2149 - Boost Business and Authority through Storytelling with Same Page Publishing's Aurora Winter

0:05Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, influencers, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt-in required where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments.

0:51Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you.

1:05with us right now it's aurora winter aurora you are the uh founder of same page publishing you are found on the web uh i'm gonna give two websites both of these to our friend that's listening these are linked in the show notes turn words into wealth.com and aurora your name aurorawinter.com it's great to have you great to be on the show with you josh and i look forward to helping people turn their words into wealth. Very good. Well, before we get going, Aurora, you as a person, like what's entertaining for you right now? I don't know if there's any TV shows you're watching or music you're listening to, maybe a really good book or page turner, something on your playlist.

1:48Oh, well, I love books. I've been watching Reacher actually. So that's a pretty good TV series. But what I'm super stoked about is pickleball. Pickleball. I love pickleball. It's awesome. Oh, my goodness. Yes. I'm a well addict. Listen, so I'm here in Orlando. And I live in a pretty large neighborhood that includes plenty of folks that have a little bit more free time. You know, maybe they're a little bit more senior in their career, have a little bit more time where they might be semi-retired or retired. and I'll tell you what if you ever want to get seriously humiliated take on one of these 70 year old somethings in my neighborhood at pickleball they will completely humiliate you it is such a fun sport it is so addictive and it's what I love about it Aurora and I'm sure I'd love to hear why you enjoy it what I like about it is it's so easy to get like just competent at where it's like oh wow we're actually doing a thing, right?

2:52And so it's motivating that way. And then, you know, if you want to get good at it, oh boy, yeah, you could really get, start working. And it's not as much about athletic prowess as it is strategy. Can you tell me more about that? Oh yeah, the strategy. Well, I'm still a newbie. So that seven-year-old in your neighborhood would totally humiliate me. But one of the things I love about it is it's fun to exercise and even sprint. And studies show that most people don't sprint after the age of 20. And so adding some sprinting actually really adds to your health. So I feel like my whole body is getting toned from the and I used to be a squash player.

3:33I was going to say competitive squash player. I was competitive when I played squash and there's so much strategy in squash and pickleball does have that strategy, but it's not as aggressive. It's much more fun. Yeah. If, if anyone's considering like, and maybe you've already played some pickup games. Have you taken lessons? I took a couple of lessons, but I'm going to take more lessons. You know, I did an eight-week kind of camp and I'm so glad I did because that's where I really started to discover that it is much more strategic than it is, you know, just outperforming from a strength or speed standpoint.

4:12You need the, those things are helpful, but again you know that's you know again playing against a 70 year old that like she's not even moving she's just like standing in one spot you know ping ping ping ping ping and i'm i'm like running all over the place and she's over there just laughing at me i'm like yeah well it's great for connecting it really it's it's a fun it's it's you know and usually i find people who do that are generally now i will say up north of me is is the villages and i hear that those seniors get really competitive uh but normally i find pickleball players are just cool people they're just cool friendly out for a good day hey aurora tell me about your your book turn words into wealth uh why a book now i think this is a good time for a book i think most people are like all excited about social media and social media is great.

5:08But as you know, Josh, you really have to have a clear message even to stand out on social media. And so many people get all obsessed about, is it going to be on Facebook or LinkedIn or X, but they don't dial into their message. And one of the things I love about helping people create a book is there's nothing like that process of creating a book to help you get very, very clear who you stand for, what problems you solve? What are the myths? And get your soundbites down. Also, a book is kind of required, like an MD or a PhD, or in my case, an MBA. It's required to go to the next level of thought leadership.

5:46So anybody can write a book, but most people never do. So I love to help people, especially busy executives who don't have any time to write a book and aren't, you know, award-winning TV writer-producers as I am, just create a book very quickly. So I use the spoken author method. Most people can speak 8 ,000 words in one hour on their area of expertise or passion, but most first-time authors cannot even write 8 ,000 words in a week. So it just makes it so much faster and more fun to create a book. Yeah. Well, Aurora, I think we really need to, though, and I would imagine a lot of folks in this audience want to know the business justification for this, because at the end of the day, this is going to be something that likely is an investment of resources and certainly of time.

6:39So why is this a good business decision? Exactly right. So that's what I wrote about in Turn Words Into Wealth. There's seven different ways to monetize a book that are proven methods, and I point them all out and go through, you know, Speaking is the highest paid profession, for example. You know, people like David Goggins are making whatever,$150 ,000,$175 ,000 per talk. Hillary Clinton,$250 ,000. You can make a lot of money as a speaker, but most people need to have a book. So the short answer is I kind of stumbled across this initially, just as you seemingly stumbled across getting on TV and getting on podcasts as a great way to attract clients.

7:26My first published book, I thought, OK, fine, I've written it all in the book. You don't need me. But actually, that book attracted media appearances and attracted clients. So if you have a book, you can use that to get on podcasts or radio or TV. and become the influencer and attract people. And when you do that, you can attract people at a higher caliber and the return on investment is there. As I said, my first published book, I really thought this is everything I have to say on the topic. You don't need to talk to me. Yeah. Aurora, can I ask why does that give you a competitive edge? Because most people don't have a book.

8:04No, no. Well, right. I understand. But, you know, why when you're pitching, let's say you're pitching media or whatever, how do you know? Because I mean, this is the question I think a lot of people would have, like, how does that get me in the door better? I think people are naturally status seekers, and they assess very quickly, how much status does this person have? So becoming an author, the root of the word authority is actually author. So you change the conversation by having a book, even before you open your mouth, it shifts the entire conversation. A really great book about this is by Oren Klaff called Pitch Anything.

8:44So Dan Kennedy is a great example. He actually did a study of if they cold called or just had people reach out versus if they sent a book in advance. I'm forgetting the exact details I put in my book, but I think it was something like 200 % higher return. So it just breaks through all of the noise. when you've got the book. How important, Aurora, is it to have a really great book as opposed to an okay book? It's really, really important to have a really great book. So you turn words into wealth, one outstanding nonfiction book of the year, the year that it was published. It's got hundreds of reviews.

9:27It's got a great rating. And you really need to have not just any book, but a great book. The cool thing about interviewing people to create a book is that for podcasts or for video clips, people expect what we're doing right now, Josh. They expect more of a conversational style. So I interview people to help create the first draft of the book, but then we have to polish that to create a well-researched, robust book with the right structure. Most people don't understand that there is a hidden structure behind a book. Most people do know, hopefully, that there's a hidden structure behind movies.

10:04So I've studied, you know, communication and studied the structure of movies and books. And it's very easy to add that structure at the very beginning of the process. But if just somebody who thinks they have something to say and they just, you know, put it together in any order, it won't have the result that they might be hoping for. So that structure is like building. It's a blueprint. You have a blueprint for a book or a blueprint for a house. If you just start building a house, it may not stand the earthquake or you may not have any plumbing or it might not have a kitchen. But if you design a book or a podcast or anything based upon a proven structure, then it will be really good.

10:44But the difference between a good book, like a C plus book and a B plus book and an A plus book is so much effort. So what I love to do is I help people who are already running successful seven or eight or nine figure businesses create an outstanding book that they can be proud of for the rest of their life that will generate a return of seven or eight or maybe even nine figures. Like one of the people I'm working with right now, he just exited his company for nine figures. He's like, OK, well, I'm still young, I'm vibrant, I'm energetic. What's next? And so we hit upon, oh, we could take these elements that he knows how to do very well in this industry and apply it to a different industry, write a book about that.

11:25And very quickly, he's already got a new business that he's excited about that can generate seven figures and probably another eight or nine figure exit. So I want to make sure, though, that we're giving good advice rather than just saying that the seven steps are in my book. what are some of the actionable steps that an author might want to take to ensure because there's a lot of broke off there's a lot of you know business people that are not making money or you know having financial struggles and there are a lot of broke author speaker coaches out there so what delineates between someone who's published a really great book and someone who's published a really great book and also has done well with it what it's it's not about having the book it's about what they did with it.

12:09I want to make sure that we're not just saying, hey, if you write a book, write the book and they will come, build it and they will come. You got to do a lot more than that. Exactly right, Josh. Exactly right. So one of the main things that first time authors fail to do is they fail to create a business plan to go with the book. So in the seven different ways to monetize your book, none of those seven are by selling books. That would be way number eight, which David Goggins did brilliantly. Like you want to decide in advance, what is the problem that this book solves? Who is it solving that problem for?

12:46And is that aligned with the business back end as a coach, a consultant, a speaker, or whatever product or services that you are selling now or wish to sell in the future? Make sure those things are aligned. And then salt inside of the book or sugar, if you like some stories, some evidence about how that will work. Cause you don't just want to write a book and then afterward think about how are you going to monetize it? You need to, it's just like making bread. You need to add the yeast at the beginning. So you, this is why I wrote Turnwords Into Wealth because it was really heavy on my heart that my friends and clients would typically, the first time author spends three and a half years writing a book, And typically they drop the ball right at the finish line.

13:33They don't test the title. They don't test the subtitle. They don't have a call to action. They don't explain what problems they solve. There's no invitation for more resources or to play with me or come here and get some videos or come here and get some bonus material. We want to think about the book as the appetizer or as the first step in a business relationship. Yes, you want the book to be as good as it can be. You don't have to withhold any information at all. Give it all away. The best value, I think, is you can buy a book for about 20 bucks and you've got potentially decades of somebody's expertise.

14:08But you don't have to withhold because people who are affluent, who are already successful in their careers, who are successful lawyers or professionals or running seven or eight or nine figure businesses, they're going to say, great, love your book. Now, can you do it with me or can you do it for me? Or can I come to a mastermind or can I get coaching with you? or can I come to an event or can you just solve this problem for me as a consultant? So we can really be go-givers. I know you really are a stand for that, Josh. You don't have to withhold from the book, but don't make the rookie mistake of not thinking through what is this the beginning of a relationship for.

14:46So to give a quick example, one of my clients, her book is coming out in a couple of months. It's called The Vitality Solution. And at first she wasn't even sure that she had a book in her. She had no idea how to write, but she had this message on her heart that she was given six months to live. You know, she was in her early forties. She was in a wheelchair. She was incoherent. And the doctor said, sorry, there's nothing we can do for you. Now, fast forward 12 years, she's healthy. She's vibrant. She's vital because she learned how to apply some alternative healing processes. Anyway, so she was really passionate about sharing this message, which is in the book, The Vitality Solution.

15:23But by working together, she suddenly realized, wait a minute, I have got one IV vitamin therapy spa center in one location in Northern California. But with my expertise and with my book and my solutions, I could help other people start similar health spas in other places, and I could make an even bigger difference. So her return on her investment on the book suddenly jumped up to the next level as she saw some other possibilities for contributing. And those only came because her message got more clear. And when your message gets more clear, you suddenly get even more determined to make a big difference.

16:03Yeah. Aurora, your book, and it's available on Amazon and your website, which we have all linked up in the podcast player right now for our friend. You can go to wordsintowealth.com. Turn wordsintowealth.com. Turnwordsintowealth.com, blueprint for your business, brand, and book. What is the transformation that happens when someone goes through this book cover to cover? People get so excited when they read the book cover together because they feel like, I can do this. This is possible. There are recipes in the book for how to create your million-dollar message. There's also some key neuroscience takeaways that I can cover really quickly right here.

16:48So I think the biggest mistake well-educated people make about communication is they think that the message sent is the message received, and that is wrong. So everybody would benefit from learning at least a little bit about the neuroscience of communication. And there's just three steps to the neuroscience of communication. First, you have to hook attention. So using my book, Turn Words into Wealth, as an example, the title is a hook. It's about turning words into wealth. The second step is the midbrain. And the midbrain is the social brain. We're always looking for social proof. Who else likes this?

17:22Who else is doing this? Who else is on board? And so using the book as an example, again, it was the winner, Outstanding Nonfiction Book of the Year when it was published. So that is social proof. You can do this too. What is the social proof about your message. And then the third part, yes, you finally get to give that brain to brain or the cerebral cortex message, but only in a small bite. People cannot listen with full attention for longer than 20 minutes, which is why your podcast is exactly the right length. So you can give a little bit of your message, but of course, back it up by a story.

17:56The fact is that how we were taught in university is exactly wrong because people do not buy based on statistics. They buy based on stories. They remember stories. They repeat stories. So practice your stories and get your stories to go with your message. Yeah. Aurora, do you work with clients as well? And do you help them get their book published? Yeah, that's what I do at Same Page Publishing. What is that? How do you do that? What is that service? So firstly, we take a deep dive for one month and I do a mini feasibility study using my MBA to see, you know, is there a market for this book? What are competitive books selling?

18:37What is the back end? Does this author have the depth of expertise to really deliver on the big, bold promise? Sometimes we even test the title and get a killer title. And so at the end of the month, they're like, oh, this book is a viable prospect, project that'll make me money and it'll be fun. Or it's like, oh, well, I thought it was a good idea, but it's not. And then after that month, if people want to continue working with me, then we basically, I outline the book. We agree on the outline. We agree on the big, bold promise. Who is it for? The transformation that the book will provide, the problems that it will solve.

19:13And then I basically interview them using the spoken author method. So each chapter is like a one hour podcast, like interview. People are prepared in advance where they know what the questions are going to be. And so at the end of the process, it's not like they have to wait and then just at the very end get a book as we are creating the book we're also creating hours of video and audio content that can be sliced and diced into hundreds of pieces of social media content so that the book is birthed into a buzz already established for it so I call that the spoken author process and at the end of the process people get the videos the audios the content, but they also have the fun of really reviewing their life and discovering where the gold is in their stories and releasing some of the setbacks or reviewing them and go, actually, this setback helped me learn something.

20:05And then at the end, we launch the book. So that's another mistake most people make. As first-time authors, they think that writing the book is the end of the process, but actually, again, it's just the beginning. It's just the beginning. And, you know, we want to set the book up for success by applying for awards before it comes out, getting reader reviews, setting the whole thing up to be successful. Yeah. And that really, you know, getting all those things in place really is the difference between, you know, because I, you know, I've talked, you know, plenty of people that have published a book and it just nothing ever happened.

20:38and they got a box of books sitting in their living room. And yeah, getting the business plan is critical to that. Aurora Winter, again, thank you so much for the conversation. Your websites, turnwordsintowealth.com, and your personal website, aurorawinter.com. Aurora, thank you for joining us. Thanks so much, Josh.

21:06Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

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