Test, test, TEST - #EvansBook ep. 35

Test, test, test. So last week I finished my book, super excited, it's off to the publisher. Historic moment for me filming it at the Starbucks, the very first Starbucks, and you know, I was hoping to create something just as historic. The very first Starbucks was created there, the very first Evan Carmichael book was filmed there. So now I had to figure out what I'd do this week, and I was thinking back to a video that I watched from Gene Simmons, uh, his top 10 rules for success. And in one of the clips, he's talking about Steven Spielberg. And Steven Spielberg, the most successful, you know, director of all time, everything he touches seems to turn to gold. And it's not by accident, right? He has a formula. It doesn't just accidentally turn out hit after hit after hit after hit. And I'm wondering, can I apply those lessons from Spielberg to my book to churn out my first hit. And what he does, as the story goes, is whenever he finishes a movie, before he shows it to the general public, he does a screening. He does a test with a test audience, and he goes to some no-name town, some small town, and shows it to the people there. And as Gene Simmons says, these people are in no position to judge him or give him feedback. Some of them may not be regular moviegoers, and here you are giving feedback to Steven Spielberg, the greatest director of all time. And the reason why he does that is because he wants his films to appeal to everybody. Not just appeal to a certain segment of the population, but to everybody. And so that's what he does. He goes and does a test market, sees what the reaction is, and then makes any edits or cuts as needed based on how people react. And so I'm at the situation now with my book where it's too long. It's a lot too long. A lot of pages too long. And I sent it to my editor and she's reviewing it. She hasn't given me feedback yet at the publishing house. And I'm at the situation where it's either broken down into multiple books Or sections are cut out and I use them as bonus chapters or other premium content, or we'll see. We'll see what I do with it. But I don't want just her to be editing it. So the plan right now is instead of going to walk into Whole Foods to write, I'm going to go and print off 20 to 25 copies of my original manuscript and share it with people in my circle, and I'm going to get their feedback on it. And what I'm asking to do is basically spend 10 hours in the next 2 weeks reading it, reviewing it, giving feedback. And I don't care so much about what they think about the content in terms of writing style or anything like that, because I'm comfortable with the writing style, I'm comfortable with the content itself. What I'm, what I'm curious about is I'm going to give them printed physical copies and I want to see what they highlight. I'm going to take the copies back, I want to see what they highlight, where they've written notes on the side, where they feel like these pages are applicable to their lives and their business. Some of them are entrepreneurs, some of them aren't entrepreneurs, and well, why am I giving a book for entrepreneurs to a bunch of non-entrepreneurs? Because I think it can still apply. I want to be able to reach a wide segment of the audience. And I think everybody has that idea that they want to turn into a business, right? Everybody's a wannabe entrepreneur if they're not an entrepreneur already. And so I think it's actually super helpful. At the start, I was questioning, hmm, do I only want to give it to entrepreneurs or not? But I think it's super helpful to give it to people who haven't started a business yet. And so the plan is give it to them, see what they highlight, see what they write in the comments just for themselves. Like not feedback for me, just read it like it would be a book for you. How you would mark it up just for yourself, and then take all the manuscripts back and see which pages got the most highlights, got the most comments, most, you know, underlines and notes on the side. And those are the pages that I have to keep, right? Those are the pages that are getting the most engagement. And the ones that don't get as much, I can potentially pull those and turn into something else for the hardcore people. And it also gives me leverage. So if I'm, you know, fighting with my editor at the publishing house, which hasn't started, so hopefully it'll be a smooth process, but just in case I do, I've got this backup of all these people who've reviewed it and said, "No, this page needs to stay. Look at all the engagement that we got on it. Look how much people love it. We have to keep that page." Today, my goal is to print off 20 to 25 versions of this manuscript, my final book, and then connect with people who I think would be good people to read it and deliver that to them this week. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to get this out to the world. I can't tell you guys, it's been a long process. I mean, I know you've been joining along with me throughout my journey. But I'm so excited to get this out, and hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have updates for you on how everything's going. Normally at this time I do Q&A. I know there's a couple questions that came in. It is way too cold for me to pull out the iPad or my phone here and look at questions for you, so once I get indoors, I will promise I'll make some video responses for you guys. So I'm over at Alex's place, excited to release my book to the world, and he made me some coffee. I said no initially, but then It smells so good because he has Irish cream happening here. So— You want some Baileys? It's so good with Baileys, man. Anyway, no, not having Baileys. So I'm having a large cup of coffee there with 2 milks and 1 sugar. I feel like more could go in the cup. I feel like you kind of cheapened out on the coffee. Like, look at all that space until you get to the rim. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I feel like Alex— A little scrap right there. Alex hospitality here. Just to top it off. That's how much you appreciate that coffee, Evan. That's a compliment, that's a compliment, right? Right to the tippy tippy. There you go. Look at that, that's what I'm talking about. That's some appreciation. And Alex is using the mug that I got him from Seattle, which is the very first, from the very first Starbucks ever created. I love this mug. He insisted that I buy it for him, so. I wasn't gonna buy anything for him, to be honest, but then he said that, so now I had to get him. At least I know it's appreciated, so now I feel good. This is life of an entrepreneur. Okay, Ismail. Thank you for this walk, Evan. I learned about the limit of characters asked by the publisher, and I wanted to know if it helps you or not to use new words. I mean, how do you deal with it? Cutting your ideas or using new concepts of words to explain your idea completely? I'm not totally understanding this question. I feel like he's suggesting I use shorter words or new words instead of longer words. Anyway, I mean, I feel like I addressed this at the opening of how I'm going to be cutting it down. Either one, cut it into multiple books, or two, cut out sections And that's why I'm doing the feedback from the people to see what they really like and what they don't like as much. That might be folded into something else. Mono Perti. Hi Evan, would be possible to get a signed copy of your book when I place my order? Can your agent or publisher arrange a system whereby everyone who pre-orders the book receives an autographed copy with a personal message? I don't know if this would be feasible, but thought it would be worthwhile asking prior to your marketing call. I have no idea if that's possible or how that works. I'm totally open to it. I do love. Personalizing things. Depends on how many you guys are pre-ordering. My next video might be just Evan signing books, but thank you for the idea. I'll pass it on and I'll see— again, I have no idea what that process looks like, but as I learn more, I'll keep you guys posted. The Cookies Room: Eager to read your book. If you need help to share it, translate it in French, please let me know. A funny French entrepreneur is following you and love what you do. Thank you for pushing us. Peace. Thank you, The Cookies Room. You know, another one of these questions I have no idea what's gonna happen in terms of the the marketing and the translation and when it will be multilingual and when it will hit different countries. But I promise you, just like the last question, as I learn more, I'll keep you guys posted. And the feedback is great because I can forward that on to my publisher and say, hey, these guys want it, we gotta give it to them, let's find a way to make it happen. So a little bit of behind the scenes for you guys. What I've been doing is, uh, we wrote everything in Google Docs. Initially I started in Word, and then it was too hard to share with my team to review and look at, so we moved to Google Docs. And we did each chapter as its own document in Google Docs. I was going to show you it. I was going to show you the Google Doc but then realized that the title is there and there's some information there that I'm not allowed to show you guys yet. So it's coming, it's coming. But in terms of picking the people that I'm going to review, have reviewed my book, last week I posted on my Facebook— this is my personal Facebook— a picture of me at Starbucks saying that I finished the book. What does it say? 100+ people liked it and then a bunch of people left comments saying they were looking forward to it, a bunch of stuff. So These are going to be the people that I reach out to first to see if they want to review it and get some feedback. And again, a mix of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, and I am super excited to release it into the world. So I'm going to cut it there. Thank you guys so much for watching. Uh, let me know what you think of my process. Uh, leave it in the comments below. I'd also love to know if you guys have questions about my book, about the book writing process, leave in the comments and I will make a video probably next week. Okay, that's it. Thank you guys for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.