5 Book Highlights from 2019 - Happy Holidays Live Stream

Hello and Merry Christmas Eve and happy holidays to everyone celebrating and welcome to the holiday livestream. This is our last livestream of 2020 and today I thought I would just highlight five book highlights of 2019. This started off as me thinking that I would be recommending five books that I thought were awesome this year. The reality is most of the books that I've read, other than our clients books were kind of boring. You guys like, I mean really, you can see a theme here. Marketing books on Amazon, mastering Amazon ads, getting book reviews, mastering Amazon descriptions and writing killer blurbs and Amazon ads for authors. So. So those aren't really great reads you guys. They are useful, they served a purpose. But really I try to learn as much as I can. My team applies things that I recommend and then we test it all out and I distill it back to you in the form of videos and recommendations so that you don't have to read all those books. And I do recommend some of them. And as you if you saw my video Amazon ads for authors that just came out, I do actually recommend a couple of those books in that. I just gotta point one thing out though, cause this was really strange. I was trying find this book on my shelf today. Hey Derek, welcome. Poetry from the heart. Deb, Diana, thank you guys for joining me and not having me sit here and talk to myself on Christmas Eve. You guys. Awesome. Yeah, I just wanted to show you guys something weird. Like in this day and age, why would you put a book out with no text on the spine? Really? So yeah Brian Meeks, your book was useful. I recommended it in my video. But dude, where's your title? Like nothing screams I self published my book louder than having no title on the spine. But anyways, side note, this was a useful book for anybody running Amazon ads. It was recommended in my video. So yeah. So I started off thinking I was going to recommend books to you and then I realized that other than my clients books, which I actually recommend a lot of them and have given many of them to folks, I don't really have a lot of great recommendations. So I've got five book highlights for you and of course prizes. And if you guys have anything you want to chat about, I mean today is a holiday edition. I'm just happy that you are here with me today. Hey Margaret, welcome. Merry Christmas Eve to you as well. And oh yes, Coach Deb said make sure you've got the notification bell on because that's how she knew I was live. It went ding and Julie is so Merry Christmas Deb. Hope you guys are going to have a great Christmas. I don't know if you're still planning to go south or not, but hope it's wonderful. Okay. So my first highlight was a book that I got that was actually never published. I thought this was really, really cool. Hi, Brian, thanks for joining. Merry Christmas Eve, season's greetings, Happy Holidays, all that jazz. So this book right here, you guys, as I twist it, you can kind of see the title. It's called Footprints on the Moon, and it's by Seth Godin. And he never, ever published it. And I was at an event this year where everybody at the event got a copy of this book, which was pretty sweet. And yeah, so it's, I mean, it's typical Seth Godin kind of advice. Like you can turn to any page and there's a nugget here. You know, reassurance is futile. That's one page. But I don't know the right answer. That's the only honest thing you can say. No one knows the right answer. Not if the work is interesting. So I just thought this was fantastic to get a never published book. Not sure why he didn't publish it, although I also don't know why the title title is so hard to read. And he also doesn't have a title on his mind, so who knows why he never published it. But it's very cool. You like my braids? Yeah. Okay. Another highlight for me personally was this book right here, Legacy by Leslie Quince. It's a guide to successfully transferring wealth from one generation to the next. And honestly, this book has sentimental value to me. Leslie and I don't know each other super well, but she knows me from my real estate days. So I just. It always gives me sentimental value when somebody, you know, trusts me. They know me as one thing, but they trusted me enough to join with my company and work with us under this. And she also didn't know what her book was going to be about. She just knew she wanted to write a book and help others. And this is what we created. And I think it's pretty phenomenal. And there really aren't very many books out there helping you figure out if you've got a family business, family wealth, how do you transfer it to the next generation, you know, without forcing that next generation to run the business or to even think about if somebody passes away early, how's that going to get handled? And so she talks about a lot of tough subjects in here, and it's a lot of stuff that if you have A business. You probably haven't thought about half of the things because she's gone through it. She's kind of their part. She's running her parents business now and she's got kids of her own and she's setting everything up. So she comes at this from a very, very interesting perspective. So it's pretty cool. Computer convenience. Hello. Welcome. Thanks for checking in. And Diana says, it's nice to know I'm not the only one that's working. Yeah. But I can tell you, this office that I'm in is really dead. There's only one company other than myself that seems to be here today, so there's not very many of us working today. But we are working. All right, so I'm going to do a draw right now and my team isn't here. I gave my team Christmas holidays off. I've an awesome, awesome team at book launchers and they are so dedicated that most of them didn't even take their vacation this year, which is cool on the one hand. And on the other hand, I don't want them to burn out. So I make them take the 24th to January 2nd. Well, January 1st off. And they're not allowed to check email. And if I catch them online in any way, I change their passwords. So they will not be checking in. It's their one time of year where they can truly, truly unplug. So it's just me. So we won't be doing a live prize. I'll probably just do something random here for you guys, for all joining me, but these are the YouTube commenters. So when you comment the day a video is released, most of you are veterans here, so you all know the drill. So my first prize, you can choose a mug or the journal, of course. Oh, I just looked. Let me not look. Okay, I'm gonna look you guys straight in the and pull a name. Okay. And the winner is. Oh, Mike, you won last time. I hope you don't mind, but I'm gonna draw someone else. Mike heard who was a first time livestream viewer last week or two weeks ago. Anyone? And he just won again. But I'm pretty sure he's not gonna mind if I draw somebody else's name here. Okay, so here we go. Paleo J. Bowers. All right, awesome. I don't think he's here live, but when you're catching the replay, email us at Team T E A M and let us know if you want the mug or the oh so soft journal which is hiding over here, actually. All right. And do you guys like the picture up there? So Deb, who's here joining us live, she told me that my white wall had to go. I needed to put something on my white wall. So there, I put that up there. So what do you guys think? Is it better than the white wall? So this is the oh so soft journal. So let us know what you would like. Brian says, forcing employees to take time off. I think I found the template for the villainess of my next novel. I'll check that out if you do. Oh, no. It says my connection is unstable. You'd think it would be really good today. Well, nobody's working, but maybe it requires everyone else to hear. So hopefully you guys are still seeing me. I'm not talking alone, but yeah, it just said my connection was unstable. Okay, so my third highlight is kind of a funny one. It's not funny, but it's just one that I wouldn't have expected. So this book called Read A Parental Primer for the Talk is a book that I've ended up giving to so many of my friends because it's all about how to talk to your kids about sex. And it starts at a really, really young age. And there was a lot of things, you know, I have a two year old going on three who talks like a five year old. But there's a lot of things that start as early as that age, you know, just as far as just what you call the body parts and how you refer to them and things that will set us up for better conversations in the future for less awkwardness, more openness around these discussions. And I just. This is just such a beautiful, funny, wonderful guy. It's by Dr. Linnae St. John. She's a certified sexologist. And, and yeah, I found myself giving this to pretty much all of the moms I know. And I think it's a fantastic book and it's kind of a highlight for me because it was just one of those unexpected. I didn't think it was going to be such a fantastic gift for me to give others and a resource for myself. I'm going to be reading this book for many, many years to come. So that was kind of a highlight for me. The framed book cover is hopping. It's hopping. Oh, when it was hopping. I don't know if I get that reference. Oh, you're coming in crystal clear. But it sounds. The audio is clipping every once in a while. Okay. Well, yeah, it's. I don't know, nothing I can do about it today. I guess it needs all the bodies in the office to make it go. So, yeah. So we're going to do a live draw. So if you're here and you haven't said hello yet, make sure you do say hello. I've got Deb here. Deb can help me. I can recruit Deb. She's a friend, so I can recruit her to help me with the live draw. So I'll probably just end up getting Deb to pick a number, and then I'll tell her which way the number goes and she can tell me who won. Hey, William. Will. Hello. Bill from Bill's book club Legacy has a great plan. I'll listen and find the finished book in paperback. Yes. That's fantastic. Katie. Hey. Welcome. Oh, you like the bunny on the COVID It's hopping. Thank you for explaining. Explaining. I'm sorry, when you're. When I'm live, it's hard to get jokes, but that's a great joke. It's hopping. Very clever. Yvonne, welcome. Hello. Fantastic. All right, so Deb's on board. She's gonna pick a number for me in a minute. We'll let you guys that are here that haven't said hello yet. We'll give you a chance to say hello, and then we'll pick a number, and then we'll have another prize for all of you who join me on Christmas Eve. I actually have two prizes for you guys, so first, number four of my book, Highlights of 2019, is this book right here. It's called Mean People Suck by Michael Brenner. And it's a highlight for many reasons. But one of the reasons is when he came to us, he had a manuscript and he was about ready to throw it in the garbage. It was about empathy, and he'd had somebody read it who just basically said it wasn't any good. And he was almost ready to give up on it. And he brought it to us and he worked with Tim, who's our story expert, and they took the concept of empathy, which is a good concept, concept for business, but not as marketable, and they turned it into the concept of mean people suck. And Michael has had so much fun with his book launch. He has just branded everything. You can go to meanpeople suck.com, i think, is the website, and he's got branded merch everywhere. And he had all these gifts, you know, like the animated kind of symbols for people. During his book launch, he did a fantastic job of getting a whole bunch of book reviewers out of the gate. He's getting speaking engagements. He's had media Appearances. He has been a blast to work with. And really, you know, it's a highlight for me because it was a book that somebody was ready to give up on and he had good stuff in there. He was just missing the hook. The hook, that cool concept of what's in it for the reader. And working with Tim on our team, you know, they came up with this concept and, you know, it's a fantastic book that helps people. You know, he talks about why org charts aren't useful, you know, why many people have unhappy employees. I think probably because they don't think force them to take time off. Brian. I don't know. I'm just saying. So this was a highlight for me because it was really cool to see the transformation from somebody who was ready to give up on their book to this fantastic book that is going to be, you know, it's helping people and it's going to be great. And it already has been great for Michael and his business and brand. Okay, let's see. All right, we're ready for the number now. So just pick a number between like 1 and 30, Deb, and then we'll. I'll figure out what we're going to do with it. Okay, cool. Thank you. And then finally, actually, there's kind of finally an honorable mention here. Finally, this book right here, Malibu Burning by Robert Kurbeck. It is the real story behind LA's most devastating wildfire. So last year, many of you probably remember, you know, that it seemed like the entire city of Los Angeles was on fire, according to the news. But really it was Malibu, an area, and it was, you know, so many houses were lost and Robert and his family defended their home and their home was the only one standing on their street at the end of this fire. So this book is not only covering many stories, he's a journalist, so he interviewed people and he's telling their stories. But he also is really an advocate for, you know, preparing your home if you're in a fire zone, how to prepare your home, fire tips. You know, he's also challenging some of the things that went on with the firemen and the fire departments and some of these things. So it's an incredible, incredible read. And it's also one of the highlights because it's been really, really fun. He's had a ton of celebrities come out for his book signings and he's been selling out to the point where, you know, Barnes and Noble is like, yeah, we want him, we want him, we want him. And so it's been really Cool. But just to name drop, because, hey, it's Christmas Eve and why not have some fun, right? He had the producer of the morning show, and I've just forgotten her name, but she came out to one of his book signings, bought a book, got a signed copy. Maria Shriver was at one of his book signings, bought a book, Pierce Brosnan, which we posted, I think on social media because, I mean, it's James Bond. You guys came out to his book signing and bought books and got him to sign it. So it's been really fun to be watching this and kind of have a passenger side view for everything that's going on for him. And also, it's just a phenomenal read. So that's my fifth highlight for the year. All right, number 14. And what we're going to do is we're going to go backwards from the bunny ears. So Diana has the bunny ears there, Deb, you see them? Can you go backwards 14 and tell me who our lucky winner is? And I'll tell you what you get to choose from today. And while we're doing that, I'll do my other draw. And you guys, thank you so much for being here. It is so fantastic to not be talking to myself, especially on Christmas Eve. I kind of wondered if I'd be here. AL. All right, so here we go. Drum roll, please. And our other YouTube winner is. Okay, here we go. And ta da. It is. Mojo Sidolak. I never know how to say your name. Sorry, I think even when I give you a shout out on YouTube. I don't know. But go ahead, email me@teamoklaunchers.com Congratulations and thank you so much for. Let me know if you want a mug or a journal. And of course, make sure you give us our mailing address. Sometimes people write us and say, hey, I want a mug. Thank you. No mailing address. It's kind of hard to get to the prize if we don't have your mailing address. Oh, and it's Diana. Oh, funny. Fathering the fatherless Todd Johnson. Hey, welcome. Merry Christmas to you as well. TJ T Jump. I sent you an email and the book I won. Yes. I thought we fixed it. Email us if we still haven't fixed it. Yeah, that was handled a couple weeks ago, I think. So that should be. Maybe it got lost in the Christmas mail shuffle. I'm not sure. So, Diana, congratulations. So you have won. So here's the thing. You can, of course, choose from the mug or the journal, but I also want. I also have A copy of this book that I'm going to give away today. So you can choose mug, journal or book. And if you don't choose the book, then we'll do one last prize for this book. And this book is another cool one. This is kind of my honorable mention. So this is J. Scott McMillan, Be the Hero of youf Life. And this was another fun project because we were relaunching it. He had published it in another manner through other sources and wasn't happy with it. And so we relaunched it. And I'm just thrilled with everything about this in Scott. Super excited. And. And it's a really, really cool book about kind of taking the hero's journey if you're familiar with Joseph Campbell's work. And it's really using that as a guide for self discovery. He says if you have any suffering or unhappy happiness in your life, it's kind of uncovering that and kind of evolving from it. So it's really, really cool guide. And it really is a guide you guys like. It's got pages, it's kind of a workbook style book. So it's got those kind of lines in there. And I can never write in books personally, so I'm always telling people to have a downloadable version so you can print it out and write on it. But it's a fantastic book, especially kicking off the new year, which is why I wanted to give a copy of it to kick off 2020, because I think this will really help you plan out and think what you want to do in 2020. Okay, so Diana would like the book. Awesome. Yay. Congratulations, Diana. I will be sending you this. Please do send us your mailing address though, because I do need your mailing address. I don't keep them on hand. We just mail and then move on. So send us that. Okay, so I'm gonna do one last draw. Deb, if you would be so kind as to help me out. Derek says the mug is the bomb. Many people say tea, coffee and hot chocolate, right? I think that was you. Poetry from the Heart said, hot chocolate tastes better in this mug. So it is, it is a prize. So I'm going to give one more away to you guys. So journal or mug? So let's do. Let's see. What should we do this time? Deb, do you want to do? I'm going to let Deb pick. She's fun. She'll come up with something great as an idea for who gets the prize for being here live. And let's see what else that's It. That's all I wanted to talk about. Coach wouldn't. Dan says I wouldn't know about the mug. But you guys, she has one of the coveted noboringbookshoodies. So, you know, don't feel sorry for her that she doesn't have a mug. She also has a journal. So one of these days I'm sure I will hook her up with a mug she just hasn't won yet. Okay, I'm counting who left the most comments other than her and Diana. That is a great idea. I love it. So that's who's gonna be our winner today. We'll announce that winner and then we will say goodbye for 2019 and 2020. I think we'll open our livestream show will be on what I think is going to be the most important trends in self publishing for 2020. So hopefully you will be here live for that show and oh Jean, you made it. Hello, welcome. And I think that'll be my show for 2020 for the first week. I think it's the first week of 2020. Let me just tell you the precise date so you guys can mark it in your calendars. Right now it will be on Tuesday, January 7th at 2pm Pacific Standard Time, 5pm Eastern. We will be talking about the most important trends to watch out for 2020 for all of you authors and self publishers. Ooh, Derek says I haven't tried hot chocolate in the mug yet. Yeah, I actually haven't either, but poetry from the heart. I think it was you. If you're still there. Yes, it is delicious. There you are. You really are Santa's helper today. I gotta tell you, Santa's helper is getting pretty hot. This hat, it is not built for California. I'm just waiting for Deb to tell us who the winner is. Counting comments is taking her a while. Not surprisingly, because you guys have been such lovely, lovely folks to hang out with today. I hope you all have really fun plans with your family or if your family's not fun, that you have fun plans without them. After this live stream, I've got a couple more things to finish up and then I'm heading home because I've got a two year old who's almost three who understands Christmas. He's really excited and this is actually making Christmas extra fun this year. William. Hey. Oh, you don't need to put your address here. You can always send us an email. Team t e a mooklaunchers.com Whenever you win and you let us know that you won and what you won. And we'll make sure that you are getting what you were supposed to get. So T jump, let us know. Okay, best commenters were Derek. Poetry from the heart. Jean and Brian K. Morris. So we've got four. So I guess they tied. So let's see. I'm going to. Hey, Kevin, you made it. Oh my goodness. You were staying up late for me. Merry Christmas, my friend. Okay, I'm just gonna put these guys names right here on a piece of paper. Okay, here we go. Really fast so that we can draw. And they're not all guys, I realize, folks. These folks. Okay, so Derek going on there. I just got a mug. I'm good. Okay, Jean, I'll leave you out of this. Poetry from the heart. You've got a mug already too. But you might not have the journal. Sometimes you need to collect everything, right? Okay. And Brian. All right, you guys, I think Brian has the hoodie, but maybe not the mug. Okay, so here we go. Daughter's on Christmas break. I could stay a little longer. That's nice. My son wakes up at the same time every day, so I look forward to the day he sleeps in. Okay, here we go. Okay, here we go. And Derek. Yay. I know Derek was in this, the pile of like YouTube commenters names. He was in there three times. So you were bound to win for sure today. So thank you, Derek. Email us at Teen T e a m booklaunchers.com and thank you coach Deb for helping out today. That's probably the last time you tune in. She put to work on that live stream. It's okay, Derek, you can get the journal. Or perhaps I actually have two copies of Scott's book if you want to get a copy of the book as well. So email me@teamteamooklaunchers.com and we'll get these things off to you guys in the new year when my team is back from their mandatory vacation. And Brian, I look forward to hearing about the novel where the evil boss who makes their team take vacation is your villainess. And Derek was also the first to join and comment. Congratulations. Woo hoo. All right, you guys, thank you so much for being here. I hope you all have a wonderful happy holiday and a happy new year. And there will be a new video coming out on Friday for you all and on New Year's Eve. And we will see you live on January 7th once again. All right. Coach Deb loves doing the work. All right. Oh, and Kevin, you're writing a nonfiction book. I got to learn more about this. All right, thanks, you guys. Happy holidays. Take care. And thank you again for being here. You guys are the best. Bye.