Small Business, Big Mindset

Self-Publishing a Book

April 13, 2021 Muscle Creative Season 2 Episode 55
Small Business, Big Mindset
Self-Publishing a Book
Show Notes Transcript

Ever wondered what goes in to self-publishing a book? I have heard from so many entrepreneurs, especially over the past year, who are finally starting to dust off their book idea(s) and turn them into reality.

Our guests this week, Miriam Wagliardo (published author and tradeshow event producer) and Nancy Giammarco (published author, illustrator and sound engineer) did just that. They tell us all about the steep learning curve of the process, tools they used, their first 'COVID' marketing phase, and their plans for getting their book into the mainstream post-pandemic.

The Start

  • Miriam: dancing ballet professionally and teaching, singer in a band, interior design, tradeshow event producer
  • Nancy:  Market degree, website design, guitars/keyboards/backing vocals in bands, sound engineer
  • The two met with the band Mojo Dolls

The Shift

  • Nancy had written and illustrated a book, Under the Purple Sea, and posted drawings to Facebook
  • These drawings inspired Marian to reach out to Nancy to collaborate

 The Strategy

  • Miriam's vivid dreams would be the foundation of the book
  • The process they created to get this book finished - remotely and during COVID

The Action

The Mindset

  • Nancy:  To recharge - walking the dog (check out stories of her dog Tuff here), weightlifting, and practice illustrating everyday. Read, study, take classes to learn new elements of illustration
  • Miriam: To recharge - working out (especially crucial when recovering from a serious car accident in 2016), painting, sewing
  • Goals and Vision
     
    • Working on their next book 
    • Implement marketing campaign once COVID restrictions lift, including international elements

The Wrap-Up

If you could listen to one music artist for the rest of your life, who would it be?

Miriam - Journey

Nancy - Fleetwood Mac

Where can people find you online?

Erin Geiger:

Welcome to the Small Business big mindset Podcast, where we dive into tactical strategies to grow your business. And to make an impact on this world. A huge part of success is keeping your mindset and vision on track. So this is a major part of our process. And this podcast. Let's do this.

Unknown:

Hey Erin here. Hello, hello. Thank you for having us.

Erin Geiger:

Welcome to the Small Business big mindset So super excited. We will get to it all. But let's podcast. This week we have Miriam Wagliardo, published a thor and tradeshow event p oducer, and Nancy Giammarco, a so a published author, I lustrator and sound engineer. W give you guys work together on a children's picture book called lcome to the show you guys. Oh, look, it's a bird, which we will get to it's so it's such a cute book for kiddos, but really we love it as well. So let's go into a little bit about yourself and your background. But let's also say that you Miriam have been friends with Joey, I guess since elementary school. Is that right? Yes.

Unknown:

I've known Joey Gosh, since we were like, kindergarten five years old. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Then we I was also an orchestra when you were in Yeah. Sometimes when they'd bring in the band nerds in there. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. We have a we have a lot of good memories.

Erin Geiger:

And then a lot of trouble together.

Unknown:

Yeah. And now just 25 years later, because we're both just coming on. You know? Still brewing still. I love it.

Erin Geiger:

Okay, so if each of you could dive in and just let us know a little bit about yourself and your background and how you kind of came together for this book. That'd be great.

Unknown:

I had nothing. No girl. Oh, okay. Well, let's see my background. I went to USC to buy in El Paso, studied pretty much everything and anything. music, music, ballet performance, Child Development and psychology, Business Administration. I like everything. I came to Dallas in 1997. I was dancing ballet professionally, and also teaching ballet while I was working at a restaurant, and I was singing backup in a band. So Wow, I was Yeah, I was doing a lot of stuff that I worked in property management for a few years. While hosting karaoke at various bars. I went back to teaching kids I worked in a at the World Trade Center at a furniture store. thing there. So learn interior design. And that's what kind of led me into the trade show and events industry. And then I sing with a band, the Mojo dolls, which is how I met Nancy.

Erin Geiger:

So cool. It seems like no matter no matter what you've done, there was some sort of an artistic flair to it that you always kept, kept something going that was on the creative end, no matter where it took you. Absolutely.

Unknown:

I've always loved being on stage. And being the center of attention. We're just gonna put it the way it is.

Erin Geiger:

And where where are you based now.

Unknown:

So I live in Plano, Texas, which is it's a suburb of Dallas. Dallas Metroplex is just made up of like, a bunch of little cities all around. Yep. So I'm north of Dallas. Dallas is 20 minutes away, and two or three cities away.

Erin Geiger:

And do you get to like what's going on with your band now because of COVID.

Unknown:

missing?

Erin Geiger:

Do you guys do like virtual snappy, it's kind of on pause.

Unknown:

It's all on pause right now. Like we were we thought about doing virtual stuff when it first started. But then everybody started doing it and we're like, in three to two of the bandmates. Were still working. And then me and my husband. He's working from home. So I was pretty much the only one that is not doing anything, even though I've been doing a lot. So it's just kind of I will just put it, you know, put it on hold for now. Got it.

Erin Geiger:

Nancy, tell us a little bit about your background, if you don't mind.

Unknown:

educational background is Business Administration. So it was a marketing degree and that led into high tech sales somehow. Which then morphed into it, which then morphed into computer repair and website design and content management. In the meantime, while I was getting this education done, I was in a band It was called Blanche fury which traveled He was all over the world in the early 90s, which then segwayed into sound, which is how I met Marian. And the Mojo dolls because I was running sounds to her and her band. So, I know it's kind of weird. Both of us have these morphing backgrounds. Just It's strange, but it's like I've heard statistics that most people don't stay in their field of education. They they morph over time, so absolutely. Welcome to the club. Yeah, exactly. Wherever you studied, you're not gonna use

Erin Geiger:

what what do you what did you guys do in your respective bands that you play instrument singer? What were you guys doing?

Unknown:

I I sing mostly I play a lot of instruments. But I can't. I haven't mastered the whole singing and playing the instrument quite yet. Because I am very like I move a lot. So yeah, you do.

Erin Geiger:

Awesome. And Nancy

Unknown:

was what you call utility man. So in version one of the band, I played acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and backing vocals. Wow. In version two of the band, version two of the band when some people are more soft to the side. I was the bass player and backing vocalist, but I am not the bass player. That Miriam's husband is I barely hold it down. Yeah, my my husband Mike is, please Oh my God. He's literally the most amazing bass player I've ever heard in my entire life. Me too. I agree. He's He's in he's just so humble. And yeah, hmm. Amazing. Well, he's awesome.

Erin Geiger:

I hope he gets to perform sooner rather than later. And I want to

Unknown:

say Oh, yeah, yes. Always more than welcome. Yeah, he's awesome.

Erin Geiger:

How so? How did so you guys met? And then how did you know? Did you guys start collaborating? On the book? So because Miriam, you wrote it? And Nancy, you illustrated it? Is that correct?

Unknown:

Yeah. And it was kind of it was kind of weird how it got started, because I had another one out called under the purple sea, which I wrote and illustrated. But then I started just posting drawings to Facebook and Marian goes, Hey, this brings parts to mind. So then I just started drawing and then sending them directly to her. And she would put words to the drawing. And then once we had enough, we just put it into a book form. Is that how you say it, Mary? Yeah, absolutely. It was just like a Hey, I always come up with these like little quick poems when I see your drawings. So and then I think, I think, yeah, the first one I sent was the out one. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. But it was a lot of fun. And it It opened up like a part of my mind that had been kind of dormant for a while that I hadn't written in a long time. So that's kind of nasty opened up a lot. And it was an accidental,

Erin Geiger:

sorry, when

Unknown:

I said it was an accidental opening. It really, it really was because I have, like all these different ideas for books. And I've always, I've always said, I'm going to write these books, because I have these really vivid dreams, like, like, almost like movies. And I usually wake up and put them in my notes in my phone. So I have like, 124 notes of dreams. And so I kind of started putting them on paper, which has been a lot of fun.

Erin Geiger:

Yeah, that's so great that you do that I'll do that in fits and starts, you know, like, I should really write my dreams down, you know, and I'll do it for a little bit, and then I'll forget and stop. So can you guys explain the book because it's not just your typical picture book. So can you explain like, what it's about kind of what content is in there.

Unknown:

Nancy? Oh, Lord. I think her description the bat kind of explains it all. Miriam wrote the description. I'm grabbing it here. It's different it is a 3d drawing, can us separate the fact from fiction. So for example, when I drew a pink elephant, we all know that's not real. But she she wrote a cute little poem about it. And then when I wrote about runner, duck, those are real. So she wrote a poem about those. And so some of the things in the book are definitely checked. And some are just pure fiction. So it's kind of a it's a mishmash of both you know, cats do exist, though. Okay, just so everybody Yeah, unicorns do exist. Everybody needs everybody needs to know that. Yes. sledding you know,

Erin Geiger:

So I think it's pretty unique and that like, you know, it's it's was spurred on by some of the dreams and the thoughts that you had. And it's like some, you know, different types of content throughout the book, which I think is really interesting. And so when did you start working on the book? Was it before COVID happened? What was the timeframe? Was it

Unknown:

right in the middle? Right in the middle of it? Right, Miriam? Yeah, I think I think we really started hunkering down on it like in November. It sounds right. Yeah. It took five months. And one of the reasons it took that long is because poor Miriam got sick. And there was like, a month where she was just suffering. Right. So we had to kind of take a break there. So it took a good five months to get it together. Yeah.

Erin Geiger:

And did you guys do you guys self published?

Unknown:

Yes. Okay. Yes. for Amazon. It's called Amazon KDP. Okay, Kindle Direct Publishing. Yeah. Can you Kindle Direct Publishing?

Erin Geiger:

Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about that? So I bet you there's some people listening who are like, okay, I would love to self publish a book. You know, you guys are inspiring me to go for it? How would I go about as you can you talk about that process a little bit?

Unknown:

Sure. Because it boy, it was a pounding learning curve. So what the person was the person would the person who would do first is they just go to KDP, Kindle Direct Publishing. com, sign up for an account, get your account open. And then there are a ton of resources out there to help guide you as far as formatting, what, what formats they take for print, but typically, they want a PDF file that uploads best, they have a lot of tools out there, one I use is called Children's Book Creator for the electronic version. And then just you, they put you towards the videos, you can go to YouTube and watch a bunch of their videos. But the key thing to do is prepare prepare, prepare before you dive in, in my mind, because despite all the work I did up front, I still found myself having to format again, certain images to fit their platform. So PrEP is key and studying is key. But then, okay, the brilliant thing about it is then, if you're going to try to be become an author, this is the least risk that you can take. Because there's no upfront cost. Like in other publishing houses, right? You you don't pay anything, you give up a lot of royalties, but until a book is sold, nothing happens. So I don't have to stockpile 100 books and spend all that money up front. It is a print on demand format and a really good place to start. Okay.

Erin Geiger:

Now, that's great. The lower the risk, the better, especially for starting out.

Unknown:

Exactly. Now, if Miriam, and my our book really takes off and we start selling a bunch of copies, then it might be time to evaluate a different way to go. But it's a very risk, low risk way to start. Okay, I would advise anybody to start that way.

Erin Geiger:

Okay. And do you recommend you're saying, gosh, even though you thought you're prepared once you dove in, you're like, Oh, now I gotta like reformat? would you suggest that before they even maybe start with their final illustrations, that sort of thing. Maybe watch the videos on their platform to make sure that they're formatting everything correctly before? How would you have handled it?

Unknown:

Yeah, I despite doing all that, what if I did everything in a, you always want to do something larger, so that you don't lose quality that they get, they don't even support a 10 by 10 format on a book, which is how I did everything. So they do support eight and a half an eight by eight and a half, which is what I ended up doing for Miriam and I. But then you end up you have to fit those images within that eight and a half minute bite and a half. So you have to figure all that stuff out. And I may do a little video just to save people time. Yeah. I'm serious. I'm serious. There's an author in Germany that I'm already given her all my notes just to save a problem, because I really admire her art. So there's still gonna be some gotchas along the way. And I feel like I got I've have it down now that I've done three books. Okay. But it took that long.

Erin Geiger:

And do they kind of prep you for marketing your book or how do you guys handle promoting and getting it out there?

Unknown:

Miriam, you want to take they have resources? We're not using them right now. Miriam. We've taken the marketing part of it. So you can, you can actually buy 1000 books from Amazon, like for at a lower price. And then basically I've just anybody that I talked to I'm like, I wrote a book you want to buy it? I'll sign it for you. Yeah. And I've sold, I've sold quite a few that way. And then of course, you know, people on Facebook getting old friends and new friends, it's, it's, you know, just been word of mouth basically, at this point. When, when things open up for COVID, then I that's when I'll really be in front of a lot of people. Okay, and hopefully, it'll really take off that way. So,

Erin Geiger:

yeah, cuz that's typically what I'll ask you is like, how has COVID-19 impacted it? Right? So for you guys, it's kind of holding you back a little bit, right from promoting it, because it's not like you can do an author reading or you know, that kind of thing. Exactly, exactly.

Unknown:

Yeah, exactly. Right. Like I I've given it to a lot of teachers that I that I worked out with. And I'm like, I could come read it. They're like, Oh, yeah, but COVID. I'm like, Okay. And I think I think we, I think we fully intend to do that once the world is safe enough to do it again. And I mean, I'll be there with her. For sure. Yeah, that's definitely on my to do list.

Erin Geiger:

Yeah. And maybe even there's probably some markets, you guys could get into, you know, as far as like the artist markets that they have, where you can actually show up with your book. And you know, that kind of a thing too,

Unknown:

which would be, right.

Erin Geiger:

Okay, and so, what would you guys say? Like, was there like a tool or a process that kind of like, as you're going along? You're like, oh, like, what tools did you use to create it? Like, what did you write it on? You know, what did you use for illustrating it? For those that are like, I want to do this, but I have no idea. Where to start?

Unknown:

Anthony, you want Marian? What did you? Yeah, I'll take that. Most of that. But what did you rush through to use it the use of the poems to me mostly an email, right? Let me lift them? Yes. So the tools I used was wine, lots of wine. And I would write, I would write the tools, I would write the poems on my notes in my phone. Sometimes they would come like really, really quick, like, within five minutes, 10 minutes, and then I just, you know, look over them and send them off to Nancy. If I had a problem with like, Wait, is that the way you say that? Or how do you spell that? The Internet? The Internet? I mean, kids, nowadays have it too easy. Yeah, everything's at your fingertips. You just got to verify it's correct. Yeah, you just have to research and you know, just is this, Is this right? Does this sound okay, like that? Yeah, it's all it was all there. But a lot of the poems I wrote, when I was sitting on my couch Netflix thing, and drinking some wine at night. I'm gonna be wrong. I

Erin Geiger:

like the strategy. Yeah, it just came to me.

Unknown:

On the other end of that, as far as illustration, the tools I use is, I have an iPad Pro, the first generation with an Apple Pencil and an app called procreate. So all of the illustrations I did in that, and then to get it in book format, from there, I had to export the files and go over to a laptop, and pile all that into a PDF, which then I uploaded into Amazon's tools, because they have tools from their weapon Book Creator tool that you have to use. So I was jumping around the house a lot from one platform to another. And the reason being is because I probably could have done it all on an iPad, but I am not going to spend money with Adobe, monthly when I do these only every five or six months to a year. So that's why I'm jumping around on what they used to call that middle day sneakernet. When you when you had to walk files to the next debt, that's kind of the big tool for me is procreate on a on an iPad. Okay,

Erin Geiger:

got it. And as you guys were kind of going along with this process is or whether there's anything that you're like, Okay, that was a lesson learned or you know, different things that you guys came across.

Unknown:

Not just the things I mentioned a minute ago, about, you know, do the research on what format they accept and then be prepared to have to Besides the images down again, how about

Erin Geiger:

how is it working together? How is it like doing this as a partnership?

Unknown:

Mainly fun in my opinion. I loved it. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Like I said, an answer you opened up like this part of my brain that's been asleep for so long, you know, in like, everything now is just like, oh, okay, I could put that into words. Like, gods. It's, it's really opened up a lot. And it's been awesome. I mean, yeah, how many people can people can say I'm a published author, right. So lets you check off the bucket list.

Erin Geiger:

Do you think this kind of newfound, you know, newly awoken creative aspect Do you think that'll kind of bleed over into your music? Or the other areas of your life?

Unknown:

Yes, I think so. I've already written I've written song lyrics in the past for other bands, but I've never actually done it for our band. I have two songs that I've written, but I, I don't I just write the lyrics. I don't write the music. My husband writes a ton of music all the time. He's always right. He's always doing something recording something. So that's next in the process is actually getting some some songs written in and out. That's so cool. It's

Erin Geiger:

very exciting.

Unknown:

Don't original? Yeah, I know. That's the first time. No,

Erin Geiger:

I love it. I just I feel like that. Yeah, that happens. Once you get a creative spark, it kind of just, you know, meanders its way to other areas. Are there in there? There might not be but I would like to ask this question of like, you know, are there other stuff that you do, like, you might have heard the phrase, like, fill your cup, right, or, like make sure that you're energized and refueled so that you can take on, you know, everything that you want to, and also be able to help other people out? Right? Like if your cup isn't full, you can't help others, that sort of thing. So is there anything that you kind of incorporate into your daily life or semi daily life? That kind of helps you in that regard? And then people read I mean, the workout? I don't know, you know, is there anything in that that way?

Unknown:

Nancy, go ahead. No, for me, it's just I walk my dog and I kind of it's kind of a meditative thing for me, except him dragging me down the street. I do some weightlifting. And I just practice like crazy. On the illustrations. I take classes every day, every almost every single day. And I do, I do read and study. And it kind of recharges me. Every time I take a class. It's like I learned something new. I'm ready just go out and start illustrating even more. So that really helps me the classes. Another thing that Nancy does that she has not mentioned is she has a website called toughy. Tales. And yeah, toughy tales.com. And it their little stories about her dog toughy. Told forgot about that. Yeah. And there really so let's check it out. He's a hilarious clown. There are videos out there of me vacuuming him. He lets me vacuum and he's a crazy dog.

Erin Geiger:

Talk video.

Unknown:

Yeah, but in one website. If only I had picked up, I would put it up there. If I go viral? Yeah. I might have to send it to Miriam because I'm not a talker. Okay, I'll get it over to you. Yeah,

Erin Geiger:

I love that you say the classes, Nancy, because I'm just I'm like, exactly like you. Like, I'm just constantly learning. And, you know, like, oh, what can I learn over here and learn over there. And it just gets me super excited to implement what I learned, you know, and keep going forward. Exactly.

Unknown:

Yeah. I also also take four languages every day on Duolingo. Wow. Well, you know, my dad died of Alzheimer's. So I'm trying to not master any one of the languages, but just to keep my blood that I call it task. switching my brain. So to go from French to Italian to German to Spanish, all in the same day. Yeah. It makes you task and switch. You know, when I'm, if I become fluent in Spanish, that would be awesome, because I'm in Texas, but I have a purpose behind it. And that is just to keep the brain engaged because I really don't want to go down that road. Yeah, yeah.

Erin Geiger:

That's really smart. Actually. Yeah, kind of keep your brain alive and active.

Unknown:

For sure. It helps. It really does. Miriam,

Erin Geiger:

it's your turn on this quest. Yes.

Unknown:

Yeah, Miriam. So I daydream a lot. That's a people current meta meditating. But I daydream a lot. constantly keeping my hands busy. Like, when the pandemic started, I was sewing masks for hospital family, friends. I mean, I've been painting I've been sewing here and there. Just creating different things with my hands, constantly moving my hands. Writing, researching, tick, talking, playing with my new Rubik's cube that Joe and my friend Yvette sent me. I started so I started working out. Before COVID we had a really, really bad accident in what was it? 2016? Yep. And I think, yeah, 2016 I think it seems like it was yesterday. I know. Right? But You scared the hell out of me, man. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was right after a gig is right. After a day. It was right after a gig we were we were driving, you know, going speed limit, or you were going like 30 miles an hour through a intersection and a young lady ran the red light. And she hit about 20 inches behind me. Like because I was in the passenger seat and it sent our car flippin Oh my gosh. I ended up with a concussion like a massive concussion. I lost consciousness for a couple of seconds. But yeah, that it really set that accident set me back mentally and physically, in such an awful way. But I tried to stay positive. I had to build up my muscles. On my right leg especially. I had three major surgeries in eight months. Oh my goodness. I'm ridiculously out of shape because I couldn't move. So when the doctors gave me the Okay, they're like, okay, you can exercise No, I, I literally limped into the nearest pure bar. Like I limped in, I couldn't do any of the exercises the first day at all, because I was that out of shape. I couldn't hold the plank for 10 seconds. I couldn't do anything. But I just kept going and going and my atrophied muscles have grown back. And it was amazing. But then COVID hit and had to stop. Yeah. And that's when I really, really felt how important it was for me to work out my body. And actually, like, get out of the house and do something for myself and my body. It is so important. So of course when my husband and I got sick in December, the first thing I did was go back to pure Barre. And I was super weak and super frustrated. But I kept going. Because you know, after COVID your muscles, your whole body's just weak. Yeah. And so it was very frustrating to go from being you know, from, from being so weak from an accident to getting strong than getting COVID going back to weak. And so slowly I've been you know, ever I've been going and lost every day. And I'm finally getting back to where I was just really staying focused and working out has kept me grateful, positive, happy, focused. And it's very important to take that time for yourself every day.

Erin Geiger:

You know, good for you for continuing on with it because it would have been easier not to write it would be

Unknown:

so, but I had to get rid of my www my winter wine. Wait. I love it. Yeah. I had www and it's almost gone. You should have called it see ww your COVID wine. Wait, there you go. Yeah, you know, it's funny when I was sick when when I was sick with COVID i didn't i didn't drink at all. It was awesome. Yeah, because I was I was having hallucinations and stuff. So she was he was really bad. It was really bad. But yeah, winter wine. Wait.

Erin Geiger:

Well, I totally relate to how you know when you work out it really does impact the rest of your life. It impacts your mindset, your mood, your energy, your productivity level, you know, because the when if there's a day I don't work out I can feel it. You know Yeah.

Unknown:

Yeah, imagine 11 months of not working out. Yeah. No, I would, I would like, you know, so or, you know, make things, you know, but, but not working out has really Oh, it's been such a blessing.

Erin Geiger:

Yeah, I'm glad that you're able to get back to it, you know, kind of Yeah, forward. And as you guys do, you know, kind of look into the future like, what are your goals? What's your vision? Are you going to do I've talked about doing another book together or, you know, individually? What are your goals moving forward?

Unknown:

fancy. I've really, I've had people tell me that, that I should piggyback off the first book, which she was not involved in. But her mind is so vivid and creative that she has a copy of the first book, and we have a vision for where we want to go with the second one. And I really want her to write the second one. And it won't be poems. It'll be it'll be definitely a story. This time piggybacking off the off of the first book. So that's my vision, I really want her involved in it. I don't want to write the words this time, I want her to do it. So I just want to illustrate this one. Right. So I've kind of been working on it, we need to probably talk about it a little bit more Mansi. But I'm actually Yes, we did. I'm actually looking at your under the purple seat book right now. But yeah, I definitely want to write more children's books. I want them to go global. Universal. Up, you know, once COVID opens up, I want to be able to go read them at bookstores and libraries and schools, I want to sing I want to write lyrics. I want to keep creating things. Can't wait to do trade shows and events. Again, I would love to, you know, go international with that and go overseas. And do that. Also. So my list is constantly evolving and growing. And just it's different every day.

Erin Geiger:

Well, I'm glad to hear that you guys are still want to continue with the book. Scott. I think the world needs it. So yeah. That you guys are doing that. Where can people find you online?

Unknown:

So right now or Brittany? Yeah, go ahead. Maddie. It's on amazon.com right now. Okay. And it all goes. If all goes well there we'll probably expand into other retail outlets. But right now if you distribute through Amazon, you end up going to other retailers you end up basically with nothing. So if it takes off then I'll explore the probably the ink distribution deal to get into other outlets. So right now you find it on Amazon. Okay,

Erin Geiger:

awesome. And then are you guys you have a website or Instagram or any of that cool, good stuff where they can find more about you guys.

Unknown:

My Facebook, my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is Merriam dot Yum, yum yum, yum, yum. And then LinkedIn is Miriam wobbly Ardo. Okay. Nancy also has Nancy also has her artwork on face masks and shirts and stuff on red bubble. Oh, cool. Yeah, I'm exploring those options too. And they're super cute. If there's an illustration that I particularly like or, or somebody says, I really liked that one, I go, Well, you know what, I'll go ahead and put it on red bubble for you. So you could order some stickers or some postcards or a shirt, or whatever. So it's just my name in geo Marco dot read level.com. And so I'm doing that too. Oh, I love that. Okay.

Erin Geiger:

Yeah, yeah, definitely put the links in the show notes so people can check that out. Okay, our last question is a fun one. We ask it of everybody. And it isn't you know that we're all about music over here as well. So if you had if you could only listen to one music artist for the rest of your life, who would it be?

Unknown:

Oh,

Erin Geiger:

if I could only listen to what one person means that one well, and music artists when artists

Unknown:

so man, that's a hard one. Jolly? I can't even think there's so many. I know that's the main that's the main question to ask musicians. musicians. My gosh. Wow.

Erin Geiger:

Listen, if Joe and I narrowed it down to one you guys can narrow it down. No one might

Unknown:

narrow it down to what's up when I would have to say either Mozart or journey. Wow, sir to completely know her journey, like the variety? Well, because I'm classically trained in most of the instruments I play, so do you know what not to eat? Yeah, I'm total work dark. So Mozart was my, my favorite composer of all time. He still is. But then my first the first song I ever remember singing was don't stop believing by journey. And they were also the first concert I went to so like, they're kind of in my heart a little bit, you know? So, and I know every single one of those phones I probably say journey. Yeah. Let's start our journey. How about you Nancy? What about you?

Erin Geiger:

Oh, she said, Oh, come back. Oh, come back.

Unknown:

It is hard. It is. You know, it's so it's such a cliche, probably. But no, I love people like Anna nolleke. And how he day and Jason morass. But sleep as a Kimbo what I listened to growing up through high school with Fleetwood Mac. If you you know, if you told me, You can only listen to this artists, their entire catalogue, really, it evolved so much. And it became so different. Over time it I would probably have to choose that one. I'd probably have to choose Fleetwood Mac. But I love Oh my god, there's so much music I love so I it's a that's a hard choice. That has mean that means to do to the musician. Now, one, one group that I've been listening to like non stop during this whole pandemic, like I cannot get enough of them has been nothing but thieves. And they're not very well known. Oh, my neck. Yes. Oh, no, I have to look that up. They might. They're just, I just think they're amazing. The singer is just so cute. And he looks like he's 12. But he has this amazing voice and like the I love it when music is like layered, you know, and I just I can't get enough of their new album. It's just, that's what I've been listening to non stop for like the last five months. I have to check. I just yeah, it's amazing music. I love it. I absolutely love it. And they're awesome in concert, so I cannot wait to see them again.

Erin Geiger:

So for so our podcast just passed the one year anniversary mark. And as part of that, congratulations. Thank you very much. We created a playlist on Spotify. So we took Oh, cool. Yeah, we took a few songs from every artist that every guest said. And we created the Small Business big mindset. podcast, the playlist so we'll add your your guys's picks to that playlist to

Unknown:

cool, fun. Can you send us a link to the to? I will. I'm not good at finding things. Okay, that would be great.

Erin Geiger:

If anything's just

Unknown:

Yeah.

Erin Geiger:

Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time out to chat with us. I know you're busy. And I'm so glad we can make it work out.

Unknown:

Yeah. Thanks, Mary. It was so great. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Yeah, this was fun. Let's do it again next week. Human international about great. I think it's about trying to just have to reinvent yourself when disaster strikes. And that's absolutely what we had to do. That's what we had to do. Yeah, just having the confidence to do it now.

Erin Geiger:

And I love that and thanks for sharing your story and your journey and how you came about because I think so many people are going through that right now.

Unknown:

Absolutely. They are our pleasure for happiness. Thank you.

Erin Geiger:

Thanks for tuning in to the Small Business big mindset podcast. To keep the fun going. Check out our Facebook group start and scale an online business For even more free trainings and resources from fellow entrepreneurs. If you haven't already, head on over to Muscle Creative calm and click subscribe and join our email list for weekly updates. And if you've enjoyed this podcast episode, check us out on your favorite podcast platform to follow us and give us a review. As always be authentic. bring an insane amount of value and keep crushing it