From Concept to Bestseller: Establish Credibility & Expertise With Your Book | RMT230

If yes hey, this is Laurel and welcome back to laurels real money talks a podcast where we talk about just that. Ways to Make Money ways to be a millionaire. So there's four components to being a millionaire, which is how to make money, how to keep it through better tax planning structures, really activating the tax code. How do you invest and most people invest either in stock market real estate, they don't know there's about 100 other alternatives they can buy into? And then how do you integrate a team? So in those topics, I bring guests that are remarkable, and I have with me today, Joshua, actually, I'm gonna get that on there. The editors, how do I say your last name properly?

Like sec lysyk.

I was gonna say I was close. Okay. I have Joshua lysyk. With me who is a ghost writer. And you know, there's very few when I find a ghost writer, that's their price tag for a big best seller. Book is right at 100 grand. So I just want to acknowledge you straight out of the gate, well done on your pricing, because I paid mine 100 times five books. So but look what she's under this brand and helped me doing it. So different people have different ways to go straight. And we're going to talk to Joshua and interview him how ghostwriting for those of you who are writers out there, I love when people say, Well, I'm an artist, I'm a writer, the arts, you know, can't make as much money. It's like, oh, no, I know writers that are multi multi millionaires, and they do it well. So we're going to talk to Josh to Joshua about how he's done it and how he's created his ladder of success. So he's a number one international and Wall Street best seller, obviously writes books, ghost writer has written and ghost written, oh, my gosh, look at this, over 80 books since 2011. That's not too long. And a lot of books, everything from metabolic health, to internet marketing, to political tell, also, I love those, I'd have to get some links to those Joshua, current events reporting and has been translated into several languages. After multiple novels being published with independent publishing houses, he turned his talent to helping others achieve their real goals and their literary goals. So how many of you out there, right? Really want to write a book or my favorite to Joshua's I've been working, I've been working on a book for years versus ever just getting him done and knocking him out. So he's a leading expert on author voice authenticity, I love his brand is the best way to say it. Because there's so many ways that you get to it. So I want to just jump straight into it. We'll put this full bio up on the description below, because it's quite lengthy and quite stunning, and could teach you and a lot of you get to get these books out. And I've never done a book alone without a ghost writer, and editor, somebody who actually makes all of my words look like this. And that is their job. So Joshua, welcome to Ask Laurel.

Laurel, I'm pleased to be with you today. Thank you.

Well, I'm excited that you're here you have over 2700 students worldwide. I mean, why does someone you know, who wants to write a book work with a ghost writer, and talk about how common that is. And I'm actually going to lead in a low direction, because I have so many clients who were working on creating millionaires or you know, creating a bigger business for them. And unfortunately, they're being they're stuck in writer's block, because they don't have a you on their team. So let's talk about how common it is and why I think it's essential. Actually, I'll just lead right into how critical I think you are to people.

I appreciate that. Yes, writer's block, of course exists, but ghost writer's block does not. And the reason it doesn't is the very reason that someone hires a ghostwriter in the first place. So the metaphor that I found that works, the best to explain this, is that unless you are a bonafide tax professional tax expert, tax accountant, you're probably not literally filling out every single line of your taxes yourself. If you're working on an invention, you're probably not completing that patent application yourself unless you're actually a patent expert. So you probably working with a patent attorney to help you draw it up properly. Unless you are already an accomplished, published best selling author, you probably don't want to write your book yourself. So the same reason that you consult with a tax professional with the patent attorney is the same reason that you work with a professional book ghostwriter. It's just what they do. They know what works, what doesn't work, why it doesn't work, and also what the trends are. So often, someone has an idea for a book, but they just don't know what they don't know. And they'll begin writing it not realizing it, that 100 books on that exact topic. 10 of them with the precise same title have already been released. And so there's no real way for the book to break out beyond that initial space, because you just don't know the industry. So the industry insider Insights is the number one reason why someone works with a professional ghostwriter. better, that way they can reshape their ideas and massage their ideas into something that's commercially viable.

So I want you to dig in there, because that is something that again, my you know, you're the only two, I have so many people who are here as clients as writers, and just haven't, you know, put that big price tag on, and I know what it's worth. So I've, I've spent that kind of money over, you know, six figures for a book. But that trend and the industry specificity. You know, my writer was from Goldman Sachs. I mean, Columbia. I mean, just, I mean, she worked in Wall Street. So she knew how, you know, like you said, the industry trends and what the market was really needing speak to that. I don't know that other people that I need them to hear that loudly.

Yes. So the very first step of my process, and probably with many other ghost riders is market research. Why is market research important? Because you want to be sure that your product does something your book in this case, does something that is not currently being done sufficiently by by existing solutions in the market. So you've probably heard your audience probably heard the expression product market fit. Yep. And someone will create their product, in this case, a book, and then they'll try to go find the market for it. This is of course, what publishers do, where they try to say, Oh, my, this book is for everyone. It's for students. It's for teachers. It's for parents, it's for entrepreneurs. It's for self employed, it's for nine to fivers. It's for literally anyone and everyone. Why do they market books this way, publishers and authors alike, because they do not know who it's for. They just hope they're gonna find a niche. Like it's that's for everyone kind of the way that the book atomic habits originally found its market in the CrossFit space. But it was a book that was billed as being for everyone. Not every book is as fortunate as that to be around long enough, with enough budget behind it, to find the way. So when I tell authors is to start not with the product, AKA your book idea, but with the market, who is it for? How does it fit into your funnel, onto your value ladder? What solutions are people looking for? Currently, I don't even ask people, What does your book do that no book has done previously? And they will say, Well, I have no idea because I don't know what those books are. And that, of course, is the starting point of why they hire me is to perform market research, to analyze and then recommend based on the analysis, what the book must and must not include. Some authors don't like that, by the way, because it turns out the book idea does not merit. So existence.

Yep, I totally agree. So what's it like, in your experience made for me, Caroline was my writer for my big, you know, big bestsellers, and she would fly out, especially in the beginning getting to know me, I mean, we spent almost 90 days just immersed in, you know, this formula of how to create millionaires. And then she helped lay it out very eloquently, which became the book, and I gave all the content and the details, how is your process? Do you go? Do you go meet with them? Like, we started like that, you know, she flew in from New York, and we spent a bunch of time and then we just would be on zooms every week, and just continue, I had the content, but she would lay it, like you said into what you know, she knew that the market was going to need. So how do you work with them and give some examples?

Yes, so I've flown out to around the country and other parts of the world, even to spend days, even a couple of weeks with someone. And usually the larger their profile, the more time you have to spend with them upfront, because there are already so many expectations around their personal brand. And this is significant for authors who have a high profile, but haven't done a book before. And the book must be an accurate reflection of what they are currently known for. But usually public figures want to do a book to go in a slightly different direction. They either want to alter their direction, let's say to adjust the vector, the direction of their brand and what else they can be talking about. They might want to incorporate other industries or focus only on one exclusive industry. But the so the book has to have this delicate balancing act of making sure that it's sufficiently covering the expectations of what we're going to be talking about. It's a first book, you know, your audience is going to be your word of mouth marketers for your book launch. So you want to make sure they're happy with it. But at the same time, you need something new, something deeper, something original, something that's frankly, more exciting than what the previous stuff has been. Because what happens if you just have repurposed content that you know is the greatest hits with your audience, then your audience will offer a lackluster or response to the book, because they already know this stuff. They've already bought it in high priced courses or in coaching or consulting or whatever your business model is. And so the book is just a 20 buck version of all of your content that already exists. So repurposing too much content that already exists is unwise. Plus, it could also cannibalize for sales, consulting, sales, coaching, sales, other things that are a real problem, because book sales go up, core sales go down, but of course, was 1500 and the books $15. You know, a problem.

Yeah. So what are you seeing right now in this market that sells books, you know, and I keep using my, my audience has been with me for quite a while. So, you know, I think they know like this one hit, you know, that we were personal finance book of the year, we were the business book of the year. This one was a heavy lift, and we had to put an NF T with Joshua, just to make a book this thick, which is almost 300 pages attractive to most of an audience who wants to, you know, do audio and Kindle, not this. So what are you seeing that actually helps these moves? Because these are what count, you know, as a as they go through the big bestseller lists?

So are you talking about the audio versus hardcover versus digital versus the softcover?

Do you both do more just the trend in the industry. And just like so the trend of what you're seeing or the the magnitude of sales are having, you know, because with McGraw Hill, they'd only launch the hardback for now. So hopefully, as we go into this year, we'll be two years out by June that we can at least release a paperback so at least we have another option. But those I mean, it was interesting because our audio flew off the shelves and the hardbacks didn't. So that's why we had to partner with an NFT. And we had to do a whole utility. And I mean, it was it was a heavy lift to get bestseller status on this last run because the markets so different. So I think it's both Joshua talked about the mode, like the the different modalities of it, but also why and what you can do to it and to encourage more sales.

What we're Yes, so when when I work with an author on, let's say, teasing their book to their audience, the number one most common question, and this is going back at least five years now, number one most common question is, will there be an audio book? Number one most common question. And that's because the reading environment has changed. 100 years ago, even 50 years ago, when people were reading a book, they were literally just reading a book. Now, if I'm reading a book, I'm also got my phone probably nearby. If a notification buzzes on, I'm immediately pulled out of the reading experience. And I've got that to take care of. A lot of people will also particularly business people, read books on airplanes, when even in business class or above. It's not the ideal comfort space to do your reading with no distractions whatsoever, and the beverage carts coming along and you're hoping that they they you heard somebody say that they are out of something and you're hoping it's not the the sugar packets that they're out of because love to put that and just your black coffee, and you're hoping they don't forget to all this is happening while you're trying to read your book. Right, or your audiobook. And then thinking about the audiobook, because even more distractions, people are vacuuming, and taking care of their cat food or they're playing with their children while we're listening to the audiobook, the young children or they're on the treadmill, where they're running and walking the dog do all these myriad activities, while also trying to read a book. So this also means that writing at a lower language tier is essential for the modern reader reader, even the sophisticated consumer having easy to read, easy to digest regular callbacks, and, and reminders to what's to come so that readers can remember get the memory jogged in the middle of things where they're at. Remember that thing we talked about in that previous chapter. Wait, oh, yeah, I do you remember that. Now that's important again, because of this. So the regular in text references throughout the book. That's just one little technique that appeals to and helps the reader get everything they can out of all that's already in there. Because of the because of the change. Now you also asked about boosting one type of book sale over another when I launched my book. So good. They call you a fake last June. We did giveaways for if you bought five copies, you would receive this special bonuses. If you bought 10 copies, you would receive this many amazing bonuses. And we moved about 1000 doing just that from my most eager people who were like Oh, heck yeah, I wanted to jump in on that. So you don't have to sell a lot of books to sell a lot of books, you see. So we found that bonus strategy worked quite well. And then of course, when the audio book comes out, people who've already bought the Kindle and the hardcover, maybe even the softcover two, they bought five soft covers. They didn't go and buy the audio book. Whenever I post about my book, not just my author, but meet for my own stuff. People will say, I've already got the Kindle and the audio picking up the softcover today. So this experience where people are buying multiple versions of the same book that they love, that is a another, let's say green light, to authors to just keep running your book. Just keep promoting it. Because the people who've already bought one version of it, they haven't bought every edition yet every version of it. Yeah, this there's so many creative and fun ways to promote a book. But authorship is most profitable for businesses, and business owners and entrepreneurs who understand the value ladder concept, where you bring someone from buying a $15 audio book, to your $150 masterclass to the $1,500 flagship course or the $15,000. You see how this works, right? The ascension model that's essential for getting the most out of maximizing the opportunities created by marketing your book.

So back to your original point, because I broke my entire series, like my goal, right is to make people millionaires. So from here, what's the next thing was the next thing that was the next thing so value? Ascension ladders are what a lot of people call we also call them funnels, where you can build your revenue model around those funnels. A question a lot of authors ask, and then I want to move from sales back to the actual writing of the book is to your point on bonuses, like we're still giving bonuses at $1,500 for people who go to our website to get this because I need to move these hardbacks versus Amazon who's like half the price right now. So talk about the bonuses because I find a lot of people writing or launching that probably maybe already written about book Joshua, but their launch strategies like not good, because they don't want to give too much away. So speak a little bit to kind of the bonuses and what's attractive, and what you've seen. And that really works.

Yes, so what is not ideal for a book bonus is to give away something with five copies order to 10 copies orders are so on, that your super fans have already purchased. Because if you superfans have already purchased it, then they'd be the ones who are most likely to get those 10 copies. But if they've already purchased the thing, that's the freebie, I'll just get one copy, maybe the maybe the Kindle when it comes out, right. So what we did was we picked one of our products that it's not the least sales of all of our a dozen or so in the best way to say it system. But one of the ones that's kind of like the the most, the most niche product. And we took every bit of that. And we broke that out into a list of all the things that you get, you know, the thing about the laundry list persuasion, 15 bullet points, you get this and this and this, and this, and this, and this all the way down. And it's this immense, amazing value, but it's at no extra cost. And you order this many as many copies, right. And so even superfans who had bought 10 of our other courses, there were still a reason for them to participate in the sale. Yeah, this there are some there are now of course, there were some people who had already purchased these existing products. But even the vast majority of our existing customers hadn't done that. So we wanted to give them something new, exciting that they hadn't already purchased. So one thing to consider is, do you have retired or less promoted products or offers or programs available? One thing many authors have done, this is what I recommended. Our mutual Dr. Phillip of ADEA do what he did with his book launch is a free live exclusive not recorded. So no recording available, you have to show up live q&a, like Aska ask a doctor, an MD A MA for his book launch. And that was enough to incentivize people to wants to be invited to that participate in that. And it could even be if you'd like ordered 10 copies or would ask your purchase confirmation from wherever you're, you know, if it's a third party retail site or if it's from your own site, obviously, then you would know then you'll receive an invitation to that live exclusive q&a with me $1 value of this amount because that that little technique works assigning $1 value to it. And of course it's only this much to purchase to gain access to that dollar value incentivizing as many copies upfront is critical. But also understanding that 18 months is the amount of time you ought to give yourself as an author to promote your book. Merciless self promotion is the best way to sell books, merciless, and

pre sales, you got to pre sell me one of the first things even if I have an author who doesn't know the name of the book, like I did my title, The Millionaire maker was not the title that was not the working until the end. And then McGraw Hill did a focus group with Barnes and Noble and a whole bunch of their readers. And the readers came up with the millionaire maker. I mean, I would have never I mean, there wasn't even on our radar to call ourselves that. So don't you see, don't you find, you know, also, or just see a lot of as well, I was gonna say, authors who get so attached to like, the graphic, the color or the name, that they they're not doing the focus groups, they're not doing the pre sales, they're not getting, like you said from the beginning of our interview, they're not getting the market research. Like I scream that from the rooftops, if, like, don't do anything unless someone's paying you. And if the books not moving, then I'll do a survey that's got one strategy, right? I'm gonna write a book about kids, what do you want me to write about? I said, I go find what the market wants. I just don't like write what I think they need, even though I know what they need. They're not going to read it unless you give them what they want. How do you how do you implore that on your new authors as you're working with them, Joshua? Because I would think I know how much I shouldn't say struggle it is. But it's such a shocking, different way to come to market versus build it and they'll come No, ask them and then they'll buy it. And then they'll come.

Yes, we believe in market product fit, not product market fit. And of course, an author gets that they understand it. But then what happens? Well, I don't want to do that. That's, that's too hard. Where do I start? I don't know. So that's step one. And my process of working with an author is we go and find that out, and then come back and tell you. And then we can refine the book idea and build the structure in the outline and whatnot. We'll start with interviews or talk to me about your life story, or then we can spend two weeks with you. We start with, well, okay, you want to write a book, you have a hypothesis? It's not this is my book. No, we don't we don't do that. Those types of authors. I'll I'll send to someone else that I would I would prefer to work with. Yep. So you are? Yes, go ahead.

I was gonna say what's changing in the industry as far as aspiring authors, I mean, we've talked a little bit about just the modality having to have audio having to, you know, give them the bonuses. But what else? Are you seeing that changing the landscape? I think as we both know, and I we've got, you know, people from all over the world, I mean, Amazon changed the book industry, I mean, drastically changed it. So what other industry changes and trends do we can look forward to coming soon?

Yes, there's a sort of a barbell effect, a sort of a hollowing out of the middle. This also, of course, is happening in other spaces. And even largely in the economy in that class, it was a sort of a hollowing out of the of the middle class economy. This is also happening with let's say, the mid level success, the medium intermediate success of authors were rather there's now a stacking up at both ends of the hyper successful and the hyper unsuccessful, were consider book deals that are being offered by both the mid size and the large publishers. They're either $120,000 to $3,000 $459,000, for your book, or six grand, three grand 2500 bucks for your book deal a year advance against royalties. We're seeing that phenomenon. We're also seeing the phenomenon of independent authors, like myself, like some of the people that I that we work with, so I don't have the largest audience in the world. But I'm a few copies shy from 5000 copies sold of my book, in less than a year, Dr. Of ADEA, sold more than 40,000 copies of his book, he's an independent author, most independent authors are maybe 250 copies, 200 copies, it's unfortunate, but many are even fewer than that fewer than 100, just a few dozen. So we're seeing that stacking up at the both ends, a lot of people selling way fewer books than they hoped that they would. And then other people selling way more without selling or perhaps exceeding expectations, that that is a trend that we're we're seeing.

So I mean, we know the obvious, what are some reasons you would tell people to write a book? I mean, obviously, we've talked about the essential ladder. I call it you know, your book is your brains on paper, your expertise on paper, it gives people a roadmap to start knowing you. What do you say about why they need one? I mean, even if it's just a simple little ebook, I think it's essential for people to get going.

I pose this question to my social media followers. I said, Imagine you're seeing a panel of experts being interviewed on this panel. And you find that one of the people on the panel has a Harvard education, Harvard degree. And the other person is a best selling author on the topic being discussed. Who has greater credibility expertise?

The best selling author, correct?

The universal answer, oh, they realize this, that is a shortcut to why you write a book. Because it's known that having an Ivy League education is not just a resume enhancer, it's a resume Crusher against a lot of other resumes, particularly in the in the corporate world. And that is what we find in the competitive space. In business, when you are the author of a best selling book that is actually good. This is key, you can't just have a book, a book is a business card. What do you do with a business card? Well, you throw those away. This has to be something that's made with care, it must have industry standard quality, down to the way the citations are formatted in the footer. So it has to be a real book, whether it's traditionally published, works independently published, but that is your masterpiece. It is your legacy imprint. It is your Bible, so to speak of your expertise. And it's also in an increasingly digital world, a tangible demonstration of your expertise, your credibility, and most of all your authority. And like one of my clients said, wanting to work with me, she said, she's an attorney. She said, Joshua, I may be an expert, but I'm not the authority because they don't have a book.

That's actually a good statement. I like that. That's really good. I like that. Tell me about your favorite book. Obviously, you've wrote some of your own you're your own best selling author, talk about your book? Is it how to help people find a ghostwriter or how to write, talk about what you do.

So it's a little bit of everything. My so my my book, it's a riff on one that many of the viewers and listeners will have heard of before. So my book is called. So good, they call you a fake. This might harken back to the Cal Newport book from over 10 years ago called so good. They Can't Ignore You, which is a Steve Martin quote, that book, the idea is that if you are good at what you do, you'll get noticed build it and they will come in a less competitive landscape 10 plus years ago, coming out of a recession into a bit of a boom, that was the case, we have reached a new equilibrium now in which it is not to be good, is to be just like everyone else who claims to be good. We live in a world in which the people who are the better marketers than the service providers are the ones who are winning, not the people who are the better service providers with superior customer service and support and actual results. If they under optimized for marketing, then they don't get noticed. They struggle. Meanwhile, the scammers and Grifters are the ones who are eating the whole pie. So this idea that one must become so good they call you a fake is based on the reality that in our day and age, haters are your most valuable marketers. They're the ones who are saying, Look at this clown over here saying that they're that this good and got these results. There's no way obviously lying Come, come, look, look. And now you have a little PR movement that you can jujitsu into good press. I've done this with my with my own stuff, people will hear about the number of books that I've written over the years and they'll say, you're in your 30s There's no way you've been able to accomplish that. Look at this liar over here. Obviously, the numbers are photoshopped. And then there's little tweets and posts will go viral, calling me out being a liar. And then what happens is people come to me and say, Wow, you actually read that many books. Can I talk to you about helping me write mine? And that was someone who found me from the hater. bringing me bringing it back here. Haters are your most valuable marketers. And so the idea is that you must elevate your own standards of excellence so high that envious competitors look up at you and say, Well, I can't imagine possibly guaranteeing results or delivering results that near miraculous so they can't either obviously that's fake. So the book yes does talk about how to write books and design courses and create coaching programs. But most importantly, it is about designing your system through genius documenting your expertise in your no cow into a repeatable process that delivers those best in class results that are so good that competitors say you're a fake.

I love that. I love that. I know you have a gift for our audience is going to go to those of you out there. We'll put in the description in the show. notes@squirrel.com forward slash ghost writing So Joshua, tell us what we're gonna get.

I haven't did not have a conversation with Steve, I'm afraid I'm not ready to talk about that. Okay, so is this a completely new to me?

Will it be? Well, so when you deliver, like just as an opt in, I would send me that's what I do I say go to high school.com. And ask me a question. So just like a free opt in, so you can

go, Oh, yes, I do have a free opt in. So but it will be

the free app, you won't be on this link. So you'll talk to Steve and put it so just describe what it is now. Just to describe the gift you're gonna give our audience?

Yes. So the free gift is perfect for this conversation on the idea of doing books. It's called the Golden Book idea. Workshop. So a free workshop, you'll get to take a will walk you through the process of not product market fit, but the proper market product fit. So how do you come up with a a book idea that's serving an underserved market of people who want to buy your book. So the best books to write are the ones that you know, are going to sell in the first place. And that's what the free gift, the Golden Book idea, workshop is going to help you do.

I love that. And I appreciate that. And all of you make sure you click on that link and show up to the workshop and start your book if you don't have one. And if you do, here's what I also say to those of you who have one. And don't think you have another one in here, the more you give your content is what my entire life experience has been more content is gonna get delivered, there'll be another book or there'll be another thing that emerges. I just find so many people, you know, I only have one book in me, it's like now one book is going to inspire another and another and another for those of you who, you know, have have a lot to say I have a lot to say. So Joshua, I appreciate you being out here and look forward to having you in our community and back supporting some of our other authors. Dr. Phil, as we mentioned before, Joshua did his book. And he's also a private client of mine. And he has amazing books called step by operating table and his heart surgeon. So great title, by the way, if you helped him with that, that was brilliantly done.

Yeah, he was real fun to work with.

Yeah, it was great to have you today. And I look forward to staying in touch any social and then again, if you want to get in touch with Joshua, go through our link https://askloral.com/ghostwriting/ and grab a ticket to an invitation to his workshop. might even go to I think it's kind of fun. I love watching other people watch other books because I all of our clients need it. So thank you for being here today.

My pleasure. Loral, thank you.

The rest of you. We'll be back next Friday with another guest another topic on how you can make money, keep it or invest in take care. Have an amazing day.