Speak in Your Voice with Marlena Banks (Re-Air)

In this episode, you’ll also hear:

• The important first step Marlena took once she had decided her audience and the type of book she was going to write
• Marlena’s journey to finding the right title for her book
• The difference between a cover designer and an interior designer — and why you need both
• Why Marlena recommends putting together a full presentation to walk potential investors through your vision — and why it’s useful even if you aren’t looking for investors
• Marlena’s advice on being fully authentic in your writing

Writing Authentically

Like many people, Marlena Banks says that growing up often involved not feeling like herself. As a result, she had a strong desire to express herself creatively and to leave her mark on the world. That’s why it was important to her that her book, Big Idea Food: A Weekly Devotional for Entrepreneurs, Side Hustlers & Dreamers, be written in her unique, authentic voice. 

While Marlena clarifies that she didn’t necessarily make a conscious choice to “be her most authentic self,” she did take inspiration from her journals while writing, and she made an effort to write in a way that was true to the message she knew God was calling her to share.

“There was no other way to write,” she explains. “I didn't hear it any other way except to share what was truthfully shared with me in the way it was shared with me. But, in hindsight, it was very important to me that, if I put this out there, it expresses me. I didn’t want to open this book five years later and be like, ‘That is not who I was!’ So it really brings me joy to know that this is like a snippet in time of my most ‘selfiest’ of selves.”

Marlena’s authentic voice speaks well to her target audience, in part because she wrote it for people like herself: millennial entrepreneurs. But, although she felt that Big Idea Food was the perfect way to express her faith and share her God-given message, she started by scoping out the market first to see if someone had already done something similar. 

To her surprise, there were no other books on the market like the one she intended to write. This made her even more excited to write it herself, and it confirmed that she had truly found her niche. 

Finding the “Big Idea”

Before Big Idea Food and the start of her entrepreneurial journey, Marlena worked as a freelancer for almost ten years. “I did a lot of work for up-and-coming startups, mom-and-pop shops — people who have visions and dreams — and I helped create identities for them,” she says. “I just spent so much time with people who were just like me, who felt like, ‘I know I have so much to do in this world. God has shown me a vision.’” 

Eventually, working with all of these “big ideas” and visions inspired the name of her devotional book, because she wanted to encourage people to view God’s Word as fuel for their ideas and endeavors. 

She describes the book and its bite-sized devotionals as “Red Bull for your faith” or an energy bar to give entrepreneurs a quick boost when they’re feeling discouraged or in low spirits. “God's word really fuels all of the seeds that He planted inside of you,” she adds. “The activation that occurs when God's word hits the calling and the seeds that He has planted in you, it really brings the fruit.”

For an extra spiritual energy boost, Marlena titled each chapter with an affirmation to help readers immediately ground themselves in God’s truth and to deliver maximum value in a relatively short word count. 

Assembling the Team

Even though Marlena’s background is in marketing, she realized early in the self-publishing process that she needed expert help to launch her book successfully. She started by researching and hiring an editor and then branched out to add more members to her little self-publishing team. 

As a graphic designer, Marlena planned to design the book cover herself — but she quickly realized she was out of her depth and needed help with that, too. 

“I was too close to the project,” she says in retrospect. “This was a lesson for me that sometimes when God is calling you into those higher levels of your purpose, or to the next season, even, sometimes you’ve got to let go of those old talents and the old season.”

Marlena’s experience is an important reminder that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. It’s tempting to try to do everything yourself, but it really takes a team of talented individuals working together to publish a high-quality book. 

That said, Marlena has also learned that focusing too much on the resources you don’t have can prevent you from moving forward. Assembling a dream team can be expensive, and Marlena knew she didn’t have enough money yet to hire everyone she needed. But what she did have was the ability to put together a presentation about her idea, which she used to secure financial