It’s been a crazy ride!

So my first book “You’Re Not Broke, You’Re Pre-Rich” came into being exactly 6 months ago.

If you’ve missed the whys and hows, you can find my first article “How did I write a book and get it published?” on Medium.

But now I’m going to sketch out what about the whole process might be relevant to you, what has been exciting, and which bits were the most difficult.

My yellow friend

I have been carrying the first copy I ever received of my book in my bag since May 30th 2019. It’s been everywhere with me and has become part of Vestpod. When it got published I could not even open it, I was too worried I’d spot a typo, a mistake or something unexpected. But slowly I began to like it again. 

I use it as my guide whenever I need to do a talk or presentation or structure my thoughts. It’s also been to holiday spots, literature festivals, school meetings and restaurants.

Overcoming Imposter syndrome

You’ll probably have heard the term before, but impostor syndrome is when you doubt your accomplishments and have a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud"”. Yes it’s quite common and according to this piece of research, 70% of us will have it at some point in our lives. 

Embracing the title “financial expert” is weird but “author” is even harder. At which point in your life do you become an expert in something? How can you be reading books for 35 years and admire authors and writers and then in under a year start calling yourself one? It all seems totally surreal.

Feeling like a fraud is really not helpful in the process because you tend to think your writing and / or content is not good enough so you edit, re-edit and re-re-edit and also procrastinate.

These are a few things that have helped me go over it:

• Meditate: I started meditating twice a day early in 2019 while still editing the book, and after a few months of practise I drastically reduced my anxiety, felt more centered and started to ignore those negative voices.

• Speak to other writers: I had long writing sessions and these can become very isolating, but instead of starting scrolling on social media when you want to take a break, go out! Meet other entrepreneurs, authors and people doing their own thing. You’ll get inspired and realise you’re definitely not on your own. One of the best coffee catchups I had was with Laura Whateley, author of Money: A User’s Guide. She’s been super supportive and it was such a pleasure to promote our books together in Birmingham (LINK).

• Map the journey and see the progress you’ve made: while planning is super important and you should definitely do it (you’ll probably need a big Excel file detailing all the content of your book), celebrating little accomplishments is as important post-publication: an article, a blog post, an Amazon review... all these really count!

• Keep writing!

Drop perfectionism and enjoy the journey

It’s hard, but it’s essential. I am a perfectionist (or used to be...) and have very high standards. I have always worked hard to produce the best outcome. But the reality of working in a fast-paced environment, doing a million things more than you have time for and at the same time writing a book, means that sometimes you have to compromise. I am not trying to deliver the perfect product/service/talk anymore but just trying to be the most valuable to you, and to always be improving. Doing things, learning and enjoying the journey. There’s a quote that resonates from Too Perfect: When Being in Control Gets Out of Control by Allan E. Mallinger and Jeannette De Wyze: “The non-perfectionist doesn’t need to be right all the time. His security doesn’t depend upon having a spotless record or being viewed as the ideal person. But when he does achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, he feels gratification, fulfillment, even joy. The perfectionist, on the other hand, is apt to experience any given task or interaction as a test that will reflect his adequacy. So it’s always important for him to do things correctly, know the answer, make the “right” decision… To perfectionists, being wrong isn’t something negligible. It’s a threat to the very essence of their self-image…”

Speaking at Literature Festivals (and having access to the author’s lodge) alongside the most inspiring authors

I was invited to speak at 3 major book festivals this year. The festivals chose the authors very early on - sometimes even before seeing the books - so it was a real boost to become part of this world of live literature. There’s always a great atmosphere, and it’s awesome to meet authors and writers, spend time backstage and after the talk sign copies of the book:

• Edinburgh, August 2019: I was invited to speak about “Women & Money” and sign my book “you’re not broke you’re pre rich”. The festival is fantastic as well as the city so you should definitely visit soon if you haven’t been already! I was interviewed by the amazing Heather and our talk was... fully booked! One of my first public speaking gigs!

• Money Matters at Birmingham Literature Festival with Laura Whateley, October 2019, chaired by Sathnam Sanghera. 

• “You’Re Not Broke, You’Re Pre-Rich” at Cheltenham Literature festival 2019 with Alex Holder and Sarah Raphael, October 2019.

Promote your book in any way

While you work on a PR strategy with your publisher, I believe a lot can also be done by you! Having a platform is essential. I sold many many books via Vestpod and the newsletter and social media channels. But that’s not all. With the book I started to go on tour, and while I did not do a tour like singers would do, I did so many corporate talks and always tried to include the book as part of my speaking engagements. 

Last summer, I signed with an agent The Found and the amazing Francesca and Harry have been helping me answer requests for financial wellness training, inspirational talks and panel engagements (plus PR, articles, podcasts etc). They negotiate my fees and rates for me, which is amazing because they know how to do it well and it saves me a lot of time. I am also doing a lot of talks for free for women’s groups or people who can’t afford to pay. Over the past few months, I think I have done 2-3 speaking engagements a week, which is a lot and such a good public-speaking practice. I also worked with a coach (Punchie - in French!) - Jean has been amazing. We do our sessions over the phone as he is based in Paris but I have learnt how to stay authentic, deliver better talks and keep my energy high!

Amazon Bestseller

Now let’s talk about sales. I don’t receive regular updates (it can be quite complicated as the book sells on many channels: Paper copies, e-books, special sales, international sales… ) but I usually track my Amazon ranking and see how the book is doing in a few categories. It’s been a bestseller in a few areas such as Financing Mortgages, Online Trading & Investing and Personal Taxation for months now. At some point it reached #200+ of overall books which is mad! People all over the world have been emailing me from South Africa to Thailand, and the book is still selling which is fantastic.

We’ll see what we do with it: new version soon? Version for other markets? Audiobook? New book? Any suggestions welcome!

Press

Journalists and writers: a massive thank you. Many times I have been asked, who is your PR agency? The reality is I don’t have one! Vestpod and the book have both had an amazing press coverage over the past few years: the Financial Times, Refinery29, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, This is Money, Sheerluxe and many many more. You can check them here. Last month I also spoke at the super prestigious Bazaar at Work Summit at Sotheby's in London and it was a such a fab experience. Thank you also to the podcast creators who invited me to talk to their audiences. That’s the thing, you need to do A LOT of these, so at the beginning make sure you say YES often, to get yourself out there.

Meeting awesome people = you

Promoting this book has been the best experience for me: meeting my community and all of you. This is truly where the energy to build Vestpod comes from, knowing that spending that much time and effort to write something is actually useful to so many of you. Yes it’s fun, but let’s not forget the WHY: to empower a million women financially. That was the initial mission. It still is but it’s broader and bigger now and I want to see more impact, sustainable impact and to see more and more of us getting financially independent. This is just the beginning.

Feedback is golden

This is maybe the most important for me - and  it’s why I wrote the book. I have received hundreds of emails and messages on social media from you and that what’s keeps me going to find new ways to inspire you to save and invest more.

What’s next?

I have a podcast in preparation at the moment, and a lot more content on vestpod.com that will be put together with the help of Veronica and Melissa. There’ll be more events in London, the UK and abroad (stay tuned!) all bolstered and inspired by our growing community. 

Some people say writing a book is like having a baby. Well I have 2 little boys and I can tell you, the book takes much less space, is less noisy and cute but still very powerful. Now the good news is that in March 2020 I am expecting a little girl, so I guess I will be busy again.

Thank you for reading this!

If you haven’t purchased the book yet, it’s here on Wordery, Hive.co.uk or Amazon (for example).

If you’ve read (and liked it), could you please take 5 minutes to review it on Amazon or Goodreads.

If you want to talk to me please email: emilie@vestpod.com

For anything else: www.vestpod.com

xx Emilie