Latest / Cookbook Love Podcast / Episode 413: You Don't Have to Dance for a Book Deal

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Episode 413: You Don't Have to Dance for a Book Deal · Cookbook Love Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker: You are listening to the
• 0:03
  Speaker: Cookbook Love Podcast with
• 0:04
  Speaker: Maggie Greene, episode number
• 0:07
  Speaker: four thirteen.
• 0:10
  Speaker: Welcome to the cookbook Love
• 0:12
  Speaker: Podcast, a podcast that
• 0:14
  Speaker: celebrates cookbook readers,
• 0:16
  Speaker: buyers, collectors, writers, and
• 0:18
  Speaker: clubs.
• 0:19
  Speaker: And now your host, cookbook
• 0:21
  Speaker: author, culinary dietitian, and
• 0:23
  Speaker: cookbook writing coach, Maggie
• 0:24
  Speaker: Greene.
• 0:31
  Speaker: Hi, everybody.
• 0:32
  Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of the cookbook Love Podcast.
• 0:35
  Speaker: How's everybody doing today?
• 0:37
  Speaker: Hope you are all doing well.
• 0:39
  Speaker: It is a gorgeous summer day here
• 0:41
  Speaker: in Kentucky, and I've been
• 0:44
  Speaker: outside this morning poking
• 0:46
  Speaker: around in my patio, flowers,
• 0:49
  Speaker: feeding my tomatoes and basil,
• 0:52
  Speaker: and getting ready to head out on
• 0:56
  Speaker: vacation.
• 0:57
  Speaker: So when you listen to this show,
• 0:59
  Speaker: I'll be back from vacation and I
• 1:02
  Speaker: want to talk just a few minutes
• 1:04
  Speaker: about a concept that I learned
• 1:05
  Speaker: many years ago from a business
• 1:07
  Speaker: coach that I had that told me
• 1:11
  Speaker: that when we are planning for
• 1:13
  Speaker: vacations in our businesses, if
• 1:15
  Speaker: we're solopreneurs like I am, I
• 1:18
  Speaker: run my own marketing, I do my
• 1:21
  Speaker: own podcasts.
• 1:22
  Speaker: I take care of the back end of most of my programs.
• 1:26
  Speaker: Um, but there was this concept that you always take care of
• 1:33
  Speaker: your future self when you have a business and you're going on
• 1:36
  Speaker: vacation, which means that the week after you get back from
• 1:40
  Speaker: vacation, you want to try to have as much of that done before
• 1:45
  Speaker: you go on vacation and your future business owner, which is
• 1:49
  Speaker: you will thank you for that.
• 1:52
  Speaker: And I'm sitting here today, um,
• 1:55
  Speaker: it's the afternoon we're leaving
• 1:57
  Speaker: Even tomorrow, but I'm pretty
• 2:00
  Speaker: much ready to leave on our trip
• 2:02
  Speaker: and it's.
• 2:03
  Speaker: I've got some time.
• 2:05
  Speaker: And his voice kept resonating in my head that I needed to take
• 2:08
  Speaker: care of my future self as a business owner for the week when
• 2:13
  Speaker: I get back from vacation.
• 2:15
  Speaker: And I knew what I wanted this
• 2:16
  Speaker: podcast to be about, and I have
• 2:19
  Speaker: some time.
• 2:20
  Speaker: So this is a message to myself.
• 2:24
  Speaker: I'm taking care of you by
• 2:25
  Speaker: getting this podcast episode
• 2:27
  Speaker: ready.
• 2:27
  Speaker: And I'm sure when I get back from vacation, I'll be so glad
• 2:30
  Speaker: that it is.
• 2:31
  Speaker: Now, for those of you that are listening to me, have this
• 2:34
  Speaker: conversation with myself, just remember that you are the person
• 2:38
  Speaker: that takes care of the future version version of you.
• 2:41
  Speaker: The person that is going to be
• 2:43
  Speaker: doing your life in two weeks is
• 2:47
  Speaker: you.
• 2:49
  Speaker: And are you taking care of her or him?
• 2:54
  Speaker: That's the question.
• 2:55
  Speaker: And we can do so much today to take care of the person two
• 3:01
  Speaker: weeks from now.
• 3:03
  Speaker: And I have implemented what he
• 3:07
  Speaker: told me years ago in a lot of
• 3:10
  Speaker: different ways.
• 3:11
  Speaker: Sometimes I'm not that good at it.
• 3:12
  Speaker: Like I could have very easily this afternoon thought, well,
• 3:15
  Speaker: I've got an hour.
• 3:16
  Speaker: I think I'll just go.
• 3:17
  Speaker: I got a really good library book.
• 3:19
  Speaker: It's called The Nightingale, but
• 3:21
  Speaker: it's probably published in the
• 3:23
  Speaker: twenty tens.
• 3:24
  Speaker: Um, but I wanted to read it and
• 3:27
  Speaker: I kept seeing it show up, like
• 3:29
  Speaker: in stacks of books, in
• 3:31
  Speaker: magazines, like for staging
• 3:34
  Speaker: rooms.
• 3:34
  Speaker: And so I'm like, all right, I really got to read this book.
• 3:36
  Speaker: Kind of reminds me of all the light we cannot see.
• 3:40
  Speaker: Or is it I'll call it all the light you cannot see.
• 3:43
  Speaker: Um, but anyway, I could go read that, but I'm doing this episode
• 3:48
  Speaker: now because I want to take care of the Maggie that will be
• 3:52
  Speaker: sitting here at this desk when she gets back from vacation and
• 3:55
  Speaker: will be so happy that the episode for that week is done.
• 3:58
  Speaker: Okay, so let's dive into what we're going to talk about today
• 4:03
  Speaker: on the show.
• 4:07
  Speaker: I've been thinking about a lot
• 4:08
  Speaker: of you who want to get a
• 4:12
  Speaker: cookbook published,
• 4:13
  Speaker: traditionally published with a
• 4:15
  Speaker: traditional publisher, or find
• 4:16
  Speaker: an agent and get your cookbook
• 4:18
  Speaker: published.
• 4:19
  Speaker: And a lot of times the word that
• 4:21
  Speaker: comes up after you think about
• 4:23
  Speaker: that dream, maybe something
• 4:24
  Speaker: you've heard me talk about is
• 4:26
  Speaker: platform.
• 4:28
  Speaker: And we've talked a lot on this show about what a platform is
• 4:31
  Speaker: supposed to mean.
• 4:33
  Speaker: And maybe when I talk about it, your stomach sinks a little bit.
• 4:36
  Speaker: Like building a platform for you
• 4:40
  Speaker: has come to mean you got to get
• 4:41
  Speaker: on social media and you have to
• 4:43
  Speaker: perform.
• 4:45
  Speaker: But today, I want to talk to you specifically if you want a book
• 4:49
  Speaker: deal and you do not want to dance for it or perform for it,
• 4:54
  Speaker: or spend your time behind the camera for it.
• 4:58
  Speaker: If you're a chef or a dietitian
• 5:01
  Speaker: or a culinary professional who
• 5:02
  Speaker: has spent years in the clinic,
• 5:04
  Speaker: in the kitchen, at the hospital
• 5:09
  Speaker: somewhere, maybe decades, you've
• 5:11
  Speaker: built real expertise and you
• 5:15
  Speaker: believe that you have to go
• 5:17
  Speaker: viral in order to get a book
• 5:19
  Speaker: deal.
• 5:21
  Speaker: So I'm going to talk about three different beliefs that are
• 5:24
  Speaker: keeping experts and people who already have built their
• 5:30
  Speaker: influence and experience people like you from ever starting.
• 5:34
  Speaker: And really, why none of them are really true.
• 5:38
  Speaker: So what I hope is that by the
• 5:39
  Speaker: end of this episode, you're
• 5:40
  Speaker: going to walk away seeing that
• 5:41
  Speaker: your path to publication might
• 5:44
  Speaker: be a little bit different than
• 5:45
  Speaker: what you thought coming into
• 5:47
  Speaker: this, but that there is real
• 5:49
  Speaker: potential for the expertise that
• 5:51
  Speaker: you have.
• 5:52
  Speaker: So. I was on a call a couple of
• 5:56
  Speaker: weeks ago with one of my private
• 5:59
  Speaker: coaching clients who has real
• 6:03
  Speaker: experience in the job that she's
• 6:04
  Speaker: in.
• 6:06
  Speaker: She's in a career, she works
• 6:07
  Speaker: full time, and she wants to
• 6:11
  Speaker: publish this cookbook, get this
• 6:13
  Speaker: cookbook published.
• 6:14
  Speaker: She's working on the cookbook.
• 6:16
  Speaker: And, um, she finally had the nerve to post some videos.
• 6:19
  Speaker: I don't know if it was on
• 6:20
  Speaker: Instagram reels, maybe on
• 6:21
  Speaker: TikTok.
• 6:22
  Speaker: And her teenager was making fun
• 6:26
  Speaker: of her for being on TikTok or
• 6:28
  Speaker: Instagram.
• 6:30
  Speaker: Not in a mean way, but just like
• 6:32
  Speaker: mom, like I saw you on, you
• 6:34
  Speaker: know, blah, blah, what are you
• 6:35
  Speaker: doing?
• 6:35
  Speaker: And, um, it actually was kind of holding her back.
• 6:39
  Speaker: So if this has ever happened to you and you're in the age group
• 6:42
  Speaker: where your teenager children or your twenty year old children
• 6:46
  Speaker: are spending a lot of time on these platforms and you don't
• 6:50
  Speaker: really feel like it's for you.
• 6:52
  Speaker: Um, you need to keep listening because you're the person that
• 6:55
  Speaker: I'm talking to here today.
• 6:58
  Speaker: Maybe you're not even in that age group, but performing is
• 7:01
  Speaker: really not something that you want to do.
• 7:03
  Speaker: Because what the truth of the matter is, is that you have a
• 7:07
  Speaker: cookbook in you.
• 7:08
  Speaker: You know, publishers want a platform, which is your
• 7:13
  Speaker: visibility in the marketplace and your potential to turn
• 7:17
  Speaker: readers into buyers.
• 7:19
  Speaker: You bring readers along with you to the publishing relationship,
• 7:23
  Speaker: but you are resisting social media because you do not want to
• 7:28
  Speaker: perform or dance or be behind or in front of the camera.
• 7:33
  Speaker: So does that mean your dream is just over?
• 7:36
  Speaker: So before I jump into the
• 7:39
  Speaker: beliefs, I want to talk about
• 7:41
  Speaker: one more word that's called the
• 7:42
  Speaker: algorithm.
• 7:43
  Speaker: What is this word algorithm?
• 7:46
  Speaker: An algorithm is simply a set of rules for the platform.
• 7:51
  Speaker: So TikTok has an algorithm.
• 7:53
  Speaker: Instagram has an algorithm, Facebook has an algorithm,
• 7:56
  Speaker: Twitter or X has an algorithm.
• 7:58
  Speaker: LinkedIn even has an algorithm that decides which posts get
• 8:05
  Speaker: shown to more people.
• 8:08
  Speaker: And the algorithm rewards
• 8:11
  Speaker: behaviors of the person posting
• 8:14
  Speaker: the content.
• 8:15
  Speaker: If something is trending, if there's been high engagement, if
• 8:19
  Speaker: it's novelty or fast cuts, they look at all kinds of behaviors
• 8:23
  Speaker: and they reward the behaviors of the people who are posting.
• 8:30
  Speaker: So this is a machine which is optimizing the attention that
• 8:35
  Speaker: your posts get.
• 8:39
  Speaker: It's a machine.
• 8:40
  Speaker: It's not a person.
• 8:41
  Speaker: It's a machine.
• 8:43
  Speaker: So the first thing I want you to know is the algorithm is not a
• 8:46
  Speaker: judge of your worth.
• 8:48
  Speaker: I have so many people say to me, I keep trying to post content,
• 8:51
  Speaker: trying to post content.
• 8:52
  Speaker: I've gotten two likes.
• 8:53
  Speaker: I mean, they're just like feeling so bad about themselves
• 8:57
  Speaker: because of this darn algorithm.
• 9:00
  Speaker: And it's no. Judge of your
• 9:04
  Speaker: expertise or your book's
• 9:08
  Speaker: potential.
• 9:10
  Speaker: It does not know all the experience that you have and all
• 9:14
  Speaker: the knowledge that you have.
• 9:16
  Speaker: And it really doesn't care.
• 9:18
  Speaker: It's just counting views and it's just counting clicks.
• 9:24
  Speaker: It has nothing to do with you.
• 9:27
  Speaker: So the algorithm.
• 9:31
  Speaker: Is not doing anything to you
• 9:32
  Speaker: personally, but it is a machine
• 9:34
  Speaker: that's optimizing for attention,
• 9:37
  Speaker: trying to get people to look at
• 9:39
  Speaker: it.
• 9:39
  Speaker: You know, when we are on social media, if you use social media
• 9:43
  Speaker: for entertainment to watch, you are the product it is wanting
• 9:50
  Speaker: you to pay attention.
• 9:51
  Speaker: Now, the one thing about social media is you don't have to be on
• 9:55
  Speaker: social media to use social media to promote your content.
• 10:00
  Speaker: There's a difference between
• 10:01
  Speaker: being someone who promotes their
• 10:04
  Speaker: content on social media and
• 10:06
  Speaker: someone who pays attention to
• 10:08
  Speaker: social media, and that's a whole
• 10:10
  Speaker: nother podcast.
• 10:11
  Speaker: But, um, anyway, I just want you to know this algorithm is in
• 10:15
  Speaker: charge of who sees what.
• 10:18
  Speaker: Okay, so here's, here's belief number one.
• 10:21
  Speaker: A platform does not mean pre perform.
• 10:27
  Speaker: I want to bust that myth.
• 10:29
  Speaker: Having a platform does not mean you have to perform.
• 10:34
  Speaker: You don't have to be a performer to have a platform.
• 10:36
  Speaker: In fact, I've got a word for you
• 10:38
  Speaker: that I came up with called
• 10:39
  Speaker: platforming.
• 10:40
  Speaker: What if people turned.
• 10:42
  Speaker: It's not a, it's, it's not a
• 10:44
  Speaker: performance and it's not
• 10:45
  Speaker: platforming.
• 10:46
  Speaker: Platforming is not a verb.
• 10:49
  Speaker: And if you ever catch yourself chasing likes instead of trust
• 10:52
  Speaker: with your readers, just remember that's called a platform and
• 10:57
  Speaker: it's not the same thing.
• 11:01
  Speaker: Your goal with your ideal
• 11:02
  Speaker: readers and the purpose of your
• 11:04
  Speaker: platform is to build trust, to
• 11:08
  Speaker: get to know people, to like
• 11:11
  Speaker: people and trust people through
• 11:13
  Speaker: getting them to know, like, and
• 11:15
  Speaker: trust you.
• 11:16
  Speaker: And that is not the same thing as performing.
• 11:20
  Speaker: Performing could be a way to do it.
• 11:23
  Speaker: There are people that have performed over the years music
• 11:26
  Speaker: like Dolly Parton.
• 11:28
  Speaker: I've seen her do a lot of performances.
• 11:30
  Speaker: I probably trust Dolly Parton, and probably based on the kind
• 11:33
  Speaker: of life she lives.
• 11:35
  Speaker: But it's not the same thing on social media.
• 11:36
  Speaker: That's not what I'm talking about.
• 11:38
  Speaker: I'm talking about your platform.
• 11:40
  Speaker: Publishers don't want you to be an entertainer.
• 11:44
  Speaker: If you were writing, if you were we going to be an entertainer?
• 11:48
  Speaker: You would be trying to have an agent to get on a TV show, or
• 11:51
  Speaker: trying to have an agent to get on a Broadway show.
• 11:54
  Speaker: You are not trying to get an agent to do that.
• 11:56
  Speaker: You're trying to find an agent or a publisher to publish a
• 11:58
  Speaker: book, a written work, a body of work in writing that's going to
• 12:03
  Speaker: be printed and people are going to read, okay, what your
• 12:09
  Speaker: publisher wants is proof that people are in relationship with
• 12:15
  Speaker: you, and they're connected to you and that they trust you.
• 12:18
  Speaker: That's what a platform is.
• 12:21
  Speaker: So you could do that through
• 12:23
  Speaker: video, but it's not the only
• 12:24
  Speaker: way.
• 12:25
  Speaker: And for a lot of authors, it's not even really the best way.
• 12:30
  Speaker: I personally think that platforms for the authors that
• 12:33
  Speaker: are the best are the ones that help you create a body of work
• 12:37
  Speaker: out in the world, and that help you write more.
• 12:40
  Speaker: You need practice writing
• 12:42
  Speaker: algorithms don't buy your
• 12:44
  Speaker: cookbook.
• 12:45
  Speaker: The publisher buys your cookbook and a publisher is not looking
• 12:48
  Speaker: at your dance moves.
• 12:49
  Speaker: They're looking at how you're writing.
• 12:51
  Speaker: They're looking at your stories.
• 12:52
  Speaker: They're looking at whether people trust you.
• 12:55
  Speaker: Okay, so that's belief number one.
• 12:58
  Speaker: A platform does not mean performance.
• 13:00
  Speaker: It's not platforming and it's not a platform.
• 13:03
  Speaker: It's belief number two.
• 13:08
  Speaker: Here's the equation that a lot
• 13:09
  Speaker: of people have backwards, that
• 13:11
  Speaker: we have to be visible to be
• 13:13
  Speaker: credible.
• 13:15
  Speaker: That's not true.
• 13:16
  Speaker: Credibility is built over time,
• 13:18
  Speaker: and that's exactly what you
• 13:19
  Speaker: have.
• 13:19
  Speaker: You have spent years earning trust in your clinic, in the
• 13:24
  Speaker: kitchen, doing what you do.
• 13:26
  Speaker: And that trust does not evaporate because you're dancing
• 13:29
  Speaker: on a screen.
• 13:31
  Speaker: It just needs to have a place where people can land to
• 13:36
  Speaker: experience you, like a newsletter or an article or a
• 13:41
  Speaker: community post or an email list.
• 13:47
  Speaker: Your expertise on its own is enough.
• 13:55
  Speaker: A young TikToker who's in their twenties has to manufacture
• 13:59
  Speaker: relatability and trust from scratch in public, in real time.
• 14:02
  Speaker: And that's what they're doing.
• 14:03
  Speaker: There's nothing wrong with that.
• 14:05
  Speaker: Many of them have been very successful at that.
• 14:08
  Speaker: But you don't have to do that.
• 14:09
  Speaker: You've already done the hardest part.
• 14:13
  Speaker: You have the experience from your career in your life.
• 14:18
  Speaker: If you're a passionate home cook and you have cooked every day
• 14:20
  Speaker: for your family, you have got what it takes.
• 14:24
  Speaker: You do not have to perform.
• 14:28
  Speaker: To have credibility.
• 14:30
  Speaker: You have the credibility.
• 14:31
  Speaker: Okay.
• 14:33
  Speaker: Number three, some of you
• 14:36
  Speaker: believe that you're already too
• 14:37
  Speaker: far behind.
• 14:39
  Speaker: But I want you to remember that
• 14:40
  Speaker: every audience is built
• 14:42
  Speaker: steadily.
• 14:44
  Speaker: Very rarely is it built all at once.
• 14:47
  Speaker: And publishers again are looking
• 14:48
  Speaker: for trust, not not necessarily
• 14:51
  Speaker: follower counts in the hundreds
• 14:53
  Speaker: of thousands now, especially
• 14:56
  Speaker: when it comes to mid-size and
• 14:57
  Speaker: smaller publishers.
• 14:58
  Speaker: The follower counts become even less of a thing.
• 15:02
  Speaker: So you are not behind.
• 15:05
  Speaker: You're actually early for the kind of platform that gets a
• 15:09
  Speaker: book published because you're listening to this show, and I'm
• 15:12
  Speaker: trying to help you change your mindset about it.
• 15:14
  Speaker: So what I want you to see is if you've been holding back from
• 15:18
  Speaker: your cookbook dream because you think you have to perform to get
• 15:22
  Speaker: published, I want you to let go of that belief today.
• 15:28
  Speaker: Your kids do not have to think
• 15:29
  Speaker: you're cool on TikTok or
• 15:31
  Speaker: Instagram.
• 15:32
  Speaker: You need to build an audience
• 15:34
  Speaker: that a publisher believes in, an
• 15:38
  Speaker: audience that you love, and an
• 15:41
  Speaker: audience that you want to
• 15:42
  Speaker: connect with.
• 15:44
  Speaker: It's all a heart based thing for this, and that's a different
• 15:48
  Speaker: skill, and that's one that you already have way more of a head
• 15:52
  Speaker: start on than you already think.
• 15:54
  Speaker: Okay.
• 15:56
  Speaker: So if what I have described to
• 15:59
  Speaker: you here feels like a little bit
• 16:00
  Speaker: of a relief, instead of dreading
• 16:03
  Speaker: the dance on TikTok, I'm so glad
• 16:05
  Speaker: because I want to invite you to
• 16:07
  Speaker: a brand new training that I have
• 16:11
  Speaker: created called Grow Your
• 16:13
  Speaker: Audience Masterclass.
• 16:17
  Speaker: Grow an audience that publishers love.
• 16:20
  Speaker: In this class, I'm going to show
• 16:21
  Speaker: you the exact way that
• 16:24
  Speaker: mid-career chefs, dietitians,
• 16:26
  Speaker: and culinary experts like you
• 16:28
  Speaker: can build the kind of audience
• 16:29
  Speaker: that a publisher actually wants
• 16:31
  Speaker: without ever getting on TikTok
• 16:34
  Speaker: or Instagram reels if you don't
• 16:35
  Speaker: want to.
• 16:37
  Speaker: There is a link below in the show notes.
• 16:40
  Speaker: It's w w w dot cookbook writers academy dot com slash.
• 16:46
  Speaker: And you can sign up for the masterclass.
• 16:49
  Speaker: And I would love to see you all there.
• 16:52
  Speaker: So again, remember this is not a platform.
• 16:55
  Speaker: It's this is not platforming.
• 16:59
  Speaker: This is embracing the expertise you already have, embracing the
• 17:04
  Speaker: credibility you already have, and working to build an audience
• 17:07
  Speaker: that trusts you.
• 17:09
  Speaker: So that is it for today's
• 17:11
  Speaker: episode of the Cookbook Love
• 17:12
  Speaker: Podcast, this is your host,
• 17:14
  Speaker: Maggie Green.
• 17:15
  Speaker: And until next time, have a
• 17:16
  Speaker: great day and keep loving your
• 17:18
  Speaker: cookbooks.
• 17:22
  Speaker: Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love podcast.
• 17:25
  Speaker: You can find out more information at w w w dot
• 17:28
  Speaker: cookbook dot co.