Hardy Smith came to Greenleaf Book Group with a mission to help nonprofit leaders build stronger, more engaged boards. Drawing on more than three decades in NASCAR and years of consulting with nonprofits, associations, and chambers of commerce, Hardy challenged conventional thinking about board performance and discovered a new way to address the frustrations between organizations and their board members.

With Stop the Nonprofit Board Blame Game: How to Break the Cycle of Frustrating Relationships and Benefit from Fully Engaged Boards, Hardy turned that insight into an Amazon bestseller, an award-winning book, and a powerful platform for thought leadership. Greenleaf partnered with him throughout the publishing and marketing process, helping position the book for long-term visibility and professional impact. Today, the book serves as a calling card for Hardy’s consulting and speaking business, opening doors to new opportunities and reinforcing his expertise in nonprofit leadership.

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.