How to Self-Publish & Promote Your First Book & Sobriety

Mamas,

Have you ever thought…hmm should I write a book? Or, maybe…should I create a journal or a physical workbook or product? Yeah, I know you go-getter you. You probably already have the first chapter drafted, right?

After I met Sarah Ordo, from Her Best F*ing Life. Don’t worry, little ears are safe. We don’t cuss in this episode. I was so inspired, my journal became a reality! #WithGodSheRises was born and Sarah helped me see that this was going to be easier than I thought!

In today’s episode, we hear about Sarah’s sobriety journey and how it inspired her to begin her reign as a self-published author of seven books! We will share how to begin writing your own book, where to self-publish, and how to market for the most success.

I pray this blesses you!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00)
Why hello there, gorgeous little mama you. I am chilling here in my mama’s office, drinking lukewarm coffee and water. And I just got off the most epic interview. One of my top three favorite interviews of all time with my friend, Sarah Ordo. And y’all Sarah interviewed me quite a while back on her show. And I became just obsessed with her Instagram, her branding I’ve loved the fact that she was anti niche. Yeah. Anti niche. And that she was so multi-passionate.

(00:34)
I then became obsessed the fact that she was self published and she was doing these incredible things in the world. And she actually inspired me to finally just do the thing with my own journal With God, She Rises. I had to have Sarah on the show because I wanted her to share with us, her sobriety journey, all about self publishing books. And we just dug in you guys.

(00:54)
I loved recording this so much. So a little bit more about Sarah. She is your not so typical millennial girl who is craving making moves and leaving her insane, incredible mark on the world. She does it all, and she is seriously one of those do all the things type of people. She’s an entrepreneur and the owner of 24 Luxe hair and makeup in Detroit an on location, hair and makeup team for weddings and events. She is also a licensed makeup artist, self published author with seven products out in the world. She is a podcast host of Her Best Effing life. She’s a YouTuber, a life coach, a workshop creator. And most recently she also does live events. I’m super excited for you to meet Sarah. You’re going to love her.

(01:42)
Okay guys, before we dig into this epic interview, I want to read you the review of the week. Five star review titled obsessed with Stef so much tactical knowledge left by Pretty Simple Sarah podcast. Wow. This is the best podcast for tactical tips for entrepreneurship, hands down, I’m in the advertising business and thought I knew it all. Nope, but Stef does. I’m binge listening to all episodes and taking notes. You’re an inspiration Stef. Keep the episodes coming. Thank you, Sarah. This is amazing. And I definitely do not know it all, but I am so grateful that you think I do you. Guys, if you haven’t left me a review, go do it. That what lights me up, lifts me up, continues this mission, helps us get these incredible guests on the show, just like our guest today, Sarah.

(03:05)
It’s literally the number one way you can thank me for the hours and hours and hours of completely free content that I am putting out into the world to help you grow and better your life. Head on over to iTunes, leave a review, take a screenshot of the show, share it in your stories. And I appreciate you. I am so grateful for you. Thank you. Hi bosses. I’m pumped. I’m sitting across from my friend, the amazing Sarah Ordo. I was on her show recently, and then I became obsessed with her. Obviously, once you hear her, you will also be obsessed. And I asked her to come be on my show because her story is epic.

(03:38)
She’s super multi-passionate, which lights me up. I think we can be excited about multiple things in our lives and be successful at multiple things. And then lastly, she inspired me to self publish With God, She Rises. You guys know my latest journal and she has six self-published products, which is mind blowing. So hi, Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi Stefanie. Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here. I’m so excited to chat about all the things and you guys go look at Sarah’s Instagram, but she is like the most beautiful human and she always looks gorgeous.

(04:09)
I’m just waiting for her to have kids so that I can say, look, Sarah, now you look like me. I’ll be the mom that’s like, I still need to go get my lashes done. You’ll still have the lashes for sure. I’ll be like in labor with lashes on for sure. I tried to buy those magnetic ones the other day and I sat, you would have died. Okay. I’m like sitting there with the mirror and I’m like, Oh, and they’re like hanging off on this. And then I’m getting so annoyed.

(04:36)
I walk right back in the store and returned them. I’m like, forget it. My baby lashes are fine. Yes. I hate the magnetic lashes. I bought them because I was like, let me try this. Cause I’m sure we’ll chat a little bit about it. But like I also do makeup and I was like, let me see this. Cause they’re trending everywhere. And they were terrible. It was the most frustrating. No, they don’t go on.

(04:56)
It’s not going to last. I’m calling it now, I’m calling it people. You heard it first. Right? So Sarah start by telling us they heard your intro in the beginning, but we want to hear your story. You have a great story. Tell us about who you were, who you are today and all the things that you’re doing. Yeah. So I do a lot of things. I’m very multi-passionate which we will talk on that later. Cause I’m very, I’m passionate about being multi-passionate cause I think sometimes people don’t think it’s possible, but I actually started out way back in my entrepreneurial world career journey thing.

(05:33)
I started out, I actually went to school to be a preschool teacher. Really? Yes. I have an early childhood degree, which a lot of people don’t know. I didn’t know that. And I was actually, I had gotten my cosmetology license around 18 years old, went to college, got this degree was teaching preschool and was still working at a salon on the weekends because I just really enjoyed it. And then my first step into the entrepreneurial world actually was I started my business 24 Luxe hair and makeup, which is still my main thing, which a lot of people on social media don’t see as much, you guys are winning a war it’s like left and right are doing very amazing. I’m very grateful about it, myself and the people I work with are extremely talented.

(06:13)
I have amazing people that work with me and so talented. But we started doing on location hair and makeup. I started that business in 2013 and yeah, we’re winning awards. We’re doing great. We’re busier than ever. So that has been, my first journey into this world was I started this business. I was the makeup artist. I organized everything, booked everything. And then where a lot of people started to actually know me on social media from after I created a YouTube channel.

(06:41)
I wanted to be a beauty YouTuber, which everybody wanted to be like five years ago. Right. So I’m like, do you think I could do it? Obviously I wear makeup every day. You guys. Right. So I was really into that for a while. And then what really changed everything was my getting sober, which we will dive into deeper. But when I got sober, I shared a video on YouTube about it when I was 30 days sober and it started to grow and grow and people were reaching out to me and there were comments and it just kind of became this thing. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like, people really want to hear about this. Like, there’s a lot of people going through similar alcohol issues, like as I had in my twenties.

(07:23)
So I started doing that. It kind of naturally led into a blog. I had a blog called soberaf.com. And then that naturally, well not naturally, I shouldn’t say I had a dream one day that I found, I found a book on the floor and when I picked it up, it was all pictures of me drunk inside of the book. And then it was like all my words. So I woke up and I was like, well, I guess I’m supposed to write a book. I got chills just real quick. Crazy.

(07:50)
I love Holy Spirit moments like I can’t. And that one was the biggest I’ve ever had because literally I self published that first book in about four or five months, I was an absolute lunatic. I released it when I was two years sober. We’re the same person, by the way, we really are as far as our lunacy in getting things done. Absolutely.

(08:11)
But yeah, so I self published that I immediately knew I wanted to do it again. I loved it. I was living for it. So I now have seven self published pieces on Amazon and on Kindle. And then all of that just kind of naturally progressed into my podcast, Her Best Effing life. I made her do that. You gotta be censoring me today. If anyone follows me, they know I swear like a sailor. This is for the moms driving to school. Yes. But yeah, so I had my podcast. I still do YouTube a little bit. It’s not as much of a focus, but my books have been my big thing. I started doing some mindset coaching, some online workshops for women.

(08:58)
Then most recently I started doing live female empowerment events in the Detroit area, which I am so excited about right now. I just booked my biggest one yet that I haven’t really announced yet, but it’s going to be at the end of this year and it’s going to be big. I am a little overwhelmed, but I’m very excited though, dude. Yeah. That’s everything. I love it. Yeah. I think that the rest of your story is so phenomenal. Cause I tried YouTube and then I moved into Facebook lives and like just similarities between our journey. Talk to us about you’re sober. I just want to hear a piece of that story.

(09:34)
I don’t know if it was the generation or what, but like I was in high school in the two thousands, like, you know, and then college and like early well, late two thousands, early 2010s. But I feel like that generation itself, like everybody was doing what I was doing. So it didn’t seem strange to me and it didn’t seem alarming to me, but I was your typical party girl, like had to drink every weekend, had to pregame everything. We went with water bottles of vodka in the car when we were going to like the 18 and up club like that was for so long. And everybody just knew me as that person.

(10:10)
I realized very quickly that when I started drinking, I didn’t stop. I was your typical Berenger but on a whole nother level, I literally would black out. And most people like pass out when they black out. But I would just keep going. Yeah. And I could drink like an ungodly amount. I am so small. I’m five feet tall. Like I am a tiny little girl and I could drink these amounts of alcohol that were just like disgusting. So I would be completely unconscious, but still functioning, completely blacked out, but like in the mode doing things, talking to people like there would literally be times people would tell me, Oh, I saw you at blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I wouldn’t even remember seeing them. And they’d be like, we talked for like 10 minutes.

(10:54)
You didn’t seem that drunk. So as you can imagine that down the line led into drug use. It led to a lot of things happening to me, putting myself in a lot of dangerous situations. A lot of things I wouldn’t wish on anyone. And it’s so weird because now that I’m out of it and I’m like, I can see it better. I realized how much alcohol was normalizing all the things that weren’t okay and were normal. But I was able to brush them off because I was like, Oh, I was so drunk.

(11:25)
This happened and it was so crazy. Like, no, those are things like ruin your life. Like that’s not, you know, I don’t know how much I can say on here. You can say anything. You just try to bleep out cuss words. I mean, I just didn’t know if children were listening, but like I had like firsthand accounts of like sexual assault.

(11:45)
And it’s crazy to me now because when I look back, I almost played it off as, but I was so drunk. Maybe I did act in a way that brought it on myself. Maybe I did like want that person to do that. Like, which is so twisted. Sure. So it is right. Yeah. No. So that went on for over a decade. 13 to 25? Yeah. 13 to 25. So I ended up getting sober because I went to a music festival in Detroit that we went to every year and I did my typical pregame.

(12:18)
I drank like half of the tequila, I had taken Adderall, I was taking drinks from people in line. I was getting more drinks when I got inside and my friend said she actually sat me down at one point and was like, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, I’m fine.

(12:31)
Like I was just completely blacked out. But when I was blacked out, as I mentioned, like I would do things, say things that I would have no idea, no judgment. So what ended up happening is I took a handful of pills from someone at this festival that I didn’t know, they like just shoveled them into my mouth. I gave him a wad of cash, I don’t know how much money I gave it to him. I know now, but I didn’t at the time, know what I was taking. And shortly after I completely collapsed on the concrete, in the middle of the festival. And they took me over to like the grassy area. They thought maybe I just had to like throw up or something. And I was kinda like heaving and they stood me up. And then within a few minutes I completely collapsed again.

(13:11)
So they had to get me to like the medic tent and everything. Then I was taken by ambulance to an emergency room in Detroit. I don’t remember. And so everything I like is like pieced back together because no one went with me to the hospital. I was by myself, but I basically woke up in the emergency room and had no idea where I was, what happened, where everybody was like, what was going on? And I was still so messed up though. Cause they were starting to like flush everything that I was pulling IVs out of my arms and pulling things like wires off of my body and like freaking out. And like the nurses had to come restrain me and it was crazy. But I found out that obviously I had a very, very high blood alcohol level.

(13:52)
I had consumed so much alcohol, but I had also taken a lethal combination of drugs. I had taken MDMA ketamine, which is literally an animal tranquilizer. Like I had taken all these drugs and my body had so many things that a doctor just told me. He was like, I don’t know how you pulled through this. Like you are so small and your body was literally just shutting down on itself. Like it couldn’t handle it. And somehow by the grace of God, I, to this day, every single day, I’m like, I was kept here for a reason. Absolutely. That’s what keeps me doing everything I do and talking about my sobriety. Cause I’m like, I shouldn’t be here. And there’s a reason that I am.

(14:30)
Oh my gosh, that story is insane. And it’s funny cause you’re right. My generation was the same. I went through all that same stuff I would drink and just blackout, blackout, like go to bed every weekend for a long time until I got my life together. But it’s funny cause that was all okay. I think that honestly, like there was, and I think it’s getting a little bit better. I think now it’s more of a social thing, but I think back then, like we were so like Jersey shore was on TV. Like we were watching like all these shows where everyone was just getting plastered and hooking up with each other that like we were in this like partying culture that was so fueled with alcohol. It was insane.

(15:11)
I hope that’s over. Cause now that I have kids, I’m like Lord have mercy. Please don’t do the things that I did. Well, I’m so grateful that in a way we went through those things in your stories because it’s an awakening. And I think one time I rolled my car and my guardian angel showed up. It was a guy and I said, I’m going to leave the scene. And I had been drinking. This is back when I was like 18 years old. And he said, no, you have to wait for the policemen to come sit here with me and just breathe. And as soon as the police showed up, I looked to the side and he was gone and it was my guardian angel. He had come and rescued me. It’s crazy.

(15:47)
So you had your guardian angel moment, obviously you’re still here on earth. I’m still here on earth and now we have these missions to help people. So talk to us about how long have you been sober now? And that was your first book? Yes. I have been sober now for four years and three months. There have been times where I’ve thought, you know what? I had the willpower to get sober first shot, cold Turkey. I didn’t go to AA. Like just kind of did the work on my own, went to therapy.

(16:11)
There’s times where I think like, I think I probably would be able to control it now because I’ve come so far. But at the same time I ask myself like, what’s the point of trying? What is it going to add to my life? What’s it going to do? You know, I’m great. I’m living the best life I’ve ever had. What’s the point in even trying it and playing with fire. You’re courageous and incredible for sharing that story publicly. And I think you know, impacting so many people, thank you for sharing that. I think it’s so hard to be vulnerable and open about things that we did in our past. Maybe we’re not super proud of. And so every time I hear somebody just be so open and vulnerable, I know that that was probably the hardest thing ever.

(16:47)
That’s what changes people’s lives. So it’s sharing the hard, I didn’t share that whole story honestly, until I was two years sober. Wow. And I had all this content about my sobriety and what, how I was going through it and stuff. And it was crazy. Cause I felt like at first I didn’t want to tell anybody really what happened. And then it was like every like milestone I’d hit. I would like open up a little bit or I would open up a little bit more. But that book was the first time I put all of those details in that book. And it was finally just like, here you go. Like here it is.

(17:18)
So I want to talk about the book because my initial goal for you was to talk about self publishing, but it’s like, it’s so hard for me. Cause I get like so inspired by people’s stories. Like I get stuck there. I love your story, but I want to talk about how you transitioned into this book. Like, so you have this Holy Spirit moment, this dream, what did you do? Did you say like, should I write this book?

(17:39)
Did you talk yourself out of it? Did you just sit down at the computer and like let it flow? Like how did it all play out? Yeah. So I was already, I had the blog already, so I was already writing like blog posts, but I had this dream and I, especially like after I got sober, like I felt like I was just so much more aligned and in tune with my spirituality and my faith signs from the universe, you know, if God was showing me things.

(18:02)
I was just so open and I felt like I was getting so much during that time, honestly never felt more like spiritually aligned than I did in my first two years of sobriety. I think it’s just because I was so broken open, I was so open for like anything to help me. And I was just very like, okay, like what am I going to do? Like, should I do this? Am I going to get assigned? Like, is this going to be reborn in a way honestly, yes, basically. So when I had that dream, I immediately was like, okay, maybe I should do this. Like maybe this is a sign. Like I don’t, I feel like I shouldn’t be ignoring this.

(18:35)
And so I just started writing and I being a crazy overachiever was like, okay, I’m going to meet you. You’re sober in like five months, like I could do this by then. And I literally, every single day I was single at the time. So it was very easy every single day I would get up and just start writing and I would just write and write and write and write every single day. Like I won.

(18:58)
I mean, it was a little crazy. Like when I think back on it, it was a little bit ridiculous. I was a little psycho about it, but I think it was just such a therapeutic process to relive it all. I think it was so freeing and liberating to finally get it all out because I had been almost guarding some of what had happened as like a secret and I didn’t want people to know and I was afraid of what they were going to judge me if they knew what had really happened. And it was finally that whole, like a million pounds off my shoulders. Like I had been holding onto this and hiding this for so long. And when I finally got it all out, it just felt so amazing.

(19:36)
I honestly though, had a humongous panic attack on my two year anniversary when I launched the book and I think it was just everything going on, but it was also at the same time, like everybody’s going to know everything now, like this is it it’s out there. Like it was the most vulnerable moment in my life. For sure. You had to go through that to share it though. And then to share it was the call because absolutely that was the dream. It was, you will share this. Yes. And we’re almost, I feel like we’re responsible to answer the call from, for me God or Spirit or whatever for y’all that are listening, but you almost have this duty to share this thing. It’s terrifying. Terrifying.

(20:15)
So you write this book. Did you ever get stuck in the how? Like, do I need to find a publisher? Do I need to do this? Do I need to self publish it? Were you stuck in any of that mess or did you just write it? I’ve always been like a very DIY driven person. Like I’m that person that’s like, I’m going to do this and you can’t tell me I can’t like, I’ve just always had that mentality. So you went to three on the Enneagram. I don’t know what I am. I’m the only person in the world. I feel like that hasn’t taken that and I need to go take it and I’m pretty sure you’re a 3. And I’m like, I don’t know. Do want to know? Yeah, I’m going to do it for sure.

(20:50)
Oh my goodness Y’all believe it or not. Podcast Pro University is literally live in the world and there are already students and people launching their podcast left and right. And I’m blown away at the responses I’ve had to this course. Do I have you considering starting your own podcast by now? I sure hope so. I talk about how you monetize the podcast, 10 steps to starting your own show. Ways that a podcast can help you grow your brand. And why podcasting has been the number one platform for me and my business in the last 12 months.

(21:49)
So I literally started like Googling and YouTube and everything. Yeah. I had to do pretty much anything on Google. I learned that. And then I also was a religious follower of Cara Alwill from This Champagne Diet. And she had self-published all of her books. I remember her sharing a story about when she decided to self publish her first book that she put it to 19 publishers and everyone said no. And that was kind of like the fuel to my fire. That like, okay, here I am with this unreasonable timeline, five months. And I’m like, well, I don’t have time to do that. So we’re just going to do this. I’m going to skip that step and I’m just going to do the self publishing.

(22:29)
So I honestly, I just researched everything online. I actually reached out to Cara about a few of the things and she gave me some pointers and gave me some references for people like an editor that I could use. And I honestly like figured the whole thing out along the way. It was a little nuts and crazy, but I did it. That’s so cool. That is so cool. How is your book being received? I know you have now. I said six, but I seven published products. So Sober as F since were censoring and that was the first book. And so like that one always is my top seller, no matter what I do, no matter what I put out.

(23:05)
Cause like I wrote 30 as F, which was 30 things I learned during my quarter life crisis. And I was so obsessed with that book. I thought it was so good. It was so fun. And I was like, this is going to be my biggest book now it still isn’t like, it’s still the sober book. But I think it just shows like there’s so many people connecting with it and kind of the story. So that one is still always my top seller outsells everything by like multiple times. Like it’s crazy, but I have Sober as F, Sober as F the workbook. And then I just put out my most recent was Sober as F the daily sobriety tracker and journal.

(23:38)
So I have like three components of it now, actually. So that people that are going through a sobriety journey have like tools they can also use if they connect with my story and you don’t have to be an alcoholic to become sober. No. And that is, I have talked about that on my podcast before, too, because there are a lot of women, which I’m sure you can relate to this a little bit. A lot of female entrepreneurs, we are so focused on being our best self building our best business that we like to eliminate the distractions and that they cloud what we’re doing. And I have talked to so many female entrepreneurs that I didn’t even know were sober until I had a conversation with them on my podcast or something.

(24:17)
They all just say, I just realized I was doing so much better without it. I had so much more clarity. And that’s the thing. I find so many people now that are just making the personal choice to be sober, that maybe they didn’t even have an issue with it. Maybe they just didn’t like the way they felt or the way they acted, or maybe it was making them less productive or not feel as healthy.

(24:36)
So there’s a lot of people that are sober that don’t necessarily consider themselves to be an alcoholic. Yeah, that’s interesting. Cause I think for me what happens is, okay, we have this thing, we’re going to go do, my husband and I just went out to Flix brew house, had the drinks and the thing. And then we went to the brewery. We had another beer. I was out of my game for two days because hello, like I can’t hang. Okay. I’m like those four beers.

(24:59)
I had a stomach ache for two days. I’m like how? And then of course the anxiety really bugs me. Cause I’m like, I feel like for me, that’s like an internal, whenever I’m having anxiety, I know that like I’m not doing something in alignment for me. Right. So it’s interesting because I think you’re right. It’s thinking about why you’re drinking. That we’ll call right now. It’s an escape. Exactly. And that’s fine, you know, in moderation, all of those things. But if it’s not in your best interest of your passion project or where you are in your life, it’s okay to stop drinking. Right. I think, you know, if it we’re even me, it’s giving myself that permission slip of like, you can be sober and not worry about whatever everybody else is doing.

(25:34)
How did that work out? Because did you get any pressure from, I’m sure you had all the friends in the world that were drinking so much, did you have just cut off your life and start over? So for the first couple months I was very naive about it. I was very like, I’m just going to stop drinking. I’ll just hang out with you guys still the same thing. I’m just not going to drink.

(25:52)
Like, that was my first couple of months of what I was going to do. Cause I was so like when you’ve been that person for so long it’s like taking away a part of your identity, which it sounds crazy. But like, to me, like I was the party girl. So me no longer being the fun, crazy outgoing party girl was like, okay, so who am I? Who am I now without this?

(26:10)
So I honestly, for the first few months would go out, same people, same places dressed up in my sleazy little outfits, you know, to meet guys. And I would be the DD and I would drive my friends home at two in the morning. And then I would drive home crying, having a complete meltdown because I was stuck in this. I’m changing my life. I don’t want to let go of the past, but I’m also not moving towards my future yet. Like I was stuck for awhile there and I did lose one of my best friends back then. We don’t even speak anymore. Yeah. So sad to me. And I mean, we outgrow some people, it just happens. But to me, a lot of it was because of our different lifestyles.

(26:48)
So, you know, I did lose friends. I basically had to change everything about my life. I remember like the weekend would come and I’d literally be like, okay, what am I going to do this weekend? Right. And it’s like for a minute, it’s pathetic. When you really think about it. It’s like, so because I’m not drinking, I literally don’t know what to do with myself this weekend. Like there are so many things you can do, but for a while it was that like, yeah. Okay. So what do I do now, and then it got weird. Cause like I was, I was losing friends. It sucked like people didn’t want to date me because I was sober when I was online dating.

(27:22)
Like it brought a whole new world of obstacles that honestly like anyone, especially new in sobriety, like you’ve got to get really secure with yourself and why you’re doing it and why it’s important to you because there’s going to be a lot of things that are going to test you or maybe make you reconsider. I mean, I literally, like I put this in one of my books that I literally had someone once I met on a dating app and we were about to meet in person on our first date night before he literally texted me at one in the morning, it was just, I think he was tipsy. And he said, I just don’t think this is going to work because you don’t drink. Amen though. Thank goodness.

(27:56)
So he wouldn’t even meet me and like, yeah, at the end of the day, it’s like, okay, if you can’t handle that, then like, you’re not the kind of man I need in my life anyway. But it’s strange to them if they’re not used to it or exposed to it. And like, so you will be met with like some weird, weird things. Like it’s definitely an interesting road to navigate. I’m pretty comfortable in everything now. There’s still some things that will trigger me a little bit. But like in the beginning, figuring it out on my gosh, it was like a scavenger hunt, like with a blindfold on to navigate, you know, you got to shed the old to find the new.

(28:30)
Absolutely look forward regardless of what you’re doing. But I’m sure in sobriety more than anything. Yeah. So talk to everyone about being multi-passionate cause you have your makeup business, your books, your YouTube channel. How do you, and yes, I think you’re a 3 Ennegram, you’re an overachiever like me, we’re the same. We can get so much done in the day. It would take someone else a year to do what we do in a week. Right. How do you manage those things? Do you ever feel burned out and like at your wit’s end? Yes. I have burned myself out many times. Um, especially in the past I have always been the overachiever. Yes.

(29:07)
I think for a while I realized now that for a long time, I clung to my success as my I’m doing okay still. So when a bad breakup would happen, I would throw myself into work because at least I’m still successful. And even when, at the end of when I was still drinking, it was like, but look at this business, I started we’re winning awards. I can’t be an alcoholic. I’m doing okay. Like it was that convincing myself. I didn’t have that big of an issue yet. So it’s tricky because yeah. It’s so blinding to things. Yeah. So basically telling me you haven’t figured it out yet. The answer is not quite there yet. So I’m working on it. I’ve gotten much better now.

(29:47)
I challenged you when we did our show to turn off your social media. Did you do it? I didn’t turn it off, but here’s what I do because I know baby steps, but now here’s what I’ve been doing. Cause I get up super early in the morning and I know I work best in the morning. So I do all my stuff. I get all my stuff done during the day. I’m trying to work on time blocking as well. That’s doing better for me, but I set a time where like I usually start to make dinner.

(30:14)
We eat dinner like pretty early. I go to bed kind of early. So I start making dinner around four o’clock. I have made myself now, like after dinner I do not work anymore. That’s my new role. Oh, I’m so proud of you. I know I’m doing really well with it too. I’m actually like I started watching Big Little Lies. I’m through one season already, Like, look at all this time.

(30:40)
Once I get to dinner, it’s like, no, that’s it. Because if I was working at a business or a job outside of my home, I would come home. And that would be the end of work. Turn off work. Yes. So that’s kind of how I’ve had to like do it because I have had many burnouts. Yeah, I have in the past, I’ve put too many things on and I’ve been crying and I just have so much going on. I’m so stressed out. And I think what I’ve had to do is definitely the boundaries, the time setting. But I’ve also started like I love monthly planners. Oh my gosh. So I spread out, like I have all my projects planned for the rest of 2019 and I’ve already told myself I’m not adding anything else. That’s my role. That’s good.

(31:19)
So like you kind of figure out ahead of time, what you have going and what you’re launching and then stick to that Oh, I know each month what’s going on. Yeah, but I will say I in the past couple of years, because when we talk about being multi-passionate like makeup and what I’m doing now are completely different and there was a time and I feel like a lot of people might have this struggle where I went through this stage of, I can’t be the best at both of these things. So maybe I need to put more focus in this one. Like maybe this one shouldn’t be my priority. And there definitely was a time period where my hair and makeup business, I don’t want to say took a hit, but it was getting a lot less love and intention from me.

(31:58)
I can see where my business wasn’t doing as well there when that was always my main income and my main thing. Yeah. I did have to break through that idea of are people going to take me seriously? If I tell them I’m a makeup artist, but I’m also a self published author. It’s like, what are you saying? And for a long time, and this is something I haven’t talked about in many places, but I’ll share it here. For a long time, I realized like if I was doing makeup and people asked me like, Oh, so do you work at a salon too? Or do you just do this? I wouldn’t even tell them about my books, my podcast, anything. Wow.

(32:34)
You were like hiding a piece of your soul to these people. I was just a makeup artist. Interesting. Then they would follow me on social media and be like, Oh my God, I didn’t know you had a book and you had all these things. And I think for a while I thought people wouldn’t take me seriously. Yeah. As a, author, if I was a makeup artist or as a makeup artist, if I was a podcast host and I’ve really gotten passionate about this idea lately, but like you can absolutely be multi-passionate and you can be good at more than one thing.

(33:03)
And I, and this will be so like, people will not agree with this. I effing hate the word niche down. And I know so many people, so many people swear by it. And I think in a marketing and advertising standpoint, yes, it is absolutely important because you need to niche down who your client or your customer is. But as entrepreneurs, I don’t believe in niching down. And a lot of people don’t agree with me on that, but it’s like, why should I downplay or push to the side? The fact that I’m a talented makeup artist and business owner, because I want people to focus on my books. I’m really kind of on that for a second. And I never even thought about that. Cause I’m kind of the same.

(33:44)
Like I talk about so many different things and I feel this internal struggle to like, Hey, Stefanie, stay in this little bucket, but I’m like, but again, like I need a break, but I think that’s what makes us so unique as human beings. Like you are not just good at being a mom. Right? Right. Like I’m not just good at doing makeup. Like we have so many things and everybody’s talented at so many different things.

(34:08)
To me, it’s almost like a disservice to ourselves to focus on one thing and be like, well, that’s the only thing I can do. That’s so interesting. So what about the people that are like I want to be makeup artist and I want to write a book and then I need a workbook and I need, so they’re multi-passionate. Do you still tell them we have to start with one thing and start to excel in this one thing before we do something new?

(34:29)
I think it kind of works different for everyone, but like when people come to me and they’re like, I want to do this, but I want to do this. And I’m just like, I’ve done all those things. You just did it. And you kind of listen to the call of when to do each one. I’m kind of the same. Like when I get an idea or like Spirit moment.

(34:44)
Cause you guys, I was going to interview Sarah too, to teach us how to self publish a book so that I could self publish my journal. And I self published it before Sarah came on my show because I’m insane. I’m the same way. That’s how I am. But I’m like, I can’t wait on something once it like lights me up, I like have to do it, like have to. So I love that idea. That’s super interesting.

(35:07)
You need to like do something with that. That’s super cool that you’re going against the grain of what everyone else out there is doing. Look at J-Lo. I mean, look, just look at her. She’s hot. First of all, but second on TV, she can sing. She can dance. She’s an actress. Like she’s gorgeous. Yes. She can do it all. Why can’t I? Exactly. So let’s talk about what, you know, they can take away from this, which I think for where my audience is, the interest for what you do, because you do so many things and you do them all amazingly, but it’s they have this idea of maybe a book or a workbook or something like this, a tangible product, not an ebook. Where do they start?

(35:42)
What do you think now that you’ve done it so many times, what would kind of be the roadmap that you think somebody should take to be successful in self publishing? I think like the number one thing is to not take too much time thinking about it and being like, well, should I do this? And like doing all this research and stuff, like start getting into it early, jump in and start doing something. Even if you’re just going to open a page on your laptop, you want to write a book, just start writing something. Start because the longer you sit there and over analyze. And while I need to know how to do this first, and I want to know how to do, like, you’re just going to sit there and waste more time.

(36:16)
So I always tell people like jump in, start it. For example, like the live events I was doing, Oh my God, two months before my event, I was like, I think I’m going to do a live event. And I announced it. I found a venue. I didn’t know where the food was coming from, where the coffee was coming from, who was going to fill the swag bags, who was going to attend, who was going to speak, but I started it and I jumped in, got my feet in. And then you figure it out as you go, you’ll get there. PS I’m so mad I’m not closer to Detroit because I had the biggest FOMO I wanted to be at The Best Effing brunch. And I’m so mad. I want to go. It was so perfect.

(36:52)
There’s a larger event happening in December. Where Detroit again? Here yeah. Send me the deets. Here’s my put it out in the universe moment. This is going to be a higher ticket, a larger event that if people wanted to travel, I would say this would be the one to travel for. But my ultimate goal and I tell people this all the time and they crack up is I’m like, I want to be like Rachel Hollis. Like she sells out theaters for her women’s tour that she does Rise. I want people to buy tickets. Like I bought a ticket. I’m going to her and her husband’s Rise business conference in November.

(37:29)
I have so many people that aren’t local that follow me because of my books. And so when, I mean, my event sold out, which was incredible, but I had so many people saying, Oh my God, I wish I lived there. Oh my God. I wish I was closer. And so I want to create something that is worthy for those people to travel and be a part of as well. So yeah, that’s my putting it out there. So cool. Yes. Send me info. And if you need speakers, let me know. I just might. So okay. They write this thing, like get it out of your body, right on paper.

(38:03)
What’s the next step? You have this rough draft. Did you, do you think that they should get an editor for your first product? And then where do you go to get the book put together? And how does that work? So I did a lot of mine, DIY, but I did outsource a few things. So I did use an editor. I was referred to my editor by Cara Alwill actually right. And I love her. She’s great. But there is a website called reedsy.com. It’s basically, I don’t want to say a Craigslist. Cause I feel like Craigslist is a little sketchy, but people can post what they do, like pitch their services. So you can go on there, look for an editor, a formator, a book cover creator, anything.

(38:48)
You can request a quote from people on there, like, Hey, this is what I’m looking for. What is your price? You can compare quotes. That’s actually how I found one of the two book cover designers that I use was on Reedsy and I’ve used her for four of my books now. But these are great ways to find people to outsource stuff because you can do it yourself. Some of it’s just easier to not do yourself. So for me, editing was obviously I needed someone on the outside to edit and like my covers. I definitely wanted someone to design a cover for me. So there are people you can outsource things. Absolutely.

(39:21)
It’s going to cost you some money, just know up front. You’re going to be investing a little bit of money if you do that. But for me outsourcing the things, I didn’t know how to do as well as I wanted them to be was what I did in that one. Yeah. And then KDP right. That’s where they would go to. Yes. So yes, there used to be create space and KDP creates this used to be for paperback books. KDP was for eBooks on Kindle. So KDP like bought CreateSpace I guess CreateSpace is no more. So everything’s KDP honestly, once you really get into it, it’s pretty like step-by-step, here’s what we need. Here’s what we need. Here’s what we need. And there’s a lot of resources on there.

(40:03)
They have like the help forums you can go in. And then honestly I Googled a lot. Yeah. A lot of things. I actually found templates for my formatting on CreateSpace, which I’m sure KDP has to have something similar. I just have a look cause I already had them, but yeah. Where you would just like plug in your stuff to their formatted, like word document for your book. So KDP is pretty easy to work with. I’m interested to see like how they’re going to change things. Cause there is some stuff with KDP with paperback books that isn’t the same as eBooks, which is a little inconvenient and weird sometimes.

(40:36)
And one thing that I hate and I’ll just give you guys a heads up is I always set a release date. Yeah. And then you have to submit it though. And it could take up to 72 hours to get approved. Right. So for me that’s always been like an anxiety situation. Cause I’m like I’ve been promoting this day for months and I literally, I think it was the 32 Bad Ass Things about Being Sober. But I didn’t know that one, when I submitted it, there was an issue because some of the pages were black instead of just white.

(41:08)
Like I made a black background and it got denied like the day before it was supposed to be launching. And I was like, what? Like what do you mean? It’s supposed to be out tomorrow. Like, no. And so I had to literally call KDP. I’m like, I need to figure this out. And it was like something weird with the page size that I had to go back and change all the page sizes. And so like literally on the day of the launch, I was like posting Instastories. Like you guys we’ll let you know, as soon as it’s live, I’m hoping it’s going to be live later today.

(41:39)
Since so many more people are self publishing now I’m hoping they’re going to make it a little bit more like user friendly. So you can do like pre-orders for paperbacks and schedule an actual release date and not have to guess on it because there are a lot of people like exploring the whole self publishing world now. So totally get on top of that. I agree. But it was actually not a horrible process. It’s really not. It wasn’t that bad. Yeah. Once you get into it and you kind of figure it out it’s easy and now that I’ve done it like several times and keep doing it for me, it’s like so easy now.

(42:15)
Leave us with like a couple of tips for you have this idea for a book you self publish, something, a paperback, how did you launch it? Do you have any like killer strategies for launching or how do you keep promoting, you know, your one book that keeps selling and doing incredibly well where most of your sales are coming from or what are your strategies behind that? Yeah. So one thing that’s very important to remember and I’ve shared this so many times on my content is when you self publish, like you have nobody, it’s just, you don’t have a publishing team pushing it. You don’t have a PR person. You don’t have advertising.

(42:48)
Like you don’t have anything. So the only way your book is going to do well is if you make sure that it’s doing well and you do the work to make sure it’s getting out there. So for me personally, social media has been free and the best way to get my stuff out there. And if you are good at like, self-promotion, if you’re good at selling something, if you’ve been in like MLM or anything like that, you already have like a foot in the door because you know how to sell and how to advertise. But like, I just, I am like a serial content creator. So like my podcast people find me and then they buy my books, my YouTube channel people find me and then, Oh, she’s got books. Okay.

(43:28)
And you know, being on other people’s podcasts, people will hear my story and be like, Oh my God, I want to hear what she’s gonna say. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, you can do live videos on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram for me is hands down my most valuable advertising source. Like for example, not even for self published books, but just to like paint a picture like that live event I did that sold out two weeks before the event was even happening. All of those tickets came from Instagram stories versus feed. Don’t you feel like stories is life? Stories. I love stories. If anyone follows me, I’m on my stories all day, every day.

(44:03)
I love stories, but yeah. Stories are something I’ve always done. And it has helped me a lot, especially with like launching my books. Like for example, when I wrote 30 as F this was my fourth, fifth thing I put out, I don’t remember exactly. But for that one, I was like, okay, I had everything ready like a month and maybe two months in advance. And I was like, I’m going to push this thing heavy on social media. So like even the whole time I was writing the book though, I would post little like page previews where I would show like a paragraph and I wouldn’t say what it was. And so people were probably like putting two and two together, like, Oh, she’s writing something.

(44:40)
I would share little things like that, I would share like a preview of what, like what a chapter name was. I actually made a YouTube video of the photo shoot where I did the photo shoot for the cover of that book. So I shared that. So like people were getting to see so much behind the scenes of it that they were like, Oh my gosh, like there’s this book coming out, she’s shooting this cover for this book. And then I did a like release weekend thing where I got the idea from Alex Beadon who is like amazing with advertising and marketing on social media. But she would launch an online course and she would do something where she would put up everyone’s name that was buying it so that they can see their name on the list.

(45:20)
And so I got pink post-it notes and they’d become quite infamous on my Instastories now. But like literally anyone that pre-ordered an ebook, Kindle copy of 30th AF I would write their name on a post it note. And I would put it up on my closet in like two big mirrors, like a wall. Yeah. I would put their name up. And I literally had a like, branded, like theme song behind it. And it was Madonna that like, I would, anytime I was putting up a name, I would have that song playing, I would have the hashtag and then release weekend. Cause you can’t, you can’t do a preorder on paperbacks. Release weekend I had everyone that was ordering, send me a screenshot of it. And then I would put their name up on my wall.

(46:01)
Then on release weekend, I had almost a hundred names up on my wall and like, here’s my name? There’s my name. I just ordered this. But like, it was, I like went hard on the marketing for that book. And it was so fun though, because people were so invested in it, they saw the photo shoot. They saw me getting the covers made, hey saw me writing the book. They saw me doing all these things. And so it really drew them in and they remembered it and were like, Oh yeah, I want to buy that book. So social media, like Instagram is worth its weight in gold. When it comes to advertising yourself without even spending money, those tips are such gold.

(46:36)
I love those tips. And it’s the behind the scenes, I think too, like draws people in on a whole nother level. Just not here’s the book it’s like, look, watch be a part of the process with me and it draws them in at this whole nother level. So, Oh my gosh. Mind blown on a bajillion levels. I could talk to you for 72 hours. We’re best friends. Thank you. Goodbye. I just love Sarah so much. I hope you guys learned as much from her as I did. Sarah, where can everybody find your books, check out your show and connect with you? Yeah. So my website is sarahordo.com.

(47:07)
If you look me up on Instagram, my handle is 24Luxe_Sarah. But if you look up Sarah Ordo you’ll find me. My website pretty much has links to everything, but my podcast is called Her Best Effing life. All my books on Amazon, Kindle, barnesandnoble.com. I’m on YouTube under my name Sarah Ordo. And then well my events, I can’t say the swear word. But yeah, I’m everywhere. So you guys will find me, I’m sure. The funnest thing ever was challenging Sarah to bleep out all of the cuss words cause it’s her entire brand. I love it so much. You did so great. I’m so proud of you. Thanks. I really tried. All right, my friend. Thank you so much, Sarah. And I’m sure I’ll be talking to you soon. Thank you for having me.