October 7, 2025 • 40 mins
I sit down with Conni Francini, CEO of Soro Publishing, to explore how she’s building a more author-friendly path to publishing. Conni traces her unconventional route—from journalism/PR into education, then a 15-year run in educational publishing where she rose to editor-in-chief and developed award-winning products with partners like the Smithsonian and TIME for Kids.
After dozens of candid chats with writers—frustrated by low royalties, limited marketing, slow timelines, and losing creative control—Conni launched Soro Publishing. The model blends the best of traditional and self-publishing: professional editorial and design, months-not-years timelines, authors keeping their rights, creative control, and most royalties, plus a true partnership to grow their platforms.
We dig into Soro’s three focus lanes—education, business/leadership, and children’s books—and what’s surprised Conni most about entrepreneurship: the sheer build-from-scratch workload, the importance of loving sales/BD as much as “making the book,” and staying adaptable when the market pulls you into new genres. Conni also shares hard-won lessons for leading creatives (define outcomes, not pixel-perfect solutions) and encouragement for first-time founders and execs: ask for help early and often—you’ll be surprised how many people say yes.
What You Will Learn
- Why many authors feel stuck between traditional and self-publishing—and how a hybrid model can be a win-win.
- The specific ways Soro helps authors retain rights, voice, and royalties while leveling up quality and speed.
- How to lead multidisciplinary creative teams: set audience outcomes, invite expertise, and critique by problem, not by prescription.
- The underestimated realities of starting a company (and how to balance making the product with marketing/business development).
- How to stay adaptable when real-world feedback nudges your strategy into new lanes.
- Practical networking advice for new execs/founders: how (and why) to ask for guidance from leaders you don’t even know yet.
Resources Mentioned
- Conni Francini on LinkedIn
- Soro Publishing
- Instagram — @soropublishing
- Past partnerships referenced: Smithsonian, TIME for Kids
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Geiger (00:09):
Connie, welcome to the show. Connie Franchini. She
is CEO of sorrow publishing. Ihave been so excited to chat
with Connie for so long, so I'mglad we could make this happen.
So welcome to the show, andthank you for taking the time to
chat with us today.
Conni Francini (00:26):
Thank you for having me. I look forward to our
conversation today,
Erin Geiger (00:30):
so I typically jump right in, and I want to know
what brought you to where youare today. Like, tell us a
little bit about your journeyand what brought you here?
Conni Francini (00:42):
Yeah, so I started out my career in
journalism early back in theday. Studied journalism and
thought, I originally thought Iwas going to be a newspaper or a
television reporter, and kind ofended up in the PR world. Did a
lot in communications andmarketing and ultimately, as I
(01:04):
was starting my out, my firstmarriage, decided that I was
kind of ready for a change. Wasworking 70 hours a week. It was
a lot of travel. It was excitingto be 22 years old and traveling
all over the country to majorevents, but I was really kind of
looking for something different,so ended up switching into
(01:26):
education field and and lovedthe light bulb moments of, you
know, being in education, butagain, was then sort of looking
for what's what's next, andfound A really perfect blend of
my communications background andmy passion for, you know, sort
of learning and leading andhelping others grow. And ended
(01:48):
up an educational publishingcompany, and spent about 15
years there, the last seven ofwhich I was the editor in chief,
and created and led anddeveloped all sorts of amazing,
award winning products. While Iwas there, got to work with the
Smithsonian, got to work withtime for kids, so many great
partners out in the industry.
And in 2019 I kind of felt likeI was at a place. Personally, my
(02:13):
kids were getting older, youknow, settled into, you know,
upcoming second marriage, andreally kind of felt like I was
in a place where I wantedsomething different. So left
corporate life and started doingsome consulting, and last year,
stumbled into a fewconversations with authors I had
(02:35):
known for a long time, and heardsome very emotional frustrations
about their experiences withtheir with publishing, and
started an exploration, a littleresearch and development
project, and discovered a needin the market, and created my
own publishing company last yearcalled Soro publishing. So so
(02:55):
here I am now one year. We'rejust about, just over one year
in, so it's been an exciting,big milestone.
Erin Geiger (03:04):
Well, congratulations on that. That's
huge. And, yeah, definitely aneed for that. I'm curious, what
were the frustrations that youheard that inspired you to take
action?
Conni Francini (03:17):
So these were, it's so funny. These were just
very, you know, friendly,social, check ins, chit chats
with folks I had known for along time. You know, hey, it's
been a couple of years sincewe've chatted, you know, how are
things going? What are you up toin your business? That was
really the whole point of theseconversations. And heard a real
(03:39):
frustration with the inparticular the traditional
publishing model. They werefrustrated with the low royalty
rates. They were unhappy withthe level of marketing support
that they got. One author sharedthat he felt like the book
wasn't really his anymore, thatthe publisher had changed it so
(03:59):
much, it just didn't feel likehis voice or his baby anymore.
And one, one author shared thatshe felt a bit like an
indentured servant that she, youknow, was asked to go out and do
speaking engagements or whathave you you know, always, at a
much more minimal rate, wasn'table to keep contact with folks
(04:21):
that she had led, you know,keynotes with, or workshops
with, because they wereultimately, you know, the
publishers customer, right? It'sreally just just sort of a
function of that particularmodel so that, so that was
really interesting to me. I was,like, it was really Erin within,
like, maybe a week's time, but Ihad these two completely
(04:42):
unplanned conversations, andheard this really similar sort
of level of emotionalfrustration. And at the same
time, again, sort of randomly, Iwas contacted by colleagues of
mine who were going the selfpublishing route, and knew I had
a background in publishing. Meand reached out to me for some
guidance and support. You know,hey, I got into this thinking
(05:05):
this would be really easy, andnow I realize there's a lot to
do. I'm worried that my book isgoing to look like a
kindergartner. Help me make itright, and you're professional.
Can you help me? I want my youknow, I really don't want my
book to be an embarrassment. Canyou help me? So I have this
strange, you know, again, justwithin a few weeks time, these
(05:27):
strange points of input thatcame to me, and I, you know, as
a, as an editor in chief, yourwhole, your whole primary role,
is product development, right?
Which books, what are, where arethe needs in the market? You
know, what's, where's theinterest? What are people asking
for? You know, what are peoplereally going to be interested
in? And so I kind of put on myproduct development hat and
(05:52):
went, huh? This is reallyinteresting. You know, I wonder
if there's more here. So I endedup taking that into, you know,
like really owning it, andsaying, Hey, let me go see if I
can learn a little bit more. Andjust reached out to people who,
some I knew really well, some Ididn't know at all, who had all
sorts of range of experiencesin, you know, the publishing
(06:15):
world, whether they publishedwith a traditional publisher,
gone the self publishing route,or could be a, you know,
successful, published author,but hadn't yet written a book,
and just ask them, you know, canyou share some time with me?
Will you just be candid and kindof share your perspective on,
you know, on kind of the stateof things and your experiences
and worries and what your needsand goals would be? And several
(06:37):
dozen conversations later, I waslike, there's a clear need here.
And every time I would get newinput, I'd be debriefing my
husband at the dinner table. Andfinally, one day, we were on a
trip in Austin, by the way, hesaid, How many more of these
conversations are you going tohave before you start this
(06:58):
company? Okay, I think you'reprobably right. We have enough,
enough data points, and I thinkI'll just go for it. So that's
really how, how this, thiscompany, was born was just true,
honest input, research feedbackthat was really, really shaped
(07:19):
by what I heard from folks outthere, you know, who want to be
published or have publishedalready. It was, it was fun. It
was really fun to see it
Erin Geiger (07:29):
take shape. Yeah, no, I bet. And so, how did you
take the frustrations that youheard and so you created this
company. It's publishingcompany. How does it
differentiate from like, how didyou How are you kind of applying
what you know to solving ortrying to help out those
frustrations with this company?
How is it different from theother publishing
Conni Francini (07:51):
houses? So what I did was kind of take all of
that feedback that I heard andmade a list of, you know, pros
and cons of each of the paths.
So on the on the traditionalside, what are the things that
the authors value and appreciateit? What did they like about
that? Because it wasn't allhorrible. Obviously, there was a
lot they really valued, youknow, what were the pros and
(08:12):
what were the cons of thetraditional side? And then did
the same for the self publishingroute. You know, there's a lot
of pros and there's also, youknow, a lot of cons. And then
what we tried to do was to lookat and say, how could we take as
much of the good stuff fromeither end of the spectrum and
solve for the challenges, andtry to create what one author
(08:35):
asked, she said, Isn't there away to create a win, win. So the
goal was to, like, take thatmindset and say, how could we
create more of a win win? Howcould we take the best, you
know, both of these pathways ofpublishing, the traditional
route and the self publishingroute, and create something in
the middle that aims to kind of,you know, create this different
hybrid model. So our aim is tohelp our author, support our
(08:59):
authors, and creating aprofessional quality book in
months instead of years, thatand still allowing them to keep
their rights, their copyrights,their creative control over the
book and most of the of theroyalties. So that's sort of the
blend of the two of those. Andthe way that we do that is, is
one really giving them thatprofessional guidance that they
(09:23):
really want and value, you know,they don't, they want to be a
part of it, but they don't wantto be just completely directing
everything, because they don'thave that level of expertise. So
we really give them thatprofessional quality. We give
them as much, you know, freedomand ownership and control as we
possibly can, and that's wherethe rights, the creative control
and the royalties come intoplay. And then the third part is
(09:45):
we really strive to give them apartnership. We're really there
to help build the author'splatform, help elevate their
profile, help them, you know,grow their own business.
Because. It isn't about, youknow, our publishing company,
kind of owning and managing and,you know, and seeing the
(10:05):
benefits of any success thatcomes may come from the book.
It's really about us supportingthem, right, and giving them
that partnership that is uniqueto them as authors, to their
platform and to the book andtheir audience. So that's
something we feel like is reallyunique that you can't get from
the traditional or self
Erin Geiger (10:25):
publishing route, yeah, wow, that's really, that's
a smart way to kind of approachit. And is there, are there
certain genres that you focuson?
Conni Francini (10:34):
Yeah? So we obviously education, you know,
is one core audience area forus. We also are doing a lot of
business leadership books. Wehave a business development
books, marketing kind of in theworks as well. So that's sort of
another area. And then our thirdwould be our children's books.
(10:55):
So having come from aneducational publishing company,
I've created, you know, 1000s ofchildren's titles, nonfiction
and fiction. So we also havechildren's titles as well, which
are super fun to create. So lotsof creativity. You get to work
with illustrators andeverything.
Erin Geiger (11:12):
Wow, very cool.
We'll definitely put some ofthat info on the show notes. I
bet you some listeners areaspiring authors, maybe authors
that are looking to make achange, so we'll definitely
include that. And so tell us alittle bit about being known as
a devoted big sister to authors.
I would love to hear
Conni Francini (11:30):
that. Yeah. So our company name, sorrow is a
shortened version of the Latinword Soros for Sister, so it
shows that kind of specificallybecause, again, this the idea of
this company is that when we'reworking with authors, we're
there to sort of be theirdevoted big sister. We've
(11:51):
already walked this path. Wealready know how to publish high
quality books. We know what ittakes. We know where, where to
go, how to guide them along, howto help them avoid, you know,
some, some pots, potholes in theroad, so to speak. And
ultimately, like any great bigsister, we want, we want them to
(12:14):
shine. We want to guide themalong the path. And we really
want to, you know, allow them tosort of step out into the
spotlight and shine, right? It'sreally more about us supporting
them, rather than us sort ofbeing the superstar of the show.
So that's where the this idea ofthis devoted big sister and the
(12:35):
name of the company come intoplay, and it's really defines
our approach and in how wepartner with our authors.
Erin Geiger (12:41):
Okay, so that probably ties into a lot, into
how you kind of approachmentorship, and do you, do you
get a lot of new authors comingyour way, or are most of them
more established? I'm justcurious about your different
approach to mentoring, thedifferent ones.
Conni Francini (12:56):
Yeah. So that's a good question, and that we do
have a lot of new authors thatwe that we work with, and we
have some experienced authorsthat we are working with as
well. For those that are, thatare new to the publishing side
of things, we are really, youknow, there to answer their
questions, help guide themalong. We really want to
understand what their vision,you know, is for the book, and
(13:20):
for, you know, for the work thatthey're doing, whether that's
speaking or consulting or, youknow, visits to schools,
whatever that might be. So byhelping, by kind of, really
helping understand their vision,then we're, our job is to help
bring, bring that to life in areally high quality, effective
way, which, which they don'tknow. And we understand that,
(13:41):
right? That's that's the valuethat we're bringing to the table
to say, hey, if this is reallykind of what what you want to
achieve, what kind of outcomethat you want, here's where we
think this should go, and here'swhy. So we're also helping to
educate them as well, and kindof building their capacity along
the way, so that they becauseultimately, what I see is that
enables them to feel much moreconfident when they understand,
(14:05):
you know, why we think we shouldposition the book in this way,
why we should change the titleto, you know, a different title,
or why we should reorganize thebook a certain way, or why we
should talk about It, you know,this way that's really is also
building their capacity,building their understanding,
(14:25):
and ultimately building theirconfidence. And that plays out
that contributes to how theyapproach their their own work
and their business, right? Itreally builds confidence in
their work and their business,which is great, right? That's
that sort of goes back to, Ithink, some of them, the aspects
of teaching that I really loved,right, that you're, you're
(14:47):
creating the spark you are. It'slike a little rock in the pond.
You know, one moment sparks 100other moments. So one new, you
know, a light bulb moment forthem. About. How they talk about
their book can help impact howthey market it, how they promote
it, you know, how they presentit at their next keynote
session. So with that's that'sexciting, that feels really good
(15:11):
to me, that we're not justhelping them make a book file
and make it available. It's it'smore than that. It's bigger than
that. And that's what's reallygreat.
Erin Geiger (15:22):
Yeah? No, that is great because then they feel
like they're genuinelypartnering with you and a part
of the process, or then justbeing told do this, this and
this, and not knowing thecontext behind why, you know. So
that's
Conni Francini (15:34):
absolutely yeah, or more of a, you know, there
are plenty of entities out therethat are really a production
house, you know, give us yourfile and we're going to go make
your book. But they don't tellyou. We don't think you should
do this, and here's why we thinkyou should do this, this
instead, and here's why we youdon't want to just do what
they're asking. Because theymight not know that this isn't
(15:55):
the best direction. We theymight not know this isn't the
best font choice, right? We havethat that that experience and
expertise, and we want to sharethat with them and make them
feel part of the process, andagain, feel more confident about
what they're creating.
Erin Geiger (16:09):
Yeah, and so as a woman, not just leading but
founding a publishing company.
And I know, you know it's, it'searly yet, but are there
challenges you have faced, youknow, even just founding the
company and kind of movingalong, and that's kind of a two
parter, you know, you know, forfor those that are aspiring
(16:29):
female leaders, and maybethey're going to into a more
male dominated industry, likeanything to say there about, You
know, like the challenges you'reyou're facing currently, and
anything like kind of in yourcareer,
Conni Francini (16:45):
yeah, I think, as any entrepreneur or small
business owner knows, you know,starting, starting a business
from scratch is just simply alot of work. You know, even,
even though I feel like, when Imade the decision to start, I
was, I felt so clear, you know,this is my audience. This is the
problem I'm solving. This is howwe're positioning. This is what
(17:07):
we're doing. The name cameinstantly I had, I just felt
really confident about what Iwas getting into that being
said, you know, it's everything.
You literally have to buildeverything from from scratch,
whether you're doing ityourself, or you're, you know,
engaging other team members andresources to do it. You're just
(17:27):
doing so much. I think it's justa, you know, maybe a message to
share with anyone in, you know,in the listening audience who is
in that space that, yes, that'strue, you know, and you're not
alone. It is so much work. Evenagainst I felt so confident and
so clear. I was like, this isgoing to be so easy to get
(17:49):
things up and running, but it isjust a lot. It's a lot of work.
It is just a lot of, you know, alot of work to get things
established. You're startingfrom scratch and creating email
addresses and, you know,everything, I think that's, I
think that's just one thing toto kind of just recognize and
acknowledge. You know, it is alot of work, but it's also
(18:10):
really rewarding. I think theother part of it that is a good
lesson learned is, you know, thebusiness side of the doing the
work is the really fun part,right? Working with authors,
figuring out what the covershould look like. I mean, all of
(18:32):
that stuff, that's what's thepositioning of the what do we
how do we write the back coverlike? How does this all come
together? That's the fun stuff.
I think the important part is toalso acknowledge the value of,
you know, marketing and businessdevelopment. And the part that I
think not all, but many smallbusiness owners and
(18:55):
entrepreneurs, you know, don'tlove as much, right? If you're a
restaurant owner, you probablylove the food side, you know,
you may not love the, you know,the marketing promotion side as
much as that. So, you know,that's, that's, I think, an
important challenge for me, totry to balance making sure that
we're, you know, doing themarketing and the business
development side of things, andreally building that up and and,
(19:18):
you know, because the fun stuffis, you know, it's making the
books right, working with that'sthe fun stuff. Nobody wants to
do, you know, SEO or somethinglike that, but it's, but it's
important.
Erin Geiger (19:30):
So yeah, and is there, was there a challenge
that surprised you, that youkind of come across so far, that
you're, like, I didn't thinkabout that, or didn't think that
was going to be that much of a
Conni Francini (19:43):
challenge, a surprising challenge,
Erin Geiger (19:48):
like, has it been easy to get authors like, you
know, like, has it has that kindof come pretty organically, I
would say.
Conni Francini (19:58):
I would say, as.
Surprising. A surprisingchallenge is, initially, I
thought we were going to stayreally focused on education,
because that's where, you know,my previous focus was in
educational publishing, and gota lot of interest from kind of
outside of that. And so makingthe decision about, you know, do
(20:20):
we go outside of that lane ornot? The education industry can
be, overall, a little, I don'tknow what the word is, not
hesitant, but there, there's alot of for the education world,
people tend to, kind of want todo sort of what's, you know,
(20:45):
what's known and and what's beendone before. And so, because we
are a little bit of a newermodel, I think it's taken, you
know, a little bit of time to tobuild up more traction there
than I was anticipating. Andthen we just as much we had to
deal with the the interest fromthese other areas. You know, we
initially weren't necessarilyanticipating working with
(21:08):
children's authors, but just gotsome just great, great, great
proposals that felt like, youknow, these are things we should
be working on. These are authorswe want to work with. So how do
we how do we adapt, you know, inkind of where we thought we were
going to go? And I think thatadaptability is, you know, is
certainly important. And youknow, you think we have this
(21:31):
plan, and you start acting onit, and maybe you get different
inputs and data points and howto use. How do you shift, you
know, and adjust as needed. Sothat's probably been, you know,
the audience that we're workingwith is probably been a little
bit, you know, of a surprise. Ifyou had told me a year ago,
here's where you're going to be,you know, here's the different
books that you have published orhave in production. I don't, I
(21:52):
don't think I would have thoughtthat we would have had this much
outside of education. Butthat's, you know, kind of part
of discovering, you know,discovering what's out there,
and and listening to the market,feeling like, where you can
provide
Erin Geiger (22:08):
value. So yeah, and that's huge. I'm so glad that
you mentioned that, because Ithink that happens across
industries, across companytypes, is that you, you launch
thinking one thing, but then, asyou said, as you get the data
points that come in, you getfeedback, and then it's like,
oh, wait, maybe we need to gothis way, you know. And you
don't know that until you startand take, you know, one foot in
(22:31):
front of the other. And it's,it's having that capacity to
listen to what's going on aroundyou and be like, Okay, wait
there, you know, this is sayingthis. Say we should go this
direction, instead of justhaving your blinders on of like,
nope. On of, like, Nope, this iswhat we said we were going to
do. And so, so that's reallyinteresting that you say that,
you know, like, Okay, now we'regoing to expand our genre type,
and, you know, the authors thatwe work with, you know? And it
(22:53):
sounds like that's what's theright call, too.
Conni Francini (22:56):
So it goes back to that whole early part of
listening, listening to themarket, you know, yep, just
being, being tuned intoopportunities. I think anyone, I
think a lot of folks inentrepreneurship, or, you know,
specifically productdevelopment, or folks in the
tech world, probably too you yougo into it with a with an idea,
(23:18):
and you've got to be willing to,to take that loop right, and
take the input loop and adapt.
So, yeah, that's, you know, Ithink common, as you said,
common for for folks in the inthe small business,
entrepreneurial space, and it'sbeen, it's been a happy
adaptation. Let's just
Erin Geiger (23:40):
say that I love it, and so you're dealing with
creatives, and we are a wholeother segment of the population.
So I'm curious, like, how do youkind of adapt your leadership
style to that? And you know,like, is there something that,
Okay, listen, if you are goingto go down this road and lead
(24:03):
creative professionals and anyyou know definition of the word
that people should know goingin, going into it,
Conni Francini (24:13):
working with so first of all, I feel like I am
part of the creatives community,even though I come primarily,
You know, from way back when,from the editorial lane, but you
know, led again, strategically,led just multi million dollar
products. So from a productdevelopment perspective, I
certainly have kind of worn allthe different hats, but worked
(24:34):
with authors who, in you know,are their own lane of creatives,
designers who are their own laneof creatives, digital folks who
are their own lane of creatives,editorial, right, marketing, all
of those, those differentcreative thinkers come together
to, you know, to produce, youknow, a product or a book,
(24:55):
whatever that might be. And onething I know about creatives is
they are very passionate. Itabout their work. They, they,
they really feel strongly about,you know, what they're bringing
to to a project. And I learnedearly in my career that to that
(25:18):
everyone bring may bring alittle bit of a different kind
of viewpoint about it, and adifferent, you know, creative
expertise to that project andthat, honoring that and
recognizing that, and reallytrying to bring everyone to the
table, ultimately created thebest possible outcomes that was
hard to learn. You know, as aneditor, I felt like you know
(25:39):
everything about editing isprecision, you know, accuracy.
And I prided myself on sort ofhaving a plan and a roadmap laid
out for everyone. And I quicklylearned that telling the
designer how to design was not,was not a great strategy. They
didn't like that to think of it.
Wow. Who would have who wouldhave thought
Unknown (26:01):
so, you
Conni Francini (26:02):
know, I think my approach has really been to
strive to help kind of definethe outcome, right, kind of that
big picture outcome, focusing onthings like, what's our
audience? What do you want themto take away from this? I love
the question, what do we wantfor books in particular? What do
(26:24):
we want a reader to feel, thinkor do after reading this book?
And so things like that, Ithink, really shape creating
that sense of sharedunderstanding where we all kind
of can get on the same page withthat while also valuing and
giving space for the differentcreatives to kind of bring, you
(26:46):
know, their expertise to thetable, because the designer
alone isn't going to make agreat book. The editor alone
isn't going to make a greatbook. The publicity person alone
isn't going to be, you know, theend all be. All to create a
great, marketable book.
Everybody needs to put theircreativity, you know, into the
mix. But that was a hard lessonto learn. You know, I thought I
(27:07):
was doing what I was supposed toby kind of coming with a plan
and having a lot of, you know,precision and accuracy, and this
is what everyone is going to doexactly. And that that wasn't
that wasn't it. So that's kindof the approach that I've
learned to take.
Erin Geiger (27:23):
Yeah, like a big record scratch,
Conni Francini (27:27):
yeah, had plenty of eye rolls from designers.
Like, why are you telling me howto design this? You know you?
What do you even know about it?
So, yeah, yeah,
Erin Geiger (27:39):
exactly. And I think everyone in whatever
creative, you know, verticalthat they're in, like, as, like,
a writer or, you know, you'rejust like, Okay, everyone thinks
they can write or market ordesign, or, you know, whatever,
and you're just like, oh, youknow, so, yeah, I get that
right.
Conni Francini (27:56):
I think the other thing I've learned too, is
to especially when something'snot working. To, instead of
saying, I don't like this, dothis, I've learned to try to
articulate more of what thewhat, here's the here's the
problem, or here's what, here'swhat's not working or not
resonating, you know, or what Ithink isn't probably not going
(28:18):
to resonate with the audience.
And then say, you know, how doyou, how do you see we, you
know, resolve this, or addressthis, rather than, again, that
specificity of, you know, Idon't like this, change it to
this instead, is probably notgonna You're gonna miss out on
an opportunity, I guess, inworking with creatives of
really, again, engaging themwith their expertise, and you
(28:38):
know, what they can bring to itby telling them exactly what to
do.
Erin Geiger (28:44):
Yeah. I mean, that's so true because you're,
you're going after the same endgoal. So if you frame it as
that, you know, like, Okay,well, what impact will this
have, versus, you know, we looktake a different approach to it.
So I think that's so spot on.
Were there as you kind of, youknow, went through and are
continuing to go through yourcareer. Were there women in
leadership who, you know,modeled what was possible for
(29:08):
you kind of early on? Were theresome that you were like, Okay,
I'm going to take a page out ofher book, you know. Or, okay, I
like how that person did it, orthat person showed me what not
to do. So just curious aboutthat.
Conni Francini (29:23):
I, you know, I have a really, sort of
unconventional response to that.
I think, you know, most peoplewould think about, is there a
business leader that I know, or,you know, someone is a fortune
500 executive? I I really wouldgo back to when I was in
elementary school and throughhigh school, went to a local
dance studio owned by a woman.
(29:50):
This is back in, you know, 19 inthe 70s when she started, you
know, when she started thisstudio and was in business for.
45 years, or whatever, she kindof shaped a lot of like who I am
and how I sort of approached myprofessional work, and just
seeing how she worked with herstudents and with her staff. But
(30:12):
as a business owner, she'sdefinitely, I think, sort of
left that legacy with me that Ididn't really appreciate until I
got into business ownership.
Probably didn't really fully seeit until I got to that point. So
there's some really interestingthings. As one is, again, she
was a small business owner, youknow, very much at a time when
(30:32):
that really wasn't a thing. Youreally weren't a small business
owner. In this woman, smallbusiness owner in the 70s. She
had children. So she was, youknow, doing this work, building
this business, all while, youknow, raising two kids. She was
very, very fortunate that shehad a very supportive husband
(30:52):
who, you know, not only wasfully supportive of her
business, you know, just fromthe logistical start side of
things, but just, you know,personally and as a human right,
would be there on, on Sundays,you know, helping to get ready
for, you know, the show, andwould, you know, bring in, you
(31:13):
know, snacks for everyone whenwe were running late with
rehearsal. I think that part isso, so important. And I think
the biggest takeaway for me iskind of how she approached her
business, that I now can see howmuch of that I've really adopted
into my own approach ofbusiness, is that there were
(31:34):
plenty of other studios, youknow, larger and flashier and
bigger and, you know, this kindof, these sparklier accolades.
And she didn't want that. Shehad a real clear vision for what
she wanted to create. She wantedthis certain culture of kind of,
like teamwork and integrity andhumility and humanity. And, you
(31:55):
know, hard work and she didn'twant flash and sequins and crazy
tricks and, you know, so she hadthis very specific approach that
I really valued. And I It wasn'tjust learning dance moves. It
wasn't just a pirouette or, howcould you do, you know, a key
tree leap. It was a lot aboutteamwork, you know, helping each
(32:18):
other, working working together,working really hard, doing your
part. You know, doing all thekind of little, little hard work
behind the scenes that that youhad to do in order to be able to
get out there and create a show,for example. And I think that
that sort of approach is, I cansee how that has really shaped
(32:39):
my approach to businesses, youknow, I really want to, kind of,
you know, be in the trenches andwork alongside these authors. I
really want to do the hard workto help them produce something
that's quality. I don't want totell people I'm going to make
you a New York Times bestseller,because that's just not, that's,
you know, that's just not real.
(33:00):
So I think that that is, if, youknow, if I think about like, who
really has helped shape myapproach to business, it
probably is thanks to, you know,my dance studio from my
childhood days, you know, alonga long way away, but certainly,
certainly, really important,really foundational for me.
Well, I love
Erin Geiger (33:20):
that. It does translate. You know, it's not
just about glamorizing openingnight, you know, or like the
launch of a book. It's like allof the little steps that built
up to that, you know, are reallywhere the importance lies,
rather than the the flash, youknow, flash in the pan,
Conni Francini (33:37):
the things that, the things that are going to
matter, you know, could you? Canyou? Someone asked me, you know,
can, how do we get an Amazonbestseller status? Well, you can
pay, you know, plenty people paypeople to go on and and do
reviews and, you know, and,okay, yay, then you got that.
But ultimately, that's notreally going to help sustain you
as an author. It's not reallygoing to elevate your platform.
(33:58):
It's not really bring youpotential other consulting
clients or Keynoteopportunities. Why don't we do
more of the real stuff, youknow, the stuff that's a value
that's going to help you longterm, rather than some of the
flashy stuff you know over here,and there's plenty of companies
out there that you know thatsell the flashy stuff and and
that's just not what we want todo.
Erin Geiger (34:19):
Yeah. What type of dance were you learning as a
kiddo?
Conni Francini (34:24):
Oh, I started out in tap, which was so much
fun, and then I got into jazz,and I got to do the moonwalk at
the dance recital when I was,like nine years old. So that's
dating myself for when themoonwalk was actually a big
deal. We did a little soldiernumber, and I did the moonwalk.
So mostly like jazz and hip hop,I did, you know, cheerleading
(34:46):
and song leading and all sortsof fun other performances and
things. But I started out intap.
Erin Geiger (34:53):
That's really cool.
I took when I did jazz as akiddo, I did jazz, or I did when
I did dance. I did jazz too. Soof. Very cool. Okay, so what
advice would you give women youknow, because they're, you know,
our audience is a mix, so it'slike some that are just stepping
into leadership, some that areaspiring to it, and some that
are wanting to take theirleadership to the next level.
But here this question, we'rereally talking to those who are
(35:16):
just about to step into theirfirst executive or founder role,
any bits of wisdom or insight toshare for them,
Conni Francini (35:28):
I would say the one really important lesson I
learned is to not be afraid toreach out for support, guidance,
soundboarding. I have beenpleasantly surprised and
grateful that during the timesin my professional career as a
(35:51):
as a manager, as an executive,as a C suite leader, anytime
that I've had questions or, youknow, needed any kind of
guidance, when I reached out topeople, specifically, people who
I don't have any relationshipwith at all. I've been really
surprised and grateful thatwomen in particular were very
(36:11):
happy to respond, you know, givetheir input, give their thoughts
and be candid, get on phonecalls. It was, you know, so I
that was one thing I would say,I think, is women in particular,
we tend to feel like we shouldsort of figure it out. I think
for me personally, that's myMidwestern, you know, pick
(36:32):
yourself up by your bootstraps,sort of upbringing. And it's, I
think, a good reminder to, youknow, reach out if you have
questions, if you need help, ifyou're just looking for advice,
if you just want a soundingboard, my experience is women in
particular, are, for the mostpart, very gracious in sharing
(36:55):
their thoughts in a little bitof time with you as well. So I
Erin Geiger (36:59):
agree with that, I think most people want to see
other people do well, and arehonored to have a small part in
that. So I think when you doreach out for help or support,
it's usually warmly received. Sobut I also understand it's hard
to do that sometimes, you know,but it's just kind of like
realizing, Okay, it's time.
Conni Francini (37:21):
But if you don't, if you don't ask, you
can't, you know, you can't getthat, that support or input.
And, yeah, I was, have beenalways pleasantly surprised
about that. Anyone listening, ifyou if you have a question, or
feel free to, you know, messageme on LinkedIn, or, you know,
reach out by email, and I'mhappy to return the favor that
(37:41):
has been done to me many timesover, over the years,
Erin Geiger (37:45):
and that's a perfect segue into my next
question, where is where canpeople find you online if they
do want to connect with you?
Conni Francini (37:52):
Well, I am on active on LinkedIn under Connie
Franchini, devoted Big Sister,so I'm easy to find. I did come
up ranked for ranking under theterm sister one time, which I
thought was really funny. Or youcan hop onto our website, which
is sorrow, S O, R O, sorrowpublishing.com and there's a
contact form there if you'd liketo reach out to me there as
(38:15):
well. And we're also onInstagram at sorrow publishing,
awesome be happy to answerquestions. Be a sounding board.
Anything at all, perfect.
Erin Geiger (38:27):
And I have one last final, just a fun question I ask
everybody, which is becausewe're just music heads over
here. So always curious, if youcould only listen to one music
artist for the rest of yourlife? Who would it be?
Conni Francini (38:41):
Oh, gosh, that's really hard, because I have a
pretty wide range. I would saythe group whose concerts I have
cried at most often, and thatwould be YouTube.
Erin Geiger (38:52):
That's a good one.
That's a good one. I have yet tosee them live. I had friends
that traveled to Vegas. Iwouldn't say it was last year,
because they were playing inthat sphere. Sphere.
Conni Francini (39:02):
Yeah, really, really, really incredible. Yeah,
that really incredibleexperience. Second, second
place. I cried when I watchedthem, but we were on the floor a
couple years. Several years ago,we were on the floor at the
forum, and was, you know, likeeight feet from Bono. Just
incredible, like the soundtrackof my middle school, high school
(39:22):
years, it just took me back. Itwas great. They're amazing. How
about you? What's yours?
Erin Geiger (39:28):
Thank you for asking me, Beastie Boys.
Absolutely love them, like I'veloved them for years and years.
And my mom will just be like,still. And I'm like, still, Mom,
have not grown out of them.
Still. That's great. They'vereally evolved. If you listen to
their earlier music, up untiltheir later stuff, it's like
(39:49):
they just see their whole lifecoming from being a teenager up,
you know, into a solidifiedadult. It's interesting.
Conni Francini (39:58):
I'll have to listen. I think I only really.
More familiar with their earliertheir earlier songs from from
way back when. So I'll have totake a listen. Take away from
me, thank you.
Erin Geiger (40:07):
Yes, they've evolved, Connie, from their
fight for your right to partydays. Well, thank you so much
for spending this time with us.
Connie. Super, super. Appreciateit. I know a lot of tidbits that
you shared are going to help alot of people as they, you know,
take the next step into theircareers, whether it be founder
corporate nonprofit, you know,wherever their their journey
(40:31):
takes them. So thank you. Ireally appreciate it. Thanks.
Aaron, you.
Connie, welcome to the show. Connie Franchini. She
is CEO of sorrow publishing. Ihave been so excited to chat
with Connie for so long, so I'mglad we could make this happen.
So welcome to the show, andthank you for taking the time to
chat with us today.
Conni Francini (00:26):
Thank you for having me. I look forward to our
conversation today,
Erin Geiger (00:30):
so I typically jump right in, and I want to know
what brought you to where youare today. Like, tell us a
little bit about your journeyand what brought you here?
Conni Francini (00:42):
Yeah, so I started out my career in
journalism early back in theday. Studied journalism and
thought, I originally thought Iwas going to be a newspaper or a
television reporter, and kind ofended up in the PR world. Did a
lot in communications andmarketing and ultimately, as I
(01:04):
was starting my out, my firstmarriage, decided that I was
kind of ready for a change. Wasworking 70 hours a week. It was
a lot of travel. It was excitingto be 22 years old and traveling
all over the country to majorevents, but I was really kind of
looking for something different,so ended up switching into
(01:26):
education field and and lovedthe light bulb moments of, you
know, being in education, butagain, was then sort of looking
for what's what's next, andfound A really perfect blend of
my communications background andmy passion for, you know, sort
of learning and leading andhelping others grow. And ended
(01:48):
up an educational publishingcompany, and spent about 15
years there, the last seven ofwhich I was the editor in chief,
and created and led anddeveloped all sorts of amazing,
award winning products. While Iwas there, got to work with the
Smithsonian, got to work withtime for kids, so many great
partners out in the industry.
And in 2019 I kind of felt likeI was at a place. Personally, my
(02:13):
kids were getting older, youknow, settled into, you know,
upcoming second marriage, andreally kind of felt like I was
in a place where I wantedsomething different. So left
corporate life and started doingsome consulting, and last year,
stumbled into a fewconversations with authors I had
(02:35):
known for a long time, and heardsome very emotional frustrations
about their experiences withtheir with publishing, and
started an exploration, a littleresearch and development
project, and discovered a needin the market, and created my
own publishing company last yearcalled Soro publishing. So so
(02:55):
here I am now one year. We'rejust about, just over one year
in, so it's been an exciting,big milestone.
Erin Geiger (03:04):
Well, congratulations on that. That's
huge. And, yeah, definitely aneed for that. I'm curious, what
were the frustrations that youheard that inspired you to take
action?
Conni Francini (03:17):
So these were, it's so funny. These were just
very, you know, friendly,social, check ins, chit chats
with folks I had known for along time. You know, hey, it's
been a couple of years sincewe've chatted, you know, how are
things going? What are you up toin your business? That was
really the whole point of theseconversations. And heard a real
(03:39):
frustration with the inparticular the traditional
publishing model. They werefrustrated with the low royalty
rates. They were unhappy withthe level of marketing support
that they got. One author sharedthat he felt like the book
wasn't really his anymore, thatthe publisher had changed it so
(03:59):
much, it just didn't feel likehis voice or his baby anymore.
And one, one author shared thatshe felt a bit like an
indentured servant that she, youknow, was asked to go out and do
speaking engagements or whathave you you know, always, at a
much more minimal rate, wasn'table to keep contact with folks
(04:21):
that she had led, you know,keynotes with, or workshops
with, because they wereultimately, you know, the
publishers customer, right? It'sreally just just sort of a
function of that particularmodel so that, so that was
really interesting to me. I was,like, it was really Erin within,
like, maybe a week's time, but Ihad these two completely
(04:42):
unplanned conversations, andheard this really similar sort
of level of emotionalfrustration. And at the same
time, again, sort of randomly, Iwas contacted by colleagues of
mine who were going the selfpublishing route, and knew I had
a background in publishing. Meand reached out to me for some
guidance and support. You know,hey, I got into this thinking
(05:05):
this would be really easy, andnow I realize there's a lot to
do. I'm worried that my book isgoing to look like a
kindergartner. Help me make itright, and you're professional.
Can you help me? I want my youknow, I really don't want my
book to be an embarrassment. Canyou help me? So I have this
strange, you know, again, justwithin a few weeks time, these
(05:27):
strange points of input thatcame to me, and I, you know, as
a, as an editor in chief, yourwhole, your whole primary role,
is product development, right?
Which books, what are, where arethe needs in the market? You
know, what's, where's theinterest? What are people asking
for? You know, what are peoplereally going to be interested
in? And so I kind of put on myproduct development hat and
(05:52):
went, huh? This is reallyinteresting. You know, I wonder
if there's more here. So I endedup taking that into, you know,
like really owning it, andsaying, Hey, let me go see if I
can learn a little bit more. Andjust reached out to people who,
some I knew really well, some Ididn't know at all, who had all
sorts of range of experiencesin, you know, the publishing
(06:15):
world, whether they publishedwith a traditional publisher,
gone the self publishing route,or could be a, you know,
successful, published author,but hadn't yet written a book,
and just ask them, you know, canyou share some time with me?
Will you just be candid and kindof share your perspective on,
you know, on kind of the stateof things and your experiences
and worries and what your needsand goals would be? And several
(06:37):
dozen conversations later, I waslike, there's a clear need here.
And every time I would get newinput, I'd be debriefing my
husband at the dinner table. Andfinally, one day, we were on a
trip in Austin, by the way, hesaid, How many more of these
conversations are you going tohave before you start this
(06:58):
company? Okay, I think you'reprobably right. We have enough,
enough data points, and I thinkI'll just go for it. So that's
really how, how this, thiscompany, was born was just true,
honest input, research feedbackthat was really, really shaped
(07:19):
by what I heard from folks outthere, you know, who want to be
published or have publishedalready. It was, it was fun. It
was really fun to see it
Erin Geiger (07:29):
take shape. Yeah, no, I bet. And so, how did you
take the frustrations that youheard and so you created this
company. It's publishingcompany. How does it
differentiate from like, how didyou How are you kind of applying
what you know to solving ortrying to help out those
frustrations with this company?
How is it different from theother publishing
Conni Francini (07:51):
houses? So what I did was kind of take all of
that feedback that I heard andmade a list of, you know, pros
and cons of each of the paths.
So on the on the traditionalside, what are the things that
the authors value and appreciateit? What did they like about
that? Because it wasn't allhorrible. Obviously, there was a
lot they really valued, youknow, what were the pros and
(08:12):
what were the cons of thetraditional side? And then did
the same for the self publishingroute. You know, there's a lot
of pros and there's also, youknow, a lot of cons. And then
what we tried to do was to lookat and say, how could we take as
much of the good stuff fromeither end of the spectrum and
solve for the challenges, andtry to create what one author
(08:35):
asked, she said, Isn't there away to create a win, win. So the
goal was to, like, take thatmindset and say, how could we
create more of a win win? Howcould we take the best, you
know, both of these pathways ofpublishing, the traditional
route and the self publishingroute, and create something in
the middle that aims to kind of,you know, create this different
hybrid model. So our aim is tohelp our author, support our
(08:59):
authors, and creating aprofessional quality book in
months instead of years, thatand still allowing them to keep
their rights, their copyrights,their creative control over the
book and most of the of theroyalties. So that's sort of the
blend of the two of those. Andthe way that we do that is, is
one really giving them thatprofessional guidance that they
(09:23):
really want and value, you know,they don't, they want to be a
part of it, but they don't wantto be just completely directing
everything, because they don'thave that level of expertise. So
we really give them thatprofessional quality. We give
them as much, you know, freedomand ownership and control as we
possibly can, and that's wherethe rights, the creative control
and the royalties come intoplay. And then the third part is
(09:45):
we really strive to give them apartnership. We're really there
to help build the author'splatform, help elevate their
profile, help them, you know,grow their own business.
Because. It isn't about, youknow, our publishing company,
kind of owning and managing and,you know, and seeing the
(10:05):
benefits of any success thatcomes may come from the book.
It's really about us supportingthem, right, and giving them
that partnership that is uniqueto them as authors, to their
platform and to the book andtheir audience. So that's
something we feel like is reallyunique that you can't get from
the traditional or self
Erin Geiger (10:25):
publishing route, yeah, wow, that's really, that's
a smart way to kind of approachit. And is there, are there
certain genres that you focuson?
Conni Francini (10:34):
Yeah? So we obviously education, you know,
is one core audience area forus. We also are doing a lot of
business leadership books. Wehave a business development
books, marketing kind of in theworks as well. So that's sort of
another area. And then our thirdwould be our children's books.
(10:55):
So having come from aneducational publishing company,
I've created, you know, 1000s ofchildren's titles, nonfiction
and fiction. So we also havechildren's titles as well, which
are super fun to create. So lotsof creativity. You get to work
with illustrators andeverything.
Erin Geiger (11:12):
Wow, very cool.
We'll definitely put some ofthat info on the show notes. I
bet you some listeners areaspiring authors, maybe authors
that are looking to make achange, so we'll definitely
include that. And so tell us alittle bit about being known as
a devoted big sister to authors.
I would love to hear
Conni Francini (11:30):
that. Yeah. So our company name, sorrow is a
shortened version of the Latinword Soros for Sister, so it
shows that kind of specificallybecause, again, this the idea of
this company is that when we'reworking with authors, we're
there to sort of be theirdevoted big sister. We've
(11:51):
already walked this path. Wealready know how to publish high
quality books. We know what ittakes. We know where, where to
go, how to guide them along, howto help them avoid, you know,
some, some pots, potholes in theroad, so to speak. And
ultimately, like any great bigsister, we want, we want them to
(12:14):
shine. We want to guide themalong the path. And we really
want to, you know, allow them tosort of step out into the
spotlight and shine, right? It'sreally more about us supporting
them, rather than us sort ofbeing the superstar of the show.
So that's where the this idea ofthis devoted big sister and the
(12:35):
name of the company come intoplay, and it's really defines
our approach and in how wepartner with our authors.
Erin Geiger (12:41):
Okay, so that probably ties into a lot, into
how you kind of approachmentorship, and do you, do you
get a lot of new authors comingyour way, or are most of them
more established? I'm justcurious about your different
approach to mentoring, thedifferent ones.
Conni Francini (12:56):
Yeah. So that's a good question, and that we do
have a lot of new authors thatwe that we work with, and we
have some experienced authorsthat we are working with as
well. For those that are, thatare new to the publishing side
of things, we are really, youknow, there to answer their
questions, help guide themalong. We really want to
understand what their vision,you know, is for the book, and
(13:20):
for, you know, for the work thatthey're doing, whether that's
speaking or consulting or, youknow, visits to schools,
whatever that might be. So byhelping, by kind of, really
helping understand their vision,then we're, our job is to help
bring, bring that to life in areally high quality, effective
way, which, which they don'tknow. And we understand that,
(13:41):
right? That's that's the valuethat we're bringing to the table
to say, hey, if this is reallykind of what what you want to
achieve, what kind of outcomethat you want, here's where we
think this should go, and here'swhy. So we're also helping to
educate them as well, and kindof building their capacity along
the way, so that they becauseultimately, what I see is that
enables them to feel much moreconfident when they understand,
(14:05):
you know, why we think we shouldposition the book in this way,
why we should change the titleto, you know, a different title,
or why we should reorganize thebook a certain way, or why we
should talk about It, you know,this way that's really is also
building their capacity,building their understanding,
(14:25):
and ultimately building theirconfidence. And that plays out
that contributes to how theyapproach their their own work
and their business, right? Itreally builds confidence in
their work and their business,which is great, right? That's
that sort of goes back to, Ithink, some of them, the aspects
of teaching that I really loved,right, that you're, you're
(14:47):
creating the spark you are. It'slike a little rock in the pond.
You know, one moment sparks 100other moments. So one new, you
know, a light bulb moment forthem. About. How they talk about
their book can help impact howthey market it, how they promote
it, you know, how they presentit at their next keynote
session. So with that's that'sexciting, that feels really good
(15:11):
to me, that we're not justhelping them make a book file
and make it available. It's it'smore than that. It's bigger than
that. And that's what's reallygreat.
Erin Geiger (15:22):
Yeah? No, that is great because then they feel
like they're genuinelypartnering with you and a part
of the process, or then justbeing told do this, this and
this, and not knowing thecontext behind why, you know. So
that's
Conni Francini (15:34):
absolutely yeah, or more of a, you know, there
are plenty of entities out therethat are really a production
house, you know, give us yourfile and we're going to go make
your book. But they don't tellyou. We don't think you should
do this, and here's why we thinkyou should do this, this
instead, and here's why we youdon't want to just do what
they're asking. Because theymight not know that this isn't
(15:55):
the best direction. We theymight not know this isn't the
best font choice, right? We havethat that that experience and
expertise, and we want to sharethat with them and make them
feel part of the process, andagain, feel more confident about
what they're creating.
Erin Geiger (16:09):
Yeah, and so as a woman, not just leading but
founding a publishing company.
And I know, you know it's, it'searly yet, but are there
challenges you have faced, youknow, even just founding the
company and kind of movingalong, and that's kind of a two
parter, you know, you know, forfor those that are aspiring
(16:29):
female leaders, and maybethey're going to into a more
male dominated industry, likeanything to say there about, You
know, like the challenges you'reyou're facing currently, and
anything like kind of in yourcareer,
Conni Francini (16:45):
yeah, I think, as any entrepreneur or small
business owner knows, you know,starting, starting a business
from scratch is just simply alot of work. You know, even,
even though I feel like, when Imade the decision to start, I
was, I felt so clear, you know,this is my audience. This is the
problem I'm solving. This is howwe're positioning. This is what
(17:07):
we're doing. The name cameinstantly I had, I just felt
really confident about what Iwas getting into that being
said, you know, it's everything.
You literally have to buildeverything from from scratch,
whether you're doing ityourself, or you're, you know,
engaging other team members andresources to do it. You're just
(17:27):
doing so much. I think it's justa, you know, maybe a message to
share with anyone in, you know,in the listening audience who is
in that space that, yes, that'strue, you know, and you're not
alone. It is so much work. Evenagainst I felt so confident and
so clear. I was like, this isgoing to be so easy to get
(17:49):
things up and running, but it isjust a lot. It's a lot of work.
It is just a lot of, you know, alot of work to get things
established. You're startingfrom scratch and creating email
addresses and, you know,everything, I think that's, I
think that's just one thing toto kind of just recognize and
acknowledge. You know, it is alot of work, but it's also
(18:10):
really rewarding. I think theother part of it that is a good
lesson learned is, you know, thebusiness side of the doing the
work is the really fun part,right? Working with authors,
figuring out what the covershould look like. I mean, all of
(18:32):
that stuff, that's what's thepositioning of the what do we
how do we write the back coverlike? How does this all come
together? That's the fun stuff.
I think the important part is toalso acknowledge the value of,
you know, marketing and businessdevelopment. And the part that I
think not all, but many smallbusiness owners and
(18:55):
entrepreneurs, you know, don'tlove as much, right? If you're a
restaurant owner, you probablylove the food side, you know,
you may not love the, you know,the marketing promotion side as
much as that. So, you know,that's, that's, I think, an
important challenge for me, totry to balance making sure that
we're, you know, doing themarketing and the business
development side of things, andreally building that up and and,
(19:18):
you know, because the fun stuffis, you know, it's making the
books right, working with that'sthe fun stuff. Nobody wants to
do, you know, SEO or somethinglike that, but it's, but it's
important.
Erin Geiger (19:30):
So yeah, and is there, was there a challenge
that surprised you, that youkind of come across so far, that
you're, like, I didn't thinkabout that, or didn't think that
was going to be that much of a
Conni Francini (19:43):
challenge, a surprising challenge,
Erin Geiger (19:48):
like, has it been easy to get authors like, you
know, like, has it has that kindof come pretty organically, I
would say.
Conni Francini (19:58):
I would say, as.
Surprising. A surprisingchallenge is, initially, I
thought we were going to stayreally focused on education,
because that's where, you know,my previous focus was in
educational publishing, and gota lot of interest from kind of
outside of that. And so makingthe decision about, you know, do
(20:20):
we go outside of that lane ornot? The education industry can
be, overall, a little, I don'tknow what the word is, not
hesitant, but there, there's alot of for the education world,
people tend to, kind of want todo sort of what's, you know,
(20:45):
what's known and and what's beendone before. And so, because we
are a little bit of a newermodel, I think it's taken, you
know, a little bit of time to tobuild up more traction there
than I was anticipating. Andthen we just as much we had to
deal with the the interest fromthese other areas. You know, we
initially weren't necessarilyanticipating working with
(21:08):
children's authors, but just gotsome just great, great, great
proposals that felt like, youknow, these are things we should
be working on. These are authorswe want to work with. So how do
we how do we adapt, you know, inkind of where we thought we were
going to go? And I think thatadaptability is, you know, is
certainly important. And youknow, you think we have this
(21:31):
plan, and you start acting onit, and maybe you get different
inputs and data points and howto use. How do you shift, you
know, and adjust as needed. Sothat's probably been, you know,
the audience that we're workingwith is probably been a little
bit, you know, of a surprise. Ifyou had told me a year ago,
here's where you're going to be,you know, here's the different
books that you have published orhave in production. I don't, I
(21:52):
don't think I would have thoughtthat we would have had this much
outside of education. Butthat's, you know, kind of part
of discovering, you know,discovering what's out there,
and and listening to the market,feeling like, where you can
provide
Erin Geiger (22:08):
value. So yeah, and that's huge. I'm so glad that
you mentioned that, because Ithink that happens across
industries, across companytypes, is that you, you launch
thinking one thing, but then, asyou said, as you get the data
points that come in, you getfeedback, and then it's like,
oh, wait, maybe we need to gothis way, you know. And you
don't know that until you startand take, you know, one foot in
(22:31):
front of the other. And it's,it's having that capacity to
listen to what's going on aroundyou and be like, Okay, wait
there, you know, this is sayingthis. Say we should go this
direction, instead of justhaving your blinders on of like,
nope. On of, like, Nope, this iswhat we said we were going to
do. And so, so that's reallyinteresting that you say that,
you know, like, Okay, now we'regoing to expand our genre type,
and, you know, the authors thatwe work with, you know? And it
(22:53):
sounds like that's what's theright call, too.
Conni Francini (22:56):
So it goes back to that whole early part of
listening, listening to themarket, you know, yep, just
being, being tuned intoopportunities. I think anyone, I
think a lot of folks inentrepreneurship, or, you know,
specifically productdevelopment, or folks in the
tech world, probably too you yougo into it with a with an idea,
(23:18):
and you've got to be willing to,to take that loop right, and
take the input loop and adapt.
So, yeah, that's, you know, Ithink common, as you said,
common for for folks in the inthe small business,
entrepreneurial space, and it'sbeen, it's been a happy
adaptation. Let's just
Erin Geiger (23:40):
say that I love it, and so you're dealing with
creatives, and we are a wholeother segment of the population.
So I'm curious, like, how do youkind of adapt your leadership
style to that? And you know,like, is there something that,
Okay, listen, if you are goingto go down this road and lead
(24:03):
creative professionals and anyyou know definition of the word
that people should know goingin, going into it,
Conni Francini (24:13):
working with so first of all, I feel like I am
part of the creatives community,even though I come primarily,
You know, from way back when,from the editorial lane, but you
know, led again, strategically,led just multi million dollar
products. So from a productdevelopment perspective, I
certainly have kind of worn allthe different hats, but worked
(24:34):
with authors who, in you know,are their own lane of creatives,
designers who are their own laneof creatives, digital folks who
are their own lane of creatives,editorial, right, marketing, all
of those, those differentcreative thinkers come together
to, you know, to produce, youknow, a product or a book,
(24:55):
whatever that might be. And onething I know about creatives is
they are very passionate. Itabout their work. They, they,
they really feel strongly about,you know, what they're bringing
to to a project. And I learnedearly in my career that to that
(25:18):
everyone bring may bring alittle bit of a different kind
of viewpoint about it, and adifferent, you know, creative
expertise to that project andthat, honoring that and
recognizing that, and reallytrying to bring everyone to the
table, ultimately created thebest possible outcomes that was
hard to learn. You know, as aneditor, I felt like you know
(25:39):
everything about editing isprecision, you know, accuracy.
And I prided myself on sort ofhaving a plan and a roadmap laid
out for everyone. And I quicklylearned that telling the
designer how to design was not,was not a great strategy. They
didn't like that to think of it.
Wow. Who would have who wouldhave thought
Unknown (26:01):
so, you
Conni Francini (26:02):
know, I think my approach has really been to
strive to help kind of definethe outcome, right, kind of that
big picture outcome, focusing onthings like, what's our
audience? What do you want themto take away from this? I love
the question, what do we wantfor books in particular? What do
(26:24):
we want a reader to feel, thinkor do after reading this book?
And so things like that, Ithink, really shape creating
that sense of sharedunderstanding where we all kind
of can get on the same page withthat while also valuing and
giving space for the differentcreatives to kind of bring, you
(26:46):
know, their expertise to thetable, because the designer
alone isn't going to make agreat book. The editor alone
isn't going to make a greatbook. The publicity person alone
isn't going to be, you know, theend all be. All to create a
great, marketable book.
Everybody needs to put theircreativity, you know, into the
mix. But that was a hard lessonto learn. You know, I thought I
(27:07):
was doing what I was supposed toby kind of coming with a plan
and having a lot of, you know,precision and accuracy, and this
is what everyone is going to doexactly. And that that wasn't
that wasn't it. So that's kindof the approach that I've
learned to take.
Erin Geiger (27:23):
Yeah, like a big record scratch,
Conni Francini (27:27):
yeah, had plenty of eye rolls from designers.
Like, why are you telling me howto design this? You know you?
What do you even know about it?
So, yeah, yeah,
Erin Geiger (27:39):
exactly. And I think everyone in whatever
creative, you know, verticalthat they're in, like, as, like,
a writer or, you know, you'rejust like, Okay, everyone thinks
they can write or market ordesign, or, you know, whatever,
and you're just like, oh, youknow, so, yeah, I get that
right.
Conni Francini (27:56):
I think the other thing I've learned too, is
to especially when something'snot working. To, instead of
saying, I don't like this, dothis, I've learned to try to
articulate more of what thewhat, here's the here's the
problem, or here's what, here'swhat's not working or not
resonating, you know, or what Ithink isn't probably not going
(28:18):
to resonate with the audience.
And then say, you know, how doyou, how do you see we, you
know, resolve this, or addressthis, rather than, again, that
specificity of, you know, Idon't like this, change it to
this instead, is probably notgonna You're gonna miss out on
an opportunity, I guess, inworking with creatives of
really, again, engaging themwith their expertise, and you
(28:38):
know, what they can bring to itby telling them exactly what to
do.
Erin Geiger (28:44):
Yeah. I mean, that's so true because you're,
you're going after the same endgoal. So if you frame it as
that, you know, like, Okay,well, what impact will this
have, versus, you know, we looktake a different approach to it.
So I think that's so spot on.
Were there as you kind of, youknow, went through and are
continuing to go through yourcareer. Were there women in
leadership who, you know,modeled what was possible for
(29:08):
you kind of early on? Were theresome that you were like, Okay,
I'm going to take a page out ofher book, you know. Or, okay, I
like how that person did it, orthat person showed me what not
to do. So just curious aboutthat.
Conni Francini (29:23):
I, you know, I have a really, sort of
unconventional response to that.
I think, you know, most peoplewould think about, is there a
business leader that I know, or,you know, someone is a fortune
500 executive? I I really wouldgo back to when I was in
elementary school and throughhigh school, went to a local
dance studio owned by a woman.
(29:50):
This is back in, you know, 19 inthe 70s when she started, you
know, when she started thisstudio and was in business for.
45 years, or whatever, she kindof shaped a lot of like who I am
and how I sort of approached myprofessional work, and just
seeing how she worked with herstudents and with her staff. But
(30:12):
as a business owner, she'sdefinitely, I think, sort of
left that legacy with me that Ididn't really appreciate until I
got into business ownership.
Probably didn't really fully seeit until I got to that point. So
there's some really interestingthings. As one is, again, she
was a small business owner, youknow, very much at a time when
(30:32):
that really wasn't a thing. Youreally weren't a small business
owner. In this woman, smallbusiness owner in the 70s. She
had children. So she was, youknow, doing this work, building
this business, all while, youknow, raising two kids. She was
very, very fortunate that shehad a very supportive husband
(30:52):
who, you know, not only wasfully supportive of her
business, you know, just fromthe logistical start side of
things, but just, you know,personally and as a human right,
would be there on, on Sundays,you know, helping to get ready
for, you know, the show, andwould, you know, bring in, you
(31:13):
know, snacks for everyone whenwe were running late with
rehearsal. I think that part isso, so important. And I think
the biggest takeaway for me iskind of how she approached her
business, that I now can see howmuch of that I've really adopted
into my own approach ofbusiness, is that there were
(31:34):
plenty of other studios, youknow, larger and flashier and
bigger and, you know, this kindof, these sparklier accolades.
And she didn't want that. Shehad a real clear vision for what
she wanted to create. She wantedthis certain culture of kind of,
like teamwork and integrity andhumility and humanity. And, you
(31:55):
know, hard work and she didn'twant flash and sequins and crazy
tricks and, you know, so she hadthis very specific approach that
I really valued. And I It wasn'tjust learning dance moves. It
wasn't just a pirouette or, howcould you do, you know, a key
tree leap. It was a lot aboutteamwork, you know, helping each
(32:18):
other, working working together,working really hard, doing your
part. You know, doing all thekind of little, little hard work
behind the scenes that that youhad to do in order to be able to
get out there and create a show,for example. And I think that
that sort of approach is, I cansee how that has really shaped
(32:39):
my approach to businesses, youknow, I really want to, kind of,
you know, be in the trenches andwork alongside these authors. I
really want to do the hard workto help them produce something
that's quality. I don't want totell people I'm going to make
you a New York Times bestseller,because that's just not, that's,
you know, that's just not real.
(33:00):
So I think that that is, if, youknow, if I think about like, who
really has helped shape myapproach to business, it
probably is thanks to, you know,my dance studio from my
childhood days, you know, alonga long way away, but certainly,
certainly, really important,really foundational for me.
Well, I love
Erin Geiger (33:20):
that. It does translate. You know, it's not
just about glamorizing openingnight, you know, or like the
launch of a book. It's like allof the little steps that built
up to that, you know, are reallywhere the importance lies,
rather than the the flash, youknow, flash in the pan,
Conni Francini (33:37):
the things that, the things that are going to
matter, you know, could you? Canyou? Someone asked me, you know,
can, how do we get an Amazonbestseller status? Well, you can
pay, you know, plenty people paypeople to go on and and do
reviews and, you know, and,okay, yay, then you got that.
But ultimately, that's notreally going to help sustain you
as an author. It's not reallygoing to elevate your platform.
(33:58):
It's not really bring youpotential other consulting
clients or Keynoteopportunities. Why don't we do
more of the real stuff, youknow, the stuff that's a value
that's going to help you longterm, rather than some of the
flashy stuff you know over here,and there's plenty of companies
out there that you know thatsell the flashy stuff and and
that's just not what we want todo.
Erin Geiger (34:19):
Yeah. What type of dance were you learning as a
kiddo?
Conni Francini (34:24):
Oh, I started out in tap, which was so much
fun, and then I got into jazz,and I got to do the moonwalk at
the dance recital when I was,like nine years old. So that's
dating myself for when themoonwalk was actually a big
deal. We did a little soldiernumber, and I did the moonwalk.
So mostly like jazz and hip hop,I did, you know, cheerleading
(34:46):
and song leading and all sortsof fun other performances and
things. But I started out intap.
Erin Geiger (34:53):
That's really cool.
I took when I did jazz as akiddo, I did jazz, or I did when
I did dance. I did jazz too. Soof. Very cool. Okay, so what
advice would you give women youknow, because they're, you know,
our audience is a mix, so it'slike some that are just stepping
into leadership, some that areaspiring to it, and some that
are wanting to take theirleadership to the next level.
But here this question, we'rereally talking to those who are
(35:16):
just about to step into theirfirst executive or founder role,
any bits of wisdom or insight toshare for them,
Conni Francini (35:28):
I would say the one really important lesson I
learned is to not be afraid toreach out for support, guidance,
soundboarding. I have beenpleasantly surprised and
grateful that during the timesin my professional career as a
(35:51):
as a manager, as an executive,as a C suite leader, anytime
that I've had questions or, youknow, needed any kind of
guidance, when I reached out topeople, specifically, people who
I don't have any relationshipwith at all. I've been really
surprised and grateful thatwomen in particular were very
(36:11):
happy to respond, you know, givetheir input, give their thoughts
and be candid, get on phonecalls. It was, you know, so I
that was one thing I would say,I think, is women in particular,
we tend to feel like we shouldsort of figure it out. I think
for me personally, that's myMidwestern, you know, pick
(36:32):
yourself up by your bootstraps,sort of upbringing. And it's, I
think, a good reminder to, youknow, reach out if you have
questions, if you need help, ifyou're just looking for advice,
if you just want a soundingboard, my experience is women in
particular, are, for the mostpart, very gracious in sharing
(36:55):
their thoughts in a little bitof time with you as well. So I
Erin Geiger (36:59):
agree with that, I think most people want to see
other people do well, and arehonored to have a small part in
that. So I think when you doreach out for help or support,
it's usually warmly received. Sobut I also understand it's hard
to do that sometimes, you know,but it's just kind of like
realizing, Okay, it's time.
Conni Francini (37:21):
But if you don't, if you don't ask, you
can't, you know, you can't getthat, that support or input.
And, yeah, I was, have beenalways pleasantly surprised
about that. Anyone listening, ifyou if you have a question, or
feel free to, you know, messageme on LinkedIn, or, you know,
reach out by email, and I'mhappy to return the favor that
(37:41):
has been done to me many timesover, over the years,
Erin Geiger (37:45):
and that's a perfect segue into my next
question, where is where canpeople find you online if they
do want to connect with you?
Conni Francini (37:52):
Well, I am on active on LinkedIn under Connie
Franchini, devoted Big Sister,so I'm easy to find. I did come
up ranked for ranking under theterm sister one time, which I
thought was really funny. Or youcan hop onto our website, which
is sorrow, S O, R O, sorrowpublishing.com and there's a
contact form there if you'd liketo reach out to me there as
(38:15):
well. And we're also onInstagram at sorrow publishing,
awesome be happy to answerquestions. Be a sounding board.
Anything at all, perfect.
Erin Geiger (38:27):
And I have one last final, just a fun question I ask
everybody, which is becausewe're just music heads over
here. So always curious, if youcould only listen to one music
artist for the rest of yourlife? Who would it be?
Conni Francini (38:41):
Oh, gosh, that's really hard, because I have a
pretty wide range. I would saythe group whose concerts I have
cried at most often, and thatwould be YouTube.
Erin Geiger (38:52):
That's a good one.
That's a good one. I have yet tosee them live. I had friends
that traveled to Vegas. Iwouldn't say it was last year,
because they were playing inthat sphere. Sphere.
Conni Francini (39:02):
Yeah, really, really, really incredible. Yeah,
that really incredibleexperience. Second, second
place. I cried when I watchedthem, but we were on the floor a
couple years. Several years ago,we were on the floor at the
forum, and was, you know, likeeight feet from Bono. Just
incredible, like the soundtrackof my middle school, high school
(39:22):
years, it just took me back. Itwas great. They're amazing. How
about you? What's yours?
Erin Geiger (39:28):
Thank you for asking me, Beastie Boys.
Absolutely love them, like I'veloved them for years and years.
And my mom will just be like,still. And I'm like, still, Mom,
have not grown out of them.
Still. That's great. They'vereally evolved. If you listen to
their earlier music, up untiltheir later stuff, it's like
(39:49):
they just see their whole lifecoming from being a teenager up,
you know, into a solidifiedadult. It's interesting.
Conni Francini (39:58):
I'll have to listen. I think I only really.
More familiar with their earliertheir earlier songs from from
way back when. So I'll have totake a listen. Take away from
me, thank you.
Erin Geiger (40:07):
Yes, they've evolved, Connie, from their
fight for your right to partydays. Well, thank you so much
for spending this time with us.
Connie. Super, super. Appreciateit. I know a lot of tidbits that
you shared are going to help alot of people as they, you know,
take the next step into theircareers, whether it be founder
corporate nonprofit, you know,wherever their their journey
(40:31):
takes them. So thank you. Ireally appreciate it. Thanks.
Aaron, you.
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