Writing and publishing your own book starts with having a compelling story and the right people to help you sell your book. In this episode, host Juliet Clark interviews media visibility expert and book-writing coach Debbi Dachinger about how you can make your media more visible or get on other people’s shows. Listen to today’s show for tips on becoming a best-selling author, hiring editors, and getting a great marketing team. Juliet and Debbi get into the ultimate visibility formula, so don’t miss out!

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Increase Your Media Visibility With Debbi Dachinger

I have another great guest, Debbi Dachinger. She is a Media Personality and a Media Visibility expert who has been interviewed in over 1,000 media outlets. She’s a syndicated, award-winning radio and podcast host and nominated for two People’s Choice Podcast Awards. She interviews celebrities on the red carpet. She is a keynote speaker. She is a certified coach and author of three international bestselling books. As a Media Visibility Authority, Debbi coaches people on how to write page-turning books and runs a company that guarantees your book will become an international bestseller.

She also teaches the Ultimate Visibility Formula: How to be Interviewed on Radio & Podcast shows in 60 Days or Less. Debbi hosts a syndicated Dare To Dream podcast plus works with clients on their visibility strategy and how they can use free PR to become known as the go-to expert. She’s a popular media guest and speaker and she is a keynote at high-level national events. She is a radio and TV personality and has been in the news and documentary films, the covers of magazines and is regularly featured contributor in Published Magazine. Debbi, when do you sleep?

Definitely, at night. I’m like anybody else who’s an entrepreneur, part of this is if it was going to be one thing, my personality would be totally different. I’m creative and this is my wheelhouse. For me, all of these are woven together. The book aspect, the interview aspect, the podcasting, the bestseller, it’s everything I do. It’s very simple for me to offer it to people that I coach. Outside of that, like the red carpet stuff, that comes up now and then. That’s not a constant and some of the other elements.

Media Visibility: You don’t have to have a huge platform or a huge following. You just have to know how to do the process.

I got a call from somebody who is a pretty high-end name. They wanted to start a podcast and they said, “Will you coach me?” They had been interviewed on my show and she walked away and said, “You’re the most professional person who interviewed me. Can I hire you for a day to come out to Malibu and coach me so I can do a podcast?” That’s not even typically something in the wheelhouse of what I do, but I was so honored and I want to keep developing a relationship with this individual. I was like, “Send me the calendar. Let’s do this.” There is plenty of time for me to sleep and have fun. Trust me.

With many people coming out with the radio and podcast shows, how do you get on other people’s shows? I know a lot of times, you can use your podcasts to leverage those relationships but in general for a beginner, how do you get out there and get those interviews?

I’m not a huge person on, “I’ll do this for you. You do that for me.” Podcaster to podcaster, I know it’s big. For those who use it and it works, that’s awesome. It doesn’t work for me because my show is booked six months to a year in advance. I feel awkward, I can’t always reciprocate. However, as far as getting booked on the merit of who you are, I want to be clear especially for beginners that you’re alluding to, you don’t have to have a huge platform. You don’t have to have a huge following. You have to know how to do the process right. What I mean by right is like, “I’m here. I’d like to be on your show.” You want to get a yes. It is how you go about it. I would not suggest you go on social media and write on someone’s Facebook page.

I’ve been doing this for a long time. You essentially want to know that the invitation is coming through a channel and you can follow the breadcrumbs. For me, it’s email. I want an email that lets me know that you know my show. For instance, somebody once wrote to me about a client, a publicist. They talked about all this amazing stuff that they were doing in stock trading. You couldn’t possibly be familiar with my show, Dare To Dream about transformation if you want to talk about stock trading. I don’t talk business and that aspect of money, maybe more spiritual, metaphysical about money.

You have to know the person show and say something intimate to them like, “Debbi, I listened to Dare To Dream. I love the episode that you did with Caroline Myss when you were talking about archetypes.” Now we have a relationship. Keep it small and simple. I don’t need a lit me. I don’t have time, but definitely let me know, this is who I am and what I’ve done. I don’t need the full bio, but just succinctly. Why are you fabulous? Are you a visibility expert? Do you coach writing books? What do you do? What are you going to bring to my audience? Three bullet points are all I need. Something that you know that nobody else does. Try to capture it a bit in a headline that will be compelling and make me curious like, “I want to talk to you. I want to know that information.”

Make sure when you sign it off you let me know, “I’m happy to send you a copy of my book should you be interested. I would be happy to do call-ins if you like to go that way. I promise to promote you on my social media platforms.” I even had a girl who wrote to me and said, “I left you a five-star review on the Apple and Google podcast.” They love this stuff because we work hard and it’s nice that you care. You take a moment and then sign it off and leave all your information, your phone number, your email, your website, your social media connects, all of that makes it easy. If you want to bump it to the next level, attach your Media One Sheet. This way if I say, “Juliet, you’re on,” there’s almost nothing I need to do. I’ve got your headshot, your bio, all of this and your Media One Sheet, your talking points. I’m ready to rock and roll.

That is great advice. I do have a lot of PR people reach out as well. One of my pet peeves is I love choosing my own people. I spend time on LinkedIn scouring to choose the people for my show. How do you feel about the PR people that reach out to you? Do you notice that a lot of them have listened to your show and know what you do? Because I don’t.

I would have to agree with you, I don’t. I know I’m in a category so some of them know that category. I have some good relationships without a doubt with some PR people and publicists. It is because they are intimate and their guests, their clients have been guests on my show, it’s easy with us. I have some that are a higher tier. I have a real relationship. I’ve gone out to dinner with them. They’ve invited me to the workshops. We really know each other. If they need something, I’ll do it because I know they represent amazing people. There’s this level, the bottom of the ocean dwellers, God bless them. They’re working hard for their money, but it’s a bit like pasta on the wall and seeing who’s going to stick. They don’t know my show. To your point, besides not knowing my show, I don’t know if you’ve noticed too, but those are the people you don’t get an email that you can scan and know immediately. “Let me write back, this is a good fit.” It goes on and on. It’s like, “I don’t know that.”

I’m a writing coach. I could put that into a book, chapter one, About Me. For those of you who didn’t catch that, Debbi is also a writing coach. Somebody is writing her a story in advance of the show. What are some of the other things that people can do with their podcasts or you’re getting on as a guest to be effective and to be visible everywhere?

The two most prevalent things are being unique. I would say the other piece is the connection. I am a relationship person. The moment someone develops a relationship with me, it’s a game-changer. I don’t mean that they have to appease to me somehow, but I mean a real relationship. I had a health and fitness girl reach out to me, which is typically not someone I would think about putting on my show. She wrote the most heart-based, adorable email. It was clear that she had listened to my show. It is clear she knew she was writing to me. It was super short and I felt like this effervescence joy coming from her. What happened was somebody canceled. Somebody had to reschedule, which happens very rarely but there I was, “I’ve got a show.” I have a folder and email. I’m sure I’ve got well-over 200 people who have written to me plus publicists. Out of all those people, she’s the one I remembered. She got booked on the show. That’s one thing is to create a relationship. We don’t want to stock email. We get them all the time. We all know the formula.

Do you mean stock or stalk?

I have been stalked, by the way. That’s another story. Not often, but I have and it’s unattractive. If you haven’t heard from somebody once, you can write again. You have not heard a second time, please bless them and keep going. They’re either too busy or their show is full and you’re not a fit. It’s not personal. I have been stalked before and it was from a gentleman who wrote a book and it was really unattractive. In fact, the more he did it is like, “You’re never going to get booked.” He would even go on my Facebook page and if I wrote something, he’d write back again, “I’m not being booked on your show.” It’s like, “Let it go.” If you know where to get booked, getting on my show, anybody show can’t matter that much because you have a plethora. It’s exponential what’s available to you so you should never key in on somebody.

Media Visibility: To be really effective and be visible everywhere, you have to be unique and build that connection.

It is about stock because there are stock emails that people fill in just like every other form and formula in entrepreneurship to send something out. The problem is those start going out so much that we see those over and over. Make it connecting for real warmth, something unique that’s going to make me know you, feel you, understand you, and like you. The unique part is there can be seventeen people out there who talk about money, but what bumps you up? What do you know about money that I don’t? I was coaching this girl. She does private coaching with me about how to be interviewed. She’s on a very advanced level. We were talking about sound bites, storytelling and statistics. We were working on our story.

This is the second time we’re going back to work again on the story. She happened to be sharing with me off the record. She said, “Debbi, the thing that is interesting about money is that I grew up feeling that there was a secret. I never knew the secret about money.” She started telling me a little bit about what happened when she grew up. As she got older, she was finding like, “Money’s a secret. Everybody seems to have it, but I don’t understand the way to have it.” She then became an entrepreneur and nobody’s talking about their numbers. You don’t know what people do, but you think everyone’s got money. I was like, “That’s the story because I was so compelled. I could hit record right now. We can do an entire show.”

Understand, seventeen people could talk about money but what she did, unknowingly, the difference was the secret about money. Doesn’t everybody feel that way at some point? How do you have at night own? How do I make my business work? How do those people live in that house? There’s always that feeling that makes you feel a little locked out, that people will resonate with. Maybe they have money and they have the feeling from the other perspective, like, “I don’t even know how to teach people about this. It’s such a weird secret that my family came about this.” That’s the point about being unique is your subject may be the same, but find what you know that you can elevate that will cause all of us to go, “I want to know more. Come tell me. Come be on my show.”

It’s your hook. It’s that difference. I have the same. I’m known for killing my ex-husband in my first book. People think, “That’s cool.” It’s that thing that sets you apart from what you do that’s creative.

With my coaching to write a book, obviously there are many coaches out there. I’m sure they’re quite good. The one thing that separates me, and it’s because of passion. I believe if we’re going to write a book, we should write a page-turner. When so many people are using books as a business calling card, there are more authors than ever. People are putting up books that aren’t fully edited. I could say a lot about that. However, to have that pride writing takes so much time. It takes heart and discipline. Why not write it a page-turner? It’ll do its own PR on your behalf. People will be standing around the cooler and saying, “I meant to go to sleep at midnight, but that book, I had to stay up until 1:00 AM and read the next chapter.”

There are pieces of what I do in book coaching that I feel like they’re indigenous. If you’re going to write a book, make it fabulous. If you’re going to write a book, understand the structure of writing a book properly. Who is the protagonist and what makes them fabulous, what creates tension? I love teaching all of that because we can take the inception of a book, the idea, and crank it up into something magnificent. That’s something I would talk about on someone else’s show that would make me unique than other people.

I love what you did there because those are a lot of the elements of fiction brought to nonfiction that a lot of nonfiction coaches don’t get into. It does make it a page-turner like a mystery novel. That’s fabulous. I love that you have that whole thing rocked together because as a page-turner, you understand how to translate that into how you’re going to promote that book, which most people don’t wait to do it until the end. It’s very annoying. You could always tell on social media, somebody who hasn’t built a platform because it always says, “Buy my book,” to the point where you want to delete them because they’re annoyingly spamming you. How do they get around that when they’re working with you?

You might have seen this yourselves out in social media. All of a sudden, you’ll hear from somebody who you are “friends” with but you had no connection with at all. Suddenly it will go, “Here’s my book. It costs this much. Buy it for all your friends.” You’re like, “I don’t even know you. Why would I buy it? This is strange.” It’s not the way to do it. The way to do it is to have a timeline. Doing a book properly is the timeline. This is for writers because you’ve put so much into it, but truly, 5% is writing the book, 95% is what happens after. You must have the after. I would say about the time you have the idea for the book start lining up, who do you want your marketing team to be? Don’t do it yourself. I’ve done that.

It’s a soul killer. It’s a lot of work. If you don’t get a great marketing team, get some references. We do that. I’ve got a team that does that. The point is to take it off your plate so you can be your brilliant self and write your book. Understand your timeline about, when does the book cover come about? When are you going to look for endorsements? I would tell you to do the formatting right upfront before you even start typing. Most people don’t know that, but it will save you tremendous time if you’re typing in a formatted book. You have to know the platform. Where are you going to release it?

Is it going to be on Amazon? There are obviously a lot of choices out there. Are you going to go through a regular publisher? I would have people ready, including an editor because editors could get very busy. If you find somebody fantastic that you feel comfortable with, whether it’s going to be developmental editing, which you want to bring them in earlier or if it’s going to be a copy editor and you can wait until later. You need to know the timeline. There are elements of what we’re speaking about that need to start occurring way before the first draft of the book is written.

Media Visibility: Your subject may be the same, but find what you know you can elevate that will cause people to want to know more.

Would you explain the difference there of those two kinds of editors? I use a deep editor. I start from the beginning because I suck as a writer. I am a great storyteller. Knowing that about yourself too helps. Can you explain the difference so people know when they should hire each?

It depends. A developmental editor helps you develop your writing and the book. You bring them in at the inception because you’re basically giving them. Everybody works differently. Let’s say you’ve written your chapter and you send it off to the editor, they’re going to read through it. Maybe they prefer to get a chunk so they can get the complete overview. They can start giving you the feedback, “This needs to be moved. This needs to be taken out. The way you’re expressing this can be changed. I think you’re missing the point here.” They get into your writing. They’re a true writing editor. A copy editor does more of the proofing. You bring them in at the end and that’s more, you’re missing the syntax, your tenses, typos, and repeated words. Maybe this should have been a paragraph.

I do some copy editing on the side. My mother was a proofreader, editor professionally. It’s honestly in the blood. One of the interesting ones is when you have quotations. Maybe somebody speaking in the book and it’s like, “Where do you put that comma? I always put the comma and the quotation.” Somebody says something comma and quotation, but some people put it outside of the quotation. I think it’s more correct to put it inside, as well as if you have a period or semicolon. There are things like that that a copy editor, that’s their wheelhouse to look out for. Either way, both editors weed your entire work. Developmental tends to be more expensive because they’re rolling up their sleeves and they’re right in the trenches with you as you’re writing, helping to develop your book with you.

That’s why I use that because I tend to write the way I speak. I speak in smart-ass. A lot of times they come in and cleans it up a little.

I love that you know that about yourself. That’s very powerful to know what your genius is and rely on that and let the rest go. You don’t have to be a genius at everything. Being a genius in storytelling, that’s a big accomplishment. If that’s something that comes out of you very easily, you can capitalize on that. I love the fact that you do and then you let the rest go to an editor who pulls the rest book along for you. That’s pretty powerful.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I was always the one who could talk us out of going to jail in high school. It’s almost innate that I’ve done that since childhood.

We miss being friends in high school. Every time, we had double trouble.

We probably did. That’s probably why neither of us has gone to jail. You have a program coming up. Could you tell us a little bit about it and how they can get in touch and you had a free gift too?

The Ultimate Visibility Formula is coming up. This is How to be Interviewed on Radio and Podcasts in 60 Days or Less even if you have no prior publicity knowledge and even if you don’t know where the shows are. I’ll provide all of that for you. By the time people leave the class, it’s live with me. You get real-life coaching, you build an amazing community. What Ultimate Visibility Formula does, it takes people from wherever they’re performing or not performing, but people who want to be interviewed. It gives you the entire system. You get everything that we talked about, your media kit, your email together, seventeen-plus pages of where the shows and contacts are. You get privately coached by me.

People who sign up, get a session with me, a $500 value media strategy session one-on-one as my gift. It’s an important part of the class. I feel like to work with a class is one thing, but unless I get deep with you, that’s where the movement happens quickly for everybody. The thing that I do that’s interesting, Juliet, the class was the class, but I did all this marketing research. I found many people are coming to me and saying, “That’s great,” but when I get booked on podcasts, the truth is they don’t know how to articulate who I am and what I do. I made a choice and the last class started with, “What is your message?”

We all get clear. Everybody leaves knowing exactly how to say in 30 seconds with power, “This is who I am. This is what I do. This is what I provide. This is what I stand for. This is how I stand out.” For people who are feeling the call of the wild and are interested, go to DebbiD.net/visibility. For those who are interested, I’m gifting you with a very content-filled value-based video of me telling you about how to get interviewed. Go to that same site, scroll down and enjoy that video. I went for it. I turned on the camera. It’s like, “How could I teach people the most and move them forward quickly so they have a lot of ease in this visibility and being interviewed on media arena?”

Thank you. You mentioned when your courses will start?

The next one starts on January 8th.

Put that on your 2020 goal lists. If that’s something you want to do, get started with the free gifts because December’s going to move quickly and you need to be ready for 2020. Debbi, thank you. You’ve been a fabulous guest. I appreciate you being on.

Thanks, Juliet. This has been amazing. I appreciate it.

Important Links

• Debbi Dachinger
• Ultimate Visibility Formula: How to be Interviewed on Radio & Podcast shows in 60 Days or Less
• Dare To Dream
• DebbiD.net/visibility

About Debbi Dachinger

DEBBI DACHINGER is a Media Personality and Media Visibility expert who has been interviewed on over 1,000 media outlets. She is a syndicated, award-winning radio and podcast host, recently nominated for two People’s Choice Podcast Awards, interviews celebrities on the red carpet, a keynote speaker, a certified coach and is the author of three international bestselling books.

As a Media Visibility Authority, Debbi coaches people on how to write a page-turner book, runs a company that guarantees your book becomes an international bestseller, and teaches the Ultimate Visibility Formula – How to be Interviewed on Radio & Podcast shows in 60 Days or Less.

Now in its 12th year, Debbi hosts the syndicated DARE TO DREAM podcast, plus works with clients on their visibility strategy so they use free PR to become known as a go-to expert. Schedule a session with her to stop being the best kept secret and instead be seen as a powerhouse leader.

A popular media guest and speaker, Debbi is a keynote at high level national events; a radio and TV personality, and has been seen in the news, documentary films, on the cover of magazines, and is a regular featured contributor to Published Magazine.

Awards and Accolades: Editor’s Pick: Featured Intriguing Creator, Broadcasting Industry Lifetime Achievement Award, inducted into the Who’s Who Hall of Fame for Entertainment, winner of Successful Achievements from Voices of Women Worldwide, and recipient of Heart and Spirit Award from the Evolutionary Business Council.

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