Reading time: < 30 seconds To continue from yesterday, the first order of business when creating Building a Million Dollar Book Business was to write down all of my income streams. companion guide courses consulting speaking training certifications etc... Then create a syllabus of what I would use to teach someone how to replicate what I had done. Taking pen to paper, I made an extensive outline of talking points, lessons learned, take-aways, and to-dos (oh yeah, and the not to-dos!). In less...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: < 30 seconds As I mentioned yesterday, my new Nashville buddy insisted I build a course, because "Everybody talks about how to publish a book. Nobody talks about how to monetize it! A course on monetizing a book would be huge." I didn't care how much I could make, the process felt too complex and overwhelming. Remember: a confused mind says, "Nope." Which is what I did. He kept insisting, and offered to do the heavy lifting (so I could just be "the talent.") 🤣 So, over the next...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: < 30 seconds When I moved to Nashville in 2018, I didn't know a soul. Turns out there are a lot of really cool folks in the publishing and publishing-adjacent spaces. Not long after I got here, one of them sent me a DM on Facebook (which I now avoid as though it does not exist). Anyway. He introduced himself (I was a fan) and we met for breakfast. He shared about a course he had launched, which had grossed nearly $300,000 during it's first weekend launch. I thought he was...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: < 30 seconds The idea for a journal which led to a workbook taught me something profound--my readers didn't want information. Just like when you go to the stationery store, you don't want envelopes and note cards. You want something special that helps develop a relationship. I was simultaneously solving their problems and adding a force multiplier to my business. Putting two and two together helped me think about crafting income streams. But while it's about you, it's not...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: < 30 seconds One book was an income stream. Scratch that--one book was two income streams (at first): book and ebook. A book and a workbook--well, now we're talking four income streams. Now with the availability of POD (print on demand) hardcover and easily accessible audiobooks, each book and companion is four income streams, each! So a book and a companion product (workbook, journal, companion guide, to name three) can be a package, a system, a reason for readers to come back....
7 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: < 30 seconds Just three months after I published Prosperity for Writers, I released the Prosperity for Writers Productivity Journal. And wow, I learned a lot from that experience! In case you're wondering, I published both with the same dimensions (5.5x8.5). I've since learned that not only is 8.5x11 a better, easier to manage size, even though it's dimensionally larger, it's cheaper to produce. Go figure. When I published You Must Write a Book, it only took one reader to...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: < 30 seconds You Must Write a Book came just a year after I'd written Prosperity for Writers. Something cool happened after I published that book--a reader emailed me and said, "I wish this book had a place to do the exercises." I was teaching a course of the same name, and everyone in the beta of that course echoed a workbook or journal would be helpful. Sometimes the best ideas are what I call "throwaway suggestions." Even if you can't turn that idea into gold immediately, jot...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: < 30 seconds Following Mark Victor Hanson's advice, "You must write a book," and my subsequent fifteen (or more) questions (I mean, it's shocking he doesn't remember my version of the Spanish Inquisition, right?!), he suggested: I craft my first book around a popular talk I was giving at the time I do 7 things every day to market my book and more (more on those extras later) So I wrote and published (quite poorly, the first time around) the original Tall Order! Seven Master...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: < 30 seconds Super big nerd alert: In 2004, I was attending a conference and I met the Mark Victor Hansen. Now our conversation changed my life, apparently I didn't make an impression. As luck would have it, I did a book with Joe Polish (who is close friends with MVH). I got to FaceTime with him and he was psyched our encounter made a difference. As an aside, always be nice. People might be telling others of their encounter with you a couple of decades from now. Make sure they...
11 days ago • 1 min read