[Focus2Finish Session] Chris Warnky's Plan to Finish His First Book in 26 Weeks

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message, create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Welcome to this episode of Author Audience. My name is Shelly Hitz, the owner of Author Audience Academy. And I love these focus to finish sessions with my members. It gives you a behind the scenes look at what's working for authors and just, it may really just spur you on and help you to get ideas. I have Chris Warnke with me today. Hey, Chris.

Hey. How are you doing, Shelley?

Great. And we are going to kind of look at what you're doing, the book you're writing, your business, and try to help you develop a plan, develop some clarity on where you're going. But first, I always like to open a prayer, so let me just pray and then we will dive in. So, Lord, I just thank you for Chris. I thank you for the passion you've given him. I thank you for the book he's writing. And I just pray this session would be helpful to him. It would help to give him clarity. It would be helpful for those that are listening as well. And I just pray that you would give Chris productivity, you would give him enlightenment and just every step of the way of what to do next. And I just pray that his message would reach many people. And I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen.

All right, so you sent me your 90 day breakthrough goal, which is to complete the writing portion of your first book. Yay. I love that first book. You too can train to be a ninja warrior. How fun. Even at 60 plus. So tell us a little bit about your business and yourself. You're into fitness, you're into ninja warrior, but tell us a little bit about that.

Sure. Big, big picture is this Friday, which I guess is not for two more days, I turn 60. Awesome.

Happy birthday.

Yeah, thank you. Actually just had a big celebration in my daughter's ninja gym last Friday night. So that was fun.

Yes, that's so fun.

So I retired about four years ago from the corporate world and have become a part time because I do want to be retired or what I call pro tired.

Yes.

Yep. I definitely like that. So I do a part time role as a executive and life coach. And so one of the things that I've had a number of my friends tell me is that I should write a book. And I've never prioritized that, but this year I decided would be my year of writing. So I am spending time and I was originally thinking that I would write A book about the coaching that I do. But as I was listening to this person named Shelley, she was talking about also potentially having a passion book. And so I decided to start with my first effort in much more of a passion book, which. Which will tie in a bit to my business and potentially could have an impact on the business side as well. But it's really much more of a passion book.

Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. So tell us a little bit about your involvement with Ninja Warrior. I know your daughter's involved in it, too.

Yep. So about a little less than five years ago, my daughter came back from Kazakhstan, working as a missionary or teaching conversational English and then holding Bible studies in the evenings with a bunch of people in Kazakhstan. And somebody said, hey, you should watch this show. And my daughter has been into rock climbing and running and all kinds of things for, you know, years. And next thing you know, she's showing up in some local gyms that do ninja things. And some of the people that have actually been on American Ninja Warrior were there, actually the gym owner, and he said, I've never seen a woman do the things that you're doing. Oh, wow. Beyond the show. So next thing you know, NBC calls my daughter and says, hey, we've heard about you, and we want to make sure you're going to submit a submission video. Cool. And now here we are, four years later. She's competed in each of the city competitions. She's been invited to compete in the finals the last four years, and she now owns her own gym, her own ninja gym here in Columbus, Ohio.

Oh, wow.

So that's. And so about two years ago, I was asking her, I said, so Michelle, actually, there's never been a dad and a daughter. They've done brothers and sisters, they've done dads and sons, but they've never done a dad and daughter. Especially, you know, with one of Michelle probably, you know, this is somewhat biased, but she's either the number three or number four or number five woman ninja in, you know, in the world or on American Ninja Warrior. So it's not just a woman. It would be one of the top women in a Ninja Warrior. So I started training about two and a half years ago, submitted a video to see if I could get invited last year, and they did not invite me. And even the producer that Michelle interacts with said he was shocked. He said, I cannot believe the executive producers. Thank you. So this year I submitted another video, and what I thought I would do is write a book about what that two and A half year process has been like. And frankly not being on the show is kind of irrelevant.

Right.

The training and the learning and the people that I've met that I'm really going to be writing about.

Yeah. And so you have the story about your daughter, she's been on the show and you know, so there's so many things you can write about. So tell us where you're at on your book. Right now.

I'm about 20,000 words in on what I was anticipating being about a 25,000 word book. I read some books and I've listened to some of the great teaching from you and determined that I'd build the great outline of what I wanted to include in the book. Having done that, I really came away and said, you know, I think this is actually three books. It's not one. If I squeeze all of this into one, it's just going to be a 700 page book and nobody's going to want to read it. You know.

Exactly. There's power in a series too.

Yes. And I definitely have perceived that as well from talking to different people and just from again the insight that you shared. So I thought, you know what, let's break this into three. I am currently at about the 20,000 word mark. I'm using that Pomodoro technique and doing 25 minute writes. And what's really cool is I've shared that with my wife. So if I'm in the middle of writing session and she swings by and wants to ask a quick question, she says pomodoro and I say yes and she just walks right on and lets me write. So that's been really, really super. And I'm anticipating. I mean, I'm probably less than halfway through the writing right now. I have a 23 week plan that I built based on all the research that I've done about what the process might look like. And I think actually of the 23 weeks, only six of it is writing because of how much I want to go through the edit process and, and everything else. So I'm in week two of the writing, but I'm actually already at 20,000 words. And I anticipate that in the editing process I'll come back and I'll say, wow, I shared seven what I thought were really great stories. To make a point, maybe I should cut that down to three of those stories so I'll end up extracting some of the stories out and maybe they show up in one of the other books.

Exactly.

So I'm anticipating that even though I'm at 20,000 now and may end up being at 50,000 that the end product probably will be closer to the 25,000 words that would actually go in the book.

Yeah. And that's what often happens in the editing process. I've saved or I've cut out entire chapters before, but I save it and I can repurpose it. I love repurposing, and you've probably heard me talk about that. So what can I help you with in your plan? What questions do you have? Where are you stuck? What do you need help with right now?

A couple of things that come to my mind is I plan to incorporate my coaching business. The name of the business is well Done Life. And so I plan to incorporate various elements of that in the book. One of the things that makes a coach really powerful is the questions that they ask. So rather than it being a telling book, my goal is to literally engage people and bring them along with me in stories. So, you know, I don't say I went to the grocery store. I actually take them through the process of going to the grocery store so they can feel it. But I'm starting off each section and definitely every chapter with questions that relate to what I'm going to be talking about. Because I have found in public speaking that when you start with a question, when somebody hears a question that relates to their life, they actually can't not answer it.

Yeah.

Their own mind go there. So I want the book to engage people by not saying, well, I actually was just writing a segment of a chapter the other day about play. How everything in the ninja world is about play.

Yeah.

You know, and so one of the questions they start the chapter off or that segment of the chapter off with is, where these days in your life do you find play and how much do you play versus I just am an adult and I just have to work and endure and make it through this life. So, you know, so I have some questions like that to engage people before I go into some of my stories and some of the points that I want to make about play and incorporating that in life.

Yeah, I love that. I really love when you can make books interactive and you involve your audience because ultimately we're all tuned into wiifm. What's in it for me?

Yes. And you know that as a coach. So did you have any questions on that, particularly that part of it of incorporating your coaching business?

Yeah. Let me tell you my strategy and tell me if this makes sense. So in the introduction, I'll acknowledge that I'm a Coach. And the book might be written a little differently in the sense that it's going to incorporate a number of questions to engage you. So I'll acknowledge that up front throughout the book. I'll have the questions and I'll probably refer to some cases every once in a while. Having worked with a client as a coach, that is a similar challenge to the way approaches an obstacle. And then at the back, I want to say about the author. So I'll talk a little bit more about me as a coach in that book or that section of the book. And then the next piece would be if you'd like to learn more information. And that's where I thought I would put I offer for people that are interested in coaching. I have a series of classes that people can take one on one with me to learn what being a coach is, how to coach, how to become a better coach, you know, a variety of those types of things. So that's gonna be in some ways a bit of the subtle part of my business portion of the fun ride of the ninja story book. Does that make sense? Because I don't really want it to be overbearing, but I would like it to lead into potentially more questions and interest in people about who is this coach guy.

Yeah, I love that. I think that's perfect. And then what will you use, like, as your. What we would call lead magnet? Like maybe a free giveaway to build your email list. Like, what would be that be in your book?

I don't know that I've landed on that very well. I've definitely watched some of the videos, so I definitely understand the concepts.

Okay.

I actually did do a hand scribble of a potential lead magnet it But I've been so focused on the writing. I don't remember where that is in my file system right now.

Yeah, that's fine. What I would do though is you're really into the writing section right now, and that's where you need to stay focused. But as far as like your coaching business, to connect it, if you can have a really juicy freebie that goes along with the content that somehow is a checklist or a self evaluation or some sort of thing that you're giving affirmations that they can download or whatever, you're doing something that they're like, ooh, I want that. And then you can follow up. And I share that in, like in the author automation system, which you can get to later, but you know, in your autoresponder sequence, you can then also introduce them to your coaching and other other things as well. So that's just the one piece that you could include as well. And as you write just, you know, you could just keep thinking like, ooh, what would be, you know, people like templates, they like checklists, they like things they can print off, printables, whatever it is, an audio, a video, that kind of stuff. So I think that's perfect.

Yeah. As you say that I actually one is I provide a complimentary coaching session to anybody that wants to get a sense of how different coaching is from other ways of getting help. Yeah, so that was one. And I think I also one of the things I use is a life assessment wheel. That's a very unique life assessment wheel. And I was going to probably not in this book include it. So it probably would be reach out to me if you'd like to see it or receive a free copy of a life assessment wheel. So yeah, that would be another good example of a freebie that could draw someone in.

Yeah, I think that's great. My husband does running coaching and he offers a free consultation and 90% of the time, you know, the people that currently have been booking those end up working with him. But you know, it works really well. And I think that's a great way you can have them sign up by signing up to an email subscriber, subscriber list. So you're also capturing them for further connection and relationship and marketing. But I think that's great. The life assessment wheel sounds really cool. You know, I mean it sounds like something that would be valuable as well. So that's great. So do you have any other questions on that part of it?

Maybe not on that part, but I do have other questions. Yep. The one of the things I decided that I have that probably nobody else in the world has is I'm good friends with almost all of the 50 plus year olds that have ever run on an American Ninja Warrior course.

Wow, that's.

So I thought why not reach out to them, conduct interviews with them and actually have a chapter that I end up interviewing 14 of them about their experience and path. So I reached out to them one by one and every one of them said, hands down, you bet I'd love to do it. So I've already received the interview content because I provided them a list of questions and asked for some photos I could use of them. You know, I have about five of them in and another one scheduled for Friday.

Awesome. I love this idea.

Yeah. So any feedback or thoughts about doing that? I had a buddy mention, don't Put them in a chapter, spread them throughout the book as kind of sidebar, little points. But any thoughts you have about how I would approach that?

Yeah, so I think it's a really great idea. Now you have all of it as written content. So that's not audio or video, correct?

Correct. Well, actually, one of them I have as video, but to audio, because it's going to be in a book.

Yeah, I think what you mentioned about spreading it out is great. Like, do they have parts of their story that would connect with what you're talking about in a certain chapter?

That's what my buddy was saying. He goes, you know, have different questions for different people. And I said, well, unfortunately, in that sense, I'm proactive. So they already all have the questions. And I committed that it would be a short effort on their part. So I think what happens is when I get them all in and then I really dive into their answers, I might be able to parse out different people for various chapter elements that I have if I wanted to break them out. But I was trying to just process the pros and the cons of having them spread through the book versus actually having a chapter, because I've already written the introduction to it, and it was going to be written based on people that were born in different decades. So ninjas that were born in the 40s, ninjas that were born in the 50s. And so I have some structure that I was already.

Can you tell me what the questions are that they answered?

Actually, I don't have them off the. I don't have the piece of paper right in front of me, but I can tell you most of them, generally.

Yeah.

So one of them is, how long have you been training? When have you competed on American Ninja Warrior or in other local competitions? What is it that makes you do this? You know, why is it you do it? And then there may be one or two other questions, but the last one is, what would be two to three tips that you would give to others that are in their 40s, 50s, or 60s, that have never trained and would like to try this?

I like the tips part. I think the tips, you know, that's where you could probably find some things that would correspond with the different chapters. And then what would be really cool is you could also feature them on your. Do you have a website or blog?

I do have a website and a blog, yeah.

Did they give you permission? Like, could you also publish this as a separate blog post?

I sure could, yeah.

So what you could do is you could include maybe their Tips and you know, you could see what you want to do, maybe a little bit of their bio or whatever. Then do a complete blog post which would also drive traffic to your blog and then let them know that that's included in your book. So, you know, you use the content in several different ways. Do you have anyone that, that would be in your target market that you could have like as a beta, you know, person or that could help give you some feedback and maybe you could run this idea, you know, by them and see what they would want, how they would want to read it or that sort of thing.

I have names that I've started on. My first outline of possible beta readers at this point in time, so I could approach them. One thing that you said that I really liked was I like the idea of the chapter about, you know, and I didn't come up with a title yet, but it could be the Ninjas of the Ages or something or the Ninjas of the Decades and you know, and then, you know, literally break it into subheaders of 40s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. But I like the idea that with them providing two or three tips, having a one photo and one tip from each of these spread throughout the book with a little footnote that says for more from David kozik, see chapter 10, page whatever. So that it more or less draws people into the fact that, hey, they're gonna learn more from this guy that had this tip relative to the point that I was making.

Yeah, I love that. I really like when they're my husband in his running book. He did that in a couple of his running books. Like he'd have like a certain little training tip in each thing or whatever and I don't know, just those little bite sized nuggets and especially from true ninjas, you know. Yeah, I think that's perfect.

So that is very helpful. And I talked about the breaking the book into three different segments and I don't even know, it could even be that I end up taking the existing version, which is one third and actually breaking it because it's like I really am targeting 150 page book, but I want to have photos in there as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And if I'm going to have that and I actually want some white space and I actually want questions and so I don't want long paragraphs. I want a case where I ask a question and then there's. They have to jump to the next paragraph. So maybe there is actually much like I would do as a coach where I Wait somebody out to think. I'm hoping that by having questions followed by a break before the next paragraph, it forces a little bit of think time about that question.

Yeah, I definitely think that making it more readable, especially with this type of a book, breaking it up and having it that way. So as you write, you may need to just massage the content a little bit more and say, okay, what absolutely needs to be in this first book? You don't want to leave out any information that's, that's really necessary to understand what you're sharing. But if it's too long, you know you'll lose them. So make it shorter rather than longer. And if you need to break it up, I think you have some really great content. Ninja Vori is so popular right now in that kind of fitness realm, so it'll be interesting to see, to see how it goes. But I think a series would be great and if you need to do more than three books in the series, you know, that's great too. So do you have any other questions as far as your plan and your next steps?

As far as plan and next steps, I feel like my 23 week plan, if I don't get too aggressive on it because I'm already way ahead of schedule, I'm like four weeks ahead of schedule.

Wow.

If I stay with the plan, it does take me through like four different rounds of editing, of self editing before I even would look to an editor to provide feedback. So I think I've built in what appears to me to be the right steps based on everything I've read and learned from the training I've gone through with you so far. And I have more training to go through, so I know I have a lot more to learn. But I tried to really digest the writing portions of everything. So the biggest outstanding questions that I would have here as we get closer to the end of this would be, you've worked with a number of people that have been doing writing. Based on what I've described and what my plan is, what might I not be thinking of or what do other people run into that I may not be aware of yet. That could be just helpful to me as I finish potentially the next four weeks of writing, or if I stay as aggressive, maybe less than that. Yes.

Well, I mean, you are very organized and so I love that a lot of people, people are not quite as organized.

Yeah, I've heard that before too.

Yes. So you have that going for you and that's really, really good. I did mention it earlier, but one thing that I've started doing a little bit more often. Not with every book, but I did it with one of my most recent books is having those beta readers. And I think having that, you know, do the self editing, you know, get it through that process, have the beta readers and really get good feedback. And it can be painful at times. Like, I. That's when I ended up cutting out chapters. No, you wouldn't do that. But it made my book so much better. Oh, my goodness. It was just. And then your beta readers can be reviewers setting up even some people, like, as you tell people about your book, I always say, bubble while you're writing it, as you're talking to people say, yeah, oh, my goodness, I just finished writing my next section of my chapter. You can post something about it and start building some buzz for that. I think you're really, you know, on the right track. I mean, the. The main thing is, is having that lead magnet set up and have the email list ready so that when you publish your book, you can. I usually like to recommend putting a link to it in the front and in the back of the book and then, you know, throughout the book as it makes sense. But you're really doing well and organized, and I think it's a good plan.

Well, another twist that, because of a comment that you made at one is, I've already shared the idea with a whole bunch of ninjas that at different comps that I go to, and they're all, man, that's gonna be a great read. That's gonna be so much fun. So I did decide because I actually couldn't find. Didn't find any women in their 50s that have competed on the show. But I have found, and I do know of three women that are three women, two that have competed on the show and one that's hoping to compete this year that are in their 40s. And I decided to incorporate the three women in their 40s because I thought it would open up again another whole audience of people that would be interested in reading the book because now there's women included in it. It's not just the seniors. And then literally, you know, I have 14 people that are going to have a section of the book that include them. So I'm sitting here thinking, I can easily see each of them saying, man, you know, this is a cool book, assuming I do it well, but it's a cool book. I want to get one. And not only that, a whole bunch of my friends, I want to get them or them, they should buy this book. Because I'm in there.

Exactly. I just wrote that down. They can be part of your book launch team or your street team, whatever you call it. And also what I've done when I've had contributors to books is I offer them a discount if they buy bulk copies from me. So you can buy wholesale and then you can say, hey, if you want to buy like 10 or 20 copies, give them away as gifts or whatever, or sell them yourself, I'll give you a discount. So yeah, I mean that's brilliant that you're incorporating them not only for the content that they'll have and just the fun of like, ooh, there's another ninja, you know, or whatever. But yeah, they can help promote it. They might buy copies from you. Discounts, all those things.

Right. So lots of things going on. I've been sick for the last 50 something days, so that's big bind on me from just a health and an ability to focus. But I've got a good start with my first 20,000 words and I think I've got some enjoyable story is already in there. And it boils down to I want to have enough content that I've dumped that the editing process is hard because I've got so much that I could put in. And I have to make those tough calls of pulling some things out for now for this book.

Yes.

How about one last thing and then I promise I'll be a good guy and stop here. The three book concepts I've got. The first one is something along the line of you too can train for ninja warrior Even at 60 plus, 60 plus or whatever, something like that. The second one and the chapters that I yanked out were how to train as a Ninja Warrior at 60 plus as a second book, you know, a follow up. And then the third one that I got right now is key memories as I have trained for Ninja Warrior at 60 plus and just there's so many experiences that I will have not shared yet that I think could be fun reads and listen things to learn from. And so those are the three that I currently have that I'm thinking could be worth it. And if people enjoy the first book and go into the second book, I'm thinking the third book. The memories could be very stimulating because they already know a good deal about me and what I've gone through and they want to hear more stories. You know, what's it like behind the scenes? What do people do and how does ninja order even work?

Yes. So I love the progression. I think it's just going to Be a natural thing of how to train, you know, after you've been inspired. The third one, I would rework a little bit the title, to make it more reader focused. Yeah, of what? What is it they're going to get out of it? What is it they're going to learn? How are they going to be inspired? Maybe the biggest things that you learned. I'm not saying that that's. I would do some brainstorming on that just to make sure it's more reader focused. But I think it's a great progression and I'm excited. I'm excited to see what you do.

Well. It's gonna be a fun year. My goal was to write two books. I was assuming that I would write one passion book and one coaching book. If this takes off and is as much fun as it could be, it could be that I just don't get to the coaching book yet. I end up building and potentially I could have written a chunk of the second book through my editing process of my first book by just saying, yeah, pull this out. Maybe we incorporate this in book two type of thing, or even book three.

Yeah, totally. And this can actually, like you said, be an extension of your coaching business because of the way that you're writing it. So you're kind of integrating both into it, which is cool, but it is a hot topic. It is something. And I'll be really interested to see how it does because I think, think the potential is really there, especially as you're integrating other ninja warriors and you're just getting people involved. The more you get people involved, the more they get excited and it's an excitable topic, you know.

Right, right. Well, it's funny because of the stories I've already told a number of people. I said, by the way, you came up last night in my writing, in my story about blank, you know, it's like, because you were there, you were the one that reached and grabbed the mat and first one that gave me the high five or picked me up off of the floor, you know. So I plan to incorporate a lot of people, which means I'm going to need a lot of people to see a whole lot of copy to make sure that they aren't surprised. I want anybody that's in there to have seen a segment about themselves.

Yeah, it's always good to get permission. And then that way also, like I just mentioned, you get them on board and they're excited to help you promote it as well. And so, yeah, I think this is really good. And I love Seeing your updates in the private Facebook group and you know, you're just, you're just rocking and rolling.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, one last idea. You have time for one last idea. One of the things that I haven't, I did once, but I haven't done it since then is the first day that I started writing, I posted a short video that I put on the Facebook site and I think I've got like 2,500 friends on Facebook or something. So what I have in my day file every Monday going forward is to provide a probably a 15 to 25 second update on my book writing process. You know, literally, hey guys, you know, I'm up to 37,000 words. I just wrote a chapter on play and how important it is for ninjas to constantly play and just got feedback in a segment for John Stewart, you know, the 54 year old that made it through stage two in Texas. His segments going to be in the book. And I got that in this week, you know, so something that's real short and quick, but just kind of week after week after week is giving people an update about what's going on with the book.

Yeah, I like that. And I think you can vary it so I wouldn't make it too repetitious. So one week you might talk about someone you're highlighting or one week you might talk about a story that you were like, oh my goodness, I had so much fun writing the story of the very first time. And another time you might say, oh, I just sent something to a beta reader, or you know, I'm working with, working with my author coach, you know, or whatever.

Yeah, no, that's good.

But definitely, like, it's exciting. And I did that this last year with my project Broken Crayons Still Color. And I just shared as I was doing, if I was in the audiobook, you know, recording studio, I took a picture of myself and posted it and people were like, whoa. You know, and they were so excited and you know, it's just really helped build the buzz. And so I love that idea. I would just make sure you vary it so it's not too repetitious, but that it's just fun and they just really get excited.

That makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense.

Awesome. Well, I am really excited for you. Thank you so much for your willingness to get on this focus to finish session, to share what you're doing with others. And if someone just wants to connect with you, do you have a website or a place they can connect with you to find out when the book is published.

I do. It's welldonelife.com and I think it's Welldone Life.

Well done-life.com yeah. Okay, so if you're interested in following Chris and his journey with this book, go to welldone-life.com and I'll be so excited to see your progress. And maybe once you publish the book, we'll have to have you on again sometime.

Sounds good. Sounds great.

All right, thanks so much.

Thanks for all the insight.

You're welcome. Bye Bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Author Audience. I would like to invite you to attend one of my free trainings on three proven book writing formulas every nonfiction author needs to know. This is a fun and fast way to write a nonfiction book, but also a book that you're proud of. Plus, I will give you two free gifts just for attending. No credit card required. First, you'll get my 10 nonfiction book title templates and you'll also get my ebook titled Brilliant brainstorming. It's a 28 page ebook and both of these bonuses are yours at no charge. Just for joining us for the training, you can sign up for my free training by going to shellyhits.com formulas. That's ShellyHits S-H E L L E Y H I-T Z.com formulas. This training and the two bonuses are free and I would love to help you write your next nonfiction book.

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