How to Write a Book That Builds Your Business

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Welcome to the Legacy Leavers series on Success Secrets Exposed. Tune in live every Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern Time or Wednesday mornings in Australia on W4CY Radio and Talk4TV. The series showcases experts, changemakers, and disruptors Leaving a lasting legacy with those sharing their wisdom with the world.

Good morning, good afternoon, and g'day to you all, and welcome to another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Today we're going to be talking about how to write a book that builds your business, and today's guest is the incredible Suzanne Doyle Ingram, who is a best-selling author. A book coach, and a publishing strategist who has helped over 1,000 business professionals write and publish their books. She has over 20 books under her own belt, including her recent bestseller, Everybody Has a Book Except You. So I think she's probably going to be talking to me about that one. Suzanne knows exactly how to turn a book into a powerful marketing tool, and she believes a book is more than just words on a page. It's a business asset that can increase your visibility, attract clients, clients, open doors to speaking opportunities and growth and revenue. Hmm, we might just be kindred spirits there. So if you've ever thought about writing a book but you didn't know where to start, or you want to leverage your book to build your business and create that legacy that you want to leave, then this episode is absolutely for you. So please help me welcome to the stage Suzanne.

Hello and thank you for having me, Sally. It's so good to see you.

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be diving into this topic because, as you know, we've, um, we're on different ends of the client journey, but we share lots of similar values. And, uh, I'll call them rants or nags around what the possibilities of a book are.

Yes, yes. I love, I love how people come to me before they have a book and then people come to you after they have a book. It's perfect. Perfect little journey.

Absolutely. So one of the questions that obviously always needs to be asked, what, um, led you to publishing and writing and writing your latest book?

Oh my gosh, how much time do we have?

Lots.

You asked me my favorite question. Um, okay, well, what happened was a long, long time ago, more than 15 years ago, I had a marketing company. And I had very big clients in the US. I had phone companies and I had Cirque du Soleil was one of my clients. And, you know, they had these big contracts, multi-tens of thousands of dollars for their marketing. And then the economy crashed in the US. And so everybody started tightening their purse strings and decided they didn't really need to do marketing. Well, they needed to do marketing. It was the best time to do it, but they couldn't afford it. So yeah, I was suddenly going, oh my gosh, you know, what am I gonna do? I My income went down to about $30,000 a year, and I had 3 little kids, and I was freaking out. So I thought, okay, let me just breathe and think about it. I'm gonna write a book, because this was just when Amazon was opening up to self-publishing. So I thought, I'll write a book, but I was so afraid that it was going to fail that I wrote it under a fake name.

Sorry, I shouldn't laugh.

No, it's so funny to me now. But what I love about this story is that my clients get, get that I get it. You know, they— I know what it's like to be afraid. You know, you feel like you're putting your underpants in the front yard when you, when you publish a book. You know, you, you're just like, ah, no, I don't want anybody to actually read it in case they think I'm stupid, or like all those fears that you have. So, so I wrote my first book and then I wrote, uh, 6 more that year. In one year I wrote 6 books and they were all just sort of on trending topics. And at that time I had the old-fashioned belief That I needed to sell books to make money. So I felt like a gerbil on a wheel. I was like, "Hey, you need a book! You need a book! You need a book! Buy my book! Buy my." And it was like I felt like one of those like circus like hecklers, you know. So finally, I wrote a book that failed. Nobody bought it. It wasn't a bestseller. But I got a phone call from a nonprofit agency that said, "We understand that you help women entrepreneurs in business," which was that was that was. That book was about that. And they said, um, we want to hire you to do some coaching. I got a 5-month contract to help these women entrepreneurs. And then I got a couple more contracts. And then that's when the light bulb went off for me. The money's not in the book sales. The money is in what the book can do for you. And it totally changed my business. And I've been helping people for 15 years now. And I love it.

Awesome. I'm just going to go back just to make sure people have caught that. So the book that was the failure, was the book that actually launched your business because you understood the business model behind having a book.

Exactly.

Exactly. Brilliant.

And a lot of people don't understand that. I say to them, you can make $1 million with your book and maybe only sell $5,000 worth of books.

Yes.

It's not about the book sales.

Yeah. And isn't that interesting? Because everybody thinks, and we see this all the time, that, you know, that you've got the celebrity factor, that I'm going to be a celebrity when I write the book. You absolutely can, but it's not through book sales. It's through all of the other elements of what the book can, can do. So excellent. And we're gonna be diving more, more into that too. So you've written 20 books, or co-written, written and co-written 20 books. And this last book, very cheekily, is called Everyone Has a Book Except You. So just give us some little insights as to why that teaser or that, you know, that little bear poke.

Well, you know, I still laugh at the title because I'm like, I can't believe I did that. You know, like, I'm a Canadian, I'm really nice. And I have this totally cheeky title. But I think it's because I believe in marketing, you want to attract your ideal clients to you or repel the people who aren't right for you. So the title does that perfectly. If somebody has been thinking about writing a book for 5 years and they feel like everybody else has a book, all their colleagues have a book, that title will speak to them. Whereas if somebody has never thought about writing a book and they're not interested in having a book, they'll be like, oh, that's not for me. So that's why I titled it like that. And then In that book, I really lay out my philosophy, a lot about the mindset, about feeling you're good enough, you have what it takes. You know, a lot of what I do every day is helping people believe that they can write a book, and then I teach them how to write a book.

Yeah, beautiful. I'm gonna go back and pick up, uh, pick up that belief thread and actually take that back to the moment that you had the realization around the book that failed and how you started to get the, you know, the coaching contract and then other ones, uh, from there. So Explain to us sort of what was the penny drop moment and what's the key lesson that would no doubt be a Suzanne Nag around that moving forward for your clients?

Oh, yeah. Well, you know what's interesting is I was pretty authentic about it when this nonprofit called me up and said, hey, we understand that you have this book. And I almost blurted out, how did you find out about it? Because nobody bought it. I think I only had like 12 sales or something. But they said, we want you to coach these women business owners. And I said, I'm not a coach. I've owned my own business and I know a thing or two about a thing or two. But they were gracious enough to not let that stop them from hiring me. And then I learned as I, I just really needed to develop more confidence. And as I went on, luckily, I had people who believed in me more than I believed in myself. And I feel like that's what I do now for my clients. I always say to them, I know that you can do this and you can borrow my belief until you have your own. And it makes me want to cry because I just think there's so many amazing people out there with beautiful stories. And, and not only that, but they help people. And if they're like the world's best kept secret, if I just help them get the word out, help them get their book out, uh, it can change everything for their business and, and their life.

I'm gonna go back, um, because I loved your line about having the, um, the undies out the front, uh, on the, on the line. And that ties into that confidence, uh, scenario. And one of, uh, I'll say one of my, uh, beliefs that's improving, but it's still very much there. And that's around the book, I'm not a good— around the, I'm not a good writer. I don't like— I can speak with marbles in my mouth underwater. So talk to me about that because that's obviously a very typical one that you would come across.

Well, people say to me all the time, oh, I'd love to write a book, but I'm not a writer. And I say, oh, I've helped 1,000 not writers write books. So we don't work with writers. And they look at me like I'm crazy. And I say, I think there's There's 2 different types of people in the world. There's people who feel like they're not a writer, and then there's real writers, what I call real writers, people who, they get up in the morning and they, they just, they have the urge to write. They want to write so badly, and at the end of the day, they haven't written anything that day. They feel very sad. And my clients are not like that. They're regular business people. And I always say to people, all books have been edited. We have really good editors. Like, but having said that, Sally, I really do believe that— I believe that pretty much anybody can write a book, but I love to get my hands on them before they start writing a single word because it has to be planned properly. If you just sit down and write whatever comes to mind and then hope that turns into a book, it's not going to be good, and it's going to be an editing nightmare. It's going to cost you a fortune to edit that. So If you've got to start, we can talk about this later if you want to go in this direction, but we have to start with a plan in mind, and that's the best way to write a book.

Oh no, we're going to pick into this one because you're talking to the chaos queen here who likes to— I'm much, much better now, but I, you know, love a good tangent, but I love to dive into the middle of that swimming pool tangent and then, and then sort of go, oh, perhaps I should have done that, and perhaps I should have done that. So I'm one of these, um, let me expand it and then let me edit it back. But what Which is time-consuming. Um, and so let's talk through about the best way to actually start. So that can be a mindset scenario and a planning scenario. So talk us through some of the typical things that you see for, you know, chaos queens like me.

Okay, so first thing we need to talk about is what you want your book to do for you, to get really clear on, okay, you do want to use this to get more clients. Okay, Fine. So then let's talk about your business. I want to know all about your business. What do you love about it? What do you not like about it? So it turns into a bit of a business coaching session as well. But then we want to really focus on one thing because most people I work with, they could write a book on 50 different topics. You know, like I say that I could write a book on how to write a book, what to do with your book, how to use Instagram once you have a book or, you know, whatever it is, right? Cover design, everything, repurposing. But, um, let's figure out what is the one thing that you need to do. And so what's interesting is we have a ghostwriter on staff, and one of the things we've developed in our business and just started implementing is when someone joins the program, they have a one-on-one call with my ghostwriter. She picks their brain, and then she comes back to them with a fully fleshed-out outline, usually around 40 pages long. And I say, follow the plan. And then it's so easy. But, but I have a lot— I teach my clients a lot of the foundational pieces that have to go in. So if they are a coach, hopefully they have a framework that they take people through. So Sally, your book would be so easy to write because first you do this, then you do this, then you do this. You know, most of my clients' books are— I guess you could say they're like how-to books, but they're not boring or basic. Yeah. Right? So we want to add in the other, what I call the foundational pieces. So way before you start writing with your out— even before you write your outline, we look at the foundational pieces, which are what is the transformation that occurs for your clients as a result of working with you. So these are not like testimonials that you could call them case studies, but I don't want it to be like, oh, I'm a chiropractor, somebody came in with a sore back And then I fixed it. You know, it's got to be more like, he couldn't even, you know, he couldn't play with his children. He missed his annual skiing trip with his best friends. Like, you know, I want more of a story.

Yeah.

What I call like more like color to it, right?

Yeah.

And so we help our clients do that. They literally have worksheets. And so you've got to look at things like that. So which I call, you know, inspirational stories, but then also you have to add in credibility because the reader Nowadays readers do not have a lot of time there. You've got to think of it as like, okay, I have— I'm going to ask somebody to give me 4, 6, 8, 10 hours of their time to read my book. It better be good. And that's not to put pressure on you, but what I mean is they better get value from it. So

yes, yes.

Um, I want the reader to feel supported. I'm always thinking about the reader. I've got the reader hat on all the time, and my authors are usually just thinking about themselves, which is okay. It's normal. It's normal. Um, but the book just can't be all about you. We've got to think about what's in it for the reader. So you think about the credibility that you want to include because we want the reader to— we don't want them to think, who is this person? Like, why am I listening to them? We want them to go, oh, I'm, I'm in the right place here. This is definitely for me, you know. So we look at points of credibility, but if you add too much credibility It's

fine, isn't it?

It's a fine line. It kind of comes across as arrogant. So then we want to add in vulnerability, but we don't want to add too much vulnerability or else it comes across as kind of— people feel sorry for you. So it's a fine balance, but we do it. And I think that's part of what makes you likable because, you know, a lot of times people come to me with their manuscripts and they're literally boring. I don't know who wrote it. I have no idea who the author is. I mean, I don't say that to their I don't say it's boring, but I'm just saying that to you and the few people that are listening.

Yeah.

And all of YouTube. But what I say to them is like, where's Sally? The reader wants to know who you are. We want the reader to go, wow, I love what she— I love all this information she's giving me and I want to work with her. Let me sign up for a strategy call or let me download that free extra chapter or whatever. We want them to take some sort of action when they're reading your book. Um, now I think I've lost my train of thought.

That's all right, we'll pick, we'll pick that up in a minute because a couple of things that have really jumped out for me, um, is, um, the process as it relates to working with the ghostwriter. Because, and we have a similar, um, a similar process, but it's what, what gets seen in the faces for me when, when When someone sees and sees and is edified of their inner genius and it's reflected back to them from somebody else, and, and they just sort of go, oh my God, that, you know, that's, that is me. Oh my God, that is me. And they just sort of have that blossoming and that growing.

And the confidence.

Yeah, yeah. So I can only— that's just given me goosebumps thinking of the experience somebody would have when they've got 40 pages of their inner genius reflected back to them. Because one of the things we talk about all the time is, you know, you can't read your label sitting inside your own jar. We don't see—

yeah,

goodness— other people see in us.

I know.

It's what reflects it back to us. So that is such a beautiful process. And I think too, it's been my experience over the years of being in personal development, especially when you sort of started as a seminar junkie at the back of the room, and then you finally end up at the front of the room and then you end up coaching others and, you know, you're doing all those sorts of things. You get— my experience was getting stuck in the professional Clever Sally. Oh yeah, you know that one? The one that doesn't share vulnerable stories and has forgotten about those ones because—

The pro.

Yeah. So it's interesting that you've talked about the vulnerability and bringing that out because I would imagine if from my, from my own experience of feeling that, that would be, you know, that's an ex— that's another thing to sort of dig into to actually pull out of someone's brain, I would imagine.

Absolutely, yes. And as a matter of fact, I, I've already done it on this call with you. No, I mean, for myself, like I have said, the first book I wrote, I wrote under a fake name. I thought it was going to fail, you know. And then also the credibility, I've sort of seeded in, you know, We've been doing this for 15 years, worked with 1,000 people, so it can be repurposed too. Yeah. Yeah. And I think also what happens, what you were saying, like when, when they work with the ghostwriter and they get this information back, what I love about this way of doing it is that they don't change their mind. We're like, okay, they've had an outside person say, this is what your book's going to be about. Because a lot of times when they try to write it on their own, they go, no, no, that wasn't it. And then they show me an outline and I go, well, that looks good. And then they go, okay, I'm gonna write it now. I'm all ready to go. And then 6 weeks later, No, that wasn't it. So I like to be able to say, this is a professional ghostwriter. This is what we're doing. I mean, they still are, of course, allowed to change their mind, but I find that when they are changing their mind, it's just because they're afraid. It's always because they're afraid. And so then we need to work on the mindset again.

Yeah. Yeah. And, um, I want to go back to that plan because, you know, that, um, and I shared this on a conversation earlier, you know, uh, without a plan, when you've got all of the potential, uh, roads that you can go down, if you're at a road with multiple forks without a plan, a compass and a plan, you sort of like, I don't know which one to go down. Anyone's the right— is the right one.

Yeah.

But at the same time, none of them are the right one until you know what the right one— what the right one is. So talk us through a little bit more of that plan. And, um, you know, you've talked about the first step of working with the ghostwriter and the vulnerability, which is obviously all part of that plan. But what's the transformation or the aha moments or the confidence uplifts that you see when people are starting to work through that plan that you're helping them craft and create.

You know what I love is sometimes people say, well, I don't know, every single client that I work with is different. I don't really have like a framework or anything. And I say, okay, well, so what's the first thing you do with them? And what's the second thing? What's the third thing? And they go, oh my God, I have a framework. Yeah, you've been doing this for 7 years or however long they've been doing it. So I love seeing those aha moments. I love seeing the confidence blossoming. So, um, after the outline is— and by the way, the 40-page document includes, you know, um, research on, on their competition, other books that are out there in the same theme, and everything else. Mm-hmm. Um, and so then they start writing, and I, I teach them to— unless they use our ghostwriter to actually write the whole book, but that's— most people don't do that because it's a little bit expensive. Um, but if they're writing their own book, most people do. I teach them that they can teach them about time blocking. A lot of my clients say that's the best thing they ever learned was time blocking. Make an appointment with yourself. And I actually have to teach them to make themselves a priority. I say to them, so you're going to write your book at a coffee shop on Saturday morning from 9 until noon. Your husband's watching the kids. What if a friend invites you over? Practice saying, no, I'm sorry, I can't. I have— or your mom needs you or something like that. So. Practicing making themselves a priority. So then, uh, every client is different, but usually it's— we try to do, you know, one chapter a week or one chapter every 2 weeks. We look at when do you want your book done? Okay, let's work backwards. And then it's like cruel reality hits them where they're like, oh, I can't just think about it for 6 more months. No, you literally have to write. But when you have a really, really solid outline, your book flows out of you. You're literally not wondering, oh, what am I gonna write today? You know?

Yeah,

it's—

I think that's one of the, one of the things that you often hear people, and I hear it as it relates to, you know, just creating social media posts at the time. It's like, oh, blank screen, what am I gonna write? What am I gonna post today? And I think from a— we, we talk about being in an inspired state. And a blank— I don't care, but a blank screen is not an inspired state to stare at. No. So, you know, it's that, it's that preparation, it's that mindset around, you know, I've got this determination today. So there's planning, but you've also got the, you know, you've got the what you're working on. And because you've got the plan and you're building, you're building the momentum and creating those habits and building the confidence, and you've had the understanding of your own clarity, you're steps, you actually are really buying into many areas of being in that inspired state. So you are getting into that more of that flow, I would imagine.

Yes. And also, I teach people, when you're sitting down for your writing session, you're not allowed to go back and edit what you wrote last time. Do not, do not edit. No. Oh, Sally, it'll take you forever. Oh, no, no, no, no. It's what's on the paper stays on the paper. That's why they call it a first draft and then a second draft and then a third draft, right? So you're just writing your first draft. Your first draft can suck. It's okay. Just allow yourself to say, I'm just gonna write a really crappy first draft. It's not gonna be crappy, but it gives you permission to just— Everything you need is already inside your head. It's all— you know all of this stuff already, right? So I always say, let's say you're gonna write for an hour. You've got it on your calendar to write for an hour. You're gonna sit down, close your eyes, Think about your reader. Call her Sarah, whatever you want to call her. What does she need from me right now? What is she thinking? What is she worried about? What is she stressed about? What does she need to know? Okay, then you look at your— you can skim for only 5 minutes maximum, skim what you just did the day before or the week before. Then you look at your outline and you know exactly what part you're on, and you just write for about 40 or 50 minutes, more if you can. Sometimes people get in the flow, right? But if you have to go, you know, to work or pick up your kids or whatever, and you have to stop, then give yourself a minute and give yourself grace. I think this makes me a little bit of a different coach because we all have real lives happening all around us all the time. We have kids, we have pets, we have responsibilities. Some of us have aging parents, you know, we have stuff. So it's not just about sitting in a chateau in France and eating bonbons. That's not real life for most people. So you've got to squeeze it in and you have to do the work. And it really is like having a baby in terms of— do it's going through the pain and then enjoying, enjoying what you have afterwards.

Yeah, afterwards. I'm gonna pick up on another word that you've said there because this is the— in the conversations I've had today, this is the 3rd time. Oh, happens. Yep, that's right. When things happen in 3s, and there's a big strong message there. And that's that— that the word you said was grace. And I think that's That's such a key thing for us, when to be graceful to ourselves around life getting on, even though you're in the process of writing a book, which is a project and a mammoth one, and a, you know, a learning curve and a growth curve and all those other things that come into it, because you are like birthing that baby.

Mm-hmm. And

I think that's such a powerful thing for people to be able to acknowledge going through the process, the grace

Yes, definitely having grace with themselves and not beating themselves up because we have little like Negative Nelly that sits on the shoulder that's like, who are you to write a book? No one's ever going to read it. Who's going to buy it? And that Negative Nelly is there to keep us safe because Negative Nelly is afraid if we put our book out in the world, somebody might criticize us. Or, you know, I actually had a client— this is not a funny story, but it's so— Okay. This client booked a call on my calendar one day, a 30-minute call. And I was like, hey, Joanne, how are you? What's up? And she said, well, I just wanted to talk to you about, uh, before my book comes out, I want to be ready for any, for, you know, backlash. And I said, what do you mean? What backlash? And she's like, well, just in case, you know, what people come at me. I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, her book was nothing controversial whatsoever. Guess what? She had no backlash. But, you know, I think a lot of people have a misconception that you're going to be criticized all over the place, but generally you're not. And, uh, it can be a lovely experience.

Yeah, that's actually a good, a really good tip from, from the misconceptions perspective, because I suppose if you are already a credible person that's wanting to amplify that,

Yeah.

Then you, you sort of know that that can sort of happen. And being prepared for that, I appreciate her preparedness. And I sort of giggle and chuckle that nothing ever happened for that. But that again, that's that Negative Nelly keeping us, keeping us safe. So what are some of the other misconceptions that come up for people as it relates to both writing the book and then actually having the book out there as the business model?

Well, I think one of the biggest misconceptions is when people think, oh, I can't write that book because someone else already wrote a book on that topic, you know.

Oh, nice one. Yes.

Yeah, I had a woman, Joanie Higgs, join my program once, and she was writing a book about meditation, how to meditate. And it was— it's a great book. And as a matter of fact, it has a great success story, which I'll tell you about in a minute. But she came to the group coaching call one day, and she was very dejected. And she said, You're not gonna believe it. And we said, what? And she said, I can't, I can't remember. Oh yeah, she said, um, well, I'm not gonna be on any more calls because it turns out that, um, Deepak Chopra is literally coming out with a book on how to meditate. And there's this long silence and all the group members, some of them were saying, oh, that's too bad. Oh wow. And I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a second. Yeah. You know, he's him, you're you. What are you talking about? And then one of the people piped up in the group group that said, who is that guy? And I've never heard of him. They'd never heard of Deepak Chopra. So I said to her, this proves the point that you're writing the book for people that will— they will be attracted to you for your perspective, for your, your way of teaching people how to meditate. And as a matter of fact, years after her book came out, uh, just I guess last year or the year before, someone contacted my company asking to buy a big Bulk order of her book because he wanted to. He loved it so much; he wanted to leave it all over town in dentist offices and and doctors offices and those little you know do you have those little book kiosks on the side of the street where people can leave a book? Yeah, and I was like, is this for real? Like I thought it was a little bit of a scam for a second there, but it was real. And he ordered all these books, and I said to Joni, that's what I'm talking about. This person doesn't matter that. that he's never heard of Deepak Chopra. He found you, he found your book, and he loved it, and it changed his life.

Yeah. Oh, that's just giving me goosebumps.

Yeah.

Wow. Thank you. That's— so let's now dive into all of the possibilities about leveraging your book as it relates to business growth, because I'll often get people come to me where they do their I've got a book, now what?

Yes, well, that's what you're for, Sally. This is perfect. You should take over the interview now.

No, no, you have absolutely all your insights, so we can talk as we go along because you, you're living it and seeing it from people that are actually coming in at the beginning, seeing the book as a business building tool, as that leverageable asset, whereas I'm doing the— as my community, this call it the Sally Nag, or sometimes Sally Smash they call me. So I've got a slightly bossy personality. So, you know, there is so many opportunities with a book, and you're seeing some really typical regular ones which I'd like for you to flesh out. Yeah. And I'm asking you to do that because I know I'm speaking to Mike's community later this this evening, and we've used his book as a case study, as an example, and we worked out 51 ways that he could have actually— could actually leverage his book. Now obviously it depends on the strategy and what you're wanting to do and all the rest of it. So let's talk about when somebody understands at the beginning that their book is that leverageable asset, what are the most common ways you see that utilized?

Oh, that's a great question. And by the way, it's You're not bossy, you're goal-oriented.

Oh, thank you. Yes. Yes.

Okay, so I have an infographic actually that I'm trying to recall off the top of my head on 25 ways to use your book as a marketing tool. So, but I tell people, do not do them all at once. Just pick one. Okay, just pick one. So the most important thing that they have to do first is all the free and cheap things they can do, which they never do. But they should do. So if you're a person in business, you have to have your LinkedIn set up properly. So people need a visual representation of your book. So have a nice 3D image of your book cover, uh, and put that, you know, on your LinkedIn banner, or— and put published author or bestselling author. Let people know you have a book. Sally, you wouldn't believe how many people I meet on LinkedIn who say, I have a book, and I can't find it anywhere on their LinkedIn. And I go to Amazon and I can't find it on Amazon. And I think, would you like some help? Because, you know, it's such a shame you work so hard to have a book and then you don't put it anywhere. No,

and they're such easy visibility and credibility boosters, aren't they? Please continue. Yes.

Yes. So then one of the things you could do is use it as a lead gen. So you could run a Facebook ad to it. You could sell it or you could give it away for free. Then on the thank you page, you have a video saying, hey, thanks so much for grabbing my book. I also have a little course for $199 you might want to buy, which is one of the things that I do. Um, and then, so that's another thing you could do. You could, as, as I always tell them to do what you specialize in, Sally, is like pull out some pulled quotes out of your book. Remind people that you have a book on your social media all the time without saying buy my book. Yeah. It actually makes me crazy when authors literally say, buy my book, because it makes them look broke.

Needy.

Like they need $7 really badly, right? So we don't want them to look needy or broke. Um, and so, and again, I teach them about, you know, what is your average customer value? If you don't know what it is, then add up the last 10 customers you had, divide it by 10. Let's say your average customer value is $3,000. Well, why would you try to sell books all day long when you can use your book to get one new customer, right? So with LinkedIn, again, also use a software like Ulink. That's the one that I use. It's ulink.co. Uh, you can just be sending out connection requests with people. It's not spammy at all. It's not, it's not like, hey, I want to buy my thing, you know. It's not like that, but just really genuinely connecting with people. Um, then you could also put on a webinar. You could take 3 teaching tips Or 3 pieces of content out of your book and have, have a web— build a webinar around your, your— and then you could have an online course. One of my clients, Sue Ryan, she just loves the way that I taught her how to write her outline because she used that outline to develop her online course. She used the same outline for her signature talk. You can repurpose that outline like, I mean, 9 ways till Sunday. It's, it's amazing.

You need to repeat that because that's That's a Suzanne goal-orientated Suzanne smash that needs a reminder there, please.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, perfect. Do you want me to repeat it now, you mean?

Absolutely. So the framework goes into blah and it goes into blah and it goes into blah, just the framework, you know, just make sure people hear that because that's gold.

Okay, so, okay, you, once you know how to write a proper outline, so you have your outline done really, really well done. So in your outline, don't not only have the main points that you want to talk about in every chapter, you have all the subpoints that you want to talk about. You have your research that's in there. You have your inspirational stories that's in there. You have your credibility, your vulnerability. Once you have a very, very, very good outline, then you can use that outline to build your online course. So let's say your book is 10 chapters, then you have 10 modules on your course. This is just really basic, but people overcomplicate it all the time.

Don't they? Yeah.

Yeah. You could also use your outline for your book to create your signature talk.

You

could use pieces of your outline for your one sheet, your speaker one sheet. And also, the book opens so many doors for you. And this is something that I always like to tell people. If a conference organizer is looking at you, hiring you to come and speak at their conference, it's between you and Kevin If Kevin has a book and you don't have a book, they will pick Kevin. They won't even read Kevin's book, but the fact that he's a published author— you know why? Because it raises the status of the person that's organizing the conference. It looks like they have landed a really amazing speaker. Not only is he tall, dark, and handsome, he's also a best-selling author.

Yeah.

And then, or there's Suzanne with Nothing. So it matters. It really matters having a book. It really can open doors for you.

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm going to add on to that, the assets around the book and the one-pagers and those sorts of things. The difference being in the speaker world of having assets like your one-pager, like your guesting bio and all those sorts of those assets make the huge difference. Because again, if someone has got them and someone hasn't got them, that is the decision. the decision from there. And just expanding on, um, that, you know, the book, um, outline and structure that you've talked about, you know, the 8 chapters— sorry, 10 chapters that you mentioned is 10 months worth of content. But, you know, don't get me started on that. You know, that's the simplicity in— which is why I wanted you to talk about that outline more. That is the simplicity in it. The book holds the key. Yeah. From, from a promotional perspective. from a social media, from a visibility perspective.

And then, and also, and then think about like a missing chapter or a checklist or a download that you could make based on the book. And then you build your list. So for all of my clients, I want them to have some sort of call to action in their book that brings people to their website or has them join their Facebook group or whatever their thing is that they're doing. And here's a big tip for anybody who's listening. Okay, that link that you send them to has to be a link that you own. So I highly recommend you have like prominenzpublishing.com/whatever. Let's say it's yourname.com/book, because then you can change that book page anytime, change the links on that page anytime. You might decide to put a video on there or whatever. 7 years from now, you might be promoting a different thing, but don't go back to your publisher and say, hey, you can Can you change my link? Can you change this link? Can you change that link? Because you might not have a publisher as cooperative as I am. I mean, a lot of people have publishers that go out of business. They can't find them. They don't know, they don't know what happened to their book. It's, it's really sad.

Yeah. And it's so important to own your media, like landing pages. Don't rely on a Facebook landing page because you don't know whether, you

know. Yeah. If you don't already own your own name as a URL, go and buy it right now. It's like $12. Go buy your name. I have all my— I bought all my kids' names. Yeah, they haven't used them yet, but you know, I mean, it's not expensive and you gotta have your own name.

Yeah, absolutely. So that's— yeah, beautiful. I love— so that's been, you know, all of the possibilities as it relates to what happens next after, after a book.

I'd

love you to share some of the, some of the success stories Particularly the roller coaster ones. And you've done some of that. So is there another one that comes to mind where somebody didn't think that they'd ever be that speaker or that person with that extra visibility, whatever that visibility is for them, that has suddenly got it? Now you shared the one with the, you know, brought all of those books. Tell us any more that you have because I find them incredibly inspiring.

Oh my gosh. I have one. I'm not going to mention her name, but I have one that is such a beautiful person. And she came to me and she, uh, was, uh, on a disability pension. And she said, you know, I really want to write a book. And she was really nervous about writing it. And I guided her through writing it and she had a book and that was great. But she, she kept saying, I can't make more than X amount of dollars per year or else my— I won't qualify for my disability pension anymore. And then, but I kept helping her make more and more money and It was like she put together an online course, uh, that revolved around her book, and she licensed it to schools for $1,000 per class per year. Um, I believe she sold 20 in one day once, and it's literally $1,000 per class per year. Um, and I said to her, what if you started making a quarter of a million dollars a year and you could tell the disability people you don't need that money anymore?

And she's like,

oh, like what? So it's so funny to think that I am a book publisher and a book coach, but I feel like what I do is helping people believe that they can, they can create a beautiful life that they love. I call $100 bills fun tickets. And the more fun tickets you have, the more fun you have. That's just the way it is. And I know money doesn't buy happiness. But I've been broke and I've been non-broke, and I like non-broke a lot better, right? So, so creating a life where you can say to your kids, yeah, let's go to Disneyland or whatever. I've traveled all over the world with my kids, and I'm just about to go again away for 2 and a half months, and I can work from anywhere. Yeah. But I, I'm not waiting around for my life to happen, you know. I truly believe in that, and I I really love working with my clients even after their book comes out because I want them to succeed. I want them to make money. Like, a lot of times people are like, I'm just about to start a consulting practice, so I have to help them find clients. I have to help them, you know, put their packages together. And, and I love it. Like, I feel like I'm their mom, even though sometimes they're the same age as me.

Yeah, you sound like the fairy godmother bringing everything all in and putting Putting the pump— making the pumpkin into the, into the carriage and all those sorts of things so they can get on with— off, off to the party or off to the celebrations.

I need a wand. That's what I need.

Yeah, don't we all? That would be just fabulous.

Yes.

Yeah. So how, how can people connect with you, and can you tell us a little bit more about your programs as well, please?

Sure. Yeah, so I think along the bottom there I have a free gift. It's at prominencepublishing.com/free. .com/free, and it's a quick start guide to writing a book that builds your business. It's, uh, it's an ebook, so that'll give, uh, people an idea of, you know, how I work with people. And, um, so we— I have a program that I've been teaching for 15 years called the Expert Author Program, and it's 6 months long, and it guides them through exactly how to write a book. And I always say to people, you need 4 things to write a book. So you need A plan, which I help them with. You need the right mindset, which I help them with, a mentor and a community. So that's what we have. We have coaching calls and I love— I just seem to attract the most. I just love my clients so much. We all just become like family. I always say to them when I first meet them, I'm like, I don't mean to freak you out, but we're going to be together forever. So just hold onto your hat. So, um, we get together twice a month for group calls. They work through the, you know, the pre-recorded videos, and it's a 6-month program, but sometimes people write a book in 2 months, sometimes people take a year. It just depends on, like I said before, life, right? We're busy. But I am known to, you know, poke, like, what are you doing? You said you were going to do this, you got to do this. You know, like, I think it's really important to stay—

It's a goal-oriented thing again, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. One of my clients, Glenn Henderson, he, he always— he always teases me because I— one day he came every day, every week he would come on the call and he'd say, yeah, I'm working on it. And finally I said, Glenn, write your damn book. Like, I'm sick and tired of your excuses. So he rented a cabin in the woods, he went with his wife, and he wrote it in a week. You know, it was— oh my God, time and space. You know, I highly recommend renting a cabin in the woods. Um, but yeah, so I think I lost my train of thought again.

Sally, you've shared that free gift and how people can get in a little bit.

Okay, so the expert out there for Yes, the Expert Author Program is sort of the entry-level, like, group coaching program. But then, as I mentioned, we have, we have the ghostwritten package, we have publishing packages. So sometimes people come to me with their book already done and they just, they say, hey, you know, I have a set fee. We do the COVID design, the typesetting, we get it on Amazon for them. And one of the differences with our company is that we want our clients to retain 100% rights to their work and all the royalties. So the way that we put it on Amazon, it's published by Prominence Publishing, but it's on the back end, it's under their name. So they get the checks from Amazon, which I like because I don't really want to be cutting 1,000 checks. They have software for that, but, you know, like

Midnight maybe. Yeah, don't— yeah, yeah.

But they deserve to keep all the money too. I don't want to have any of it. So yeah, so yeah.

Sorry, keep going.

No, so I was just gonna say, so we have, yeah, the— and we have a ghostwriting program as well for the sort of like the VIP and people. Uh, and the way that we write is we interview them, so it's all done in their voice and it's a beautiful thing, but it's done really fast because my ghostwriter can write 10,000 words a week. She's amazing.

Holy moly. I've got one deep question I want to ask you from myself, but there's been a couple of questions that have actually come in, so I'm just going to actually share the first one with you. If you have If you have time, if you have the time block, what constitutes a change in the plan? You mentioned someone needing your time. So that's, I'm sort of thinking that's, are you open to excuses or not? You know, is it, how precious is that time block?

You know what I tell people to practice saying when, like, for example, one time my brother called me and I didn't phone him back for 3 days because I was really, really busy. But I made myself say to him when I called him back, hey, Chris, I'm sorry I didn't call you back till now, but I didn't make you a priority. Because that's really what you're doing. So when you have that time block on your calendar and you look at it and it says Wednesday morning, I'm going to write my book from 9 till 10, and then you don't do it, you have to admit to yourself, I didn't make it a priority. What did you do instead? Were you literally scrolling on social media? Or were you taking your dog for a walk? Or were you helping your neighbor? Or so it should be non-negotiable. It's non-negotiable. I'm sorry, when I put my kid in a car and they don't want to wear a seatbelt, that is non-negotiable. You have to wear the seatbelt. There are things in life that are non-negotiable, and writing your book means making yourself a priority.

Beautiful. This is another question, and one where I sort of went, oh, when you said it earlier today, which, uh, which was, how can you stay on track Oh, I don't know. How can you stay on track and remember where you were in your writing without going back and reading a bit? Um, okay, I appreciate the reading a bit, but you— I know you said about not editing it, which made me go, oh, because that's, that's a good excuse for me. So talk us through that bit.

Well, you have your outline beside you, and then you have your working document. So I recommend using Google Docs because it saves your work. I've had a lot of people who just like, I lost whole entire book I was working on for 7 years, you know. So use Google Docs, but create folders in Google Docs for chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4. You can have a notebook with other ideas that come to you. Sometimes I call it a divine download. You wouldn't believe what God or the universe puts in your head and you're like, oh, squirrel, you know. No, no, no. Say thank you for that idea. Write it down. Just look at your outline. So let's say you're on chapter 3. You go to your outline. You're like, okay, I'm going to write about this, this, this. Then, then start writing. That's how you stay on track.

Stay focused.

You can move pieces around later because you'll have it organized. Um, but what— that is really a big problem when people start at the beginning again and read the whole entire thing. Well, then time's up. You gotta go. Like, you don't have any more time to write. So don't be doing that.

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's— that, that, that hit me as a Sally smash. Thank you very much.

But it also comes down to having a very, very good outline.

Yeah, yes, exactly.

You won't think like, oh, haven't I, haven't I already written about this? I think I've already written about this. No, you have not, because it's not in your outline.

Yeah, perfect. Now the question I have for you just to finish off with was, um, hold on, I'm just gonna find it. Um, you've helped 1,000 professionals publish their books. What impact does that have On you leaving your own legacy?

Ah, Sally,

I said we've seen a lot of it today, but

you know, it's kind of a funny thing because sometimes I think of answering that by saying I make people's dreams come true. That's what I do for a living. Okay, I— 2 nights ago I was texting a client because I got her book up on Amazon and I was like, I'm I'm crying, Jessica. You know, I, I just get so excited for my clients every single time because I know what it feels like to put in the work and publish your book. So for, for my legacy, I feel like I want to be known as someone who helps people believe in themselves.

Um, yeah, and bring all of that potential to fruition.

And bring their gifts to the world. Because I, I love to say, to the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world.

Oh, can I get you to repeat that again, please?

To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world. One person might read your book and go, oh my gosh, you changed my life, thank you. That's the greatest gift that an author can have.

Yeah, yeah, that's beautiful. Any final parting words that you'd like to, or wisdoms that you'd like to share with the audience? We've got about a minute left.

I'd just like to repeat that everything you need is already inside of you. You don't need to take more courses. You don't need to study anything more. You don't need to— if you watch 15 YouTube videos, they'll all tell you 15 different things. It's very confusing. Just stay true to your heart. Think about what your ideal reader needs to know from you. Think about what people come to you for advice with. And you can do it. You can.

Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing so much incredible wisdom, certainly taking us on the journey and the experience of being able to work with you and sharing some of the success stories of some of the clients that have worked with you. It's been an incredible pleasure. Thank you so very, very much for sharing with us today.

Thank you for having me, Sally.

You're very, very welcome. Thank you, and please do reach out to Suzanne. You'll find her on LinkedIn, and you've got the website details on the bottom of the ticker, and we'll have them on all of the social media channels so you can make sure that you connect. But thank you again, and we look forward to seeing you again on another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Take care.

Bye. Thank you.

Remember, if you want to be sought after and sold As well as being known as the obvious expert in your industry, you need to speak with Sally, our host of Success Secrets Exposed. Sally is the founder of Monetize Your Content, a done-for-you content marketing agency that helps you be easy to buy. See you next week on another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Tune in live every Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern time or Wednesday mornings in Australia on W4CY Radio and Talk4TV.