63: Liana George, Author

Greg Mills: Our guest today is a sought after speaker blogger and author before pursuing a career in writing, she was a professional organizer and the former owner of by George organizing solutions in Houston, her debut novel. Perfectly arranged book one in the hopeful heart series was released in October, 2021 from scribblings press.

Greg Mills: The second book in the series perfectly placed, released July 5th. When she's not putting things in order or scribbling away, you can find her reading, traveling, or watching tennis introducing the one and only Leanna George. 

Liana George: Hello. It's so nice to be here with you today. 

Greg Mills: Nice to have you now, Leanna, can you take a few moments and fill in the gaps from that intro and bring us up to speed with what's going on in your world today?

Liana George: Sure. So, I started, well, I had been stay at home mom for 18 years. I had two daughters and When my oldest started going to college, I thought I need to find something to do for myself. I needed to find myself, I guess. And at this time I was about 40 41 42. So I needed to find myself. And I looked at all the things that I love to do.

Liana George: And Organizing and writing were the top two. I didn't have a lot of confidence in myself as a writer. So I started organizing, I did that for about five years. And then in the middle of that I felt called to write a book. But I knew nothing about it. How to write a fiction novel. I knew how to write non-fiction because first part of my organizing business, I wrote blogs and magazine articles and things like that, but I had no idea how to write a fiction novel.

Liana George: So. Started I hired a coach, cuz I think if, even if the great athletes of the world need a coach, even everybody else, even all the normal people need one too. so I hired a coach. I spent three years working on that book and then it got picked up. I have small press. And they signed me for three books.

Liana George: So now I have a author entrepreneurship. I went from being a, you know, a business organizer to an author or a professional. And then just a few weeks ago, I decided that maybe I should do another company. And so I started a different one. That combines the organizing and the writing. It's like, you know, those VIN diagrams where you put the three circles together.

Liana George: I had the organizing one, I had the writing one and I didn't realize how much the helping one was. And so in that sweet spot is what we call the author's right hand. And so it is a virtual assistant and marketing you know, boutique company that. Helps Christian and clean fiction authors handle, we handle the marketing side so they can do the things that they love to do, which is really just right.

Liana George: Writers. Just wanna write, we don't wanna market our books. We don't want to. You know, be on social media or all that kind of stuff. We just wanna play with the characters in our heads. And so, I saw a real need for that. And so I formed a team of four of us and we have this thing and it's been amazing to see it take off.

Liana George: We have already have four or five clients and just a few weeks we've been open. We don't even have our website up. So, it's definitely a need, it was pain point that I saw and just decided to jump on the band wagon. 

Greg Mills: Okay. Now, do you come from an entrepreneurial or an author's background at all? Did anybody in your family have a company or write a book?

Liana George: No, not at all. Not at all. No. When it's really funny because now I see my daughters doing it. And so I'm kinda like maybe they got it from me and I just didn't realize it , but yeah, no, my dad, he worked for the IRS. My mom worked for the Texan department of agriculture and they didn't at the time. That was not a big thing to be an entrepreneur, I don't think.

Liana George: And so that. Nothing that I saw exemplified in my life. And then, and as far as the writing, no, there's nobody in my family that writes my dad's a big greeter, but that's about it. 

Greg Mills: What motivated you to change career? Well, not careers, but I guess. Yeah. Well, let's go back with that. 

Liana George: I did a complete shift, so, you know, I, like I said, I started the organizing the, by George organizing where I would go in and I would help people declutter their homes, you know, we'd get rid of the things they no longer loved, wanted, or need.

Liana George: And then we would try to make systems and, you know, organizing systems that would work for them in their space. And that was great. I love meeting the people and. Where I got the idea for my book in the first place, but I got tired of kind of just holding bags and saying, do you like this? Do you want it?

Liana George: Do you need it? I didn't feel like it was the best use of my skills. And I felt like when I was there, I wanted to be home writing. And when I was home writing, I never wanted to leave. I just wanted to stay home and write. So I just kind of felt that shift in my heart. And then physically you know, the, after being over 40 and then over 50 it was becoming a little bit harder to knee down and get into people's lower kitchen cabinets or climb up the stairs up and down with, you know, boxes of donations that they wanted to give away.

Liana George: So it became a physical, you know, I kept thinking to. Physically, how long do I think I can do this? And I knew that I couldn't so. And then I wanted to give my full time and attention. I believe where you put your focus is where you put your, where you see your growth. And so I wanted to put my focus, so I slowly just stopped seeing clients.

Liana George: And I thought I would miss it. I thought, oh, I'll go back to it. And I have not one at all. I still do organizing for a while. Well, I have a part-time job where I write for an organizing company outta Chicago. And I volunteer teaching. Lower income families organizing procedures and methods and things like that.

Liana George: As a volunteer, I used, still do that. So it's still within me, my passion, but not where I want to earn a living in it day in and day out. Okay. So yeah, so then I shifted and I, it didn't, but I didn't think about myself as an author entrepreneur until I got that contract, then everything kind of shifted there.

Greg Mills: I'm kind of surprised you haven't done a non-fiction book about 

Liana George: organizing. Well, it's interesting that you say that because my publisher who just. Right now just to publishes fiction, that's all they focus on. She decided a few weeks ago to expand the line and make a imprint of non-fiction.

Liana George: And actually I had been working on a non-fiction organizing book. But it was different because you know, there's already Marie condo out there. There's already the home edit. There's no way I'm ever gonna, anything I have to say is gonna, you know, Be as, as best selling as their stuff. And in non-fiction you have to have a really different angle for your for your writing.

Liana George: So I thought, you know, I wanna keep it faith based because that's very important to me. And so I. Started writing devotionals based on organ or what the Bible has to say about being organized. And most people don't realize how much the Bible has to say about being organized. It's truly mind blowing when you look at it.

Liana George: And so I've partnered with another, a faithful Christian organizer and we've written a book and my publisher I submitted it to her for consideration and that will be coming out in 2023. So yeah. Okay. 

Greg Mills: We'll have to have you back all when you, when that does come out. Yeah, that 

Liana George: would be great.

Liana George: I would love to. 

Greg Mills: How did you receive a call to write a book? 

Liana George: Oh, well, I knew that I loved writing. I mean, I have loved writing since I was a little girl. I mean, I can remember. Writing. I was actually a journalism major before I became a teacher.

Liana George: So I loved writing. It's always been my passion. But fear also took a big hold of my heart. And so I had to overcome that fear before I could do anything else, but it was the organizing that actually helped me come up with the story idea. I, when, well, I should back up a little bit. We've lived in China for two and a half.

Liana George: Oh, wow. We We lived overseas for a total of five, two and a half in China, two and a half in Germany with my husband's chemical company. And while we were in China, my dad had called and said, Hey, I know you go to Shanghai a lot. We lived like two hours away. And he said, next time you go, I have a friend who found this Chi business card for an address in Shanghai and her father's things.

Liana George: And she doesn't understand why he would have it. He had just passed away. She was going through her stuff. He said, the next time you go, can you. Look for the address. And I said, sure. So we went the next time and we looked for the address, you know, street names, change and things change a lot, especially in a city like Shanghai and we just couldn't find it.

Liana George: So I kept the card and I always thought to myself, I wonder what was there? And I wonder what would the, why the father had it and never told his family. So I kept it tucked away and I thought to myself, You know, that would make a great story. But I just didn't know what to do with it. And like I said, I didn't have a clue how to write fiction.

Liana George: So I just tucked away like most authors into my idea pile and then fast forward to my organizing years. And somebody was asking me, gosh, I bet you have the best stories about being in people's homes. I was like, oh, you know it, I mean, I've done entire shoe room. I've, you know, I've just had story after story.

Liana George: I'd done a Broadway guy who was on Broadway as a kid. And then it dawned on me, there's the story, a professional organizer and her client are going through her father's things and they find the business card and that's what leads them on the adventure to China to uncover what's there. And so that's what my first book perfectly arranged is about.

Liana George: It's the beginning of the story of a professional organizer and her eccentric client who was based on one of my clients and they go to China to uncover a family, MIS a family mystery. Okay. Yeah. 

Greg Mills: Now kinda, can you walk us through your writing process? 

Liana George: Oh, wow. That's a it's yeah, that may be 

Greg Mills: a, maybe a loaded question.

Greg Mills: it may 

Liana George: be a loaded question. You know, for me now it's much easier at first it was really hard. I mean, I had no clue. I had no idea. How to write. And even though I love writing, writing, and fiction, story's not as easy as everybody thinks it is, you know, oh, I've got this idea for a book. It's what you people say, what people say, right.

Liana George: And they think it's easy. It's not, it's a lot of work. You have to understand the craft of writing. You kind of have to understand, there's not a formula. Like you just plug in a formula, but there are certain elements that every story needs to have based on its genre. So I write contemporary women's fiction.

Liana George: So, you know, I have to have certain elements in there. If I wrote romance, you know, you'd have to have certain elements if you write mystery, same thing. So I had to learn the craft and I've had to learn how to write like, whether I want to be a plotter or a dancer, which means do I have to sit and plot down everything that happens in every chapter, in every scene?

Liana George: Or do I just take the idea and start writing by the scene of my pants? I've gone back and forth with that. And I have found that the more I know about a story, the more I plot out the story, the better writer I am. And so I need, I don't need like to. You know extent that, you know, I have every single little detail I like to be writing and then let the ideas come, but I like to know where I'm going on the path.

Liana George: So that, that's what I do. So what I do first is I will come up with the idea. And then I will plot out what we call the story skeleton, you know, , what's gonna happen. You have to have an inciting incident that, something that change. You know, the person, your main characters everyday world.

Liana George: Like, so think Luke Skywalker you know, that would be when yeah, you know, I mean, that's the example they use, you know, the day that everything changed is when he met Ben Kenobi and his whole world got changed upside down when the day destroyed his aunt and uncle's house. So he's get this call to adventure.

Liana George: So you gotta have this inciting incident and you gotta have something at the 20. The 50% mark, you've gotta have, you know, the middle, and then you've gotta have this dark moment around the 75% where all hope is lost. Right. And, you know, Ben dies, all hope is lost, but then there's still redeeming at the end and you bring it to a conclusion.

Liana George: So I had to learn how to, I first I start with that because I need to make sure I've got those points. Then I start filling in the gaps from there. And what I do is I take each chapter. And I write out, you know, what is the goal of the chapter? What is the character's motivation? What are gonna be some conflicts because no good story is a story without conflict.

Liana George: So, you need some conflict in there, which, you know, it's like somebody dying, somebody not getting what they want, things like that. And then you've got to have kind of a decision, you know, what am I gonna do here? And then you kind of move into the next chapter. So I will go through and I will. What we call a Siemens sequel for each theme.

Liana George: And then I, once I have that all written out, kind of a big oversight over outline, then I take my handy remarkable, and I don't get paid, but if they'd like to pay me for it I use my remarkable tablet and I write out by hand Probably 80,000 words, if not more, because you do a lot of editing.

Liana George: So, I write everything in my hand. I can't, I can type it out. It just doesn't, there's something, there's a connection between my brain and my hand. Yeah. That I just write better with that. So I write everything, my hand, that remarkable tablet converts it into text. And then I just put it in my word document and revise.

Liana George: And so then after I do that, I revise, I try to write two chapters a week and each chapter is about 4,000 words. So I write about 8,000 words a week just on the book, but I probably write more than that on other things. Then I revise, I work with my coach every week. We just got off a call. She'll gimme her feedback some guidance, and then I just keep going until I get the book done and try to finish it before the publisher wants it.

Greg Mills: What surprised you the most about the writing process? 

Liana George: How hard it is, how truly hard it is. And so I tell new people, new writers, new wanna be, you know, aspiring authors to practice how you play is how you practice. Start before you ever get the book contract, acting like a writer, sit down in the chair, dedicate the time, learn the craft so that when that contract comes around and the next book comes, cuz I got my first contract in 20, 20, December of 2020.

Liana George: They wanted just the first book and I was gonna have to write out the second. And then my publisher said, no, I love this story. Let's just find you for the two. She took it on good faith. And so I had to quickly start writing and I was not prepared for all the things I had to market for book one, plus, you know, learn and write for book two and plot out.

Liana George: So I always tell people, you know, it's, I wish I would've. Been better prepared, I guess. Yeah. 

Greg Mills: I could see now see that now do they, did they handle all of the editing and the book cover art and they 

Liana George: do okay. They do. So I'm very blessed by that. It's a small print press. You know, in the industry, you, if you want one of the bigger publishing houses, you usually have to have an agent.

Liana George: And I, I don't have anything against the agent, but they, you know, usually want you to have a bigger platform. They want you to have, you know, these kind of numbers for your email list and for your social media. And I thought, you know, why not? I just go the route of not, if there's there for, there are publishers who's willing who are willing to pay me to write books, then, you know, If they don't want an agent, then wanna deal with that, then I'm not going to, so I don't have an agent.

Liana George: But I do have the publisher. We, I do pay an outside editor first. So like, for example, for this third book, I'm just about finished. I will give it to her. Mid-September she will give me some feedback cuz I've just had my eyes on it. My coach and I have had my, our eyes on it for so long. We just want a fresh set of eyes.

Liana George: I'll give it to my beta reader. So you see what they think of it. I have some very faithful friends that I can take criticism from and not feel like I'm at the end of the world. And so then I get that back and about three or four weeks later, I give it to my publisher. Then it goes through another round of content, developmental, edit.

Liana George: When she finishes, then it goes to the line edit, and that's where they're looking for the grammatical things. You know, making sure that words that need to be idolized or, you know, the commas are in the right place. And then during that time, my publisher and I work on the graphics for the cover.

Liana George: And then all the book blurb things, you know, the back copy marketing tools, different things like that. And then I, the, then that then I'm on my kind of, I'm kind of on, because it is a small press. Kind of on my own for publishing, they do give me a few graphics to help out with. But you know, it had, they have a limited budget, which I understand.

Liana George: So that's kind of why I started the author's hand right hand to help those who I saw a lot of authors struggling with that. Once they got to the point where it's time to launch their budget, they're kinda like, I don't know what to do, so I don't know how to do it. So that's kind of why we started that, that business.

Greg Mills: Let's talk about that some now, what are all of the services that you offer? Because I could see it and I guess even backing up from that a little bit. . Who is your ideal client? Would it be somebody that has a publishing contract or would it be an independent author?

Liana George: Both actually both. And actually, I also want to. Unpublished writers, because like I said, how you practice is how you play and they need to have things in order because once that book contract comes up, it, everything starts just going, multiplying, you know, exponential exponentially really fast.

Liana George: And you are expected to do certain things while you're still trying to edit and write and things like that. And they aren't ready for it. So I wanna. Unpublished authors who, you know, are pretty close to getting that book deal. I wanna help published authors, whether they're traditionally published with small presses, large presses doesn't matter and independent authors as well.

Liana George: Because they too have, you know, a lot of things. I mean, you just have to juggle so much and especially when you don't have a press behind you, then they have to have somebody to do the covers and they have to do the marketing and it can be a lot. And you know, the people are out there going, we want more books, we want more books.

Liana George: And they're like, I don't have time for more books because I'm over here doing all these other things. So that's yeah. That's who I would say my target already. 

Greg Mills: What type of services are you offering them? So are you editing marketing? 

Liana George: No, no editing. Okay. I don't even edit my own books though.

Liana George: okay. So I don't wanna touch other author's but no, basically we wanna help them get organized and get ready. For what's coming up. We offer email, like, you know, having a newsletter. That's really one of the best ways to sell a book is with the newsletter . So, we want to help them get that set up in a way that's just not by my book, it's connecting with the author, developing a relationship with the author that makes them go.

Liana George: I really like. How she writes. I like what she has to say. I think I'm gonna go buy her book. So we've help them get the, get them set up with that. Create that landing sequence or welcome sequence landing pages, things like that for emails ways to build their email list. We help them with the newsletter writing content ideas.

Liana George: Social media, same way content, getting those pages to where they need to be. You know, a lot of people don't realize how important your banner is or how much your headshot matters or having just the right information on your Instagram. Bio, you know, it's just, you know, precious commodity. How do you make the most out of that space?

Liana George: And a lot of people just don't understand that. So helping them with those kind of things helping them with their blogs you know, you would be amazed at how. Writers don't like to blog or don't know what to blog about. You would think that would be easy, but they don't know what to blog about.

Liana George: So helping them with that, because that's another way to draw people to their website, where hopefully their books are listed and people wanna read their books helping them with reader sites like good reads book, bub, Amazon author. Things like that. And then of course, hopefully book launches.

Liana George: That's a huge thing to need help with. I learned that the hard way after I about killed myself with the first one, and even with the second one, I thought I was better prepared and it was still a very tiresome, very exhausting really hard six weeks. And so I wanna help people get set up with that and get their launch teams in place to help publicize and get the word out about their books.

Greg Mills: What did you do for your book launches? 

Liana George: Oh, so, you know, we were still in COVID shutdown kind of time, so it's not like you can go and you know, have these long lines because I'm with a small press. I can't go over to Barnes and noble and, you know, have a signing where people are standing out the door waiting to get my, but.

Liana George: So, but at 

Greg Mills: that point, no one else was either 

Liana George: no people else was either. So, I got a group of about 20 people. They all happen to be women, but that's not limited to launches. And I spent the six weeks with them really getting them to know me and to know my story and the characters.

Liana George: Building that excitement. So they wanted to go tell people launch team members get an advanced copy reader advanced reader copy. So they get to read the book. So that they can tell people about it, you know, and they can share it on social media leave reviews on Amazon and good reads. And then, you know, just have fun.

Liana George: I like to, you know, have fun with people. So I would do giveaways and, you know, zoom calls where they could ask me questions and things like that. And then I did my launch a little bit differently in that I am an introvert, so I'm not big on. You know, spending time high five . So I decided to do it my way instead of having a book sign in at someplace and telling the public come sign, my, you know, come by my book, you don't know me.

Liana George: We, my husband was wonderful as he is, and he planned the whole weekend where we kind of. Redid some of the steps in the book. They're kind of hard since they're in China. But we went and ate hotpot. For example, one of the scenes in the book was that they went and ate hotpot. So we took our closest family and friends and we went to a hotpot for lunch.

Liana George: And then in the book they climbed a great wall. So we went to some natural bridge caverns here in Texas, and we journeyed through there. And then we had this really nice dinner at night where I got to go around the room and just tell every person. What they meant for, to me on the journey to get to the, where I was that day.

Liana George: Then I sold like 40 books. I had brought books and they bought books for people and I sold 40 books and I signed all of them. And, you know, it was almost the same thing, but it was my way of doing it. It's maybe not popular for everybody, but it was a special night one that I'll always remember. And you know, it was great.

Greg Mills: Going back to, helping authors with their blogs and their newsletters on the content, do you advocate having separate content for each and how often should they publish to 

Liana George: both? Yeah, so, well, for let's just, there are two different things there.

Liana George: So for like social media if you want to be a writer if you want to, you know, have a published book, go ahead and get started. Now create that author page. You can call it. I actually I felt uncomfortable calling myself author because I felt like it had to be, you had to be published to call yourself that, but actually an author is anybody who writes something.

Liana George: And if you write a blog, if you write an article, if you write a devotion for your child, you know, or whatever, you're an author. So, go ahead and create that author. Page and start posting things on there. I tell people to post things, it's that it's same way with business. It's the like no and trust factor, right?

Liana George: People wanna buy from people that they like no and trust, and you're actually selling your product, which is a book. So you have to get people to like no and trust you. So post things that will get people to do that. And you know, if it's too much to give different material, then yeah. Cross post I cross post all the time from Facebook to Instagram But in, in post, on platforms where your readers are, there is no point for me to post on TikTok because that is a lot for younger kids.

Liana George: I don't write Y or middle school stuff. I write for 25 to 60 year old womens. Well, but they're gonna be on Facebook and Instagram. So that's where I wanna spend most of my time. So I would say, you know, do that during a launch I'm posting five, seven times a week. One or two times a day, because I have so much going on, you know, I'm on a blog tour and I wanna tell people, go, Hey, go read their blog tour.

Liana George: I wanna let them know there's a free chapter on my publisher's website. Or, you know, this is what it looks like when you're going through a launch and this is your office space, you know? So I try to. It's a little bit crazier when I'm not launching three to five times a week. I don't need to be on there every day and I don't always need to be talking about my book stuff.

Liana George: So, but for newsletters if you're starting out and you don't have a book yet, go ahead and start building that list. Because you will. And that's one of the things, when you go talk to conf, go to conferences and talk to agents and editors and publishing houses, they're gonna ask you, do you have a newsletter list?

Liana George: So go ahead and start building it. You don't need to publish every month maybe every quarter would be good for somebody who's just starting out, but if you are a published. If you have a publisher, you have a contract for books, you need to be publishing once a month, for sure. At least. And then, you know, again, tailor it to the message that maybe you have on your blog.

Liana George: So, you know, I do different things with my blog one. It was for a while I was doing. You know, every what I was reading, you know, and telling people I was reading, and now I'm doing reading challenges, you know, everybody does these big reading challenges. So I have my team curate some books that fall under different genres that they could qualify for the reading challenges.

Liana George: I may do author interviews next year for the whole year. Just kind of do it. So, but then sometimes I'll intersperse it with things like, because. Character's professional organizer. She takes over the blog and she does Nikki Mayfield's organizing tips on how to pack for a trip because she's going on a trip or, you know, put two deals with a lot of paperwork.

Liana George: She's looking for some missing documents. So she gave some tips on how to do that. But definitely at least once a month blog and once a month do a newsletter and in your newsletter mention your blog because you wanna direct people to that traffic. 

Greg Mills: Are you like setting them up with either MailChimp mail or light or whatever or is the author doing 

Liana George: that? No, we can help them do that. We, I found both just this week alone today and tomorrow I have.

Liana George: Client appointments. And the lady we met with today, she's already got it set up, but she only has like 50 people on it. Her book comes out next September, so we need to help her get that newsletter list growing so she can let people more people know. The client meeting with tomorrow has no newsletter.

Liana George: She doesn't have on mail. She doesn't have MailChimp, she doesn't have anything. So we need to go in and get that MailChimp set up for her. And so we'll do both You know, and tell them kind of like some guidelines to how to build that newsletter and craft it in a way that's engaging, informational without being too salesy.

Greg Mills: What do you recommend as a way to build a newsletter for somebody that does not have a a published book? 

Liana George: You start with your mom and your dad, your grandparents, your sister, any close relative. Yeah, you just start with them and then you get on, you know, you find different ways to engage with other writers and you know, you swap out and you know, but then the other thing too, is the writers have great advantage cause they like to write.

Liana George: So write a short story that you give away for free. For somebody who signs up for your newsletter? I don't have that yet. I was blessed that I had a large list from my organizing business. And so when I quit, I said, Hey guys, I'm quitting. And then when I started my writing, I went back to that list.

Liana George: I said, you know me as an organizer. And if you wanna unscript subscribe because I'm not doing that's fine. But if you wanna follow me along on this new writing journey, I'm going. I'd love to have you continue. So I was blessed to already kind of start with a large list. And so I've been able to build that over the last two years, but I don't have that, but one of my goals this year when I'm, when my life calms down is to Write a prequel to perfectly arranged a short little prequel that tells us how Nikki got into the situation she gets to when you open page one and find out that she's hanging up her label maker.

Liana George: So, I wanna do that, but people can write short stories or, you know, some, you know, just tips or something, you know, to help others. If you have. Specific you know, genre or if you write nonfiction that's a great way to, to get people to do that. 

Greg Mills: Now by, writing a short story or writing a kind of a lead magnet, if you will.

Greg Mills: Are you telling, are you have advising people to like, put it on Amazon as a permanent free or 

Liana George: for, to then you, you could, or you could find other ways. Especially for writers, there are different things like book funnel. And things like that. They have opportunities. As a matter of fact, the lady that I spoke with today she was like, I need a landing page, cause I wanna give this free, short story away on book funnel.

Liana George: But I need to direct people, you know, to a landing page that I don't have a clue how to create. So, yeah, you can, there are a lot of different ways you can do that for sure, but make sure that it's been edited, make sure that it's quality material, because if they get turned off. Your short story or Nove that you offer for free and it's not any good.

Liana George: It's got a whole bunch of MIS grammatical errors, then they're not gonna wanna buy your book later on down the. 

Greg Mills: What's next for you? 

Liana George: Oh, so, like I said, I have the, to finish up perfectly matched, which is book three in the series. My series is it's a little bit, some series are like, you take a character and then maybe you take a secondary character from book one and give them their whole book and book two, but mine's a continuation.

Liana George: So you kind of read, need to read them in order. am. Eight chapters short of finishing that one. So my goal is to get that finished. I need to Write a, at least two chapters for a Nove romance Nove that I'm working on with three other authors. That's gonna come out hopefully in 20, 24, if it gets approved.

Liana George: I have to finish the devotional organizing devotional by March of 2023. So I've got some writing projects for sure. That will keep me busy. I wanna write that pre-cool so everybody can know how Nikki got in trouble and. Then yeah, just developing my business for the author's right hand. I'd like to do some more speaking engagements.

Liana George: I do like to speak and teach. So, I have a speaking engagement in Dallas next month, so I would like to do it more about organizing and writing, helping writers get organized because they're not creatives. Tend to have a bad rap about being organized, that you can't be organized and creative, and I want to prove the world wrong that you can 

Greg Mills: yeah.

Greg Mills: Yeah, we can. We can be organized. We can be creative. 

Liana George: Absolutely. Absolutely. We can be both. It's just finding the right way for you. That works best for. 

Greg Mills: Okay, let's get ready to wrap this up. Is there anything that I've asked that I have not asked that you'd like to go over or do that you think that we should?

Greg Mills: No, you've 

Liana George: done a great job. You allow me to talk about my organizing, my writing, my author's right hand business. It's been great. I've loved it. I just wanna encourage people who you know, our 40 and think, oh, the world is over. I'm it's too late. That it's never too late. I signed my first book contract when I was.

Liana George: And I, you know, I thought for sure that would never happen. And I still have seven or eight more ideas. I'm not gonna stop, you know, I'm not let age stop me. So don't let that number stop you from whatever business or idea you wanna do. If the young kids can do it. So can we, so keep at it, keep trying and keep reaching for your.

Greg Mills: Okay. Now, what book do you currently recommend is to move someone interested in becoming an author to actually becoming an author or writing 

Liana George: better? Oh, that's a good question. Gosh, there's so many good ones. I would say if you just wanna be inspired then Steven King's on writing was really good. And a bird by bird is by Anne LA.

Liana George: Really good books. I thought you were gonna ask me, I had it all prepared. Cause I thought you were gonna ask me what book to be an entrepreneur. So I had that one ready too. So 

Greg Mills: if you want that one, well, let's pretend I was a let's pretend I was an actually good host. And what book do you recommend for entrepreneurs?

Liana George: Yeah. What book do you re? So I have started reading, born to build by Jim Clifton. Page, it had me at page two or three. I was like, this is amazing. And I'm so glad I found it. It talks about how to build a thriving startup, a winning team, new customers, and your best life imaginable. And I am just hooked on it so far.

Liana George: So I would recommend that. 

Greg Mills: Okay. What software do you use? Primarily in. Author in your author journey in your author journey, both as both in writing, as well as in, you know, marketing and promoting. Sure. 

Liana George: So I am a Microsoft word girl. Some authors really like Scrivener. Which I do use grinner as well.

Liana George: I just, it's got a steep learning curve. But I, those who take the time to learn it, love it. But I do use it for my research and things like that. So I do use that for my business. I'm learning to love Google drive. I'm just like, wow. The things I can do with Google drive. So those are my two big ones at the moment.

Greg Mills: Okay. What's the number one piece of advice that you can give for our listeners? 

Liana George: Have faith in yourself believe that you can, and don't let anybody stop you from trying. 

Greg Mills: That's great advice. Well, that's a wrap. Thank you for being guest on entrepreneurs over 40.

Liana George: Well, thank you for having me. I've enjoyed visiting with you. I Haven. Writers tend to talk a lot though. You know, words are really big with us, so, I hope I didn't Bavel too much, but I really did enjoy my time with you here today.