Turn Expertise into Influence: Writing a Book That Converts With Annalisa Summea

0:01 Welcome to The Coaching Equation, brought to you by Empire Partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting-edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome to the Coaching Equation Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Vampire Partners, alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop.

0:47 And in today's episode, we are digging in with a very special guest on the subject of books. We're not just talking about reading. We're not just talking about writing. We're talking about marketing. This is a game-changing topic for coaches and entrepreneurs. And we're talking about but also converts readers into clients. Now, our guest today is Annalisa Semea, and Annalisa has worked in writing and publishing for decades. She writes for several local, national, and international publications. She's written and produced sketches for a Telly Award winning CBS television show.

1:30 She and her work have been featured on Huffington Post Live, PBS, The New York Times, The Associated Press, as well as several different podcasts, radio and television programs. And in addition to having written her own book, which has been a recipient of multiple awards, Annalisa has taught writing around the world. She's spoken at writing conferences in New York, London, Paris, Boston, and beyond. And now you're going to get her insights on turning your personal experiences and knowledge into a powerful tool for influence and growth. This is episode 33 of the Coaching Equation Podcast. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop.

2:15 What's up, dude? What up, what up? And if you're watching, you can see we have a beautiful face sandwiched in between these two ugly mugs. Annalisa Simea is with us today. What's going on, lady? Nice to see you. Thanks for having me. We are so excited to have you here. And we're going to be digging in on a topic that I think is so relevant right now. I think for a while, there was the thought that books kind of disappeared and they weren't really the thing anymore. And nothing could be further from the truth. And we're going to really dig in on books today with somebody who knows what the hell they're talking about. But Annalisa, I'd love to start here.

2:57 Tell me, and this is going to be really fun for us because I've never asked you this before. Where did the obsession with writing and books come from for you? How much time do we have? The story has always been really important to me. I was a storyteller... probably before I could write. And as soon as I could write, I was writing down stories. And there's just something about the way that story allows us to express our deepest feelings, our silliest feelings, our saddest feelings, our most horrific feelings, whatever it is, it's very cathartic. We can really dig deep. And this connection that can happen, connection is my most important value.

3:42 And this connection that can happen over space and time, you know, you can read something that the aging Greeks composed and still get value from it. That's amazing to me. It's a time machine. It's almost like a miracle. And I just love that phenomenon. And to be able to help authors to not only find what they want to say and find their voice, but to share that and to have an impact and to create that connection over space and time. That just gets me going. I just, I love that. I loved that as a kid for my own stories, getting out my friends' stories. And I love that in the same way today. Was it that early that you realized, I don't just love telling stories or writing stories or creating stories, but I love helping others to draw it out as well?

4:30 Was it that early that you realized that? I think so. Little known facts about Annalisa. I was published for the first time at nine. What? Yeah, I won a statewide poetry contest. I couldn't even see over the podium at the governor's mansion to read my poetry. I brought up my penmanship award the other day. You never mentioned that you published at nine. What the heck? You just totally went up to me. I mean, there we go. I think I was still picking boogers and putting them on my wall at nine. It's definitely not being published. Well, if we were neighbors, I would have helped you write a story about that, Ryan.

5:10 You would have. A story. Hey, I at least named it. I called it my booger farm on my wall. Yeah, the booger farm. Wow. That might be a story. Yeah, okay. All right, wow. Where do we go from there? I don't know. Yeah, this is a start point. Okay, so published at nine. Yes, yes. And so, you know, I think at about that time, I started helping – my friends, you know, kids on the playground start to express themselves to feel comfortable expressing themselves. I started writing a whole lot and sharing my writing. So it's something that I was born to do. It's my purpose on this planet.

5:52 And I feel my highest version of myself when I am, when I'm telling a story, when I'm in story, when I am expressing and when I'm helping others express. That is beautiful. And one of the things I want to ask you about this, because I think anybody who just listened to this, and maybe it's not that books are your thing, but there's something else that is your thing. And I don't want to take too much of a right turn here, but I think this is a good moment for people to hear. If you're listening to this right now, and that just resonated with you, and you're thinking, man, there's that thing in my life that I feel that way about. Let me ask you a question regarding how you kind of got your start you know, really being able to kind of help people in the way that you do today.

6:35 You are one of our clients here at Empire. And so I'm curious, what was it that got you into taking your knowledge and your expertise and your love and your gift and turning that into something, you know, where you were teaching and helping others to do the same? So I was really born to do two things, to teach and to write. And I have been blessed beyond belief to do those two things my whole life in one way or another at the same time. And this chapter where I get to help people to write and publish books is the next natural iteration of that.

7:17 I have spent years publishing myself. I wrote for television. I've written screenplays. I've published that. poem when I was nine years old. I've published poetry since. And so because I had been publishing for a long time, very early on in my career, in my early 20s, people would ask, hey, you know, you know how to publish. Can you help me? And so it was always this side project where I had helped a lot of people along the way figure out how to publish a short story here or send a book to an agent there. And there was just this moment, I don't know if anyone can resonate with this, where I just knew that it was time to leap into this next project, which was to help other people to find that voice that, that all of these, I had taught children to read and I had done all of these amazing things in my life, but to impact a grown person, who has a little child inside of them that has had a story their whole life that they wanted to tell and didn't know how or didn't know where to send it.

8:19 Watching that child light up and really come to life inside that adult is just a phenomenal experience to be a part of that dream coming true, of that idea coming to fruition, of the impact being created. And I mean, that's a little intoxicating for me, frankly. And I just knew it was time to leap and really help others to do it. And I think it was you, Ryan, who said to me at one point in my life, you know, burn the boats and I burned the boats and here I am. I love that. And you know what? You did that. And since then, unbelievable things have happened for you and for your clients and all of the things. So I know I'm grateful that you decided to do that.

9:02 And I know a lot of other people are as well. hear what was kind of a moment for you there because we love talking about the entrepreneurial journey around here and you came from a career i mean you were actually out there teaching and you had to kind of separate from that and and truly burn the boats and make that decision what was the thing at the end of the day that made you go like i have to i have to go do this That's such a good question. I mean, I think it's, I have this inherent quality of wanting to challenge myself.

9:43 and of being all in. I don't fool around. If I'm going to learn how to play mini golf, I'm going to learn how to play mini golf. I'm all in on the things that I do. And when it came to my business, it was going to work or it wasn't going to work. But I've seen a lot of people live this life in between where they've got a spouse supporting them, or they have what I call an expensive... hobby, but they don't have a business. And I wanted to have a business. I wanted it to be revenue generating. I wanted it to be impactful. I wanted it to make a difference in the world. And I think in order to do that, you really have to be all in. And so when I say, you know, I burned the boats, I mean, I let my teaching certifications expire I closed down my photography business, which was my first business.

10:31 I burned the boats. It was either going to work or I was going to have to come up with a plan B really fast. And it worked. Something magical that happens when you decide and make that choice and there is no going back. you're either all in or you're not. And I love that you had the wherewithal to do that because that's the thing that we've heard so many times that when you talk to... I don't know who originally said it, but I remember Gary Vaynerchuk talking about how if you go and have a conversation with people at a retirement community, they're not going to tell you about all the things that they did that they regret. They're going to tell you about all the things that they didn't do. And that's going to be one more thing that you won't have to talk about at the end of the day, because you made that jump.

11:17 Well, and I will add that, that finding the right coach is, is really important. You know, we just had a session this week here in your program at empire and Andrew was sharing about this very phenomenon where you don't want to be the smartest person in the room. He said that 33% of the people that you spend your time with should be more talented than you, better at something than you. And that has been so powerful for me. And to find the right coaches where I can be that person in the room who raises my hand and says, can we stop for a minute? I don't know what that is. And to allow yourself to be the student. But then on the flip side, when you have something to share, then to be willing to be the mentor.

12:02 And that's a beautiful thing about being in business is that In a single instant, you can flip flop between being the learner and being the teacher. Yeah. Beautifully said. Well said on that note, right? So when we wrote our book, we didn't know each other at that point in time. In hindsight, being 2020, holy crap. Anyone who's listening, if you have not written a book, in my mind, when we set out on the journey for it, I'm like, oh, we're just going to write a couple hundred pages and like, poof, a book's going to happen. I don't know what I was thinking to be totally candid. Yeah. But it is a ton of work, let alone if you're trying to actually not just put words on paper, but have the damn thing make sense and have a proper through line and have... And in our world, if you're creating a book that's going to give you credibility or position you properly from a business standpoint, that's a whole different animal.

12:51 So with what you've seen in your space, because I know you do... You write both fiction and nonfiction in terms of the people that come into your orbit... Kind of walk us through some of whether it's the mistakes or where people trip up or like, what advice would you give for somebody who's like, I want to be more credible. I want to leverage a book. I know I just opened Pandora's box, but do with that what you desire. I think that you have a really good point there, Brooke. And, you know, writing is an activity unlike many others out there. So I was joking about mini golf. Like if I wanted to become very proficient at real golf, I would hire a golf pro. I would, you know, and I would do all of these things to get to that level that I was desiring to do.

13:36 And I think that because I So many people wrote in school. It's something that we're all very familiar with. Hopefully we all had at least one teacher who gave us an attaboy here and there. Lots of people think basically the line that you were saying, like, oh, all I have to do is just sit down. You know, I wrote papers in high school or in college or grad school. It'll be just like that. And it can be a little bit. But if you want to write a book that's really going to attract people, the kind of clients that you want, well, that's a very special kind of a book. I'm sure people out there have read, oh, I don't know, a mystery novel that was written by a romance writer or, you know, it just, it wasn't quite right.

14:18 It didn't fit. The story wasn't quite there. And that same phenomenon happens, you know, if you could write a good paper in grad school, some of those skills are transferable to writing an expert book. But there's a whole other level of really being able to speak to your audience, being able to filter out your audience. A book is a really powerful tool, not only for finding the people that you should be working with, but for finding the people you shouldn't be working with and for them to move on and to find the right person that they should be working with and to call you. Those are a little different skills. When Mariana was a guest... On your podcast, she talked about the power of psychology.

15:01 And there's a lot of psychology in a book. And especially in this kind of book, that's reaching out to your ideal client and knowing that client avatar and really being able to speak into their heart, their soul, their mind and their deepest desires and what it is that they need and how you could be the right solution for that. One of the things that I love about what you just said is that it kind of reminds me, you know, in the fitness world, a lot of times we'll talk about running and the dangers of running and how most people just go, oh, well, you know, if I'm going to try to get myself in shape, it seems like the easiest thing. Well, I can slap on a pair of shoes.

15:42 We've all run somewhere doing something at some point. Chen, I... And then I was running. And I think it's really similar. We take for granted just like running. You jump up off the couch and decide to start running. You are in serious danger of hurting yourself and jacking up your physiology really badly. Because are we all made to run? Yep. Do most of us have very good running form? Nope. Nope. And so the result oftentimes is the opposite of what we're looking for when we don't have the proper mechanics and framework and we don't understand how to start at point A and actually end at an outcome like drawing in clients and things like that.

16:34 One of the things I want to ask you about this, Annalisa, because I think this is fascinating. We talk a lot in marketing about what we can do to kind of warm people up. And I think I'll be honest. I think that a really good book is is one of the single most powerful ways to create massive, massive authority with your audience. When people read books. They feel like they get to know you. They feel like they get to know your ideas. We've all been truly impacted by several books, probably the three of us that are here. So what do you think it is about a book that makes it such a powerful tool in terms of establishing credibility and authority and familiarity with the people that we can help and serve?

17:25 Yeah, I'm going to throw two buzzwords out there, buzz terms, authenticity and warm leads. So authenticity is really important. And this is where the filtering comes in. And it's not only in terms of being able to share your expertise and authentically to be able to say, I'm an expert on weight loss because... But for your personality to shine through, because for coaches... Who you are, your personality, it comes through in your coaching as it should. It's a very personal activity. It's a very engaged activity. And so having that come through in your book as well.

18:09 This may come as a shock to you, but from time to time, I'm a little bit silly because And my expert book won a humor award because I chose to be humorous in my book because that's an important part of who I am and my coaching. Now, not everybody should be funny in their book. If that's not part of the way that you coach and what's important to you, then that wouldn't make sense for you to do. But I think that knowing how to authentically talk about your expertise, but also for your personality to shine through is what creates those warm leads. A book is long.

18:49 Even if it's only 100 pages, it takes an investment of time for people to read, to get to know you. And Alex Hermosi famously said, you know, if people are investing time, then they'll invest their money. That's the first step is that they're investing time to get to know you. And anybody who gets to the end of even your shortest book of 100 pages and bothers to finish it is probably going to get on a call with you because that was an investment of their time. And so that's a warm lead. They already know that you're silly. They already know that you're very serious. They already know that you're an expert on weight loss or... divorce or whatever your specialty is. And they want to talk to you because they liked that person really augments your no like and trust score like nothing else out there.

19:37 Yeah. Just to reinforce this, I don't know why I didn't put the pieces together in the same way at the time. But when I was frontline selling, so when I was like straight sales, leads coming through, everyone else was focusing on people who had gone to an event with Tony Robbins. And so they're like, Oh, if they had gone to an event, they're going to be more likely to purchase whatever we were trying to sell. And it was funny. So all of my energy went into his book purchasers. Because there's way more time. If somebody went to a 3-day or even a 4-day event compared to somebody who sat down and read his 800-page monstrosity of a book, those clients were so much more valuable. They were like layups from a sales standpoint.

20:17 I'm like, my God. Like it was just instantaneous. So I, it's like, you know, I think I've always perceived books from a perspective of like a lead magnet purposes of like, okay, if they buy the book, now they're in our funnel. Like I've kind of seen it through that lens. I don't know why even in hindsight, I'm like, oh yeah, didn't put those pieces together, but holy crap. Totally makes sense. Well, I think too, this is a really good point. I think that especially when you're talking about a book that big, I mean, shit, man, that's commitment. These are like the people that have read the entire series of Lord of the Rings like six times. He literally had to use the biggest pages, the smallest font and the thinnest paper so that it wouldn't scare people away from purchasing it.

21:02 Oh, man. I think you guys make really good points here. And Annalisa, I'd love to kind of dig in on, I think that, and you touched on this slightly, but I want to dig in on a little harder. I think that some people are listening to this right now and going, oh, okay, cool. This would be a really good idea. Well, all I have to do is really kind of like take all of my knowledge and just sort of condense it into a little package and that's going to be my book. So why can't we just do that? Because I'm only making the assumption that we can't because if we could, it would just be it would just be that easy. value. Sure, I could go and look at the back end of my website and see which 18 blogs that were the most popular, put them in the book and sell it.

21:49 Would that be the very best value proposition for my audience? Probably not. And so audience is really, really, really important in what we do in a book. as it is in any marketing endeavor, right? Who are these people and what do they want to hear? What do they need to hear? And how do we get that message to them in a way that they can hear it? Nobody likes to be lectured to, right? You should lose weight. Go run 12 miles, right? Nobody's going to read that book. You have to have a certain bedside manner and a way of presenting that that's going to give them the value of that they need and they want. And just a compilation of really cool stuff that you can say or your blog entries or some, you know, interpret my website through AI, that's not really going to give the value and the quality of connection isn't going to be there with your ideal client.

22:45 That's really well said. And I think that what that says to me is that we can't shortcut our way to a really good book. Right. So we talk a lot in business about the fact, Brooke and I talk about this all the time, that there are just people that are not cut out to be business owners. And there isn't anything wrong with that at all. There are just people that are far, but they're very talented and far better suited to, to be playing on somebody else's team instead of running their own. I'm curious to hear your vantage point on this. And when it comes to writing a book, Are there people who just probably shouldn't go there? Or is this fully teachable to anybody?

23:27 Is it just about being so kind of in tune with the why it has to happen that you're willing to dig in and do the hard work? The reason I ask that question is that right now, from a marketing standpoint, there's lots of stuff you could do. I mean, slapping a lead magnet together or writing a three-paragraph email or... co-authoring something with chat GPT for, you know, for social media is a whole lot easier than writing a book. So I love your perspective on that. Is there a right person for this? And if so, who, and if not, then how does the person who's not predisposed to wanting to do this in the first place, figure it out? I love this question because one of the things that I absolutely love about writing is that it is both an art and a craft.

24:15 And crafts can be taught. You can learn a craft. You can learn barrel making or horseshoe making or anything out there that is a craft. It can be taught. And back in the Middle Ages, which I geek out on, right, there were apprentices and they apprenticed for seven years and they were masters eventually at their barrel making or their horseshoe making. So crafts can be taught. Art is much more difficult to be taught. It can be learned, but it's much more difficult to teach because it comes from your heart. It comes from your soul. It comes from your own aesthetic and your own experience. It's a compilation of a mystery of all of those things. And prodigies can be born, right?

24:57 People who from a very young age can express themselves artistically in very moving and beautiful ways. that can be encouraged. It can be groomed. It's difficult to teach. So the good news is that a lot of what is writing can in fact be taught. It can be learned. It can be mastered. And in the hands of a right coach, What is the art portion or more importantly, what's so difficult to express? Even if you're an entrepreneur talking about your expertise, I'm telling you, there are blocks, you know, getting that information out. People just get stuck talking about their own expertise.

25:38 expertise, whether it's imposter syndrome that comes in, whether they just get confused about how to convey it. There are people out there who, like me, can help you to get that message out and really work through both the art and the craft and put out a piece that will really work about what we're talking about, which is to speak to that ideal client. In the spirit of that, Ryan, because you dropped a little grenade in the pond. I'm going to drop a bigger grenade in the pond from the sentiment. So what is your inputs as it relates to the art and the massive influx of AI coming into this whole zone of... What is your take on that?

26:19 Because that disrupts the art to some extent, or I don't know, maybe it doesn't. But what are your thoughts on that? It's really interesting. When ChatGPT was first coming out, Somebody posted a meme somewhere that said, I want a meme that does my laundry and pays my bills, not the things that I actually want to do. And, you know, I think we have done that to ourselves in a way, you know, all of these creative endeavors in terms of drawing and writing. These are the things that come from our soul. These are the things that give us joy. Now, for people who weren't born with the art or who want to try to take a shortcut, I suppose, you know, they could try to do that with AI.

27:03 But at the end of the day, story is in our DNA. Art is in our DNA. We must express ourselves. How do we know that? Cape paintings. It is such a part of who we are. And that's never going to go away. You know, this is a topic that I am speaking on around the world right now because, you Finding your voice in an AI world. This is my most popular talk at the moment because that is intrinsic to our humanity. We must have self-expression. So yeah, you can shortcut your email campaigns through chat GPT if that's what you want to do. But that's not the same thing as the art of writing and being able to express yourself authentically to create a connection with other human beings.

27:48 That desire is never going to go away no matter how many robots we surround ourselves with. What you just said is so important because even going beyond books, and here's the beautiful part about getting involved in really the craft and the art of learning how to do something like write a book. Your ability to effectively and uniquely share and communicate your thought leadership with the world is invaluable. We talk all the time about sales and marketing and the products and the services and all of the things.

28:30 The person who can most effectively communicate their message to the people that truly need to hear it. will win always. You will never go hungry. And I think one of the things that I really appreciate about working on and developing and cultivating that thought leadership and understanding going through the process of packaging it into something like a book is that when you engage in that process, you have no choice but to gain some level of mastery of, around the ability to communicate that. And I just find that to be unbelievably, unbelievably powerful.

29:10 And it's no less powerful today than it ever was before. I agree wholeheartedly. Let me ask a question specific to thought leadership and uniqueness and things like that. Somebody right now is listening to this and going, yeah, but I'm in X industry and the book's already been written. I'm not even going to bother because everybody's already done it. I don't know how I could do it any differently or better. So, you know, so why bother? How do we help those people? Being a human has already been done. So many people have already done it. I mean, we all have our unique story to tell.

29:54 And I will answer your question with a story. So way back in one of my very first jobs, I was, in fact, a kindergarten teacher. And across the hall was the first grade teacher. And we lived on polar opposites of reading, teaching philosophy. And what I loved about that is that the students who went through my class, if they didn't get it, if the way that I thought was the most genius way on the planet to teach reading, they were going to get it over on her side of the hall. And so by the time they finished first grade, everybody was going to be able to read because nothing was going to fall through the cracks. I wasn't better than she was. She wasn't better than I was.

30:35 We both love kids and we were both teaching them how to read. That individuality was our strength. And so this is why we still have stories to tell. There are actually only seven stories in the whole wide world. And we have been telling them for thousands of years. And we still think that they're ingenious. You're still watching movies on Netflix. You're still buying books. You're still buying expert books. So your voice matters. The way that you tell your story matters. You are the only person who can tell your story that way. Even if it's about weight loss and how people can lose weight or get over a divorce or not end up getting divorced or whatever it is that you're an expert in, that's you.

31:23 That's your expertise. And just because somebody else is doing it doesn't mean that your way and your voice and what you bring to the table doesn't matter. It makes it matter more because that teacher across the hall is going to miss some kids. So you better catch them and vice versa. That is beautiful. And I think it's really an important reminder because, and I know we agree 100%. I think we really believe that there is the right voice for the right person at the right time. And the minute that we decide that ours doesn't matter, I mean, quite literally, without being melodramatic here, we literally are going to leave someone in some kind of suffering the moment that we decide not to share our voice because there is someone in the world that's meant And in all honesty, at the end of the day, that becomes really that that's where the pursuit becomes selfish is when we just decide not to give that give that gift.

32:21 So how many coaches have we spoken to over the course of time? Like the. Usually the second thing out of their mouth, the first thing is I'm a coach. The next thing is, oh, I want to write a book. It usually follows right behind it. And the reality is we all have a message. We all want to have impact and we all want to be able to reach people. And the reality is we only have so many hours in a given day that we can actually coach people. Yeah. So to be able to take that, I love that you framed it that way, Ryan, in terms of like, we're leaving people in suffering if we don't, if we don't share our message with them. And it's not just our story that has to be shared. Although I do think that that's important at times, but it's the effect that it can have. And here's the killer piece. The book is not only an incredible tool for establishing credibility and authority, but it gives you true leverage.

33:08 So like the geek in me, I'm like, ooh. leverage, efficiency. But there's this dynamic. We could reach so many more people and have such a stronger effect. So I don't know. I love the work that you do, Annalisa. And I also, I have like a front row seat of getting to see behind the scenes of what you do with people. And when they have their meltdowns, and they don't want to do the... the hard work and look at their story or look at the pieces that let's just say suck. But you get to have those hard conversations and champion a deeper resonance out of these authors to bring their best work forward, not just their work forward. So I just think it's really, really cool what you're getting to do with everybody. And again, it's that ripple effect. So... It's a... Yeah.

33:49 I love the sentiment, Ryan, just in terms of this. If you're on a mission to help and serve people, this is a tool and a vehicle that should absolutely be leveraged. Yeah, I agree. And I think one of the other things too that I love about what you do, Annalisa, because I think right now, I think one of the common thought processes, especially... We all deal in this world of high-ticket coaching sales. And I think that there has been a lot of poo-pooing over the last 10 years of anything that doesn't land somebody on your doorstep for a high ticket sale. And I know, I mean, if you're listening to this right now, ask yourself this question.

34:33 Has a book ever changed your life? Ever? Ever? Sure has mine and everybody else here. Right. And this is one of the things is that when we, when we truly can separate ourselves from the outcome and we really look more so to the people that we want to be able to help and serve, we put ourselves in a position to, to basically say, listen, listen, If I create this book and I put my heart and soul into it, there are going to be some people who will read it and go, holy crap, I've got to go find Annalisa and I need to figure out what it takes to work with her because this just resonates with me. She's my person, blah, blah, blah. There are also going to be people who take the book and they actually take action with the book and the book itself changes their lives.

35:16 And this is one of the magical pieces of the puzzle because so often people, When we get into kind of the traditional funnel of things, it's like, okay, we have a lead magnet. Maybe we write an ad. We get somebody to opt in to our email list or something like that. And if they never got the book and they never land on the calendar, Well, they don't really have the opportunity to have experienced massive change through what you've produced. And I think that's one of the amazing things about a book is that it will, if you do it right, it absolutely is an amazing tool to land people on your calendar that will want to do business with you that you can help in that way. But it can also be an amazing tool for somebody to actually read, do the work and experience transformation.

36:02 And I just believe that there's a massive ripple effect in the world that happens when that goes on. Agreed. So I want to kind of demystify for anybody that's listening to this right now, exactly what you do and how you help people. Because clearly your expertise as it relates to storytelling and writing and books and all the things is not a question here. But help us understand a little bit more about what you do, how you help people, and what's the outcome? What's the desired outcome for somebody that decides to come work with you? That's a great question. So the tagline for my business is bespoke author strategies. And the word strategy is really important to hear because we really start with the outcome that the entrepreneur wants to get to.

36:48 How are they looking to scale their business? What kinds of clients are they looking to obtain? We always start with the strategy first, and the book is the conduit to the strategy. It's more of a tactic. than anything else. And so because we start there, it's really a soup to nuts, bespoke process. People will come to us and what you said before, Brooke, I'm a coach and I want to write a book. Okay. What's your book about? I don't know. Okay. That's where we start. That's the conversation. What do you want to do with this book? Is it more of a lead magnet? Are you going to use it as an authority generator to get you on national stages or international television, because those are similar, but that's not necessarily the same book.

37:34 What do we want this book to do for you? That's where we're going to start. And then I help people to write. that book? What goes into it? Which stories do you tell? Which anecdotes are you going to leave out? What kinds of lead magnets would be part of a book like this? How are you going to get people on a call with you? Why would you get people on a call with you? When they get on a call with you, what are you looking to offer them? These are all kind of huge questions that end up snowballing. This is why I say bespoke author strategies, because we're really starting with what do you want this book to do for you? Let's put together that strategy and, Let's write that book to that specific audience. And then I do all the publishing all the way to PR.

38:15 We've gotten our clients on national television, international television, really depending on what they want to do, where they want that book to take them, what kind of exposure they want, what kind of audiences they want to reach. If this guy's the limit, audiobooks, ebooks, I mean, we've kind of done a little bit of everything to get people's message out there. But it starts... with the strategy and why you're writing the book. And then we help you to write it and get it out there. That's incredible. And I mean, it's literally a one-stop shop for the entire process. I would love to... I have heard, working with the amount of experts and thought leaders that I have and having a lot of those people as my friends, I've heard a lot of horror stories about publishing books.

39:00 Some people even feel really good about the book that they've created, but then the publishing has to happen. What are some of the misconceptions that people have about publishing a book? And why shouldn't they just self-publish the thing? Yeah. I'll just write it and put it up on Amazon. I mean, that works. You can do that. Then Amazon takes most of your revenue. So if you wanted that to generate revenue for you, bye-bye revenue, you lose control of the book. Amazon takes over a lot of the back end. control of it. There's no quality control. Look, I'm not going to go try out for the NBA tomorrow. I don't know what I'm doing. I would show up and I'd be a mess.

39:41 People, that's pretty obvious, especially when you see my height that I should not be trying out for the NBA. People kind of approach it as if, you know, anybody can do this. I need, I can just swap something together. You can, people do it all the time, but what do you want this book to do for you? And do you really, do you want to put your best foot forward? Would you show up to a job interview and your sloppy jeans from the day before and your shirt untucked? Well, if you wouldn't, and that's not how you want to show up, then be mindful of how your book is presenting and, your business because the cover, the texture of the cover, the texture of your paper, the size of your font, these are all things that matter that if you are just looking at your book on a screen and you're like, well, that's good enough.

40:29 There are words on a page that must work. When people get that book in their hands, when they read it on their Kindle or wherever they're reading books, all of these flaws, these imperfections that seem like they'd be just fine, are going to reflect on you and your brand. And, and if you wouldn't show up in your sloppy jeans, why would you let your book make that first impression for you? Check that one. Yeah. That's, that's a quotable right there. And I think, I think that I'm really glad that you decided to bring that out because I think that we talk a lot in business, right. About like, okay, done is better than perfect and all of those things.

41:11 But, You know, like writing a good book is not something you're going to just sit down and do in like 20, 30 minutes. So if you're going to go through the process of actually doing it right, then why would you not want to make sure that it gets into the right hands and that it's presented well? Because this is another thing. And Annalisa, you bring this up. It seems like this would be trivial. But a lot of times, even when it comes to books, you know, we're drawn to what visually appeals to us, right? And you can completely screw your chances of making a major impact in people's lives. You could have an amazing book and screw it up with the wrong cover or to your point, the wrong texture of the pages or font size or whatever.

41:58 If you want to appeal to me, you got to pretty much see spot run and it better not be more than like 35 pages. With pictures. Yeah. Good ones. Like really quality stick figure things. That's got to happen for sure. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. I was just going to say to your point, Ryan, it's so true. And in the same way that I don't know all of the intricacies of all the plays that an NBA player would know, because that's not my professional expertise. There is professional expertise behind a book. And one of my favorite anecdotes, good friend of mine, Bob Burke, who wrote the Go-Giver series is, Which is not go getting, but go giving. And the original title of that book was, It's Not About You.

42:40 Now, nobody bought it. And nobody bought it as a gift book. And, you know, he said this on my podcast, like, who's going to buy a book for somebody called It's Not About You? Yeah. It's such an insult, right? And so like they didn't know, they co-authored with John David Mann. They didn't know it was their first foray into publishing. It flopped. They called it the go-giver and it's a Wall Street Journal bestseller. So having the right team behind you who understands the professional standards is actually really important. And that anecdote, I think, is a really good example of what can happen if you if you just don't know, you don't know what you don't know.

43:24 That's so good. And it reminds me to my friend and colleague, Rory Vaden, tells a story about his second book. He wrote Take the Stairs and that became a New York Times bestselling book. And then his second book he wrote and he was super proud of this book. And I think he would actually say it might be the better book between the two, but he called it Procrastinate on Purpose and it did not make the list. And it was 100% because of the title. Who the hell? Right? Read that. And it was such a lesson for him. And I love that you bring that up because that's part and parcel to working with somebody who really understands what they're doing and can help you accelerate.

44:06 And I think that, look, if you are a business owner, an entrepreneur, a coach, you've got enough on your hands right now. And I think one of the things that we talk a lot about around here, and Brooke, I would love if you would touch on this, is really choosing the things that you need to figure out on your own. And when it's time to hit the Staples easy button. on something and get the help that you need to get where you're going to go faster. Because you can't decide to figure out the book and decide to figure out the marketing and decide to figure out the sales and decide to figure out the tech and the admin and the hiring and all the things. You'll drive yourself crazy and you'll be in the fetal position on the floor eating Cheetos all day.

44:48 You're spot on. There's certain things that you can muscle and do on your own in your business. And there's certain things that have a ripple effect, or there's things that are going to be in your orbit for far beyond probably even your own life. Having your words put transcribed onto paper and put into the ether. And that's the thing that will be a legacy play. That's the thing that's going to transcend not only just in your existing business of things, but... But literally, when you're dead and gone, like, I try to remember who was just talking about this, but they said, I think it was 15 years after you've passed, the mass majority of humanity will have forgotten you, regardless of what you've done on this planet.

45:29 And so, the book is the thing that can really be carried on and it can really have that lasting impact thereafter. And you guys, I'm not even making this up. You're going to laugh your ass off at this. I literally just got a text message that said, hey, I was talking to a friend of mine. They said, I need to read chapter three in your book. Where can I get it? there we go hilarious Can't make this up. Can't make this up. Well, Annalisa, this has been awesome. This has been, I think, so eye-opening. I've learned a lot in our conversation today. And I think the three of us all are, we all have a love for communication and art and crafting stories.

46:15 And we all know how powerful that is. And I'd love for anybody that's interested in learning more about you or what you do. First things first, where do you kind of hang out? Where can people find you? France? Yes, I'm currently in France. But if you don't have a plane ticket to France, then certainly you can find me on Facebook and many social media outlets. I'll give you all the links, Ryan, so you can put them in the show notes. Yeah, please. We'll do that. If you want to join me, I'd love to chat with people. And the website for entrepreneur books is laurelelite.com. And that's, I just want to spell that out. I think it's L a U R E L elite.com.

46:58 Right. That's right. Ryan's mom was an English teacher. We forgot to preface this whole, the whole episode should have been Ryan's mom's an English teacher. That's that should have been, we missed that opportunity. Ryan's mom's an English teacher and he still can't read. You guys, this has been awesome. And listen, we'll get all the links in the show notes in terms of where to follow Annalisa. But in addition to that, look, if you want to learn how to do this and you want to be able to hit the easy button and get some help from somebody who really knows what they're doing is a total badass at what she does and an equally incredible human being at that. We will absolutely put a link to book a call with Annalisa if you want to learn a little bit more and just share, discuss your potential book idea and that kind of thing.

47:41 We'll put that in the show notes as well so that that's easy pickings also. But I want to honor you for everything that you do. You know, you are such an example of somebody who you said it earlier. It's all or nothing. And you go all in and all the way all the time. And you truly do exhibit excellence, honestly. I mean, and all the time that I've known you, it's one of the things that I know. Like there's zero chance of Annalisa ever showing up with something half assed. Every time we have a, whether it's a coaching session or an in-person or something like that, you are always on point. You're always organized. You're always trying to move your business forward. You're always trying to help people in better ways and more ways.

48:22 And I want to honor you for that because we need more of that in the world. And you're truly a shining example and a joy for us to have as a client as well. So thank you for everything you do. Thank you for everything you do. And thanks for saying that. All right, guys. Well, with that, we're going to wrap this baby up. Thank you for listening to this edition of the Coaching Equation Podcast. And until next time, be well. We'll take care and we'll see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform.

49:06 To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go.