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Connect with Sharon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharoncjenkins/

Connect with Russ
https://russjohns.com/
https://thepiratesyndicate.com/
https://nextstepnext.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext/

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Introduction: [00:00:00] Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.w

Russ Johns: [00:00:10] And it's a great day for the #PirateBroadcast. And I'm just so excited to be here this week. And I wanted to tell you why. A couple of reasons. We're going to be giving away pirate treasure all week long. Some of the the pirates have been kind enough to contribute to this cause. And Sharon, no different. You got some things, you got special prizes coming on board today. So welcome back. How are you doing my friend?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:00:37] I am doing wonderful. I am so glad that the pandemic is almost over. You know what, Russ, I forgot that you can go outside and feel the sunshine. You know what I mean? You can go to the pool and dip your feet in the water. I forgot about all that stuff. And getting reacquainted with life is so exciting and invigorating. So I hope you're enjoying after the pandemic.

Russ Johns: [00:01:07] Absolutely. And one of the things that I love is the idea that we can actually start connecting again in person, face to face. And then I know that there's some networking with space and everything else, for those that want to feel comfortable.  I think it reinforces the fact that we are human creatures that like to be in connection with other people, connected with other people. And it's really important for us to build that community up and make sure that we're at least helping and supporting each other. And that's what the #PirateBroadcast™ is all about, the support and the pirates and the community. And it's really amazing to me to watch how it has evolved over the last 18 months or almost two years now. And  it feels strange and the future is still bright. I  think the future is still bright. So catch us up on what you're doing and what you've been doing. And also, what you're excited about these days, Sharon.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:02:15] What I'm really excited about is that we just did our first cooking and booking chef competition. I have helped five authors publish their cookbooks.

Russ Johns: [00:02:31] Wow.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:02:31] And we're always looking for creative ways to market our authors. And so what we decided to do was to hold a chef competition and it was fabulous. It was a virtual chef competition. And we learned a lot because we did it on zoom beta, we learned a ton as a result. And it was just so fun. We had chef judges at each site.  I can't just do one site. We had five and unfortunately one of the cooks had to pull out because she had a death in the family. But the beautiful thing about everything is that we had a site in Louisiana, they are famous for their food. And then we had a site in San Antonio, that's the resort, the fun entertainment city and of course Houston with our multiculturalism. The beautiful thing about Houston is you can get any type of food anywhere, anyhow.  It was sensational. I'll just put it like that. It was sensational.

Russ Johns: [00:03:45] The things that I've always been curious about, maybe you can expand on it a little bit is your recipes travel from family to family, to grandmothers, to mothers, to daughters, to sisters, and they may vary a little bit, but some dishes may be very similar. And so in a cookbook, how do you make something unique in a cookbook? So it's very unique to that cookbook. How do you manage and modify that recipes like that?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:04:19] It depends on your culture. So the chef in San Antonio did a Mexican cookbook. The chef and... I have a couple of chefs... three in Houston. One did a soul food cookbook. Then the other one did country club cuisine and then the last one did healthy food with herbs and spices and fresh vegetables from her garden. Actually, she went out in the garden, pulled stuff out of the garden and cooked her meals. It was sensational, but one thing she did, I thought was kinda cute, she got her judges drunk, it just depends on the cultural influence. That's how you make a difference.

Russ Johns: [00:05:10] Yeah it's really fascinating. My mother used to have all kinds of cookbooks and some of the recipes got used over and over again, family favorites and it just amazes me the variety and the diversity and in different meals and different dishes and cooking strategies. It is just a fascinating to me. So how did you get into cookbooks?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:05:33] Actually, people who want to write books were, we don't specialize in a certain genre, what we specialize in the love and the care that we give off is to help them along their journey. So I have stayed focused on caring about who the person is and what their mission and goal is. And so that's the vein. So they came to me with cookbooks and I'm one of those jump off the mountain kind of girls was like let's see what happens. And what happened was we had some beautifully designed cookbooks and actually I have a naughty girl that I work with for the grown and sexy and I was able to partner her with chef James out of San Antonio, by the way, who won the competition. And she's written this book called dessert novella sweets. And you know what happens in the S U I T E S. And so she had all of these desserts and so he actually cooked the desserts, took pictures and provided the recipes for her book. So like you, I like to partner people.

Russ Johns: [00:06:49] That's brilliant. I love that. I love that. I liked the idea of collaboration and especially when it comes to dessert.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:07:00] Yes. Oh yes. And red velvet cake, bread pudding, all that wonderful kind of stuff. It's all in this book. Sensationally written.

Russ Johns: [00:07:10] Sensationally. Are you going to do a second version or are you going to continue with some of the chefs? Are you going to go onto a different project now? I know you have another project going on.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:07:22] The authorpreneur coach certification program.

Russ Johns: [00:07:26] Yeah. A little bit about that authorpreneur certification.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:07:32] Okay. So I'm going to come back to that.

Russ Johns: [00:07:35] Yeah. You have to come back and bring that to the table.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:07:38] Yeah, I want to answer your other question. We're actually, as a result of the cook-off, even when it's blunders, cause we had a few foresights. What was I thinking? But the moral of the story is several of the chefs who were judges because we had it in Louisiana, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We had NOLA chefs from new Orleans. Okay. So now they all want to get together and write a book.

Russ Johns: [00:08:07] That's awesome.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:08:08] Okay. And then also chef James, the chef who won in San Antonio. he wants to do another book. So that's the result, but we're actually going to go to San Antonio and also new Orleans and do a chef competition.

Russ Johns: [00:08:25] Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Some of the food that I've had in Houston is just amazing. Another pirate that's been on the show a couple of times, actually Randall Constant he's over in that area. And he has been in the food business for decades, and he's now doing Amazon lives and talking about different products and foods and products that support foods and all kinds of different dishes and things that are going on. I have to introduce you two, if you're going to be doing some work over there.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:08:58] Oh, absolutely. He would be a great judge.

Russ Johns: [00:09:01] Actually, him and his son, they go to  these events and activities and very well connected in the food industry. So it'd be a great one to be a judge. Yeah, absolutely.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:09:12] And I got to put a little season in this compensation. We even had a comedian as one of the judges. It was good. DC, the comedian, and he really rocked the house. We had a great time. We really did. It was a great chemistry.

Russ Johns: [00:09:32] Oh, that's fantastic. I love it. I love it. Do you have any particular favorite dishes that you enjoy? You have a weakness there, Sharon?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:09:39] I do. I do. Anything that's a pastry or anything that is traditionally a masculine dish, like chili, lasagna or something like that. I really do like that. I like it a lot. But I don't want to forget to talk about this authorpreneur certification.

Russ Johns: [00:09:59] We could talk about food for hours, I know. So Russ hedge is in the house. Elize, I'd love to ask everyone that's here today. What at 60, 60 unknown. How's it going guys? It's going well from Twitch, Russ. Good morning. What are your favorite dishes, Elise? What is your favorite dish, Russ? What is your favorite dish? If you had one meal, you had to pick out what would it be? So I'll leave that in the question. So entrepreneurs, you've been a long time, you've been supporting entrepreneurs  as long as I've ever known you and word smithing and helping out writers and getting books published and all kinds of activities around that. Talk a little bit about this program you got going on.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:10:49] We've known each other for about 14 years and so yeah, I've been in the literary industry for about 14 years. I started helping authors when I met you pretty much. And I wanted to take all of the experiences that I've had and create a program so that I could render let's say compassionate coaching to authors who... authorpreneurs. I call them authorpreneurs because an author is an entrepreneur. So I wanted to put them in a safe incubator and help them to build up the skills that they need in order to help authors at the beginning of their journey. And that's what this is all about. So if you're a coach already, if you're a consultant,  if you're an author and you've been in the industry for a while and you want to be able to handle your business, this author certification program, coaching certification program is good. For those individuals, you might want to add a little something, a little seasoning to your busines and create another income stream.

Russ Johns: [00:12:10] I like it. So  we had talked about the possibility of giving this away for a scholarship to the program  in the #PirateSyndicate. Or the #PirateBroadcast here today. So if you type in hashtag #piratenation just type in hashtag #piratenation down below for the pirate treasureand might win a scholarship if that's something you'd like to do. And you could gift it if you're not an author or you have no interest in being an author, you could you could actually introduce it to someone else that needs some support from Sharon.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:12:49] A life coach who is interested in helping their clients to write books, speakers who want to add an additional stream of income. Even podcasters.

Russ Johns: [00:13:06] Podcasters are a good candidate. Elize says she loves lasagna. I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:13:13] Me, too! Oh wow.

Russ Johns: [00:13:16] Very good. Very tasty.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:13:18] I don't know if I told you Russ, but my son was one of the chefs in the competition and he did something highly unusual. I've never seen asparagus in a pocket and he put the asparagus in a pastry pocket. Can you imagine?

Russ Johns: [00:13:39] Oh, yes, I can imagine. That sounds really good right now. I'm a fan of asparagus. And that sounds pretty tasty.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:13:49] Yes. Yeah.

Russ Johns: [00:13:52] That would be really good.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:13:53] Yes, it would be.

Russ Johns: [00:13:55] So what are you seeing in the industry as far as books and writing and what are people really challenged with? What are they struggling with, where they need the most help? Where have you been providing this kind of help for them, Sharon?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:14:12] Marketing. I didn't have to think about it, marketing. I think sometimes authors, they get caught up in the romanticism and then television, the movie industry, they perpetuate a certain image. So you think you're going to write a book, get an agent, and then you're going to be on the New York times best selling list, and you think that you, oh, plus I forgot about the large advance. Not the way the industry is now. It's totally different. Totally different. You've gotta roll up your sleeves, Russ, get in there and you've got to make it happen. Remember the pet rock.

Russ Johns: [00:14:56] Oh yeah.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:14:56] Anybody that can sell a pet rock can sell a book, but he was intentional about selling that pet rock. You have to be intentional about selling your book and, you can look at the largest bookstore in the world on Amazon. Zillions of books. Daily. Thousands of books, new books introduced into that market. So how do you make your book different or noticeable or exceptional? You write a good story. That's the very first piece. You write a good story and then you market the mess out of that book.

Russ Johns: [00:15:40] So what strategies have been successful in the marketing process for you?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:15:46] Keep in mind, I put my writing career on the back burner because what was important to me was to empower authors to be successful. And I know if you have a great beginning, you'll have a great ending. So that's where my constant concentration has been. But what I've found is that you need to always have.... you're a pulse,you're a pulse looking at the pulse of the market and looking at the experts, what are they doing? How are they changing? How are they metamorphosizing into what they need to be?

Russ Johns: [00:16:26] You don't necessarily have to reinvent the wheel.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:16:30] No. And we get so caught up in that, but if you're in a stagnant place, then you need to recreate, you need to come up with something sensational. I was just sitting and I was like, what do I have a lot of? I say, oh my goodness, I have a lot of cookbooks. People do a lot of cookbooks. So what can we do with that? And that's where that idea from the chef competition came from. It's so funny. You can tell I love to eat. Not only that, but I love it. Hannibal Smith from the A-Team said, I love it when a plan comes together. That was perfect. There's a whole channel for cooking.

Russ Johns: [00:17:14] Well, and I think the other thing that you alluded to earlier is this making sure that you continue to make progress. Whether it's asparagus in pastry or experiment and find comfort food in lasagna like Elize and making sure that there's some things out there that you can actually produce results with. And just showing up, I think is a really big part of it, just showing up and being consistent. You're episode 440. And we've been showing up here on a regular basis and a lot of people are excited about the possibility and sometimes discouraged by the process.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:17:57] But you know what, Russ it's just like anything else, if you had stopped at episode 10 because only two people were showing up, you would never have met the people that you've met, had the rich experiences. A lot of times, it's okay, I want you to be wealthy. I want you to be a billionaire. I'm fine with that. The experiences in the people that you meet, if you put a dollar value on them, you couldn't because of the richness that they bring to your life.

Russ Johns: [00:18:33] Yeah. In fact, you were mentioning how long we've known each other and going back, I still know a lot of people from the main street chamber and all the networking that I did early on in the Houston days. And it's just fascinating to me that I'm still connected with so many people. Hiett Ives and he shows up on the show every once in a while. And Sharon Zapata and Mary  LaSalle and different people that are showing up in the network and the community. And it's just amazing to me that we're all able to do something, we're all able to add value. We're all able to make an impact and help somebody else out. And I just think it's so important and I love what you're doing with the books. And you've always been a great word smith. It's always been amazing to craft that message and get that out there. So Dee Reilly in the house. How are you doing, Dee? If you want to look at the possibility of winning type in pirate nation and Sharon's got a program that she's going to be teaching authors about. Dee has written travel blogs.  He's in Europe and we have a Elize from South Africa. We have Dee from I think he's... where are you? Dee where are you?  Russ Hedge is in Oregon.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:19:57] Hello.

Russ Johns: [00:19:59] And the reality is that, yeah, we may not have a lot of people show up at the live sessions here today. However, there's a lot of people that consume the content afterwards and this broadcast goes out  to at least 20 locations right after it's produced. And it goes out and there's all kinds of connections and introductions that benefit from being a pirate.  Edinburgh, Scotland. I wanted to make sure that I got that right.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:20:29] Scotland.

Russ Johns: [00:20:30] I got to get to Scotland. So what's on the horizon now that you've got the book thing and you've got the entrepreneur certification program going? Is that an ongoing process that you've built Sharon?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:20:43] Yes, actually we're in the process of... I'm going to do a full launch on the authorpreneur certification program right now. Actually our first class is about to graduate and that has been a sensational experience. I want to shout out to all of my collaborators that came in the house and just added the icing on the cake. But you know what? I can't help but network Russ. I don't know why. But I'm a networking fool and can't help it. But yeah, we're going to continue with that and we're looking at doing a virtual writer's conference. Actually, it's not going to be a writer's conference. It's the writer's conference after the writer's conference, where we talk about the things in the authorship process that aren't usually addressed at a writer's conference. So we're looking at doing that in November or the beginning of 2022.

Russ Johns: [00:21:46] Oh, awesome. Awesome. I love that. So walk us through the class. Walk us through the course. How long does it last?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:21:53] Actually it's a 12 week course. And we talk about marketing, obviously. Editing. We talk about the startup business structures. We talk about the financial aspect. We talk about a lot of things. We talk about your customer avatar. Actually we do personality tests, so you can get a better feel or do a checkup of where you are and what your strengths and your weaknesses are. And we also do an internship. So far the internship has gone really well. And the reason why we incorporated the internship is because we want to hold your hand while you step out of the boat, into the water.  Really the moral of the story is we want you to be successful. And we also talk a little bit about how to identify potential collaborators, how to build your team around you and how to go after that client.

Russ Johns: [00:22:57] I know writing a book cause I am an author and it's a great business card. It's a great way to have a conversation. It's a great way to start up a conversation. And it's a great way to have a topic that you can speak to because a lot of authors are also speakers and coaches. And so it's just a good business practice to build that authority in the market and get on shows like this, you get noticed and you get invited in and all of a sudden you're having a conversation with people that you wouldn't normally have access to. So it's a powerful tool. It's a powerful tool. Are you ready for the drawing here?

Sharon Jenkins: [00:23:38] Oh, sure.

Russ Johns: [00:23:39] Let's do this. I know we don't have a big audience today, but they're all important here. So if you're in here, Russ, I don't know if you're still on, but if you want to jump on, you can do this. Type in hashtag #piratenation. Wendy. Wendy showed up. Yes, Wendy's here. There you go.Writing pirates.. Yes. #piratenation, she's very familiar with the process of writing and being in the movie business, movie industry and writing scripts.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:24:09] Oh, wonderful.

Russ Johns: [00:24:11] So let me share my screen here quickly, and we'll wrap this up. Share screen. Okay, we're going to be drawing this. Drawing drum roll, please. Let me move this out of the way we get this out of the way. And so let's draw. Woo.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:24:32] This reminds me of the Steve Harvey show.

Russ Johns: [00:24:35] Dee Reilly from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:24:38] All right. All right. Yeah. Very good. So I love it, Russ. Congratulations, Dee just go to the link that Russ has placed up and send me a message and we'll get you started.

Russ Johns: [00:24:55] And I'll follow up with email introduction as well, Sharon.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:24:58] Believe it or not, he's going to laugh, but one of the chefs, female version, her name is Dee Reilly.

Russ Johns: [00:25:09] Very cool. Very cool. Sharon, thank you so much for being here today and joining us on the #PirateBroadcast and welcome back. Stay connected, follow up with the pirates and connect with other pirates and make sure that you're able to get out there and market your books and your material and everything else that goes along with it.

Sharon Jenkins: [00:25:28] Thank you, Ross. I appreciate you. Good to see ya.

Russ Johns: [00:25:31] Likewise. And as always everyone, please remember like, comment, share this content. If somebody needs to find it and somebody needs to receive it because #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree and I want you to #enjoyyourday. Okay. Take care. Bye

Sharon Jenkins: [00:25:52] Bye everyone.

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