Why Readers Have an Edge in Business | Nick Hutchison

You need the books. The books lengthen your attention span. They improve IQ. They improve reading comprehension, and they make you a better person. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Welcome in everyone, welcome to our show Adventures in Business Live. We're here with you, we've returned. Someone has returned from overseas, so I'm going to defer to you to tell us where have you been and what did you enjoy.

Imani, I'm back! I got back late Late last night, I was in Portugal. I was at the HPM President's Club trip, which was fantastic. It was top 10 performers with HPM for the year.

Congratulations. Congratulations.

Thank you. And I got to bring my husband. So president of the plus ones, Scooter Graziano. He did not disappoint. He had the best outfits. He's, you know, he's, he's really something else in that group. So it was super fun to be there. But I got to tell you, I'd never been to Portugal before.

Oh, really? Okay.

And it was really cool because we spent a little bit of time in Lisbon, but then we spent a little bit of time in the Algarve. And we went to this new resort, the Viceroy Umbria in Algarve. And what a beautiful, beautiful spot. Like, if you are looking to completely unplug and go to a compound where you can just get away and not worry about anything else, And that Bayside Hotel is the way to do it. I mean, that was spectacular. And then a couple of our friends recently bought houses there. So we got to see their life, you know?

Love it.

We got to like go to their house and like walk to their little restaurants and see how they're living. And so that was really special to us. That was a hard thing for them to do. And one of them picked her life up and completely moved there. And another friend of ours who lives in Arizona just lives there from like May till September when it's really hot in Arizona. So it was just— it was awesome. It was a really good experience. Yeah, I definitely— 10 out of 10, I'd go back to Portugal for sure.

All right, sounds like a plan. I think that's a good segue, um, to get to our guest today. And so really, you know, I'll put him on the screen here, but like, Nick Hutchison is coming to us from Book Thinkers. I met him through Brand Buddhas group, didn't realize we had common connection with Julie from Book Launchers. All about the books, the power of writing, the power of reading. I don't want to waste any more time, so we'll bring Nick to the stage right here. So welcome, Nick. Come on in. We give you a round of applause there. It's not playing— it's playing on the broadcast, so you'll hear the applause there.

Nick Hutchison, it's nice to meet you. Welcome.

Yes, welcome to the show.

I am excited to be here. I know I am amongst friends. Great to see you, Mandy. Great to see you, Imani.

Yes, likewise. If you were going to describe who you were to someone who's never met you in 30 seconds or less, how would you describe yourself?

I would say husband, father, and lover of books. That's how I would describe myself.

You love that. Where does the love for books come from? Because if you look around the world nowadays, people don't read, so it's rare to find someone who loves books. Where does your love come from?

Well, I'm excited to help transfer my love to those people who don't love books because I was one of them.

Okay.

For those that don't know my story, I was more of the athlete stereotype, not really much of the academic when I was growing up. And so you could find me playing football and wrestling and having fun in the back of the classroom, but not reading the books that I was asked to read. But all that changed for me when I was going into my senior year of college because I took an internship at a local software company. It was a sales internship, and my boss recommended some business podcasts because I had such a long commute to and from the internship that summer. And as I started to listen to these successful people talk about how they became successful, so many of them gave at least some credit for their success to the books that they had read. And the same names kept popping up— all of those personal development classics, books like Think and Grow Rich or How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Yeah.

And I just recognized one day, Imani, that the cool Nick who didn't think reading was great, he was living under his potential if he identified as a non-reader. So my entire life switched when I realized that successful people read and implement— that's the key part— books about how to acquire skills and solve problems. So that's when I became a reader.

I love it. So before I get— let you start in, Mandy, I heard Nick recently speak on stage. We were at the Book Launchers Summit. Um, I think that was like a couple months ago.

Yeah.

And you said this quote that really continues to stand out to me. You said, resonance is greater than reach. Resonance sells books. Can you break that down and explain that? Because I thought that was one of the most impactful statements you said when you were on stage.

Thank you. Well, shout out to my friend Jay Acunzo for originally stating resonance Matters more than reach to me. And I think here's the idea: if you're creating content on social media and you're using it to change lives, if you go for resonance, which is depth and creating emotion and being vulnerable and transparent to one specific target customer, you'll reach that person. But if you go for reach, if you go for virality, which is what so many of us think we're supposed to do, We don't recognize that reach is nothing more than a vanity metric. We start to sacrifice depth in exchange for more views. And we all know that quote, when you're speaking to everyone, you're speaking to no one.

Yes.

And that just happens to so many authors and content creators and people. You think you're doing the right thing by speaking to everybody and being less polarizing, but what you're really doing is limiting your own potential to change somebody else's life. So resonance matters so much more than reach, especially in today's day and age.

I love it. That's a perfect segue. Mandy, what do you— what have you?

Well, you're just giving me some things to chew on here. So I guess I want to bounce this back to you. How can people create resonance? I know we talked so much about building community, making things sticky, but In your opinion, what you've seen, how can people create resonance?

First, we have to identify who we are best positioned to serve. And so Imani and I have a mentor in common named Rory Vaden. And Rory, you'll find him saying something along the lines of, you are most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were. And I believe that's true for so many of us. And so I create content For young Nick, Nick 10 years ago who didn't know as much as Nick knows today. And I actually, when I create video content for social media, whether that's on LinkedIn or Instagram or YouTube or Facebook or TikTok, I actually think of young Nick, that little knucklehead who didn't appreciate books. When I'm creating content, that allows me to speak with a little bit more of a direct tone of voice, a little bit less performative. And I'm just creating content for him because I know I can serve him really well. And I know what problems he's facing. And so that allows me to get a little bit more specific than I would be if I was just trying to teach everybody on social media what I had to know. So I think that's how you can create a little bit more resonance is imagine the person who you are best positioned to serve and speak directly to them when you're looking at the camera. That's one of the ways that I do it, at least.

I love that. That, that really speaks to me because I've gone through this transformation in the last 5 years and who I am today. It's not the Mandy of the days of yore. And I think sometimes I want to forget her, but there's so many Mandys of the days of yore that probably need to hear about where I'm at now, or they may need to feel not so alone. So I really appreciate you saying that. Just don't forget about that person because that person, they may need some help, or that person may need some residence. I love that. That's really cool. I want to talk about creativity because you talk a lot about creativity. In fact, recently you just spent some time in a very special creative space. So I think you're probably thinking about the same thing, but can you just talk about your day at Shangri-La Studios? First of all, tell people what that is and then why you were there.

Sure. Yes. One of the best days ever. So For those that love nonfiction business books, there's a wonderful book by the author Steven Pressfield called The War of Art. Sold millions of copies. A lot of us have heard of it. And even if you love fiction books, he's written a number of bestselling fiction books like— yeah, there we go. Imani's got it. The War of Art. Such a precious book.

Mm-hmm.

It's— and that author, Steven Pressfield, not only has he written great works on creativity and overcoming resistance like The War of Art that Imani just showed everyone, But he's also a bestselling fiction author writing historical fiction books and total fiction books like The Legend of Bagger Vance, which got turned into a movie featuring Will Smith and Matt Damon. Like, imagine you write a book and Will Smith acts it out. I mean, that's just so cool. So anyway, uh, one of the services that we provide at my agency, Book Thinkers, is we help authors create content for social media, especially if they're launching a book. and they'd like to sell it into their audience or reach new people. And so we were fortunate enough to work with Stephen on the upcoming launch of a new book, but he surprised us when he said, hey, we're going to film this content at the Shangri-La Studio in Malibu, which is owned by Rick Rubin. And this studio is so famous because every A-list musician that you can think of has recorded content, music, At Shangri-La. And I'm talking, when we show up, there's a tour bus sitting there that Bob Dylan parked on the property and then left there after he was done building an album. Uh, rock and roll bands like the Rolling Stones or Red Hot Chili Peppers, and then modern-day artists like Adele or Kanye West or Lady Gaga. I mean, they all use this studio to produce music. And so we got to show up and and help facilitate the creation of some content with Stephen, an iconic author, at Shangri-La. It was just like the best blending of all of the worlds that I could experience. And I'll wrap up by saying, I, I joke around, I have the best job in the world because the world's smartest people pay me to learn from them and help them create content. And it just doesn't— it doesn't get any better than that.

I love— I feel like we feel like that about our podcast. It's like this masterclass once a week. We get to interview people that like Make us smarter, right? I want to ask about the studio itself. How did it feel? You build content, you do such a good job at this all the time, but putting yourself in an environment that has served so many creative humans, how did that feel for you to create in that environment?

It was definitely tangible and it was like you could feel it in the air. So this property sits high up in the mountains of Malibu, and from the property, which is totally gated off and private, you can see the ocean off the side of the hill. And there are multiple buildings on the property. So there's a chapel that was converted into a studio, people record in Bob Dylan's old tour bus, and then there's the main house. And one of the cool things about the main house is rumor is at least this is what I was told by the staff and by Steven, that they repaint the entire interior every time a new artist comes to record because they want the fresh energy in there.

Mm-hmm.

And so when we were there, uh, a couple of weeks ago, the entire interior was painted white. I mean, every door, every, every wall, every ceiling, everything was pure white, which was really interesting. And, uh, so it, it felt great and it felt like a blank canvas, like the opportunity to create something new.

So interesting. It says a lot to find a space to be creative like that. It says a lot.

As you think about your time working with people who have released books, I'm curious of your kind of perspective and wisdom on what do you think the most common blind spots are for people when they release a book out into the world?

Oof, Imani, how much time do we have?

A little bit of time. We got a little bit of time.

Give us— There are so many blind spots. You know, the most common inquiry that we get at Book Thinkers is from an author who typically they're a retired executive type. They've moved into some part-time consulting. They spent a couple of years building the book, maybe with a vanity publisher, maybe a traditional publisher, maybe a hybrid publisher. Maybe they independently published the book, but the story is always the same. They spent a couple of years writing it. They put it out and nobody bought the book.

Yeah.

They try a few things for a few months. Nobody buys the book. And so they come knocking on our door 3 months post-launch and they say, hey, Book Thinkers, can you help us pick up the pieces? I'm a special person. I have a mission. I want to be altruistic, but I can't get people to pay attention to my book. It's only $20. What's the problem? And so I think the biggest issue there is they don't start thinking about the marketing of the book early enough in the process.

Right.

They wait until the book is out to start thinking about getting it into the hands of their ideal customer. So our favorite projects are like the ones we just did with Steven, because we're working months in advance of the launch of a book to help create that big runway up through launch so that they don't feel underprepared and like they're behind the 8-ball. So that's, that's one of them, at least, Imani, is that people don't think about marketing the book, which is 9/10 of a successful book launch, in my opinion.

Yes.

Writing the book is just like 1/10 of the process.

But you know what, Imani, I know you've— we've talked about this before, but Nick, this is exactly what happened with my first book. I was so focused on finishing the book, getting a publisher, and I was like, oh, well, my mom will buy it. And I'm a sales and marketing lifetime professional who'd never thought about marketing the book. And it certainly didn't occur to me that that marketing would be completely up to me. So I'm glad that you're talking about people doing it early on instead of— and it can't be an afterthought. It can't be an after the fact. How do you Have— how do you collaborate with publishers on that, or how do you collaborate with authors to convince them, like, let's start this a little bit earlier?

Well, you're, you're bringing up a great point, which is, as my business has grown over the last few years, we've gotten integrated with a lot of publishers because you don't know that an author is writing a book until it's available publicly.

Yeah.

So typically that work is done in the shadows, it's done offline. And so as an agency owner, how do I prospect people that are invisible to me? Well, I go to the source. Who's helping them create that book in the first place. And so we have deals with a lot of publishers that either partner with us, include our services in their packages. A lot of publishers have like an optional marketing package. Sometimes they're white labeling our services actually. And so we're doing the work of prospecting podcasts or helping them build content, but it's going through the publisher's official branding. And that's been very helpful with us. And then of course, as authors work with us on their first book launch and then they go to launch a second book, we're naturally getting started earlier in the process for them. So yeah, it's tough to think about spending money on the marketing of a book that doesn't exist yet, but that's what's required to be successful in 2026.

And worth every penny. Any author that is listening, it is— the marketing of your book, the investment of that is worth every penny. And now I'm just giving a shout out. So Nick, feel free to give me my $20 later. But I think if you are writing a book, your publishers are awesome, but you are one of many of their authors and they aren't marketers. They're publishers, right? They're great for illustration. They're great for content editing. Publishers aren't in the business always of marketing a book. So to actually hire a marketing agency is critical if you want the attention solely on you or your book.

Yeah.

So that's just my 2 lessons learned.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, great lessons. 2 more questions, then I'll turn it back to Mandy for you. How did writing your book change your life?

Writing my book, Rise of the Reader, changed my life in so many ways. I mean, Imani, you know a couple of the stories, but, uh, my book has sold really well. It's been translated into a bunch of different languages. And the readers of my book have reached out to me to collaborate on podcast interviews like this. Uh, they've given me advisory roles in their companies because they know my thought leadership is going to be valuable to their business. Uh, it's put me on a lot of stages. I mean, it's done a lot for my business as well because I was running a book marketing agency providing value to authors, and I wasn't an author until I wrote a book. And so while I could empathize with parts of their struggles, I didn't really know what it felt like to put a book out there and then fear the judgment or fear the lack of success until I actually did it myself. So now there's a little bit more proof in the pudding, and I got to leverage all of our services as an agency from a client's perspective, which also helped us improve the customer experience. I think the last thing is that as an author, Sometimes people think our books, while they are thought leadership, they think sometimes they're more like gospel. And I think with my book, it was more like an accountability partner reminding me of what I should be doing and a little bit less of like preaching to other people. So I go back to my book and reference that material all the time as the best practice for what I should be doing.

Okay, great answer, great answer. Now we're going to flip the script really quickly. Let you ask both myself and Mandy any question you want. So who do you want to ask the question to first, and what is said question?

Okay, I'll go with you, Mandy, first. What is one thing that you think Portugal does better than the United States?

Oh snap, a lot, a lot. Oh, this is a great question. Uh, what does Portugal do better than their—

oof.

I mean, the first thing that comes to my mind is they make it easy. I feel like, I feel like buying a cappuccino was easy. I feel like picking up my bike was easy. I just felt like things felt a little easier there. And, and, you know, it's a very similar climate to San Diego. So I felt at home. But things just felt easier there. I don't know how to explain it except I just felt like getting out of the hotel and just operating on a daily level was just easier. And there's a lot more hills. There's a lot more hills and like unsteady streets and stuff. So it wasn't like the terrain was easier, but it just, it felt easier there. And I don't know if that's Portugal or what, but that it just felt easier.

All right, well, something for us, uh, Americans to aspire to do more of— make it easy.

And Imani and I were just talking about this before you got on the call. Like, from a customer service standpoint, make it easy. Make it easier for customers to buy, right? Imani's laughing because I had a whole rant about it. Just make things easy. Like, we just— I think, and I think here in the United States, for whatever reason, we do— we want to add processes. We want to add things that make things complicated. Like, just make it easier.

Yeah. Oh, I could jump on your, your rant there. It's one of my biggest pet peeves in business when people are difficult to work with. Oh yeah, I can't stand it. Like, I want to give you business, why are you making it so complicated? That's the— yeah, we could get going on that.

Oh, Nick, yeah, we should— we could have a whole podcast about that one.

There you go.

Yeah, for anybody who's adding unnecessary complexity to their business, you should read Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. Such an amazing book.

Great book.

Uh, so Amani, I'll, I'll flip the script and ask you a question. Since we're talking about book marketing, uh, with your recent book A Quiet Storm, what's one thing that you wish you did differently during the launch process with the content of the book?

Yes.

Something you wish you did differently?

I wish I would have started earlier growing my email list, and I wish I would have promoted my Which R&B Quiz Are You more heavily, and, and I wish I would have done that. And then the second thing, runner-up, would probably be try to get more podcast appearances closer to the book launch day.

Yes.

Those are 2 things right there. Yeah.

Well, those are great. Those are great opportunities for improvement next time you launch a book, Imani. And one of the, one of the things that we do at Book Thinkers is we coordinate 6 months of podcast interviews to go live right at that launch week. And so that's what you have to do sometimes. I mean, these podcasters, Not everybody's producing live shows like this. Sometimes they carry a 4 to 8, sometimes 12-week backlog of recorded content. And so you record an episode around your book launch and it comes out 3 months later, sometimes longer. And so yeah, it's a, it's a big— it's kind of hard to manage that. But yeah, doing them earlier in the process is easier.

Yeah.

I wanna, I wanna build on that for a second with the podcast because For my first book, I did a mix of live tours and readings and a virtual podcast tour. The podcast tour aligned with the audio launch, and then the live tours and readings aligned with the physical book launch. And I love them both, but you've recently spoken about the absence of authentic live book tours. So why is this important? And tell us a little bit more about what is live author reading?

Yeah, live, live author readings is a new venture that I'm involved with. I should say it's a JV. I partnered with my friend Brian who came to me with the idea, and it's to replicate that in-person live author reading coffee shop kind of vibe that doesn't really exist anymore. I mean, at least I've, I've been told that back in the day authors used to travel around and they'd coordinate those live readings at local bookstores, and the bookstores would promote them, and people would stand there and listen for half an hour and then get a question answered and a book signed, and that doesn't exist anymore. Everything is done behind the computer screen. And what I like about this is it's live, so it's real, it's raw, it's authentic, it's transparent. If I slip up, there's no editing. And I think that's—

You're building in public.

Yeah, it's what people want in this age of AI and perfect content. People are sick of the over-edited, over-produced, uh, stuff. And so live author readings is a chance for people to meet their favorite authors, listen to them read a passage of the book, get to know it a little bit better before making that buying decision, ask a couple of questions, and swap out some of that mindless Netflix content with something that's a little bit more useful in the evenings. I mean, I think one of the easiest ways to learn more is not by adding but by swapping. Take the mindless stuff out of your calendar and at least one night a week attend a live author reading and learn something useful instead.

I love a swap. You're speaking my language. Between rants and swaps, we've got a lot to talk about. I know what you mean though, because I traveled for a conference last year and it was like, what's, what's happening in the area in the evening instead of going out to like an expensive, like late, super rich dinner? Like, what could I do? And I went to Kara Swisher's Burn Book. She, she did something in Silicon Valley. I went to a literal bookstore and watched her like read some of her book. And that, I, I think that's so much better than a boring steak dinner in a city that like, you know, doesn't, doesn't need that. So I, I appreciate that. Are you working with bookstores or how has this come to fruition for you?

So to start, they're happening virtually, but they're happening live. And so they're free to register. Anybody can sign up, liveauthorreadings.com, to attend a live author reading. We have one tomorrow night with Amy Purdy. She just launched her second book. It's called Bounce Forward. She is a 3-time Paralympic medalist, and she also was a finalist on Dancing with the Stars, dancing literally without legs, which is so impressive.

Wow.

And so her, you know, she's a New York Times bestselling author, but her next book, Bounce Forward, just launched in April. And so she's going to be reading some of that tomorrow night, and you could just go to liveauthorreadings.com and register for that one. And it's fun, it's, it's small, it's intimate. We're really just starting the platform now, but eventually there will be live in-person events as well.

What's your perspective on how long a life should a book have?

Oh well, I believe we should aspire to write books that will provide value forever. So I'll say that.

Yeah.

Ryan Holiday would call that a perennial bestseller. So it will provide value forever. I mean, think of Marcus Aurelius, his personal journal Meditations is being read by people all over the world almost 1,500, 1,600, 1,800 years later, whatever. And, uh, it's still just as relevant today as it was back then. And so I think that's what we should aspire to do, but When launching a book, an author should give it at least 2 years. That's my belief. At least 2 years. Don't promote your book for a month and then give up on it. Like, if it genuinely provides value to people, then you want to give it at least 2 years. That's where it still feels new and fresh and relevant.

Okay, I love it. Yes, I'm on year 2 now, so okay, I'm following the plan. I'm following the plan.

Yeah, yeah, it's a long, slow, steady process. It's like no matter how many times you read Aesop's fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, the tortoise always wins. And so we should apply that to book marketing as well.

Okay, I like that. Yes. Now if we go back, because you went to University of New Hampshire, right? You're an '88? I did.

Yeah.

Okay, we're gonna talk to young Nick. You're gonna speak to young Nick right now and give him advice on everything you've learned since you walked out of college with a graduate, like, with your degree.

Yeah, well, I would say toss your degree out the window and replace it with business books because those books condense decades Decades and decades of other people's greatest life lessons into days of reading. And for some reason, none of those amazing books were prescribed to me as a 4-year business student. So toss the degree out the window and read some more books. That's what I would say. Um, I had a wonderful time at UNH, but I think it was more focused on socialization, like maturity in that area, a little bit less on the business skills. And so, yeah, also important, also important for sure, especially in today's digital age where everybody wants to be behind a computer. I think like back then there wasn't as much of that for me. And so I matured a lot in that way.

Your 3 favorites— so you spoke about business books. Your 3 favorite business books to recommend?

Oof, I love to prescribe business books for very specific situations. So it's hard to just give 3 blanket ones. But if you're, if you're new to business, if you're looking for business fundamentals, I would recommend The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. That's a great book on business systems and small businesses. For big thinking, I'd recommend The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz and 10X Is Easier Than 2X by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. That's one that I have been through, I think, 4 times.

Yes.

There you go. Yeah, that's a great book right there.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome answers. Mandy, I'm gonna let you close it out with your final questions.

I have a couple of final questions. So first question is, I hear this a lot because I'm an avid reader and obviously an author. So when somebody says, I don't read, it crushes my soul. But I'm also 50 years old. So I understand that, like, age-wise, and I'm a business owner, like, there's, there's some things that make me a natural reader, right? But I still do believe it doesn't matter your age or your gender or what you do for work. I do believe in the value of reading. So because you made that turn for yourself, what do you say to people that say, oh, I'm not a reader, or I'm not into books? Like, what, what's your answer to that now?

I have so many things to say in such a short amount of time.

Let's hear them all. Let's hear them all.

I'll start by saying this. There's some data that came out recently that says Gen Z is the first generation in human history to have a lower average IQ than the previous generation. Millennials. I'm a young millennial. And why is that? I mean, for the last 200 years, IQ and reading comprehension and basic math have got progressively higher and higher and higher, and now they're lowering for the first time. Well, my hypothesis is that short-form video content is lowering our attention span. And reading on devices forces us to multitask. And so my solution for this is to read long-form physical paper books. Books act as a form of monotasking. You're reading at the expense of everything else, and you're following the development of one single thought, usually in these non-fiction business books, for hundreds of pages. I think what's important about long-form content is you understand the hypothesis that the author starts with, and then you follow them along their journey and you get all these supporting arguments and case studies. And those lead you from a foundational stacking perspective to one point, which you can't just understand the Cliff Notes version of. You need all of the supporting evidence to get you to the point where you genuinely believe it. And there's a great book called The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin. He's a chess champion and a martial arts champion. An intellectual discipline and a physical discipline. And he talks about studying a subject so intensely that your subconscious can identify opportunities to implement it. That doesn't happen with book summaries or short-form educational video content. You need the books. The books lengthen your attention span. They improve IQ. They improve reading comprehension, and they make you a better person. So that's why I'm such a fan. And I wish I could go tell everybody in the world that. And that's, that's kind of the mission that I'm on right now is to make reading physical paper books more attractive again, especially to young people, but really to all people.

That's one heck of a clip if you're listening.

That's a clip.

Clip that. Clip that. So, so are you a phys— you're a physical book person versus an audiobook or Kindle? Is that, is that what I'm hearing? Or you're into all of them?

I am into all of them, but I am the biggest advocate of physical paper books because here's another point of data that people don't talk about. As a human being, somewhere between 60 to 80% of the inputs to our brain are visual. So by default, if you're just listening to an audiobook and you're multitasking, you're filling up the visual inputs with driving on the road and dodging in and out of traffic, or you're at the gym and you're picking up weights and doing math, or you're doing chores around the house and your kids are yelling or whatever, like, that's— that audiobook experience is not resonating with you enough to form a real connection to it. I mean, it can happen. Audiobooks change lives all the time, especially if you sit down and you listen to them with a notepad. But nobody does that. We multitask and we hope that the audiobook's going to change our life. I think audio is great, and there are some advancements in the audio space coming where you'll be able to listen with a live agent and it will be more of a dialogue and less of a one-directional thing. But yeah, physical books, that's where, that's where I love to spend my time.

Me too. I love, I love marking up a book and folding a book. Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, really quick before we go, I want to talk about your live event that you've got coming up in Boston in July. You've got some great speakers. Ken Rusk was actually past podcast, uh, one of our past podcast guests from Ohio, just like me, and a lot of others too. So we believe in the power of live events. Obviously, Imani and I are in that space. Um, how did this particular event come about and how is it evolving for you?

This is our 3rd time hosting the event and it has doubled in size each time. We've hosted it. So this time we're going for 400 to 500 people in the room. It's over 2 full days. As you mentioned, we have some amazing speakers. And the through line, the main through line for the event is how to sell more books and how to use your books to generate more business on the back end. And so we're featuring some amazing speakers like Ken Rusk. He's done half a billion dollars in business and he sold many, many, many books. He's got another one coming out next year, so maybe he'll be on the show again. And, uh, but Rory Vaden, who again is a mentor of me and Imani, uh, we have Jim Kwik who sold a couple million copies of his book Limitless, and he'll be there talking about how he did that. So it's a great room, plenty of space for networking and unconditional support and love from the people around you. If you're an author, a coach, a speaker, a consultant, an aspiring author, it's the kind of place you want to be. So bookthinkers.com. There's a little live event tab and people can check it out.

Yeah, we'll put that in the show notes too. So anybody listening on the podcast, check out your show notes because I can tell you these types of events— we all have to attend stuff for work. We rarely put stuff out there for ourselves. When you attend these types of events, it's not just about the organizer. And I know Nick and his team, I'm sure, put on an awesome event, but it's about the people in the room with you. That have the same objectives, that have the same profile, that actually want the same things out of life as you do. That, to me, that's why you go to these things, right? The speakers are great, but like, to, to coexist with these other people that have the same objective is so valuable. So I'm so, so glad that you're doing this event. It's going to be awesome.

We got that event going in the ticker as well as Nick's website. So we just want to say thank you very much for being on the show. Excited to see you soon, particularly in July. And, um, I love your message about paper books, tangible books, and reading. So just keep spreading the gospel.

Absolutely, will do. And thank you both for hosting a great show.

Yeah, thanks for coming on. Come rant with us anytime.

Yes, round of applause there for Nick. Take care, Nick.

Bye.

All right, okay, good. We're good. So, Manny, another great show. Lots to think about, lots to think about there. Uh, what did— who do we have to look forward to Next week.

Next week we have Simone— is it Kaneko?

Oh, Kaneko's coming. Yes, yes. Okay, Simone, she's coming. Okay, she's the author as well, speaks about confidence and all sorts of things. This is her book right here, actually.

She talks about—

I have it here next to me because I gotta write a review. This is Simone's book right here, and I have it, you know, in the flesh.

So— Oh, there it is, Real Confidence. Awesome.

She's got a great story, so excited to have her on the show. Once again, thanks to Nick for being on our show, and I'm glad you arrived back to the United States safely and didn't get delayed. So you're here today. I'm happy to see you and Mandy, and we're gonna be together later this week for WECon.

Yeah, we'll probably do a mini episode on our, our, our, uh, wrap-up from WECon. So, so check out that when it comes out in a couple weeks.

Absolutely. Okay, remember, if you're watching, please don't forget to rate, review, and share this episode on the platform you're watching or listening on. Make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube, and we will see you again next week, 1 PM on the West Coast, 4 PM on the East Coast, for another episode of Adventures in Business Live.

Bye everybody, see you soon.

Bye.