How One Business Owner Turned A Book Into Clients, Credibility, And Revenue

$48,000 in two weeks sounds like a book sales story, until you hear the truth: only $710 came from selling copies. What changed everything was treating the book as a marketing tool that drives real business revenue, not as the revenue itself. We share the behind the scenes strategy of how becoming “an author” can instantly upgrade your positioning, shorten the trust gap with prospects, and give you a clear reason to follow up without sounding salesy.

We talk through the mindset shift that makes a business book a lead magnet: credibility and visibility first, conversions second. You will hear how a single book can open doors to speaking engagements, workshops, podcast interviews, and media opportunities, plus how each chapter can become its own talk or training. We also get specific about launch execution, including using a network of local influencers, creating ready to post snippets, leveraging PR for TV and radio, and turning every appearance into reusable content for social media marketing and SEO.

Then we break down where the money actually came from: raising prices with confidence, signing new retainer contracts, selling website projects, booking branding shoots, and finally getting paid for trainings that used to be “exposure.” The bigger takeaway is long term: if you keep showing up after launch day, your book becomes a durable brand asset that keeps generating inbound leads, authority, and opportunities months later.

If you are writing a book to grow your business, build your personal brand, or land more speaking gigs, this is the playbook. Subscribe for more creator and entrepreneur strategies, share this with a friend who is stuck in perfection mode, and leave a review with your biggest book launch question.

Order "Market Like a Boss" at www.shelbysmarketingbook.com

Transcript

The $48K Claim Explained

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So I am going to be talking about how I made $48,000 in two weeks. It was not $48,000 in book sales. I will be upfront and honest with you. I have sold $710 in books. That includes my commission. That includes the um, like at my book signings, at events, things like that. The individuals that I have sold myself, also a lot easier. You make a lot more money that way. Um, books that I've sold on Amazon. So that gives you an overall picture because I'm very um transparent about that. And I wrote this book to make money through my business, not to make money through book sales. I mean, I would love that, right? That would be awesome. But that should not be your goal. So that's what we're gonna be talking about today. A little bit about me after what Jess said. Um, I have been a business owner since I was 18 years old. So I have been an entrepreneur for 14 years now. I did not go to college. I was like, I'm gonna make money. Um, yeah, so it was a hard road, but we got here finally, uh, 14 years later. But um I do like to put that on there because I feel like it's a little bit more credible of like, hey, listen, I have a lot of hustle behind me. I understand what it's like to overcome the hard times of my life, even the ones that keep happening over and over. I feel like it's like that season right now for some reason. Um, I've had the marketing broker for 10 years. Uh, this is February was my 10-year anniversary for my business. Yay! Um, I had like a really big party. Um, all my OG clients came. I had some new clients come, friends, family. It was a really, really great time. And it really allowed me to just understand and be proud of myself and show up for myself in that way. Because as you guys are obviously creatives, you're interested in writing books, it's hard to get past like what are people gonna think about me? What are they gonna say about me, right? And it's the same way with business ownership as well. So you've got to be proud of yourself. This is my baby girl Mackenzie Rose. She just turned five in January, going into kindergarten, and I include her in all of the things. She actually um loves seeing my books around the house, and like we'll read a couple of times. She'll like go to different pages and be like, Mom, read this page, and then she'll be like, You're on a book, that's so cool. So I'm really trying to teach her, like, hey, listen, you can do anything, the world is unlimited. You can literally do anything. So then the reason why I wrote Market Like a Boss, like I said, was to use it as a lead magnet for my business. So I met Jill through LinkedIn

Why The Book Was Written

SPEAKER_00 2:40

and then just came with Jill, and I freaking love both of them. Um, but Jill and I had a first our first conversation. She's like, Okay, you need to write a book. And I was like, uh, fun fact, already started. So I already got that one down. Yes, I do need to write a book, but I don't know how to get it out there. I don't know how to finish the book. I kept getting distracted. Um, I kept putting it off. And so when I hired Jill and Jess, they were an incredible accountability team. They really supported me and made me understand that yes, you're writing a book, yes, it's a huge accomplishment. Yeah, we're checking it off the list of like, you know, goals. But what is the goal of the book? And I'm gonna go through those in a minute. But the whole reason, and Jill educated me about this, was to use market like a boss as a lead magnet for the marketing broker. And it's incredible what people think about you as an author and um how much smarter they think you are, even though you knew all the information to literally write the book to for them to read, right? And so the reason why I wrote Market Like a Boss was to make money in my business and to gain more clients, gain more credibility. Again, we'll go through all the strategies in a minute. And that's when I realized it was more than just a book, was when Jill was like, I mean, I love that you love to write. That's cute. And I'm like, yeah, it is cute. But then also she's like, but you want to make money. I was like, yeah, I do. And then I'm like, how do I sell a book and how do I self-publish and all of that? Because it's very overwhelming if you're Googling or using Chat GBT trying to like help educate you on what this process is. And sometimes when you go through a publisher, it's gonna be uh months or years before you actually get accepted into it, you know, that kind of stuff. So it was really simplified, and um, I just wanted to shout you ladies out because y'all are amazing and you helped every step of the way. So thank you so much. And like thanks for letting me share my story today because I really hope to encourage you guys, and especially when if you've already started your book to finish your book, and if you haven't started your book, I want to encourage you to start your book because once you start, that's all it takes. That's just the first step you need. Just start, make an outline, do your thing. Okay, I'm not educating about books. Sorry, here we go. We're gonna go back to my topic here. So here was the misconception. A book makes money through book sales. That's what I thought a book was for. Yeah, I'm gonna because you see all these like um number one listed books. Oh, this like celebrity has a book and she sold millions

The Book As A Marketing Tool

SPEAKER_00 5:20

of copies. Like, I wanted to be that, but then I found out real fast that that was not the actual reality. The reality is the book itself is not the product, it's a marketing tool for you and your brand. So, also I forgot to mention my goal is to speak. Hello, hey, like I am right now. My goal is to get on stages, my goal is to do workshops, to educate. That's what I feel called to do. And so I am using that book to educate, to get in front of people because it gives you credibility. So that's why I wrote there. It gives you credibility and visibility. So people on Amazon are now seeing market like a boss, and they're like, wait, who's Shelby? Who's this girl? Why does she say she's a boss? Well, I want to learn how to market like a boss. I'm a boss, I feel like I am. So it's building credibility for me. Also, whenever I send my speaker one sheet to people, or I'm trying to get to uh speak at a conference, I say, I am an author of Market Like a Boss on my LinkedIn. I have it on my bio, author of Market Like a Boss. So that way people know she is knowledgeable, she is credible, so much so she wrote a freaking book about it, and people are actually buying it. Also, it's great for positioning myself for speaking opportunities and not just to get on the stage, but this book right here, I literally have 10 chapters. That means I have 10 topics that I can speak about at any given time. That's 10 opportunities for someone to say, Hey, this is a topic that we want. We're gonna choose from your book, and I can make an entire 45-minute, one hour, 30-minute, whatever they need me to do out of that one topic. Because ultimately, the book isn't everything I know. It's just little crumbs. So that way then people are like, oh, wait, wait, wait. I really don't know how to do SEO. I really don't know how to create my social media. So I give just enough information where they can start the process and then ask more questions later because at the end of the book, they have that opportunity to book the consult with me. I also built brand authority and client trust. It's interesting how I use it in sales now. I will take my book everywhere with me. If I'm going to a sales meeting trying to get a new client, I've got my book in my hand. If I am at an event like I was last week, it was a women's showcase event, I had a stack of my books there, handing them out left and right because I wanted them to get into the right hands to help people. Because ultimately, when our my intention is to help you and I'm giving you a book, I'm giving you a free resource, it builds that credibility. Just like he was saying earlier. You have to give a little bit of free so that way people trust you and understand that listen, this person actually is looking out for my best interest. It also helps with my brand authority. The day that I published my book, it was incredible online. Um, and people really responded well. My current clients responded well. They're like, oh my god, that's so cool. My marketing girl, she has her own book now. Check it out. A lot of my friends were saying how cool it was. I kept it a secret the whole time. The only I only told like a few people. I didn't tell many. And the reason why I did it is because I was so afraid that if I told too many people, that means I was actually gonna have to freaking do it, right? So I wanted to make sure, like, I gotta get it done, and then I'll tell everyone. And so I learned a lot of lessons in that when it came to marketing the book itself, because I could have done a lot better job. You're like, wait, you're a marketing girl? Like, yeah, I know. I did have help marketing my book because I didn't really quite wrap my brain around it because it was my own baby, right? And so it's one of those things where I could have done a better job, but once I got it done, I was like, hey girl, yeah, I did that, you know. And so this next book that I'm already working on called Hustle Like a Boss, look at me. I'm telling all of you guys I'm working on a book. That's right. And so it's more of the entrepreneurship journey. It's more of my story, the mindset shifts that I've had over 14 years in the different seasons of my life. So I started out with a marketing book. I'm using that as a tool for my business. And guess what? This next book is gonna be more about Shelby, my personal brand. How can I get on those stages to share with entrepreneurs, to share with people that are scared to take that next step, to scare like scared to quit their job or scared to start that business. So I there's gonna be two different purposes, but I started with the lead magnet because it was a lot less scary. It was a lot less hard to write, too. It's harder to write about times that I went through that I don't really want everybody to know, but they need to know it so that way they can also get through it as well. All right, let's talk about these goals that I had. So, my goals when I first talked to Jill and Jess, I wanted to build authority in my industry. There's so many marketing people out here, right? Especially digital marketing people. Everybody thinks they can make a social media post and then

Goals And Surprises After Publishing

SPEAKER_00 10:36

they start their own quote unquote digital marketing agency. But I've been doing this for 14 years, 10 years in this business. So I wanted to build that authority as the number one marketing agency in Arkansas. That's where I'm at. So that was my goal. I also wanted to create trust faster. You walk into a sales meeting with a book in your hand and you're like, hey, this is for you. If you don't hire me, please read it, see if you can apply it to your own life. Or I wanted people to know that about me before I even went into the sales meeting. I wanted them to know, like, oh, I'm gonna talk to her because she's an author. She's already shared her information. That then goes to me standing out for my competitors. I don't know any of my immediate competitors here that has a book about marketing. Um, and so that automatically makes me better, right? And also, I wanted to open speaking opportunities, give to potential clients, like I just said, and then create a long-term brand asset. I don't know if you guys are familiar with John Maxwell. He's amazing. And I um have followed him my whole life. I've read a lot of his books. I just got to see him in person a couple of weeks ago. It was like a fangirl moment. It was amazing. But that's exactly what he's done with his books. He has created a long-term brand asset of leadership because that's what he writes his books about. It's all about leadership. So his first book that he wrote, I believe it was in the 80s, maybe 70s, the first book that he wrote back then still has valuable information because he has built that long-term brand asset. So if you're gonna write one book, I recommend to go ahead and think about what your next one's gonna be because you're gonna start building your brand and what's your goal on the other side of that. These are the things that I did not expect, which is what we're gonna talk about today. I had immediate business growth, like immediate business growth. The next week I had phone calls. I published my book in October on October 31st of last year, 2025, if you're watching the recording. And I um saw immediate business growth. I had faster sales conversions. Can we get an um amen on that one? I had increased pricing confidence. This is something that Jill is so good at. You need to have her on your team because she will tell you you're not charging enough. You're worth a lot more than what you're what you think you are. You need to increase your pricing because then that increases your clientele, as in like the level of clientele that you want. I had more inbound leads, which means what? Less cold calls, less me trying to convince people to work with me. And that led people to already trusting me before the meetings. So those are the things that I didn't expect. You can see like the goals and the things I didn't expect, they kind of line up together, but they're a little bit different than what I was expecting at the beginning of all this. So let's discuss my book launch. This was so fun. Um, again, I was really scared of the marketing aspect because I've never marketed a book launch before, and it was my own, right? Like whenever um I'm doing stuff for myself, I'm like, oh, I don't know if I'm doing it right. I want it to

Launch Strategy And Media Momentum

SPEAKER_00 13:56

be perfect. So what I did is I found 40 book influencers, y'all. It was the best idea. So I had 40 people that I knew had influence in my area. I told them about the book a month before. So they felt very privileged to know that Shelby is publishing a book. How freaking cool is that? I told them what the book was about. I sent it to them for them to either read or not read. And when I sent it to them, I also included um little snippets that they can post. So I told them that if they say yes to this opportunity, they have to take a selfie, they have to do a video, they have to post it to their story, TikTok, or Facebook or Instagram. So I gave them options and I gave them all the resources that they needed. They could have copied and pasted exactly what I sent to them. Um, I asked them, hey, pull out something from the book that really stood out to you and your business. These people were friends, they were um uh not, I don't think I did any family members, but did do some friends. And then I also had business owners that I didn't work for yet. So I wanted them to feel like they were getting something ahead of everyone else as well because I was trying to use it as a sales tactic with them. So as you can see here, I did a couple of posts. I did my big announcement right here. I did a whole video about it talking about being um a book author and then a little bit about why I wrote it. Kept it very short. I think video is um the number one way to stay personal on social media as a social media expert. So if you are gonna launch your book, I definitely recommend doing a video because yeah, we can take a picture like the one on the left. That was later that day. You can take a picture with it, but people want to see you, they want to hear you, what they want to know your story. We need to be as authentic as we can. So that way that really helps with your branding and with um building your business behind things, behind the closed doors. So over here, this was at my book launch uh or book signing, and then I was on this is one of my TV interviews, and then this is my team on the bottom left. We all took a picture together and then a little speaking opportunity. But in the first 90 days, I had five TV interviews. Um, this is because I had a PR agent, by the way. One of my friends is a PR specialist, and so she um has connections with all the local TV stations and radio stations here. And so um I had five TV interviews. That means showing my face. It was in the middle of the afternoon, and you may think, like, well, no one's really on like watching the news. Well, the best part is the news posts everything to social media, they post everything to their website. So, from a marketing standpoint, you may not have had those live views in that moment, but what I had was B-roll to use because my assistant was behind the scenes doing all the videos. I also had um the credibility of being on a news station's website. They also shared it to social media and tagged my business. Another thing is, is some of them actually let me share information about marketing broker. And she told me that was like a big deal. She was like, they must feel comfortable with you because they don't normally let you know businesses give free shout outs because you know, I wasn't like paying for it or anything like that. So what I was doing is offering information again for free. I was offering resources for free to their listeners, to their watchers. So that way that's why they had me on because they're like, okay, yeah, this is gonna be valuable for them. And then once you get up there, you get comfortable. You may be like, oh no, no, I don't want to do that, I don't want to do that. Just get uncomfortable, guys. That is how you're gonna grow as a person, as a brand, as an author, as a business. Get uncomfortable and do the things that may be a little weird, may make you feel weird. You may totally bomb it, but you know what? You freaking did it. You got out there and you tried. Also, right here in the green outfit. So I will go around to random um meetings, like rotary meetings. I will go to civic organization meetings. This was a uh realtor meeting, and they said, Hey, we saw that you wrote a book. Do you mind bringing some for our attendees? I think they have like 15 people there, and I was already gonna be at this coffee shop for a meeting. I was like, win, win, win. Yes. So they let me say a little bit of a spill about the book. I got it into 15 real estate agents' hands. They were brand new realtors. So they need social media help. They need marketing help. And it allowed me to sew into them for a few minutes, and then they also can use my book as a resource. Again, I wasn't, I'm not greedy with my books. I will hand them out all day long because you want to get it into people's hands as much as possible so that way it builds your credibility and visibility. So I talked about the 40 or no eight podcasts and radio interviews. I loved what he was talking about podcasting. It is so important to get out of your comfort zone and just freaking do it. This was just in the first 90 days. I still do two to three podcast interviews every month. I will search them out. I'll make sure my values align with their values, and then I will make sure that I am prepared to speak about something different on each one. I'm very conscious of like when I speak about um marketing and stuff, and people, let's say people are following me, right? They're like, oh, she's on here, and oh, she's on there, because I'm sharing it to my social too. I don't want to talk about the same thing over and over and over again. And he may have said that earlier. I popped on at the very end of his um talk. But I don't want to say the same thing over and over and over again. So what I do is I just go to my resource, my book, and I talk about, okay, let's do chapter two, okay, let's do chapter five, okay, let's do this. Because that is what people are wanting. They want to be educated. Now, some podcasts you have like true crime, they just want to know who killed who, right? Y'all are probably lots of true crime people here. But I like to listen to educational stuff, and I want to make sure I'm providing education through podcasts. So it's so and pod match is a great way to get podcast interviews. Like use the resource because it is fantastic and it will help with your book. You're being able to reach people, you don't even know who's listening, honestly. When it comes to analytics and things like that with podcasts, it could be so many people all across the country, all across the world, and they're listening about your book. They're listening to you, and you're a writer. So it just makes sense that you're gonna be a great interviewer. Just get into that mode of writing whenever you're speaking. All right, so I talked about my 40 book influencers. I also got 10 local speaking engagements, which allowed me to get into like in front of people. It allowed me to um speak to people that I wouldn't have normally been able to because I led with my book. I'm like, hey, I'm an author, would love to um talk about this with your group, opposed to, hey, I'm CEO, the marketing broker, I'm trying to grow my business. Can I come talk to your group? That's more of a sellsy pitch, right? Instead, I'm like, how can I offer information to your group and make sure that it is valuable to them? And lastly, I hosted a local book signing. I am so that girl that throws my own birthday parties. Can I get a what? Okay, like screw all my friends. Like, no one's ever gonna throw a party. So I'm just gonna throw a party and I'm gonna invite everybody to it. So that's what I did with the book signing. I was like, I'll freaking host my own book signing. I will do that in a heartbeat. So I did this whole thing. I had a local hotel. I knew her, I knew the manager. She allowed us to use the facility. There was live music there already that was already scheduled for that night. It was by a bar, so people were drinking. I made it a more networking event. So I'm getting um great videos, I'm getting awesome photos with these people. I'm signing books left and right. I'm getting people into this locally owned um hotel, supporting a local artist. It was just a whole thing. It Just everything worked out so great. Do not shy away from throwing your own book signing. Like, be proud of yourself. It's okay. And then if you can partner with local people, that's even better. And you're helping them as well as yourself. So let's talk about where did this $48,000 come from? You're probably like, can you please stop talking about everything else? I just want to know about the money. Absolutely. Let's do it. Okay, so in the first two weeks, as I said, Jill's fantastic at this. She convinced me to increase my pricing for my digital marketing

The Real Sources Of $48K

SPEAKER_00 22:31

services, which means which means that I'm sorry, my door went off. Okay, so which means that all of my uh current clients, I doubled it. And then I um the new ones that I wrote on, the new ones that I uh signed on, they actually um went to that price as well. So I was no longer down here, I was playing up here, and I didn't think that I was able to play up here before. Instead, with Jill, because she's amazing, she's like, You're amazing. Look what you've done. You're like so successful, you have a book, and so it allowed me to be like, the this is my pricing now, and if you want to do work with me, you have to pay that. And people freaking did. So that's the best part. The next one is I signed on eight new retainer contracts. So it's already hard to sell um social media to people, but whenever they saw like the credibility and the things that I already knew in my book, they're like, Yes, I'll definitely do business with you. I had people that I had sent proposals to like weeks prior actually come back and want to do work with me. Isn't that freaking cool? If you're in sales, you understand how hard it is with the follow-ups and making sure that people um know all the information and what's their budget and all this. And I had people come back to me, reach out to me and say, hey, listen, I want to do work together. I also sold three new website projects, which is a big lick in itself. And I am a professional photographer, so I had five new branding shoots, and then I had three paid training workshops. That was another thing I was doing prior to the book. I was doing a lot of free stuff. Um, people would be like, hey, will you just come out? We'll post about you on social media. That's like the worst. Like, yeah, sure, I'll just come out and give my time for one measly social media post, you know, and it's all about how do you value yourself, how do you value your business and also your services that you offer. So these are the things that helped me in the first two weeks. This is where the $48,000 came from. It was not from selling a lot of these books. Like I said, $710 is all I've sold since October 31st. Don't, I don't know how many months that was. Y'all can do the math on that. So, however many months that is, that is how much I've sold. But instead, my business has continued to grow. So, think about this was just the first two weeks, and I'm still using this as a marketing tool and a resource to continuously build my business in itself. So the first six months after my book published, I hired five new employees, which was kind of a big deal, right? Um, I nominated, I was nominated for best of the best marketing firm in Arkansas. I celebrated my 10-year anniversary, and I've actually tripled my sales in the first half of this year alone. So if you're watching this back, we're almost to June, so that's six months. I've tripled my sales this these six months versus last year's first six months. Can y'all see like the huge difference there? So, yes, I made 48,000 in 14 days of business sales, but I've continued to grow that. I've stacked on top of it, I've not stopped, I've used the momentum, I've used it as a tool, I've used it as a resource. Thank you, Angela. Love that. I've used it and I continue to use it because I took a lot of time, I took a lot of effort. I actually wrote a book, guys, and then I'm using it to my advantage for my business. I don't know if you guys are writing business books, maybe you're writing books about yourself to get on stages. I'm not really sure why, which we can talk about after I'm done through all this, because I would love to hear that. But whatever your goal is, as um, I guess your brand or your business, whatever that is, I want you to keep your eye on that and to know that it is possible to use it as a resource to get to that goal. Even if it doesn't have anything to do with your book, I want you to know that you can do it. Okay. Next, here we go. So these are the ways that I use my book as a marketing tool today. This is very important. So, like I said, made a lot of money at the beginning, but you got to keep going. You can't just stop, right? So on social media, I do a lot of behind the scenes content. I will um lots of b-roll, which if you don't know

How The Book Sells Daily

SPEAKER_00 26:54

what b-roll is, that's like uh videos where you just see people walking around. They're not like talking directly to the video, right? So lots of b-roll for that. I love using quotes from my book because that's very important. When I'm marketing on the marketing broker Facebook or Instagram or TikTok, I'm using quotes from the book. Sometimes I'll get my book out on my podcast because I have a podcast too. I get my book out on my podcast and I'm reading from it. So I'm not only just showing it, I'm reading from it because that shows that I truly believe in what I wrote. I also use it for educational videos, which also can be turned into the podcast too. So, hey, listen, in chapter one of my book, this is what I'm talking about. And then I go through it. It's okay to give it away for free. I'm just gonna give it to them anyways, right? And then I use author in my branding. All my LinkedIn stuff says author, all of my speaker one sheets say it. Um, my even my personal Facebook page says it. I use it on everything. When I introduce myself now, I am like, hey, I'm Shelby, CEO of the marketing broker. Also, author of Market Like a Boss. Such an easy way to like get into a conversation, especially in a networking event. And they're like, oh my God, what's Market Like a Boss? I'm like, you know what? I have it right here. Let me just show you. I pull it out of my of my purse. Here, let me just show. Would you like this? You could have, you know what, let me sign it for you too. What was your name again? And I'm over. And the whole time they're like, oh my God, this is so cool. So it's so easy to use as a marketing tool. I bring my books to um events. I use it as, like I said, as a conversation starter. I will send a book to a lead and business partners as well, people that I want to work with. I'll send it to them, like, hey, I just wanted to send this to you, um, especially around like Christmas time. Like, I think this would be cool. Maybe you can hand it off to a college student or maybe your admin assistant or something like that. Maybe someone can use it. And I also leverage it for podcasts and interviews as well. So I've done a lot of podcasts and TV interviews. And so now I'm taking all of that. I've already posted it once on social. So now my marketing strategy for the remainder of the year is to then repost everything in a different way and then continue to get more podcast interviews because I am able to cross-reference or backlink is technically what the SEO term is there, on their social media, on their website, so that way my brand and my name is out there. And sales meetings, I'll always include it in consultations. One of my favorite things to do whenever I'm in a consultation, they ask a question. Let's say it's about um SEO. SEO, S E O is um search engine optimization. Huge topic right now because AI, Google, well, before I wrote the book, but anyways, now they are changing a lot of things. So they're like, hey, let's learn more about SEO. I'm like, you know what? Let me pull out my book here. I pull it out to the chapter about SEO. This is what I think you should read right now. I'll give it to them. My chapters are so easy to read, they can read it right there in the meeting. And I'll be like, after you, like, do you have any questions? Or because if they can read it, comprehend it themselves, I am no longer the salesperson trying to convince them to work with me. I'm like, no, here's a credible source. Like, you should read this. Like, let me know. And another um is I position myself differently than my competitors, and that's the best or biggest thing when it comes to uh marketing yourself is making sure that you are positioning yourself differently. So you're better, right? We're all better. We always want to be number one. Okay, so our lesson number one here. These are lessons I learned as a first-time author. And I wanted to go through these a little quick. And this would be a really great opportunity to think of some questions from an author perspective. I know I've talked a lot about using my book as a marketing tool, making money outside of the book, but these are legit lessons as a

First Time Author Lessons And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 30:53

first-time author that I struggled with because of my own personality and my own way of thinking. The first one is done is better than perfect. Jess can tell you that I really like to go through every word of the book. Jess is like, listen, love you, really do, but also let's stop reading it. It's awesome. I'm like, I don't know. I feel like this word could be like this word. And she's like, it's amazing. Stop overthinking it. Done is better than perfect. And as a perfectionist, I don't like to think that way because I think everything should be perfect, but it's not true. So getting it done is good. I also thought that I needed more experience. Why did I think that 10 years in business was like the the like all-time high? Well, now people are gonna believe me. I've been in business for 10 years. Well, I turned 30 y'all a couple years ago. I turned 30 and I was like, Well, I made it. People should take me seriously now. I'm officially an adult. So it's like, I don't know what it is, but I thought that I needed more experience before I wrote a book. That's crazy. You don't need more experience, you need knowledge, you need skill, you need to share your gift with people. And like I said, I read it too many times because I started to doubt it. In fact, I have not, I'm I'm gonna, I'm gonna admit, I have not read my book in an audio version yet. Why? Because I know I'm gonna read something to go, man. That should have been this. What was I thinking? But I need to do the audio version. Y'all need to tell me that, okay? Just put it in the chat. Like, stop being a wimp. Do it. You're amazing. So the second lesson is marketing the book matters more than writing the book. And obviously, as marketing, I 100% believe this, but it overwhelms me. Again, I didn't want to actually tell people about it because I had to finish it. So hire someone to help you with the strategy and help you with the marketing of it and use the content on the inside. Give it away for free, just like he said earlier. Number three, your story has so much value. It doesn't matter what you're writing about, it has value. You're gonna help somebody else no matter what. It could just be one person, and I freaking count that as a win, y'all. It could be one person that you're helping, and that is 100% a win. The second people hear that I wrote a book, the conversation shifts. And it's kind of weird. It's like I've had conversations prior to the book, and then after, they're like, oh my god, you're so knowledgeable, you know so much. And I'm like, bro, I knew it beforehand. Like, of course, yes. Like, how do you think I didn't just like randomly write a book? Like, I knew all this years before, like, this is years of practice. And also, last one, it creates opportunities long after launch day. So when I start to market hustle like a boss, and when I start to write more of hustle like a boss, don't think I ain't gonna piggyback market like a boss, y'all. I'm definitely going to and be like, y'all, I already taught you how to market yourself. So now I'm gonna teach you how to hustle. I'm gonna let you know it's not easy. You gotta grind, you're gonna have to shift your mindset, you're gonna have seasons that suck. But you know what? I've already taught you how to market. But now let's get that hustle behind it. Because in this, it is hustle and strategy. See, we're smart. Me, Jill, and Jess, we got it. It's all in the subtitle. Hustle says it in the subtitle. All right, the next one is this is the business impact of being an author. I feel like I've talked about this a lot, but I just wanted to make sure you guys understand the importance of this. People are buying confidence. So becoming an author, it gave me another level of credibility. People buy confidence. And you know how cool it is to like walk around and be like, yo, you know, last night I was on a panel, a local panel here with two other incredible women. And when they introduced me, um, they of course in my bio put author of Market Like a Boss. Immediately people were like, Oh, that's so cool. And I'm like, Yeah, it is. That's really cool. So it's elevated my personal brand, increased my authority online, it helped clients trust me faster, opened the speaking opportunities, created new revenue streams, which is the speaking, the paid workshop, things like that. And it also has made marketing myself so much easier. And we're on the last slide, so make sure you get your good questions out because I want to answer all of them. So, are you ready to actually write a book? Are you ready to publish a book? So I want you to start before you feel qualified. These are literally my like this was my life when I met Jill and Jess. This was where my head was. Like, am I ready? I don't really know. I started before I felt qualified to write a book. I wrote from experience and not perfection. I actually solved real problems with my book. And I always thought about okay, who's gonna be reading this book? That's how I wrote it. Who do I want to read this book? So I wrote it in a way that they could understand. I did not do the build your marketing plan before publishing. So maybe I did lie a little bit. I did work on it. I wrote the book, but then I had a friend that helped me with my strategy and I was a little too late to the game. Lesson learned, but hustle like a boss is gonna be a little bit different. And do not disappear after launch day. When you launch your book and you are ready to put it out there in the world, do not disappear. I need to see you more frequently over and over and over and over. If you're like, I hate social media, get over it. Hate to be on TV, don't care. I hate to talk about in front of people, I don't care. If you're gonna publish a book, do not disappear after launch day. There is nothing worse than having a book sitting out on the internet and nobody knows about it. That's that's that's like terrible. You wrote, you've spent hours, you've perfected it, you've put energy into it, and then you're like, okay, well, I hope people can find it. Don't do that. Like, don't disappear after launch day. Lean into that momentum, lean into that energy and make it successful, whatever that looks like for your life in that moment. And lastly, please scan this QR code. You can purchase Market Like a Boss on this QR code. You can also follow me on all the socials, and then 55free marketingideas.com. I know Jill, you'll probably say this too, so whoever wants to pop that in the chat. 55free MarketingIdeas.com is in my lead magnet from the book. Um, but it is a fantastic way to understand how to market yourself, market your book, market your business. And it's a lot. 55 is a lot of ways to know about stuff. I'll leave this up here for like a minute and then I'll have to unshare my screen so I can see all of your lovely faces again and be able to answer your questions. Okay, so BOSS Babe is my brand. Um, everything that I've ever done for my business has always had BOSS in it. Um, it was an acronym that me and my coach came up with like eight years ago, and it stands for bold, opportunistic, strong, and service-minded. And um, I go into that into the book itself. So that's why boss is included in both of those titles. And then we knew that marketing was gonna be the topic of the book, and so we kind of collectively came up together like market like a boss to keep it on brand and to make it easier to write more books after as a series, in a way, like they're still like kind of together. Um, but yes, that's exactly where that came from. It was a mindset shift that I had, and it was pre-COVID. I was struggling in my business, and my uh coach said, You need to come up with an acronym that you need to look at every freaking day. I've got it on my phone, I've got it on my computer. If I'm ever in a in a moment that I don't feel confident in myself, I'm like, girl, you're a boss, remember? And it's a great speaking opportunity as well. So I did a whole speaking engagement a couple weeks ago about just the acronym BOSS, and then I got to tie in my book with it too. I would say I order 50 to 100 at a time, depending on what I have coming up. So of um, I ordered like a hundred, so I'm probably down to like 40, and I'm probably I need to order some more just because it seems to come in waves, you know. Like I need to hand out more. But I would say anywhere between 50 and 100, depending on how fast um you're handing them out or what you have going on. I even left it at a TV station because there was a bookshelf behind where she sits every day, and I was like, I mean, where's case they're gonna tell me now? Right? So I put it in the front now. Every day, everyone that's watching that TV station sees it. I'm telling you, leave it at coffee shops, airplanes. This is one of the tricks they told me about. Leave it in co-working spaces, things like that, so people can connect. And I also I forgot to tell you about this. I also have bookmarks. It's gonna be backwards, sorry. But, anyways, it's the Boss Marketing Club. This is a free marketing club that I have for people if they want to connect with me and learn things. And um, I put these everywhere too, and I put them in my book whenever I give it away. So it's a great idea to do a little bookmark.