In Part Two of this episode of The Writer Files, audiobook publisher, award-winning podcast producer, and internationally acclaimed speaker, Tina Dietz, returned to wrap up our chat about her passion for helping authors grow their audiences, why you should produce an audiobook, and the bright future of audio content.(Podcast on The Writer Files, December 11, 2018)
Tina is an entrepreneur and content marketing expert who has been featured on ABC, Inc.com, Huffington Post, and Forbes (to name a few), and her company, StartSomething Creative Business Solutions, helps authors and entrepreneurs expand their audiences with audio content.
She is an award-winning podcaster and an expert in leveraging and repurposing content, and her company specializes deeply in audiobook production and publishing for one simple reason …
Tina and her cohorts love to help authors expand their audiences, income, influence, and opportunities.
Audible is offering our listeners a free audiobook with a 30-day trial membership. Just go to audibletrial.com/writerfiles and browse their unmatched selection of audio programs, download a title free, and start listening! It’s that easy. Go to audibletrial.com/writerfiles to get started today.
In Part One, Tina and I talk about:
The surprising truth about who should, and who should not, narrate their own audiobook
How to decide whether to invest the time and money in professional voice narration or go DIY
The art and science that goes into a bestselling audiobook
Why you can’t rush professionally produced audio
Where to send your audiobook once it is finished
The future of audio content and smart coffee makers
And why you need to fall in love with your own voice and message
Audio marketing is an extension of getting your voice out into the world and creating core relationships with your audience, resulting in more book sales and raving fans.
In this interview for Author Bridge Media, StartSomething founder Tina Dietz discusses the fundamentals of audio marketing for authors.
Authors are always looking for a way to get their work into the world
Why audio marketing is a very important key for book marketing
Benefits and pitfalls of audio marketing
Technical considerations
Types of audio marketing, including podcasting and audiobooks
How to fall in love with your own voice if you don’t like the way you sound
Considerations for hiring a narrator for your audiobook vs. narrating a book yourself
What you need to know about self-narration for your audiobook
Tips for hiring the right narrator for your audiobook
How to know if you should start a podcast
Tips for how to get on more podcasts
Audio Marketing can create an entire community of your audience, bring people together around your message, and help them connect with you on a deeper level.
This week audiobook publisher, award-winning podcast producer, and internationally acclaimed speaker, Tina Dietz, took a timeout to chat with me about her passion for helping authors grow their audiences, why you should produce an audiobook, and the bright future of audio content.(Podcast on The Writer Files, December 4, 2018)
Tina is an entrepreneur and content marketing expert who has been featured on ABC, Inc.com, Huffington Post, and Forbes (to name a few), and her company, StartSomething Creative Business Solutions, helps authors and entrepreneurs expand their audiences with audio content.She is an award-winning podcaster and an expert in leveraging and repurposing content, and her company specializes deeply in audiobook production and publishing for one simple reason …
Tina and her cohorts love to help authors expand their audiences, income, influence, and opportunities.
Audible is offering our listeners a free audiobook with a 30-day trial membership. Just go to audibletrial.com/writerfiles and browse the unmatched selection of audio programs – download a title free and start listening. It’s that easy. Go to audibletrial.com/writerfiles to get started today.
In Part One of this file Tina Dietz and I talk about:
The Renaissance of audiobooks, the fastest growing format in publishing
When authors should start thinking about audiobook production
The importance of reading your book out loud for editing
Tina’s twisty journey from voice acting to helping authors’ tell their own stories with audio
Why audiobooks are more popular than ever
And who can benefit the most from publishing an audiobook today
Too many ideas? Shiny ball syndrome? Ask yourself these questions to evaluate and manage your ideas and find the right actions to take to ensure success
I’m a creative person, as many of you are, and I have always dealt with the problem of having a large number of ideas all the time. I call it a problem because that’s what it was before I really learned how to start wrangling all my thoughts and turning them into productive ideas rather than getting caught in the “shiny ball syndrome” that takes us away from the things we need to be focusing on in order to produce the results that we keep saying we want.
When we’re looking at any idea, we have to bring it outside of ourselves. Examine it like you’re examining a physical object. Look at all the parts: What do you like about it? What about it has you absolutely enamored? What parts of it are causing you to hold onto it? What do you see about it that connects with the things that you’re thinking about doing or that you’re already doing? Will it slide in easily or take you in another direction? Is it a missing-piece-idea that fits in perfectly with what you have going on, or will it come into play later in the plan?
Asking the Right Questions
Ask yourself these questions to evaluate and manage your ideas and find the right actions to take to ensure productivity and a serene and calm approach to your projects:
Will it make a current part of your plan easier?
Will it make something better?
Will it make something faster?
Will it make something more profitable?
Will it make it more enjoyable?
If the answer to any—or all—of those questions is “yes,” put it into your plan. This is why I always recommend having a very flexible, creative, and strategic vision plan so that you can slide pieces in and incorporate them into what you’re already doing without throwing a big wrench into the plan.
If the answer to those questions were all “no,” but it’s a good idea, it might just be a good fit for later in the process. Slide it later into the plan, stop thinking about it right now, and use that as a holding center for your idea. It’s not going anywhere, and you can get to it at the appropriate time in the plan without distracting yourself now.
Putting Things into a GeoSync Folder
If the idea is one that you really don’t want to get rid of, but it doesn’t really fit into anything, you can put it into what I call a GeoSync folder. Think of yourself like a satellite, and you have ideas orbiting all around you. Turn this into a concrete idea, and create a GeoSync folder on your computer, Google Drive, or where ever you store your files. Keep track of your ideas, and review them every couple of months when you review your strategic vision plan. This way, they’re not taking up brain space or creating anxiety, but they’re also not disappearing into the ether that is lost thoughts and ideas.
Capture & Release…of Ideas?
It’s important to start an Idea Capture and Release Program. We all know that ideas don’t always come to us at the most convenient times. If we’re being honest with ourselves, we realize that our best ideas usually don’t come to us when we're sitting behind a desk in an office, but rather when we’re using other parts of our brains and allowing our brains to be a little more free-thinking and creative. Where we get ideas is different for all of us, but the important part is to have a way to capture these ideas and not let them slip away.
This is where habit-building comes in handy. Most of us having our phones with us nearly all the time. Use that to your advantage, and have a spot on your phone—either in your email or a note app—where you have a running list of ideas. Sync this with your GeoSync folder to bring your short-term thoughts of in-the-moment ideas that were captured, and combine them with your long-term stored ideas in GeoSync.
Bill Gates famously said, “I keep my plate full at 60%.” The first time I heard this, it really surprised me because of the amazing enterprises he built. He left 40% of his time for thinking and creative time, reading, or writing. Although these things seem like idle activities on the surface, they are actually the life-blood of creativity and allow your plans and actions to be more streamlined and better aligned with one another. We have a tendency to get really caught up in the hamster wheel of day-to-day life and all the busyness that comes with it, so we will have to be really intentional about scheduling this Think Time into our calendar. When we allow ourselves time to let our brains get into a different mode, we can get a whole new set of ideas that we never would have thought of before.
Need support for your ideas and help bringing them into reality? Some great resources are:
Facebook Group: Online Creators Launchpad
Podcasts: Podcasters Hangout or She Podcasts (for us ladies with big ideas)
Book Groups: Check out the groups that I belong to on Facebook and also check out Florida Writers Association if you’re in Florida
Use Facebook for good, and get involved in the conversation and in-depth discussions on specific topics if you want to take all these big ideas and bring them into reality. Get out there, and StartSomething Creative! I go over all of this and more in this video, and if you watch it, you’ll even find out how I almost ended up being an emu farmer in Montana.
Want some help evaluating and managing your ideas?
In this week’s episode, Mark speaks with Tina Dietz who is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed speaker, audiobook publisher, podcast producer, and content marketing expert.(Podcast on Stark Reflections, October 12, 2018)
Prior to the interview, Mark shares a few personal updates that include the launch of his new traditionally published book Macabre Montreal, and how that book launch interfered with attending the NIGHT OF THE WRITING DEAD event in Pittsburgh that same weekend.
The link between writing/expression and entrepreneurship
How writing (particularly in print) can be an enduring format as a tangible legacy
Tina’s introduction into podcasting and audiobook production
Tina’s Forbes article “Do You Sound Like a Leader?” that focuses on the relationship between vocal qualities and how a person is viewed as a leader
Getting used to and comfortable with the sound of one’s own voice
Breathing techniques and facial exercises used for voice or singing voice
Food and drink to avoid when doing voice work (dairy and citrus, for example)
The coaching Tina does helping authors getting ready to do interviews for radio or podcasting
The difference between forms of media like television, radio and podcasting
Trends in the audiobook industry that authors might not be familiar with
The concept that anything you create needs to be an asset and not a burdenThe free download that Tina has on her website that helps demystifies the audiobook process – www.launchyouraudiobook.com
Things to consider when deciding between narrating and producting an audiobook yourself or outsourcing that
How Tina’s clients often “come for the audiobooks and then stay for everything else”
The pre-interview Tina sent to Mark ahead of the podcast which made things so much easier for Mark
In the post-interview reflections, Mark talks about how Tina’s info PDF made his job as an interviewer so much easier and he also shares a link to a WORD document template that authors can download and modify so they have something similar to use for their own podcast or radio interviews.
Tina Dietz is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed speaker, audiobook publisher, podcast producer, and content marketing expert who has been featured on media outlets including ABC, Inc.com, Huffington Post, and Forbes. Tina’s podcast, The StartSomething Show, was named by INC magazine as one of the top 35 podcasts for entrepreneurs. Tina’s company, StartSomething Creative Business Solutions, connects leaders, entrepreneurs and experts with larger audiences, resulting in expanded influence and income. Tina divides her time between the US and Costa Rica, where she’s part of a leadership team building a conscious community called Vista Mundo.
The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Interested in learning more about audiobooks and howyou can be using audio in your writing career ?
Have you ever wondered what safety has to do with leadership, especially with a vulnerable leader, or being a working professional? The answer is: A lot!
Safety is a concept we learn early on during the most formative years of our childhood. We look to make ourselves feel safe on a daily basis. It is, after all, one of the most basic needs on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and until the need to feel safe has been met, we cannot begin working upward toward the other needs on the list. This leaves us feeling insecure, unfulfilled, and frankly, unhappy.
You’re probably wondering what safety has to do with leadership or being a working professional. The answer is: A lot.
There’s been more and more press recently about being a vulnerable leader, opening ourselves up to connection and authenticity, and how all these things can make us stronger leaders, managers, supervisors, or even just colleagues. And what does it all mean? How can these things make us stronger networkers or speakers?
As professionals, we tend to go through a little bit of a push and pull between wanting to appear professional and be powerful in the moment and still managing to speak to our audience and connect with them. It’s a little bit of a dichotomy, and experiencing this contradiction can make it very difficult to really feel comfortable being vulnerable.
For those of you who don’t know my backstory, I have a background as a therapist, business coach, and voice actor. From my earliest time as a child, I remember creating a lot of safety for myself by anthropomorphizing the entire world around me (and I still do it today). This has brought me to collect and own a large collection of friends and creatures who have brought me great comfort throughout the years and have their own wisdom that can really only be accessed when you speak in their voice.
Have I lost you yet? No? Good. I'm talking about a large group of puppets, the first of which I discovered at a puppet petting zoo that had been set up when I was in graduate school to become a therapist. It was meant for therapists to shop around to use puppets as therapy tools, but what we found there was much deeper. I noticed George, the black-footed ferret, and I started thinking about how much of a crisis of conscience he was probably having being that he is a carnivore, but he’s also cute and fuzzy. I felt a connection with him right away, and I looked around and noticed that my connection to George was causing others to come over and check out the other carnivores like the wolves. People saw my connection with George, and they wanted to feel that connection too. Spontaneously, several other therapists and I started a carnivore support group. And no, I can’t make this stuff up!
You might never be in a situation where you’ll be connecting with a puppet at a puppet petting zoo, but this lesson translates into human connection as well. When people really connect with one another and allow themselves to be vulnerable, they find a common space of humanity. This common space acts as a mirror to other people, making them more comfortable and willing to come forward with their own feelings.
Many of us as children don’t successfully go through the stage in our childhood that Erik Erikson determined as the time when we decide if the world is a safe place or not. This causes them to not trust the world and to feel like it isn’t there for us. I was one of these people, and there are many, many more like us in the world as well. It’s important to look back through our childhood and find those things that made us feel safe as kids. This can trigger a neurological, emotional, and even a physiological response that can help us move past that unsafe space and step into our adult being so we can then take care of the younger parts of ourselves.
Sometimes to cope with our sense of ‘un-safe-ness’ we over-rely on things like food, sexual contact, or other things that may or may not serve us. We even have a tendency to search for connection on social media, but this often leads to us finding things that are very overstimulating and provoking. It does us no favors, especially for those of us who feel emotions very intensely.
As humans, we have a tendency to want to make decisions right away. We want to push forward, do things, change the environment…but if we do this on top of feeling unsafe or insecure, we might be doing things that actually snowball the negative feelings and lack of safety and make it worse.
Listen to yourself, and you’ll be more able to listen to others. Connect with people, look into their eyes, and when you get nervous or feel afraid, take care of the younger part of yourself that doesn’t feel safe. You can have the grown-up part of you take care of the little parts of you. It’s okay, and it’s necessary.
The popularity of devices like Alexa have created a rise in the demand for audio to educate and entertain commuters and laundry-folders alike. James talks to Tina Dietz about creating audiobooks from both our fiction and non-fiction work.(Podcast on Self Publishing Formula, September 14, 2018)
This week’s highlights include:
The importance of creativity in every type of business
How creativity makes us more productive
The different approaches to audiobooks by fiction and non-fiction authors
Thoughts on narrating your book yourself
The range of costs for producing an audiobook, including what you can expect to pay a narrator
Auditioning narrators to find the right voice for your book
Providing character information to narrators to find a good fit
Reading your book out loud yourself to get a sense of your characters’ voices
The three reasons for starting a podcast
Resources mentioned in this episode:
PATREON: Self Publishing Formula Podcast’s Patreon page
She gives us the low down on audiobooks, how to get them recorded, how they fit into the marketing of your other book formats, and how to promote/market them to your audience.
She also talks about the expanding audiobook industry and why we should all be considering adding audiobooks to our inventory of books.
Tina gave us some amazing ideas for how to promote audiobooks, or even just using audio to promote your print or ebook versions of your book. She’s a very smart marketer, with a strong grasp of the audio market, and this is a must-listen episode for anyone who’s thinking of getting into audiobooks, or who already has audiobooks on sale. (Or in fact anyone who thinks they could use audio in any way to help with the marketing of their books. ???? )
About Tina
Tina Dietz MS, NCC is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed speaker, audiobook publisher, podcast producer, and content marketing expert who has been featured on media outlets including ABC, Inc.com, Huffington Post and Forbes. Tina’s podcast, The StartSomething Show, was named by INC magazine as one of the top 35 podcasts for entrepreneurs.
Tina has been building businesses for over 20 years and is the owner of StartSomething Creative Business Solutions, a company committed to connecting experts, authors, and entrepreneurs with their ideal audiences through audio branding and marketing with a deep specialty in audiobook publishing, podcasting, and thought leadership.
Ah…procrastination…the “P” word that everyone thinks is bad. Let's take a look at some favorite ways to procrastinate, while trying to understand why we do it.
Ah…procrastination…the “P” word that everyone thinks is bad, but let’s be honest with ourselves…we all do it. I’m doing it right now by writing this when I could be doing a list of a million other things. It’s a really strange phenomenon that people tend to put off the things that are most important to them. But WHY do we always seem to do it during our most life-changing moments, when there’s something we REALLY want to be doing that could be a path-to-greatness, amazing thing to do? And why do we procrastinate with things we don’t even really want to be doing (like laundry) in place of the awesome ones?
I don’t know the scientific answers to these questions, but I do know my own experiences. I always find myself about to sit down to do something life-changing, and then I think to myself, “Oh, maybe I should just get the dishes done first” or “I should really do my makeup for the webinar I’m doing this afternoon. It’ll just take a minute” or even worse, “I think there’s some laundry that needs to be put away” (the problem here is that there’s ALWAYS laundry that needs to be put away).
Sometimes we WANT to procrastinate, because when you plan everything out and take it slow and calmly, there’s no rush at the end that gives you adrenaline as you race your way to the finish line. Some of us work best in that state of mind, so we actually procrastinate just to get there because it can be kind of a let-down without the excitement at the end.
Some of my absolute favorite ways to procrastinate are folding laundry, email (which can be productive or a big time-waster), and writing blogs like this one. I also always find myself saying, “Well, I was going to make a Facebook Live video later, but maybe I’ll just do one right now,” which isn’t always a bad thing for me because I’m an extrovert, and I thrive off of interacting with my viewers. I’m motivated by it. So, even though I’m procrastinating, it’s productive procrastination.
Productive Procrastination
When I was in grad school, I got into trouble (as I so often did when I was working for someone else) for having individual tutoring sessions with students where I taught them how to procrastinate effectively. Resisting the urge to procrastinate actually does you no good because it causes more stress, which in turn causes the brain to shut down, so you’re just not as effective. The trick is to make sure your calendar is blocked off a full day ahead of time. Acknowledge that you’re probably going to wait until the last second to get it done, but maybe you don’t have to lose sleep to accomplish that. Instead, maybe you can strategically plan your calendar by building in twice as much time as you think you’re going to need so you’re not rushing up against other deadlines (like sleep).
Another trick is to understand that sometimes you just won’t get as much sleep as you really should. Although sleep and self-care are absolutely the best things you can do to help yourself be MORE productive, sometimes you have to get creative with how you’ll get your brain to be fully functioning. One of these ways is to set a number of hours you are going to sleep, sleep that number of hours (no more, no less) during the same hours every night. Then, ideally, during the day, block off 20-30 minutes at the same time every single day for a meditation session or power nap. Keeping your body on a strict schedule like this allows your brain to adjust to routine and operate at full capacity.
If you are a big procrastinator or have “Happy Puppy Syndrome” like me, you tend to wag yourself out and get exhausted because you’ve put TOO much energy into something too quickly. Give yourself 2-3 big priorities each day, and focus on those 2-3 things as your rock for the day. Those are your main points of focus, and everything else just falls in around them.
So, what are your favorite ways to procrastinate? And what are you up to this week? Give yourself 2-3 main priorities each day, and even if it takes you the whole day to do it, that’s okay! Procrastinate away, but do it effectively so you’re not hurting yourself (or your work) in the process.
Want some help figuring out how you can set up some ways to Productive Procrastinate?
Are you ready to grow your business? Are you ready to focus on and leverage your Zone of Genius?
If you said yes to either of the two questions above, if you’re hanging out in Overwhelm City or Burnout Alley and there aren’t enough hours in the day and you always feel like you’re scrambling, you need systems.
Even if you’re not a “systems person,” I guarantee you have systems… even if your system is something like:
Step 1. Get ready to do a task
Step 2. Try to remember how you did it the last time (whenever that was)
Step 3. Stop trying to remember and invent a new way to get it done
Step 4. Rinse and repeat.
I call this the “Non-Systems-System.”
Systems are simply consistent ways of getting things done that are made up of a mix of people, technology, and processes that create an intended outcome. It’s a structure that’s created to hold all the parts of your business together so work can flow. Ideally, this is set up to be like a wide-flowing river – not a creek with lots of beaver dams on it.
Better and more effective systems are the train tickets out of overwhelm city. You’ll find that you know what’s going on, what needs to happen, get to do more of the stuff you love in your business AND you work less while making more money.
You might have a blogging system that you follow to create high quality content on a consistent basis. Or a client on-boarding system that sets up your clients to have an amazing experience EVERY TIME they work with your business.
In systems are embedded culture, values, creativity, your essence… The systems of your business create a microcosm, an ecosystem that can reflect your unique way of being and working.
Building systems is simply about bringing consciousness to the process of how you (and your team) get things done in your business. In this process of bringing greater consciousness, what’s not working, what could be working better, and what could be simplified comes to light. You also find out ways to work more joyfully and more in alignment, which makes the process of running and growing a business all the more enjoyable.
Why Systems Rock!
Unless you’re building systems, it’s easy to stay in a place where you feel like you’re always racing against the clock. Talk about hanging out on the burnout path.
By getting clear about where you are, you can let go of any need to be polished and perfect and simply be clear about where you’re going and keep building without all the mental runaround.
With systems, it’s easier to add on and change the business without it being a huge hassle – that’s what systems are for.
When you have insight into what IS working, you won’t have to dedicate extra energy or resources into what’s already solid.
You’ll gain back extra brain space because you’re no longer trying to hold all the details. Since you have places for all that knowledge and insight to go to be actioned, you can trust you won’t lose momentum when you step away.
You might even find that you can take weekends and lunch breaks! Not in front of the computer, but away from it and you might not even think about work for hours or days at a time.
Imagine being able to work the same amount of hours (or less!), but do MORE of what you love doing in the business while being able to serve more people that need your particular sauce of brilliance.
You will be able to slow down and enjoy the ride, rather than the process feeling like a drag.
When you expand what you’re able to do without YOU having to work more, you enable yourself to be able to make more money, expand your impact, increase your creativity in business, while kicking that annoying overwhelm gremlin out.
That is why systems are awesome and worth making work for you.
Business Systems Are Like an Ecosystem
Your business is like an ecosystem. There are lots of different parts that interact to create something bigger than just each one of the parts individually. There's a symbiotic relationship that happens when these pieces work well together.
When you think about your business as an ecosystem, how you create systems is informed by the way you do things and why you make certain decisions.
Think about a river. There’s a lot of potential energy in a river. But if the river didn’t have banks, it would be diffused everywhere. The water wouldn’t be channeled.
You are the river. Your systems are the river banks, the roots of the trees that prevent erosion on the banks, and the rocks and bends that slow the water at certain locations along your trajectory. All of these parts support your journey and help you flow. Without a container for the river, the fish and other aquatic critters wouldn't have a home.
Systems operate in a continuum. There's no wrong place to be, you are where you are. Just like ecosystems. They are where they are in their development. There are no “have to’s” and there are no “shoulds.” There are no places that you're supposed to come out at on the other end. It's just about you having the opportunity to explore and decide what kind of journey you want to have and where you want to go. With systems, there's no done and there's no perfect.
When you align your systems you support your creativity and amplify your impact. You can improve the way you're working so you're more effective with your time and the way that you showing up on a day to day basis. You can have the impact that you want and do meaningful work without going to a place of overwhelm or burnout or spreading yourself too thin.
This process of building systems is about consciously choosing what needs your attention, effort and investment of resources. Ultimately that starts within, that starts with you making those choices.
Ready to level up your business systems? My brilliant colleague Justine Sparks is offering a free online workshop called Level Up Your Business Systems. During the event, you'll work through a framework to pinpoint the current level of your systems in personal organization and planning, financial management, sales, and marketing.
It's an opportunity to reduce your overwhelm and increase your business results in real time: 20% Theory, 80% Action. It's going to be a lot of fun and super practical and actionable.
With a background in business management, corporate social responsibility and marketing, Justine is your soulfoul systems designer. Her mission is to give you the tools that will allow you to support yourself on the journey. Justine brings high level strategic and systems thinking to the work she does with business owners. She received her BS in Business Management from an all women’s college, Simmons, in Boston, with a concentration in Leadership. Learn more about her.
