Behind the scenes with me as I launch my book Clarity, Communication & Connection today
In this episode I’m taking you behind the scenes and sharing with you my experience of writing my book Clarity, Communication and Connection, Three Clear Steps to Future-Proof your Business which has launched on Amazon today.
I share with you:
- the process that I went through to plan out, create the draft and develop the final manuscript.
- the learnings, mistakes and tips and tricks that I have found useful
- how to buy your copy of the book and access all the free resources and donate to a wonderful charity at the same time.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
(01:25) It's book launch day!
(06:47) Exhilarating!
(11:38) My book journey process
(20:06) Your Story Starts Here
(24:47) Formatting
(26:33) Accountability & Confidence
(27:31) Clarity Communication and Connection
(29:49) Its out today, its launch day!
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I'm Lucy Rennie, and welcome to my Future Proof your Business Podcast.
The podcast that provides you with everything you need to know to build solid foundations and ultimately Future Proof your business.
I'm on a mission to share my love for small business with you and help you to enjoy the extraordinary ripple effect that comes through harnessing the power of people and relationships.
And I want to make sure that you can reap the benefits of being a business and a brand that people know, like and trust.
I'm a huge champion for small business and a massive believer in the fact that people do business with people.
This podcast is here to inspire you, encourage you and support you on this roller coaster ride that is building, growing and Future Proofing your business.
Hi, and welcome to episode six of the Future Proof your business podcast.And , I don’t know whether you can feel this, but today I'm literally sitting here grinning like a massive Cheshire cat.
Today is a day where my tummy is flipping. So I'm always talking about tummy flips, but I promise you, my tummy is doing loop the loops and all sorts of things because today is book launch day. I can't actually believe it, but today is the day when I've launched my book. I've written a book and it's out and people can buy it. People can go and yeah, get a copy and have a read and get to know me and understand a little bit more about what I'm about and, and what I'm doing. So I thought for this episode, I'm going to try and calm my nerves because I'm super excited and my phone's been pinging all morning.
I thought I would tell you a little bit about the behind the scenes to the book and let you in on a few secrets of how it's come about and I'm going to tell you how you can go and get a copy and all the extra resources that you can get hold of that are available today.
So in today's episode, I'm gonna tell you about the fact that I've always wanted to write a book and why I'm going to talk about the curse I have about just putting myself out of my comfort zone and putting my hand up for things. I'm going to talk you through a little bit of the process of writing a book and the things that I've learned, the things I got wrong, the things that if I was to do it again, I would do differently.
Then I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the book itself, who it's for and what it's about. And then finally, yeah, I'll tell you how you can get yourself a copy, but also how maybe if you really want to help me, you could spread the word and share the news with your friends and colleagues. If you think that it might be valuable for them.
So, I suppose I’ll start with the fact that I've always been a bookworm, I've always loved books. It's funny, I've always loved books and I've always loved shoes and thinking back the reason why I think I've always loved books, I've always loved shoes is because my parents who were brilliant and who were teachers, primary teachers, they were just, I suppose, on a mission to, to really help me to create for myself a love for books and reading and understand the power that you can create by getting lost in a book and by loving books.
They wanted to encourage me to read and to become you know, a good reader. I used to have a wall chart on my bedroom wall and it used to be, I can remember it now. I used to have a pack of those stickers. Do you remember those stickers you used to get with a wall planner where it was like stars or spots or different things. I used to have a sheet of these stars and there were gold stars and I think it was about maybe 10 boxes, maybe a bit more. Maybe it was 20. I can't remember. It's a long time ago now. Every time I finished a book, so every time I'd read a book, I would get a sticker. So then if I could get 20, I don’t know if it was 10 or 20 stickers, I would get a treat, a reward and I could choose what that reward was.
I could pick and every time I used to pick a pair of black shiny painted shoes, because I've also got a fetish and a love for shoes, but I don't think it was really hard because I love books anyway. So maybe I was a bit cheeky and sort of played mum and dad a little bit, but I would read and read and I would be one of those where I would lie in bed, even with the torch under the covers and read whether that was Mallory towers or Famous Five, or it was, Judy Bloom, or Roald Dahl was brilliant, one of my real favourites. I used to just love reading. So, it wasn't very difficult really to get that chart filled time and time again and get rewarded with a new pair of shoes.
So, I suppose books have always been part of my world. And even now I've still got boxes and shelves full of them, whether they're in English, even in French detective books, et cetera. And I think I’ve just always liked the idea of sitting and writing a book. I think it's that cosy feeling. It's a bit like today where it's absolutely chucking it down outside. We finally got the rain after about three months of just, nice summer sunny weather, where you have to, I don’t know whether you're like this, but I love it when it goes all dark outside and it's a bit stormy, a bit wet and horrible, but you are inside and you are all cosy. You have to put the light on because you know, it's dark and it's that sort of nice feeling of just kind of getting absorbed in your work.
So yeah, it's always been something where I thought, oh, you know what, it'd be really good to do. And I think the first idea was I was going to write a story about an English girl in France when I went off to France in 98, and stayed there until 2009.I thought that was maybe a good one to write about the adventures of me over there. Maybe in the style of sort of sex in the city or, sort of telling the tales of being the only female in meetings in the steel world that kind of thing. But it never happened. I never had the opportunity and it never kind of came to life. Because just things, life happens, doesn't it, you get busy.
And then this year I decided at the beginning of the year that my word for the year was going to be, wait for it, it was going to be exhilarating, and wow, has it been exhilarating!
So I decided this year that because of all the changes that I've kind of put in place, following lockdown and the fact that I've pivoted my business and it's much more about strategy and coaching and mentoring small business owners and their teams. I decided that this year was going to be the year where I put myself out of my comfort zone and I really kind of invested in myself and made some scary, scary choices, scary decisions, so that at the end of this year, I'm in a really good place to be able to reach more people, to provide more value, to create a world for me and my family that works, that feeling of content, of enjoying what we do.
One of the main things I did was I invested in Lisa Johnson's mastermind, which was kind of really putting myself out of my comfort zone and putting myself in a world with some really amazing, wonderful experts and business owners who are doing things that I did not even dreamed of.
Particularly because I've not really been in the online space at all. So, my work has always been about working one to one with clients or getting under the skin of the teams, et cetera. I don't really have an online audience. So this was kind of the first step in the journey was learning from these amazing people and being inspired and pushing myself I suppose.
And it's always been one of those things that I've always done. I suffer from, you know, real anxiety and butterflies in my tummy and, you know, I worry about everything and I get scared and all these things, but I've got this weird thing that happens where, and I've done it since I was really small is I will just kind of throw myself in and put my hand up and put my name down for things and commit to things or say, yeah, I'll do that.
And then it's only afterwards. I suddenly think, oh my God, I'm actually going to go and do this thing. Why did I do that? What have I done this again for? that I realised, you know, I've, I've done it again. And, and that was a bit like this, this year I had kind of signed up before Christmas, after chatting through with Paul and, and talking it through, because it was quite a big investment, talking it through as to whether it was what we wanted to do and why we were doing it. And then yeah, I signed up and got into it.
And it was only sort of at the beginning of the year when I thought, oh my word, how am I going to do this. And juggle the work that I do already with my amazing clients and invest and do all these other things.
Part of this year has been about building my online presence. It's about showing up and, I suppose, really helping more people like you get to know who I am, getting under my skin and understanding where I'm coming from, and ultimately how I can help you to future proof your business. To grow a business that works and feels right for you. And so, yeah, that's where the idea of writing a book came from, because I thought actually it's a really good way of, getting all my ideas, thoughts, learnings, experiences, and my framework, my kind of key teachings that I believe is the essence of creating a sustainable business, which is Clarity, Communication and Connection. I was kind of like, you know what? Actually the best place to do this is to create a book and make it really accessible to people.
And so that's what I've done. So at the beginning of the year, I put my name forward and, signed up with Abby and the team from Authors and Co. I remember having the first meeting with Lucy who is brilliant, the glue that pulls it all together and helps you to plan out and do all the different things that you need to do. And I remember having a first chat with her and she was like, so when are we going to go for launch day? When do you think you're going to be able to do this?
Most people I've spoken to, who've gone through this process or are still going through it have kind of given themselves at least a year, maybe 18 months and sort of, you know, they've been quite kind to themselves and realistic and all those things.
But not me, no, me being me. I can do this. I can, why am I gonna wait? This is about having a year that's exhilarating, so I'm going to go for an earlier launch. So actually in the beginning we decided on a launch date of the 15th of September, which is actually a few weeks ago. But to cut a long story short, just for various reasons, which I will talk to you about, we just pushed it back a few weeks.
So today is the 5th of October. So really, this journey started at the beginning of the year and I have written the book and gone through all the process and today it's here. I'm still pinching myself that actually it's there and it's available and it's out there. So yeah, all that to say that I have this weird thing about putting my hand up for stuff, putting my name down and then instantly regretting it afterwards.
It's a bit like that with the book. So yeah, so that's where it all came from. That's how I got to today. And I just wanted to sort of just let you in a little bit on the process of actually writing this book and, and how it happened and what I've learned from it. I've actually learned quite a lot about myself on this journey, which is always I think a good thing.
I had my first meeting with Deanne who is the editor who helps you to go through your idea and your roadmap and think about the blueprint for your book and what it's going to look like. And if I'm really honest, when I started, I think I had the first meeting in maybe February, March time. And if I'm really honest, I knew that I wanted to talk to people about the process and about what I believe.
I wasn't really sure of what that was and how to articulate that. So actually chatting with Deanne and, and I think I just kind of did a bit of a brain dump and just kind of talked to Deanne about what I love, how, what I do, how I help people, the value that I can add and the results that I get for clients. And I remember she just sat there and smiled at me and took it all in. And the amazing thing was that she, it's so interesting isn't it when people with fresh eyes or fresh ears listened to you and took something that you've been kind of living and dreaming and breathing for the last 25 years. She was able to kind of pinpoint the different parts of what I was saying and bring it together into a bit of a structure.
And so we were able to identify together that what really I was talking about was a framework that was Clarity, Communication and Connection, but actually at the centre of that, and you'll have seen on, on the Venn diagrams that I'm always sharing on socials at the centre of that when you get all those three key things in place is the ripple effect, which for me, is when the magic happens. And so with Deanne, we were able to start to pull that structure together. And ultimately that's really helped me in everything that I'm doing and the way that I communicate and the way that I can really focus my business because it's given me structure as well. So not just in the book, but also in the way that I'm communicating in general, even on this podcast and everything that I'm doing.
So once I'd got the blueprint and I realised that ultimately what I was wanting to do is help people to build something that's sustainable. That comes from a place of Goodwill and trust. I realised that the title needed to be linked to how to future-proof your business and then had this blueprint.
And then, you know what life gets busy, doesn't it? That rollercoaster ride of not only, you know, running a business, working with your clients, making sure you're showing up, doing what you need to do, but also adding to the mix, kids, family, dogs, life, everything that happens, soon time was passing. I knew that I had this deadline to get the first sort of manuscript over to Lucy and the team sort of June, July.
And I hadn't really done much. I'd sort of got it laid out, but I hadn't actually started to sit down and write it. I suppose, one of my, I don’t know if it's a flaw or one of my weaknesses is that I very strongly underestimate the time that things are going to take me. So I was kind of going “oh don't worry, it's going to be fine, I'll be able to, you know, I'll do it every weekend or I'll, I'll dedicate some time in the evenings to do it and I'll get it done”.
I suppose, on the other side of that, I do know that when I commit to something that whatever it takes, I will get it done. I suppose. That's the one thing that's in my favour is if I've put my word to it, I will do it, but it might just take me a lot more effort or a lot longer than I had, maybe, expected.
So, time was ticking, do you know what, there's no way I'm going to be able to sit down and really focus and concentrate and write this book whilst I'm here juggling, doing, and sort of spinning all these plates. So I managed to convince my wonderful husband that it would be really beneficial for me to be able to go off on my own and have some time just to get the book done. That actually, if I didn't do that, then I was kind of coming to realise that there was just no way I was going to get it done. and because we both kind of made this decision at the beginning of the year, that it was the right thing to do to invest this year in my business, in building the brand and reaching more people, then it was kind of a joint decision that we had to find a way for me to be able to get this book over the line and to get the words down on paper.
So with all that in mind, in the beginning of June, I found a brilliant place. I had this vision in my head that I wanted to sit,like I was saying to you about being cosy and all those things for me in my mind, there's something about the sea. That's my special place. It's something that's a place that makes me feel alive. It's the place that makes me feel grounded. It's the place that just, I don’t know, there's some, maybe I was a mermaid in a previous life or something. But it's something where I know it helps to recharge my batteries and makes me feel more alive. So I knew in my head that I wanted to be able to sit and write my book and be able to look out over the sea at the same time.
So in my head, I had this big bay window and a skyline of the sea. And could I find anywhere? No, it was either stupid money, on Anglesey, for a huge big house that had like 12 bedrooms, which obviously I didn't need, or it was, a tiny apartment somewhere, with no sea view. And then all of a sudden, I just thought I’ll check one last time. And as I did this beautiful little Airbnb popped up with this exact vision of this window, looking out over the sea. So yeah, I booked it. And what we did was we took the kids and the dog and Paul for the weekend. So Friday to Sunday, and then Paul came home again with the kids on Sunday evening and I stayed on with Kylo, my dog, for the week. And the plan was that I was going to do everything I could to get the book written.
And I would go home on Friday with the first edition manuscript. I was completely on board with that really happy, really focused, really motivated. Even the kids were like, come on, we can do this. There was a bit of a joke, Paul was kind of going, you know, you don't come home until you've got that book written. so there was a little bit of pressure. And also I knew that if I was going to do it, I had to get it done that week. It was a great opportunity!
So it started really well. Monday was great. I was motivated, I sat down to write, and there was just nothing. My brain was just whirling and I just couldn't really get any words down. It was just a bit of a blur, a bit of fog.
And so that's when the panic struck me and sort of the realisation that I had committed to writing a book. I had put it out there. So I was accountable to you guys. And now my family were counting on me that they'd kind of allowed me to go and do this. They'd encouraged me and given me this opportunity and God, I didn't wanna fail them and go home without this book on Friday. So I kind of gave myself a bit of talking to that evening. And I actually wrote an email to my audience, saying how it was quite scary and how I was feeling a bit stuck. And wasn't sure what was going on and why I've done this and all these things. And I woke up the next morning to dozens of emails, replies in my inbox from people saying come on, you can do this.
We want to hear from you, we want to know what's inside your head, we completely believe in you, you can do this and what an opportunity. And that was the deal clincher. It just kind of, it was the trigger that allowed me to go, do you know what, stop overthinking things, stop worrying about it, being perfect. Just get it down, get it written, get it over the line. And it changed from then. So each morning I would go for a walk with Kylo along the coast. I would listen to different podcasts. In fact, I kept listening to the audiobook of Abby's book, which is called Your story starts here. She talks through the process of writing your book and why, what you need to think about and all those good things and the impact it can have.
And so that was kind of inspiring me and motivating for me. And then I'd go back to the cottage and I'd sit down and I would put my timer on for two hours and I'd sit and I would just write and get things down and then I'd have a break. I'd go outside, play with the dog, and have a cup of tea. I don’t know why I said cup of tea, I never drink tea, have a cup of coffee. And then I would do some more writing. And that time, that focus time was really, really powerful. One of the things that really helped, and I don't know whether this is a good thing or not, but sometimes when I did have a bit of a block and I was thinking, oh, how do I express that or how do I get that down on paper. And the words weren't coming out. And I wasn't, you know, when I was trying to type it just wasn't flowing. One of the things that I did do was I literally got my phone and dictated and just pretended I was talking a bit like this, into my phone and recorded it, and transcribed it into notes. Yes, it was gobbledegook and of course I couldn't take that and put that in a book, but what it did do was allow me to get the ideas flowing and, and understand what it was that I wanted to say, which I could then take and adapt and tweak and use it to inspire me on to kind of give me that structure for what I wanted to write. So if anyone's struggling, that was a really good way for me to get the words out of my brain that I could then format and, and rejig and, and pull together on the paper.
So, that was the best thing. I highly recommend it. I have never had that opportunity. I think in the last 10 years, at least I have not had that time on my own. I know Kylo was there with me, but he's just gorgeous. He's here now, as I'm recording this lying sleeping next to me, he's just happy to be with you. But I never had that time on my own. And it was just, yeah, it was a weird sensation cause I was missing obviously the kids and Paul, but it was just that time to be myself and, and really get absorbed in my thoughts and where I was going and why I was doing things. And that was really powerful. Ellia had one of those easels that kids have where there's a whiteboard on the one side and a blackboard on the other side, she'd literally brought that into the living room and she'd written on it, mum’s word count.
And she knew, we knew that we needed to get in and around the 40,000 word mark. So that was kind of the goal for the week. So every day, every morning, she'd say right mummy day one, how many are you going to write today? And I'd say, oh, maybe 5,000, 6,000. And then in the evening, she'd check in again and she'd say right, come on. How many have you written today? And she'd write on the total. So every day I had this running total of the number of words that I'd written and I'm not going to lie, the first few days I did exaggerate a little bit just because I felt a bit daft saying I've only written three and a half thousand, but towards the end of the week, obviously I think I hit something like 42,382 or something.
So I smashed it. But yeah, she was, everybody was invested in what I was doing and really cheering me on. That was such a great week. And I went home on Friday. It wasn't perfect, but I had a first edition. I had kind of the work in progress, which was the best thing for me because I work much better when I'm not staring at a blank page, but I can go in and I can tweak and I can kind of work with what I've already written. And then over the next few weeks, obviously life went back to normal, I did manage to edit it, to proofread it, and kind of get it to a place where I was happy.
Then we went on holiday, in the summer and me being me, of course, I'm a deadline dancer. I had to give it to the proof reader, back to Authors and Co on the Monday, which was the Monday of our holiday. We got away on the Friday and I had till the Monday, with me being on it completely all the time. I had to spell check grammar and make sure I was really happy with everything. And of course me being me, I'm such a perfectionist that I was changing things and doing. So I literally worked probably, I don't know, probably 20 hour days that Friday and Saturday, Sunday of the holiday when we were away in Wales, in the summer in July, just to kind of get it to a place where I was happy enough for somebody else to read it.
Because that's the thing I think that's been the biggest thing on this whole journey is, it was actually quite enjoyable writing the book and being in the zone. But I hadn't thought about the fact someone's actually going to read it and you know, all those things then go through your mind as to if it's good enough, what will people think. Is it, you know, adding value? Is it doing all the things that I wanted it to do? So I handed it in and then managed to kind of relax, and switch off and do paddleboarding and all those things with the kids for the holiday and I finally got some feedback, it was positive. So that was a relief. And then the last few weeks of the holidays, so up until the beginning of September was all about formatting, choosing, tweaking, adding in the page numbers, all those things, which was the brilliant Jo Gilbert who works with Abby, on all the formatting, but also runs Audio and Co.
The process of writing, what have I learned? Don't underestimate your time, get really focused on what it is that you want to do. Have that end in mind, and me being me, I'm quite competitive and I need that target and that kind of pressure. So I used timers to give me some slots of like 20 minutes, an hour, two hours, depending on how my brain was working that day. But also I had a big spreadsheet that I coloured in traffic light colours, with all the different chapters laid out and all the different points. And as I finished a chapter and tweaked it and proofread it, I would colour code it. And so seeing that spreadsheet come to life and turn from kind of this big red sludge into what was ultimately green, a green sludge at the end of it was really, motivating for me.
I highly recommend that if that's something that helps you to kind of keep on track and keep motivated and also making yourself accountable. So, I mean, I've been talking about my book since the beginning of the year, so people know about it and people are waiting for it and that's something you know, if I put it out there, I will do it. So there's that determination for me that makes me show up, and get it done, so that kind of kicked in as well.
So yeah, there's lots of things with that. And I think now my biggest one today, as it's all live and out there is having the confidence to share it and let people know about it and not worry too much about what people think about it. Of course, I want them to think it's brilliant, but I'm also kind of recognizing that I've written a book and that yeah, it's the first edition and yes there will be some things in it that aren't quite right or that I want to change or that aren't perfect.
And that's okay. Because actually I've written a book and between you and me, I've already started to think about what I'll do differently in addition to, but also I think there's also a second book on the horizon, but don't tell Paul, yet, because I think he'd kill me!
We'll look at that maybe next year, so just a little bit, I suppose, about what the book's about. So the title of the book is Clarity, Communication and Connection, Three Clear Steps to Future-Proof your business. And it's all about the long game. It's all about building goodwill and trust and how I believe that, if you can really show up, add value and do things in the right way that you can build a business that works for you, that feels good, but also that delivers value and is sustainable.
And so I take you through the three steps and things to think about. And I suppose one of the things that I wanted the book to be, or one of the things I didn't want the book to be was a stuffy textbook, kind of marketing or business book that's boring or technical or kind of dry. I wanted it to be a kind of a book that you might keep in your back pocket. That's kind of, kind of a bit like your mate, or your friend chatting to you sitting with you and talking through different ideas and different ways of doing things. And that's what it's about. So throughout the book, there's different exercises. I tell you a little bit about my story, why I do what I do or why how I've learned to do different things and how I believe that I can help you in your business.
It's a guide really that you can jump in and out of, you don't have to follow it from the beginning to the end, but actually there is a flow, and there is a process to it. If you do want tp do that. Also, what I've done is created, and this is where it's exciting and if you buy it today, you can go and access these things. But there's also a downloadable workbook that accompanies the book so that it's kind of taking you through more exercises. You've got somewhere where you can write your ideas and you can kind of jot down different things. You can think of different concepts, you can know ideas, you can go in depth a bit more on the exercises and things. So as you're reading it, you can have the workbook with you and have that as a point of reference, when you keep coming back to it and referring back to it, as you grow in your business and as you make decisions and as you move forward.
So it really is about being a sort of an interactive guide really to future-proof your business, which leads me nicely onto the fact that you can actually buy it today, because it's launch day. I will pop the links in the show notes, but you can also head over to my website IamLucyRennie.com and you will see there's a whole page all about the book, a pound will be going for every book to, the charity that I'm a trustee of, which is High Peak Community Arts, which is all about, helping and supporting vulnerable adults and children, with mental health, challenges to come together to find their purpose, or just to kind of find a community through, through arts, through creative, activities like film, creating, a film club for children or through, tapestry work or working with artists for, adults.
So you can find all the links on my website. Also, if you buy the book today, you can also, take advantage of an offer that I've put where you can come and join me in my membership, The Future-Proof Club for a month, to come and get a feel for it to come and get some more tools, resources, meet lots of other small business owners like you and be a part of a community, which I think is so essential, particularly in these times at the moment where, you know, it's all a bit uncertain and we're not sure what's coming up.
So come and join me in the membership. and also, I'm going to be running a masterclass in November all about how to future-proof your business and beat the recession. So things you can do today, that I shall be pulling from the book and taking you through on a live masterclass.
So there's loads of goodies there. There's loads of extra resources. It's all there, for you guys to see, when you take advantage of it all and buy my book. So I don't think I've got anything else to tell you really about it, except that I'm absolutely thrilled. I'm scared. And my tummy is still going loop the loop because obviously, people are going to get a little bit inside my head. They're going to see how I work and that's exciting, but absolutely frightening at the same time, because I do suffer from imposter syndrome as well. So, yeah, just knowing people are reading it is scary but exciting. And I can't wait to hear what you think and what you take away from it. So on that note, if you'd like to get in touch, then I'd love to hear from you and hear what you think. Maybe you've got a project to write a book or maybe you've written a book and you've shared the same experience or maybe you've done things a bit different to me.
I'd love to hear from you as always. My email address is Lucy@lrcomms.co.uk There's only me behind the email. Get in touch, let me know what you think. And I will see you next week for another episode of the Future-Proof your Business podcast. See you later on, take care.
Thanks for listening to the Future Proof Your Business podcast. I've been your host, Lucy Rennie, I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you have, then I'd love you to head over to Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast and hit the subscribe button. And I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave a review and a rating and help me to reach even more small business owners like you who want to build a business they love.
And don't forget, you can head over to iamlucyrennie.com and sign up to my email list as well as find more tips and tools to help you Future-proof your Business on my website and in the show notes.
Finally, I'd love to invite you to come and join me and lots of other small business owners like you. In my free Facebook group, Communicate with Purpose.
You can find all the links on my website and in the Show Notes.
Resource Links:
Buy my book here
Authors and Co: https://authorsandco.pub/
I would love to invite you to come and join me and lots of other small business owners like you in my FREE Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CommunicatewithPurpose