In this episode of Monetize the Mic, Jess and Margy talk about reading. Margy recently joined fellow entrepreneur Lisa Larter’s group Thought Readers, which is a Facebook group for business books. Margy is a very avid reader/audiobook listener and proud owner of a Kindle Paperwhite (not sponsored) and highly recommends it for anyone who reads consistently. She also recommends listeners of Monetize the Mic read the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Profit First by Mike Michalowicz (and implement it!), and Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza. If you have a book that inspires you, purchase a few copies of it and leave them around at Little Free Libraries or donate them to a regular library to pay it forward!

Lisa Larter’s group Thought Readers: https://lisalartergroup.isrefer.com/go/TRFeldhuhn/MargyFeldhuhn (This is an affiliate link so we will get a commission if you sign up through our link)

John Briggs (Profit First accountant): https://profitfirstformicrogyms.com/

On this episode of Monetize the Mic, Jess and Margy talk all about your success equation!

For Margy, two important aspects of her success equation are a positive mindset and playfulness. Margy discusses how important it is to cultivate a positive mindset and the right types of thoughts. This is something she’s always done for herself but she didn’t really ever think about it. Now as a coach, Margy is learning how to vocalize it and help others on the same journey. And for Margy, it truly has been a journey! 

Margy came from a place of being really miserable for a really long time. When she was younger, she found the book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. This book helped Margy realize that maybe the story she had been telling herself about her life wasn’t the whole story. At first, she really didn’t want to read this book. Margy didn't want to change, and she was afraid of the truth. Sometimes when you create this world that is so small and so negative, there is a big part of you that just wants to defend it. 

Margy’s transformation was not like flipping a switch. It wasn’t as if Margy read this book and then stopped being depressed. She wasn’t transformed in that moment of reading that book, but that was what started it. After reading, Margy became much more open-minded and more open to personal development. It has been and remains a lifelong journey. 

Learning how to be present is transformational and it doesn’t happen overnight.

Jess asks Margy, “How do you relate to the thoughts in your head?”

24 hours a day, Margy is watching her thoughts. She never stops. This practice took a lot of time to get into. She started noticing both her thoughts and her feelings. It’s really hard to watch every thought, so a really good indicator is to watch your feelings. For Margy, your feelings are much more important to your positive mindset than your thoughts.

Margy recommends that we get acquainted with who we are. Ask yourself, “What stories do I tell about myself? Are they 100% true?” Find those, dig those out. 

Jess asks Margy how she incorporates fun and playfulness into her positive mindset.

Margy feels like her most true self when she is having fun and being playful. It is so important to her to be able to still work and have fun. When she is working on projects alone, she can feel very isolated. Margy really likes the energy of collaboration and playfulness while working with other people. 

On the note of playfulness, Margy recently experienced her first Disney trip. She was always a Disney skeptic. But when she went and experienced it with an open mind, Margy absolutely loved it. She loved that you got to play as an adult. Three or four days of play as an adult just doesn't usually happen. She was able to fully immerse herself in play and really enjoyed it

Margy reminds us that you can look back 10 years and see that you’re a different person. But we can’t look 10 years ahead and know what we’ll be like. We think we’re done. We know we’ve been growing, but we always think we’re in our final state. We don’t know what’s possible for us because we can’t imagine it. 

If you’re in a failure right now, it feels like that’s the end of your story. But it isn’t! Don’t get discouraged. You can always come back. There’s nothing you can’t come back from!

On this special episode of Monetize the Mic, Booking Agent and Team Lead Riley gets the chance to sit down with Scott Schober to talk all about podcast interview strategy!

Scott is the President and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems, a 48-year-old, New Jersey-based provider of advanced, world-class wireless test and security solutions. He is the author of three best-selling security books: Hacked Again, Cybersecurity is Everybody’s Business, and Senior Cyber.

Scott is a highly sought-after author and expert for live security events, media appearances, and commentary on the topics of ransomware, wireless threats, drone surveillance and hacking, cybersecurity for consumers, and small business. He is often seen on ABC News, Bloomberg TV, Al Jazeera America, CBS This Morning News, CNN, Fox Business, and many more networks.

Scott also serves as the CSO and Chief Media Commentator for Cybersecurity Ventures and sits on several cyber advisory boards for various companies.

Riley asks Scott about the preparation process for all of his media appearances and podcast interviews. How does Scott create a structure around such a busy process?

Scott’s first piece of advice is, it’s never good to be too comfortable. Once you feel like you’re in your comfort zone, you should try to get out of it. It’s great to be confident but you still want to have some butterflies. If you’re too confident, sometimes you won’t know what to say. 

He also highly recommends spending the time to educate yourself and prepare. Before any media appearance or podcast interview, Scott always reads a few articles about the topic he wants to discuss. He then digests it and meditates on it. When he goes on a podcast, he always likes to make it a goal to have three stats that he can remember off the top of his head. Scott will weave in a statistic to bring home the point in his interviews!

Most importantly, Scott explains that you have to be true to yourself and be authentic. While doing this, you can apply practical tips that are not too complex. By doing that, people will walk away and have learned something that they can apply in their own lives. It’s so important to always share something, impart some knowledge, and teach something. That will make your interviews more effective and it will help grow your brand!

Scott has an incredibly busy schedule and busy life. Riley helped Scott right away by recommending that he start tracking all his interviews. Scott has over 50 interviews in his Interview Connections package, so organization is key. Scott encourages everyone listening to track their podcast interviews! 

He also recommends preparing for an interview 24 hours in advance and keeping it topical. For Scott, education is key to being the best expert he can be.

Before going on a podcast, Scott always listens to who is going to be interviewing him. He listens to the show and gets a sense of their style. The more natural the interview, the better it is. It may seem obvious, but Scott always thanks the person who interviewed him! He likes to write a little thank you note, and point out something specific and positive about the experience. 

Hosting a podcast isn’t easy work, and a host will appreciate it! Scott also always shares and promotes the podcast episodes he’s been on. It’s not just about you, sharing your interviews is also about thanking the host and building a foundation with them.

Scott also reminds listeners to make sure that they have decent quality equipment before their podcast interview. Don’t show up unprepared. About half of the podcasts Scott does are video, he’s always ready to potentially be on video. He reminds us that if you fumble on the technical side, you lose your focus. You want to focus on the interview! Scott also keeps a physical checklist of everything he needs for the interview. This helps to frame things, and makes him a better guest. 

Riley asks if Scott can speak to the importance of improvisation and staying on your feet as a podcast guest. 

This skill is fundamental, explains Scott. He stresses the importance of being able to read the audience. To be a great podcast guest, you have to know your audience and have the flexibility to pivot if necessary. Put yourself in their shoes! 

Scott reminds us that a podcast host is giving you an opportunity to speak and share your expertise. They’re giving you the power of the mic, and you should be gracious. Thank them for the privilege that you’re there!

He also recommends that if you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t try to fake it. That breaks down your credibility and hurts the podcast. Stay true to yourself and do the research!

A fascinating effect that Scott has noticed is the more podcasts you do, the more opportunities you have. As he’s been doing dozens of podcast interviews, Scott has now received opportunities for radio, speaking, conferences, TV, and more. Scott really believes in the service mindset of a podcast guest. For Scott, the more you do for other people, the more it comes back indirectly. Whatever you give away will come back to you twofold. Put yourself out there, you don’t know what’s going to happen!

You can find Scott at his website, scottschober.com, and on his podcast, What Keeps You Up at Night!

On this episode of Monetize the Mic, Jess got the chance to speak with Dr. Joli Hamilton about trust and non-monogamy!

Joli is a research psychologist, an AASECT certified sex educator, TEDx speaker, and a sex + relationship coach. She holds a doctorate in depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She has spent many years working directly with clients helping them improve their relationship skills and is also a professor of human sexuality. 

Over the past two decades, she has started a dozen business ventures ranging from clothing design to personal training to providing birth and lactation doula services, all while managing her own relationships, pursuing her graduate degrees, and raising and homeschooling seven kids. 

Joli has felt those wild highs and terrible lows that come with business ownership, marriage, divorce, and reinventing love from the bottom up. She is committed to helping people create sustainable, soul-nourishing relationships without sacrificing their business dreams.

Joli shared how she wasn’t raised to trust herself and that it took serious, conscious work to change that. It wasn’t until she recognized a pattern of starting a successful business, and then bailing four years in when business was booming. Once she noticed the pattern started to affect other aspects of her life, she made some changes.

“I was able to commit myself to a Ph.D. program. I was able to commit to my marriage. It really has been a process of learning to trust me in love and say yeah, I can show up for myself.”

Listen to this episode to hear Dr. Joli Hamilton tell us all about:

• What Tall Poppy Syndrome is, and how to avoid it.
• Why you need to trust yourself and commit
• What re-parenting is and why it’s so important

On this episode of Monetize the Mic, Jess got the chance to speak with one of our favorite clients at Interview Connections, Jyotsna Ramachandran about purpose-driven authors!

Jyotsna is a bestselling author, book publisher, TEDx speaker, and an international Author Success Coach who helps coaches, trainers, speakers, and experts to build a super-profitable author funnel with the help of their book.

She founded Author Success Academy to help aspiring authors finally finish their book, get it professionally published, market it into a bestseller, and use that position to grow their business. So far, Jyotsna has helped over 400 authors from 35 different countries through her global publishing agency, Happy Self Publishing. 

Jyotsna is both an agency client and a coaching client of Interview Connections. Jess and Margy truly love, admire, and respect how much of an implementer Jyotsna is. She is always ready to take action that she needs to take to scale her business. Jyotsna is the first to admit that she doesn’t take advice from just anyone, but after seeing Jess and Margy grow Interview Connections to where it is now, she knew that she could trust their advice.

One of the things that Jess and Margy helped Jyotsna with was her company’s vision statement. Like many other entrepreneurs, Jyotsna didn’t have a vision statement initially. However, now her vision statement for Happy Self Publishing is:

To elevate the consciousness of humanity one book at a time and be the leading book publishing agency for purpose-driven authors.

At Interview Connections, Jess also aims to help purpose-driven entrepreneurs. Our clients are driven to have an impact on the world and achieve their purpose. Both what Jess and Margy do and what Jyotsna does are very similar. Interview Connections gets people on podcasts and amplifies their message. Jyotsna helps people get their books published so she can amplify their message as well.

A common objection that happens to service providers like Interview Connections and Jyotsna is, “That sounds amazing, but I have all these other things to focus on.” So then all the books, the podcasts, etc never get high enough on the priority list. “I'll let you know how things are going next month, I'll circle back to this next quarter.” Jess wants to know, what is going on there? Why does message amplifying services so frequently get low priority?

In the past, Jyotsna used to work with all kinds of writers, and a lot of them were passionate about writing. They would just write every day because they were truly writers. That is a totally different category than who she works with now. Now, Jyotsna and her team primarily work with service-based entrepreneurs. 

These are busy people, and writing is not at the top of their priority list. They are busy with the day-to-day activities of their business. The book that they have been wanting to write is always getting pushed to the back burner.

Jyotsna recommends that entrepreneurs differentiate between the important things and the urgent things. We need to take out time for the important things. These are investments that may not give results in the next 30 days but they will give results in the next year, two years, ten years, etc. 

A book is an evergreen marketing tool. 

If you invest in Facebook ads, you might get some leads right away but then it’s gone. A book is a marketing tool that you can keep using for the rest of your life! Once you’re an author, you will always be looked upon as an author. 

Why do so many entrepreneurs focus on short-term investments instead of looking ahead at the long-term benefits of something like a book?

Jyotsna explains that many people aren’t able to focus on important tasks. What she tells entrepreneurs is, “If you're naturally good at writing and you want to do it, you will create time to do it. If you’re not able to do that, it doesn't mean that you can never become an author, you can just ask for help!”

Even if you’re not struggling but you just want to get better, it’s always good to hire a coach, Jyotsna tells us. Her team is built with author success coaches. These coaches will hold you accountable, hop on calls with you every week, and give entrepreneurs clarity on what their book topic should be that week. They help with things like identifying your target client and your target reader. They go over how to pick an angle so your book will stick out, how to make a book outline, remove roadblocks, review your work, and help you stick to your writing plan so you can finish your manuscript in 3 months!

Still, some entrepreneurs do not have the time. They have the intention, but they still have so many other things to manage. In that case, Jyotsna would recommend going with an angel writer. An angel writer will interview you on your subject and do the writing for you. They ask you questions based on your book’s outline, and you, as the expert in your subject, can speak at length about your topic. The angel writer would then take what you’ve said and write it. These are the two options that Jyotsna would give to an entrepreneur who wants to leverage their expertise as a published author!

Jess wants to know how angel writing is different from ghostwriting?

Jyotsna asks us to imagine it this way: you have a fantastic story, and a Hollywood producer wants to turn your story into a movie. Would you take the risk of writing, directing, casting, acting? You would not do all of that right? Your job is to provide the story which is the crux of the movie. All the other things are handled by other professionals. It’s still your story, but other professionals are doing what they’re good at. 

Jyotsna also reminds us that if an entrepreneur happens to be a great writer, they should absolutely try writing the book themselves. However, if you’re not able to get the results you’re looking for, you should hire an angel writer.

Typically, a ghostwriter client gives a topic and vanishes. A ghostwriter is expected to do all the research and put together a draft without any collaboration. An angel writer does not put their thoughts and ideas into the book. They ask you the right questions to extract information from your head into writing. They ensure that your voice and tonality is maintained. An angel writer is excellent at asking questions and excellent at writing without losing the voice of the author. They pay close attention to the way the author speaks and will ask for writing references, so they know what kind of voice the author uses.

Jess points out that people might not know how many successful authors work with a team!  So many top-level, very well-known experts, use a team to write their content. Jyotsna has an incredible team. She mentors and trains her team to deliver an excellent quality of service to her clients.

She admits that she made all the mistakes of working with freelancers. Jyotsna soon realized that her team is the biggest strength in her company. She invests a lot of time in picking the right team members and training them. 

Jyotsna does not look at her business as a publishing agency. They specialize in business and self-help books because these are the genres that entrepreneurs are interested in writing. She helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses and amplify their message as authors! Not only does Jyotsna’s team offer these services, but they coach their clients on how to use that book to grow their business.

Jess wants to know, how does Jyotsna help her clients become bestsellers?

Jyotsna predominantly works with first-time authors. She explains that if you’re a first-time author and you’re using a book to grow your business, the Amazon best-selling chart is where you should be focusing. Becoming an Amazon bestseller will help you gain credibility with your audience. Her team understands the Amazon algorithm very well, and getting you on that chart will help you create visibility, traction, and momentum. 

Her team is able to monitor what category your book is in, and make sure it’s in the right category. Jyotsna makes sure that her client’s books reach the #1 position. Even if it’s only #1 for a few days, you can always call yourself a bestselling author. This has a huge impact on the minds of someone visiting your website. If you’re on a stage as a speaker and you are introduced as a bestselling author, it gives a completely different impact. 

You can connect with Jyotsna at her website happyselfpublishing.com/apply or you can join her free bootcamp at happyselfpublishing.com/tribe!