🎥 1st LIVE SESSION on Substack with Danielle Leslie

Thank you everyone for tuning into my first live session on Substack!

How to Watch

• FFWD ⏩ to 4:45 for the beginning of the broadcast

• Watch at 1.25x speed if that’s your speed :)

• Grab a beverage and/or play it in the background while you tidy up

• The full broadcast and direct links to resources mentioned are available for paid subscribers (including: the self-publishing company I’m working with, Instagram creator who just made $1.2 million from “yapping,” Boots Riley video showing smart promotion, etc.)

Topics:

• The daily challenge I’m doing in June (and why I believe it’s the next big breakthrough for all of us)

• How social media is printing views like the U.S. prints dollars (what this means, the ethics of it, and how I’m making this work in my favor)

• The project I’m launching with my best friend (after sending him a 9-minute “Here me out…” voice note last week that he responded to with: “The answer is YES.”)

• Timeline for my self-publishing journey (and how I plan to sell more books than New York Times Bestsellers—not that it’s a competition ;) but, just saying… a North Star is helpful)

• What I’ve learned watching the movie promotions of Sinners and I Love Boosters by Boots Riley (it says so much about where art & marketing are heading)

• Why after much research, I’m not starting a podcast (and what I’m betting on instead)

Timestamps

4:50 Social media platforms are printing views like the U.S. is printing dollars. And why I think they’re rewarding “yappers”—creators who are speaking without scripts, direct to camera.

6:00 The Daily Challenge I’m planning to do in June. I know doing this will change my life, yet my confession is: I haven’t been doing it. But that changes now.

9:00 The Instagram creator who recently made $1.2 million in a couple weeks. She grew from 0 to 300,000 followers on Instagram in 6 months from “yapping” and without starting with a plan.

13:55 Be careful of the worlds you create. The world I realized I was creating that didn’t serve me and how I was wearing someone else’s fearful energy of caring what other people think. The Confessions of a Broke Millionaire world that I’m creating.

19:20 How I’m treating my book publishing and marketing as if I’m signed to a traditional publisher. I share my detailed book launch timeline, sales goals, and the key marketing activities that I believe will drive the most sales with examples.

26:30 The intake document for my book cover that the self-publishing company provided for them to design my ideal book cover. And what date I plan to start pre-selling my book.

29:05 How the HBO show Euphoria influenced my view to “manage myself” and what that looks like. How you can become your own manager.

33:00 The only things you need to start pre-selling your book and collecting pre-orders on Amazon. The #1 thing I’ll do to promote my book that will be most impactful.

38:00 The #2 thing I’m considering doing to promote my book that I did for another bestselling author.

41:10 What is Cannes Lions? And who I met last year who ended up hiring me for $10k to consult for them. And why I’m going to Cannes Lions again this year end of June.

51:25 What I told a 1:1 client who wants to start a traditional podcast and why I deinfluenced her and introduced a new way to do podcasts.

56:05 The new project I’m doing with my best friend. And why this will be the most impactful for connecting with new audiences. How this will help us tap into the national or global conversation right alongside creators with 100k, 1M+ subscribers and followers.

1:02:50 The power of being multi-passionate—the losing approach of diluting your brand and voice and the promise of diversifying your brand and voice to grow your platform. Why this is the winning formula today and what it looks like to execute it.

1:10:10 What I learned from the promotion of Sinners and I Love Boosters that helped with movie sales and how I’m applying that to promoting my book.

1:19:20 “Trying in public” v. building in public and how I’ve leveraged that and will continue to do this for my book. How to introduce a bigger message to your work and provide a larger call to action to change things.

1:26:15 The Wrap-Up with takeaways, main questions, and recommended next steps to step into the next version of you.

Resources & Links mentioned: