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Contents
Loral Langemeier Yes! Energy Page 4 Aaron Rosenstein Interviewed by Jennifer Wilkov CreateSpace for Your Next Bestseller Page 12 Loral Jennifer Ask Jennifer Self vs Traditional Publishing Page 17 Martin Wales Interviewed by Ellen Violette Creating a Million-Dollar Bio Page 20 Ellen Violette How to Find the Right Angle or Hook for Your eBook! Page 31 Ellen Martin Louise Robert Allen Interviewed by Christine Kloser Transformational Author Spotlight Page 32 Wayne Dyer Wishes Fulfilled Page 40 Peggy McColl You Need to Be a Dog With a Bone Page 42 Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz The Single Biggest Question for All Self Published Authors Page 48 Robert Mary David Steele Reach Out and Connect Page 50 Dr. Judith Briles Show Me About Book Publishing Page 58 Dr. Sylvia LaFair, Gutsy Page 66 Mary Allen Interviewed by Louise Crooks The Power of Inner Choice Page 72 Peggy David Sylvia

Seth Andrea & Richard

Christine

Aaron

Wayne

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Loral Langemeier

Yes! Energy
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Loral Langemeier is one of todays most visible and innovative money experts. She continues to expand her horizons, even through the challenging obstacles of todays economy. Because of her tenacity and absolute confidence in what she teaches, Langemeier is one of only a handful of women in the world today who can claim the title of expert when it comes to financial matters and the making of millionaires. She accelerates the conversation about money by sharing how not to simply survive this tough economic climate, but how to succeed and thrive. As Founder and CEO of Live Out Loud, Langemeier has shared her high strategies at seminars all over the world. She teaches people her simple recipe for capitalizing on their skills and talents to make new money. She is the author of four national bestselling books: The Millionaire Maker, The Millionaire Makers Guide To Wealth Cycle Investing, The Millionaire Makers Guide To Creating A Cash Machine For Life, and her just-released book, Put More Cash In Your Pocket. In addition, she has appeared frequently on CNN, CNBC, The Street TV, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Channels Americas Nightly Scoreboard, The Dr. Phil Show, and The View. Langemeier has been featured in articles that appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times. She has also been featured on the Web at www.abcnews.com, www.forbes.com, and as a regular online contributor with the Huffington Report, The Bottom Line, Yahoos Seven Finance, and www.businessweek.com. She also appears in and contributes to The Street. Loral has spoken in person in front of tens of thousands of people, and helped create hundreds of new millionaires. Her personal accolades include being named a 2007 Distinguished Alumni of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, being nominated for the CNNs Heroes Award, and being nominated for the Marin Womens Hall of Fame. I: So Loral, what inspires you to write? LL: What inspires me to write? You know, I actually hate to write. How about that? Literally sitting and typing, typing, typing is just not my thing. I love to talk, and I think the biggest reason that I end up writingI have four bestselling books, and a fifth one is on its way and will be coming to market February 21, 2012, called Yes! Energywas that I was actually asked to write by a big publishing house. McGraw Hill called me and asked, Will you do it? I said, No. I dont feel like Im a writer. They said, You have an amazing message. It was great learning for me to know that I can work with someone who has great writing skills because I had an enormous amount of expertise that needed to get on paper. As I say that, its really a message to everyone listening. You have no excuse to not get your message on paper, because its how people can consume your input, your expertise. You can help so many people by repurposing. No matter if its an e-book or something that ends up on The New York Times bestsellers like I have done; your message should be out there. What inspires me is that I know I have huge gifts and expertise that I need to get to the

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Loral Langemeier continued . . .

world. I always share the I dont like to write story because it gives a lot of people who are in the same placefeeling stucka lot of permission to just start talking and then have it transcribed. I: How does your writing inspire others? LL: I think it gives them hope. I think a lot of people want to make money. They are interested in making money, but they are not committed because they dont know how. I think the writing has provided a lot of clarity for me on how to put formulas in an order and in a way that people can really make money. Ive really, really practicedI shouldnt say played with the models, but I have. There are a lot of financial models that are out there, many of which have part of the pieces, but dont have the whole thing so they dont work. I think it serves other peoples lives. I: When and why did you begin to write? LL: I was actually selling other peoples work. Just from a broader entrepreneurial perspective, if you dont feel like youre ready to hone in your expertiseto put it on paper so other people can buy it in order to consume your information and your knowledgethen sell someone elses and get inspired. I was Kiyosakis Master Distributor for Cashflow. I sold a lot of others work, and again, I want to give people who are reading this permissionit doesnt have to be your work in the beginning while youre getting your message together. I think what everyone has to seeno matter what category of the market you are inis that they have to put their message on paper. Back in 2002, Bob Proctor flew me to the Nightingale-Conant in Chicago and we stood eye to eye in a studio. He said, Were going to record our first product. I said, Youre nuts! He said, No, were going to do it your way. Were going to talk back and forth. We recorded this amazing product verbally and then took it to a workbook. Its called The Expression of Your Power. Its still one of our bestsellers, now at about tenyears old. Then, Jay Conrad Levinson, who wrote all the Guerrilla Marketing books, he and I did Guerrilla Wealth in 2004. In 2005 is when McGraw Hill approached me to write the Millionaire Maker series. So, Ive been doing this a long time, but again, its talking and then having someone else transcribe; they make it look all fancy the way the books do. I: How do you define writing success?

You have no excuse to not get your message on paper, because its how people can consume your input your expertise.

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LL: I think it can be described in two ways. My success, because of my goals, I want to have bestsellers. I want big bestsellers, not just the Amazon runs. I want the big ones. I want USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Timesfor now. Way back in the day, an Amazon was fine, but now Im going for the big stuff. I know a lot of authors hate what I say, but I use my books as a brochure to help you understand who I am and what my message is about. I can then use that as a way to then have a further relationship in education and training; thats one way. For some people, its not about having a bestseller, but its about having that brochure that then is a lead. Insurance people, real estate folks having a twenty, thirty, or forty-page book that is enough of your message to use as a big brochure where you can then really use it to move people into a business model, whatever that is. I think for all authors that our writing is a great way to repurpose our work. Its a great way to get your message out there, but it really needs to be that front lead message that gets you a lot of business. If you want to become a million dollar company, youre going to have to put some messages on paper. I: Good advice. moment? What is your most powerful writing

LL: My most powerful writing momentwow! Thats a good question. Lets see Im going to say its Yes! Energy. Its actually this last bookreally coming up with a formula of how you create Yes! Energy and then having it tested through a lot of surveys and a lot of people in our databasereally knowing that it works. When you create something I feel like most people really only have pieces to puzzles until you start talking or writing and putting things down. I also mind-map a lot; I have big charts and I write and craft ideas. When something that you create really works and you know that you can transfer the knowledge to other people to really serve their lives yeah I would say Yes! Energy is my most powerful writing moment because this formula is hot. The equation to do less and make more is really, really good. I think a lot of people who have struggled with the financial models, whatever theyve been, will really see shifts in their life as they take on the Yes! Energy equation. Then they can come back and view finance with a new attitude. I: Im looking forward to it. Whens the book coming out? LL: February 21, 2012. Were in a long launch. People can buy the book now, though, and start this Yes! Energy conversation. I have forty-four individuals that Im interviewing from all over the world who are describing their Yes! Energy, and we walk

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Loral Langemeier continued . . .

through different parts of the equation in interviews. If they pre-buy the book for $24.95 now, then we start a series of weeks and weeks actually twenty-two weeksof forty-four interviews; so twice a week they get to hear from an amazing person Im interviewing, and then once they get the book in February, its followed by eight weeks of Finding Your Yes! Energy live video stream. Were not going to read it page-by-page, but we are going to go chapter-by-chapter through the learning thats in the book, and what they can do with it. Its good. We are so ready and on fire. If people want to buy the book, they can go to www.yesenergybook.com/ insights and get it there. I: Excellent, thank you. What are the three most important personal tips that you could share for achievement through writing? LL: Im actually going to say heart and soul first. I think so many people have huge messages; even kids have great things to say. I have so many kids that are students of ours that are writing booksjust amazing stories; stories of courage. Dakota, for example; she writes through her riding horses. They are fiction novels, but really its child leadership. Its amazing. I think theres just a clarity that everyone can have in their own life. The achievement of writing what you know is an achievement in and of itself; clearly the business that comes from it when you have it set up right is the greatest achievement. Im a huge proponent that whether its portions of a report or portions of a book that need to be on a Web site for an opt-in box, to collaborating with other people it is all an achievement. Knowing that your work has affected other peoples lives is a huge achievement. Again, what do you want? Im a huge fan of getting clear. really want and then well design around you. I: How do you use these three things in your work? LL: I swore Id never write. After Put More Cash in Your Pocket I said, Okay, Im done now. So how do I use it? I just keep honoring the fact that messages just keep coming. Im very spiritually based and God-based, and I feel that Ive been blessed to have these amazing messages keep coming through, so I write them from the perspective that I know what I want. All of this isnt for me; its to serve others and help others. Thats oneI use it as the top of my funnel all the time. Im heading into Australia next week. I have thousands of people that are coming to the room, and Im giving them all a Millionaire Maker for coming to see me. I give a ton of my books away as a gift for coming to see me, and then Im going to invite them to come and be at our Three Days To Cash in Australia in October. I use it for business. I think Im probably one of the few mentors and coaches that is very transparent about the moves I make. Im very, very clear why Im doing things. I disclose this very openly to my students, because I think they need to be doing the same thing. I think there are too many people who do a lot of things for bragging rights, and thats not the right motive; it should be to do them so that other people can use a successful model. Figure out what it is you

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Youve seen me at my Three Days To Cash. Im very wide open. Im selling to you, this is why Im selling to you, and now you guys should turn around and you should sell just as certain as Im selling. I model it the whole way across from getting a book to how do you put it into your business model, sell it, and use it to serve? All those things are critical, and more people need to be doing it. I: What are your favorite writing tools? LL: Probably my voice and transcription taping devices. record, record, record. I

I would say the other one, which really isnt a device but a process, is that once you find your voice you need to find someone who has your voiceand I was blessed to find her in 2005; shes like a sister/friend. Were very, very dear friends. She knows me inside and out, and we process together. I think a lot of people have messages, but theyre not clear on how to uncover or offer them to the world. I brainstorm a www.yesenergybook.com/insights lot. The real process of this is what goes on, and how we would talk about it. This is how Ive made moneyhow do we talk about it in a way that other people can learn? It doesnt matter what you call themfocus groups, forums, accountabilities, mastermindsI live out loud. Thats the whole premise of Live Out Loud; you have to be in a conversation. You have to really process with other people and get feedback. The other thing that I do thats secondary to that, which really serves the books, is the message that I want people to get in my books and grasp them. I know were going to talk about that, too. What do they want? I actually survey people. When these ideas come to me, Ill go survey, Ill do webinars, Ill ask questions; I go to the public first, or my database, and ask them what they want me to talk about in this area. That way I know that its what they want. Im not guessing if theyre going to buy it; I know theyre going to buy it, because Im giving them what they asked for. I: Thats a great way to actually come across. What is the message in your book that you really want readers to grasp? LL: It depends on which book. My books are so different. Theres a common theme about being a millionaire, but it depends which book. The Millionaire Maker is obviously the plan to become a millionaire, and thats supported by the Millionaire Maker Game. If people really want to bring it into their home, thats the tool to use. The Wealth Cycle Investing is how to invest the way the wealthy do, which is not in the stock market; its owning real estate, owning businesses, owning direct assets. The Cash Machine and Put More Cash are definitely about how to make money in business development. This one is more about psychology, attitude, and managing your energy. Really, its

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Loral Langemeier continued . . .

down to daily energy management. People say they can manage time. Youre not going to manage your time. Youre going to manage your energy to get what you want. I think each message is very different, but all in service of having a better life, and having the life you want. I: Excellent. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in writing? LL: Yes; for me the challenge in writing is that Im such a teacherI love giving homework assignments and so forth. My writer and I were talking, and so many peoples writing is, as we call it, empty calories. Its fun, interesting, and motivational, but its like, Okay, now what? Theres no plan. I probably overdo the tactics and the practical. I dont write just to get people inspired and motivated. I want them to then do something with that inspiration and motivation. I: You lead people to action. LL: Yes. I: That is the biggest thing; you can be motivated, you can be excited, but then the big step is the action step, isnt it? LL: Its critical, and I think what I am best known for (and I know it works) is the right actions and really putting those plans together. My formulas work. I know how to help people make money in three days. I know how to help them become millionaires in three years, but they have to do everything I say. I know those all work; its not a question of I hope it works. The only hope it works variable is, are you going to get off your rear every morning and do exactly what you need to do? Thats probably what Im best known for is those actionable, get to it, lets get it done plans. I: Exactly. Do you have any advice for other writers? LL: I know lots of my colleagues like Harrv Eker, who is a dear friend, go away to write; he literally does the typing. I know Rick Frishman writes. A lot of people truly do go and write, because they like that process. What I understand in their process and how they type is similar to how I talk. We whiteboard it and ask, What are the chunks? If youre going to chunk it into three big messages, what would it be? What would be the subsets of those messages to come up with the chapters? I think for some people, the struggle is that they try to write from the beginning to the end without designing the end. Whats the message you want? Design the scope, and then chunk it, and from there take it into the chapters and then just start going. Then, it gets pretty easy, because youre only having to write or talk ten or twenty pages a day. As fast as I talk, once Im clear about my books, theyre done in less than two weeks.

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I: Wow! I guess the analogy to that would be someone getting in a car and deciding theyre going to California from the East Coast without a map, but you have to plan out your days around where youre going to land; if it takes you four days, what will the the four big chunks beor three big chunks, in your case. Is that about right? LL: Yes. The thing I would caution writers on and advise them against is that a lot of people want to write about their personal story. When I was asked (this was really what I was asked to write about) I said, In service of what? Thats why I went out and surveyed. What do you really want to hear about? Do you really want to hear about my losses or divorces and database losses and all the bad times? It was clearbecause that could have been where it wentit was how do you actually do as much as you do? How do you get it done in a day? How do you make it look so easy? How do you keep your energy? They told me what they wanted, which then crafted the book. Dont write your own story. You may want to do it just because its cathartic and some grand experience for yourself, but people arent necessarily going to buy it. They didnt ask for it. I: Good advice. We talked about this a little bit but can you elaborate on your current projects? LL: Yes! Energy is a massive project. I just knocked out a five-day boot camp on Yes! Energy. I have three different products I just created. The summit, which is the fortyfour interviews Im doing; is just a massive project right now. If they preorder the book now, again go to www.yesenergy.com/insights, they get the forty-four interviews and then the follow-up webinar. Thats a huge one. I have different projects, but part of the whole business is that I am opening an office in Sydney, Australia. Im taking my own advice and bootstrapping an entire office. Its fun. It works. Im doing exactly what I tell everybody else to do, and weve been in revenue since the day we opened. Thats a huge project, and then license my work. As I go into next year, the body of work isI shouldnt say complete, because Ill always createbut its complete enough that were really going to put some great licensing packages together. Im going to start certifying people to do Yes! Energy workshops, to do Wealth Diva workshops, to do mini versions of my three-day workshops, and were going to bring it to the world pretty quickly through licensing. That will be my next big move. I: Im excited about that. Youll have to let us know when that happens. I would love to sign up for that. Where can our listeners find out more about you and your Web sites? LL: If you want to be part of the community, theres a profile you can fill out for free at www.liveoutloud.com. Live Out Loud is all over You Tube, Facebook, Twitter. To buy the book, you go to www.yesenergy.com/insights and get the book and amazing giftsenormous gifts that will change your life as you head into 2012 in a much more positive fashion.

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Expert to Expert
Aaron Rosenstein Interviewed by Jennifer Wilkov

CreateSpace for Your Next Bestseller!

Aaron Rosenstein is Senior Manager of Marketing and leads CreateSpaces marketing and product development efforts. CreateSpace is a leader in the independent publishing market, and a member of the Amazon group of companies. It is innovating new opportunities and technology to help creators to easily publish their work and distribute it to a worldwide audience.

Jennifer S. Wilkov is a best-selling author, a sought-after consultant for writers, and the Literary Agent MatchmakerTM. Jennifer is also the founder of Your Book Is Your Hook.

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JSW: Before we talk to you about CreateSpace, which I know our readers are really going to want to find out more about, how did you first get into publishing and books yourself? AR: Its an interesting storykind of roundabout, as many people do. I actually worked a lot in the dot com space over the last ten to fifteen years, and was very involved in video, music, and the revolution around MP3s and streaming media. It was a very exciting time and very revolutionary in terms of how content providers, musicians, authors, and videographers got their work out into the public. When I came across CreateSpace a couple of years ago, they were in a very similar spot, and I was very fascinated by how the book industry was evolving and the revolution that print on demand and CreateSpace was creating. Having had a similar background in music and video, it was a natural fit for me to move into that space. It was a very exciting time to be in the publishing world. JSW: Lets talk a little bit about CreateSpace and its history. Why and when did the company actually start? AR: BookSurge was its original name, and it was started in 2000. It was basically a self-publishing platform for authors. About five years later, Amazon acquired the company. They also acquired another company out of California called Custom Flicks, and they merged the two together in 2009 and that became CreateSpace, which is the platform for people to publish today. JSW: What types of books do you publish? I think some people get confused, because they think you do it all. What types of books can people publish through CreateSpace?

I was very fascinated by how the book industry was evolving and the revolution that print on demand and CreateSpace was creating.

AR: Really, any book is a viable book through our platform; basically, we are open to whatever author wants to put their work on our site. We only have conflicts if there is a copyright issue, or if there is some issue around the content itself; other than that, were an open platform. Anybody can publish through us. We have a lot of independent authors. We also have small publishers who use our platform. Its really a very democratic opportunity for people to use this means to get their work out to the public. JSW: Do the authors find you, or do you find the authors? AR: Its a little bit of both. I think in our early days, we did a lot of marketing to authors to educate them about what the opportunity was, how self-publishing works, and the distribution and the economics around that. What weve found over time is that word-of-mouth has really gotten out there, and people are telling their friends and their acquaintances and authors to check it out. What weve seen is a real surge in the last couple years as people get to understand the options and availability of independent publishing as an alternative to traditional publishing. JSW: Are there some names that our readers may know who have published through CreateSpace that might surprise them?

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Aaron Rosenstein Interviewed by Jennifer Wilkov continued . . .

AR: Possibly, yes. We recently published some work from former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin. Also, weve been working with Bill Rasmussen, who is the founder of ESPN. Some of you may have heard of Amanda Hocking; she is a bestselling author for us. She recently got a big deal with St. Martins Press through the success shes had with CreateSpace and with KDP, which is Kindle Direct Publishing, who does e-books. We also have worked extensively with folks like Joe Konrath, the author of the book series, Jack Daniels Mysteries. Tanya Wright is a character on HBOs hit series True Blood; she is also a writer and has a book through us. As I mentioned earlier, we also do CD and DVD items as well, so weve had folks like Steve Martin, who does his banjo CD through us, as well as Joey Pants from The Sopranos. Pants did a video on his dealing with depression called No Kidding, Me Too. We had a wide variety of actors and well-known authors who have used the platform to get their work out there. JSW: How does CreateSpace work with the writer and digital books? E-books are becoming so popular and so rampant. How does CreateSpace work with the writer on these? AR: Rampant I guess I would say more popular than rampant, but we help people to not only publish in print using our print on demand services, but we also will convert your files to e-book format for Kindle. Its a $79 service, and basically, we will take your entire book and format it for the Kindle. Were interested in the author succeeding, and whatever platform and distribution service they need, were willing to work with them to make that happen. JSW: CreateSpace is really involved in the industry in a variety of ways. One of them is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Can you tell us briefly about that, and how it works for writers? How can they enter? AR: Sure. Thats a great program that weve been involved with for the last four years. Amazon created this from scratch, and they worked extensively with Penguin publishing as well as ourselves to create the platform. We had nearly 10,000 folks come in and submit their manuscripts last year. I dont know if its the largest writing contest in the world, but I think its probably close. Its been a very wonderful experience for us to engage in with the writing community. Basically, authors who have been writing their work have a chance to submit it. We have many rounds of feedback and evaluation of those books, and we basically skinny down the group to the top six. It takes about four to five months to go through that many rounds. People get a lot of great feedback on their work. It starts in January of every year, and then by May of that year we announce the final winners in the top six in two categoriesgeneral fiction as well as young adult fiction. The two finalists who win those two categories end up getting a publishing deal with Penguin.

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We have also found that many of the people in the top one-hundred or quarterfinalists are being picked up by agents, are getting publishing deals themselves, and film deals. We are hearing all kinds of great follow-on from being part of that contest. Were really excited to be part of it. Many of them have gone on to independently publish or to traditionally publish, but its a great on-ramp for folks to get the kind of feedback and to get exposure in the market. JSW: Just for clarity, when does the contest open for applications, so that our listeners will know when to look out for it? AR: It starts the last week in January, and its a two-week submission period, so it ends the first week in February. Then, we start the evaluations. From there, it goes through the end of May, and the finalists are announced in mid-June. JSW: So, if our readers have a novel, make a note in your calendar for January. You really seem to know so much about the industry and youve seen so many changes from your background in the music business and now in the book publishing industry. Whats your perspective on the future of the book publishing industry?

Id talk about the

AR: Im really sanguine about whats going to be happening. Its a great time to be in the book business, and I think for authors its just a revolutionary opportunity today where with independent publishing kind of coming on, the power of choosing what books will and wont make it is really being moved out to the general reading public, kind of democratizing the means of production and the means of evaluation. Its a great time to be putting your stuff out there. Its very inexpensive to use our platform to start testing the marketplace. I really see that theres just a wide-open field for people to get their work out into the market to test, to get feedback, to really engage with their audiences. The Internet, social media, and all of those things have really brought a whole new aspect to book publishing that has never been there before, and its a great time to be in the market as an author and as a person in the industry as well. I think its just an exciting time to be part of whats going on. JSW: If a writer had the very elusive opportunity to sit down with you for a cup of coffee and ask you about publishing in todays industry, what advice would you give that writer? AR: Id talk about the revolutionary and evolutionary things that are going on right now; but really, it comes down to the same thing, which has always been true. You need to write a great book. People want to read things that are interesting, exciting, or relevant to what theyre after. Writing a great book is really the first step in any of this. Im sure as you talk with other authors, they say very similar things.

revolutionary and evolutionary things that are going on right now, but really, it comes down to the same thing, which has always been true. You need to write a great book. People want to read things that are interesting, exciting, or relevant to what theyre after.

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Aaron Rosenstein Interviewed by Jennifer Wilkov continued . . .

Secondly, I think that having a good understanding of the audience that you want to market to is really important. Building that base of people and understanding it. What is your niche? Who are you talking to? Write the book in a way that is appealing to that group as well as doing the marketing to those folks. I think a lot of authors have problems. Theyre good writers, but they struggle on the marketing side. After the book is out there, and its a great book, how do you get people to discover it? How do you get people to engage with it, and I think a lot build that social network around your book. Building a fan base around your book is really a big challenge. of authors CreateSpace has been doing a lot in that area to try and both provide services for marketing as well as advice and information. We have bloggers, and we have professionals who come on and talk either through webinars or articles about how to market your book. Its really an area where I think a lot of people struggle. Its as big a job as do the writing itself. Dont forget to think about what happens after the book is produced. Finally, CreateSpace is there to help you succeed and to help you polish the work, publish it, distribute it, and then also to help with advice on how to market it. I think we can really be a big advocate for folks in the marketplace as well. JSW: Aaron, I really want to thank you for taking time out from your really busy schedule to talk with us today. Its been really insightful, and Im sure a lot of readers have gotten the information that theyve been seeking. Thank you so much. AR: Thank you. Its a real pleasure, and I appreciate the time. JSW: Id like to ask you if you would please share with our listeners how they can contact you and get more information about CreateSpace. AR: Sure. Were at www.createspace.com. Theres a contact link there, and they can either give us a call or send us an email. The site itself is a platform to make this happen, so its very much a self-service opportunity as well. If they just want to do it themselves, it is a very intuitive and easy platform to use to publish their work.

have problems. Theyre good writers, but they struggle on the marketing side. After the book is out there, and its a great book, how do you get people to discover it?

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Ask Jennifer Topic: Self-Publishing vs Traditionally Publishing with An Agent

Book Writing, Marketing & Publishing Q & A with Jennifer S. Wilkov from Your Book Is Your Hook!
Q: Im confused. What are the top reasons I should consider self-publishing over finding a literary agent and traditionally publishing with a big six house? A: Most authors self-publish because they would like to see their book published sooner than the traditional process can deliver. Traditional publishing takes an average of about eighteen to twenty-four months to publish; that is after youve landed a literary agent and signed on the dotted line with the publisher. If you want your book to come out sooner, self-publishing can allow for a book to be published in a few weeks, if needed. Some authors self-publish because they would like to receive more revenue from the sales of their books than they would through a royalty revenue agreement with a larger publisher. The author can sometimes receive up to 50% or more of the sales revenue from each book depending on the self-publishing house contract. Some houses offer a sliding scale percentage of revenue based on the number of sales. Read the fine print. Other authors choose to self-publish to keep control over the content. While this is understandable, I would still recommend working with a professional editor to ensure high quality text for the reader and your professionalism as a writer. One additional consideration is that you will pay to have your book published and printed when you self-publish. This includes all design costs, printing and others. Your distribution may also be limited when you self-publish. You can defray some of your expenses by reviewing the services of the self-publishing houses and making sure you understand what they provide and how much each service costs. Q: If I self-publish, do I still need to do all that marketing and promotion for it? AR: If you want to sell books, the answer is yes. A strong marketing platform is a necessity for every book whether it is self-published or traditionally published. Most selfpublished authors sell an average of one hundred books. Many sell less. The reason they dont sell books is because they dont market them and they dont seek out promotional opportunities for them. Many successful self-published authors use tactics to sell books in the back of the rooms where they speak. They also promote their books seasonally to tie in with current events and holidays. Please submit your questions for the next topic, E-Publishing, to yourbookisy-17ourhook@gmail.com. Please include Write Away Write Now Q&A in your subject line.

Ask Jennifer continued...

Q: Will the media still be able to find me if I self-publish my book? A: The media will find you and your book if you have a strong marketing platform online and offline. It doesnt matter if you have self-published your book. What does matter is how visible you and the book are and how relevant your content and platform are to the media coverage and story. Many self-published authors have successfully used their books as their hooks to land interviews with the media. There are also several authors who have sold millions of copies of their self-published nonfiction books who are leading experts for the media. I can speak to this not only as an industry professional but also as an author who has been quoted in newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and national magazines such as Parenting and Womens World as a result of books I chose to self-publish. Q: If I want to find a literary agent for my future books, does it matter if I selfpublish my first book? A: Yes, it does matter. Once an agent knows that youve been published (which you should tell them), they will look up the sales of your book(s) prior to entertaining the book you are submitting. They will also look online to see how you have been supporting your previous book(s). Your mission is to sell more than five to ten thousand copies of your book prior to approaching a literary agent or a more mainstream publisher. If not, many will reject your invitation to have them represent you based on the lackluster sales of your book and your lack of support for it. These industry professionals are looking for authors who champion their books, not those who self-publish and then dont support them. Q: What if I dont have access to a designer to create my book cover and do the interior layout of my book? A: Many of the self-publishing houses offer these services as add-ons to their contracts. If you are unclear about what they offer and what they dont, I suggest that you call them and speak to a live representative to make sure you understand what they offer, what is included and the costs for each add-on service involved. Q: What if Im not sure whether I should look for a literary agent first or if I should self-publish? A: Consultants like me offer services to support you with making the right publishing decision for your book. Look out for ones that dont demonstrate their ability to specifically and successfully advise you on the pros and cons of each method of publishing. There are a few of us who do this who are acknowledged by both the traditional and the self-publishing communities within the industry as well as the epublishing community. Youll find that higher quality consultants speak at conferences, have great industry relationships with both self-publishers and traditional publishers as well as literary agents, and continually demonstrate the wisdom and insight you are seeking to assist you with making this important pivotal publishing decision. Do your homework and ask lots of questions prior to paying any fees for assistance.

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Please submit your questions for the next topic, E-Publishing, to yourbookisyourhook@gmail.com. Please include Write Away Write Now Q&A in your subject line.
I look forward to answering your questions! Jennifer

Jennifer S. Wilkov: Media personality, host, and producer of the #1 radio talk show Your Book Is Your Hook! on WomensRadio. Jennifer is a best-selling, award-winning author who has been published five times, an award-winning freelance writer, the Literary Agent Matchmaker, and a respected book business consultant in her business by the same name, Your Book Is Your Hook! Jennifer has been called the quintessential writer and teacher for the 21st century. She supports first-time and seasoned authors in their book writing, marketing, and publishing endeavors through coaching and training in her Your Book Is Your Hook! consulting practice. She focuses on supporting writers with the essentials to become a best seller: a great project, a strong platform, and a well-polished pitch, presentation, and hook for their book.

www.YourBookIsYourHook.com and www.LiteraryAgentMatchmaker.com

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Martin Wales Interviewed by Ellen Violette Creating a Million-Dollar Bio to Sell More Books

is a recognized business development specialist. Hes a regular guest expert on eBay, PayPal and Entrepreneur Magazines radio show. Hes been an online advisor for both Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, internationally published in Selling Power, Profit and Enterprise Magazine and has curriculum in several MBA programs. Martins company is Customer Catcher Communications and Martin is also a respected author. He is the president of Paradise Publishers, owner of www.free-eBooks.net the largest library of free copyrighted eBooks online with over 1,000 new members joining every day and over twelve-million hits per month.

Martin Wales

Ellen Violettes

writing career began when she started writing a journal in junior high school. She went on to write poetry for a senior project in high school that earned her an A, and thats when she knew she was hooked. She continued to write for various groups in college and beyond, becoming a copywriter, editor, and layout person, and eventually an author and coach. She is known as The eBook Coach and is also a Grammynominated songwriter.

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EV: Welcome Martin. MW: Well, Im excited. We always have fun talking about the Customer Catcher Factor, which includes credibility and thats what were focusing on today, only with respect to a bio. EV: Before we get into that, please if you could just give the short version of how you got into this. MW: The short version of how I got into this. Well, I was a high-school teacher and I just found myself coming to the psychological end of that career at a young age and I left teaching. Within four years of doing so I was Vice President of Marketing of a twenty -six million-dollar firm with three divisions and a million-dollar marketing budget. And that was all without a marketing background or formal training in broadcasting or publicity or anythingeven accounting. So I really cut my teeth quickly on the street; got a lot of leverage, improved sales for a lot of companies, and also small businesses and independent professionals using the power of instant credibility. A lot of the times in the media, as you heard in my bio, which you so kindly shared, you heard the names like eBay radio. Im the executive producer of PayPal radio. Recognized brand namesHP, Microsoft, have all done work with me. Most people will forget my name, but they most likely remember the brands Ive worked with and therefore that gives me some time to win you over. EV: It gives you some bragging rights. MW: Right, absolutely. EV: So shall we talk about your million-dollar bio? MW: Were going to talk about your million-dollar bio, because if you have that million dollar bio, the words are going to introduce you. Why not get the best first impression before youre even there? When someone is looking at the back of your book, reading your eBook bio, hearing you being introduced on a training or even live on stage, theyre going to have an impression of you merely from the bio. Part of that credibility comes simply from the fact that it is being read by somebody else. So really our objectives today are to talk about your bio and what its objectives are; were going to look at the uses of a bio and how you can best be served by it and how to get the best results. Id also like to focus on what not to do. There are a lot of mistakes people are making with their bio merely by inaction and that can be easily corrected. EV: Okay, you also said you were going to talk about finding the right words, correct?

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Martin Wales interviewed by Ellen Violette continued . . .

MW: Absolutely. Were going to talk about the copy in the short time that we have. And, were going to talk about the presentation of your bio in a graphical form either online or by using your eBook. Its going to be online and offline, but when people print it theyre still going to see it. Im going to talk a bit about your picture because there are some things that people can improve upon. The most important thing, in my opinion, that well talk about is the magic pixie dust; the credibility that you can build into your bio that can instantly be created by wording it the right way. When you use proper positioning and choose the right words you can create a bio that can magically gain credibility like you never knew you had. A little later well also touch on the length that comes with the copy. Lets look at the objectives of the bio, because then we can work towards the strategy it takes to get a bio in order. Wouldnt it be great if you could just grab attention? In many industries, like the music industry and certainly in the publishing industry, you really need a hook to grab attention. A lot of time is spent focusing on the cover, on the title. Thats great, because thats the first thing people often see, but what comes next? Well what comes next is a real-life setting: people look a book on the shelf; they see the cover and go, That looks pretty interesting. You know I like that title How to Write a Million-Dollar Bio. Who wrote that? Who are they and why are they the experts? So offline they flip over the book, online theyre going to look for your contact. They want to find out who the source is of the information; its to further grab attention. If you can hook them with the title, then they will be left wondering whos the expert; who wrote this? A lot of people make it their curriculum vitae; they make it like their resume. Really the objectives of the bio are marketing objectives. They are not necessarily and primarily educational objectives. To educate the person about who you are and how long youve been writing, reading, studying and helping people and so on shouldnt be the main goal of the bio; those things will come. Really the objective is to pique the curiosity so you leave them wanting more. Just like you write a good headline to get people to read the copy on your sales page or on your Web site; you want to pique curiosity with your bio so that people say, Oh wow, this person sounds interesting. This expert sounds like somebody I really want to listen to. Isnt that what you want, Ellen? EV: Yes, absolutely. MW: Really, what that is doing is earning you the right. Its earning you the right to have the attention of the people to bring them further down the line; to teach them more about your area of expertise. Depending on what your expertise isparenting, psychology, intuition, sales and marketing, Internet marketing, authoringit doesnt matter what the subject if you can teach others more about it.

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Once youve earned their trust we can talk about how to build on it. The next objective is to successfully win the trust and respect of the audience prior to opening your mouth and proving it, opening your book and proving it, or downloading your eBook and proving it. You really just want to stay a step ahead. Remember that I talked about having the first impression before you even get there. Thats an advantage and thats what we want to look for in our eBooks whether theyre online or offline and in real life, as well. Next is establishing a position of authority. This allows youthe expertto make statements as well as to ask questions. It gives you more strength in your positioning in the eyes of the people that are reading your information and how theyre assimilating it. If youve established yourself in a position of authority prior to beginning then people will give more value to the information that you give. Theyre going to be giving you the benefit of the doubt because you established yourself in a position of authority with your bio. The next important step is related to marketing your bio for teleseminars, live events, or somewhere you might be presenting. It can also relate if someone is giving away your eBook; it makes the event host or gift giver of your eBook look good. If you have a weak bio, theres not much energy around your marketing. Susans been writing eBooks for ten years about gardening. Shes a mother of three and likes to play beach volleyball. Im making an overstatement, but many people just have very plainvery vanillavery ordinary-life type of bios. Part of this comes from a lack of willingness to self-promote. Many of us cant get away from the modesty we were taught by our parents so selfpromotion doesnt come naturally. When youre marketing, you want people to buy your eBook. You want people to download it if its a free promotional-type of eBook to garner interest, or to win you credibility and attention. By making the event, the host, or the gift giver look good, they further promote you and they will usually continue to do so once the event is over. Theyll also be excited reading about it. Weve got this fantastic eBook author with us! Weve got this great speaker with us! Theyre the former host of Microsofts Your Business. It allows you to share the energy of recognized and trusted brands if you have thosewell talk about those in the credibility part. It brings energy just by talking about some well-known names. So if your bio is weak or if youre just getting started but youre from Los Angeles or New York, you could say, Susan serves parents everywhere, live from the Big Apple. New York, New York. Those city-names can speak volumes. You dont even need to say New York the second time, Use a recognized phrase, terminology or a city name that has some energy around it; something that is recognized. If youre from Las Vegas, certainly some things you can say, Not

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Martin Wales interviewed by Ellen Violette continued . . .

everything stays in Las Vegas, pick up this book and youll see why Bob Harding is the leading authority on It allows you to include those little hooks. Next, you need to attract bigger and better opportunities. When you write an eBook, when youre an author, when youre a speaker, Ellen, there are other people out there trying to get the same gigs or positioning you are. So doesnt it thrill you to know that your bio can win you work? That is why you need to get it out there. EV: Oh absolutely.

Sometimes in this marketing world, people will pick sizzle over substance.

MW: So if I can pick between three equal speakers on Google AdWords or eBook software authoring, and one has a more exciting bioas a JV partner or potential JV partner, as a potential co-marketing partner, or promoter of an eventIm going to pick one thats got sizzle. Im going to pick one thats got some credibility behind it.

Sometimes in this marketing world, people will pick sizzle over substance, and its because, in the end, they make more money by attracting people to an event. This is why we have marquee and celebrity speakers at events and, when we interview peoplelets say were doing an anthologyyoull often see, they have what I call anchor authors. These are recognized people like Mark Victor Hansen, Brian Tracy, Jay Conrad Levinson for marketing and you know Eckhart Tolle in the personal development area. Not only does it pump up the energy for your marketing, but it actually adds value to your book, because theyre recognized names; it ads value to your bio. You can include those things along with your bio. Youre actually rubbing shoulders with the giants. Identify who those people are, contact them and let them know youre interviewing them, if thats the way youre putting your book together. It also has the power to elevate your status. By interviewing people, as I said, were rubbing shoulders with the giants. Dr. Phil got his start on Oprah. You can almost name all these people who got their start somewhere else. Who would Ed McMahon be if he wasnt on Johnny Carson? EV: Right. MW: There are some people who made their living from being the supporting role. So definitely theres an opportunity here, but again this is just a stepping stone as you build your career, especially if youre just getting started. You can do it by building your million-dollar bio. Next you need to accelerate your timeline to success. So my objective of using my bio as specifically and as often as possible and having other people read it is really to

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lessen the resistance when you finally say who you are and what you charge. If youre a consultant or a coach, if youre an author selling a book thats got valuable information in itand Ellen, I know you teach this really wellits selling the value of whats inside your eBook. Whats inside the digital-downloadable content, whether you call it a book or an eBook? (I sort of switch back and forth so forgive me when I do so.) You get paid more; wouldnt you love to grow your business more easily, more quickly, more lucratively just by utilizing other people introducing you by using your million-dollar bio? Thats the objective of your bio. Some of the benefits of doing that are more trust and respect, better positioning, better opportunities, better people being attracted by you to their events to help elevate you and pull you up. You will also be accelerating your timeline to success and, of course, getting paid moreif that is one of your goals. So there are lots of uses for your million-dollar bio. Ive mentioned quite a few as weve gone along here. Ill just go through them, but speaker introduction, whether its at a conference or a demo. You can also use it to self-introduce; theres less credibility in doing that, but it is a nice compact format for introducing yourself. The objective of the speaker introduction bio is to give an impression prior to you having more time to reveal who you are slowly over time as you educate people, win their trust, and deliver the value of the content that youre doing. In the introduction, as much as possible you want to work with recognized brand names, because theyve already spent millions and millions of dollars and decades of time building trust into their brand.; everybody knows who they are. They have a perception of not only who those companies are but also what they stand for. Generally speaking, even if you dont love those companies, you respect that theyre global world-leading corporations in the industry in which I workwhich, for me, is technology. For you, if youre inpick a nichewho are the leading providers in your area? EV: A lot of people on my list are in self-improvement and health. MW: So, if youre in self-improvement youre going to have Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra. If youve been a part of those organizations or have been trained by those people or anything related to those thingsif youve shared the stage with themthats impressive. If youve been in the same trainings that theyve been in, it really gives you an ability to connect and to be identified with them. Speaker introduction is really a great way to do that. As you said, at the beginning of a call you could come up with maybe two sentences. If I have as little as twenty-five

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Martin Wales interviewed by Ellen Violette continued . . .

EV: Right. MW: So you really want to work on these things: speaker introductions at live eventsit could be seminars, trade shows, a panel or a facilitated meeting sessionand a book cover no matter if its an eBook or a traditional-offline published book. The next one is pretty big and thats mediadefinitely the print media. Often what youre going to see here, say in a magazine or even posting articles online, is going to be your byline. Your byline is really a short version of your bio. You really want it to be one sentence no more than twobecause in the byline you want people to do something. You are telling people to go to your Web site and download your entire eBook. You want them to go to your Web site and see more value. Your byline is a bio of a certain nature. If youre being quoted in the newspaper or youre being featured in a newspaper column or article then your bio is fairly important. It could be weaved in; it could probably be one paragraph in the first third of the column if theyre spending some time on you rather than just grabbing a quote from you. Even if they just want a quote, they will often give you a sentence to describe yourself. This is when the importance of how many words in a sentence comes into play. EV: So now youre an author and youre trying to promote your eBook, what would be a good templateif I was going to put you on the spot herefor all of these things? I am the author, but I want to have a press release. I am an author, but I want to get a byline for an article. Im an author, but I want to get on a radio show. How should I do that? MW: Actually, press release was the next point, so thats very valid and a nice bridge. If youre an eBook author and just being quoted in the newspaperpick a topic for me. EV: Losing weight. MW: Okay, losing weight. So you get a quote in the paper; its after New Years and talking about yo-yo dieting or New Years resolutions. You say, Most New Years resolutions are not kept by January 2nd and most people return to their yo-yo dieting says Martin Wales, leading authority in weight loss and author of the eBookinsert your catchy title, How to Lose Weight Without Getting Up Off the Couch or Letting Go of Your Converter. So your book title is part of your bio. Again, traditionally everyone just thinks of your bio as one page on the back of a book cover or maybe two paragraphs on a Web site. Your bio is really any opportunity where youre giving people a glimpse of your life.

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The objectives dont change; whether I have one sentence, two sentences, fifty words, or one-hundred words. If anything, the more time you have, the more likely you are to bore people and mess up. The opportunity to impress is brief, but it also brings us to the level of success we need by making us concise and forcing us to choose our words carefully. So, for the weight loss topic again, you could say: Heres my quote, quote, end quote, it says Leading Authority on weight loss Martin Wales and author of How to Lose Weight Without Getting up Off the Couch or Letting Go of the Converter. The title of your book is very important. Im making kind of a fun one but you get the point. EV: Well fun titles can be really great. I have another question about that. Lets say that youre the author of several eBooks and now youre promoting your most recent one. Is it to your advantage to mention your previous eBooks or do you want people to just focus on this one and then say something like,... and many other eBooks...? MW: If youre using classified ads and paying for words then you may just want to focus on your current book, but you can either say and many others or you can say youre a prolific author; Martin has written many books, or Ellen is a voracious writer. Her latest book... Actually, by implying something, her latest book is implies that Ive written a other books before this one. EV: Thats right. MW: Be careful not to go overboard and use words like plethora. The challenge here is that youve gone over the line and people are like, Whats a plethora? What kind of caterpillar is a plethora? So, you need to be careful and make sure you still use simple language. This is the kind of thing we cover in the three-part module that I do the training on; we really sort of get down to the nitty-gritty like we are right now. I just want people to be aware that the words you choose are critical. EV: Have you created a dictionary of words for people to use? MW: No, I actually shoot from the hip a lot for people. Ill have people throw out a three or four line bio and on-the-spot Ill re-write it for them. So weve talked about the uses; we have speaker introduction, live events, book cover, were into media, we talked about print, magazine newspapers, blogseverything we just talked about applies to those things. Press releases as well give you the ability to do that. One of the things in digital-press releases is that you can hot link certain words in your bio. The rules are changing around how many hot links you can have in your digital press release and on article-submission sites. At free eBooks, at www.free-eBooks.net, we put up eBooks for free for people. Is it better for us to have bios that rock than it is to have

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Martin Wales interviewed by Ellen Violette continued . . .

sleepers? Its a library of eBooks. We want energy, we want passion, we want your mission and your message to come alive in the description of your book and in your bio, so its very important. Next is in interviewswhether its radio, television or teleseminars I guess you could add in there anything thats audio-based. Its really neat using audio, because you can add emotion to it. So, you can say I am thrilled tonight to have this guest expert so and so It allows you to use emotion in your bio. On your site right now you have your static, text-only bio. You could have someone else read it and introduce you. You can step it up by having someone else because your site should be writtenin most casesin the third person. So in your media room you have the bio. I try to use contrastbecause my voice is male, I have a female introduce me or speak about me. EV: So you think having a contrast is a good thing? MW: Yes. Really isnt life more exciting if we have variety? Dont we get bored easily if we hear a monotone voice? This is no different. Our attention span trained by the current media, they change pictures every two to three seconds and they change the frequency of the sound coming through the television when commercials come on; the frequency increases although not the volume, even though it sounds louder. Theres all sorts of tricks and things going on and you really just need to take advantage of them yourself, by keeping people happy and excited. Id rather have more fun doing it than just going through the motions. TV and any sort of audio is great. On television, if you use those recognized brands, they may use those as graphics behind you. So people also anchor you to a visual of that organization or brand. The television host may be introducing you and at the same time their graphics people have added either in post production or as they go live if theyre really good, theyre going to say, Heres Ted Jones who worked for Microsoft, as the Microsoft logo shows up on the screen behind them. EV: I think lots of people may have an Internet business but theyve come to this through writing. Maybe they are interested in eBooks and have a background like minewhich is writing. I gravitate toward articles and blogging and things where I do the writing. Over time, I think what happens is that you start with the things youre good at and then just add one thing at a time. So what I have found is that you may add press releases and video, but havent touched TV and radio. How do you make that transition? Is it a mindset that changes? What is it that puts you off on that path?

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MW: Sure. Very valid question. I mean, can you see the potential of getting on radio and TV? If you can, this is why you may consider pursuing those things. Really, what happens when you write your book, or eBook? That gives you credibility. Now what you need to do is to put yourself in front of the reporters, columnists, editors the types of people that are looking for credible experts. And, often by being a book author you have some sort of licenseearned or notits certainly perceived as a position of authority. In Canada I started with www.sources.com. Id find ways to actually get listed as an expert so when theyre looking through a directory and go, Oh, heres a guy that knows about sales marketing, Internet marketing, PR, publicity, etc. Were going to call him. Thats actually a paid listing. I pay about $500 a year and actually get on TV two to five times, that sort of thing. So theyre calling you. Online you can register as an expert at www.prnewswire.com and they have a little bit of a process for you to go through. Go to www.prnewswire.com get listed as an expert and people will call you. Dan Janal, a friend of ours, has a company, www.prleads.com, that just sends you related questions. So everyday reporters, lead writers, ghost writers, they all punch in questions and they are grouped together. As the expert, you get this list of five things. People Magazine is looking for the summers hottest swimwear and so theyre looking for a fashion expert. Home and Garden is looking for sun visors and all sorts of things, but every day there are 30,000 magazines looking for information. EV: What do you think about the PRWeb? Ive sent out press releases on different things that Ive done and Ive never gotten one call from the media, ever. MW: Okay, well then, the headline that youre writing isnt newsworthy or its not powerful enough. You need to tie it into current events. The other thing is that you need to be persistent. The next thing to consider is the content might not necessarily be newsworthy. Its not newsworthy that another book is being published today. You really need to see whats hot in the newspolygamy, fires, tornados, natural disasterswhatever is current. Say, Im a child psychologist. What I do is I talk about signs of stress in children from watching the news featuring natural disasters, death and destruction. How do children feel when theyre exposedespecially kids who are five to eleven years old, who dont quite know, but they have access to media and theyre seeing people being shot live on TV these days? I mean, its crazy. So theres trauma in media. So its not too hard to find a story. The other point is, this is kind of an aside as an Internet-marketing person. I am a coauthor and presented in The Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, but the tip here around digital press releases is that its not necessarily to get coverage, its to have links online coming back to your Web site.

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Martin Wales interviewed by Ellen Violette continued . . .

Although we call it a digital press release and we have a preconceived notion of Barbara Walters calling us and having us on the twenty most interesting eBook authors prior to the Academy Awards, its actually just having a link out there that comes back to our site; it appears on the first ten pages of Yahoo News, Google and it comes back to you. Thats a whole different ball game there, but I just want to throw that tip out there. Its not just about getting coverage. The other thing that I teach you is how to host your own radio show and create your own television show. Thats the power of the Internet. You can now have your own radio, TV I just put up a Customer Catcher channel on YouTube. If you type in Martin Wales or Customer Catcher on YouTube, you are seeing podcasts. So if you type in Martin Wales or Customer Catcher in iTunes, youll find me too. This is the era of creating your own media. The lesson here is cash is king, content is queen. I teach that on the radio course. Really what it means is YouTube distributes and shows video for free. We used to have to pay for streaming and it was very expensive. Streaming is the ability to show video through the Internet to broadcast it. Its not true broadcasting, by the way; its the ability to at least communicate it. If youre an author, why not put some videos up there? Theres nothing wrong if you are a dynamic reader, having a clip where you read one of the most exciting parts of your book, if its fiction. If its non-fiction and you give a little lecture, you dont have to put up a half-hour TV show, just put up a clip. Heres a sample of the type if information thats in here. If youre an author and you dont even want to appear on video, then have someone else read itjust like an audio book. Whos to say you cant be creative and have an interpretive dance going on while somebody reads your poetry, because its an eBook? EV: What you have to remember is that everything on the Internet is interconnected. MW: The beauty of the Internet is not to have one Web site. The beauty of the Internet is to distribute some of your content freely and openly. Every day eBook authors, coaches, consultants, professional development and selfdevelopment gurus raise their hand to the recognized press and say, Pick me and every day they dont. So do you want to stand there with your hand up or while youre waiting do you want to create your own little bits of media that you can put out on the Internet? My mindset there is while youre hunting moose, shoot rabbit. Connect with Martin at: www.MartinWales.com

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How To Find The Right Angle or Hook For Your eBook!

Youve done your research, figured out what you are passionate about and your best skills, and youve zeroed in on a topic. The next step is finding the right angle. How are you going to approach that topic in a way that is going to grab the attention of your audience? So lets look at an example: weight loss. There are a ton of books and eBooks on weight loss. So, theres no point in writing a book on the general topic. Instead, you want to find a new approach to weight loss if youre going to write about it. Otherwise, whats the point? Youll just be rehashing whats already out there and thats NOT how you sell eBooks or traditional books, for that matter! So to find a fresh approach, what you have to do is look at what is already out there. Otherwise, you wont know what will be new and inviting! So, I did that and this is what I found. Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is an eBook that focuses on muscle tone and fitness specifically. Then theres Fat Loss For Idiots which outlines how a permanent change in the food you eat and your eating patterns will make those pounds fall off. Next is the Negative Calorie Diet eBook which shows you how to use your metabolism to actually lose weight, and the Acid-Alkaline Diet which involves adding alkaline foods to your menu in order to help you lose weight. These top-selling weight-loss eBooks are clearly distinct from one another and, if youre somebody who has trouble losing weight, chances are you will buy not one or two but several weight-loss eBooks and keep buying them until you find one that works for you. As an author, you want to have a unique perspective on weight-loss so that even if your potential buyer has already bought weight-loss eBooks, theyll still be interested in reading yours! This is going to be true no matter what your topic is so always be sure to do the research and see what else is already available BEFORE writing your eBook. Find an angle that appeals to your target market that hasnt been done before; THEN write your eBook. Youll make a lot more sales and garner a lot more attention when you come up with a new angle on any topic you choose!
Copyright 2011 Ellen Violette, www.TheeBookCoach.com Follow me on: Twitter.com/ellenviolette Facebook.com/ellenviolette Linkedin.com/ellenviolette gplus.to/ellenviolette

Ellen Violette

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Transformational Author Spotlight Robert Allen Interviewed by Christine Kloser

Robert Allen

Robert G. Allen is one of America's most famous and influential financial advisors. After graduating with an MBA from Brigham Young University in 1974, Allen began his real estate investment career and turned his successful experiences into the colossal bestselling book, Nothing Down, that spent fifty-eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. He followed that success with four other major New York Times bestsellers. Hes been featured in national publications and has appeared on hundreds of programs including Good Morning America and Larry King. Robert is also the co-founder of the Enlightened -Wealth Institute.

Christine Kloser

Christine Kloser is a Spiritual Guide, Award -Winning Author and Transformational Book Coach whose spot-on intuitive guidance impacts the lives of visionary entrepreneurs and transformational authors around the world. Shes the creator of the Get Your Book Done program at ChristineKloserUniversity.com and the founder of Transformation Books, a personalized publishing services company for transformational authors. Her expertise has been featured in more than a dozen books and media outlets including, Entrepreneur Magazine, the Los Angeles Time and Fox News. Learn more at www.TransformationalAuthor.com.

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CK: I have to say that I believe weve really got a force to be reckoned with today when it comes to transformation. Certainly, the only person I know who has transformed enough lives that its led to a billionwith a Bdollars of revenue from books, products, programs, seminars, and trainings is Robert Allen. I had the great pleasure of studying with Robert Allen in 2003 when he went through a deeply personal transformational experience where he almost died. It was such a profound experience to witness him transforming as a teacher and that's why I knew that I needed to have Robert Allen here, because not only has he sold over a billion dollars of informational products, but he has gone through incredible transformation himself. So, I will officially welcome you, Robert. RA: Thank you very much. Yes, you're right. I was speaking to a thousand people at the Anaheim Convention Center on March 15, 2003. There are days that get imprinted in your brain and that was one of them. It had been a long day. I had flown in from a speech I was giving in Oregon somewhere. Have you ever worked on a presentation, a PowerPoint, and you push the wrong button at the end? You wiped out all your work and you hadnt saved it? CK: Oh, yeah. RA: I had been working on this presentation; I was up until, I dont know, midnight or something and pushed the button and lost all my PowerPoint presentation for the following day in Anaheim. So, I stayed up until four or five o'clock in the morning and then I caught a plane. I woke up, spoke to this group, and I was just dead tired. My staff said, You look tired, can we drive you home? Im a pretty independent man, so I declined. It was raining out and the rain was very hypnotic; there were a lot of car accidents that night up and down the freeways of California and mine was one of them. I veered off the road at about nine o'clock at night when my small Lexus met with a large oak tree face-to-face at high-speed. I woke up in the hospital and as they say, The rest is history. My life totally changed. I was much less connected to my heart before that. That experience transformed my life; I frankly cant think about it without starting to cry. It was a very profound experience. Thank God, you know. Its crazy, Ive got a broken back, a broken wrist, and all kinds of major injuries from it and I still have those injuries. They still hurt today, but I wouldn't give back that accident for all the money in the world. It changed my life. So, about transformation; been there, done that. CK: Im sure youll continue to do that since the transformational journey never really ends, right? RA: Thats true, thats true. CK: First of all, thanks so much for sharing that story. I have to say, when they first showed us, as your students, the picture of your car I think I cried because no one, no one on the planet should have made it out alive. The car was basically, a teeny little Lexus sports car or something and was crunched into half its original size. No one should have lived, and yet you did. Youre walking and youre writing amazing books still, and youre continuing to teach people all around the worldfrom a much

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Robert Allen Interviewed by Christine Kloser continued . . .

deeper place inside of yourself. When you say you had a, meeting with a tree, honestly youre speaking from a perspective of major miracles that hes alive here to talk and to share this message. So, thank you Robert RA: No, thank you. Just to take another deep breathwhat a gift that is, you just have no idea! You get a chance to share your message with one more person. Hopefully today, Christine and I can open up your minds and your hearts to the fact that you have a message inside you. You have a gift that you want to share with the world and thats what were here to teach you how to do. You invited me to participate and I said, "absolutely", because when you have a message to share, you want to share it with whatever audience can hear it. As writers, I understand that your audience wants to spread their message in other ways as well; online, verbally, etc.. Writers are a special breed; we love wordslove the way that words can transform a lifeand they can. You like to put those words down on pages, and when you read a page that changes your life, its amazing. CK: Absolutely. RA: Scan back through all the books that youve read; theres a couple that pop out for me. Youll go Yep, that one. It was because of that book that Im able to do this and that. The answer is you as an authorthose of you who are reading thisthat's the power that you have. Unfortunately, you don't know when those seeds are going to sprout. After my car accident I began to say, Life is short, Ive got to do some amazing things more quickly. Ive got to get it all in. So, I went and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa with a bad leg and a few other things, but I was determined to do it. On the way back home from climbing the tallest mountain in Africaa profoundly transformational experience in itselfcoming back through Amsterdam, I was wandering the streets. My family was there, but I was kind of alone; kind of soaking it all in. Just then, a guy runs out of a caf on one of the canals, runs up to me, and says, Are you Robert Allen? I wasn't sure if I should say yes or no. I gave an affirming nod. He said, I'm here with my family; were traveling around the world because of a book you wrote transformed my life and now I'm financially free. I just want to thank you. He shook my hand and left me there kind of stunned! That's what happens with a book that was destined to be written, that was destined to fall into the hands of the right people. Those people will read it and use it as the source of their transformation. So, when you're writing your book its almost as if you need to feel that you are a conduit; an open conduit from a higher power or whatever word you wish to use: God, universe, whatever. Allow your mind and heart to be open to just allowing those words to flow through your fingers as youre writing. You have this altered state of

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mind where it's almost as if you're not writing that book. It's just written through you and there will come a time when you're in the altered state, and you read those words that you wrote, and you think, Who wrote that? I dont remember ever thinking those thoughts. Thats the connection that you have to have as an author, in my opinion. You sit at the keyboard and you open up to the universe and you say, OK, what message do you want to come through me so that the right person hears that message, reads that message, and is able to move one step closer to their destiny? CK: How incredible! I love the way that you talk about that because thats what I teach my authors in my Get Your Book Done programto do the foundational work that gets them to the point where you can just open up and the writing becomes quick; it becomes easy. Its so connected, so pure, so authentic, and so true; it cant help but flow. Its like there are times when my clients fingers just can't go fast enough to capture what is coming. You dont have to have an out-ofbody experience, its just about being open to the process. On the other side of the world, be open to receive the miracle of someone coming up to you, like when someone came up to Robert and said, Hey Robert, I read your book and it changed my life. I'm financially free and now traveling around with my family. It doesnt really get any better than that.

RA: No, it doesnt. I had someone who came up to me in Singapore just a couple months ago and he said, I got a copy of your book in Indonesia, but my book isnt published there, so I dont know how he got it! He said, "I was broke and I read your book, and now Im financially free. So, you don't know where your book is going to be received. Ive had so many people that tell me that they picked up my book in a secondhand store and theyre bragging to me. I bought it for 25 cents. It doesnt matter to me. I dont care how they get the book. I want them to read it; when they do, I want their life to be transformed if that's what they're destined to receive from it. CK: One of the things that I want to talk about (because I know that I can feel it myself in this conversation with you) is being moved into that amazing space where transformation happenswhere authenticity and words and truth and power transform lives. We also know there is something called the mind, which has a component to it called the ego; its sole job is to keep you safe. So, I would love it if we could dig a little bit into the mind piece, Robert, and just share with people how can they use their mind to help pursue the dream and not stop themselves short of their destiny. RA: Well, this conduit that you arefrom a higher sourceneeds to be a clean conduit. It needs to be open to receiving the messages that youre destined to write. If your conduit is blocked, then this open field of your mind where these thoughts will come through will be blocked. You will not be able to write the kind of things you are capable of writing. So, this critical voiceI don't call it the ego but some people do as you said, the egos job is to keep you safe. I think that's the euphemism for the ego not wanting you to win, and frankly thats why I call it a critical voice. It doesn't want you to win. When you listen to those messages that you hear from your critical

Allow your mind and heart to be open to just allowing those words to flow through your fingers as youre writing. You have this altered state of where it's almost as if you're not writing that book...

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Robert Allen Interviewed by Christine Kloser continued . . .

voice and the tone of them, Is this a person who really is trying to encourage you? Is this an encouraging voice, a friendly voice, a voice that wants you to win? Generally speaking, no. Its critical. Its like, "Thats a stupid thing to do. You cant do it. Whats the matter with you?" Therefore, if that's the case, what is that voice? Is it trying to make you safe so that you're not going to make some mistakes or is it really trying to stop you from doing what you were destined to do? It is an enemy in a sense. The way I see itthis is what happens to me when I hear that critical voice. I have to instantly realize that the voice is a liar and Im not going to listen to it. You understand that its a liar; it doesnt want you to win. It is an enemy, its inside, and if you give a lot of attention to it, it will shut you down. Therefore, you end up with writers block. I think that's one of the sources of writer's block because you say, Whats the matter with me, how come I cant think of the right words, theyre just not coming? Well, wait a second, who were those voices that were just talking to you? What's the matter with me? Is your critical voice a me voice or a you voice? Sometimes, it says, You cant do it. Others it says, I can't do this. So what is yoursa me voice or a you voice Christine? CK: Its an I RA: Its an I voice. What Im asking each of you to do is to at least just notice it or become aware of what kind of voice it is. Where is it specifically? Literally touch your body somewhere and say, This is where my critical voice is. Where? Become aware of it. When you notice it, become aware of it, then you say, Wait a second, is that me? Is that what I would be saying to myself? Why would I say those kinds of things to myself? What possible benefit would come from me beating myself up like that?. What I try to do is separate the you from the real you. I call that the true you; the true voice. When you write from the true voice that's when you're on; thats when the conduit is open and the true voice is much subtler, much softer, much more friendly. Its your cheerleader! Its the part of you that wants you to win. Yet, the critical voice is sometimes so loud in some of our minds that we are still affected by it. If you have it in there constantly, you may find yourself being disconnected from your source of power and it can literally shut you down. If you learn how to deal with that and take that voice off of the playing field of your mindso that your mind is clearthe field of your mind is ready to be receiving the messages you want to write. If you take that critical voice and literally turn the volume down on it, set it off the side so that its not affecting you, you will find yourself being more accessible to the messages that you were destined to write. You find yourself getting on with this, in NLP, they call it uptime.

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Your uptime is like youre just ON. Like you said earlier, Christine, you can hardly write the words down fast enough because your fingers are going so fast. That's where you want that to get. So this conversation today is, "How do you transform yourself so that you can transform through your words, the people who read your words? You have to be in the right kind of a space, where you can literally shut off your mind and allow yourself be a conduit. I was flying back from Cabo and Deepak Chopra was across from me; he knows of my books and I know of his. We really had a wonderful conversation on the way back to L.A. and I said, Deepak, how do you do it, youre so prolific? (It's amazing, he produced sometimes two books a year, sometimes three) Where do these books come from? Even while we were sitting there after we conversed, he was literally writing on his cell phone, writing a book right there as he was flying, it was amazing! I said, But how do you get yourself prepared so that you can write the words that come so quickly to you? He said, Well, I meditate two hours a day. I said What? Where do you find two hours a day? Like every day? He said, Thats what I do, I usually get up at three o'clock in the morning and I meditate for a couple of hours and clear my mind out. I personally don't do that; thats not my regimen. I have a different regimen where I do a similar kind of thing. I read a spiritual or scriptural book in the morning to tap into to the wisdom of the ages and then I try to have a kneeling prayer were I clear my mind out so I'm more receptive. Rather than me asking, I need this, I need that; please help me with this and that. My prayers are different, theyre basically, "Look at the universe youve created; its unbelievable. Youve got things to do on this planet! How can I help you? Who do I need to talk to today? How can I be part of the light that needs to be shed on this fairly dark world? How can I be a source of light? Who do you want me to move and how do I get to them? What can I say? When I speak, how can I say the words you want me to say? I stay there until I have a connection where I know Im communicating with my Heavenly Father and it's a very profoundly deeply spiritual experience that I try to have as often as I can. It certainly doesnt happen everyday, but I try. Then when I do my writing I try to remember that conversation. I can say, Okay, please open up my mind and my heart and let it flow through. CK: I love what youre saying. Im actually just finding myself sitting here, literally just rocking back and forth, almost like the comfort of a child in their mothers arms as I listen to your words about your own process and where your writing comes from. I just want to thank you for going as deep as you did with that and what your experience is with being a transformational author. RA: Frankly, I would have never said that, nor shared that with you had it not been for the car accident. Before that time, I was very closed; wasnt willing to share that kind of stuff as openly as I did because I was afraid I would offend somebodys spiritual sensibilitiesmaybe thats not the kind of belief that they had. You know, I was worried about what people might think, frankly, when you have a near-death experi-

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Robert Allen Interviewed by Christine Kloser continued . . .

ence you dont worry anymore about what people think. You just say what you know you're supposed to say because you don't know how long youre going to get to say it. Fear is one of those things you have to clear out of your conduit first to get the critical voice out, and then turn on the true voice of your heart. Usually, the critical voice is a mind thing; the true voice is a heart thing. The true voice is a message you feel. The critical voice is a very neck-up kind-of-thing and the true voice is where you're coming from your heart. When you're speaking from your heart, people get it; no matter if it might be slightly different than their own personal beliefs. They get that you're coming from the heart, from a heart space. When youre writing from that space, people feel your heart in it and they resonate with you and your message. I think it was Emerson that said, All people live lives of quiet desperation and they go to their graves with their http://tinyurl.com/7b9uo2p song still in them. Your job is to sing your song in perfect -pitch as best you can. The tuning fork of whatever your message is has a certain pitch that you're sending out therea certain tone. Those people who were destined to hear or read or resonate with your message will start to vibrate at the tone that you're sending out just like a tuning fork can cause other tuning forks in a room to start to resonate to vibrate at that exact same pitch. Now, other tuning forks that are not set at that pitch don't resonate; they don't start to vibrate. But if the tuning fork is set at that right pitch, if it hits that note andif youre on tune, you will cause the people who are destined to hear you, read you, see you; to say, This is a person that I resonate with. This is a message I resonate with. Theyll know that it's true because theyll feel it. The goal of your writing should be to allow the fear to subside. It shouldnt be based around what people might think when they read your words or if they will worry about the grammar. Thats just the fear of the critical voice entering in and trying to stop you from being clean and clear, but when you are clear, the ones who are resonating with it, they come out of the woodwork. Those people will thank you. CK: Thank you Robert, another one of the things that I want to talk about today is the part that intuition plays in creating a book that really has the power to transform you, your readers, your business and ultimately the world. What part do you feel intuition really plays in this whole experience in writing transformational books? RA: Theres two words that I try to be guided by; one is intuition and one is inspiration. I think theyre different. Intuition, for me at least, is that deep part of wisdom that we all possess. My personal spiritual belief may not be yours, but my belief is that before we came here we existed and we will learn for eons of time getting ready to come to this Earth. We

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came as babies, but when you look in the eye of a baby, theres such sweetness and power there. We came with lots of lots of experience and knowledge, and we go through a forgetting time when were born; we kind of have to learn it all over again. We have this vast source of experience and wisdom that we brought with us. This is my personal belief, and then of course we have everything we've ever learned here every class weve ever sat through, every book we've ever read. It is really imprinted on our unconscious or subconscious. We have the vast stores of information we've already gathered in lots of different ways and when we tap into that then we get answers to our own problems, basically. So we have this vast computer resource that that is part of us. Its on our hard drive. Intuition, for me anyway, is when that intuitive surge comes and pops a message into my mind. Its when I ask a question and from somewhere outside of myself, the answer shows up. Its unfortunate that our intuition and the vast storage of resources we have doesnt easily and effortlessly communicate with our conscious mind. If our mind is filled with negative critical thoughts, it becomes almost impossible. It's hard for us to notice these intuitive messages, because most of these intuitive messages are subtle, but profound. So, when my brain was receiving an intuitive message like, Its time to write your book now OK. I guess I better write my book. Instead, I ask, How will I do that? Well, remember you were in Steven Coveys class at BYU and he challenged you to write down your goals and you said one of your goals was to write a book? Yeah, yeah, I remember writing that down, but I havent thought about it in years. Well, its time to write your book now. The question is, was that inspiration or was that intuition? Inspiration is different. Its kind of like a message from God, if you will. Its like, Okay Bob. This is where you need to go next, and you need to be open to both of them. At least the way I've separated it outif thats the way that it truly isI don't know, but it seems to work for me. It seems to be useful. Im noticing these intuitive messages where I'm following these hunchesyou kind of hunch your way into things from time to time. Every so often I'll have something that I feel is really very God-oriented. What happens with most of us as we listen to our head and not to our heart, is that we end up missing the messages that are being delivered constantly, every day. We are too head-oriented. Before my car accident, I was in my head most of the time. After my car accident, I spent a lot more time in my heartnot perfectly of course. Thats the intuition that were talking about. Sometimes it's your own wisdom; sometimes its the wisdom from the universe and youve got to recognize both of them and follow both of them because, in my experience, its when you follow those messages that good things happen.
My best to all of you authors out there. You're on a divine mission and I wish you well. May your message resonate with the people you are destined to transform.

Discover more from Robert at www.robertallen.com and Christine at www.TransformationalAuthor.com.

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Wayne Dyer Wishes Fulfilled

Wayne W. Dyer, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development. Hes the author of thirty books, has created numerous audio programs and videos, and has appeared on thousands of television and radio shows. Wayne holds a doctorate in educational counseling from Wayne State University and was an associate professor at St. Johns University in New York. Wishes Fulfilled is designed to take you on a voyage of discovery, wherein you can begin to tap into the amazing manifesting powers that you possess within you and create a life in which all that you imagine for yourself becomes a present fact. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer explores, for the first time, the region of your highest self; and definitively shows you how you can truly change your concept of yourself, embark upon a God-realized way of living, and fulfill the spiritual truth that, with God, all things are possible; "all things" means that nothing is left out. Take a peek into Wayne's new book with this excerpt: "Health, wealth, beauty, and genius are not created; they are only manifested by the arrangement of your mindthat is, by your concept of yourself, and your concept of yourself is all that you accept and consent to as true." NEVILLE There's a level of awareness available to you that you are probably unfamiliar with. It extends upward and transcends the ordinary level of consciousness that you're most accustomed to. At this higher plane of existence, which you and every human being who has ever lived can access at will, the fulfillment of wishes is not only probable it is guaranteed. After eighteen months in relative seclusionstudying, meditating, and literally experiencing what it's like to live in this miraculous plane of existence beyond anything that might be labeled "ordinary" or "normal,"I've undertaken this joyous task of writing about having wishes fulfilled. I've seen firsthand how virtually every wish or desire I've placed my attention on has transformed from a mental thought into an objective fact.

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However, I'm not proposing memorizing an esoteric formula leading to a theoretical nirvana. My emphasis throughout this book is that manifestation is real and that it occurs when you make a specific decision to change your mind about who you are and what is possible for you to achieve within these parentheses in eternity called your life. I'm inviting you to be receptive to a radical new idea about yourself. It's radical because ever since you left your mother's womb, you've been subjected to cultural conditioning that is designed to help you be content with living a "normal life" at the level of ordinary consciousnesswhich generally means accepting whatever life hands you. In many ways you've been programmed to believe that you do not possess the wisdom or ability to manifest the fulfillment of your wishes and desires. I am saying as clearly as I know how to say it in these opening pages: There's a plane of awareness that you can opt to live at, wherein you can, if you are willing to change your concept of yourself as an ordinary being, find yourself fulfilling any and all wishes that you have for yourself. Throughout this book I'll explore with you what I've studied, learned, internalized, practiced, and, yes, lived regarding the powers of manifestation. It begins with changing your concept of yourself. I would like to offer a few words on these two concepts of ordinary and extraordinary. Ordinary is, well, ordinary. It means that you do all of the things that your culture and your family have programmed you to do. It implies that you fit in, follow the rules, take care of your obligations, pay your taxes, and do what every law-abiding citizen does; and then you retire, play with your grandchildren, and ultimately die. I want to emphasize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this scenarioit is perfectly finebut if it were completely acceptable for you, you wouldn't be reading this book. Extraordinary encompasses ordinary since we all live in the same physical world. There will be rules that demand our obedience, bills to pay, and family obligations to attend to. But extraordinary consciousness is associated with your soul, that invisible, limitless energy that has very different interests than your ordinary self does. The ideal of your soul, the thing that it yearns for, is not more knowledge. It is not interested in comparison, nor winning, nor light, nor ownership, nor even happiness. The ideal of your soul is space, expansion, and immensity, and the one thing it needs more than anything else is to be free to expand, to reach out and to embrace the infinite. Why? Because your soul is infinity, itself. It has no restrictions or limitationsit resists being fenced inand when you attempt to contain it with rules and obligations, it is miserable. Your invisible self is extraordinary because it is a fragment of the universal soul, which is infinite. The part of you that knows you have greatness, and is stirred by the idea of you expanding and removing any and all limitations; it is what I am addressing in Wishes Fulfilled. This is your new self-concept, one that is inspired by your soul. Get the full experience at: http://tinyurl.com/WD-Wishes

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Peggy McColl
You Need to Be a Dog with a Bone

Peggy McColl is a masterful teacher in the fulfillment of personal and professional destinies, and known as The Bestseller Maker. Peggy McColl is a New York Times bestselling author of several books, including Your Destiny Switch: Master Your Key Emotions and Attract Your Life of Dreams, and Viral Explosions. She is also one of the most sought-after mentors in the world today for teaching authors and entrepreneurs how to build their brands and create thriving online businesses. I: What inspires you to write? PM: I think where it really comes from is a desire to share. For many yearsa couple decadesI had been passionately studying personal development. By that time, I had read hundreds if not thousands of books, and I found that a lot of the material that had been written on the subject of personal development seemed to be really complicated. With my own experience, I realized that lifes not that complicated; its really quite simple. I felt that the world needed to have a very simplistic understanding of how were created, and how they can easily, quickly, and in some cases instantly make some positive change in peoples lives. I was inspired to share in book format, what I had been already sharing in workshops. The reason for that desire is that by taking my expertise and experience, it has allowed me to share this with a much broader and wider audience. Prior to that time, I was doing a lot of workshops so it would be live audiencessome small groups, some larger groupsthat would be receiving the

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information. When you can take your expertise and put it in the format of a book, youve now opened up such an enormous marketespecially with the Internet now being availablewhere you can actually reach potential readers and buyers literally all over the world. Instead of maybe impacting a smaller handful of peoplea few hundred or a few thousandnow youve got the opportunity to reach millions of people from the comfort of your home. Thats really what started me into the whole world of writing; following my own personal passion, feeling there was a need in the marketplace, and then fulfilling that need. I: How does your writing inspire others, Peggy? PM: I think it inspires others because its authentic. The response that I receive from the readers of my work is that they can connect with me. They feel that I understand where theyre coming from, that Ive had an experience that they can resonate with; maybe its similar or maybe they think its the exact same experienceregardless, there is some sort of parallel that they can draw from it. What theyre really loving is the simplicity. Many years ago, I learned that no amount of reading or going to seminars or listening to audio programs is going to do anything for younone of it. You could read books all day long, go to seminars every weekend, listen to audio programs to put yourself to sleep and wake yourself up in the morning, but its not going to do anything unless you have two additional levels. The first level would be an understanding of what that wisdom is, and then the next level is application. You must apply the wisdom to your life. What Im finding is that what the readers are loving about my materials is that it resonates; they can connect with the content, they can feel the authenticity of my own experience, they can see that I am sharing right from my heart, and they love that they can get that level of understanding. I give them the practical part of it. How you do apply this to your life? If you really, really want the lasting change, youve got to be doing the application; otherwise, you wont see results. This reminds me of a quote that I heard many years ago that magic is the opposite of life. With magic, when you know how it works, the magic disappears; but with life, when you know it works, the magic begins. I think thats where the readers are really connecting. Im teaching them how to make magic in their own life. I: When and why did you begin to write? PM: I began to write when I became unemployed, actually. It was a funny story. I remember going to this book marketing conference and one of the speakers on stage said, If you are an author and you have a day job, dont quit your day job. A lot of authors want to pursue their success, and they think its going to be

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Peggy McColl continued . . .

this wildly and wonderfully financially rewarding career, and then they quit their jobs, they end up broke and back in the unemployment line looking for any job. In the 90s Id been working in the dot com industry. I was the Vice President of a company, and as you know with the dot com industry there were many bombs. I happened to work for one of the dot com bombers; they vanished, and I found myself unemployed. I had already incorporated my company a few years before, and had been working on my business here and there, in some cases part-time, and other cases full-time until I ended up working for this dot com company. Here I was, unemployed, and I thought, what next? What am I going to do? Thats when I was inspired to write my first book. I was unemployed and decided to basically pursue a new career, because being an authorin my opinionis a career; it is a career for which you really need to have an understanding. I didnt have that understanding initially. I was in this place called ignorant, and it wasnt blissful. They say ignorance is bliss, and maybe it is for some things, but it certainly isnt as an author. When I wrote my very first book, I just assumed that if you write a great book the buyers will come. Well, that was not the experience that I had. I very quickly learned that if you want the buyers to come, youve got to let them know that youre here and thats really where marketing needs to happen. So it all began with me being unemployed and deciding that I wanted to share my passion with others and initially just take an action in self-publishing my first book. I: I know you also mentor writers. What is the number one challenge that you see new writers facing? PM: They dont know where to begin. They dont know what to do. They dont know which road they should choose. I work with a lot of authors, and sometimes theyre at a point where its they ask, should I publish? Should I self-publish? Well get on the phone and have a discussion. Ill help them determine whats best. Theres no cookie-cutter answer that I can roll with to say its better to self-publish, and heres why; I wouldnt answer that way. If someone asks me, should I self-publish or traditionally publish? I say, it depends on what do you want to accomplish. It starts a dialogue, basically, where we go over their objectives. What is it that they want to achieve? Also, does this author have no platform; what I mean by that is theyre not doing speaking, they dont have an email list, they havent established their presence online, they dont have a website. A publisher,at least any credible publisheris not likely going to be interested in them, because publishers understand that its the authors responsibility to sell the book. Sure, you might have the most brilliant book idea on the planet, but thats not important anymore. It was probably more important back in the 1960s or 1970s,

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but with the advent of the Internet and with the way things are going, authors have to understand and execute marketing initiatives. They have to have marketing savvy; if they dont, they better learn it. If they dont learn it, then they better have a huge stockpile of money so that they can hire people to do it for them, because theres going to be some knowledge thats going to be required to make it happen. Then, theres going to be some work involved. I find that the challenge that I have is that authors are sometimes unaware of whats really required to market their book. Theyre unaware that it is their responsibility, and they dont really know which route to take. I think the best thing to do is to find people that have blazed the trail before you. You introduced me as a New York Times bestselling author. I am a New York Times bestselling author. Ive put books on the New York Times bestseller lists with my marketing strategies. People come to me to get my advice to make their book a bestseller, but Ive also self-published four books, and Ive traditionally published five books. One of my self-published books got picked up from a publisher. Thats why, yes, there are eight books, but five of them have been picked up by publishers, and four of them I actually self-published. Ive been on both sides of that fence. Ive written four of them, and Ive had a ghostwriter write four of them. Ive acquired a literary agent. I know whats required for that. Ive done book proposals. Ive got a lot of experience. For anyone whos looking to achieve any kind of results and theyre not aware of what they need to do, what I would suggest is to get some help. Get some expertise. Get a mentor. I do mentoring, and theres a lot of other mentors that are out there, but Id only get mentored from someone who actually has experience in the specific thing you are looking to accomplish. I see lots of people out there who are offering these services, and they dont have any books. I actually met a woman not that long ago who is offering bestseller marketing services. I asked her, which books do you have? She said, I dont have any books. Okay, so which books have you marketed that have made bestseller status? I havent done that, she said. So why are you teaching this? I dont get it. It makes me want to scratch my head. Thats just my sort of common sense, logical way of thinking; if youre going to get expertise from somebody, I would think it would be somebody who has actually been there, and done that. It just seems to make sense to me. I: What are your favorite writing tools? PM: I just use my laptop. My fingers on the keyboard on a laptop. I can get inspired if Im not feeling inspired; in some ways maybe a forced thing.

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Peggy McColl continued . . .

I remember one time writing a book in a weekend, and it actually ended up being a weekend where I had relatives come to visit. My husband had invited a couple of his aunts to come for the weekend; so I not only had this task that of writing my book that weekend, but my husband doesnt cook, so I needed to go get the groceries and do the cooking, do the cleaning up, and do the entertaining while I had relatives in town.

Prior to the family arriving, I started working on my book on my laptop in my office. When they arrived, I stopped working. I got out of bed at 3:00 in the morningdid I want to get out of bed at 3:00 in the morning? No, but I did. I got out of bed at 3:00 in the morning and I went to my office and started working. Then, I called in some recruits. My sister came over to help me, and by 2:00 in the afternoon on that Sunday, I was feeling quite weary and put myself into this big lounge area off my master bedroom. I went up to my lounge area, and I really wanted to go to sleep, but I thought, no, you have work to do. Sit here and get the next chapter written. Youll be able to sleep when this is all done. Thats what I did. I think it was about 9:00 that night. I was almost ready to collapse, but I had done the first draft of the book that weekend, and it was the eighth book that I realized called 99 Things You Wished You Knew Before Marketing On The Internet. Granted, that was a topic that I speak on, that I teach on, and that Im very familiar with, so I didnt have research to do. The research was basically done, and it was material that I had been speaking on, so that was a relatively easy task; but it was a matter of force in some way. So see, my only writing tool is really my laptop; its my fingers on the keyboard on my laptop. I can write anywhere. I can be sitting in my backyard and start to write. I can be at an airport waiting for a plane and write. I could be in the car while my husband is driving and write. I do thatI quite often will get inspired with something, and Ill just grab my laptop and start to write. I have an iPad now as well, but I really prefer typing on my laptop. I dont like the iPad keyboardnot that theres really anything wrong with it, but if you start to get on a roll where you want to a brain dumpwhere theres stuff you want to just pour out on the pageI find it easier to do on my laptop with a proper keyboard. I: What are your three most important tips for fulfillment through writing?

You need to be a dog with a bone Be prepared to do the work Have fun with it...

PM: Number one is just know that you need to be a dog with a bone. I actually wrote a book about this called Be A Dog With A Bone. Its not a book for authors, actually; its just a general book about how when youve decided you want something, know that there are going to be times when you feel like letting

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it go. You know, like when a dog grabs a bone, theyre going to hold on tight, and if you try to take it away from them theyre going to growl at you? Theyre not going to let anybody take that bone away, but there might be times when they just get tired and they give up. They let it go. As an author, its a tough business. I came from high tech; thats my background. Not that Im a technical personI was either in sales, marketing, training, or in my last position, I was a Vice President of a dot com company. I understand that the author world is a really unique beast, and I realized very early in the game that I would never have achieved the success that Ive achieved if I had not been a dog with a bone. Thats number one. Grab hold of your dream and dont let go. Number two is be prepared to do the work. Just knowing that there will be work involved, and its not like a passive kind of thingits consistent. If you consistently want to have great results, then you need to be consistently doing great things that are producing the results that you want. There is an investment of time, energy, and sometimes money involved in order to see the results. The third thing is to have fun with it. Really have fun. Its an incredibly rewarding experience. When you get an email, card, letter, phone call, or you speak to someone who tells you how your book has changed their lifethats just so incredibly rewarding. Ive talked about the challenges of being an author of course, and at the end of the day, its the best thing. I wouldnt change any of it. The best thing I ever did for myself and for my career was becoming an author. I never thought for a minute that one book was going to lead to eight, and I havent stopped. Im working on a ninth book now, too. It is a lot of fun! Connect with Peggy at www.destinies.com

http://tinyurl.com/PeggyDWAB

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Richard and Andrea are the owners of Courage Crafters, Inc. and the creators of the groundbreaking business building strategy Go For No.

Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz

The Single Biggest Question for All Self-Published Authors

In their book, Go For No! Richard and Andrea have made it their mission to help people turn failure into a powerful positive so they can reach their goals and dreams. Richard and Andrea just completed their ninety-eight minute personal development video documentary, Yes is the Destination: No is How You Get There featuring top achievers including Jack Canfield, Bob Burg, Lisa Jimenez, and many, many more. Their Go For No messages have been featured in numerous publications, most recently, SUCCESS magazine.

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We started out probably the way most people who write books start outnot necessarily the way a true logical, analytical marketer would tell you to start. Were sure that the true analytical marketer would tell you to do a lot of industry research and discover what the big need is and then write a book about it. Like everybody else, we wrote a book about something we were passionate about. And then we said, wow. We have this book in our hand, but what are we going to do with it? We kind of knew from the outset that our book was a sales book. We knew that it was going to cross all industriesit wasn't going to be a real estate sales book, or an insurance book or a network marketing book. We took a problem: people have a fear of failure and rejection, and gave it a solution: reprogram the way you think about hearing the word no so that it doesn't slow you down or stop you. We identified our target market by saying, what is the problem that our book solves, and who's got the problem? That is really the single biggest question that most new writers misswhat problem is my book solving? When you start looking at your target market, you have to say, who's got the problem? What is the problem and who's got it? What condition is going to be improved by the end of reading this book? If you decide later on to create more products around it, or to speak on the topic, you need to ask yourself, how are people going to be better at the end of the training or the presentation? When you determine those simple things: who's got the problem, how does my book or speech solve the problemyou know instantlyOK, so this is my target market. Now for us, we have a topic area and a problem that is being solved that is one in which you can identify a decisionmaker and you can reach that decisionmaker via direct means. And by direct means, I mean telephone, email, and/or writing them. There are books, for example a diet book, that may appeal to a hundred million Americans, but how do you reach anybody? Who would you target? So now what you've got to do is you've got to start running ads or getting articles printed in Good Housekeeping and Shape magazine and Men's Fitness. We recommend that you work to refine your market to the closest, narrowest market you can first; get to know the people in that market and help them with their challenges. Then you can figure out how you're going to expand and sell to other markets as you move forward. Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz are the authors and publishers of several books including, Go for No! which has sold over 200,000 copies. www.GoforNo.com

http://tinurl.com/6h647xv

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David Steele Reach Out and Connect!

David Steele is making a profound impact on coaches, therapists, and those seeking to make conscious life-partner choices around the world. David is the Relationship Coaching Institute founder, and the author of the books Conscious Dating: Finding the Love of Your Life in Todays World, From Therapist to Coach, and Building the Million Dollar Private Practice.

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1x

I: What inspires you to write David? DS: As somebody who wants to make a difference in the world, I have a mission and I have a message. My mission is what I want to accomplish. I have a target audience the people I want to helpand I have a message to share with them. I have things I want to say to them and ways in which Id like to support them. I resisted writing a book for a long time, because I figured there were already so many books in the world; writing a book is a long, hard project and I have lots of other things to do. I have a full plate. I really got it after a while that putting my message into a book would help me reach a lot more people and make a bigger difference in the world, so I finally did. Ive written several more since that first book. Thats what motivates megetting my message out there, reaching the people I want to reach, and making the difference in the world I feel called to make. I: How does your writing inspire others? DS: In several ways. I want to make a difference in peoples relationships as well as with professionals who want to build a successful business, because we can't help anybody if we can't get clients. As a person, I tend to be very, very practical. When I put something out there that is intended to help to somebody, I do so in a very practical fashion. Heres what works, heres what doesnt work, heres how Ive done it, heres what I recommend; here are the stepsA, B, C 1, 2, 3. What Ive heard over and over again from people is that it is so clear and so easy; I make it easy for them to understand and to do it. Its one of my gifts. We all have gifts, and one of my gifts is to distill complicated information and to make it easy and practical for people. That is probably the most important way that I inspire people with my writing is to get them into action, and enable them to do something that they might have been confused about or didnt quite know how to do. They are able to do it because I laid it out for them so clearly and easily. I: When and why did you begin to write? DS: Ive written articles for most of my professional career. I realized early on that it was a good marketing device. I even had a column in my local newspaperan ask the coach kind of column. Ive been writing articles for a very, very long time, and whenever dealing with a question or a big problem from one of my clients I would sometimes just get this inspiration, like lightening hitting me from above. Oh my God! Its so clear! Ive got to put this in writing! I would get out a legal pad and just write and writedo a brain dumpand get it all out there. Ive written a lot of articles that way. I often become inspired in response to one of my clients problems or sometimes youre working with a client and you get a brainstorm, like an intervention. Wow! That was brilliant! I can't believe I came up with that! Capturing that in writing, being able to write about it so that you can pass it on and share it, that is really amazing. I would find myself saying the same things over and over to clients, so what I would do

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David Steele continued . . .

was put that in writing in the form of an article or a tip sheet, and then make a bunch of copies. Then when that topic came up again, instead of just repeating myself, I would give them a copy of the tip sheet, and then we would talk about it from there. This is one of the ways that Ive discovered that we can develop our own intellectual property very, very organically in response to working with our clients. It comes from our own brilliance, but not out of context, not in a vacuum; its organically responding to our clients. All of us that are experts, we can and should do that. Does that answer your question? I: Definitely. How do you define writing success? DS: Oh my gosh well, when I first published a book, I had big dreams of being like John Gray, becoming a millionaire, having a bestseller, and that kind of thing. Since then, Ive become a lot more realistic. I dont expect to make a lot of money from my books. For me, financial success is not even the reason Im writing. I define success in my profession as effectively reaching people and connecting with them. In other words, people that dont even know me; I put something out there in the form of an article or a book or a blog post or Twitter or Facebook post, and it somehow reaches them like magic through the Internet, bookstores, etc. It helps them connect with my message and what I have to offer, and then they end up connecting with me, by going to my Web site, or signing up for my newsletter, or buying my book, or signing up for one of my programs. Thats how I define success. I like to think of writing as a boomerang. Im going to write this, and Im going to throw it out there in the world, and my goal is that it will come back to me in some way in the form of somebody subscribing to my newsletter, buying my book, signing up for my program, or getting a client. Thats successwhen what you write catches somebody and brings them back to you. I: Thats beautiful when that happens, isnt it? DS: Yes. Its hard not to let your ego get big, because people will just lavish you with praise. Ive gone to places, introduced myself, and theyve said, Oh, youre David Steele! Ive been getting your emails for years. I read your book. I love your bookit saved my life! You get treated like a rock star. Its really, really wonderful when something you write has touched somebody and made a difference with them, and you end up hearing about it. Its the coolest thing. I: Speaking of which, what is your most powerful writing moment? DS: When I get inspired. Its almost like channeling. This might sound a little woowoo, but its almost like its not coming from me; its like its coming through me in some way.

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I remember one day I was backpacking. I was hiking on a trial with a pack on my back, and I got an idea. I started thinking about all the secrets of success, what makes people happy, and tips for happiness, and how some of them are things that we dont want to acknowledge. We want happiness to be easy and convenient. I started writing these things down. I started getting idea after idea. Every time I got an idea, I would stop on the trail, I would take off my backpack, get out a notepad, get out a pen, and write down the idea. Then I would put the notepad back in the backpack, and put the pen I define success back in the backpack, put the backpack back on my back, and in my profession continue walking. Then, I would get another idea, and I would as effectively stop and do it all over again. It went on like this for a couple of miles. I would stop every quarter mile or something like that, and by the time I got to my campsite, I had a list of twelve things, and that morphed into an article, which ended up being one of my favorite articles Ive ever written. It was called, The 10 Dirty Secrets of Happiness. I call them dirty because we resist them, but they are secrets of happiness. There are ten of them, and theyre all very cool. I did not want to stop on the trail and take off my backpack, but these ideas were just coming to me. It was as if somehow they were inspired from above somewhere. This is my favorite writing experience, when I get excited and inspired by something, and it seems like it doesnt even come from me. Its coming from the Universe somewhere. Its channeling wisdom that I didnt even know I had. I: I love that, and I love that title. That was a wonderful titleThe 10 Dirty Secrets of Happiness. Its a wonderful, clever title. DS: These are ten tips for happiness, and youre not going to like them; theyre not easy or convenient. I: But nothing thats worth having is. DS: Thats right. I: What are the three most important personal tips that you could share for achievement through writing? Tell us how those things work for you. DS: I think one would be to capture your nuggets of brilliance. There are times when you have a thought or an idea, or youre talking with a client, and you make a suggestion. There are times when you are brilliant, and we need to capture those. It can be as simple as having a little voice recorder or putting them on a pad of paper; but if we dont, then theyre gone. You probably have had the experience of having a great idea, and you were going to do something about it, and then when you got home you couldn't remember what it was. I: Oh, yes. DS: So, tip number onemy top tipwould be to capture your moments of

reaching people and connecting with them.

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David Steele continued . . .

brilliance. You are brilliant, and when you are able to capture those moments and leverage them into your writing or into something you are creating, then that is how you create intellectual property. That is how you can write a book, create a program, or even build a business; by capturing these seemingly disconnected but very brilliant ideas. Number two is about leverage. Everything is connected in relationships. Were all connected to each other, even though we can't see it. Ideas are connected to each other. One idea can lead to the other, which leads to another, and so on. Leverage means that you dont simply treat something all by itself; you leverage an idea into an article. You leverage an article into a blog post or a Web page or a Twitter post or you leverage the article by submitting it to article directories, or by submitting it to magazines for publication. You have a bunch of articles, and you start thinking, These would be great chapters of a book. You leverage your articles into a book. You leverage your book into a program or your program into a book. With the Conscious Dating book, I didnt start out to write a book for singles about dating. I started working with singles as a relationship coach, and the Conscious Dating book came eight years later, after I had already developed my Conscious Dating Program For Singles, a workbook and professional manual. I had already been training all sorts of other people to do it. The book grew organically out of my work with singles. Leverage is tip number two. Leverage everything you do. Dont do anything just once. Number three would be to look in the mirror and be honest with yourself about your weaknesses. We all have areas that hold us back where we get stuck. One of mineIm not http://tinyurl.com/DSRelationships totally sure Id call it a weakness, but it does hold me back is my schedule; Im busy! I have a large organization that Im involved with and that I founded. Even though we have staff and trainers and webmasters, and somebody else runs the organizationthe President and CEOI still have a lot of projects, and my desk is a mess. Im always busy. Taking the time to writereally being disciplined about itcan be a challenge. Right now, I have a book contract with John Wiley and Sons. They are the oldest trade publisher in the United States, and theyre probably the largest, if not one of the largest, and getting that book deal is a whole other story, because they came to me. Years ago when I shopped around the Conscious Dating book and I was looking for a publisher, I got rejected all over the place. I self-published it and I ended up being glad I did, because I think thats really the way to go is to self-publish. In this case, the largest trade publisher in the United States came to me and asked me to write this book, From Therapist to Coach. Thats great when your body of work has built up enough that youve achieved that kind of recognition, and deals start coming to you. Of course, that

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wouldnt have happened unless I had leveraged my writing in the first place, which was tip number two. Tip number three is recognize your areas of weakness. In my case, what tends to hold me back from finishing a big project is, once again, my busy schedule. I have to ask myself, How can I make sure that I will be able to get this book out by the deadline? I have a deadline, and in this case, its November of this year, which is not that many months away, and Im only halfway through the book. What Ive done, and one of my secrets to writing a high quality book in a reasonable amount of time is that I get help. I hire a writer to help me. The writer is not writing the book for me; the writer is helping me write the book. Im leveraging my time by outsourcing, so the writer will interview me, shoot me a draft of the chapter, and I will work on the chapter and edit it and ask for more ideas, and then shoot it back to the writer. Well go back and forth with it. Its 100% my content, but somebody else is helping me put it into writing. Getting over that obstacle of what I think a lot of us have encountered is the blank piece of paper, or the blank Microsoft Word document. Starting from scratch and starting to actually write can be a huge obstacle, because were busy. Weve got a whole bunch of other things to do. Writing is a discretionary thing oftentimes; its not a requirement. We have so many other things that require our attention but, when we have a buddy or when we have a writer helping us and were not doing it by ourselves, then it becomes much easier to get this project done. Thats been one of my secrets to success. I: Very good. Are your books based on experiences of someone you know, or events from your own life? DS: First of all, Im a nonfiction writer, so Im writing about an area of expertise that I know something about; but Im writing for people, and people need to be engaged. They need it to be interesting so I can't just write dry, self-help stuffheres how to do this1, 2, 3. Here are the facts1, 2, 3. It has to be interesting and engaging. Telling stories that people can relate to is very important. People love stories. When you watch a movie or television show or you read a good fiction book, its the story that engages you. Stories are very, very powerful for teaching and for entertaining and for engaging the reader. There are different kinds of storiessuccess stories of people youve worked with, so youre telling a story about them. Theres also a story about your work with them. I do tell lots of stories from my own personal/professional experience. Im a very authentic writer and a very authentic person. I dont hold anything back. Ill tell you all my flaws, my mistakes, my embarrassing moments. The more embarrassing it is, the better the story. In Conscious Dating, I mention what was probably one of the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to me in my life is the time that I crashed my twenty-five-foot sailboat into the rocks of Alcatraz. As a sailor and as a guy, I dont want it getting around that I made that big a mistake, but I put it in the Conscious Dating book as an example of how sometimes we think we know what were doing, but we might not; what a great way to illustrate that. I use examples from my own life. I tell stories about myself in a very, very authentic way.

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David Steele continued . . .

I will use what I call, case studies. Ill tell stories that illustrate my points that are good examples from other people or other situations that I know. The bottom line is, you have to tell stories because theyre interesting and engaging. A picture speaks a thousand wordsa one-paragraph story will speak many pages of content, and I think that telling storied is a very necessary way to get our message across. I: What was the hardest part of writing your books? DS: Being busy. If I had nothing else to do, it would be okay. I remember one time I took a week off and went up to the mountains and rented a cabin. I figured, Okay, I have had trouble getting to this project; here, I have nothing else to do but this project. Then, the hardest part became writers block and really the isolation of doing it myself. Thats where I really decided it was necessary to work with a co-writer; to work with somebody that I could bounce ideas off of, and someone to whom I could outsource some of the work. I was surprised, because its much more affordable than I thought it would be. Theres a lot of hungry writers out there, ladies and gentlemen, so it doesnt have to cost an arm and a leg. They need the work and you need the help, so its a good deal for both of you. Thats probably the hardest thing, is struggling with doing it myself when Im busy and I have a lot on my plate. I: I can see another reason why you might want to work with a writerto get out of your own way. As you were saying, with the writers block, if you are able to express the information and the content that you really want to share while youre being interviewed, it gets you out of your own way; no more looking at that white paper. DS: Yes. We might be experts and know a lot about our topic, but we are not professional writers. We arent necessarily the best people to write a book by ourselves. I wanted the Conscious Dating book to be the definitive book for singles. A book that I could say with confidence, Dont bother with all those other books out there for singlesthis is the only one you need. I wanted it to be high quality, well-written, very, very interesting and engaging to read. Ive read books where theyve combined self-help content with really interesting stories. It was also like writing a novel. One book I remember what really struck me was, The One-Minute Millionaire, where on one page they would have the content, and on the opposite page they would have a story going on of somebody who was dealing with the situation the content was talking about. It was fascinating to read the content on one side, and then the story on the other. I decided that for the Conscious Dating book, I wanted to weave in stories of real singles. I picked six real singles who have gone through my Conscious Dating Program, who I either worked with or my coaches had worked with that could really be an illustration of most singles out there today. I wove their stories throughout the book. Im not a storywriter. I couldn't write a story to save my life. I dont tell jokes either. Im not a joke teller. Im sorry, but I can't do that. I hired a writer specifically because she was a very talented storywriter. She helped me

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craft these stories to be interesting, engaging, and they really illustrated the content of the book. By the time the book was done, I could really stand behind it and honestly say, This is the definitive book for singles. This is fun and easy to read; it will really tell you all you need to know about finding the love of your life. I could not have done that by myself. There are skills that I have, and theres skills that I dont have. To crank out a top-quality product, youre going to need peoplemaybe just one other person, maybe morethat have skills that you dont have. This is our profession. We want to take it seriously and be professional about it. We dont want to crank out something amateur. I: Exactly. What are your current projects? DS: My current project is my second book in the two-book deal I have with Wiley, and its The Million-Dollar Practice: Building a Successful Business That Makes A Difference. I have a Web site up at www.milliondollarpractice.net. The premise is the, one to many model. When you are a helping professional, working with people one-on-one limits you. It limits your time and it limits your income. If you can leverage your time by serving one to manyserving groups, workshops, retreats, classes, and having membership programs onlinethen thats scalable. You can do as many as you want. It leverages your time. Thats about building the million-dollar practice. Its at www.milliondollarpractice.net. Im halfway through the book, and I have about four more months to get to the last four chapters, so I have to get going. The Therapist to Coach book, which you might be interested in, is at www.therapisttocoach.com. That was the first book that Wiley asked me to write. What was interesting was that, in the process of putting this book project together for Wiley, I got the idea for the follow-up book; I pitched it to Wiley, and they loved it. The Therapist to Coach book is all about the path you need to take if youre a therapist in private practice and you would like to become a coach; you would like to make a difference in the world as a coach. However, once youre a successful coach, whats next? Whats next is building the million-dollar practice. For me, it was just a natural next step, so I put a book proposal together for Wiley, and they loved it and accepted it. Now Im under contract for that book, too. The Million-Dollar Practice book will probably be out late in 2012. In my mind, this is the way that we work as professionalsthe way we should work, anywayto ask ourselves "Whats next?" This is probably the most important two-word question for all business owners that want to make a successful business out of our profession, We need to ask ourselves "Whats next?" at every step. Thats how we leverage what we do to help us grow and evolve. Connect with David at: www.davidsteeleonline.com

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Dr. Judith Briles Show Me About Book Publishing

Dr. Judith Briles has authored twenty-eight books, including Show Me About Book Publishing, The Tango of Authoring and Publishing Sabotage, How To Deal With the Pit Bulls, Sharks, Snakes, Scorpions, and Slugs in the Healthcare Workplace, Money Smarts For Turbulent Times, Zapping Conflict in the Healthcare Workplace, The Confidence Factor, and Stop Stabbing Yourself In the Back. Her books have been published in sixteen countries, and she has been a featured guest on over 1,000 radio and TV shows including Oprah, Good Morning America, CNN, and MSNBC. She is the financial expert on Denvers KWGN-TV, and has received widespread coverage in USA Today, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and People. Dr. Briles writes several monthly columns, including Career Moves in the Denver Business Journal. I: What inspires you to write? JB: That goes way back. I never intended to be a writer. I never really took any writing courses. Actually, it was my mouth that inspired me to write, and the speaking and workshops that I was doing many, many years ago in the 1970s; those engagements were about topics like women and money. I finally thought, Ive got to get this stuff out of my head, so I called one of my clients. He was the editor of the local paper in the community where I lived in Northern California and said, Jack, I think I have a book in me, but I dont know how to write a book. Can you give me some guidance, or recommend anyone to help me start to write?

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He didnt know either, but he referred me to one of his sports columnists that writes novels on the side. Phil actually sat down across from me and turned on a tape recorder and said, Start talking. Thats how I started writing. By the time we were all done, we had worked it through, sold it to New York, and landed a spot on Good Morning America. I thought, Okay, were done with that. Little did I know that books breed other books, and thats what started to happen. The first book was very successful, and I was seduced by another publisher to do a book for them, and thats really how it grew. The whole genesis was that years ago when I was a President of a college foundation, one of the perks as President was that you get to go schmooze celebrities when they came into town to do a celebrity guest lecture series. I was having dinner one night with one of the schmoozing cronies, and we were commiserating that we both had three teenagers; mine were a little bit older than his. I came up with a whole series of ideas as we laughed through the meal about what we should do in lieu of the draft. I had one that was nineteen and was worried about the possibility of the draft being reinstated. He remembered us talking about Vietnam. I said, You know what we ought to do? Instead of having a draft, we should take away their cars for two years. Wed save on gasoline, wed save on lives, wed save on insurance, wed save on stress, wed save on accidents, and all of those things. He went and gave his lecture, and we dropped him by his hotel, and I headed down to Mexico for a week for a series of lectures. I picked up a copy of the Los Angeles Times and as I was going through it, I sat straight up. There was a caricature of a lanky teenager by a gas pump, and all my ideas that I had freely given out that night were in his column for which he made $100,000 a year. At that point, I said, Whoa! There was a letter from him when I got back to my office the following week, which read, Dear Judith, I really enjoyed meeting you. Take a look. I might use some of your ideas in a future column. Cheers, Art Buchwald From that, I said, You know, if I dont start taking some of my own ideas and write them down then other people will take them and write them. Thats what started me writing. I: Very wise of you to start writing those down. How does your writing inspire others? JB: I get amazing letters. One of my current books is called The Sabotage Book: How To Deal With the Pit Bulls, Skunks, Snakes, Scorpions, and Slugs in the Healthcare Workplace, and what I learned is that when writers are turning into authors, there is true

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Dr. Judith Briles continued . . .

value in learning how to brand yourself, find your niche, and really drill down into an area. Ive become really well-known, and my expertise is that Ive dealt with conflict, betrayal, and sabotage in female-dominated workplaces, and healthcare is certainly one of them. The last few books have been written for healthcare, when I was in that field. There is not a week that goes by that I dont get a letter or two from some nurse that is crying out in pain, saying, Thank God I found your book. This has helped me in dealing with this person. There is not a week that goes by that I dont get a letter from a nurse or an administrator working for an advanced degree in healthcare that doesnt ask permission to use my studies and the tools Ive created for their survey work as they work on their thesis or their I created something new, dissertation.

which is designed for authors and writers as they go along on this journey and this path to be really successful and make a living at it versus diddling and making it hobbyIm for getting compensated.
like.

I really started writing in the personal financial field, which is where I came from before I got into the behavioral area. I remember when the market really took a dive a couple of years ago, and I had a couple of people out of the blue contact me saying, You know, I bought your book a couple of years ago called Money Smarts, and I just want you to know that Im okay. You never know. You just never know. I: Its gratifying. Im glad that people are letting you know, because that is what your whole point isto reach out and touch other peoples lives and help them, right? JB: Yes. Will I be writing more books? Certainly in the publishing area that Im doing now. Ive transitioned. Before you and I started the interview here, we shared our travel misery stories. It used to be the case that in one month I could be in twelve or thirteen states as I was doing workshops and lecturing at conferences, and I just dont want to do that anymore. I hate that side of travel, and the agony of it dealing with TSA and the

I created something new that is designed for authors and writers as they go along on this journey and this path to be really successful and make a living at it versus diddling and making it a hobbyIm for getting compensated. The writing that Im doing is much shorter now; I write a newsletter that actually runs from twenty-five to thirty pages every month for the Author U community and its all full of goodies just yummy morsels that will make their writing and authoring life so much better. The current blog I have outin which I would encourage all of our readers to pick upis about avoiding the publishing predators. My goodness, they are out there, and they are just out turning and chumming for authors and writers who are naive and ignorant of whats going on.

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I: I heard you speak about this, and Im going to ask you more about that later. How would you define writing success? JB: Writing success to methats a wonderful question, because its going to be different for everyone. For some people, writing success is recognition; it could be media recognition, or audience recognition. For others, it could be just having someone pick it up and publish it. For others, it could be getting paid or winning an award. For me, it is knowing who my audience is, writing to them, and supplying them with answers. I understand the pain that authors can go through. For example, on my books dealing with conflict and sabotage and betrayal in the workplaceI understand that pain when people are being bullied, betrayed, or undermined. I understand what that feels like to go through, and Ive actually got some solutions on how to deal with itnot only for yourself personally, but to confront that person and to let them know that youre not a patsy; that it is not going to happen again. That is success for me. Being paidI can tell you that I wrote my first book 1987 after twenty-eight rejections from all the major publishers. I went with a very small, kind of po-dunk type of publisher, because I knew it was a breakout book. I knew it was a breakthrough book. And was it? Absolutely. Cover story of People magazine, Oprah, Phil Donohue, Wall Street Journal, National Enquirerit was everywhere. I can track from that point the multiple books that were created, the genre that came, the drilling down, the consulting that came from it, the speaking gigs that came from it, the book revenues that came from it, the corporate sponsorships that happenedall because of the positioning that I took. I can tell you that I created in excess of four million dollars over a twenty-year period of time. Success, to me, is being able to make a living at what you do and what you love. I think that for many, many writers, and especially when I talk to my novelists, they tell me, I just want to write. I just want to do my stories. I say, I know. I know the words are just there and you just want to do it, but you have to learn that writing is a business. One of my causes is to teach writers and authors about the business of authoring, writing, and publishing. You have to understand those things so that you can know how to play the game with all the sharks out there without getting eaten alive. Showing writers and authors how to do that, and taking it to that level gives me enormous satisfaction. Thats success to me. The new publication, Show Me About Book Publishing, is really important and Im really pleased with the book. It will be a series of books that John Kramer, Rick Frishman, and I are doing. I: Oh, wonderful! I can't wait to read them. What is your most powerful writing moment?

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JB: That can come in a couple of different ways. Im a binge writer, and I think that its important to find your muse, first of all. A muse for me usually has to have water in it.

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Dr. Judith Briles continued . . .

Im a beach girl. I have started and finished many books around a beach environment or on cruises. I have to have that sense of water; the smell of water makes me tick. I work in binges. I can flow through and write a chapter in a few hours when I have it together, and it comes out pretty tight. Does it need editing? Sure, all writers need editors; but it doesnt need a hell of a lot of more work. Those ah-ha moments come when I get something. It comes through. The idea flows, and it just sparks, and comes together. I tell my audience when Im talking about conflict and conflict resolution, Im embarrassed to say it took me twenty years to come up with three lines. Those three lines that I worked on until they were the right lines to add to this scriptthe old conflict resolution scriptthat is what turned it around, turned it on its head, and made it so powerful and meaningful. That was a big ah-ha for me. I: But it comes when it comes; it really does. I love how you said youre a binge writer. Ive never heard that phrase before. I love that. JB: People say, You need to get up every morning at 4:00 and you need to write for three hours before the kids get up. You know what? That doesnt work for me. I have to find where it goes. Ive had several days where Ive said, This is going to be a writing day, but it never happens. When it hits me, everything else gets annihilated. There are some times when Im working to deadlineand as a columnist, you learn how to do deadlinesthere are certain little tricks of the trade that writers need to understand. They have got to get away from paragraph perpetuity. One-sentence paragraphs are sometimes absolutely everything you need to say. Sometimes a one-word sentence sums everything up. I think fresh, new writers tend to get out their little dictionaries, synonym finders, rhyme finders, this-and-that finder, and they want to be everything. Well, you need to use common words to say and convey common ideas and concepts. Its very important to remember that; its a big ah-ha. To reach out to that average reader who is not much above a sixth or seventh grade reading strategy in some ways. Thats all really important to understand. Those are all big ah-ha moments. Learning to say shit as a one-word sentence could be just perfect for that novel youre working on. Or ouch or crap or whatever. We really need to embrace those kind of things. I: Yes, because most readers dont want to have to get out their dictionary to find out what youre trying to say, right? JB: Youre so right. It really irritates me, and Ive always told people that it may be great that youve got a Ph.D. in crossword puzzle, but believe me, most of your audience and readers dont. I: Thats a very good point. What are three of the most important personal tips, since youve started this, that you could share for achievement through writing?

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JB: One is to use common words to say and convey uncommon ideas, situations, or events for our nonfiction writers. For fiction, I think that you need to trust your gut. A couple of my favorite words are snappy, sassy, and salty. When I try to use my writing, Im punchy. Im more of a punch writer, but I recognize that not everyone has that kind of style. Its understanding your style. A strong tip is to be open to any kind of criticism. Recognize where it comes from. A lot of times, when you read reviews of books and so many people are thinking, oh my God, is this awful! Ive learned that sometimes reviewers are very envious people; in fact, theyre envious that they havent written a bloody book. They put on their book snobbery nose and they go after stuff, instead of simply saying, Is this a good read? Is this entertaining? Does this solve the problem that the author set out to solve? Does it do without wasting a heck of lot of words and gets there in time? Thats what Im after.

I think that its important to use those common wordsthat would be my first really good tip; to use it with punchbe careful of having paragraphs that go on and on.

I think that its important to use those common wordsthat would be my first really good tip; to use it with punchbe careful of having paragraphs that go on and on. When Im working on my developmental/editing side as a book shepherd working with others, I am always crashing on their paragraphs; I break them up and look at them, because Im looking for reader ease. I think its very important for writers to understand the value of using some callouts and some segues with some subtitles if it makes sense to help to break it up and ease into the next style. I think that understanding your space is also important. I think it is really important to have your space. I have good office space. My staff knows that when I move into a writing mode, it is equivalent to having crime scene tape across my door. If Im working in my office at all, no one is allowed insideno one. Not even the cleaning guy. No one is allowed in my space, because Ill have stuff laid out all around. Its out, its open. Im one of these people that is so visual that if I decide to have a clean-up day and I decide to file something away, it may never be seen again. Its very important for me to have stuff out so I know where it is, and then when Im done, it gets put away but not until its completed and used. I: Excellent points. Thank you so much for sharing all those. What are some of your favorite writing tools? JB: When Im editing, I always use purple. I love purple. I use purple pens everywhere. I also work off of a laptop. My first books were dictated and I always dictated them. When I moved from writing on the yellow pad, I went to dictation. I think that its important for authors to learn to read their work out loud, because it sounds different, and youll catch a lot of stuff that you missed on paper. Youll catch a lot of stuff when you read your work out loud like words that are missing, too many words where you just stumble your tongue over it. Youll catch things there that are important.

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Neale Donald Walsch is considered a modDr. Judith Briles continued . . . ern day spiritual messenger by milI think some books are good tools. I like the Grammar Girls lions of people book. I think its a good resource. I like a crossword puzzle In around the world. ...whats also really dictionary because you can sometimes comeearly 1990s the across some important very interesting and different words. I think for reading for Walsch lost his job hot tip health and visual, I actually like to motivate writers. On and his marriage folWriting Well by Zinsser s quite good. I think revisiting the whatever genre lowing a car accident a good youre writing in, Elements of Style, Strunks book, once a year isleft him idea, a that with as well. one way to become broken neck. Homeless, think whats a better writer is to Those are all classics in their own right, but I he relied on the kindness of people read that genre; you also really importanthot tipwhatever genre youre writing in, one way to become a better writer is to read that genre; he met on the street. need to read, read, you need to read, read, read. What is that style that flows He subsequently read to you, that sings to you; where do you hear those nine-book, wrote the words? Youll find yourself, not copying, but starting to model. Converbestselling They become your teacher and your guide; paysations with that. seattention to God What style is going along? What is it that you admire about them? ries which gained him a worldwide folI remember when I read Seabiscuit years ago, Laura Hillenbrands book, and it was so lowing. The books beautifully written that I remember calling a couple friends and saying, Do you have a have sold more than minute? I just want to read you this paragraph. I love the elements of Pat Conroys 7.5 million copies writing, as well. globally and have Im not a novelist. I dont have the gift of writing fiction, but man, do I admire it. When been translated into I work with authors who are writing fiction, I believe that my love of reading fiction 37 languages. His which is what I do for pleasurereally carries over and benefits them. new book, When Everything Changes, I: All great advice. Im a big Pat Conroy fan, too. Being a southern girl, its hard not to Change Everything, be, right? was written to help people triumph JB: The Prince of Tides is on my top five list to take away on a deserted island. through life-altering change and is also a I: Definitely. Do you have a specific writing style? New York Times bestseller. JB: As I shared, Im a binge writer. Ill play games with myself. If I finish this chapter,
I might get a bag of M&Ms. I did a whole book on M&Ms, by the way. If you finish this chapter, you get to go pee. Im very incentive-driven! When I finish a book and its off to the printer, I give myself a reward of a whole month off of not reading business books. Unless its clients Im working with, usually Im so involved with so many nonfiction books that I get, but Im not reading to learn, so-tospeak. I get a month of reading what I call trashy novels. To me, a trashy novel is a murder mystery. I dont have the gift of writing murder mysteries, but I sure like them. The tip here is when you allow yourself to step away from something that youre not normally in, believe it or not, you get more ideas. It will really kind of nurture you in your chosen field. Im always on the lookout for ideas and ah-ha moments. I rip pages out of magazines and I save things and ideas.

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Probably the next little bookIve always wanted to do one of those little booksthose 5x7 books. In my books, for at least the last ten years, Ive always had things called keepers in them, or JB Says or something like that, and people have asked me for years when I will take those little tidbits and put those in a book. I will probably do thatjust compile them and kind of flow them all together. My current project is supporting Show Me About Book Publishing, and the writing. Im doing the editing right now for the written version of The Tango of Authoring and Publishing. Thats for myself. For my clients, Im working on a variety of books; several leadership books, and a really great book on all the stuff going on in the cyber world. Ive also got a book Im working on called The Credit Slave. Ive had such a varied background over the last thirty years from the finances to conflict resolution, so very little surprises me in business. My experience allows me to bring ideas to the party. One book I worked with was called See It, Say It, Do It. It was a book by a very successful, award-winning visual therapy optometrist. Because of my love of movies, I was really able to come in and describe very vast scenes in some movies that would tie into the point she was making so well, because she talks in her book about needing to see movies in your mind. I described the opening scene to the first Harry Potter movie where Hagrid taps on the brick wall with his umbrella and it opens up with this wonderful, visual display; the way it collapses, and the way the owls are flying around and goblins and magic wands and wonderful stuff is happening. So, for that project, a simple experience from my love of movies carried over to support clients, which I love to do. Another project that Im working on is one that I started two years ago. It is a little group called Author U (Author University), www.authoru.org, and I would encourage everyone to join this. I dont care what state you live in; there is so much information that comes out through it. We have an annual meeting the first weekend in May where we bring in top speakers who are pitching you information for you to take and use. You get it because you paid to be there, and its very reasonable. Author U is really designed for serious authors who want to be seriously successful. We have a variety of things, but we are up to our eyeballs in books, writers, and working with people to get better and bigger at what theyre doing. I: Amazing for somebody who didnt plan to be a writer! JB: You know what? I should have known, because when I was a kid in school, I always got in trouble. I got in trouble for talking too much, and I got in trouble for passing notes. Thats what I do nowI talk and I write books now!

Discover more from Judith at www.authoru.org.

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Dr. Sylvia LaFair Gutsy

Sylvia Lafair is the author of an awardwinning book, Dont Bring It To Work. For twenty-five years, she has been helping organizations to be more collaborative and more productive with less office politics. Her new book, Gutsy: How Women Leaders Make Change, will release in March. This book explores how to be more selfaware and pattern-aware, the work of 21st Century leaders.

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I: Sylvia, its so nice to have you with us. Can you tell us what inspires you to write? SL: I think my love of writing started when I was in elementary school. I loved to read, and I love how words fit together to make thoughts. Writing has always been a part of my life. I: How does your writing inspire others? SL: I used to do a lot of writing for myselfessays about lifebut as I moved into the business world and had a lot of good ideas, people would tell me that I should write a book. Id say to myself, I really should write a book. Years would go by where I would jot things down, with the plan of offering them as a gift to people seeking leadership knowledge. I had a newsletter and did a lot of blogging. As more people went through our, Total Leadership Connections program, they said, Youve got to write a book. I heard the message and thats what happened. I: When and why did you begin to write? SL: I began to write because I was doing so much research into the nature of how people behave at work. What I found was something that is not very wellknown; we bring all of the behavior patterns that we learned from our original organization (the family) into our present organization at work. I researched and researched, and I found nothing about this anywhere, so I thought, Ill be the pioneer and write about it. I started writing some articles about how behavior patterns impact our lives and one day a curious call came in, a man saying simply , Have you ever thought of writing a book? Ten minutes laterwhen I stopped laughinghe said he was an agent for a pretty well-known firm. He had read some of my articles, and he said, Sylvia, it would be a gift to people if you do this as a book. I just cleared my space. My staff gave me room, and I started writing. I loved every minute of it. I: Very nice. How would you define writing success? SL: For me, writing success was actually the feeling of being nourished when I would finish a thought, chapter, or even a paragraph. Writing success has shown up in other ways. My book, Dont Bring It To Work, has won six business book awards, so thats absolutely a sign of success for me. I: I can see that. What is your most powerful writing moment? SL: I think its when, all of a sudden, I have put words together in a way that

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Dr. Sylvia LaFair continued . . .

makes me sit and say, I never thought of it that way before. Its that a-ha moment. Sometimes I dont know where the words came from. I know I was on the computer, or I saw my fingers putting letters down on paper, but all of a sudden its like a new way of thinking. That has come to me many times as Ive been writing. I love it. I love connecting ideas. While Im sitting alone, its not really solitude, Im actually there with so many thinkers, who have come before me. Im putting all of those thoughts down in a new and unique way. Those are the moments when I say, I never thought of it like that before. It fills me up and delights me. I: What are the three most important personal tips that you can share for achievement and fulfillment through writing?
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SL: I think one is that you should be writing because you really want to be helpfulto make a difference. Its an incredible place to come from when you sit down and its not just a me-me-me thing. Its like, I want to get these words out; get these thoughts out to more people. Thats one of the big tips is to really sit down and ask yourself why you are writing. I really did want to write to be helpful, and that was very nurturing to me. Another thing is, its an incredible way to clarify your thoughts. You can sit down, and its great that we have ways of editing ourselves and working with Word or whatever people use to sit and write withits wonderful, and it really does clarify your thoughts. Those are the ah-ha moments, when I realize that I had never thought of it that way before. Then, its a sense of satisfaction that theres something you have thats going to live past wherever you are. Whenever you write books, e-books, however you do it they stay after youve decided to go to wherever that great place in the sky is; your words live on. Its a very powerful concept. I: Please tell me how these three things work for you. SL: For me, as I said before, when I began to see that I was on to some adventurous research, putting together the fact that our original organization and our present organization have so many things in common. In our families, weve learned about fairness and favoritism. We learned about back-biting, and we learned about cooperation. Its exactly what you see in the workplace. For me, it works to say, Im here to do something to make a difference. In those moments when I say, Its not coming together, I would observe my patterns, get out of the poor me victim place, take a deep breath, and just keep goingfocusing on leaving a legacy. My thoughts did get more clear, and I became a better keynote speaker after I was

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writing, because I was able to consolidate my thoughts in a more effective way. Thats how it has helped me. Wherever this work goes after I go to the great beyond, well see. Thats another story. I: What are some of your favorite writing tools? SL: My favorite writing tool, interestingly, is the Internet. I have a doctorate in clinical psychology, and the first really big thing I wrote was my doctoral dissertation; that was before the Internet. I spent a lot of time in libraries with 3x5 cards, and I can't imagine we got anything done. I love to go online and just put something in Google and get tons of information, and pull it together so its unique to my thinking. Thats my favorite thing in the whole world. I also like books that give ideas on how to put language together. Ill read those kinds of writers books just for the beauty of the words, and then it is absorbed in my own mind so Im able to write in a more effective way after Ive read them. Reading helps me become a better writer. I: Do you have a particular writing style?
http://tinyurl.com/7reoez4 SL: I tend to sit down and let all the words come out and then Ill go back and Ill tease it out. I tend to do long sentences that I have to shorten all the time. Im also grateful there are editors on this planet that can help with that.

I: How did you come up with the title Gutsy: How Women Leaders Make Change? It is a fascinating title; I love it. SL: Thats the power of the Internet. It was a Sunday morning, and I knew I had the essence of what I wanted to write, it was about how women have to understand where we came from through history, and what the behaviors are that were given to us. Most of us become pleasers, or rescuers, and lots of us become martyrs. These patterns can be transformed. I kept thinking, I need to grab this in one word. For two hours I literally surfed the Web and picked up every single word I could that described women. Nice words, not nice wordsit was all over the place. Then, all of a sudden, I literally got up to get a drink of water, and I came back and I sat down and I said, Its GUTSY. I think it distilled itself from just having surfed the Web for many hours and pulling all the words together. The minute I said, GUTSY, I knew the book was in my own mind finished. It then only took me two months to write it. I: Thats really impressive. readers to grasp? Is there is a message in your book that you want your

SL: The message is, for women at this point, that it is really our time to lead. Its not to lead ahead of, its to lead with our male partnersboth personally and professionally; that we are equal and strong, and we have come through so many complex times, and right now it is womens time, and I think women are feeling it.

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Dr. Sylvia LaFair continued . . .

In the book, GUTSY, I give a lot of depth to understanding basic ideas like the colors pink for girls and blue for boys. Do you know it used to be that pink was the color for boys? Red was the sign of bravery and strength. Pink was considered a gentler version of red, so that was for boys. Blue was for girls, which also had to do with the fact that blue was the symbol for the Virgin Mary, and we were all assumed to be sweet and innocent. After World War II, it shifted with the impact of marketing. All of a sudden pink was for girls and blue was for boys. Understanding where some of these changes come from is fascinating. Then, in second two, I go into looking at ones personal behaviors and how we are taught, over time, in our families; we have learned how to behave a certain way. The third section is how to take the behaviors that we want to transform and do some heavy lifting to make the changes happen. Then we are more capable of having an equal dialogue with the men in our lives, and finding a whole new way of talking with each otherbeing with each other. It takes GUTSY women to do that. I: Definitely. I did not know that about the colorsthats fascinating. SL: Let me add this, in the 50s there was marketing research about how colors affect us. It was clear that women had a preference for reds, pinks, and purples, and the womens magazines ran with it. And men, tended to go more towards the blues. I wondered why women and men would have a gender preference for one color or the other. Heres what I found, I discovered it goes back to the times when we were hunters and gatherers. Women, as gatherers, had the go out to pick the berries, and the good berries that we wanted to eat were redthey were ripe. The hypothesis was that women were more tuned to that color because little children, if they had fevers, would start to get red in the face. Red and pink were very conscious colors for females and men wanted blue skies when they were out hunting. Makes sense! Now the good news is, were using pink as the color for breast cancer awareness, so it has its place. Its very insightful when you begin to do the research. I: Thats fascinating. I appreciate you sharing all that with me and our readers. What did you find to be the hardest part of writing your book? SL: The hardest part was turning off the cell phone, closing the door, and saying, No interruptions. I tend to be a very social person and an extroverted type. I loved doing the writing. I actually would have a conversation with the Internet and with myself as I was writing. But when I would get daysand every once in a while I would take a day where I would start to write in the morning, and you know when youre in that flow and you just let it happenits so enticing. Its just the best feeling. I would sometimes look out the window and wonder when it became dark outside. Those were the days that I knew

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were the best for me. When I allowed the interruptions to come, it had too much of a stop and start. I really advise if you can get away and close the door and really be with what youre doing without interruptions, its the best way to do it. I: Thats great. Do you have any other advice for writers? SL: I think the most helpful advice I have is to trust in yourself. There will be moments when you get writers block, and then the best thing to doand I take my own advice hereis to go for a walk, or get a snack, do some aerobic exercise; just go away from what youre doing. Once in a while Ill turn on the television on and pay attention to what Im watching. Usually Ill find a seed of something creative, it may be the news or even a cartoon for kids That will give me the impetus to go back and start writing again. Dont be afraid of writers block; work with it and flow with it. Sing, dance, move, just do something different and it will disappear. I: Thats also good advice. mentor? If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a

SL: Its interesting I go back to some of the modern classics, like Ernest Hemingway, and look at the way language is put together. Tom RobbinsI dont know if youve ever read any of his books; Jitterbug Perfume or Even Cowgirls Get the Blues? Annie Prouix, who wrote Brokeback Mountain also has a wonderful way with words. I love to look at how even two or three words are put together to create an image. Theyve been really good mentors for me. More classical or more modern, all with an absolute brilliant way of creating images. The other is a female writer that I just adore, Isabel Allende. Ive read every book that shes written, and its always inspired me to write as beautifully as I can. I: Did you learn anything from writing your book? If so, what? SL: What Ive learned is that there is help when you need it, and help for me meant having someonea friend or a professionalto be able to look at some of the writing and say, are you sure thats what you really meant? Ive done my own writing. I initially wanted to have some help because I was intimidated about writing a whole big book, but I found that if I trusted myself, I could do it. As long as its something you love to do, it will come out. Then, there are always people who can make sure the semicolons, the commas, and the quotation marks are all in the right place. I just let that kind of stuff go and let somebody else help with that. Im hooked and Ive already started my third book. Connect with Sylvia at: www.sylvialafair.com .

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Expert to Expert
Mary Allen Interviewed by Louise Crooks

The Power of Inner Choice

Mary Allen
is an MCC certified coach, Americas Inner Peace Coach, and author of The Power of Inner Choice. She is also the host of Conversations With the Masters, where she interviews bestselling authors, speakers, and coaches including Wayne Dyer, Carolyn Myth, Byron Katie, Debbie Ford, Ken Wilber, Dr. David Hawkins, and many others. For over thirteen years, Marys clientele has included transformational leaders, entrepreneurs, and billionaires. She is passionate about helping others experience greater everyday inner peace as they realize their inspired goals.

Louise Crooks

is the KeystoClarity! Coach, a dynamic and inspiring coach, radio show host, speaker, trainer, and coauthor of Stepping Stones to Success. She helps soul-driven business owners in the field of healing and transformation to move from a powerful vision of what they want to achieve in business, down a clear and focused path, to create a prosperous reality. It is Louises mission to ensure that her clients build a solid business foundation and then step out into the spotlight and become VISIBLE so they can help more people and attract more clients. In turn, there is more awakening, healing, and prosperity in the world, and Louise makes sure youre having fun while youre doing it.

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LC: Todays topic is Everyday Inner Peace For the Heart-Centered Business Owner. Running a heart-centered business can sometimes feel a little overwhelming and stressful, especially when youre learning how to get your practice up and running to that point of prosperity; it can sometimes feel elusive to many in the soul-driven businessowner field. Mary Allen is going to be discussing what it takes to create inner peace, and how that, in turn, will impact our success. I just love it Mary, how you really walk your talk and live into the premise of what you really believe in. Youre a beautiful role model in that sense. MA: Thank you. I can't say I do it perfectly all the timeyou can always check in with my husband to see that I do have my moments. I think thats really an important thing as were having a conversation about Everyday Inner Peace, because as anyone chooses to take inner peace on as something you want to experience more of, it canif you let itbecome stressful. Anytime youre not feeling inner peace, all of a sudden that can become a reason to beat yourself up and get harsh with yourself, and make it worse. Its not about doing it perfectly, but it is about being much more aware of when youre in a place of alignment and in a place of inner peace versus when youre not. You are your muscle of choice to bring yourself back to a place of being centered, and to have some skill about knowing what to do when you get into sticky situations; when you get tested. LC: Yes, that makes a lot of sense, indeed. Mary, I would love to hearand Im sure our readers would, as wellwhy you feel inner peace is one of your greatest passions? Just knowing you, I know it, but Im sure others are going to be curious. MA: Right. Of course, as it would go, inner peace wasnt always my thing. In fact, I remember clearly when a girlfriend of mine was very focused on inner peace as her number one goal, and I just thought to myself, Inner peace, inner smeesh. Really! It just wasnt even on my radar as being important. The first turning point was when I had just gotten out of two back-to-back relationships. Breaking up from one and getting into another, and that one didnt work out either. I moved into a new place, and I was really feeling that sense of inner turmoil. All of a sudden, her idea of inner peace became my goal. I was ready to take that on. That may be something for everyone to be listening for right now. Are you done with inner turmoil, stress, and frustration? It is part of the human experience; nothing says that you need to make inner peace a priority, but for a lot of us, I think thats one place where it starts. Are you done with inner turmoil as a way of life? Now its a priority, of course, but back then, I didnt really have consistent access to it. Its one thing to know that you want it, but its another to get into that experience? It actually took a few years through navigating yet another tumultuous relationship, and doing quite a bit of work of Byron Katieswhich really had a huge impact on meto get to the point where I could finally say, I know what this place of inner peace is for me. I knew what it was, but then the next challenge came. My interest became how to deal with it when you get those curve balls life likes to throw your way and you can't quite get back; that happens even when you are really grounded firmly in inner peace. I knew it

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Mary Allen Interviewed by Louise Crooks continued . . .

was possible to find inner peace in any moment, but it wasnt working for me; that sparked the creation of several tools, including the Inner Peace Reality Check Process. Once I found that sweet spot of inner peace, I just absolutely knew that was something that I wanted to help others learn how to gain access to, as well. LC: Wonderful, Mary. I know just from my own experience and my own journey how powerful it is, and I can see why youd want to do that, once youve experienced it. The gift of that is so powerful, its just a wonderful thing. Im so glad that you chose that as your passion to share with the world, because someone needs to do it. MA: It seems to be my thing. I did resist it for a while. I thought no one was really interested in inner peace. Of course, Ive since come to learn that, at the core of it, its what everybody wants. Why do we pursue relationships, money, or health? Ultimately, we do it in order to have a greater sense of peace, fulfillment, and happiness. They are all code words for inner peace, in my book. LC: Exactly. I think it all boils down to that. Its very powerful stuff. I think you and I have experienced similar paths. In fact, the work that Ive done, I believe was derived from Byron Katies work. After doing your Momentum Mastery, I recognized some of the work. Its just a beautiful experience. Im so glad that you are sharing that with the world. Mary, what is the single biggest factor that contributes to stress, frustration, and even depression that a lot of people may be completely unaware of? MA: Ive summed it up into one word, and that is resistance. Resistance meaning to push against something else. It can be physical, but really, were talking energetically, spiritually, and/or emotionally. What Ive come to learn is that there are many flavors of resistance; most of the resistance thats interrupting our sense of inner peace and well-being is unconscious. We dont just have the experience of stress or frustration, but, for exampleand lets really look at this through the lens of a heart-centered entrepreneurwe can resist receiving. We can resist owning our power and our expertise and our gifts in the world. Most of us might think of resistance as just pushing against somebody, or maybe being in an argument. Think about what happens when we resist owning our power, or especially as a business-ownerresisting self-care? We can resist focusing. We can resist taking actionotherwise known as procrastination. We can resist making decisions about our business, and most of this is all kind of an inside job. If youre feeling any sense of inner turmoil or non-inner peace, you need to really begin to get curious about what it is you are resisting. I like to think of worry as resisting a future that hasnt happened. We spend all this time

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energetically resisting something thats not even here now, and may not ever be. LC: Yes. We try to be fortunetellers without realizing it. MA: Exactly. LC: When you look at it from that perspective, you suddenly realize that youre putting yourself in an impossible situation, which really is not helpful at all. MA: Right, exactly. The minute we begin to recognize that were doing it, that point of awareness brings us out of our mini-coma and allows us to more powerfully choose. Maybe I dont want a certain outcome to happen in my business, so what can I do here today, right now, that will prevent that kind of outcome from occurring? LC: Yes. Move forward discerning rather than worrying. MA: Exactly. We can use resistance as a compass, in a way. http://tinyurl.com/7r8md4r Not all resistance is bad and non-resistance good. Use resistance to serve you, but not to control you. I really want to be prepared for a client meeting or a business presentation. Thats great. I want to give myself plenty of time to prepare, be able to focus and concentrate, so that I can optimize those chances. Overwhelm. Overwhelm is a big one for entrepreneurs. Its another flavor of resistance where we may be resisting items on our to-do list. We may be resisting a single focus. We think, Ive got five projects I need to get done! Were wanting to pay attention to all of them; hence, we get this thing called overwhelm. Or, we can stop resisting a single focus, pick one, give your full energy, presence, and attention and move forward. LC: You and I are so in alignment with this, Mary. This is why I do the 21 Days of Inspired Action, and it incorporates so much of this. Its amazing, because so much of it really boils down to the inner peace piece; to be able to move forward with the things we care about and want to bring into being, because were having to check whats going on all the time. Were having to look for what were resisting. MA: When you think about it, since this is what you teach, if somebody comes into your program and theyre just drowning in all the different flavors of resistanceand usually its more than just one; we can bury ourselves. Its kind of impossible to go and build a thriving, profitable business thats also joyful. LC: Its almost like ending the war within ourselves. Its creating whats possible through that. Sometimes its getting the support to do that as well, as were not recognizing what it is were doing to ourselves. MA: Exactly. Lets look at it through two lenses. With one, any combination of resistance that were in, we really want to understand that the impact on us is an interruption in productivity. From a health standpoint, it literally physically harms our body. Its been shown that even five minutes of intense stress will lower your immune system for the next six hours.

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Mary Allen Interviewed by Louise Crooks continued . . .

LC: Wow! Its costing us not just mentally, but physically. There are so many things that its costing us. MA: Oh, yes. We think about that stressit frays what is known as the telomeres, which are basically what allows ourselves to replicate and rejuvenate. The more they get damaged, the more we age, the more our body is susceptible to different diseases and so forth. Weve got the big physical health piece. We all know the more were in a place of resistance, the more difficult it becomes to connect with peoplewhether its clients, a loved one, or a child. Thats a big one. If youre really on a mission to give your gifts in this world, the sense of productivity gets slowed down, big-time.

Its really understanding that the present moment is where that point of connection to inner peace lies.

LC: Yes. Just that whole self-care piece as well, as a soul-driven business owner, Mary, to make sure that were taking care of all aspects of ourselves is going to make us more productive and allow us to help other people. Theres just so much to it. MA: Absolutely. LC: Many of the people who are reading this may also be curious, and I know that you have some insight into thisif we wanted to create a simple path to that freedom, enlightenment, and fulfillment that many of us are looking for, and part of having inner peace is to be able to get to those places. Whats the simplest path that you would suggest, Mary? MA: Its going to sound so incredibly simple that many people might overlook this and think that it has to be something more. It really is about living in the present moment. Its really understanding that the present moment is where that point of connection to inner peace lies. This is where were going to be accessing our greatest creativity, our intuition, our ability to connect with people, and our ability to focus. All of that really happens in the present moment, not when were caught up in worrying about the future or regretting the past. We need to just be here in the present moment; this should be the practice for all business owners, or for anyone who wants more inner peace. LC: Arent we able to give more of ourselves to our life and to the people we serve when were in that space, Mary? MA: Absolutely; and its much more enjoyable. This is really where fulfillment happens. You can take yourself in any situation; as I allude to in my life about moving and this whole crazy idea about actually experiencing peace during a move. One of the biggest keys is about really staying present.

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If Im carrying a box (actually, we hired movers this time, but Im sure Ill be lifting something) even connecting with the box and feeling it and being present to the temperature outside and just being present to the transition from one household to the next; notice and appreciate the help thats around me, versus what most people do during a move, and just mentally and emotionally kick and scream the whole time. I dont want to be doing this. I hate moving! Total resistance. LC: Being in the space is embracing, isnt it? When you decide to embrace something, it has a very different feel to it. MA: Yes; and literally instantaneously. You take any stressful situation, like going through security at the airport. Just decide to get really, really present and drop that resistance. Youll start to see that hanging out in the security line might actually become a fulfilling moment. I love to invite all readers, when we start talking about being present, to give them a little tool to help them become more present. One thing I noticed when I first read Eckert Tolles book, The Power of Now, I thought living in the present was a good idea, but helloIm not always living in the present moment. How can I get better at this? Its the first lesson in my book, The Power of Inner Choice, on the power of the now; the assignment in that book is to take on what we call a Now Practice. A Now Practice is basically taking something that youre doing in your life every day anyway but consciously practicing being more present during that activity. Were not adding anything new. Your business-owners and writers are already busythey dont need to add anything new. However, we take something that youre doing anyway and just give you the assignment to really, really full-on practice being more present during that activity. What will happen is that youll find yourself naturally becoming more present in other areas of your life. How that looksand Louise, I dont know if youve taken on some Now Practices since youve read my book LC: I have. I read your book, and I do Now Practices when I shower or when Im eating or brushing my teethjust really simple ones. Its just so amazing when you start to be in that space. Its almost like being in the space of gratitude, because youre in that space and youre just focusing completely on what youre doing. Its a very different perspective. MA: Exactly, and thats just it. Gratitude is one of the keys to being more present. Then, I would say the other is really engaging your sensesreally turning up the volume. Brushing your teethmost of us may think of it as a little chore weve got to get done a couple times a day, but to really stop and connect to the sensations and the pressure of the bristles polishing up your teeth, seeing yourself in the mirror, and just connecting fully can really transform any experience. The biggest thing is to pick a couple of Now Practicesand again, nothing to add to your day. Most people are going to shower most days; eating is another fabulous Now Practice. It could be driving if you have a commute, or walking the dog. I want to challenge each of our readers here to pick one or two Now Practices that youre absolutely committed to playing full-out over the next thirty days.

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Mary Allen Interviewed by Louise Crooks continued . . .

What my experience has been from doing Now Practicesbecause its been six years ago that I wrote my bookand not as deliberately as I once did, but its weird to notice how extra present I am, almost naturally. Sometimes I say something to my husband, because I expect him to be as totally present and in-tune with everything, but he hasnt worked with Now Practices quite the same way that I have. Whats been your experience? LC: It is funny that you say that, because of course when you have your husband not being present like you are, theres a resistance that comes with that, and to just be in acceptance of that... MA: Exactly. Its like, okay, hes not present! Great! Thats what youre here for, is to point out a detail that he might have missed! LC: You know what else has really been helpful to me, Mary? Adding to the Now Practice isand again, this is something I do with my clientsasking myself or them to look at what it is that theyre doing as a sacred act. When you look at it from that viewpoint, it just changes the perspective of what it is youre doing. Of course, when youre dealing with passion-driven, heart-centered entrepreneurs and writers, of course theres a sacredness that comes with what it is that theyre doing and what theyre trying to create in the world. I just love that that makes that being present is even more powerful. Im not sure what that feels like to you, Mary. MA: Its so essential. What Im hearing in that, too, is that theres such an embracing of that moment; that goal, of the business, that in that embracing, weve relaxed the resistance around, Is my business good enough, have I done enough, do I need to push harder? The fact of holding something sacred almost melts the resistance just right there. Thats really the key. LC: Can you leave us with some easy and effective strategies for creating instantaneous inner peace? MA: Let me give one of my favorites, and that is just the power of the breath. One of the things I love to invite people to do on Twitter is to take a deep breath in, hold it for a count of four, and then exhale and drop the shoulders as youre doing it. You might take one more deep breath, hold it for a count of four, exhale, and drop the shoulders. Really connecting and reconnecting to our breath is a very instantaneous way to come back to inner peace. Its something I learned at the top of a thirty-foot platform on the flying trapeze when I couldnt get my inner peace together. I picked up that nice gem from the trapeze instructor. My body was shaking, and it works even thirty-feet up in the air. Connect with Mary at www.lifecoachmary.com. Discover more from Louise at www.keystoclarity.com.

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