Book Business Bosses Podcast
Experience and learn about the latest releases, their back stories and writing tips from BK Royston Publishing and Royal Media and Publishing Authors as well as authors around the world who are now Book Business Bosses.
Book Business Bosses Podcast
Season 5 Episode 14
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Welcome to the Book Business Boss Show with your host, Dr. Julia Royston, helping you get your message to the masses, turn your words into wealth, and be a book business boss.
SPEAKER_01Well, hello, I'm Dr. Julia Royston, and welcome to another episode of the Book Business Boss Show, where I'm always seeking to help you get your message to the masses, turn your words into wealth, and be a book business boss. So we have been talking about that um attitude for business. We've been talking about a little bit about systems, and we'll get even more into systems in a minute. Um, and even further down the road, we've been talking about production, we've been talking about our headquarters, um, you know, uh, you know, and having that all set up. But once we have a lot of the back end set up, the biggest thing that I really want to switch gears to right now is marketing and promotions. What that means, we say those two words together back to back, you know, like peanut butter and jelly, you know, they just go together. But they do have uh two distinct roles that they play, you know, even though they go hand in hand, and even the definitions that I found really go hand in hand. Now, if you need help with anything that I've talked about so far in season five, always schedule a conversation with me. Anything I talk about today, schedule a conversation with me at talkwithroista.com. I'm always uh here and available. If we need to have a more intense paid uh session, I will let you know that and you can make that decision from there. But let's talk about where you are and what's going on, and then we can move forward from there. So today we're gonna be talking for a little while about marketing and promotions, um, at least the next two to three uh episodes, because I think it's so important. And um first off, let's define it. Marketing is defined as the activity or business or promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. Actually doing it, always doing it. Actually doing it and always doing it. And then that to market is what I want you to all the activities that it takes to bring a product or service to market. What it's gonna take to market, to get it there. The marketing is the activity of bringing something to market. Okay. So yeah, it talks about the graphics, yeah, how much is it, yeah, where we're gonna have it, what the platform is, what the distribution outlet, how we're gonna get it there, uh, what it's gonna take to actually not only produce the product, but deliver the product, who's the audience? Let's find them. Who are they? That's the bringing it to market. The promotion is to define the public, public citizen, publicizing, that's the word I'm gonna use of a product, organization, and venture so as to increase sales or public awareness. Could be private, small group, email list, audience, only audience, or private sale, or it could be public, it could be national. It's always international if it's on a big uh platform. And I want the the short for promotion is the push. The push, the drive, the push. So getting it to market is still an ongoing thing, revision. Because if that platform doesn't work, if that system distribution closes out, shuts down, or whatever, fine. That's you're always it. If it's not, I'm doing it my local market, I want to bring it to regional market, statewide, regional, and then national and then international market. So that's an ongoing process, but the push is forever. If you have a product, I don't care if it gets one book, five books, ten books, you start selling dolls and and bookmarks and t-shirts and hats and whatever. That's the you're always gonna be pushing because it's an evergreen product. It does not stale like bread and get old. And so a lot of people say, Oh, I only sold, okay, the first launch out, only sold 50 books and nine billion people on the print. We got 8 billion plus, you know, we got a long way to go to get to 9 billion people on the planet because you got it to market. You sold 50, yay! Whether that's 50 of your friends, 50 of your family members locally at a local farmer's market. How have you sold it? You got the rest of the world to go. This is where the push comes in. This is where the drive comes in. This is where everything, all your activities should be driving traffic to you, driving traffic to the message you have. You first, the message that you have, and then the product and services that you offer. In that order, because they all go together today. In 2026 and beyond, whenever you listen to this replay, they all go together. You can't be left out hiding somewhere under the table, and it's not who you are and what you're about, even before what you sell, what you're about. What is the theme of who you are? What is the the message that you bring? You show up. What is supposed to happen? Is it depression or is it happiness? Is it hope? Is it information? Is it tools? Will it help me solve a problem? Uh answer a question. When you show up, that should be happening. You know, there are certain places that I go, especially when there's a lot of new authors and it's a book fair, and I've come for years, they know when I come in, they go, okay, she sold a whole lot of books, she's done a whole lot of things, she's done right exactly. See how that works? So then it's what books does she have to help us? What services do you provide? What can you help me do? Okay. So marketing is to market. What's it gonna take me to get to market? Number two, promotion. That's the push. And everything you do should be pushing to that. Now, first off, you gotta do it. You gotta do it. Okay. All right, so today is all about I'm I'm trying to get you mentally because you your mind can influence what you do. And then getting the tools and resources will help that. But you gotta get your your mindset right first, and then you can get your activities to support that. But you can have all the activities. I can give you all the resources, I can give you all the tools, I can give you all the books, I can give you all the videos, I can give you all of that. But if you don't have your mind made up to move forward, you'll just have tools and resources and videos and ebooks and no activity. All right, number one, uh, after you know what the definition is, know that it's a journey, not a sprint. It's a journey. It is it is a journey. Me leaving Louisville, Kentucky and going to Nashville, I we can be there in about two and a half hours. Even if we stop for breakfast, we can be there in about three, three and a half hours. But if I said we're driving to California from Louisville, Kentucky, that's days. That's stops, that's that's something you would take off for a month to do because it's gonna take you about a week to get out there and a week to get back. And hopefully you're gonna have two or three weeks in the middle. So that might be a two years, two two years, two-month stint. So you can go slow, sell as you go. That's a journey, that's a whole travel vlog, and that's an experience. Getting on a plane and flying from Louisville to St. Louis, you can get there about 30, 45 minutes because it's not that far on a plane. But if you're talking about going to Australia, that's gonna take you days. That's a journey, not a sprint, because you got a fur, uh, my granddaddy said you got a fur piece to go. So knowing that this whole process of marketing your promotions is ongoing. It's not uh short that you're gonna have stops along the way, but it's not it's just who we're gonna get in front of. How how how how many more of these nine billion people are we gonna get to the planet? So, first off, it's a journey, not a sprint. So, number two, you realize it's a journey, not a sprint. So, number two, never there are never any sales guarantees, but I guarantee you that you will sell more when you promote the push. That's gonna be our shortcut cut, the push. You you always sell more when you push. Now, there's never any guarantee how many more you're gonna sell. And I'd be lying if I sat here and said, Oh, I can guarantee you, I can't guarantee you nothing. And anybody sells you tells you that is lying. Because you can't tell me how many. You you don't know. Because even when I was uh doing more singing and sold CDs, um, you know, I've gone to churches that had thousands in it and sold nothing. And I've gone to churches that there was only 75 people there and I sold 50. Well, uh, you know, when you in 75 that includes the babies and the children and everything. So pretty much everybody got something I had. Well, I couldn't have sold to any more in that room at that point because there weren't no more people to sell it to. And I sold out. So therefore, there's never any sales guarantees that I guarantee that you won't sell if you don't push, if you don't promote. Next, you gotta be consistent, consistent, and consistent. Consistent, consistent, consistent. So uh I'm gonna interject this here. Um I've I've seen it recently, you know. Um when I'm recording this at that time of year, which is all that time of all times of the year, I'm always looking for either ideas, inspiration, information um from people who sell more, who have bigger platforms. I'm following people. I've been out a long time, but it doesn't matter. I'm always figuring out who's out there and what I can learn from them. I don't want to be um the person with the most experience in the room. I don't want to be the person who's done the most in the room. I want to get in some rooms where I don't know nothing. I got my pen and paper out. I love that. I enjoy it. And um this gentleman was uh in a room that looked like I don't know, you can't tell by the video angles, but it was uh probably no more, maybe a hundred, probably was an uh invite only, who knows? But um let's just do a whole number. I don't know how many because I wasn't there, but let's just say 50 people in a room. And he said, How many of you found have found me in the last 90 days? And it wasn't many hands that went up. And he said, How many of you have found me within the last six months? It wasn't but a few more hands. When I say few, I mean less than five. So the first thing was like three to five hands went up. Second was three to five hands went up. So that's still 40 people left, right? If you're doing the math and you're doing the numbers as I'm talking. When he said, How many of you have known me, dealt with me, seen me, bought for me with uh two years or more? And that was everybody else in the room. He said, That's a primary, it was a visual for me. I knew it. My friends, we had talked about it, the sales cycle, how long it is. It's different than um um um commercial disposable goods like jewelry and clothes and stuff like that, food and all that. That's immediate. People buy on impulse, but service industry and products that we sell, the the um sales cycle could be longer. It could be months, it could be years before they push the button. Very rarely is somebody ready to buy or sign the contract the same day they cock to me. They at least got to talk to somebody else, think about it, pray about it, save for it, whatever they're gonna do. His was the same way. He said, So you got to understand that you have to remain consistent so when the people are ready, and this wasn't the only person, another person said the same thing. Uh, you have to remain consistent so that when the person is ready to buy or ready to do the work or ready to have the product produced or the service rendered, they know you're still the person out there who does it. Now, I know that as much as I am online for people to uh say, Do you still publish? That means you haven't been online to see me because I've been out there. When they say, Do I? I just like, okay, is uh is chocolate sweet? I know there's bitter chocolate, but I'm like, it's sweet. Come on, girl. Do I still what? Uh and I say, Of course I do. How can I help you? But I'm looking at that text going, what the world? But anyway, so consistency. And then you gotta be relentless and strategic. Relentless is to me, in my definition, I didn't ask nobody, but relentless to me means I'm okay with the no. I'm gonna keep going until I get to the yes. I'm gonna be consistent. I can't, I I can't make you, but you I'm gonna keep showing up. Hey, hey, and hey, and I'm relentless, I'm okay with the no. I keep moving till I get the yes, and I'm strategic because I'm not gonna ask everybody, just like some people who jump in my DMs on LinkedIn, and I'm like, Did you look at my profile? Do you see what I do? You just was throwing something out there to see what would stick. I get it, I understand. It was a desperate act, but I'm usually pretty strategic. I, you know, I I I get it if you don't want what I have, but I know that up front. Or you've indicated in some way, small, shape, or form that you thought about it one time, then I'm gonna come on in. But if you say, Oh, I don't even like to read, oh no, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not no, thank you. Thank you for the information, but we keep moving till we do get to the person who writes secretly and in notebooks. We do keep going. So, and then next we need analysis. Once we, you know, uh put something out there, push something out there, how did it work? Or did you just not push hard enough? Did you only post one time or only talked about it in certain settings and you don't talk about that, or you don't do something else with that? Yeah, just all depends. You have the analysis, and and then you determine what you will repeat and what you won't repeat. We're gonna take a break right here, we'll be back with more. Adapting to the digital online and virtual space has been a seamless transition for us at BK Royston Publishing, Royal Media and Publishing, and the Book Business Boss Consulting. With the longstanding presence in ebooks, websites, and virtual coaching and events, we've embraced the increasing prevalence of these platforms. While some still hesitate to fully engage in the virtual realm, we remain committed to encouraging and supporting this shift. Join us in elevating your business and our business with the book, business in the digital online and virtual space by Julia A. Royston. Available now at Royston Royal Bookstore.com. That's Royston Royal Bookstore.com. And we're back. You're listening to the book business boss show with Julia Royston. And uh we're talking about marketing and promotion. Now I gotta get your head right, I gotta get your mind right, I gotta uh have you with the as they say, the right attitude to be the right attitude to be successful before we even go down this journey. Uh we realize and define marketing as all the dictionary thing, but it's what it's gonna take to get it to market. And then the push, the push, the drive, the push, the drive. We've talked about journey is not a sprint, and uh we've got to figure out what we're gonna uh repeat after we analyze, after we're consistent, relentless, strategic, what we're gonna analyze, and then we got to determine what we will repeat and what we won't repeat. I often um the one of the beauties of having somebody uh from start to finish or day one, like I do in Brian Royston, which I'm thankful for every day, um, is that you know he's looking at things from a different angle, different perspective than I am, and I'm looking at it from a different angle and perspective, and then we bring both of our perspectives together to determine what happened and what didn't happen. Um, and sometimes he's more positive than I am, sometimes I'm more negative than he is. I'm not doing that again. Well, I don't know, honey. Think about whatever. So it it's beautiful to be able to do that um at an event uh for um business or a venture or a project because I'm always good in the front end. Let's jump in. But when it doesn't quite work out so good, I'm as they say once bitten twice shy. I'm just not I'm hesitant. So um, so afterward consistent, realize statistically that people need 14 to 20 touches, access, visuals to see you, to be even to know what you do and who you are. So when you pose and you say, didn't nobody say no? Well, they might not have seen it, boo. The algorithm and moving stuff around and shuffling with the technology and all that doesn't back in, they might even not even see it. That's where that consistency and that relentlessness comes in that you got to keep moving, that you got to keep going. And so, therefore, you know, if you only post one time and no reaction, and you don't have an audience or an email list sitting there waiting on what your next thing is, or a list that already says now the next time you go around with such and such an ABC, I'm in, X, Y, Z, I'm in, then you know, it it could be no response, it could be dead air, it could be uh crickets, as the kids say. And then you always have to understand um that you are number one, and what you do and what you offer is number two and number three. Let me say that again. You are number one, so you attract it's it's about you as the person. And I mean, you you you know, everybody doesn't work with me, everybody doesn't work with the other person, but there's an audience out there for me. And I I pray every day, God, bring people to me that I'm supposed to work with. And you know, I you know, I may want to work with more or whatever, different or whatever, but God, bring me the people I'm supposed to have, who who you design and purpose for me to work with. Bring them to me. And sometimes I realize that even if I try to, even if I thought about referring them, they some people ain't gonna go. Oh no, we only work with you. And then I know that they're assigned to me. That's more of a spiritual thing than even business and sales. They're assigned to me to work with me because I speak their language, I move at their pace. Um, I'm honest in the way I move. And if they decide to do something else, they will. If they decide to pay somebody else, they will. But sometimes you got to remember it's you. And therefore, if your business is hinging on how you behave and how you talk and how you move, then hopefully it would allow you to do differently. Because even if you're good at what you do, but you're nasty and your personality is not attractive, or you're very much an introvert, which a lot of authors are, and business owners are. Here is the product, you want it or you don't. Well, no, that don't necessarily mean that. Because the marketplace is so crowded, not just with authors, but other people doing what you do, even on the same level, even the same quality. That they got they got they got options, they got selection, they got right. So therefore, you know, you have to decide you know, Lord, is it I, or is it the product, or is it the really the client? Is the price? Is it there's a lot of things considered? You gotta remember they're coming because of you. So you're not the other person who wants to be an introvert and just show the product and hide themselves. Uh remember, it's you. You're the author, your name is still on the front. Your name will still be at the registered agent or you know, the person who produced it, intellectual property. If something pops off and somebody wants to buy a million of them, you definitely want to be. That's mine. Yeah, well, you gotta do that. That's mine, whether it's one or a million, huh? And so therefore, it has to be about you, the book, your offer has to be second. Now, as far as I'm concerned, my when I started this, the game came to me. So it's different. Me helping somebody move from books to business because when I first started, God said it's time to do this, and I obeyed him. So it's different for me because I was obeying God. He told me specifically, and I had no idea what all he intended. I just obeyed God and wrote the first book. I had been writing, but I hadn't done nothing else with it. And he said, uh, after a year married to Brian in 2006, he said, 2007, okay, now it's time to put the book together. And I'm like, what book? He said, the ones in them, and I asked him exactly like I just said it. What book? He said, those those writings you've been having in the notebook. Type them up. He didn't even give me the next steps. He just said it's time to do that first. Do that first, and then I'll tell you the next step. And then I met somebody and she told me the next step, and then the next step. And then after that step, I was like, nope, don't want to do that again. I'm gonna have my own table. I'm gonna have my own company. And that was 2008. So right now, sky's the limit. I obeyed. I'm figuring it out more and more about to market. I'm figuring out more and more and more how to push. Sky's the limit. I hope that helps you today. We got our marketing and promotion hat. We realize everything it's gonna take to get it to market, and we got more to learn about the push. Until next time, I'm Dr. Julia Royston. Be blessed. Have a great day. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_00You have been listening to the Book Business Boss Show with your host, Dr. Julia Royston. For more information, visit www.bookbusinessboss.com. That's bookbusinessboss.com. So you can get your message to the masses, turn your words into wealth, and be a book business boss.
SPEAKER_01Being a business owner is not for the faint of heart. Easily discovered or want to quit at the slightest problem or issue. On the other hand, there is not a business owner, entrepreneur, non-profit director, ministry leader, or author that has not wanted to pause down or even quit. It is human nature. But if you could just take one more step, if you could fix that one problem, if you could find a friend that you are a coach to talk to about the situation, it could point you in the right direction. Or be the answer you need to keep moving. There are three things that I want this book to encourage you to do. Watch your mindset and don't make some mindset.com. At JuliaVoicStore.com.