Episode #731 - Money Is Freedom with Anna B David, Founder of Legacy Launch Pad Publishing

Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell. So you're not telling people. The one thing I learned when I wrote my book is you don't write books to make money. But, you know, it's the peripheral type benefit, the overflow.

Yes. And you do write books to make money, but you are never going to make it from book sales.

Yeah, yeah. And so we kind of, it's kind of gone that way in music, hadn't it, where, you know, they used to make money from albums and CDs and. But now everything's streamed, so they've got a tour. It's all.

Exactly.

And, and so industries change. One thing we can say is industries change, but one reason we're spending so much time to kind of get this information out for people that are. You always have a certain percentage of the population thinking all of the mistaken myth, you know, buying into the, the myth that we bought into when we were younger and that you bought into. And you might as well just know the truth, you know?

Yeah. I mean, I can't. Every week I meet someone who's like, I have the most amazing story. This will be a New York Times bestseller. You'd be lucky to work with me on it.

Yeah. Yeah.

So.

And then no and no.

There's no in it. The story doesn't matter. It's how a story is told. Which is why I always say to people, you know, if they're hesitant about working with a ghostwriter, they're not taking away from your creativity. They're the documentarian. And maybe if you want to write a book, if it has always been on your bucket list to write a book from, you know, yourself, great. But if you're not a trained writer and you don't write every day, all day, and haven't for 10 years, a, a professional writer is going to do a much better job.

Yeah.

So it depends on your goal.

Yeah. You know, one time I had a ghostwriter help me on my, my book.

And.

You know, but I, you know, you, you're, you're always very much of a control freak about your own story and everything. And in my voice, you know, you give this thing, I'm going to write in your voice. And so I remember she wrote this long thing and I said, this is not the way I would say it. And so I went in there and I wasted all this time rewriting the thing. And then when I got through with it, it was pretty much exactly like she wrote it the first time.

I mean, you would be my nightmare client, frankly, because those, I mean, my team, we've established what a snob I am. So you can only imagine how snobby I am about the writers that I'll hire. We're all experts. Experts in voice. You know, when I was a journalist, one day I'd write for the New York Times, the next day for Playboy. If I didn't get the voice in that magazine down, then I had no business being a writer. That's what we do. And the problem is client non writers can be their own worst enemy. They'll obsess and obsess and just, just, you know, our favorite clients are the ones who just really hand over the reins, who go, I'm paying you all this money because you're the expert. You go do it. And of course, we love to collaborate when there's facts that we don't know that they do, but, oh my God, when they rewrite our words that have been so lovingly crafted, it's not fun.

Yeah. And so you've written six, five, six whatever books, and you had a bestseller. You've had the revelation that my life is not changing in terms of financially. Now I've still got to scramble to make a living. And how long were you thinking about the entrepreneurial side or wanting to get to the point where you were making bigger income, more stable income?

Well, I'll tell you, so I come from this family that is very materialistic. And all I was ever told was you, you have to make money, you better make six figures your first job. I was paid $16,000 a year for my first job. So I had failed miserably. And in that way that I think we all rebel against the more dysfunctional aspects of our family. My rebellion was, I don't care about money. I'm a creative person. And I always joke that I'm sort of the opposite of that. The kid that became the lawyer and then wants to die, like, became the lawyer. Cause his parents told him he had to. And then it.40 is like, Ah, I don't want this. I just the opposite. And I was like, you know what? There's nothing evil about money. Money is freedom. And there's nothing wrong with prioritizing freedom. And what happened with me is I was very.

Wrong with prioritizing freedom. Money is freedom. There's nothing wrong with prioritizing freedom.

God, I'm a Genius. That sounds so good when you say it back.

You are. I mean, it's just off the charts what's happening here. It's unbelievable. This is gold, Anna.

This is. Okay, you're being facetious, but I think it's true.

No, I'm being serious. And so that's why I brought it out, you know, and I didn't want it to go over everybody's head. You know, the one thing I've noticed, because I've done a lot of interviewing and talking with people, and mainly because it's so hard for me to figure anything out, I've always got to ask about it before I could get it. And the thing is that most things. Answers that people are missing when they hear it goes right over their head.

It sure did with me, I'll tell you that.

Yeah, it's amazing. That's why I try and re. Emphasize and bring it out. But it's like, don't let this go over your head, you know, so go ahead. Anyway, so you were. You know, it's not wrong to prioritize freedom.

Yeah. And as an author, I was very entrepreneurial. I was setting up reading series, and I was entrepreneurial. I just wasn't making money. And my dad is an entrepreneur. And so I did kind of learn about that early on. And then I would say, writers are told over and over again that we're not valued, that we don't deserve money. You're really given these messages, and I really believed that. And then I met my mentor, this guy, Joe Polish. I met him in, I think, 2014, and he introduced me to this world of there's nothing wrong with wanting money, and money is freedom. And he's got this mastermind. And he introduced me to the members of this mastermind, and they blew my mind. They were all these people who were very successful in all different fields, all built around their passions. And I thought. And I. They really rubbed off on me. Then they all hired me to write their books. And so that really launched my business. And I mean, it really changed quite rapidly. I mean, I. I met him in 2014, and I didn't really have this thriving business until around 2018. So it wasn't instantaneous, but once I committed to this business, it really took off.

Yeah. And so the. The things that you noticed from being in that environment that stuck out to you was what specifically? How would you.

I think. Well, that's a great question. I think it was the. The one thing was get a team.

Yeah.

You can't. You can't really get terribly successful on your own. I'm sure, you know, there are exceptions, but mostly it was not really. It's hard. I do know one person who really, that I don't know if, you know, Alan Weiss, he talks about how he's just a solo guy, does very well, It's a coach, but, but they really just believed in the value of what they offered and they priced accordingly. When I originally established our prices, which are, we're so much lower than what they are now, I couldn't believe that I could tell somebody, this is what it costs, and they would just say, yes. I was like, oh, my God, this is so much money. And now I can't believe how little we charge. But I learned that from them, you know. You know, I, I spent 20 years in the trenches learning writing and publishing. I deserve to be paid a lot. And I. And that's what they really gave me.

Yeah. And so you started the publishing company and looking back over your life, how do you, you feel like, how did you write six books? I mean, just sitting there and go one after another after another, and this is going to be the rest of my life. Well, how did you, how did that evolve?

I, I, you know how I told you I'm not good at very much, but what I'm good at, I'm really good at writing a book is very easy for me. When my son was born, I basically wrote a book in three weeks about motherhood. And then I thought, what the hell do you know about. I wrote a full book. What the hell do you know? After a month, and I put it away, but I basically wrote something that I could publish. I just, you know, the truth of the matter is, writing the book is not hard for me at all. What it takes to launch it successfully, I don't have that in me. On something, frankly, that isn't going to build my business. I only, I only am a very practical person. I only want to do books that are going to help build my business.

Now you're in LA and right in Hollywood.

Yeah.

What is that like living in Hollywood right now? Why is that a good business location for you?

Who said it's a good business location? Two separate questions. So living here is not great. We are, especially since we just had a kid talking about other places we'd love to live. The truth is, California has gone hell in the last few years. There's wonderful aspects of living here, but there's some really terrible ones as well. But I will say I do think my clients, like, they think it's cool and glamorous that we're in the middle of Hollywood, you know, that. That my book is being made into a movie, that when they record audiobooks, they're in a studio with like Saturday Night Live actors reading their books. So there is something kind of cool about it. But having a business in California is the worst. Like the taxes we pay, the, you know, hoops we have to jump through.

Right. And so as you go, you know, you're looking forward. How much have you started looking forward now? And plan? You know, one of the things about job of a leader is to look ahead and plan and create opportunities for future growth. And by the way, that comes by making things quicker, faster, better for you. Because, yeah, you know, you've got to. There's certain things only you can do. And so the more you make things easier and quicker for you to do those things, the more time you have to, you know, expand. Like you say, you know, you're opening up your platform and getting into more spaces. And so as you look forward in planning that, what. What do you envision for your company? Where. What are. What's the stage that you would like to get through as fast as possible?

Well, I will tell you full disclosure, because I don't know you're someone. I just. You're like a therapist. I just need to be fully honest with you. You know, I had financial goals for the company, and it's been the same goal for three years, and we haven't hit it. And I thought, well, why is this not happening? This is. And I actually had lunch with my former coach yesterday, and it's not happening because I didn't. I was sort of, you know, visionary. Like. Like, I think if I have a vision board, like, it's just going to. And sometimes that stuff helps. But I have to get real practical about. This is what we need to make a month. This is what we need to bring in a month for us to hit this financial goal. So as I said, doing more books, I don't believe is the answer because I want to keep our quality so high so we have to grow sideways. So that's what I really think about is how else can we help people build their legacy and establish authority? And so it's not like we're going to be producing their podcast for them, but we have new offers that are really all about. All about authority building and legacy leaving that really are. That are not books. So they are for people who aren't sure they want to do books, people who are going to release a book in a year or people who have already released books.

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