1694 – Discerning What You Stand For with Michelle Vandepas

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0:59with us right now it's michelle vanderpass michelle you're a publisher and your website got a couple of them here is gracepointpublishing.com of course your personal website michellevanderpass.com and you also have another website i think it's michellecoaches.com right which will kind of redirect uh folks to all of the above that's right and all all roads lead back to me, Josh. You are in beautiful Colorado Springs. I was mentioning that's where my daughter lives. As of when we're recording this, I'm going to be out there in about three weeks. My wife and I get out there a couple of times a year.

1:36What a beautiful part of the country. How did you just before we kind of get into what you do? Tell me about why you like living in Colorado Springs. Oh, so I've traveled the world and I keep thinking, you know, oh, would I like to live here? Would I I like to live there, but you know, there's nothing like home. I moved here. I'd lived around different places when I was a kid. My husband and I met in Dallas. We came up for vacation and I'm like, this is it. This is where I want to live. That was 40 years ago. Still here. Same house, same husband, same town. Not everything in my life has been so consistent, but that has been.

2:15And I like it and I like to travel and I like to come home. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, Michelle, tell us about your impact in the world, the work you do today. I know you're also a well-known speaker in addition to kind of being in the publishing world, but give us an overview of your impact today. Well, I love that, your impact today. What a great way to ask a question, right? You know, what I like to say that I really do is help people discern what they really stand for and get that message out into the world. that happens to take the form mostly of book coaching and book publishing, right?

2:54But it doesn't have to. I really can dig in with other people and help them really figure out where they want to put their stake in the sand and say, this is what I'm going to write my book about. Because usually first-time authors come to the table with a million ideas. And so I would say my impact is really helping other people get super clear and then publishing that work, usually in the form of a book. Can you kind of give us a lay of the land for book publishing today? Oh, man, am I allowed to swear?

3:34Get your finger on that.

3:39You know, it's a crazy thing, right? With most big industries, there's some gatekeepers, right? There's gatekeepers in this industry. There's only like a couple of ways to really sell books. There's really only a few really big publishers that are going to get you mainstream media. and so the perception is I either have to self-publish or I have to go with a big publishing company or I'm going to waste thousands of dollars and not sell any books so it's like the industry is changing so fast and has changed so fast nobody really understands what's going on right and that's why I like to just talk to people rather than try to explain because everyone has different questions.

4:32But what I see is that publishing right now is going through a whole nother revamp. People are listening to podcasts more, they're watching videos more, people are still reading. But Josh, my guess is maybe you're not as reading as much as you did 20 years ago. Like paper books. I mean, I still read, but I didn't have Netflix 20 years ago. And I got to say sometimes I watch Netflix, whereas I used to would have read a book, right? And so that's changing how we're viewing books and the purpose of books. And I'm talking nonfiction. Yeah. Not not fiction, because fiction, everyone loves to read fiction still.

5:12So I think the landscape's changing. Distribution has to change because there's just like a couple of places where you can really buy books and that controls the marketplace about what you get to see. I'd like to be part of that disruption. Find new ways to get books into the hands of the people that need them. Yeah. My experience is on the consumer side of this, or as you know, as an avid book consumer, it is, to me, I think in the past, I think, you know, you'd pick up a book like E-Myth, and it's like, your relationship with the author was contained within, you know, kind of like the front cover and the back cover.

5:53And that was it. And then maybe you'd go and hopefully you would take action on what you read. But there was, that was kind of the end of it, right? It's just like you had this kind of imaginary relationship with the author. Whereas today, you know, I'd say my typical cycle with the book, I do this a lot, right? Where I will come across the content and, you know, again, kind of maybe high level, then maybe I'll listen to a podcast with the author, dig in a little bit more, maybe find, see some, if there's some content on YouTube about it. And then I get confirmation. Yes, this is exactly, I am.

6:29And then, then I want to do the deep dive. And for me, the deep dive. Now, ideally I would, me, you know, I'd be looking for an audio book because that's how I, how me, how I tend to learn, but, or an ebook would be fire Kindle or something like that. And then from there, obviously, I'm going to get engaged with the author in some way. I'm going to be following them on social, of course, by then. You know, I'm looking for additional resources on their website. I feel like I want to build a relationship with them, not just, you know, this superficial where we're kind of separated by just, you know, kind of words on a page.

7:10Like I want to engage. Right. And all that has changed so much. I'm glad you brought that up because you may not even buy a book until you've done all those things first, right? You introduced in a podcast or on a video or on social, you've heard about an author and then you buy the book and then you go engage even further. Maybe you buy the book and then you're looking for further information or even validation about who this person is, who this author is, and how do you find the book, right? That's really, as a consumer, how do you find these new books? If it's not in the top bestsellers on Amazon or sitting in your bookstore, that doesn't mean it's not a great book.

7:55There's lots of great books out there that aren't necessarily right in your face all the time. And the things you're talking about is exactly how authors need to connect with their future readers and their readers. All these other things that are new that has changed over the years to help bring your audience in and also will help your second and third book. Well, and herein lies the opportunity, right? So authors that are willing to connect beyond just the book, you know, certainly I think this is pretty well known that, you know, don't expect to get rich on your first book. I mean, or maybe even your second or third book, it's, there's a lot of opportunity, particularly in the nonfiction world, you know, beyond that.

8:44Can you talk maybe about the business model for nonfiction authors today? Yeah, so you can definitely, so a couple of things. You can definitely get rich off your first book, but it won't be from the sales of the book. It will be from all these other things that you're talking about, right? How do you build your business? If you're writing a nonfiction book, there's a couple different reasons to write one. One is you have a legacy, you have a story, you have inspiration. Maybe you're building a coaching business around it. Maybe you're not. You just want to write your book and leave your mark.

9:17And that's enough. You do that. You sell a few hundred, a few thousand copies, whatever it is, and you've left your mark in the world. And that's beautiful. The other way is what you're talking about, a business model, where you actually have have a business, maybe it's consulting, maybe it's online products, maybe it's a brick and mortar store, whatever it is. And you want to use that for lead gen, for foundation, to help lead people to your courses or your consulting services. And that can be very lucrative as long as you're using the book as part of the foundational pieces that tie it all together, what you're talking about.

9:56You engage with the author, you give them maybe free content, As an author, you're on podcasts, maybe you're hosting podcasts. You have really good calls to action in your book. Your book is structured to lead your reader through a process to help them open up and be ready for the next level of what you're giving. Right. So there's a lot of structure that goes in underneath that. and I'm always saying your goal is to get people who want to buy from you from your book if you're using it for that reason you can sell lots of books you don't have to sell lots of books to have your book become very successful for you and your business yeah yeah um and so for Grace Point and the work that you do Michelle um where should the author be or the potential author be a future author be in that journey?

10:57And, you know, what are they going to be expected to do versus what may you, how does Grace point out, how do you help them? We do, well, we do it all. We have all different divisions. We do ghost writing, we do book coaching. We will help you at the very beginning. But we also have people who come to us with manuscripts that just need some final editing or just publishing. We're soup to nuts kind of company. I've been doing this a long time. So we We have all these different divisions plus audio books. We also have people come to us and say, I published my book. Now I want the audio book. We have our production studio that does that.

11:35The place where I think most authors need the most help though, is they have a million ideas in their head. They're running a business. They're entrepreneurs. They go a mile a minute. They know that they have something to say. They know this is their next step and they need help discerning what's actually going to go in the book and what's the structure of the book going to be. And if that's where you are, book a call with me and we'll figure out where you go and what should be in the book. Because I find that less is more in today's marketplace. You don't need to say it all in one book. Yeah.

12:16Who would be an author that maybe might not be a great fit for you? And who would be an example of an author would be perfect for you? I love working with people who have stories to tell. We're really good at our company about helping pull out the hard stuff. People who've been through hard journeys. How do you say that in a way that becomes inspirational? rather than just, oh my gosh, I don't want to read that. Or they've been through so much. That's not me. How do you make it relatable? We're really good at pulling out people's stories and putting that into a teaching moment in the book. I don't do a lot with fiction.

12:58I don't do a lot with people who say, I have this book. I'm not going to edit it. It is what it is. Go make me a New York Times bestseller. Like if they have very specific goals and dreams and they're on a trajectory that's maybe not collaborative. There are plenty of companies out there that will help those people, right? It's more of a marketing thing than a publishing thing. They have their book, they're ready to go market it. We like working collaboratively to make the book better, the best book it can be. And that's not always a match for everybody. You think it would be, I would think it would be, but it's not.

13:39your websites uh gracepointpublishing.com and uh michellevanderpass.com actually was it michellecoaches.com that was the the redirect website yeah it's easier to spell than vanderpass yes okay michellecoaches.com did i get that correct that's correct yeah okay great um so someone who's been listening to our conversation what would you recommend what do they do from here and they're interested in learning more about you and potentially engaging. The easiest thing is to book a call with me. I'm not intimidated and I'll just ask you a bunch of questions. You can ask me a bunch of questions. You know, some people say, I don't want to book with a publisher.

14:18I'm not ready. I'm not ready. But, you know, let's just talk and see where you're at and if it's a match or not. The other thing that is just a hint is if you're thinking about writing your book and you don't know what it's going to be about yet, write your back cover. go ahead and write the back cover of your book. This is the first step I often give my clients because it helps get your synopsis. It helps get your thoughts into just one paragraph about what you really want to say. And it may change just because you write it doesn't mean it's going to stay. It's going to stick, but it really helps formulate your thoughts quickly and succinctly into one paragraph about what you want your book to be.

14:59Yeah. When you're forced to condense it down to that. Yeah, it's time to boil it down to the essence for sure. That's right. Well, Michelle, again, your website, michellecoaches.com. And again, if you want to look at the main gracepointpublishing.com, you're welcome to. Michelle, this has been fantastic. It's been a great conversation. And thank you for the good work you do in the world and for the work that you do with great authors so we can make the world a more positive, engaging place. Come see me in Colorado Springs. All right, Michelle, looking forward to it. Take care.

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