How Susan Neal Published 2 Books and 4 Products in One Year

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 Author Audience, where I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. Today I'm rolling out the red carpet and inviting you into my community for a behind the scenes look at what's working for authors just like you. My name is Shelley Hitz. I am the owner of Author Audience Academy. And to be honest, the most rewarding part of my job is helping others get results and reach their goals. When I see people taking action and accomplishing things, it just makes my heart so full. And in this episode, I am going to position the spotlight on one of my members, Susan Neal. So welcome, Susan.

Thank you so much, Shelly, for having me.

Yes, absolutely. I met Susan actually through my sister when I was in Florida. And so it has been fun just to get to know her her better and to really help her accomplish a lot. I am going to just share a little bit of your bio before we dive in. Susan Neal is a certified yoga Instructor with over 30 years experience in practicing and teaching yoga. That is a lot of experience.

As a pursuer of ultimate health. Susan merged her practice of yoga with her practice with her spiritual practice of Christianity. She is the founder of Scripture Yoga and she recites theme based scripture verses during her yoga classes, which I think is so awesome. I love that. So you can learn more about her@christianyoga.com so for this week's Center Stage Spotlight training, we are going to really just focus on how Susan published two books and four products in one year. So Susan, just tell us a little bit about how you even got started on this journey.

Well, how it began is I had a yoga instructor who came to my class and she was Christian and she had just started a Christian yoga class and she was having a really difficult time doing it and I realized that I had so much knowledge about it. So I began writing a book that had 21 Bible lessons for Christian yoga classes or it could be for any type of exercise class. And so then I met you and I started following you on your podcast. And then I had written my book and I wanted to publish it. I wanted to self publish because you get 70% of the proceeds from Amazon if you self publish.

So yes. On Kindle. Yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah. So I joined Author Audience Academy.

Yeah. And I specifically remember my sister family is really good, friends with you and your family. And I specifically remember my sister taking us to your house and you had like this table of spread out things, like, you know, several books in process, different products you'd create, created. You'd already created a DVD at that time. And so you already had the dream, the passion, the idea. And when you joined Author Audience Academy, it was just the nuts and bolts of, okay, how am I going to do this now? How am I going to get this published and get it out to people?

Right.

Tell us what happened once you joined Author Audience Academy.

Okay, so I joined around a Thanksgiving and at first I was like, wow, there's so much stuff in here. I should have joined six months ago instead of waiting. Because you could have helped me with the writing process. Yeah.

And I think that's a misconception a lot of people have when they'll even write me and they're like, you know, I'm going to wait until my book's written and then I'll join. And I mean, you're not the only one. A lot of people say that, but then when they join, they're like, oh, you know, I could have done it this way or that way or, you know, there's so much more there.

Yeah, yeah, you could have really helped me. So I wish I had joined earlier, but, you know, sometimes you want to follow someone and see, okay, do I think with this person except Christian. And you would always pray. And it was just great fit because you're nonfiction and you're also Christian. So I joined the academy and the first thing is I went and had my manuscript edited. And then after I had it edited, I had it formatted because I had like 90 photographs. So I need help with putting it in the format. Now you provide for individuals how to format it yourself to save that money. But I couldn't do that with all the photographs. So then after that I began, I got my launch date and I published my book in May.

Awesome.

I initially I did it on Kindle and then after that I began working on. Okay, I'm going to, after, after this I'm going to put it as a print book. And I accomplished that in July. But in between that, because you kind of say, well, let's work on a, you know, you can work on more than one product at a time. Started working on creating a scripture, yoga.

Decks, and the scripture, yoga decks. Were you repurposing some of the images and things you already had from your book?

Yes.

Okay.

In fact, can I go get it? Just a moment.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I love repurposing. I love how you can create something one time and then you can create multiple products. And that's exactly what you're doing. You created a Kindle book, a print book. You created these yoga scripture decks. Show us on the video for those that are watching.

Here is my book, Scripture Yoga. But then inside I have different themes. So I would just take one of the things. I took one of the themes out and then photographs from it and I put it in a deck. And I got this idea from going to one of your classes. So I picture verse on one side, then a yoga pose on the other.

I love it.

Scripture verse and a yoga pose. And all my photographs have a beautiful picture of a cross in the background.

Yeah, I remember when you were getting those pictures taken, you were like, oh my goodness, how perfect is this? There's a cross in the background.

Yes, I love that. And have you gotten good feedback about those cards as well?

Yes, yes. I think people have a tendency more to buy the books. Yeah, DVDs too.

Yeah.

They seem to buy them more than the decks. But the decks is, you know, something that is different.

Yes.

So I published the book on scripture yoga and then I did the decks and I did two different themes I took out of the scripture yoga book. One was on how to receive God's peace, and the other one was the fruit of the spirit. So I got those done and I got them published and produced in July. And then in July I was going up to New York to actually speak at a Christians Practicing Yoga conference in reference to deal with this. Although I had been at women's retreats, many of retreats I had spoke at. But anyway, then in August you did another, you used to call them take action workshops.

Yes.

And this one was about how to make a digital product. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to use what I have out of my second book. My second book I actually published in September. It's called Yoga for Beginners.

Love it. And those of us that are authors, we sit at a desk a lot. So that's a great book to get those flexibility exercises.

So then I took a chapter out of it, Eat to Live. And this is a low carbohydrate, low glycemic anti inflammatory diet.

Oh, wow.

So I just took a chapter out of my book, created a digital product. And so that's only $5 for this little digital product. And it's a great resource for people. Yeah.

And you know, I didn't say this in your bio because There was so much. But you're also a nurse and you have a lot of like, medical qualifications for what you're doing and what other. What are your qualifications exactly?

Yeah, I'm a registered nurse. I have a bachelor of science in Nursing and master's in Business administration and a master's in health science.

Yeah. So I mean, those of you listening, I mean, she's not just doing something because, oh, I liked yoga. I mean, it's, it's definitely. You have the credentials to go behind it. I was just reminded of that when you held up your book. But yeah, so, you know, you, you now have two books, the two scripture card decks. You have the digital product. Did you create a second digital product?

Yes, yes. My second digital product is basically improvement and reversal of Alzheimer's.

Oh, wow.

And there was a study published in June 2016, and they had some of these people improved with their Learning tests from 3% to 84%. Wow. Going on the protocol. And so what I did is I looked at the protocol and what they did with the research and I put it into layman's terminology. So.

Exactly.

This first reporting of improvement and reversal of Alzheimer's and dementia in the scientific world. And that's on my website, ChristianYoga.com for people to purchase that, because you can have the link to the real article, research article, but it's very difficult to understand.

Right. Tell me the bottom line.

Vitamin B12, eat that, eat to live diet and you know, take your vitamin D and this and that and. And there's like 20 different things to do.

Yeah, yeah. So you have now created just a variety of ways that you can share your expertise, you can help people. And I know you have even more things and more ideas. You're definitely a go getter and you apply it, you put it to use. I love it. You just recently told me, just recently you went to a speaking engagement. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Oh, it was so exciting. I went to, called the Blue Lake Christian Writers Retreat. Oh, fun Yoga every morning. And I just had an overwhelmingly positive response. In fact, the director of the retreat, she just emailed me last night and she said that four out of the top 10 products were my products. Oh, wow.

The ones that you brought to sell.

Yes, yes. So it was just incredible. Just incredible. And it was, it was wonderful. So I have, I have done so much. I accomplished so much. This is my second book, the Yoga for Beginners. I published it in Kindle in September, and then in November I did it in print and What I did is, again, you taught us well, you can reuse different things in your book. Well, I had spent so much time, you know, with five photo sessions doing pictures on the beach.

And you did a lot of photos formatting, I remember too. I mean, you spent a lot of time.

Yeah. So I took those 90 pictures and I created a secular book, a secular yoga book versus my first one is a Christian yoga. So it was for two, you know, different audiences. And then I, you know, I mean, everything else in the books are completely different. And the Yoga for Beginners, it's how I lost my health and what steps I took to regain it and how I came up with this great diet to maintain health, cognitive ability and your ideal weight.

Yeah. So I definitely recommend those of you listening. I mean, as authors, as writers, we spend so much time sedentary, you know, and if you're struggling in your health at all, definitely check out Susan's resources. And one of the tips, just, you know, as you were talking, it's like speaking engagements are one of the places you can sell the most books and you're seeing that. And so if you have a venue that you might want to bring Susan in, have her lead the group in flexibility and yoga and things like that, also check out her site for thatchristianyoga.com but also, if you have books, really consider stepping out and doing speaking engagements, even if it's outside of your comfort zone, because it can really be huge impact and it can be a way to really get the message out to more people. What do you have for us today, Susan, as like an take action tip for the listeners today?

If you have a dream to publish a book, join Shelley's Author Audience Academy. It is well worth it. Look what I did. I can't believe how much I accomplished in one year. It was Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving and it was unbelievable.

I have six products and now you're putting them to use. You're able to go and do these speaking engagements and you have so much to offer them, not only to make money, which we, you know, you've invested a lot into this, so you want to be able to earn money from it, but to help people with their health, to get the message to more people and to really just see God use you in even a deeper way. Because there's something. That's why I created my very first book was I would be speaking and I'd want something to leave with them, to help them to go deeper. And that's exactly what you have now. You have these resources and people can continue to go through those yoga exercises and, you know, just the different, you know, eating plans for a long time. So you have no idea how many people you're going to impact through this. So. And I'm just so excited that you joined and can't wait to see what God continues to do in your life. So where's the best way for people to connect with you if they want to find out more or invite you to speak or get your books?

Christianyoga.com all of it's in there. If you want to contact me to speak or teach a Christian yoga class, please contact me. There's a contact link for speaking and I'd love to go. Yeah.

And it's such a unique thing. I think it'd be a great asset for any conference retreat, things like that, even just to have you speaking and sharing your story throughout the retreat. So thank you so much, Susan, and thank you all for joining us and for this episode of Author Audience. And I will see you next time. 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.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.