June 2018
In just a few days, we will be attending the Court of Honor for my son’s boy scout troop, where we will watch David be honored as an Eagle Scout. Over the 10 years since he started as a Tiger Scout in cub scouts, he has learned so much. Not only can he pitch a tent, tie all kinds of knots, start a camp fire and cook his own meals, he has learned how to lead others. Of course, his scouting experiences would not have been nearly as enjoyable or worthwhile without the extensive time and effort put in by the adults in the troop, including my husband, who was a den leader and Pack Master of the cub scout pack, and is an Assistant Scout Master of the boy scout troop. I’m so proud of both of them!
This month we said a tearful good-bye to my mother-in-law, Winifred Weintraub, who passed away on her 65thwedding anniversary, hopefully to join her husband who died 5 months earlier. She was a wonderful person, always smiling and welcoming. We will miss her very much.
Later this month, we will be saying farewell to our exchange student, Nam Nguyen, who has lived with us for the past 11 months. We really enjoyed having Nam join our family and look forward to visiting him in Germany, where he is from, and maybe someday in Vietnam, where his parents are from.
1. The SkillBites Show
Each month, we bring you an expert to help you get your book done, leverage your book, grow your business or improve your life. The shows are recorded, so if you can’t listen to one live, you can listen to the recording by clicking here.
Our next SkillBites Show will be held on June 20 from 1 to 2 ET. Our guest will be Eric Walton, President of Building Up Leaders LLC. Eric has been coaching leaders around the world for the past 8 years from diverse industries such as: Direct Selling (multi-level marketing), High Tech, Manufacturing, Banking, and others. He is a founding partner of the John Maxwell Team and a certified leadership coach, trainer and speaker. Eric will be sharing his wisdom on building leadership structures in the multi-level marketing world as well as in organizations.
To listen to the live presentation, you can call in at (641) 715-3660, Access Code: 467398.
Last month we heard from Julie Friedman Bacchini, president of Neptune Moon, LLC. Julie talked about Facebook Ads, when to use them and how to reach your target audience. If you missed this presentation, you can listen to it by clicking here, or you can read some of the tips from this show on the SkillBites blog at http://resources.skillbites.net/blog/.
SAVE THE DATE: Next month, the SkillBites Show will be on July 19 at 12:30 ET. Our guests will be Hilary Blair and Gabriella Cavallero, from ARTiculate: Real&Clear. Hilary co-founded the company, and is a highly regarded speaking, presentation, voice, and executive communications expert. Gabriella is a voice-over artist having narrated several Emmy-nominated documentaries for PBS and over 900 audio books. Hilary and Gabriella will be sharing tips on narrating you own audiobook.
Do you have expertise that you believe would benefit the SkillBites community of entrepreneurs and authors? If you would like to be the guest on the monthly SkillBites Show, contact me at judy@skillbites.net or 610-783-4519.
2. Tip of the Month: Reaching New Audiences via Podcasts
Last month, I explained how you can gain massive visibility by being a guest on podcasts. This month, I should identify the shows that would be most appropriate for you to appear on. To do that, you need to know who your target audience is and what you want to talk about, because you want to find podcasts where the audience is your target audience and the topic is within your area of expertise. Don’t be as concerned about the size of the audience as much as the appropriateness of the audience. Getting on a show with the perfect audience, even if it’s a small number of people, will be a better investment of your time than a much larger audience that isn’t your ideal audience. Besides, starting with smaller podcasts will enable you to refine your presentation for when you appear on larger ones.
After you have determined your target audience and topic, you can do a search on iTunes, which has the largest number of podcasts, to find the best podcasts to appear on. Just plug your topic into the search bar and see what comes up. Check to find out when the last podcast was; if it is months ago, then it probably isn’t still ongoing, so it’s not worth pursuing. Listen to a few episodes of the ones that sound promising to you, so you get a good understanding of what the show is about and how the host conducts the podcast.
Once you’ve identified some prospective shows that interest you, do a search to locate the webpage for the shows. Read the About section and see if there is any contact information. If you decide that want to appear on the show, then you’ll need to prepare to pitch the host. Before actually contacting the host, do some background work. Learn as much as you can about them, and determine whether you have any connections that know them. If not, start following them on social media, and retweeting or commenting on their posts. You want to try to build a relationship with them. Once you have a relationship, and you can explain how your topic fits with the show and would benefit their audience, then you are ready to contact the host with your pitch to appear on their podcast.
Make sure you are well prepared for the podcasts you appear on as a guest. If you do a great job, your host is likely to recommend you to other podcasters; but if you do a poor job, you’ll hurt your chances to get invited to appear on other shows.
3. Guidance for Getting Your Book Written
If you have been struggling to get your book written, or haven’t started to write yet because you aren’t sure how to start, we can help. We have book coaching services for one-on-one assistance and we have an online course that will provide you with a roadmap for getting your book done. For more information on the book coaching, send me an email at judy@skillbites.net. For more information on the online course, click here.
4. How are you promoting your book?
What have you been doing to promote your book? I’d love to hear what has been working for you, or if you’ve tried different marketing tactics that haven’t gotten you the results you desire. I’ve been developing a course on how to market and leverage your book, and your feedback as to what has worked or what hasn’t would be very helpful for me. You can email me at judy@skillbites.net, or call me at 610-783-4519. For those who share what they’ve been doing, I’ll return the favor with some additional ideas that they could try.
5. Earn Commissions For Referrals
Do you know anyone who has been wanting to write a book but has been stalling? Let them know that SkillBites offers a variety of services to make book writing and publishing easy, quick and convenient. When you sign up to be a SkillBites affiliate, you can get a commission for each person who signs up to purchase SkillBites services through your unique referral link. To obtain more information and to sign up for our referral program, click here.
Thanks for supporting SkillBites. If there is anything you think we ought to be doing better or anything we should be doing that we’re not, please let us know. We value your input.
Cordially,
