288 Julie Broad Episode

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth. 

I'm your host Jeffrey Feldberg. 

This podcast is brought to you by Deep Wealth and the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience. 

When it comes to your business deep wealth, your exit or liquidity event is the most important financial decision of your life. 

But unfortunately, up to 90% of liquidity events fail. Think about all that time and your hard earned money wasted. 

Of the quote unquote "successful" liquidity events, most business owners leave 50% to over 100% of the deal value in the buyer's pocket and don't even know it. 

I should know. I said "no" to a seven-figure offer. And "yes" to mastering the art and the science of a liquidity event. [00:01:00] Two years later, I said "yes" to a different buyer with a nine figure deal. 

Are you thinking about an exit or liquidity event? 

Don't become a statistic and make the fatal mistake of believing the skills that built your business are the same ones to sell it. 

After all, how can you master something you've never done before? 

Let the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience and the 9-step roadmap of preparation help you capture the best deal instead of any deal. 

At the end of this episode, take a moment and hear from business owners like you, who went through the Deep Wealth Experience. 

Julie Broad is the founder of self-Publishing services firm Book Launchers, and an Amazon overall, number one best selling author.

Julie's titles include More Than Cash Flow, which topped Amazon, The New Brand You and her latest book, Self-Publish and Succeed. An 11 time award winner. An expert on writing a book with [00:02:00] marketing in mind. Julie has been featured in hundreds of media, including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Yahoo! Business, CTV, the Vancouver Sun and Medium.com. 

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and for all you listeners out there, I know you're looking for the edge in your business. You wanna grow your business, you wanna establish that social proof for your clients, and then when it comes time for your Exit or liquidity event for your future buyers and investors, , how can you do that?

How can you be different than everyone else? How can you cut out that noise and really, It. You're the IT person. Well, why don't you write a book? And I know you've heard that and you've probably joked with that, but today that is more of a reality than than ever. And by the time you finish this episode, I'm hoping the first thing that you do is you clear your schedule and you start that book because you're gonna have the tools and the resources that are gonna help you so,.

I'm gonna stop right there because we have a brilliant fellow business owner who saw a problem in the marketplace, was passion to solve it, and did exactly [00:03:00] that so,. Julie, welcome to the Default podcast. And you know what? There's always a story behind the story, so,. Julie, what's your story? What got you to where you are today?

Julie Broad: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, it's always funny when people ask me that cuz I was a real estate investor. I have an MBA in real estate and finance so,. It's always funny to say that I run a self-publishing book service. But it was real estate that got me it, to write my first book, and it was almost 10 years ago now built a platform, I was an investor and so,, I had an investment company and I had a training and education company and I had a YouTube channel that I was, using to grow my platform and build the business and some, you know, newsletter and other pieces. And in my platform people started to introduce me to different editors and one of the editors.

In contact with was one from Wiley and I got really excited cuz I knew a lot of real estate investors. I was in Canada at the time, I'm in Las Vegas now, or I knew a lot of Canadian investors who'd gotten book deals with this particular editor, so,. I was really excited. I told them about my book idea and.

They said, No [00:04:00] but then they said, You know what, we're interested in you so,. They gave me a book idea and we actually built the proposal together for over three months, which is very unusual. Usually you're doing the proposal looking for an agent, shopping around, then, maybe getting a contract at the end of it.

And so,, I just assumed I was getting a book deal. I just, you know, they gave me an idea. We worked on the proposal together, but at the end of this three months stint, An email that said the marketing department doesn't think I have a strong enough platform to sell books and so,, they flat out rejected me. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh, that's painful.

Julie Broad: It was really devastating. Also, cuz I had friends who got deals. And I didn't understand what they had, that I didn't, it was one of those really tough, I felt completely rejected in every way. First my idea and then me. But eventually I picked myself back up and I went back to my original idea.

And I just felt very strongly that book needed to be written, that it was going to help other investors. So,, I decided to self publish. And this is where I think the rejection was the [00:05:00] greatest gift. Cause I probably wouldn't have considered self-publishing without such a dramatic rejection.

And also I decided to do it better than if Wiley had done it and so, the combination ended up. Diving as deep as you possibly could into publishing and self-publishing and book marketing. And I ended up writing a book and self-publishing it and taking it to number one on Amazon so, ahead of Dan Brown, ahead of Game of Thrones, number one in print books.

And through that whole experience and the year or two after. I saw the potential for self-publishing, not having that gatekeeper but also the challenges of overseeing this massive project and doing it well. And I ran into a lot of people who were getting scanned and there was lots of issues and so, book launchers didn't, get born that day.

But the idea and the need in the marketplace for people that were doing it at the quality of traditional with the marketing focus of traditional that idea was planted. And eventually I started book launch.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. so, I love, and for our listeners out there, can't you relate to this so, Here we have a business [00:06:00] owner found that very painful problem, went through it herself and then said, Hey, you know what? If I can do this, if I can benefit from this, so, can other people and so,. Julie, before we move forward, let's pause for a moment and do a little bit of a state of a union.

What's going on out there in the landscape because you hear so, many things and it seems that everything is just changing. so, quickly. so, where we stand right now. During this recording of this episode. What's going on in the industry, in books in general, or getting a contract or self-publishing?

What are you seeing out there?

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean, the great news is you don't need a publisher. And I mean, you really haven't in a long time, but it's more so, now than ever before. And there was a stat, and I don't have the exact stat, but there was Penguin was trying to buy another publishing company and it just got turned down. And the stat was that.

Self-published books are like an entire publisher. One of those big five publishers. They equate the same size as one of those other publishers. kind of like the invisible publisher out there. And [00:07:00] so, self-published books can get everywhere that traditional books can. And readers don't care that a book is self-published.

If you do it at the level of quality and have the distribution that a traditional book does, readers aren't searching for the latest, random house release. You know, They're searching to solve a problem, especially in non-fiction so,. I think it's never been better and. With Spotify now they have audiobooks and audiobooks are growing rapidly.

There's massive opportunity too to step into the market with a great book and have it really help you and do it in a way that you have full control. You're making all the money and you get to keep all your rights.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so,. Julie, you're the social proof. You're eating what you bake because you've done it yourself. You self-publish. You became number one. I know when I'm just speaking to people who maybe they've been fortunate and they've got a book deal, like you said, or maybe they said, You know what? I'm just gonna go it on my own and do it.

One of the challenges that we hear a lot about, and you overcame this, maybe you can share the secret sauce on [00:08:00] this, is someone writes. However they do it, hopefully they'll be using you and we'll talk about that momentarily. But now that the book is out there, there's back to that noise, there's so, much noise, so,, many other books, and they're probably not really set up of how to market and get that out there.

so,, how did you take your book from just an idea to self-publishing to then being number one in his.

Julie Broad: One of the things a lot of people do is they write a book because they've been told they have such a powerful. They should write a book or they've got this great expertise, you should write a book, and they forget the book isn't for. The book is for the reader and so,. The more you position yourself to a very specific reader to solve a very specific problem, the easier marketing's going to be.

And a lot of books, even traditionally published books, don't do this well enough. They either think the publisher's gonna market it for them, or if you're doing it yourself, you think the story's amazing. It's gonna sell as soon as it gets. The reality is the more specific of a problem you could solve for the more specific [00:09:00] of a reader the better you're set up.

And my book was a good example of that. It was a real estate investing book. There's plenty of those out there already, but I was talking to that person who was scared and thinking about investing, or they'd already bought one or two and it wasn't going well. So, my audience, and specifically this was for Canadian investors too, so,.

It was a very small market, but it was a market that nobody had talked to. Everybody was telling 'em how to get rich. Nobody in real estate. Nobody was telling them, Hey, here's the practical, like life decisions you need to make so,, that you don't ruin your life by buying the wrong property. And I had some dramatic stories.

I owned a crack house, which I didn't intentionally own a crack house. It became a crack house. I had a property manager rob, rent money from me. I paid for a roof that never got repaired, Cause I was in a different province. I didn't. No, to get pictures before and after pictures to make sure I trusted people.

So, I had stories of how certain decisions can lead you down the wrong path, but nobody talked about those things. Again, it was a very small little piece of the pie, but realtors and mortgage [00:10:00] brokers were so, excited to have a practical book that wasn't about getting rich, that didn't have schemes. , and that's how my book went to number one, I had a network of people that I had built over, being in real estate for 10 or 11 years at that time. But they were really excited to have a practical book that they could give to their clients. And so,, a lot of them bought hundreds and hundreds of books for their clients to give away as gifts.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, what a terrific story. And talk about really, you zeroed in on a very specific issue on a market that was being overlooked, underserved, and you're only too happy to obviously educate them and really make a difference. so, some great advice. All you listeners out there who are thinking about doing something with a book, Julie gave some great examples of what you should be thinking about in terms of how to.

But Julie, let's talk about how to do it in the writing side of things now, because this is where the rubber hits the road. And I would suspect you can tell me that the failure rates are probably just people left to their own devices. It's probably not going to happen. Good intentions, [00:11:00] no outcome or wasted time.

so, with book launchers. Can you walk us through, I, walk up to book launchers or come to you online and say, Hey, I got this idea. Can you help me with that? What's your secret sauce? What's your system here?

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean, the first thing that I wanna understand is who is that reader? And if you tell me it's everybody, or even if you tell me it's women between the ages of 20 and 60, I get those kind of answers a lot. We have to hit pause before we're going to start working on a book because we really need to know who that reader is and as specific as possible.

And often it's not even demographics, right? Like I can't even tell. Who demographically was the audience of my, the book that did so, Well, because I suspect they were all over, in the demographic range. They're male, female, all ages, but what they shared was a common problem and they were seeking a common type of solution.

And so,, the more you can get into the head of that reader and underst. You know what's keeping them awake at night? What are their dreams? What are their hopes? That's where you want to hone in. And so,, that's where we have to start. The idea is one [00:12:00] thing, but it's more who's this reader and how do you wanna help them?

And then the idea can come out of that. And so,, that's where we start. We take an approach of starting to think about marketing rate from the beginning. so,, we, most of our clients will either work with a writing coach or a. And they'll also right away get a brand, an author brand and book position and call with our marketing team, because we're going to start talking and thinking about marketing right from the very beginning.

so, the, that's really what makes us very different than anybody else out in the market, is that we layer marketing in. To the entire process so, that when you launch your book, you already have a full marketing plan, but also your book is ready, it's positioned, it's got the, it's got the language that you need to appeal to your reader.

And that all starts in that writing phase. so,.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Julie so,. Much to unpack there for our listeners. Did your ears perk up? Julie, you said something that is really big with here with us here at Deep. Wealth, and you said, Hey, what keeps you up at night? And for us that we call that question an X-Factor. An X-Factor, that insanely increases the value of your [00:13:00] business.

Whereas business owners, we ask. Perspective clients and clients. Hey, what's keeping you up at night with your business? so,? The fact that's at the heart of your strategy is really reassuring to hear. And for all our listeners out there, one of my favorite questions is, how can you master something that you've never done before?

Of course you can't. You need the right team around you. You're not gonna have a liquidity event on your own. You're gonna get all the right. Why would you expect to write a book on your own? And Julie, what I'm hearing you say is, before Penn goes to paper, you have a whole marketing meeting and there's a team around the author, Okay, who's the target market, Why are the demographics, what's the marketing message gonna be?

And you're coming up with a whole plan before you even begin. Am I correcting that?

Julie Broad: Yeah, and I mean, we even have a download that, I'm happy to give you the link to give your listeners and it's seven steps to write a book that's set up to sell, and you don't start writing until step six. There's a lot of really important things and a lot of people will get inspired and start writing a book and that's usually where we get a book that I equate to, a house being built without a blueprint, [00:14:00] like nothing is in the right place.

The entire thing needs to be getted to put the wiring and the plumbing in the right. Spot so everything can actually work. And that's what it's often like if you don't have a plan so,, you know, our seven steps people can get@booklaunchers.com slash the number seven and then the word steps.

That's just a workbook to help you. And you'll see that you don't actually start writing until you've got the blueprint in place, so,, that you build a house or a book of this case that is set up to, achieve your goals and appeal to your reader. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: so,. Julie, what are you saying? That the ready, fire, aim, there's something wrong with that approach. We shouldn't be doing that. Is that what you're saying?

Julie Broad: Well, I mean, I am the quintessential entrepreneur, so,. I am used to doing that. you know, I leave, a trail of wreckage in behind me and I have wonderful people on my team who clean up after me. so,. In theory you can do that, and I can, we do take books at book concerts that have been drafted and will take them and put them in editing.

What I think people need to prepare the. For though is the fact that you have created wreckage in your trail, [00:15:00] which is fine, but don't expect your book to be launched in four or five months because we're probably gonna have to go back and rebuild a lot of things. so,. Yeah, I mean, I'm a action taker.

I'm not gonna tell somebody to not do that because I have done it

Jeffrey Feldberg: Uh Huh

Julie Broad: but I am gonna emotionally prepare you for the fact that there's a lot of work. If you do write a book without a plan the editing will be just as hard as the writing was, and you have to do it

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And speaking of mistakes, I know from my own experience some of my biggest lessons, my biggest insights come right off of my biggest failure, which ironically enough leads to a huge success. Painful process, not pleasant going through, but it seems that oftentimes that's needed so, when it comes to actually writing a book.

so,, you just shared. Okay, Hey, you know what? We have the seven step process. Step number six is only then that you begin to put the book together. When it comes time to putting the book together, let's talk about again, what not to do, because that's as important of [00:16:00] knowing what to do. so, for most business owners out there who are thinking, Yeah, you know what, Julie?

Yeah, sure. Great story. I'm sure you have a good company, but how complicated could this be? I got a great marketing team at the company. They'll market the book. I'm gonna write the book on my own, and you and I are both gonna be on the same page of hate. Don't waste your time. Don't waste your effort and your money.

Stop. But that said, why not do that? I mean, what would be the common mistakes? Is there one or two mistakes that you just see time and time again where it's in the waste basket and they're starting from scratch again?

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean there's lots, like one of the ones is that. When you do that, you do tend to write a book that isn't reader focused. It's more focused on your business or you, or, not the thing that's actually going to market the book. Your process, that piece and so,, that's really challenging on a marketing side.

And the other thing is, even though you have marketing people, I can tell you book marketing is very different than regular marketing. There are a lot of pieces. There's element. so,, if you've already got a platform, you've got that email newsletter you're speaking, those elements are going to be great for helping your book [00:17:00] marketing.

But there's editorial reviews, there's regular reviews there's good reads, there's BookBub, there's book sirens, there's all these places that are book specific net galley and you know, publisher, you know, I can go on and so,, There's all these things that. A traditional book has that if you want to be held to the same standard, you wanna do all those things, and chances are, your marketing team knows absolutely nothing about that.

The other thing we run into is people who have a graphics department, somebody who runs a marketing agency as an example, they're like, Oh, I'm good. I can write my team. Is amazing at design and they do a book cover and I like, have they done book covers before? Because there's an art and a science to a book cover, and only part of that is understanding design.

The other part is understanding the market, understanding the book categories and then also understanding what it looks like when it print. Because there's some funky things that happen. And so,, if somebody's not actually an experienced book designer, a lot of things can go wrong. And it actually can be a [00:18:00] book that doesn't fit in which you have to fit into a, degree in every category.

so,, you're trusted. You want it to stand out, but you also want it to fit in. And that's where a real professional experience, book cover designer knows what they're doing.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so,. Julie, what I'm hearing you say very succinctly is, Hey, you know what? There's standards, There's things that work. There's things that don't, absolutely don't do. Don't even go down that path. But if you don't know, you don't know. And without some kind of expertise, some help, like what you do all day, every day.

You're likely gonna be wasting your time, wasting your money. And so,, you've given us good reasons of why not to do it on our own. Why to go outside and get the help. And for your listeners out there, how many of you would have, as an example, a fitness trainer or a coach? Well, why do you think it'd be any different with really what could be a big project, like a book that when done right is an absolute game changer for you, for your business, for your future?

And so,, Julie, when we start working through your system, and we'll dial into the details, but [00:19:00] big picture-wise, really from start to finish, so,, from the first meeting that I have with you to when the book is now ready for a publication, timing-wise, what should I expect?

Julie Broad: If you're working with one of our writers, your book will probably be done in, you know, about a year. You'll be launched within a year maybe a little faster. If you're writing it yourself, it's probably going to be closer to 15 months. It's just a slower process. Chances are, you haven't written very many books before versus a professional writer who that's what they do.

The process breaks up into chunks. so, writing the book, getting that first draft down is, is. Phase one, for lack of a better way of explaining it. Then you move into editing and the first round of editing is a developmental edit, which is still writing. You know, It's that 30,000 foot view.

Look at your book, where's their opportunities? Where do you maybe not have your credibility? Where would the reader get bored? It's improving the writing. And then from there, it moves into standard editing, sentence structure, word choice, grammar cover, design, copy, those elements, so, that we call that production so,.

Everything involved in that [00:20:00] middle part is production. But you know, we're also doing market research. We're planning launched strategies. We're seeking endorsements and influencer support and those kind of things while that's happening. And then the final phase where people actually. Often aren't ready for the work that's ahead of them.

The hardest work is at the beginning and at the end. And the hardest work at the end is the marketing. Even when you work with a team like ours who pitches you to podcasts and live appearances and we're running ads and doing a lot of that heavy lifting for you, it's still not going to be a success solely based on what we do.

You have to be out there working your network, seeking opportunities, showing up prepared when you do get opportunities. Leveraging everything that happens. so,, while I say 12 to 15 months. I also would say that that's a dead baby at launch. If you are just thinking you're done, people call their books their book babies all the time and and so,, I always say yes and plan to raise that book baby for as long as you want it to do things for you.

So, after the book baby is born, please take care of it and spend time marketing [00:21:00] it. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So,, Julie, it sounds like the publication of the book. That's not the end. That's just the beginning In order to welcome success. Wow. Now you said something interesting and I'd love to find out more about this. You said that either a client can hire a writer and have the professional writer do the book, or on the flip side, the client can write the book so,.

What's going on with the writer? How does that process work? All this information is in my head as an example. How do I get that to a third party who now is gonna write a book and I presume it's gonna be in my name? How does all that.

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean, we don't typically call them ghost writers in the industry. They're typically called ghost writers. But on our team, we call it a writing assist, and that's largely because the content doesn't exist without our author. And so,, there's a variety of ways we will write the book. Some people are speakers and so,, they have a keynote, they have it written out, and the keynote can provide the foundation.

Some are podcasters. They have solo episodes that make for great content. What I've done with my book in the past [00:22:00] is I've taken video scripts and those become the outline for the chapter, and then a writer helped me polish them up. And so,, there's lots of different ways to approach it. If you don't have any of that, then what the writer does is talk to you.

And there can be a formal interview style, if that's your preference. For some authors, it's more of a fluid thing. The writer has an outline that you guys have created. And then you're just having conversations and the writers trying to explore, find those cool things and those cool tips and those cool steps.

Sometimes the stuff that the author doesn't even know is cool about them or a strategy, they haven't actually ever verbalized so,. There's a variety of ways, but none of it gets put on page without you. And so,, it's very much your voice at the end of this, and it's very much your book, even if you're not the one doing the typing on the keyboard.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so,, it sounds like someone who's terrific with the written word or storytelling, there's an option that person can do everything as required, or, Hey, you know what? I'm busy Writing was never my thing. Let me have a professional do it for me. And you have a system that just works. You get [00:23:00] that information and you begin to put that into the process.

And so, when going through that. Julie, how does it work in terms of your team? Because your team, they're the experts. You're doing this all day, every day. You're seeing what's working, what's not working. I get the sense that you're probably correct me if I'm off base. I don't think I am. You're probably refining your formula all the time.

Hey, we did this worked really well, but let's stop doing this because it's not doing as well as it used to. so,. What's that interaction like? You know, I'm plotting along doing the writing, or have a professional writer who's helping with that. How often are we meeting during that process?

Julie Broad: Every author is a little different. When it comes to working with a writing coach. I recommend people meet the coach every week. Now, whether they do or not, I can't force them to show up. Their meetings. But I do find that people who meet with their coach on a weekly basis just get into a rhythm and a cadence.

Even if they only write a couple hundred words some weeks, they've got that accountability, that support, and that cadence that gets the book done. And so,, that's a great approach. With the writers, [00:24:00] it's a little different because sometimes there's a lot of content already. so,, the writer would just meet with the author, three or four times, and then they'll actually do quite a bit of writing without the author.

They'll send it. They might get voice notes back, some of those things. Or if they do have to get the content from the writer, they are typically meeting every week or every other week at the minimum to get the content out. So,, it does vary, depends on the book, the complicated nature of it, all those things.

But I do find that regular cadence gets the book done in both cases, on a much more consistent and easier basis for everyone.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Julie, it's amazing that you say that because I think generally speaking, most people tend to overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what small actions, what small daily actions day over day, week over week, what they can add up to. But you're right, consistency absolutely wins the day.

so,, let me ask you this, in terms. Getting this book and having it all done and out there, so, Now your team has put together a marketing plan, [00:25:00] whether it's been a professional writer or the author, him or herself, who's put the whole manuscript together, and that's all now done and ready. Let's talk about distribution publication.

It seems to be changing by the day, but there's so, many more options now than there were even five years ago, 10 years ago. so, again, as we record this episode today, what's going on? In the world of self publication, what kind of options do we.

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean, as we already talked about, you have the same options that a traditional published book has. The big difference when you self-publish is that physical bookstore distribution takes an extra lift. And in some cases you may not even want it. Like I've had authors and I've even myself, had widespread physical bookstore distribution, and the big issue is, so,, you become responsible for those returns and you have to pay more when the book is returned than you were paid in the beginning.

so,, it's not just like a straight refund. There's a cost discrepancy that you have to cover and that stinks. And if you have, do a big. Launch, like I did with my first [00:26:00] book. I had a $1,200 return bill six months after I did a big, Yeah, it was a, it was shocking. I mean, thankfully I've made six figures from the book so, in the grand scheme of things.

It was a small check relative to the royalties that I had brought in from the book, but it still stung. And it was a surprise because, I didn't understand how it could cost so, much more for bookstores to return books that didn't. so,. All that said, I mean, a lot of people aren't even buying books in bookstores anymore.

so, for a lot of folks, it's not a factor, but you can get in airports, you can get everywhere. And distribution has never been easier. I mean, it's still a pain. And Amazon, my goodness, like the glitches and the challenges, especially lately we have people who. Their book is launching and suddenly Amazon's showing a delivery of four weeks away.

And you're used to overnight delivery with Amazon so,. There's been some funky and they've been raising prices. I mean, Amazon had some technical glitch where the prices were going up, and so,. You might upset your book price at 1999 and all of a sudden it's selling for [00:27:00] 2147 like some. And so,.

There's glitches and there's things like that you're gonna be closer to and more aware of when you self-publish. But you can be everywhere you have access. And like I said, the part that I'm really excited about is the continued growth in the audiobook market. There's not a huge back list that you're competing with in audiobooks, so,, you can stand out a lot easier than you can in an ebook market where there's, millions and millions coming out, every.

And again, like there's new players coming in, so,. It's not just Amazon in the future. I mean, right now, Audible in particular in in North America, audible dominates for audiobooks. But Spotify being in the market now, I think is a potential big player for people. And so,, I'm hopeful cause I don't like having all the power in Amazon's hands.

I really like having the ability to be diversified and have. Other options for everyone. so,. I think it's a really exciting time. Also, ai. there's lots of AI coming that I think has the potential to reduce costs [00:28:00] and help authors and, book covers. There's some really cool innovations in the AI space coming for book cover design and also with audiobook narration.

I mean, right now an AI narrated book can't be published on Audible, but that's going to change cuz the AI so,. Is so, good? You can't actually tell what was a human narration versus a robot narration and that will reduce costs so, much on audiobooks cuz it's a very expensive piece of the book puzzle to produce well.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Julie, talk to us about that. You've begun to really expand in the other areas where you are. It's not just whether it be physical books or e-books. You mentioned audio books. I know you also take a book and you can put it into an online course, which is a whole other repurposing that could take on really a business on its own so,, back to audiobooks for just a.

so,, the manuscript is done. Book is getting on out there. What does your company do to help me get an audio book out there? Am I reading it? Do you have professional narrators that are reading it? How does that work?

Julie Broad: My [00:29:00] recommendation is that the author read it. In nonfiction, I find that especially cuz you tell personal stories, it can be jarring to a reader who knows your voice, either from podcasting or speaking, to have them listen to you. To not you tell your stories but also having your voice in someone's head is very powerful for trust building.

And, a lot of people want to use their book as that stepping stone to thought leadership or brand building or business building. so,. We'll voice coach, You, we have somebody on our team who will do some voice coaching. We'll source a studio for you or help you set up a home studio.

A lot of podcasters have most of the equipment. It's just some tweaks to it to make it audiobook ready.

And so,, we'll do both of those things and then edit, produce, master and distribute, set it up for distribution for you. So, it's pretty easy, but I do recommend you narrate it if you can.

Of course we have clients that, we've had somebody who was blind so,. He did not narrate his own book. And then we've also had somebody, that was dyslexic. We've had dyslexic people actually narrate their book. But one person was. I'm not gonna be the one to narrate this book and so,, there's reasons to not, but I [00:30:00] highly recommend you give it a try if you're interested.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. And Julie, let me ask you this, because at least from my point of view, when I'm looking at a book, I just see so, much value add for a business as an example. It's a great way of getting credibility, establishing. Yourself as really the thought leader, the golden child in the industry, getting new business.

But when I also think about a book, and I may be completely off base, I may be out to lunch on this, I don't look at publishing a book as, Okay, I'm gonna retire off of that. I'm gonna get a six figure or seven figure check from writing this book. It's gonna be, you know, a number one best seller worldwide.

I'm gonna sell a gazillion copies. Am I off base in anything that I've said? What's your experience? What are you.

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean, the majority of our clients are not, definitely not retiring. I mean, even my first book, having done well, I still generate money from that book, but like we're talking three, $400 a month from that. I mean, I'm not retiring off of one book, but the cool part is the book [00:31:00] in the hands of the right person can actually end up I've talked to people who've sold a business.

Their book gets in somebody and somebody reads it. This is what my company needs, and then they go and acquire that business. I've also met people who suddenly have a whole new consulting arm in their business as a result of the methodology they've put in their books. The book is the gateway to a lot of things.

And also you were touching on something else that I think is important for people to recognize, which is the book itself is only one format of how you can actually take that content and put it into even more profitable forms of content, like an online course, like a talk that you know, one of your chapters can be a keynote that you get paid $10,000 to give.

And so,, there's lots of other areas that. Now that it's really you've spent a lot of time thinking it through and putting it in a format that people are going to enjoy consuming. It can be content marketing for your business, but it can also be paid things like workbooks. A lot of our clients turn their book into a workbook that gets sold separately.

They turn the content into that online course. Like I [00:32:00] said, a talk so,, there's lots of other formats and uses of that one piece of content that you put a lot of time and effort into.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh, terrific. And let me ask you, on the marketing side, you mentioned that, just to circle back for that I work with you, I get the book done, in addition to helping me get the book or the audio book or the course, whatever it's gonna be, the content, out there and published. Do you then pick up the baton and also help to market with that?

Is that services that you're offering your clients as well?

Julie Broad: Yeah. And that was one of the big reasons I started the company is because in the early, like when I was doing this myself, I would hire an editor. The editor's not thinking about marketing. Even my cover designer wasn't, And then my PR person that I hired had nothing to do with it and so, some of the things that she was saying I was like, Well, that's not what my book's about.

Well, it should have been, And so,, those pieces to me all needed to be under one roof and the team that's out there marketing, they're involved early because they have insights that nobody else has because they're the ones that are out there pitching and somebody's saying, Hey, I wanna get speaking gigs.

And my team's [00:33:00] going, Well, the corporate market that you're appealing to doesn't wanna talk to, doesn't wanna talk about this right now. They wanna talk about this so,, maybe a chapter in your book that touches on that. You. we can align somebody's goals much easier. And then we're also accountable because we've been guiding you through this and your book's out there in the world now.

And so,, you can work with us. And we're also set up monthly, by the way, so,, you can work with us forever, . And that's what we love. Because once your book is out, if we're getting you results on the marketing, We can market your book, month after month. And a lot of our clients, we have a nice chunk of clients that have been with us almost since we launched.

They've rolled into second or third books, or some of them are still, we have two that were still marketing their first book. . You start to run outta places, so,, you go back to the old places and you're like, Hey, you wanna to this person again? But it's fun cuz we get this long term relationship and then we get to always be testing and seeing what's working in the market and apply that to the books early in conception.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so,. Not to oversimplify, but to simplify it sounds like it could almost be once the book [00:34:00] is done set it and forget it. Okay. Julian team, here's the book. Work Your Magic on the marketing side. Let's ensure that hopefully we're getting back more money than what we're spending and. Tell me all about it afterwards, and I'm gonna go back, do whatever it is that I'm doing that my life is focused on.

You're doing what you do in your world and everyone is happy. Am I more or less on base with that?

Julie Broad: Sort of, because I think the big thing is that we're not, usually, the marketing that we do doesn't often sell enough books to be like a set it and forget. But what we do is get the opportunities for an author that our savvy authors turn into conference speaking engagements, or they turn it into consulting or new clients or, you know, those kind of things.

So, they still have to be very active in order to get. A really strong ROI from it. I think we actually only have one client who we're essentially just running ads for his book now. And he does really well. His book just performs incredibly well off of ads, but that's rare, with hundreds of books under our belt, ads don't sell the books over time.

Well enough [00:35:00] for the majority of our clients, there's active participation from the author to really leverage the opportunities that we are able to get as a result of their book.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so,. Really, Julie then, and again, thank you for your transparency. What it really sounds like is, okay, look, this book. It's a door opener, it's a means to a bigger end that you wouldn't have otherwise. It's not necessarily in and of itself, it may be, but chances are it probably won't be in and of itself enough that's going to write the check and cover all the marketing costs.

But with the right team, with the right approach, we can open up doors and do things that you couldn't otherwise. And that's really coming through loud and clear, and I suspect with my next question. You could say, Well, Jeffrey really depends on, the author and the book and what they want to do.

Every book is different. Every situation is different, but ballpark wise, dollars and cents. I can imagine the listeners are saying, Okay, I got it. It takes maybe a year to 15 months from start to finish to get everything done and get whatever's gonna be an audio book, a book, a online [00:36:00] course out there and published.

Ballpark. Dollar wise, what do you think we're looking at to do?

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean it does depend on if in, in our model anyways, if you work with a writing coach versus write it yourself. And then we have another level that's a lot more hands off for that, busy professional that's just I don't have time, but I really wanna get the book done. so,. We'll do a lot of it, a lot more of it for you.

so,. does depend, but, our range is somewhere between 20 to $50,000 to get the book written, edited, designed, the whole launch strategy, and then get it to launch. And then after that, how much you wanna invest in marketing. The book afterwards is, would be the add-on from there, but that's for us.

You can do it cheaper. If you bear down, not do all the things that we do, we do fact check gigs. Some of the books have indexes. You can pair that down and not spend as much if you go and try and hire all the pieces yourself, but then you're the project manager. You have to be communicating that marketing vision.

You have to know what you probably don't know in order to make sure that you're not, falling into some of the common traps along the way.

Jeffrey Feldberg: As four listeners [00:37:00] out there, if what Julie was saying perhaps seemed higher than what you thought, let's put in a different perspective. It really isn't If you were to hire an employee as an example, full-time or part-time, and this is all that they're gonna be doing, that's all that they're working on.

Well, what do you think that's gonna cost you by the time you factor in the hiring, maybe you're paying some kind of benefits are gonna be part of the team. Then the training that goes along with that. And they probably don't know the industry like Julie and the team knows, and I would imagine, Julie, at least from a business perspective, one new sale, one new opportunity.

There's your roi, and then everything else. It's really a bonus on that. Would I be on base with.

Julie Broad: Yeah. I love the analogy of an employee too, because one of our authors, I just did an interview that will go on our book, launchers.tv our YouTube channel. And she actually said one of the tips she has for authors to look at the book and think about if this was an employee I'm hiring.

What would I want their role to be? Do I want it to be, sales lead gen [00:38:00] training? Like what's their role in the company? And that's how she looked at her book, so,. I thought that was really cool that you just said that, cuz I hadn't actually thought or heard of that approach before. I mean, this is something that's gonna last for a long time.

I didn't sell my business. I licensed off the courses from my training and education company and I sold the website in the YouTube channel. My book is mine. The links in that book go to the website and so, there, like whoever owns that website forever, will be benefiting from the fact that this book still sells.

And that has value. I mean, that was part of value of selling that website, which would, equate to a business value too. You There's leads and sales that are coming from this book for a long time. And so,, if that's its role in your company. You're paying them once and then you're getting a benefit for a lot of years, which you can't say for an employee.

You have to keep 

paying them. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Really it's a lifetime of benefits. I mean, imagine meeting a prospective client or you're walking to a room full of your colleagues or your peers. Oh, hey, by the way, here's a commentary copy of my book. We'd love for you to have it. I mean, [00:39:00] talk about just. Standing out and Julie, I don't know about you.

There's always something special about a book, and the title author, whether you're handing out a physical book or it's an e-book, the fact that you have it, most people don't. And something I don't know. I think some social programming in society we hold the a near and dear place for authors that are out there of just summit respect and admiration.

Oh, this person must really be a subject matter expert. They must really be special. For them to have a book. And you're right. You know what? For years to come, You have that book, regardless of what the marketing does today or tomorrow or next month, that book is always gonna be a keepsake. And I would say even part of your legacy in terms of what you're gonna be leaving behind with the business, or if you're moving on to a different chapter like you were sharing.

What a way to really put something out there, so,. Big picture wise, Julie, you've covered really from start to finish. We're gonna help you market. We're gonna help you come up with a plan. We can help you write it. You can write it. Once that's done, we can repurpose it to an audiobook [00:40:00] or to an online training course, or an online course, and all these wonderful variations that come with that.

Are there any questions when it comes to the creation and marketing and publication of a book that I haven't asked that you think the listeners should know?

Julie Broad: We even covered the ROI pieces. I mean I think that the one thing to recognize we touched on but there is this element that people think once my book is out there, it's going to sell. And it really doesn't like my first book More than Cash, the one that went to number one, It does sell.

But I would almost guarantee that there's an element of it of people that, they hear about my story cuz. In real estate promoting real estate at all. But they hear about my story and they get curious and they go and buy my first book. I'm sure there's some elements of it that are still, you know, people still refer to it and still talk about it.

so,, it does have a small amount of sales as a result of massive momentum in its first couple of years. But generally speaking, that's not normal. And so,, you really have to plan to be doing exactly what you've. And I think those little things, they take a lot of time. That would be the other [00:41:00] thing for people to recognize is it's not book launches.

My life's amazing, right? Even when my book went to number one, I joked to people that I thought Oprah would call, or Ellen would have me dance with her. Cuz I this big accomplishment. But, none of that happened. Six months, eight months after the book came out, my phone started ringing with people saying, Hey, I've got money to invest.

Can I invest it in your real estate? I'm interested. And the first time this happened, I thought it was a scam. I'm not even joking. Somebody called and they're like, I have two $50,000. I live near where you guys do some of your investing. I'm curious if I can, And I was is this like a cruise? Hey, I'm, you just want a free cruise.

That's really what I thought. And so,, but that's six to eight months. That didn't happen instantly cuz people need time to read your book or hear about it from somebody. And, it's one of those things that's more of a slow burn than I think a lot of people recognize and they give up on their book too soon.

So,, that would be another piece to really think about. And if I have time for one quick story. Do I have time for one story of an author?

Jeffrey Feldberg: absolutely.

Julie Broad: Okay. One of my favorite stories is Robert Bell, who wrote a book called Blow Your Lid Off, or Blow the Lid [00:42:00] Off. So,, he's an accountant who wrote about creativity.

And he was really diligent about every month doing marketing, get one podcast and he would supplement what we were doing with his own initiatives, you know, reaching out to people. And I think it was about a year after his book came out, he was on a podcast and somebody just hey have you heard about Ted Global Ideas and they're looking for speakers and you might be a good fit for this. And so, just that, that kind of spark and the fact that he'd been doing all these conversations where he'd heard people lean into one little aspect of his book.

He pitched the TED Global, I. Ideas talk idea based on all of that. And he got it. And his video has been viewed like 2.5 million times. He's won all kinds of awards now. But again, it was like his book did not ever rocket to the top of any list. It was just a steady. I'm gonna keep trying to find something and then it really hit so,.

I always like to share that so, people know that you just keep going and, you know, we've had other authors, two years after the book comes out, get a documentary, cause it just hits, you know, it lands on the right desk. so,, keep [00:43:00] going and know that you've created this really great product that's going to serve you for years to come.

If you nurture it and take.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What a great story. And actually, Julie, you read my mind because one of my questions was, Hey, you know, do you have a story of a client that you can share of how they had this idea, Maybe they didn't know where to start, what to do, but book launchers, save the day, and got them out there. And you shared Robert's story.

Is there another story that comes to mind that you can share with us?

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean, one other story, a lot of our stuff is confidential. But one of the stories that I know I can share was Michael b Brenner came to us with a manuscript that he was just about ready to. Pitch in the bin. He'd given it to some people and they'd said, this isn't good.

You should toss this. And so,, he brought it to us and said It's probably not good, but is there something here? And it was all about empathy and empathy in the workplace. And it was actually really cool because he'd had, I don't remember the exact numbers, but like 42 different jobs.

And what he kept seeing was people thought they had to be mean to get results from their. And he believed that empathy was actually the answer. [00:44:00] But it was who's gonna buy a book on empathy? Like the people who really need it are not gonna buy it. And so,. We read it and we looked at it and we were like, Actually this is really cool.

It just needs repackaging and so,. We worked with him to come up with the idea of mean people suck and so,, that's the title of his book, Mean People Suck. How? Empathy I think empathy leads to bigger rewards or bigger profits and a better life, I think is his subtitle. But it was essentially the same book inside.

It's still the empathy formula. It was just repackaged, selling it as mean. People suck. And he was on TV always wearing, He had a green lime green cover and a lime green shirt that he wore on the news stations that he was on. And I even read a book the other day on becoming a speaker.

And his book was featured inside of that book. I was like, Oh, this is amazing. so,. Yeah, it was really cool. But it was one of those moments where, people had told him the book was bad, but it really wasn't a bad book. It just needed a better hook.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And when you're sharing that story, it actually had me think of something else. And for a listener out there who's saying, Hey Julia, I love your story. I wish I would've known about you [00:45:00] five years ago. I'll pick a number. Three years ago, two years ago, I did a book. You know what? It's just collecting dust.

It's not doing so, well. Someone in that position, They've already written the book. They have the manuscript, maybe they even self-published. Can they take that to you for a bit of a revamp and just like you did with the mean people suck a different title, different cover, maybe update some of the content.

Is that something that's available as well?

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean, what we typically don't do is somebody's book's been out for two years. They bring it to us and they say, Go market.

We don't typically, we'll, go, Yeah, sure we can revive this dead thing. But, what we can do is exactly what you've described, which is, okay, what's great about this book?

How can we make that shine? And sometimes that's revising the content. Sometimes it's changing the title, the cover, the positioning of the book. But taking that, what's really great about that book? Relaunching it as a new book or a revised edition. And going through the whole process again.

Just like we would with the new book, but it'll probably be a lot faster cuz a lot of it's done. And then launching it and giving it the [00:46:00] splash and the attention that it gives, it momentum that you can build from after that. so,. Yeah, we definitely have done that and we'll do that.

But yeah, reviving a dead book. It's not that easy. without doing other things to it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so,. What I'm hearing is that, yes, there is a second kick at the can, but there needs to be some revision, some updates, maybe a different way of looking at things and it is possible.

Julie Broad: Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna do that. I wrote a second book called The New Brand You and the title was a big problem because I was pregnant, so,. I did a lot of podcast interviews and almost nothing else with that book. But the podcasters all called it the brand New You. And when you search the brand New you, there's a book by Dory Clark that comes up, not my book, so,.

I probably sold some books for Dory and didn't sell very many for myself, . but the book itself like, I love the book. It's got really great content. People who read it love it. And I think I can just reposition it as branding for authors and just put a slightly different hook. and make it with a very specific audience and a new title.

And it'll be similar content so,. If you've read the new brand, you don't buy the book that's gonna come out in a year and a on branding[00:47:00] Cause it'll be, I so, it. But yeah, and I think that will be good of how you book Ande it and of it a new life.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And for listeners in the show notes, for all of Julie's books, so, three books, current and any future ones, it'll be a point and click. We have the link there already. You just click on it and off you go. Well, you know, Julie, we could just continue. We can go down all these different rabbit holes with your stories and your insights and learn so, much.

but I'll ask. It's time to start wrapping things up and let's do a fun thought experiment. You and I, and here's what I'd like you to think about. If you remember the movie Back to the Future. In the movie, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. so,. Julie, here's where the fun begins.

so,, imagine now it's tomorrow morning. You look outside your window and what do you see? Well, it's the DeLorean car, but it's not only sitting there. The door is open and it's waiting for you to hop on in so,. You hop in and you can now go to any point in your life. Julia's a young. Teenager, whatever point in time it would be.

[00:48:00] What would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom or, Hey Julie, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Julie Broad: Oh. It's funny because as much as a lot of things have been really hard you know, kind of the good old entrepreneurial, let's charge and go. Figure something out. That's what's put me where I am today. so,, I don't think I would wanna change too much, although to be completely, I would probably go tell myself to not start my business in California. don't, have 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh, sounds like a so,. Behind the so, on that one. . Maybe another episode. 

Julie Broad: Yeah. I mean, I was a Canadian coming into the States and I didn't realize that every state was like its own little. World and 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Uhhuh 

Julie Broad: Anyways I was in for some harsh lessons in the state of California on how you have to operate businesses and the taxations and the costs and all that joy so,.

Yeah, so,. If there was one thing I would go, yes, go to the States, you're gonna love it. And go to any state by California

Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, it looks like you got your PhD from the School of [00:49:00] Hard Knocks on that one. And words so, the wise, but I also like your other piece of advice. Hey. Some of my so, called mistakes are blenders. That's what got me to where I am today. so,. I wouldn't wanna change that. And Julie, what's interesting, you're in really good company.

If there's one theme that I hear, a common theme on that answer, it's that love who I am, love where I am, wouldn't wanna change a thing, so,, Let's just leave it as is and let things roll as they are. And I think that's some terrific advice that you're sharing for the audience.

Julie Broad: Yeah. Thank.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So, before we wrap this up, Julie, for our listeners that want to reach you online, they wanna learn more, maybe even begin the process of exploring, Hey, I'm gonna write a book and Julie and her team are gonna help me with that.

Where's the best place that they can reach you?

Julie Broad: Yeah, the, actually the resource we shared already, https://booklaunchers.com/7steps that does two things that gets you started that also gets you my email. so, when you download that, you get a reply email with the download so, you can then hit reply and ask me questions and connect.

And I also encourage people to check out my YouTube channel book launchers.tv. [00:50:00] I put a lot of heart and passion and, information into those videos. And there's more than 400 on writing, publishing, and marketing 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow.

Love that. And we're gonna have all that in the show notes. It cannot get any easier for our listeners. It's point and click. It's all there will have everything in there. Well, listen, Julie, this is an official rap for the episode, A heartfelt thank you for your insights, your wisdom, your transparency for all of it, we're walking away so, much better than we did when we walked in.

And as we like to say here at Deep Wealth, please continue to say healthy and safe.

Julie Broad: Thank you. 

Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me. 

Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions. 

Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity 

Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some [00:51:00] respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix. 

Kam H.: I 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately. 

Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended. 

Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies [00:52:00] before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even. 

Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

Kam H.: I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.

Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and [00:53:00] forever. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table? 

Please visit www.deepwealth.com/success to learn more.

 If you're not on my email list, you'll want to be. Sign up at www.deepwealth.com/podcast. And if you enjoyed this episode, if it added value, if you walked away with some new insights and strategies, please leave a review on your favorite podcast channel. Reviews help us reach new listeners, grow the show. And continue to create content that you'll enjoy and as we wrap up this episode as always please stay healthy and safe.