Inside Scoop: Media-Ready Author Q&A

Hey there, welcome to Inside Scoop. I'm Paula Rizzo. I have trained probably hundreds of authors, entrepreneurs, and experts to speak about what they know in a really clear and concise way in the media, on Zoom, in sound bites, on video. Wherever they show up, I want them to be as comfortable and as clear as possible. And as a media veteran for 20 years, I'm an Emmy Award-winning TV producer, and I have done this quite a lot through the years. So I wanted to be able to share my knowledge with all of you to be able to really get your message out there, whether you've written a book or you're thinking about writing a book. It's really important to be able to talk about not only your book but your expertise in a way that will get people excited and sell books, right? So I created a course all about it, which I will tell you all about in a second. But I'm also an author myself, so I understand what it is like to put all your heart and soul into something and then have to get it out into the world and market it after you spend so much time writing it. I have two books about productivity, Listful Thinking and Listful Living, and I'm also working on fiction. So I totally get what it is like to go through this entire process. And I'm also a frequent guest in the media. I pitch myself to media quite a lot. There I am on PIX11 in New York City talking about how to take the stress out of holiday prep or whatever else it is that I might be able to lend my expertise to. And I get to be able to do this quite often and be identified as the author of Listful Living or Listful Thinking, whichever book I decide to go with at that point. So I created a course called Media Ready Author to help you authors to be able to really dig in and speak in soundbites, set up a virtual studio that looks great, and sell more books. I want you to be as comfortable as possible and be ready before you have to be ready. That's the secret and the key here. And, uh, if you have questions, I want to hear from you, but I have the top questions that people ask me about this course. So if you have questions and you're watching this, leave them in the chat boxes below and I will be sure to get to those. But let's dig in on the top questions that people often have about this training. And I created this training because I work one-on-one with authors so often. I also work with publishers and publicists and people who support authors, and they hire me to make sure that the authors are ready for their launches. And a lot of times this starts way before the book comes out, even when you're in the idea stages. I started doing media for my own book, um, before I even had a book. I just had a blog. I was talking about list making and productivity, and I started doing media then. Years before I had a book. So it is never too early to really hone this skill. Okay, so let's talk about some of these questions. So who should take this training? Well, the people who should take the training, like I said, are authors, people who want to be authors. I've also had, um, people who, who are supportive of authors— agents, publicists, those types of people, editors— have also taken this course and found some real value in it. And the way that I created this course was really through working one-on-one with authors, and this is a presentation that I give them when they're my new client working one-on-one with me. So you really get the best of the best in this course in a way that you can really access it at your own time and your freedom. So it's perfect for you if you have a message that you're dying to share and you're ready to reach a larger audience with your book. You want to build a bigger platform through video or through social media or through your writing. And you feel excited at the prospect of increasing your visibility, right? So that is why I created Media Ready Author, and you can go to mediareadyauthor.com to enroll. And let me go through some more questions with you. So another question people often ask is, okay, this sounds cool, but what do I actually learn? What is in this for me? Right? And so I will walk you through all of these pieces. So first, Video 101. This is a foundational piece. And I give you all of the information that you need that I share with each of my clients on where to look, how to sit, what to wear, how to do your makeup, and so much more when you're on camera or conducting any media interview. So this can also be book events. This can be things that you're doing to support your book. It doesn't have to be a media interview. This is a client who I worked with. Her name is Chelsea Conboy and her book is called The Mother Brain, and she says, Paula Paula helped me to get out all my long-winded answers and to hone in on the ideas that really worked. Paula helped me to find confidence in telling the story of my first book. I'm so grateful. And I do work with a lot of first-time authors because this is the first time you're doing it. I do work with a lot of journalists as well because you're used to having the work speak for itself, right? You've written the piece, let someone read it, and they can figure out if they are interested in it or not. That's not how books work. That's not how book publishing works. You have to sell the book. You have to be part of it. You really want people to fall in love with you as the author so that they will buy anything that you have to offer. We'll also dig in on how to set up your virtual studio because that's very important now. Everything you do, if at home remotely, people are looking at in a different way. So don't let tech stand in the way of getting your book noticed. We'll cover all the essentials you need to nail any interview from your home or office. Plus, we'll also cover what to do if you're actually in the studio. So if you do go to a television studio or a podcast studio, radio studio, we'll talk about that too. In the course, I really, really dig in on how to speak in soundbites because this is an essential skill that every media— member of the media needs you to know, right? If you can't speak in soundbites, they're never going to book you again. So you will learn how to articulate your expertise and what your book is about in a succinct and compelling way using a repeatable formula. It's a formula that I created and is called the Accordion Method. And I use it with all of my clients so that you have a short, a medium, and a long answer to anything you talk about. Now Kimberly here is a fiction author. She has a novel that came out and she says, Paula's Accordion Method for Organizing my book soundbites is chef's kiss. Mwah, I would say if I was going to add some audio to this. I'm going to apply this to many areas of my life, writing or not. This is a game-changing 90 minutes. Yes. So this is the whole point here is that this skill is something that you're going to learn that you can apply to any interaction that you have, any kind of communication that you'll be doing in your life. You can use this method to support. Not only if you're talking about books and book sales and things like that, it will change how you communicate in general. We also go over worst-case scenarios because that is the most terrifying thing. What if things go wrong? Not every interview will go according to plan. If you knew what to expect, you'll handle these worst-case scenarios with ease. And we'll go over what to do with hostile hosts. You never know if you might get one. And if you don't know the answer or any of the above. Any, any questions that you have about that will be answered. The course also goes about helping you to have a system to prepare. The success of a segment is not only about what you say, but also how you prepare mentally to be in the moment and to deliver your best stuff. We'll cover strategies to look calm, cool, and collected during any interview. Even if you don't feel that way, right? You want to make sure that you show up looking and feeling and sounding your best. And part of this is doing it and practicing before you need to. A lot of times people think, oh, I'll just do some media when my book comes out. And I always say it's too late. You really need to be thinking about this stuff way before. So in Media Ready Author, you get instant access to the 90-minute masterclass., and there is a Q&A there as well that you will have access to. You'll get access to the Media Ready Author Equipment List because that's really important to be able to know if you're setting up your virtual studio, what equipment should you use? What equipment do I like? What do I recommend? And you will get 20 years of media expertise, everything that I know at your fingertips. You walk away with everything you need to give yourself an edge with media interviews and access to expert insights for getting the attention that your book deserves. The investment is $197. You'll get instant access when you enroll. And you'll, again, make sure you get the 90-minute masterclass. You'll get the Q&A. You'll get my equipment list. And all the things that are in my head will now be accessible to you. So let's go through a couple more questions that I often get. One is, won't my publisher or a publicist cover media training before my book comes out? Maybe. Maybe yes, maybe no. Some publishers, uh, have hired me in the past if there is a, uh, an author who, uh, maybe needs a little refresh, maybe has never done media before. Fiction author, let's say, who's not used to talking about, um, the, their writing. However, not every publisher is going to do that for you. Not every book gets that kind of budget. It just doesn't. So you need to make sure that you are ready to go and that you're as marketable as possible. That even goes in the proposal state. So before you even have a book, if you're writing your proposal, it's important to be able to have media under your belt so that when a publisher is interested in your book and they say, "Hey, oh, we would love to have that person, uh, you know, and their book, but how are they going to promote it?" And if you can show them, "Hey, I've already done a whole bunch of media. I already have contacts in the media because I've been pitching myself." That looks pretty good. So you want to be thinking about this maybe even before you thought you needed to. But don't worry, I've got your back. I've got all this figured out for you so you know exactly what to do, where to look, what to say. Another question is, what if I don't have a book coming out right now? Look, media is always a good occasion to get books, you know, some visibility. I still talk about my book, my first book that came out, oh my gosh, 8 years ago, something like that. So it doesn't really matter when the book comes out for you to be able to do media. And like I said, you want to be used to doing this. You want to feel good about putting what you know out into the world so that you really are confident and you show up differently. One of the hardest questions to answer is, what's your book about? I want you to have practiced that question again and again so that when you're doing media, when the book comes out, you'll be very, very prepared. How do you know if this will work? Well, look, there's no guarantees in life, right? But what I do know is that if you put in the work and you try and you really take the tactics that I'm giving you, you will be so much more at ease and you'll have a formula and you'll have a way to think about this. You'll have a way to prepare and you will have all the hard questions answered before you need them. That's the important piece here is that I want to make sure that you don't feel blindsided by anything that happens. In the media. You want to be prepared because if you say no, if you don't take the opportunity in the media, guess what? They're not going to call you back. And I know that because as a producer for many, many years, if I invited someone on my show and they declined for whatever reason, I almost never invited them back because I found somebody else who was just as good, who I liked better maybe, right? Who did a great job. And then that became my go-to person. So you don't want to miss those opportunities. You want to make sure that you really grab them. And I'm going to give you a couple of anecdotes here from some of my other clients. This is Crystal Littlejohn. She's the author of Just Get on the Pill. And she says, Paula helped clarify my priorities, taught me how to effectively communicate, shaved off hours of my presentation time and public speaking prep time. And helped me to build greater confidence. See, that's the thing. You want to be prepared, but you don't want to over-prepare so much that then you're using precious hours of your life to do this and you're anxious. You don't want that. So Crystal has definitely cracked the code on that. She's a hard worker and she put this into practice when her book came out. Sherri Leed is also an author who I worked with. She's a self-published author. She has several books. One of them is called Make Your Mess Happen. Your Message. And she says, Paula's knowledge as a former television producer is invaluable for anyone who hopes to be in front of a TV audience. Her ability to teach and convey her knowledge to her clients is seamless. Now, Sherry and I had worked together quite a, quite a lot one-on-one. And a lot of the things that we worked on together ends up in the course. So you get the best of what I have been able to break through with one-on-one clients in this course. And so what happens next is when you go to media-ready-author.com, you'll enroll, you'll grab a spot, and you'll get instant access. You'll be able to start learning right now, and you can watch the videos. I do have some information on, on how to continue to work together if that's something of interest to you. But the first step is to really say yes to yourself, to say, yeah, you know, I really want to be prepared for this. I want to be practicing now before I need it. And for some of you, if your book is out, the time is now. You really do need to get involved, get in there, and be able to really give yourself and your book its best, best shot. And I would love to be able to help you do that. And I just love books. I love authors, and I would love to support you. So I do hope that I see you in the course. And if you have any questions, please leave them below in the chat boxes. I will be sure to get to those. And I will see you next time.