The Hidden Truths Behind Author Success (That Nobody Talks About)

Foreign. September. Wow. Can't believe that it's September already. And I see Gary's in the house. Thanks for saying hello, Gary. And the way you worded that, it sounds like you're here representing Utah. Well, happy to have you. All right, so there we go. Today we're talking about the hidden success secrets for authors. And I love this subject because most authors think success comes from talent, luck, landing a big publishing deal. But reality is it's not any. Well, there's some luck. Okay. For sure. Luck does play a role, but as I'm sure we, you know, I know I've already experienced this, but many people know is that you can't get lucky if you're not in there. And one of my favorite kind of analogies for that is when you play poker. You know, I sit at the poker tables from time to time and you, you know, there's always those people who are like, oh, if I would have stayed in, I would have had the nuts, you know, which is the best hand that you could possibly have. And you just have to smile and it's like, well, you weren't in it, right? You have to be in it to have a shot at winning it. And so luck does play a factor in winning it, but you have to be in there. So you get that shot. But also, you know, after watching the Alex Hermosi Guinness book or Guinness record winning book launch and you know, he made over $100 million in that launch, you know, luck did not play a role in that. Talent for sure, you know, had an impact. But this was a six year launch in the making and traditional publishers. One of my favorite parts of this is that he didn't do very many things that a traditional author launch looks like he wasn't worried about. New York Times list, USA Today bestseller list, he sold everything direct and you know, launched with a six year after a six year plan took place to get them to this point where they could win this record and you know, make so much money in their launch. Anyways, for those of you who don't know, I am Julie the book prod. I'm the founder of Book Launchers and usually your host here at book launch. Although we have decided officially that every Tuesday we will be going live and Fridays will be our pre recorded video day and also sometimes an author launch kit training day. So they'll be alive from Shane. So you'll see I am not the only host at Bookwatch TV because normally Angel's here, there's Shane, there's, there's Multiple people that you will see here from time to time, but I'm your main one. If you haven't been to one of our lives before, welcome. This is more of a conversation. At least I like it to be. Even though I can't see see you and you can only see me commenting, doing exactly like Gary did while he was waiting for me to hit that go live button, is saying hello, and Kevin's done it and Darla's done it. So has Efren and Risa. So welcome, everybody. Timothy from Australia has also done it. Renee, too. So hello and welcome. So that is my favorite part of doing lives is having you guys here to comment, ask questions, chat with each other in the comments. And if you're only seeing this on the replay, you can still join in the fun with your comments. All right, so let's get into the seven, and I think I have seven. We'll see. I think I wrote down seven. Seven Hidden Success Secrets of Successful Authors. If you have questions or comments as we go along, Angela's not here today. She took an extra day to make it an extra long weekend for herself. So I am flying solo. But I will pause and say hello and check out the comments. And of course, at the end, I will have time for questions. So I'll make sure that we cover all your questions then. Now, I have to tell you, you might look at other authors and think, okay, that's what I'm gonna do. I want exactly what they're doing, and I get it. I mean, goodness gracious. I run Book Launchers, a book, you know, self publishing services company that helps you write, publish, and promote a nonfiction book to grow a brand in the business. And I can't help but look at some of these mega launches and go, oh, my gosh, that's what I should be doing. But know, here's the thing. I don't pursue those things because those things aren't my overall goal. Often I'm looking at it going, oh, wouldn't that be cool? Or, you know, oh, people would be really impressed if I had that on my resume. But I always have to take a step back and go, okay, what am I actually here to do? And who am I actually here to help? And who are we really amazing at helping is the other piece of this. And then I remember, okay, well, going after that goal is not the best use of my very limited time because this is my goal. And while this thing looks shiny and fun, I have to remember that I'm heading towards my goal. And that leads Me to the first thing that I believe is a very hidden but very vital piece of success for successful authors, which is they're playing the game for their own goals and they aren't focused on what other people think or what other people tell them should be their goals. Well, what does this mean? Well, USA Today bestseller and New York Times bestseller and Amazon bestseller. If you want to go after that, that's okay. It's a game. It is a game and you have to be ready to play it. And you have to be ready to play it at the sacrifice of some of your other goals. Maybe temporarily, but you know, very rarely is that thing going to be the differentiator. And one of the ways I distill this down for somebody who comes to me is like, I really need to be a New York Times bestseller. And I'm like, great. Well you're, you know, first of all, there's yet to be to my knowledge, and if you know of something different, let me know. But to my knowledge there has not been a nonfiction self published author ever to make the New York Times bestseller. And again, you know, look at something like the Hormozi launch. In theory he should be a number one New York Times bestselling author, but he's not because it's self published. He sold direct. Right? So there's a whole bunch of factors that go into what determines this. And of course New York Times in particular is a curated list, right? They choose who the published or who the the best sellers are going to be. USA Today is not even a curated list and it's not based on overall sales. It's based on a smattering of stores that they use to create the ranking. So, so if you can, you know, sell to sell your book through these certain outlets, then even if you sell nothing anywhere else, you will make their list. Woohoo, congratulations. And then of course Amazon is, you know, it's a little bit more accurate, but it only reflects Amazon. So that's why I say it's a game, right? And you may play it, but you will have to forego some of your other goals while you pursue that. Because you need to finagle your sales and what you're doing in order to achieve it. And it's okay. But usually what I do is I'll talk to somebody and they'll go, well, I really want to be a New York Times bestseller. Great, why? And you dig into it and they're like, well, I want to, I'm only making 5k per talk. I want to make 25k per talk. And I'm like, well, if you can use your book to get to 25k per talk without going after that, you know, is that okay? Well, yes, I just thought this would be the way, right? So really the goal isn't the New York Times bestseller, it's the 25,000 per keynote talk or per client they're signing. And so for me, I just go, well, that should be your goal. Build everything you need to build to get there. And so the most successful authors are laser focused on what matters and they ignore the other things. And this can be so important in books where. In books, like I say, books in general, where everyone has an opinion and as soon as you start googling things, you're going to be chased by a lot of companies that want your money. And there's so many things you could do. So knowing what you not only should do, but need to do in order to get where you want to go is really, really important. And staying laser focused. And that is one of the things, you know, I don't love everything that Alex Hermosi did. Like one of the things. And I'll just get this out of the way right now. This isn't a Hormozi recap, it's just fresh on my mind. But one of the things, there are 200 free books that they got authors to buy. If I understood this correctly, and I'm pretty sure I did, when somebody gives this book to somebody, that somebody has to pay like $9.75 shipping to get this free book that this somebody else has already paid for. Like some of that stuff is kind of sketchy. But one of the things I do admire about him and what he has accomplished is that laser focus, not just on creating this moment in time that they experienced, but in creating an entire ecosystem that feeds their acquisition.com business. Right. Everything has been created so that they can have more successful businesses that know about acquisition.com that they can buy and they're teaching them how to do the things that they want those businesses to do and to have in place so that when they buy them, they can plug into it even faster and easier and make more money even faster and easier. Right? So it is a laser focused, very high level thinking kind of plan. But and of course they didn't try to execute it over a short period of time. Right. This was executed over, you know, more than six years. So my point of all this is to say that whatever your goal is, be it, you know, small in comparison to what we Witnessed with this massive launch or, you know, be it something that's very large, you know, in pursuit, like say, New York Times bestseller. Stay focused, right? Create your game plan and stick to it because there are so many things you could do. But knowing what you need to do is really, really one of the most important things for authors as they create their own path. And again, not just focused on what. What somebody tells you to do, but what you know is going to lead to where you want to go. All right. Oh, yeah. So Tony saying. Yeah, that was a little sketchy too. Yeah. Hi, Emily. Good to see you here. And we've got crypto beast in Ellen and Alex, too, popped in while I was chatting. So great to have all of you. For those of you just joining in, do say hello. I'm going to pause after probably my point number three and do some prizes for those of you who are here for this live conversation. And I'm here solo today, so we're not going to get too fancy with the prizes because Angela is not here to support, but. But we will definitely be doing some prizes for those of you who are here live from course. And we're talking about the seven hidden success secrets of authors. So carrying on to number two. Let's see, what do I have for number two? Okay. Oh, yeah, this is a good one. Make money like it's fun, because it is fun to make money. But often I find authors feel guilty about selling or asking or whatever it is, right? So they feel guilty about selling their book too much or asking for reviews, yet they wrote the book and invested thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars into producing an amazing product to help people. But then they don't want to tell people about this amazing thing. They invested a lot into helping people. And maybe you didn't write your book to help people. Maybe you wrote it to entertain them. But by the way, entertainment is helping people, too. So, you know, understanding who you wrote it for and why they need you is so important. And. And then know that part of that journey of actually helping people is telling them about the thing that you built to help them. It's so, so important. And so I get it. It can feel a little, you know, icky to sell, quote, unquote. But I don't ever really think of it. As soon as I think of it as, ooh, I don't feel. I don't feel good selling this, then I have to go back and think about, am I not in alignment somewhere? Because as soon as I go back to that alignment p and I remember who I'm helping and why I need to tell them about this thing that I made for them. Then I feel really excited to tell somebody about what I have for them, which is how I felt and still feel about Author Launch Kit. By the way, our software that we built and we're in the middle of basically rebuilding the whole thing because that's what you do when you build something and then you realize, oh, this would be really, this would be way better if we did this, this, and this. But, you know, I'm never, I'm never feeling like I'm selling Author Launch Kit because it is such a low price for things that clients have paid us thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for us to do. And we built software that can do 70% to 80% of what we have been doing for our clients for a lot, lot more money. So I'm super excited about it. And so I'll talk about it all day long and tell everyone about it. And so when you feel excited about your book and your message and how it's going to help somebody, you're not selling, you're serving by sharing that message. Now, there's gross ways of doing this, right? Like, some people will pop into a Facebook group and add no value and just say, buy my book. Okay, that's gross. I'm talking about when you're in front of somebody who you know your book can help, don't hold back. Tell them like, oh my gosh, I wrote my book just for you. And here's why. And here's why I'm so excited to tell you about it, right? Because if you don't serve, if you don't tell them about it, then you can't serve the people that you set out to help with it. And also, I see this all the time as people and, and I am Canadian. We are known internationally for saying sorry. Okay? So, so I say this and tell you that we're not. I'm from a country where we're known for saying sorry all the time. But stop apologizing for promoting because I hear this all the time, too. Sorry, you know, I have to ask for a review or sorry, I'm going to tell you about my book. Be confident again, you know, know the value that you've put into this and you know, if you need to leverage those good reviews or thank yous, and this is something, whenever I've done our, our deep dives or our author panels and I ask them, it's my favorite question to ask them is what is one of the biggest surprises that you have had or experienced since you became an author. And every time, not every author, but there's always at least one, if not multiple authors that say one of the biggest surprises was, you know, when they got that first review from somebody they didn't know that their book helped, you know, that was, and how much that meant to them. So use those moments as fuel to tell others because. And, you know, repost that review, share it, but use that as fuel to know that your book makes a difference. And so more and more people need to know about it in order to have that impact that you want. All right, number three, your network is your unfair advantage. It always has been and always will be. And by the way, some of you may know my story of how I got into book launchers. You know, the super short version was, you know, that I was approached by an acquisitions editor from Wiley. They gave me a book idea. You know, I created the proposal, and then they rejected me and rejected my idea and, and I ended up self publishing. Well, part of the reason, I think, and I don't know this, this is just my own assumption, but it's an educated assumption, was that part of the reason I didn't get the book deal was because I was not a member of this one real estate investing club and my other friends that got book deals around the same time, they were members and active in this group. And so I think Wiley had decided that because we were not members of my, my platform and my network wasn't strong enough. And, and they also, you know, were in pretty tight with the person who ran the group. And that person was certainly not going to endorse me or my book. And so I think that that's one of the reasons that I didn't get the book deal. What they didn't count on was the fact that me not being a member meant I was engaged with a whole lot of people. They weren't reaching with that one membership group, which is part of why my book went to number one imprint books and outsold any of the real estate books Wiley had ever launched in Canada. Success isn't just about the book. Right? The, the book, of course, should be great. It should solve a problem for a specific audience. But you need to have people who will surround you and help you and support you, you know, who will stand on stage with you or share your launch or endorse your work. And that's part of your platform, but not always the one that people think about because, you know, usually especially you Know, in, in this world, we talk about social media, we talk about email newsletters, but your network is so important. Some of the biggest launches out there, you look Tim Ferriss, that's a great example. So Tim Ferriss, when he launched four Hour Workweek, and I know this is an old story now, but he built a really strong network years before he launched that book, and he did, he built connections with bloggers and other people so that when he launched his book, they told the world about his book. So part of your platform is your network. And yeah, you can network online and it get, you know, over time that builds favor. But the best and fastest way is to get in real life IRL with these people. Right? So, you know, I have a great, you know, Efren's here. I have a great bond with Efren because I've met him in person repeatedly. You know, that doesn't mean that I'm not bonded to Kevin hall, who's one of my YouTube besties and is always commenting and supporting everything we do. Thank you, Kevin. But I haven't met him in person and I haven't spent time with him. Like I've gotten to spend with Efren because Efren made the effort to come to Author Nation. He made the effort to go to Nick Hutchison's event, who was another client of Book Launchers, and he actually held his own event and Efren made the effort to go there. And so making that effort to get in real life is how you build strong bonds where you can call in favors and you can ask for support and you can build relationships where you are able to kind of go, hey, I'm doing this thing. And the people you know might be interested in knowing about it. All right? And Kevin will be there too. See, there we go. Woo hoo. So then, now, next year, when I'm talking about the same thing, Kevin, I can go. And now I met Kevin in person and we're bonded because we've met in person. That's awesome. And Gary said, I met you once and it was amazing to get to know you for a few minutes. I don't know. Remember that. I'm so sorry. But now next time I'll be like, oh, Gary, now I know who you are. I do meet a few thousand people every year because I live what I am talking about and I get out there and I talk to a lot of people, but sometimes I'm talking to them only for a brief second, but I'm sure it was fantastic. And I'm Glad. I'm glad to know that we met too, Gary. All right. And I see Jennifer said I wrote the Second mom to deal with deal with personal loss and grief. I love my book because people tell me about Ted and his family, and I've updated my book and I see my book as a tool to help. I love that. I love that. I love this too, Timothy. I was a Canadian, and I will not be sorry for the truth. I will speak in my book. I love it. See, and I still say sorry, but I hear myself when I say it, and I'm like, no, no, I don't need to say sorry for this. Although I will apologize if I really have done something wrong. But I try not to just say it for the sake of. Of saying it. Like when somebody bumps into me, you know, and they bump into me and I go, oh, sorry. That's reflexive. I try not to do that, but I still do. I can't help it. That's. We were born that way, right, Timothy? Some things we can't help. Okay, carrying on to number four. Every massively successful author did not do it alone. I think this is true of success everywhere. I think anytime you see something that is phenomenal success, you go, oh, my gosh, look at the team that took to get where they are today, kind of going back to that network, right? So this is feeding from number three, which is your network is going to be very. It is that hidden success secret of very successful authors. So is the fact that they didn't do it alone. Some authors really do try to do it all themselves, whether it's a budget reason, a belief reason, you know, whatever it is, they try to DIY everything. And your book will not be successful if you DIY everything. And part of that is just because a successful book takes way too many different skills. And us humans, we have things that we are gifted with, and we have things that we are not gifted with. And a book requires an entire range where nobody is gifted with all of the things. You also are truly unable to see things that are wrong or that could be better about your book. This is in particular, this is true about editing. There are stories you're attached to that really have no meaning for the audience. And there's things that your audience really needs to know that you don't see as a gap, Right? It's kind of like somebody who's an expert, a doctor, for example. They've been doing this forever, and they, they, they use all the acronyms and the jargon and they say things like, you should know exactly what they're talking about. But the reality is, you know, their 20 years of experience and all their education, you have no idea what they're saying. So that's the challenge, right? You can't see those things yourself. Also, if you're a great writer or a great editor, you probably are not a great designer, right? So all of these pieces need to come together. Additionally, just the sheer volume of tasks that need to be done in order to create and launch a great book, that means that one human can't do it all alone regardless, right? And this is one of the things that I find our authors who hire book launchers for our full services. It's one of the things that I think almost every author says to me is, I had no idea the amount of things that had to go in to creating a great book and launching it. And this is partly because, you know, you think the writing was hard. I get it. And after that's done, you feel like you're inches away from a book being ready to launch. The reality is that was a big milestone for sure, and you should celebrate it. But you still have miles, not inches, to go before you and your book are ready for a launch. And a lot of people think it should be books done, it should be out in a month. I hear this all the time. People contact us and they say, well, okay, like, can I pay you more to have it out in a month? And I'm like you, it's just not something we can skip steps, right? We want to make sure it's well edited. Then it takes design, it takes some research to make sure you're positioning it right. Then you need to prime your audience and build your platform and make sure all those pieces are in place. Even if you pay a team to be full time on it, getting it all out in a month is really, really difficult, if not impossible to do at a really, really great level. So investing in time with some time, but having the right team of editors, designers, marketers, even having a VA support you, a virtual assistant who you pay maybe 6, 7, $8 in another country to assist with social media posting, you know, creating some emails, responding, that can make a big difference and free you up to help fill in some of the other gaps that need to be done to create a successful launch. Because again, it is. If you want to create success and you're looking at some another author that's selling thousands and thousands of copies, they are not doing it alone, I promise you. They have a team around them and you Know, this is something that I think a lot of people underestimate how many people are working with them. And I was talking with a YouTuber. I'd met this person at a random event, and he had a fairly large channel, like, you know, well over a million subscribers. And we were talking about it, and. And, you know, I was kind of asking about the numbers, the profit behind some of the things they're doing. And he's like, yeah, well, if I don't have. If my video doesn't go somewhat viral, he goes, I don't make enough money on it to pay the cost of what it, you know, the editorial team, the copy team, and his social media team that all work behind this to make it successful. He said, you know, sponsorships are where he makes his money because the. The actual ad revenue and some of the other things just don't cover the costs of the team that it takes to produce great YouTube videos. And I think the same can be said of a book launch and a book success is, is that there has to be multiple people behind if you're doing consistent sales. But then you start to have more expenses around some of those things. So then how are you feeding this into your whole ecosystem? Right. Which is what we talk about all the time. Okay, let's pause here and let it. Let's go in and do a few prizes. So everybody who has said hello, you are in it now to potentially win it. And let me just go, oh, wait, I gotta show the screen so you guys can see what I'm doing. One second, hold on. Here we go. Right, Share screen. Right, this is it. Voila. Okay, so everybody who said hello, you are now in this for the prize. And by the way, we're still doing prizes when you comment on videos that come out so on Tuesdays and Fridays. But the. The person who collects all of those names for me, she didn't get it up to date. So we will do it. We're back next Tuesday, which I need a topic for next week. I haven't actually settled in on a topic, so let me know what you want me to cover. But every Tuesday, we're doing a live now, so I will make sure everybody is caught up. And we have prize the names to draw for everybody who has commented the day a video is released for the last five weeks. Actually, we owe you prizes for the last five weeks. Bill. Bill. Oh, my gosh, Bill. What have you not won yet, my friend? Whatever it is, let us know. You know the drill by now. Email. Angelaamookcontros.com and let her know what we can send you. Okay. And I'm going to do one more draw here while we're here, and I'll come back and do one at the very, very end, too. So who else is here? Crypto beast. All right. And I don't think you have won before unless you have changed your name from something else. So congratulations, Surprises that you are eligible for. I don't know if we have Author Launch Kit mugs anymore. If not, we have our standard hashtag, no boringbook mug without the stapler. I just use it to store my stapler on my desk. We also have. And I don't have a cup. I don't have it here. We have our. Oh, soft journal. And then we have copies of my books that self publish and succeed and self promote and succeed. So just go ahead and email Angela@teamooklaunchers.com and let her know what prize you would like. And thank you for being here. And Bill says it's been a while, so, Bill, I just gave you all the list again in case you need a refresher. Maybe your journal's full, whatever it is. So email Angela and let her know. All right. And Whitney's in the house, too. Hello, Whitney. It's great. Great to see you here. Oh, Gary, of course. Now I remember you. You came to the office, right? That's you. Okay, now I feel bad because you actually made the effort to come to my office, and I didn't remember, but now I do now that you reminded me what you were here for. I remember. So, yes, we did meet. Great. Great to see you here. And sorry I didn't remember that at first. Okay, now let's go on to point number five. Show, don't tell, or show and tell. I mean, I kind of think you have to do both, but, you know, show, don't tell is. Is. Is a. Whatever you want to say, common expression. I hired someone to help me with some of my talks, and just, you know, she just watched some of my recorded talks and gave me some feedback. And the feedback that she said was universal to the talks that I had given to date was that I gave too much information. I consistently tried to pack too much into each talk. And her number one piece of feedback was that I needed to have more stories, which is funny because I feel like we tell a lot of stories here. But it's not just. It's not my stories. I really needed to incorporate more client stories as proof, as examples, as case studies. And so this last round, when I did my talk at the NSA Influence event. I dropped two of my standard bullet points and I put. And I replaced them with more commentary on stories. And you know, what I realized is that, and for me, I like to give a ton of value. It's one of the reasons I love doing the videos on YouTube is I love to share and teach and help. And so in my talks, I always try to share and teach and help. The reality is information is everywhere and you can find the answer to a lot of questions. The challenge that can be that you can help somebody with is, you know, giving them application of the information, perspective, you know, and the belief that transformation and the motivation to pursue that transformation, but the belief that the transformation is possible and that happens through real life stories. So as you are promoting your book and you get those people that say, oh my gosh, your book changed my life, collect those and start sharing them and get the deeper stories. Because when you connect with people to buy your book or join your newsletter or hire you or whatever it is, that you're using your book as kind of that fundamental piece of your, of your whole puzzle that you're building of your author business, when you start collecting those stories and sharing them, you're not only providing proof of what you share is going to help people, right? Which is important. Proof is important. But you're also providing proof that it's possible so that they can believe that the transformation or the outcome is possible for them. And they're seeing application because again, the information is there. What they're not always seeing is the application. They're also not seeing the perspective of, okay, you know, this is how you can do it. And I had somebody comment, and I don't know if it's in our free group. No, I think it might have been in our author business accelerator, our paid community that we have for book marketing. Somebody was asking about launching their audiobook at the same time. And this person kind of laid out a really cool plan, like a step by step, step by step plan of this is why I do this, and this is what it is. But the perspective that, you know, I think could be offered versus the information was, well, there's no way to notify people when your audiobook comes out later, right? So all these people who think, well, I'll just launch that later, that's fine. But everybody who found out about you from your marketing efforts at this stage, like you kind of think of it as a pre audiobook and a post audiobook stage, there's no way for them to click notify me when there's an audiobook, audiobook coming soon. You know, that isn't there. So how do they know? Well, they don't. And then they're going to forget about you. And so that marketing has lost it. A person. So that's why, that's the perspective of why I think, you know, if you have the means and the ability to launch with all the formats, you should launch with all formats. So it, there's a difference in, in sharing just a step by step bullet versus, you know, sharing the stories, but also the perspective and the potential of the transformation. So having those stories and the results and those testimonials, that's going to help sell your ideas, which again, it's not about selling, it's about having that impact and telling people about your book because you wrote it to help them, right? So going back to the original point, which is show, don't tell, it's really collect those, you know, be a story collector and share them a lot because then that's going to help you have that desired impact and ultimately make the income that you set out to make as an author. Okay, next one, which is one of my favorites. Small thinking creates small results. And I see this and hear this all the time. People come to me and I won't call anybody out by name, but people come to me and they're like, oh, it's just a business card book or I paid to be an anthology because now I can say I'm a best selling author. Which I always kind of push back on that one because, you know, I, and I just, I did a slide on this for last couple talks where I tried to find the book. I was an author, an anthology that I was an author in. I did a chapter and I'm like, I'm not a best selling author. I'm a, I contributed a chapter. Like that's not the same thing. And I couldn't even find the book title when I was searching my name on Amazon. I was trying to find it and I couldn't even find it. I was like digging deep and it's because my name was not, you know, Amazon only has so many spots for an author to be listed as an author. And so my name was like in this section of the description that was contributors, right? So it took me forever to find it. So, you know, thinking that that makes you an author, well, how do you leverage your chapter to get results to have an impact? And then other people think, I'm just going to pay somebody on fiverr to create a cover and throw it on Amazon. See what happens. Well, I mean, if you have no money, do what you can do, okay? But a lot of people have the means. They just choose not to because they're afraid. They don't have the belief, they don't have the commitment. They haven't got clear enough goals. But now think about, you have the opportunity. Actually, no, back up first. Think about who is one person that if they knew about your message, they and they were excited about it and they decided to share would allow you to achieve all your impact income goals, right? For almost everybody there is an influencer or a thought leader or a CEO that could be a game changer, okay? So think about that person. Put them in, put their name in your head. And now imagine somehow, some miracle, you're in the elevator with that person. So you've got the 30 seconds or whatever it is and you happen to have a copy of your book on hand and you happen to have your one line pitch of who your book's for and why they should read it. But you thought small. Instead of thinking strategically and investing in creating a great book, now you could hand them your book. It's probably not going to go anywhere and you probably will feel like, oh, I should have put more money into this book or I should have put more time or effort into this book instead of rushing it. So now change, change that and have a book. You're amazingly proud. Like you're so proud. You put all the money, you put all the effort, intention, strategic plan in place for this book and now that happens and you hand that book to them. It's kind of the difference between there was and I don't know if anybody remembers this, but it was like there was this funny little video that went around, gosh, it's probably been 10 years ago, 10 years now where it was like the guru video where he gets on stage and he's like motivational speaker hyping everybody up and then he slinks out the back and gets in this beater of a car. It was a really funny video. I tried to find it the other day and I couldn't. But it's kind of like that, right? Like you've got this amazing book you're proud to hand to people. It's kind of like you've got that amazing car versus the beater that you don't want anybody to see. So think about your impact and the opportunities that investing in the right book for the right audience, you know, and doing it to the Best of your abilities, so whatever that is right now. But doing the best that you possibly can with editing, design, you know, even the structure of the book and giving yourself more time to do it. Because success is really hard to rush success. Success takes time. It takes a good plan, and it takes showing up and consistently executing on that plan that you have created. So, you know, you want to engineer your success with strategy, planning, and, of course, consistent execution. All right, I have one more. So I think that was seven. I think that was six that I just gave you. So I think I have one more. So I think I did have my numbering right. Congratulations, me. All right, let's see. I'm just looking at notes here, so one word at a time. My world. Ah, working on it. I don't know what that that meant, but Stella's here. Hi, Stella. Charles is here too. Stella missed the notification. I wish I. I wish I could tell YouTube to get their notifications on, on, on point more. But anyways. All right. Okay. And Efren. Working on it. I don't know what that was, but anyways, that's great. And Timothy is a storyteller, which is great. And Gary said, can you talk about using Persuasion versus Sales? Business School leaking out of my fingers to your feed? Yes, we will. Oh, oh, and I think. Oops, sorry. I seem to have highlighted somebody's comment. This is where. There we go. I don't know how long that was on the screen. I just realized I had that highlighted. That's where Angela and her fancy multiple screens. I only have a singular screen. She. She's helpful in that regard because she. She can see all the things that are happening all at once. So yes, persuasion versus Sales I think is really, really important. And you know that good topic for a future video. So I think we can definitely cover that. Love the ideas. Okay, so number seven, keep going. Well, after launch my book, Self Publish and Succeed, you can see right there, just won a bronze in the Reader Choice Awards. And the book's been out four years. We are relaunching it this year, by the way. We wanted to update it because it didn't have anything in it about AI. And we've worked with hundreds more authors since we put that book out. So we're actually going to do a summit to relaunch it November 13th, 14th and 15th. And we will be. For anybody who has wanted to take our course that we did. We haven't had it out for a while, but we had a course called Self Publish and Succeed Live, where myself and some People on my team would teach classes and you get some one on one time with one of the coaches, et cetera, et cetera. So that after that summit we'll be starting the next round of that course too. So we've had a lot of authors launch. Cynthia Pan, Shannon Russell I'm trying to think of some of the most recent authors that have been around the book launcher scene that came from one of our courses, which is fantastic. So all that's to say self publish and succeed story has been around more than four years. We are relaunching it, but we talk about it all the time. We use it as part of the business. So it being out four years does not matter. It is something that we will be consistently using, which is why we're relaunching it with some new content inside of it to just beef it up even more. And then self promote and succeed. Well of course I give it away all the time. If you're here and you haven't read one of these books, comment because we're going to give you have the opportunity to win these books. But you can also download Self Promote and Succeed in audio format for free. Just go to self promoteandsucceed.com audio but one of my favorite stories of 2025 is Jonathan Stanley. I know some of you have heard this story already, so I won't go into great detail on it. I will post in the description afterwards I will post a video I did breaking down the Jonathan Stanley story. But his book had been out eight months when he was at the Barnes and Noble doing the book signing. He was still promoting his book. And as I've told, you know, as I've said before, he sold 12 books that day and said it was a success. Little did he know he was going hyper viral and then hyperviral on TikTok after. You know, and it's led to thousands and thousands of book sales and many, many other things have happened for him since then. But it was because he kept going. It wasn't launch and then do nothing. It's launch and execute on your plan and use that book as the beautiful tool that it is to have impact, make income and grow from there. And I think, you know, kind of going back to my point of the last one is many authors think too small. Whether it's, you know, lack of belief in yourself, you know, challenges, you know, I get the financial challenges all day long, but there's lots of creative ways to produce a really, really great book and then add to it as you grow Your income. But, you know, thinking too small because you're scared or because you don't have a clear enough audience and you're not seeing how it's going to impact them or, or not thinking like you're going to build an entire business around this. Because even if you're doing this as a hobby, when you publish a book, you've created a business, right? You have expenses, you're going to make income. The IRS or the CRA or wherever you're filing taxes, they're going to treat this as a business. So you should too. So think about it as the big picture, right? The author business that you are building. And you know, I think that a lot of people just think, you know, they, they don't invest in their success. They don't, they don't sell their book, they aren't thinking strategically with a plan, they're not executing consistently, and then they don't sell 250 books and they go, well, that's because I self published. And the average self published author doesn't sell more than 250 books in their lifetime. Well, guess what? When you do all of the things that we've just talked about, the average book launcher's author is selling more than 250 books on their launch. And that's because they're doing all the things right. It takes work, it takes a plan, it takes execution, it takes a team, all of those things. And of course, you know, lifetime sales should be well beyond what every, you know, this, this, this stat that. I don't even know where that stat comes from, but lots of people quote it. So embrace the principles, have fun with it because, you know, you're impacting lives and books change lives. You know, your book could change your life. It could change the life of somebody who reads it. Think bigger and consistently tell people about your book. And of course, build that network so other people will also tell other people about your book and what you're doing because all of that matters in the long run to create success as an author. All right, those are your seven. Let's see if there's any questions or things that we're talking about in the chat. Thank you, Bill, for the congrats on the silver medal or no bronze medal. I didn't get silver. I'm just upgrading myself as we go here. All right, let's see. My book will equal my business. Yay. And you do a great job of this, Tony Unbreakable tv. He's saying, always telling people about my books. And he does. And congratulations And I think you just came out with a new book recently, so, yeah, it was just awesome. Okay. And Efren has a video idea. Video idea colon. So I'm just waiting with bated breath. While I'm waiting, I will do one more prize. So if you do have any questions, this will give you a chance to. To post your question. Otherwise, we will wrap for the day and I'll be back here again next week. And maybe Efren's video idea will be the topic that we'll talk about. Because I don't have a topic on the 16th, though we do have Corey Poirier coming back. He's been on. If he hasn't been live here, he's been presented to our clients, but he's going to talk about how to get paid as a speaker, how to build your paid speaking business. All right, let me do the giveaway tool here again, and we'll see. See who wins our final prize of the day. Here we go. Drumroll, please. And Risa, congratulations. You have won one of those prizes that we talked about. I think you already have self promote and succeed and self publish and succeed. But if you don't, that could be one of them. A mug or our oh so soft journal. You need to email Angela@teamoklaunchers.com Let her know your mailing address and your prize choice. So congratulations, and of course, thank you for being here live. It might be boring, but formatting trends, so that is not a boring topic. It is actually formatting and cover trends is one of our most popular deep dives that we ever do. We did one for 2025, and it'll be here on YouTube. I think it was in April. So Cassie does that, of course, with Alyssa, because I don't know formatting trends at all. I didn't even know. I didn't. I had to learn what white space was, the drop cap, you know, all these kind of things. I didn't know what any of those things were. And so Cassie is brilliant. So she did that. And we do one every year because they don't change that much. Covers are very different this year. If you haven't done a walk through Barnes and Noble or chapters, take a walk. Because cover design has changed a lot. I'm seeing a lot of bright colors and just text on the. On the covers. It's been. It's very interesting year for cover changes, but. But formatting, yes, I. That's not a boring subject, but it's not one that I'm going to talk about in the next month or so. But but it is one that is on our docket for Cassie and Alyssa to tackle again in early 2026. So thank you. Keep the ideas coming. If you think of anything, go ahead and post it in the comments after the live and I will be watching for it and I will come up with a topic to chat with you about next week, no matter what. All right. Thanks everybody for being here and I hope to see you again in a week. Again, fresh content coming to you on Fridays and live streams every Tuesday is our new format. All right, Take care.