Latest / The Authority Podcast — Expert Insights and Fresh Ideas for Education Leaders / One for the Authors: Writing and Promoting Your Book with Mitch Weathers
Transcript
- Ross Romano: [00:00:00] Welcome in everybody. You are listening to the Authority Podcast here on the Be Podcast Network. Thanks as always for being with us. Pleased to have a returning guest today, Mitch Weathers. Mitch is an educator. He's author of the number one bestselling book, executive Functions for Every Classroom, which we talked about in our previous conversation, and he is the founder of Organized Binder. Organized Binder is an MTSS Tier one solution that exposes students to the executive functions that promote success In a world where we must embrace technology, analog interaction and hands-on practice is more important than ever student. This the habits of being a student, our critical in today's educational landscape, and Mitch is among [00:01:00] those leading the charge, as I mentioned. We previously discussed the book Executive Functions for Every Classroom. That was episode 81 of the show. You can go back and listen to it. But I was struck looking back at that today 'cause it didn't, it doesn't feel like it was that long ago. And yet we'll be at least 81 more episodes into it at the time this publishes. So it's it's kind of, hard to believe how many of these we've done. But thank you all for for being part of that journey. And today we are actually going to be doing an episode that is for the authors out there. Those of you who have been on the show, maybe you haven't yet maybe you have a book coming out. We're gonna talk about having a successful book launch, what that looks like, how to plan for it, how to make it happen. Mitch, welcome to welcome back to the show. Mitch Weathers: Thanks Ross. I'm excited to be back with you, man. Thanks for having me back on the show. This will be fun. Ross Romano: Yeah, I think this will be a great topic certainly fits with what we do here and [00:02:00] should be valuable to a lot of our guests who have become listeners who become guests. What what's the starting point for planning is kind of where I wanna start. You know, the, I think we'll go in a lot of different directions here, but like when do you start planning for the launch of a book? Right? Is it before you've even written the book? Is it before you know what you want to write? Is it later on? Mitch Weathers: It's all of the above from my experience. And that it's interesting 'cause I'm signed and currently working on book two. So I'm, back to the chalkboard, if you will in terms of book launches. And it was as a new or first time author. Which of course I've only published one book at this point. All of this was completely new to me and not part of like, the conversation like when you're writing a book and for authors or aspiring authors, like it's, you're really focused on the content, the project, what you're producing. And somebody told me at one [00:03:00] point, they kind of shifted for me, they were like, it doesn't matter how great your book is and how much value it brings, my book is of course written for tea educators, teachers, school leaders, as well as parents. But whatever project you're working on, like it doesn't matter if nobody knows it exists. I was like, oh. And I've now, over the last few years since writing my first book. Met and talked with so many authors that I honestly, if I'm just being transparent I think they're missing that piece. Because you get it, there was some image I saw where they showed like, and it was like the size of the book meant like, how many people are gonna get it, like, the importance of your book to you. And then it was the importance of your book to the world. And it was of course the person who wrote the book, it's this massive larger than life thing, which it is, it's a huge accomplishment. I'm so proud of. I never thought I would write a book and, but nobody cares [00:04:00] about your book if they don't know about it. And that can be kind of a weird, even uncomfortable or clunky thing. Like, how do I do this? I'm not a marketer. Some of us in education in particular may not it feels like, oh, my self-promoting, that's not, that's just not what we do. So to answer your question, I think. I think it starts as soon as you come up with the concept. And that doesn't mean publicly, but in, just in terms of planning your launch. And I, and just for anyone listening, I I'm by no means claiming, speaking of authority to be an authority on launching a book. I'm just gonna talk about my experience and the efforts that I made and what and I think it's worth noting that my book for my publisher anyway, like in the first two weeks it hit number one on Amazon in education and it's hovered in the top 100 for the last year and few months. It came out in March of 24. So, my, that [00:05:00] leads me to believe that it had some of these efforts helped get the word out. So I would say if you're writing your book, this is a good conversation to kind of tune into and. Spark some ideas. (ad here) Ross Romano: Yeah. Well, I'm sorry to tell you that you're, you have to be the authority now because you're on this show talking about it. So, yeah, I mean, that's, sorry. But you know, that's making me think about the question. I mean, you mentioned not having really thought you were gonna write a book and of course how important it is to the author and how it can feel like it's one really small thing in a large sea out there. I guess one of the questions around that would be, and we're talking really about nonfiction titles in this case. Professional titles like what? What should go into the the creation of expectations around the book? Not in terms of it's going to sell x [00:06:00] number of copies or whatever, but in terms of what you would recommend in terms of aligning a book with who the audience is for it, aligning it with what your business is or what your professional goals are, right? And how that book fits into the ecosystem of the other work or services you might provide around it, or speaking about it or because in most cases, right, like the vast, vast majority of books and particularly books in this type of genre, it is it opens doors, it supports and supplements what you do. But in order to probably feel like it's having the most success, it's not that the book is doing all the work for you, right? It's likely it introducing your ideas to people who wanna learn more. But you kind of talk about that and how it came together for you and how [00:07:00] you would think about that. You know, what an author should be expecting to get from the book once they get it out there and start getting it into people's hands. Mitch Weathers: Yeah, the one, one thing I was told early on is if you're writing a nonfiction book and you're going with a publisher, which I did, one thing not to expect is a big paycheck. You're not writing a book to make money. You're writing a book, hopefully, first and foremost to provide value that this is again, just my bias and, sure there's some monetary contribution, but like you said, and it's absolutely true, it most often and this kind of genre is aligned to some type of work or some type of passion that maybe a book can open doors for more of that work. More introduction. So in some ways it's its own marketing vessel, which is really interesting that you brought that up from the get go. I never expected my, the book to travel like it did. I just [00:08:00] don't. I'm new to all of this and I basically tried to unpack in my first book. The program that I designed as a teacher and now is my professional life. I've started a company, we work with schools around the world and all of this. And I wanted to really, what tugged at my heartstrings was there's, we get contacted weekly by teachers or parents and they want to bring this program to their school or to their classroom. And we don't interface contractually with individual teachers or parents. Like you can pick up a copy of it the program of, it's called Organized Binder at the site. But I wanted to unpack the whole program and say, if you don't work with us, you don't have our training and our support and our materials, which I would argue make it much easier and better to do this work. You can still get started in this work. And that was that piece, like I'm, I wanna provide value. My expectation going into it was like. I have no idea what's gonna happen. But it's been [00:09:00] amazing. Like literally schools on every continent, every, I mean just in the most random places you could think of are like, we're doing a book study on your book. You know? Right. In. Thank you. Or and it is providing value for them and it's getting them to think differently. So for us kind of mission minded or mission oriented people, like, that's why I'm writing this book. I encourage you to lean into that because it's been unbelievable for me to be in this work. I mean, I've been in the education field my whole career, but in the last decade plus doing this very kind of focused support work with schools, there's been no vehicle like the book to get the word out. And that, and then I think that brings us back to, okay, the launch, if you believe in that. And it, I had to embrace that to be honest. Like, again, being kind of mission oriented, like I. I I even say in the book, like I write at the beginning for my professional life, I just, the way I'm wired is life's too short to spend my working life hours and in [00:10:00] anything other than pursuit, than trying to make the world a better place. And for me, that was about impacting the lives of kids. And if you're minded that way yeah, I just encourage you to lean into it because the way that message has spread and the value it's provided has been amazing. It's been humbling to be honest. Ross Romano: Yeah. When do you know, it is, let's say an author has. Maybe they've written a book before and it didn't go where they wanted it to go. Maybe they're have an idea for a book they want to write or they're working on, it's their first time. I guess. How would they how do you know when you're ready or what should you focus on doing in the lead up to when you're ready to launch a book? Right. I'm thinking about the various ways that one can tap into their network, for example, right. To support the launch. But that needs to be [00:11:00] cultivated before you need it, right? And I mean, if your book is written and it's ready to go out now and you haven't done these things, still go and do it. But but certainly there's a, there's probably more people right now who are pre-auth than who are authors. Right. And it's good to think ahead and say, these are different ways that I'm going to have to collaborate with my personal and professional networks and and this is a powerful community that can really be helpful when I have something that I really care about and I wanna get it out to people or have them share it. But yeah. What are some of the things to think about just as a routine or as a process when you're planning ahead for that launch in the future? Mitch Weathers: I think the first mindset, well, I can just tell you the mindset I adopted, and this came out of conversations with a lot of authors that the, in my [00:12:00] conversations with them, because I just, I wanted to make my, myself a student of the process, both writing, 'cause I had not written a book, but also like, okay, how do I spread the word? And fighting that, like self-promotion kind of thing. Like, okay, I gotta get over that if I really believe in this mission in this. What this book is about, then I need to get it in the hands of every teacher and parent on the planet, every educator on, and I fundamentally believe in not any arrogant self-serving way. It will help, it'll make things better if every educator and parent read it. So if I really believe that, then I got some work to do. And so I adopted this approach and I hope this brings some value to somebody out there. I just looked at writing the book. I broke the project into two parts and I had a pub date, a publication date set by my publisher, Corwin. And of course there's benchmarks. Gotta have the [00:13:00] draft and blah, blah. All that was great to have that mapped out. But I looked at the publication date as 50% of the way through the job. So conceiving of the book, getting a contract, I didn't self-publish, so I wanted them on my team and writing the book. And I've, I only mentioned that 'cause I've met and talked to a number of people that, that was the finish line. Like I did it and I put it out in the world and the world is gonna just gobble it up. And I was like I'm not famous. I don't have a million followers on Twitter or some social platform. You know, I have my list and I'll talk about that with my company and organized binder. So I just, that's where like becoming a student of the process. I said, okay, so I'm halfway through the job the next. Year is going to be that next 50%, whatever it is getting the word out. And that even though that's the second 50% of the job, in terms of my story here, that when you asked at the beginning, when does that start? That actually started from the [00:14:00] moment I signed a contract and it was like, uhoh, now I really have to do this. Like I'm actually going to write a book 'cause I, I signed this thing. And so that just frame for me, I spent much more time, of course in the first 50% writing the book, but seeing it is okay from March, 2024 to March, 2025. I am working just as hard as I did in writing the book. To get the word out. And it's all new kind of domains for me, just like writing the book was. And I personally just enjoyed stepping into that unknown, and I can unpack those. I broke it into four categories and really kind of approached it kind of methodically in that fashion. I'm more than willing to talk about that. It, a big part of that is including your list, your own kind of email list. And if for someone who's listening that doesn't have an email list, that's okay. There's a way to start creating that that following, if you will. Well, Ross Romano: [00:15:00] Yeah. So what year did you start your company? Mitch Weathers: you know, I was consulting and like speaking, I actually officially incorporated in 2017 Ross Romano: Okay. Mitch Weathers: where we became like a real entity and other people kind of came on board and that's when I. First pivoted part-time in the classroom, and then a few years later stepped out into this work. So, so I've had some time. Ross Romano: I'm, so, I'm curious, like, so you were referred to getting over the discomfort of self-promotion with the book. Like I guess what. Felt different about that. As compared to you you've had this company and this consulting to sell for years. What were Mitch Weathers: Yeah. Ross Romano: or the the mental like dispositions toward promoting the book that felt different or that you found yourself still needing to kind of confront? Mitch Weathers: Yeah. That's a really good question. I've never thought about it, but I know the answer. Like, I immediately, when I started, speaking and doing keynotes and training with schools. It was all on these ideas and these [00:16:00] strategies that I had designed in my own classroom, but I deliberately did not make it. Mitch weathers.com. It was organized binder.com and I really worked hard for it not to be the Mitch show, even though it was, I gave birth to this program and these strategies, I wanted it to be not just about me, but about a team and all of our trainers or people who've used the program. So I guess in some ways, Ross, I never thought about this. It was, a way of me not having to self-promote. 'cause I would talk about this thing. Yeah, sure, I designed it, but it was more about this thing. And now I have this book and it's got my name on the cover. And it's like, there was something different there for me where I had to get over it and it for me. And again, just, maybe it's the way I'm wired, maybe other people doesn't at all stress me. But at first, like even saying like, I'm writing a book, it was just it was just something I had to embrace. [00:17:00] And the way I did that was like, well, if you really believe it, if you really believe in the message of this, you gotta get over that and start sharing it with people and take it from there. So, yeah I don't know what I think. Yeah, that, I don't know if that answers your question succinctly. And maybe other people who have organizations or companies or even you are just independent consulting. I have plenty of colleagues and friends that that's what they wanted and want to do and still do, where it is mitch weathers.com and I will come and deliver a keynote. And that's kind of my core business model, and that's not my model. So I think shifting to that and embracing like, okay. You know, I'm gonna be promoting this book, I'm gonna be talking about it when I go get a cup of coffee, I'm gonna talk about it at Thanksgiving. I'm gonna talk about it everywhere, because not a nauseum, you don't wanna be that guy. Right. You know? But people like, oh, I didn't know that. I've, I can't even tell you how many I've been on an airplane. I've been standing in line at the [00:18:00] Southwest waiting to get on it and someone, we start talking and, oh, you do this work and Oh, you wrote a book? And they're like, oh, I just bought it. I can't wait to read it. And you're like, oh, cool. Thanks. Lemme know what you think. You know, like, so there had to be that shift that I've realized, oh, it's not, I guess it's self-promoting, but not in a cheesy twi your mustache kinda way trying to sell you something. So. Ross Romano: Well, yeah, I mean, I think you hit it right. Well, number one, I mean, if you don't do it who will, who do you expect and how do you expect other people to want to share it if you're not willing to do so? But you know, also that fact of if you believe in it you know, I think a lot of people that have a discomfort or an aversion to the feeling of sales in any. Right, not selling anything, not necessarily just themselves. Or think of it as icky. Mitch Weathers: Yeah. The people who get uncomfortable, even at like a garage sale that's me. Ross Romano: right? Well then they have that like [00:19:00] stereotype of the the used car salesman in their head with which, like what's implied in the stereotype is that I'm selling you something that you shouldn't want. Right? I'm selling you something. I'm trying to get you to give me money for a product that's flawed, for something that I'm trying to trick you into it. But whatever you're selling, like if you believe that product is going to be beneficial to the other person, then you should have full confidence to tell them about it. Tell them what it costs, here's what it is, right? And if you don't feel like that, then. You need to, you shouldn't be selling it. Mitch Weathers: Right. I agree Ross Romano: you don't feel like your book is helping people, then write a better book. If you don't feel like if you're working for a company where you're selling a product that you feel bad about selling, then maybe it's just the wrong company. You know? Maybe it's not a good product. Maybe it's just not something that you care about or believe in. Right. It's not aligned with your values.[00:20:00] Mitch Weathers: And getting that centered first. Set you in a place where it's, you become okay to hear, no, I don't wanna buy that. I don't wanna read that book. And you're like, okay. Like, but it doesn't, it's not easy to hear if someone, not that people have come up and like, I'm not reading your book, but you, if you're like, okay, it's, you're not trying to please everybody, you're just trying to help those that are willing to dive in, so, Ross Romano: Yeah. On the flip side too, I mean, the other part of it is like. Using this podcast as an example one of my beliefs about it is if it's the right thing for the person who's learning about it, the more they know about it, the more they'll want to know. Right? And so that's why I like to have this show have longer conversations, go into more depth and detail about what's in these books. And nobody, if it's the right person listening, they're not going to say, I already know [00:21:00] everything. I don't wanna, I don't wanna read it. If you would've kept it all like, locked and hidden and just told me the title, I would've bought it. No, no chance, right? Like, I wanted, I wanna be hooked, I want to be interested, I wanna know more about, and I do think there's, that certainly goes along with books that I do think there's something that applies to books much in the same way as it does to other types of online courses and content like that. Where there's a school of thought that's like, give away your best stuff for free. Like, don't give away your worst stuff. And then have people think, well, this stuff's not that good, why would I pay for it? Like, put your good ideas out front when they excerpt when they excerpt books. Right? And this might not be, you know. Necessarily the same genre, but when they, they put an excerpt in a magazine or something, do you think they're going through and saying, okay, what's the part that we don't care if anybody knows about it? Or do [00:22:00] you think they say, what's the most interesting juiciest part? Because once they read that, they're gonna wanna read more. Right. But and understanding that if these ideas have depth and if they have substance, that just hearing about them one time isn't going to answer all the questions that a school leader, right, or an educator would need to really put it into practice, they're still going to need to review it more. They're going to need some training, they're going to need other things. So introduce them to what the ideas are, get them really interested and understanding what it's about. And then. The right people will decide, I need to buy that. I need to reach out to that person on their website. I need to learn more because I can tell this is the right thing for me. I just don't think the ambiguity helps. Right. Even for those who are like, let me go out there and promote this. But I don't wanna say too much. I don't ask me about that. Mitch Weathers: Right, right. I agree. Ross Romano: What are the what [00:23:00] channels do you have you found effective in the the book launch and book promotion process? Mitch Weathers: like I mentioned, I broke it into four kind of categories. I guess you could call them channels first, I would say, and I got really clear on this and got very lucky. One, I think that I'll say this is all like prewriting work. You have to have a good idea. Like it can't, like you said, it can't just be crap it's like, like what do you really believe in? If you're writing this book, who, who's it gonna like, I'll do that work ahead of time. And then I would say, if you haven't written your book, what absolutely saved me? And this was three steps in the pre-launch. It's gotta be a good idea. Number two, you have to have a book map. At least if you're like me I had all these ideas and there's nothing in my book I have not said from a stage or a training at a school or a district someplace at some time. But. [00:24:00] Speaking where they're just different modes of communication and writing. I expected myself to eventually get into some like writer's flow state, and it never happened. It was literally like pulling teeth every minute of the time that I wrote. And I ha I worked with now dear friends, have a group called Hungry Authors and they have a book mapping cohort and taking your ideas and getting a map for me and most of us, I'm just going to assume in the busyness of life, finding time to write is a scarcity. And so when you get it for me anyway, it was like, okay, I'm working on this right now. It connects to this here. Like, I had that whole map of the whole book and it ebbed and flowed and it adjusted as I went. And then working with Corwin, we changed things around and that was all a great process, but I would say good idea. You've gotta have a map to, to keep on [00:25:00] track and then you can start working on while you're writing your launch plan. Those were like my three precursors and that's what I meant, like a good idea book map. So I can start writing and I'm not gonna mention like going with a publisher or you know, self-publishing 'cause that's factored in there, but just as for anybody. And then as you start writing, then you start turning your attention to your launch plan. And for me, to be honest, like the deep work was writing. I did these power hours where I'd come into the office and for, it was very strange. The first two or three hours, at least two or three times a week, I would turn. Spoke my phones off, I would, you couldn't contact me and I would just write whether I felt like it was good, whether I was saying what I wanted to getting it out. Like I would, I just had to like carve out that time. And then when I would come up for air and get back to work and do the stuff I needed to do, I could find time for the book launch stuff, which wasn't that deep [00:26:00] work for me anyhow. It was really kind of fun and creative. And I would say, so to your question for the channels, I broke it into four categories, is what I call it, is people media roadshow and then purchasing. Like people are gonna, I want people to buy this book, and I've embraced that. So the purchasing and that I just worked on. Concurrently as I was writing the book some of it started kind of, as a lead up to the publication date, but I really wanted to have a lightning strike in and around the time of the publication date. And all four of those channels are categories, kind of funneled into that and then continued on the year after. So I'm more than willing to unpack some of those if that's helpful. But that, that in, in terms of, I, when I think you, you said channels, I think social channels and that's part of it, but I it up to some other ideas [00:27:00] and it helped kind of frame that work. (ad here) Ross Romano: Well, and of course there, there's like. Podcast. There's the media, like you talked about, there's network. Mitch Weathers: Podcasts were under my road show. Ross Romano: okay. So, Mitch Weathers: or under the road show, like getting the idea that I was like getting out and like when you had me on your show the first time and it was an introduction from our mutual friend Jethro, if I remember right. And we had never met and it was, those were kind of the, some of those, Hey Jethro, I've known you for years. Is there any shows you think this would be a resonate with? Oh, you gotta meet my buddy Ross. And that was part of book launch and in my little spreadsheet or whatever it was under my roadshow category. So. Ross Romano: yeah, I mean, that, that seems, that's a good way to break it down and to think about how you, are going to approach that. How did you go about. Making a schedule for, okay, when this is coming out, right? Like, this is how much time I need to be making [00:28:00] myself available for the promotion, and then I'm gonna fill that time with the different things I'm doing right. And how long do I anticipate that to last? Is it a, is it two months? Is it a year? Mitch Weathers: I think the lead up at least is multiple months. Like you'd wanna start talking about the book's gonna become available now. Right. And the purchasing category for my four categories, I started, I created a landing page. Now again, I have a company and I have a website and we have a tab now that says book and, but I started promoting it. Months ahead of time with pre-order what you can do on Amazon and stuff. But what I wanted was people that were like, yeah, I really wanna read that. I'm gonna pre-order it. And we just had an ongoing list. So when it did drop, I think, gosh, when I got my first shipment of books to the office, it was there was hundreds that had already sold. And I spent [00:29:00] multiple days signing each copy and thanking the person. And I got to personally mail it to them, which is just Amazon's great. And we can talk about some changes that have happened there, but that's just a really cool experience for, I think for both people. The author and the receiver. So that, that lead up, I would say multiple months and getting the word out with a call to action of some sort. And for me that was like, Hey, you can pre-order this now. And just having that link available on every social blast, every newsletter, blast campaign or email to our personal list. Those were people who were interested. And those people start to become kind of your champions too, because if they're going and doing that they don't know me, I don't know them, and all of a sudden someone just bought my book. Four months before it's even available. That's a, but you have to give them the opportunity to do that. Just talking about It's great [00:30:00] too, but if it's like, Hey, if you're really interested, I'd love your support. You can pre-order it right now. And a lot of people will be like, heck yeah, I'll do that. I mean, you're talking 20 bucks, 30 bucks. It's not but we I didn't expect this either. We started having schools and districts pre-order and it was like, wow, okay. It was just, we're interested in that topic. That's what we're going to maybe focus on next year. Yeah. We'll do that. So. Yeah, I would say the lead up is as soon as you have your publication date, and this is where it was helpful for me working with a publisher, 'cause it was established. Had I been self-publishing, you were holding yourself accountable for that date. And I had the couple months leading up to get my final manuscript back, I think it was the third iteration, it was a quicker turnaround than I expected. I had like four weeks and two of those weeks were a family vacation and I was writing at the little house we rented for our vacation. And it was great. You know, my, my wife supported that. [00:31:00] And but having those hard deadlines imposed helped me. It may, maybe not everybody needs that but it's nice to have that publication date because then this idea of a lightning strike, and what I mean by that is one way of getting the word out is of course, social channels, emails, talking to people. Right then having the call to action, like, Hey, if you're this, if you're interested, you can actually pre-order it right now. Having that channel set up, that's another form of marketing. And then what I did was schedule, this is part of the road show. I was doing free webinars every month leading up just providing value. And oh, by the way, I have a book on this coming out. You can pre-order it here. You don't have to, you can spend this hour with me and get, learn a bunch and move on, like there's no harm, no foul, but that was part of the roadshow. And then like, meeting you, I was probably on 20 different podcasts or more. Not that I can [00:32:00] control when those podcasts come out. But I was able to with some say, Hey, I'd love for these if it's possible, like late February, early March, I'm trying to create this kind of lightning strike. Like, wow, what's this? And. That I just haven't, I have not stopped. I've kept that same, not the pre-order thing. Of course, momentum going in terms of free providing anyone who gives me their email, that's like the warmest lead you can ever have, right? And so every month or every other month, I offer free classes come and learn. There's no and it's just, and I continue to be on podcasts and speak at conferences and all of this is, I'm not quote unquote selling anything or making any money, but it's keeping that, kind of top of mind, if you will. So yeah, leading up I would say get that publication date and start those while you're writing. Part of the process is getting the word out. Ross Romano: Yeah. Did having gone through the launch and the [00:33:00] ongoing promotion, did it make you more or less excited about book number two? Did it give you energy? Did it deplete your energy? Mitch Weathers: yeah, it gave me energy. I didn't, so my, the subtitle of my book it's the book's called Executive Functions for Every Classroom, and one of the, there's another subtitle, but it's grades three through 12. And that's an area in the education landscape that I feel very comfortable speaking as an expert and like I both have taught in these grades. And then as a, with my organized binder work, I've spent a lot of time in those spaces where I haven't spent time is in the primary grades. K 1, 2, 3. There's kind of an overlap. And so Corwin, so the book. I think this is some of the launch too. I think it's a good book on top of that. But the launch there, the Corwin, their metric is if it sells 2,500 copies in the first calendar year, it's considered a number one bestseller for [00:34:00] Corwin. And it hit number one, as I mentioned, on Amazon right away, like in the first few weeks. And it surpassed that Corwin bestseller in like three months and doubled it before the end of the first year. And so there was, it was well received, which was humbling in and of itself. And so Corwin, of course, they're, they sell books, right? Started asking pretty early on like, Hey, what about, what do you think about book number two? And I love my team, they're amazing. And I was like, no. I have no interest in writing another book that it was like one of the hardest things I've ever done. And then I had this epiphany about two months ago that, and this is just for the specifics around my book, this is a good, the first book, one is a good book for grades three through 12 because in education we start to become very content focused. The older we get in the grades, but you talk to a K 1, 2, 3 teacher, they're like, executive functions are like the only thing besides ba basic [00:35:00] mathematics and literacy. Like, this is what we need to be doing. And so there was one day I just had this like, oh, I, we, I need I almost feel a calling to bring this work into the world like I did with Book one, but co-author was someone that is in that, their expertise. So, did it make me excited? Yes, I'm really excited about the project and we're writing actively, and it's really good. I'm I'm proud of it, but I also know the work involved in both finishing the project and the marketing and all of that. So I'm excited. I have friends like you that I have reached out as and be like, Hey, book two's coming, and I'm doing the same thing, like I would publication dates about here. I would love to, if it fits to your schedule and it's, it, it feels nice to kind of have that runway, of relationships and and whatnot. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for it, but I'm a little bit staring down the beast right now, you know? Ross Romano: Yeah. Is there anything [00:36:00] you learned that you plan, you're planning to do differently in the second launch? Mitch Weathers: You know, I, this is new and I'm glad you asked that. Not with the four kind of categories of people, I would say people media and kind of the road show not so much as one change. And what I mean by people is if, and I'll speak just for me in education, I started immediately thinking like, who could I get to endorse this book? Because I'm notoriously like a ghost on social media, so I don't really have, and my company doesn't have like a, like I mentioned, like a massive following. And that's helpful. If you have people that follow you, they're probably gonna buy your book. You know, Ryan Holiday writes a book, like people buy his book and I'm just I don't have that. And I didn't strive for that, but. I've been in this space for so long that I have people that do have influence and that they do enjoy that side of work. And so I started thinking about people as [00:37:00] like, okay, who would endorse this? People as my list, how do you grow your list so that more people know your book's coming out? And then I had some other categories. I had this big hitters, like I called 'em big hitters, long shots, like people that I admire their work and I don't know. And for some reason I'm like, I'm gonna create this category and see if I can just meet them. And it was like John Hattie, Jennifer Gonzalez Hammond, like just, there was a bunch of us, I've met every single one of them in the last year and consider them like pretty close friends now. Like, we try and I don't know why that happened other than putting that intention out and then asking like, Hey. You know, so and so, do you think they would be interested in chatting with me? And some said no. Some said yes. And that it happened, the change in the people piece. So we did, and I say we, this was, I had some help with my team at Organized Binder figuring out this whole [00:38:00] idea of a lightning strike. Amazon of course plays a major role in book sales. What we will do different in the second round, I'm trying, and I don't have this fully figured out yet, but there's kind of an algorithm that's of course changing all the time at Amazon, but you want your book to be visible, right? And some of that is people buying it within a certain amount of time from when it publishes and leaving reviews. There's a way to like kick up dust. So, so that they see it. And anybody who's listening to this, if you want to know more about that. Check the show notes. I'll have Ross put my email in there, or it's on the last page of my book. I'd love to tell you about it. Interestingly, in the last month, we've had a number of schools contact me through Organized Mind and say, Hey we're doing a book study this summer and we're trying to get the books before the end of the year, and Amazon's saying they're low on quantity. We can't get 'em through Amazon in time. Can you help us out? And we [00:39:00] can through Core Win and stuff, but historic, I mean, leading up to this last month, I mean Amazon's like it's Amazon, just. I've been telling schools like, Hey, if you have an Amazon account, it's free shipping. It's prime, it's often on sale. Just here's what we can get it for you for and we'll do our best, but if you can save money over here, go get it over there. And I reached out to my publisher and I was like, this is this. I thought it was like, well, this is a good sign. Like, wow, Amazon's low on stock and this is really I want the authors out there to know, and not to alarm anybody. They shared that Amazon is deprioritizing books in terms of sales. So they're just not keeping the quantity. You can still get it there. But it's, for us, it's maybe all the bulk portion purchases will go through Corwin or something. So that's the one change I will make. Other than that, I'm, I, I'm gonna stick with the book launch plan. It would be really fun for my co-author Dr. Sarah Oberly and I to do our road show [00:40:00] together and see what comes of it. Ross Romano: I mean, yeah. I mean, I think the important thing that you have brought up a lot of times here, and it's something that I, in work that I've done over a lot of years of working with authors on publicity and communications and doing it in other roles is like you, you have to build relationships and think of every opportunity as at least a potential relationship. Right. And this person interviewed you, like, keep in touch with them go back to them next time. Yeah. But in the meantime make a recommendation for them. Ask them who they know. You know, the easiest way to. Get what you want is to ask Mitch Weathers: Yeah, Ross Romano: Right. Like you referenced asking, oh, it would be great if this could publish around this time. That would be great. A lot of the time that's pretty easy to accommodate it, but it's probably not going to happen automatically. 'cause people have whatever their schedule is [00:41:00] that's planned out, but sometimes adjusting that, oh yeah, sure, no, no problem. But you have to ask and then when you're in the meantime continuing to make connections and build relationships or so much of the opportunities that come along, and I can say this as from this side of the microphone or like if you know people who listen to the show and go through and see. All the different guests that have been on. And sometimes there's a particular guest that people say, oh, how'd you get that person on? And it's like just kind of being where you are, honestly. Like, I don't know if I've had more than probably one or two of the 160 some guests on the show that I really like proactively sought out. It was a lot of certainly a lot of people that I have known over the years and had relationships with people who introduced me to others. Some who [00:42:00] came of course and reached out to me and other people who just an opportunity presented itself. And I said, oh, okay. Yeah, let's have that person on. Or I noticed so and so, or a guest followed up after an episode and said, Hey, I thought I should introduce you to this person. And you know, a lot of times it was, somebody who you thought, oh man, oh yeah, I'll do that. Right? Mitch Weathers: I'd love to talk to that person. Ross Romano: but it's just continuing to kind of be present and have those communications. And I always put in there when I have somebody on, is there anybody else you recommend? Right? And it's, it helps that person because it gets them an introduction for their work. It helps it's just but certainly it's so much about if you do, whether it's a podcast or another media opportunity or speaking somewhere or whatever it is, right? If you just kind of go show up, do it, and then that person or that, that group never hears from you again. You know, it, there's a lot of [00:43:00] things that it's not going to lead to, right? There are a lot of those extra opportunities or connections that you just. You're gonna miss out on if you don't think about it that way. And yet I always Mitch Weathers: Yeah. The follow up piece, I look at it as this is a new friend as a relationship, and I would say for any authors out there wanting to spread the word. I made a point, this is actually on my launch plan. I have a whole doc that I followed and it's fun again, the timing of this as I'm getting back into it with book two, but I asked every podcast host at the end, now that you know, not that you didn't know about my work, but is there anybody in your network that has a show that you think. This would provide value for their guests because that's what people like you, like, that's what you're passionate about. It's like, so if you can, I would say ask the question of every podcast host and then figure out if you view it as a relationship, how can you [00:44:00] provide value back to that person? And that's really important. I mean, that's the idea of the free webinar. Like the free webinar is going to sell your book. You don't have to sell your book on those. In fact, you can give a discount code at the end of your webinar, 20% off the book as a thank you for being here. You're talking about your book. It's interesting people who approach it like, like I, I refer to it as a scarcity versus abundance mindset. Show up and give, provide value. Don't worry about sales that will produce sales. But if it's just about what you're getting. Like, I'm on the Authority podcast and I'm gonna tell everybody about me being on that show. It's like, I've found that there's a synergy when you show up and you're like, no, we're both passionate about this and trying to get the word out and do good work. And we both wanna help one another. And part of that, like you said, is just asking. And then part of that is like, well, how can I help [00:45:00] you? Is there any, and maybe I can't, maybe it's, there's nothing. But maybe it's like, oh, like you said so and so, I'd love to talk to them. Oh, sure. That kind of thing. So, Ross Romano: And maybe you, maybe you don't even know when you're helping or but if you are a podcast host or if you're anybody in any kind of position. But but particularly, 'cause this is the example at hand. Learn how to answer that question. Think about right, like, you should have thoughts ready when somebody is looking for that recommendation or referral. That's how you get it in kind. If I'm sending good recommendations to somebody else, they're going to send them back to me. Sometimes, I mean, this is gonna sound funny, but you know, there's been plenty of occasions where. Someone has introduced me to another person that I already knew right. But maybe hadn't talked to in a while. Or we just realize, hey, we, we have common friends here. Right? And that creates another [00:46:00] connection. So it's it's just the things that kind of keep those conversations going and sort of spark new opportunities. And then maybe it's like getting reacquainted with somebody at the right time ends up that they introduce you to somebody else. And before you know it, you don't even remember how it happened, but you're thinking, oh, well this is great. But yeah, it's the best way to create opportunity and connections for yourself is to make them for others and to really think about that. Mitch Weathers: Like how you said it though. Sorry to interrupt you. Is that I don't know if it's gonna help or when it's gonna help. It's not about that. It's about showing up with gratitude and being willing you can't you always giving you, that's work you gotta do and stuff. But yeah, anytime, man, in the last year and a half, the number of people I've met with that are, have an idea or they wanna write a book and can I could we meet for a half an hour on Zoom and talk about me? Absolutely. Like [00:47:00] a hundred percent. And we can just, and it's just. Trying to help and recognizing even that, like, that's getting the word out about your project. It just is, but it's not about that. That's like this byproduct of this a way of approaching sales and marketing, if you will. Ross Romano: Yeah, it's I always, it applies here. I mean, it's something that I always have tried to do. I don't do as much PR anymore, but but certainly when I did, like anytime I got an inquiry, like always tried to help, even if it was not, had nothing to do with the organization I was representing, saying, okay who do I know that can help this? Mitch Weathers: Absolutely. Ross Romano: when I started my consulting business I had, for a while, I just had one client and I probably made 3, 4, 5 referrals. That people came to me and I thought I wasn't quite the right fit and referred them to other people when I certainly could have used some clients [00:48:00] at the time, but thought, eh, this isn't the right thing. Exactly. I know somebody who'd be better for this. And then down the road, I ended up getting referrals that I wasn't expecting at all. Where someone come to me and say, Hey, I I was talking to this person and I thought to you, I thought maybe they should talk to you. And it's not, you can't, it's not transactional. 'cause you don't know Right. What's going to happen. But you just have to say, if I can help, if I know somebody who can help with this, Let me do that. Yeah. It takes a little extra effort and. There's not an immediate payoff, right? To say, I'm going to if it's, I'm going to help somebody else get interviewed for something, and like, none of that is going to come back this way. And, but it's okay now that person that you helped will come back to you again next time and maybe next time it does relate to what you're doing. Right. So just, I mean, I think that's and we will kind of wrap this up, [00:49:00] but I think that's one of the key things to think about when you're on either side of this equation is just when you see opportunities to help, to make connections for people or just to share what you know, do it. Because it'll, it, it just creates all those opportunities for the same to happen for you. And before you know it, you're. It you get to your third book launch in this case, and you don't have to do much because you've already done it right. And you already kind of know what to do, where to go. People are ready to kind of make connections for you or to help you. And it's all the work that went into it leading up to that. That makes it easy afterward. Mitch Weathers: And life's just better and more fun having friends, you know? So it's all good stuff all the way around. Ross Romano: Mitch, so I know you have the second book coming out. You referred to that, and we we'll have you back on the show later to talk about that. But is there [00:50:00] anything else that you'd like our listeners to check out? We'll put the link in the notes to our previous conversation here and to the executive functions book as well, or the first executive functions book, I guess it is. But anything else that you have going on right now for people to check out? Mitch Weathers: Going on, we have a, I have a summer speaking of roadshow of in-person and virtual speaking events if, I don't know when this is dropping, so it, that, those may have already passed, but it generally speaking, head over to just organize binder.com if you want to we have a mailing list. We're not. I think you can probably pick up from the tone of this conversation. We don't try to sell you anything or we, and we're not you're not getting an email every day from us. It's more of like, here's some really cool resources. Here's a free event. I'm giving a, like I said, a workshop every month or two. They're just out there. And there's a few of those happening through the summer, and you can get all that information at our list or contact me. Directly through the website, like the contact form or I'm most [00:51:00] visible and active probably on LinkedIn. You can just look up Mitch Weathers and get me. But yeah, that's what's happened. It'll be, if you go and check out that Summer Road show, I'll be speaking in quite a few different states this summer in some really fun, interesting events. Like I'm speaking at Cambridge University's annual conference and the Visible Learning Conference and some, just some fun different type of events that I've never participated in, which, by the way, authors out there, those are all byproducts of the book a hundred percent because that thing's just traveling around. So, yeah, man, I'm excited for the next time we get together. And I will say this, if you feel free to reach out to me, if you really wanna get. If there's if this is resonating with you and you want specifics of what I call my book lodge and lightning strike approach I'm more than willing to meet with somebody and pull the hood up on that and just go through the bullet points. So hope that helps. Ross Romano: yeah, everybody out there, I mean, take advantage of [00:52:00] of the offers and the opportunities. We'll put the links below to Mitch's website for organized binder and our previous episode here if you wanna listen back or where you can find the book. If you'd like to check it out. So. That's all there for you. And stay tuned in the future for when he's back here again. Please do also subscribe to the authority if you haven't already or if you have subscribed here, enjoying the show. We always very much appreciate those five star ratings and reviews. They're very helpful to helping new folks find the show. And as we continue to, I think see a lot of success here in that regard. You can also visit v podcast.network if you want to learn about more of our shows. If you like this one, there's at least one more that you're going to enjoy there, but probably dozens. So, plenty of shows for school leaders, for personal growth, for educators of different roles for parents. If it's about education, there's something there for you. So check that out as well. Mitch, thanks again for [00:53:00] being here. Mitch Weathers: Thanks Ross. That was fun.