We are joined by Stephanie Mojica. Stephanie is a book development coach who helps executive coaches, business owners, attorneys, and other decision-makers be the go-to experts in their field through writing and publishing a book. Contrary to what people thought is daunting, Stephanie makes writing an enjoyable endeavor.
She believes that writing and publishing your own book is essential for consultants, coaches, and other decision-makers. According to her, your book serves as your credibility marker. Books can tell what you know and how you help your clients. It is a great venue to establish your authority in your niche.
Visit Stephanie’s website: https://gettheirattentionnow.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniemojica/
Katie Brinkley 0:02
Hi friends. I’m Katie Brinkley, and you’re listening to Rocky Mountain marketing. This podcast is all about helping Colorado based small business owners, entrepreneurs, realtors, and professionals discover the strategies and systems that take their marketing to all new heights. Let’s dive into today’s episode.
Welcome back to Rocky Mountain marketing. My guest today is Stephanie, Mohit, Stephanie helps executive coaches, business consultants, business owners, attorneys and other decision makers generate more money online and become the go to expert in their field by guiding them through the step by step process of writing and publishing a book. There’s a lot more that goes with this introduction. But I want her to be the one to introduce herself to you guys, because I’m so excited to have her on the show today. Stephanie, welcome to the podcast.
Stephanie Mojica 0:54
Thank you so much, Katie, it’s an honor to be here. And yes, I’m, the easiest way to say it I guess, I’m a book development coach and a book editor. So if you’re stuck writing your book, or you’ve recently finished writing your book, I’m the person to go to,
Katie Brinkley 1:07
I love this. And I think that well, we’ll get into this here in just a little bit. But I think that you know, writing a book might seem very daunting to a lot of business owners. But I feel like you’re gonna tell us some of the tips and tools to make it less overwhelming and less stressful. So let’s dive right in. And I would love it if you could tell us a little bit about your backstory, tell us where you grew up and what life was like growing up for you.
Stephanie Mojica 1:32
So I grew up in Hampton, Virginia, that’s in the United States, for anybody who’s listening in other countries, and was a child of the late 70s, you know, 80s and 90s. always interested in writing. My late grandmother was a published author My mother has always written one of my grandmother’s ex husbands is a well published author in the New Age space. My grandmother and former step grandfather, were publishing New Age and poetry books way before it became popular. So it’s always around book publishing. And then like when I was in high school, you know, I help edit some of my grandmother’s books, because I always had an eye for editing. And then I did some things in the community, because I knew I wanted to be a journalist. So I got involved with the Habitat for Humanity, because I thought that was a great cause. And I could also gain some skills in writing and editing. So they started me off I was I think about 15. They had me on the Public Relations Board. And then they want to make a media assistant editor newsletter. So I got to go out and interview people do writing, layout and editing, and got paid for some small articles in community newspapers when I was still in high school. So that’s just the childhood story. And I could go on for hours. But the long and short of it is, I entered college, I had taken some college classes while still in high school, because I wanted to skip the introductory English classes, and get straight to the journalism classes. So I was taking journalism classes as a freshman in college usually had to be a sophomore or junior. And so by the end of my official freshman year, in college, I had an internship at a very large daily newspaper in Hampton, Virginia, my hometown, and for the next 17 years, I would be a newspaper journalist, and also dabble in some other things around writing, and film and TV, as well as you know, the coaching, teaching, etc.
Katie Brinkley 3:32
Wow. Well, that’s quite the journey. How did you end up becoming a publisher? How do you go from the newsroom to the publishing side?
Stephanie Mojica 3:40
Well, like I spent some time in Los Angeles around 2002, because I was interested. I mean, I was still working for newspapers in and around LA. But I was really interested in becoming like a television show writer. But that was a really hard industry. And so when I was trying to learn about writing for TV, by wound up again, and something that had to do with books, I’ve worked with a literary agency. And just, I don’t know at one step led to another, I guess it would be in about 2008. When I published my own book, for the first time, I had had a personal crisis and had gotten a life coach to really help me figure some things out, because I was never making much money as a newspaper reporter. And so she was helping me figure some things out. I started figuring out how to make good money freelance writing online. And then I published my first book. And then it was just like a journey, like anytime someone in whatever community I lived in, I lived in several states in the United States before leaving the US two years ago, which is another story. But anytime somebody needed something to do with a book or publishing, they would come to me, so it just kind of grew from there.
Katie Brinkley 4:58
I love this and I’m so excited for you to really kind of tell us how we can write a book because like I said before, I feel like it can be, it can seem very daunting, and how am I going to have the time to it? Or I’m not a writer who’s going to want to read it. So I think that I love, I know that you’re gonna have some great tips for us. But I want to just start with one question that I think that a lot of people might have is why writing a book is essential for consultants or small business owners that want to compete in today’s very crowded marketplace?
Stephanie Mojica 5:31
Well, you just answered the question, the marketplace is really crowded, I’ll give this statistic to demonstrate. So before the pandemic, there were approximately 1 billion people on LinkedIn, who had a job title like life coach, executive coach, business coach, etc. The last time I checked, which was a few weeks ago, it was over 6 million coaches on LinkedIn. So the market is really saturated. That’s just LinkedIn statistics. So there’s a lot of people out there who are saying they’re coaches, and then maybe very fine coaches. But I also know a lot of the marketing language because I get a lot of people trying to sell me stuff all the time, the more visible I become, the more people try to buy their services, buy their stuff, a lot of people are just using the same language like oh, help you get more clients. But nobody’s some of these people just aren’t saying how they’ll do that. So I think as a coach, consultant, etc, a book is an opportunity for you to show how you help your clients, you don’t have to give their intimate personal details, although some of my clients are happy for me to do so. But you can really demonstrate your system, I think that most coaches worth their salt really need to have some kind of system like I have a nine-step process to take somebody from book idea to publish a book. So and I’ll be writing a book on that soon, once I’m done, find a time myself to write the books, but it’s just that book is an opportunity for you to show who you are, and also teach people, there’s obviously not every person is my ideal client. That’s probably the same for you. But you can still inspire, inform educate someone through writing the book. So and it doesn’t have to be like a 500-page book, either. I think that’s another common misconception.
Katie Brinkley 7:22
Yeah, you know, that’s, that’s actually leads me right into my next question. You know, what do you think for people that think that they need to be the next, Stephen? Well, I have to say, Stephen King, but you know, the next, the next big author out there that’s writing novels, what do you think a good realistic goal is, for a lot of these people that might be kind of toying with the idea of writing a book, but think that they need to have a 500-page book to really make it move the needle for them.
Stephanie Mojica 7:51
Alright, so I want to make a couple of distinctions. So for some people, and some people do come to me, they really want to write a memoir or novel and somehow use that to like, improve their lives and businesses, which you can totally do. So some people just woke up, like, when they were little kids this idea, they want to write a memoir or a novel, but most people or listeners probably don’t have that. So what I usually recommend is that people plan to do 20 to 30,000, aboard books, which makes it depending on what size paperback you choose, if you go that route, or you just do the digital e-reader, that would make it at least 100 pages, which is still a substantial book, but it’s not like 500 pages. I also want to note that you put yourself at a huge disadvantage by writing a huge book for a multitude of reasons. One, people have short attention spans, I even give us sometimes I don’t finish a big, big book if the topic interests me. The second thing is, you know, you’re kind of cheating yourself out of money. If you go throw all of your expertise into one huge book, there’s a lot of people because you can get passive income from book sales. So that book, that 500 page book, that could be three, four or five books,
Katie Brinkley 9:11
you know, that’s a really good idea of just taking that 500 words and making them into five smaller books. I love that idea. And I was also gonna say to you like, what do you say to people that say, people don’t read books anymore? What do you say to those naysayers?
Stephanie Mojica 9:26
Have you heard that one lately? So it’s kind of pains me to say this, it almost doesn’t even matter. In some situations, if people actually read your book, here’s why. Number one, so a lot of coaches, consultants and other experts like to speak at conferences, you know, they like to pitch from the stage, etc. Nowadays, as of the time of recording this, we’re still in the COVID pandemic. Nowadays, those events are, you know, very very infrequent, so they’re usually emergency Well, one of my coaches who is a really big podcaster, and author informed me that a lot of conference organizers are not accepting coaches, consultants, etc, that do not have a book, because that book is kind of like their credibility marker, their business card that sets them apart. So that’s one reason to publish a book. The second is, so we want people to read the book. But if they’re not the fact that you wrote a book really gets newspaper reporters TV, etc, interested in interviewing you, I can’t tell you how many clients I have, that have been interviewed by Time Magazine, the 700 Club, huge day with newspapers in Kentucky and New York and Indiana, just because they wrote a book, it’s really something that tends to impress journalists. Yeah, you
Katie Brinkley 10:54
know, that’s really valid points, you know, the people that have the pen and paper to get your message out there. probably enjoy reading other people’s books. So that’s a very good point. Now, what would you say? How do you help people get their idea out of their head, like, Okay, I’m coming to Stephanie, and I want to write a book about social media? How would you help me get it out of my head, and then into my ideal client and customers hands?
Stephanie Mojica 11:21
So the first thing we would do is, we would you know, we have an initial call, and really just ask you some questions like, well, how does this relate to your business, what type of social media etc, most people who come to me, and because I was a journalist for 17 years, I’m really good at interviewing people. So most people come may actually have more ideas to do with. So we usually spend that first call, focusing in on one idea, because a common mistake I see a lot of well meaning coaches and other experts make is trying to work on five projects at a time, seriously. So I always tell people, let’s pick one book idea and stick to it, we can work on the other one for the next book, because a lot of people I’ve worked with tend to want to like do multiple books. So I would just really get to know you get to know your business, you know, your experience, I would also ask you, this is a pro tip, if you have a lot of existing content that we could use to make the chat some chapters or even entire book, I have worked with at least five people and last couple of years, who had hundreds of YouTube videos, recordings of talks on stages, or were just really good at speaking their thoughts. And in some cases, were literally able to organize that into the entire book, and they didn’t have to do writing at all. In other cases, we’re able to make that comprise at least a good half or so of the book.
Katie Brinkley 12:58
So that’s a brilliant idea. If you have a blog that you’ve been contributing to on a regular basis, taking that blog and repurposing it into the book, especially too, I think that it’s much more realistic, that that could actually happen easily. When you said that books only need to be maybe 20,000 words, you know, that’s not that many 500 per blog, you know, four blogs that you might have written and each of those blogs could, you know, then be expanded upon or put into their own chapters. So I think that what you’re saying, especially by having that word count, is making it seem less and less daunting. Now, what do you say to somebody that maybe they’re not a coach or consultant, but they’ve been a small business owner for a while, and they want to maybe just get more traction around? How entrepreneurship or their business? How would you kind of help guide them in this process? Well, again,
Stephanie Mojica 13:52
you know, I think in this word, this term is probably ever used, I think, like establishing them as a thought leader is important. So I’ll be honest, most of people I’ve worked with in this capacity are coaches, realtors, attorneys, consultants, or like podcasters, but have worked with a couple small business owners of these capacities. So it just really depends on the person. Like if somebody say, a cheesecake business, well, there are plenty of things you could do to talk about cheesecake, or maybe your life story, like how did you get into this business? Or even compile like a cookbook, there’s a couple of people I’m talking with are interested in have me edit their cookbooks, so they can really try to promote their restaurants better, especially with this pandemic situation. So I think like, a lot of people limit themselves before they really get to know themselves and what they can do. So Stephanie,
Katie Brinkley 14:48
we’ve talked about some of the basics of getting that book out there. We’ve got our book written how what are three ways that having a book can really help you create New perfect clients.
Stephanie Mojica 15:02
So the first thing is to be mindful of what is in your book, definitely tell some client stories from changing the names, genders, etc, you need to show not just tell how you have helped people. I’ve tried to do this a little bit throughout this interview. So just things like that. The second thing that you can do is don’t just drop a link to your general website in the book, create like a free ebook or something. And, you know, an opt in landing page. For those who don’t know the jargon, that’s basically the page where you’re asked to give your name and email address in exchange for some type of gift. So you can put that mic of like to back in your book. So people don’t just go to your website, and then never visit again. And then a third thing that you can do is, get on podcasts, talk about your book, one of my coaches is really big on podcasts, book tours for authors. So it’s just things like that can really help leverage you as an expert, as well as get you some book sales, whether COVID is going on or not?
Katie Brinkley 16:15
Well, Stephanie, you know, I like to wrap things up with a bit of advice. So what is the best piece of business advice that you ever received? And how have you How has that played out with your career journey?
Stephanie Mojica 16:27
So the best advice I’ve ever received was done is better than perfect. I know a lot of people have said this in various ways over the years. But Christian Michaelson coach I’ve worked with years ago, said that on one of the group coaching calls, and it still holds true. And I’m not trying to say she does sloppy work, no way. I mean, I’m all about editing, I’m all about, you know, getting people make sure that book cover looks nice, etc. But I think a lot of people, myself included, paralyze themselves by thinking everything has to be in order. Everything has to be completely perfect before they can even publish a social media posts, let alone a book. So I just really would encourage people to move forward. And there’s no shame in asking for support.
Katie Brinkley 17:15
That is so true. And I think that especially as entrepreneurs solopreneurs, we can hold ourselves to sometimes an impossible standard. And I think that sometimes it will just, we want it to be perfect, we want it to be perfect. And perfection is the goal. And if it’s not perfect, then we’re just not going to push it out there. But there needs to be a time for you to just push it out there, show it to the world. It’s done. And then how can you grow from this variance? How can you grow for the next time around? So I love that tip. And I think that that is something that we all probably have done at least once or twice in our careers, just striving for perfection, and over over done. So thank you so much for that tip. So before we finish up, is there anything that I didn’t ask you about during today’s discussion that you think is important for our audience to hear?
Stephanie Mojica 18:09
Perfect, there’s a huge misconception about self publishing means it’s like that, or somebody is lesser than etc. There’s so many advantages of self publishing, like having full control over the content of your book. It’s quicker to get it to market. And you can literally make the decisions yourself. It’s like you and your business and your book, royalties, etc. So but self publishing doesn’t mean you should do it poorly. You know, if you don’t want to work with a coach, if you’re one of those people that can self motivate, or he’s a short mini course, like one that I have to get yourself started, you could you still need to like invest in a graphic designer to have a nice book cover. And it’s also important to invest in editing proofreading, because I see so many book reviews on Amazon, where people are commenting that it’s obvious the book was not edited. So you just want to set yourself up look as professional as possible. These things don’t have to cost a fortune. So there’s just I think self publishing sometimes still gets that bad rap.
Katie Brinkley 19:18
Well, Stephanie, thank you again, so much for coming on the show today. I really appreciate our conversation. And like I said before, I think that you’ve made this not seem quite as daunting as it needs to be 10 to 20,000 words really isn’t that many and self publishing. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, you know, perfection done is better than just sitting there. So put perfection aside. So thank you again, Stephanie, for coming on the show today. This has been a fantastic conversation.
Stephanie Mojica 19:45
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Katie Brinkley 19:49
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Rocky Mountain marketing. As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can visit my website https://www.nextstepsocialcommunications.com/ connect with me on LinkedIn or check me out on Instagram. Let’s keep taking your marketing to new heights.