How a Weekend Book Became My Best Marketing Asset

In this episode of Imperfect Marketing, I break down how writing a short, imperfect book became one of the most powerful credibility and lead-generation tools in my business—without aggressive promotion or chasing speaking gigs.

I share the real story behind my book Mastering AI and Communications and how it quietly opened doors to speaking, training, and workshop opportunities I never pitched for. We talk honestly about what worked, what I’d absolutely do differently, and how you can use content you already have to create a book that works for you long after it’s published

We cover:

How a Book Becomes a Silent Sales Tool

• Why my book landed speaking gigs without cold pitching
• How a physical book creates instant credibility—even if it’s not read
• The psychology behind why authors are trusted faster than “experts” without books

Using AI to Write Faster (Without Losing Your Voice)

• How I used AI to assist—not replace—the writing process
• Repurposing podcasts, workshops, emails, and trainings into book content
• Why AI helped me write the book in weeks instead of months

The Real Value of a Short, Imperfect Book

• Why your book doesn’t need to be long—or a bestseller—to be effective
• How a short book can outperform blogs, white papers, and lead magnets
• Why perfectionism is often the biggest thing standing in the way

What I’d Do Differently Next Time

• Why I’d take more time (and hire an editor)
• What I learned about publishing, design, and launch strategy
• How I’d approach a second edition with clearer goals

Key Takeaways for Business Owners & Experts

• Why credibility compounds when your content is tangible
• How books differentiate you in crowded speaking and consulting markets
• The importance of creating marketing assets that keep working long-term

If you’ve ever thought, “I could never write a book” or “It wouldn’t be perfect enough,” this episode will challenge that belief—and show you how to start small, stay strategic, and still create something powerful.

If speaking, training, credibility, or long-term visibility is part of your growth plan, this conversation will help you see books differently.

Ready to rethink how your content could work harder for you? Tune in and start looking at what you’ve already created through a whole new lens.

Looking to leverage AI? Want better results? Want to think about what you want to leverage?

Check and see how I am using it for FREE on YouTube.

From "Holy cow, it can do that?" to "Wait, how does this work again?" – I've got all your AI curiosities covered. It's the perfect after-podcast snack for your tech-hungry brain.

Watch here

Transcript

Welcome To Imperfect Marketing

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Hi, I'm Kendra Corman. If you're a coach, consultant, or marketer, you know marketing is far from a perfect science. And that's why this show is called Imperfect Marketing. Join me and my guests as we explore how to grow your business with marketing tips and, of course, lessons learned along the way. Now, what if something that you created once kept opening doors for you without you having to lift a finger or do a lot, right? I never say anything does it all for you because that's a lie. And anybody that tries to sell you something that will do it all for you without you having to do anything is full of baloney. Anyway, a book that I wrote, Mastering AI and Communications. If you've seen it, if you're watching the video, here it is. If you're just listening, go ahead and check it out. Um it lands me speaking gigs that I don't pitch for. I had 35 speaking gigs in 2025. Yes, that was a while ago. I have had, um, I think I've been booked for three so far in 2026 as of the time of this recording, which is not today. I want to talk a little bit about how it happened, what I did right, what I would definitely do differently, and just really help you figure out if this is something that could work for you. So I published the book, Marketing, AI, and Communications, back in February of 2024. Um, I'd been using AI quite a bit by that point. And I decided to give it a try. I had a guest on my podcast that talked about short books. I will link that in the uh description if you want to check out that episode. But he really talked about how much credibility that it would lend to me and the differentiation that it gives people. Now, the process was AI assisted. I took transcripts from podcast recordings, transcripts from online trainings I had done, workshops, handouts, emails, social posts, you name it. If I had done it on AI, and this is back in 2033, 2023, I basically loaded it all in as information for AI to take a look at. Talked through with AI a little bit about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to talk about it and what I wanted the book to achieve and who it was for. It helped me outline the book and then it helped me write it chapter by chapter by chapter. Now, notice I said helped me, didn't do it. Yes, it took me from probably probably would have taken me two to three times as long, I think, to really write it because I know my material so well. I knew what I wanted from it. I knew what I wanted it to look like. So again, I think it would have taken me about two or three times longer to write it. I was able to write it in a weekend with the help of AI. And working in that amount of time for three weekends in a row would not have happened. So it probably would have ended up taking me six months if I got around to it, because Lord knows I've been working on a new edition of this book, and I haven't been able to block enough time to make that happen. So again, I loved the experience of using AI for it. I did it for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to see what AI could do, right? And then two, I also wanted to see what the book publishing process was like and what was involved. And I really needed a giveaway for some of these speaking gigs that I was doing and the sponsors that sponsored these different conferences that I was speaking at and the workshops I was doing as a leave behind. And it really served well for that. So I want you to think about content that you have that maybe you've been sitting on that could become a short book, right? That's helpful. Think about that email series that you have or the social posts that you've been doing, or a three-part webinar, maybe that you've done, or even just one webinar, right? On a certain topic that you've done. Where are those transcripts? Where are those videos? Where can you get that content and help make it into a book? I have a friend of mine who has been sending out, I think they're like five-part series on different topics in, I'll call it management, leadership. And it could totally be a book, right? She's got a presentation that goes with each of these five-part series. They all tie together because they're all targeted for the same person. Why not combine them? Take that information and have AI help her write a book, right? She's thinking about it. We'll see what happens. But I think it's just a really neat way to think about it. Now, let's talk a little bit about what's happened since I published the book back in February of 2024, that I had no idea I was actually going to be publishing. Um, but a conference got a copy of my book from someone that I had given it to before. And they called me about speaking and running a workshop at their conference. I didn't apply. I didn't email them. I thought about emailing them, I think, for like two years now. And I didn't because I just didn't find the time. It was never a priority. I've got a like a million and a half excuses as to why I didn't do it and why I should have. But then I ended up getting booked to run a workshop at this conference. And I knew it was happening, and I knew that they covered AI at the conference, and I wanted to be that person because I had seen others that were not so good do it. And I wanted to really help the people that attended. There's another person that attended a conference that I spoke at, and they got a copy of my book because it was left on the chair. And two weeks or two weeks, two months later, they sent me an email through my website saying, Hey, I have an upcoming opportunity for you to speak. I would love it if you would come on out and speak to us about this. And they wanted me because I wrote the book, right? It gave me instant credibility. Yes, they saw me speak, which was fantastic. The book is what got me the inquiry. It didn't necessarily get me the speaking gig, right? In either case, because one, he had seen me speak. And in the case of the conference where they got the book, they didn't even read the book, right? They did do due diligence. It was mine to make a win or lose, right? They didn't just take someone's word for it that I wrote a book and that they wanted me to speak at the conference, but they knew that I'd written a book. They saw that I wrote a book and that I spoke and trained on it, asked me for a proposal, which I did, and then interviewed me. We did a workshop, and that's all she wrote, right? So I feel like there's a lot of opportunities. It's not the slam dunk piece of it. You still have to know your stuff. You still need to do things. AI can't do it all. But the book was a game changer, right? I'm not actively selling and promoting the book. I really just sort of hand it out wherever it's appropriate. And it's getting into the hands of people that can hire me to do speaking and training and amazing things. It does the selling for me so that I'm not spending a ton of time going online, looking up speaking gigs, things like that. Although I probably should and could, but I just haven't. People talk about things doing selling in your sleep and doing things overnight. And I agree a lot of things can help you with that. It's not hands off. None of it is hands-off, right? And I'm not saying that this is either, but this gives you so much content. And you can repurpose the content a million different ways. I love saving time. So when you have the book, you can take out the stories and just come up with so much more, many different things. Now I want to talk a little bit about this credibility piece, which is what the book really does give you when you write it. And that is like there's a psychology associated with people that write books. Yes, there's a lot of people that write books. Yes, there's a lot of people that are bestsellers. I get it, but they there's a different level of trust with someone that's taken the time to write a book on a topic that doesn't happen if you haven't done it. And it really positions you as an expert before you even open your mouth, which is pretty cool, right? Now you can definitely lose it if you open your mouth and don't sound like you know what you're talking about, but it's tangible, right? People can hold it, share it, pass it along, which is what's happening. And that's just the so exciting. It's um separates me from the other people that do what I do. So I still remember going to a conference where someone spoke on AI. Um, so this is back in 2024. I think this might have been March. So right after I wrote the book, I actually didn't bring enough copies of the book with me. And I should have brought a ton more because I think I would have locked in some other training if I had more copies of it. But the book itself gave me some credibility. The fact that I knew my stuff and that the speaker didn't, because I was asking him questions. I feel bad. I did, I was a mean person. I did put him on the spot because he was calling things like mid-journey discord, which Discord's the system that you can access mid-journey and just a lot of things that weren't right. And barely anybody in that room was using AI at the time. And it was just, I have to say, it was just, it was, you know, poor speaking on his part. And it was things were getting really, really competitive in the AI space for speaking and opportunities. And I was so lucky to have had this book because it really differentiated me when people were looking to bring in speakers or have someone come in and train and run a workshop, things like that. And I think that that's important. So I want you to think about how you're establishing credibility with new people, right? There's the no like and trust factor. Someone else was just telling me the other day, it's really the no love and trust factor. But that trust, that credibility, the fact that you write a book adds to that and really does help, right? It doesn't necessarily fix the no and love or no and like factor 100%. It can if they actually read it. Um, but is it working, right? Is whatever you're doing working to the level that you want it to work at? So let's just talk quickly about some things that I would do differently because there's definitely some things I did not do correctly with this book. Um I wrote it in a weekend. I would recommend taking a little bit more time than just a weekend to write the book. Um I didn't have an editor. I only had a proofreader. I didn't really work with a large company or anything like that because, again, I was just trying to figure out what the process was like. I found people on Upwork to help me with cover design and book layout, things like that. Uh, it wasn't terrible. I'd still use people off of Upwork again, um, depending on the goals of my book. If I was trying to become a bestseller, I think I would do it very differently. I would um plan the launch more carefully. I would be building up to the launch more often. I would be sharing behind the scenes photo. I did none of that because I had no idea if I was gonna even like this, if this was gonna work, how this was gonna all pan out, because I was sort of solving it through Googling questions, right? Now I'd ask Perplexity, but I don't actually think I was asking perplexity much back then. I learned so many things and things have changed. The book content isn't gonna change a ton, but I have wanted to do a new edition because of all the different things and all the different examples that I use and add and create nowadays. But I said I was gonna get a new edition out in 2025. Um, that did not happen. Um, but hopefully I'll be able to redo it here in 2026 and get a new edition out with just some added information. The information I had still is valid. The way the prompting works and the information to give the AI systems still all works. It's just a little bit, there's a few more examples and different ways to use it and things like that that I would that I want to change up. Now, I want to say again, this show is called Imperfect Marketing because marketing is not a perfect science, right? My book is definitely an example of imperfect, right? It's definitely not perfect. I haven't heard of any typos on it. Although I think at one point there was a typo on the back cover, which sort of freaked me out. I'm like, oh, I cannot believe I missed that. I think I did change the back cover again. But it doesn't have to be perfect to be effective, right? It doesn't have to be perfect to work to give you that credibility, to help you get those speaking gigs if that's something that you're looking to do. So if perfectionism is stopping you from creating something that is going to help you grow your business, grow your brand, grow your reputation, give you additional credibility, I want to challenge you to think about that differently. All right. So think about what it is that you could do differently. For me, a book was not about becoming a bestseller. If you want to become a bestseller, I've got a couple of different people you can interview and talk about that. It's really about creating for me a marketing asset that could keep working, a handout that could keep working for me. So think about what content do you already have that you could be repurposing, right? That's what we talked about. Podcasts, workshops, presentations, blog posts, right? Emails, social posts, whatever it is. Then I want you to think about, and we talked about this, we've talked about this many times before, but why do people always ask you about what are those things that they come to you for? What are those big problems that you solve, right? Um, that's your book. It's that simple and that hard, right? Start small. It does not have to be 300, 600, 1100 pages. I'm like looking to see. Mine's got a couple of blank pages. Mine's 85 pages. That's not a lot. And it's got some ads for like imperfect marketing podcasts in it and things like that, right? So there are ways that you can leverage different content and pieces. It doesn't have to be long. The only thing I would encourage you is to make sure it's long enough that it has a spine. Um, because for whatever reason, that makes people feel like it's more of a book than if it's just saddle stitch, which are those staples up the inside. So again, start small. It doesn't have to be long. It just has to be valuable. Now that's the key, valuable, right? To whoever your target audience is. And I think it's really important to think about it that way. What would be valuable to your audience? So you're not create creating another white paper or something, you're creating something more substantial that will give them more information and more insight to who you are and what you can do. And even if they don't read it, you get some credibility. So again, take inventory of your content, what you can do. I want you to ask yourself what people ask you. What are those questions you're always answering that are solving their problems? And start small. All right, start with one aspect of that and make it work. Let me know how this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions. I always want to help however I can. I learned a lot in my journey and I hope you will too. Thanks so much. Have a great rest of your day.