I left San Diego on April 12 for a 2 week, 6 events, 4 city book tour in my home state of Ohio. I am doing a book tour in Ohio because I am from there and want to celebrate with my family and friends. Although my book launched last October, Covid would not let me gather my peeps in Ohio so I vowed, that when Covid will allow, I will do something in Ohio. The "something" turned into a book tour and that book tour is happening.right.now.
I am mostly excited about the tour but slightly nervous for some of the reasons below:
--I hope I don't get egged or heckled by an ex-boyfriend or someone I pissed off in the 24 years I lived in Ohio.
--There's a lot to manage--my Square, making sure it's charged, all the prizes, the people, the invites, the books, the schedule.
--I don't want to be exhausted so I am going to be diligent about sleep, water and how I spend my time.
--I still get to be HPN Mandi during the day so I have scheduled out buckets of time to run my business and be sure I don't leave that behind amidst the tour excitement.
I think if I can manage the above, then, I'll be OK. But, there is a possibility I will fail at managing above miserably and I guess that's OK too. I am prepared to be heckled. I have some backup plans for that. The rest, we'll just have to fall into place.
I left yesterday with 102 lbs of books, 3 suitcases, one purse, and a portable retractable sign. I learned a lot about airport carts. I had never paid attention to airport carts. Now, all I see are airport carts. Those suckers are $6.00 a pop and each use is for appx. 30 seconds. That is not a bad time to dollar ratio. When I arrived at the airport--there were the carts. There were 3 rows of them at various entrances.
My husband in his most skillful TETRIS Style loaded them onto the cart, snapped a pic of me, and away I went.
I took the top blue bag and the tube-like sign as my carry-on. That was a bit awkward because the tub was larger than most doorways and airport bathrooms are small so I required a bunch of clearance as I passed people, but I made it happen.
My bags really took quite the journey. They were on a cart at San Diego airport. Then, they were at baggage claim in Cleveland. I pulled them off the conveyer belt there and popped them back onto a card and rolled that cart to the rental car shuttle. I hauled them up the rental car shuttle stairs, then off again onto another cart. The cart at the rental car place is free--by the way. And then I lifted them into my rental car. Here they are in front of the Cleveland sign as they arrived in town.
And again in front of the rental shuttle. My bags really made the rounds but they all arrived safe, nothing was damaged and they are ready for the tour.
Upon my arrival, I got to see my youngest niece, sister, and bro in law. We had a lovely dinner, made a TikTok video, and then went to bed. It was a very comfortable sleep and I appreciated the pics of Bill Belichick my bro inlaw jokingly placed above my headboard.
In a little bit, my sister and I are off to Cincinnati for the first of six events. We are going to be at Alcove at MadTree Brewery with other people in the hospitality business where I will reunite with old pals from the business, give a quick speech, sell some books and enjoy a Global Meetings Industry Day celebration. I will keep you posted on the happenings but please pray for no eggs in the face
The Ohio Book Tour runs from April 13 - 26 with various events around Ohio. For more information on the tour, click here. I'd love to see you at some point on the tour as long as you promise not to throw eggs at me.
Mandi Graziano is an author, speaker, and hospitality expert. Her best-selling book Sales Tales: The Hustle, Humor, and Lessons from a Life in Sales was released in October 2021. The audiobook is now out as of this week and is available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Or you can click here to download it.
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