Bonnie Habyan’s Success Story
After publishing The World According to Bess with Legacy Launch Pad Publishing, Bonnie Habyan delivered a TEDx talk that has been viewed more than 350,000 times, launched the This Is How She Did It podcast, hosted Barnes & Noble book signings across multiple locations and built a second platform as an author and speaker on top of her marketing career.
Background
Bonnie Habyan is a marketing and communications leader who spent her career building brands for other people. She came to Legacy Launch Pad with three things on a list she'd been carrying for years: publish a book, deliver a TEDx talk, launch a podcast. The book was the project that opened the other two.
The Book
The World According to Bess is Bonnie's tribute to her mother, Bess Habyan, and the wisdom Bess passed on across a lifetime. Legacy Launch Pad worked with Bonnie on shaping years of accumulated material into a book with a clear through-line, and on a launch designed to carry a personal book beyond a friends-and-family audience.
Results
- Delivered a TEDx talk on her mother's wisdom that has been viewed more than 350,000 times, becoming her most far-reaching platform for connection
- Launched This Is How She Did It, a podcast featuring conversations with women who've built businesses, careers and lives worth a closer look
- Released the book on her mother's 91st birthday, with Bess attending the Barnes & Noble launch event as her last outing before she passed
- Hosted Barnes & Noble book signings across multiple locations, building direct relationships with readers
- Expanded her professional identity from marketing executive to recognized author and speaker
- Receives ongoing messages from readers and TEDx viewers who called estranged family members or rethought a relationship after the book or the talk
- Built a body of work that, in Bonnie's words, exists "in perpetuity, forever" as her mother's legacy
- Established a second platform on top of her marketing career, expanding the rooms and stages she now gets invited into
In Bonnie's Words
"The book is the gift that keeps giving. There are so many times I say, 'Oh my god, I wouldn't have had that if I didn't have the book.' I have to pinch myself sometimes." — Bonnie Habyan, marketing and communications leader and author of The World According to Bess
What Legacy Launch Pad Did Differently
Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders run by a New York Times bestselling author with over 30 years of experience in publishing, and the work on Bonnie's book reflected what that means in practice. Legacy Launch Pad treated The World According to Bess as a serious book rather than a printed memorial. The editorial development helped Bonnie find the through-line in years of accumulated material. The production gave the book the design and feel of a real publisher's title. The launch was built around the kind of book Bonnie had actually written—TEDx outreach, a podcast strategy, Barnes & Noble signings and press that fit the book's tone—and the release was scheduled for Bess's 91st birthday because that mattered more than any date a publishing calendar would have chosen.
