Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books.
Today, my special guest is Suzanne Tregenza Moore. Suzanne helps rising thought leaders and nonfiction authors focus on revenue and thought leadership status. Since leaving her 6 figure job, Suzanne has employed her MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship to support clients with strategy, marketing, technology, delegation, and mindset. Clients describe her as invaluable and a gentle butt kicker. She's the best-selling author of Hang on Tight, Learn to Love the Rollercoaster of Entrepreneurship.She's also the host of the podcast All Things Authopreneur.
Susan Friedmann [00:00:58]:
Suzanne, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome you to the show, and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:01:07]:
Thank you so much for having me, Susan. I'm delighted to be here.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:11]:
Well, the tables are turned because I know you interviewed me a few months ago, and we just had so much fun together. So I was like, we gotta get you on the show. And I know that you have sort of a different twist for authors when it comes to helping them market their nonfiction book. Talk to us about that special little twist that you have.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:01:38]:
Thank you so much for asking. You know, Susan, I became an author myself after many years of being an entrepreneur. And one of the things that I realized once I had become an author was that the messages that I wanted to share when I was interviewed or if I was speaking got a little bit muddled for me. And the reason for that was I started to think of everything as marketing my book. And if you're being interviewed, if you're being interviewed on a podcast, if you're being interviewed anywhere else, you wanna mention the book, of course, it is what raises people's esteem of you. But what you really want to be guiding people to is thinking about all the knowledge you have and you share that you charge people a lot more for than the cost of the book. Because the book, as any author knows, once they've had their book out for a while, I always say you're not gonna make the mortgage payments because of book royalties. You're going to make the book mortgage payments based on the other things that you sell.
Susan Friedmann [00:02:53]:
Absolutely. I mean, in fact, I just had this conversation this morning with a gentleman, and we talked about the fact that you're not going to get rich on the book. However, the book is a great big fat business card that's going to open doors. I love the fact that you talk about your knowledge because that thought leadership, that knowledge that you poured into the book, now it's time to reveal that and focus on that. And obviously, as you said, yes, mention the book, but people aren't going to hire you necessarily because you wrote the book. They're gonna hire you because of your thought leadership. Often
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:03:47]:
Often as nonfiction authors, you're invited onto the podcast because you have a book. And therefore, the host is going to ask you questions often in the vein of, and tell me about this part of your book, or that part of your book, or why did you write the book? What you want to be doing is directing the attention from the book to that knowledge that you have and that you employ in perhaps coaching services, consulting services, courses that you sell or run, events that you invite people to where you transfer this knowledge. The book is usually the way that you condense all that information and share it with people. And you can say, well, this is my way of reaching all the people that would not be able to work with me directly and to impart my knowledge to them. But you wanna make sure that you're always showing there's so much value in working with you personally, that the book is kind of the invitation to learn more about that, if that makes sense.
Susan Friedmann [00:05:03]:
It certainly does. Because as we said, you've poured the knowledge into the book. The book is, yes, it's a tangible piece, but so many authors want to hide behind that. And they're fearful of even sharing that knowledge and thinking, well, I wrote this book, so, hey, just because I wrote this book, you're going to want to hire me, come and have coaching or training with me. Talk to us about that fear factor of maybe hiding behind the book.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:05:40]:
I think a lot of entrepreneurs one of the reasons that many, many struggle has a lot to do with fear. And there are so many different kinds of fear, but one of those fears is being seen, really truly seen by people, putting yourself out there, and that internal, Oh my gosh, I feel like a fraud in the knowledge that I have. For example, everyone that I work with usually when their book is coming out or when they're preparing a book, they'll say, well, it's not like my information is so unique, it's just that I have a different take on it. And I'll say, But there are the people that don't know this information yet. There are always people that are ahead of you on any trajectory. A neurosurgeon who's been working in the field for 30 years still has things to learn from the person who's been a neurosurgeon for 45 years, right? No matter where you are in your presentation of your book and your skills, there's always that sense of I might not be good enough, and I think a lot of authors then put the book out there. But as you say, try to hide behind it instead of really pushing, and by the way, I have all this knowledge and you can hire me for my services and obviously spend a lot more money than a book. Right?
Susan Friedmann [00:07:08]:
And I think a lot of this comes in terms of the preparation because if you're going to want to be on podcasts, there's a certain amount of preparation in order that you can direct the host to be asking you more the kinds of questions that you want so that you can share that knowledge. Give me some idea of preparation for getting the most out of your podcast interview.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:07:36]:
Absolutely. Well, certainly, if you're working with a host that you know, you can share what it is you're trying to get across ahead of time. However, if you're not, there are other options as well. You can always have a list of questions and answers. And I recommend offering the questions and the answers because if you just send a list of questions that they may or may not use, they don't know what they're getting for the answers. But if you send the answers as well, then they'll understand the flow of the anticipated conversation and they can kind of decide what's best for their audience and what's going to serve their audience. The other thing that I really recommend the people in my Interview Marketing Success Club do is that they learn how to spin the answers to answer the host's questions, but also get the points across that they want to get across, whether or not the host is asking them exactly what they want them to. I always like to refer to this as for anyone who ever watches the news, this is very obvious when politicians are being interviewed, right? They don't actually answer the question, really.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:08:54]:
They answer with the talking points that they want to get across. Now, I don't recommend to your listeners that they do this in as obnoxious a way as most politicians do, but I do recommend that they take the time to learn the skill of receiving a question and weaving the message they really want to share into their answer to almost any basic question.
Susan Friedmann [00:09:27]:
You gave us an excellent example of that. And I want to point that out, listeners. Just a few sentences ago, Suzanne just happened to drop in the idea that the thoughts that she has this membership group. And I was like, brilliant. We didn't talk about it, there was nothing, but that was a sound bite that you mentioned. And I was like, Yes. That was a perfect example. So listeners, you're gonna have to rewind and just listen for that because it was a brilliant example of the kinds of things that you're talking about.
Susan Friedmann [00:10:08]:
Am I correct with that, Suzanne?
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:10:10]:
Yes. Exactly. I took that moment to drop in the name of a membership group that I run that helps authors and rising thought leaders to learn more about doing podcast interviews, and it's called the Interview Marketing Success Club. That is exactly what people want to be doing, right? You want to be answering a question, but mentioning something that hopefully perks people's ears up as they're listening and gets them thinking, I wonder what that is? I want to learn more about that. I wonder how I could be a part of that. We all have those things that we're doing, and I think what many, particularly nonfiction authors, forget to do is that because instead what they're focused on is buy my book, buy my book, buy my book. And that isn't necessarily the best message they can be sharing, even though, of course, we'd all like to sell more books.
Susan Friedmann [00:11:16]:
Yes. And with a speaking engagement, there's no reason why everybody in the audience shouldn't have a copy of your book. They're buying you, and the book is just part of the package. It's not the package. However, you can create training programs and all sorts of other products from your book. But the fact is that you are not your book.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:11:47]:
No, you're not. You're not. And interestingly, I don't know why this just perked up in my head, but there are a lot of people that are thought leaders and they've written books and the books share a lot of information about that individual's experiences and teach things, but they're not directed to a specific program or solution. Then there are the books that are essentially written in complete alignment with a course or a product or an offering. And you can use them both in different ways as an author who's marketing him or herself, but it is important to know which your book is and how to use it so that you are actually using it to leverage your, I'm gonna say impression of increase and the esteem that people give you for being an author and getting them to think about working with you in a more revenue generating way than your book. Because as we said earlier, that doesn't pay the mortgage.
Susan Friedmann [00:12:57]:
I love that phrase, impression of increase. I think that's one of those phrase that pays, as one of my NSA colleagues would talk about. I love that. Yes, I mean, you want to make an impression so that you can increase your impact and your reach. And doing podcast interviews is just such a wonderful way to do it.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:13:23]:
Yes. It really is, yeah.
Susan Friedmann [00:13:24]:
Yeah. I know you and I were chatting a little bit before the interview, and I mentioned that I get pitched. And we both get pitched so much because we have these podcasts and PR agents think that, Okay, you're talking about books. Just because my client has written a book, you're going to absolutely want to interview him or her. And I was like, No.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:13:48]:
Do you
Susan Friedmann [00:13:48]:
know what this podcast is about?
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:13:52]:
Right. Yeah. It is interesting because we both have podcasts that are about authorship. But, yeah, that doesn't mean any author is the right fit for our audience. Because if they're talking about for example, my listeners are much more entrepreneurial focused and usually they have a very entrepreneurial business. Well, having someone on to talk about highly corporate strategies because they've written a book on it, not a good fit. Not a good fit at all. Right?
Susan Friedmann [00:14:25]:
You've got a best selling book. We've hardly talked about it because, for this conversation, it's not that relevant. However, the book is chock full of incredible information. And I highly recommend listeners to buy it. However, that's not the topic of conversation.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:14:46]:
Not today. No. Not today.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:49]:
Maybe another time.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:14:50]:
Maybe another time. Maybe another time. Maybe another book. I don't know. We'll see.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:54]:
Yeah. You've gotta be writing one now of this incredible process you have of having people, you know, how they can do their best on a podcast. What is that call to action, let's say, that sound bite that you say, You must bring this up? What might that be in a podcast interview?
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:15:18]:
In a podcast interview, what you really are trying to do is take someone from a listening mode. You know, they're probably listening because they learn on this podcast, they get little tidbits that they add to their knowledge base, right? What you want to be doing is giving them enough of a tidbit that they say, I really want to learn more from this person. I want to understand who she is and what she does and receive some of this knowledge that she has to share. Yes, of course, you can direct someone to your book, but that means they actually have to make a purchase to gain any of your knowledge. I always recommend to people that they also have a free lead magnet gift, whatever you want to call it, there are a million names for it, right, that they are offering to people. And that lead magnet should be very directly tied to the things that they teach or consult on in their larger revenue generating program. You want people to come into your list, come into your sphere, and you want them thinking about working with you in something that makes you money more than, again, your book. Now, if you've done your book right, your book will also have lead magnets in it.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:16:54]:
Anytime I am working with an entrepreneurial nonfiction author, I'm encouraging them to put things in their book as enhancements and as supplements to the reading material that the reader will have to go to a website and opt in in order to download, and that it will enhance the knowledge that they're getting for the book. But I also recommend having a lead magnet that is completely free for the audience that they can jump into easily and get a copy of, and they'll start learning more about you, about your process, and hopefully then be led to whatever your larger offering is through a series of emails and other connection points.
Susan Friedmann [00:17:43]:
And I know that when we get to it, you've got one of those gifts for listeners, and they'll have to just keep listening and find out what that is. Correct?
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:17:54]:
Absolutely. Yes.
Susan Friedmann [00:17:56]:
What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see authors make? Yes, focusing on the book, but what else?
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:18:05]:
I think not having their clear marketing messages in mind. Going into an interview saying, Oh, that's great. I'm being interviewed. I'm going to share about my book. We're going to chat about the things in the book. You have to know what you're trying to achieve before you get into that interview space. In everything I do with clients related to marketing, I always say begin with the end in mind. What action do you want people to take as a result of this interview? And it can change.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:18:41]:
I mean, you may have courses that you offer, you may have 1 on 1 consulting that you offer, you may have retreats that you offer. And in any given interview situation, you may be wanting to focus on one of those at one time and a different one of those at a different time. And that's okay. But be crystal clear about what action you want people to take when they complete that podcast listen because otherwise, you're sending a sporadic message instead of a really clear message.
Susan Friedmann [00:19:17]:
Yes. You mentioned all of those things, and it's like, well, you don't want to sort of do a dump. No. So you just want the single focus. I think that too can scare people because they're like, well, if I just tell them about this that I'm doing consulting, they may not know that I also have an online course and I also do retreats. But you don't wanna bombard people with all that information at once, correct?
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:19:44]:
Correct. And it can get confusing to people. It's kind of like when you go to a buffet, right? And if you go in and you're kind of crystal clear, say it's a Chinese buffet, right? And you're like, man, I love those dumplings. Boy, I'm going in, I'm going to have some dumplings. I'm going to fill up on dumplings. And then you get there and you're like, oh, but look at this lo mein and look at this other chicken thing. And then you only end up having a couple of dumplings because you filled your plate with everything else. And then you leave and you go, you know, that other stuff wasn't so great.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:20:20]:
I should have had more dumplings. Right? It's just, we can get overwhelmed with choices. When you are clear about what you are talking about, then you narrow the focus, and you're more likely to attract the people who are interested in that one thing than you are to attract people when it's more of a a soup of things, if that makes sense.
Susan Friedmann [00:20:47]:
It certainly does. And this experience that I had when I first moved to this country, my son, who is 2 years old, I needed laundry detergent. And coming from England, I had a certain brand in mind. I went to a supermarket that was close by, I think it was a Pathmark. And we were in New Jersey at the time. You probably know that coming from New Jersey. Yes. There's this aisle full of detergents.
Susan Friedmann [00:21:20]:
Yes. I just didn't know one from the other. It brought me to tears. I was just so overwhelmed. I had to leave and come back with a recommendation from somebody because I just was so overwhelmed with the choices. This is what American supermarkets are getting worse and worse. The choices are unbelievable.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:21:45]:
Oh my goodness. Thank goodness. You didn't end up in a Costco, right? You would have been like Right.
Susan Friedmann [00:21:51]:
I was thinking of that, that they're getting bigger and bigger. And they're more of your choices. It's just overwhelming. And when you come from overseas, and you see this, and you're not used to it I mean, now in England, they've got, you know, they've copied the American style. But if you're not used to all of those choices, it just throws you into complete tears.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:22:14]:
Absolutely. Yeah. Choices can be overwhelming. It is your job as the interviewee to simplify the message so that the listener comes away with a really clear message from the interview. And think about it, whenever you're being interviewed, particularly on a podcast, most people are listening to these when they're out walking, when they're exercising, when they're driving their car. They're not sitting at a desk saying, Oh, I really want what she's selling. I want to go investigate her. No, they're doing their thing, and you have to give them something that's super memorable and super easy, and not a pea soup of too many options.
Susan Friedmann [00:23:04]:
So this is this great segue, Suzanne, into telling us how we can get hold of you and this incredible gift that you have for our listeners.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:23:17]:
Well, thank you so much. I have a gift that I call "Podcast Prowess", and it is essentially a little mini-course on things that I teach in my larger offering, Interview Marketing Success Club. It really helps you narrow down your messaging and think about what it is you're trying to communicate when you are interviewed. And if anyone would like to get a hold of it, they can head to Suzannetmarketing,com/podcastprowess.
Susan Friedmann [00:23:56]:
Beautiful. And like you said, people aren't sitting there pen in hand. So the link will be in the show notes, listeners. Don't worry if you missed it. That's a great gift. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you.
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:24:10]:
Thanks so much for having me.
Susan Friedmann [00:24:11]:
Oh, yes. And we're not gonna let you go that quickly because we always ask our guests what their golden nugget is, their words of wisdom that they'd like to leave the audience. What are yours?
Suzanne Tregenza Moore [00:24:29]:
My golden nugget is that if you are an independent business owner who's written a book, or you're thinking about writing a book, if you're an independent business owner, most likely, similar to me, you have had a lot of ups and downs in your business. I want to encourage your listeners to give yourselves grace around the ups and the downs, particularly the downs, because we are only capable of what we are capable of, and things happen that derail us in life. And it is okay to not be able to work at the same level that you normally can when you have normal, healthy energy. I encourage your listeners to accept themselves when they have these moments, and then to get up and brush themselves off and keep going, because it can be so detrimental to us mentally when we quote unquote, let things go. But sometimes we just need to. So that is my golden nugget.
Susan Friedmann [00:25:43]:
Beautiful. And I think that fits in beautifully with the concept that you bring up in your book about perseverance. Because this is what it's all about. It's just get up, keep going. Get up, keep going, because you're going to get knocked down. Things aren't going to work exactly the way you want them to, and that's okay. You'll learn from mistakes, and you'll just keep going, because that's life. So thank you, Suzanne, so much for sharing your wisdom.
Susan Friedmann [00:26:16]:
By the way, listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales because you've invested a whole lot of time, money, and energy, and it's time you got the return that you were hoping for. Go to BookMarketingBrainstorm.com to schedule your free call. And, in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. So until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.
