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Best Note-Taking Strategies

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BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? Click here to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.

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If you know me – you know I love lists!

And notes are just long lists! So I guess I love notes too.

I take notes on everything – every phone call, every conversation, everything.

It’s from my training as a journalist – you just never know when you’ll stumble across something useful.

But how do you take notes without driving yourself crazy and writing down every last bit?

I actually created a whole course on LinkedIn Learning all about this called Enhance Your Productivity with Effective Note-Taking.

When LinkedIn approached me about making a course on note-taking I scratched my head a bit because I thought everyone knew how to take effective notes, like I had learned to do as a journalist and producer.

And that’s not the case. So in this episode of Inside Scoop I want to share some of the strategies I talk about in my Enhance Your Productivity with Effective Note-Taking course. Read more

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Top Tips & Resources for Authors

Bonus Freebie: I have a resource for you that will help you prepare to talk with media and audiences. It’s the 10 Questions Every Author Needs to Answer. You can grab the fiction and nonfiction lists here.

One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “How do you know so much about publishing and marketing books?”

Hello – research! Yeah – I love it! It’s the journalist in me. So even before I had thoughts of becoming an author myself, I always was in search of the best resources and I want to share them with you.

Maybe you don’t have a book yet and it’s still a dream. Or you have five and you want to sell more copies. Well lean in…

I’m introducing you to the experts you need to know about and the resources I used when I published my two books, Listful Thinking and Listful Living. They’ve been an invaluable resource for me and I hope you’ll find the same for you.

And there’s plenty of information for nonfiction and fiction authors – I’ve got you covered. I’m in the editing stage of my first fiction book so I understand the pain and glee of getting your work out into the public.

In this episode of Inside Scoop I’m sharing my top tips and resources for authors like you.

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Elements of a Perfect Media Pitch

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BONUS FREEBIE: Want to make this the year people find you in the media? Click here to access my Be a Media Magnet course. It will give you the plan you need to make it happen.

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You might want to be featured on the media for your book or business, but how will they find you? They won’t – unless you pitch them. Or maybe you pitched them but you never heard back?

I was a television news producer for almost 20 years, and trust me, I know what pitches work for the media. Over the years I’ve developed a pitching formula and I use it to pitch media so I know it works.

I laid out the formula you need on my live-stream show Inside Scoop.

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It’s Time You Finally Created Your Podcast

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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It seems like everyone has a podcast these days. So…what’s your excuse?

I know, I know, it can be scary to start something new. But it’s also fun and exciting.

So if you’ve got an idea for a podcast that you’ve been waiting to share, take this blog post all about Creating Your Own Podcast as your sign to start. I spoke with author, speaker, and host of the podcast, The Good Life Coach (which ranked in the top 1.5% of the most popular shows globally), Michele Lamoureux on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop all about how to get started.

Here are three highlights from our conversation.
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It’s Time to Get Published…Here’s How!

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BONUS FREEBIE: To grab the “10 Questions Every Author Needs to Answer” in the media CLICK HERE.
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What does every author want? To be published.

I know this myself as an author of two books about productivity, Listful Thinking, and Listful Living. But if you aren’t familiar with publishing, it can be a bit of a mystery.

And since this is a bucket list item for so many, I invited special guest (and my friend), Lucinda Halpern, who is the president and founder of Lucinda Literary. She represents authors writing in all areas, health, business, lifestyle, narrative fiction, memoir and more!

Here are three points from our conversation that will help you think about getting published in a new way.

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How to Create Talking Points

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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I do a lot of talking. And I frequently speak on panels, do media appearances and host my weekly live-streaming show, Inside Scoop.

So I talk. A lot.

And even though I’m hired to speak as an expert and I know my usual topics – video, media, my books: Listful Thinking and Listful Living – I still have to prepare talking points. Every. Single. Time. One of the questions I get most from my media-training clients is, “How do you come up with talking points?”

Here are three things I do to prepare for every kind of speaking engagement.

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Preparing to Speak on a Panel

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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Panels are a great way to promote your book or expertise and connect with professionals in your industry or your audience. But it can be tricky to know how to start preparing for a panel, especially if the topic is not exactly in line with your usual talking points.

I’ve spoken on many panels as a media expert, author, and LinkedIn Learning Instructor.

And they’re always a rewarding experience because I do a set of things to get ready every time.

Here’s my list of things I do to prepare for a panel.

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Promoting Your Book Over Time

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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Launching a book is thrilling. Lots of time, energy and thought goes into planning it. But that’s not the only day you should be thinking about..

You’re going to have that book for a long time. So although launch day is important, the real question is: How do you keep the book in the minds and in the mouths of people all over the world for a long time?

It’s not an easy task. I know that from promoting my first two books Listful Thinking and Listful Living.

And my client, Krystale Littlejohn, knows all about this process as well. She’s the University of Washington’s Associate Professor of Sociology and author of the book Just Get on the Pill, which came out in August 2021  and is still getting lots of attention. We spoke on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop about her book launch process and how she was able to keep promoting her book over time.

Here are three great points from our conversation to help you promote your book.

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Book Launch Highs and Lows

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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A book launch is a lot of work. There’s speaking engagements, there’s events, there’s media and so much more. It can be exciting and exhausting to prepare.

I learned so much from writing and launching Listful Thinking and Listful Living. And from keeping the book in the media long afterwards. (My first book came out almost a decade ago and I’m still talking about it in the media!)

And I love sharing my knowledge with authors to get them ready for their big launches. In fact, I just lead a group training called Media-Ready Author to help authors get ready to launch their books in the media.  You can check out the replay here.

On a recent episode of Inside Scoop I brought one of my media-training clients, Chelsea Conaboy, on to share her experience launching her new book, Mother Brain.

Here are three lessons Chelsea learned from the book-launch process.

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TikTok Tips for Authors

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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You wrote a book. That’s a lot of work. But your work doesn’t stop when your book is finished. Now, you need to sell your book.

So you have to promote them! (I know all about this from my experience as a TV producer and being the author of Listful Thinking and Listful Living).

And there’s a tool authors can use to promote their books that is especially effective: TikTok.

I spoke with publishing consultant, diverse kid lit reviewer, kids fiction podcaster and BookTok expert, Miral Sattar, on my live-streaming show Inside Scoop. She’s got a huge TikTok following and had a ton of great tips to share.

Here are Miral’s tips for understanding and using TikTok to promote your books.

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1) Understanding TikTok.

You can’t use something to its full potential without knowing how it works right? Of course not. Understanding how TikTok works and how it’s different from other social media apps like Instagram is super important.

“When you first start using TikTok, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have. The app always shows your content to a small sample of people. And if enough people finish watching it, they show it to more people,” Miral said.

Because of this, every video on TikTok has a chance to go viral.

(Don’t worry. You don’t have to dance to go viral.)

“To hone in on your specific audience, there are things you can do to fine tune the algorithms based on what you post and what you watch,” Miral added.

And for authors, honing in on your audience means understanding #BookTok.

2) Using the power of #BookTok.

BookTok is kind of a subculture within TikTok where people make videos about books.

“When I first did a Tok in July, the hashtag had about 60 billion views. And I checked it right before we spoke today and the BookTok hashtag has 80 billion views right now,” Miral explained.

I’ve talked about how TV doesn’t sell books. I’ve seen it as a producer and experienced it as an author. It’s exciting to be on big TV shows like The Today Show, but it’s not great for sales. But BookTok is great for book sales.

For example, Colleen Hoover actually outsold the Bible.

 

“Colleen Hoover has been around for a few years. She traditionally published multiple books. Maybe they did well, but they never did this well. Until she joined TikTok and made videos about her books.,” Miral added.

And it’s not just online sales. It’s impacting in-person bookstores as well.

“I take my kids to Barnes and Nobles all the time. And there’s a BookTok table. And 99% of the time, if it’s on the BookTok table, it’s good and I’ll pick it up,” she said.

Like podcasts, BookTok is an incredibly powerful tool, if you know how to use the hashtag.

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3) Getting started on BookTok.

Now that you know how powerful BookTok can be for your book. Let’s talk about using it to promote your own content.

“In the beginning when I was doing my Toks, I would get ten views, 20 views. Because I was posting all the wrong things. I didn’t realize the algorithm needs to be trained. You train the algorithm to show you what you look at,” Miral said.

For example, if you start looking at non-fiction book related topics, that’s what TikTok will show you.

“Just start following readers there, engaging with authors, and then TikTok will start showing you that,” she added.

And then you can see techniques that do and do not work and adapt similar methods for your own content. Another great way to use TikTok to your advantage is using their analytics.

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4) TikTok Video Tips.

Obviously, like any social media platform that uses video, you need to be comfortable on camera. But in addition to that, here are some tips to help your video creation.

“TikTok’s analytics tells you the best posting times, how many people watched your video. For me, I found the magic number was seven to nine seconds,” Miral said.

That’s not a lot of time to get your point across.

“A lot of people on TikTok will be like, ‘Hi, I’m me.’ Or ‘Hey guys, what’s going on?’ And then you’ve already lost them. You need to hook them in right away with an engaging picture or a question or something really interesting,” she explained.

And make sure to include a way for your audience to engage.

“You need to have a call-to-action. I put all the books I recommend in the comments. I pin it and say how to find it. For every podcast episode I’m promoting, I pin in the comments and include how to find it,” Miral said.

Here’s a successful example of one of Miral’s most popular videos that used all these tips.

“I joined TikTok to push out my fairy tales podcast for children, Bearily Bear, and also to promote inclusive children’s books. We imagine traditional fairy tales, rewritten for modern times,” she said.

Miral’s podcast is free and can be found here. To check out more TikTok Tips for Authors, watch our entire conversation here.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”
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