Boosting Your Business with Book Writing

Sasha: 0:00

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So go ahead, pull up a chair, grab a notepad, and let's talk business. Welcome to Strategy for Creatives: Business Minus the Bullshit. I of course, am your host Sasha and today's conversation is going to be a little bit different. I feel like I start to say that every episode now but I just have been able to meet so many interesting, creative people and to talk about business in a way that we don't always think about and in ways that I really think can help those creative businesses and those who are trying to build their business in the creative sphere. So today I'm having a conversation about book writing, which I know is gonna sound a little like why are we talking about that. But you may or may not have noticed that there is, I think more of a trend of more and more people writing books, especially as it relates to their business. And so I wanted to bring on someone to have this conversation with me today. So I'm talking to Megs who is a professional words twerker, intuitive writing coach, a ghost writer, author and publisher, based in the heart of Montana, which I I'm going to ask her about that just because I'm curious. But through her businesses MegsWrites and I'm going to ask her to say her publishing name too - omnia paratus - which I'm going to say wrong I'm sure she coaches and supports other creative trendsetting, woo-believing badasses through the process of confidently sharing their message story expertise and unique brand of magic without the migraines, sleepless nights or court ordered anger management to solidify their author-ity and blast their businesses to the next level. So Megs, thank you so much. And I apologize in advance for butchering your business name. Because I know I got it wrong..

Megs: 5:28

It is totally fine. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Sasha: 5:33

This has nothing to do with book writing at all. What's it like living in Montana? My husband watches a lot of like homesteading and hunting shows. And that is my only association with pretty much the middle of the country.

Megs: 5:51

I love that. I'm not gonna lie it's not wrong. My husband and I actually are from Western Washington. Born and raised, and he had moved around a little growing up, but I never moved out of the western side of Washington State. I'm used to being by the ocean, the water right there. And his dad lives here in Montana. We came and visited when we first started dating, and I was like, Honey, if this works out, like this is where we're moving. IIt's just, I don't know, there are some that they call it. It's big sky country. And yeah, again, it's the sky is bigger here.

Sasha: 6:35

There's mountains, right. There's mountains. It's not one of the flat ones. This is touching my limited knowlege of the middle of the country.

Megs: 6:47

No, there's lots of mountains, lots of wildlife. But it's just, there's so much more space and less people spread out in that space. II don't know. It's just It's beautiful. It's raw. I mean, we've had snow since before, God, before Halloween. It's snowing again today.

Sasha: 7:08

That's the reason why I would never move to places like Montana. My audience knows I live in Maryland. I'm right outside of DC today is actually a pretty warm day for it to be February. I think we're in the 40s today. Oh, no, I live today, we're 55, which is a nice spring day here. But we call in Maryland, we call that our it's our false spring. Because it likes to tease us and make us think that it's going to be nice. And then probably next week, it's going to dip back into the 30s again, and everything like that. But I hate cold weather and snow. So I commend you for living in a place that has had snow since October.

Megs: 7:48

Well, luckily, I mean, that's when working for myself and from home. Really, my commute is from the bedroom upstairs to my office. I can see the snow but I'm toasty. Today we're at about 21 degrees.

Sasha: 8:10

Let's talk a little bit about book writing for business. And I know you help you help people do this. And so I know that it's something that most people wouldn't even think about trying to do why they should do it as a business owner. I recently got asked to be I was a guest on a podcast and the podcast host is putting together like a compilation book. And I was asked if I wanted to write a chapter and and I was like, okay, that's cool. Like, that seems like something I could do. But like, why is this becoming a thing?

Megs: 8:44

Oh my gosh. I know we have limited time. So I will try not to like... because I could my husband laughs... I could talk about this until the cows come out. Which again in Montana is a thing. So honestly, when it comes to books, I encourage people to think like okay, one, it is not scary. It doesn't have to be painful or overwhelming, or, you know, maddening. Just to get that out there. Trust me, give me another 20 minutes. With books nowadays, networking isn't done the same way it used to be. We don't go to networking events and trade business cards with each other and, you know, close business with a handshake. The world has opened up so much with people being able to do their business online from anywhere with people anywhere. So being able to have a book for your business. It's the new form of business card. And it really, oh my gosh, it gives you a chance to connect with people 24/7, 365 days a year while you're sleeping. While you're drinking an umbrella drink on the beach. Seriously, it's just it's absolutely a amazing.

Sasha: 10:00

well, I think that putting author besides your business name, I feel like still automatically, like, adds this level of prestige almost. But also on the flip side, which probably takes a little bit away from the prestige is that the barrier of entry to writing books has come way, way down.

Megs: 10:24

Yes. definitely agree.

Sasha: 10:27

I know like it a lot of people you can self publish. Now you can you I mean, you can throw a book up on Amazon. And as long as you're promoting it, and you know, you'll be able to find your way into making sales. So I could see how it's easier now to write a book.

Megs: 10:45

Oh, yeah. Most definitely. I mean, it still takes the work of sitting down and actually writing it. But a lot of my clients, they don't want to actually write and they have been scared of the idea of writing a book. And so what we'll do is work together, I will have them leave voice notes, telling what they want in their book. And so really, they're still writing a book, it's just that they're speaking it, you know. Like with podcasters, your medium is it's audio, it's verbal. So you write the book that way. I definitely agree that the bar for being a quote, unquote, published author, it has come down it. And in a nice way, it makes it more applicable for so many more people. I think the biggest one that I see nowadays is when people are like, I'm an Amazon best seller, and kudos. If you're if you're on there, that's awesome. The big thing, that's not something I promised to any of my clients or anyone that I work with, because in my experience, the people that are touting Amazon bestseller status, what that is, is usually it's a part of a collaboration. So if you have 25 people in the book, and each of those 25 people buys 10 copies for their friends and family, you immediately are going to hit that bestseller status, because you get the numbers out the gate. Which I mean, it makes sense, kudos, you got the title. That's the one that for me, I'm like, take that with a grain of salt. Because if you sell five books in a category, where there are only two other books to choose from, like, you're gonna be a best seller.

Sasha: 12:32

So I guess when it comes to trying to figure out what to write about, though, and especially when you're coming out, or from a business aspects, I think, I think it can be hard for and I'll just use myself as an example. I can do my podcast all day I can I can talk to people, I can, you know, give all of my knowledge on how to, you know, automate in your business and why you need business goals and all of that stuff. But the thought of turning that into a book seems more daunting. And I know that you mentioned you particularly helped with like the storytelling aspect of it. And so why do you think that's a good way to do storytelling in book form to help your business as opposed to maybe doing something like this, or for someone like myself who's like, I don't know, if I like have enough words to write, you know, in a book, like how my book will be like, what, 10 pages?

Megs: 13:38

Well, okay, so let me ask this. How many podcast episodes have you done now?

Sasha: 13:44

I published up to 53. And I have unpublished like another like, probably 10-15.

Megs: 13:52

Okay, so you're almost up to like 70, we'll just say and each one of those is 20 to 30 minutes. So you have and we we talk fast. You start transcribing your podcast, the number of words that you've got, like it's going to surprise you probably already have a 50,000 word book.

Sasha: 14:17

My podcast, I mean, I'm sure I could tie some of them together, but they're not all like one, you know, subject or something like that right.

Megs: 14:28

No, I get it. So that's honestly that's where I start with with when I'm coaching or helping a client with a book is I kind of take them back to basics, that beginner mindset that we're also tired of hearing. But okay, what is it that you offer? What service, what product? What expertise? What is the magic that you bring that your clients want to work with you for? And that's why you write your book. I like to think of a book it's kind of like a first date. Like it's been it's just coffee. It's not dinner, there's no commitment. It's, you know, let's just get to know each other. And let's see if we mesh it's a chance for your, a worldwide audience to be like, I don't know, do I like Sasha? Is it something that... does she have something that I need? And without hopping on a call. Without making that commitment to know, I want to work with her one on one where I might have to say no, which is uncomfortable? I'm gonna pick up her book, and I'm going to read it on my device while I'm riding the train. And maybe we click and I reach out to work with her, maybe I prequalify myself as not being the right person for her. So it's, I mean, so many people are stuck in the idea of needing to hop on a sales call for every single client, they're going to sign. And I don't know about you, but sales calls drain me.

Sasha: 15:55

I'm not a fan. And the people who listen to my show know this and. I mean, I make this podcast and I've been, it's upfront with what my packet says it's meant to, you know, bring people to me and so, obviously offer value but obviously, to get to know me and then go to my website and want to work with me, but I hate being salesy. I despise it.

Megs: 16:17

Well, so that's the nice thing is that with a book, it's you're not being salesy. You're just telling the story about, hey, this is who I am, here's a little bit of my background. Here's my story. Here's why I work the way I do. I curse. I like to do this. I live in Maryland, I don't want to be in cold weather, like, these are some parts of my personality. It lets them get comfortable with you. In order to prequalify themselves. It's such an amazing experience. But like with a podcast, so you have multiple topics that you address. You have your business, but you offer numerous different kinds of services and specialties to your clients. You can take those podcast episodes and find the ones that fit into a certain category, and repurpose those into an ebook, that you can have a whole series that's going to work and connect with a different part of your audience and bring them into your world. It's, absolutely amazing, just really does open you up to a whole new world of possibilities.

Sasha: 17:45

Now you have me really considering writing a book. Like one more thing to add to my list of things. So in that same aspect though, you know, we talked about people who are prequalifying themselves, or who are essentially getting to know that you're, you're essentially creating almost warm leads, right? In your experience, or when you've helped people write their books for business in particular have they seen like tangible gains from people who are like, oh, I read your book. And like, either now I'm on your email list, or I've become a client. Is it really visible, that kind of pipeline of people coming from a book that was written by you?

Megs: 18:29

It really is. And that that's another big thing that I work with my clients on. Specifically, each one of them one on one, is to determine where do you want the people that okay, they've read your book? Where do you want them to go? Do you want to funnel them into your email list? Is it something where you want to be posting online and telling people, hey, I've got this free ebook, download, get on my email list. And this is what I'm going to send out. And then do you want your call to actions to be funneling them into a pre recorded group program? Or your one on one services? Or is your ebook more of a 20 page guide? That you tell them hey, this is the cliffnotes version. If you want the full copy, visit this link and for $5.99 I'll give you the full book, you know. You have so many options. So that's the first thing we really want to focus on is not only what is your specialty, and what makes you different and amazing. Who do you work with? And where do you want them to go? And usually that's when we start figuring out that there are multiple smaller books or there are going to be different facets and different approaches we can take. I mean, I can use myself for example, the first book that I wrote for my business, I actually wrote it in less than six weeks while I was recovering from emergency back surgery because I was like what else am I gonna do stuck in this recliner chair? And within the first two months of when I wrote it, I published it online. Within the first two months, I had signed three new one on one clients for a total of $1000 in revenue, and it made $300 bucks in royalty payments. And that was just the first two months, I've now since published six other books of my own. And then over 40 books for different clients. And some of them are using their book as a launching pad to get podcast spots to get on stages as a speaker. I have a few that are using them for launching their new group programs to get people into those who are into masterminds. And some, their book is a bigger, heavier volume, that's really giving their personal life story and their professional story, to bring people in to work with them one on one to you know, achieve their own results. And so the amount of success that you have, and the amount of feedback, it really depends on how you want to position the book, how you're wanting to get it to them, whether it be a free download, in print all of the options, you know, D all of the above, and then what you want to funnel them into. But yeah, it definitely is worthwhile.

Sasha: 21:17

I mean, that makes so much more sense. And I think we don't, I haven't at the very least, we don't think about writing a book in that avenue, right .When it comes to business, especially for me in particular, which is weird, because I read a lot of books. One of my goals... I used growing up, I was a very big book reader, my mom, literally, her and I would sit at the dinner table and she'd have a book and I'd have a book and we ate together. But we're both reading books. And as I've gotten older, I purposely made it goals of mine to like read more, because I got off of it for a while with just scrolling through my phone. But a lot of the books I read are like trashy romance novels. And then I do like read, I'm very big into like socio-economic books, or like psychology type books, and I never really and I read a lot of business books, I don't really think about from their aspect of like, why they wrote a book. But some I have, like, you know, "We Should All Be Millionaires" by I forget Rachel, I forget what the last name is. But it's a really good book, it made me like look into her program that she had and figure out if that was something I wanted to do I just read a book. Her name is Julia, it starts with a B, I can't remember it. But it's like "Why Women Lead". And she interviewed all of these women CEOs and women who went through and got venture capital and things like that. And she was a CNN reporter. But it really made me think of like, look into some of the women that she detailed in, in her book about their businesses. And I was like, oh, this is cool. And so, but it never occurred to me that I could do something similar. Because I think as most people, and I'm not one to really have impostor syndrome like that. But I think we think that we don't have as much knowledge to share, as we probably do.

Megs: 23:07

I 100% agree. And I think that's where it comes back to that beginner mindset is. We assume that our expertise, our magic, what makes us special, it's not something we have to talk about, because everybody can do it. And I mean, I still have it myself when I sit down, like this, or when I sit down and have a call with a new client and I start telling them well, this is how you can probably, you know, this is how we can start your writing routine. And let's start to outline your book and fill things in and put flesh on the bones and, and they're just looking at me and I'm like, okay, okay, I apologize. Let's, go back. And let's start at the beginning. Because to me, that's just that's how my mind works.

Sasha: 23:51

And how if I were to come to you and say, like Megs, I want to write a book. I don't know what I want to write about, I just I know, I want to do this. Do you like help with that whole? Like, okay, let's talk about what you could write a book about? Or like maybe where you know, you have content already that you can pull from like, do you actually help with all of that? Or is it more like Megs, I want to write a book, here's what I want to write a book about. I already know. And so now you can help me.

Megs: 24:20

D all of the above. I really, I want to work with my clients the way that I like to be worked with. And so like when I'm hiring a professional for their help for their expertise, I want them to meet me where I am. And I get that that's kind of selfish, but and so I try to do that with my clients as well. And so we always hop on a call. And I don't consider those sales calls. I call them discovery calls because by that point, they know that I curse. They know that I'm obsessed with dinosaurs. They know that I'm probably going to have a dog barking or snoring.

Sasha: 24:56

I've seen your dog it looks beautiful. My son is also obsessed with dinosaurs.

Megs: 25:02

I have this T Rex on my wall. But when I'm on more professional calls, I will like move sideways. So I feel like by the time people book a call with me, they know who I am. They know what they're getting. And so I know that I don't have to go into it trying to be salesy or prim and proper, yeah. And then that call, that's where we really dig into it. And I just say, okay, you know, are you coming with an idea? Do you just know that you want to book for your business, and then we're going to figure out what it's going to be about and what format and and then I also help with the ghost writing part of it. So if they come to me and say, hey, this is my business, this is what services I offer. I would like a book, then we set up interview calls where I can pull as much of their genius out as I can. And then I go offline and write the book for them and send it back. So I do a little bit of a little bit of all of that.

Sasha: 25:59

That's awesome. i You've definitely given me a lot to think about. And I should have known that you like dinosaurs because I'm looking at your website now. And I see you have a little, I guess a T rex with an umbrella tattooed on you.

Megs: 26:13

I have that. And then I also have this one which he can growl at people when I get angry.

Sasha: 26:19

My son would absolutely love everything that's on you. I literally just painted his room this past weekend. Most of it is green, and like a very like just green. But we're gonna get like dinosaur wallpaper. And his fifth birthday was it was a dinosaur themed birthday. And we... I found a company that had life size. There's a person in it, but like a raptor that like roared and could walk around and play with the kids and, like, highlight most of the adults who are like more obsessed.

Megs: 26:58

My 41st birthday. Like, I need to get that info from you.

Sasha: 27:02

Well, yeah, you probably have more luck than I did. Because you're out west. I that because there was a company in California, that even would bring like dinosaur eggs and like what show fossils and things like that. And I really wanted them but I'm on the east coast. So I couldn't I couldn't do

Megs: 27:19

We do actually where where we live is right within this like dinosaurs zone. So there are sites, maybe 20 miles away, where they actually found a whole bunch of dinosaur egg fossils.

Sasha: 27:32

Wow, yeah. You definitely have given me a lot to think about personally, when it comes to writing a book and having a book written. Because until you pointed out like that I have 50 something episodes and probably 70 recorded at this point. You know, again, I don't think most people realize like, how much knowledge they actually have. And that that spoken word is it when you do put it on paper, it does become a lot more than what you think it is. And so it's it, we might already have the content there. I'm a big fan of repurposing content to begin with. So you probably have all of the stuff there already that you've given out and like little chunks and pieces here and there. And it's just a matter of pulling it together and figuring out why you want to do it or where you want it to go to that something like this could help.

Megs: 28:31

Well, and with the repurposing content. It's so important. I remember when I realized that, like, I think I'm a big deal. But not everyone online is seeing everything that I post ever. Yes, I say that all the time. Yeah, you know, and the people that are listening to the podcast may not be people that read a book and vice versa. Yeah, the people that are on my Facebook, they're not the Instagram people.

Sasha: 28:55

I literally say that all the time, like you I will write an email, blast, an Instagram, post, a Facebook post, all about the same thing, do a real all about the same thing. And it's because people consume content in different ways. Like there's people who do listen to podcasts. There's people who will prefer to and I don't do video podcasts, but they might prefer to watch this podcast versus listening to it. And then there's people who would prefer to read what I'm talking about versus listening to it. And so like, like I said, you probably already have all the things you need to pull into a book. It's just a matter of doing it.

Megs: 29:29

Exactly. Well, knowing that it's an option. It is something like you said you probably already have all of it there. It's yeah, it is possible. It is.

Sasha: 29:41

Well, I just want to thank you so much for coming on. I think they certainly given me a lot to think about I think it's it's definitely something that people should be considering in their business as a way to just help grow their business and at least position themselves as an expert in what they do. You mentioned before like if you know if you want to do more podcasts if you want more speaking, having author behind your name I still think brings some level of prestige, especially if you want to go into things like that. So if you want to learn more about Megs you can go to Megswrites. com and you'll be able to check out all the services that she has. And she has some great self-paced online coursesand all of her books, of course. I will put that in the show notes for you guys, so you can make sure you check her out. But Megs, thank you so much for being on the show. This was such a great conversation.

Megs: 30:31

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. This was absolutely a blast. I love it. Thank you.

Sasha: 30:37

Happening next week on the Strategy for Creatives podcast, I'm talking all about how to build a homepage that converts. You'll learn tips and tricks for building a website that makes people want to stick around, so make sure you tune in for next week's episode. Thanks for tuning in to the latest episode of the Strategy for Creatives podcast. I hope you enjoyed the insightful discussion, and hopefully found valuable tips that you can put in your business today. If you found the podcast helpful, I'd love it if you take a moment to rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps me make a better show and reach more listeners like you. And don't forget to share the podcast with your favorite business owner who could benefit from the strategies and insights I share on the show. New episodes come out every Tuesday, so make sure to subscribe and stay up to date with the latest trends and techniques for growing your creative business. If you want more don't forget to join the Strategy for Creatives Facebook group, or you can follow me on Instagram @strategybysasha. Have a topic suggestion or a question you want to hear answered? Email me at hello@strategybysasha.com Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next week with another episode of the Strategy for

Creatives: 31:45

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