The $7 Million Business Card | The Casey Zeman Show #4 ft. Chandler Bolt

All right, what's up everybody? Welcome to this episode. I am super pumped today because I get to interview one of the brightest personalities that I've been seeing online. Someone who's, who's built a company from zero to $65 million in 9 years. We have Chandler Bolt. Now Chandler Bolt is an investor, speaker. He's the CEO of selfpublishing.com. He's a Forbes 30 Under 30, author of 7 books, including his most recent published. You publish about 2 to 5 books per day. Which is incredible. And I'm excited to talk to you today because I want to, I want to like share some of the ways that you grew your company. It's an inspiring story. And so welcome. Thank you for being here, man.

Yeah. Glad to be here. Thank you, Casey. I appreciate that. And yeah, we published 5 books yesterday. Holy smokes. I think people think I'm— usually think I'm lying when I say that, but all day, every day.

You know what I love about when you do that? I love your I love that you, you actually, you get on with your cool, you know, Meta glasses.

Yeah, the Meta glasses.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you're like, okay, today we're going to show you that. We're going to show you one of our most recent published authors. Here they are right here. And you, and you, and you do this flywheel back to your community of results from your clients. And I think that not enough people do that in their own business where they, where they flywheel back their culture and their results and, um, and almost on a daily basis, uh, find that flywheel because obviously that brings in more customers. They get clear and it becomes this like, um, this like sort of snowball. Has that, have you always operated that way? Is that a new way to operate and are you seeing that snowball effect from that flywheel?

Yeah, I learned this process from Steve McLaren. It's called— he calls it the circle of awesomeness, which is basically get great results for your customers, capture the stories from those results, and then use those results in your marketing to get more great customers, often even better customers that then you can create better results for that. Then the whole kind of flywheel continues to spin. And so that's part of our flywheel, which is on the wall in our office and that we talk about as a company. But I think we've historically sucked at it because it's hard to do. The people who are marketing the product aren't the ones talking to the customers. So then you have this problem where the people talking to the customers, they've got all these daily success stories and they just get numb to it. And they're not sharing it with the marketing team, but then the marketing team's like, hold up, we want some testimonials. Yeah. So it's kind of this constant battle of who actually owns this. And so I don't know that we've ever really figured out a great way around that. We're still trying to figure out some of that stuff, but I think the cheat code that we have figured out is that Who's Next series, which, you know, works for us because it's a physical manifestation of the work that we do. Hmm. But it's also is really cool because it's a repeatable format, which people, you know, in the content world know that when you find a repeatable format that brings in customers, that also is popular in Crank's views. I mean, that is the holy grail. And so I think in some ways we found that and it just started with an idea from my creative director who said, hey, we publish these books every day. What if we just started doing this Who's Next series? And so he ordered a few books to the office. We opened up some of the books and, and then that's the whole premise is, hey, we publish at least 2 books every single day. Here's one of today's books. And then we've got kind of the meta glasses. So that leans into the Instagram algorithm. That's obviously pushing that very heavily because they want more people to buy Meta Glasses. Yeah. And, and, and so, but then we were able to chop it up and make this, this fun dynamic con— content back and forth with the team. And then at the end it's, whoo, that's today's book published.

Who's next?

Who's coming next? And so it's this fun thing. And then it just immediately, the first one we did, it was like, whoa, okay, that's an outlier. That did well. And then I had people texting me, like friends I respect. Affiliates, Hal Elrod, a buddy of mine who's both, both of those things, said, hey, I really like that new format. And we had people start commenting on that. And then so then it kind of dawned on us what an incredible way to highlight your customers while simultaneously bringing in new customers. I mean, it's just a fun thing. So we're going to keep, keep doing that.

Yeah, I think the problem a lot of companies have and we've had the same problem is the siloed effect, right? Where it's like everybody's in their own silo, so therefore they're not passing the data from one to the next. They— and obviously I think one thing that I find interesting about you is that I believe you had a virtual company for quite a while and then pivoted into having an office. Have you found that being in an office removes some of those silos for you? Like, was it like— and was that maybe an impetus or What made you decide to go all in to, to, to get the office? As someone who has a virtual, as someone still virtual, I'm really curious about this and I want to know from your own experience and, and, uh, you know, I'll, I'll probably like this Chandler, like was the impetus for me to do this. So yeah, this is why I want to know.

Everybody thinks I'm an idiot for doing this. Like you have ultimate, ultimate freedom, time and location freedom. And we had scaled to $70 or $75 million at the time that we opened our office. But I just looked around and said, what got us here won't get us there. I was looking around for companies that were bigger than us that were virtual, and I could count maybe 5. And I looked at all of the similar companies that were bigger than us, and I said, oh, that's interesting. Commonality, they all have an in-person office. And so I decided to do it. And really the reasons why we hadn't done it previously were all selfish. I didn't want to have to be tied down to a city. I didn't want to have to go into the office. It wasn't about what's best for the business. And so I just realized that with this next iteration of my life and this next iteration of the business, I'm ready to, you know, build community, settle down, grow roots while simultaneously things are just breaking at the size that we're at. And we're not going to get where we want to go if we're just siloed and virtual. So we started building out the office. It's been a long journey and it's been really hard and I expected it to be really hard, but it's been even harder. And I would say that people will tell you that you're stupid until up until the point that they ask you how you did it. So they'll tell you you're stupid until they ask you how you did it. And I think we're kind of in that phase now where it's start— I literally just recorded this video right before we got on here. Because it dawned on me, because there's been some hard, hard, hard days, weeks, months going on years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but, and there was those moments where, I mean, you've done this, it's probably when you started EasyWebinar or when you started other companies or did anything. I mean, you know, there's those times where you start it and you believe in it, but the results aren't on the scoreboard yet. So there's this valley of death. Where you just feel like an idiot, but you know that you have to keep persisting. And so that's what we went through with the in-person stuff. And I feel like we're starting to come out of that where I, on the way in to record this episode, I'm, I'm looking around thinking this office is buzzing. We just hit a million dollar month last month. We're already—

Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you. And, and, and we've done that 3 out of the last 6 months. So there's some real momentum there. Yeah. The, we had multiple people start on Monday. We had one person start today. There's people, I mean, it's buzzing. We got the media room and the media team and the media stuff that didn't exist. None of the progress that we're having on any of that would be happening without this. And so I just looked around and said, oh, this is actually starting to work. Yeah. So it's a cool feeling if and when it works.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it looks like it's working. I mean, uh, um, and, uh, I'll, I'll Obviously I, I 1000% love it and want it to succeed so much for you. And I think that, you know, I think that it's your, your insights around, you know, around making that decision, basing it on a calculated risk, which that's one of the most important places to be at, right? This edge of calculated risk where The teeter feels so uncomfortable. It's like, as you said, the valley of death is on the other side of that teeter. So it's like, but that is where greatness, um, is created, is formed, is, is, is forged really. So, um, I absolutely love that. That is, uh, that's, that's where you guys are going. Um, I want to ask this question cuz I know that you are like an ADHD dude like me. Um, I have a question because I was on with Amy Porterfield a few days ago, uh, doing an interview and, um, and, you know, I was talking to her about half-built bridges, you know, um, because, uh, because I, you know, because for me personally, I've had a lot of half-built bridges in my life, you know, like in terms of like business plans and efforts that just didn't get there. You know, when I asked her this question, she was like, what's a half-built bridge? And I find that so interesting because she said, you know, I'm a, I'm a pretty steady, steady girl. You know, like, I, I don't have any half-built bridges because she sees the plan. And then her team is like, if there are two plans, And if we, if, if we do both, one is going to have a, one is gonna suffer. So you have to choose between the two, which are you gonna choose? And then this dies. This doesn't just live here in half-built land, it dies. And so, and she said, I make that decision every time I go forward. And I thought that was really interesting and amazing. But for me as an ADHD person, sometimes I have these half-built ideas or plans or efforts. That are just sort of like waiting in the wings, you know, creating this clutter. I wanted to find out from you, do you navigate those same things? And how do you navigate those same things if you do? And maybe you don't, maybe you're an Amy Porterfield where it's like, she's like, I stay pretty consistent. And you know, the boring is the stuff that actually gets the results, right? So as an ADHD mind also, you know, the boring doesn't have necessarily the dopamine. So I'm wondering from you, how do you navigate that? Your, um, if you, you know, you have this ADHD mind, um, how does it show up and how do you navigate it?

There's this quote that I love that says that more businesses don't die of starvation, they die of indigestion. They don't die of not having enough to do, they die of having too much to do. And I think as an ADHD entrepreneur, you just want to do everything. The answer is yes. What's the question? And it's and, and, not or. And I think in some ways that's really beautiful, but in other ways it sabotages the success of your business. And we're dealing with this right now. I think we say yes to too many things. And I think I say yes to too many things. If your org, which by the way, if your organization is saying yes to too many things, spoiler alert, it's you. It's your fault. You as the leader are responsible for that. So that means if we're doing it as a company, that's my fault. As the leader of this company? And as Michael Hyatt would ask me, what about my leadership is leading to this result? And so I gotta, I gotta look at that and think in the mirror and say, how do we make sure that we're raising the level of our no so that we can raise the level of our yes? And so you mentioned the concept of half-built bridges. So many, I teach that with my clients is you, you, you start a thing and you stop. You start a thing and you stop. You start a thing and you stop. And you end up with all these half-built bridges instead of just building one. But sometimes even a fully built bridge, you just need to tear it down because it's no longer the best fit for your time, your energy. And so we're going through this evolution right now as a company where I'm challenging the team and I'm challenging myself to say, in order to raise the level of your yes, you must first raise the level of your no. So if we're going to say yes to bigger things, what first are the things that we are saying no to? And that's really hard. 'Cause people don't like it. I've been pissing a bunch of people off lately on my team where it's like, hey, that's a no, that's a no. Yep. I'm not going to speak at that event. That's below the line for me. And I just remember that message I sent at the beginning of the year saying that I'm not going to speak at events lower than this size or in this far away, or if they're not paying me or whatever else. It's like, okay, well then I'm not doing that. And it's frustrating, but you got to raise the level of your no.

How, how, how challenging has it been to to break down a bridge for you? Like, as, like, I know for me personally—

Oh my gosh, so hard.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, I know personally sometimes it's hard to let go of people on the team, you know? Yeah. And I'm just wondering about that for you. Yeah. Yeah.

About letting go of people specifically or tearing down bridges or both?

I mean, I saw them as both because tearing down a bridge could also be removing not only a strategy, but maybe a team member. That, you know, that you've had for a while that have created a bridge, but maybe it's not working out, you know?

Yeah. I think it's important that in your company you always have a meritocracy. And if someone is not by merit withholding the standard that needs to exist in your company, including yourself, you should fire them. And so I am the CEO of my company, yes, but I'm also the owner of the company. So I'm super straight up with my team to say, hey, I've got the owner hat and I've got the CEO hat. And as an owner, if at any point I can fire Chandler, the CEO, and hire someone better for a similar market-based wage to run this company, they can run this company better. It's my job as the owner to fire Chandler, the CEO. And so I've got to perform so that I don't get fired by the ownership group, which sounds funny. You know, people kind of roll their eyes. Oh yeah, sure. It's both of them or you. But it's true. And so sometimes What got you here won't get you there. And you're doing a disservice by having people in your organization that are no longer a fit for where you're going. And you're doing them a disservice more than even you are doing yourself a disservice because they're squandering and their career is at a dead end because you're not letting them go. And so we jokingly say, hey, we're not letting them go. We're freeing up their future, which is, you know, kind of funny, but also it's dead serious because we're freeing them up to go do something that is way more meaningful. And so what I try to do is just be generous. And I'm not saying I'm good at this by any means. I, I tend to hold on too long and I'm super loyal to a fault. But I, what I've tried to do to mitigate that with both myself and with my team is say, if we, if we're generous in the severance, we're generous in the transition, it makes the right decision easier. So let's just be generous because then we don't feel bad. We actually feel like, oh wow, we're really doing right by this person. So that's kind of the thing that I've tried to do to make those hard decisions easier. That's a—

and that's a brand. That's, you know, that's a brand culture. That's an office culture. That is a mindset culture. How much work do you think you had to do on yourself to be able to make the transition into the growth that you've had over the last 10 years? You know, like, as you— and I've heard you say this before, what got you there won't get you there, right? And, and so, yeah, what, what, what are some of those things that you had to work on?

There's so many. I think entrepreneurship is a spotlight on your flaws. Every day you find out something that you suck at, or you find out something, uh, that you're doing wrong. And there's this weird tension in business where you have these 3 groups of people. You've got the shareholders, you've got your customers, and you've got your employees. And it feels like they're always fighting with each other. It's like, oh, well, the shareholders want profit and the employees want to make as much money as possible. And then the customers want, you know, the best product for the cheapest. And you just feel like you're caught in the middle of this battle royale of these three groups of people, but that's your job. And so to do that, you've got to become the best version of yourself and you got to become unwavering in the storms. And there will be storms. There will be lots of storms. If there aren't storms, you're probably not doing much. And so over the years, over the last decade plus, I mean, it's been constant evolution of who do I need to become to unlock the next version of myself and the next version of this company. And John Maxwell calls it the law of the lid, right? Any organization will only grow to the lid or container of you as the leader of that organization. So constantly taking self-inventory and saying, Extreme Ownership. I mean, it's one of the best, best books, one of my favorite books of all time. Constantly saying, hey, what about my leadership is leading to this result and how do I fix it? Right. So I know that's not like a, like a very, I can go tactical if you want of like exact things, but that's almost just a way of, of a mantra or a way of being that I've had to re-remember. Cause at a certain point you start having success and you feel like you're hot shit and there's nothing. That you're doing that's wrong, right? And it's everybody else. And then you got to get re-humbled and say, oh, hold up, no, this is you. What's, what, what's going— like, if we're not growing, that ain't nobody's fault but you. And so I feel like I've had to continually go back to that. I'm— you'd think I'd learn, I guess, but I'm trying to just be a little bit more humble and a little bit more look at myself in the mirror versus default into being critical of other people or blaming other people.

Well, that, I, I, I think that is, I, I think that's one of the most challenging things for us to like, uh, uh, put on the awareness hat of ourselves, like self-awareness, um, and being able to sit in that uncomfortable seat of knowing that you're screwing up and shit ain't going right, you know? Yeah. Uh, and/or shit ain't going right is, is put, put on you, you know what I mean? So, um, I, I, I, I like that. I mean, I understand that, you know, the heavy is the heavy, heavy is the heart that wears the crown, right? So, but my question is, let me ask you this question. Do you, what do you, what do you feel like you're good at? Like, what do you feel attributed to some of the successes you've had in terms of what you're good at? You know, like there's, maybe one or two things that we're pretty good at. And it's like finding that, that zone of genius. What, what's been yours?

Um, yeah, I remember, I remember growing up in, in rec league, you know, basketball and it, and I think this was the first hint at some of these things, which was, you know, I was the whitest kid on the court and I had no shot. I had nothing. I mean, I, I was not skilled in any particular way, kind of similar to when I started playing tennis. I mean, all these kids have been playing since they could hold a racket, and here I am in 10th grade entering the sport, and I had no skill, but I had heart, hustle, and a crazy work ethic. And so then I would just— I would get on the all-star teams. I would, you know, year 2 in playing tennis, I was the number 1 seed on my high school team against somebody who had been playing since he was like because I just outworked people. And in basketball, I would die for every loose ball. And so they would just put me on because of the hustle. It's like me and two other white kids on the all-star soccer team with all the Hispanics. The other two white kids were way better than me. All the Mexicans were definitely way better than me. But I just hustled. I just out-hustled everybody. And so I think that's when I look back, I realize that, oh, those were innate, maybe from a young age that, I mean, it's from my parents, but it's work ethic, it's determination, it's grit, it's not quitting. I mean, this, this mantra I always say, which is you can't lose if you don't quit. And so I think I just don't quit and I just stay in the game and I outwork people and eventually I start winning because of that. Now there's other maybe innate things that, like, I'm very operationally minded and so A lot of my friends are, are, are visionary CEOs. And so I started this YouTube channel ages ago that I kind of just sat on the shelf for a while. And now we're getting videos going back again, but that's the Chandler Wolfe channel, which is all about scaling to 8 figures. But it's the operational stuff, the stuff that it actually takes. Uh, and I would have, my friends would send those videos around their whole company and have their company watching these videos. And that's when I kind of realized, oh, hold up, this is not normal. It's kind of like that unconscious competence, the things that you're good at that you don't really fully understand that you're good at. And so I think some of the operational stuff, and then there's the, I don't know, relationships and bringing people together. And, you know, I've been able to get people to bet on me that should have never bet on me just because, you know, I try to be a nice person, make relationships, go out of my way to bring people together. And in that, just meet some really really great people that have been able to help me grow a ton over the years.

It sounds like, yeah, like this intersection of charisma, because I sense that from your videos, and I don't know if it's always been there and maybe you had to work towards that, but the charisma and the intersection of operations and, and, and not, and not stopping when you hit a ceiling, right? Or not stopping when you hit a roadblock. That's what it sounds like to me. The operations I'm very interested in only because with operations, you know, with an ADHD mind, sometimes the operations get a little muddy, right? But if you have that skill set of being able to compartmentalize and to see the operations as they are, like, how valuable are SOPs for you guys? I'm imagining process is probably one of your most valuable assets.

It's huge. I mean, we've been creating SOPs since before they were cool. I mean, I guess they've never really been cool. Nobody really likes SOPs, but now in age of AI, you gotta have good data. You gotta have good core stuff. So yeah, I mean, I think the ADHD and operational, ADHD and operational skillset, I think it feels very antithetical, but I think it kind of feeds into, because you have to be, otherwise you're getting out of nowhere. And so I think there's probably two things that I'm good at. One is recognizing what I'm not good at and then getting great people around me that are way better than me at that stuff. And so I've always had a, an eye for that, a knack for that, and been very intentional about making sure that my team is really good. And that's where I think so many entrepreneurs screw this up, and it's so baffling to me. They just treat recruiting and hiring as an afterthought. And they don't have, quote unquote, don't have time to hire. And so they rush hire idiots in their business, and then they spend thousands of hours with those idiots. And then they wonder why they're frustrated all the time and why their business is not growing. And so I've always just said, well, hey, what if we just spent, I don't know, 20 more hours hiring the person, and then we hire the best person, and then we have thousands of hours that we spend with someone Awesome. That to me seems just way smarter. And so I started doing that. And so I think that's the first thing is I get people around me that are way different from me, which I think a lot of people don't— aren't good at that. But— and that's because it's really challenging, by the way. It's constant friction because I think differently than them. They think different. I mean, it's like, you know, you're going at it. I love that. And, and so I get people around me that are different than me. I think that's, that's a core strength and skill set. And then I think the ADHD just forces, forces me to say no to a bunch of stuff because, I mean, I know all these, I got a bunch of buddies who run multiple companies and I'm like, how? I can barely run one. Like, how are you running multiple companies? And so I think I just have had to say no to so many things. And then that combined with having a really great team is I can go out and be the face or do the things and then just pass it back to the team. And, and, and they, they're great. And they, you know, they take great care of our people.

I love that. I want to, I want to pivot just for a second. And by the way, thank you so much for all this. This is like solid information. I absolutely love it. But I want to talk about books for a second. Okay. You know, Obviously you're doing selfpublishing.com, so clearly you feel a certain way about books. I wanna ask you, what's a widely accepted piece of writing or publishing advice you think that is completely wrong? Like, like what, what does everybody think about publishing that, and, and you're like, no, this is the, the wrong way to go. Like what's the, where, where, what's the preconceived notion that you can dispel?

There's a bunch of wildly held, or I guess I should say, there's a bunch of widely held beliefs around publishing that I think are just completely wrong. First is you should traditionally publish. It's stupid. Traditional publishers suck. They're not going to market your book. They're not going to do anything really for you, except give you the vanity of being traditionally published. There's the fact that people think that they should hit the New York Times bestseller list and that that means something. Spoiler alert, it doesn't really mean that, mean that much anymore. And it's an editorial list. So it's not a real bestseller list. It's a, they pick at the end of the day. I mean, there, yes, there is a merit to get in there, but they pick. And so I think that's another one. Uh, and then I think, uh, a lot of people think that writing a book, it, it takes forever and they don't have time to do it, but I think you don't have time not to. I mean, it's one of those things where if you look at even traditionally published authors, They write the rough draft typically in 2 to 3 months right before their deadline. So it takes a couple months to write a book. Now, sure, maybe they're, you know, it certainly can take longer than that and there's all that stuff, but it doesn't have to take that long. And it is the single greatest asset that you can create in your business. And I think people just put it off and then if and when they eventually do it, they realize that they were an idiot for not doing it sooner.

Hmm. Obviously, you know, I've written a book and I'm gonna be talking to your team about it because, you know, I want to know more about being able to see the fruits of the labor, so to speak. And so I'm fascinated by this because I, you know, there is that preconceived notion of, oh, just getting into a traditional publisher, what that means, having the Simon Schuster like name right there or Penguin or whatever. But, but, you know, I, I, I, I'm really interested in seeing how you guys navigate through that, especially with, with using the book as an asset for, you know, revenue back to the, back to, you know, the back to the company, you know, back to the, to the business. You know, how is that, is that how it's used? Is it the leverager back where you're driving sales and, back in, or are you using it based on, well, I guess you could use it for multiple different things. It depend on, it depends on what you're trying to do, whether you want to be a public speaker or, you know, grow the company. Like there's a few different vehicles and angles to, to hit. Um, so that's why I'm curious to talk to you guys about this.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think I look at a book, especially in the AI era that we're in right now, as the hub for everything in your business. And so it is exactly what you said. It's, it, it is the on-ramp for all of your best customers. I mean, you get more leads, more sales, more referrals. I call it the $7 million business card. And we've got a video on our YouTube channel about that because it's, I mean, my book has brought in roughly $7 million in sales over the last 12 months alone. And so it just prints customers. But then if you think about it, especially in an AI world where you need reference for all your stuff. So it is your point of reference and it's the point of reference for your team, point of reference for your customers. It's the point of reference for your content. It's the point of reference for your webinars. All of it is, is that hub of creating your— it's really your manual for your business. And so we use the book to onboard customers. We use the book to onboard employees. We use the book to warm up prospects. They, they read it before or after their sales call and they're more likely to sign up to work with us, then they're more likely to be successful because then they show up to the coaching call. I mean, it is everything. It's at the core of everything that we do. And then right now we're in the middle of going back through some of this stuff and saying, oh yeah, why do we not have a blog post on that? Why do we not have a long-form YouTube video on that? Why do we not have short-form on this, on this piece? And it's the hub for everything.

Hmm. I, I love that. Um, That's, that's really incredible. That's really great. Well, I, I just, I just want to say thank you so much for coming, for being here, for sharing some of these things. Where should people go to consume all the things Chandler Bolt? Like, what's the, what's the place? What's the, where, where can they go?

Yeah. So we're, we're building out a media team right now and it's been really fun. And so we've got long-form content on YouTube. The book stuff is on selfpublishing.com. The Scaling to 8 Figures stuff is on the Chandler Bolt YouTube channel, so you can subscribe to us there. You can follow us on either Instagram. I just got my own personal Instagram a few months ago. So I'm finally on Instagram now. But those are, that's like all the best content that we're putting out just all the time. And then if you want to chat with the team about working with us at selfpublishing.com, we created a link for you guys. You can go to selfpublishing.com/casey and that's a link to book a call with the team and we can map out your book and see if we can help.

And we'll have the, we'll have the, the, the show notes below this episode video. So you guys will have all the links and everything else. So Chandler, thank you so much, man. This was awesome. Thank you for being here. I'm, I'm here to follow your journey still to be with you. I know you've been running webinars with, with our platform, so I'm excited.

Yes, sir.

Keep on the track with you, man. Um, and, uh, and learn from all the ways that you're scaling your business. So thanks again, buddy. Everybody, thank you so much for coming and, uh, we will see you soon. Take care. Bye-bye.