Step by Step Publishing & The Doctor of Digital Podcast

Step-by-step process to attract an ideal publisher

A Step-by-Step Process to Attract Your Ideal Publisher

By: Mick, The Doctor of Digital

As an authority architect, I’ve walked with many writers from idea to final manuscript, and one of the most important decisions they'll make is how they want their book brought into the world.

Whether your dream is a traditional publisher, a hybrid partnership, or full ownership through self-publishing, the process of attracting the right publishing path begins before your manuscript is even complete. It starts with clarity, intention, and positioning.

Here’s a straightforward, grounded process to help you draw in the publisher that aligns best with your goals and your book’s unique value.

Step 1: Clarify Your Author Goals and Book’s Purpose

Step 2: Define Your Ideal Reader and Market Position

Step 3: Build a Professional Author Platform

Step 4: Create a Competitive and Unique Book Proposal

Step 5: Research and Curate a Targeted Publisher List

Step 6: Polish Your Manuscript and Pitch Materials

Step 7: Engage with the Industry

Step 8: Decide with Integrity

Final Thoughts

You don’t attract the right publisher by waiting. You do it by showing up as a serious author: prepared, clear, and focused. Whether you go traditional, hybrid, or indie, your journey is valid. What matters most is that the publishing path supports your vision, not the other way around.

Let’s move your idea toward the path that’s right for you!

G. Mick (The Doctor of Digital) Smith, PhD
https://www.linkedin.com/in/g-mick-smith-phd-24495127/

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Why Most Hiring Problems Are Actually Leadership Problems

Dana DeVito Episode

Most business owners believe they have a hiring problem. They blame the labor market, the applicant pool, or the work ethic of a new generation. They raise wages and post more job listings, yet the revolving door keeps spinning.

My guest today, Dana DeVito, argues that these organizations are diagnosing the wrong disease. Dana is a business owner, franchise operator, and the author of Now Hiring. He has lived the high-stakes reality of multi-unit operations where turnover isn't just a metric—it’s a threat to the bottom line.

Dana’s central insight is provocative: Exceptional organizations do not begin with better hiring; they begin with better systems. He has proven this by taking an organization with a staggering 300% turnover rate and reducing it to 50%—not by replacing the workforce, but by redesigning the environment.

Today, we explore why most hiring problems are actually leadership problems in disguise, how accountability and culture are built through operational clarity rather than mission statements, and how to build an organization that talented people never want to leave.

I’m Mick, The Doctor of Digital. And this episode is about why leaders must stop trying to fix employees and start fixing the systems that allow great people to succeed.

Dana DeVito is a partner at Elite Performance Associates and also continues to own and operate a pair of Scooter’s Coffee franchises.

Now Hiring: Recruit Right, Grow Your Culture, Build Teams That Stay

https://a.co/d/0f0sK0Uw

 The Interview
 Teams Are Built, Not Found
 Pull Quotes for Social Media
- "Most hiring problems are leadership problems wearing different clothes."
- "If the system keeps producing the same result, replacing the person won't solve the problem."
- "Employees experience your operating system long before they believe your mission statement."
- "Culture isn't what you announce; it's what the system rewards, tolerates, and repeats."
- "Retention isn't an HR metric. It is a leadership outcome."

G. Mick Smith, The Doctor of Digital
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From Homer to Iraq: Why The Iliad Still Speaks

Josh Cannon is a Marine Corps veteran, former Arabic cryptologic linguist, and scholar whose career bridges modern warfare and one of the oldest stories ever written.

Following two combat deployments to Iraq, Josh pursued advanced study in Classics and now teaches Ancient Epic and the History of Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean. His unique combination of lived military experience and scholarly expertise led him to write Fatal Second Helen: A Modern Veteran's Iliad. This work explores how Homer's epic continues to illuminate the experiences of today's warriors.

In this conversation, we explore why The Iliad remains one of history's greatest books, what modern veterans recognize in Homer that civilians often overlook, how stories shape our understanding of conflict, and why leadership, honor, sacrifice, and grief remain timeless human questions.


G. Mick Smith, The Doctor of Digital
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Jay Steinfeld is the founder of Blinds.com, the company he built from a $1,500 startup into the world's largest online retailer of window coverings before selling it to Home Depot in 2014. Unlike most founders, Jay chose to remain after the acquisition, spending six years leading the integration of Blinds.com into one of the world's largest retailers while serving on Home Depot's Online Leadership Team. That uncommon journey gave him a unique perspective on entrepreneurship, enterprise leadership, organizational culture, and innovation at scale. Jay is also the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Lead from the Core: The 4 Principles for Profit and Prosperity. Today he serves as Board Chair of Datavations, advises companies including Mado Dynamic and PreFix, supports entrepreneurship through the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center, and contributes to organizations such as XPRIZE and Hand in Hand. In this conversation, we explore why the acquisition isn't the end of the entrepreneurial journey, what founders can learn from staying after the sale, how innovation survives inside large organizations, and why leadership after success may be the most important chapter of all.

G. Mick Smith, PhD, The Doctor of Digital 
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Prof. (Dr.) h.c. Joerg Molt is an international keynote speaker, executive educator, entrepreneur, and author specializing in artificial intelligence, Bitcoin, blockchain, and digital governance. As the founder of Smart World Education and SWEX.ai, Joerg has spent more than sixteen years helping executives, institutions, and organizations understand emerging technologies through the lens of education, governance, and strategic decision-making rather than hype. He serves in advisory and educational leadership roles while speaking internationally on the future of digital transformation. He is the author of Really? AI Again? and The Bitcoin Generation, books that challenge conventional thinking about artificial intelligence and digital assets by emphasizing structured logic, institutional responsibility, and long-term societal impact. In this conversation, we explore why AI should be understood as disciplined systems rather than magic, how Bitcoin represents more than financial speculation, and why thoughtful leadership will determine whether technological progress strengthens or weakens our institutions.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/prof-dr-h-c-joerg-m-268882132/

Mick, The Doctor of Digital
https://www.linkedin.com/in/g-mick-smith-phd-24495127/

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Frank DeVito is a legal professional and institutional leader working at the intersection of law, faith, and public life. He serves in a senior role at a faith-based nonprofit focused on religious freedom, where his work engages questions of institutional responsibility, legal structure, and the long-term durability of organizations under cultural pressure. In addition to his legal work, Frank is a published author and essayist, with writing featured in outlets including First Things, City Journal, Claremont Review of Books, National Affairs, and The Federalist. His work explores the relationship between law, culture, and the institutions that shape both. In this conversation, we examine why institutions rarely fail from the outside, the role of formation in sustaining authority, and what kind of leadership is required to carry responsibility when the stakes are high.

Themes

• Why Institutions Fail From Within
• Authority as Formation, Not Performance
• The People Problem Inside Every Institution
• Law, Faith, and the Weight of Responsibility
• What It Takes to Sustain Institutions Under Pressure

Quotable

• “Institutions don’t fail first at the level of ideas — they fail at the level of people.”
• “Authority isn’t claimed. It’s formed — and tested under pressure.”
• “Information doesn’t sustain institutions. Formation does.”
• “Most breakdowns are invisible until they’re irreversible.”
• “If the people aren’t formed, the institution won’t hold.”
• “The real crisis isn’t external pressure — it’s internal clarity.”

American Patriot
G. Mick (The Doctor of Digital) Smith, PhD

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Book Coach for CEOs, leaders, and visionaries | Authors Get Published | Books that Convert Clients [ Trusted Advisor | Manuscript Doctor 🚨 | Transforming Drafts into Authority Assets | Strategic Publishing Guidance



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Jim Vinoski is a manufacturing business growth consultant, advisor, author, and speaker focused on operational leadership and American industrial competitiveness. He is the principal at Firesteel Industrial Solutions and has advised organizations on M&A strategy, capital investment, and long-term growth planning.

Over seven years as a contributor to Forbes, Jim studied more than 500 manufacturing companies and generated over 1.5 million page views, documenting the leaders and organizations quietly driving industrial performance. He is the author of We Need One of These and the upcoming American Manufacturing: 22 Tales of Integrity, Ingenuity, and the Modest Heroes Who Built a Nation, which highlights the operators, engineers, and executives shaping the future of manufacturing. Across his work, Jim focuses on execution, leadership discipline, and the operational realities behind sustained industrial success.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimvinoski/

G. Mick Smith, PhD
The Doctor of Digital
[email protected]

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Steven Eugene Kuhn

Citizen-Servant Leadership Architect | Combat Veteran & Global Business Strategist | Capital, Growth & Governance Standards

The TAB Authority Architecture

Unifying Humble Alpha, Citizen Servant Leader, and “Now You Have the Seat”

The Core Problem

Business leaders, veterans, and citizens are being asked to lead in environments where authority exists — but responsibility is avoided.

We have leaders without ownership.

Voices without accountability.

Influence without service.

This creates a vacuum: people have the seat, but they don’t know how to use it.

- Leadership Without Permission

- The Doctrine of the Incorruptible Leader

- Why Modern Leadership Training Fails Under Pressure

- Citizen Servant Leadership in an Age of Institutional Collapse

- Building Leaders Who Cannot Be Bought


G. Mick Smith, PhD
The Doctor of Digital
[email protected]







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🎙 Episode Framing (Show Notes Intro)
=====================================
Jeff Burningham is an entrepreneur, investor, and national bestselling author operating at the intersection of business, technology, and human potential.

He is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Peak Capital Partners, a real estate investment firm managing over $5 billion in assets and employing nearly 1,000 people. He is also the Founding Partner of Element Ventures, a seed-stage fund with investments in companies including Spotify, MetaMask, Podium, Lucid, and Angel Studios.

Across his career, Jeff has started, scaled, or invested in more than fifty companies, served on over twenty boards, and was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mountain West Region.

He is the author of #TheLastBookWrittenByAHuman and the host of the Extraordinary Us podcast, where he explores what it means to live, build, and think at a higher level in a rapidly changing world.
In this conversation, we explore decision-making under uncertainty, the limits of artificial intelligence, and why human judgment — not just intelligence — may be the defining advantage of the next decade.

The Last Book Written by a Human: Becoming Wise in the Age of AI


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Saul Colt is a marketing strategist, agency founder, and creative leader whose career spans over two decades of word-of-mouth marketing, brand campaigns, and experiential execution for some of the world’s most recognizable companies, including Nike, Twitter, eBay, and FreshBooks.

He is the founder of The Idea Integration Company, a boutique agency known for blending strategy, storytelling, and creative execution. Saul is also the author of The Only Creative Process That Matters, a book that captures decades of practical insight into how ideas spread, why people talk, and what makes marketing actually work in the real world.

Across his career, Saul has helped shape campaigns that prioritize conversation over interruption — building a reputation for work that travels organically through audiences rather than relying on traditional advertising structures.

🎯 Episode Angle
1.  How Word-of-Mouth Actually Works
    
2.  The Creative Process Behind Talkable Ideas
    
3.  Why Most Marketing Fails Before It Starts
    
4.  Building Campaigns People Want to Share
    
5.  From Agency Work to Marketing Philosophy
    
🎧 Pull Quotes (Clips)

•   “Most marketing fails before it reaches the customer.”
•     
• -   “If people don’t talk about it, it didn’t happen.”
•     
• -   “Word-of-mouth isn’t luck — it’s design.”
•     
• -   “Great ideas don’t scale because they’re big — they scale because they’re talkable.”
•     
• -   “Creativity dies when it’s optimized for approval.”
•     
• -   “You don’t build campaigns. You build conversations.”
•     
• -   “Virality is usually just clarity meeting emotion.”

 The Only Creative Process That Matters


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The Doctor of Digital
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