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It’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything you hear about branding and marketing and more. Let’s break it down and take it slow for gradual, sustainable progress and growth.
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<p>Writing is only part of a writing career -- no one warned us that we would need business acumen and entrepreneurship to be an author. Whether you're traditionally published or an independent self-publisher, it's good to have a leg up on accounting, marketing, time management, and other key skills.</p><br><p>These recordings of live discussion on craft and development, on business best practices, on explorations of fascinating and inspiring real life cool stuff, and more will help you along your writing journey and career development. Join Laura VanArendonk Baugh as she shares what she's learned and what she's learning. (Or join the weekly live discussion with your own questions!)</p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.</p>
Transcript:
Marketing: Who Am I? The Business of Creativity – powered by Happy Scribe
Hey, what if we try it with
the mic turned on, how’s that, is that a plan?
OK, OK.
Yeah.
Oh.
Oh, and I’ve got the clone army.
Hold on.
OK, life should be better now.
OK, please pay no mind to the repeat
repeating audio that willdisappear and itself in a second.
All right.All right.
Hi, everybody.I am so sorry for that
little bit of chaos there.
What you didn’t hear me say is that I
actually did some rearrangingof my of my setup.
And so I was moving my keyboardinto my camera and some other things
that I’m going to be better about notmessing with right now.
So, yeah, I apologize for the
little mix up with the soundand the camera and everything.
But now we are hereand we are ready to go.
And if I can just get my notes back in.There we go.
OK,
thank you all for coming back.Enjoy.
Hey, no looping.Hurray.
All right.We got rid of the clone army.
That’s fantastic.OK,
all right.Thanks, everybody.
And so here’s here’s what today is.
As you may be able to see,I have titled this, Marketing: Who Am I?
Which is less of an existential crisisand more of a sort of a series, really.
So this will be part one of, I have no idea,as far as we decide to go.
But as as I mentioned,one of my goals for this is to
walk through the business side ofwriting and creating in general.
I’m hoping that this is useful
for people who are not, who are artistsof other varieties, not just writers.
But I’m going to talk most aboutwriting because that is what I do.
Yeah, absolutely.
Nobody likes my visual art at all.
I mean, I’m including my mom in this.That’s OK, Mom.
I’m not bitter.I agree with you.
It’s pretty bad art.
But the idea here thatall art is art,
but we can also make art into a business.
So that’s what I want to talk about here.
This is something that, we getinto art because we like art.
We don’t get into art becausewe like business management.
So a lot of writers,
you know, start writing because they enjoystories and then they’re like, oh,
there’s accounting here and there’smarketing and there’s all this, you know,
taxes and stuff that wehave to think about.
So so we’re going to try to break thisdown and do those in manageable stages.
And so that’s the first partof that that we’re doing today.
We’re just, we’re going to we’re going to takeour first baby steps into marketing.
This is going to be prettybasic to start with.
I’m doing that on purposebecause I want to start with foundational
material and build up becauseit’s really, really easy,
I see,
I’m in contact with literally thousandsof writers online and through my various
organizations and membershipsand Facebook groups and whatnot.
And I see people get caught upand tangled in this all the time.
So I’m trying to offer somethingthat’ll be a little more helpful.
So you’re not trying to startwithout a foundation.
So that’s that’s today’s goal
with that.
Real quickly,
if you have a subscription,you don’t get the ads, which is great.
But I am in no way askingpeople to pay money.
If you have an Amazon Prime account,
I’d love it if you would use your includedfree subscription on Twitch to support me.
If you don’t have an Amazon Prime account
or if you want to use yoursubscription elsewhere, that’s fine.
I’ll be here anyway.
So that’s wherewe’re going with that.
All right.And then the other piece of housekeeping I
wanted to throw out, I know my Internetconnection is not the best right now.
And I know that I’ve been able, I’m seeing
right now that I’m losingframes and that sort of thing.
We have determined that that’s probablydue to the lightning strike we took and we
have replacement equipment en route,which probably will arrive tomorrow.
So hopefully by next week I’llhave a shiny, reliable stream.
And if it’s a little bit jerky this week,please just be patient, please.
And thank you.So okeydokey.
So let’s get started and we’regoing to walk through
firstly what is marketing and we’ll break
it down and talk about tonight’sspecific project is beginning branding.
And
so let’s first talk about what marketing
is, because this is something that isa huge and hugely misunderstood concept.
So first, underscore — big — take this,
this will be on the test.
Marketing is not selling.
They are not identical terms.
Selling is a part of marketing.
It is a small part of marketing.
OK, marketing and selling arenot interchangeable terms.
And well, that seems like a small,
pedantic, picky thing to get,you know, wound up about,
that is a huge differencein how you approach it.
And it will make marketing a lot easier
for you if youdon’t think of it as selling.
And the reason
I have met very few people who arelike, “Marketing, my favorite, all right!”
Even fewer people are,”Selling my favorite!” right?
So I, I think drawing that distinction
because marketing actuallydoesn’t have to be that bad.
There are a few people on thisplanet who love to sell.
Most of us don’t fall into that category.
But marketing can be way morefun and way easier to do.
And selling is just a small,small part of marketing.
So don’t get caught up in marketing is
about selling because that’s goingto make marketing harder for you.
Selling is that final step.
At the end we say, “Hey,I have this, whatever.
Would you like to pay moneyfor it?” That’s selling.
So that is when I offer you, “Here isthe buy link for my book
and I’m hoping that you will clickthat link and give me money.”
All right.
So that is selling. Advertising iswhen, “Hey, I have this book available.
Did you know?”
And so I’m specifically letting you know,
I’m specifically informing abouta product that I have available for sale.
Branding is when I tell you about meand the kinds of things that I produce.
So I’m actually working on these, I’m
actually listing these in reverse order,so we get to selling because we have done
advertising, we get to advertisingbecause we have done marketing.
If we do them in the wrong order, weannoy people and we get very few sales.
So if I walk into,
if I knock on your door and I say,”Hi, my name’s Laura.
Here’s a book.Do you want to give me money?”
You’re probably going to slam that door.That’s fair.
OK, that’s, I’m just annoying people.
If you think about if you’ve ever
shown up at a family event and somebodyarrived with their multilevel marketing
catalog and you just know, No! OK, sellingout of order is really, really annoying.
So we don’t like it.
That’s why selling has a bad reputation.
That’s why marketing has a bad reputation.
But selling is justa small part of marketing.
So we’re going to work ourway through this timeline.
And so tonight, we’re specificallygoing to talk about branding and.
If
I’m just encouraging you to doa little mental mental check on this,
if you find yourself, you know, “Oh,
I hate this or I’m resisting or I feelreally awkward about this or whatever.”
Stop.Step back.
You’re probably thinking aboutselling rather than about marketing.
Marketing does not have to feel squicky.
It does not have to feel like –let me just put it this way.
I’m from the Midwest, right?
Like, we don’t talk about ourselves.
We don’t talk about money.
We don’t ask people for, like, no, OK?
and I can still do marketing,so just bear with me.
It’ll work out, I promise.
So.
Here is a really big thing,I don’t know if anybody actually ever
spelled this out for me,but I figured this out
some years ago and it made my life so mucheasier when we talk about
marketing and selling and the whole thing,one big part of marketing, I mean,
a big part of marketing is filteringout people who are not your customer.
And if that sounds weird,it’s fine, I’ll take a second.
So, oh, hey, we havea Kristi in the stream.
Welcome, welcome and thank you.
So,
yeah.So where was I?
Oh, yes.Sorry, I got excited.
A big part of marketing that you need
to recognize because it would make yourjob so much easier is
part of marketing is to filter outpeople who are not my customer.
And this catches people off guard a lotbecause they they look and they think, oh,
you know, I need to sell to asmany people as possible.
I need to pull in as many people aspossible the more people I reach.
OK, yes.On some degree.
You want to.
Do that first step with as many people as
you can, so you have as many people aspossible who will choose to continue
with you or not, but that firststep needs to start filtering.
So let’s say,because I know this sounds weird.
Let’s say I write a fairly niche,
I have a I have a new seriesof my paranormal fly-fishing romance.
It’s great, it involves time travel,it involves fly-fishing romance.
It’s a great
but not not everybody isinto fly-fishing romance.
So there is
a reader, a voracious reader, a veryenthusiastic reader, reviews everything.
She reads fantastic.
You know, everybody’sideal ideal customer.
And she’s searching for a new book,but she’s looking for
a space opera with werewolves,
so.
As she’s coming down, you know,the book fair or the library shelf
or browsing through Amazon or wherever,and she encounters me for the first time.
She’s not looking for what I have
on offer, she’s a fantastic readerfor someone else
if she’s looking for space operaand I give her fly-fishing romance.
She’s not going to be satisfied,
and I just said she’s a great reviewer,she’s a great reader.
She reviews everything.
I don’t want her being a sad,unhappy reader and leaving me a review
that’s not going to dome any long term favors.
OK, it is not worth gettingthat one sale for today
that will hurt me long term.
And that’s not just a genre thing.
That is a tone thing.
That is that is a lot of stuffthat goes into branding.
So I’m just going to save time becausewe’re going to talk about it in a second.
But I need to start filtering people outas quickly as I’m trying to bring them in.
So don’t be afraid to
get rid of some people with your branding,because that’s one of its jobs.
OK,
I’m hoping that makes sense.
So we’ll see.
All right.So.
Getting people.
I would rather get people out of my funnel
early on when they don’t costme time, money and energy.
Whereas if I, you know,could get — acquiring customers is
expensive, acquiring readers isexpensive in all of your resources.
So if they’re not goingto be a great reader for me,
meaning I’m not going to meet their needs
and wants, thenlet’s save time right now.
You know, it’s not you, it’s me.It’s not me, it’s you. Bye.
And so, yeah, that’s what I’m after.
OK,
so with that in mind,
being aware that your branding mightpush people away and that’s OK.
Now we can start think about whatis a brand.
So an easy easy way to think about this is
I try to think of it as whatis the mood, what is a tone?
What can my reader expect from me?
I’m a little bit of a weird caseand I’ll talk about that later.
We’re going to start with much easier.
So
but think about the mood.
Think about the experience that yourreader is wanting to have.
That is the brand. And this gets
really huge and daunting really fast.
If you go and take a professionalbranding class, they will talk about
your story as a creator and your reader’sstory and and the interaction of those two
stories and characteristicsand themes and values.
And what colors are the best
representation and what symbologyin which typeface is the best
representation of yourparticular reader journey.
It can get extremely overwhelming.
A lot of that’s good stuff.
And there’s a reason people goto school for marketing degrees.
But that’s really a lot
for the average writer to start with,especially if you’re self publishing or if
you’re responsible for your own marketingwith a traditional
book.It’s that’s too much.
Let’s not start there.
So my cheat,
because I was just writingabout this in my
Business for Authors book,which is in progress, I swear.
My cheat is to picka national brand to start.
So don’t overthink this, this is notsomething you have to present a paper on.
I just want you to get an emotional,”Yeah, that’s me.”
So are you more KFC or Long John Silvers?
Are you more L.L. Bean or Vera Bradley?
Are you more Payless shoes or,I don’t know,
I don’t shop enough to be able to do this.
But pull out,
are you more Target or Wal-Mart? OK,and just grab on to one of those.
Don’t think about it.
And you’re not talkingabout you personally.
You’re talking about what your books are.
You know, what youryour product line is.
And don’t overthink about this.
Don’t don’t try to justify it.
Just go with a feel.
There is a
collection of messages,that have been very carefully crafted
by people who spent millionsof dollars to craft these messages.
That is why Targetand Walmart feel different.
I don’t want you to analyze
those messages, I want you to justgrab on which one of those is you.
So, if you, let’s say you write
really high charged adrenalized,fast paced action thrillers or something,
and so you’re thinking Mountain Dew,I’m just making stuff up here.
Work with me.
And I’m going to point out there’s
this isn’t old laid backhillbilly Mountain Dew.
This is reinvented extreme sports fan,Mountain Dew, because you can redo your
branding and reinvent yourbrand if you want to.
So don’t panic that you have to get this100 percent perfect on the first try.
Mountain Dew certainlyreinvented themselves,
so.
I am going to just
throw out that I was thinking about thistoday when I realized I was going to talk
about this, my brand,my national brand for this particular
video channel, thisthing that we’re doing right now.
I was like, OK, how would I describe that?
And I’m going to callit REI, which is a
hiking and camping cooperative store,if you’re not familiar with it.
And I was thinking, OK, why?Why is that?
Because I want it to be something
of an adventure, but I want itto be a cooperative adventure.
It’s got lots and lotsof focus on community, lots of,
a little bit of do-it-yourself-ness to this.
So, you know, I mean,I went to equip people to be able to take
this, but I want it to be sociallyresponsible, communal adventure.
So that’s kindof why I realized,
OK, so I grabbed REIand then I broke down,
Why did I feel that was a match?
So
if this is making sense so far,give me a little heyo in the comments.
And if this is making no sense whatsoever,
tell me that. And I can move faster orslower depending on how we’re doing.
So, OK.
So now I’ve I’ve got
a big picture brand that somebody else hasput a lot of money in to developing,
so like I said, you know,it’s Mountain Dew or
or
with the Fluevog, the shoe.
I think that’s a shoe
or,
you know, Coke versus Pepsi or whatever.
There is a lot of you know,a lot of money has been put,
a lot of effort has been putinto developing those brands.
So I am shamelessly piggybacking off their
work, because once I say, OK, my lineof thrillers is very new adult.
So very, you know, and I’m just — I’mgoing to link that with Mountain Dew.
OK, now I’ve got a bunchof adjectives that can go with it,
and now I can look at Mountain Dew’sbranding to get ideas for mine and I might
even lift some of theircolor palette or something.
Again, I can let them dosome of the heavy lifting with me.
This is not shamelessly picking up Coke’scomplete brand and walking away with it.
Don’t do that.
It won’t work for you.
And that that dynamic ribbondevice is trademarked.
All right.But you can get some ideas, OK?
Is my work more Coke or Pepsi?
OK, now let me lean into what makes those
two distinct brands and which one canI can I lean on to borrow ideas from?
So hopefully that’s how that’s working.
All right.
So
sorry I lost myself in my notes here.
OK,so now that we’ve got mood,
now that we’ve got experiencethat we want our reader to have,
remember that your book ispart of your marketing, right?
Your book is part of your brand.
So you’re not trying to inventsomething from scratch.
You’re inventing things to goalong with what you already have.
Then you can start thinking about,
OK, what are the colorsthat best represent this?
This feel. So again for this particular
video channel,I’m tending to use a lot more,
I’m finding more oranges and things,
colors that I pretty much neveruse in my own daily life.
I’ll have orange in October and that’s it.
But it’s a very adventurous,energetic color.
So it just started happening as I was
putting together graphicsfor this sort of thing.
So,
yeah, so kind of looking at — sorry, I’m pullingfrom the chat,
looking at the base building blocksthat make those brands, brands.
That’s a perfect way to putting it.Put it.
We’re just looking, we’re cheating.
We’re finding a house of cards that’s
already built and then we’re lookingat how they did it.
We are taking ideasfrom there and borrowing them for us.
So.All right.
And then, you know, when you when you have
all this stuff that you’ll find onlineabout building an aesthetic and picking
out typefaces and, you know,what kind of logo and your color palettes
and how many colors can you havein a palette and all of this stuff.
And I think, honestly,a lot of that is overdone for it.
Not that it’s not important stuff.
It’s that it’s
more work up front than I thinkthe average author needs to be doing.
We need to start with that,just the foundation level,
just the concepts, and pick upthe other stuff as we need it.
Don’t sit down and spend 16 hoursworking out a color palette
before you have the emotion that you need,if that makes sense.
All right.So I’m trying to catch up with the chat here.
Give me one second.
OK, all right,so Natalie is looking at differentiating
between two books, two types of bookand yeah, the absolutely so,
you know, “friendly entry level, casual,
upbeat paint by numbers, those wine andpaint nights” — wine and paint nights is great.
I mean, that’s a great way to think of it,because that is, positively right there,
that is a phrase that encapsulates
an entire mood and you caneasily build off of that.
So that’s that’s good.
And then the other is more big picture,
thoughtful, growth orientedSkillshare or master class.
Yeah, fantastic.So one is wine and paint.
One is master class.
Easy to distinguish between those onceyou get them broken out in your head.
So.Oh, fantastic example.
OK, all right.
So as you’re putting your beginning branding together and
guys, just,just keep this loose in in the beginning,
just jot stuff down,let it start to gel on its own.
Do not, you know, write thisin ink and it can never change.
I want you to just play with this.
Andit’s one of those things that the harder
you squeeze, the harderit is to hold on to.
But if you just kind of cup ittogether, it starts to gel.
OK, so
that
so.
Now, once we’ve got our brand
our beginning brand, we can start thinking
about how we want to presentthis to a potential reader.
And I’m going to sound just a little bitfake here, and I want you to hold on,
because I’m not, that’s notwhere I’m going.
But think about what you can maintain,
because this, what this is,is this is a persona that you’re going
to present and doesn’t have to be like, Ihave to be a fake person walking around.
That’s not where I’m going with this.
But in your marketing,which is everything you’re doing
that pertains to any formof interaction with a potential reader,
there needs to be consistency and it needs
to be credible and needs to beplausible and believable.
So, for example,
I am never going to be able to sustaina sweet romance persona. That is, you know,
I’ve got friends there,that’s authentic for them.
I got way too much snark in me.
It’s not, you know, it’s just not, I’mnot going to be able to maintain sweet.
OK, now, again, this is not aboutme faking a representation to the rest
of the planet, but there’s going to be,I’m going to be writing newsletters.
I’m going to be on social media.
I’m going to be doing a lot of differentthings that are going to require me to be
consistent and convincing.And I need to be.
So if you’re looking at this
and you’re like, “Oh, my gosh,I’m never going to be able to do this,”
it might not actuallybe what you have done.
All right.
Step back, make sureyou get the right feel.
This is a little bit of a litmus test,because if you’re looking at
your fly-fishing romance,but you hate going outdoors or something,
you’re like, “OK,did did I write that book?
Is is this the right feel? You know,what is this?
What can I break down?”
All right, so
when you think about what you can maintainand then think about,
I’m going to I’m going to call it
personality type, but don’t over –don’t go too deep into that phrase.
I mean, it’s just it’s just a placeholder,really.
Think about how, what’syour level of enthusing?
Are you calm?
Are you perky?
And this is where you
and the brand need to finda comfortable resting place.
So I naturally am pretty
open and effervescent.
“I wonder what Lara is thinking,”said nobody ever, right?
Like, it’s just it’s allout there all the time.
But if I were writinga fairly staid, reliable
historical fiction that’s,you know, serious and dramatic
Perky probably not the first word
that should come to mind whenthinking about that brand.
OK, so this again, you’renot to be doing something you’re not.
You’re just looking to make sure.
Am I going to be comfortablewearing this brand for a while?
OK,
so.
And just a just a tiny little side note
on introvert versus extrovert,because I’m an ambivert.
I get to have opinions becauseI’m right there in the middle.
But I see all the time people talking
about, well, marketing is difficultbecause I’m an introvert.
I can’t do a newsletter or I can’t dowhatever (fill in the blank
it doesn’t matter) becauseI’m an introvert.
So I got some news for you guys.
The writing career is designedfor introverts.
There is no better place for you to be.
And being an introvertdoes not make marketing harder
because you’re still 100 percentin charge of what’s going on.
All right.
So being an introvert,which, by the way,
just, point of clarification, hasnothing to do with being shy.
It means you recharge by being away
from people as opposed to rechargingby being energized by other people.
So — but being an introvert,
if you write a newsletter every month orevery other month,
let’s say it’s every month,so every month you take, I don’t know,
let’s go crazy and say an hour and youtake an hour to write a newsletter
in a month — that gives you a whole month torecharge before you have to do it again.
All right.
So being an introvert is nota handicap, and I do not…
There is an awful lot floating aroundonline about how being an introvert makes
it all of this harder, and that iseither misunderstood or just excuses.
So sorry, tough talk, we’ll be OK.
Likewise, being an extrovert is notan advantage or disadvantage because
if you love energy,if you energize off of other people
and you only get to writeyour newsletter once a month.
You’re going to have to find someplace
else to get your get yourenergy from, which is fine.
There’s lots of options.OK, I’m just saying that that
don’t let somebody
tell you that should make a differencebecause it really shouldn’t.
All right.
OK.
But yeah, if you
whatever your personal personality type,
not your brand, whatever your personalpersonality type is, if you match it,
if you’ve found a brandthat you can stick with,
it’s not about beingsomething that you’re not.
It’s not about faking.
It’s not about trying to have an energylevel that you don’t naturally have.
You’re you’re just representing your work
and you can do it in smalldoses at your comfort level.
So hopefully I got that.All right.
Oh yeah, Kristi is pointing out youdon’t even have to deliver it in person.
It goes via email, right?Absolutely.
Guys, this is great for you.
In 2020 it’s still possible, we can do this.
OK,so just again,
make sure you have a persona that you canmaintain that you’re not going to feel
super fake or exhaustedby trying to maintain.
If I like I said,if I’m trying to do sweet romance,
I’m going to feel like I’m faking that thewhole time and I’m not going to like it.
So that’s a good sign that it’s notan accurate brand for my work,
because if I felt it,if I was able to immerse in it enough
to create, I should be ableto sustain it as a brand.
So, OK.
All right.
So now let’s look at, I have takenmy pieces and I’m starting to gather them
and I’m getting some things like,OK, this is the mood.
These are the themesthat are important to me.
I didn’t really talk about that much,
but but this is prettyeasy to grab on your own.
I just I don’t tend to start with them
because I sometimes I thinkit makes people overthink.
But once you start grabbing the otherthings, then you look at your work like,
OK, what are what are thingsthat tend to show up?
So found family is a big one inin my Shard of Elan series.
And if you look at any of my fiction or
or my nonfiction as well,this is actually what helped me
to discover this, isboth my fiction and my nonfiction
ultimately have themes of empowering thosewho have no power or
giving a voice, giving agency to thosewho did not think they had agency.
And “oh, OK, great.
Like that’s something I can work with.
That’s something that I can I can leaninto and help to maintain and represent.”
So
so I’ve gathered these pieces together.
Now I’m going to start looking atactual marketing.
OK, so we’re going to startputting stuff out there.
And again, I’m going to start with, always
look at this as what is doable for you,what is natural for you.
There are some things I’m going to ask you
to do that will feel uncomfortableand a little bit of a reach.
But “uncomfortable and a littlebit of a reach” and “straight up nope”
are not the same thing.
So, for example,
social media, a lot of people,it’s really easy to get caught up in.
“Oh, in order to market,
I have to be on every social mediaplatform and I have to be I have to have
this insane number of followers and Ihave to do do this, this and this.”
Probably not. Like I cantell you definitely,
as far as being on all the socialmedia, definitely not.
But there’s a lot of you-must-dos
that aren’t must-dos. Nowthere are a couple must-dos.
We’ll get there.
But I just we’re startingwith what is doable.
So if,
you know, somebody tells you, oh, TikTokis the hot new platform and you
have got to be on TikTok and blah blah blahblah blah, just
maybe if that’s not the best placefor your brand, then don’t do it.
The end, OK.
So I am, I will never forget how incredibly old Ifelt when I realized
I had no interest in doing Snapchatand it wasn’t worth my time.
I might pick up a few readers there,but it’s not it’s not worth it.
So so I’ll just be oldand crotchety over here.
Thanks.All right.
So.
So let’s move on to what marketing
is not, becausewe spend a lot of time with what is.
I mentioned I’m from the Midwest,we don’t talk about ourselves.
We don’t promote ourselves.
And I remember I was at one writersconference and Jane Friedman,
who is a very big name in the industry,if you’re not familiar, and she
was speaking to thisMidwest writers conference and she’s like,
“Guys, you guys have to stopbeing Midwesterners.
You have to talk about yourselves.”OK, but only to a degree.
If I need to pitch myselfto a publisher, absolutely.
I need to do it.
Marketing is not as muchtalking about myself.
It’s not as much self promotion asyou may have been led to believe.
Again, we’re talking about
excuse me, leaning into our brand.
How many Pepsi ads do you see that are, thatend with “Buy Pepsi” on the screen?
That’s selling. That is less,that’s not effective for one,
there’s a reason they don’t do that,but also that’s really annoying.
And you wouldn’t sit through these ads.
So.
Okay, Kristi is joining me in the “the old people and
we don’t understand Snapchat club.”
Yeah, it’s like, I’m sorry, can’t do this.
So if.
So I don’t want to just talk
about me all the time in marketing,that’s nobody…
Marketing is, think of it as you’reshowing up at any social event.
And if I just show up at a social event
and talk about myself — boring, annoying,probably not effective for selling.
OK, so we are justputting our brand out there again.
We are fishing for peoplewho connect with it.
So I put my paranormal fly-fishing
romance out thereand somebody who’s searching for middle
grade kid lit comes by,goes, “paranormal fly-fishing romance, no”
and keeps going —
My brand did its job.
I have not failed.
I have filtered a person outwho was not a match for me.
OK, so that’s my first.
When somebody else comes by and goesparanormal fly-fishing ro– are you kidding?
That sounds amazing.
A second win.
OK, so now that person is going to come
engage with me and pick upthe next piece of marketing.
So
what I’m doing to pick up, to gather thosepeople, to start that filtration
is (I’m just going to keep runningwith this)
paranormal
fly-fishing
romance.
Those are three thingsthat I can be using.
So I’m putting out,
you know, a little paranormal hooks like,oh, here’s a here’s a true ghost story.
Oh, here’s a
here’s here’s a new thing on fly…
I don’t even know enough aboutfly fishing to to make up.
But here’s something on tying flies.
I think that’s a thing.
And oh, romance, I want to lean into.
Let’s say this is a sweetromance instead of steamy.
So I’ve got some
first date ideas.I don’t know.
I’m just making stuff up.It doesn’t matter.
The point is, I’m putting things out there
for people to say, “oh,I’m interested in that.
Let me follow that a little bit on or oh,
I have zero interest in that, move on,”which is still my branding doing its job.
So
so if you think about you show upat that family gathering or
that that icebreaker work party or,you know, whatever,
you just kind of walk into the roomand you’re like, oh, gosh, here we are,
the person who’s standing there with themultilevel marketing catalog, hard pass.
All right, somebody over there and they’re
you know, they pull out their phoneand you see that they’re checking a photo
and it’s got a prominentpuppy picture on it.
And they starttexting back and more puppy pictures appear
and you’re like, wait,wait, wait, wait, wait.
Why are you getting puppy pictures?And please share.
OK, that is marketing.
That is I see what you haveand I want to connect with that.
So you find out that you and this person
both have pets and so youstart sharing pet photos.
So you weird out, you nerd out overthat one weird niche fact in your hobby.
And so you find some common groundthat is interesting to both of you.
So
so, yeah, that’s Seeker’s helping me out.
Yes, tying flies good.
All right, so you are connecting oversomething that you both find interesting.
You didn’t walk up to this person and belike, hey, I have books about dogs.
Do you like dogs?
OK, that’s a little a little pushy. Butyou start putting dog stuff out there.
They put dog stuff out thereand you connected over that.
I just saw Natalie just put in the chat,”I have to read this,” she’s like “at the end
of it, at the end of this, I’m going toneed some paranormal fly-fishing romance.
Your ghostly ways are so alluring.
You cast a spell over me in the momentwhen you cast your line.”
So, yeah, OK, group project.There we go.
OK,
so where are we going.OK, sorry.
I got totally distracted byfly-fishing romance puns
so
Where I’m going, let me back up.
Selling, to most of us, is terrifying.
That’s walking into the room and beinglike “hey, buy my stuff,” not fun.
Connecting with people over stuff youlike and they like? Way more doable.
OK, we have all had the experience
of being on public transit,you know, in an airport.
So they think of something in a world
before 2020when you were in a room with a stranger
and you’re like, “oh I like,I like silly cat jokes too.
Would you like to see my kitten pictures?
You know, these are my favoritecat videos on the Internet.”
And so finding that thing that you’re bothinterested in that you can discuss safely
and anonymously –that was marketing right there,
you just didn’t have anyreason to take it further.
So yeah, think of it in that wayand it becomes a lot less terrifying.
OK,
now, I wanted to throw in a caveat veryquickly, which is if you are a new writer,
if you — I don’t even necessarilymean like if you’ve just started writing.
But if you do not have a catalogof published material,
but especially if you have just,you know, more started working on this,
take all this information in.Keep it.
Do not spend time on it right now.
There is way too much freakin pressurein the writing community right now that is
on building your platform and gettingfollowers and getting fans and getting
subscribers and all the stuffbefore you even have a book.
What are you getting them for?
OK, like,
you know, you’re it is
you’re inviting people into a salesfunnel when there is no conclusion.
All right.I am I’m going to say it’s way,
way better use of your resources to investthat time in developing your craft,
editing your book, getting an absolutephenomenal, absolutely phenomenal product
that then you can take that and buildon and get those people invested in what
you already have to offer and thensell them something at the end.
But if you.
All that work into your brand.
And your craft wasn’t there yet,your book wasn’t edited the way it should
be, and it’s just not assolid as it should be.
You have one chance to makea first impression.
You got all those people to come with you.
You gave them a productand they’re like,
“Oh. Okay. I’m done now.”
OK,and and you haven’t made them fans for life.
So, you only have so muchtime and energy in the world.
First, make your book awesome.
Craft is your first priority,then work on marketing
and you can spend more time on marketingwhen you have more products to sell.
So if you think about it,
there’s a new store opening and you know,they’ve got signs and they’ve got
promotions and they’ve got, you know,specials and all of these things.
And so you show up onopening day and the store
looks amazing, but there’snothing on the shelves.
You’re done and you’ve already
had your excitementfor the opening.
Right.So that’s it.
You’re not going to drum up that level
of excitement again, so don’t push on ituntil you have some things to sell.
So.OK, Kristi.
Yes, good.Excellent question in the chat.
And we are going to get there.
I’m just taking my ownsweet time doing it.
She asks, “Is there a happyamount of social media?
I get overwhelmed easilyby the tons of platforms.”
Good news.
I’m going to recommendyou have two. You could possibly have more
than that, but I’m going to say two,maybe three as a primary.
But we’ll talk about that.
So, OK.Oh, yeah.
And some more agreement on the
way too much pressure to get
a complete author platform.
Guys, it’s not a kit, right?
Like you don’t sit down and build itin an afternoon and then suddenly
poof, you have author platform and it’s done.
Don’t do that to yourselves.That’s unrealistic.
It’s not fair.And it’s not fair to you.
It’s not fair to your readers.Like, don’t do that.
You know, take the time,get yourself some amazing books.
It’s so much easier to market a goodbook than a bad book, so much easier.
Not that the latter is impossible.
It’s certainly been done.
But why make your life hard?
OK, so focus on craft.
First, get several books. You cancertainly start marketing with one book.
But if you’re going to putthat much time and energy into your
marketing, sell a coupleof books out of it.
That’s my plan.So OK.
All right, so now as we’re startingto put together a marketing plan
again, I want you to kind of let this cometogether organically because it’s very,
very easy to just start absorbingideas that you’re told you need to do.
So you need to be on social media.You need to be doing this.
You need to be havingthis kind of advertising.
You need to be doing thiskind of promotion maybe.
OK, so take it.
And also, again, it’s not a kit.
You don’t sit down in an afternoonand have all your marketing is done.
OK, this is a marathon, not a sprint.Take your time.
Test things.
Drop that, pick up this.
We’re keeping this and that kind ofthing and take it as you go.
It’s so easy to burn yourself out if you
just go at this full throttleand expect it to be amazing in a week.
That is not fair to you.
Don’t do it.
OK,
so as you’re looking, though,at the kinds of things, OK, I,
my fishing romance,my paranormal fly fishing romance,
I’ve got ghost stories,I’ve got sweet romance,
I’ve got outdoors adventure, camping,hiking, you know, that kind of thing.
You know, I’ve got these differentfeelings and moods and such to
to play with here.
That’s where I’m going to startpulling out some ideas.
So OK,I’m personally I’m going on a hike.
I’m going to talkabout this hike that I’m planning.
I’m going to put some information out on
which streams are the best for this
particular hike, at thisparticular fly-Fishing.
And I’m going to share,”oh, you know what?
My friend, my friend Rhonda did a
book on haunted hospitals.”
I’m going to mention that, I’m going topromote her book with haunted hospitals.
But people will know that I pointed themtoward some good ghost stories.
And so you just start pullingthings like that out.
And those are going to start fillingup your hopper of of things to share.
And again, I’m looking for the strangerswho also like cat pictures.
OK, so just think of it as I can find
things that are that are goodfor my particular niche,
that other people who like thosethings would like my stuff.
So I’m just building upon that sort of thing.
And
so that is then when I’m starting to put
together my newsletter and I’m startingto put together my my social media,
those are the kind of thingsI’m going to share.
Those can be news articles, that can be
recommendations, either ofhere’s my favorite hikes in this region
of the country or here are recommendationsfor other books that are similar to mine.
You know, those are
recommendations are fine.
And recommendations are great because I’mnot — I’m asking people to buy things,
but I’m not asking themto buy them from me.
All right.So it doesn’t feel like direct selling.
It’s a “hey, I enjoyed this.
You might, too.”
if I am good at picking good things and Ibecome a reliable source of good
recommendations,then when I say, “oh,
and I have this from me,”people have already developed a habit
of trusting me because I offergood stuff, if that makes sense.
So hopefully that’ll that’ll work there.
OK,
so
as I said,
I have a couple of socialmedia that are my primary focus.
That’s where I spend my most time on.
I have others that I have a presence onbut are not focus areas for me.
So for example — and by the way,I’m going to give you my personal
examples, but this ispositively not a recipe.
This is what works for me.
Please match to yourself.
OK, so one of the social media platforms
that I do spend a lot of time on isFacebook,
because I have a, my readershipdoes exist on Facebook
and that’s going to vary a littlebit by genre and demographic.
So again, know
where you want to go.
So I have an author page on Facebook.Whatever I post on that author page
automatically through the magic of if thenthen that appears on Tumblr where I also
have an account, but my presenceon Tumblr is extremely limited.
I scroll through Tumblr occasionally.
I like a couple of posts.
I have very, very littleactual Tumblr engagement.
OK, I don’t spend my time on Tumblr,but my posts, my stuff on my Facebook
author page appears on Tumblr sothat people on Tumblr who know I exist
can pick it up there withouthaving to come to Facebook.
So I’m just repurposing my Facebook
content without creatingextra effort for myself.
But because my engagement on Tumblr is so
low, I don’t pretend that that is astrong point in my marketing plan.
I hope that makes sense.
But that’s a way that you can focus on one
or two areas but still have a little bitof overspray into other social media.
It’s just that if you’re not — the key thingabout social media is the word a’social.”
If you’re not engaged,going back and forth and having real life
conversations with, like an actual human,you’re not going to get traction there.
My goal is notto get traction on Tumblr.
My goal is that if somebody on Tumblr sees
one of my posts because somebody elsereblogged it, and they look at that and they
go, “oh, my gosh, that was a phenomenal,you know, snippet or what a great story
she told,” or, you know,whatever the case may be,
“I wonder who that is,”
and she clicks on my name and follows
that back to Facebook ormy website or something.
Then it’s done its job.
But I’m not taking the time to engage
on Tumblr because that is nota great return on investment for me.
It’s not the best use of my time.
So, yeah.
Oops, sorry, just knocked something down.
What’s the the app that I used to do some
of that management is called If Then Then That, If This Then That, sorry.
IFTTT and so you can
quickly hop online and grab that and linka bunch of things together and it’s great.
So yeah.
So if I have,if I post something on Instagram
that image then appearson my Facebook author page.
So it’s a way I can
do a little repurposing and get extra
traction and get extramileage out of my effort.
Excuse me.I’m lazy.
The more work I can,the more result I can get
with less work the better.
But again, without…
I just need to be aware,
if I’m not active on that platform,it’s not really part of my marketing.
It’s just at that point,
I would at best say it’sit’s still technically part of marketing.
It is advertising as opposed to
interactive engagement,which is way better.
So.
OK,
so I mentioned earlier that I’m a little
bit of a weird case, I’m going to throwthis out because it will come up.
It will come up.But let me just say that this is
definitely a case of do as I say, not as I do.
So I.
I have the luxury of not needingto survive off my writing income,
which is great
if I have if I have a bad month,I don’t starve and I don’t lose my house.
So this is a good thing.
Because of that, I have made the choiceto do some things differently in my career
that I would do in a different way if Idid have to live purely off my royalties.
So I do not write to market in the same
way that some of my friendswrite to market.
There is, that is not agood or bad moral judgment.
That is a purely pragmatic choiceon their part and my part.
So just be aware that some of these are
choices that you canmake depending on your situation.
So I write both fiction and nonfiction,
and the fiction that I writeis in several different genres.
And I do this all under the same name,
not the best choice for mefrom a marketing standpoint.
So what, as time — in the beginning,
I tried to keep everything distinctand it was a lot of time and effort.
As time has passed.
I have just brought everything together
and I brand as me rather than I brand asan epic fantasy writer or an animal
behavior writer or a geeky mystery writeror, you know, pick pick something, OK?
Now, the people who are doing this
in a more financially efficient fashion.Right.
There’s no moral judgment.These are matched to your needs.
Right.
So I have a friend.
I know she is the sole provider for her
multiperson household, offof her writing income.
She has multiple pen names.
She writes very specifically to market
with this distinctivebrand for each pen name.
And she is able to make way more money
than I make because shehas set up that system.
I am branding as myself.
I am Laura, who has lots of opinions,
good science,presentable,
presented in a fun and accessible way,and with some epic feels along as we go.
That is me.
And it might be epic fantasy or it might
be geeky mystery might be howto socialize your young dog.
But that’s all me,so that is more work for less return,
and it requires me to break out of myMidwest comfort place and do more self
promotion because it is more specificallyabout me, because I need people to pick it
up because it’s me, not becausethey like that feel OK.
So that is an option.
I’m just telling you that it’sprobably not the starter plan.
So.
So there we go.Put that out there.
OK,
so if you have
and so much of this stuff is aboutmaking decisions,
I’m going to do an entiresession later on defining success and how
success can be differentfor different people.
And there’s many ways to get thereif there are many different goals.
So that’s the thingthat will happen later.
But in the meantime, right now,I’m just going to say,
think about what your situation isand don’t set your goals or your marketing
plans according to someoneelse’s situation.
If you have.
And I’ve seen some of the peoplein my writing groups.
So, like, “I don’tI don’t want to be a career writer.
Like, I have this one book that I want
to get out,fiction or non-fiction or whatever.
I have this one book that Iwant to get out and that’s it.”
That person is going to have an incredibly
different marketing plan than somebodywho wants to be writing for the next 30 or
40 years and hopes to makethat their primary source of income.
OK, those marketing plans are goingto look completely different.
One is I need to maximize
this particular one-off book,and one of these is I need to do a slow
I can do a slow build becauseI need maximum gains at the end.
OK.
So
if you have
the time,if you’re if you’re planning a long term
career, I would say take your time to slowbuild into this and develop relationships.
Relationship is — it’s going to take time.
It’s going to take that engagementon the social media.
By the way,social media is not for selling.
Social media is terrible for selling.
Finally, the last couple of years,
the community, the writing communityis starting to get onto this.
But so many times I see people stilltrying to sell on social media.
And no social media is for maintainingrelationships
and maintaining your brand and keepingpeople engaged with your brand.
It’s not that great for selling,so just understand that.
But it’s great for building relationships.
That’s where I can share.
“Oh, here’s this here’s this creepy,
creepy experience that happenedto me last night, is my house haunted?”
OK, that’s where I can share.
“Oh, here’s this adorable,adorable cat video.”
Or, you know, I can do things to keep
people engaged with me,to keep connected with that mood,
that experience, all of those thingsthat I want to go into my brand.
And the more that I take the time to buildthat and build that —
I’m going to borrow from my behaviorworld — that history of reinforcement,
the more resilientthat relationship will be.
So if I then one day drop a dud, and they’ll belike, “oh, you know, she’s been pretty cool
for the last two years,like that was a one off that was weird.”
Or they’re more that they’re likely to try
something because I’m in enough to be trustworthy.
So if you
think about, like, you encounter a new brandof potato chip or cookie or whatever,
it’s the first time you’ve everheard of this brand and you try it.
OK, you might be fine,
but unless it’s amazing,you’re probably not going to try it again
because you’ve got something else that youlike or, you know, whatever,
but if you have been if you’re veryfamiliar with that brand and if they’ve
done a great job of marketing,so you have a whole host of emotional
content that goes along with that brand,whether or not you’ve ever tasted their
cookie, OK, because they’vedone their branding so well,
then even if that cookie’s OK,you’ll probably try it again because
there’s a whole host of emotional contentthat goes along with that brand,
which is why people spend millionsof dollars on branding and marketing.
So that marketing willcarry through a subpar cookie.
You can have a one off experienceand the marketing will carry you through.
So so
that’s not something you get with,
“Oh, this is my first exposureand my first my first taste.”
Right.
So take the time to buildthat relationship.
Take the time to
to build that history of reinforcement,
to become that reliable sourcefor recommendations, to become that,
“I can always go to her when I need
a laugh” or, you know,whatever the case may be.
So that then when you say “and by the way,
I have this product,” they’re goingto be like, “yeah, of course.
Yeah, we’re in.We’re in.”
OK,
so this was a lot of concepts.
There will be practical content.
But I wanted to start with thesefoundational things because this is stuff
that, again, is not obvious and not and isnot always presented in the easiest way.
And so so we’re going to take it in pieces
at a time so you can reliably buildon it and not feel overwhelmed.
But there is some homework.
So
any time you are
trying to see if something getsbetter, you have to track it.
So if I want to see if my marketing is
effective, I need some wayto know what it’s doing.
So I have to start writing numbers down.
Now, there are useful metrics,
things like how many books are selling,and there are vanity metrics that are just
numbers that just may or maynot have any real value.
Frequently you’ll see vanity metrics
floated around when somebody is tryingto get you to spend money with them.
So we will put — oh, I got a great one the other day.
They wanted me to advertise with them andthey’re like, “we will put your book 300 times —
We will tweet your book 300 timesa month to our 30,000 followers.”
I was like, OK, OK, hold on.Let’s look at this.
You’re going to tweetmy book 300 times a month.
That means you’re going to send ten tweetsa day just with a buy link to my book.
To your 30,000 followers.
Well, you have 30,000 followers and you’retweeting my book just 10 times a day.
And I know you’re doingthis for other people.
So how many sales tweets a day are yousending out? Are any of those 30000 followers
1) real? OK, 2) looking at those tweetswith an interest in purchasing a book?
Not a chance.
OK, completely useless numbers.
Even if those thirty thousand followersexist, it is a useless metric because
those are not peopleinterested in buying books.
They’re just gettingtweets thrown at their head.
So
Natalie says, “Today I learned marketing
books is like recalling a dogoff a running squirrel.”
Exactly.
I am building such a strong historyof reinforcement that when I say “and I
have this to offer,” the defaultanswer is, “of course, yes.
Why would I hesitate?”OK, that’s exactly.
Yes.OK, all right.
So useful metrics are things that, I can
see how many people are signing upfor my newsletter,
how many people are purchasing a bookwhen I do make it available.
These are things that will tell me if
my marketing is working. Vanity metrics,how many followers do I have? may be or
may be not useful to yourmarketing. So
don’t get hung up on — if you have 50,000
followers,but only three of them are actually
engaged with what you’re posting,those 50,000 followers
don’t mean anything, OK?
If you have 50 followers butevery time you post,
they are on it and they share and theyclick through and they react.
Those 50 are gold.All right.
So hopefully that makes sense.
So.
All right, so we’re going to doyou’re going to get a spreadsheet, Excel,
Google Sheets, whatever,whatever your spreadsheet thing is.
And I know writers and spreadsheetsdon’t get along.
Do not fear the spreadsheet.
Do not let the spreadsheet bully you.
Hey, we’re going to startwith easy use of spreadsheets.
We’re going to slowly ease in.
And you can you can desensitizeto the spreadsheet.
You will need it later.
But we’re starting with justthe training wheels of this spreadsheet.
Don’t let it bully you.
So what I want you to do isopen up your spreadsheet.
I’ve got my sheet.
I probably should have made a mock upto show you guys, but I’ve got
down, across the top is where it justhas the first day of each month.
So January 1st, February 1st,March 1st… Sorry, 2020 happened.
I momentarily forgot my calendar.
And that just goes across for years.
OK, so I started some years ago and it’s
just once a month across the topfor years. Down the left hand side
I have listed what I am tracking.
Now, what I am tracking today is differentthan what I started tracking.
So for example, I just recently added
for July of 2020my number of Twitch followers
and my number, in August,I added my number of Twitch subscribers.
Thank you very much,my new subscribers.
So it’s fine.You can add stuff as you go. Again,
this is not a kit that you haveto get done in an afternoon.
But I’m looking at things like totalnumber of book sales. How many people are
subscribed to my newsletter? Whatis the open rate on my newsletter?
Excuse me. Because that is a —
subscribers? maybea vanity metric. Open rate?
Those are people who actuallycare what I sent them.
All right.So that is
excuse me.That’s pretty important.
I want to track both of those.
People who follow me on Facebook,follow me on Twitter,
follow me on Instagram, subscribersversus — like on Twitch,
there’sthere’s people you can follow or you can
subscribe on Twitch, andthat kind of thing.
So I’m just startingto collect those numbers.
So the rule for this month isthere’s no judgment.
This is just data and this is
something that — OK, Kristi’s like”I’m still afraid of metrics.”
Okay, Kristi, I’m here.This is for you.
This is exactly, this is actually
a big thing that I tellmy behavior clients all the time.
When we start tracking data, I’m like,they’re just numbers.
It’s just data.
The numbers do not judge you, OK?
And you don’t have to give yournumbers to anybody else either.
It’s fine.The numbers do not judge you.
I just need to knowwhere I was and where I am.
So I know if I’m going in the right
direction or not, but none of that “goingin the right direction or not” is now.
Now we are just gettingthe snapshots to start.
So, so write down, you know, havewhat’s the next thing?
September 1st?
September 1st is our next first of the month.
And then I’m going to say how manyInstagram followers I have and then
September, October,November, December, January.
I’m going to log first of the month.
I’m going to put thatnumber down each time.
Now from month one to month two,I don’t care.
All right.Things are, numbers are going to go up,
Numbers are going to go down.I don’t care.
It’s like stepping on a scale
and you gained a poundor you lost a pound.
Nobody cares.It’s been 24 hours.
That just means like you drink coke,
you had a hot dog and, you know,you salt retained whatever.
It doesn’t matter.
What I’m looking for is trendsover six months.
Did that scale go up or down? Over sixmonths am I gaining newsletter
subscribers? Over six monthsam I adding subscribers?
You know, these are,this is what I’m interested in.
And if I see people are leaving, OK,I need to change what I’m doing there.
But I don’t worry from month to month, OK?
Oh, Kristie, oh, my gosh.
OK, Christie’s doing my best set upfor my future topic,
she says “I love math,but I have a weird fear of success.
Like, what if those numbers are good?”Oh, my gosh.
I thought it was going to be so weird
trying to pitch a sessionon the fear of success.
Thank you for that segue.Your check’s in the mail.
So in,
I don’t know what it is.
I’ve got a schedule, so I don’thave to remember these things.
But it might be next month.
It might be September.
Or October, it might be October,
but I have a — it’s on the schedule –on the fear of success and trying to,
you know, plan, plan a career,because what if, what if we make it?
And and, yeah, I thought it was going
to be a really weird sell becauseit sounds so weird to say that.
But that is a real thing, and it’s a realthing that oftentimes people don’t realize
that they’re sabotaging themselvesbecause it’s not a conscious fear.
It’s unconscious.So so thank you for bringing that up.
But here’s the good news.
The numbers are just numbers.
And this month they’re, you’re notcomparing them to anything right now.
You’re just putting them down.This is just your baseline.
So so get your Google sheets or yourExcel or whatever you want to use.
And I recommend, you know, just writingdown the you know, it doesn’t matter.
You can always filter or add.
You can always remove oradd more metrics as you go.
But start with, you know,
what are the followers and yourdifferent social media.
And you’re only going to worryabout a couple of social media.
I don’t check my Tumblr followersbecause I’m not engaged on Tumblr.
So it doesn’t matter as they’djust be vanity metrics at the best.
They’d be confusingto add in, kind of thing.
But the the platforms where you doactually focus, what are your followers
there? What are yoursubscribers to your newsletter?
Do you how many people are opening?
What’s your open percentage
on the newsletter? So, OK,no, you are not alone in this.
Christie, thanks for puttingthat in the chat.
I know that is that is absolutely a thing.
So OK.
So I hope that made sense.
We covered a lot of ground,but I really wanted it to be like,
here are the here are the basicpieces to start pulling together.
I don’t want you to try to work this up
in in you know, I’m going to sit downand have a complete platform in 24 hours.
No, that’s that’s difficult.
And there’s no reason to do that.
Give it give it time to grow organically
and it will be much moresustainable that way.
So.All right.
So quick recap.
This was our last weekthat was a little bit
randomized as far as topic goes.
So this was a businessof creativity topic.
And next week, being the first Tuesday
of the month is a businessof creativity topic.
So we’ll be up there — and actually hold on.
I have a schedule for this.
Are we there? OK,
so on the screen, hopefully you’re seeingthe official schedule and topics as we go.
And then on my website,
I actually have a calendar with allof the individual topics that are
maintained and you’ll see whatspecifically we’re discussing.
I have special guests booked,all kinds of fun stuff.
So you can you can check the
the actual website to seethe schedule for that.
I believe there’s a linkto it on the Twitch panel
here.
And then
I had something else I wasgoing to say, but it’s gone.
I don’t know.You know what?
I’ll just throw up sinceI’m here looking at this.
There we go.
If you are here and if you would like
to financially support this video channel,thank you very much.
You can do that with your Amazon Primeaccount for free by using your
Amazon Prime free Twitchsubscription here on this channel.
If you don’t have an Amazon Prime account
or if you’re using that forsomething else, that’s fine.
I’m here anyway.
If you’re catching this on YouTubeor it’s going to actually be syndicated
on a podcast as soon as Ifigure out a name for it
(speaking of branding issues),
then I have a Ko-Fi or just, you know,
enjoy it and share and dogood in the world.
That’s it.So, yeah.
OK, um.
I think that’s all of my notes,
so if you guys have any questions,now is the time to throw in the chat
and otherwise I’m going to wrapit up for this evening.
And I still see that I’m droppingsome frames, so I apologize.
I hope everything stayed pretty stable,
You were able to hear me.
And we’ll see
We’ll see how the newequipment does next week.
Hopefully it will be shiny and new.All right.
So I’ll get back to me here.
There we go.All right.
All right.So that’s what I’ve got for this evening.
Thank you guys very much for coming.
It was great to see you.
And
next week we will be doing —
Oh, that’s probably what I wanted to do —
Next week we’ll be doing somethingcalled Try Something New.
So you’ve put together allof your pieces and marketing.
Next, we’re going to talk about attemptingsomething new in marketing. Adventure!
So, OK,
OK.
Yeah, Kristie, we typically
here live on Tuesday evenings,
7:00 p.m. Eastern, but then about 48 hourslater, it goes up on YouTube for replay.
So that’s that’s how this usually works.
So, OK, thank you guys.
I’m officially calling it.Y’all have a lovely evening.
Take care.Bye.
