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The Strategic Path to Book Launch

Behind the “Seens” with Burnout Prevention and Resilience Expert Paula Davis

Paula Davis knows firsthand about burnout. As a successful lawyer she burned out. But she didn’t initially recognize what was happening. Stress caused her to begin having panic attacks almost daily and when she ended up in the hospital, she knew things had to change.

So begins Paula’s journey into becoming burnout prevention and resilience expert and ultimately the author of Beating Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience. 

After attending the University of Pennsylvania’s Applied Positive Psychology program and starting her work in helping others, she knew she wanted to write a book. She was approached to write proposals several times, to subsequent “no thanks” or “not right now”. 

That ended up being a good thing. She explains that originally, she saw her book being in the “self-help” section. As she did more research, gained more experience, and saw how she was helping people and organizations, she realized that she was a business writer and she wanted to write a business book. 

“. . . if you want to be a successful business owner you have to be willing to ask the right questions, you have to be willing to listen to the type of feedback that you are getting from your clients, you have to really start to dig into their challenges about become very curious about the world that they are experiencing.” 

When Paula listened, the thing she was often asked was how do we address burnout from a leadership perspective. It was clear that this was the deeper, better conversation and it informed the direction of the book. 

Once this direction was clear, it changed everything. Her business name, her website, and the content she was creating were all focused on teams and leadership in the business world. 

She credits this focus (and her online presence) with another request for a book proposal with Wharton School Press. This time, it was a yes! Timing is everything and she was notified on November 6, 2019, that she would actually be writing her book. 

You don’t know what you don’t know, and Paula knew she needed help. Here’s the team (of which I am honored to play a part) she assembled over time to help her with the book. 

  • Agent 
  • Editor 
  • Website team
  • Marketing content team 
  • Virtual assistant
  • PR support around launch time 

Paula knew that she didn’t just want to write a book that no one read. That’s why creating a promotion and publicity plan was key. She credits finding the right PR person as a big part of the success of her book launch. 

Paula explains how getting the team coordinated was the critical support she needed. She was intentional so that everyone understood what steps were being taken, and how all the moving parts worked together. 

The book launched March 16, 2021 – with burnout quickly becoming a trending topic. It continues to be at one of the most important issues companies are dealing with in a post-Covid world. Beating Burnout at Work was chosen as a “Next Big Idea” book club nominee and was the #1 best seller in 2021 for Wharton School Press. 

Paula continues to do interviews about the book, about burnout, and about building resilient teams.  

Post book launch – now what? Paula is back to doing workshops, giving keynote speeches and working with her corporate and legal clients around the globe. The book has become an integral part of her curriculum and work. If you are interested in beating burnout and creating resilient teams in your organization, reach out to Paula and check out Beating Burnout at Work.

Connect with Paula:

LinkedIn

Stress and Resilience Institute

Interested in exploring where you are in your expert journey? Let’s chat! If you want to learn more about how to be seen, be found, be heard, please connect with me on the socials or let’s set up a call to chat.

3 Key Marketing Strategies for Self-Publishing Your Book

Behind the “Seens” with Amanda Miller from My Word Publishing

Deciding to become a published author is no small decision – for many it’s a dream come true, for others, it’s a calling and for others it is a way to share their expertise, experience or their point of view with the world.

After committing to your book, the next major decision is how will you publish book? If you are thinking that the traditional publishing route might not be for you then considering the self-publishing option could be a good idea

My guest in this episode is Amanda Miller, is a self-publishing consultant with My Word Publishing. In our brief time together, she runs down several tips and strategies you can use to self-publish your book.

If you’re considering self-publishing your book, then this episode will help you figure out how to do it successfully.

Things to consider when self-publishing

  • Review different publishing models
  • Money, time, and control are major points
  • Key players to involve in the publishing process

Amanda explains why it is so important to understand the different publishing models and the full spectrum of options available to you. You can go the traditional route and submit multiple queries, or you can try the other extreme and keep it really basic by uploading a PDF copy.

The main thing to remember is that you have options and they vary based on your individual needs and tolerance.

Money and time are both major factors to consider when you think about all of the key players involved in the self-publishing space. There are things you can do for yourself that may take time and effort to research, learn and implement. While other things such as hiring an editor and a book designer ideally require more money than time.

“If you want to keep your rights and royalties, you want to make a good book, you want to get it out into the world in a timely manner, self-publishing is a really good option for you.”

Key Strategies

  • Watch out for overwhelm
  • Optimize your sales page
  • Get the foundational marketing done well

Amanda touches on the importance of avoiding overwhelm. Publishing a book through any route can feel overwhelming, but it comes at you even harder when you’re not sure what to publish, where to start or how.

Know what needs to be done when. Things like getting your ISBN before or after the cover design matters. Having a consultant like Amanda to help guide you through self-publishing can really relieve overwhelm and give you peace of mind. 

Another major part of self-publishing to consider and plan for is how you will optimize your sales page. This includes Amazon and the book page on your personal author website

Amanda shares tips and about where and how you want to optimize the blurb on the back of your book and your Amazon sales page.

Making marketing foundational from the beginning of your journey as an author will be a huge benefit once your book is published. 

PRO TIP: Work on two book marketing tasks every week for a year.

Reach out to Amanda with any questions. She is amazing with the execution of strategy and figuring out the marketing to strengthen your brand and improve recognition for your self-published book.

Also, check out Amanda’s upcoming author platform marketing classes on email marketing. 

Connect with Amanda:

Website

Email

Interested in exploring where you are in your branding journey? Let’s chat! If you want to learn more about how to be seen, be found, be heard, please connect with me on the socials or let’s set up a call to chat.

Online Marketing Advice You Need To Know Now

Marketing Tips and Takeaways from INBOUND17

Still spinning from INBOUND17, an annual marketing conference in Boston, where I spent four days with 20,000 other fellow marketers, I am excited to share some of the top takeaways and immediately actionable insights. These ideas will help you be strategic about what’s trending in online marketing, so you can stay ahead of the curve and become even more connected to your clients and fans. Dive on in.

1> “Instagram is Facebook’s next Facebook”

So says Facebook’s (owner of Instagram) CEO Jeff Zuckerberg. Straight from the horse’s mouth, Facebook expert Mari Smith advised it is imperative to include Instagram in your social media strategy. When Facebook is putting their energy there, so should you, with opportunities for the fastest growth in growing your followers and increasing your brand awareness.

TAKEAWAY TIP – Connect your Instagram profile to your Facebook page for analytics about how to be more strategic with the right audience. Make sure that your Instagram is “on brand” with the rest of your social media profiles.

2> Video, video, video!

Yes, video continues to be the content darling with social media, especially with Facebook TV and video ads. Also from Mari Smith’s presentation, we heard how Facebook is (still) giving priority to videos created in Facebook—not only for posts, but also for ads. It is getting easier and easier to create more professional ads without having to spend a fortune on video production. Some of the video tools Mari recommended were Wave and Animoto.

TAKEAWAY TIP – If you haven’t started, start RIGHT NOW! Start experimenting and post something THIS WEEK! If you have started, take it up a level – especially if you have a great idea for video or television series.

3> Less is more. Quality over quantity.

20% of your content (the unicorns) is bringing in 80% of your traffic. Work it, be smart, be strategic. This message was repeated in many different forums with varying degrees of statistics. But the general message from all of the speakers I heard (Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot; Larry Kim, Wordstream, and Garrett Moon, CoSchedule) was that you should focus your growth (10x growth, not 10% growth) on these really big content ideas and winners.

TAKEAWAY TIP – Find your most popular content (check the analytics from your website and social media) and make a plan to make it work harder.

 

4> Be human and connect.

We all want to belong – but we need to be solid in belonging first to ourselves. With a new book out, called Braving The Wilderness, Brene Brown kicked off the conference with a most powerful call for everyone to be more engaged with their fellow humankind. Fresh from the front of the Houston hurricane disasters, she had real life stories and proof that we are capable of being humans together – not apart.

TAKEAWAY TIP – Call, touch, hug and/or really look at someone today and everyday! But also as we think of our companies and brands, it’s imperative to be OK and even stand out or stand alone in our authenticity.

 

5> Creativity happens whenever we solve problems.

I took comfort in being reminded that being a creator doesn’t mean you have to be an artist or designer, or really good at making things pretty. Specifically, Wharton professor and author Adam Grant had some very pragmatic suggestions no matter what you do or who you are for how to bring creative ideas to life …which often involve working with your grumpy outlier cohorts.

TAKEAWAY TIP – Have a plan for bringing your next big idea to life. Don’t assume the people who are like you or who like you are always going to be your biggest advocates and the people who can most help you succeed.

Check out my LIVE FB video from INBOUND here. And if you want more insight in how to apply these trends and tips to your online marketing strategy, set up a clarity call with me now.

Measuring for Success: A check-up for your website

This article is the first in the “Measuring Your Success with Online Marketing” series reviewing key marketing metrics for you online platforms (website, newsletters and social media) to gauge where you are, where you are going and how best to get you there.

How healthy is your website?  If you have a blog, e-commerce and/or a contact form on your website, you might have a general sense of how active or engaged visitors are with your website.  However, most people who basically use their website as an online marketing brochure (is this you?) don’t really have a sense of how well their website is performing and what they could do to improve its “health and vitality.”

To review the basic website metrics, you will need to have Google Analytics installed on you site, so that you can then log into the Google Analytics dashboard for your site (if you don’t know how to do this, ask your web developer or go here).


9368707_origGoogle Analytics Dashboard

 

Now let’s dig in to the numbers – (which I recommend you do at least monthly) and understand what they mean.

Number of sessions – This is defined as each time a visitor initiates a session.  Ideally, you would like to see this number grow each month or at least remain constant.   Adding new, consistent and valuable content to your site on a frequent basis will help grow your audience.  If there are big fluctuations from month to month, it is important to figure out what or who is helping to spike your traffic (see Referrals via Acquisition below).

Number of users – This is the number of  visitors who are coming to your site for a specified period of time (by default 30 days).  A 50/50 balance of new and returning visitors shows a healthy engagement with fans who are returning to learn more from you and a new audience who is interested to find out more.

** Note- Don’t get lost in the numbers and forget about engagement.  It’s important to be consider quantity AND quality of your audience.  For example, in trying to raise awareness for your site and business, you will be much better served by 500 enthusiastic visitors who return to your website on a regular basis, read your blog posts, leave comments, refer traffic and contact you, than you will by having 1,000 visitors who visit once and never come back. **

Time on site (Avg Session Duration) – Obviously, the more time spent on your site the better, but don’t forget we have short attention spans, so don’t be surprised to see an average of under 2 minutes.  To get people to stay on your site, make it “sticky” by including easy navigation and discoverability throughout your site.  In other words, make it easy for them to get wherever it is you want them to go on your site.  Don’t lead them to dead ends.

Bounce rate – This percentage reflects how much of your audience is landing on your site and bouncing off quickly.  Ideally you don’t want to see a bounce rate higher than 60%.  If it is hovering closer to 45% or 50%, that’s better, but not ideal.  Try to keep it trending downward using the same engaging tactics (mentioned above) for getting them to spend more time on your site.

Sources and referrals via the Acquisition Channel  – Where is your traffic coming from?  Are they coming by searching? Or via email? Or social media? Another website?  Who is your top “referrer”?  Be sure to be developing relationships (online and off) with your most valuable referral sources.

Most popular pages via the Behavior Channel – Once visitors are on your site, what do they do there? What page do they come to first, and then where to they go?  Which are the most popular pages on your site for a given period?  Is it your services, about, portfolio or do they head to the blog?  Does this change or does is stay the same?  Understanding your visitors’ behavior and interest will help you better update and refresh your site with content they are seeking.

In reviewing these key stats on a monthly basis, you will soon get a clear picture about how healthy and effective your website is.   It will also give you valuable insight about how well your other online marketing efforts (social media, newsletters, online advertising, adwords, etc.) are performing.

Stay tuned for more about online marketing measurement and metrics, when we look at social media and email newsletter marketing in upcoming posts. 

In the meantime, let me know in the comments, what did you learn or discover about the health of your website when you dug into Google Analytics.   I look forward to hearing from you!  Thanks.