Book Profit Secrets with Ray Brehm

Ben Settle is a marketer, entrepreneur, and author who writes about business, marketing, and selling -- as well as the occasional twisted monster story. He knows a thing or two about what it takes to be highly successful, and it mostly has to do with a simple mindset shift. Thinking about yourself as a publisher instead of an author removes so many limitations and allows you to create and sell whatever you want – the sky (and beyond) is truly the limit. Within traditional publishing deals, you are often bound by what to write and how to write it. When you think and act like a one-man publishing machine, you have ultimate freedom and control over your process.

Part of what makes this mindset so successful is also being able to be a good showman. You don’t have to be the best writer, but you do have to be the best promoter you can be and really sell yourself. Another thing that successful writers and authors do is think like a strategist and not a tactician. If you struggle with strategy and would rather spend your time on writing alone, hire out or align with someone who can help you out.

Lastly, you have to be entertaining. One of the best, most authentic forms of entertainment is storytelling. Stories are a source of high-quality, persuasive communication that can set you apart and show that you’re unique. Some of the most entertaining people are good at what they do because they’re able to take their personality and exaggerate it to become more intriguing. That’s not to say you have to lie or be inauthentic. On the contrary, it’s sort of like making yourself hyper-real. Oftentimes people don’t see who we really are because we hold back. Not everyone will like you, but people do appreciate it when you’re able to say what everyone’s thinking. As a writer, you have the obligation to put your inner dialogue on display. Real-life is always a relevant topic and being able to write about it genuinely will automatically make you more marketable.

What’s Inside:

• Why you should think of yourself as a publisher vs. an author.
• How thinking like a strategist and a showman sets you apart.
• Why storytelling is a powerful form of entertainment.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Ray.fm
www.bensettle.com

We’ve all grown up with the phrase “patience is a virtue” being said to us, but that’s not always the case with entrepreneurship. As an author, pricing your book low and then working to make ten thousand dollars per month is a lot of work. People ask me all the time how they can get more eyes on their book when the question should be “how do I get more eyes on me?” Trying to make your book your breadwinner often translates to a long and frustrating road ahead. The same thing with courses – even if your course is priced higher than your book, you still have to sell a lot of courses to make any significant income goals. All of that becomes so much easier when you focus on selling a high-ticket offer instead.

I realized that virtual summits are the best place to launch a high-ticket offer immediately afterwards. That works perfectly for me because I don’t have the patience to stay in my lane and work my way to my income goal slowly. When you have a valuable, in-demand high-ticket offering, you can spend your time getting a few great clients who adore you instead of trying to automate processes in the hopes of generating thousands of book and course sales. Your high-ticket offering helps prove your value, authority, and worth and gets you to your income goals much, much faster.

What’s Inside:

• Why patience isn’t always a virtue as an entrepreneur.
• How a high-ticket offer can get you to your income goals faster than selling books and courses.
• A story about salsa dancing and the “high-ticket” move that changed my dance game.

Mentioned In This Episode:
Ray.fm

In a continuation of the last episode’s discussion on high-ticket offers, I’m posing this question: would you rather pay for knowledge or results? Most people would say results, yet most of us wind up buying knowledge in the form of courses and coaching first. We go through what I like to call the “course collection” phase. The problem with courses is that sometimes they can give us an excuse to not start whatever it is we’re looking to get off the ground. It allows our fear to get in the way and delays us from taking action.

A done-for-you program or one with guaranteed results gets us where we want to be quicker than courses or standard coaching, but it also forces accountability. Also, if we’re a coach that provides guaranteed results, we wind up selling more because we’re helping our clients do better. Guaranteed results can come in many forms, like guaranteeing a certain number of people on an email list or reaching a certain level of income. You can structure a high-ticket offer from this principle and make your money at the same time your clients are while you’re helping them. Offering guaranteed results makes you unique in your niche, and when you’re unique, your price stops becoming a factor.

What’s Inside:

• Why buying too many courses can delay progress.
• How to design a program with guaranteed results.
• Why guaranteed results program encourages accountability.

Mentioned In This Episode:
Ray.fm

High-ticket offerings have become such a passion topic for me because of how much success I’ve seen from them. After a recent audit of my first virtual summit, I figured out that I made over 5 figures from premium passes to lifetime access, bonus courses, etc. I felt that my authority level was at an all-time high, so what better time to launch a high-ticket offer? The problem was that I had just launched a lower level offering at the time. I was able to relaunch using the same email sequence and sent it to my current list which now had some new people. Long story short, I wound up making 150% more than the virtual summit itself.

After that first summit, I continued to work with speakers from the summit, promoted their products, and did webinars with them. I made a ton of money in affiliate business, but I had never done a thorough audit of everything to know an exact number. After spending some time with the data, I had, I realized that I had made multiple 6 figures from all efforts related just to that first virtual summit. 

A high-ticket offer can really transform your business, especially if you pair it with a virtual summit. I’m also now a huge fan of the descension, or down selling model for offerings. If you lead with your high ticket offer right out of the gate, people who aren’t a fit will fall into your lower-level offerings, allowing you to still make money. 

What’s Inside:

• Why your business needs a high ticket offering.
• How to audit your virtual summits.
• Why the descension sales model works for high ticket offers

Mentioned In This Episode:

Ray.fm

Christine Kloser is a transformational author coach, a USA Today and WSJ bestselling author, and an award-winning publisher. She helps professionals and experts fulfill their calling to write and publish their own books that will leave an impact on the world. Christine got into writing and publishing in 2002 by helping her husband with his first book. In 2005, she published her own book, a collection of inspirational stories from women entrepreneurs. Her signature program, “Get Your Book Done”, is based on more than a decade of time-tested and proven processes to make writing your book easier and better than you ever thought possible.

A lack of clarity is the biggest reason why people don’t get started. Instead of getting help, they get caught up in what Christine calls the “author’s merry-go-round”. People get stuck because they’re not asking themselves the right questions. They also get hung up on marketing and publishing before they even know who their ideal reader is. Christine challenges her clients to dig into what kind of transformation they want for themselves, their readers, their businesses, and the world through their writing. Once they have that down, writing the book becomes easy.

Many new authors also try to tackle everything themselves instead of getting help from a coach or expert that can guide them through the process. It’s important to seek out a coach that resonates with you and do not settle for the first person who persuades you. Christine has a one-day virtual event coming up on 10/30 called the Transformational Author Experience. I have more information on my website, and you can get there directly by clicking the first link below.

What’s Inside:

• The 4 questions to ask yourself when you’re finding clarity to write your book
• Why it’s important to choose an author coach that’s a perfect match
• Details about Christine’s upcoming event, the Transformational Author Experience

Mentioned In This Episode:
Ray.fm
Ray.fm/TAE
Christinekloser.com

Eric Van Der Hope is the creator of the Publishing Success Summit and is known for his expertise in digital publishing. Through his work, he has helped thousands of authors get published. Eric became interested in digital publishing in the late 90s and published a few books of his own. He studied some of the leaders in the industry, learned affiliate marketing, and then realized he could make money through his own products and services. Since 2010, he’s been dedicating most of his time to coaching other authors.

Leveraging additional income streams along with selling copies of your book always helps maximize profits. When coming up with your own unique ideas, asking yourself how you can use your book to make money is way more effective than asking how you’d sell a ton of books. Selling coaching or courses that are based off the material in your book often generates more profit than selling books alone. Becoming an author helps you prove your credibility to potential customers and helps you build genuine rapport.

If you’re stuck on which income streams to try, figure out what your passions are and start researching your options. Not all income streams appeal to everyone, for example, an introvert may not feel comfortable being on camera and hosting a digital summit. You also don’t need to be an expert in your niche to write a book. Writing your book then turns you into the expert, due to all your hard work and research that went into getting it published. Being an author makes you an authority that can open many doors to business success.

What’s Inside:

• The top income streams you can create from your book.
• Questions to ask yourself when choosing the right income stream for you.
• How to use your book as a credibility benchmark to generate profit.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Ray.fm
Ericvanderhope.com
Eric Van Der Hope on Facebook
Eric Van Der Hope on Twitter

Gundi Gabrielle is a digital nomad and branding expert. As a former conductor and pianist, she once ran her own successful music company. She also went to medical school and became a social entrepreneur, raising money for Doctors Without Borders. After a major crisis, Gundi decided to shift gears in her career and started researching ways to make money online. She fell into self-publishing and wrote her first book on how to build a blog, which did very well and allowed her to begin traveling more. Gundi has since published several books and started Sassy Zen Girl, a community for those who want to develop their business and marketing skills with a fun twist.

Your brand must give you goosebumps before anyone else. If you are in love with your brand and messaging, others will resonate with your style and become loyal fans. It’s also important to choose a niche, and even a sub-niche, to be able to stand out and become an influencer. Storytelling is a powerful tool in branding, as it helps people connect with you and makes you relatable. Being realistic as you’re developing your brand will help ease overwhelm. Many people think they can build out their brands in a week when it really takes time and many adjustments as you go. Branding is always a work in progress.

Becoming a thought leader doesn’t mean that you have to be super-famous with millions of followers. Being a micro-influencer and being known within your niche can translate into a huge success. Once you become an author, you can use your book to connect with others and create a community. Starting a Facebook group is a great way to get to know your readers and it helps them connect with other like-minded people. With social media, you don’t have to be present across all channels. Choosing one or two of your favorites and learning how to grow those platforms is much more manageable.  When building an audience on social media, take the time to make genuine connections and grow your following authentically.

What’s Inside:

• 5 ways to build an irresistible personal brand.
• Why it’s important to choose a niche when you’re first starting out. 
• Tips for becoming a thought leader in your field.

Cloris Kylie is the author of Beyond Influencer Marketing and is an expert at making long-lasting connections. Collaborating with influencers saved Cloris’ business. After becoming frustrated with creating content and feeling like no one noticed, she started reaching out to influencers in her ideal audience. From there, everything changed. Cloris likes to send a signed copy of her book to influencers to start building relationships with them. If you’re reaching out to someone for the first time and want to collaborate, you’ll want to provide them something of value. Gifting influencers with your book goes beyond them giving you a shout-out on social media. It establishes you as an authority and sets the stage for long-term collaboration.

Aside from your book, you can also leverage your platform to give them value. For example, you can go live with them on Facebook or Instagram or feature them on your podcast or blog. If you’re launching something within your business, you might want to ask them to be a part of it. It’s important to know your long- and short-term objectives before reaching out. Although it’s standard practice for people to build their list up to a certain number before contacting top influencers, that doesn’t always matter. If you can provide value to someone and genuinely nurture a relationship, that’s way more important than how many people are in your audience.

A great next step for a virtual summit or an event where you’re hosting several different influencers is to have a debrief call afterward. This allows you to share feedback and lessons learned and helps connect the group with each other. Cloris offers 1:1 coaching for those interested in taking their networking skills to the next level. For more information about her book and coaching services, her website is linked below. Cloris also offers a free guide on connecting with influencers after you join her email list - be sure to check it out.

What’s Inside:

• How influencer marketing helped Cloris grow her business.
• Ways to provide value to influencers to nurture relationships.
• Why you should let your personality show right away when building connections.

Mentioned In This Episode:
Ray.fm
Cloriskylie.com

Author and entrepreneur Cary Richards always knew he wanted to run his own business. He first worked in a corporate setting, spending decades in outside sales. He eventually wanted to try doing something online and got into self-publishing books on Amazon. He was successful but realized that selling books alone wasn’t going to achieve the financial goals he was striving for. After taking several courses and reading many books, Cary stumbled across a concept known as curating bundles. A bundle is essentially material sourced from several experts within a niche, packaged into one product. Cary co-created Infostack, which is a company that does the bundling process extremely well. Along with his partner,  Cary was able to scale the business and is now wildly successful.

Each partner that’s featured in an Infostack bundle (or “stack”) provides something of value, and then the product is sold to an email list. Cary begins by compiling lists of people that have relevant content to a particular niche. They’re at the point now where they have so many contributors that cold outreach has significantly decreased. Usually, a stack will have between $1500 and $4000 worth of material included but is sold for much less (around $40). Infostack uses a very short launch period of about a week, which creates urgency and makes a stack an impulse purchase. For contributors, being in a stack can earn them money through an affiliate program and can also build out their own list. Overall reach on any given stack can be anywhere from 350,000 to 1.3 million.

Cary realized that being a curator instead of an expert was very lucrative. For those who resonate with this type of model and want to get started, choose a niche, and start researching the experts in that area. You could also host a virtual summit and offer a bundle to go along with it. When reaching out to folks, being genuine and enthusiastic about who they are and what they do will go a long way. Cary invites anyone who is interested in getting started with their own bundle enterprise to reach out to him directly at [email protected].

What's Inside:

• Cary’s story and how Infostack was created.
• How being a curator vs. an expert in a niche can make you successful.
• Tips on how to engage and network with influencers.

Mentioned In This Episode:
Ray.fm
Infostack.io

Alinka Rutkowska is the CEO of Leaders Press, a USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling publishing company. Alinka creates books for entrepreneurs from scratch and launches them to bestseller status with an impressive 100% success rate. Leaders Press is a hybrid publishing company and the only one with a sales agreement with Simon & Schuster. A goal of many authors is to maximize their authority in their field and becoming a USA Today the best-selling author is the best you can be.

Alinka turns many of her authors into bestsellers through anthologies. Becoming a USA Today bestseller is a huge undertaking. Every book that makes the list is never there by chance. It always takes an orchestrated effort planned well in advance to get the author to that place. By becoming an author in an anthology, you can spread the cost of using a service like Leaders Press to get the bestseller title. Anthologies, like virtual summits, are a great way to connect with other authors and form strategic partnerships.

A large audience or subscriber list (250K) is the recommended audience for making USA Today's bestseller. It’s all really a numbers game, as the more people you can reach, the more people will buy your book and push you to the top. Another benefit of being in an anthology is that you can share audiences and get closer to that ideal subscriber number together. The USA Today bestseller title opens many doors for authors, and it can be used your entire career. It is way more important to find out who can help you get there versus trying to figure out the “how” by yourself. Learn more about Alinka and Leaders Press here.

What’s Inside:

• How Leaders Press turns authors into bestsellers guaranteed.
• The benefits of being in an anthology and how it can get you on a bestseller list.
• Why the right connections are better than technical knowledge when it comes to making a bestseller.