Author Spotlight interview with Joanna Gaudoin
After being asked many times if she had a book, Joanna Gaudoin resisted this process for many years, as writing is not her favourite thing. However, in 2021, she took a leap of faith and joined our Smart Author – Fast Track programme. Fast forward to November 2022, and her book, Getting On: Making work work hit the shelves!
For the last 12 years, Joanna has helped people to navigate the workplace positively and effectively, progress their careers and improve their performance. She works with clients who are bright and knowledgeable, but they often don't focus on the skills they need to improve the way they come across to others. This was the angle she took for her book.
Find out about Joanna's journey in her recent interview with Sheryl Andrews (see below) or listen to the audio here. Here are some of the key takeaways:
- Being committed and determined to make something happen in a short period of time makes the process easier.
- She wouldn't have got it done if she hadn't had accountability and support from Smart Author - Fast Track.
- The importance of allowing time and space for editing.
- The fab idea of a book tour offering short talks to clients in return for purchasing the book at a discounted rate.
- The importance of starting the marketing when you start writing, and that marketing is an ongoing process (and she wishes she'd done more earlier).
What did Joanna love about Smart Author – Fast Track?
Initially running for six months, Joanna loved the fact that, in Smart Author - Fast Track, she had encouragement from the group. She felt supported and accountable, was interested in learning from the rest of the group, and liked the time limited process.
It took her 7½ months to write her book. In the interview, she says: “If no one was chasing me for it, it wouldn’t have got done!”
She also had access to the process that I teach through the Smart Author System and the part she mentions in this interview with Sheryl is the planning piece.
She says: “The best advice from the person who recommended me to Karen is that you need to know what you’re writing about before you sit down. You don’t want to get up at 6am to write and then think ‘oh what am I going to write about?’.
“So I knew planning was important. I’m not a great planner. I wrote my university essays without a plan and I came to the stark realisation that you can’t do that with a book.
“In the first part of the Smart Author System you have to drill down. I remember a particular group session when we were all talking about the planning. Karen had given lots of ideas and I went away and thought how am I going to do this? I didn’t like the idea of post it notes – what a mess - so I created a spreadsheet. In one column, I put all the topics and advice. Then went through all my client notes and workshops. I took it back to the group and everyone else was petrified. It wouldn’t work for everyone. But it worked to help me to write my book.”
So, what has happened for Joanna since she published her book?
She says: “It is great having the book as a marketing tool to showcase my expertise. You do get more respect when you have a book. It was an interesting learning experience and I’m delighted to have the book done.”
Her biggest success to date was a book tour she did with a client where she sold out of all of her books. And despite thinking that she hasn’t done much marketing, she is getting incredible results!