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Chandler Bolt is the CEO of Self-Publishing School and 5-time bestselling author. He believes that there’s a book inside of everyone, and Chandler teaches you how to find that book within so you can start writing. 

In this episode, Chandler reveals how you can identify your first book topic and turn it into a bestseller. He goes over keyword optimization, content creation, and the other parts of writing an epic book that sells. 

Chandler has been teaching authors how to write bestselling books for several years. He’s taught people like Lise Cartwright who I interviewed on Episode 10 of the podcast. Within six months of following Chandler’s advice, she went from unpublished author to making $3-$4K per month from her books. 

In this episode, I ask Chandler why Lise Cartwright became successful under his program and why it has a high success rate. For people interested in receiving free training from Chandler, you can start watching the free video series he set up for you.

 

Watch Chandler’s free video series 

 

Don’t put this video series or episode off for next time. Chandler’s insights have literally changed the way I view self-publishing and success in general. More importantly, Chandler’s advice has allowed me to get better results from my self-publishing efforts and expand my brand. 

Don’t think you’re too busy to write a book. Chandler published his first book as a sophomore in college. He then proceeded to drop out and make a 7-figure income by writing bestselling books and teaching people how to do the same.

 

Links from show:

http://self-publishingschool.com/book-idea-sells-3-things-must-check-write-book/ —Chandler’s post on finding profitable book ideas

http://self-publishingschool.com/how-to-publish-a-book/ —Chandler’s post on how to publish a book

Published: The Proven Path From Blank Page To Published Author – Chandler’s Latest book. We talk about it in the interview

https://www.rev.com/ – Transcription service

Dragon Dictation – Transcription service

Ryan Holiday’s Thought Catalog Article – An article I reference in this episode

Richard Rieman used his experience as an NBC broadcaster to narrate audiobooks as an Audible Approved Narrator. In this episode of Breakthrough Success, we talk about the Audiobook Revolution that’s taking over the consumer space.

Richard discusses how to narrate an audiobook and get your audiobook published in the ACX marketplace. He also shares some insights on how to rank your audiobooks higher on Amazon. 

Richard believes that the biggest challenge of any small business is finding the clients. He addresses this challenge by promoting his services online, and get this, attends one networking event every week. He says that attending and speaking at these events seals him most of the clients he gets.

This one search I conducted reveals the massive advantage audiobooks gives you. I searched “social media marketing” on the Amazon Kindle store and got a total of 6,429 books. The first few pages are filled with books with 100+ reviews.

Audiobooks presents a very different story. On Audible (Amazon’s website for audiobooks), I searched the same keyword phrase and got a total of 105 results. Very few of these books have 100+ reviews let alone 50+ reviews. Audiobook reading is also increasing, and with fewer audiobooks available than eBooks, the audiobook revolution makes sense.

To capitalize on this audiobook revolution, listen to the interview I had with Richard Rieman. I just learned about this revolution a few weeks ago. Richard has been living this audiobook revolution for quite a while now. 

If you want more episodes like this one, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher: 

marcguberti.com/itunes

marcguberti.com/stitcher

 

Key Links from the Show:

http://www.acx.com/ – Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange

https://www.amazon.com/Authors-Guide-AudioBook-Creation/dp/0997100206 – Richard’s Book

www.meetup.com – Meet different people in industries

https://voatlanta.me/ – Voiceover Atlanta

www.audiobookreviewer.com – Audiobook promotion and review site

www.audiobookboom.com – Audiobook promotion and review site

www.audiobookrevolution.com – Richard’s website

richard@audiobookrevolution.com – Richard’s email

 

David Jenyns is the founder of Melbourne SEO services and the author of Authority Content. David helps business owners get their marketing messages heard. 

 

I first came across David’s work during my Christmas shopping bonanza (I ended up with 20 books). His book’s description grabbed me from the start, I did some more research, and I knew that I needed to have David on the show. 

 

 

Key Links from the Show:

 

davidjenyns.com — David’s website

 

authoritycontent.com — David’s book

 

http://www.melbourneseoservices.com — David’s SEO services company

 

semrush.com — A powerful SEO tool David mentions in this episode

cognitiveseo.com — Another powerful SEO tool David shares with us

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en – Google SEO Guidelines

 

 

 

 

Learn:

 

—How to write content that grabs people’s attention and leads to more traffic

 

—The elements of authority content

 

—How you can increase your revenue with the help of authority content

 

—What people get wrong with creating authority content

 

—How to master any skill

When a corporate rockstar turns into an entrepreneurial coach with more than an 80% success rate with his mastermind groups, you need that guy on your podcast. That’s exactly what I was thinking when I first came across Ellory Wells. 

 

Ellory was the exact person I needed to talk to because I’m currently a part of a mastermind group and am considering creating a mastermind group. With all of this in mind, I asked Ellory some questions that focused on what it takes to run a successful mastermind group. Our interview also took an angle towards fighting self-doubt which is natural but still evil.

 

 

Key Links From This Episode:

 

http://www.theexitstrategybook.com — Ellory’s book

 

https://www.ellorywells.com — Ellory’s website

 

http://www.thesuccessprinciples.com/ —Jack Canfield’s book gets mentioned in this episode

 

www.ellorywells.com/marc — Ellory’s mastermind guide 

 

 

Learn:

 

—How to run a successful mastermind group

 

—How to get the best out of people

 

—How to avoid self-doubt

 

—How to transition from the corporate world into an entrepreneurial sensation

Adam Houge is an author and a beacon of hope for self-published authors. The status quo view of self-publishing is that it’s hard to make money and sell books. Adam proved both of this myths wrong by selling 2 million of his self-published book.

 

Adam’s initial motivation wasn’t to make money. He was more focused on spreading his valuable content and getting his books into the hands of as many readers as possible. He wrote a religious book in the midsts of a series of medical bills and retirement from his day job. This is the book he wanted to spread. After writing 100+ books (not a typo), he’s now done just that—spread his message. In this episode, he discusses how he found the time to write 100+ books. 

 

Adam also talked about overcoming the 30 day drop off in sales after your book gets published. He doesn’t just get sales in the short-term. His books continue generating sales years after they were published. We also talk about keywords and categories, Amazon’s SEO.

 

Adam treats us to a mini course on all things Kindle marketing. If you’ve got Kindle books that you want to promote, listening to this interview will greatly help you with your efforts.

 

As always, our guest shares his favorite inspirational quote, and much, much more.

 

 

Key Links from the Show

 

www.thefanbaseformula.com – Adam’s Training Course for Authors

www.adamhouge.com – Adam’s Personal Site

 

Learn:

 

– How to keep sales up on Amazon Kindle

– Why Keywords and Categories are so very important

– How to make your book reach the right people

– Adam’s best learned career lesson

– What most authors get wrong when first publishing

– Adam’s favorite inspirational quote

One of the best decisions you can possibly make for your business is to outsource some of the work to freelancers. The more work you outsource to freelancers, the more time you have to commit towards other opportunities.

Some people turn away from outsourcing because of the costs associated with making the switch. Others want to outsource as much of their work as possible but find themselves limited by their budgets. Regardless of your current status, you need to expand your freelancer army. The more tasks you delegate, the better.

Here’s how you expand your army of freelancers:

 

Everyone Gets A Legit Part

Before you even think about hiring another freelancer, you must ensure that you have legit tasks available. A legit task is a required task but also a time-sucker that you don’t enjoy. Scheduling social media posts, creating pictures, and editing podcast episodes were some of those tasks I needed to outsource.

While I outsourced those tasks the moment I got the chance, I have never thought of hiring a ghostwriter, outsourcing training course creation, or outsourcing the email broadcasts. I enjoy those tasks. If you don’t enjoy any of the tasks in your business and are desperate to outsource everything, then you are in the wrong business.

When I want to hire another person to make my life easier, I assess everything that I do in a given week. What are the tasks that I enjoy? What are the tasks I want to get off my back? Which of those particular tasks take up most of my time?

These are the questions I ask myself before I post a job and eventually look through the job applicant’s cover letters. With clarity on my requirements, I can rest assured that my life will be made easier.

If you don’t have this clarity, you risk hiring a freelancer for the wrong reason or hiring someone who won’t meet your expectations. The result is an intense level of stress that will suffocate your “extra time” you got from hiring the freelancer.

 

Gradually Grow The Freelancer Army

If you go right out the gate and hire a dozen freelancers, you’ll get overwhelmed. Gradually growing the freelancer army means growing it at a consistent pace that makes sense for your brand. If you hire too many freelancers at once, you’ll have a difficult time communicating with everyone and getting on the same page.

Outsourcing different tasks will save you time, but hiring too many freelancers creates a new problem. Now you have to manage them and ensure that your freelancers are as effective as possible. Outsourcing management to a manager will make your life much easier as your freelancer army grows, but when you start out, you are the manager.

Once you feel comfortable with every freelancer you’ve hired, you can then expand and look for other options. The more comfortable you become with your freelancers, the quicker you can look for someone to fill your next job.

 

Don’t Rely On One Freelancer

A common mistake people make is to assign a super VA. This “super VA” can apparently accomplish any task you give him/her. Most people who find themselves in the super VA position will take on any task you give them to please you and make more money.

Relying on one freelancer to get everything done in your business is like relying on one musician to play all of the instruments at the concert. It won’t end up well.

Instead of relying on one freelancer, you must hire more freelancers who specialize in certain areas. I hired my first freelancer to help grow my Pinterest account. I didn’t hire that freelancer to edit my blog posts. I needed a different freelancer for that job.

People can do anything, but not everything. Don’t act like your freelancers can do everything because they can’t. Putting that unnecessary workload on an individual freelancer will create more stress for both of you (subpar work combined with your recent hire desperately trying to please you in so many ways).

 

Reinvest Your Time Wisely

Here’s how you actually get to grow your freelancer army. Every other tip at this point has been laying the groundwork for this one moment.

If you hire someone to schedule your social media posts, you need to know and remember two things:

Cost per hour

Number of hours this person will work for you each month

Let’s say I hire a social media manager who gets paid $10/hr. This social media manager works for two hours per day.

I pay this social media manager $600 every month.

To continue working with this social media manager, I MUST make at least $600/mo to balance out my expenses. If I make $595/mo with my extra time, then I’m losing money and my current path doesn’t make sense.

At this crossroad, you have three options:

Fire the freelancer

Look for a less expensive option

Reinvest your time more wisely

When you hire a freelancer to save yourself time, you must be prepared to make more additional money than you’re spending on that freelancer.

 

Look At Costs And Results

Not all freelancers are created equal. Some do the job to near perfection while others miss a few things. Every month, I make it a point to assess all of my freelancers.

I identify what work is getting done and how much it costs me.

If I’m happy with the work and am getting a good ROI from reinvesting my time wisely, I keep that freelancer. If a freelancer strains my budget or doesn’t get the job done, I have a decision to make.

If the expensive freelancer does a phenomenal job, keep that freelancer if your business still aligns with that person’s work. Never give up good freelancers because those are the ones you don’t have to worry about. If you feel like your freelancer would catch you during a trust fall, keep that freelancer on your team.

 

In Conclusion

Growing your freelancer army is a numbers game. If the decision makes financial sense and you make more money with your extra time than you spend to save that same amount of time, then you made the right decision.

Each month, monitor your freelancers’ progress to determine whether you’re still making the right decisions or if the landscape has changed.

What are your thoughts on building a freelancer army? Have any tasks you’d like to outsource? Have any tips on acquiring more freelancers? Sound off in the comments section below.