In this episode, Monique is pleased to welcome Renee Purdie to the show. Renee is a multi-talented publisher, graphic designer, marketing guru, and academic with two master's degrees and she also plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Education. 

Renee looks back on her entrepreneurial journey while sharing stories and experiences gathered during her years as an independent publisher, cooking aficionado, and designer. Renee also shares how having all the fanciest software or latest computer tools does not guarantee a high-quality product, but knowing your target market and focusing on clean, legible consistency can take your product further than splashy design gimmicks. 

Monique and Renee also share creative ideas and social media strategies for bringing attention to your latest book, product, or endeavor. 

Topics Include:

• The Basics of Self Publishing
• The Importance of Quality Design
• How the Product Is Marketing
• Transforming Passions Into Paying Gigs 
• Creative Cooking as Content

Follow Renee:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneepurdie

Website: https://msrisingstar.com/

Follow Monique:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquemills/

Website: https://unpolishedmba.com/

Coming up on Unpolished MBA...

A lot of what I help people with is structure and really just thinking

about the actual marketing behind it.

Most people, to be honest, of course they have something they're passionate

about and great at doing, but they don't really know the marketing side of it.

I have so many people saying, "I love this but I don't like to sell it."

Well, if you don't like to sell stuff, that's going to be part of the problem.

You know?

That's the whole point of having a business to sell stuff.

This show is sponsored by TPM Focus, the strategy and

execution consulting firm focused on generating revenue and finding

product market fit for new innovations.

Head over to TPMFocus.com to learn more.

Hello everyone this is Monique Mills.

I want to welcome you back to the next episode of Unpolished MBA and

today I have with me Renee Purdie.

Hi Renee.

Hi, Monique.

How are you doing?

I am doing well.

And I'm glad to have you here with us today.

I am going to ask you the same two questions I ask everyone,

and the first one is, are you an entrepreneur or corporate employee?

I am an entrepreneur.

MBA or no MBA?

Working on my second masters, so technically, no.

See you're doing the most.

Wow.

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

Two masters.

Okay.

So what is the first one in?

What is the first one?

My first was Master of Arts in Management with an Occupational

Organizational Leadership Specialization.

This one is going to be a Master of Education in Instructional Technology,

and I really want to get a PhD.

So that's my end game.

I see.

So you know what, let's start.

I want to start with the first one, and this is the thing

it's always so interesting.

Some people have multiple degrees in different things.

I think that we grow and our interests change and evolve over time.

Is that what happened with you?

It really just kind of was...

I started at university at 16, tons of scholarships, 3.5 years later decided to

stop with my computer engineering degree.

Got married, life happened.

I told my grandma I was going to go back.

So, 32 years later, I managed to finish that officially.

I did some other coursework, but I finished that one, not in engineering,

but I actually finished in...

it ended up being Mass Studies and Business.

Then I said while I have this momentum I'm just going to go ahead

and get my master's real quick.

Then I took a year off, I don't feel like in the middle of a pandemic, I really

have the bandwidth to work on my PhD.

I just don't right now, let me just do this other one to keep myself sharp.

So that's kind of what happened.

Wow.

So are either of those degrees related to each other?

Not really because the stream was going to be from management.

They didn't have a marketing degree where I wanted to go.

So they actually had management and then I found out that was dry and dusty.

So I knew I didn't really want to go on that pathway to PhD.

So I said, Mass education is perfect.

I love training and mentoring and stuff like that.

I feel like that's a better fit for me.

Then from there, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Maybe an EDD in education.

I'm not sure, but that's what happened to me.

Okay.

So just for transparency with the audience, I want you guys to know

that I initially found Renee on Periscope years ago, if you guys

remember Periscope, but it was popping.

It was the live stream...

the first of a lot of these live streaming platform experiences.

Renee, you were quite gifted, and I'm sure still are, in marketing,

communications, those kinds of things.

Are you still involved in that?

Definitely.

I do that as part of my business , just as a matter of course, book publishing

is what I mainly do, but I advise people on marketing strategy in

conjunction, with their books and their brand development, but mainly book

publishing is what I'm doing right now.

With your book publishing, is there a certain type of book or

author or anything in particular that you typically work with?

You know what, it's been kind of fluid.

When I say that, the first one I did was for a psychologist who did one

on the suicide rates in Australia.

From there, she referred me to someone who was talking about the ethics of massage,

so it's been kind of a referral network.

There's been some poetry.

There's been children's books.

I guess the books are as varied as my interest because I have

a ton of different interests.

A lot of them have been christianity and faith and people's stories.

Really the majority has been fiction.

There has been some nonfiction here and there, but it's really

just been a network of people who needed help with their books.

There hasn't been a specific genre or anything so far.

Wow.

Sounds like a very interesting role to be in right now.

Is this something that you are excited to do every day?

Is it something you can see yourself doing for a while?

Or are you looking for a change when you finished school?

I guess when I answer this question, it really almost depends on

the day and depends on the project.

Like anything else, some days can feel like work.

Some days are like, "wow, I get paid to do this!?"

So for me, I think because I love so many different things the variety is great.

Right now I'm trying to build a team to help me out because sometimes you just

don't have time to do all this stuff.

My passion is really food to be honest.

So my purpose is to bring people's stories to life, but my passion is

probably more shifting towards food.

I have the vegan cookbook and electronic one, and I really want

to do a print based one of that.

I want to do segments on food and creation and product creation around those foods.

You're speaking my language.

You know, we did a little research on YouTube.

We always typically look up people on YouTube and we see

your vegan and plant-based recipes are really interesting.

Is that something you plan to take forward?

Definitely!

What are some of your favorite recipes?

What I love to do is take my favorite recipes and then make them vegan.

I live in the Southwest, so a lot of the recipes I'll do are Mexican

based, but I like to integrate stuff.

For example, this isn't Mexican, but the other day I made a version

of Piaya and my ideas like to mix Chorizo with the Spanish version.

I'll take ingredients from my region and just integrate it.

If I wanted to make a Thai dish, I wouldn't mind, I

could mix Chorizo with it.

So, just take different recipes and twist them is what I love to do.

Is this something that you might turn into another business entity?

Because you have your design, communication, book publishing but like I

said, our careers evolve, so do you think this is something, with your cooking and

your interest in food, is that something you think you might turn into a business?

I really might because, it's in the works.

I really would like to start with doing some different catering for events and

that kind of thing, and I also have an interest of creating a food truck,

but with everything else going on, I probably need to find someone who's

going to do manage the day to day.

Then I can just step in and help with the recipes and that kind of thing.

I would say yes, but probably a little down the track when

I get myself more together.

Well, we definitely need to get out of the pandemic

first, because it keeps open, close, open, and closing things.

With your long history in design, branding, communications, pretty much

if you wanted to spin up something, you know how to get that part going.

With other people and you helping them, in what ways do you help

them, and where do you see people struggle the most in that regard?

A lot of what I help people with is structure and really just thinking

about the actual marketing behind it.

Most people, to be honest, they have something they're passionate about

and great at doing, but they don't really know the marketing side of it.

I have so many people saying, "I love this, but I don't like to sell it."

If you don't like to sell stuff, that's going to be part of the problem.

That's the whole point of having a business, to sell stuff.

That's part of what people struggle with, but what I found out is that a

lot of what people struggle with is not really believing in themselves enough.

There's such a fear factor sometimes with people.

I listened to someone recently and they really had done everything,

they had done all the groundwork.

Every time someone gets off a call, they say "you know what?

I really just needed someone to help me believe in myself."

When I was working on things I didn't realize how much counseling I was

doing in business, because people just don't have the belief in there.

I don't remember which person said it, it might've been you but your business

is not going to grow any bigger than you.

You have to get that growth in there.

You have to make sure that you're doing the groundwork to make sure that any kind

of triggers and doubts are ironed out as much as possible out of your personal

being so you can grow that business.

We're going to take a quick timeout and pick back up in just a moment.

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I know one of the things, and it's even still now, is that

they call you the dream pusher.

That's part of what the nickname was for you online.

I'm guessing that's still relative, right?

Yeah, I love that.

Actually that wasn't even a client of mine who gave me

that I was like, you know what?

I'm stealing that, thank you.

It is true, I do have the ability.

I don't know, maybe I'm just bossy, but if you tell me you're going

to do something, I will circle back even if you're not my client.

I will circle back and say; you told me a year ago, you wanted to do this.

Did you do it?

What's going on?

So I've had a number of people tell me if you really don't want to do

it, don't mention it to her, because you're going to be held accountable,

she's going to be on your back.

You know how you're actually doing something before you know you're doing it?

The counseling part, the coaching part, all that stuff I was

doing for years before I even knew what it was even called.

So pretty cool.

To actually put a name around it.

The thing is too, I always say cooking is definitely an art as well as a passion.

I know that you have experience in creating logos and helping

people on the creative side of things in their marketing.

Now when it comes to that type of work, what types of things do you do?

Do you, media kits, do you websites, what does your business do in the

realm of your work outside of, the book manuscripts and so on?

So all the things you mentioned, I've designed everything from

billboards to logos, email signatures.

Pretty much anything in between.

Full length manuscripts, I do the design for that, design is

something I just really love.

It was actually self-taught, I never went to graphic design school, briefly,

a couple of classes, I just loved it.

I love to do it.

I just recently did my own speaker kit because I said

okay, you've done these before.

Do you have one for yourself?

You've done it for other people.

So I'm just getting my stuff together now.

Yes, I love to design anything and everything.

I'm actually about to do some classes because I have had a bunch of people

asking me how to design journals.

I just published four of my own last year and a children's book.

A lot of people, struggle with the design part and even using word

is something that you can use, and that's accessible for everybody.

I used to just find most of my stuff in Word.

Most people don't have access to Creative Suite and there's

a stiff learning curve on it.

I just give them the building blocks, and if they want to

design from there they can.

Do you typically use Adobe products in your marketing business?

I actually do not.

I used to, and I found that I didn't need to, for a lot of the things that

I was doing, I could really produce them in Word, which I've used the

Word processing system since I was 13.

I started with Volkswriter, probably no one remembers that.

I'm able to be a little bit more precise with it because it's just

easier to get it to interact with KDP.

Sometimes with some of the exports you do with InDesign, you really have to fight

with it, to get it to do what you want.

It shouldn't be this difficult.

Explain to the audience, I know what KDP is, but explain to the audience

because I know this ties into the work that you do with people in their books.

Yeah.

It's basically Amazon's platform.

It used to be Creative Space and they renamed it KDP.

For self publishers right?

Yeah.

You predominantly work with people that are self publishing books.

Yes.

Predominantly, I do have a couple clients that I feel like they should,

just for the space they're in, pitch to some of those traditional publishers.

The pathway is similar, as I tell people.

You should really still get a professional editor.

First get a manuscript assessment to help you with the strategy of book

proposals before you pitch, because you want to make it as tight as

possible before you send it to them.

To get off the flush pile, or to get an agent, it really

needs to be pretty much there.

Authors, some people write books and you never really hear about

it except when they first launch it, then you don't hear about any anymore.

What are some ways that people who are writing books should market them?

That is a great question, love it.

I actually have a client, we just produced an amazing book

and she is so adept at marketing.

She has shared, and is sharing a bunch of different techniques.

The first thing I would say is to make sure before, or even as you're writing

your book to get all your social media together and really get a following,

because they're going to be the first kind of tier layer of marketing your books.

The other thing I would say is be prepared to do speaking engagements, be prepared to

be out there because you are your PR team.

You can also, of course, hire a PR team, which is important, but even when you're

deciding on your story, if you really want it to be marketable, you have to look at

keywords, you have to look at all that strategy before you even really start

to write if you really want it to be a broad variance in terms of the marketing.

Some things are more marketable than others, that's just like anything else.

If it's a passion story that you just want to write, that's great.

If it's your goal is to reach the masses, you have to approach it a little

differently, and it's more like business oriented rather than passion oriented.

The social media following, I see people use different things.

I want to know what your thoughts are as far as like creating a social

following for yourself or the brand, the book, or do you do it for both?

Which one do you recommend?

It really depends on the person.

A lot of people are building their personal brands because they

have so many kinds of different things that they're doing.

Where for other people that's really their flagship.

That's their heart.

That's really the core.

For example, one of my authors, she's a singer as well as she's branched

out and done a children's book.

For her, I would say definitely market her entire brand.

What she also does is she has a separate one for her book.

So she integrates both of them and she uses both of them depending

on what she's going to actually be applying for or whatever she's going

to push at that particular time.

There's no problem with having two because sometimes of course

the audience is different.

You know, with this pandemic, some people have launched books.

I know in the past, people would actually do a book signing.

What's an alternative for that these days?

Yeah.

Book signings, the pandemic has really made things interesting in so many ways.

I'm going to have to do a book signing for almost eight books at the point when

I decide to do it, because I just haven't done an in person book signing yet.

I'm excited about it, but some people are doing virtual ones.

Depending on your industry, some people are getting book boxes together where

people can pre-order a book box and then you have these different things in there.

You'll have wine or you'll have chocolate or whatever from your different book box.

People who've decided to advertise with you or co-promote with you.

Then you can have a virtual book signing, which I think is a great way to

do it, and do it on zoom and chill out and have a reading and call it a day.

Yeah, that's true because people get a chance that they really want.

They really just want a chance to want to engage with you.

Did you see, this is interesting if you haven't seen it, it's

probably the most incredible book delivery I've ever seen in my life.

Will Smith, his delivery of his book "Will".

If you've never seen it, there is a video of the unboxing.

He sent one to Charlemagne the God, and if you look that up Charlemagne the God

and the book "Will", you will be blown away at how he had that book delivered

and the special box that it was in.

It's really interesting.

For the audience, if you have not seen that, if you have a book

coming out, you cannot get to, especially your VIP customers.

You can take a page out of Will Smith's book with that.

Now, of course, I'm sure each of those packages costs thousands of dollars,

but it's incredible once you see it.

I certainly can't afford that, but it does get the mind going in a

creative direction in a different way to deliver an experience to people

when you can't do it in person.

I love that.

The client, she did a book box.

She lives in Chicago and she actually has a client who's a wine person.

Another one of her clients is a person who makes a delicious

caramel cake, Vice-President Kamala Harris loves her cakes.

She did an amazing box with some great collaborators, she's excellent at that.

I'm definitely going to look that up though.

Then the other thing that I've seen, one of the associates in my

network who released a book and they've been doing, where you and I come from

the live streaming space of Periscope, but they've been doing Twitter spaces.

So they're physically not able to be seen through that platform, in that way.

People will join the Twitter space because it's a topic or something

related to the book that she's talking about, and they will show up to the

Twitter space and literally be buying the book while this event is happening,

asking questions and all of that.

That's pretty neat because that's a free way to do it, but there's so many ways,

I guess you really have to get creative and comfortable during this pandemic.

That's true, and clubhouses is pretty popular too, in terms

of just the audio experience.

I've been getting back into that because first of all, you don't have to comb your

hair which is great, and sometimes you just don't feel like getting on video.

To be honest, I'm an introvert and a lot of times I don't

feel like getting on video.

I may look fabulous, but I do not want to be on video.

I don't want to share that energy in that way,

because you've got to feel it.

You have to stay within focus of the camera and not move.

I don't know if people really get that I'm a fellow introvert as well, but I know

that zoom overall and different types of video, different ways of communication,

people are just burnt out from it.

Especially during a pandemic.

Well, Renee, I want to thank you for joining us today.

If people want to learn more about your services, especially your

book help services, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

The best way is probably to pop onto my website.

That's msrisingstar.com.

I'm pretty much M S rising star, on all social media platforms.

That's probably the best way.

Then just info@msrisingstar.com.

That's awesome.

Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing so much about

your interesting background and things that you're working on.

It's not too often that you meet people that have the creative

side, the food side, and all that.

I could literally sit here and talk to you for an hour, but we have to go.

I appreciate you spending time with us.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

You are such a blessing and I look up to you.

You're truly inspirational.

I really appreciate this.

Thank you.

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