Today, I’m excited to bring you another author success story from one of my past clients.
Julie Schooler is an author, blogger and speaker. When we started working together, she had already published seven books. However, Julie was struggling to grow her author business. She wanted to build her tribe, sell more books, and earn a real income from her work.
Here are some of Julie’s highlights from our time together:
- Overcame her fear of “niching down” and came up with a clear message that excited her and appealed to her ideal customers.
- Moved through her fear of rejection and took massive action by sending her first 20 pitches to podcasters.
- Landed three podcast interviews and counting – helping her grow her audience, spread her message, and sell more books.
- Beat procrastination and finally wrote the first draft of her next book in less than a month.
You can find out more about Julie and her books on her website: julieschooler.com.
Okay, let’s jump in. Here’s Julie’s interview…
Was there anything specific you were struggling with when you joined?
I was struggling with two main things.
The first was getting clear about who my ideal customer was. I was worried about choosing a niche because: 1) I might get bored, 2) A narrow niche might void all the books I’d already written and 3) I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes by ‘invading their niche’.
Of course, I now know that all these thoughts were limiting beliefs.
Sally helped me by nailing my message – “Rediscover Your Sparkle”. It felt so good to have a clear message that I believed in and my readers connected with.
My second challenge was how to promote myself and my books without feeling like I might be constantly rejected. I decided to start doing podcast interviews. My goal was to appear as a guest on podcasts where my potential customers hung out.
We decided to make pitching to podcasts into a game. I made it a habit to send two pitches each week for a year. I would “win” (i.e. not feel rejected) if I got featured on 10 or more podcasts over the course of the year.
Well so far, I have 3 YES’s and a handful of maybes from less than 20 pitches! I’m thrilled to be seeing results so quickly.
What’s the most challenging part growing your business and how are you overcoming it?
There are still many challenging parts. But the biggest is deciding what to focus on with limited hours in the day. There’s so much to do – writing, marketing, social media, the latest binge watch sensation, making good money from my books, growing a tribe.
Knowing that I love creating stuff is helping me focus on the important tasks in my business. The more focused work I put in, the better my results seem to be.
(Note from Sally: Selecting one big goal and prioritizing your work to align with this goal is one of the key systems I teach my students. Most people spend too much time doing things that don’t impact their business. It’s surprising how much more you can achieve when you start focusing on the important tasks and eliminate everything else).
My next big project is a little book called “Rediscover Your Sparkle”. The ebook version will be available for FREE on all online platforms so I can get more readers and customers who want to read my blog, listen to my podcast interviews and buy my books.
It’s work in progress. But I know I’m ‘on the right track’ and this is giving me the motivation to keep moving forward.
What are you most looking forward to over the next 12 months?
After decluttering my own house in March, I’m looking forward to writing book number nine. This one will be about decluttering, which I’ve been talking about FOREVER.
Also, being on 10+ podcast interviews is exciting. And, seeing what impact the free book strategy for “Rediscover Your Sparkle” has on my business.
I love what I do now.
Ready to grow your author business?
Julie’s story is inspiring. Through committing to one thing (being interviewed as a podcast guest) she was able to grow her audience and sell more books. Of course, appearing on podcasts is only one of thousands of ways to market your business online.
The key to building your tribe is to find the one or two things that work for YOU and then keep doing them – every single week.
