Bonus: How to Write Your Book Even When You Don't Have the Time

Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Destiny Kopp. And in this podcast we're covering actionable tips to grow your online course business. And today we're at the end of our three part bonus episode series that focuses on helping you finally self publish your nonfiction book. As we've been going through the series, we know that a lot of online course creators out there have a book idea in the back of their mind. In our first episode, we talked about how to find your focus and nail your book's topic. And yesterday, Emmy and I discussed about self publishing on Amazon and what are some benefits to self publishing on Amazon and she shared some insider secrets on how to succeed there. So if you haven't listened to that episode, definitely check it out now. My co host Here today is Dr. Emmy Estaccio. If you don't know anything about Emmy, definitely check out a podcast that I had with her. She was a guest on my podcast. It was episode 49 where she talked about her journey as an online course creator and how she got into entrepreneurship. It was a great episode, so definitely check it out. And today, as part of this three part bonus episode series, we're going to be talking about how to write your book, even if you don't feel like you have the time. And I will say from personal experience, I've been wanting to publish a nonfiction book for some time now. And you know, if I had any regret, I say I wish I had done it sooner. And I'm in the middle. I'm putting the final touches on my manuscript and I'm scheduled to launch by summer on Amazon. So Emmy's going to walk you through some tips today and, you know, hopefully get you started on the path of, you know, putting it on your calendar. Let's get it done. Because I know a lot of you, this is one of the goals that you have for your business and for your personal life. So, Emmy, thank you so much for joining me. I'm excited again to jump into this topic with you.

Oh yes, absolutely. Thanks for having me again, Disney, always a pleasure talking with you today.

So I know that a lot of people can probably relate to what happened with me. You know, I had this book idea, you know, kind of it's really a bucket list, if you would, this bucket list idea on my list for many years and I never really got to it, you know, so many other competing priorities came up. I felt like to some extent I was chasing that next shiny object. If you would. So can you talk about how is it possible to write a book when you have like I did, maybe a full time job or you're working full time in your business. You know, I had four kids, you know, they were going to all of these sporting events and you know, busy with school and you know, just running my, you know, running my life. So can you give us some tips there in what you have seen for folks who have actually been able to get this done? How do they go about it?

Of course. Well, I have to say, Disney, I've been there, done that, got the T shirt. But I'm not gonna lie, it's not easy. But come to think of it, we actually all have the same 24 hours in the day. And when people say that they don't have the time, really what they are saying is that I don't want to use my time for that right now. So what I have to say is if you are thinking about writing a book and you have a full time job, a business, maybe a busy family or social life, consider that we do have the same 24 hours in the day, but we choose how we use our time. And if you want to get your book done, you do have to make a conscious decision and commitment to, to write your book and look at your schedule and find the time. Whether it is 15 minutes a day or an hour a day, you actually need to make that conscious decision. What do you need to do in order to block some time from your calendar and write your book during that time? So if I'm just going to share my own experience, when I first wrote my self published book, I actually just returned from maternity leave, so there's a screaming baby in the back. I also went back to a full time lectureship at the university. So for the fellow academics out there, you know what it's like. Sure, you have a full time job, but it's as if you're, you're juggling 10 things at the same time. Doing your teaching, your research, admin and so on. So I went back to a full time, really, really stressful job. And at the same time I also started my online business because I wanted an exit strategy so I could quit that particular job. So as you can imagine, it was really hectic trying to write a book, trying to get back to my job, having a baby and have a family and also starting my online business. So people have asked me, it's like, oh my goodness, how is that even possible for you to write your book? And for me, what I say to them is because my motivation to quit my job was so strong. I really need to make this work. And I made that conscious decision and commitment to write my books because if I'm going to launch my course or my online coaching practice and so on, writing my books is a really great way for me to establish my expert status. It's going to help solidify in my mind as well what I'm going to teach or what I am going to use as strategies for my clients and so on. So for me, my motivation to have this exit strategy through my books was so strong that I made a conscious decision and commitment to get it done. It wasn't just, I wish I have a book. I actually said I will write a book. And that's absolutely crucial. And I think that's the difference between authors who, who have this ambition to write a book, but not really making that conscious decision. They will write their books in their spare time. And the trouble is that spare time rarely comes around because there are always other competing priorities, especially if you have a job or running a business, setting up a business, and if you have a family life. So the very first thing that you need to do is you need to make a conscious decision and commitment to write your book. It's not just a w actually making that decision to get it done. Looking at your calendar, finding very specific times in your diary to block that time, keep it consistent, respect that time. It's almost as if you are treating it like an appointment or treat it as if you are attending a class. You don't do anything else apart from writing your book. If and what I think is really important is that you need to make yourself accountable. If you tell yourself that I'm going to wake up at six in the morning, write my book from six till seven and I'll do this for the next six weeks. Sure, you know, you might be disciplined to do it, but it's so much easier to actually stick to it. If you make yourself accountable, get someone to ask you if you've actually done it and get the support you need. Because writing can be such an isolating experience. When you keep yourself accountable and get the support that you need, it makes it so much more enjoyable. People celebrate with you when you achieve your little wins. It reinforces the behavior. And then also if you experience challenges, it helps you to get unstuck to brainstorm, to share with others what you've been writing. And it just helps you to keep moving forward.

I like what you just said there about getting support and, you know, celebrating wins because, you know, and I don't know I don't remember where I was reading this, but I was reading something and they said that one of the reasons why so many people fail in bigger type projects like this is they don't celebrate their wins. Like they don't get, get these wins, you know, these little wins. Even if it's like, oh, I wrote 10 pages this week, you know, I should celebrate that. So I really like what you said there. Let me ask you this. Going back to putting it on your calendar, which I think that is an excellent idea. Is there a certain amount, is it like an hour day that you recommend or what do you generally recommend to your students?

Right. This actually depends on their current priorities and what amount of time would be suitable or they're comfortable with. For me and my students, I usually recommend an hour or maybe an hour and a half because that's the amount of time it takes to get into the groove. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to get in the zone. And for many of my students, they would try to find pockets of time in the afternoon or in the evening. And when we have our coaching calls, I would ask them, so have you done it? Have you actually written your book at the time that you said you will? And they would say, actually no, because I was too tired and I just didn't have the energy by the end of the day. So what I actually encourage, and for your listeners out there who are thinking about starting their book and finding the time to write their books, I would encourage them to start first thing in the morning when your brain is fresh, when it's still quiet and you are still energized and inspired. Certainly for me, when I was writing my books, I would look at my diary. I have a kid that we have to take to the nursery at 8 o' clock in the morning. What I would do is I would start my day six o' clock in the morning. It's all quiet. And I protect that particular time from 6 to 8. I don't do anything else. And from a psychologist's perspective, when you get into that habit, when it becomes part of your routine, you it's easier to get into the zone because your brain is almost conditioned that at this time this is what I'm doing, so you don't have to second guess what you're supposed to do. This time is blocked for that time. So I would say, and I would actually encourage your listeners, if they are looking for blocks of time to write their books, I would really encourage first thing in the morning when everything is still quiet, they still have the energy. And maybe after waking up they have these boosts of inspiration. Certainly for me, when I wake up in the morning, I get these inspired thoughts. Like the most inspired thoughts come in the morning and it gets incorporated into my writing. So I write in the morning and the rest of my day I just get on with what I have to do, send the kid to the nursery, go to my work and have family time at night. Doesn't really matter anymore because I did what I had to do. It's all done first thing in the morning. And I have to say, because I've been writing in the morning, I get to think about what I've written for the rest of the day. So it's almost as if, yeah, I write my books, I process them as I go about my day. I'm having a shower, I'm eating, I'm discussing it with family and friends, what I've written in the morning. So even if I'm not on my desk, I still sort of am working on my book because I'm still processing the thoughts. So the next day get to write some more because I've processed them throughout my day, if that makes any sense.

Yes, absolutely. So as you were going through that, I have another. I have a question for you. Let's assume that somebody has, you know, they've scheduled an hour a day on their calendar and it's in the morning and they're determined to get their book done. How long should they expect that it would take them to do a typical manuscript for a non fiction book?

All right, well, this would depend on experience and this would depend on how well you know your area. And because your people are course creators, I would expect that they would be experts in their field or they know their stuff.

Oh, absolutely they do.

They will just fly. Especially if they've already created their course. It's actually quite easy to turn that into a book because you already have your content, you already have your structure. And as I've mentioned before, some of my best students are course creators and they essentially repurpose their existing content and turn that into a book. And if you are really, you know, if you really know your topic inside out, and if you already have an existing content from your course to some of my students, turn it around in a week because the content is there. All they had to do was to maybe reorganize it a little bit, add some sections here and there, just to make it flow more like a book rather than a course. So typically for my students who are course creators, Sometimes it just takes them about a week to repurpose their content into a course. But what takes time is the formatting, adding all those little bits and pieces in the book to make it flow like a book, but with, with consistency. Having an hour a week every day for, let's say four weeks, that would be enough to turn it into a book on Amazon. You don't have to write a 60,000 word book. For course creators particularly, it would be helpful to actually just write let's say a 15,000 or 20,000 word book. I know that many of listeners are in the States, let's convert that into pages. So that's around 120 to 150 pages. It's not very difficult to write and as far as the reader is concerned, it's easier to digest. It gives them a sense of accomplishment that they've finished reading a book. And it allows you as the author to get your readers to know about your brand and introduce them to, to your course. So your book really is just a taster of what you have to offer to your course and you can drive your readers into your course if they want more depth. So yeah, as far as writing the book is concerned, if you have an existing course, if you already have existing content, a week to repurpose your content would be enough. And it's just a matter of editing and tweaking and adding little bits here and there to make it more coherent as a book and find a way to drive traffic from your book onto your course. If your readers want more depth and a more personal touch from what they are reading from your book.

And I loved what you mentioned there about taking your existing content and repurposing it. What I did, I actually created my book outline and then I hired somebody and I said, you know, here's my blog post. So I had an editorial calendar of all my blog posts with the links. And I said, you know, this blog post goes under this part of the outline. This blog post goes here. And I had them actually go out and pull it for me and put it in the, in the actual manuscript. And then I went back and kind of, you know, did all the tweaks to make it readable like a book. So that was a huge time saver for me.

Oh yes, absolutely. And there are so many ways that you can write a book. One of the things that I've noticed though with my students who are course creators is that they have this. I don't know if it's a limiting belief, if we call that A limiting belief. They would say that I'm a course creator because I'm more of a speaker and I want to present my work in slides and give worksheets. I'm not so much of a writer, so they have this belief that I can't write. But you know, destiny, I have to say, it's really a matter of repurposing your content. Your content already exists. And if you've actually had your course spoken, you can have it transcribed and you just restructure it and make it flow more like a book. I have amazing motivational speakers who end up transcribing their work in and turning it into a book. So if you are someone who likes to speak more and if you have that limiting belief that, oh, you know, I'm not so much of a writer, what you can do is you can actually speak your thoughts and get someone to transcribe your recordings and then you can just edit it, hire someone to edit it for you and turn it into a book. So there are so many ways that you can get around this. And certainly for an average 15 to 20,000 word book, if you speak this book, it takes about two hours to get that spoken out, for example, as an audiobook. So technically there are some authors who can finish writing their book in a weekend because all you have to do is to speak your knowledge, put it on paper, have it edited, and then you just have to do the finishing touches. What we have discussed last week in terms of making sure that what you've done gets out there and people find it, that's probably the more the trickier part, the things that we need to learn. Because for us as course creators, we know our stuff, you know this, you know, we are experts in our topic. But maybe you are great in, let's say for example, coaching. You are great in business and you are great in psychology or whatever. This is your, this is your topic. But if you don't know how to market it and if you don't know how to compete on Amazon, you, then your book is likely to drown in the millions of other books on there. So really you need to learn how to work on Amazon, how to make your book more visible on Amazon. That might take a little bit of time to learn, but you know, that's what we're here for. We do offer this support and help aspiring authors, particularly course creators, heart centered entrepreneurs, online entrepreneurs who want to just get their message out there, build their business, serve their audience. And really if you want to get your books out there, you need to understand how Amazon works, learn how it works and get the accountability and support to make it happen.

I love the tips that you gave there. And I want to go back to the comment that you mentioned about just speaking your book and you know, having a transcription Service. I use Rev.com for this all the time and just, you know, especially with like the podcast audio, just send it there, it gives you the transcript, you can go in and edit it. So that's a great tip. I also like what you said about it is the same for online courses, right? I always say that an online course business is 90% marketing and only 10% product creation. I think to some extent, right. Books are the same way. To your point, and you mentioned this, that a lot of your focus goes into figuring out how to market or figuring out to get to that, you know, bestseller list and to really get your, your book ranked. And your program helps people with that. My last question I have for you before we wrap up here is can you tell us just a little bit more about the program that you have? It's a 12 week challenge that you do. Can you walk us through how you take your students through that 12 weeks so that the end they are ready to launch?

Oh, of course. I have to say destiny, the 12 week challenge is something that I absolutely love facilitating. I do have an online self paced course. So some, some of my students just buy the course and they get on with it. But I do run this get it done challenge and I'm pretty much hands on in there and I go through the process with my students. It takes my time, but I absolutely love it because I get to work with them on a more personal level and I get to see what they are about, what they're passionate about, what their intentions are for their books and helping them to get to that point. So in the 12 week challenge in week one, we, as I've been talking about in this three part series in your podcast, we do keyword research first and foremost. We really need to understand the market and understand what readers are looking for when they go on Amazon to buy books. So we go through that together. I teach my students how to do the keyword research and when they get stuck, we actually do it together. We have weekly live group coaching sessions and I absolutely love facilitating the group coaching sessions because my students end up bonding and they end up having these online friends because they go through this entire 12 week process together. But from week one we get to know each other, we explore what their ideas are for their books and we do the keyword research together just to make sure that even before they start creating their outlines in weeks too, they can validate their ideas. They have the confidence that what they are writing is something that people are looking for. And they can tweak their ideas, modify their books if they've already written the book, and make sure that when they publish their books, it's keyword optimized and ready to compete on Amazon. So we do that from week one. Week two, we do the outline, we create the outline. And certainly for course creators, if you already have an existing course, you already have an outline. But in the second week, it's finding a way to tweak your existing content and how you are going to turn that into a book in weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6, that's the content creation weeks. So everybody will just get on with it, focus on writing their books, getting it done, and obviously still have the weekly group coaching session. So this is the time when people start experiencing imposter syndrome. For example, during the coaching calls, some of my students would say, oh, you know, I'm not really sure if I'm good enough to do this. I'm not sure if I'm expert enough to do this. I'm afraid that it will flop, and so on and so forth. So during the weekly group coaching calls, all of these fears and anxieties, especially with me being a trained psychologist, you know, that's what I do did for my PhD. I can spot these fears and anxieties miles away. And we can actually work on those limiting beliefs to make sure that when they launch their books, they launch it with confidence and with pride and with such great delight when they finally get their books out there. So we have our weekly group coaching calls from weeks three till three, four, five and six, everybody just gets on with what they have to do. And with the group coaching calls, it kind of normalizes some of the challenges that aspiring authors experience. And we get to support each other in this way. So that's the first half of the get it done challenge. From weeks one through six, it's really the content creation, you know, getting it written and organized as a manuscript. But in the second part, that's where we shift gears. That's where the self publishing aspect comes in, the publishing and the marketing. It's a completely different mindset that we are using in the second half because the first half is the creative process. And I have to say, for most of my students, the first half is the easy part because that's their comfort zone. They know their stuff. They're experts in their stuff, so they just get on with it. But from week seven to 12, we get on with working on the title and subtitle the marketing, the category, research, building your loan and team formatting, and all the marketing tools that you need to have to make sure that your book is ready to compete on Amazon, that it would be visible on Amazon, that it is optimized and that you are able to leverage Amazon's platform. That when people actually read your book, that you're able to drive those warm leads into your business and nurture them, whether it's growing your mailing list or introducing them to your Facebook group, if you have one, or a podcast, or driving them straight into your course. Those six weeks in the Get It Done Challenge, the second half of the Get It Done Challenge tackles all of that. And I absolutely love that particular part of the Get It Done challenge because we see how the ideas actually turn into actual books. And every single one of my students who go through the process hit the number one bestseller spot because we do it properly. I do implement a bit of discipline, a bit of tough love, but in a compassionate way as well because I've been through the process myself. We end up becoming friends because we spend all those 12 weeks together. And when my students get to publish and launch their books to number one bestseller, we celebrate together. We end up being friends even after the, the course finishes. We support each other in, in our launches, in our, in our courses and so on. It's just an absolute amazing experience. That's why I facilitate this program. I only launch it twice a year and it's, I absolutely love it.

And you know, I like what you said there about every single one of your students reaches that number one bestseller status. That is so critical and such a transformation.

Absolutely. And it certainly gives them so much pride as well. They put it on their website. I'm a number one Amazon best selling author because they are. They have screenshots to prove it. And as we've talked about in the previous episode, in episode two, one of the secrets that aspiring authors don't know is it's actually relatively easy to get to the number one bestseller spot, but only if you know what you're doing, if you have the strategy, if you have the tools, if you have the team and couple that with action. That's the formula and that's how you're going to get to number one bestseller on Amazon.

So, Emmy, any last minute comments before we close out here?

Right. I have to say, Destiny, I Absolutely enjoyed our conversations in this podcast. I hope that your listeners found value from our episodes about writing and self publishing a book on Amazon. If there's one takeaway message that your listeners can get from this is that it is possible for you to write and self publish your books. If you feel that you don't have the time to do it. You really need to make a conscious decision and commitment to get that done. Make sure that your aims are very clear and that you keep yourself accountable and get the support that you need need to go through this process. But also if you want to write your book and make sure that you are able to compete on Amazon, you need to find the right strategy, the right support and the right tools to get you there. It's not that difficult to get to number one if you know what you are doing, but certainly you have to educate yourself, surround yourself with other aspiring authors, get yourself a mentor, a coach and get the support that you need because it can be quite an isolating experience. It can be lonely if you're doing it on your own. You can become more motivated and kept accountable if you get that support that you need. So yeah, thanks for the opportunity for sharing this with your audience. Destiny and I hope that they found value from our conversation.

Emmy, we just love the tips and the secrets that you shared with us in the past three episodes and thank you so much for your knowledge. And before we close out, Emmy and I want to let everybody know that we have a special training for you. If you are interested in writing your nonfiction book, please join us in a live training where you're going to learn how to turn your existing content into a number one best selling book so you can generate warm leads for your online course. The link for the training is in the show notes so be sure that you sign up today and course creators. Thank you so much for joining us. I hope you enjoy this bonus three part episode series. Have a great rest of your day. Bye for now.