0 (2s):
Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation, JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by HubSpot today, we'll be focusing on the six figure book funnel to drop these value bombs. I brought Alinka Rutkowska on the mic. Alinka is the CEO of leaders press a USA today and wall street journal bestselling press, where she creates books for entrepreneurs and launches them to bestseller with a 100% success rate and foundation. Today we talking about, is it really realistic to make six figures from a book, the best way to publish talking, to sell published traditionally published or a hybrid. Does the world really need another book and so much more?

0 (43s):
When we get back from thinking our sponsors, managing conversations with prospects and customers throughout all stages of their journey can be tough. Information gets lost between departments in your customer's experience suffers as a result, HubSpot wants to change that. Learn more about how you can scale your company without scaling complexity at hubspot.com. Hiring can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you post a job on zip recruiter, their matching technology finds these qualified candidates for you and invites them to apply. So while other companies give you too many options, ZipRecruiter finds you the needle in the haystack. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com/fire a link say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful.

0 (1m 30s):
That most people disagree.

1 (1m 33s):
JLD super excited to be here. Well, I think many people will disagree when I say that, I don't think you have to suffer and make sacrifices to achieve success. Instead. I think you have to be grounded centered, focused, know where you're going. Drive the vision, surround yourself with a great team that you can delegate to have solid processes in place. Once you've figured things out. For example, the business I run leaders press is a seven figure business. We're getting ready to scale to eight figures and I work seven hours a day. I wouldn't even call it work like this is work, right?

1 (2m 13s):
No, it's not. It's a great conversation. I do a complete email detox on weekends, but during the hours that I do work, I'm laser focused, all notifications off. I have a clear goal for the year, for the month, for the week, for the day. So my business is elf by Joe Polish standard, easy liquidity and fun.

0 (2m 37s):
I love this and Fire Nation. It is true. What Alinka says. I mean, when people used to call me crazy for interviewing eight entrepreneurs in one day, you know, which I do usually two or three days per month, every month to 2012. Now they're like, man, that is so much work. And I'm just like, you know, what was work work was the 12 hours I spent sweating my butt off and Iraq patrolling the countryside that was worth getting shot at. It's like all those crazy things, getting to talk to cool people like Alinka. I gotta be honest. I enjoy this. I got my coffee right here. Go my dog right here. Everything is kind of fun and enjoyable. And these conversations light me up Fire Nation. So find the things that light you up and Hey, we're going to make this happen for you.

0 (3m 19s):
And now we're having an amazing conversation. As I shared in the intro about the six figure book funnel. So let's just get right to it Alinka. Can you really make six figures from a book?

1 (3m 33s):
Absolutely not only six, but even seven figures. The thing that most people have in mind when they think about book royalties are exactly royalties from the book. So the front end, but a lot of people forget that a book is a funnel to your business. So there's a lot that can happen on the backend. And a may of my entrepreneurial friends have made six and seven figures on the front and backend of their books, myself included. So it can be a fantastic way to not only increase your business, but to even create a business from scratch

0 (4m 17s):
Fire Nation. Are you solving a real problem for individuals? And is it possible that you can provide the best solution to a real problem for individuals? If you have that, then you need to get this message out in multiple ways. Obviously a podcast, a show, YouTube, we have social media, but also a book. People love books. And this is how you can get people into your world, providing the best solution to a real problem. Now, what people don't need is just a history of your life. That's not what they need. They need the best solution to a real problem. And then that can usher people into your world into a funnel that makes six figures plus, but let's get down to the nitty-gritty Alinka.

0 (5m 1s):
What's the best way to publish a book in your experience. We talk in cell publishing, we talk in going to their traditional publishing route, or what about a little bit of a hybrid?

1 (5m 12s):
Well, I've done it all. The three ways that you mentioned. So these are three very different ways and the answer, which one is best, would really depend on the individual's goals. So what we know historically traditional publishing was the way to publish and the way you had to do that was first find an agent. Once you found an agent and that's not so easy or fast to do the agent pitches, your manuscript or your proposal to the publishing house. Once the publishing house has accepted, you will get on board and will probably be published within the upcoming two years or so.

1 (5m 57s):
And the publishing house basically controls everything. And you end up getting royalties of about 7% and, and great distribution usually. So you do get the distribution. This is the traditional route. Then self-publishing came along and suddenly anybody can publish a book. So people started publishing and some of them found out that they really weren't selling too many copies because now it's no longer the gatekeeper that makes the decision it's the market. So there are many authors who are absolutely crushing it, self publishing, however, they do have limited distribution.

1 (6m 39s):
So they don't get to work with the traditional distribution channels that really get the books everywhere. However, they take all the, all the profits home and then comes hybrid publishing. This is what I did with leaders press the best of both worlds. The author has control as well as the publisher, helping the author, but definitely not taking the control. And we do a big launch for the book and also offer traditional distribution. And we partner with one of the large traditional publishing houses to offer distribution.

1 (7m 22s):
There's one more difference, of course, with traditional publishing, usually get an advance now that advance, these advances are the range of, let's say starting with $2,000 and on the other, on the other end of the scale, we're looking at six figures, whereas with hybrid, you know, there's a, there's an upfront investment. So these are the three ways to publish. Have you experienced the three?

0 (7m 56s):
I have actually gone through the first two. I have, self-published a book which I had great success with is called Podcast Launch. I sat down over one weekend. I wrote a book. It was probably like 10,000 words, I would guess in total, maybe even a little bit less. And I self published it and that book has sold thousands and thousands of copies. And I haven't made much money on it because I put it for $2 and 99 cents on Amazon, but it is an amazing lead into my funnels for podcasts is paradise. Just last year, I actually signed a six figure advance contract with Harper Collins to publish traditional my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success and that actually launched back on March 23rd of 2021.

0 (8m 37s):
So that was a very enjoyable experience, but you know, just like there's pros to going the traditional route. There's also cons you know, and I loved the team that I worked with, but there were some timelines and some other things that I was kind of scratching my head at, but you know, that's the traditional route. I've never done the hybrid and, you know, Hey, maybe the next time I do a book launch, it could be that hybrid to really get a full taste for all three. So that's kind of been my experience Alinka. And again, I've enjoyed that both the cell publishing and the traditional publishing route. And it's really interesting to hear the pros and cons of all three of these. And so Fire Nation kind of figure out where do you fit right now? Make that make sense for you, but let's just answer a question pretty directly.

0 (9m 21s):
Alinka does the world really need another book?

1 (9m 27s):
Your world does. Ooh, this is a great question. And it is a valid question. Another one could be, you know, there are so many books on this topic. Do I really need to write another one? Well, let's see the best way to figure that out is to go to Amazon. Think about your genre, your niche, and find it, find a category on Amazon. So let's say we're going to write a book on leadership. So we go and look at the business section and then a drop down drop down menu. We look at leadership. Okay, there it is. So we've got the overall leadership category and then maybe we want to drill further down and find something even more detailed.

1 (10m 15s):
So if we're able to find a category, either a broad category or a narrow category that our book fits in, that's already a good start because we do want to write a book that there's an audience for, right? So that's, that's the number one thing. And then we went to look at the competing titles. So what are the other books that my book will be on the bookshelf with? And, you know, once we have these, we obviously want them to sell well. So we look at number one, two, three, four, and so on, on that Amazon list, those are our competing titles and we know that fit. We fit in. And then to answer your question, we know that we should write another book if our idea stands out.

1 (11m 1s):
So if we're able to convince the reader with our topic, with our title, that they should read our book and not the other ones listed there. And obviously they will probably read many books. Cause you know, when as entrepreneurs, we're researching a topic, we want to learn something new. We're not going to just pick up one book. We're going to pick up many books and take some nuggets from each of them. So if you're able to find a category that you fit in and your idea stands out, then yes, you should write a book.

0 (11m 34s):
Fire Nation. What I love about Alinka is she's just breaking this down for a step-by-step like, what does it look like to self publish? Who should publish traditionally, do a hybrid? Does the world really need another book? This is how you actually find out how this is how you find out if the world actually needs a book. And I want to go back to something that I shared at the beginning of the conversation. Hey, if you can honestly say by looking at your competition, by looking around, you know, the different markets like Amazon, et cetera, and you can honestly say I have the best solution to a real problem in the marketplace. That needs to be a book that needs to be a book that's in that marketplace because now it's the best solution. And it's going to be a great lead generator for you for a lot of things that you could do.

0 (12m 18s):
And now there's still a ton of excuses that entrepreneurs find to not do a book. And also, you know what, if you can't write, can you still publish a book? We're going to tackle these legitimate questions and more, when we get back from thanking our sponsors, managing conversations with prospects and customers throughout all stages of their journey can be tough. Information gets lost between departments in your customer's experience, suffers as a result, HubSpot wants to change that. That's why they created a CRM platform that makes it easy to align across teams. So how does HubSpot do it with one unified system of record? This means that engaging in things like live chat conversations via your website, sending marketing emails, booking prospect meetings and having access to a document library allows every department to seamlessly work together towards a common goal, a next level customer journey that drives growth in lifetime loyalty, say goodbye to multiple systems that are cobbled together and having data channels and teams that are disjointed.

0 (13m 20s):
It's time to go above and beyond for your customers. And with HubSpot, you can learn more about how you can scale your company without scaling complexity at hubspot.com. Recent data shows that of all female owned businesses. It is estimated that one in three is owned by a mom ever wonder how these amazing moms and dads find time to hire for their business while juggling their families. They do it with ZipRecruiter. And right now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/fire CEO and founder. Talia Goldstein is one such mompreneur besides being a mother of two, her personalized matchmaking company three-day rule is constantly growing and she needs to hire several matchmakers a month.

0 (14m 1s):
So she uses ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter's powerful technology helps her find people with the right experience and actively invites them to apply. But Talia is not the only employer who loves zip recruiter. In fact, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free, just visit ZipRecruiter.com/fire. This special offer is available right now at ZipRecruiter.com/fire, ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. So Alinka we're back. And as we kind of teased before the break entrepreneurs, they find excuses for everything. I'm one of them. I find excuses for things all the time, but what are some of the excuses that you found that entrepreneurs use to not do a book?

1 (14m 47s):
Well with working with so many successful entrepreneurs, I've heard quite a few excuses and some of them will probably be something that you can resonate with. And some of them you might laugh at, but they're all legitimate excuses and let's, let's go through them. One of the most popular is not now, not now. I'm waiting for my exit. I'm in a transition period. I just got a new partner on board. I'll do it when I'm retired. And so to this, I usually like to say that you will never be done until you're dead. And that is going to be to write too late. Do you know that thought leader, speaker and author, Brian Tracy has written 87 books.

1 (15m 33s):
He most certainly wasn't, you know, waiting tail. So not now, is it probably one of the easiest to overcome because the idea that you have now needs to be written now, now another one is I'm too busy. And so this to me is a very weird excuse because are you saying that you're too busy to create something that could bring you? We mentioned earlier six figures, even seven figures. And then I would recommend looking at your to-do list and delegate anything that's not in your genius zone to someone else on your team.

1 (16m 14s):
And then we're solving the too busy issue. Another thing is that there are different ways to actually write a book. This the standard way is to sit down and write it. But now there are many other solutions. Something that we do is interview the author and it can take 12 to 15 hours of interviews. And that's the whole commitment on the author side. Then we do everything else. So the too busy goes away pretty quickly. Another one is I don't have that much to say, but that's, I think the entrepreneur being way too modest, because anybody who got to a certain level of success build a company from the ground up, they have a lot to say, even if they think they don't what seems so obvious to many of us isn't to the people around us.

1 (17m 12s):
So there definitely is a lot to share. Even if, if you think you don't have too much to say what else, it's too much work. That could be another excuse. But then again, you want to look at the pros and cons is 15 hours too much work. If you're able to actually to dictate it and then hire out the rest or be interviewed and outsource the rest, it takes too long. The another one, but again, we have the same consideration. It might take long to produce the book, but it definitely is worth it. If after that time, you have your six, seven figure asset.

1 (17m 57s):
The thing that will allow you to grow and increase your business. Another one, although this one we're hearing less and less is finding a publisher is difficult. You know, once upon a time we talked about the gatekeepers needing to find an agent and then the agent has to pitch your manuscript and get the publisher. But right now you can just go to kdp.com and anybody can publish the book. That doesn't mean it's the best solution for you, because then we have the other excuses, like it takes time and you know, it's difficult to write it, but we can actually get it done. And another one is nobody ever told me I should write a book.

1 (18m 40s):
I really liked the story of Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen who got 144 rejection letters before finding a publisher for chicken soup for the soul. And they then became a New York times and USA today bestseller. So not only were they not encouraged, they were actively discouraged 144 times. And that book sold more than 8 million copies worldwide. And now the best one, the one that you mentioned at the beginning, I can't write well, you know, neither can Stephen Covey, Jack weld, Lee Iacocca, Donald Trump, John Maxwell, Richard Branson, or Sam Walton.

1 (19m 25s):
They have all acknowledged that they used ghost writers to write their best-selling books. So can't write, didn't stop them from writing books that have influenced this all

0 (19m 36s):
Fire Nation. There's a lot to take away from here. I mean, I hope that almost all, if not all of your potential excuses have been debunked here by Alinka. And you know that very last one about, Hey, not being able to write and I'm going to be honest, I'll be very transparent. I interviewed multiple ghostwriters. I was considering going down that route NACA specific. I couldn't write because I know that I can. And part of me wanted to, but it's gonna take so much time that I was like, could my time be better spelled elsewhere, running other parts of my business. And after, you know, interviewing some ghost writers, I was like, there's fantastic. Ghost writers out there. That's a, a really, really interesting and cool route. You can take Fire Nation. I encourage people that, that it's right for you.

0 (20m 16s):
Like check it out. If it's right for you. At the end of the day, I was just like, you know what? This is my book to write. I've interviewed 3000 successful entrepreneurs. I know what the foundational 17 principles are that we all have in common. I want to write the book, the common path to uncommon success. I want to share the 17 step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment. I wanted to write that book and guess what I paid for it. Meaning I paid for by sweating blood in tears into 480 writing hours was turned into 71,000 words, 273 pages of this business book. But I can tell you holding it in my hands, man.

0 (20m 58s):
I am so proud of what I created here. So that's the route that I chose and went, but I hope openly considered, you know, a ghostwriter because I thought that might be a better use of my time. And I could still get a great book out to the world. So that's a lot of great stuff coming from you. Alinka let's end with a bang. What do you want to make sure Fire Nation really gets from this entire conversation about the six figure book funnel, bring this home for us, share anything you want to share about this topic that you think that we maybe need to tie up any loose ends or something you really want to end strong with. And then we'll say,

1 (21m 33s):
Bye. And I love that you have 17 steps because my framework for writing a best-selling book is also a 17 step framework. So I love that we have that in common. Yes. Yes. Well, the first thing is, think about your category and then think about how you stand out. Because when you have that done, you'll already have the idea for your book and then what you want is a roadmap. And I have something for you that we'll be sharing at leaderspress.com/fire. And that is a copy, a PDF and audio book because I bet you like to listen.

1 (22m 13s):
So we have an audio book of my guide, outsource your book, and it has the 17 steps that you need to go through to get your book done or outsource. So you can actually outsource the various steps or you can outsource the whole thing. And if you decide to outsource the whole thing, I do hope that you consider leaders press because we're really good at what we do for entrepreneurs

0 (22m 41s):
And Fire Nation Alinka would not be on Entrepreneurs On Fire. If she wasn't great at what she did. So anything else you want to share before we let you go Alinka,

1 (22m 52s):
Write a book. The world needs your book.

0 (22m 55s):
Fire Nation needs your voice. Need your message needs. Your mission needs your book leaderspress.com/fire. Head over there gets outsource your book. The 17 steps to getting your book done, done signed, sealed, and delivered leaderspress.com/fire and Fire Nation. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with AR and JLD today. So keep up the heat and head over to EOFire.com type Alinka in the search bar on her show notes page will pop up with everything we talked about. Best show notes in the biz, timestamps and links galore Alinka.

0 (23m 37s):
Thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side, thank JLG and Fire Nation. Hey, Fire Nation today's value bomb content was brought to you by Alinka. And if you are ready to rock your very own podcast, check out our free podcasting course, where I teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free freepodcastcourse.com. That's freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side, managing conversations with prospects and customers throughout all stages of their journey can be tough. Information gets lost between departments in your customer's experience suffers as a result.

0 (24m 18s):
HubSpot wants to change that. Learn more about how you can scale your company without scaling complexity at hubspot.com. Hiring can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you post a job on zip recruiter, their matching technology finds these qualified candidates for you and invites them to apply. So while other companies give you too many options, ZipRecruiter finds you the needle in the haystack. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com/fire.