Latest / Mosaic Sparks with Lesley George / Sarah Ramsey + How to Get Media Coverage for Your Book Before Launch | We Are Standing with You

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Sarah Ramsey + How to Get Media Coverage for Your Book Before Launch | We Are Standing with You · Mosaic Sparks with Lesley George

0:01
SPEAKER_01: Visibility, media coverage, and work at NASA.
0:08
SPEAKER_01: Today, my guest, I sit down with Sarah Ramsey, who is all about getting you seen.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: Because she works with authors, and you can have this incredible book, but no one knows about it.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: And she is an expert to get you seen so that everyone can know who you are.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: And there's also a surprise because yeah, you're gonna be surprised as a Disney character that she aligns with.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: So let's go ahead and get into the show.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: Come get the clothes, come feel the flame.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: Leslie George, remember the name.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Island soul with a fearless spark.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: True speaks here and it leaves its mark.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: No dimming down, no pain small.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Step in strong and stand up tall.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: You walk in bold and move with grace.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Mosaic sparks, come take your place.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: This is where brilliance lies to speak.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: All right.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: Well, Sarah thank you for joining me here on Mosaic Sparks.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we love having incredible guests that have so many great stories.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the first things I want to ask you is what are you proud of right now?
1:30
SPEAKER_04: I am proud that I am still here doing the thing.
1:35
SPEAKER_04: I've been freelancing off and on.
1:38
SPEAKER_04: I've been freelancing sometimes full-time, sometimes part-time, since 2017.
1:43
SPEAKER_04: I started the business that I'm in.
1:46
SPEAKER_04: I went like all in and went no, if I'm doing this, I'm doing this two years ago.
1:51
SPEAKER_04: And of course, I picked a time to start a business when everything in, you know, like the economy's not great, social media is changing, visibility is like everything is changing.
2:05
SPEAKER_04: And so there have been days when it's been, it's been hard.
2:09
SPEAKER_04: And there have been days when I have looked at job listings and went, you know, should I shut for the stability?
2:17
SPEAKER_04: Should I go back to the regular world of work?
2:21
SPEAKER_04: And every time I look at and say, no, I I want to be here, I want to do this, I want to make a difference.
2:28
SPEAKER_04: And so I'm really the thing that I'm most proud of right now is that I'm still doing the thing.
2:35
SPEAKER_04: I'm still learning, I am still pivoting where I need to, you know, changing what I need to, incorporating new things and and just and surviving and just out here, you know, trying to make it work.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: You know what I love about that is because on social media, we always see the highlight reels of entrepreneurship.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: And here you just really dove deep.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: You went into the deep end and really laid it out that it is not always that glamorous.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: But here's what the key takeaway that I got from you.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: You're still here.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: You're committed to your purpose and the reason why you wanted to start a business.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: So I absolutely love that and continue champion for that.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: But share with us what is that business?
3:20
SPEAKER_01: What is it that you that you started?
3:22
SPEAKER_01: Share with us about that.
3:24
SPEAKER_04: I work with authors primarily.
3:26
SPEAKER_04: I also work with thought leaders because I think there are a lot of authors out there who just haven't written their book yet.
3:32
SPEAKER_04: So I gotta say that first.
3:33
SPEAKER_04: But what I do is I help them build their visibility platform.
3:38
SPEAKER_04: And that is everything from early stage authors, you know, so authors who are still writing the book, who are who haven't decided if they're going traditional publishing, hybrid, indie, their direction yet, but they know that whatever they do, they have to start building name recognition now.
3:58
SPEAKER_04: So I help them figure out like where do they even start?
4:01
SPEAKER_04: What do they even do?
4:02
SPEAKER_04: And then for the authors who are, you know, they have everything, they have written the book and they have a release date.
4:09
SPEAKER_04: They know the book is coming out, whether it's their first one or their 15th, and they want to get media coverage for that book, whether it is the local newspaper, TV station, podcasts, anywhere, blogs, newsletters.
4:24
SPEAKER_04: They just they want to get coverage and attention for the release of that book.
4:30
SPEAKER_04: So I work with them very specifically to do that.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: So tell us if you're able, tell us a little bit about that, you know, because now everything is visibility, right?
4:40
SPEAKER_01: And you know, you you are 100% correct.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: And I love how you have your two buckets of the different, the different authors that you that you work with.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: But you know, everything is visibility and it's about building your authority.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: And you can have this amazing book, but it got published and it's sitting on a shelf, and nobody knows about this amazing book.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: So talk to us a little bit about that media coverage.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, you mentioned TV and different things.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: Talk to us a little bit about that.
5:07
SPEAKER_04: So I think that some, and not just authors, I think some people think, you know, they hear publicist and they think, oh, I hire a publicist.
5:17
SPEAKER_04: And what happens then is they go out and they like pick up the phone and call a TV station, and I get on the TV station.
5:25
SPEAKER_04: And then people buy my book.
5:27
SPEAKER_04: And so part of what I do is walk them back from that and do a little bit of education and tell them how things work.
5:34
SPEAKER_04: And, you know, I wish it were that easy.
5:36
SPEAKER_04: It is, it's not that easy.
5:39
SPEAKER_04: But showing them how little bits of visibility actually it's I call it this, it's the snowball, right?
5:47
SPEAKER_04: You get a little bit, and the more you get, the more it builds, and the more you get and the more it builds.
5:53
SPEAKER_04: And you don't need to be in the New York Times.
5:56
SPEAKER_04: You you really don't.
5:57
SPEAKER_04: That getting in the New York Times doesn't necessarily sell books.
6:02
SPEAKER_04: So a lot of what I do is helping them figure out what actually works so that they aren't wasting time and money and energy and you know, all expectations, all these huge expectations.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:19
SPEAKER_04: I like I talk with authors who who are still writing their first draft.
6:23
SPEAKER_04: Maybe they're getting ready to start sending queries out to agents to get an agent.
6:29
SPEAKER_04: And they are they are on social media.
6:33
SPEAKER_04: They're like they're they've got a brand, they're doing, you know, they're doing reels and they're doing TikTok things, and they're doing, you know, they've got their font and they've got their colors and they've got their stories, and they don't have a book yet.
6:47
SPEAKER_04: And so I get authors coming to me going, I what what I don't have a I don't have a book.
6:52
SPEAKER_04: What do I talk about?
6:53
SPEAKER_04: I'm spending all this time creating things and I don't know that it's doing any good.
6:59
SPEAKER_04: And so, so the first thing I really do is work with them to to figure out what works, what works in today's media landscape, because today's media landscape is nothing like last year's, two years ago, five years ago.
7:14
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
7:15
SPEAKER_04: That's that's wow.
7:16
SPEAKER_04: It's you what we're talking about earned media or social media, it's all different.
7:20
SPEAKER_04: So, so a lot of the I don't like using the word coach because that has a very specific, you know, there are certifications for coaches that has a very specific connotation to it, I think.
7:33
SPEAKER_04: But that's kind of a lot of what I do is the the walking beside them and reminding them that their story is important, their story deserves attention.
7:44
SPEAKER_04: Like there's a reason they're writing this book.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: True, yeah.
7:48
SPEAKER_04: It deserves attention, it deserves to be out there, and I'm the one walking with them to help them get where they want to go.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, you really touch on a lot of different interests and things, right?
7:59
SPEAKER_01: So we we've heard that you have a book coming out and you need to mark it before the book comes out so you're building that traction.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: But what I love what you said is that it is not the same like it was last year or even two years ago.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: So when we are, when we are, because I also help women first-time authors publish their book, and so we really and that's why you have areas expertise, you know, someone like you that have that air of expertise that know that the landscape has changed.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: And as you mentioned, people are doing all these things and expending all this energy, and not only that, expectation, and then the book comes out, and then and there are a lot of books coming out, yeah, yeah.
8:52
SPEAKER_04: The ability to self-publish or the popularity, there are more small presses, hybrid presses out there.
9:00
SPEAKER_04: You don't have to wait one of the big five publishers to give you a contract.
9:06
SPEAKER_04: Anybody can publish these days, right?
9:10
SPEAKER_04: And that means there's a lot more.
9:13
SPEAKER_04: I mean, if you go to Amazon, you know, you look at the the number of books available on Amazon, it is exponentially more.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:22
SPEAKER_04: And, you know, again, to 10 years ago, whenever Kindles first started coming out, whenever ebooks became a thing, like it's become so much easier for people to publish that it just means naturally there there are more books out there.
9:37
SPEAKER_04: So everybody wants attention.
9:39
SPEAKER_04: How do you break through all of that?
9:42
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: It's tough.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: And then you mentioned earned media.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: Talk to us a little bit about that, and then you mentioned small media.
9:51
SPEAKER_04: So there are four four call it four types of media.
9:56
SPEAKER_04: There's earned media, owned media, paid media, and rented media.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: Rented?
10:03
SPEAKER_04: Rented.
10:04
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
10:04
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
10:05
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
10:06
SPEAKER_04: So the technical terms.
10:07
SPEAKER_04: That's that's the jargon.
10:09
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
10:09
SPEAKER_04: So I'll get paid media out of the way first.
10:12
SPEAKER_04: That's just advertising.
10:13
SPEAKER_04: If you pay for it, it is paid media.
10:16
SPEAKER_04: And that doesn't mean that doesn't mean that it has to be trying to see if I've got a magazine around here, like an ad, like a traditional, you know, ad in a newspaper or a TV commercial.
10:27
SPEAKER_04: If it is a sponsored article, it is paid media.
10:30
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
10:31
SPEAKER_04: Doesn't matter that it's 500 words and appears, you know, just like any other article.
10:35
SPEAKER_04: If you paid for it, it is paid media.
10:38
SPEAKER_04: It is advertising.
10:39
unknown: Okay.
10:40
SPEAKER_04: Owned media is anything that you own the platform, even if you are, you know, your website, because yes, you don't own, you know, if you host your website, Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, wherever you have it, yes, you don't own that.
10:54
SPEAKER_02: Right.
10:55
SPEAKER_04: But it you own the domain.
10:57
SPEAKER_04: Right.
10:57
SPEAKER_04: It is your website.
10:59
SPEAKER_04: If you decided to move from one of those hosts to the other, your domain comes with you, your content comes with you, that website comes with you here, here, it's yours.
11:09
SPEAKER_04: So that leaves us with earned and rented.
11:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
11:13
SPEAKER_04: Rented is basically social media.
11:16
SPEAKER_04: Oh.
11:17
SPEAKER_04: It's your content on a platform that somebody else owns.
11:21
SPEAKER_04: There are a couple of things that sort of walk the line, like newsletters, your email, you own your email list.
11:29
SPEAKER_04: That again, if you go from kit to flow desk to you know, whatever MailChimp, whatever your host is, you can take your list with you.
11:41
SPEAKER_04: That's yours.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
11:42
SPEAKER_04: But platforms like Substack are technically it's your list.
11:47
SPEAKER_04: Technically, you own the content, but Substack is kind of a walled garden.
11:53
SPEAKER_04: Like it is they focus on yes, bringing people in, but once you are in, just like Facebook, just like Insta, they don't want you to leave.
12:04
SPEAKER_04: They want you to stay in that walled garden of that platform and and talk to each.
12:11
SPEAKER_04: I mean, I don't even know if it's talk to each other anymore, but they want you to stay within that walled garden.
12:17
SPEAKER_04: So if you try to leave Substack, yes, you can take most of the stuff with you.
12:24
SPEAKER_04: But like you can't take the if somebody makes comments on your on your newsletter, at least last time I checked, you didn't you could take your newsletter, you could take the content, but you couldn't take the comments.
12:36
SPEAKER_04: So it's it kind of walks that line.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
12:40
SPEAKER_04: So earned media.
12:41
SPEAKER_04: Earned media is what we think of as like anytime you appear in the newspaper or interviewed for again for TV.
12:51
SPEAKER_04: But it's also podcasts.
12:53
SPEAKER_04: Podcasts are as long as you don't pay for an appearance, that's sponsored.
12:57
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
12:58
SPEAKER_04: That's that's uh paid media.
13:00
SPEAKER_04: If you you do a podcast appearance, you do if you write for a newspaper, you submit a byline article, all of that organic or earned media.
13:11
SPEAKER_04: So anytime you show up in the media for something that you that you didn't buy, that that is you are getting you are earning authority through someone else's platform because of their authority.
13:27
SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: So in your space, are is it ranked?
13:31
SPEAKER_01: Is it, you know, is is earned media the the top of the chart where rented me, you know what I mean?
13:41
SPEAKER_04: Is it I think for most authors, it needs to be a combination of of all four, honestly.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: Love that.
13:51
SPEAKER_04: Every author needs some kind of home online.
13:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
13:56
SPEAKER_04: And there are options.
13:57
SPEAKER_04: Like I I think a website is one of the few things that every author needs, but it that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go buy a domain and you know get set up on a WordPress or Squarespace or Wix or whatever.
14:14
SPEAKER_04: There are there are some sites out there that will basically you create a page on their site and that's your that's your digital home.
14:22
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
14:23
SPEAKER_04: So you need some kind of presence.
14:26
SPEAKER_04: I think that most authors benefit from having something like a newsletter to communicate directly with their readers.
14:34
SPEAKER_04: I think most authors find it useful to do some kind of printed social media.
14:42
SPEAKER_04: That that is not saying you have to have a massive presence.
14:48
SPEAKER_04: Right.
14:49
SPEAKER_04: You hate all social media, you do not have to do that.
14:52
SPEAKER_04: But there are different authors have different goals, different gen yeah, genres show up in different places more easily.
15:00
SPEAKER_04: And so I think like having something there.
15:03
SPEAKER_04: And then the earned media, that is the again, you you get that authority.
15:09
SPEAKER_02: Right.
15:10
SPEAKER_04: And so that is for a lot of people, they do see that as the pinnacle.
15:14
SPEAKER_04: That's the thing I want, but you don't get that until most of the time, you do not get that until you have a book.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
15:24
SPEAKER_04: Earned media comes with news.
15:28
SPEAKER_04: And for authors, that is typically around the release of the book.
15:33
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
15:35
SPEAKER_04: You dig into that and like, yes, there are there are other paths, there are other things that happen, but for most people, as a generalization, earned media comes when you have news to make.
15:47
SPEAKER_04: So that is when you sign a deal with a publisher, when you have a release date, when you actually release the book.
15:56
SPEAKER_04: Crash Course PR 101.
15:58
SPEAKER_01: I love this, Sarah.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: You know, thank you.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: You are giving the listeners such great nuggets, and thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm gonna ask so who who has been your mentor in this space as you have so much knowledge and so forth?
16:14
SPEAKER_01: Who's who's been your mentor?
16:16
SPEAKER_04: So, so many people.
16:19
SPEAKER_04: So I I can't so I've been doing strategic communications for 20 years now.
16:26
SPEAKER_04: Okay, but more around that.
16:28
SPEAKER_04: My professional background is actually with the federal government.
16:31
SPEAKER_04: So I I worked for NASA and then I worked for other nonprofits and industry associations and companies also in the space world.
16:44
SPEAKER_04: So I I spent 20-ish years working around in the space industry and most of that either for the government or something connected to the government.
16:56
SPEAKER_04: And I came in as a policy analyst.
16:59
SPEAKER_04: So by trade, by education, I am public policy wonk.
17:04
SPEAKER_04: And when I started working for NASA, because I had done communications things before, I had an opportunity to start working on the outreach side of the house and just fell in love with that because public policy and communications go hand in hand.
17:21
SPEAKER_04: You cannot make good policy without good communications.
17:26
SPEAKER_04: You cannot execute, you cannot implement good public policy without communications.
17:30
SPEAKER_04: If nobody knows you're doing it, it doesn't work.
17:33
SPEAKER_04: So my mentors really were people who because I didn't, my my degree is not in public relations.
17:42
SPEAKER_04: My degree is not in marketing.
17:44
SPEAKER_04: It's like I said, it's in public policy, not in my bachelor's degree is in history.
17:49
SPEAKER_04: I can write.
17:50
SPEAKER_04: Oh, wow.
17:51
SPEAKER_04: Very different type of writing than uh media relations, than public affairs.
17:57
SPEAKER_04: So everything I know about strategic communications, I learned from the best of the best.
18:03
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
18:04
SPEAKER_04: Working in the NASA uh Office of Communications and in our newsroom.
18:09
SPEAKER_04: And the the public affairs officers that I worked with are our news chief, our my boss, who was the associate administrator for communications, my other boss who was the deputy, like our speech writers, all of these people were mentors.
18:25
SPEAKER_04: The last go around, our our press secretary, who just absolute shining beacon of like the best at what she does, and just and just watching Lauren work was just I learned so much just watching all of these people.
18:40
SPEAKER_04: And you know, they were the ones who told me that like there's you just have to get in there and learn how like this is a job you learn to do it by doing it.
18:49
SPEAKER_04: You just get in there and you do the thing.
18:51
SPEAKER_04: And I I honestly think that's a lot like writing a book because to some extent, if all you ever do is take classes, yeah, you never write the book, you never actually learn.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: I agree, I agree.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: Well, you have some, yeah, you're right.
19:07
SPEAKER_04: A lot of a lot of people, uh a lot of people in the in the comms functions at NASA, and I will tell you, like seriously, best of the best anywhere.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's that's amazing.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: And wow, I've never spoken to anyone that worked at NASA.
19:23
SPEAKER_01: So I am I am so thrilled that this is a first for me, and I hope that you know our listeners really and truly enjoy that as well.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, when you hear NASA, you don't usually associate NASA with a woman, right?
19:37
SPEAKER_01: So that is even wonderful.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so thank you so much for sharing.
19:42
SPEAKER_01: So here in Mosaic Sparks, we usually take a character from Disney and we kind of mesh it together and and talk about leadership.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: So are there any characters that you would identify when it comes to any Disney movies or anything that you know, because as you know, Disney is not just Disney movies for kids.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: There's there's Star Wars, there's Marvel, there's there's all these, right?
20:06
SPEAKER_01: So is there any that you you associate with?
20:09
SPEAKER_01: It's gotta be Steve Rogers.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh, tell us about that.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about that.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness, you are blushing.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: I adore Steve Rogers.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about Steve Rogers.
20:24
SPEAKER_04: Who okay?
20:25
SPEAKER_04: And this is like this is my TED talk right here.
20:28
SPEAKER_04: Like, hey, I could go on.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: Give it to us, give it to us, give it to us.
20:31
SPEAKER_04: So, you know, when I think of anything, leadership, when I think of people I most want to be like, I because I I think you know, Steve Rogers is for me, is a aspirational, is is somebody who I want to be like because, and you'll notice I say Steve Rogers and not Captain America.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: I I noticed that, of course.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: That's why I say talk to us about that.
20:55
SPEAKER_04: Because Steve Rogers was chosen to be Captain America, not because he was the perfect soldier, but because he was a good man.
21:04
SPEAKER_04: Everything that made Captain America Captain America came from the way Steve Rogers grew up.
21:10
SPEAKER_04: And I think it is such a fascinating, like I know all of the I know all of the story reasons why, you know, why they had why Steve Rogers' story, why Captain America's story is, you know, man out of time.
21:23
SPEAKER_04: But I think it's really interesting to put a character like Steve Rogers into the modern world because so okay, so let's look at Steve.
21:33
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
21:33
SPEAKER_04: Steve Rogers was born in if you go, if you go by the MCU, so like I'm mostly gonna go by MCU canon here.
21:40
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
21:40
SPEAKER_04: Comic book canon, some of the things are slightly different, but at heart they're the same.
21:44
SPEAKER_04: All right, so Steve Rogers, born in 1917.
21:48
SPEAKER_04: Steve Rogers was a first generation American.
21:50
SPEAKER_04: His parents were Irish immigrants.
21:53
SPEAKER_04: And in that time, the teens of the 1920s were just a couple of uh Barely, the attitudes were starting to shift because the mayors in New York and Boston uh were Irish American, the first Irish American to hold office like on a city level, like that.
22:12
SPEAKER_04: So, okay, so before before then leading up till then and still attitudes then, Irish were not considered what we think of it today.
22:20
SPEAKER_04: Like today, everybody wants to be Irish.
22:22
SPEAKER_04: Everybody's like, oh, I'm gonna go to Ireland and I'm gonna research my genealogy and I'm gonna figure out that I'm one thirty-second Irish, right?
22:30
SPEAKER_03: Like everybody, everybody wears green on St.
22:32
SPEAKER_03: Patrick's, everybody wants to be Irish.
22:37
SPEAKER_04: In the in 1917, when Steve was born, that was very much not the case.
22:42
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
22:43
SPEAKER_04: Irish were considered in the late 18 when they really started coming over here.
22:47
SPEAKER_04: Irish were considered poor, dirty, lazy, drunks, not good workers.
22:54
SPEAKER_04: They were considered undesirables.
22:57
SPEAKER_04: Do we are there modern parallels for that?
23:00
SPEAKER_04: Maybe.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:02
SPEAKER_04: Maybe definitely.
23:03
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: We're still first, same as the first.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: Like we're still exactly, exactly.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: The the the the game has not changed, the players just have.
23:13
SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
23:14
SPEAKER_04: So, okay, so Steve, first generation American, son of Irish immigrants.
23:19
SPEAKER_04: Also, his father died World War I.
23:21
SPEAKER_04: And so Steve was raised by a single mother, working single mother, who was a nurse.
23:28
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
23:29
SPEAKER_04: So that would, and it again, in a time when yes, I I wanna I want to stipulate that especially women have always worked.
23:37
SPEAKER_04: You know, certainly women have always worked.
23:40
SPEAKER_04: There have always been single parents, but then as now, right?
23:45
SPEAKER_04: There is in some circles a certain stigma attached to that.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, uh, you know, so let's even talk about that.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: So we're going back to 1917, but was it it in the 70s is when women could open a bank account without her, without a husband or or her father.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: So so yeah, what you're saying is a woman in the early 1900s working and a single mother?
24:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's that's a feat in itself.
24:15
SPEAKER_04: It was like so you start to see things stacked against him.
24:18
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
24:18
SPEAKER_04: And then Steve Rogers in canon is disabled.
24:23
SPEAKER_04: The think about the list when he goes over that last time, you see the list of the reasons that they gave him a 4F.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: Right, yes, yeah.
24:31
SPEAKER_04: Poliosis, heart trouble, colorblind, death, yeah, like all of these problems.
24:37
SPEAKER_04: Steve Rogers was disabled the way he is shown, you know, little and compared to, yeah.
24:44
SPEAKER_04: Right.
24:44
SPEAKER_04: So in the early 1900s, there was an incredibly strong eugenics movement, both in the US and around the world.
24:53
SPEAKER_04: And we often attach eugenics to white supremacy, but it was also anyone who was sick, disabled, poor, were not considered worthy.
25:06
SPEAKER_04: And so like Steve Rogers ticked all of those boxes.
25:10
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
25:11
SPEAKER_04: Literally all of those boxes.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yes, yes, yes.
25:14
SPEAKER_04: And so to think that Steve Rogers would have grown up in Brooklyn, wow, in the Great Depression, Irish son of a nurse, in a time when he was considered by a big chunk of society to be a burden, and to think that he would grow up and show up in modern times as Captain America, somebody who watches Fox News, um, you know, Steve again in canon.
25:42
SPEAKER_04: What is Steve's whole thing?
25:43
SPEAKER_04: What is Captain America's whole thing?
25:45
SPEAKER_04: He stands up, yeah, he protects people, he doesn't like bullies, he doesn't actually like to fight, but he doesn't like bullies.
25:53
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
25:54
SPEAKER_04: He gets, but he is the shield.
25:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's the shield.
25:57
SPEAKER_04: Weapon is a shield, yeah.
25:59
SPEAKER_04: He stands between people and harm.
26:01
SPEAKER_04: He stands up for people.
26:03
SPEAKER_04: And I think we need a lot more of that.
26:07
SPEAKER_04: There are so many people out there, and I think that's one reason I actually do the work that I do is I want to find those people and amplify the stories that they're telling and get them out there because it is important that people see those stories.
26:20
SPEAKER_04: Representation is everything.
26:22
SPEAKER_04: And yes, I I think we all need to feel that you know, everything from there are other people out there who are frustrated, there are other people out there that are angry, and that there are other people out there who are doing something about it, you know, that are standing between people and harm.
26:44
SPEAKER_04: And I think Steve Rogers would be proud of all of that.
26:48
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: I I love I love the positioning of that.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: And you know, when especially when you talk about his size, because in the movie it they really make a big, I mean, you see it, right?
27:05
SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, that's a real distinct feature that they are playing out.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, that's absolutely oh my goodness, yeah.
27:13
SPEAKER_04: Steve's little and scotty and didn't stop him from standing up to bullies, exactly, yeah, exactly.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's wow.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I just love this conversation.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna ask a question.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: So, what part of your brilliance did you once overlook, minimize, or misunderstood that you now recognize as one of your greatest gifts?
27:43
SPEAKER_04: So I have to tell a story for because I I will say, like, honestly, this question, like my first instinct is to go, oh psh! So I was in grad school and I was a research assistant, basically an intern for a company.
28:01
SPEAKER_04: And I so I was doing my the policy piece.
28:04
SPEAKER_04: And the person who was my kind of my supervisor, my mentor, also there.
28:09
SPEAKER_04: At one point, she like we were doing a an assessment, you know, a review, an assessment, normal, normal stuff talking about how I was doing.
28:18
SPEAKER_04: And she said, You need to speak up more.
28:21
SPEAKER_04: You you sit in a room and it's clear you're taking everything in, and it's clear you have thoughts.
28:27
SPEAKER_04: And when you say something, everybody listens and it's good.
28:33
SPEAKER_04: You make good points, but you almost never speak up.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
28:38
SPEAKER_04: And that really hit hard because I am a woman in a male-dominated field.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
28:50
SPEAKER_04: And I have been fortunate enough to have some amazing women as mentors in science and technology in the space industry, and they are out there and they are phenomenal.
29:03
SPEAKER_04: But still, you know, I am I am from the South, even though I have like anyone who knows me will say I don't have trouble speaking up, but that's not true in a professional room.
29:13
SPEAKER_04: I had to learn how to do that because sometimes I would speak up, and in some rooms I would get the oh, pat pat on the head.
29:21
SPEAKER_04: Oh, gosh darn it, you're just so adorable for you, you know.
29:25
SPEAKER_04: Look at look at you.
29:27
SPEAKER_04: And and you know, that's just I have always looked younger.
29:33
SPEAKER_04: So, like that, you know, all of that.
29:37
SPEAKER_04: And so hearing that from somebody who was a mentor, but she was also a peer.
29:43
SPEAKER_04: You know, we were basically the same age, because I had like two full jobs before I went to grad school.
29:48
SPEAKER_04: So I was, I had already been in the professional world.
29:51
SPEAKER_04: And to hear her say that really just hit home.
29:55
SPEAKER_04: But it's I've had to work at that.
29:58
SPEAKER_04: And so I do think one of my big strengths, one of my brilliant things is that when I am in a room and in a conversation, I am listening.
30:08
SPEAKER_04: I'm an introvert too.
30:09
SPEAKER_04: So of course, this is what I'm gonna do.
30:10
SPEAKER_04: I listen and I'm looking for patterns.
30:14
SPEAKER_04: And I am able to say, you know, hey, have you thought about this and this and this and come up with something that might seem a little bit off the wall, but is actually like is something unique, something we've never done before, something we've never tried.
30:31
SPEAKER_04: And I think I if I hadn't been given that piece of advice, I would have found it even harder to do.
30:38
SPEAKER_04: But it's still it's still a struggle for me.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: Wow, I absolutely love that.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: I love the honesty uh about that.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: And you know, as we're as you're talking about and giving us that, what a what a great story.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: What you were right, you had some incredible mentors.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: You had incredible mentors that saw you, right?
30:57
SPEAKER_01: And and as human beings, that's really all we're looking for.
31:01
SPEAKER_01: We're looking for people to see us, and so for someone to and it also takes courage for someone to also do that for you, right?
31:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's so much in that.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: What what an incredible story, you know.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sharing.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: And as you have found your voice, and at least now you know that it is something that you still have to work on.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: What spark with you would you leave with the person that's listened?
31:28
SPEAKER_01: So to the one woman that's listened now, and she's still questioning whether her voice or her story or whatever she may contribute matters?
31:38
SPEAKER_01: What what what what nugget would you would you leave with her?
31:42
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely does matter.
31:44
SPEAKER_04: And that the worth of an idea, a person's worth, is not dependent on brilliant insights or brilliant ideas or even the work that they do.
32:00
SPEAKER_04: They have worth and value intrinsically, every single one of us do.
32:04
SPEAKER_04: And that worth means that they have something to contribute to any room that they are in.
32:09
SPEAKER_04: Wow, they have a perspective, they have every single one of us have a lived experience.
32:16
SPEAKER_04: When we go into a room, that lived experience matters.
32:21
SPEAKER_04: And we don't have to be the top dog, we don't have to be the person at the head of the meeting table.
32:29
SPEAKER_04: We don't have to be the person with the very specific uh fancy title or making the most.
32:36
SPEAKER_04: We do not have to have that for our ideas, our stories, our presence to matter to that room.
32:44
SPEAKER_04: And it's hard to do that because we are so used to measuring what we say by what other people's reactions, oh, that was good.
32:53
SPEAKER_04: That was that wasn't.
32:55
SPEAKER_04: That was, you know, the women in the room that have an idea, and you know, everybody like ignores it.
33:01
SPEAKER_04: And then two times, you know, five minutes later, the guy repeats it and that does not make your worth any less value in that room, even if nobody's listening, it is their problem that they are not listening, not yours.
33:20
SPEAKER_04: And yes, it is hard because yes, even though it's not our fault, we still have to take responsibility and stand up for ourselves.
33:29
SPEAKER_04: You know, channel Steve Rogers, get in there, you know, get up, get a little feisty, but know that when you do that, you are there's a bunch of us out here standing with you.
33:42
SPEAKER_04: Even we're not if we even if we're not in the same room, we are there because we have been there.
33:48
SPEAKER_04: And so that is the thing that I would leave with people is that every single one of us has worth and value that is not dependent on anyone else.
33:56
SPEAKER_04: And what our viewpoint matters in any room that we are in, and that that worth does not depend on anyone else saying so.
34:05
SPEAKER_04: It just is.
34:07
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: And Sarah, you know, I think that I'm gonna name this episode we are standing with you.
34:14
SPEAKER_04: I love it.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: We are standing with you because you know, I yeah, at the end of the day, and I love how you laid it out.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: Even if they don't hear you, they don't understand, they don't take it in, just the fact that you are there, like your presence matters so well said, Sarah.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
34:34
SPEAKER_01: So as we are getting ready to close out, I'm gonna ask you some rapid fire questions.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: So, coffee or tea?
34:42
SPEAKER_01: Coffee, coffee.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: One book every entrepreneur should read.
34:45
SPEAKER_01: You got so many.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: I was about to say, you got so many.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: All right, we could come back to that.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: A morning routine.
34:52
SPEAKER_04: Actually, I will I will say this.
34:53
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna I'm gonna go a little old school here.
34:56
SPEAKER_04: Hey, uh, there is a book called The Experience Economy.
35:00
SPEAKER_04: Oh, and it oh gosh, they wrote it in experience.
35:05
SPEAKER_04: It actually may have been written in the late 90s, if not the early 2000s.
35:10
SPEAKER_04: And I think they've done an updated edition since then, but essentially it is studying the shift, and they were looking a lot at retail but uh and other types of businesses and talking how things were going from people were were shifting from wanting to buy a thing to wanting to buy an experience.
35:30
SPEAKER_04: Ah, and I think there's a lot in there that any entrepreneur, no matter what service, tangible good, can learn from how people relate to to the world of business, to the world of buying things.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sharing that.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: I'll definitely put that in the show notes because that because that's really what it is, right?
35:49
SPEAKER_01: So especially now in the world of AI.
35:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, you can get the information, but people want an experience.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: How are people gonna feel when they're with you?
35:58
SPEAKER_01: They wrote that book at a great time.
36:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
36:01
SPEAKER_04: It's I mean, I I think they were really they were definitely ahead of the of that, and I think it it matters just as much now.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, most definitely.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: Because now, back to AI, we want that human interaction, that human connection.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: So, what's one morning routine that you don't skip?
36:20
SPEAKER_01: Coffee.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
36:22
SPEAKER_01: Who would you if there's anyone in the world that you could have dinner with, who who would you want to have dinner with?
36:29
SPEAKER_01: Besides Steve Rogers.
36:30
SPEAKER_04: I mean Steve Rogers.
36:32
SPEAKER_04: Okay, the second person would be Bucky Barnes.
36:35
SPEAKER_04: Like this is so crack a joke here.
36:39
SPEAKER_04: The other thing that Steven Rogers and I have in common is we both think Bucky Barnes is awesome.
36:44
SPEAKER_04: Oh gosh, I who would it be?
36:48
SPEAKER_04: I because like there are 15 people that pop into my head, a bunch of them are authors, and I mean, I will okay, I will pick, oh gosh, I'm gonna pick one person because Mo is at the sort of the top of my mind right now.
37:05
SPEAKER_04: Ryan is a TV critic who is just does amazing work, amazing, not only on like critiquing shows, but also on the culture of Hollywood.
37:21
SPEAKER_04: And I am actually gonna look up the book because I wanna I wanna get the name of the book right.
37:26
SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, it is okay, burn it, yeah, burn it down.
37:30
SPEAKER_04: Burn it down a post me to look at Hollywood.
37:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
37:36
SPEAKER_04: And the the look of the depth of reporting and the depth of analysis on what things are like and and what we need to do is so good.
37:49
SPEAKER_04: And then also the fact that Mo is a Battlest Galactica fan and a Killjoys fan, and so like is writing a book on Battlestar Galactica, and I'm just like, I can't wait.
38:02
SPEAKER_04: So, like, so I like if I could choose one person right now to have dinner, it would absolutely be Mo Ryan because like just the Do you have a question?
38:10
SPEAKER_01: Like, what would be the pinnacle question that you would ask?
38:13
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a question that you would ask?
38:15
SPEAKER_04: So how do we get the stories that need to be told out there and told?
38:21
SPEAKER_04: Because I think the you know, how you can you can look at Hollywood and the book world, there are parallel paths, right?
38:29
SPEAKER_04: It's about stories, it's about telling stories, yeah.
38:32
SPEAKER_04: And the way stories are told and these stories that get told.
38:37
SPEAKER_04: Good point, good point.
38:39
SPEAKER_04: And we know just like there are books out there that there are stories that are not being told in book form because they are not, they're not meeting the trends, right?
38:50
SPEAKER_04: Or they're from somebody that like, oh, we didn't really can they sell a book.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: Can they sell a book?
38:56
SPEAKER_01: It's not about the stories, can they sell a book?
38:58
SPEAKER_04: And a lot of that is happening in Hollywood, and you see that with things like the big merger going on right now, and the fact that fewer stories are being told, and those stories tend to be safe and they tend to target a specific demographic.
39:17
SPEAKER_04: What is it?
39:17
SPEAKER_04: Amazon Prime just canceled bride or die after the they didn't renew it after one season.
39:24
SPEAKER_04: And and that was be they did not say this, but you can look at it and see the two leads were middle-aged women, you know, right?
39:34
SPEAKER_04: It didn't appeal to the young male demographic that we've been told advertisers are trying to reach.
39:40
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
39:41
SPEAKER_04: So things like that.
39:42
SPEAKER_04: So that's I think that's what I would ask is like, how do we get the stories that need to be?
39:47
SPEAKER_04: What do we need to do systemically to get the stories that need to be told?
39:52
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: Great question.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: Wow, great question.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: And so the last one I have for you is 10 years from now, what do you hope people will say about people say about you?
40:02
SPEAKER_01: What will people say about Sarah?
40:04
SPEAKER_04: I hope they will say, I hope they won't say, oh my god, is she gonna go off on Steve Rogers and Becky Barnes again?
40:14
SPEAKER_04: I don't think so.
40:18
SPEAKER_04: I hope that there are people out there who say, I talked to Sarah and I felt so much better.
40:28
SPEAKER_04: I felt she was really there to help.
40:31
SPEAKER_04: And she was trying to, you know, make sure that I got my story out into the world.
40:38
SPEAKER_04: And that goes, you know, like professionally or just in life.
40:42
SPEAKER_04: I hope there are people out there who say she stood up and did the right thing.
40:46
SPEAKER_04: And, you know, when she needed to, she stood up, she stood between somebody and harm, she helped somebody.
40:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I hope in 10 years that's what people are saying.
40:57
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's amazing, Sarah.
41:00
SPEAKER_01: This has been such a great conversation.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Tell our listeners, our sparklers, how they can get in contact with you and if there's anything that you have coming up that you want to share.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: And then after that, I'm gonna ask you to leave us with one last nugget.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: Give us what you like to tell the people.
41:17
SPEAKER_01: So, first let them know how they can get in contact with you if you have anything new that you have coming up.
41:23
SPEAKER_04: So, one of the the best way is my website, which is just SarahRamse.com, and that's Sarah with it h.
41:30
SPEAKER_04: And you can email me, Sarah at Sarah Ramsey.com.
41:34
SPEAKER_04: I am on LinkedIn, and you'll find me as Sarah B.
41:40
SPEAKER_04: Ramsey.
41:41
SPEAKER_04: There is a story behind that.
41:42
SPEAKER_04: I am technically on Instagram.
41:44
SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm not super active on there, but I'm on there as PR pinch hitter.
41:50
SPEAKER_04: And but really the the best way is email website, come drop a note in my inbox.
41:56
SPEAKER_04: I do actually check my email and respond.
41:59
SPEAKER_04: And I love to to talk to people.
42:02
SPEAKER_04: I mean, I know you can't tell this at all.
42:04
SPEAKER_04: Clearly, I do not like to talk.
42:05
SPEAKER_04: I mean, clearly I don't.
42:09
SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
42:10
SPEAKER_04: Um, and as far as what I have coming up, I am so excited.
42:14
SPEAKER_04: I've been trying to get out to more writers' conferences and talk to people in person.
42:18
SPEAKER_04: So, like, so this weekend, I am attending, I'm I'm sponsoring a session at the James River Writers Conference in Richmond, Virginia.
42:28
SPEAKER_04: Nice.
42:29
SPEAKER_04: And then I'm gonna do a writers conference in Nashville in November.
42:34
SPEAKER_04: Nice.
42:35
SPEAKER_04: And then I'm looking at at 27.
42:37
SPEAKER_04: Um one of the things that I really want to do at some of these writers conferences is do more workshops, is do some more teaching and like talk to a bunch of writers at once and and help them figure things out.
42:50
SPEAKER_04: So I'll say that to anyone out there.
42:52
SPEAKER_04: If you're looking for a speaker, again, I promise I will not spend the entire time talking about Marvel and Star Wars and Galactica and Doctor Who.
43:06
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you can see, I'm actually wearing my uh Sonic screwdriver, Doctor Who, tonight.
43:11
SPEAKER_01: So very cool.
43:13
SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
43:14
SPEAKER_04: I am a geek by trade, by certification.
43:16
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
43:17
SPEAKER_01: I love it, absolutely love it.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: Awesome, awesome.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: So, what is what is the last thing that you want to leave with our listeners?
43:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, what what's that you want to say to the sparklers?
43:28
SPEAKER_04: Tell your story.
43:29
SPEAKER_04: However feels right to you.
43:31
SPEAKER_04: If it's social media, that's great.
43:33
SPEAKER_04: If it's write a book, write a book.
43:35
SPEAKER_04: If it is just talking human to human with someone, just tell your story.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: Well, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us here on Mosaic Sparks.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: I love our conversation, and I can't wait for the listeners to hear this incredible conversation that we've had, and your story is so important.
43:56
SPEAKER_01: And as I said, we're naming this episode we are standing with you.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: So, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us here.
44:03
SPEAKER_01: We will see you on our next episode here on Mosaic Sparks.