Kim Speed
Kim Speed is a brand visibility expert, business mentor, speaker, recipient of the Most Influential Business Woman in Brand Development and Amazon best-selling author of Branding on a Shoestring. How to recreate your small business identity and increase sales results in 83 days or less.
During her years in the corporate world, Kim worked in advertising as a Creative Director for some of the biggest global brands including Coca-Cola, TD Bank, Ford and Molson Coors.
After leaving the world of advertising, Kim started her own business, Purple Moon Creative, Brand and Marketing Boutique, where she helps budding and building entrepreneurs courageously step into their own spotlight to create brands that stand out and attract clients.
Transcript of the Show
Bryan Hyde
Welcome to the Janine Bolon show, where we share tips from around the globe. As we guide practical people with their finances using money tips, increase their incomes through side businesses, and maintain their sanity by staying in their creative zone.
Janine Bolon
Hello! Janine Bolon here and welcome to today’s show, which is loaded with quality content on how to save your knowledge work on your business, and we throw in a few money tips on the side. As you know, the Janine Bolon show is his syndicated program of four podcast shows that were combined in October of 2021. And I just want to thank my listeners that followed me through the myriad path from 2005 to where we are now, you guys were with me for the Three Minute Money Tips, The Thriving Solopreneur, The Writers Hour Creative Conversations, and those original folks back in 2005, that joined me for The Practical Mystic Show. So I just wanted to say a big hearty thank you for hanging with us. And guess who we have today. Today, we are highlighting an author by the name of Kim Speed. She is a brand visibility expert, author, speaker and marketing trainer. So you definitely want to listen up to this person. Whether you’re applying for a job, or you’re running a business or you’re writing your first book. She’s going to be able to kind of help you why she helps professional service companies and healthcare businesses create brands that are visible to the right clients, so that they are known as experts in their field and make money doing what they love. Now she saw the need for a marketing company to devote themselves to small business, and those that are invisible to the larger agencies, so Kim launched Purple Moon Creative, which is a brand and marketing boutique. And her sole mission is to help business owners and entrepreneurs turn their brands into their most valuable assets. And we’re going to talk a little bit about how she does that as well as how helpful it is to have a book in your back pocket that you’ve written to help you with your branding. Now, you may already know that I’m interviewing 99 authors this year to get their guidance and perspective on saving your knowledge in the form of a published book. But we’re also talking to authors about audio programs and the way you can put an online course together from your book and other sorts of things. So it’s all about wrapping it up for saving your knowledge. Now, Kim Speed is also the author of the book Branding on a Shoestring and she’s a Facebook Live host for the Employee to Entrepreneur Society. Welcome to the show, Kim.
Kim Speed
Thank you so much Janine, this is awesome to be here with you.
Janine Bolon
And one of the fun things that I love is when Kim and I first got together, I was actually a guest on her Facebook Live. And I wanted to say definitely check out her Facebook group Employee to Entrepreneur Society. So many people in 2020 shifted from working in corporate America to becoming an entrepreneur. And I wanted to say, Kim, thank you for filling that need.
Kim Speed
Oh, thank you. And thank you for being a guest on my show. I have to say you were excellent and gave some great, great entrepreneurial tips.
Janine Bolon
Yeah. And what was so much fun about that is the fact that you continue to bring on experts, people who’ve been entrepreneurs for decades, and you continue to give those golden nuggets that are so helpful. So I just, yes, this is a mutual admiration society here on this show. But you know, that’s okay, because she’s awesome. And I want you guys to check her out on Facebook. So anyway, as we always start off with, hey, is Kim Speed, your pen name? Or did you use is that your real name that you decided to be an author under?
Kim Speed
This is my real name. And it is the name that I use as my, for a writer too.
Janine Bolon
Right? For most of the time nonfiction writers do that. But for my science fiction and my fantasy, fiction authors, that kind of is a that’s could be a speed bump for them when they’re writing their book is they’re like, oh my gosh, do I use my real name? I don’t have to, I can hide, right? And when you’re first promoting yourself, it’s very scary. And I know you’ve been doing the branding thing for a while. But a lot of people are very nervous about just putting themselves out there. So can you kind of give us some tips on what you recommend those introverts that are like, oh my gosh, I’m stepping out into the limelight. Ah, you know, they’re freaking out of it.
Kim Speed
Oh my gosh, yes. You know what? I can totally feel your pain. I was there myself. But I am a huge proponent of being visible. Brand visibility is key to being a successful business owner to being a successful author. Letting people know; people want to connect with you. So we do have to get past that. And the, I would say take baby steps. So don’t just jump in and say I’m gonna be out there because you know what? You’ll be so uncomfortable that you’ll, you’ll retreat retreat. And I think the best thing that I ever did was to when I started my business, it was 13 years ago. and I came from the corporate world where I had a whole bunch of people around me, teams, and I was always, you know, feeling like I was part of something bigger. So I didn’t feel like I stood out all by myself. All of a sudden, when I was the business owner, and I had to get business on my own. I do have to say, I thought that I was, you know, really all that because I came from marketing, you know, I know things right? I learned pretty quickly that I don’t know everything. And holy crow, if I don’t figure this out, I’m gonna have to go back and get a job, which was not in the cards at the time, it was not really what I wanted to do. So I had to learn to put myself out there. So what I did, I jumped in to one thing. So I joined a networking community where I had to go every week, every week, I had to stand up, and only for one minute, I had to get up there and tell people what I did. And over and over again. And you know what happened? The first time, it was terrible. The second time, it was terrible. But eventually, I started to realize that I could get clarity in my message and help people understand what I did. But I did focus on one thing, and I didn’t go all over the place, because really, that would have been too much.
Janine Bolon
And that is true. One of the things is definitely focus. So the questions I like to ask authors is, do you have a marketing background before you started writing your book, and you did. But I also like to share with them like you are with us, now. Just because you have a marketing background, it gave you a little bit of an edge, but it wasn’t like you were an expert, you still had stuff you had to learn. So if you don’t mind, share with us what surprised you the most about the book marketing process and how it was different from what you were used to?
Kim Speed
Oh, I learned so much. So I actually was an entrepreneur for like, I think about four or five years before I decided to become an author. And I decided to become an author, not because I thought that I was a great writer. Because I actually didn’t really think I was a great writer. But somebody said, you know, you can help people. And so I thought this was a great way of helping people. You know, and being an introvert, I thought, oh, I could hand people a book, right? What you don’t know about writing a book is really the most important part is in the marketing. You really need to let people know about it. Like if you just write a book and have it printed, nobody knows about it. It’s not like Field of Dreams, write it and they will read it.
Janine Bolon
No, no, you actually have to put yourself out there.
Kim Speed
So I actually realized I put myself in the line of fire again. And I was having to go out there and be in front of people and talk about it. But what it did do was give me focus and a format, because I had put my thoughts together and organized it in a way that I could then share it with people. And it gave me a little more confidence. Gosh, I noticed. But the hardest part about marketing is realizing you have to do it before, before you finish writing the book.
Janine Bolon
Yeah, and that’s, that’s key and nobody really tells you that right? And thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing that. Because you and I and when we were writing, we waited till the end of our books, this is something you and I were both kind of giggling about, you know, earlier. And so one of the questions I like to ask people is what would you change? So when you talk about the book marketing process, you know, you understand. Here you are trying to create content for a book, and that’s not stressful at all right? Haha. Right? Yeah, so that’s easy, you got that online, right? So you’re already under stress, you know, trying to create this content, you want it to be meaningful, you want to make sure that your readers are going to be able to follow you blah, blah, blah. And people say, oh, and you need to be marketing your book at the same time. And it’s like talking about overwhelm. It’s like, killer. So do you have any tips that people you know, can kind of help them with, you know, how, what would you change? Let’s start with that. What would you change about starting your marketing for your book, if you’re in the middle of writing one?
Kim Speed
I think saying that you’re gonna write a book and actually writing it is two different things. I found that I had really struggled with getting it organized. So I found that I needed help. And I finally you know, found somebody that could help me figure out how to, you know, separate out sections and chapters and themes, because I was all over the place like, you know, that’s a great idea. I was thinking I needed to put everything in. So you need to figure out, what is the important thing for? So what is it that you’re going to write about? And who are you writing it for? And then how are you going to take them through that in a way that simplified, you know, but still add some of your personality and a bit of your stories and entertainment. I have to share with you Janine, one of the best things that I did. But the scariest thing was my book mentor, who actually started to when I went to them, they actually gave me some really great marketing ideas, they said, go and do surveys with some other entrepreneurs and talk to them. Because that will really help you get going, and it did. And they said, and then go back to them, and and say, This is what I got from you. And then ask them if they’re interested, because I’m in business, if they would be interested in doing a sponsor page in your book, and it will help you to, you know, pay for some of the marketing and or some of the launch party, etc. Not a whole bunch of it. But you know, was a good idea. So I did that. And I actually did get some people that became sponsors, which was awesome. But it also made me have to write the book.
Janine Bolon
People have already invested. So yes.
Kim Speed
Such pressure, like I was getting up at five in the morning, four the morning to write because the other thing that happened, when I went out there, and I did start talking about it, I started to get busier, with business, it increased my business, so everything was happening at the same time.
Janine Bolon
And that seems to be the way of it. As soon as we dedicate ourselves to it, things get super busy. I don’t know about you. But I went back and got my master’s 15 years after I graduated. I had one small child, but I thought you know, I was probably going to be my only kid and there’s a story behind that. But I went and and I signed up for my master’s program, ended up becoming pregnant halfway through, and you’re like, what? So things do it gets better? Is it better? Or busier and better. But in your case, that really was something that helped you sell more books, then was taking this idea from your marketing people, having them sponsor a page. So what was your sponsorship like? I mean, what were you saying to people about, hey, I’ve got a book I’m writing, will you sponsor a page? What were you? What were you offering?
Kim Speed
Well, you know, I actually, not everybody I interviewed, I offered this too, but I offered it to people who I thought had the same audience and would like to get in front of the people that I was going to be getting in front of. And so it was a win win situation. And I said, you know, for us, you know what, I can’t remember I had like, tiers. And they would get a certain amount of books.
Janine Bolon
Oh, cool.
Kim Speed
If you were a Gold member, you got 500 or something books. And if you were as silver, you got 250. And I’m probably not right on the numbers. I’m just trying. It’s been a while.
Janine Bolon
That’s a neat idea. Yeah, it was before Patreon. So yeah, that’s what I want to say is, this is before Patreon. This is before Kickstarter, although you and I have been in the biz for a while now. And these are some of the crazy ideas we came up with. And some people will say, oh, well get on Patreon and do that. And I encourage you no, do it to your own list. Just work with your own your own community don’t use a different platform, because then it splits you too much. Right? You know, with your branding. Yeah. So if you don’t mind, I love that story. So we’re gonna go to the other side now. And this is one of my favorite parts is like I always ask, so what did you try that was an epic failure? And I have had so many stories from people are like, oh my God, whatever you do, don’t do this. You know. So what was something that failed for you?
Kim Speed
Don’t think that you’re going to put your book on Amazon, and even if you do become an Amazon bestseller, which you can do, and a lot of people do, and I did. And think that, that’s great. That’s all you have to do. And lots of people will buy a book on Amazon. That was the worst thing. I just thought, this is amazing, I’m an Amazon bestseller. And then shortly after, crickets, like the book was oh, this just means that is going to show up and searches and things like that. That’s not what happened. That was an epic fail.
Janine Bolon
Oh my gosh, I totally understand that you think you put a lot of money and time and you invest heavily in these people who know how to get you on the number one bestseller status. And for some authors that’s very necessary for their book or whatever their branding, but then they think they’re done. And yeah, no, like you say, crickets. So yeah, I can understand that. Well, and one of the things is fun is we authors like to make fun of ourselves, right? Because yeah, we find ourselves well, I don’t know about you. But I find myself hysterical because I do some of the silliest things and I think I think it’s going to be successful, and it’s not. So what is the story you’d like to tell about yourself that gets the most laughs from your audience?
Kim Speed
Well, always know who you’re you’re trying to reach and who your audience is. One of the most embarrassing things that ever happened to me was when I was working in the corporate world. I just took for granted, you know, the people that we work with, I worked in a large agency, and we had, you know, I worked on it in a huge tall building, and we owned the top or not owned, but worked in the top four floors. But I was on the bottom of those four floors. And it was a Friday, I had had a heck of a week. We worked for a really large client, and they were involved in the Olympics. And they were like really uptight, and they kept making changes, and it was driving me crazy. And so I’m getting ready to go. It’s Friday, and I get on the elevator. It’s full of, you know, people that I work with. And one of the girls from media says to me, oh, Kim, how are you doing? And I said, ah, it’s just been a terrible week. And, I named the client and said, they just keep making all these changes. And from behind her was the client. But I had never met that client.
Janine Bolon
Oh, no, no.
Kim Speed
I’d say be careful and make sure you know your audience.
Janine Bolon
Especially in this day and age where you don’t know what camera you’re on. You don’t know what video you’re on. You don’t know when the mic is on. It’s one of those things. It’s just happens, right? It just happens. Yeah, it’s terrible. And everybody can identify with that. I remember, you know, I worked in the emergency room for a period of time. And this doctor who was the pain in their derriere of everyone that worked there was hiding behind the chart racks. And I started letting somebody know what I thought of him and his and his handwriting and trying to figure out what he was trying to dictate to us and blah, blah, blah. And he goes really? Is that what you think about me? As he came around the chart. Second? I went, yes, sir. Exactly. I mean, there’s no coming back. Like you said, it’s like there’s no coming back from that. So well, I would love to know, from your perspective. What do you think is the biggest change that you’ve seen in yourself since you started marketing your book, because you talked about how you were doing marketing for other companies, other corporations, that sort of thing? But now you’re marketing your book. So what was the biggest change in you?
Kim Speed
The biggest change was, it gave me the confidence because I all of a sudden had credibility that I didn’t know it was going to get and I became an authority and known as an authority in my subject matter, which gave me more confidence. That gave me the drive to go and show up on more podcasts than I was invited to without fear, to go and speak in front of people. You know, do interviews just like this without feeling like I was, I felt like before I wrote the book that I didn’t have anything to say. This showed me that I did have something to say and I had something to share with people and gave me like I said, some way to organize it and realize who needed what and how and how I should be sharing with them.
Janine Bolon
And your book, Branding on a Shoestring, is so helpful, and it really does let people know how to focus and that can be really difficult when you’re a first time author. So speaking of first time authors, what are like your top five tips that you would give them about selling their books?
Kim Speed
And I laugh because I said to Janine I don’t know what? Do I have five? And we were chatting about it and then I do I have five, I have five. So the first one is have a clear message. Know what you want to say and have a subject matter that you’re going to focus on. That would be number one. Because otherwise, you’ll be going around in circles. And I think for a while that was one of my struggles was I couldn’t figure out what was interesting. And I would go away from what I actually naturally knew. Because I thought it wasn’t interesting.
Janine Bolon
So like, if you were interested in it would be interesting. But we don’t have that confidence to wait, we have to, like, build it. Yeah.
Kim Speed
And I didn’t think I had enough to say, because I figured everybody knew knows this stuff, don’t they?
Janine Bolon
Oh, that’s so cute. I think that’s so cute.
Kim Speed
And the second thing is know who you want to write to, know who your audience is, and what they need. So that’s number two, that’s really important. So that takes a little bit of research, if you haven’t done it before, figuring out you know, what are the people that you can help? What are they thinking? And what are their problems? And this is where I went out and did some research and talked to the people. So in number two, I would say, make sure you do some research on that.
Janine Bolon
Right?
Kim Speed
Number three, decide how you will use the book to help you in your business and or your life, what is it going to do for you? Make that decision, first, one of the first things. And then the fourth thing is set some goals to know how you are, how you’re doing and if you’ve reached your success? Like have you reached your goals? So you have to set some goals before you know if you’ve reached them.
Janine Bolon
I highly encourage, yeah, thank you, I highly encourage that. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. That was something that for me just publishing the book was enough of a goal. Like a lot of people were like, oh my gosh, you mean you didn’t set how many copies you were gonna sell or whatever. So everybody’s definition of success is different. And this is something Kim and I talk about frequently and often, is the fact that it’s so important to set your own goals, your personal targets. Don’t listen to anybody else, and Kim back me up here if it’s appropriate, but it’s like everybody has their own ideas, and it can get very confusing as an author.
Kim Speed
Yeah. Well, and there’s a lot of people that would say, okay, I want to be, you know, a best seller. But bestseller can mean a lot of different things. So, you know, do you want to be an Amazon Best Seller, which is completely different than a New York Times bestseller? Do you want to sell a certain amount of books? My goal wasn’t any of those things, my goal, and I don’t like I think writing the book, and being an author wasn’t necessarily as exciting as the fact that it was going to help me build my business. And I was looking at it as a marketing tool, rather than, oh, gosh, you know, tons of people are, you know, buying this book. I actually was willing to, it was going to be something that I gave to my clients and to people that were prospects. So that’s completely different than a lot of people.
Janine Bolon
Right, what Kim’s talking about is using your book as a business card on steroids. And that is a very, and that is a very successful concept for many of us. So yeah, well said. And you had tip number five, I think.
Kim Speed
Tip number five, and we’ve talked about this already, but that’s why I laugh because I’ve seen what and this is the most important, market before you’re ready. Tell people before you’ve even put the word “the” on a piece of paper.
Janine Bolon
Let them know you’re writing a book, that’s scary as all get out, because you don’t even have your content ready yet.
Kim Speed
But if you do that, then it makes it real and it makes you have to do it. So I mean, I went out and did a scarier thing. And so pages in a book that never didn’t even exist yet, but that’s why I’m saying market before you’re ready. Tell people you’re the upcoming author of you know, give it a title. Give it a subject matter.
Janine Bolon
So just as a funny, some people say oh, but I don’t have a cover. I don’t do this. I don’t that. I’m like I made my own book cover on Canva and threw it up there and said, here’s the cover and this is the title and blah, blah, blah and people are like, oh, that’s a crappy title. I’m like yeah, that’s a working title wait to my editor gets a hold of it. But you’re still you’re promoted. Now, I didn’t have the moxie to do that until it was book five. Okay, so I’m just letting, don’t be like me. Listen to Kim’s advice.
Kim Speed
Got a writing coach and somebody that had done this. So I wouldn’t have come up with this all by myself. So this, we’re here to help you. So listen to these things, because we’ve been through it. And we’ve learned the hard way.
Janine Bolon
And the expensive way. Yeah. Because those were mistakes. So, tell me what was the one thing you misunderstood most about becoming an author? Like, what was an concept that you had in your head about being an author? And boy, did reality kind of change that for you?
Kim Speed
Probably the misconception was, and people don’t have to do this anymore, getting, you know, a certain amount of books printed. And then wondering what the heck you’re going to do with it?
Janine Bolon
Right, a lot of yeah, 100, you had to have at least 100 wasn’t it or 1,000? I can’t remember there was a cutoff. And it was 1,000 copies that you had to have printed before they’d even look at you.
Yeah. And I remember them thinking, oh, 1,000, that’s not too many. And then looking at the boxes going, oh, my gosh. And now it’s even funnier Janine, because so many people read like PDF online versions of it or audio versions, and you don’t need all those printed ones.
Janine Bolon
The world has changed a lot since 2005. When we first started publishing, a lot has changed. And if you don’t mind sharing with us, tell us what your biggest reward is, being an author?
Kim Speed
The biggest reward was being able to confidently step into my own spotlight and feel like the expert that other people thought I was.
Janine Bolon
Right. And so other people always knew that about you, but you finally owned it. Right?
Kim Speed
Yeah. But then like I said, I just thought, you know, who wants to hear about this stuff? But then you realize that not everybody knows and, and there’s lots of people that you can help.
Janine Bolon
And that’s the key, you have a huge community now, that’s running around behind you with your Facebook Lives and all that that you’re doing. And I hear people like Kim, I don’t know if you guys notice, but Kim was referred to me she was like, oh, you need to connect with this lady, the two of you have similar but different perspectives on how to go about doing this. So that’s why we connected. So if people want to get to know you a little bit better, or learn more about you, what’s a good place for them to go? How do they get ahold of you?
Kim Speed
Well, they can go to my website, which is Purple Moon Creative.com. I would love for them to come and join me in my Facebook group, the Employee to Entrepreneur Society. And I’m on social media platforms on Instagram as a brand because visibility expert or on LinkedIn as Kim Speed. So yeah, wherever you’re comfortable.
Janine Bolon
All right. Right. And I just wanted to say thank you so much for taking time. Is there any last minute piece of advice or anything you want to share with us before we close out today?
Kim Speed
If you have an inkling that this is the thing that you should be doing, like I said, go out there and or make the decision and go out there and start letting people know that you’re going to do it so that you actually do it.
Janine Bolon
Thanks so much for being our spotlighted author today, Kim.
Kim Speed
Thank you Janine, this has been so much fun.
Janine Bolon
I appreciate you. Now, if you are an author or you know of an author that you would like us to spotlight, please visit our website at Author Podcasting.com where you will find the 99 Author Project listed. We talk to all authors from all walks of life as we build out book number 12, which is Advice from Authors to Authors that will be listed in 2023. And this is Janine Bolon signing off with you today and all of us here at the 8gates that produces the Janine Bolon show. We wish you a wonderful week. And we encourage you to get your message, your story or your knowledge out into this world and make it a better place just like these authors are doing. We’ll see you again next week. And until then, keep sharing what you know with others, keep shining that light that is you and don’t forget to go out today and just do something that’s just plain fun. We’ll see you next week.
Bryan Hyde
Thank you for listening to the Janine Bolon show. Be sure to subscribe to our show notes by going to www.theJanineBolonshow.com, where you’ll find additional resources as well as the opportunity to sign up to receive our program in your email each week. Be sure to visit our sponsor at www.the8gates.com.
Bryan Hyde
Thank you for listening to the Janine Bolon show. Be sure to subscribe to our show notes by going to www.theJanineBolonshow.com, where you’ll find additional resources as well as the opportunity to sign up to receive our program in your email each week. Be sure to visit our sponsor at www.the8gates.com.