HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
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How to write a book and grow your business with Chandler Bolt
I’m a firm believer that a book is the best thing you can do to grow your business.
Every time someone sees your book and every time anyone comes to your office and sees it, they think about you and they think about the work that you do.
If you give your book to every paying customer, well then now all of a sudden, they give one of those to another person and it’s a referral mechanism.
I always say this: until you have your rough draft done, nothing else matters.
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HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
We want to take people who are already buying books on Amazon and get them to buy your book and then come into your world and into your ecosystem.
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Doug Morneau: Well, welcome back listeners to another episode of Real Marketing Real Fast. Our guest in studio today was a college dropout and he worked his way to be a six times bestselling author and he’s the founder of a 10 million dollar book-based business. As a C- English student and a bad writer, he still knew that there was a story inside of him. He finished his first book in a month and between dropping out and going on vacation. Just two years later he had published his sixth best selling book, all while helping non-writers in dozens of fields publish their own best selling books. He even built a multimillion-dollar plus business during that time and still had free time to see his friends, family, travel with his brother’s concert, and going skiing.
Doug Morneau: I’d like to introduce you to our guest today who is Chandler Bolt. He is the founder and the CEO of the Self-Publishing School. He has been featured in the Inc 5000 list as one of 5,000s fastest-growing private companies in America. Self-Publishing School is an online education school that teaches people how to write, market, and publish its first book in as little as 90 days. And they’ve got more than 4,257 students that have been impacted to date. So I’m super excited to talk about publishing, self-publishing, and how to make money after you’ve written your book. I’d like you to join me in welcoming Chandler Bolt to the Real Marketing Real Fast podcast today.
Chandler Bolt: Hey, great to be here Doug. Thanks for having me.
Doug Morneau: And the audio today is a lot better than the last time we heard you speaking at an outside event. So I’m looking forward to hearing everything you’ve got to say this time and not missing out on any of the key points.
Chandler Bolt: I’m looking forward to you being able to hear me.
Doug Morneau: So do you want to share with our audience, for the people who don’t know you or haven’t heard you speak, kind of what your superpower is and how you help entrepreneurs and businesses?
Chandler Bolt: Absolutely. I mean I’d say my superpower is helping people get their books written and using those books to grow their business. With Self-Publishing School and the work that we’ve been doing for the last few years, it’s been all about how to do you… Our bread and butter are taking people from blank page to published author in as little as 90 days. So, maybe this [crosstalk 00:02:10]-
Doug Morneau: Okay, slow it down a bit. So you take them from blank page to published author in 90 days.
Chandler Bolt: Yes. Yeah, that’s the goal. And certainly not everyone, but I mean that’s the goal and the process works. If you follow the process and if you do the work, obviously. But that’s the process. And maybe a sub superpower is like someone who’s a C level English student and a college dropout and someone with ADD, I think my superpower is probably making complicated things simple. And that complicated thing just happens to be a book.
Doug Morneau: Well, it’s amazing. What’s funny is when I think of people setting goals and how often people say they want to write a book, and I know how often people tell me, “You have to write a book. You have to write a book. You have to write a book.” And years and years and years. So you spend more time thinking about it than you do actually working with someone like you guys and your company, your team to actually get it done.
Chandler Bolt: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Morneau: So one of the things that you said was that you help people to go from blank page to published author, but you helped them to grow their business. So do you want to explain to our audiences listening, what does that mean?
Doug Morneau: I mean lots of people think hey I’m going to write a best seller. I’m going to write another Harry Potter novel and things are going to be wonderful but that’s not typically the approach you take from business.
Chandler Bolt: Yeah, and so I mean we definitely have resources for people. We have our Fundamentals of Fiction and Story Program which is for people who want to write fiction and who want to write memoirs, who want to write children’s books, all those things. I would say our bread and butter though, is using a book as a mechanism to grow your business. So I’m a firm believer that a book is the best thing you can do to grow your business. And we look at using a book to get more leads, get more sales and more referrals. So those are kind of the three places that we focus on.
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HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
We want to take people who are already buying books on Amazon and get them to buy your book and then come into your world and into your ecosystem.
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Chandler Bolt: So more leads mean more people finding out about you or hearing about you because they heard of your book. More sales mean how do we integrate this book into our sales process so that more people that already know about you, will then turn into paying customers. So maybe that helps you convert a higher amount of evals or sales calls or consultations and anything like that into paying customers. And then more referrals are how can you use this give two books to every customer. One for them and they’ll keep that and that’s in their office, that’s in their home. And now every time they see it and every time anyone comes to their office and sees it, they think about you and they think about the work that you do.
Chandler Bolt: So there’s that. But then if you give two to every paying customer, well then now all of a sudden, they give one of those to another person and it’s a referral mechanism. So you’re making customers’ referral engines and they can give that book to someone who might need help with what you do, which is just way easier and lower barrier to entry than something like a business card, which most people are going to throw away a business card within 24 hours. But they won’t throw away a book.
Doug Morneau: Yeah, that’s true. I mean the business cards often, if you don’t throw them away they’ll stock up on your desk, they fall over. Then eventually you’ll put a rubber band on them put them in the drawer. So you might as well throw them away and just save the brain damage of cleaning your desk up.
Chandler Bolt: 100 percent. And then eventually they do get thrown away usually, but for the most part, the books don’t get thrown away.
Doug Morneau: So walk us through the process then. Because I know you’re not talking about people buying the book of the book in the bookshelf to get more leads, or I’m assuming your not.
Doug Morneau: Or let me reverse that. I don’t want to put words in your mouth. When you say to use it to get more leads, let’s walk through that. What does that look like for your customers?
Chandler Bolt: Yeah, and so it can be either and this is something that we… I’m trying to think, there were two people. I know Pat Flynn we talked about on Self-Publishing School podcast recently, about getting your self-published book into bookstores. So into Barnes & Noble and into airport bookstores and that’s something he’s done, and things like that.
Chandler Bolt: And then John Gordon talked about, has an awesome story about how it was a Chad Morris who was a coordinator at Clemson, which I’m a big Clemson fan, picked up his book in an airport bookstore, then gave it to Dabo Swinney who’s the head coach there and then now he speaks there. It’s been a huge consulting client for him for years-
Doug Morneau: Wow, that’s amazing.
Chandler Bolt: And he speaks to their training camp every single year. And so that’s blossomed into this huge relationship all because the book was picked up at an airport book store. So there’s that, and that’s the more traditional approach, but more of our bread and butter is how do we integrate this into what you’re doing online? So we want to take people who are already buying books on Amazon and get them to buy your book and then come into your world and into your ecosystem. Over 70% of all books sold are sold on Amazon. So if we can just take that traffic and use the fundamentals to be at the top of those lists then, all right, now all of a sudden we’re funneling out buyers into your ecosystem.
Chandler Bolt: And there are things like integrating it through free plus shipping funnels and things like that that works really, really well. And so our book funnels are some of the best converting funnels that we have at Self-Publishing School to turn subscribers or browsers into paying customers and getting into our ecosystem. So that’s kind of what we look at is like, okay, how do we use this book as a mechanism to start the conversation. And I call it a silent salesman, where you use that thing to kind of feed into what you’re doing.
Doug Morneau: So for listeners who aren’t familiar with the model, is this really the ultimate lead magnet then if you’re doing the free plus shipping?
Doug Morneau: Instead of sending somebody a one page PDF that’s mostly graphics and no information, you’re actually giving them something meaty that they can hold in their hands.
Chandler Bolt: Oh, 100 percent. And I’d say it’s better than a lead magnet because instead of a list of subscribers, you have a list of paying customers. So these are people who legit have bought your book and so it’s a self-liquidating funnel. So it’s paying for itself and now you have all these buyers and people who are reading your book, listening to your audiobook, all those things. So I know for my business, it’s one of the highest converting funnels.
Chandler Bolt: I just had Russell Bronson on the podcast the other day. He said it’s one of the highest converting funnels for Click Funnels, is the people who come through their free plus shipping funnels and their book funnels. And I know I’ve talked to a bunch of entrepreneurs that have these type funnels with books in them and it’s just significantly more engaging. You’re providing something with inherent value. And you’re accelerating with the relationship through a mechanism that people already know and appreciate.
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SHARE THIS POST: HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
We want to take people who are already buying books on Amazon and get them to buy your book and then come into your world and into your ecosystem.
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Doug Morneau: Yeah it’s funny, I mean Russell Bronson’s obviously extremely well known and we use his tools and I’ve bought his courses and we funnel hacked somebody else in a different industry that my wife’s working in, the health and wellness space. And so we just went through the whole process and it was exactly how you said. Free plus shipping, did the ups. I said to my wife, “Buy everything this person sells because let’s see how they’re monetizing it.”
Doug Morneau: So it was a free plus shipping book offer, so it paid the money for that. Then we moved to a PDF and audiobook, so that would have been the self-liquidating offer. Then we bought an entry membership and then upgraded to the bigger membership. And yeah, it was amazing how the whole processes flowed like clockwork and it was just really well laid out and like you said the book was just the beginning.
Chandler Bolt: Yeah. And depending on what you can get. I know I was just talking with Dave Woodward at Click Funnels on Click Funnels Radio today. And he said they started out, I think it was 25 to 35 bucks per book, average order value and then now they’re up into I want to say 45 to 60. So now all of the sudden, if you can get someone to claim a free book for less than 45 to 60 bucks, you’re already in the black from day 1.
Chandler Bolt: And these are… Like you’re sending salesmen or soldiers out into battle for your company and these books because they’re indoctrinating people in your way of thinking, your methodology, and spreading that message. And so I think it’s just such a… they’re physical books that go out there and bring customers back.
Doug Morneau: Well, and we were at Frank Kern’s Mastermind a year or so ago down in La Jolla. And for an introverted guy, he brought out his ledger, because he uses a ledger book to keep track of his finances. And he went, “This is what it costs me to get someone so I can give them a book. And this is what they’re worth to me.” And he just shared the numbers.
Doug Morneau: And I remembered looking at him thinking, that’s better than any investment I’ve seen anywhere. I don’t know why people wouldn’t want to just create a book, follow that system. It’s way better than you’re going to make in the stock market buying real estate or in oil and gas because I’m sure you know better than I do, his numbers are pretty good.
Chandler Bolt: Yeah. Well and he’s the guy that’s done book funnels really well. And he goes very simple. Because he’s like, it’s a good book but the cover kind of sucks and it’s just like very generic. It’s like a convert. And a yellow cover with just a title on it. And I always look at that, I’m like if he can get that to convert, that type of book funnel-like he does it extremely well. And it’s still valuable for the end reader because the book’s really solid.
Doug Morneau: So why don’t we back up to the beginning for our listeners that are going, “Hey I want to write a book,” or “I’d like to have a new way to grow my business.” Our world’s in a time of flux right now. Just kind of walk us through the process of what that looks like when someone would come and meet with someone on your team and begin the exploration.
Chandler Bolt: Absolutely. So really it comes down to… As far as getting it written, it’s a three-step process. And this is what we call the 24 Hour Book Outline Challenge. And so the goal is to go from an idea; so I have something I might want to write about, to outline done in the next 24 hours. And if you’re listening to this podcast right now, I would encourage you to take this challenge. Even if you’re not quite sure if you’re going to write a book, you may be thinking about it. Maybe you even think there’s no way. Just take the challenge, see if you can get an outline done in the next 24 hours. Implement what I’m about to teach, and I think you’ll find that there’s more knowledge in that noggin of yours than you think and it’s going to be easier than you think. So that’s the context.
Chandler Bolt: The three steps. Step number one is the MindMap. To create a mind map of all the things you can think of on this topic. So it’s a brain dump, take you 15 minutes, right?
Then once you do that, what you want to do is move into step two, which is turning that mind map into an outline. And the way you’re going to do that is starting to group ideas or common ideas into groups or into sections. So we’ll call it… You’ll probably have about five sections or so. And then you’ll order those sections in the order that you want to cover it in the book. And then you’ll draw down into those sections about chapters or so per section. And so, now all of a sudden you’ve got a 15 chapter outline. And that’s when you’ll move into step three, which is to write the book. And this is kind of a choose your own adventure.
Chandler Bolt: Or I’ll take a step back for a second. So before you go into the writing piece, one thing that might be helpful. We’ve got this thing called the Book Outline Template Generator. It is legit. So basically, it’s this little tool that we built. You click a couple of buttons and then it’ll spit out a Google doc, that’s like a 25-page fill in the blank Google doc. And you just make a copy of it. And it’s got a table of contents, it’s got the chapter heading, it’s got introduction heading, all that stuff. You literally just start typing into it and it’s got prompts and stuff to help you throughout the process. It’s pretty cool. So highly recommend using that as part of the outline.
Chandler Bolt: But then you get to step three, choose your own adventure. You can either, write. Which is, all right, I’m going to start with Chapter number one, take 10 minutes mind mapping everything I can think of on that chapter. Ten minutes turning that mind map into an outline and then an hour and a half writing the chapter. So you’re going to get a chapter done every couple of hours. Or on the flip side, if you speak better than you write, then you’ll take ten minutes mind mapping the chapter, 10 minutes turning that mind map into an outline for the chapter. And then instead of writing the chapter, you’ll speak the chapter. So say… Take 10 minutes to speak the chapter, and you’ll repeat that process chapter by chapter by chapter. So now all of a sudden, you can have a rough draft done and a handful of hours are in a weekend and just kind of shortcut the process. So nuts and bolts that are the three steps: mind map, outline, write.
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SHARE THIS POST: HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
We want to take people who are already buying books on Amazon and get them to buy your book and then come into your world and into your ecosystem.
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Doug Morneau: Well, I was at an event that Chris Ducker had held in the Philippines called Tropical Think Tank and James Schramko was talking about the fact that he doesn’t like to write. But he produces content every day so he speaks it. So finally after I got my idea of publishing my book from a goal to actually starting it, that’s the method I follow, It was your method for speaking it. I don’t know that I can speak any better than I can write, I just find that it was easier to speak it than it was to write it so it created exactly what you said. An outline, a mind map, a Ted Talk, or whatever you want to call it, recorded it, and that was the chapter.
Chandler Bolt: That’s awesome.
Doug Morneau: So now you’ve been through that process, I’m assuming there are some editing and formatting and all this stuff to take what you’ve done and dress it up and make sure it looks good and presentable.
Chandler Bolt: Yes. Yeah, so I mean that’s when you move into formatting book production. Which for most people, I always say this: until you have your rough draft done, nothing else matters.
Doug Morneau: Right.
Chandler Bolt: So the biggest thing that people do is they think about production. They think about formatting, they think about marketing, they think about the title, they think about the cover, they think about all these things that are not helping them get their rough draft done. And my goal for people, when you’re listening to this, or my goal for our students, is how do we take you to the rough draft finish line as fast as possible?
Chandler Bolt: Because when you finish your rough draft, something crazy that happens. Are you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel And you start to believe that this is possible. So it goes from this thing that I’m thinking about doing to this thing that’s going to get done. And so that would be my first disclaimer, is nothing else matters until you have your rough draft finished.
Doug Morneau: That’s a good point. I would say that the people who are doing covers and doing all that sort of stuff, really are just procrastinating doing what they really need to do. Say, “Hey look, I’m working on my book.”
Doug Morneau: “What are you doing?” “I’m researching cover designs.” “It’s like well what’s the title of your book?” “I don’t have a title.” Well, then you’re just really procrastinating. Get off your duff and get it done.
Chandler Bolt: 100 percent. And yeah, it’s kind of the joke of you can tell when a writer has a deadline because that’s when they’re on Facebook, social media, all that stuff. Because writing is uncomfortable. People don’t like doing it for the most part. And writing a book is hard. We definitely make it as easy as possible but it’s still a difficult process and you’re thinking through, you’re processing. You’re saying hey, what do I really feel or think about this, and now I’m going to make definitive statements and all that.
Chandler Bolt: So, I think book production, yes is important and when you get to that phase, it’s very important. But so first through the lens, get the rough draft done, and then it’s all right. Now I need a cover designer, I need an editor, I need someone to format the book. And those are kind of the big three, the main three to take it from rough draft, finished, to actual book published.
Doug Morneau: That’s really cool. And I don’t want to downplay or contradict your point about that being difficult, but my own personality, I didn’t feel that. I felt that the most difficult thing was starting, and following the process that you outlined in terms of the mind map and the outline and then speaking it was… so easy. If I just understood that. If someone had this conversation that we’re having now with me years ago, it would have been done years ago.
Chandler Bolt: Oh, 100 percent. Because of the hardest part… I love that you said that. The hardest part is starting. And committing to yourself that you’re going to get started. And that’s what I think is crazy, depending on when this episode launches. I know as we’re recording this, we’re still in the middle of all the Coronavirus stuff. And that’s been the crazy thing for our business, is that we’ve seen more people signing up as of late, and more books getting published because of this. Because the biggest excuse I think that people always have is I don’t have time.
Doug Morneau: Yeah, that’s right. And you can call them on it.
Chandler Bolt: Oh my gosh, yes. I mean they get on the phone with my team and that’s just like, sorry actually, yeah you do. [crosstalk 00:19:06]. It’s not for… There’s a lot of people with kids at home and all that stuff. So I don’t want to be insensitive to what’s happening, obviously.
Chandler Bolt: But for a lot of folks, we do have this kind of found time where’s it like, “Hey, I can’t go anywhere. I’ve got extra time.” Now let’s use that time to invest in your future. Let’s use that time to plant seeds, to create. To build this thing that’s going to continue to bring lead sales and referrals for your business.
Doug Morneau: Well and makes a differentiator between you and your competitor.
Chandler Bolt: 100 percent.
Doug Morneau: So if you’re bidding on a contract or you’re going to speak someplace, the credibility of being a published, best-selling author, gives you a step up over the guy that’s beside you.
Chandler Bolt: Absolutely.
Doug Morneau: So how much time do you think your teams spend working with people that are having self-doubt? I don’t know if it’s an issue or not but I’m assuming it is. Because I remember when I finished a book I’m going like, do I really want to publish that? Is it really any good? Is anyone going to care?
Chandler Bolt: It’s a huge root issue. And sometimes people won’t say it, but it’s the thing that they’re actually thinking about and the thing that they’re worried about. So I’d say all kinds of time where… I mean we certainly address it in our curriculum and it’s something that continually comes up. I mean our coaching team completes hundreds of coaching calls per week and I would say that it comes up all the time. Who knows how many hundreds of hours a month that they’re talking with students about that, but it’s definitely a lot.
Doug Morneau: Well and so your process, I mean you’re just not telling people what to do and leaving them out there. You’ve got someone coaching, answering questions, kind of holding their hand, and guiding them and pushing them along.
Chandler Bolt: 100 percent. Yeah. That’s my book published, The Proven Path From Blank Page to Published Author. That’s why they call it The Proven Path because we keep iterating, it’s always been proven, but it’s a process to follow. I think people come to us for one of two reasons, or for two main reasons. Is number one, they need someone to show them the path, to like to show them the process. So we always say it’s kind of like a mix of Indiana Jones and Jillian Michaels. We’re going to blaze the trail and show you how to avoid the landmines, show you how to save time, show you how to save money, show you how to make more money with the book. We’re going to save you a ton of money on the book cover, cover design editors, formatters, all that stuff.
Chandler Bolt: But then there’s the other piece which is Jillian Michaels, which is we’re going to hold you accountable to do the work, right? And the reason a lot of people don’t get their book done is that they need someone to hold them accountable. Kind of like the reason most people don’t go to the gym is that they need someone to hold them accountable. So an accountability-buddy or a trainer or something like that. And so I think that’s the two-part piece that people need and that’s why they end up working with us.
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SHARE THIS POST: HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
HOW TO WRITE A BOOK AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS
We want to take people who are already buying books on Amazon and get them to buy your book and then come into your world and into your ecosystem.
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Doug Morneau: That’s really cool. Yeah, I found the blind spot in my home gym, depending on where I put my laptop when we do our Crossfit and I hear my trainer go, “Hey, Doug, I can’t see you, you’re off-camera.” It’s like yeah, I know where the blind spot is. I’m having a rest.
Chandler Bolt: That’s awesome.
Doug Morneau: As you said, there’s your coach encouraging you, they’re not giving you a [inaudible 00:22:32], they’re encouraging you to get back in the game.
Doug Morneau: Do you want to share an example with a client, name the client, not name the client, totally up to you, of how you walk somebody through this process and kind of what the end result was when they use this as a tool to build their business?
Chandler Bolt: Oh, 100 percent. I mean there are so many success stories at this point it’s hard to… and I’m out of the day to day coaching. I coached the original people and now we’ve got a team full of coaches-
Doug Morneau: So you coach the Elrod’s and Michael Hyatts and now you’ve handed it off to your team?
Chandler Bolt: Not quite.
Doug Morneau: I’m just joking. I looked at your website and I’m looking going, he has some really big names that are endorsing what you guys are doing.
Chandler Bolt: Yeah, so I mean those guys are big advocates of what we do, absolutely, and how El Rod has been one of the earliest and biggest supporters of us. We were the first and only thing that he ever promoted for a while. Because he said, “Hey, writing a self-publishing a book single-handedly changed my life and the lives of my family and my kids and everything.”
Chandler Bolt: And so he is quick to recommend Self-Publishing School and is just awesome friend and awesome guy and The Miracle Morning is an amazing book. I mean I have a morning routine because of him and because of that book and it’s changed my life. But yeah and so we’ve got a team now. Like last week we published 16 books. So there’s-
Doug Morneau: Last week? Wow.
Chandler Bolt: Yeah. So I mean last month I think it was 53, our goal was 50. So there’s a lot of books being published. Some of my favorite stories… I mean one of my favorite stories is Sean Sumner. He was one of our earliest students. He’s a physical therapist, wrote a book about physical therapy. Did multiple books and then his daughter came to him and said, “Dad, I want to write a book.” So he says, “Okay.” Thinking this is just a thing that she’s saying and she’s not actually going to do. Said, “All right, so why don’t you go write 50 words and then come back to me.”
Chandler Bolt: The classic parenting pro move, or leadership pro move, I guess either one, says yes, and throws a couple of hurdles. And then she came back a little while later and had 50 words and he was like, “Oh, wow, okay you’re serious.” And so then they went once every weekend for a while and she finished the book. She wrote and published this book called The Fairies of Waterfall Island. And the book made $4,000 in the first three months.
Chandler Bolt: She was on all these… got all this PR. So she and I were on Good Morning Sacramento, which is kind of cool. And she was on all these other TV shows and newspapers and all that stuff. The book still makes money, every single month she has her quote-unquote allowance, which is really just her book royalties. She started doing speaking gigs, she started speaking at schools, like local high schools… or not high schools, like elementary and middle schools. And they pay her. Like her fee is up to 400 bucks.
Doug Morneau: That’s so cool.
Chandler Bolt: And I think her first speaking gig she made like 1100 bucks. Because they paid her 250 bucks, I think was the fee and then they sold a ton of books. And so now all of a sudden when she does this she makes a few hundred bucks. And so it’s fun because it all started with her Dad. Which her Dad now works for us and is our community manager and all of that stuff. So it’s kind of been this cool and evolving thing and that’s inspired us to kind of create a whole other division of our company, which is PR and speaking for authors. So like how do you get more speaking gigs, how do you get more PR, press, publicity, podcast interviews, all that stuff.
Chandler Bolt: And that’s been a really cool evolution and now she and her Dad have some content and the program that’s like how to get booked and speak at schools. So it’s kind of crazy how full circle that’s come. But that’s probably one of my favorite stories because now all a sudden, I’ve got other people who work for me, that their kids are starting and wanting to write a book and are doing it. And then we’ve got kids in SPS, Self-Publishing School, kids of other parents who have gone through the program. Now it’s been kind of this ripple effect.
Chandler Bolt: It’s this cool thing, we say hey, when you commit to doing this whole thing, guess what, your kids are watching and they can do it. And think about how your kids’ life’s going to be changed forever. Like her confidence as an 8-year-old girl that did that and now is becoming a young woman. Like her confidence, her speaking, her budgeting, all of these life skills that you want to teach your kids as a parent, all in this one thing of doing a book and then all the corresponding things that have come since then. So I just think of how changed Emma’s life is and how she’s able to impact all the other kids that are thinking about doing something like that. And that’s probably one of my all-time favorite stories.
Doug Morneau: That’s really cool. Because it draws your family in and now you’ve got this unique bond with, in this case, his daughter. That daughter and father have done something together. In a world that doesn’t always happen.
Chandler Bolt: Oh, 100 percent. In a world where most Dads aren’t there, right? And Dads’ either rightfully or wrongfully so, are kind of the villain. Because either they’re not there or it’s just the stigma. But I think it’s so cool someone like Sean and I think it inspires other Dads, like hey. Especially Dads of girls. It is like hey, you can be very present in your daughter’s lives, and ask a Girl, Dad, you can motivate and inspire and help them unlock all these traits, and yeah. I just think it’s super cool.
Doug Morneau: And have that unique bond.
Chandler Bolt: Yeah.
Doug Morneau: Yeah, I had a guy yesterday at one of my lives, and he was talking about, he said with his daughter, he tries to find a sport that’s really expensive that she’ll never be able to afford on her own when she moves out so they’ll do it together. So he’s been getting her into scuba diving. So that was his hook. He said once a year I can take her away for a week and we can go scuba diving, but I’m going to have to share this episode with him saying here’s another thing you could do with your daughter.
Chandler Bolt: That’s hilarious.
Doug Morneau: You could help her write a book.
Chandler Bolt: That’s awesome.
Doug Morneau: So. do you want to just walk us through some of the work that you guys do in terms of helping people? So once they publish the book you help them leverage that book, you said for speaking and for getting on podcasts and PR?
Chandler Bolt: Yeah. So we call it the Author Advantage Journey. So it’s all about unlocking the author’s advantage. And it’s this whole concept of like, hey when you publish a book you open this magical world that kind of only exists for published authors. There are all these opportunities that are going to open up to you by publishing a book. And we believe that a book is the start of that journey and so from there it just depends on people’s goals. But we’ll help you with PR and speaking for authors, we’ll help people with course building for authors. So how do you turn this book into a course? Do you want to sell more books? What does that look like? Do you want to write a fiction book, a children’s book? Stuff like that.
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Chandler Bolt: So we got different ways that we can further help people. Then we have a live event called Author Advantage Live. Last year was our first year. We had… speaking of Hal Elrod, Hal Elrod spoke there last year and we had… it was awesome man, it was our very first one. It was sold out, like 300 people. We’re doing it again this year. The goal is 600, 750 people and it’s just growing and developing. So that’s-
Doug Morneau: It’s September 24, 26 in Orlando?
Chandler Bolt: Yeah. You got it. Yeah, yeah. So it’s this September, hopefully. Fingers crossed, no COVID still happening. I’m fairly confident that that’ll be the case. We’ve got back up plans if it is. But we’re super excited. It’s September 24 through the 26th in Orlando. Authoradvantagelive.com. There’s going to be some amazing speakers that we haven’t announced yet. And we’re already almost halfway sold out which has been kind of fun. So that’s kind of like where we build. We believe the book is a starting point.
Doug Morneau: So I mean that’s great though. You go from like you said, idea, blank page to completed book, published author, best selling author. And then you’ve got all the other processes to help people to monetize.
Chandler Bolt: Yes.
Doug Morneau: Like you said you’ve got several strategies. You can go down this road, you can go down that road if you want to do free plus shipping we’ve got that. If you want to develop a course on the back end, and now you’ve got the speaking and PR so you guys really do take them from idea right through to putting the money in the bank.
Chandler Bolt: 100 percent. And that’s the goal. Again, how to use this book to grow your income, grow your impact, and grow your business. And feeding into those vehicles depending on peoples’ goals. Because for some people it’s hey, I don’t care about any of that other stuff. I just want to write a book. And I’m not going to die without writing a book. I’ve got to do this. And then especially on the fiction side of things, memoir, children’s book.
Chandler Bolt: There’s certainly that where it’s like okay, cool. We are going to help you do that. And that is our goal and that’s what we’re going to do. And I think there’s a lot of other people who say, I see this as a mechanism to help grow my business. In my opinion, that’s our superpower because that’s very unique and I think a lot of what we do is unique and effective, but that especially.
Doug Morneau: Yeah. We had a friend who became an accidental author. I played ball with him and he was helping out his niece, one province over, and had sent her a bunch of stuff around animals because she was learning it in school. He said, “Ah. That’s the wrong stuff.” Her Dad knew someone at Disney and submitted it and they were calling this guy for like a month and he wouldn’t return their call. He said, “Ah, it’s a prank call.” Prank call. Prank call. Prank call. Prank call. Eventually, it wasn’t. He got published and he got his own show. But I mean that’s a pretty big stretch but it was kind of cool listening to his story.
Chandler Bolt: That’s amazing.
Doug Morneau: So what’s got you most excited these days? I mean you’ve been doing this for a while, you’ve had success for yourself and for your clients and your team as your teams been building. So I’m sure you’re setting new goals. So what’s really got you excited these days?
Chandler Bolt: Yeah, I mean I think there are a couple of things. I mean we just launched 7 Figure Principles podcast and are relaunching the Self-Publishing School podcast. And those are two things I’m really fired up about and already seeing just the fruit from that and how many people that’s helping. So 7 Figure Principle is just all about teaching hey, how do we go from zero to 16 million in five years? I mean what are the principles? Like the operational… life and business principles. So a lot of people are talking about the sexy stuff, the marketing stuff, the sales, that’s cool. And even the visionary stuff, but what does it actually look like to operate at a high level, that business? And what are the fundamental business and life principles for you to scale?
Chandler Bolt: And so that’s just a fun passion, side project that I started doing all these YouTube videos and it was all the questions my entrepreneur buddies would ask, and even my team would ask. And so it was a way for me to scale teaching that to people I care about, being my team, being my entrepreneur friends. If nobody else listens to it, cool that’s … I got a text literally today. A buddy sent me a picture of him running a book club with his company. And this was someone that if I said his name you’d probably recognize it. And I was like to check out this post on the Self-Publishing School site and I’ve got a video on there too. And he’s like yeah, already did. We’re using your process. The book club went great. And so-
Doug Morneau: That’s really cool.
Chandler Bolt: That is really fun for me. And so seeing how do you develop as a leader, eight-player hiring process, how do you hire your first salesperson, what’s my morning… we talked about Hal Elrod, morning routine, My Miracle Morning. What does that look like? How do you work from home successfully? All those fundamental videos. So that’s been pretty cool. We turned it into a podcast and episodes come out every Tuesday and Thursday and so that’s been cool. And they’re just short punchy, hey let me teach you this thing. Five minutes, 15 minutes.
Chandler Bolt: And then the Self-Publishing School podcast has been fun and reenergizing because we’re bringing it back. We stopped doing it and a few months ago I looked at the stats and I was like oh, my gosh. There are that many people still downloading this and I realized we were getting all these customers from it. Just like all right, we got to bring this back and it’ll be an excuse to talk to some of my favorite, most successful authors ever and bring them on the podcast. [crosstalk 00:35:23].
Doug Morneau: When does your self-publishing podcast going to launch?
Chandler Bolt: Yeah, it’s probably launched by the time this episode is out because it’s in a few days. But it launches on April 22nd. Relaunches. We’ve already been dripping out episodes, just recently released and an episode with Hal Elrod, with Gretchen Rubin. We’ve got episodes coming out with Michael Hyatt, with John Gordon, with Pat Flynn, Russell Bronson.
Doug Morneau: Any well-known people, or just those guys?
Chandler Bolt: It’s been fun, man. I’m shocked at how many people have already said yes.
Doug Morneau: But that’s cool because you get all these… A lot of people talk about growing six figures to seven figures and seven figures to eight figures. And I just remember saying it’s really tough to find people that are in that space because you need to make decisions differently and you very likely need to change your team. So your legal team, your financial team. Because there’s a big difference between six figures and eight figures in terms of planning and execution.
Chandler Bolt: 100 percent. And you mentioned that seven to eight figures and six to seven, and I completely agree on man. And I think it’s the operational, fundamental principles that need to be taught. And that’s what’s been fun about 7 Figure Principles. My buddy, Austin Netzley, he’s got some really cool stuff on six to seven figures. He’s literally just published a book called From 6 to 7 Figures. So if you’re looking for kind of fundamental things there, that’s cool too.
Chandler Bolt: And then it’s just been fun on the flip side. With the Self-Publishing School podcast, just… I can’t find anything like it where it’s like the most successful authors on the planet that are specifically using books to grow their business. That’s what I really care about. It’s like hey, do you use this book to grow a business? So it’s just been fun getting in their head. Because we’re pulling a lot of lessons and just supplying it with our authors and how we launch books.
Doug Morneau: Well, congrats. I’ll make sure I tune in to the podcasts so I’ll mark you down. Tuesdays, Thursdays, the same days we publish but there’s always room on my iTunes account for another great podcast.
Chandler Bolt: Yeah. Well, hey Wednesdays are the Self-Publishing School podcast, so maybe that’ll be the good one.
Doug Morneau: There we go. Cool. So getting back to publishing and writing books, you travel and you’re out in the community. What’s the bad advice that you hear people give?
Doug Morneau: And I typically… The bad advice normally comes from people who don’t know what they’re doing but they’re happy to share their bad news anyhow. So what’s the bad advice people should ignore?
Chandler Bolt: Specific to books, right?
Doug Morneau: Well, or to your business model. What you’re doing.
Chandler Bolt: Yeah, I mean something specific to books, it’s traditionally published. And if you don’t traditionally publish, it’s not legit. And I think it’s also the flip side of that which just quickly publishes a crappy book. Like the two extremes, I think that’s the stuff that drives me crazy and I think it’s just bad advice on both sides of it.
Chandler Bolt: And then I think in the business arena, it’s that the only thing that matters is sales and marketing. Which, don’t me wrong-
Doug Morneau: I thought that’s all that mattered, but maybe because I’m a sales and marketing guy.
Chandler Bolt: Well I mean I think it matters a lot. And it’s funny, I’ve got a video on the 7 Figure Principles show, which is the YouTube version of the podcast and then the podcast, but it’s all about unless you have sales for your business, you don’t have a business, you have a business idea. So I’m very much in the camp of you need to sell. And you need to market, but I think the market, especially the world that we’re in, has overcorrected to losing sight of why you’re in this business which is for your customers. And to add value to your customers.
Chandler Bolt: And to have happy customers. And if you focus only on your sales and marketing and you have horrible customer experience, well you’re just going to be more quickly pouring water into a bucket that has a lot of holes in it. And so I think that’s the bad advice, is nothing else matters but sales and marketing. I think sales and marketing are very important, yes. And I love it. Like it is the thing that I love-
Doug Morneau: But if you don’t the customers or keep them happy, you lose all the referral business and [crosstalk 00:39:20] and dealing with complaints.
Chandler Bolt: It’s a short term play.
Doug Morneau: So who’s the one person I absolutely have to have on my podcast that you can introduce me to?
Chandler Bolt: Oh, man. I mentioned earlier, I think Austin Netzley. Talk about systems guy. Talk about marketing guy. Talk about six to seven figures. He’s a good friend of mine and very, very sharp.
Doug Morneau: Well cool. I’d love if you’d make an introduction for us.
Chandler Bolt: Absolutely.
Doug Morneau: And then Chandler, where should people reach out? I mean you got lots of stuff going on, so what’s the easiest way for people to get in touch with you or your team and learn more what you’re doing and start to explore the opportunities that are available for them?
Chandler Bolt: Absolutely. So I don’t have social media, then Facebook you can find me there as far as what we’re doing for Self-Publishing School. If you want to grab a copy of my most recent book, Published, you can get that for free on the website. All you have to do is pay shipping and handling. And that’s self-publishingschool.com/published like I published a book. And so that’s on the site.
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Chandler Bolt: And then the second probably most helpful resource I would mention is what I mentioned earlier when I talked about the three-step writing process which is the Book Outline Template Generator. That’s on our site, on our post about how to write a book. Or if you just literally google how to write a book, I think it’s number three or something. You can just click that, you’ll find the post as well as the Book Outline Template Generator that’ll spit out that 25 page Google doc. That’ll be a great place to get started.
Doug Morneau: Super good. I just want to say thanks, appreciate you taking time out of your day and just sharing and giving some insight for our audience of what opportunities exist and why they should consider, strongly consider while they’ve got a little more time putting pen to paper and getting that book they’ve always wanted to write. Get it written, get it out the door and get it making money for them.
Chandler Bolt: Absolutely. Doug, thank you so much. And I appreciate you having me.
Doug Morneau: So, listeners, this is another episode of Real Marketing Real Fast. I hope you enjoyed the conversation today. I’ve got a page of notes here that we’ll make sure we get transcribed. We’ll make sure all the links for Chandler are up on the website.
Doug Morneau: Also, I’ll make sure there’s a link for the Author Advantage Live, the event they’re holding in September, so you can click and register there. So I want to say thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to serving you in our next episode.
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We want to take people who are already buying books on Amazon and get them to buy your book and then come into your world and into your ecosystem.
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Get in touch with Chandler:
- Web – Self-Publishing School
Find out more about Chandler:
- Self-Publishing School on Facebook
- Self-Publishing School on YouTube
- Self-Publishing School on Twitter
- Self-Publishing School Podcast
Links to other related podcasts and or blog posts:
BOOK PROMOTION IDEAS WITH PR EXPERT SCOTT LORENZ
HOW TO SCALE YOUR BUSINESS PAST SIX FIGURES