Meet Sara Lin | Author and Children’s Book Publisher and Mom of Four

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sara Lin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
Growing a successful book publishing business and ALSO raising kids for a successful adult life are my two jobs that surprisingly, require similar tactics! And it’s all in developing good personal daily habits for myself and helping my kids implement their own systems and habits that will pay off for them in the future. Delayed gratification is a practice that is less often promoted today but is critical to long-term success.

Playing the long game is key. Children are not built into highly-functioning adults overnight and neither is a publishing business. The small corrections throughout the day are what builds character… and they kids shouldn’t be expected to figure out life overnight. We make deposits in wisdom and teach them to make their own good decisions; molding and shaping them as we keep our end goals in mind

Publishing children’s books is no different. At 3+1 Publishing, our goal is to create children’s books with meaning and substance, wit and wonder. And every building block is informed by that goal. It takes time for the search engines to pick up our products and time for marketing messaging to take hold in our consumers’ minds. It takes time for the stories to be read in classrooms, libraries and homes. In playing the long game, here are some steps I take each day toward building a successful business:

CHECK THE NUMBERS DAILY
In business and in life, the numbers do not lie. And being realistic about sales and advertising dollars spent helps me keep pointing my business toward the right goals and making the small adjustments so I hit my sales goals. Likewise, in raising humans, I check in with my kids every chance I get and have real, honest conversations about what’s going on in each of their lives. In building relationships, consistency is key.

KEEP A “NEXT-DAY” TASK LIST
Managing a household and a business can be daunting. Sometimes, I work at odd hours or in between when kids are at school or activities. So the best thing I can do to keep myself on track, is keep a running list of tasks. I accomplish what I can in one day and if I don’t get it done, I just kick it to the next day– and I sleep well knowing that my list will be waiting for me to chip away at the next day. There’s no worrying, there’s no beating myself up. The work will always be there. But again, consistency is key and just tackling a little more each day will build the business.

BEING HONEST ABOUT STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
If I’m not careful, I can let “good enough” be a replacement for “great,” especially when I try to do it all. No one person can do it all. Outsourcing tasks and jobs based on my time, attention and strengths is a great way to build a business toward success. And I can pass that same line of thinking in raising our kids. “Play to your strengths and be honest about your weaknesses. Make sure you are surrounded by others who will hold you accountable and help you see your blind spots.”

PURSUING PEOPLE AND EXCELLENCE WITH EQUAL INTENSITY
When I am keeping my little readers and my published authors at the forefront of my mind, the excellence follows. A love of people = a love for giving them all of me. My whole heart, my whole attention and my whole creativity. Perfection is an unattainable goal, but excellence is creating books with my authors and for my customers who will love reading our books as much as we love making them together. And as a mother, the hearts of my kids come first. Connecting with them makes everything else seem like a distant second.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was creative from the second I was born! My amazing parents enrolled me in piano lessons and made me stick with them all through elementary and on into high school. At the same time, I dove deep into art and art classes, enjoying every medium I could get my hands on. I also loved to read. I read anything on the shelf and this also translated to an interest in writing.

In college, I ended up majoring in both piano and graphic design. Both disciplines required an incredible amount of time and creativity and I’m proud to have finished both in four years. I also minored in business information systems, which set me up with the basics of programming, informational systems and how to run a business. I took creative writing classes here and there and enjoyed honing my love of writing.

After college I had the unique opportunity to work as a web designer (for a larger corporation) during the day and I opened up a piano studio at night and I taught piano to kids and adults alike. I loved that I was bivocational and could do both things I loved to support myself.

After my husband and I met and married, I supported him and his busy career and worked freelanced design until our second child arrived. Then I focused full time on our growing family for five years.

But once a creative, ALWAYS a creative– and I was itching to get back into the thing that was both a hobby and a career. Like most moms, I read A LOT of children’s books and as a writer, starting thinking, “what would I write about if I were a children’s book author?”

And one day it hit me. I was poised to write about how important it is to help kids be responsible from the very beginning. Especially in this culture that has almost swung the other way, of many parents not realizing their kids can handle the hard things. This is where the “MOM’S NOT®” brand was born. In prose peppered with silly play-on-words and sharp humor, I wrote a collection of seven books that moms could use as a tool to reinforce that independence and “doing the hard things” builds character. And done with humor and a good attitude, doesn’t have to be as difficult or as burdensome as it might appear.

I started the business when my youngest daughter was eight months old. And I started slowly, squaring away all of the business setup and immediately started online marketing. My husband proposed that we name the business “3+1 Publishing” in honor of our three boys and one girl. I hired an illustrator and it was a familiar process to me as I hired freelancers often to help with design projects. For a year, I shared snippets of the story and sketches from the illustrator. After a year, I ran a successful Kickstarter campaign, raising a little over 16K in a month. This covered the actual printing of the hardcover in China. Running a kickstarter campaign with little kids was one of the most challenging things I’ve done, but it was worth it. I raised my own capital and it helped spread the word about the MOM’S NOT brand.

My strengths are in writing, project management and artistic direction. One big lesson I’ve learned is to stick to the things I’m good at and hire out the rest. It’s easy to get distracted by nitpicky details when my time is best used to keep the company moving forward and make sure the company is hitting its sales goals.

The journey has been far from easy. It’s 100% self-promotion and 100% marketing and I’m getting a little better at both each day. I have learned that I can do far more than I ever thought I was capable of. Running a business and taking care of my children helps me be MORE efficient with my day and more present with each of them when I’m not working. I love love LOVE what I do and I adore my family. So if I don’t answer my phone, you’ll know why. Just leave a message and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours 😉 Today, after 2.5 years in business, I have just released my third book and I have published two books for other authors, making 3+1 Publishing a small, “Independent” publisher.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh, I would take friends to some of my favorite Phoenix restaurants that showcase what we think “Arizona” food is about; Lon’s at the Hermosa Inn, Tia Carmen at the Marriott and Binkley’s restaurant. Arizona is known for its fabulous resorts and touring some of the resorts is a must.

Outdoors in the Fall, Spring, and Winter is everything here in AZ, so I’d take guests on a desert Jeep tour. Depending on their athletic inclination, go on a hike around Pinnacle Peak or up Camelback mountain. And a nice round of golf is always fun. To keep the price down, the public courses area always a good option.

For musical entertainment, we LOVE the Musical Instrument Museum and The Ravenscroft.

And of course, you cannot leave Phoenix and Scottsdale without hanging out in Old Town and seeing all of the old shops and restaurants that have been an establishment for decades. When you’ve seen and done all there is to see in the greater Phoenix Area, a weekend or day trip up to Sedona is a MUST. After 30 years in the Valley, I come up with more things all the time to love about my home.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My parents taught me my work ethic and to lean into the hard things– to problem solve and be relentless in my pursuit of excellence.

My husband lives his life with kindness and compassion and leads our family in his faith in Jesus Christ. He is an editor, a story-developer, a strategy guy and best of all, my biggest cheerleader. Likewise, our kids inspire all of our imagination and they are frequent contributors to my online stories and have even contributed to plot points in story development.

Melanie Herschorn is my book marketing coach and she is an absolute inspiration. She is positive and honest and exhibits all the qualities of a good leader. She spurs me on to greatness and reminds me not to grow weary running this race.

Website: https://3plus1publishing.com

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyW3sJ2M9ahLHkrTayZf3wg