Podcast Episode 20 – Running a Business that Reaches the World While Being a Stay-At-Home-Mom with Sarah Spear

Networker for Business Women with Lourdes Welhaven

Author Sarah Spear

Sarah is a stay-at-home mom to two girls, a wife and business owner. Sarah and her husband Andrew have several online ventures including their book My Little Geek. “My Little Geek” is a co-creation between her husband, Andrew, a true geek, and Sarah, a former primary school teacher.

This interview contains so much actionable information you’re going to want to listen to it several times and I have taken extensive notes for us below. Whether your business is local or international, online or brick and mortar, there is so much here for you to learn from. Think I missed something? If so, just add your thoughts to the comments below. We have so much to learn from Sarah and Andrew!

Take Away Points

1. Sarah is living proof that you can be a stay-at-home mom and be a successful entrepreneur!

2. Sarah and I met on Twitter! If you want to reach a regional, national or international market now (or ever think you want to) you need to build your platform on Twitter NOW!

You can follow Sarah on Twitter here

You can follow Andrew on Twitter here

You can follow me on Twitter here

You can follow the Networker for Business Women on Twitter here

Lourdes also tweets at Little Pampered Dog here

3. Illustopia.com is the resource that Andrew and Sarah used to get their book illustrated.

4. Sarah and her husband used world-wide resources and distribution to produce their books and market those books world-wide.

5. Andrew and Sarah didn’t just carefully plan and execute the writing and production of the book, but they strategized, expertly I might add, on the marketing of the book. They reached out and paid homage to notable geeks on their books. This got their books noticed, blogged about and sold. She suggests doing the research on bloggers, podcasters and journalists in your niche and making sure to create something that they would WANT to promote. By planning the marketing of their product before and during the writing process., they were assured the best chance that their book would get publicity and sales.

6. Sarah and Andrew used the 80%/20% principle to move their business away from providing one-on-one service for clients to creating products for sale. If we all concentrate our efforts on our best clients, we are sure to be happier, healthier and more successful.

7. Sarah shared the many opportunities that have come as a result of stepping out and following through on their idea. How many ideas have we all had that we don’t follow through with? It’s time for all of us to start following through on our ideas, just like Sarah and Andrew did.

8. I love how Sarah and Andrew work to their own strengths and really compliment each other in their many businesses.

9. Sarah and Andrew are utilizing Kickstarter in order to promote and fund the production of the next 2 books in the series and an associated app. You can be part of the project, just contribute to the campaign before the deadline of June 25, 2013. Check out their campaign and be a part of the project! But Sarah and Andrew don’t just depend on the organic traffic generated by Kickstarter itself create a successful Kickstarter Campaign. Instead they continue to reach out to influential bloggers and podcasters to promote the effort.

We also covered Kickstarter in this episode.

10. Fairy Bread – I had no idea what Fairy Bread was so I Googled it. There’s tons of information on Fairy Bread and it’s origins on this website. Enjoy! Now I want to make and eat some Fairy Bread!

11. Sarah and Andrew have a separate area on their website where the media can download pictures, press releases files without having to ask for it. This encourages a journalist on deadline to choose their story, over someone else’s because it’s just done!

Remember “Lourdes first rule of publicity” …and it goes like this….He (or She) who make it easy on a journalist, gets coverage!”

12. The Give Give Take Princple

13. Game of Clones HD wallpapers mashing up the Game of Thrones family mottos with Star Wars characters.

14. The podcast that Sarah loves (besides this one of course)…Is Small Business, Big Marketing. I told her about Freedom Ocean I also mentioned Ed Dale . Ed Dale’s blog is a non-negotiable for me. It is at the very top of my must-read list!

Sarah absolutely wants you to contact her. Seriously, meet her right now. Send her an email by clicking on her email here.

You can also follow the production of their books plus lots of other fun things at http://www.mylittlegeek.com/blog

Here is her website http://www.mylittegeek.com

Here are images of the book. It’s so cute!

Sponsor

I love audio content don’t you? Here are some of the books that I’ve “read” while I was folding laundry, making dinner, walking, etc…

You can “read” books by listening to them too! Audible is giving our community a free 30-day trial plus a free audio book. Just click on the link below.

Business Tip of the Week

It’s time, past time, really to get on Twitter if you have a National or International Brand. Don’t think your brand has that far of a reach, think again, you very likely have potential clients way outside of your immediate area.

Just go to Twitter here and sign up for an account if you haven’t already done so.

I’ll cover details on Twitter in a future episode but remember that the whole point about social media, like Twitter, is to network and connect with people. So be natural, be yourself, and engage!

Related posts:

1. Podcast Episode 13 – The Business of Publishing with Bette Lee Crosby
2. Podcast Episode 18 – 5 Critical Steps to Create Business Relationships Through Networking
3. Podcast Episode 14 – Working with Your Nature with Pamela Hoke