Beestie Besties with J & Lo
Beestie Besties with J & Lo is a monthly menagerie of updates, author interviews, visits with our pals, inspiring tales of best friends taking big leaps, and more; a delightful blend of nonsense and nonfiction. Jess Neiding (J) is the CFO and chief editor and nonsense maker of Wildebeest Publishing Company, while Laura Thorne (Lo) is the CEO and nonfiction queen — together they make an unstoppable pair who giggle and cry their way through any of life and business’s challenges, as any besties should. Tune in for the latest in self and indie-publishing, fun chats and excerpts from books published in the Wildebeest Publishing HERD, educational snippets from our industry expert friends, and other random visits from everyone from our mothers to other Beestie Besties.
Beestie Besties with J & Lo
E6 – Perseverance, Publishing, & Finding Your Voice
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Laura and Jess sit down with Dr. Luissa Kiprono and Rand Timmerman to talk resilience, life after publishing, and what it really takes to share your story with the world. From podcasting success to powerful personal journeys, this episode is all about perseverance, visibility, and using your voice with confidence.
Here we go again. Welcome to Beastie Besties with Jay Lo, the podcast where we share publishing updates, laughs, and all the new news in our world. On today's episode, we have some true beasts with empowering stories of perseverance joining us in just a little bit. Luisa Caprono is a woman's physician and triathlon. What is the word? Triathlon participant? Prathlete? Prathlete, thank you. And she's, as you always say, words are hard. The author of Push Then Breathe, very inspiring story from her own life. And then Rand Timmerman will be joining us. He is the author of A Spiritual Passage, which was his story of him and his brother hiking the Appalachian Trail in our 70s. He is a accomplished through hiker, and we are so always inspired by his story.
SPEAKER_03He is he is well, his nickname is Randbo. And I mean the guy just keeps going. I mean, I don't think I could do the AT in my 40s now. And in the 70s, and he fell off a cliff on the city.
SPEAKER_04I mean, he drops hints about his time in the army, and the the man has been through some stuff.
SPEAKER_02And oh my gosh, there's stories about his army time in the book that are so funny, which you wouldn't think Vietnam vet stories. Right.
SPEAKER_04I think he's got some dark stories too that are not in that one, but future books possibly. I think he has a lot to share with with others. And I think a lot of people who've been through what he's been through can't or won't talk about it. So it's, you know, he's he is a beast in his own right.
SPEAKER_03So, so much. So yeah. And you're right, words aren't the only thing that are hard lately. As you can see me futzing with my face, I'm having such a problem with my glasses lately. And I mean, you know, I'm what, 46 years deep in wearing these things, and it's like now I can't get my grubby little fingerprints off it. There's like hairs sticking out of the hinges, and then they're tickling my face. It's just all very anyway, so I'm still grateful for my vision. Oh my god, yes.
SPEAKER_04Piggybacking off of that, you know, since Rand did just go through a period where he had to have eye surgery, which he knows he was telling us before we got on or before we recorded about not being able to use the microwave or taking 20 minutes to use the microwave because you can't see the buttons or how long it's going, like little things like that.
SPEAKER_03He's so funny. He's so funny in just a very unique way. It's great. Speaking of Grateful Force, my friend. What uh, so you know, as always, we like to kind of shine the light back on the positive things and the little rainbows in our life. What uh what's those glimmers that you have this week?
SPEAKER_04Well, I've been blessed with a trip to Florida to pet sit for a elderly cat, senior cat, and a giant uh red arm red-armed, red-legged, I don't know, tortoise. And she is she's funny to watch. Um but I'm but this place just happens to be close to my family, so I was able to go on a family trip this last weekend to St. Augustine. So I was just really grateful for that getting to have that time with them. Uh, we had so much fun and I learned so much about St. Augustine. I hadn't been there in years, so it was it was very cool to do those tours there and just see old Florida. I'm also grateful for having grown up in Florida. It's such a wild place people don't even really know. Um, and along with that, the sunshine, I was grateful for just beautiful weather. It's been so perfect. And I'm grateful for all the beasties in my life because as I'm also here, I'm making sure to spend time with people I haven't seen in a while. And I have friends going through lung trance, like four years of lung trance post-life, people going through colon cancer, breast cancer, and they are all just so inspiring and remind me every day to just live life to the fullest and not let these little grievances bother me so much. So I'm grateful for all those things.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, 100% for as young as we are, all things considered, you know, there has been a lot of that in our friend group. So it is, you know, these not so gentle reminders that, like, hey, you know, we got a pretty good day as promised, so to enjoy what we've got here.
SPEAKER_04And yeah, I will also be grateful if y'all cannot hear my stomach growling because it is. I'm hungry right now.
SPEAKER_03I'm hungry too. I know, I'm like, well, it's like one o'clock my time now, so I haven't even had breakfast. You know, my grateful fours are gonna be a little bit more frivolous, I will say, than yours are. Yeah, they always need to fluctuate. We have to be grateful for big things and little things. Yeah. I gotta say, I'm grateful for crows this week because I have been trying, they've been kind of following me around a lot of my life, and I've been trying so hard to get them to bring me presents, and they finally have. So they've been leaving me these just, I mean, kind of gross but amazing, colorful, frilly, weird things on the corner where I leave them snacks. So that was super fun to see. At first, I was like, no way, this can't really be happening. And then there were more gifts, and I was like, I've done it! My life is complete. I will say I'm also grateful for Jesse Buckley. I really just can't get enough of her right now after seeing Wicked Little Letters. I just I loved her spirit in that. And a friend and I went and saw the bride last night, which I really enjoyed. I mean, she and Christian Bale are awesome. It's worth seeing just for her performance because keeping it in the writer's world, not spoiling too much, Mary Shelley plays a pretty big part of it in it, and kind of a there's a little bit of a split personality, and this woman switches between accents and FX and everything. It's just incredible. And I am grateful for my business partner, Miss Laura, because she has been an excellent support system for me over the last couple weeks and really just offered me some sound advice and kind of helped me center and ground over some situations that was really helpful. So thank you, friend. That was for all you did the last few weeks. I am very, very grateful for you.
SPEAKER_04Of course. Just sharing things I have learned in the 10 years of entrepreneurship and things I've learned the hard way myself. So it's gratifying to be able to do something and be like, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And just, I mean, trusting the process and trusting the decision. You know, I was speaking with my coach about it earlier today, and just yeah, it so thank you. It was a lot bigger than I think you even realize.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, I was wondering why you didn't write a third one in there. Yeah, Jody. So let's dive into our news. We gotta keep this one short because our new is super long. So we want to make sure, and I don't really, I can't think of anything to cut out of it. So like that's yeah, uh, we have to get through this pretty quickly. We, as you've been we've been telling you, we're having this retreat in August. It looks like we're gonna have to change sort of the format of it, which I think is gonna turn out even better than we were expecting. So stay tuned for those updates. We'll keep it either the same dates or around the same weekend, but it's still gonna be the same, same thing on published. Now what? We're just gonna do it in a different setting and maybe a little bit shorter and to the point so that um we can get you in and out and also maybe get a little bit more interaction. So we're just gonna change things up a little bit.
SPEAKER_03It's gonna be a lot more accessible, I think, because a lot of people that had time constraints or financial constraints and things like that, that just it wasn't doable for them. So I think it's definitely, you know, a good move. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And then the other exciting thing we have coming up is Rand Timmerman, who you'll hear from shortly. Um, he'll be our guest speaker in our entrepreneur community on May 19th at 6 p.m. He's in the top 1% on podmatch and has gone from zero, I mean, I'm talking negative tech abilities to having the best screen, knowing how to do this, how to communicate, how to write emails, and and beyond. He's even going beyond that now. About that a little bit. So I think that it's gonna be a really good one. You can join for free by joining our free trial for the community. This is for our community. Like once you join us in our herd, either subscribed or as an author of ours, this is something we give to you. We just open it up to the public in some extra seating for a small fee, so you have access to the author themselves for question and answers, which is always included.
SPEAKER_03Well, and we just got back from AWP and we had a super awesome time in Baltimore, met a lot of really good new friends, you know. It was And reconnected with old friends. Reconnected with old friends. We've got a posse getting together. We're gonna try and have a cool kid corner at Chicago next year. We've got fiction magazine coming with us, weird lit, typewriter tarot, riot in your throat. So all these awesome, just beasts of people. Yeah, building this community. Oh, yeah, Hughes House, everybody. And then I I think even with Typewriter Tarot's got a couple more coming, so it's gonna be uh it's gonna be a big party at Chicago. I don't know how to coordinate this. We'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_04We'll figure it out, you know. If not, we just make a little map that says, okay, after you go to us, go to these.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, that that would like a treasure hunt. Right, yeah. We could that actually is a really cool idea if we don't worry about getting together. We could have a treasure hunt. We'll talk more about that offline. And you're going to the Brooklyn Book Fair soon.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well well, the year's number by so fast soon is relevant. Um, it is September 27th, is the Brooklyn Brooklyn Book Festival. I went there, speaking of seeing our friends, I went there last year and He's House was there and Fiction Magazine was there, and they were like, you have to do this event. So they were kind enough to share the sign-up with me because I'm I can't find it. You don't you're not in until you're in. So I feel like one of the cool kids now because now we're in. So yeah, we're excited about that for sure, because it is another huge event at the other end of the year. So super excited for that. And yeah, so you know, aside from that, we're just rolling with the community and doing our guest speaker presentations, our weekly meetings, and then our April challenge is spring clean your author brand. So if you join or if you're already in the community, you can join in. We do post it online, so you don't have to be in the group, you can still do it. Um, but if you know, if you want to join and do the the challenge within the group, then you can communicate through the app with our rest of the herd and tell us how it's going. Yeah, that's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_03I mean, and I know I know we had big plans of speaking about many, many other things this week, but um clearly I'm having glasses and headphone issues today. So there's that.
SPEAKER_04Well, there's plenty of time for that later, but our friends are here.
SPEAKER_03They are all right. Well, let's welcome them in. Laura, would you be so kind as to introduce our first pal? Sure.
SPEAKER_04We are super excited to have Dr. Luisa Caprono with us. And Luisa has written an amazing book called Push Then Breathe. And she's also a female doctor. I don't know. Women's physician like to women's use yourself in that realm, but she's very experienced. Um, and the book, the title of her book, all goes very well with with what she does and her story. So I'm gonna let you her tell mostly that. But we're excited to have her here because we have the retreat coming up in August that we've been planning, and she's going to help participate in that. She's such a great, such a great marketer and so good at promoting her book. Um, I think I found her on LinkedIn and was just like super impressed with the way she posts, the amount of posts, the tours she goes on, and she's happy to share all that information with others to help them succeed, which we love. And so she's here as one of our beasts. And so, Louisa, tell us about your book and you know what inspired it.
SPEAKER_01Okay. But first, thank you so much for having me, Laura and Jess. I want to say that since um I connected to Wilde Beast Publishing, really I I wish I knew you guys first before I published with my publisher. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. Because you are more than a publishing company, and you represent and you uh you know back up your authors above and beyond. Uh, you know, most publishers out there, you know, they they really deliver what they say, they deliver, but then that's it. It's it's really it's all business at the end. Here is more than that. It's like like I said, it's like a partnership, it's a friendship, it's more than that. And I've been, you know, this is my third appearances with Wildebeast, and I am proud to to say that you know, we have a friendship here going.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_01Again, they didn't pay me to say that, they didn't publish my book, so you can see that I really am doing this because I believe in them. Uh, so thank you. Um I am a matron feeder medicine specialist. Um, I am also the CEO and founder of uh Telemed MFM, which is a national telemedicine practice, an Air Force veteran, uh, and I'm also the author of Push Then Breathe, uh, which is uh my memoir um about trauma, resilience, and what it takes to rebuild uh a life and identity. But more than that, my book became a platform and it opened the door to conversations about women's health, trauma, triumph over trauma, leadership, equality, and really that's where the impact began. So, you know, to me is what I realized that just writing the book is only 20% of the of the job, really. Then comes the publishing, which is in itself an endeavor, but it's a different type of endeavor. It's again, this comes again, it's a partnership between you and the publisher. And as long as you know they did their job and you did your job to you know to support them and make decisions and of course pay them, everything goes well. But then what people don't realize that most of what's happening after, which is about 80% of it, is the most important to keep the momentum going. And that is the marketing, because without realizing, most authors get stuck after publishing because there is no roadmap, there's no visibility there, you know, unless you are some multimillionaire, you know, movie star or singer or you know, author uh or author that actually makes a good living out of this, you don't have the financial power to position yourself to, you know, to succeed. So, what I am planning to teach, you know, at this gathering and this retreat is I wish that every author, myself included, knew before they hit publish. So to me, it's important to understand that you have to learn how to position yourself so that your act story actually sells. You have to build visibility through podcasts, speaking engagements, partnerships. You have to confidently speak about your book in order to sell it without feeling transactional, without asking, feeling like you're asking permission to sell your own book. And this is become becomes a platform for you. If you believe in your creation, this is not a one-time project, this is not, you know, okay, check off. This is a really a like I call it an endurance event. So it does, it does, um, you know, if the people say, Well, you should use inspiration. No, you should build strategy. You have to be very intentional, very strategic of what you do. I love that. That's great.
SPEAKER_04I think you answered all of my questions in in one go. But I think that, you know, you're absolutely right. Once, once you're published, the whole what do I do now is like what most people struggle with. And I think that's why every single person that we have published so far has chosen our herd track. Because when we offer to do it, you keep all your royalties, that's totally fine, or you can share them with us and you'll you'll be part of our herd and you'll be supported. That's what they want. They all want that. And so when you say that as an author, they need to improve their visibility or their positioning, what what do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_01So a lot of people really, really believe this. A lot of people write incredible books, but then it sits there, you know, their friends buy it, their family buy it, their family supports it, but then in silence, actually, so uh someone wrote this is a book written for friends and family. To me, that's an afferent. I'm like, no, it's for the whole world to know because that is a that is it's a self-help book. It's not just the friends and family. Why? So the family now knows, so the friends know what I have been going through, and then what say I'm sorry, or maybe shed a tear for me and then or feel sorry for me. Oh no, I am planning here. I wrote this book because I want other people to benefit from it. So, you see what I mean? It's a platform, it's how you position yourself. Publishing, it's important, of course, but again, life after publishing. I'll give you some some ideas about what I've done. Um, I am within two years, I have 70 plus appearances, podcasts, speaking engagements, book signings, university conversation, brand the growth. You know, it's it's it's just evolved in a you know a being of itself, right? So you have to support it and you have to promote it, you have to expand your message through the speaking, teaching, and helping others. So to me, you and not only to me, what I would deliver, you know, in in my power lecture is the visibility part. Visibility is not about luck, it's about strategy. So you have to plan ahead because your book is it's not the product, it's you are you are the product. You speak about the book, you put the book there, nobody's gonna look at it at it, but you promote, so it really when the people buy a book, they really invest in you, and I think that is very important for people to understand. But if people can't find you because you are not out there in the media uh or in the you know in the platforms, they can't learn from you, so then you have to sit down and say, Okay, we have to prepare, we have to position ourselves, and what that will help you, then it just opens a little doors. Um, I think a lot of people expect zero to sixty, you know, or zero to 160 seconds. It doesn't work that way. It it's it's slow, steady burn, and that what I would what you know, what I would teach, really. I would teach how I did it. Everybody has its own little ways of doing things, but really what it the the main core of the the lecture and the presentations uh and the teaching is how exactly did I do it, and then you take your own Christmas tree and then you ornate it your way.
SPEAKER_04Exactly, exactly. I love that. I'm so excited, I cannot wait for the event, however, it ends up being hosted. But uh, we're so glad to have your participation and can't wait to meet you in person for sure. That's probably one of the biggest bonuses. We're just having the event so we can meet you. I appreciate you coming here again and continuing to show up and help others with their books. So stick around. We're gonna introduce Rand here and then we'll come back to you in just a second.
SPEAKER_03So here we have my friend Rand Timmerman, Appalachian Trail Through Hiker and author of a spiritual passage. So, Rand, why don't you tell us a little bit about your book and how it came to be?
SPEAKER_00Sure. Wildebeast, yeah, the publishing is kind of the the actual getting the book ready to go to market is kind of the easy part. I had no idea actually. And Wildebeast did a great job for me in that area. I just recently learned about a million books get published a year, and three percent sell a significant amount, and they define significant is like 5,000 books. So it is a I agree with the doctor, you it takes a lot of effort. Yeah, I hiked the Appalachian Trail when I was 72 with my brother, who was grieving the loss of his uh wife, and uh we were both combat veterans from the Vietnam War. And then um I like to say the Marine Corps almost got me killed 20 times for sure. And then they made me a JAG officer. I ended up being an officer in the Marine Corps, and then I became a JAG officer without college education. Probably I found out at my 50th reunion the only one. But it gave me a a career, and I had problems with alcohol. So in the book, the book came about because when we got done with the trail, I realized I had like 6,000 pictures. And my brother, who was a commercial pilot after he finished his military career, you know, he's very precise about where we were, where we went, how far we walked each day, and I took pictures. So when I combined his journal, my journal, I realized I could write a heck of a story for our kids and grandkids, which Ronnie has. When Edie died, she left him with seven kids, twenty-seven grandchildren, and now thirty great-grandchildren.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_00So he's got a whole tribe right there that made it worthwhile for me to do that effort and leave a lasting uh impression. And so it talks about there are shows where we went every day with some pictures that the person can actually pick it up and say, Oh yeah, you know, that's where they went. Wow. And then every other chapter, so I would talk about how I uh recovered from alcohol. We talked uh wrote about the war to some extent. There's some interesting stories in there, a lot of humorous stuff, a lot of snakes and critters, all kinds of stuff. So um, you know, I paid and had, I don't know, a couple hundred published, and I sent them out, and then I thought, you know what? I was getting a very good reaction because one of my intents with the book I discovered is that it could help people who are trying to get sober or struggling with addictions or even just life difficulties. And you know, I'm eighty now, so and I still walk seven miles a day. A lot of people my age don't do a whole lot. So I was hoping, and I think it is inspiring to people that wait a minute, idiot can this guy with an artificial knee and lips really bad. The other guy told me the other day he saw me walking and he came up behind me and he said, You walk like a pigeon a penguin because my right leg's a half inch shorter my left, right? So I searched around for publishers and um Laura and I met and I was very impressed. Jess and I worked together. I figured out pretty quickly what she was looking for in the editing process. So I kind of jumped ahead and made a lot of changes myself. But when we got all done, we got a beautiful, you know, 360 page book with 500 color pictures and all these stories. All these incentive uh type situations that we went through that could inspire people to stop drinking or do something different with their life and things like that. So yeah. And you know, I've written a lot of other books and still working on that. I belong to a bunch of right author writing groups and uh and have been working hard, as you guys know, on the merchandising, you know, marketing part of it, which is a challenge.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, and I don't even know if we mentioned you did the AT in your 70s, and you know, in working, as you said, into kind of you know mirror what Dr. K was just saying, you came into this with not a lot of tech in your belt, not a lot of tech experience, and you went ahead without me even you he but he went, he saw what we were doing, and then went through and cleaned it up and edited the book in front of me, and it made the process so much easier. And now you're like the podcast king. You figured out you're what in the top five or ten percent on pod match and things like that. I mean, it's incredible what you've learned throughout this process just in the last couple years, so you know, and that's what it is, where it is it's like, yeah, writing the book is tough and it's a huge thing, and we don't want to minimize that in any way, but the work after that is the stuff where you're really gonna be kind of in the dirt and like out in the field and trying to figure things out. And now, Rand, you're gonna be our guest speaker next month, or well, it's almost April, so in May, talking about how to do podcasts. So got out of that nest and just flew.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, I pretty much tried everything. Doing stuff at libraries isn't terribly productive because people go to libraries to get free books. And because my book has, you know, 500 color pictures. I mean, it's a beautiful, it's almost like a I consider it like a coffee table book. You know, you can put it down, you can pick it up, they look at it for a few minutes, read a chapter or two, and go, wow, that's fascinating. But you're probably not gonna sit there and read the whole book in one setting. So, I mean, I've tried everything, bookstore, some things. I agree with Louisa, you really have to get to events where you can talk to people, and hopefully, as a speaker. I uh got a chance to speak at the Appalachian Word Fest in Severeville, Tennessee a few weeks ago. They let me have a room, and I don't know, 30 people showed up, and I ended up selling 10 books instead of selling one and giving away three.
SPEAKER_02You know, that kind of thing. Baby steps, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then the podcast really are starting to pay off, and I'm getting pretty much daily now requests to come back on, or by people who, you know, instead of having 300 subscribers, they've got thousands and thousands. So that's awesome. You gotta crawl before you walk, and then you gotta walk before you run, really.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. So you're gonna be presenting in our next authorpreneur uh guest speaker presentation, which is on how you've gone from zero to a hundred in podcasts. And um so I want you to speak about that a little bit. But it is gonna be May 19th, 6 p.m. Eastern time. You can register on the website. It's not up yet, but it will be soon. You can join for free by joining our community. This is these presentations are for the community, and but we allow a certain number of open spots for the public to join us. Um and you can join for free by doing the free trial with the community, checking that out, or you can pay the $20 to get live access to the guests. So, Rand, tell us a little bit about what you will be talking about.
SPEAKER_00All right, well, I subscribe to uh PodMatch. There are other ones out there. Podmatch has about 2,000 hosts, wide variety of subjects, and I will be able to I finally figured out how to share the screen. So I will be able to show you the dashboard and how you know how to navigate. And there's some basic things that you really need to do. You need to listen to an episode before you send a message seeking to be on the program, you know, you need to know how the what the host likes to talk about. And there's a whole bunch of tricks that I've learned. My acceptance rate is 90. I just checked it again today. It was 92, I've actually gone up a bit. And the average is about a third, you know. Uh so I'm doing oh I'm I'm not bragging or anything. I'm just I'm doing I learned how to do things right, and I've learned how not you know what not to do too. Hardest thing is probably not trying to be on everyone that pops up.
SPEAKER_04That's why you're doing that in the beginning. But you know, you had uh you learned it. So that's all I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you gotta have a good hook. Mine, I have the best hook in the world. I think that's why my percentage is so high because my hook is hiking the Appalachian Trail when I was 72 was the hardest thing I ever did when nobody was shooting at me.
SPEAKER_04That is compelling.
SPEAKER_00I got it. That first you gotta have a really that's probably the most important thing. That very first sentence. If you can come up with some hope you can find something in your life story that's got, you know, that's got that punch to it. And then you then you can just slowly drag them in, but you gotta be able to respond to what they want to talk about too. Awesome.
SPEAKER_01Well come and listen to your lecture, by the way, or presentation on the 19th. It's the day after my birthday, but uh it's not on my birthday, so that's all that matters. Yeah, that is the 19th is my sister's birthday.
SPEAKER_00So actually, if you just if you go on the internet and Google my name, Rand Timmerman, a whole bunch of them pops up now. Yeah, and they're on my website, which is randimmerman.com.
SPEAKER_04Well, we want to get you in and out of here, but thank you, Rand. That's a great tip. And if you'd like to hear more, make sure you join us on the 19th, along with Louisa. And so, Louisa, what is next for you?
SPEAKER_01Um, well, actually, like I said, uh Sunday, uh I'm having the I was invited as a um author, but also as a uh moderator for the Southside, fifth annual Southside Book Festival here in San Antonio. So I'll be there from 11 to 5. Um the following weekend, I am um actually speaking at the Texas Veteran Commission, and I'll be there as a um you know author. They as a veteran, they are extremely supportive. I have done webinars and appearances with them. Uh, this will be my fourth one. Um, and especially women veterans, that's there is a very strong division in the Texas Veteran Commission, and uh the lady who runs it is extremely, extremely devoted to the cause. Um and then um in April I am presenting at the TMA Texas Medical Association on Telemedicine, and that's another thing that I think it's worthwhile, just like Rand said hey, be multifaceted because we all have I mean not all, but most of us have more than one talent, but we just don't use them. For instance, I can speak on I can speak on women's health, I can speak on entrepreneurship, I can speak on how to be a veteran or to work in the military, but also serve, and the military will help you with your studies to become a physician or become a lawyer and so forth. So those are things that you know you can actually I can navigate in a multitude of topics, and all of them have, yes, all of them have a common pitch, and that is also my platform and my book. But you know, because I I own the platform and I own the practice as well, and it just so it happens I have so many hats. But don't be afraid to use my messages, don't be afraid to use all your talents. So I am I I'm I'm quite busy through the through this whole really next six months. I'm quite booked and I'm very excited to be honest. I I just like to I am like to be the you know social butterfly. I interact very well with people, I communicate probably in my life journey, much like Rand, just made us resourceful. So use your resources. I think that that is the game point. One thing that I can tell you the problem with authors afterwards with marketing, we are all afraid to talk about ourselves. Think about it. You talk about everybody else, right? You say, Oh my god, she's awesome, he is amazing, they are doing this. I have, you know, except for the narcissists, we are all really afraid to talk about or kind of shy. Okay, so I had to get over that. Um, and in the beginning, when I did my podcast, I would look at them and then I was like, Wow, gosh, my accent is heavy, not getting my words right. Uh, I feel like I'm out of place. And I said, How am I gonna fix that? So I tried to, you know, have a script that didn't work, that actually got worse. So then guess what? Practice makes perfect. After I tell you, after about 40, 50 of them, you just it becomes your element. So but you have to put yourself out there and uh you have to buy the bullet and say, you know what, everybody had to go through this, everybody had to have a speaker's anxiety, and you know, in order to what's the alternative? The alternative is to have you know 5,000 books that are sitting in the closet, nobody wants to buy them because nobody really knows about you.
SPEAKER_03See, and I mean, and to to follow that, I could talk to you for hours. I love every time we get to get together, I absolutely love the conversations. I have a million questions I want to ask. And you know, it this could go on for hours and hours and hours. And and even at AWP, I see because people would ask me about the books there, and I will passionately speak about their books and tell them about the author as a person and what their story is and the pages. You ask me what I do, I'm like, well, you know, I don't like I work here and it's it's very hard to sell yourself. So it is just practice and sitting in the discomfort of that for a moment and everything. So I mean, yeah. How about you, Rand? What's going on next? What's next for you there? What are you doing? Hitting the trail?
SPEAKER_00No, I'm a good storyteller and I have no problem talking in front of you know groups of people, whether it be on the internet or you know, virtual or live. I've actually liked live better. I was a litigator, so I don't have any problem. I'm not camera shy or anything like that. Not that anybody's shoving the camera in my face necessarily. So I knew one of my weaknesses is that I'm beginning to realize so on podcasts and things, you don't, you know, I got my little banner here, and that's about all they'll let you do anyway. But and sometimes I show them the book. But I'm actually having a coach come in Friday to try to see if I can help get some professional help. So I can go in. I I'm on a speaker bureau now with Oasis, which is a national speaker thing, mostly aimed at people that are 55 or older, so it's the you know, the old farce like me. But what I'm not good at is I don't even as you know, computers are kind of a strange foreign object for me. Um so I want to get help in doing my how to do the presentation with pictures using the electronic tools that are there, you know, that most media places have, whether it be, you know, an actual um room to do that kind of stuff. So that way I'll be able to talk give my talk, still change it to fit the audience, and yet still have pictures coming, and I don't know, hopefully push a one button or a clicker or some darn thing. And because I think, you know, based on my brief experience, live presentations are probably the best in a way. Because that way you've got an audience, you can relate to them. I'll tell you what I did it real quick in Saviv Severeville. So I I was excited to be able to have this opportunity to talk in a room with 30 people, and I went down there and sat in the room about 20 minutes before it started. So all these people came in, and I'm sitting there in the front row, and they start talking, right? And then it turned out one of them was a Navy guy who had been on a destroyer in Denang Harbor at the same time I was in Vietnam. So and then, of course, I jump up as a speaker and and go up to the front, and I had some pictures that I had you know prepared to that were just sitting there in frames, and I incorporated some of the stuff he was talking about into my talk, right? So you know I I sold him a book, right? Exactly. So and that's the most fun, actually. I mean podcasts are fun. I still get excited about doing them. Um but uh for me that seems to be the way to go. I tried the Amazon thing, you know, the advertising, and that didn't really work. It was a lot of work and I sales equaled cost, so I wasn't going anywhere. You gotta find whatever avenue fits you. That seems to fit me the best. So I'm gonna try to work on that, make it more better, and hopefully get three, four hundred people live. That would be great.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean it then that's what Laura and I call it, well, I kind of call us the princesses of pivoting, because we'll try one thing and if it doesn't work, we'll turn around and go the other way and see if something down that road does. So now that we've had this lovely time together, we have to hit y'all with a hard question. If you could invite anyone living or no longer on this earthly plane for afternoon tea, who would it be? So, and then after that, if it'll give you a second to think about it and then give us your answers and then let everyone know where they can find you. Has have either of you thought of someone?
SPEAKER_00I have.
SPEAKER_03Okay, Rand, go.
SPEAKER_00Truman Capote. All right, good one. He was a drunk for one thing. I actually know a person that went on what we call a 12-step call to his apartment because he called for some help with his drinking, but when they got there, he said, I changed my mind. Yeah, we know how that worked out. It didn't, right? But I think he was brilliant. His books I read I've even read the books that he wrote when he was, you know, a teenager to see how he he was a great writer. I just liked his writing. Didn't agree with a lot of his personal aspects, but yeah, great writer. I'd I'd love to spend an afternoon with him.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, awesome. Where can people get in touch with you, Rand?
SPEAKER_00Uh, my website is Rand Timmerman, my name with just lettersallrun together.com, or they can email me at rand.timmerman at gmail.com. I'm not really doing the social media stuff. I have a Facebook page, but they can of course they can communicate on my uh website too.
SPEAKER_04So yes, like you said, people gotta choose the avenues that they they like and they can keep going. Precisely and Louisa, how about you?
SPEAKER_01Does he have to be a writer?
SPEAKER_04Nope.
SPEAKER_01Okay, anyone. Um it's actually a um mentor of mine. He was uh in a uh social studies professor uh in my undergrad. His name was Dr. Levine. Uh he was a cello player, but we uh we used to have tea together quite often uh as his mentee. Um he always had the most interesting stories, but one of the things that helped me along, and it's actually in my book, is um, you know, he said that you know, just imagine your life and the journey through your life like a driving on the highway. And you just, you know, he was from Boston, so he says, you know, imagine that you're driving now from Ohio to Boston. You know you have to get there, and that's your goal, but you really can just keep driving, right? You're gonna get fatigued, and you have to stop to either get gas or get some rest or get some food. But always remember the stops should be brief. You have to go back on the road in order to get to your destination. I like that a lot.
SPEAKER_03I'm just getting out of a brief, brief rest stop and getting back on the road right now. So that yeah, I like that a lot. And where can they find you? Okay, jinx.
SPEAKER_01So, well, I have two websites. One is uh telemed, so telemedmfm.com. The other one is uh dr luisaluk.com. So the first one is my practice, my mfm practice. The second one is my book. Also, I have a foundation that I uh just incorporated from last month, so it's in the final touches. Also by email at hello at drluisak.com with a dr or drluisak at gmail.com. And um, I am on social media. My strongest presence is in LinkedIn, but I'm also on Facebook or Instagram. But I'm like Rand. Facebook and Instagram still don't really jive with my character, although I have a presence there, but LinkedIn is my kind of my cup of tea.
SPEAKER_04Well, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01This has been awesome, and thank you for sharing so much. Thank you. I appreciate you all inviting me and inviting us, and uh, I can't wait to see you this summer, really. Truly real hugs. Thanks. Bye bye, bye.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_04All right, well, that was super fun. I was like, okay, this is going long, but we can't stop it.
SPEAKER_03I I mean, you know, I get to speak to Rand somewhat frequently outside of these meetings, but I could talk to Dr. K all day long. I mean, I know I said it to her, but like she's fascinating and just wonderful.
SPEAKER_04I want to know how she has time to do so much.
SPEAKER_03I know, I know. Or like they try to be like there's 24 beautiful hours in every day or something like that.
SPEAKER_04Yes, uh, truly an amazing human being. And um, yeah, so we want to, you know, always talk about the latest in books, and of course, AI is on everyone's mind. So there's a lot of things changing. KDP is changing a lot of stuff behind the scenes. I think they're they're making way for some AI stuff, but they're also just changing the, you know, their platform is clunky and terrible. It actually looks like they're trying to make improvements, but while they're making the improvements, there has been, I know some of our authors and I've seen online people are having trouble getting to their author central accounts and connecting things. So you you can expect if you do work with KDP to be some bumps in the road going on. But what's on your mind as far as AI?
SPEAKER_03Well, I mean, I'm my mind just went right to Audible because it's almost coming up on April 5th, so I wonder if now after a year of the battle with them. You know, I mean, I've been getting into some discussions regarding AI over the last few weeks with different people, and it's like I understand it's necessity. And a friend of mine who's really brilliant was saying how I was saying, well, I feel it stifles creativity, and he had arguments to the opposite of it, how it can inspire creativity. So, you know, it is just like it's a new technology, and I need to not be a curmudgeon about it. And, you know, because I remember when digital cameras first came out, I'm like, I will never use these ever. I will always develop film. It's like I haven't developed film in 20 years. So I'm just trying to be a little bit more open-minded on it and and just kind of see. But I like that they're putting some rules and guidelines in, like the only publishing three books per day, an author can only publish three books per day, which you know.
SPEAKER_04Well, that was a problem beyond AI. Before that, people were still like you can go on YouTube and are people making money just on sheer numbers. You know, if you can imagine if you have a thousand books that sell a dollar a day, that's a lot of money. Um, so there's it people were doing that already, but AI was making it even probably a bigger problem, which is forcing them to take some action on it, which is great. And you know, there's I don't consider it a new thing. It's an evolution. Is we started with just people and pens, and then paper was invented, pencils, and then pens were invented, and then ink was invented, and then all of these things have been invented. So it's it's an evolution, and then digital came along for both a photography and you know, drawing. This when Corel draw came out, people were the same thing. This isn't art, this is digital, this isn't the same as it going right from your hand, and so it's just another evolution of that where you know people will use it different ways. But I think we were talking about how, you know, it possibly could make real art from someone's hand even more valuable if people want that, you know. We were talking about how, like, I I everyone has their personal preference. Some people just don't care about art, they never will. And so I some people will go into Bed Bath Meon and buy purchase art for their house, and then others have a strict no policy on that, and others are in between. So it's kind of the same. I think there will be people who have zero problem with AI. There are people making graphic novels today with that, and they don't feel any type of way. And if the people buying it don't care, then that's their audience. But their audience aren't people who who don't care, so you have to just be careful who you're speaking to, I guess. Because there are also publishers out there that are 100% AI. And yeah, they might be able to do it fast, but are they going to do it with care in mind and your best interest? So it really has to be what what you're trying to link for. If you really want a cheap, fast publishing process, go for the AI thing, because I don't you don't fit with us either. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So yeah, it's kind of like it's gonna have its place and it's not going anywhere. So as business owners, we can't ignore it or pretend it's going away or something.
SPEAKER_03Well, and I mean, kind of pivoting off of your technology improving. I'm a big video gamer and I love Atari. And when Nintendo came out, we're like, it's never gonna get better than Nintendo. And now I'm playing this game finally called Horizon Zero Dawn, that it's apocalyptic, but the whole story is based on AI. I don't want to give too many spoilers in case someone's in it, because once that part of the story opened up, it's unbelievably fascinating, and the storytelling in this game is wild. AI is tied into helping fix the Earth after the robots have done damage and things like that. So it's just, you know, it remains to be seen. We'll all I mean, we'll all learn more and it'll grow and will grow, or the robots will take over and everything will be fine.
SPEAKER_04It's really uh this book is still being written, but um, it's not going anywhere. So if you are listening to this, my best advice is to be educated and not just pretend it's not there. Yeah, and just and then decide what your stance is. You can, you know, whatever feels right for you, fine, but it's it's not going anywhere. So it's it's best to at least have an idea what's happening. And then it is it is uh tax season getting close to the 15th when this comes out. So if you have, you know, royalties are different than than they are for Service World. So that's a $600 threshold for authors and royalties, it's ten dollars. So you should have, if you've done, if you someone owes you royalties and you've made more than $10, they should be sending you a $1099.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean, definitely, and you know, clearly business tax deadline was uh 10 days ago, but personal taxes are coming up. So just there are a lot of finance tips and things out there. Just make sure you have a good tax professional you can talk to about all these things because we are not licensed clearly.
SPEAKER_04No, but just want to educate that part because I think a lot of people are probably not getting those. Yeah. And yeah. So then we have our beastie bestie stories to round out the episode today. Yeah. This one is a friend of my brother and sister-in-law who we've done the last one on. And so here we go. Are you ready?
SPEAKER_03I'm ready. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_04All right. This is Aaron O'Brien and Clint ours, Elise. So this is really exciting because it is a brother-sister BC Bestie team, which is exciting. And so this goes. Clint and I, so the first question, what's your origin story? Clint and I are brother and sister. Elise is Clint's 11-year-old daughter. I had written a children's story and asked Clint if he would be willing to illustrate it. We started working on it together, and Elise became our apprenticed illustrator. Clint and I have been working on our respective crafts since we were kids, and working on a medium where we can combine them has been a dream come true. So, what is your wildest moment? What's the biggest, scariest, or coolest thing that you've tackled together? And give us some details. So their wild wildest Will the Beast moment would be probably winning a Florida Book Award. They have been working so hard to market the book and to get their name out and ideas out there to be seen and recognized was a huge rush. And they talked on it and they were both totally in shock about it. What do you struggle with as Beastie Besties? And what challenges have you faced together? Their first book, Howl, is actually about perseverance. Marketing and morale have always been their biggest hurdles, but much like the main character in their book, they refuse to give up and will always continue to keep moving forward. It's been easy because they're doing it for each other, not for themselves. And they think where that's where their true strengths come from. We are a family and we can do anything. So an inside joke. So, you know, if you are have a bestie, beastie bestie, you know that there's always some things that you have between just the two of you. Uh their inside joke is quote unquote eat rejection. We talk a lot about Stephen King and how he was rejected over 300 times before he finally got published. And they are trying to enjoy the no's as much as the yeses. They're in this together, and that's what counts. And they're blessed to be able to create these stories together. So they will dip rejections in fancy ketchup, babble them up, and move forward. They're ready to have their Stephen King moment eventually, and they have faith in that. So advice to other entrepreneurs and BC besties in partnership. The secret for us is that we're on the same wavelength. I have an idea for a character or a story, and Clinton will always send test sketches, and they're always even better than how I imagined them in my head. Being brother and sister, there's something very connected about our creative energies, and it's almost like having an art twin. And that's it. So we would like to thank them for submitting their story. It's kind of a brother, sister, and daughter trio. Love that. And thank you. If you have a story to share, please head over to wildebeest publishing.com and there is a podcast page there and click on the link to submit your story. We'd love to share it.
SPEAKER_03You know, and I you know, this is obviously my first introduction to them. And I gotta say, howl sounds like it's really on brand. We gotta get them on the pod and talk to them because I want to learn more. Like we're they're into animals, so it'd be a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, totally. I mean, this is it's a never-ending thread here. I want to talk to beasts and beastie besties over and over and over again. So awesome. I think that concludes the show for today. Unless you have anything else you'd like to jabber on about.
SPEAKER_03Nope. I'm good to go. So uh be yourself, run wild, take leaps, y'all. That's right.
SPEAKER_04Don't forget to high five your homies and pen your pages. Until we meet again, friends. Au revoir, Pee-wee. Bye.