The Business Strategy Behind an Amazon Bestseller

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Should we just give away the whole secret?

Let's do it if you're okay with it.

I mean, yes, I'm happy to share this. So the whole secret is not to sell the book. Okay, we wrote the book and the secret isn't like, let's sell the book. Yes, we do want people to get the book, but we more so want people to get the backend. Okay, so a book without a backend is a dead end.

Welcome to Inside the Speakeasy Podcast, and I've been looking forward to this interview and conversation for so long. What's crazy, one of my closest friends, and it took me forever to get his ass on the podcast, but you are in for a treat today. My boy, my good friend, Travis Houston. I should say my coach. Travis Houston will tell you the number one bestseller badge is worthless on its own. Get that again. The number one bestseller badge that we all think is important is worthless on its own. He should know. He engineers them. He's co-founder of Book to Buyer. He builds what sits underneath that badge. a strategically positioned book, a front-end funnel that acquires buyers for free, a partner distribution network, and a launch day playbook that turns attention into customers. Travis has got 16 years of scaling online businesses for leading health and personal development brands, which taught him the lesson most authors learned too late. Some of these people, and he is like, everybody wants to work with Travis. Some of them big names you might've heard of like John Assaraf, Amy Myers, Dr. Daniel Amen, Metagenics, Les Brown, and the amazing JJ Virgin. He's been by all of their sides, helping them scale. As Travis says, a bestseller badge is a moment, but a buyer pipeline is an asset. Anything related to this topic, you are in for a huge treat. You're gonna learn so much stuff today. You're gonna learn more from Travis, all things at booktobuyer.com. All that information is gonna be here. I'm so pumped. Travis, thank you for finally joining over here.

I'm so happy to be here, especially after Your big win.

The big win. So yes. So this here, Proximity Pays, my bestselling book with the badge. And we're still working on funnels, which we'll get into on things, tweaking, tweaking, tweaking. Uh, really it only happened because of Travis here who had a vision, understood what I was doing and felt like essentially it's not just me. He's like, Eric, it's not just about getting the book published. He's like, you have so many years of experience and expertise in what you do and what he's seen me doing within Speakeasy Mastermind, because He is an OG of the mastermind out in San Diego. And he said, this is such a big asset. And then he helped me get this book. I went through some coaching with him and his program. And I have to say, you know, be a little emotional. It was one of the first times as an adult, I almost like I had a little bit of tears. I was getting a little verklempt out there, you know, having had that book and hitting the number 1. And he was on stage with me at our big event and helping me get copies sold. And we're gonna talk a lot about that process and what really is important through all things. So thanks again, Travis. And I'm excited to get into it.

Literally the day after we did your bestseller launch before you showed up to the event that day, you posted on Facebook that it was like, it was one of the first times I've cried as an adult.

Oh man, did I say that? Shoot. Oh God, embarrassed. Okay. Yeah, no, it was good.

And you posted that on Facebook with a copy of your book and you'd hit number 1 and you were like, you woke up in the morning, you checked Amazon, you had the number 1 bestseller, you posted it online and you literally posted, it's one of the first times that I've cried as an adult.

Yeah.

I was like, what a special moment. to have had.

Yeah. And you helped make it so tangible. And I think a lot of it honestly is just the confidence for me. It was just confidence knowing that, you know, it's the imposter syndrome, cobbler shoe, all those things tied in around like, is what I really know, like, do people care about, you know, do I have something inside of me that has value to others? It just seems so natural to me, you know? And I think it's getting that out of people, which was really helpful.

Can I say how, how freaking cool is it That you and I are sitting here in this conversation when, uh, I don't even know the year that it was, but do you remember when you and I were sitting at the gym?

Yep.

Having a conversation around your agency and how frustrated it could, it could be. And, uh, we had a conversation around, you were considering maybe.

Yep. Yep. That was 2022. And, and me with my, uh, strengths and weaknesses, my weakness being on my Kolbe being a, uh, a high quick start and a low fact, and with a high follow-through. I'm just like, let me just run some numbers here. And I'm literally calculating on my phone while we're working out. And I'm like, wait, this could be kind of an interesting business. And then like, you're like, wait a second. I just talked to Eric at the gym. And like 3 weeks later, he was already like opening some stuff up.

So backstory, Eric and I were working out at the gym and we had Speakeasy and Speakeasy, Eric's, Eric's baby. But it was like, I don't know, 14, 15 of us in Speakeasy for many, it was 14 or 15 people, badasses in Speakeasy for years. And then I could just see that it was Eric's calling, like his actual calling in life to bring the best people together and to help them elevate their business. And like, he took an idea that we came up with at the gym and here we are today on the Speakeasy Podcast. And I'm thrilled about that.

Yeah. Well, thank you. You've been always such an amazing support to me and appreciate you. But I want to get into some questions I prepared, Travis, for you here. All right. So, you know, you helped me turn Proximity Pays here into a published book and number one, 3-category number one bestseller. You know, I told you that I got pretty emotional. And why does that moment hit experts so hard?

How about we start off the podcast with a word in German that's almost impossible to say?

Okay.

So there's a phrase that I've heard and I've never found a word in another language like this. In German, it's called Fingerspitzengefühl. I want you to say it. Fingerspitzengefühl.

Fingerspitzengefühl.

Okay, that's the exact reason. So in German, it means I have this fingertip feeling. And a fingertip feeling, that's what it means in German, means I have this sense. I have this, that's taken years to get this like sense for how to do something. And then it just becomes autonomic. It just becomes something that you just do. It becomes unconscious competence. And for you, Eric, I think when you finally got the book out of you, like you had written the book and you'd gotten the book, you'd maybe gotten your first like publisher copy of the book. It's the first time as an adult that you see what you do with unconscious competence, the thing that you do so well naturally. It's the first time you see it as a framework and a system and steps that other people could follow. And so I think there's this moment that you experience and other authors that we work with experience when they're like, I can finally express what I do in a way that people understand it and moves them to action.

And they can't read my mind. You're actually putting it into, yeah, you're putting the frameworks and it's there. And I think on top of that, what was so profound to me is the calls that I got from people that I respect, you know, high-level people that are like, Eric, I gotta say, I read the book and it was actually quite good. And it's almost like they just know me forever. We're buddies. They're like, hey, this shit's actually good. I like the way you did it. And it actually got me thinking about some things. And I think you said something important. It's the unconscious competence, the stuff that I thought was natural. I was good at, it became natural and I didn't think it was that valuable to others. And then when having get it out there to the frameworks and hearing that it was pretty exciting. And I think—

You finally built an asset. You took everything that's in your brain and it just takes organizing it, or as I call sequencing, it takes sequencing it in the right order to put it into a methodology that then other people can benefit from because you are unconsciously so good at so many things. But when it comes to networking, You're an absolute genius, but it really takes sitting down. And as they say, it's hard to do surgery on yourself.

Yeah.

You needed a process that helped extract that from you and put it into a system that then became the book.

That's right. That's right. No, it's great.

And it is such a good book. I mean, just like the isolation tax concept alone is like one of the things that's plaguing people is being isolated and you showing them the way out of that, which is community and network and who you surround yourself with inside of Speakeasy. They're genius concepts.

Yeah. Well, really, that really, it's helping people understand the cost and the amount of money, the tax they're paying for being isolated, how much they're missing out on the dollars. And again, but appreciate less about the book and thank you for that. But I wanna hear more about you and what you're teaching. So Travis, I wanna go back to something I opened with a little bit. You say that the number one bestseller badge, ouch, you know, is worthless. You also engineer them for a living. Like you create the number one, you, you did that for me, but you say just having the badge, so many people brag about it, but it's worthless. What do you mean by that?

Uh, I don't wanna offend anybody. Well, okay, let's offend some people. So a bestseller badge is a moment. A book that has a sales funnel behind it that you can drive traffic to is an asset.

Hmm.

And so I really want people to own an asset that they can use over and over and over again. So a lot of people, what they do is they write their book, right? Or they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars using services that go out and like buy their books to get them ranked. There is no Santa Claus means that a lot of bestselling authors, a lot of the number one bestselling authors have paid to buy the books. To get them to that number 1 spot on Amazon. So they're renting the bestseller status for a week. So my question to you is, what happens in weeks 2 or 3 after that's over?

Right? When the buzz wears down and everybody goes on their way to do other things, it's like, wait a second, nobody's knocking on my door. What happened? Where's, where's my royalty check?

I call it sugar and carbs, sugar and carbs, sugar and carbs. It's just like, imagine that the only thing you ever ate was sugar and carbs, sugar and carbs, sugar and carbs. That's like going for that bestseller moment, which is nice for a minute, but the crash is going to come. I would rather you have protein, salt, and fat, protein, salt, and fat, which is the thing that lasts, which is I want you to have a pipeline, meaning I want your book to be turned into a sales asset you can drive traffic to organically through partners and especially through paid traffic. I mean, I just looked at my stats today. I spent $300 on ads today to a book funnel and I made $562. Wow. How many days a week would you do that?

All day, every day. That's crazy. Okay.

How many books do you think were published in 2025 as a whole? How many? And I mean by an ISBN number. So someone went to Bowker, they got an ISBN number in 2025. How many books do you think were published in 2025?

God, 25,000.

Great answer. 4.2 million. Okay. So 3.5 million are self-published, which means about 640,000 went through publishers, but 4.2 million books were published in 2025, of which they annualize this for how much a book makes. And a book makes about $2,000 a year when you just get it out there, you do your bestseller launch, it's hot, it's sugar and carbs for, you know, a week or two, you hit your bestseller status and then—

Right. Well, let me play devil's advocate. I do agree with what you're saying. And you and I are kind of talking real time because I'm witnessing it going through right now. What about, I mean, is it a myth or is there any value to somebody saying, I got the badge on the website. I'm gonna go get more podcasts now, and I have a credibility sticker and it's gonna get me more stages.

I do think that works as long as you work the system. So if you are actively sending your book to people that book stages, or you're actively doing outreach, or you're actively doing social media, or you continue to talk about the book, I think what happens is most people get to the book, they get to the bestseller, and that feels like the end zone to them.

Right, exactly. You gotta do something. The reality is it's part of the game. You're only on the The first 20-yard line, you started the game. You're not even at halftime for probably the first quarter.

A number one bestseller is not a business.

Yeah. Okay. Well said. Well said. Exactly. Okay. But why do you think most people go this route? Why do they stop?

Let's talk about why they go this route. Why they go this route is validation.

Okay.

What I have to say is worth something. I'm a number one bestseller. Ego, ego, sugar, and carbs. We like, everyone wants that, that their 15 minutes of fame, but I don't want to chase the badge. I wanna build the book that builds the business.

Right, right.

And so we can chase that moment, which I see so many people, they love that moment and they think that's the finish line and it ain't the finish line.

Right.

The finish line is how do you get your book to sell 200 to 300 copies every month? There's the secret. The unlock is yes, have a book, have a book that builds the business, but also build the asset that sells the book Every month.

And then, well, ultimately, and have it be, you know, stage 1 of your funnel too. I mean, that's just part of it. I mean, not just making the book. So that gets me to my next question is walk me through, you know, you talked about, you give the example of the ads that you ran for your book. You have a, you have a good positive ROI. You'll do that all day long. And you have a $10 book as a front end on your funnel. What's actually being built underneath it? Why is that? Walk me through that a little bit.

That's actually the whole secret. Should we just give away the whole secret?

Let's do it.

Okay. If you're okay with it, I mean, yeah, it's just, I, I'm happy to share this. So the whole secret is not to sell the book. We wrote the book and the secret isn't like, let's sell the book. Yes, we do want people to get the book, but we more so want people to get the backend.

Okay?

So a book without a backend is a dead end.

Hmm.

And I think most people wrote the book. So how we helped engineer your book, Eric, And the other books that we do that build the business is, I'll just give you all the numbers. Here's how it all breaks down. We like to have a book that's on Amazon, and the book on Amazon is $14.95. Okay? So you wrote your book, you get it up on Amazon. I don't ever care about selling the book on Amazon. I like the book to be on Amazon. I like there to be over 50 to 80 reviews of the book on Amazon, but I never care about selling it there. I want people to go to a book sales funnel. So I'll give you 2 examples. One, my book, one, my wife's book, and about to be your book. So my book, you can go to turnviewsintoprofit.com and you can see it on Amazon and there's reviews on Amazon. But I'd rather you go to— I'd rather you not buy it on Amazon. I'd rather you buy it through the book sales funnel.

Right. And most people, the first response would be, gee, you want to own the buyer. I mean, I think that's the first common, like, yeah, because you want to own it.

But the real reason, as you know, is how it works. So I'll just use my wife's book that I send a lot of traffic to. So her book is getcashpayclients.com. I send traffic there. So The way that we've worked it is the book is $14.95 on Amazon, or it's $9.95 on the book sales funnel page, but it's the digital book plus some bonuses. So for $9.95, you get the digital book plus some bonuses that go along with that that make the book so attractive. Like the bonuses are like, oh yeah, I want, I just want to buy it for the bonuses, but I also get the book. When they click the yes, I want the book, there's what's called a bump offer. And a bump offer happens at the time that they're putting in the credit card information and they're checking out. What we found works the best is the audiobook. So we sell the digital book and some bonuses for $9.95. We then sell the bump offer for $37, and that's the audiobook plus some other like digital toolkit. Like we have some AI agents and some AI employees that go along with that. So for everyone who buys the book, Eric, we get a 64% take rate on the bump offer.

Whoa. Okay.

Which is great because they want the audiobook version. So they buy the book, they get the bump offer, and then on the next page after they purchase is what's called the one-time offer. So we have an additional offer that people get for my wife's book. It's a $495 one-time offer, and we're selling the thing that helps them accelerate getting results from the concepts in the book. So just, there is no Santa Claus. I'm gonna tell you everything. The book is about shifting a belief.

Okay.

Like in your book, the belief shift is about proximity is power and proximity pays and get in the right room around the right people. Your overall business elevates and you're building that belief in the book. So in my wife's book, she's building a very specific belief and the one-time offer that goes along with the book accelerates them getting the result related to that belief. Does that make sense?

Yep. Yep.

We get about a 14% conversion to the book sales page. Of the people that buy the book, we get about a 64%, 65% conversion to the bump offer. And then the one-time offer at $495 converts about 11%. So it means a blended average cart value for us is in the $65 to $85 range. So our average cart value, let's just call it around, let's just call it $70. So as long as I can acquire a buyer into the book funnel for under $60, I'm winning. Like today I spent $303 on ads. I just checked. I spent $303 on ads. I made $652 today.

Jesus. Is that like almost every day you're ahead or some bad, some good? Have you noticed any trends there? Everything you hear on this show comes back to one idea, proximity. I wrote the book on it.

Literally, Proximity Pays, my bestselling book available now at proximity Overall, what's called ROAS, my return on ad spend, is I'm making 1.4%. So I'm just, I'm basically breaking even on the front. Some days I lose money, some days I make money, kind of depends on the algorithm. But I built an AI agent that's connected from Claude to Meta Ads via this thing called an MCP. And now Claude helps me write and manage my ad accounts.

And tweak and what you need to do and all that kind of stuff.

Every day I can just type into my Claude and my Claude AI goes and checks my Meta ads account, comes back and it helps me understand what to optimize and what to do. So I built a whole book advertising AI bot.

Love it. Now, well, okay. This to me begs the question here. I mean, you know, organic, paid, partner traffic works with this offer, assuming you're really good at scaling. I talked about all the clients you've been with and you are a machine when it comes to tweaking. As you've taken clients, they're not as skilled, let's say, as somebody like yourself to do this. Are you finding that many of your clients are having that kind of, at least a positive ROAS on that campaign?

On the ad spend?

Yeah.

For the ones that follow the system. Yes.

Got it.

So people come through, you know, I like to create templates for everything. So when you came through and did your book, I personally helped you set up your book funnels for your workbook, for your getting Amazon reviews, for your resources, for the book sales funnel. I also have a very specific set of templates that you just fill out the information in the templates.

And then it, it rocks and rolls. And I know we're not even at the end of the story too, because we're just working our way through a positive ROAS and really the magic happens the next step. And so, you know, I'm beyond—

The next step.

Yeah.

Yeah. So the people, so my favorite thing ever is you sell a backend program. You've got people joining Speakeasy.

Yep. Yep.

So we work with health and wellness practitioners and business owners and subject matter experts and home services companies. And the book is just a great front door. So when someone shows up to a sales call or a discovery call and they have the book in their hand, guess what my first like reaction is?

I mean, they're way more, there's way higher conversion rate on these people. And as your amazing wife, a lot of these people aren't freebie seekers as she likes to use. They're not freebie seekers that are taking your time on these presale calls. They're customers and fans. So I think anybody listening clearly knows that the conversion rate is going to be substantially higher versus a rando that's coming in.

Just this month we're doing the podcast interview. We've had people from major companies, if I said their name, and I just won't right now 'cause we're still like in discovery with them, have reached out and then they get on a call with my wife and I and they're like, oh my God, I read Joy's book and I, I feel like I'm talking to a celebrity.

Nice.

Because I mean, when you read a book that impacts you in a special way, you become a fan of that person or brand. So a book reader is your best buyer.

100%. I mean, I've had a couple random calls myself just on this book and I've barely even got started yet where like, there's like, Oh my God, I'm actually talking. You know, like they're so like thankful.

So we wanna sell the backend. So the book is the best frontend that leads to some sort of a backend offer. One of our doctors, Sherry, that we work with, she wrote a book called Why You Can't Lose Weight. She has people paying her $10,000 for her like one-on-one program that she has where she works with people who bought the book but never read the book because they're like, oh, she has a book. I'm gonna go work with her.

Right. Well, they've seen enough on her website, the book, the follow-ups, the gifts are like, she knows her shit.

So therefore she's an author. She's an expert.

She's an expert. Yeah.

And she is.

But I think you gotta get more credit. There's more dimensions to the things following your process. It's not just a book. I mean, cuz I think a lot of, as you said, there's 4 point blah, blah, blah million books being published. I think just every little step along the way, I feel like adds this micro credibility buzzer in my mind of them just being that more credible. I don't know. For me, I just look at it and say, you're adding this, you're You're adding this.

A book is the best passport to credibility.

Yeah.

If you want to be more credible and you want to have people see you as more credible, I don't think there's a better passport to credibility than writing a, a great book.

Got it. Love it.

All right.

I have a couple more questions. You know, one is, who's this actually for? You talked a little bit about anybody who wants to become an expert and what has to already exist before someone can even use kind of this, this launch playbook or the formula that you're describing.

Please, Jesus, please, please, 5.6 out, baby Jesus, please, please don't write a book unless you're actually an expert at something, unless you have gotten someone a result. Please don't write a book because you're trying to just use the book to get clients and sell them something that you haven't actually got results for somebody. So who it's for, it's for somebody who's developed a certain amount of expertise in an area and they have that to give, even if they don't understand how to write the book. Even if they've tried and failed at writing the book before, it's the kind of person who provides some sort of a service or some sort of an offer that can actually for realsies get someone a result. They can deliver on a promise.

Got it. So love it. And I think more than that, they gotta be passionate about that topic. They gotta be an expert. They really gotta show their passion for it because it's gonna go along through the whole, be threaded through everything. And I mean, that goes without being, being said.

Well, I think people write a book and then it just doesn't do anything for them. But we want our, our concept is write the book that builds the business. But this is the important part that builds the business you want to run and fulfill on. We were talking to a doctor just yesterday and he had 2 ideas for the book that he wanted to build. And he was writing, he was currently in the process of writing the book that was building a business he hates.

Yep.

And so we were just able to shift him. Don't write the book that's going to build the business that you loathe running that business because you'll self-sabotage that business.

Yep. Well, a couple thoughts. One is I was going to make one more comment on that is I think that, you know, especially my experience with you, I think sometimes if we're not clear, ask those that we're surrounding ourselves, those that love us, that we know that trust will tell us what we want to hear and also tell us things we don't want to hear. More importantly, ask them what we're great at, what we're different at, What have you learned from me kind of thing? Because sometimes we do have that cobbler shoe or that, that, that, you know, don't feel like the imposter syndrome that what we're teaching is really that worthy. So I think that's another thing, especially if you're deciding between 2 topics. Um, I'm gonna pivot to another question though. Why do we run into so many people when you say, have you thought about writing a book? Are you writing a book? And they, yes, I've been working on this thing and it's, I've been stuck on it for, I've been working on it for 2 years. Oh, I've started on it. I just, I'm stuck. Why do people get stuck?

Writing the book? I'm sure there's a lot of reasons for this. Life gets in the way. Other things come up. You see a shiny object and you head in that direction. I'm going to say one is a book deserves this. Do you know what this is? And you'll know, you're going to be, you're going to know this better than anybody because I always say, why does a racehorse have blinders?

Right.

You actually own racehorses. So Eric, you're probably the only person who I've ever asked this question to that's actually qualified to. My dad was a horse trainer. He trained racehorses. I spent more time at Portland Meadows growing up than I probably did at Elementary school. So why do racehorses have blinders on?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, they're distracted from the other horses. They wanna stay focused and not get shiny object of the other horses. Yeah.

And do we as adults have a lot of ADHD? I think the reason that we don't finish the book is because a book means we as adults get to put on blinders and finish the damn book. So as you know, the reason you finished the book is because we locked you into a room for 5 days And made you finish the book.

Yeah. And I think that's a big part of it. I think there's certainly that, there's the focus, but I think the other part in my mind, as you talk, then I go through me as a, you know, somebody went through this, is there's a confidence issue. There's a confidence. And again, back to imposter syndrome, I keep saying it, you know, and there's also a lack of, I say there's a confidence issue and there's a skills gap, meaning I don't necessarily know if what I'm doing is the right thing. Am I going the right direction? So there's a lot of hesitancy at What I would've felt. And as I've talked to people, it's like, I think I'm going right. It'd be nice to get somebody to review and hold my hand along the way.

So you ever like, do you know the Trader Joe's model where Trader Joe's sells other things and when they find something that sells really well, they make it a Trader Joe's brand and get rid of the other things. So it's like, so what we did was with our book writing process that you went through, and I wanna see if this makes sense to you, we took the concept of working out alone Versus going to something like Orangetheory or F45 or one of those group workout things where we created an environment where it's you plus 11 other people in a room, in a suite, in a very specific place, and you're all doing the same thing. So it's like some people get like workout on their own and then they stop working out. Whereas if you have a group who everyone is doing the same thing at the same time, and it's, you're almost like, I'm not gonna say competing, but you see someone else getting things done. Like I remember you were, you were the first person. to finish the book at that event. And I think it made other people be like, damn it, why is Eric on chapter 13 and I'm only on chapter 4?

Right, right. I mean, your process was great being in a group, not staying focused, having— I mean, there's not only accountability of a coach, but there's the group sort of pressure, as you kind of call it, to feel like I'm not alone.

There's a term. It's not my term. It's just called sympathetic resonance. And the concept is if you hit C, the letter, the note C on a piano, and there's a piano like 10 or 15 feet away, The C note will vibrate on that piano because you hit this note. So sympathetic resonance is like, there's a certain resonance that happens in a room. I always say there's magic in that room because we're all vibrating around the same concept at the same time. And Napoleon Hill said, a mastermind is where 2 or more people come together around a similar concept or outcome.

No, I love it. All right. So I'm going to go in different directions. You are an AI expert, AI whiz. I've seen this kind of stuff you've done, the kind of great You know, every meeting you're bringing, you're doing razzle dazzle with all of us. And I go to you quite a bit. You know, we're surrounded by AI garberly gook out there and, you know, some good AI stuff. Now I'm getting exposed to tons of ads and opportunities, exposures. Hey, get your, get your book published. I mean, I'm listening to this call, let's say, and I'm like, sure, I'll just go do an AI book. Talk me through what you see as being an expert in this space. You're an expert in AI. What should people think about and avoid if they're thinking about doing a book, they see AI, they get tempted with that. How can they use AI as a tool and how can it be a, you know, not a tool?

So our process is not gonna help you write your life story. It's not gonna help you write a fiction book about fantasy romance. There's a framework to it. And so AI is so useful when you have a proven and historical framework it can follow. So I think a lot of people get these like AI book writing apps. It says, hey, just put in the chapters, put in some concepts, and it'll write the book for you. And it writes a book and they're okay. They're not great. I want to have a book that follows a proven and winning specific formula that helps people shift a belief and then utilize that belief to get someone to the next step that's like realistic, doable, and will change their life in a positive way. And there's a formula for that. So all we have done is we've taken a formula that we have, a very specific formula that has a framework to it. And when you utilize AI in a way that AI asks you questions and interviews you, like what you did at our event was our AI tools were interviewing you and acting, asking you questions. And then by your answers, you're writing the book because it's just pulling out the right things in the right order at the right time. So sequencing. So one of my mentors said, Travis, a good idea at the wrong time is a bad idea. Ah.

Yep.

And so what he meant by that is sequencing. So you can go and you can use AI to just write a book, but is that book building the beliefs necessary and then organizing it in a way that has people want to work with you to where there's a natural backend? Like we don't let people write the book unless they have a backend offer already created. So I believe in building a business backwards so you can drive people through it forwards. So we always start With the, I call it Rome. What's Rome? And Rome for you should be where you want all your clients to eventually end up. So for you, Eric, your Rome is Speakeasy, right?

Yep.

So you already had Speakeasy, so you had Rome. And then the concept is all roads lead to Rome.

Yeah. Yep.

And the book is just one of those roads that leads to Rome.

Yeah. No, I think, and again, I, I kind of haven't gone through this and seeing How was I see it more as an AI facilitated enhanced using the skills? And these aren't simple skills. Like I could just tell the amount of, with your intelligence, the amount of depth that went into the skills to build. And then I think once you go through it, you don't realize the layers upon layers upon layers of steps to do what you're trying to teach, which is again, back to we talked about earlier in this conversation. It's not just, hey, I'm going to throw a book out there to sell 5 copies on Amazon, be done. Great. If that's all you care about, And you want to get the ego stroked and you want to have something on Amazon and somehow you can get it to number 1, go build some AI slop and you're done. Great. That, you know, you can win on that. But if you're actually trying to build a proper funnel and business and all that, it's just so much more nuanced and complicated as I went through everything. And I literally, I remember walking through afterwards because I had that question in my mind as I went through the, you know, with you. And I'm like, okay, I get it now. There's no way in hell I could have just like fired off some AI thing and said, hey, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, there's just layers upon layers. Things you put each page to the workbook that you're building to the COVID design. To the, you know, how do you get to bestseller status and all that kind of fun stuff?

But, well, just to get the book done, this is a great point, Eric, and you nailed it. Just to get the book done, there's 3 things you have to have. You have to have the main matter of the book, which is the content of the book. You've gotta have the front matter of the book, which for you, we had an AI tool that you loved that without that AI tool, it was like, Eric, this is a great book. You know what you're missing? You're missing something so important. You have a relationship with Brian Tracy. You need to have Brian Tracy write the introduction for your book and an AI tool that I created that helps you come up with all the front matter ideas of your book. And it gave you fantastic ideas for what to do in the front matter, fantastic ideas for what to do in the back matter of the book. You were being interviewed to get all the front matter out, which is the content of the book. But a book has front matter, main matter, back matter. But then there's AI skills that I've created. How do you do the front cover of the book? How do you come up with the front cover of your book? What goes on the back cover of a book? How do you design the spine of a book? How do you get that book loaded into Amazon? How do you get your Bowker's ISBN number? Right. So there's all these things that have to happen for you to get a book published.

And otherwise you're stalled. I mean, the reality is you get stalled. You think you know what you're doing and you don't. It's a lot. All right. All this stuff will be listed below, but if anybody's not reading and they're listening to it, where do they go to? It's Book2Buyer.

Yeah. Just go to book2buyer.com and build the book that builds your business.

Yeah. And I highly recommend that. We hit it all.

I just want more people to get your book at proximitypays.com, cuz it's such a good book. It shows off the process that we've done and it leads people to the best backend ever, which I am a member of and have been for well over a decade, Speakeasy Mastermind.

Awesome. Well, appreciate that and appreciate all you've done for me, Travis, including Proximity Pays. And go check that out. But I mean, more importantly, I'll say from the bottom of my heart, you know, anybody, and I continue to brag about what you've done, Travis, and I already know we've got other members going. I'm so pumped for Speakeasy, they're gonna come see you. I'm sure they're gonna be bragging. And I hope the buzz continues because you deserve to get a lot more people really both ways. I think you deserve to see a lot more people into your group. And I think people deserve to have you in their lives so they can get that magic out that I got a chance and they can wake up one morning and shed some tears themselves or what they were able to accomplish and build their business. Thank you so much, Travis, for coming on today. Thank you, Eric. And that's a wrap from the Speakeasy Podcast. If something sparked for you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, review it, And pass it to the one person who needs to hear this right now. Want in on the real mastermind? Tap the link in the show notes to apply. Until next time, keep scaling, stay sharp, and don't be the smartest one in the room. Hello, I've been noticing you've been following along to Inside the Speakeasy podcast, and the conversations I'm having out there resonates with you. Then I'd like to invite you to apply to learn more about becoming a member of Speakeasy.