Mark Higgins came to Greenleaf Book Group with a bold vision: to create the first accessible history of the American financial system written from the perspective of a practicing investment professional. Drawing on decades of experience advising institutional investors, he sought to bridge the gap between academic financial history and the real-world decisions facing portfolio managers, policymakers, and students.

With Investing in U.S. Financial History, Higgins didn't just publish a book—he established a platform for thought leadership. Greenleaf partnered with him to preserve his editorial vision, accelerate publication, and build the foundation for long-term influence through strategic positioning, professional distribution, and ongoing visibility across media, speaking engagements, and institutional partnerships.

Melisa Galasso came to Greenleaf Book Group with the expertise and credentials to create a valuable and insightful book for a specific group of readers. Money Matters for Nonprofits: How Board Members Can Harness the Power of Financial Statements by Understanding Basic Accounting offered essential and actionable advice for nonprofit leaders and the accounting professionals who work with nonprofits, but Melisa needed help connecting with these audiences.

Sherry Stewart Deutschmann came to Greenleaf with an incredible life story and a deep passion for advocating for entrepreneurs and sharing the leadership wisdom that she acquired in the years she spent running the successful business she started from her own basement.

Sherry founded and served as CEO of LetterLogic, Inc., which she grew to $40 million and earned recognition on the Inc. 5000 list for ten consecutive years. After selling the business in 2016, she founded BrainTrust, a company dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs grow their businesses to $1 million in annual revenue and beyond.

Jim Poole, MD, FAAP came to Greenleaf with decades of experience building the self-esteem of children with ADHD and restoring hope in concerned parents. Parenting is already hard and having a child with ADHD can bring unexpected challenges to a family. Dr. Poole wanted to give parents of these gifted but misunderstood children a hope-filled perspective on ADHD, as well as share practical knowledge to help them give their child a life of happiness and success.

Dr. Poole worked with Greenleaf to help him to reassess and focus his expert brand, market his book and make it retail-ready, and create earned digital media. This suite of initiatives worked together to create a comprehensive and integrated campaign with the added benefit of taking the burden off of Dr. Poole to coordinate with multiple teams.

Jason Valadão came to Greenleaf with an almost unbelievable personal story and a passion for adding value to the lives of every
person with whom he comes into contact. As he developed the manuscript that would eventually become his debut book, Exceptional Every Day: An Empowering Process to Unlock Your Why and Transform Your Life, he also sought guidance on how to connect with more people to amplify his impact.

"I just keep trying to share my message in different ways, and I do feel that I am getting better each time.”

While many authors aspire to write many books, some seek to focus on a singular literary contribution to the world. Financial industry titan Joseph Deitch falls into the latter category. His ambition was to capture all of the advice and strategies that had helped him achieve so much in an all-encompassing guide to life, Elevate.

To help him navigate his journey as a debut author, Joe leveraged the full range of Greenleaf ’s platform growth initiatives, spanning strategy, execution, outreach, and ongoing support. As a result, Elevate has experienced remarkable success within its first year in the marketplace, won multiple awards, and was even named a finalist for a DBW Award in the marketing campaign category alongside some of the year’s biggest books: Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury and Bill Clinton and James Patterson’s The President is Missing.

Lawyer turned author, Michael Jordan, knew his debut thriller The Company of Demons had a strong hook—a troubled lawyer is stunned when a friend is brutally murdered and he is accused of the crime, the technique echoing through the city of Cleveland as matching that of the notorious Torso Murderer.

Jordan also knew that the mystery and thriller genre boasts loyal and voracious readers and that he had to connect with those readers early and often in order to earn their approval, build buzz, and create demand for his book. To achieve this goal, Jordan worked with the team at Greenleaf on an out-of-the-box marketing campaign as well as a Cleveland-based publicist to capitalize on local media interest. As a result, The Company of Demons continues to have a strong presence in bookstores across the United States and a wealth of 5-star reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads.

"For control and collaboration, Greenleaf is by far the best publishing house there is."

Kat Kronenberg was at a symphony in 2006 when the realization hit her: Write a book about the power of a smile that encourages people to live their best life filled with connection and kindness. For ten years, her unfinished book Dream Big had taken a backseat to life, but Kat was ready to rediscover her motivation, find the perfect ending to her story, and search for a publisher that could help her achieve her lofty aspirations.

Kat knew the challenges of succeeding in a children’s book market dominated by classic tales, but that only boosted her determination to share her positive message and connect with children and their caregivers. After researching her publishing options, Kat knew that with the help of Greenleaf Book Group’s collaborative process and comprehensive branding strategy, her dream would come to life, both on and off the page.

"The value of branding can be difficult to measure and is often referred to as 'the icing on the cake.' No one wants cake without icing, and thus, it is pivotal."

Stephanie Breedlove has been walking the walk of a successful entrepreneur for more than twenty years. After launching a career in corporate America with Accenture, she found her true calling as co-founder and CEO of Care.com HomePay, the largest household payroll and tax firm in the country. She's traveled the full journey from start-up to successful exit and wants to help other women take the leap into entrepreneurship and grow businesses with sustained value and impact. To achieve her goal, Stephanie knew she would have to build a platform and begin developing resources to share her message of entrepreneurship and worked with Greenleaf Book Group to publish All In: How Women Entrepreneurs Can Think Bigger, Build Sustainable Businesses, and Change the World and build a brand about her book and herself.

"The book has influenced substantial deals for Hireology. We will pay for the book in the first year.”

Adam Robinson is on a mission to help business owners make better hiring decisions. As the co-founder and CEO of Hireology, Robinson has a sterling reputation in the recruiting industry and looked to use his book, The Best Team Wins, to polish it further. Understanding that speaking engagements represent a key pipeline for his business, Robinson worked side-by-side with the Greenleaf Book Group branding team to carve out his own niche as an expert in the industry, growing his audience and strengthening both his own brand and Hireology’s in turn.

"The brand strategy gave me a much clearer context for where my book/story fits. The last three slides blew me away–[the] strategy, positioning, and messaging were so on point it was scary (good)."

As the co-founder and president of an investment firm, Matt Hall was motivated to change the way people think about investing by writing a new kind of investment book: one that was both engaging and interesting—a rare combination in the investment book category. Matt partnered with Greenleaf for Odds On and immediately began collaborating with his dedicated brand strategist to detail the work necessary to build his platform, reach his target demographics, and discover the opportunities available to him and his investment firm beyond publishing his book. Since publication, the branding and book have led to a new client pipeline through which Matt can grow his business while also finding success in the retail market.

Anna Carroll came to Greenleaf looking to drive more leads to her consulting business and connect with her clients in a more impactful manner. Anna’s work with the Platform Development team gave her the tools that she needed to strategically repurpose her content and build long-term relationships with followers. Anna has continued to grow her coaching practice and keeps her clients interested in her work through a well-crafted system of online communications.

As a debut novelist, Jeffrey Deitz knew that he would need to build a strong platform before his book launched. He partnered with Greenleaf to create a personal brand that would be distinctive from his professional psychology practice. Jeffrey’s work with Greenleaf resulted in a website and social media presence that supported a successful book launch with strong buzz and positive reviews.

“The level of professionalism, enthusiasm, and personal touch they use in guiding a neophyte like myself through the world for publishing is outstanding.”

Sandra Brannan spent years trying to connect with agents and traditional publishers to find the right fit for her Liv Bergen Mysteries series. Brannan faced the same resistance as many budding authors face when submitting to traditional publishers. Advances and marketing cost money, and to take a chance on an unknown author is a considerable risk for the publisher.

Exhausted with traditional publishing and unwilling to take the self-publishing route, Brannan met with Greenleaf Book Group and was pleasantly surprised by what she learned. Greenleaf is a professional and high-quality publishing option and a competitive national distributor, counting several New York Times and Wall Street Journal best sellers among its titles. Brannan submitted her manuscript to Greenleaf’s review committee, and in less time than it took for her to receive a query response from a traditional agent or publisher, her manuscript joined the ranks of Greenleaf’s selective title list—and she couldn’t be happier. The many years she spent cultivating her writing skills and learning her craft paid off.

“Greenleaf has expertise across both the creative and business spectrum of the publishing process. They were able to take my vision for Deep Dive and make it a creative and commercial success.”

Consultant Rich Horwath, founder of the Strategic Thinking Institute, helps organizations identify holes in their thought processes. He teaches managers to develop a more strategic way to approach their business in order to improve their competitive advantage, to better use resources, and to achieve sustainable growth. Having worked with such companies as Kraft and Motorola, Horwath recognized the need for strategic planning resources at all levels of management.

Looking to bring solutions to his clients, Horwath decided to develop a guidebook on strategic thinking that his clients and other business professionals could use to supplement his services. Horwath found that self-publishing would give him the greatest amount of creative control; however, it didn’t provide him with the broad distribution reach he knew his book needed in order to be successful. After taking a holistic view of the publishing industry, Horwath found that Greenleaf would provide him with the distribution muscle he needed to connect with his audience and the creative control of self-publishing. He signed on in November of 2008, and by August of 2009, Horwath had a high-quality finished product strategically placed in national retailers.

“Absolutely first class, from start to finish. They did everything they said they would do—and often more—on time and on budget, 100 percent of the time. The finished product was sensational, and I loved working with the people. I would say it was my best professional experience in thirty-five years.”

After 15 years of teaching his strategies for achieving predictable success, consultant Les McKeown knew it was time to commit his system to paper. As he sat down to write his book, McKeown examined his publishing options, and he finally settled on Greenleaf Book Group because he wanted to maintain control over his copyright and to have a big hand in the marketing of the book—neither of which would be easy to negotiate with a traditional publisher. McKeown also wanted a transparent, open, responsive, and respectful team working with him on his project—again, not something he thought would be easy to find in a traditional publisher.

Predictable Success hit the market with a splash, quickly earning McKeown national distinction as a business thought leader. Today, he is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author, and the impact on his professional profile has been huge. Because of his book, McKeown consistently receives invitations to speak and consult, a real plus, considering he wrote Predictable Success to help people beyond his existing client list.

“Thanks to the book, we have attained the highest awareness among our relevant competitors and attracted clients and paid speeches. There’s still something powerful about an actual book in a client’s hands versus the electronic white paper or download.”

After publishing two books with traditional New York houses, Mary Lou Quinlan turned to Greenleaf Book Group and their innovative model to help her further strengthen her brand. Quinlan enjoyed her experience with her previous publishers; however, she also knew she wanted to try the independent publishing route.

When asked why she was considering alternative publishing options, Quinlan answered, “It felt like where the future was headed… and I realized that I could contribute meaningfully to the process rather than be in the ‘wait and see,’ ‘be grateful for what you get’ position that can result from busy publishers with much bigger books on their plate.” Under the Greenleaf model, Quinlan was able to create her own small press, Just Ask a Woman, and gained complete control over the entire process so that she could develop a product that both maintained her brand integrity and furthered her value proposition in the market.

“Their advice has been incredibly helpful not only in making the book a success but also in the business market, with our clients and prospects.”

Ready to get his ideas out into the public, business relationship expert Ed Wallace researched the publishing options available to him. After looking at traditional and self-publishing models, Wallace finally settled on Greenleaf Book Group because of their philosophy of partnering with authors and sharing their goals.

Immediately, Wallace and Greenleaf’s editorial team went to work. When the team suggested that he specialize his content to make it more marketable, he took the advice and focused on sales and client-facing professionals rather than on a broad audience. In 2010, Greenleaf released Wallace’s book, Business Relationships That Last: 5 Steps to Transform Contacts into High-Performing Relationships. Since its release, Wallace says his business has increased 100 percent over the previous year and that he attributes much of that success to the profile and credibility that the book created for him and his company in the marketplace.

Projected to reach more than 164 million active listeners by 2024, podcasts present a unique opportunity for authors and thought leaders to gain exposure with highly engaged and targeted audiences. There are thousands of podcasts, ranging in reach, related to content across all genres with new podcasts launching every day. Greenleaf’s media strategists coordinate podcast outreach campaigns that produce interview and advertising opportunities for both fiction and nonfiction authors.