Book Publisher Nancy Erickson Reveals How To Write A High Impact Book To Unleash Your Business Success (#239)

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

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Nancy Erickson, the book professor coaches business professionals to become authors of high impact non-fiction books that will establish them as experts in their field, Increase their credibility, help attract the following and expand their business. When the book is finished, you can take each chapter and repurpose it to create other revenue producing products that includes seminars, workshops, online [00:02:00] training, podcasts, and online courses.

Nancy is the owner of two book-related businesses, the book Professor and Stone Book Publishing. An award-winning non-fiction publishing house. In 2022, Nancy was named a Top 10 book Coach in the US by the Coach Federation. 

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and for all you founders, entrepreneurs, business owners out there, do you have your book? Do you have a book published? Do you have a book in the works? Are you thinking about it? I know so many business owners, they wanna get a book out there. Maybe it's for their legacy.

Maybe it becomes a lead magnet for their business. Perhaps it's social proof. Perhaps it can help take the book to the next level or the business to the next level. Or both, but where do you start? What do you do? What does that look like? Because I know for many business owners I don't have time, or it sounds complicated, or how am I ever gonna do this?

Well Stop your search. We have all your answers today with our guest. You heard it in the official introduction. It'll be that much and more. So let me pause it right [00:03:00] there. Nancy, Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, an absolute pleasure to have you with us. And as the saying goes, Nancy, there's always a story behind the story.

So, Nancy, what's your story? What got you to where you are today?

Nancy Erickson: Oh gosh. It's nice that you ask that because there is a backstory. So when I started my career, I was in high tech. I worked for IBM as a systems engineer, an Oracle corporation, and then about 2006, my father was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. And so we knew that he would only have about seven months to live, which was pretty textbook. And so I quit everything. I went to Florida where my folks were living and helped them through that time. And my mom a little bit after my dad passed away. And then when I came back home, I was like, oh, what am I gonna do now? And rather than feeling panicked about it, Jeffrey, I felt like the whole world is open to me. I can do whatever I want now. And I [00:04:00] was in a financial position that I really was fortunate. I had kids early and they were smart and shaved years off of their school years, but they were both out of college at this time. And so, I really felt like I could explore anything I wanted.

And what I always had wanted to be was a writer. So I thought, I'm gonna take some writing classes and what I ended up going back to school and got a master's of fine arts in writing and then I was asked to join the faculty to teach when I graduated, it's helpful to do that when you're an older student, you know? and I love that. And so at the same time, I started my nonfiction publishing house, Stonebrook Publishing, and what I really wanted to do, the real impetus behind that is, the state of our world. It's like we have so many problems in our world and It's really hard to even name the [00:05:00] problems, much less solve them.

But what I firmly believe is that the answers are trapped inside of people like you and your listeners, and that when you simply tell your story, what you've been through, what you've overcome, what you've developed, what you've gleaned, what you've invented, whatever, then you become the source of two things that people can't live without, and those two things are hope and help.

And so, I started the Nonfiction publishing house. We had a couple really great hits out the shoot. So the first book we published, was written by a Holocaust survivor who'd gone to school with Anne Frank. And so we ended up doing the book release at their school in Amsterdam and I was pinching myself.

What am I doing here in Amsterdam? This is our first book. And anyway, it was incredible. They had this huge ceremony at their school to commemorate the [00:06:00] 170 students who had been murdered by the Nazis. And then we went across the street to the bookstore and did the book release. I assume the ceremony was wonderful.

It was all in Dutch, so I didn't understand it, but it was very moving for the people. I could see how they were reacting to it and such. And then the next book we published, we got back cover endorsements from Sir Paul McCartney and Cindy Crawford. And so I was like, woo-hoo. I must know what I'm doing here.

And that felt really good. But there was a problem, most of the manuscripts that we were receiving for publication, had a seed of that thing that we wanna do. Maybe it was a business book. And what you know, a business book should do for you is it should establish you as an expert in your field. It should increase your credibility and help attract a following.

But the problem was they were so poorly written that we couldn't do anything with it. We couldn't edit our way out [00:07:00] of these manuscripts. So I took a step back because I felt like, remember here, we're here to solve problems, to give people hope and help. And I felt this person has the seed of that in this but why should it be that they really don't know how to write or how to construct a professional book product, prevent them from being able to get their message out into the world where it can do its work.

So I took a step back. I didn't publish anything for a year. And during that time I wrote this step by step process that takes you from simply having an idea all the way to the end game, to having your professional book product on Amazon distributed worldwide and in the hands of other readers.

So what started out as a high tech career ended up into book. Writing and publishing. Jeffrey, nothing is ever wasted in life. Because I work with [00:08:00] so many business professionals, I have such a deep business background. My job was in large software sales to the C-Suite and Fortune 100 companies.

I love it that I understand our clients' business issues and what they're trying to solve and what they're trying to do for their clientele.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, Nancy, there is so much there that you've shared and a lot of wisdom and insights. And firstly, thank you just for being so open. My condolences for that very humble start that you had with the passing of your father and how that really changed the trajectory of your life. But perhaps that's a silver lining from a challenging situation. You and your mother, your family went through, but here you are today, perhaps even as a testament of, hey, you know, it wasn't for not. And so let me ask you this, Nancy, because you've been out there now, you've helped countless new authors get their voice heard, helping them pay it forward, helping them to make a difference.

Let's talk about what's not happening, what not to do, and then we'll [00:09:00] talk about the track of success and what you're doing and why that works. So for people, we'll call them up and coming authors, they're not really authors just yet. They have this idea of whatever that is for their business, for themself, for their legacy, for their story, regardless of who they are, where they are, what that looks like.

Why do most people's idea for a book it never gets past that idea stage. It just stays with them and they have nothing to show for it. Where are we going wrong? And perhaps we can direct it to the business owners, which is our community, as you know, and people that you serve as well.

So, as, business owners, where are we missing it? Where are we failing?

Nancy Erickson: Well, you're not going wrong cause that's not it. Most people have thought about writing a book, but here's the issue. They don't know how to get started. They don't know what to do with it. When you have ideas that you think you can turn into a book, it's like all this stuff is rattling around in your head and you don't know how to organize it or how to present it in a targeted format so that others can absorb your message. [00:10:00] And how would you know how to do that? You've never done it before, so if things kind of die on the vine in the idea stage, it's usually because people didn't know what the next step would be.

So when we start with our authors, and I love it when you just have an idea, you don't have to have anything written.

We take you through a series of foundational questions that helps you to crystallize your message. And there are questions like, why are you even doing this? What's your motivation? Who specifically is your audience? And how will that audience be changed as a result of taking in your message?

And so there's 12 of these questions and we end up taking the answers. And distilling them down into a purpose statement for your book that says, the purpose of this book is to do this particular thing for this specific [00:11:00] audience, and that way you know who you're gonna be writing to and how you're going to instruct them.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so going along that line, so you've come up with the system you have your secret sauce, your magic formula that helps someone take it from an idea to a manuscript, to a draft, and eventually to a published book in a fairly short time manner. So Nancy, I know I've had the benefit and you've educated me offline.

We've had some conversations of what that looks like and where that can go, but perhaps we can put the landscape out there for our listeners. And so I'm gonna give the absolute two extremes and we'd love to hear where you fit in and obviously you've drunk your own Kool-Aid, why your way is the best way.

So at the one extreme, and we've heard a lot about this, technology has really caught up that anybody today, without using any service, they can just write something and they can do a self-publishing book, put it out there and have it across some of the major sites. We don't have to name names. We all know who they are, and it's [00:12:00] done.

And now congratulations. You're an author, I suppose. At the other extreme, you have the good fortune of signing up with an official publisher, some of the big names that are out there. They've been around for ages, and you have that panache that goes with that and a little bit of that. Okay. I'm with an official real publisher at the other extreme.

So those are the two extremes. What's going on, Nancy, with your particular solution as the book professor? I mean, what are you doing and why is it the better way? What would you want us to know?

Nancy Erickson: Let's talk first about those two extremes that you mentioned. So the self-publishing route, you can just write something and you can submit it to Amazon and they turn it Into a book. That is true. But remember what I said earlier, your book should do three things for you. It should establish you as an expert.

It should increase your credibility and it should help you attract a following. It is only going to do those things if it's well done. [00:13:00] And so what we find in a lot of self-publishing efforts is, number one, it's a lot of effort to write a book. So hats off to you if you've done that, but where things start to break down as in the professionalism of the product.

You must have a great editor. Nothing that you write and nothing that I write can go out without having another set of very accomplished eyes on the work and just polishing it up. So often self people who self-publish, they don't have an editor or they have an editor who is like, oh, well my wife majored in English in college.

I'm talking about a professional book editor. Then the other thing, cuz it all starts with the writing and the other thing is that. There are a lot of conventions in publishing. It's a very old industry and I guarantee you, you do not know what they are and people often give me their self-published books, which is impressive [00:14:00] that they've done it, but nine times outta 10, I like think to myself, oh my gosh, please don't give this to anyone else because what you intended to increase your credibility has totally trashed it. Your cover's not well done. You have no idea about the interior layout. Oh, by the way, you forgot to get proofreaders to correct the mistakes and such. So that's one end of the spectrum was self-publishing and some of the issues that I have seen. The other end is the Big four publishers and there are only foreign nowadays, and you won't get published by them unless you have a great project and have an agent who has sold your project to those publishers.

Now, some of the things that you give up that drive people to hybrid publishers like Stonebrook Publishing are the flexibility and the timing. You will have [00:15:00] no say in when your book comes out, you might get a contract and they say, okay, we're gonna publish your book in 2029. And so the timing is there.

If they don't kill the project before then, which they have the right to do, okay, but you give up all control as well. You don't get to even have a vote in the title of your book or the cover of your book, or the way that it's edited. And so that's very offensive to a lot of authors. And then they aren't gonna sign you unless you have a major platform with a hundred thousand followers. The other thing too is that then when you go to get they're not gonna give you an advance, you're unknown. There's nothing that you can say that is gonna make them wanna give you money before you write your book.

But when you go to the point of getting royalties,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yes.

Nancy Erickson: yeah, first you have to pay your agent 15% and then your royalties [00:16:00] start after all the costs of production are taken care of.

But they're making money. The publishing house is making money and the author is the one who just is kind of, does all the work and doesn't get anything, and you have to market it yourself as well. So that's the other extreme.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Nancy, before you go on, perhaps for the listeners, we can get one thing clear off the table. Not all the time. Let's take the position that most of the time this is not a money making proposition. Yes, there's always exceptions, and yes, you have those runaway hits. Out of nowhere becomes a number one bestseller, a gazillion copy sold, but by and large for every one of those, there's countless others where you publish even with a publisher, and that's really the beginning of the end.

Would I be correct with that?

Nancy Erickson: Yeah you're spot on about that, Jeffrey. And here's the thing is that in the beginning it's really important to define what your goals are. And most of our business clients, their goals are for [00:17:00] their book to lead clients to them. I think you used the word lead magnet, but it's a little bit stronger than that.

And I wanna explain more of that when I start talking about what we do as a hybrid publisher. But how many clients do you have to get to justify. By the cost, how many new speaking engagements, it's also if you're a speaker, you're at a almost crippling disadvantage if you don't have a book to get booked for paid speaking engagements.

So, let me talk a little bit about where we as a hybrid publisher sit in the middle of the do it yourself and the big four publishers. So, with us you maintain an equal say in what happens to your book as we do as your publishing house. So when we start to develop your product after it's been edited, we're gonna give you three or four book cover samples that are originally designed just for your book, and [00:18:00] you'll kind of focus in on the one that you like the best, and then we tweak, tweak, tweak until it's perfect for you.

Simultaneously, your book is going through our proofreaders and it goes through three different proofreaders before it is approved, and that's extra set of eyes who haven't seen it before to get all the mistakes out.

You obviously have control over the title, but we're going to give you some strong suggestions because the title should do a couple of things that should create a question in the reader's mind, and it should tell the reader what the book is about. So I call it naming your baby, which it is a lot like your baby. It's a lot like giving birth, but your baby, can have a first name that's all frilly and cute or esoteric or whatever. But that's last name, which is your subtitle.

Grounds it. This is what the book is about, so, the title can be fun and interesting and create a question, but the [00:19:00] subtitle has to give it, that grounding. So fast forward to when your book is on the market. We used to play pay our authors royalties, but we've changed our model to where the author gets all of the proceeds from the book sales.

And, you're doing all the work and you should get the proceeds. And so you invest into the production with hybrid publishers. And then you get in our model, this is totally different from other hybrid publishers. You get all the royalties. You know, you said something about secret sauce before Jeffrey.

A book is not, a book is not a book. What happens after the book is really important. And so when we help you to write it and we construct your chapters, we do them in problem solution sets. So every chapter you have solves a specific problem that your clientele may have.

So when the book is finished, [00:20:00] should be able to take out every chapter and repurpose that material for other revenue producing products like seminars and workshops and keynotes and online courses, et cetera.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And for clarification, so if I'm with a publisher, a formal publisher, and I want to doing what you were saying earlier, hey, Jeffrey, take every chapter in the book that you published through us and turn that into a webinar, into a course, into content that you wanna put out there on social media. Do I have that same luxury with a traditional publisher?

Nancy Erickson: Not really because it all goes back into the process that we take you through when we write your book. And so it starts back, then we start positioning you to be able to repurpose your material like that. So for example, Jeffrey before you ever start writing your book, I told you we start with that purpose statement.

The next thing we do is we map out all the contents of your book in a process. I [00:21:00] put together called book mapping. And what a book map is a visual representation of everything that's going to be in your book, like a mind map for each chapter. It's gonna have every story you're gonna tell, every point you're gonna make every object, lesson, every example you're gonna use so that when you start writing, it's really a matter of execution.

And there's no such thing as, the Fable Writer's Block.

So when we construct your chapters, In those problem solution sets way back at the beginning and build those book maps. That is what sets you up for the repurposing later down the road.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I see. So this is something that you're doing somewhat differently perhaps than others, and you're helping to set us up for success from the beginning. So once it's out there, we can repurpose and get that out there and get things going.

Nancy Erickson: That's right. Yeah. And people wanna know, I mean, there has to be something beyond the book.

And here's the thing is that everybody's not gonna read your book. I hope you know that, but that doesn't mean they aren't in your target [00:22:00] audience. So the goal is to meet your audience where they're already engaged so that you can spread your message further and wider.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so with all that said, Nancy, I'm wondering. So I have this idea for a book. I have a successful business. I want the world to know about this, how we're changing things or, but wanna pay it forward. However, whatever that may be, I come to you. I've never written a book before. There is no manuscript. It's an idea.

And I'm saying, okay, Nancy, I heard you on the Deep Wealth Podcast. I love what you're saying. Let's work together. Can you walk us through that process, Nancy, in terms of how long will it take? And let's make it a little bit more challenging for you. By the way, Nancy, I don't have time to write and I may not even be a great writer, so can you help me with that?

How do I get this book out there? What does that look like in that kind of scenario?

Nancy Erickson: Everything you just said is in our sweet spot, so I love it. So, you said, how long is it gonna take? It's gonna take you a year to write it, and some people gasp and think, oh my gosh, that's so long. And most of us know that before we turn around, it's [00:23:00] gonna be next year, and you might as well have something to show for it.

But the reason it takes a year, Jeffrey, is because it's broken down into little tiny bite sized pieces that our busy executives can actually accomplish. And get the book done. But there's something else at play here as well, and it's this, while you're working on your book, your book is working on you, and it really needs to have time to expand and absorb and get its own energy.

You know, I've seen things. And I know your audience has too, about write your book in a weekend or in a month, and I'm like, I don't know what they're writing. But we have a very professional approach because you want to be a professional. You can't put everything, you know, in one book. And so we organize it in a way that you can be targeted to that particular message and that audience.

Another opportunity [00:24:00] that you have is that some business owners, they have multiple audiences, and so you're like your book should be targeted to a specific audience, and which is true, but you know, that gives you the opportunity to create a series of books out of the kind of the same material.

So when we're mapping your book out in problem solutions, I'm just gonna use an example of like a financial planner. He may have young families and then, middle aged families and then older adults looking to retire. So, the problems and solutions are a little bit different, but some of them overlap completely.

And so in order to create a series of books here you have this the first text that you have and all you may need to do is swap out the stories you tell that pertain to the different demographic that you wanna address in books two and three and four, and, we're all really interested in not just [00:25:00] getting our message out, but in branding ourselves.

And so that helps along the way with business owners to create a stronger brand and to be targeted to specific audiences.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Nancy, if we can zoom up for just a moment. So I hear you on the strategy and how we're gonna help you segment your book and put it together. What I'm wondering though, and maybe I'm not using the right terminology or the lingo, you'll correct me as we go along. So if I'm busy and I'm saying I'm not really in a position, I have the ideas, but I'm not the one to write the manuscript or the draft, so are you offering, for lack of a better word, ghost writers on your side, who would work with your clients to come up with that manuscript?

How does that process work?

Nancy Erickson: We do not work with ghost writers, nor do I advocate them for them, and I will tell you why. First of all, you can do it and you do have time. It's a project, like any other project, and you have to dedicate, you know, a certain amount of times and it's about a half a day a week. Once we get into the writing part, but here's the thing, [00:26:00] Jeffrey, is that ghost written books are only as good as the questions that the ghost writer asks, and they may not be going deep enough.

I mean, Certainly we are now, we're no longer in a position to tell people what to do. People aren't gonna listen to us. So you have to really ingratiate yourself and get yourself your transparent self into the book. And it needs to be your voice, and that's how people learn from you. And that's how people will do.

And particularly for business people, if you're wanting to drive new clients to find you when they get there, it needs to be the person that they learned about from the book and learned who you are with all your different little, works and foibles and points of expertise as well.

You can do this. I have worked with so many high level executives that have done this, and we will work with you on time [00:27:00] blocking, which you probably already know how to manage your calendar and in order to get it done in a year. And remember I said it's in bite size chunks so that the busy executive can accomplish the whole project.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay, so what I'm hearing you say is not only are we helping you through the process, it's bite-sized chunks, but we've come up with a way, even though you're busy, put some time in, you'll get a better end result. No one's gonna write it for you but yourself. That's really where it should be, and that's where you want it to be and we'll help get that done.

Nancy Erickson: Correct,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay? Got it.

Nancy Erickson: and that's a lot of fun. So,

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so I'm gonna fast forward here. And so we wave the magic wand and through your process, the manuscripts done, your editors, the professionals that you have, go through all of that and they make sure everything is exactly as it should be. And now the book gets out there. How do you help, or do you help with the marketing of books?

So it doesn't just sit there online, nobody's buying. What does that look like with your team, Nancy?[00:28:00]

Nancy Erickson: We start in the beginning when we're developing your book products and those book maps I mentioned.

To help you to target your market. And we have an exercise that you go through cuz the easiest way to sell books is in large numbers of them, not just individual to individual. So we give you some training on that, but we are mostly I always believe in people playing their own base.

Stick to what you're good at, et cetera. So we have many marketing partners that can help you. We don't do book marketing ourselves, but we have many marketing partners who are, that's all they do, book marketing. And they can help you depending on what your goal is to get the word out. And some of them, some of our clients want publicists, some of them wanna be Amazon bestsellers, others wanna be able to be included on the USA Today bestseller list or the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Some of them just wanna reach their target market through associations, et [00:29:00] cetera. But one of the things, and you're gonna love this that is really coming into its own is almost pretty much free for the author, and that's to be a guest on podcasts that address, whatever their business issue is, whatever the topic of their book is. So people are consuming the audio content more and more every day.

Jeffrey Feldberg: We can have a whole episode on that. Nancy, you are spot on with that. But what I like with what I'm hearing, and again, you'll correct me if I'm on base, off base, what I'm really hearing, the narrative here is Jeffrey, we focus on what we're really good at. We'll help you create a book that is done properly.

It has a, best front cover. It's edited grammar from a grammar perspective, it's all done. It'll flow, it'll make sense. we know what we're good at and what we don't do. We can be a matchmaker. We can introduce you on the marketing side, on the publicity side to [00:30:00] other people that's really what they're terrific at, and you can make some decisions and go out for there.

Would I be correct in? 

Nancy Erickson: That's right. Jeffrey and I have to tell you something. At one point I didn't try. I started a book marketing company and it took so much and then I realized, oh my gosh, I've created this online platform that you have to keep improving and investing in and all this kinda stuff. And I was like, I wanted to get out of IT.

I don't wanna do this. And it was taking away from my real joy, which is to help authors get their message out. So, I know that I need to focus on helping you develop the product of your book. And I have so many partners. Every week we have a marketing moment where we present some of our partners to all of our audience, and they can follow those trails as they see fit.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And I like that. You know, here's what we do really well. Here's what other people do really well, and you have choices because what's that old saying? [00:31:00] Try and be a jack of all trades, master of none. And I hear you loud and clear. And Nancy, let's dispel a myth right now for our listeners, because at Deep Wealth, our thesis is you've got to stop believing.

You must start knowing. And there's this rampant belief that artificial intelligence, as terrific as it is in so many areas, I know some of us are saying yeah, you know what, Nancy? I don't need to write the book. I'll just go to AI. AI will write the book. I'll be done in forget a weekend. I can have it done in a few hours and I'll give you the manuscript.

So let's burst that bubble, at least on AI writing a manuscript. 

Nancy Erickson: I just wrote an article for the business journals about that. Okay, come on. Is what I have to say. If you want your book to increase your credibility, you better darn not do that. First of all, you can't copyright that because you didn't write it. 

And other than that, imagine how people wanna connect with people.

Heaven knows theres a great place for [00:32:00] AI and it just isn't in writing your own story, your own book, because what people want to connect with is you. They want your ideas, they want your stories, they want your personality. And there's gonna always be some kind of quote-unquote shortcuts.

But I would just say, let's measure that against what the benefits are that you can really offer to your audience when you bring yourself to the game.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Nancy, what's interesting, you're talking really about authenticity and integrity and I know with all the marketing influencers and subject matter experts that I've spoken with, people who are also in AI artificial intelligence, and they're subject matter experts. In fact, I just had someone on the podcast who's been in AI almost since it began way back in the day, and they all really say the same thing.

AI is an equalizer in the sense that anybody can ask the questions and we're all going to get the same answers. So in some [00:33:00] ways it's leveling things out in terms of the answers that we're getting, but that's the challenge when it comes to marketing and being very specific in this case, for a book, whatever question that you ask and get the answer.

Another competitor or somebody else asks the same question and it, to your point, it's not yours. So AI perhaps on the creative side for other kinds of things is great, but we can both agree. And for the listeners, the takeaway is AI is not your answer to writing your book or your manuscript or anything along those lines.

It's yourself. Put yourself into the equation. Make it authentic.

Nancy Erickson: Yeah, and I like the word that you use Jeffrey Integrity and I would imagine that for all of your listing audience integrity is the foundation of their business and what they do and who they are, and you know, it's easy to lose a reputation over something that is just a throwaway thought.

And we work on our integrity every day just by being [00:34:00] solid and truthful and upfront.

And treating people right and all. So I wouldn't want anybody to mask themselves and hide behind an AI type of an approach, because you can do this, you really can.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Nancy, before we start wrapping things up, Here's the question for you, and I wanna imagine now that we've worked with you, the 12 months has flown by. It always does. Like you say, they're gonna pass by anyway, so why not have it with the 12 months passing by and we have a draft at any manuscript.

With the clients that you've helped get out there, are there some success stories that you can share with us? 

Nancy Erickson: I'd love to tell the story about our author Nicole Bell. She is an MIT brainiac, and I mean that in every sense of the word. Both she and her husband. Her husband started displaying signs of some weird memory loss and such and he was young, he was 50, and so, throughout the course of this, they came to find out, they diagnosed him with early [00:35:00] Alzheimer's.

She never believed it. She kept digging and digging. All the while he kept declining and declining. And it turned out that the root of his dementia was Lyme disease, something that she had asked them to test for in the beginning, but they poo-pooed it.

.So, Fast forward. Her book is out. Her husband passed away a year ago, and she is now taken on this mantle of educating people about Lyme disease and other tickborne illnesses. She's been on the Today Show. She's been in USA today. She, MIT brainiac product Development, has developed a testing protocol for tickborne illnesses and has started a whole company for that and is one of the leading voices in this area.

And her book's been out for a year.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. So talk about having a platform, paying it forward, getting something out there, changing lives, saving lives. All through your help and your [00:36:00] system, which is absolutely terrific. So Nancy, before we go into our wrap up question, I'm just wondering are there any questions or topics that we didn't cover that you'd like our audience to hear from you or some insights that you'd like to share?

Nancy Erickson: Well, I'd just like to talk a little bit about how important it is. You're the only one who has your story. You're the only one who can do it, and people are really looking for new ways to learn new things. And so if you have a business book about a particular process that you've developed, it is so helpful to share that with other people. And what I found is a lot of our business clients who, they share everything in their book, their secret sauce, et cetera, and what happens is people find out well, I wanna do that. I can't do that myself. I need to contact this author and work with them. So it is not a calling card, it is a [00:37:00] display of your expertise, and our authors are enjoying.

The fact that they get to reach outside of their normal little circle and expand their message way beyond what they could have done if they hadn't had a book.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, it's just a great platform to pay it forward and get that out there and really it's what a terrific legacy for your stakeholders, people in your business, your team, your employees, your family, down the road. It's just once it's there, it's out there.

Nancy Erickson: Yeah, and you're gonna surprise yourself. It's gonna be so good, and you just are gonna be so thrilled and pleased and you'll really surprise yourself despite all the objections that may come up in your mind in the beginning, just the hardest part is making the decision to do it, but after that, we just handhold you the whole way.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It doesn't get any better, and you've done the heavy lifting. You do that every day and your clients are the benefactors of [00:38:00] that. You're saving them time and they're making less mistakes, if any, and out they go with their own book and in that really a formula that you've perfected over the years, which is terrific.

Well, Nancy, all of that said for better, for worse, we need to start to wrap things up here and I'm going to ask you my favorite question. I have the privilege and honor of every guest on the Deep Wealth Podcast to ask this question. It's a fun one. Let me set this up for you. So think about the movie Back to the Future, and in the movie you have that magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time.

So here's the fun part, Nancy. It's tomorrow morning. You look outside your window. Not only is the DeLorean car there, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in. So you hop in and you can now go to any point in time. Nancy, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time that would be, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life wisdom or life lessons or, Hey Nancy, do this, but don't do that.

What [00:39:00] would that sound like?

Nancy Erickson: It's so funny that you asked me that. Cuz I just read this meme on Facebook and it said, I wish I could go back and be 14 then there I can find all different ways to ruin my life. So, but I think, I wish, I'd like to go back to when I graduated from college when I was 21 and I told you I went into high tech.

And I really wanted to be a writer, and I think that if I had done that, I could have enjoyed my life a lot more, a lot sooner. So I would just tell myself, don't worry about the money. Do the thing that you love.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What great advice. I love that. And Nancy, you're being open let me reciprocate here. The The law of reciprocity. Much like you, when I went into college, my undergrad degree, it was all about the money. It wasn't my passion and I thought I would be a dentist because I looked around dentists make lots of money, and I have to tell you that first year [00:40:00] was a miserable year.

I was, normally an A student. I was failing. I wasn't enjoying myself. Thankfully I knocked some sense into myself. You get a two by four hit over your head, enough times you start to pay attention. I've been there, done that. I'm right there with you. Don't worry about the money.

Really follow your passion, follow your dreams, and see where it takes you.

Nancy Erickson: Exactly. Plus, I'm laughing boy, I sure love having a dentist, but I'm not the type of person that could stare into open mouths all day so.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It turns out that makes two of us so. And Nancy, just before we wrap up, one other question for our listeners. They love what they're hearing. They wanna become a client, or they have some questions. They wanna get in touch with you. Where's the best place online that they can do this?

Nancy Erickson: Oh yes. It's very easy. All you do is go to my website, which is thebookprofessor.com. Remember, we're talking about books, and I've been a professor. There's a link across the top that says, schedule a call with Nancy. I absolutely love talking [00:41:00] to people about their book ideas, so we can just chat and banter ideas around and you can ask me specific questions and I can let you know if I think your idea is book worthy.

And I'll tell you if it isn't. But I love to connect with people and hear what they're thinking about writing.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And for our listeners, it will not get any easier. Come to the show notes. There'll be a link. You can click on it. It'll take you right there to Nancy's website. You can go to her calendar and I encourage you to have that call with her, take her up on her offer. It's a free call. 

Well, Nancy, it's official. This is a wrap. Thank you so much for your insights, for your wisdom, for sharing part of your secret sauce with us today. And as we say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

Nancy Erickson: Yeah. Thank you, Jeffrey. 

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 [00:42:00] 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 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 [00:43:00] 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 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 [00:44:00] 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 forever. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table? 

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

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