This week, we’re chatting with our friend Merideth Hite Estevez, founder and author of Artists for Joy, about the resistance we’ve been feeling during book launch. This is the part most authors dread – marketing is often harder than writing it! We’re definitely feeling that right now. Merideth offers us some helpful reframes to approach book launching with more authenticity and connection, and walks us through everything that she’s been doing to launch her book. We also talk about the value of in-person events and how to make book launch events (book signings, a book tour, etc.) doable even for busy authors!

About Merideth

Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez is a creative catalyst, inviting all to the joy of creative expression through her writing, coaching, and performing. As an oboist, Merideth has performed with top orchestras in the US and abroad and has served on faculties of numerous universities and schools of music, most recently as Associate Professor of Oboe at the University of Delaware.

She has been a featured speaker at Google, Longy School of Music, ShePodcasts LIVE, Hope*writers, Music Institute of Chicago, and more. As a coach, she has helped thousands of artists overcome creative block through her popular online creative recovery clusters and has served as an executive coach for all types of arts leaders, from major museum directors to deans of conservatories and art schools.

Merideth’s award-winning podcast, Artists for Joy, is currently in the top 1.5% of podcasts worldwide, and her first book, The Artist’s Joy: A Guide to Getting Unstuck, Embracing Imperfection, and Loving Your Creative Life, debuted at No. 1 in the Creativity category on Audible and held as the No. 2 New Release in Creativity on Amazon for multiple days during launch week.

Since moving to Metro-Detroit, she has performed as a featured artist with Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Ann Arbor Symphony, Lansing Symphony, and Oakland Symphony. She enjoys sharing her gifts bi-monthly at Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church as oboist-in-residence.

When she’s not playing oboe or writing, Merideth enjoys drinking matcha lattes and running. She hails from Abbeville, SC, but now lives in Bloomfield Hills, MI, with her husband, Rev. Edwin Estevez, daughter Eva, and son Eli.

Learn more and get a copy of Merideth’s book here.

Thank you to our sponsor!

This episode is sponsored by Goldshlag Design. Work with Michelle to get beautiful graphics for entrepreneurial women with busy lives.