? Because it has been out since May. So how has that been?

Well, it's funny because some of my coaching clients have been people that have worked for me in the past. Other coaching clients have been people who knew of me in a company and things like that. Some of them are like, so is this. This person in the book? We're not going to discuss that.

I don't know what you're talking about.

That will not be acknowledged. So that part is funny. But the other part is that I've heard is that it's a helpful resource reminder to them as far as how they can approach it, how they can do it. Oh, yeah, did I remember to get the steps? And so for anybody who's one of my coaching clients, I obviously give them a copy of the book and so that they get the chance to use that to help them not be caught up if they can't remember exactly what we said. Because again, in the adult learning model, you can read it, you can do a webinar. But then I also do a lot of role playing to help you cement the learning. And so as you're doing that, you might remember the one thing, but, oh, there was the other thing I needed to say, too. And they can go back to the book and reference it to help make it easier to come to light. That's great. That's great.

I love it. I love how well thought out all of these pieces are because, you know, you do encounter a lot of authors who are like, you know, kind of the build it and they will come mentality. If I put it on Amazon, it's suddenly going to be out there. But in reality, there's a lot more pieces that go with it. But I think you're doing a fantastic job of building that support system around the book. What has been your favorite part, part of marketing the book? Either what you've done so far or what you're looking forward to when we relaunch it.

I am a teacher's kid. Both my parents are teachers. And so education in reading was a huge part of my life. And so my favorite part was telling my parents I wrote a book.

Oh, that's so great. What was their reaction?

Shock. You did what? I thought you were coaching. I am. But you wrote a book. I did okay. They ended up helping be beta readers to help me realize how bad the first group of editors were and so.

Brought you to us. So.

Exactly. We're okay. That was probably my favorite. But I'm really looking forward to getting this book out to more women to. If I can just have one woman not have to have that painful conversation because she didn't know how, that's a win And I just, I want to get it in women's hands so that they are equipped to have those challenging conversations, to be able to get out of those bad situations, to negotiate that race, to get the things that they want. That's what I'm really looking forward to.

Yeah, I love that. I mean, it kind of goes into my next question, which is. Which is the other thing that we define very early on in the process, which is like, what is your goals? What do you want to see that book do either for your ideal reader or for yourself?

Well, clearly overtake Harry Potter on the bestseller list, naturally.

May not be hard these days.

True. Kidding on that, obviously. No, what I, what I want is, though I had an amazing career for, you know, 30 years. I worked in Fortune 100 companies, leading organizations. The book gives me more relevance, gravitas, it gives me more credibility, and it opens access to other things where I can potentially go and help more women. And that's what I'm looking forward to. So do I expect this to be a bestseller? No, I do not. But I, I expect it to be a tool that gets me more ability to help people, and that's what I want.

Now, do you think some of that. Obviously, you know, we've talked about NSA and you're learning to do speaking like, how has that aspect of marketing, not just the book, but your brand, yourself, your leader, your coaching services, how has that piece gone?

It has been really fascinating. You know that old, you know, mantra, physician, heal thyself. I was building an entire webinar that I'm going to be giving here at the end of October about how people, people's digital profiles is hurting them as they're looking for a job. And I was like, wait a minute, does my LinkedIn profile still reference all sales stuff? Sure enough, it did. This isn't good. You know, you need to do the same stuff you're talking about in here. And so as I'm looking at the marketing and again, in the plan where I saw, hey, this is an opportunity, this is what we should do, I was thinking, is that through line in all of this consistent? Am I positioning myself in the same way saying I'm the same expert on these topics and can you win on these topics? And you know, you talked about, I used to be had to see it seven times before you recognized it. Now it's closer to 12, and if I shift that five degrees every time you start the clock over, you stop the count over. And so I have to have that through line on all of this. That is very consistent, simple, easy to understand, and makes people go, yes, she's the one we want to talk to. And so I'm really trying to drive to that simple, clear messaging that says whether she's speaking, whether she's training, whether she's facilitating, whether she's doing a podcast, whatever, that she can be consistent. And we know exactly what she can bring.

Yeah, yeah. And I think you, you hit on it right there. And that's something that we really endeavor to do with our marketing essentials roadmap. Is, is there consistent consistency across all of your channels from your website to your lead magnets to content you're putting out to your social media? And that's one thing that we pay particular attention to because I know as much as any any other marketer out there, like, brands are constantly shifting, especially solopreneurs. Solopreneurs, like you're constantly shifting to try and address whatever the need in the market is at one that one point. And it's very easy to go, oh, wait, I have on my LinkedIn that I do this, but over on my website, my services say this because I shifted that, but I forgot to do that one. That consistency and uniformity in the marketplace, I think is really important. It's an aspect of it. And honestly, I think that even ties back to the book, which is the call that I have with all of our clients, our marketing essentials clients and otherwise, is how does your brand match what you're covering in your book?

Does it match?

If it doesn't match, why not? What do we need to align to get it there? We've got about 15 minutes left. I want to have time to give away at least one, maybe two more prizes and then take some questions if we have any. We haven't seen any pop up in the chat yet, but I do encourage everybody to get those questions in.

Hey, Sarah, can I give away a coaching session if someone wants one?

Oh, my gosh, yes, of course. That would be fantastic.

Throw that in there as a gift if you'd like.

Oh, that's so nice. Okay, so can you tell a little bit about what is involved in a coaching session?

Sure. So if I do executive and leadership coaching, and so it's. If you just need an ear to talk to somebody about anything, whether it's in your career, how to position yourself, you want feedback on your resume, whatever you. I will be happy to spend an hour with you talking through anything that you would like and if you would, or if you would like to know specifically more about positive Intelligence and want to understand how you self sabotage and ways that that's affecting you in your life. I'm happy to walk you through that as well. So there's, it's kind of client driven, whatever they need. But in the business realm, if you need help, I am, I'm, I'm your girl. I can help you on that. If you're looking for coaching specifically on topics outside of business, that's not where I spend time. But if it's in the business world, I'm happy to help.

I feel like you would be a really fun one to answer some of those personal questions, you know, like he didn't call me back. Like what do I do about it? I feel like you'd be fun to chat with on those.

Yes.

Well, that is really generous of you. Thank you so much. So we are going to give away a coaching session with Nicole where you can go through your professional challenges, feed her your resume, ask questions about the direction you want to go and she will bring all of that consistent, considerable knowledge to the table.

That's so kind, Nicole.

Yeah, that is an awesome giveaway and I'm sure it has a really high value point. So that is amazing. Angela Jones. What do you almost said Angela Bell. Angela Jones. What? How do you want to conduct this one?

Yeah, so it has been a quiet and I don't know if it's maybe the, like it's rainy here in Florida. I don't know if it's maybe the rainy weather.

It's a little quieter this Tuesday than.

It, than it normally is. But you know what that means? That means that the people who have commented today and aren't just lurking in the shadows, you do have to comment because we don't know who is watching unless you comment. But those who have commented, if you've already won, I still think that this would be a great chance to win this prize as well. Just because it's so generous and yeah.

This is a one time thing. Should we do a hashtag? I'm sorry? Should we do a hashtag?

We can do a hashtag. I'm hoping that people. Because sometimes if people hop on, they're not watching it live.

Oh yeah.

So we can do that. We do have some people watching on. Let's, let's try it and see how it goes. And if there's just. If people are watching at different stages then we'll just do the people who have. Who've commented. Great.

Okay.

So what, what hashtag do you want to.

I think we need to do hashtag coaching session. I just dropped that in the chat. So. Hashtag coaching session. To enter to win a coaching session with Nicole Johnston, who is an executive and leadership coach, author of Taboo Topics. Super excited to see people, you know enter to win this one. All right, people, where to find you.

Nicole, I don't think that's been mentioned. And your book, I don't. Sarah, I don't have those links on hand. Do you happen to have them or.

I do, yeah. Power.com, right?

Innate-power.com. that's right.

Yeah. I am pulling it up right now.

Nicole Johnston, coach on Instagram and Facebook.

Perfect. Yeah.

Let me. There is Nicole's website and let me see if I can grab your socials while I'm here. I've got your. There we go. I've got your LinkedIn here. And Nicole, I don't know. You're also welcome to, if you can, through the comments, feel free to drop your Instagram in there.

Sure.

Okay. Awesome. There we go.

All right.

Well, all right. So in the minutes that we have left, I do. I welcome any questions that anybody has in regards to marketing your book, challenges you've faced. You know, anything you've picked up today from Nicole, that I think is a great little tidbit. I'd love to see some of those in there. You know, just kind of getting into your experiences with our marketing Essentials package and now becoming a full fledged Book Launchers client. I mean, you know, not to toot our own horn, but I'd love to hear, like, what some of your favorite parts of the process have been so far.

I think my favorite part of the process is just in many ways the relief I have felt because as I was going through the first launch, I just didn't feel like it was right. I didn't feel like it was going to be the quality that I wanted to be known for. I didn't feel like it was going to deliver what I wanted. And I just had this general sense of unease, which unfortunately ended up being true. Guys, I just. I feel safe. I feel like you guys got it, that you've got my back, that you know exactly what I'm gonna try to do and we're gonna do it together and it's going to be amazing. And that the lack of anxiety is just delightful because I know you guys, which, I mean, that may not be the answer you're looking for, but that sense of security and safety is just phenomenal.

Oh, I love that. I love that because you actually made my little heart happy because you know, you may not know this, I started my career working with traditional publishers, selling properties to big publishers. And then most of the people that I worked with, you know, the book was not their main focus. Almost all of them were, like, celebrity or, like, you know, big brand names or whatever. And so I enjoyed that work. But there was always a sense of, like, does this matter? Yeah, you know, does this really matter? And because, you know, they don't care that much about it, this is just an extra extension of what they're doing. So I always wanted to help authors take that big leap from unpublished. Can I do this? You know, can I put this book out into the world to. I'm a published author, and I'm achieving what I want. So that part of it, to hear you say that like you feel like we're there to guide, that makes me really happy.

Really.

And it's just been. It's been a delightful change.

Oh, that's fantastic. Thank you so much. So any other tips for authors who maybe struggle with some of the things that you did when it comes to marketing your book? What kind of tips do you have for them, you know, to try and get their marketing off the ground? What are the essential things that they really need to touch on?

Talk to you guys? I would say just clarity. As, you know, you talked about in the first step, the book launchers process, who are you writing to, understanding that and what you're trying to achieve? And then it's easy to just stop at, well, I want to write a book. And, you know, I talked a little bit about the ecosystem I'm trying to build between the webinars, the coaching and the book and everything. And it's not perfect, but that's where I'm going with it. And so what is it you actually want to do do, and what is it you want to create? And don't let money be an option. Don't let capability be an option because, you know, there's. There's many things I would like to do that I cannot. But, you know, whether it's Shane or someone at Book Launchers who helps me, we can bring it there and so let your creativity flow about. If I could wave a magic wand, here's what I would do. And then challenge whomever you work with it, if it's, you know, Sarah, Book Launchers to come up with solution for that. Because the broader you can think, the more creative you can think. The only limitation is who can help you do it. And so it's just go bold. Just go bold.

Yeah.

Absolutely. I love that. I love that. Yes. Go bold. Take the chances that you didn't think you would be able to take. You know, I think that is one of the most fun parts about doing what I do. We actually had a book launch today. Where do I have Johnny's books? This book burned, blocked and better than ever came out today. Super proud of this one. This is Johnny Woods. She put this out there and you know, the whole step of the process that Johnny has really been. Okay, I'm gonna do this. Can I do this? Okay. Just taking the shot. Just taking the shot and putting it out there. And granted, this is an incredibly vulnerable and honest memoir that really helps women as well, more on the personal side than the professional side. Actually, the two of you should probably chat and together you'll create a well rounded approach to life for women. But all of that to say that I am so proud of the steps that she took and how vulnerable she put herself out there. And now she's got all of these things that she's building around it just like you are. So. And we get to, to be part of that. So I'm, you know, I get to be lucky every single day, so. Okay, well, thank you. I don't think I have too many other questions. Nicole, anything you want to add on there?

Honestly, I just, I mean, obviously you guys can tell I'm super happy to be working, working with book launchers and I just cannot wait to see what we can do to create the relaunch of my book going forward because it's just only, you know, the sky's the limit for from here and everything's up. So I just, I just say thanks. I don't know. That's all I got.

No, I'm excited to be here. And now you've got, you know, built in audience already who's going to be anticipating the relaunch of the book. So we're excited for that. We're welcoming Angela back up to the stage to handle some of our last giveaways. Angela, you want to hop on? Oh, you're muted.

I thought it unmuted me. Yeah. So we are going to. Our prize winner for this is going to be Antoine Lincoln. So he was the one who wrote that in there. So Antoine, please email me or what information Nicole would be good for him to connect with you.

Yeah, he can email me directly@nicoleenate-power.com or you can put an email with us together on it. That's fine. Antoine, congratulations. I look forward to talking with you. That's fine either way.

Okay. Okay. So Antoine, I know, not Kevin.

We all thought that Antoine, didn't we?

So, yes, Antoine, if you would like to email her directly, you're welcome to. Or if you want to email me@teamoklaunchers.com I can facilitate that conversation. Either way is fine. But definitely take advantage of it. Email today so you don't forget because this is a one time thing that Nicole was just so generously giving away to a person. So.

Absolutely, yes. Very generous of you. Yeah.

But yeah, no, we, I think you covered everything. I hadn't seen any questions coming in. So, yeah, you're. You're all set.

Yeah. Well, I just want to say, you know, big thank you to Nicole for giving us your time and sharing your story with us. And yeah, congrats to Antwan and also to Kevin and some of our other winners today. If you're interested in learning more about our Marketing Essentials package, send a note to TeamokLaunchers.com I mean, that Marketing Essentials package is really for those that are looking for that marketing help. Maybe they just need a little bit of that roadmap to understand where they need to go with it. It comes with a call with me, actually two calls with me, where we have our first sort of deep dive into who you are, what your book is, what you're trying to do, the avenues you're trying to get there. Then we go and work our magic and create an incredible marketing plan that is customized to you. In addition to doing a website and social media audit to look at all of your channels to make sure that they're all working together in the way that they need to. It also includes, if your book is already out, it includes a retail listing on Amazon. We'll look at your Amazon pages, make sure that they're optimized, give you a full report there. And then you get a second call with me on implementation, like how to go through that plan that we've just created for you. And as always, you know, check out book launchers.com. stay tuned on book launchers TV every Tuesday. We have got YouTube lives every Tuesday this month. So Julie will be on next week. And then I know on October 21st we have another guest speaker who is coming in to talk about data when it comes to authors. I'm actually super excited about this one because data really, it informs everything. So I'm super excited to chat with her. And then on October 28th, Julie will be back again. So hopefully you don't mind me for a couple of times this month. All right, Nicole, thank you so, so much. Really appreciate your time today, Angela, thanks as always. All right, we will talk to everybody soon. Thank you.

Thanks, everyone.

Thanks for tuning in.