This is a Book Launchers Author Spotlight interview (uploaded June 19, 2020) in which Julie Broad interviews Ryan Berman, founder of Courageous and author of Return on Courage. Berman describes his book—largely composed of stories from his 1,000-day travels—and a repeatable method for "operationalizing courage." He explains how he wrote strategically to feature courageous brands so those companies would both be highlighted and become prospects or amplifiers for paid speaking engagements. Practical advice includes understanding the payer's needs, building speaking value over time, and leveraging keynotes, workshops, and consulting as a waterfall of opportunities. The video also lists organizations where he has spoken or was scheduled to speak and notes the teams (Book Launchers, Greenleaf) that supported his launch and distribution.
Are you writing a book hoping to get paid speaking engagements from your book? Well, it's not as simple as just writing a book and getting paid. And today's video with author Ryan Berman explains how to think about getting paid while you're writing your book to set you up for success. If you want to be paid to speak and sell books in the process, this Author Spotlight video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie, the book broad from Book Book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing team helping you write, publish, and promote a nonfiction book that will help you have a big impact on your readers. And done right will also help you grow your brand, build your business, and make money. And the best part, you keep all rights and royalties. A lot of authors want to write a nonfiction book to become a paid speaker, and a book is an excellent tool to have as a speaker. But there's so much more to it than I'm going to write a book and then I'm going to get paid to speak, which is what a lot of people seem to think happens. I asked our fantastic client and brave author Ryan Berman, author of Return on Courage, to share his secrets for using his book to get paid as a speaker and how you can use his tips to set yourself up for Success. Please meet Mr. Ryan Berman. Hey Ryan. Tell everyone who you are and what your book is about.
I'm Ryan Berman. I am the founder of Courageous and the author of a book called Return on Courage, A Business Playbook for Courageous Change. I think that change is happening whether you like it or not. You drive change or change drives you. So I'd rather be the one driving the car than stuck in the darkness in the trunk. Anyone who's looking to operationalize courage inside their organization or inside themselves, I think it's a great read.
The super cool thing about his book is that it's not only Ryan's story of courage. In fact, it's mostly other stories of courage from his 1,000 days traveling around the country, meeting Navy SEALs and CEOs and astronauts and tornado chasers and people he calls brainiacs. And he's created a method that helps you make courageous decisions and lead with courage from everything he learned from all of those folks. Let me tell you what this is a book for right now. Cause we've all been shaken and stirred by the virus and the pandemic. And this book really is precisely what the world needs right now. We have a behind the scenes look at how many books Ryan was selling because we were managing the bulk side of his business when he got speaking engagements. So we know he was moving books in lovely volumes. So I wanted to ask him how he set himself up for bulk volume sales success right from the launch of his book. And Ryan did something that I don't see enough authors doing. Check this out.
I was keeping in mind the realities that my future may involve being a keynote speaker. And then how do I actually be compensated for that? One of the ways that I approached it was by thinking through which brands were already acting courageously. Could I highlight them and feature them in the book and then hopefully make them look good in the book and have people read the book, which then becomes this, this loop of an opportunity to go in and speak at those companies. So brands sit on a spectrum between a Coward brand and a Courage brand. And obviously we know where we'd want to be on that particular spectrum. So it does me no good to ridicule the Coward brands, but rather to amplify those Courage brands, which is what I tried to do throughout Return on Courage. And yeah, now what's happened is a lot of them have hired me, brought me in to speak and remind, delicately nudge their employees to take courageous action.
That is, while he was writing, he thought about who might hire him for speaking engagements. Are you doing that or are you just writing your book, hoping it leads to speaking engagements? He was very strategic when he wrote about certain corporations knowing or at least planning that they were going to hire him. And not just who do you want to hire you, but who will be great to use as an amplifier to tell other people that you spoke at that company. That is a brilliant tip and it's something you can do too. So, Ryan, now that you're in your third year of being a paid speaker, what is the best advice you have for someone just starting out?
Really think through what the payer is looking for, what are the challenges that they may have? Start there and work your way back. And then it's a journey. Early in my speaking journey and again, I would say I'm in my junior year of speaking, but like in my freshman year, I remember a well known brand feeling almost sheepish about only being able to pay me a thousand dollars to speak. And in my head I was like, wow, I'm going to be able to save for the rest of my life that I spoke at Blank. I would have paid them $1,000. So I would be really mindful and thoughtful of what value looks like and how you build up your value over time. Now that I'm in my Third year for me. I'm getting, you know, good salary by going around the country talking about keynotes. I'm also offering up workshops, and then it's also leading to my consulting practice. So all of these are sort of a waterfall effect that play together. Don't overwhelm yourself. It starts one step at a time. But if that's what you think you want to do and you think you have a topic that's going to resonate with an audience, to start to build it brick by brick. And over time, you got a shot to build something worth following.
So my favorite question to ask authors is, what is the coolest thing to happen to you since you became an author? And Ryan's answer was awesome. First, he surprised me by sharing that in a podcast interview he did to promote the book, he met a guy that he's now writing a second book with. I didn't know that. So that's pretty cool, Ryan. But then he shared this awesome piece.
I am a different person than I was when I wrote the first book. And to be fair, I'm also surrounded by different people for the second book. And so I went on this journey that I needed, and it sort of powered me through to this next part of life. I know that might sound a little woo woo, but it's true. And what a surprise. You're going to learn so much along the way from the first book. When you get to the second book, there's sort of you have all that knowledge that you're going to take with you, which you kind of already know, but you got to go through that process.
All right, do you want to chat with Ryan? Connect with him@returnoncourage.com couragebrands.com or if you want to see his speaking website, I highly recommend you check that out. Visit Ryan Berman.com oh, and you might be wondering what role we played in all of this and where Ryan has been speaking. Well, Ryan hired book launchers to advise him, and he also worked with Greenleaf in Austin to get distribution. So he wanted both companies on deck. But we've remained on the team to continue supporting his speaking career. And right before the virus shut that side of his business down for the next few months, this is what was on deck and what had already happened as a result of his book having.
Julie, somebody that I trusted, and Sarah on her team, someone that I trust, by the way. I trust them both to help me decide where I should be spending my time, really on the speaker circuit more than even on the content and the writing of the chapters of the book has been instrumental. Continue to lean on them for the right opportunities and excited to see how Courageous continues to evolve and the message continues to evolve. This year I'm speaking as the keynote at Domino's in Vegas. I'm supposed to go to Spain with General Mills and Nestle for innovation. Been able to speak with Google, Snapchat Charity Water Pledge 1% Caesar's Entertainment Ryan.
You are awesome and we love you at Book Launchers and we are so grateful to have been on your team bringing Return on Courage to the people. And thank you so much for sharing your incredible insights to help other authors write a book to get paid as a speaker. Did you like this Author Spotlight? Let us know your favorite tip in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet book launcher swag. And when you comment on this video the day it's released, you'll also be entered to win a copy of Return on Courage, which I think you should read no matter what. Now, after watching this video, you might be excited to watch another Author Spotlight video. This is the one from Jillian Gertzen on Selling a Lot of Books with a Small Audience, or this one is from Robert Workman on Getting youg Book Into Airport Bookstores. Both are great videos with absolutely wonderful authors. So go ahead, choose one and I'll see you there.
