Show Transcription: 

Jo  

Welcome to another episode of Business and Sequins. Thanks so much for tuning in. Oh my goodness, I feel very, very privileged to have you listening. So today we've got a really exciting guest. We've got somebody that I've known for many, many years. And I am so I'm excited to have a chat with her. She is the author of an incredible book called Treasure Beyond Measure. And I've come back to do the intro because after I interviewed Helen, and I want to just say, you know, Helen, I have watched Helens marketing of her book, and I just think she's just done such an astonishing job of marketing her book. And she is just such a clever, clever, clever human being. And her book, The treasure beyond media and how she self published it, and how she has sold out and all the milestones that she's heard through promoting her book and having her book out there in the world. I think it takes a lot of courage for anyone to put something put put themselves into something and then put it on online and out in the world for everyone to look at and to read, but it's an incredible book. And so I'm just I'm really, really honored to have Helen chatting with me today. And just talking through the whole publishing a book and just to a wonderful book of treasure beyond measure. So I'm excited to have her here.

Welcome, as I, you have all heard my introduction to Helen, I am so excited to have Helen here. Because something that is really exciting is that Helen has actually seen my two children as well, when they were little. And Asia rose, she worked with extra who's now at. And so you know how it works with with him when they were five. So she has seen them kind of grow up through the wonderful world of Facebook. And we've been friends now for a very long time. But I wanted to just bring Helen on the show and introduce you to her and have a chat with her because I think what you've done is just so remarkable, Helen. So welcome, Helen to business and sequence podcast.

Helen

Thank you. And I'm so I feel really honored, actually to be that you asked me joke, because I'm always amazed that your energy is such an inspiration. So I'm I feel very honored to be here. Thank you for asking me.

Jo  

Well, one of the main reasons that I really wanted to ask you today is just because, as I said in the, in the introduction to Helen that she has written this book called Treasure Beyond Measure, and it's just, I listened to it again this morning with my our little 12 year old era Bella, and on Spotify, and just everything about it. It's just so beautiful, Helen. So do you want to though, in your own words, just give our listeners just a little bit of an idea of your journey so far to getting to where you are right now.

Helen

Back to Turkey? Well, yeah, I will. So I have this book called Treasure Beyond Measure, which I launched a year ago today, actually. So this is a really timely podcast. And that yeah, I never had any aspirations of being a children's author. It wasn't on my life goals list of things to do. It just sort of happened as a result of a sort of perfect storm, if you like of things. And I've always loved language. And my Chinese as a speech and language therapist, I studied linguistics at university. I love education, I trained as a primary school teacher. So language and and education. And a concern for what's happening with the planet. Just sort of collided really, when I started writing poetry now, I wrote poetry as a way of dealing with a set of circumstances that were less than ideal for me personally, and became a sort of creative vent. If you like for me to just get all the woods and worries that we're running around in my head at three o'clock in the morning, sort of out and down and done. And as I, as I put them on to into notes on my phone at three in the morning, because of this, you can't write in the dark, but as I would put them on to notes, and yeah, this, this thing would happen. And all of a sudden, they would end up with poems, and the poems would, the poems would rhyme and the poems wouldn't rhyme, some more happy, and some are quite dark. And, yeah, I just found a way of, it just helped me a lot. To write poems, I wrote hundreds of them, I think my phone's got about 900 poems on it. And in September 2017, I've been writing poetry for about six months. And every year, it's conservation week, and department conservation when this sort of awareness week where we need to think about our relationship with the planet and with our environment, and the whole concept of kaitiaki Tanner. And yeah, I just decided that I would sit down and write some poems about conservation. I wrote this poem, and it was one of five that just sort of K flowed out of my head at the time. And it sort of combined the idea of collective nouns and biodiversity and the idea that we have these amazing words that we can use to describe groups of animals, for example, like a bloat of hippos, and an embarrassment of panders. And the fact is that if we don't look after our animals or biodiversity, then we're not going to be able to use these amazing words. So I sort of took that idea of linking collective nouns with biodiversity. And, yeah, I came up with this poem, which I sort of wrote initially, just as a spoken word poem. So again, it wasn't meant to be a book. And it sort of became a book by all the idea was the seed was sown when I took it, too. I like the poem. I thought it was a fun poem at the time, and WOMAD was coming up. Now of course, WOMAD happens a tad and iKey every year and in March As an 18, I thought, You know what they're having a poetry slam, which is like a competition where you just get up on stage and you have a three minute window to just present your poem. I thought, I thought, I always like to try and push myself and step out of my comfort zone. So I thought I would, I would learn my collective noun poem. And, yes, dip onto the stage and recite it had three minutes. And so I did. And it went really well. I like when I came off stage, I had several people say to me, You know what, Helen, you should turn it into a book. And so, so, at the time, I had lots of other balls in the air, professionally, and I didn't really have the time, or the inclination to be able to do that. But it was always something that I was aware of. And actually, at the time, we'd recently had Craig Smith, who is the author of wonky donkey. He'd visited one of my businesses rumpus room, which is was an indoor children's play and party venue, and I had his contact number. And I thought, well, you know, what, if there's one person that knows how to write a book, or can at least point me in the right direction,

Helen

it's him. So I cheekily sent him a message on Facebook, sort of Hi, Helen here from from pursuit. I've written this poem, and people say I should turn it into a book. Have you got any pointers? You know, I'm a great believer in, you know, if you don't ask you don't get. So I, you know, he could have not replied, but the fact is that he did reply. And he said, Well, you know what, it's a pretty, it's a pretty tough ask to publish a children's book. And I think 2.2 million children's books are published every year. So it's a hugely competitive field to get into. So I, he said, let me just take a look at it. Let me take a look at your poem and decide what it's worth, and let you know if it's worth your time and effort. So I flicked the poem to him rather nervously. And within 10 minutes, he was on the phone to me saying, you really do need to work on this, you need to get this need to publish this, which was, which is a great vote of confidence, it sort of made me think, Okay, well, maybe I do need to work on it. And so that's where it all started out, really. And so that was March 2018. And I sort of took my time, it was sort of like, I'd work on it, and then put it to one side and get on with life, and then bring it back out and look at it and change it a little bit. And there was a lot of work that needed doing because obviously I was turning it in from a three minute spoken word poem into a much longer children's book in the sense that so for example, now, like the version you listen to on Spotify, I think it's about six and a half, seven minutes long. I also had to give a lot, I had to fit the sort of industry standard as 32 pages. And I had to be very conscious of the way in which the language would fit the illustrations because in the original poem, I had a glint of goldfish in the same standard as a group of gorillas. Now, goldfish gorillas did not hang out in the same habitat. So I therefore had to really think about, okay, it was like this giant jigsaw puzzle of sort of auditory information and rhyme, as well as visual thinking, you know, thinking about how that was going to be depicted by my illustrator. And I was able to find the most amazing illustrator, Simon Chadwick, who agreed to, yeah, who agreed to do it. So and it was all go from there.

Jo

It's incredible. And, you know, I feel so blessed to have watched your journey as well through, you know, the kind of the start of it and watching you put it all together and then watching, you market it as well. When you are deciding this, and you've kind of got the idea that yes, I am going to do this. You've got the publishing or, you know, being published, or self published. So how did you go about deciding which way you were going to go? Or did you put it into publishers? Or go How did?

Helen

I just submitted it to publishers. And, and I got a letter back then we were interested. And, but at the time, I'd already sort of forged this link with Simon, my illustrator. Now very often when you're going to when you go to a publishing house, they have their own in house illustrator, so you shouldn't you shouldn't really submit a manuscript with images because they need to have an eye they'll have an idea of how they want to produce their books. And when I saw Simon's work, I just knew that we shared the same vision for the book, and that I wasn't going to be able to use his images. If I chose the being published route. There's also a lot of, you know, when when you, I did a lot of research into into the whole thing, and basically felt that if I was going to hand over my baby, like this thing I created to a publishing house. And I was sort of giving them the creative rights, you know, they, they would make the decisions about how they wanted this book to look and feel, and no ideas about being able to put a glossary in the background and, and little globes on the pages for people to find the way in which I wanted sort of environmental folly to be represented on the pages, I wasn't going to have any say in that. And I've always been a bit of a control freak. So I'm having that taken away from me was not something I was prepared to do plus. And I would also be giving all the financial reward over to someone else. And you know, what I thought I had enough of a basis in business to be able to go up to be able to say, right, if I'm going to do this, this is my product. So I sat down, I actually wrote a business plan for my book as a product. And that having that business plan then allowed me to sort of, I could keep referring back to it to make sure that I was saying, staying grounded and staying true to what I was wanting from my book. And that was really helpful along the way. And therefore it also meant that I could take, I could also, you know, get some financial benefit from this product. Because very often when you know, when you're selling a book, the pointy end of publishing is quite interesting. You know, you have a book that's valued at, say, 20 bucks, just like treasure bear measure is, and most wholesalers will take their 40%. Okay. And then on top of that, you have a distributor fee. So if you're lucky enough to be signed to a distributor, who then deals with retail, they then take another 30%. So that's 70% of the book gone. And then if you have a publisher, you know, they're gonna take another margin of 20%. But at least which leaves you with, like, $1 $2 for this book that you've created? No, no, no, thanks. So, um, I guess that's why, you know, with the business hat on, I was like, I can I can I believe in this book, and I can make it happen. And, yeah, and I did, I made it happen. 

Jo

And you certainly have, you certainly have made that happen. I love that you came from it. Because, you know, I think that's when some people might get tripped up is that they get so involved in the actual book and hid into the book that they don't actually look at that whole at the business, you know, and the whole, I want to get it on to this, I want to get onto bookshelf, so I'll go with a publisher. And then you know, it's not until the end, but is when you go, Gosh, I'm only getting $1 or $2 off my book. So I love that you approached it with that whole business head on and then keep true to your plan and to what your what you were thinking that you're wanting to do with the book. So you know, carry on,

Helen

I appreciate that. There are some people out there, there are some writers out there and all they want to do is write and that and that's, that's for them, you know, but I was coming at it with a whole different set of skills, if you like in terms of my business background, and you know, rumpus room, for example. I, whilst it was a VISTA rumpus room for those that I was a business I'm around for about five and a half years, it's an indoor play and party venue, incredibly popular. But during that those five and a half years, I lost myself I committed myself too much to it. And yeah, wore my boots basically burnt myself out. And but it was, I would never have I don't regret it for a single moment, I learned a hell of a lot about people. And it's a hell of a lot about business. I learned a hell of a lot about myself, and have not gone through that process. I never would have started writing and I never would have ended up with my book. So I definitely believe that. No, we go through things now. And whilst it was incredibly challenging, and taxing and, and at the time, it set me up with a whole heap of marketing skills that I was then able to also apply to my book. So no being able to use social media and be able to just sort of try different things. I bet effectively cut my teeth she'd be like, on up with with the rumpus room experience. And then I was able to apply what I'd learned from that situation to try to be better. Yeah.

Jo

I love it so much. So you have decided to now Self Publish? Yeah. And what what did you do next? Where do you even start? When you've decided that? Where do you even start, Helen?

Helen

Yeah, so, um, there are a lot of sharks out there for a hoot who prey on people's desire, if you'd like to be published. And you have to be really careful. So the way that I went about it, and oh, and the other thing is a lot of snobbery around the idea of publishing too, you know, and it's really interesting, because when you look at other creative, other areas of the arts, and you can beat and you can now be an artist that sits in the bedroom and records tracks, and then uploads them to Spotify. And you're successful. And and you're given. Yeah, you know, that you can do that as a successful independent artist. If you create your own book, there's a sort of, ah, it's not being good enough to make the publishing, you know, it's not being good enough to be published by a publishing house. And that sort of, yeah, I don't know, it's sort of a less a product, if you like, because it's been self published. And which, which is a pity, I think we need to work past that. Because when you look at published books, you know, there are some great published books, but there are also some rubbish published books. So just because your book is self published, doesn't mean that it's rubbish, you know, just because it hasn't had the stamp of approval from from a publishing house. So, so yeah, that was something that I wanted to make sure happened. So yeah, so how did I get what I what I did when it came to publish self publishing is I went into a bookstore. And one of the things I've noticed about self published books is that they scream self published, and not shiny, they've got shiny covers, the quality of the paper isn't quite right. And, and, and I needed to create a book that would sit alongside other books from publishing houses, that would look and it wouldn't look at a place. So I needed to think about how do I want my book to look? So I went into, I went into a bookstore, and I sat down, I looked through all the books and decided which ones I liked the look of and then basically thought, okay, find out where they were published, and make contact with the printers and said, I've got this book, and I'd like it printed, please. And, and I have to say, acknowledge at one point here, I did make contact with our heads way. I don't know if you know of that book, but it's a very well. It's just, it's a wonderful book about children's emotional literacy, and is also self published. So backflip and Craig Phillips from other has way I watched them on social media, watch what they were doing, and make contact with them and said, I really like the quality of your book. And can you let me know about your printer and how you went about that, again, asking questions, they could have just gone. Nope, sorry. But they didn't, you know, they said, Oh, we use this printer. And so I took it from them, really? And that's how I saw the printer for the book. And, and yeah, once the book was formatted, and I was able to send it off to the printer, and the printer would still send me the 2000 copies that I did for my first one. Yeah. And that and that arrived in about just about September, September time last year. Yeah.

Jo

Did you have moments of that self doubt when you were doing this? Just thinking, why am I done? i Why have I done this?

Helen

Yeah, all the time. Definitely. Um, you know, and I guess the one thing about this journey with my book has been, you know, I when I finished it at rumpus room after five and a half years. And I my, my secret value was zero. You know, I didn't want to get out of bed. I felt like a failure. And it's just like, oh, I created this thing. It didn't work and I knew I have no value. I have no work. And being able to, to fall back to sort of realize actually Um, you know, my gift, if you like to the world is words, I love words, I love education. And to be able to realize that and go, actually, this is this, this is my happy place, I had started to realize that, you know, I spent five and a half years bending over backwards trying to please everybody. And then in the process didn't and lost myself a lot. Whereas then all of a sudden, I found myself in a place where I'm like, actually, let's focus on what makes me happy, let's focus on what pleases me. And I did that. And I needed a little bit of time, sort of emotionally like to deal with the remnants of, of that period of my life. But I was able then to go, actually, you know, what, this is what's making me happy. And yeah, like that, writing that poetry and, and focusing on what pleased me ultimately, I found actually pleased people more because I was a happier person and a nicer person to be around, because I was making myself happy doing what I love, you know?

Jo

Yeah. And it's funny that isn't it, that when we are happy, you know, other people are happy to be around us. And I think as you said, it's just operating from a full cup rather than an empty cup. But I love that you were able to recognize that, you know, you had an empty cup. And so you needed to take some time just to fill your cup back up. And gosh, your book, you can really tell that you've been operating from a full cup, I have been sitting back in admiration of your marketing that you've been doing for your book, I love. I love the way that you released it and got it into the market. Do you want to just run us through just a couple of things that you have done with regards to your marketing and getting businesses involved? And the books out? Yeah, balls, I think it's been quite a, it's been amazing to watch

Helen

It was really important at the outset. And for me to involve people, you know, to say, this is the journey I'm going on. And so when I made the call to say, I'm gonna release a book this year, at the very start of 2020. You know, I sort of invited people to come on journey with me and I and and so there was a whole sort of nine months if you like, before the book was released, where people could see the fit, see this thing growing and starting to come to life and sharing moments where the first drafts arrived, and I happy cried on screen, and no really was quite open and about my reaction to this process. And it made people invest in it, which is really cool. So when it came to, you know, when, if you were to do if you do a Google search on the number of the average number of books that a self published author sells, and you'll see that Forbes say it's 250. That's it. Wow. And 50? Yeah, so if you self publish a book, you can expect to shift 250 copies. So here I was, with two and a half 1000 copies. So it was like, Okay, wow, I'm gonna have to really knuckle down and get the souls, you know, if they're telling me all and you should have turned in 50. Also them. And yeah, so that's, that's really, that put the fire and maybe like to really work out how I was going to do that. So I set some goals. Again, I know when I was writing my business plan, I was like, right, what do I want to achieve for this book, in this in this timeframe. And I wanted initially to make sure that there were copies of the book in every tab and iKey school. Let's let's, you know, one thing I had learned from rumpus room is start small, start small, be successful, and then grow it. Okay. And, yes, it was like, Well, let's start with talent IQ score. So I went off and I did a, I did a couple of pre COVID, did a couple of visits to schools and shared my book and got feedback. Now, there was a point where I had written it so many times that it was that the only people that I really need approval from now at the case, you know, I've written this book, it's for the kids. Let's see how they react to it. So when actor schools, shared the book with them, and then contacted businesses and said, Hey, listen, I would really love to have a copy of this book in each library across Taranaki. Would you be happy to sponsor a copy? And was very fortunate to be to receive generous the generosity and the kindness of Local Taranaki businesses. And yeah, so that happens pretty quick, pretty quickly. And yeah, and then just identifying people that I felt were important to me and sending them a copy as a way of saying, Thank you for being so amazing. One of those people was for David Attenborough. And, yeah, I sent him a copy of the book to say thank you for the impact that he's had. And, you know, watching growing up watching his, his documentaries about the planet. And yeah, he wrote back. So this, this fact this here, that frame is his letter. So I've got his handwritten letter from David Attenborough. So that was a biggie. And, yeah, just just being visible, just being present, just making sure I, I think, you know, it's something when you've got this product, that you're constantly trying to evolve and grow its reputation, you're always thinking of different ways of of, what can I do next, you know, what's gonna, what's gonna be the next catch. So I mean, in the recent holidays, now, one of the things my book has on each double spread that has a small globe to find. So I set up with the council's permission, set up a scavenger globe hunt around the local poker parclick, where families would come and register for time slots, everybody in social distance to kept safe. But they could come and they could then go and search for the globes and answer the questions. And so it's just looking at themes from the book and pulling those in and just being creative around. How can I keep people engaged with this? Yeah,

Jo

I loved all of it. And I loved the fact that, you know, for us looking in and watching you and your journey, you allowed us to engage with it. And you allowed us to have participation in it by sponsoring books to go out to schools, you know, we sponsored a couple of bucks to go out to schools that was were my childhood skills, and Ted Anakee. And then our daughters, childhood schools, as well. And I just thought it was just so touching to be able to do that knowing that children are reading your book, I felt really, we as a family thought it was just quite an amazing feeling to be able to be part of it, and to follow your journey. But today marks your one year anniversary. And so I have been reading some of you are some of the things that you've achieved in the past year. So I'm going to read them so that everyone who was listening knows how amazing this woman and her book is. So Unity books children's best book best seller? Facebook, yeah, all first edition sold, so your whole 2500 copies sold. Yeah, gone is that goal, like smash that goal of 200 or 250? smashed it well done. I needed a new deluxe edition launched. So it's featuring over 150 Collective Nouns.

Helen

Yes, yes. So the idea initially, the first one, I wanted to be able to have a glossary in the back, which had animals that weren't necessarily featured. In the text of the book, I wanted to have that extra sort of little interest page. And with the budget on the first one, I didn't have that, because I had to pay my illustrator had, you know, lots of different things that I needed to do. So I was restricted in my first friend. And once I flipped off, and wanting to know, and once I'd sold my two and a half days and then and made a return on my investment, it was like wrapped. Okay, so now I can do what I want to do in my second one. So there was a little bit more breathing space at the front, I could add some dedications, there was a little couple of tweaks to the illustrations, there was a glossary in the back. So just, you know, you're always evolving and can always improve things. And I just wanted to, to do that for the book to make it as as perfect as I wanted it to be. Yeah,

Jo

I think it's brilliant. And we haven't even finished yet. So you've done 68 In purse and person school visits, 33 virtual author visits, nine overseas zooms, visits to South Africa, Australia, Vietnam and the UK. And you've had reactions from royalty, politicians. And so David Attenborough, so royalty. Tell us about that one.

Helen

Yeah, so I am, I sent a copy of the book to Prince William and Kate and because their kids are the right age, and also Prince William is is I mean, obviously they just emceed Earth shot which is all about making sure we look after our planet. The future king is very much a you know, he he's very into conservation as the patron of a number of conservation charities. And so I sort of felt that, you know, he would appreciate my book and know maybe his kids would appreciate my book and, and fair, fair enough. I got a letter back from Kensington Palace, which is rather lovely too.

Jo

I love it. I absolutely love that. And you've raised funds for gross kitty scenic reserve and world wild five by wildlife fund. I haven't got my glasses on. copies have gone into all tad Anakee schools. So you've sponsored by local businesses, copies and district libraries across New Zealand, signed by New Zealand distributor. tickety boo, was it?

Helen

Yeah, kick so tickety boo. Yeah, so if you're a self published author, and you want to get your book into into the big retailers, and big really big retailer, realtor or retailers won't take any approaches from Independence authors, just it's a no go area. You really have to have somebody to represent you. So yeah, so tickety boo, wear that they also represent our has weighed curry, the kiwi and some other great New Zealand books. I'm just very blessed that they decided that my book was a fitting addition to their range of New Zealand literature. Yeah.

Jo

And telling you've done workshops, online quizzes, book fears, bookstore signings, scavenger hunts, radio and podcast interviews, newspaper articles, and magazine features. I mean, you have just done such a beautifully well designed marketing run on the book, I just, I think that you've done everything that you can to market it. And I think that's why it has truly been just so successful. And what I loved about listening to the book this morning with my daughter, is just all those words that she wouldn't necessarily here and everyday life. Yeah, she is taking and associating with animals and the noises. And it is just truly beautiful.

Helen

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it was a book I wrote it for, because it, I guess it's classified as a sophisticated pitch book. Now, in that in the sense that it tackles, it tackles a significant theme of conservation and kaitiaki Tana, but then it's also, you know, has really rich vocabulary. And it exposes the reader to new words or words that they haven't heard before. And, yeah, so I, you know, I've had a range of responses from all ages. So despite the fact that I've sort of wrote it for eight years, plus, because of the high level of language, you know, I, I get younger siblings and the middle ones sitting and looking at it, naming the animals and learning the names of animals and, and spotting the globes. And so younger ones really enjoyed this sort of visual impact of the book. And the older ones tend to get the conservation message. And like the language and adults also really liked the language too. They get blah, and I remember being at a book fair, and this lady approached me, she said, Oh, I've, I've got a copy of your book. I gave it to my husband. And he won the pub quiz the other day, because he knew what one of the collective nouns. So I was like, Oh, thanks very much, you know, so it's, it's a, it's a coffee, some someone described as a coffee table book, you know, you could put it down on the coffee table, pick it up and go.

Jo

Oh, I never knew that, you know. So, so yeah, it's definitely reaches, and it has appeal with all ages, which is very cool. How does it feel Helen, when you are standing there, and you are watching children, read through something that you have created that has come from your mind? And you know, and you're looking at their faces, watching them giggle or react? I mean, how does that feel?

Helen

It's a real honor. Actually, it's a real honor and a privilege to see it in schools. And to see the way you know, that it tends to then have this sort of knock knock, I guess, with being having my teacher training. I also wrote it as a as an educational resource. So it was right okay, if I was a teacher, how would I use this book? And so that that was that was a help to I guess. So you know that there are it has lots of curricular strands, you can do literacy stuff. You can do social science stuff. It can provoke a whole lot of artwork. So I've gone into classrooms and seen some beautiful pieces of art that have been created and inspired by the But which is just like, it's so cool. It's so cool, you know, to see that it's Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love it.

Jo

That's listening at the moment who might be thinking, Gosh, I would love because yeah, Christmas is coming up. I would love to get a copy. How do people get a copy of the book? I mean, we'll put links with the podcast and things like that. Yeah, yeah.

Helen

So they can get a copy of the book by going to. I mean, it should be an all good independent bookstores. So you can go into it. Because I've got tickety boo as my distributor, you can go into any bookstore except for what cause yet which cause are onto it? No, not yet. Not yet. Yeah, that's my YouTube goal. Don't you worry. You should.

Everyone, but you should start a movement where everyone goes all the work calls and asks, asked for, that'd be a measure. Yeah, they should. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, let's do it. And so yeah, you can go into most good independent bookstores, and they should be able to source a copy for you. However, the best version, the best option to choose is you can buy a copy from the website, which is treasured beyond measure.co.nz said, and I can get it shipped to you. There are also some other things on the website that I put. So for example, there's a coloring sheet to the front cover, and which is amazing. I should I should have bought this set of prep time that I have got a copy of the book.

Jo

Helen's just gonna get a copy of the book.

Helen

Yes, sorry. Here we go. There you go. See? That's what it looks like. He says beautiful animals. Yeah. 

Jo

So for anyone that's listening, we'll put a copy of the book up a picture of it so that you can see what it looks like. It is the most colorful, beautiful book, you would never guess it was self published. I can totally see what you mean.

Helen

Yeah, yeah, it was it needed to sit alongside and, and the other thing that was really important as well was that I wanted, I knew I produced a book about conservation. And it was really important that it it was sourced from a sustainable source sustainably as well, you know, otherwise, that would have been a bit hypocritical of me. So. So yeah, it is it is sourced sustainably too. So all the paper that's used in the book,

Jo

oh, my gosh, I love that. So, Helen, I've got we, whenever anyone comes on the podcast, I always ask them for three tips. So do you by any chance have three tips that you would like to share with our listeners? 

Helen

I can and so I was thinking three tips. The first one would be never compromise on your standards. Yeah. I worked. And I'm not very, I'm not very good with mediocrity. And I know it has it. I know it has to exist in order for things to be great. But I can't I can't, I don't function. I'm not happy in that area. And it bothers me when people do just enough. And they think that's okay. It's not for me. And I think that's probably one of the things I found most most frustrating about my previous business experience. Was that my standards? I didn't think they were overly high. But maybe they are. I don't know. So. And I realized that, that was the only way that I can make myself happy around is to put myself in another environment where the standards were where I felt comfortable with those standards. Yeah, or alongside or in the company, people that actually make you raise your standards, you know, that that's really important. So to to find, make sure you find if you're finding you're compromising standards, you then you need to move on and find somewhere else that's going to accept your level of standards and exceed them so that you continue to push yourself. So yeah, that would be one business tip. I love that it's Yeah, another business. Another tip. It's not business when really it's a health one is about making time to be active. And I definitely didn't. And for a number of years, because I was so focused on something else that yeah, I my physical health did wasn't great. And that probably didn't help my emotional health, either. So making sure that I moved, or making sure that I move is really important. And in fact, what I'd started to do is I actually invested I thought, actually I need to invest in myself, and I'm not going to feel guilty for spending that money. I'm going to get myself a personal trainer. So I've got myself a personal trainer and work that three, three times a week. And I also like setting goals and things to work towards to, you know, so earlier this year, I've always wanted to do a marathon always wanted to do marathon. Not run it necessarily, but just do that distance. So took part with a team and the Oxfam Trailwalker earlier this year, which is a 50k walk, which was more than a marathon, but you know, I was really chuffed

Jo

Did you split that up? Did you split it up? Or did you

Helen

No, no, no. We did the full distance.

Jo

You did the whole 50 K's. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. What did it take?

Helen

It took us about 11 hours. Wow. Huh. Yeah, it took us 11 hours. So we started off at six in the morning. And then like, yeah. And then went in the evening, we finished it. And then the same evening, we went to the crowded house, the bowl of books. It was like a hardcore day. That was the step the steps on my phone. The steps on my watch. were impressive, but it doesn't ever happen again. But sir, yeah, so So making sure that you make time to move invest in yourself in your best in your physical health. That's really important. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, and sad. For me. I setting goals is important. So I've got a half marathon coming up at the end in the middle of November. Wow. Because if I didn't have something to work towards, then I'll just slip back into old habits.

Will you walk or run it? Will you walk around walking it? Oh,

okay. I'm not built and running. You know? I yeah, I can. I'm definitely a plodder. I can go for a long time, but just Yeah, at my own pace. Yeah. Well, 50

kilometers, 50 kilometers. Now, it's kind of your it's kind of your low benchmark. Now that you've got to know. I did

actually do in lockdown. I did 100 Kilometer challenge. But that was one that you could spread over out over day. So it didn't, it wasn't really 100 kilometers. I've got no intention of walking around a mountain. That was just I've been there done that tick that box. Yeah. And then the third tip would probably be around. It's a wealth one, but it's not. It's not about monetary wealth. It's more about self worth. And the need to make sure that we value ourselves properly. Whether it's, yeah, yeah. So if you provide a service or a product, no, then making sure that you, you people pay what you're worth your your, your skills and your knowledge in your experience and not undervaluing that, or shortcutting it by discounting or giving stuff for free. It's that it's about backing your value backing. No, you know, when I think about my book, I think to be honest, 20 bucks is an absolute bargain, really, for the experience that I went through in order to be able to come out the other side with this book for the amazing artwork in it for the educational value of it. No, it's just yeah, so you know, that's what it's worth. 20 $20 is a great is a great bar, so but I won't know. Yeah, I'm not gonna, I don't want to discount it. The 10 bucks, just copy. That's not it's not it's not about that. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I think if you value yourself properly, then, you know, riches will follow. Whatever, whatever form that it does, which is our know whether they're monetary riches or whether they're just emotional. Riches. Yeah, yeah. So make sure you value yourself properly.

Jo

So good. They are just such good tips. Helen, thank you so much for your knowledge ledges. And they're great tips, too, that you know, we can all just implement straightaway, which is, yeah, anyone that is listening can implement those tips straightaway. So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, incredible wisdom. And so we're coming to the end of the show now and before the end of the show, I always asked two questions on every show. So if you could choose a color of sequence, what color would it be and why? That best strike describes your personality.

Helen

Okay, so I would choose your classic silver sequin. Okay, just classic silver because I'm a it matches my hair and all So actually, when you think about a silver sequin, it reflects the light and the colors of the people you surround yourself with. So, so yeah, that's why we choose the silver one.

Jo

So it's also a classic, I think. So it's a classic goes with anything. It's an absolute classic. So it's pretty much everyone as well, you're pretty much everyone I know, can we silver? So fantastic. I absolutely love that. And then on the show as well, we have something called a sequin scale. So we just a gauge where you are at life at the moment. So from the zero or one is you find it hard and difficult to get out of bed and 10 is that you're dropping glitter and sequins everywhere you go. So, Helen for you at the moment, where does your life put you on the second scale?

Helen

Okay, so I would say I have definitely been at the one. But now I would say definitely a safe eight. Love it, I guess, the site safe safe eight. And there's always room for improvement. And so that's why I didn't go any higher. But let's say faith is where I'm standing.

Jo

I say safe is pretty good. That is incredible to be the safe. Eight. That is really good. So that means you know, yeah, I love being in a safe eight as well. Because, as you said, you can always go up. Yeah, but you're coming back to that kind of eight. So brilliant. Love it. And then just one last quick question. What are your plans moving forward? Helen? Are we going to see a sequel? Is there going to be another?

Helen

Yeah, I know, I keep being asked, which is lovely to be asked to do another book. But like I said, I never actually plan on writing the book in the first place. So So and my bracket is a good one. And I'm sort of thinking global one hit wonder would work really well. You know, I'd like a global one wonder with that one. And for me personally, I think, and I've done a couple of things recently that I thought that I would like to do a little bit more of that. The first one is teaching violin, which I've started at the beginning of this year. And it's I just love it. So cool. So I would like to do more of that and also teach more adults because I tend to get lots of adults say Oh, I wish I could play the violin. I love the violin. Why don't you

have six year that's fine. And so I'd like to see what

Helen

Marlon teaching professionally. My day job is as a speech language therapist. And I'm sort of seeing a bit of a shift professionally for me for that in terms of just maybe helping more private therapists for their practice. Because the private sector is growing quite significantly. And I'm also very conscious that more of a mature therapist now. And spending time on the floor with a three year old in a cupboard in a kindergarten is losing its appeal. Yeah, so. So maybe taking some of my business knowledge and helping therapists who have just come out of college or ones that are wanting to develop a private practice, and being able to sort of mentor or coach them around. And private practice would be pretty cool, too. So yeah. And obviously, when it comes to the book, just making sure that I grow the reputation of the book and get that global one hit wonder.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's get into what calls first come up with calls. If anyone's working on calls or knows anyone I work calls come on what calls we want the book in what calls so I should put a movement for that. And so obviously, you've played the violin your whole life.

Yes. I have. Yeah, I started when I was seven or eight. Yeah. Yeah. And again, that's just been something that I've come that I've something I've always done. And yeah, I've always loved doing I've loved being involved in shows. I did quite a lot of session playing at the moment. So in recording studios, helping people out with their albums, arranging pieces. I've got a show lined up at Christmas time. So and yeah, so the teaching aspect was something I was approached and asked to do. And I've been loving it. It's been very cool to see. See the little ones really getting to grips with it.

Jo

Oh my gosh, incredible. Helen, thank you so much for giving up your time and for coming on. And for our listeners who are listening. We will put the links in there so that you can jump on to Helen's website, and you can download the coloring in page and you can buy the books are Christmas. It's a great present. And Helen, thank you so much for coming on people. I'm sure the listeners have loved hearing your story and loved hearing all about this wonderful book. that you've created. And so thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm for what you do as well. So thank you so much for coming on.

Helen

Thanks, Jo. It's been a pleasure beyond. Thanks.

Oh, and before I go, congratulations on your one year anniversary as well. Oh, thanks. Bye bye