Mary Dooley is the author of two self-published books, Espresso Yourself and Espresso Yourself Too. In this episode, Mary talks about how a Christmas gift idea for her co-workers turned into her two Espresso Yourself books, how she met and started a relationship with the president of Starbucks America, some tips on self-publishing, and some her favorite quotes from the books.

• Espresso Yourself features customers’ favorite life advice
• started out as a Christmas gift for co-workers
• each book features 30 best pieces of advice from Starbucks customers along with artwork
• second book came with stories of events from the advice giver’s life

“Follow your dreams or someone will hire you to follow theirs.”

• how she got her book to the president of Starbucks in America Cliff Burrows
• giving value to people and making connections
• making art for her books
• making a book comes one step at a time
• she had to learn the process from choosing a cover, to the pages, to binding
• future vision involves life advice from Starbucks across the world
• learning curves decreases between books
• pursuing publishers with her books
• The First 1,000 Copies by Tim Grahl
• marketing and creating relationships
• build relationships BEFORE selling her books
• make sure people don’t decide for you
• submitting books to editors in July for the Christmas season
• going in cold vs. six degrees of separation
• posting once a month on her blog with different stories
• surveys, using Survey Monkey, and finding your target market (avatar)
• men have more entries in her books, but there are more women in her audience
• choosing a title for the book and getting people involved in choosing a book title
• her favorite title was Carpe Coffee, but Espresso Yourself beat it by a wide margin
• Primoz Bozic and RBT (Ramit’s Brain Trust)

“If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.”

• Primoz’s parents reaction to starting a business vs. staying in school
• plans to turn unused quotes into page a day calendar
• approaching people for quotes
• sticking her foot in her mouth but still starting a relationship
• walking away from problems and looking at books for advice
• people who bought first book wanted to be involved in the second

“Take it easy, but take it.”

• looking at art books for inspiration
• the more creative you are, the more creative you get
• James Altucher’s 10 Ideas a Day
• be open to new things and try them
• Jaime Tardy of Eventual Millionaire

“If you keep thinking creatively, creative things come out of that.”

“You have to open your mind and try things, if you don’t try new things, you’re not going anywhere.”

MaryDooley.com