057: Helen Chang - Writing Your First Book

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Thank you, Bill. I'm delighted to be Here. Thank you so much for inviting me. And for those of you who are listening, I'm thrilled to be connecting with you, too. It's such an amazing journey to be an entrepreneur, business person, and a visionary. And books are such a wonderful way to get that message out. So thank you for having me.

Yeah. So you're in San Diego today, right?

Yes, I am.

Nice. And I'm in the Oakland Hills, so we're connected online as we record the show. And I've spent a lot of time with you working on and talking about growing businesses and publishing and your stuff. And I think it's amazing. I mean, you have worked. So you're going to talk about your work with Michael Gerber, you're going to talk about your work with a real estate broker agent, whatever, pardon my terminology, my closing stuff. But I mean, you've helped people use business. You've helped people use business books to grow businesses over 100 million doll. And I think it's a really great story. As you get started in this, why don't you just tell us how you got started? Like, you know, so we know you started writing at a very young age and you want to share a little bit of that story with us before we talk about some of your work with clients.

So I started writing when I was five years old. I loved writing on Rain Outside and the Mist and just writing on the Glass, and I that. And it always gave me a sense of feeling connected to the larger world and feeling like there was something bigger out there. And when I grew up, I. I did become a journalist writing for publications such as Business Week and The Chronicle on msnbc.com, and what was so great about it is that I got to interview all these amazing entrepreneurs. And I often saw that the most successful entrepreneurs were those who had some kind of a failure or went through some kind of despair before they learned lessons that eventually propelled them to success later on. So it was an awesome opportunity. And then people started asking me to ghostwrite their training manuals and their workbooks. And before I knew it, somebody had asked me to write the book, and they said, oh, can you write the book for us? And I said, sure, I can write the book. And I had never written a book, but I loved books and I wanted to write books, so it was perfect. Do you mind if I just share with you a little bit more about that first book and my experience with that, Please?

No. Tell us all about it. I will. But before you do that, before, I think that you said something there in the middle that I want to highlight, because you said that all the people you worked with had some moment of failure, some journey through some setbacks and even despair. And I think that lots of us, well, anyone who's accomplished anything has plenty of that. We're not always comfortable in finding a way to share it powerfully and effectively. That actually makes some difference. It just doesn't sound like we're whining about stuff. So I think there's a real opportunity here in learning to share the hard lessons. I mean, as a coach, I've had some successes in business, in life, but it's far more valuable for me to share the places where I screwed things up and where I didn't do. And I have loads of those. And I think we all do. We just are not all comfortable yet in telling that story. And I think working with a company like yours in this process, you find a way to share it instructively and powerfully. So tell us about that first book and how you got through it.

Exactly. Thank you. You said you were totally nailing the hammer on the head. So with my first book, I was so excited. I had wanted to write, and I was dreaming of being a ghostwriter for celebrities. And this particular author was a real estate investor with a TV reality show, so he had a big following. And the marketing company had lined up all these gigs. They had the infomercials, the radio spots, the coaching workshops, and the author was going to promote the book on his television program. So I was really excited and I went forward and I started interviewing him, and I got his personal story about how he had had this devastating loss with his wife and his child, and how he had pulled himself out of it and become a millionaire investing in real estate. So I got the scene and the dialogue, his journey, the muse, the final battle, and all this sort of stuff that makes a great story. And I was really excited. I got the manuscript together, and I was in my living room when I was on the call with the author and the marketing manager. And the marketing manager gets on the phone and he says, well, this is a good book, but it's not marketable. And I was just like, oh, my God. I like practically putting the phone down. I don't know what to say other than, oh, yes. And the marketing manager goes, we're going to have to start from scratch again and relook at it. Yeah. And I was like, oh, my God. All my dreams of being a ghostwriter just completely crashing down and so on and so forth. But I went back And I said, either I can go back to being a journalist or I can go forward and be a great ghostwriter and book writer. And so I studied, I looked at what made things work. And I really saw how to put a book, particularly a business or expertise book, together so that there's a personal story to create that emotional connection, but also the methods and the systems that makes it relevant to the reader that they can apply and they can learn from that. So that became my learning, and that's what we do now. And really focusing on what that reader is looking for, what their pain, pain points are, and how that book is really going to solve their problem. So we're not just writing a book that people can, you know, that's just a prettified version of somebody's interviews, but it's actually a story or it's a book that actually speaks to the reader and makes them want to keep engaging with the author. So as I said that that book, the author was kind enough to introduce me at, at boot camps that he had. And people would come up to me and say that that book had really changed their lives and they had tears in their eyes. And as you mentioned, the author said that that book led to a division of his business that's now worth $100 million. So that was the power of that book for him.

Yeah, there's something about these. I mean, we call them inspiring stories and things like that. Why is it? It's because they inspire. They breathe life into us. They fill us with a sense of our humanity. They create a new future for us. We see something possible for ourselves. We see ourselves going through the struggles. We don't necessarily yet see the great victory. No matter where you are, whether you're not yet at a million dollars or whether you're 10 million or reaching for 100 million or reaching for your first billion dollar business, at each point we see our struggles and not that future. And those inspiring stories and that journey opens up something, gives us access to our humanity and our aspiration.

I think exactly. The best stories, whether it's business or health and wellness or any other genre, the best stories have a universal element. They speak to the human experience that we all have, and they are personal and they make the reader feel like they are heard and they are understood and. And that the author knows what they've been through and knows how to get them out of it and take them to that next level. Those are the best books.

It's really great. So tell us about. Why don't you tell us about the work you did. I think I love giving people a range of some stories. Tell us about the work with the real estate broker, right? Who is that?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, before I do that, let me just share with you that since that first book that we did, we've gone on to do about 400 books and workbook projects. And some of our authors include Michael Gerber, of course, of the E. Myth book, Scott McGillivray of HGTV Income Property, Danny Johnson of First Steps to Wealth, who was on ABC Millionaire. So we've done a wide range of books ranging from business to health and wellness to memoir to. To the occasional children's book. We don't really focus on that, but they all have some kind of that. Some kind of a growth element to that, so that the reader has a sense of transformation from beginning to end. So, yeah. So coming back to this, Leigh Brown. So Lee Brown had come to us, and she was a very successful public speaker, and she spoke specifically on branding and sales in real estate. She had been a real estate broker, and when she came to us, she had about 12 different talks that she gave topics. She was maxed out in the real estate field speaking on the topics, and she was looking for something that would brand her and be her thing. And so we were able to write brand in her first book in six months, which is what we do with our authors. And we interviewed her. We really got what made her book different and how it spoke to the audience she wanted to reach. And we were able to brand the COVID to match her signature pink colors, hot pink colors that she wore, and that was on her website, and gave it a very clean, contemporary, sassy look, which is her branding. And then we were able to get it published on Amazon, Kindle, Create Space, and Audible, which were all the formats we're able to help our authors get on. We did all of that in six months. The brand that we had for her was outrageous authenticity. Everything she does is about authentic, being authentic and being outrageous at the same time. All of the chapter topics were related to that. The branding and the look was related to that. After her book came out, she did very well on Amazon. She has amazing reviews, very, very successful feedback on the book. And after that came out, people no longer said, well, what are you about? What do you speak on? They were able to see this book and say, that's the topic we want. That's what we want you for. And she is now speaking for technology conferences. She's speaking with all types of different conferences beyond real estate and beyond sales, which is what she was sort of pigeonholed in before. So her rates have certainly gone up. The quality and the rates have gone up and she's able to cherry pick the types of events that she wants to speak at. So that has been a huge success for her. That's one example of how a book really positions a person and allows them to go out and grow their business.

Nice. Yeah, I totally can get that and hear that. In fact, we just had a show recently on authenticity, Courageous. Authenticity is one of our core values as a company and certainly one of my sort of key things as a speaker and trainer. And we just did a show with Mark Green on that, which our listeners will go find and find interesting if that subject area is. But we're hearing more and more from people and I think there's a core thing in there, there's an element of that authenticity that's gotta come up in any successful book that you're doing where you're teasing out the struggle and the journey of the person in the book.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And of course, our other author is Michael Gerber. Would you like to.

Yeah, tell me. Yeah, tell us. I think many of us know Michael Gerber from the E Myth. Obviously an author of huge notes. So how does he come to work with you and what do you do with him? Because I think that's relevant too for folks.

Michael, as you know, is an international best selling author. He already had traditional publishers who worked on some projects earlier where I was editing his blogs and other material, when he decided to start his own brand of books, part of the team that kicked it off, and he saw that there was an opportunity in the publishing paradigm shifting and he decided to start his own imprint rather than go with traditional publishers. So he started a brand, a publishing imprint, brand called Prodigy Business Books, series of specific books in the E Myth theme, related to specific industries. So we actually worked with him on editing his books and creating a lot of the series. So that includes E Myth chiropractor, E Myth real estate investor, E Myth financial advisor, E Myth bookkeeper, and so on and so forth. So he was able to create a series from that and keep most of the profits. And we're seeing that a lot, which is that business leaders, they can go to traditional publishers, but they're choosing to go the independent publishing route. And so a lot of our clients were setting up their own publishing companies for them that they can then create series for and then keep the majority of the profits from the books that they're out there. Selling and marketing. Anyway, so Michael Gerber has certainly used the strategy and a lot of entrepreneurs are using this strategy as well.

Yeah, really great. So you take a basic thing, and now we've expanded it into a whole series of things that you can build over time. And I think when you think from, you know, if you're going to work with an old traditional business publisher, and what's so exciting about today's world is that you can self publish. And so the access is much greater. And then of course, that just puts the. So the demand on you to create something that's compelling, which is where a service like yours comes in, in helping people to make it really great. I heard a couple things in what you said that I want to underscore for folks that I think are relevant. So. And I know that these things are touched on in the questionnaire that you're going to give people. So you've got a great planning questionnaire that I went and did it for myself for my book project, and I found it really useful. I think others will get a lot out of it. So you'll send that to folks, we'll talk about that. We'll come back to that in a minute. But in that there are these key things. So the first thing is finding your audience. You talked about a great book in the beginning, when you first started out, that it was arguably a good book, but it was never going to find an audience. And then knowing if people actually buy your book.

Right, exactly, exactly, exactly. So, yeah, I mean, it's one thing to really understand your audience and all of us, especially if you're an entrepreneur, you kind of understand, okay, these are my demographics. I'm mostly serving men or women. This is their age range, this is, you know, what they do, and da, da, da, da, da. But what we do is we encourage our authors to go even deeper. What's the emotional challenge? What's the emotional pressure that your reader is facing? For example, a sales book is not just about a sales book. It may be for someone who was recently promoted to a sales position, but they realize that if they don't hit those sales numbers, they're out the door. And the people who are in their team are not going to be able to feed their family and their kids. The business may have to be at stake or suffer if they don't hit their numbers. So that emotional pressure is something that we want to highlight in the book, not just, hey, this is a sales book so that you can make a lot of money. You have to understand what's that underlying drive? What's that motivation, that need and that pain that your readers going through that your book is going to be a solution to that. They're going to want to buy your book and they're going to want to keep reading what you have to say. So, yeah, so that's what we do in terms of thinking about a book. Thank you.

And then you've been speaking through the other thing about sharing personal stories, having them be personal, and yet position you as an expert. Say a little bit more about the particular challenge in that. I mean, sometimes people feel like, well, I need to create a bunch of case studies of lots of different companies and that kind of thing in order to be credible and relevant. Talk to us about that.

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, people will say to me, hey, you know, I really want to be seen as an expert in this particular field, let's say being a veterinarian. But on the other hand, I have so many personal stories about it, and I. You will never believe all the things that I've been through, all the ups and the downs and. But I don't know whether I should write a memoir or whether I should write a business book. And I say do both because if your business book or expert book has the right structure, it's going to include all that heartbreaking story, all your personal angst, your mistakes, your dreams, your failures, your client's success stories and your greatest success stories and your funniest stories. And that's how people are going to remember you. So they'll still get the learning, they'll still get the training and the wisdom that you have to share, but they're going to go on this journey with you that is specifically you. And people remember it as being you rather than, oh, another book about, say, being a veterinarian or being a branding specialist or something like that. They'll associate it with you and your personal experiences, and that's what makes you different, because nobody else has your experiences and your perspective. So that's why you want to. You can do it in both. You can do all of that in one book.

Yeah, I get the world of that. And then. So that's finding and attracting the audience. That's your personal stories, and yet coming across as an expert. What about being unique? I feel like a lot of times I just see a lot of books being. Me too books, and there's not a unique point of view or something, anything fresh with them. Talk to us a little bit about that process. Yeah, certainly one of my concerns. Right.

Yeah. So any given book topic, there's going to be hundreds, if not tens of thousands of books on that same topic. If you go to Amazon and you just Google whatever that topic is that you're an expert in, you're going to find, you know, tens of thousands of other books there and you can't get around that. So how do you make yourself different? Well, first of all, as we mentioned, your personal stories are going to make you different. But what's going to frame all of that? How are you going to present all these stories in a way that your book is cohesive and has that authentic voice and theme that sort of serves as the North Star throughout the entire book? Well, it's by having a unique message. A unique message that comes from your heart and your soul authentically and resonates through the rest of your book and through the topics. So I actually have a few examples here, and it might sound a little bit Pollyanna ish, but I guarantee you these themes really resonate through the book and serve as a frame and a key message for the book. So for example, we did one book and the key message, we take them through this exercise where we discover what their message is. And the message that this particular author came up with was don't talk yourself out of discovering your real God given capabilities. And the book is actually about building a dental business.

Isn't that funny? Yeah, same.

Yeah. So is the book all about that? No, but it becomes a theme that infuses all of the topics. So the topics of, you know, having a front dental office, a back dental office, the admin office. So her theme is about your God given capabilities. And that infuses everything and makes the book extremely different and extremely inspiring beyond just the technical details and the how to's of what she's sharing. So no matter where you come from, the color of your skin or the environment you started from, you can have the life you want. So the topic that actually, that's a wonderful theme that could actually work with pretty much any other, any book topic.

That'S to success and fulfillment, regardless of circumstance. And it would particularly appeal to someone who come from money who was trying to figure out how to accomplish, fulfill their dreams, right?

Yes. And the book is actually a book about teaching teenagers how to use money.

Huh. Okay.

Yeah. So you see how those themes are very unique to the author and they really speak in a universal way and they resonate through the, through the material. So it's not just about how to book. These are not just another, yet another teen finance book or yet another dental practice book. These are books that are unique to those authors. And all the information that's shared is infused through those unique messages. And when you add the personal stories to that, it gives the book a warmth, a resonance, a wisdom, and a depth that other books on the same topics may not have.

So some reminders for Stokes. So if you haven't spoken around, you said it briefly, but you can get a book out the door in about six months through your process. There are some different options in the process that give you more or less. But even if you don't want to write at all, you can do a talking program where you get interviewed and then a ghostwriter will help you to write through the thing, or you can do a lot of writing on it and you can go through workshop processes with you and do that. So no matter what your comfort level is with writing, you can get the help. And I know that you focus on making the books very readable. So they're not just a thick brochure. Right. We want something that is far more compelling than that. So you can go through that. And the whole marketing piece of it is available now. I know there's other folks out there in particular, I found you to be approachable and engaged and personable and to really care about how the book reads, right?

Absolutely.

I think it's worth checking out. And when you think about, I know that many of our folks are wondering, is this really right for me? Do I have a book? And so on. So I think your questionnaire will help a lot with folks. So Helen's company is AuthorBridge Media. So AuthorBridge Media is all one word. And if you email her helenuthrbridgemedia and say, ask for the free offer the questionnaire from the Scaling Up Business podcast, she'll send you this worksheet. And the questionnaire worksheet is a series of things for you to go look at and examine that will really help you discover what the book's going to be like. And so pretty simple to get it from her and then go through the inquiry and you'll see they'll ask things that you weren't really thinking about. And then if you decide to go forward with it, they provide the basis for getting your project started and off the ground. So helenthorbrichmedia.com, just send her a note and say, send me that book questionnaire that Bill talked about with you and go look and see if you've got a book. And then talk to Helen along with anybody else that you're talking to. But I think this process is complicated enough and not common to most of our businesses that it's useful to get a guide to Sherpa helper or somebody really talented at writing and editing in the process with you to go through not only the development of the book, but the marketing of it.

Thank you, Bill. Yeah, appreciate that. And I know you have a wonderful book too. I'm very excited about all the wisdom that you have to share in your book and the humor too that you that you bring.

Well, I've spent a few years writing it because I didn't want it to just be anything and so it's slowly starting to take shape now. We'll talk more about that in future. Actually, we're going to do a series of some episodes soon on some of the pieces of the book with some guests that will be in the book and so on. So we'll start to start to share that on the show soon. If you'd like to get our Growth Guide and learn the key steps to get your company growing more easily, get more time back in your life, Stop working so hard, Double your profits, triple your cash flow. I know those sound like really cliche, but we do reliably do those for the people that follow our basic framework around scaling up a business, improving your people practices, getting the strategy right, optimizing the use of cash and honing your execution. So people strategy, execution, execution, cash. All of that gets introduced in our Growth guide. You see how to start working with your own company on your own. Now you'll find that at our website scalingupbusiness.com go there, get the free growth guide or just subscribe to the show and you'll get these and other things every week that help you to see different ways to grow your business and develop your leadership in the process. Thanks so much for being on the show today and thanks to everyone for listening. We'll see you next time. Are you ready to turn your goals into daily wins? You should check out our Scoreboard software. Powered by alignment, it's the official software for scaling up. With Scoreboard, you'll get an AI driven coach for priorities and KPIs and it'll help keep your team focused on what matters most. With Align, you can track your goals in real time and you'll even see results on the go. With their mobile app, you can rest easy knowing that Align has world class onboarding and support to set your team up for success. This is really more than just software, it's what I actually use to manage growth in our scaling up client teams. Unlock clarity and results with scoreboard by aligned to try it now go to aligntoday. Com Bill G. One more time. Aligntoday.com Bill G. That's Aligntoday. Com Bill G. Check it out and try it now.