How to Use a Published Book as a Marketing Tool to Grow Your Business with J. J. Hebert: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like I Digress. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be talking about how to use a published book as a marketing tool to grow your business. To drop these value bonds, we are brought to JJ Hebert and the EO Fire Studios. JJ is a nine-time award-winning author of four number one Amazon bestsellers. He's also the founder of Mindster Media, a top-ranked self-publishing company, partnered with Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington and Mariel Hemingway.

0:36He's also a writer for Entrepreneur Magazine and a member of the Forbes Business Council. And today, Foundation will talk about self-publishing. We'll also talk about lead magnets, how podcasts are huge, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to JJ and our sponsors. Nudge, hosted by Phil Agnew, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Ever notice how the smallest changes can have the biggest impact on Nudge? you learn simple evidence-backed tips to help you kick bad habits, get a raise, and grow a business.

1:09Oh, and it's the UK's Fast-Growing Business Podcast. A recent episode on how to win any argument shares decade-long research into persuasion from a world-leading neuroscientist. Listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. JJ, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:52So for me, the biggest consideration I think is the fact that you have to be willing to sacrifice. For me, you know, early on in the days of Meinster Media, the company that I founded, And, you know, the success of Mindstorm Media really came from, originated from the success of my own book that I had been writing. And so I was working in corporate America, was miserable. And, you know, one of the things that I did early on was I was willing to stay up until 4 or 5 a.m. writing my book and putting in the time and really, really sacrifice a lot of sleep early on. I think a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to that.

2:34So I think you have to be willing to sacrifice something, whether it's sleep, time in general, money, relationships even, although I don't recommend that. But I think sacrifice is key. So JJ, I recently and personally wrote a book, my first traditionally published book. And I get a lot of questions now from people saying, John, I'm interested in writing a book. I've seen that you wrote one. Where do I even begin? How does one even begin to start writing a business book? And frankly, I don't really have great answers, but you're kind of the expert on this topic. So how does one even begin to write a business book?

3:15A good starting point is, you know, coming up with a topic first and foremost. I think that's fairly self-explanatory. So, you know, if you are a leadership guru or you're some sort of consultant, you know, on the topics that you know. But beyond that, you know, choose a unique and, you know, self-explanatory, you know, title and subtitle. You know, once you have that topic nailed down, the title is incredibly important. And if you can add some of your topics' keywords into the title or subtitle, I think that's key as well to kind of allow SEO to kick in, especially within Amazon's algorithms or website.

3:59So let's just say you're writing, you know, a book on leadership. If you can include the word leadership in your title or subtitle, that can do wonders for visibility on platforms like Amazon. You know, author John C. Maxwell is a master of writing effective book titles and subtitles. One great example or prime example is his book, The Five Levels of Leadership. proven steps to maximize your potential. So he actually included the word leadership in his book title. And I'm sure that was strategic. So the book title is definitely important. And, you know, number two, for me is always, you know, creating a stringent outline and remaining faithful to it.

4:44You know, you can't just go into a book and wing it, you have to have a plan. So, you know, an outline can become your best friend during your writing journey. and you know writer's block is something that you hear about a lot you know when it comes to writing but I think writer's block for me is just a sign of poor preparation I think if you have an outline you'll be able to avoid writer's block altogether so for you know an outline for me is a chapter by chapter outline you know I'll really really dig into you know the the point of each chapter, you know, what, what, what am I, what am I trying to get across in each chapter and just kind of pinpoint in advance?

5:27Um, that way, when you do sit down to write, you'll know exactly where you're, where you're heading. Um, and then the third, the third key to writing a, uh, a business book in my mind is designing a writing schedule, uh, that makes sense for you and it needs to be attainable. Um, so for me, I always try to set it some sort of daily time goal or page count goal. Maybe I'll set aside two or three hours a night. Maybe I'll aim for, you know, five or ten pages. You know, really it's up to you. And, you know, early on you're not going to have a great feel for what your goal should be. It really will grow organically.

6:06But I do recommend probably a time goal initially just to get a feel for, you know, how many chapters or how many pages you're able to write within a certain period of time. and then just try to stick with that and be consistent. Fire Nation, a lot of value bombs dropped here. A lot of good things that you can really kind of identify where you may be lacking with your goal of writing a book. I mean, I really love that talk about the title and the tagline. I mean, the clear, the conciseness. And then of course, if you could add in a little cleverness while not taking away from your clearness and conciseness, always something to think about.

6:41That outline, so key, so critical. Like when I sat down and wrote out the 17 steps of the 17 step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment, which was my tagline, I said, there's my outline. Those are the 17 chapters. Those are the 17 steps I'm going to go through. And so because of that, I had zero writer's block because I knew exactly where I was going every step of the way before I even wrote one word in the actual book beyond that outline. And then having that writing schedule, like for me, like writing was something that I wasn't going to do if I just left it at the chance. But I committed the first two hours of every day for eight months was going to be writing and writing alone.

7:21And that equaled 480 hours in eight months. And I finished the book 71 ,000 words. So these are very key things when you're setting off to write a business book. Now, everybody struggles with time on some levels, JJ. So if Fire Nation, our listeners are struggling with time right now, what are your recommendations for them? You know, I think ghostwriting is something you could consider, although it is somewhat pricey, you know, for for someone trying to break into the business book scene, put a business book out there, hiring a ghostwriter, which is basically a professional writer who will be writing on on your behalf.

7:58sometimes the way to go I know a lot of well-known entrepreneurs go this route you can expect to pay usually between like 25k and 100k for for you know a professional ghostwriter with a proven track record the hundred thousand dollar you know range would be more you know like a New York Times best-selling ghostwriter and the 25k would be I wouldn't say bottom of the line but certainly you know you're not looking at it you know someone with new york times bestseller status or anything like that but ghostwriting is something that you could definitely look into and there's a plethora of options out there for for ghostwriting services but even beyond that an anthology is something you can also look into i'm actually creating an anthology right now with shark tanks kevin harrington he's one of my partners at meinster media my company and what we're doing with the the business anthology is we're allowing a, you know, about 30 different contributors.

8:58So each contributor or participant will, will add one chapter to the book. So it's kind of like a shortcut. So you could actually be part of a business book without writing an entire book. So that's a major perk with being involved in an anthology is, you know, you're just on the hook for one chapter, it could be like 1500 to, you know, 2000 words. So it's kind of like a blog post. So if you want to learn more about that, It's businessanthology.com. We'll take you right to the offering there. So Kevin and I are really excited about that anthology because it's an alternative to writing, like I said, an entire business book.

9:35It's an alternative to hiring a ghostwriter and spending$25K to$100K to work with a professional. So those are the two routes that I would recommend if you don't have the time. So Fire Nation, I will say there's nothing against going the ghostwriter route. I mean, I personally was really thinking about it. I actually chatted with four different ghostwriters, very different personalities, very different writing styles. And I enjoyed all my conversations with them. And I was all collecting information. At the end of the day, I decided this was a book I wanted to write. And so I did commit to the time of doing it.

10:08but a ghostwriting route if you have the outline if you have the knowledge and you're going to put your blood sweat and tears into promoting and marketing the crap out of it it is the way to get your message out to the world then go that route if that's the only route that you have and it can always of course be a great route because maybe these ghostwriters have better writing skills than you would have for any number of reasons and so they're going to be able to take your outline your words your thoughts and put it into paper in a more eloquent and readable way now Now, there's always so many debates around self-publishing versus traditional publishing.

10:43I've actually done both now. What are your thoughts on these, JJ? I'm definitely biased because I own a self-publishing company, but I can tell you that I've been down both roads. I had an agent at one point for about six months, and this was around the time of the Great Recession. So a lot of these traditional publishers weren't really taking on many new authors. So I ended up self-publishing back in 2009. I sold over 100 ,000 copies of my debut novel, Unconventional. And I did that all myself. Most of the copies were sold on Amazon. And this was around the time when Kindle was fairly new. And so I can tell you that with self-publishing, from my perspective, one of the benefits that I really, really enjoy with self-publishing is that there's a guarantee that your book will be published.

11:31Whereas with traditional publishing, usually you have to go through a literary agent. Sometimes it's just as hard to find an agent to represent you as it is landing an actual traditional book deal. But you can expect probably about a one - to two-year time frame with most traditionally published books, whereas self-publishing you're looking at about three months or so with our company, and that's with all full-service VIP treatment. So definitely the guarantee to be published, the speed to market is important. And with self-publishing, you can definitely get to the market much faster. And then keeping control over your book.

12:15That's also crucial for most authors, especially business book authors who are usually tying their content to their business. They don't really want a traditional publisher to swoop in and make all sorts of changes. So if you do get a traditional deal, make sure there's some sort of clause in the contract that allows you to keep some sort of control over the content. But more often than not, self-publishing is the way to go in that regard. And then, you know, also royalties are a consideration. You know, with self-publishing, you're able to keep a much larger percentage of royalties than you would with a traditional publisher, usually like 85 to 90 percent royalties when it comes to self-publishing.

12:54Whereas, you know, traditional, you might be getting, you know, five to 15%. And then if you have an agent, sometimes you have to share the royalties with your agent as well. So I think those are some key considerations. If you, if you're looking at this, you know, you know, self-publish versus traditional publishing debate. Fire Nation, there's always going to be a debate. There's definitely pros and cons to both sides. You just need to add up your pros and then weigh them against the cons and then make the decision that is best for yourself. And we have a lot of great things coming up talking about building a brand.

13:27We're going to be talking about the best book marketing methods when we get back from thinking our sponsors. Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship. More things added to your to-do list every day and less time to accomplish the things that matter most. Add to all that the number of tools it takes to run your coaching programs, online courses, growing team, and your physical product sales. And you've really got your hands full. Doing business has never felt harder. But what if there was a way to simplify everything, a way to manage your entire business with a single platform? Sounds like you'll need a miracle to make it happen, doesn't it?

14:01Well, I'm here to tell you that you don't need a miracle to hit your goals. You just need HubSpot. HubSpot's all-on-one customer platform can make growing your business infinitely easier. Imagine this, a platform that gives you high-quality leads, helps you close deals faster, and one that promotes customer loyalty and happiness. And if you're looking for record-breaking quarters, those are just ahead too. It's not a miracle. It's HubSpot. Visit HubSpot.com to get started today. Do you have a message inside that you know is meant to be shared with the world? Giving a TEDx talk is one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world, and Thought Leader can help you get there.

14:41Thought Leader is a speaker coaching company that has helped over 550 and counting coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, and experts land TEDx talks. Thought Leader is not affiliated with Ted or TEDx, but they're able to get these results because their founder, Taylor Conroy, is a four-time TEDx speaker himself and past EOFire guest. You might be thinking a TEDx talk sounds great, but where do you start? Taylor has put together a free training that's going to teach you how to land a TEDx talk in as little as 90 days. Join Taylor to learn exactly what TEDx organizers are looking for in their speakers, how to write a talk that goes viral once it goes online, and more.

15:17visit thought-leader.com slash fire. Join Taylor for this free training and get your message out of your head, out of your heart and out into the world where it belongs. That's thought-leader.com slash fire. So JJ, Fire Nation knows this. Building a brand is key, but it's difficult. How can we use a book to help? How can we use a book to build and grow our brand? Creating a business book can be key in terms of gaining credibility or becoming a trusted expert. I think it's one of the best ways to gain expertise in your market or your field and to be referred to as an expert. And so I think the credibility play is huge when it comes to growing your brand through a book.

16:09Sometimes just having that book in hand, you know, almost like as a business card on steroids, if you will, can make all the difference, you know, in terms of getting, you know, higher paid clients or maybe attracting more media coverage. But even beyond that, you can use a book to generate leads and sales for your business. And that's not something to sleep on either. I mean, a lot of business book authors are including, you know, links back to their lead magnet or their website. In fact, that's something that we're doing with the anthology that I mentioned earlier at businessanthology.com. You know, if you sign up there, we'll actually allow you to include a link back to your lead magnet in the chapter that you're involved in.

16:53And you can do the same thing for a full-length book as well. You can link back to even more than one lead magnet, you know. So if you want to get some of these readers into your sales funnels, that's another way to do it. And then also something else to consider is speaking gigs. A lot of companies or organizations looking to book speakers for their next big event, they're looking for experts. And if you can lead in with your pitch as a bestselling author or even just as a published author, sometimes that actually puts you ahead of your competition. And so I think those are some things you can definitely look at in terms of growing your brand with a book.

17:34So maybe let's talk a little bit specific about either yourself or maybe one of your past clients or somebody that you've seen do this really well, building a brand using their book. Give us one specific example. Yeah, so we had a gal who teaches Italian online, and she wanted to create a book that she could use to basically drive traffic back to her YouTube page and back to her website. So she created this Italian guide, if you will, and it's actually a beautiful guide. There was actually some handwritten Italian in there as well, and the book came out beautifully. And she is able to use the book, like I said, to drive traffic to her website, to her YouTube page.

18:22And so there's a lot of cross-promotion that's happened there. We also have another author who wrote about – she's actually a renowned individual when it comes to health and wellness. Her name is Cindy Clement, and she wrote a book on that very topic about some of the toxins that we allow into our body, whether it's through food or through the air or through various methods. And so she wrote on that topic and used that to launch her speaking career. She's done really well with that, and her book became a number one Amazon bestseller as well. So there are a couple examples there, but there are numerous, numerous examples.

19:06So another thing I want to talk about are the best book marketing methods. I mean, again, we're going to be focusing mostly on the self-publishing because that's your area of expertise. But that is one thing that when you're self-publishing, it's on you, Fire Nation. Like you are the book launch marketing manager. This is what you need to be focusing on to get your book out to the world. So what are some of the best marketing methods that you've seen for self-publishers? Having an author website is key. You need to have a home base, if you will. And you can set it up so that you have, like I mentioned, lead magnets on your website or opt-in forms.

19:44So you should offer some sort of value in return or in exchange for contact information. So maybe you're giving away some sort of free report or something that relates to your book. You should have that author website and lead magnet set up well before your book is even available. And you should be testing it. That way, when you do write your book and you implement that lead magnet in your book, you already know that the lead magnet works. You should also have an email marketing campaign set up around that lead magnet. So when people opt in, they're getting a series of automated emails. You can use something like aweber.com or even Constant Contact or MailChimp to set up an email marketing campaign.

20:30and that'll trigger automated emails, a series of emails once someone signs up for that report or whatever you're offering for free in exchange for information. So the author website's key, the email marketing, setting up that lead magnet and sales funnel is key. Beyond that, you can use social media to drive an incredible amount of traffic back to your website. I mean, I use Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Twitter ads, LinkedIn ads, And obviously, I rely a little bit on the organic side of things, too. But, you know, be ready to spend some money on social media ads, in particular, to drive traffic back to your website, back to your offer, your lead magnet on your website.

21:12And once you get those people, you know, signing up or opting in on your website, you can email them basically in perpetuity, you know, unless, of course, they unsubscribe. But, you know, having having your own list is key and you can use social media to create that list by driving traffic to your your lead magnet. And then, you know, some other considerations, obviously, podcasts are are huge. I wouldn't be on one if I didn't believe in the power of podcasts. And obviously, you can reach a large amount of people in a very short span of time. But then, you know, creating your own your own opportunities, I think, are key, too.

21:52I think some authors forget that you can hustle just like you would at the beginning of your business. And you can contact some of your local news outlets. You can contact book bloggers. There's all sorts of book blogger lists on Google. If you just Google book bloggers, you'll see probably millions of results. But you can also go on to websites like goodreads.com, G-O-D-R-E-A-D-S.com, and that's owned by Amazon. It's a social network for book lovers. So it's kind of like Facebook, but everyone on the website loves books. So goodreads.com is something that I've spent a lot of time on and I would recommend.

22:35And you can also offer giveaways through Goodreads, and giveaways just in general are a great way to generate exposure. and you can also offer a giveaway and ask that the people who win or receive the book write a review on Amazon. So yeah, I mean, hustle is definitely something that you'll need to do. Just like with any new business venture, I mean, you're starting from scratch. You're creating your author brand. So I think that covers it fairly well. You are going to have to hustle, Fire Nation. I mean, again, going through some of the things that JJ talked about, author of websites, key, having a place to drive people, ads.

23:20We found some definite success with Amazon ads as well, which is really interesting to see. Podcasts. I mean, I was on 345 podcasts and shows like Instagram Lives and Facebook Lives in 75 days promoting the book. Like that is something that I just over committed to because I knew the effectiveness of it. You can do different giveaways. JJ mentioned goodreads.com. Something that I think you need to think about. If you have a real specific, an amazing solution to a real problem with your book, go to different Q &A sites like quora.com and some other Q &A sites where people are asking questions that your book has the answer to.

24:03And then you can give the best definitive answer. It'll get upvoted and it will be there for all time being like this constant lead magnet for your book. So JJ, you shared a lot of value bombs, brother. Give us the one key takeaway that you want to make sure Fire Nation really gets from our chat today. Any call to action you have for our listeners, share it now and then we'll say goodbye. There's a lot of value, like I said earlier, in joining an anthology. If you're looking to become a published author without having to write an entire book, you can go to businessanthology.com and sign up. Um, but outside of that, certainly go to meinstermedia.com and you can download a free publishing guide where we outline our entire process and show you all the different packages that we offer.

24:48And we are partnered with Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington. So you're in good hands and hope to hope to see you soon. Fire Nation, take these calls to action. Make sure that you are listening, learning, consuming the content in the areas that you need help with from the experts. And I know, Fire Nation, that you know that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with JJ and JLD today. So please keep up that heat and head over to eofire.com and just type JJ in the search bar and his show notes page will pop up with everything that we talked about here today.

25:23And JJ, I want to say thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value of Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, John. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by JJ. And Fire Nation, if you've ever thought about creating a podcast of your own, the Podcast Journal is for you. It is gorgeous. It is faux leather, and it will guide you step by step in the creation and the launch of your podcast in 50 days. Visit thepodcastjournal.com. Use promo code podcast for a$15 discount as a thank you for listening to my podcast, and I will catch you there or on the flippity flip side.

26:03Nudge, hosted by Phil Agnew, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Ever notice how the smallest changes can have the biggest impact? On Nudge, you learn simple evidence-backed tips to help you kick bad habits, get a raise, and grow a business. Oh, and it's the UK's fast-growing business podcast. A recent episode on how to win any argument shares decade-long research into persuasion from a world-leading neuroscientist. Listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world.

26:35And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions.