In this quick “coffee break” chat, book coach Ameesha Green and author Debbie Waggoner discuss The Connection Blueprint, her guide for leaders and managers to develop motivated and engaged employees through communication, interconnectedness, and courage.
Join book coach Ameesha Green and author Debbie Waggoner as they discuss The Connection Blueprint, a guide for leaders to have effective one-to-ones with their team members. As Nodus’ CEO, Debbie is at the forefront of spearheading leadership development with thoughtful and highly impactful strategies. Her guide provides a year’s worth of meeting plans so that managers can increase the productivity and interconnectivity of their employees.
So, settle down with a hot drink and a notepad, and get ready to give value back to your business by improving the productivity, performance and morale of your team! Or better yet, buy Debbie’s spiral-bound, interactive book.
Time-stamps:
[00:55] What is the purpose of The Connection Blueprint?
[02:40] The Great Reshuffle
[03:30] Managing remote workers
[04:51] Have you had lots of feedback for you book?
[05:19] The format and structure of The Connection Blueprint
[05:50] Creating a spiral bound book
[06:10] Sourcing printers for a spiral bound book
[06:45] The future of Amazon printing – Beta Hardback and Spiral Bound
[07:02] What was the biggest challenge in the self-publishing process?
[08:00] What was your writing strategy?
[08:45] What was the happiest moment in the process?
[09:38] The pride of self-publishing
[10:30] Book shepherding
[11:20] What skills do you think are most important in becoming an author?
[14:20] Is there anything you would’ve done differently?
[15:38] Do you have any more books planned?
[17:20] Marketing and networking a book
[19:35] If you had one top tip for aspiring authors, what would it be?
Buy the book: The Connection Blueprint by Debbie Waggoner
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TOPICS COVERED IN THIS EPISODE INCLUDE:
Corporate leadership
Communication
Professional relationships
Employee management
Talent development
Content strategy
Performance strategy
Remote workforce
Ameesha:
Welcome to Better Shelves, the podcast from The Book Shelf Ltd. We help aspiring authors to create life-changing nonfiction books. We’re based in Birmingham but we work with authors across the globe and our mission is to make the world a better place through books.
Hi Debbie! Thanks for joining us today on the Better Shelves podcast! Firstly, congratulations on publishing your book, The Connection Blueprint. Can you tell our listeners what it's about and what inspired you to write it?
Debbie:
Thank you so much for having me, it's great to be here! Yes, I'm excited to tell you about my book The Connection Blueprint. Really the purpose of the book is to help leaders to create regular engagement and build stronger relationships with employees that work for them. I know that leaders have good intentions of doing this, it's just it can be challenging to have time to plan that, to have really good questions to ask… just good topics to discuss. I find most leaders end up talking about, “What's the work we need to do today? What do we need to get done?” And that's not it. So, the purpose of this is to give them really a great guide and tool that really plans out an entire year of one-on-one meetings where they can find out more about their career goals and how things are going beyond just the day-to-day work and who they're working well with. And so, it has 50 sessions of great questions that they can ask in their one-on-one meetings. So, it's a guide, it's a tool, and it's just a tremendous resource for leaders in being able to create greater engagement and greater connection with each of their employees.
Ameesha:
That's brilliant! Yeah, I personally found it so interesting to read because I used to work in HR before my publishing days, and one-to-ones were a big issue within the company that I worked for, because the one-to-ones there, typically, weren't great. People just weren't making the most of them and I definitely remember having some one-to-ones where I thought, this is just a tick-box exercise and it's not really adding any value and I don't feel like I need to be here and it's definitely not building a relationship. So, I think it's such a good thing that you're offering this resource to leaders because I think people would really benefit from reading it – from going through that process with their employees.
Debbie:
I appreciate that. It's interesting because we're seeing right now as well that there—at least in the U.S., where I am—a lot of people are leaving jobs. They're calling it the ‘great reshuffle’, where there's a lot of loss of talent and concern about retaining talent. So the timing for this has really worked out well because more than ever, these relationships are key to being able to know: how are people doing in their career? How are they liking their work? A lot of leaders just aren't really equipped with having the skills or the questions to do that well. So I think it's a timeless resource, but it's also really timely right now because we wanna keep our great talent. We want to keep them engaged, we want to keep them excited, motivated about working for wherever we are, whether it's a non-profit or a corporation or a small business. This can really, in a great way, help save time for leaders, but also give them resources to help make that connection that they may not be making already.
Ameesha:
Yeah, it's so funny that you mention that because I actually attended a webinar earlier today called 'The Highs and Lows of Managing Remote Workers'. Especially in the UK, we've had this kind of exodus of people from physical offices and suddenly leaders are trying to deal with the fact that their employees are working from home, or that they can't have that face-to-face interaction with them. I think they found it quite difficult because they've missed the natural, organic way of building connections with people, especially when it comes to new employees. I think having those questions that you've laid out for them is really helpful because they're not having to try to come up with this on their own. You actually talk about managing remote workers in the book as well, so I think that'll really help people.
Debbie:
Absolutely, I have a specific section on that. As you recall, I published this in September 2020. So, I started that content before we went through this change through the quarantine period of people doing so much remote work and yet that's become even more important, too. That is a specific section in there, as well. I think there’s a chapter on how to deal with some problem situations; if you've got performance issues, some of the difficult conversations you have, we also provide some guidance on that. I've gotten feedback that that's been helpful for leaders as well.
Ameesha:
Yeah, especially trying to deal with those issues remotely, I imagine it's really difficult.
Debbie:
Absolutely.
Ameesha:
I'm glad to hear it's been going well. Have you had lots of nice feedback since you've published the book?
Debbie:
I have, it's been exciting to get the reaction and to have people actually get it in their hands. I have been getting really good feedback on it. So, once people purchase it, open it up, take a look at it, start using it, they find it super practical and really helpful, and that's really exciting!
Ameesha:
I'm so glad to hear that! I think it's really lovely when you get that feedback from people.
Debbie:
It is, it is. One in particular that I didn't even know—I got in a call with someone after they had received my book and she was just raving about the format, and the structure, and the fact that it's spiral bound, and many of the aspects. A lot of which I can thank you, Ameesha, for your support in many of the aspects, especially in the flow of the book as the way it really came together. It was fun to hear her really applauding so many of the things that we took the time to make sure were a part of it and making it really just a practical resource for leaders.
Ameesha:
We talked a lot about the whole, do you go spiral bound or not thing. That's something you were really keen on and I agree. I think that, especially in a book where you want people to have it as a resource that they keep on their desk and they write it, that spiral bound aspect makes a big difference. Did you find that made it more difficult in terms of sourcing printers and things like that?
Debbie:
One of my goals was to have it on Amazon. I published this book, that was just one of the goals I wanted to have, and that was the hardest part. Printing wasn't all that difficult, but getting it on Amazon... Because when you self-publish, if you use their format and their tools, it's real easy. But when you use anything outside of that, it was a lot of learning to figure out how to actually do that. That was the hardest part… was having it published on Amazon in the spiral bound format. There's still learning in that process because there's a lot that goes on with the way they market books and their materials.
Ameesha:
Yeah, and hopefully in the future that might be something that they can offer. They're doing a beta process at the moment for hardback books, so maybe they'll introduce spiral bound afterwards. But I definitely think it's a really effective format and I'm glad you managed to make that work and get it out there. I've got my copy of the book and I think it looks amazing, so thank you so much for that.
Debbie:
Absolutely.
Ameesha:
What was your biggest challenge in the writing or the self-publishing process?
Debbie:
The first thing that comes to mind is just finding the time to do it, and keeping up with it too. You recall, as we went back and forth that I would have spurts of getting a lot done and then times of just lag. Probably with a lot of authors that you work with, I have my own business. So you're fitting this in among different engagements and different things that you're doing, so just finding the time, I would say, and then, just staying with it to get it to that end product, that was the goal. That would be the biggest challenge.
Ameesha:
I think it's a big challenge for most of the authors I work with actually because they tend to either, yeah, have a day job, or they have their own business, or they might be a freelancer, or an aspiring entrepreneur. I think trying to find the time to balance all of those different things and wear those different hats, I that's really difficult. Did you have a strategy that you used? Or was it just finding the time to write whenever you can?
Debbie:
I have to think back now to when I was doing all the writing. My best strategy was to get up really early in the morning. That's my best time because then I'm not distracted yet. So, I would look ahead in my calendar to what days I could do that and just carve out that time as well, because once the shell was written and when I was partnering with you in the editing process, then often it was more just to review of it... Just taking a couple of hours to proof it or to make some changes. But I think initially, it was a lot of just early morning time to get up and spend a couple of hours each day on a regular basis to be able to get the majority of it done and together.
Ameesha:
Yeah, I think a lot of authors swear by that getting up earlier thing. I would struggle with that because I'm a night owl. But I definitely think finding that time of day when you're in your flow and you're feeling motivated, that's really important.
Debbie:
Absolutely.
Ameesha:
What was your happiest moment in the process? Or moments? There might have been more than one!
Debbie:
One was getting the box of books, my first published book and having that in hand. That was pretty exciting to—I actually went to the printer and picked up the boxes and brought them home and opened them up. That was pretty exciting because I was really proud of it. And you know sometimes you do something, and you finish it and you go, “Oh, it's pretty good.” But I really felt good about it and that was exciting. And I think the second one was just starting to hear from a few people I really respected, that.. their really excellent feedback. That was another happy moment that… I continue to get some of those. Hearing that others are benefitting from it is really rewarding.
Ameesha:
Of course, I can imagine. I think as well with self-publishing you do get more of that sense of feeling the pride in what you've done, because you've done everything yourself. Even if you've worked with an editor, or worked with a designer, really you managed the whole process yourself and there's so much of a sense of achievement in that.
Debbie:
That is true. I told some people that I had another baby because there was just a tremendous amount of learning. Continuing to go, “Well okay I don't know how to do this.” when we start researching. And again, you were such a great resource for many things I did not know, so I appreciated that so many times along the way. Just finding you as the editor, the proofreader, the design services you provided, that was a learning process! So, you're exactly right, it's a lot of steps along the way and sometimes you wish someone was guiding that and saying, “Okay, here's what you need to do next.” But then when you do get it all done, it is just a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
Ameesha:
Actually, since we worked together I've started offering that guiding process now, where I'll take people through a checklist because I think, actually with us working together, and a few authors around the same time, I noticed that people wanted that guidance. It's actually known as book shepherding, which I think is a really funny name!
Debbie:
Interesting! Very fascinating! I'm gonna keep that in mind, that's great.
Ameesha:
I think it's so funny you just said that it's like a baby because I say that all the time, I'm like, "Your book is your baby! You've created this thing." And it becomes so important to you and you put so much time, and effort, and money, and energy, and love into it that it has to be something that you're really happy with at the end of the process. I'm sure there are moments where you probably want to throw it out the window because you're so annoyed with it. But actually then, when you get that physical copy in your hands, or if it's delivered to you and it lands on your doorstep, I think there probably isn’t many things that replicate that experience.
Debbie:
So true, so true. It's a once in a lifetime thing, yeah, it is.
Ameesha:
What skill do you think is most important in becoming an author?
Debbie:
I kinda think two things. I think one is having vision of what you look for it to be at a big picture level; what do you want this book to accomplish? For me, as a resource for leaders, it's more of a practical book. So being able to have that vision of how you see that [ book being] used. I think the other piece is then being able to put down, in writing, your thoughts. I know for me that sometimes flows pretty easily but sometimes you struggle with, “Okay I know up here what it is that I want to communicate, just how do I make sure I put that in the right words and have that flow effectively, to have meaning to others.”
Ameesha:
Definitely, and I think the planning process early on really helps with that. I know some people approached it by starting to write immediately, but I think if you can spend some time thinking about that—like who are you speaking to and what do you want them to achieve through the book? What are their problems and then how can you solve them? I think that's so much better an approach, and you clearly did that because you really understand what the problems are that your reader's facing, and what's the solution that you're delivering for them.
Debbie:
Yeah it's interesting because I even used, as I was drafting the book, my son is actually—I'm old enough to have a son that's in a leadership position and he was one of my best critics. He read it several times and he said, "No mom, here's what you need to do because I've had an employee issue like this and here's really what this needs to have." So I also have had a lot of feedback along the way and was open to that and was really able to incorporate that too.
Ameesha:
I think getting feedback is vital, especially from people who are involved in that role or who are your target readers. There's quite a challenge —even if you work with an editor they're not necessarily the target reader. I think getting that feedback from the professional perspective, but also from the people you're trying to talk to, I think it's crucial to have both of those. It's really handy that your son was one of your target readers!
Debbie:
Yeah, so as a matter of fact one of the things he shared, which I don't think I've shared with you Ameesha, is—again there's actually 50 one-on-one sessions in here. So there's—each session has a topic and several questions and a place for notes in the spiral bound version and what he told me is, he said, "I need a break in those 50 sessions. This is too much." Even though you wouldn't read them all at one time, what that prompted me to do is come up with these checkpoints, and then about every 10 sessions, as a leader kind of stepping back and asking yourself, "How are these going? How's my employee really reacting to these sessions?" That was all based on his feedback, that: let's divide these up and have not quite so many all in a row.
Ameesha:
Oh, it's so great to get that real life feedback! And I think as an author you have to be receptive to people's feedback because ultimately you're trying to help people and trying to solve their problems. I know it can probably be difficult sometimes to get that feedback, especially with the early drafts where the feedback can be quite harsh sometimes, but it really does make such a better end product.
Debbie:
It really does.
Ameesha:
On that note, is there anything you would have done differently if you could go back?
Debbie:
I think the only thing I would say is to be more disciplined in getting it done sooner. As you recall when we worked together, there were not only challenges in terms of time, but we were really working on this through the quarantine so there were times when that changed a lot of things, in terms of our schedule and work. I think the main thing I would've done is try to just keep the momentum going, because for me it would be a good spurt of energy, get some things done, and then a lag for a period of time. Then you kinda lose time in terms of what you're working on, and need to really refresh where you were. So that would probably be the main thing, is just to keep momentum going and have a more disciplined schedule and be able to execute it a little earlier.
Ameesha:
Yeah I think that's totally understandable, and it's difficult when you have other people working on it. When it's off with the designer and you naturally have to take that break, or because the editor's working on it. So what I try to encourage people to do is to be working on the marketing while that's happening. So it's not like you've just abandoned the book and forgotten about it, but you're working on other things, or you're preparing your Amazon profile and all of those aspects, so you still feel like you're involved in it.
Debbie:
Those are great suggestions for the next one, right?
Ameesha:
Yeah! So do you have any more books planned?
Debbie:
Really, the next one I'm looking at, I wanna build on the same theme and so probably the first one I'm thinking about is a shortened version, which is sort of the five minute connection. So, for example, I have a client right now that I'm supporting them–their leadership development. It's a security company, so their supervisors are people that are security guards and they're not necessarily going to have time for a full one-on-one meeting. They need to have more like a 5-10 minute check in. So what I plan to do is use the same format but to provide a tool for them in the Five Minute Connection. How do you do that? Take a couple of key questions, a couple of key prompts and have just a shorter session. But it'd be on some of the basic questions and still create a stronger relationship, stronger connection with employees at any level.
Ameesha:
I love that idea, I think that'll be so effective, especially when you have interns as well. I've had some interns with me for the past month and, you know, you can't be having long one-to-ones because they only get maybe a month with you. So I think that would be so useful.
Debbie:
Wonderful, good to hear that! Good to hear that. Yeah, that'll be my next venture.
Ameesha:
Luckily, you've learned so much about the process. I always say the first book is really, really challenging because you're having to learn everything, and the learning curve is pretty steep. But then when you get to your second book and your third book it's so much easier because you have all of this knowledge.
Debbie:
Good to know. That'll get me even more motivated!
Ameesha:
Obviously you'll have learned a lot as well about marketing, and when to start your marketing, and all of those factors that are difficult to know beforehand. So, how have you found the marketing aspect?
Debbie:
It's definitely challenging, and it's challenging when you have a full-time job and that's your extra component of that. I feel like it takes some time to build that momentum and it starts to [build] quickly with the people that you know or are in your network. Right now I'm working with a marketing consultant to get really beyond that immediate network. How do you get the word out? There's so many ways to do that today and so really experimenting with what platforms work best. I also find the people I'm targeting are really, really busy, so being able to capture their attention to look for something to help them with that business [is difficult]. But yet it's still do I have time for a webinar? Do I have time to read this email? That's what we're continuing to learn about and it's building momentum and we're looking forward to that continuing.
Ameesha:
I'm glad to hear that's going well then. I think it's definitely a learning process. Marketing is very much trial and error, even for authors who have published five books, there's always new methods that are coming out, as you say. Things like book trailers that a couple of years ago weren't really a thing, and now that's another way of marketing. I think the other risk is you can come up with 50 different ways to market a book and not have time. Sometimes it's about focusing on one of the three or five methods that I think will deliver the most value, and try those for a while. And then if they don't work, try something else.
Debbie:
The other thing is you say that—this is a little bit related to marketing but just popped in my mind. Another exciting moment for me was getting reviews on Amazon. So that was like, "Oh my gosh there's it published and there's my book review!" That's another—it's a bargaining piece too. But I've gotten all five star reviews so that's kind of exciting!
Ameesha:
Aw, yay! That's brilliant, so glad to hear that! So how does it feel being a published author? Along those lines, when you see your book on Amazon and you see your name on the front cover.
Debbie:
It's very, very rewarding. It's something that I think, again, that a lot of people want to accomplish, that a lot of people talk about. I think especially after knowing what it took to get to that point, and then actually seeing the finished product... It's a little hard to describe, but to me it's incredibly rewarding, very, very exciting, and it's something that I would encourage anyone to venture down that path, to get started and to go ahead and do it. Again, just a little bit hard to put into words but very, very rewarding.
Ameesha:
Yeah, I think that's a good word for it. On that note, if you had one top tip for aspiring authors, what would it be?
Debbie:
It would be... Get help. Find resources. When I was really in the formation stages of this book, a friend of mine that I ran into through some work, we just started talking and he had recently published a book and sent me to a resource, which is the website that you're published on. And I truly don't think I would have been able to do it without that. And I don't think it would have been the quality product it is without the support of you and your team, who are really experts in publishing a book, which I'm not. I've got ideas, I'm a business consultant but really that process of putting it together I think you have to have good resources and rely on people who do that really well. So that would be my number one advice.
Ameesha:
It was really lovely to work with you and I'm so glad you found it really beneficial! One of the things I always say to people is self-publishing—the word self-publishing kind of implies you're doing it yourself. But actually you're not doing it on your own, or you don't have to do it on your own, because there are people out there who can help and who really want to help you make your book a success. I’m really glad you found it beneficial working with us.
Debbie:
I did. I mean, there are people who do things like—you're just talking about book shepherding, I've never heard of that! I know I was—I was starting to look, I was going, "I'm not even sure I know what I need!" So you kind of start down that path, you've probably heard of editors, you've probably heard of proofreaders, designers, but there's so many resources. And I would just suggest to anyone else to really get started with someone that has a good background in that and that can let you know what you need. And you can decide then what you wanna do yourself, but also how to really rely on people who have so much experience with this and can take your ideas and just make them even better.
Ameesha:
I completely agree with that. I just really enjoyed working with you, and I learned a lot from the book. One of the benefits of what I do is that I learn from every book that I work on. But it's definitely something that I'll take forward with my own team as well, hopefully having better one-to-ones with them and building better connections with them.
Debbie:
Excellent! Well my hashtag now is #connectionsmatter so they really do. And my goal is that this book is a tremendous resource for anyone that really gets that and understands that it always has been that way in terms of, you know, people wanna work for a company, a leader, that cares about them. And I think we learned that in an even more significant way in 2020, that many of us have been, you know, working from home and less connected to people. The more we can find ways to do that, the better our relationships will be, in our work life and in our home life too.
Ameesha:
‘Connection’ has kind of been the word of the past year, hasn’t it, with people feeling disconnected or kind of feeling that loss of connection, I guess, with their fellow humans? I think you're so right, connections do matter and I love your hashtag, I'll definitely be using that.
Debbie:
Thank you!
Ameesha:
We'll have links to the book for listeners to check that out and ways to connect with you as well. But thank you so much for talking to us today! It's been interesting, really fun speaking to you!
Debbie:
It's been a joy for me as well Ameesha! I'm not sure throughout the whole process if we ever actually spoke to each other. We did a lot by email, we accomplished a tremendous amount, so getting a chance to talk to you and share our journey with others has just been a lot of fun, so thank you so much!
Ameesha:
Thanks Debbie and best of luck with your upcoming books! Bye Debbie!
Debbie:
Bye bye!
Ameesha:
We can’t wait for you to join us as we talk more about writing, publishing, and self-improvement on this podcast. And we’d love to hear from you! What tips would you find useful? What questions do you need answered?
You can find us on our website, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter @thebookshelf.ltd. Send us your questions via social media! We’d love to hear from you.
In the next chapter, we’ll be speaking to Sam Sanders, author of Your Next Big Idea, an Indie Reader award-winning book.
The music featured in today’s episode is ‘Set Free’ by Katie Gray, which you can find on Apple Music and Spotify.
Thanks for listening to the Better Shelves podcast, we’ll see you in the next chapter!