We recently connected with Grace Sammon and have shared our conversation below.
Grace, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I have helped grow and maintain one of the largest and most engaging Facebook author/reader communities, Bookish Road Trip, I have two award-winning radio shows heard in 153 countries, and I’ve had three anthologies on writing, publishing, and marketing your book traditionally published. This has all been accomplished by creative collaborations, respect for others, and deep and meaningful engagement in work.
Over my career, I have founded multiple for-profit and not-for-profit businesses, worked extensively in education, in some of this countries most challenged communities, and volunteered for hospice and for abused children. I hope that each of these efforts have left positive marks on the hearts and minds of those with whom I have been so lucky to work.
In this current author work, I’ve developed an author “brand” that is very much about leaving your mark on the world. I hope that I have helped others find and celebrate their voice, find a path to their own contributions, and that people embrace that it is in lifting each other up that we all achieve more.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Most recently, I am so proud that my novel, The Eves, speaks to those whose lives are in transition. At its core, it helps answer the question of if we are ever really “done” and what mark we want to leave on the world. I am a firm believer in the book’s tag line, “When our stories are told, everything changes.” We each have a story and the telling of that story is important. Story is transformative. I have two radio shows – The Storytellers and LAUNCH PAD. The first is a one-on-one show that features those who choose to leave their mark on the world through the art of story. Here, I’ve interviewed Academy Award winners, Nobel Prize winners, actors, playwrights, NY Times bestsellers, and more. On LAUNCH PAD, a four-author show, we celebrate book releases and the authors that create them. That show led to the LAUNCH PAD anthology three-book series.
In all of this, I have been a catalyst but also such a grand recipient of great fortune and fun.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
This is such an important question! In many ways, I am a “spaghetti against the wall” kinda girl. When I was a young, recently divorced, mom of two young children, I was motivated by the necessity to keep my my children in a safe and nurturing environment with as much enrichment as I could muster. If I met with success, I built on it. When I met with challenges I worked to overcome them or learned from them and moved on. Don’t think, please, for a minute, that that was with ease, or grace, or even necessarily skill. There was much fumbling and stumbling along the way. It is hindsight that lets me see the path backward when I often could not see the path forward.
Keep in mind, I have started multiple companies for-profit and not-for-profit. These each had to have mission statements and goals. But to a large extent, they were pro forma, fill in the articles of incorporation, let the horse out of the barn, and run. Each was successful, but much of the success was achieved by the “spaghetti “and the “build it and they will come” approach.
What I would say now is the WHY is critical. In writing my novel, in writing each of the subsequent books, and in the two radio shows, I always start with two questions – why, and what will success look like. A wiser younger me would have benefited from asking those questions but I didn’t ask them, didn’t know to ask, and, quite honestly, might not have had the skills to answer them.
Now, these are driving questions – time and resources are precious, time even more precious than resources. When you have an idea, drill down and ask why you think this goal, product, service, book, or creation is worth it to you and to others. Define what success means. We all have lofty goals of changing the world and reaching fame and fortune, and I hope readers reach those goals. In the meantime, what will success look like? What will feed your soul when you look at this accomplishment? What will encourage you to do more when you reach that goal? What is enough?
How you answer these questions will drive everything else you do from future projects, to social media engagement, to knowing your audience and next steps.
When taking on a new project today I ask these questions about mission and success. Does this project or initiative – no matter how big or small – contribute to how I will leave my mark on the world as a creative collaborator, uplifting others, and still creating and contributing myself?
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
This one is simple. I wish I knew more about social media and I wish I had time managed my social media moments more efficiently. This will likely only resonate with those who came to the socials kicking and screaming. When I first wanted to market The Eves, I knew little about “author brand.” let alone posting and engagement. At the outset, I would post and spend hours playing around on the socials waiting for people to respond, like, comment, etc. Today, I pay moderate attention to my social accounts,have a brand, have certain days on which I post certain types of posts, understand my audience, and have struck a balance between brand-relevant and personal posts. At the core though, it goes back to the previous question and my answer. Why am I doing this, what does success look like?
Contact Info:
- Website: www.GraceSammon.NET
- Instagram: www.Instagram.com/GraceSammonWrites/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grace.sammon/
- Other: All the radio shows etc. are available through my website.