Kimanzi Constable's Blog, page 41

How to Host Your Own Conference For Little or No Money- Part Three

Building a freedom business involves many components. One that appeals to many entrepreneurs is public speaking. In this series we’ve talked about speaking at conferences, booking consulting at companies, and hosting your own conference for little or no money. If you missed part one, or part two, head back and check out what we’re been talking about.

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I hope you’ve seen that hosting your own conference is not only a reality, but also something that you should try at least once. I’m an introvert, so I know what you’re thinking fellow introverts, but this can be profitable and build your business.

Think about the math behind this. You host a conference that charges $97 a ticket. You can get the conference sponsored, which means everything you make is profit. If you don’t, you can keep expenses down by renting a place for $100-$150, you buy lunch and juice, which would cost close to the room. Let’s be generous and say your expenses are $400. When you get five people you’re profitable, but what about beyond that?

What about when you get 10-20? What if you hosted the same (or different) event once a month? When you think about it that way, it becomes a serious source of income. I have two clients that host a different event every month and earn $4,000 after expenses. Not bad at all.

The extras  

We’ve talked about making money from the event, but what about other ways to monetize? THIS IS YOUR EVENT! Meaning, you can promote your other products and services to an audience that has already proven they’re willing to spend money with you. That is the definition of a “hot lead.”

I’m not telling you to make your event a hype machine where you try to cram your other offerings down people’s throat. What I am saying is WHEN you give over the top value; don’t be afraid to mention other offerings that could benefit those attending.

You can set up a table that has your books, a one-sheet to book you to speak, and a one-sheet that explains your coaching program or group class. When you add value at your event, people will naturally want to know what else you offer. The income adds up.

Be sure to have a sign up for your email list at the event. At the very least it’s a good opportunity to add names to your list that could be future customers. You can have a sign up sheet somewhere or use a text to add program.

Many email service provides now offer the option to have people opt in to your email list through text messaging. I use MailChimp, and I know they offer it. It’s very convenient to say “text hello to 555” and get people to sign up.

Take action  

I’m using the rest of this year to get you ready for 2015. I want everyone who reads this blog to experience true freedom by the end of 2015. I realize speaking may not be your thing, that’s cool. I have more coming your way.

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For all you present and future speakers, use what I’ve talked about the last three posts to host your very first conference. If you like it, use it regularly. Even if you do it every now and then, this could be one part of your income stream. The only thing left now is to take action. I’ll be watching!

Do you plan to host your own conference/training at some point?

This week’s articles:

An Open Letter to My Grandfather (This is one of the hardest things I’ve ever written. My grandfather has been given two weeks to live…)

The Good Men Project

10 Lies We Need to Stop Telling Ourselves

The Huffington Post

I’m a Man & I Hate My Body

Mind Body Green

To Grow Your Business, Get Beyond These 4 Entrepreneurial Cliches

Entrepreneur Magazine

How to Host Your Own Conference For Little or No Money- Part Two

This is the poster for one of my events.

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Aloha everyone! We are in a series right now on how to host your own conference for little or no money. If you missed part one, check it out here. In part one we talked about what a conference can be, the three types of paid speaking, and how to find a place for a reasonable price. I teased you about the free part last post, so let’s get into.

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Sponsors

The way you can host your event for free is to get sponsors; this is what I did for my second event. I got a local print company to sponsor my entire event; they cut me a check for $2,000 in return for advertising their business on all my material, and at the event.

There are companies where you live that would sponsor your one-day training, you just have to show them the value. Abbie Unger (coaching client) hosted her first event completely sponsored.

My suggestion is to approach small to medium size companies. You want to be able to talk to a person (not send a cold email), and especially a person that can write a check. Offer to take this owner or manager out to lunch and give them the readers digest version of your vision for this event. The key is showing them the value. How do you do this? The short answer is leverage anything you can.

If you have a decent social media following, tell them you’ll be promoting their company on your platforms. If you have spoken before, use that. If you write for large websites, show them that. Large websites can be juicy leverage.

Believe in yourself and the value you provide, and it will come through in your pitch. Realize this, you’re not asking for $10,000. My guess is you’ll ask for $1,000 at the most. If you show him or her you will fill this event and advertise that company, this will be a no brainer. Tell them they’re getting in on the ground floor of what will be an annual event.

Homework time: Identify at least three companies you can approach about your event. Map out what your pitch will be. Focus on the value they will get, and what you will leverage. When you do, email at kconstable29@gmail.com. For those that do the homework: I will be hosting a free session on what to do next to get your event going. It will be recorded if you can’t make it live. If you want help doing this, here’s your chance.

Marketing

Whether you get a sponsor or not, you still have to market your event. Look at your calendar; pick a date six months from now. Write the name of your one-day event on the calendar.

Six months should give you more than enough time to market, plan, and maximize your event. If you get a sponsor, you can use some of that money on Facebook (all social media ads really) ads. Since this event is where you live, it’s also worth it to take out an ad in your local paper. People still read those!

A few off the wall ideas are Craigslist and MeetUp. You can take out a free Craigslist ad-telling people about your event. To get their attention, offer a free door buster prize. It can be something small, but people love free.

MeetUp is a site where you can form groups. These groups are people from all over the world, and where you live. You can form a group related to your event. MeetUp’s algorithm will send the people who would be interested your way. You can have the event clearly scheduled as people join. Full disclosure: I haven’t personally tried this…. Yet! I do have a coaching client that is now using this strategy to fill up his events.

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This is the end of part two. Come back Friday for the last post in the series. We’ll take about how to leverage this for serious income.

Are you going to approach a company for a sponsorship? Are you going to do this in 2015?

How to Host Your Own Conference For Little or No Money- Part One

Aloha everyone! Can you believe we have less than two months left in 2014? As we end this year, now is the perfect time to start planning for 2015. My hope is that you’re planning to create freedom in every area of your life in 2015. I want to help.

For the rest of this year, I’ll be writing about some things to help you create that freedom. I’m going to give you everything that’s helped me lose 170 pounds, quit a job I hated, and move our family to Maui, Hawaii. Let’s start with how to host your own conference affordably or for FREE!

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In the paid speaking world there are three ways to make money. The first one is speaking at conferences. When we think of a “conference”, we think of an event like New Media Expo. However, these big events *usually* do not pay speakers. Because they’re so popular, many speakers gladly come and speak for free.

If you want to make money speaking at conferences, your best bet is to speak at the conferences of industry associations. These industries could be healthcare, lawyers, auto, and so on. Speaking for these associations doesn’t mean you have to talk about their industry. You can talk about topics to help their industry, and these are the topics they want to learn more about.

I used to live in Milwaukee; Wisconsin, which is next door to a huge speaking market, Chicago. I would regularly travel to Chicago to speak to healthcare professionals about how to better use social media, and I got paid a pretty penny to do it. Research the industry association meetings where you live, and send them a pitch. Those associations have plenty of money to pay you to speak. We’ll get into this later in the month.

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The second way to book paid speaking is consulting at companies. Since I have written a lot about this, I won’t talk about it here. You can see that series here.

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The third way to book paid speaking is what I want this series to be about, hosting your own event.

Why your own event?

Hosting your own conference is the ultimate goal of any speaker. You bring people to your event where you control everything. You have a chance to make money, and even more money, by selling your products and services.

First, reframe what you think of as a conference. When we say that word “conference” we think of some large event like New Media Expo. Instead, think of your conference as a one or multiple day training event.

In this one-day training, you will teach how to do what you do, or the process you use for what you do. You can even make this a multiple day event where you give them a wealth of actionable material. Since this is training, your goal should not be to get 500 people. You’re looking more in the 50 range. You want this to be intimate so people see the value, and you can control it the crowd.

The cost

First, find a place to have the event. My first one-day training was at a local hotel in Milwaukee. It cost me $95 to rent a conference room that came equipped with a pulpit, wireless microphone system, chairs, tables, and everything else I needed.

Search around where you live for a place to rent that’s affordable and central. You might even be able to negotiate the rate by bartering, or offering free advertising for that place. Check Craigslist or even put out your own ad. You’ll be surprised how cheaply you can find a place to use.

You have the choice whether or not to offer lunch at your event, if you do, increase the price. At my first event I had Cousins party subs and chips. For the one-day training I charged $97. The material taught attendees how to start an online business. It was from 9 am to 5 pm.

I got 10 people at the event. I grossed $970 and paid $257 for these expenses: food, room, flyers, Facebook ads, local paper ad, and juice. Got to have the juice. Right?

We will get to the free part in the next post, but even if you have to pay, this could be very cost-effective. If you hosted an event, and it cost you $200 in expenses, all you would need is three people and you’re profitable! Can you get three people? I’m very confident you can.

This will be the end of part one. Come back Tuesday and we’ll continue, and get to the free part…

What will you train on at your first event?

This week’s articles:

5 Reasons Why Online Entrepreneurs Need to Look Beyond the Numbers

Entrepreneur Magazine

4 Ways Guys Can Live a Happier Life

The Good Men Project

5 Ways Your Business Can Stand Out From Everyone Else

As we speak, there are 900 million websites, 250 million blogs, and 175,000 blogs being added everyday. To say there’s a lot of competition is an understatement.

Many people start a website in hopes of building an online business that supports their family. They work hard at this website with excitement for months. After not making traction, not getting many visitors, and not making any money, they quit in frustration.

As the months go on, they tell themself there’s too much competition. While this may be true, there are ways for your business to stand out from the crowd. There are ways to start small and build a business that supports your family.

It took three years, but at the end of 2012 I was able to celebrate my “freedom date.” It took three years, but if I knew back then, what I know now, it would have been a lot sooner.

As you’re reading this I want you to know that no matter where you’re at in the process, you can build a business that supports your family. It’s not going to be easy, but it is possible. Here are five ways you can stand out from all the competition.

1. Don’t take for granted what you know

The thing that I hear constantly, and what I know some reading this are thinking, is “why would anyone listen to me, plenty of people are already saying this.”

We live in a time when there’s a lot of information. However, you would be surprised by what people know. The topic that you think has been covered enough hasn’t. If you are in this online space then there’s a lot of things we all know and get tired of hearing. People that aren’t in this online space don’t know what we see everyday.

I’ll give you an example. Have you ever heard of John Maxwell? Probably everyone said yes. John Maxwell was trying to put on an event here in Maui, but the organizers shot it down because regular people here have no clue who he is. The same goes for any big online person you can name.

We know them, and are used to them, but the non-online world person has NO clue who these people are. If you said Brad Pitt, that’s a different story. You may know someone, your blogger friend might know something, but a majority of people don’t, and need you to teach them. You can still teach your topic to a HUGE audience that hasn’t heard it or hasn’t heard it in the way you teach it.

2. Your personality

Each of us is different and unique, and special in our own way. We have different styles and different ways of doing things. The problem is that too many people try to copy an A-Lister and end up looking like a clone. If you want to stand out, embrace what makes you who you are. People will respond to you, not the shadow of someone else.

3. Your experience

We all have experienced certain things in life. It’s very likely that’s the thing your business teaches. Share and teach from your experience, and from your perspective. It will be different than anyone else’s and you will stand out.

4. Your call to action

What you want someone to do when they visit your website can, and should be different than anyone else. There are some basic things we all want: people to sign up for our email list, buy our products, and so on. The way we tell them how to do that should be our own way.

5. Your motives

The world of Internet marketing would be a great place if everyone had good motives. We all know that not everyone does. If you come from a place of service, you will stand out. If your goal is helping first, not money, you will stand out. Approach this with the right motives because people can smell the wrong ones from miles away.

If you’ve been on this journey for a while without much progress, please don’t be discouraged. Your time is coming, and if you add value to people’s lives, you will reap the rewards. This week focus on how you can be different and stand out. Uses these five principles as a guide.

How do you do things differently? Be specific…

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Photo: Flickr/ Marina del Castell

Free coaching

Tomorrow starts a promotion my publisher is running on the digital version of my book. Why should you care? I will be giving away a free four-week class to anyone who buys the book during the promotion. The book will be $1.99 November 5th-8th.

If you buy the book, forward a copy of your receipt to kconstable29@gmail.com and you’ll get access to the free class. Here’s what the four-week class will include:

Your foundation- we will cover the basics like what your website needs to look like, where everything needs to go, the best way to set up your email list and autoresponders, your social media presence, the best content to produce to draw people in.
How to grow- once your foundation is set, I’ll show you the best way to build traffic, email subscribers, and your social media presence.
How to make money- it’s not all about the money, but this is a business. We will cover the best ways to make money, the kinds of products to create, and how to package this all together.
The transition how to transition from your day job to dream job. The practical steps you have to take to do this smart.

The free four-week class will start on November 13th at 6 pm CST/7 EST and run every Thursday (except Thanksgiving week). It WILL be recorded if you can’t make the live call, and I’ll send out the link after each class.

If you’ve ever wanted coaching, here’s your change to get it for $2! Also, can you help me promote this? I would really appreciate it

Get the book on Amazon Here.

Get the book on Barnes and Noble Here.

Copy and paste messages

Twitter

Get a FREE 4 week class that walks you thru creating a profitable online business when you buy this book (Nov 5-8) http://kimanziconstable.com/are-you-living-or-existing/

This best-selling book is only $1.99 Nov. 5-8 and comes with a #free 4 week class http://kimanziconstable.com/are-you-living-or-existing/ #amazon #kindle #onlinebusiness

Are you living or existing? A $1.99 promo that comes with a #free 4 week class http://kimanziconstable.com/are-you-living-or-existing/ #business #socialmedia

Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus

Get a free 4-week class that walks you through creating a profitable online business when you buy Kimanzi Constable’s best-selling book on November 5-8th. Reduced price of $1.99! Details here: http://kimanziconstable.com/are-you-living-or-existing/

Have you made the kind of progress you’ve wanted to make building your online business? If you get Kimanzi Constable’s book on November 5-8th for only $1.99, you’ll get a FREE 4-week class that WILL help you build. Don’t miss out: http://kimanziconstable.com/are-you-living-or-existing/

Get Kimanzi Constable’s best-selling book for only $1.99 on November 5-8thand you’ll get access to a free 4-week class that walks you through creating a super profitable online business. Check it out:http://kimanziconstable.com/are-you-living-or-existing/

Peace out,

Kimanzi

P.S. Tomorrow is the last day to register for Ripples to Waves. We will not be doing this class again until April of 2015. Details here.

5 Reasons to Stop Chasing Influencers

I originally wrote this article for Entrepreneur Magazine. I wanted to share it here because the message is super relevant to those building their dream. Jared Easley and I believe in the message so much, we just cowrote a book about. Details soon… 

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You probably heard, when you were starting out to build your business, what I call the “influencer shout out strategy.” You were told to try connecting with those at the top of your industry by sharing their content, commenting on their website, and emailing them.

You’re told you have to be persistent and add value to get them to connect with you. Your goal, of course, is to get a response, kindle a relationship, and introduce them to your business in the hopes they will promote it to their large audience.

This standard advice is actually a poor way to build your business and takes time from better strategies. Here’s why.

1. Too many people are trying to chase them with you

If you’re trying to connect with an influencer just to promote your business, they’ll see right through it. Influencers are smart entrepreneurs who can smell fake motives a mile away.

Beside yourself, there are countless people trying to connect with them just like you. Chris Gillebeau, the New York Times best-selling author of three books, told me in an interview that he receives 200 to 300 emails everyday. Chances are a good that many are from people trying to connect with him to promote themselves.

Your attempts to connect with an influencer will get lost in the crowd and chances are it won’t even be seen because they have protocols in place to keep the multitudes at bay. Persistence will only help you to come off as a stalker.

2. You likely won’t get the result you’re looking for

Influencers are busy entrepreneurs. If you get a response at all, it will probably be tailored politely but in a way to that doesn’t open room for another conversation. If you’re dream is to get that mention on their podcast, or that tweet promoting your business, it probably won’t happen.

3. It’s taking away your time and focus from what’s important

The best use of your time is spent getting new business by growing your email list, social media following, and website traffic. Instead of writing email-after-unanswered email to influencers, create content, products and services that wow existing and new customers.

4. Influencers are not the key to your success

What makes you successful is serving your customers and solving their biggest problems. Getting a shout out from someone at the top of your industry isn’t what makes you successful.

Your customers will talk about your business when you take care of them. What they say might get your heroes to notice you but your success doesn’t depend on anyone except your customers.

5. You can become an influencer yourself

We live in a pretty amazing time when the old-school gatekeepers can’t keep us from doing what we want to do in our business. That is what self-publishing has done for authors.

There are many ways to become an influencer yourself:

Build a huge social media following.
Write for an authority website like Entrepreneur, among many others.
Interview on radio shows, TV shows, and podcasts.
Serve an industry so well that you become the go-to person in it.

These are a better use of your time. Chasing influencers may have worked in the past, but it’s a played out strategy. Smart entrepreneurs always focus on innovating. They strive to be “square pegs in the round holes” as Steve Jobs said. What makes you stand out from everyone else, that’s doing the same thing, is being unique to yourself. Let chasing influencers be someone else’s strategy. Build your business differently.

Have you been frustrated trying to connect with an influencer? 

This week’s articles:

The 3 Types of Marketing Emails That Nobody Has Opened in Years

Entrepreneur Magazine

5 Signs You’re Living Life on Autopilot

Mind Body Green

The 7 Toughest Startup Lessons You Don’t Want to Learn the Hard Way

The Huffington Post

Who’s Looking Out for Today’s Blue-Collar Workingman?

The Good Men Project

Ripples to Waves

I’ve talked about this a bunch already but if you missed it, this is a four-week course that teaches you how to write for some of the largest websites in the world, and leverage that to make money in your business.

We had 22 students in the first class and over half have already gotten featured on large websites. Registration for the class closes November 5th and we won’t be offering this class again until mid 2015. Details here.

5 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Is Overrated

I originally wrote this for Entrepreneur Magazine, but wanted to repost it here because the message is important. A lot of folks got mad about this one, but I know those that read my blog will get it. This isn’t a post saying “never use social media.” My goal is to open your eyes to the fact that social media shouldn’t be your main marketing strategy. Enjoy…

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You’ve seen it right? You log onto Facebook to see what your friends are up to and you see the sponsored posts promising to teach you how your business can make seven-figures through social media marketing.

Everyday you’re bombarded with social media experts that have “made seven figures plus from social media.” You see the ads and you wonder if social media marketing is the missing piece of the puzzle to help your business grow?

First, I believe that social media can be a great way to get new leads for your business. You can’t deny the opportunity when you look and see the billions of users on the various social media platforms.

However, social media marketing isn’t what it used to be and the landscape is vastly changing. As tempting as those sponsored posts are there are some things you need to be aware of before deciding to invest your time and money in social media marketing. Especially as your main marketing effort for your business.

Social media marketing can help your business but don’t buy into the belief that it’s the most important part of your marketing efforts. Here are five reasons that show why social media marketing has become overrated. 

1. The organic reach is pretty close to zero.

If you look at the two largest social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter, you’ll see that the average life span of a tweet is 18 minutes according to the Moz Blog. Jeff Bullas, a leading social media expert, estimates the organic reach of Facebook is around 2.71% or less.

More and more we’re seeing social media move to a “pay to reach” model. Many social media companies are now public and have to generate profits for their shareholders. Getting your business to pay to reach your audience is how they do this.

 2.  Anyone can buy social media followers.

Most of us have probably gotten the tweets that promise thousands of Twitter followers for only $30. It’s the same thing with Facebook and most of the other social media platforms; you can buy followers to inflate your numbers.

There is a video that went viral from Veritasium questioning the value of a Facebook like. The video makes a strong argument that even paying Facebook itself to get more likes on your page is not worth the investment. The problem with buying followers is that you’re not marketing to real people.

 3.  People are tired of being sold to on social media

While most people realize that they will probably get sold to on social media there comes a point when it’s too much. They log onto social media to see what their niece just did and catch up with friends.

They want to watch funny videos and let friends know what’s going on in their life; they’re not logging on to constantly get sold too. If they have “liked” your Facebook fan page they have given you permission to tell them about what your business offers. If it’s your personal page, they’re not looking for a never-ending sales pitch.

 4.  Social media platforms are theirs, not yours.

New York Times best-selling author Crystal Paine shared the story of a major set back to her business with Michael Hyatt in an article titled “Don’t Build Your Social Media House on a rented Platform.

She had built a huge social media following and depended on it for traffic and new leads. One Facebook algorithm change plummeted her organic reach to about 1-3%.

You have to remember that if someone is following you on Facebook they are Facebook’s potential customer, not yours. Yes they’re following you, but Facebook has their name, email address, and controls what they see from you.

 5.  Email marketing still beats social media marketing any day of the week.

This is the main point that I hope you take away from this article. Email marketing is still the best way to reach your present and future customers. Social media provides a great and mostly “free” way to reach people but people still respond best to email.

In 2013 3.6 Billion people had email accounts according to Jeff Bullas and it’s estimated that by 2016 that number will increase to 4.3 billion people. While social media has huge numbers so does email.

Social media friends and followers come and are limited by what these platforms allow them to see. 100% of the people on your email list have the opportunity to see the emails you send out.

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At the end of the day you want to interact with people on your website and email list, not social medias. When you do, you have multiple opportunities to create customers and turn them into to life-long customers of your business. Don’t believe the hype. Always evaluate what’s right for your business.

What have been the most rewarding marketing efforts for your business?

What Will You Do With The Rest of This Year?

Here we are at the end of October. I hope you enjoyed and got value from the content this month. I really enjoy having you here, and all the feedback you give me. Thank you.

We only have a few months until the end of 2014. Can you believe it? I remember starting this year with big plans and dreams. I accomplished my two biggest goals: losing the rest of the weight, and moving to Maui.

There were, of course, many goals that I haven’t hit so far this year. There are goals I’ll continue to work on beyond this year. I’m sure it’s the same way for many people who are reading this.

This is normally a time of year when we look at the goals we set at the beginning of this year, and get depressed if we didn’t hit them. I’m here to tell you that it’s ok if you didn’t hit all of your goals.

If you’re reading this, you’re still alive (I laughed out loud at that), which means you still have an opportunity to do something about your goals. IT ISN’T OVER! Life is hard and chasing your dreams can be even harder.

The truth is you probably don’t even want to hear this right now. Who wants to hear some guy with a “ra ra” message when you’re probably upset? You have to listen though. Where you’re at right now is the make it or break it point where dreams are reaffirmed or laid to rest.

Adjust your time frame

If you aren’t even close to hitting your goals, adjust your time frame to start fresh and make today the beginning. The key in all of this is that you take action and continue to take action. When can you realistically hit your goal?

Set a new deadline. Break your goal down into bite size chucks. Take a step back and look at your plan also. Is there anything that kept you from hitting your goal?

If there are parts of your plan that don’t work, you know it’s time for a readjustment. Make the changes and get your plan all focused.

Don’t die with regret

The worst thing you can do is die with regret in your heart. If you have given up, get back on your dream-chasing journey. I realize it seems like it takes too much time, but that’s just in our minds.

You could be changing your whole life and that kind of change doesn’t happen overnight. Give it time, but more importantly, make sure you’re not turning your dream into a nightmare.

We have talked about some heavy stuff over the last few months. I’m excited to hear about how so many of you who have taken the information and ran with it. My goal here is to help as many people as possible make their dreams their reality.

Life is too short to live a miserable life. Four years ago I delivered bread and hated life. Today I’ve accomplished things that most people only dream of. Am I special? NO!

I’m just a guy who refused to accept what society told me about my life. My goal is to challenge the status quo and prove anyone can make their dream a reality. I pray you’ll see it too. Anything IS possible if you do something about it.

How has this year gone with your goals? What are you working on for the rest of this year?

P.S. Ripples to Waves class is a four week class that teaches you how to leverage your writing for greater reach, impact, and income. The students in the first class have landed articles on the largest websites in the world and grown their business. Early bird pricing ends October 29th. Details here

This weeks articles

5 Fundamentals Successful Entrepreneurs Build Into Their Strategy

Entrepreneur Magazine

Listen and Learn From These 13 Emerging Entrepreneurial Podcasters

The Huffington Post

How You Get Your Food: The Life of a Vendor 

The Good Men Project 

4 Creative Ways Guys Can Make Money

The Good Men Project

 

 

3 Keys to Selling Your Self-Published Book

Let’s face it; selling your self-published book is really hard. Every year there are 600,000 to one million books being published on Amazon. I wrote about this for Entrepreneur Magazine.

Most authors won’t sell more than 250 copies of their book. If you have self-published, you know it’s hard to sell books. There’s a ton of information out there about self-publishing, but a lot of it isn’t very helpful.

It may be hard, but it is possible. I had no audience in 2011, but through some hard work I was able to sell over 82,000 copies of my two self-published books. I did it, and I know that you can too.

I know how hard it is so today I want to let you know what will really help you sell your self-published book. As I always say, you have to test what works for you, but these are the tips helped me sell books.

1.  Create a killer product

It all starts with a good book. You can be the best marketer in the world but if your book isn’t good, it won’t be long before the bad reviews start piling up. Good writing can depend on the person, but there are some other things that create a killer book.

A good cover. People do judge a book by its cover and with 14 million books on Amazon, you need a cover that will stand out. Getting a good cover doesn’t cost as much as it used to. It can be as simple as putting a job for bid on 99 Designs. You will get a hundred covers submitted that you can choose from.
Good formatting. Again, hire a professional! Whether it’s hiring someone on Fiverr or using 52 Novels, the company that I used and recommend to my coaching clients. You will get negative reviews for bad formatting.
Get your book edited. This is the biggest regret most self-published authors have, they didn’t get their book edited. Yes, it costs money, but it will be worth it not to see negative reviews complaining about the grammar.
Your best work. A book is your legacy; your kids can be reading your book to your grandkids. Dig deeper when you’re writing. Create a professional looking book.

It will cost you some money to put a killer product together. If you don’t have the funds now, I would wait until you do. Too many people put books out there that aren’t ready. If you’re going to do this, you might as well do it right.

 2.  Create a killer marketing plan

This is easier said then done I know. Let me be perfectly honest with you. There is a lot of advice about how to self-publish well, but at the end of the day the only thing that sells books is growing your online presence.

It’s a number game. Let’s say you have an email list of 1,000 people and you convert 99% of them to buy your book. You will have sold 999 copies, but then what?

A good marketing plan not only sells books, it has funnels that are designed to keep selling books. There are a lot of aspects of a good marketing plan, but the most important is the launch of your book.

A book lives and dies by the marketing. To get the maximum exposure for your book, you should do a full-blown book launch. What does this mean? You should form a launch team of about 100 people.

These 100 people are bloggers and website owners that will help you promote the book during the launch week. Your goal is to get concentrated sales during a specific week to drive the book to best-seller statues and help it in Amazon’s algorithm rankings.

These 100 people will leave reviews for your book on Amazon and anywhere else your book is sold. They’ll promote your book on their social media pages, on their website and email list.

You walk away with 100 reviews, and your book being exposed to a greater network than you could have reached on your own. During this launch week, you should also offer a few freebies to entice people to buy your book. The freebies are what you will give your launch team as a thank you for their help promoting your book.

The former CEO of Thomas Nelson Books, Michael Hyatt, did a great job proving this strategy. I have also used it with tremendous results. After the launch, you should keep building your audience, which will help books continue to sell.

3. Create steady sales

This is the key to selling a self-published book. You’ll get a good push from the launch but then what? The goal is to sell your book without shoving it down people’s throat; it’s a delicate balance.

One thing you can do is self-publish more books. Every successful self-published author has more than one book. People really like series so if you can turn your first book into a series, you will get steady sales.

Another thing that really helps steady sales is getting exposure wherever you can. Do interviews. Write guest posts. You have to get featured in as many places as possible.

To this day I do as many interviews as possible and write for a ton of places. There is a ton of opportunity to get exposure online if you’re willing to do the research and find those places.

The message that I want you to take away from this post is to create a killer book. Get as much exposure as possible so that people know you have a book. As you build your audience continue to promote your book.

All it takes is a small devoted group of people who get behind your book. If you look at the successful self-published books, they started with that devoted following.

You can sell your books today and you can build the sales to where they can support your family.

What is and is not working selling your book?

4 Ways to Pushing Through the Frustration of Building a Business

The stats tell us that eight out of ten businesses fail according to Forbes. I don’t believe those stats for many reasons, but we all know owning and growing a business is hard work. Despite it seeming impossible at times, you can push through those frustrations.

In March of 2012 I was frustrated. I had a guest post for Michael Hyatt that brought 20,000 visitors to my blog and 6,000 email subscribers. I went from being unknown to having a decent size audience.

You would think this led to great income for my business, but it didn’t! I was selling my first book, and I thought with that bigger audience at least 5,000 of those people would buy that book. It didn’t happen.

I did get some book sales, but not enough to quit my day job, which was extremely frustrating. I hated that job and wanted to leave so bad, but the money just wasn’t there yet. I was frustrated!

I think most entrepreneurs reading this can relate. We want to grow our business to support our family, but it seems to take forever! The problem is that frustration could end up forcing you to quit. How do you push through that frustration?

1. Take a step back

The first month after guest posting for Michael Hyatt I had a ton of traffic. Even though people came, they didn’t buy. As I was getting frustrated, I had to take a step back, and remember why I started writing in the first place and it wasn’t money.

Why did you start your business? Taking that step back can give you some clarity and help you focus. Is there a lesson to be learned from the frustration you’re going through? We always have to learn, and especially during rough times. That’s when we learn some of the most important lessons.

 2.  Tweak your plan

If things aren’t going well there’s probably a reason. For me, I didn’t have a simple website, and I was too pushy selling the book. Those people didn’t know me yet, so there was no reason for them to buy from me.

I realized that I didn’t to tweak my plan to convert and make a little money. If you’re going through a frustrating time in your business, you may need to tweak some things. As you take a step back, see if any part of your business needs to be tweaked.

 3.  Leverage opportunities

Sometimes we’ve gone as far as we can go on our own. After I started to get a few book sales from guest posting, I took a step back and tweaked my plan.

I realized that I needed to leverage writing. I reached out to other larger blogs letting them know that I had written for Michael. It wasn’t long before I landed many more guest posts and my book sales started to increase.

Leverage opportunities in your business to help it grow, which will relieve some of that frustration. All you need is that first opportunity to open doors to many more. Don’t let your fear hold you back from reaching out for those larger opportunities. I’m writing for some of the largest websites in the world right now. It started with that first yes.

Leverage and innovate. If you need help with innovation in your business check out my what my friend Steve is up to.

 4.  Be flexible

I’m sure you know this, but not everything works out how we planned. There were many times when I experienced rejection building my online business. There were many times when my plan just didn’t work out. It will happen for you as well.

Being flexible helps you handle those set backs better. It helps you to explore other possible avenues you can go down. In the online world, you have to be flexible. Interviews get rescheduled or canceled; it can be the same way for guest posts.

Building a business is hard, but once it supports you, and gives you freedom, you’ll realize that it was worth all the frustration. Remember these principles and you’ll make it through them. Always remember why you do what you do and you’ll be ok.

Has there been a recent frustrating moment with your business?

This week’s articles:

The 7 Toughest Startup Lessons You Don’t Want to Learn the Hard Way

Entrepreneur Magazine

Before you read this article, I should warn you that it’s really raw. This is the hardest and most honest thing I’ve written. I lost friends over this article this week. It is specifically written as a wake up call to *some* men.

I totally understand if you unsubscribe because of this article but I had to share my truth. As a writer, you can’t fear putting yourself out there.

7 Things I Wish I Had Never Done to You

The Good Men Project

Watching the GMO Debate as a New Maui Resident

The Huffington Post

4 Ways to Deal With a Horrible Boss

The Good Men Project

How to Write Articles That Get Published on Large Websites (Replay)

On Saturday’s I send exclusive content out to my email list. I don’t share this content anywhere else. It’s a thank you for being an email subscriber. I wanted to give you a sample of that content. If you’re not signed up you might be missing out… Here is one example, your chance to get your questions answered. 

I have written a whole series about this topic, but since that series went live, there have been a lot of new people visiting the site. The number one question I’m asked these days is how to write for large websites. Here’s how.

 Aloha everyone! How are you? Did you enjoy last week’s exclusive content? Here’s some more exclusive as a thank you for being an email subscriber!

I had another great week. My first article for Entrepreneur Magazine went live which brought 30,000 visitors to this website. I was asked by Entrepreneur, and the Good Men Project to write once a week for them! *Since writing this, I have written eight articles for Entrepreneur and become an editor at the Good Men Project.*

Last week we talked about how to land articles on these large websites. This week I’m going to teach you how to write content that will get published. Here’s the process I used to land my initial set of articles.

Go to the website you want to write for and look at their most popular posts of all time. You may have an idea about what you want to write, but that doesn’t mean those websites want that idea, or that their audience will respond.

Looking at their most popular posts takes all the guesswork out of it. Those posts are popular for a reason, so why reinvent the wheel when you already have something that’s proven to work?

If you look through the popular posts on any large website something glaring sticks out, all the popular posts are “lists”  (numbered).

5 ways Steve Jobs distinguished his business
7 mindset tricks for a healthy life
10 facts that prove America is great  

The numbered posts are what people respond most to. Your posts should be number to get published on these large websites. An editor told me this is because people scan headlines and scan the main points of an article. When they see a list, they’re likely to click because they think the article will be a quick read.

Once you read through the popular posts a topic will jump out at you. Think about how you can tie that topic back to you, and your life.

Let’s say you have one. The next thing you do is come up with the headline. It should be numbered, and as catchy as possible. My next article for Entrepreneur magazine is called “5 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing is Overrated.” Did that catch your attention?

After the headline, work out the main points of the article. This will help you express your thoughts clearly and lead people to where you want to lead them.

Now that you have the headline, and main points worked out, its time to write. The first section of your article is used to paint the problem. Here’s how I did that for Mind Body Green.

As much as possible, you want to back up what you’re saying with research. Link to relevant articles that prove what you’re saying. If you can link back to their website, even better. Always give credit to your source. Did you see how I did that?

The main body of your articles is used to prove your main points. Again, use as much research as possible. The end of the article is used to bring it all home, and give people a strong call to action.

When you’re researching the popular posts take note of the length. I can tell you for the Huffington Post they want articles that are 800-1,000 words, for Entrepreneur it’s no more than 800, for the Good Men Project it’s 1,300 or less.

You should know upfront how many words you need to write for the particular website you’re shooting for. Find the website first, research what’s working, write the article, and then submit it to the editor.

Keep it simple in your email to the editor. If you have any questions hit reply to this email and ask away!



Have you landed an article on a large website?