How to Understand the Publishing Industry for Authors

And I'm so excited for our guests today, because we just learned where you're literally right down the road from each other, which is so fun, because I talked to so many people that are not even in the United States on business unveiled. And we both are from here and grew up here. And we both have moved away and move back. So it's just exciting to talk to like a local Southern nashvillian. And I'm so excited. So welcome to the show. And y'all I just have to tell you, so when I saw her name, and like she has the coolest name ever. Like, I can't even imagine if like from a branding perspective, like I would come up with a rap song
with why haven't I done? That's a great idea.
I'm like, and then I'm like, Hey, Ray, and she's like,
like Leah like Raya.
Really? Yeah. Ria. Leah. Yeah, Maria,
like Leah. And so it's but it's like from a branding perspective, like coming up. So one of the guys I talked to today, his name is Klaus, but everyone calls him Claus. He's big beard. And so they call him Santa Claus. And he's like, my name is Klaus like mouse. Yeah. And he, I mean, it's like you almost had are getting your brain.
I've actually thought about re spelling My name phonetically. So people understand that's just it's just gonna be R e u h, like RIA Frey. Ria,
Rhea. Rhea. And then is your last name your married name?
No, that's actually my it's like my author name. So it's my main show. And then my married name is Holguin, which is really old being it's a Spanish. You can imagine like, I'm just screwed, like, no matter way. Yeah, no one gets any of my names. Correct. But that's Oh my gosh,
well, I feel like I have a pretty easy name. But somehow, someway, people misspell profit. They're like, Is that your real last name? I'm like, yeah, there's two F's and two T's not one F and one T. And if it was a brand new thing, I would spell it the right way. Yeah. It means money. No, like, you know that it was a married name. ex husband does not marry him. But it's just funny how people, like don't know how to pronounce. It's like, you look at it, and then you put the southern drawl into it. Yeah. And then it's like, even worse. So anyway, welcome to Business unveiled. Here, because what you talk about and what you do is so neat. For anyone that is listening or watching this, like, I feel like if you own a business, or you are a personal brand, which every single person in the world is literally a walking personal brand. It's just up to you if you want to express it or not. But getting people's voices out there and getting people heard so many people, they want to write a book, or they want to do content, or they want to do YouTube podcast, and then turn it into a book. And what I love about you is you moved away, you came back, you were in corporate America. And then you started this business because it was a side hustle and passion. But before we jump into that, share with our listeners and viewers, what you did before you jumped in to the whole world of starting your business and launching it during the pandemic, you guys. Yeah, and then like, helping people like get their voice like into an actual book. And there's a lot of different ways to do it. So I'd love for you to share your background. Yeah, so
actually, I've never been in corporate America. I have never worked a nine to five job in my life. And that is very, so I'm a total creative at heart. I went to school for creative writing in Chicago minored in journalism in psychology, and then I actually wrote a novel that got published when I was 22. And it was a disaster. I was in such a rush. To get published, I wanted to be like my professors and, you know, have a book out there that I knew nothing about the business, I knew nothing about getting paid. I knew nothing about what it meant to be an author and 80% of all people want to write a book. But so few of us know what it means to become an author. We're thrust into this world and we're just so happy to be picked. And we're, we go in blind, we go in completely blind. So I had this experience that was so scarring as a fiction writer that I walked away from fiction for a decade, and I pivoted to nonfiction. So as much as I love writing, I've also always been into health and wellness. I was a personal trainer for 15 years, I was a nutritionist, I co owned a gym, and I would do a bunch of like side gigs, like editorial gigs, I would do freelance gigs for corporations. But I know myself and like I just I'm like, Nope, I can't, I can't be in corporate America, I'm a true creative. So I dabbled in all aspects of writing all aspects of the industry. And I ended up getting four nonfiction books traditionally published, and I realized, like, okay, I can get published no problem. But I didn't understand what a personal brand was, or building an author platform, and how you needed that to translate to sales. Because unfortunately, writers can't just be writers, we have to be social media wizards and branding experts, and sales people. And so book by book I kept learning, learning, learning, learning, and fast for long story short, I was working three jobs. At the end of like, 2016, and I was desperate to write a novel. Again, I wanted to return to my first love, which was fiction. And I was in an airport, I saw this mother daughter having a horrific exchange, I got an idea for this book, I went home, I quit two of my jobs. That very week, I gave myself eight weeks to write a novel, I wrote it in four weeks, got an agent, the book went to auction got a movie deal, and like my life blew up seemingly, overnight, it was insane. I ended up with a four book deal by one of the big five, which is now the big four publishers, and everything seemed to be like, amazing, like, this is just going to be the most amazing experience. And the first book was It was great. But what I learned book by book, being in the industry and putting out a book a year, is what I realized is authors are completely in the dark. We don't know, again, we just don't know what we don't know. So you're entering it's the only profession you enter into where you don't know how that works. You really don't understand about money. No one talks about it. No one talks about what questions to ask no one talks about what's going to be expected of you. So I started creating this side hustle to help authors get published to write their nonfiction book proposals to edit their books to pitch to agents and or editors. And people started getting deals and like this side hustle scale to six figures, and its first year and then it did it again in its second year. And I was like, man, there's really something here. So a friend of mine and I started a podcast called the right way podcast, where we just demystify the publishing industry. And we were like, we should turn this, let's do this, let's turn this into a business. So at the top of 2020, my husband quit his comfy, six figure corporate gig and was like, I'm going to go all in with you guys. I'm going to be the creative director. And we started right way, which really does aim to put authors first to help them become their own best advocates to pick their publication path and get their work out there. And so we did this in January 2020. And then the pandemic hit, and I was like, we, we have ruined our lives, like we're gonna have to sell our house. But in fact, the opposite happened. I feel like everyone finally realize if they wanted to write a book, this was the time to do it. And if they were gonna do it, they better do it. So within the last year, yeah, we've had almost 45 clients 30 Plus have landed agents, and top book deals. We've had six figure book deals we've had best selling authors, but then we've had authors who decided to Self Publish and have like carved out their own path which has been so incredible and so we just serve is helping people navigate this insane Lee frustrating industry and get their work out there in a way that feels Good to them. That was long story.
No, but I love it. And what's super important is that you all help both people. And like, Y'all before we started recording, like I asked you this, you know, because some companies just do book deals. And then some companies focus on self publish. And we've had a lot of clients that they have online courses and things that we'll build out. And then we do the content to help support organic content to help, you know, get leads in for the courses. And then usually, the next thing is like, Oh, now I have a course now I want to make it a book or the opposite happened, you know, or they have a book, they want to make a course. And so but the the big thing to that is also missing is like, how to be the, like you said, the social media wizard and how to be the marketer. And so fit and doing the outline and selling the idea, and then getting it published, and then finishing it, and then getting it on Amazon like not that anybody can do it. But like, you know, there is a better way with guidance like high, hiring a professional like yourself, you have a lot better chances of like, your book doing well when you have professional people telling you how to do it. And then but the marketing piece of it, too. I think even my little brother who has crazy stories of cases when he used to work undercover for the DA, and he works on this case, and he did this book, I'm like, I'm just telling you, the book is not going to make you a million dollars, right. It's a great lead magnet and a great way to get you speaking opportunities and podcasting opportunities. But it takes consistency. And you have to constantly let people know about it. It's almost like even if you go on like a virtual book tour, and you take a day a week, or whatever it is, I don't know what you guys advise your clients. But you know, in going through this myself, and then watching other clients, I'm like, it's you, you should be a published author, because you're going to get better opportunities from it, and to tell your story. But if you just get the book done, and you do nothing with it, and you don't do speaking, or podcasts, you're not going to sell anything. And it's like, but he had to see it for himself. And he's like, and then he has company got really busy with the pandemic. And then he you know, it's just sitting in boxes. And some like, we need to do a proper, like book launch. And like, you know, so we'll do parties, and these book launch parties, and there's so much fun, but it's like you got to tell people about it. So what's like the first thing because I know somebody listening or watching probably a lot of people, they want to do a book. So what's the first thing to even before we like, get into the marketing of it? What do you consider a successful proposal? And this is just putting it together? Yeah, what is successful versus this is not going to work? Like what are some tips
100%? First of all, you got to decide, yeah, like what you were writing and a lot of people like I could write a book. But then when we go through the process, it's like, can you write 200 250 pages about Zed subject, and the thing to realize there's a very different protocol for fiction versus nonfiction. So 90% of our businesses, nonfiction, and your book, like you were saying, it really is a tool to help spread your message. It's not the entire message. And it's also something that you can promote forever, and you can sell forever. So in the traditional publishing world, you know, they go hard and promote your book for two weeks, maybe six weeks if you're lucky. And they move on. So with us and I know we'll talk about marketing, but we actually in our proposals create a year long marketing campaign based on the sales cycle of a book. So we start six months pre launch, all the way to six months post launch. But what I love because I'm so old school, I don't like social media, I want to just like go back to flip phones and handwritten letters. And come on today. I mean, so much so but what where we start with authors is figuring out what you really love to do when it comes to marketing and then ditching the rest and creating a marketing strategy that feels really good to you. But first things first was figuring out like, do I have a sellable idea? When people come to us, they first fill out a very detailed intake form. I want to know how much they thought about their book, who their competitors are, who their readership is. And these are the things that you should be thinking about, not just like, what your books about, it's really more about what problem your book is trying to solve, how you are going to solve it and who you're selling. holding it for. And that's really where we start. And before anyone ever engages in a book proposal, we get into the big why, why do you want to book because sometimes traditional publishing is not the path. traditional publishing can take 12 to 24 months for your book to come out, they are going to take, you know, they have the rights to your material, you don't often get as much money on the back end as you would with self publishing. So we go through all of that stuff. And then if someone really wants to engage, we build out an extremely robust book proposal that entails so many different pieces and parts, the overview, the audience, your comp, titles, author, bio marketing, strategy, Chapter breakdown, and three sample chapters. So by the end of it, it is 100 page, usually sales tool that you will use to sell your book. And that's the difference is when we're engaging in this, it's not your book, this is the tool to try to land an agent that will then try to land an editor who will actually buy your book. So when we're going through that process, we're really really diving into the strategy of what your book will become. But whether you're self publishing or not, I always say for people to dive into a proposal because I see it all the time I get clients, and they'll be like, I've written a book, ready to go ready to publish. And then we dive in. I'm like this, there is no sellable hook here, there is no you don't even know who you're writing for yet. So starting, we're all in such a rush to get our work out there. But when you create a book proposal, it actually is twofold. Its guest can sell your book, but it's also a content strategy for content that you can then take and do podcasts, you can do webinars, you can do digital courses, you can do ebooks, you can create all these lead gen magnets for a bigger purpose. So that's what we first start with, before we ever get to any of the work is I want to get to know the author, I want to get to know their goals and and really help support them in a way that feels good. And it's not this like romanticized version of how it's going to be to be an author, I'm going to sell a million copies like that can happen. But we got to figure out like what path is right to get you there in the first place.
And it's not gonna happen by accident. When
you talk to most New York Times bestselling authors, it's so frustrating. I've researched I do so much like research on like gender disparity work and this industry and just you know, how people hit it big, every single person I've talked to has been timing and luck, or they bought their way onto the list. It's not crazy. Like, well, that's not a strategy. Now,
I do hear a lot of people say that they bought their way, which can you so can you give us a little? For people who don't know what they don't know, this was me a few years ago, I'm like, What do you mean, he bought your way. Best Selling top, the Yeah.
Becoming a best seller. So that is that is the, you know, crown jewel of being published. If you're not a best selling author, then why even try, we are so results focused, which drives me nuts as well. So to be a best seller today could mean so many different things. So there's Amazon best seller, and that's actually, you know, it doesn't really mean what it used to mean. But there are all different kinds of strategies you can use to get you to number one in your category with certain ads and certain, you know, placements or companies that do that you can do that yourself drop prices, there's something called BookBub, you can drop your your book down to 199 or 99 cents, sell 10,000 copies in a day and become a best seller. So there's that strategy. And then you have other lists, like the list that I love or USA Today, you know, Wall Street Journal, where you can become best selling authors, you sell 7000 books in a week, sometimes 3000 books in the first week, and you can organically become a best selling author. Now there are ways and people strategies to buy your way onto that list. So you would you know, purchase a certain amount of books that goes towards total sales. It's it there's a crazy strategy, but people do that all the time for the New York Times, and it can cost anywhere from like $40,000 up. And so when I first became an author, my editor was like don't even think about the times. It is such an elitist list and it is so hard to find crack, but then I know authors who've organically made their way onto that list. But if that is why you were doing this to hit a list to get noticed by, you know, so and so like get picked by Oprah or get picked by Reese's book club or to, you know, whatever it is, I will say like those moments are so fleeting. And if you are going to write now if you're nonfiction, you're often not a writer, you're usually a leader, an expert in your space, focus on the work and use the book as a tool and don't focus so much on that end result because it comes and goes, and then it's on to the next shiny thing. And there is I always say that, like, there is no there there, there's no like, spot where you're like, well, now I've achieved it. So I'm good. It just doesn't work like that. So I think when you decide to really learn and figure out what works and what doesn't, and what really, you had a spike in sales this week, like what caused that. And that's the single biggest thing, like so many authors don't check their numbers, I'll say there's a thing called Amazon Author Central, where you can log in, you can check your sales every week, I ask my clients or authors all the time, how'd you do this week? And like, I don't know, I didn't look, I don't want to know. And you have to know, you have to know your numbers. If you are in business, and you just like, because it is a business, your book is product, this is a business. So you have to know everything about it. And so many people are just like, behind that curtain. Like I don't want to know, don't tell me, I'll just I'll just guess. And then your career doesn't last very long. So knowing all the information, knowing your goals, understanding your big why, and why you're doing this in the first place. It's just a better foundation to build from I think.
Yeah, and can you also elaborate a little bit on the because there is a huge difference. I mean, even I feel like there's even more of a difference between like, nonfiction and fiction yet true. Not true, whatever. But specifically, like the people that we work with, they are experts. Yep. And so a challenge that I see, even with some of the myself like, from a productivity perspective, it's like, I just want to be cut and dry, tell you what it is how to do it. But I've been coached over the years that you really have to tell a story with that. And you really have to talk about how it's impacted some other businesses or other people or their clients or like, what is the emotion with that? So can you talk a little bit about because there's a lot of experts that that watch and listen to podcasts, I'm friends with a lot of them. And your book really isn't gonna sell if and again, this is from personal experience. Yeah. Where can you talk about like in the expert space, how important it is to like, be human? And is there a great just mindset going into it? Like if they want to write a book, and they are an expert? Like, what's the mindset that they have to have?
Yeah, I mean, I think that really goes into the readership. Like when we get into the audience segment, knowing who you're writing for is like rule number one. And we don't just say like, entrepreneurs or moms who are looking to build businesses, we get hyper specific, we actually build out a sketch of like, their pain points and their triggers and what they're looking for and what thought leaders they're following, what publications they're reading, what podcasts are listening to what social media channels they're on. So you start to do that deep dive and understand like, This is who you're writing for. And then in the competitive title section, a tip that I always tell people to do to really get into figuring out like, what how do I want to write like, what do I want this to sound like? You look at five competitive titles, and we do that work for our clients. But when you go on to say Amazon and you're looking at this title, go to the one star reviews and see what people didn't like about the book. Did they not connect to the voice the tone the contents, like what are they missing in this type of book that maybe you could offer? So we do a lot of that due diligence and research ahead of time I will say with nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, tends to sell better than just like yeah, a big like, dry boring, like x y&z You want to tell a story and you really want to connect with people. So another great tip is to figure out what you love to read write a book that is Similar to what you love to read. For fiction writers, this often works really well. Same thing for nonfiction writers, like think about those books that you're just like so drawn to, and figure out like, what your voice is, what is different about you? Why are you the only person on earth who could tell this story. And again, that's why the proposal is so awesome, because we talk a lot about like voice and tone. And if someone wants their book to be humorous, or inspirational or serious, we take that tone throughout the entire proposal. So when we get to the sample chapters, the agent or editor will know what to expect. And it's a really fun playground where you can try on different, like, different tones and different styles. But that's why that process is there. So you can kind of figure out, like what feels natural, because most people are not, most experts are not writers. And so a lot of people will end up, they'll hire us to end up ghost writing their book, or CO writing their book or giving it a heavy edit, and that's okay, it's about getting the message out there. You don't have to be the most like amazing, prolific writer, you just have to get clear on your message and what it is you're trying to say.
I love it. And, and everything that you're saying is everything about marketing. Like, I know, you're like the book space, but everything you're saying like, anytime we create a course, it's like the one person you're creating the course for, and we name them. And it's like, do they have kids and dogs and like super specific. But it changes the mindset, like when you understand the psychographics. And you understand who you're talking to, and, and some people who is exactly what you said a few minutes ago, like you just want to hurry up and get it done. Yes, that doesn't work. So then you've wasted a bunch of time, which your time is priceless, and precious, and you can't get it back. And for some people, it's not even about the money as it is just to finish a goal that they had for themselves to just to do it or like a memoir for their kids or their grandkids that don't exist yet. Maybe you know, it just everyone's goal is different. So I know that you talked a lot about like, things that you wish maybe that you would have known like going into this because it is kind of like, you know, it's not like you put on your goggles and you get imperfect waters. And it's like, everything is clear. It's like so foggy. And sometimes like you can't see anything really you don't know, you don't know. So if there's things that are like one thing that you want people to know, before starting to write, what would that one thing be?
I think one one giant misconception that I had and everybody has is you think if you get a book deal, that number one, everything is going to be different, which it's not that the publisher is really going to have a hand in selling your books, you will end up selling every copy of your book. Regardless if you're self publishing, hybrid publishing, or traditional publishing, and knowing that going in like yeah, you might have a great team around you, but you are responsible for moving copies of that book. And one thing I think to help people realize that so a publisher is not selling to a reader, they're selling to the bookstores to the retailers, like they're basically like your printing press. And then you are talking specifically to the reader. And what the author often does is they start with a book, and then they try to reach the reader, you need to be reaching your reader and knowing who your reader is ahead of time before you ever have a product to sell. And I think that's a great place to start. It's when I you know was coming back onto the scene is a no name fiction writer. My book was coming out in 2018, I got the book deal in 2017. I decided like, you know, most social media makes me want to go live. But I was like, okay, Instagram, that's one place that I can go that doesn't make me want to throw up. So I'm gonna figure out who my readers are, and start connecting with them start sharing other books start, you know, like just having an organic conversation in one place that felt really good to me. And so by the time I did have something to share, it was great and that's another thing I think a lot of authors should do. If they're thinking about writing a book, get your following your you know, whatever you want to call it involved with every single step, show them what it is like to have that self doubt to try to figure out what publication path you're taking, like take them on A journey with you because this is a universal thing. People want to write a book. So if you share in that, they're gonna feel like they have a stake in your success, and will more likely want to follow you along the way. Yeah,
so that's so true. And the thing like, I'm totally with you, when it comes to social media, it's like, when I started my first business 20 something years ago, it didn't exist. None of this existed, like, I'm right. Like, well, here's the thing. So I think that there's so much negativity. And just around social media, like even, I mean, my little sister has four kids. And it's like, you know, apps and parent lockdown and all of this, but like, I have seen some of the opportunities and like the connections, being able to connect with people, you know, on social has been amazing. And I know for a lot of people during the pandemic, when they, they had no audience, they had nothing. And if you look at it the right way, and I only do this because like, my whole backgrounds in psychology, and a lot of when I worked in mental hospital, a lot of people, I mean, they were suicidal. And so if it can be used, like in a positive way, where a lot of people got on Tik Tok, and they grew, they were depressed, they were about to commit suicide, but they happened to get on the app. And I mean, there's people that openly talk about it now. And they found a community and they were just being silly, like, they didn't realize exactly what you're saying that you can, you can build relationships and have conversations with people on social media that are real, and authentic. Now, there are trolls, and there are assholes out there. I mean, the more you grow, you're going to get that. But it's like if you focus on the positive part of it, and then you can monetize it, and you can make money at it. But it would just with anything, like any job that you work 40 hours a week, if you're creating content, building a community and involving people and taking them on a journey, it can turn into a full time job, and it has turned into a full time job for some of our clients. But you've got to make the time to do it. And so when people say, and and like I'm a lot around a lot of parents that have younger kids, they're like, I hate F and social media. And then, and it's like, well, if there are classes where you can teach your kids like how to save for their college fund. And but there's so much the media focuses on the negative, negative negative, where, like, I'm sure you guys do strategies like marketing strategies. And I feel like with the right strategy, you can reach so many more people worldwide, like with your book, but then, you know, there is the negativity around it. And so do you guys come up with like, a social strategy? And do you recommend if someone wants to write a book, to if they have no community at all? I think what you're saying what you're just saying is that build the community first, even in you can have five people it can be called people meeting people, but build start building that. And then like you said, ask them pull them. I mean, there's free tools out there, your time is not free. But instead all these platforms have free tools now where you can pull people, but what do you think is holding people back from creating that that community? Do you think people are afraid that what they want in their head versus the feedback their community they're building is giving it's not aligned? And then that may slow them down? Do you think that that is why people don't want to do that first?
I mean, I think I'm the wrong person to ask because I have so many opinions about this. But I'm like, I don't think we have to use social media. And like 10 years ago, 15 years ago, in my industry, you didn't need any of that. Guess what people bought books and people were spending the average person spending four to six hours on their phone every single day. It is taking away from relationships, it is contributing to mental like I mean, I know that it's been great to like connect with people but if you really dig deep like it is it can be a very dangerous tool and it's always say like weapons of mass distraction because we are constantly distracted. We were never meant to connect with 10,000 people 100,000 people on a daily basis. consuming so much information. So what if people want to want to write a book and want to publish a book traditionally, in the nonfiction space, not fiction, fiction is different. But nonfiction, the author platform is everything. And it's the single biggest reason I hear why people don't get published, I had this amazing client, he has over 300,000 engaged followers just pitch him and they're like, his platform isn't big enough, can't, his numbers aren't big enough. And I was like, You know what? This is horrible. Ridiculous. So what I say is, I mean, having a smaller engaged community, whether that's in real life or online, is more important having 500 People 300 People 1000 People will often make more of an impact than having 15,000 25,000 100,000, like semi engaged, bought, you know, followers or whatever. So we start with in our marketing section, if someone comes to me, and they have no digital footprint, they've not done any speaking gigs or conferences, traditional publishing right now there's, there's no way I know the industry, they're not going to say yes, but what we can do is if someone really still wants to engage with us, when we get to that marketing strategy, the first thing so I always give real examples from real proposals, so people can see how it works. And our marketing strategies are like seven pages long. So the first rule of thumb is to go through and delete anything you do not want to do that include social media, podcasts, email, newsletters, like whatever doesn't speak to you is an organic, we get rid of it. And then we start to build out a strategy based on what you love, if you love to do podcasts, if you love to speak. Because I think what keeps people to come back to your question, I think it's all just really overwhelming. And it's like, Oh, my God, there's like so many things, I could do that you get paralyzed, and I do it with every book, like my next book comes out in February. And I'm like, wait, what? How am I gonna do this? How am I going to approach the launch? Like, it's just this, it's really, really overwhelming to think about it. So I think before people get published, and before they ever even start, it's such a beautiful place to be because you can approach your strategy and your launch, with a very intentional mindset of focusing on one or two things that work really well. trying them out. And then you can go from there, you don't have to do it all. And I think in our world, it's like, more is better and going big here, and I gotta have a course and I gotta do this. And I got to do that. Like, we've built our business to a multiple six figure business with no social media, no digital marketing, we are completely word of mouth, we were referral only, yeah, we could grow and be huge, but like, we're doing it in a way that really speaks to us. We have the podcast, we have our newsletter. And that's it. We don't do anything anywhere else. So it's, it's really interesting. Like, I would say, if you don't want to do something, don't do it. And then get really creative and do like, just focus on the things that you love.
Well, and something that that's really important that you said is like, you don't have to be everywhere, no, but having one outlet where you can build that community. So if people hear about you or hear about your book, you have the podcasts like you have something, right that it's providing content to where people can come into that community. And so having one thing, like some people that most people come to us, they have already a very established platform, but for for newer people, you know, I agree 100% It's like pick one place where you think your people are roughly, and then build that because one year back when I did a lot of weddings and events, we focused on Pinterest for one year. And I spent one hour a day. And then I saw how it was growing. And then we hired a team member. And then we had an intern that started to really grow it. And it's like, if you just focus on one thing, it will grow. But again, the consistency really, really really well.
And the consistency is everything and one thing I love to do is like okay, let's pretend that social media just imploded tomorrow like boom, nope, can't promote cannot promote in any way on any of the platforms. What would you do then? And calming. I love thinking outside of the box with my clients I love like problem solving and it's so much more fun to get back to like, I don't know, just thinking thinking outside of the box and doing things differently than everyone else looking for like that next way to market or the next thing that's coming along and, and doing that if it feels good for you. And for me, I just I don't know, I like spending time on the things that I love and just leaving the rest because it's not applicable to my life and I have a nine year old daughter, I have a business, I have a husband, and I'd rather spend my time like hiking on a weekend than scrolling through social media and building my following. But that's, I mean, that's just me, I'm also you know, almost 40 And from a totally different time. But I've gotten really real about that, like what is important to me and this, and what isn't, and I don't necessarily need a giant, multi million dollar business because I know what it's going to take to get there. In terms of being everywhere, and being huge. So I'm I'm a little bit old school with the way that I approach business and marketing and, and growing slowly and intentionally and making sure it fits in with their life.
I love that. And another thing that you said, that's really important too, because, again, some people and that, unfortunately is like the world we live in where some of these big brands, they're like, Oh, you don't have a big, like your numbers, like numbers, the number vanity metrics, I'm like,
vanity metrics says yes.
100%. And I'm like, I'd rather have 10 people follow and listen and act on whatever I'm doing, rather than a million do nothing. Yes. A like, doesn't always
do. It doesn't pay your bills. No, it doesn't. Right.
And the smarter brands are looking at the engagement, and it can't like you said it can be a full time job. And don't do the things that make you uncomfortable. But yeah, to grow. Sometimes it's like get completely
comfortable, for sure. But I think like, yeah,
yeah, I mean, people want to know more. It's like, go read the book.
Well, yeah, exactly. I mean, and that's the thing, too, is like when you have a book, which is like your business card, in many ways you can you can do so many fun things. And they're great strategies. And yes, we really help. I say, we're not like into book marketing, we don't market your book for you. But we do give you the roadmap where if you want to hire a publicist, if you want to hire a digital marketer, if you want to hire someone, or have someone on your team, you could just hand them that strategy. And then they can kind of take care of it. And that's the other thing I would say is if you don't want to do a lot of this stuff, there's some great people out there that that can help but also don't be afraid to kind of problem solve and think about things differently. I think we're just so used to now it's like well, everyone's on tick tock so I'm going to get on tick tock or everyone has a course so I'm going to create a course or do it if you want to but but yeah, like really getting back to that process time and and thinking deeply instead of just reacting and putting things out quickly.
Slow down, just slow down. Slow down, don't research get your data. There's no like know your numbers know your numbers. And I'm like, oh my god, it's like again, to remember things in squad like make of rap songs in my head and we got to come up with some vacation. Yeah, like, we have to know our numbers in again with marketing. That's everything. So if people want to connect with you, yes. Would Instagram be your favorite platform?
Yeah, so I don't have we started like a right way. We tried that for our business. I was like nope, not doing it. So I'm just at my name or E A F R EY RIA Frey on Instagram. I'm deleting Facebook. I already deleted Twitter. But I really say you know our websites, I have a personal author website, it reify.com And then our company right way, it's right way WRI te w a y co.com. So rightway co.com. Everything is there. We're actually putting on our first retreats. In September, it's less than 48 hours on a beautiful property in Franklin over 80 acres. And for people who want to knock out their book proposal in a day and learn about the path which path to publication and pitching and strategy. We're doing a deep dive in less than 48 hours to get it done. So it's a real like DIY at a third of the cost of our, you know, VIP packages. So super excited about that.
That's amazing. And we'll have to make sure that we have that link and Amanda will have she'll put all the stuff in the show notes. This was so helpful and so awesome. Thank you so much for today.
Thank you and we have to go get coffee since we're Nashville buddies.
Right? Right. everyone that's listening and watching. Thank you so much for being here. And be sure to tune in next week to another episode of business unveiled by Yo, that's it for this week's episode of business unveiled. Now that you have all the tools that you need to conquer the world and GSD get shit done. Would you share this with your friends and fellow business leaders? One thing that would really really help us and help new listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a comment and Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you tune in and listen to business unveiled. You can check out the show notes at Angela proffitt.com/podcast and link up with us on social media so you can share your biggest insights. And I want to know your aha moments. Until next week, remember, the profitable shifts and structures you're creating and your business help you be more present in your life. So get out there and GSD