In this game-changing episode, Tyler Wagner, Founder of Authors Unite, shares how to write, publish, and launch a bestselling book to skyrocket your credibility and revenue.

You will discover:

- How to turn your expertise into a book in under 90 days

- Why bestseller status is achievable today with the right strategy

- What referral partnerships scale your business without ads

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 2 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz

Tyler Wagner, the founder of Authors Unite, is a book marketing visionary renowned for transforming ambitious authors into bestsellers with nearly unprecedented success. Tyler has helped more than 700 authors achieve Wall Street Journal bestseller status and more than 1,000 authors achieve Amazon bestseller status. His expertise has not only propelled authors to the top of prestigious lists but also catapulted their careers to new heights. Tyler’s services have proven indispensable for authors aiming not just to publish but to succeed and influence profoundly.

Want to learn more about Tyler Wagner's work at Authors Unite? Check out his website at https://authorsunite.com/

For referral side, check out https://partnerprofits.io/

You can listen to his podcast The Tyler Wagner Show at https://tylerbwagner.com/audio/

Mentioned in this episode:

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Founder's Quiz

Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again

to the start, scale and succeed podcast, the only podcast that

grows with you through all seven stages of your journey as a

founder, and I'm your host, Scott Ritzheimer, and I want to

talk about something that's keeping founders stuck in the

grind right now, especially those in professional services.

But there's so many folks out there who are working 70 plus

hour weeks, and it's just not moving forward anymore. You know

you do great work. You know you've got more to offer, but

you don't have the time or energy to do it. You also have a

bit of a credibility issue. Those who are close to you know

that you're pretty awesome, but how do you start to expand that

out? How do you boost your credibility and open these doors

automatically so that you can grow your business in a fraction

of the time. Well, it's it's sometimes easier said than done,

but our guest today has got a really clever way of doing it,

and has been doing it really well for a really long time, and

he's here with us today. It's the one and only Tyler Wagner,

who is a book publisher, marker, marketer, entrepreneur,

investor, mentor and podcast host, recognized as a Wall

Street Journal best selling author. He's also founder of

authors unite, a hybrid publishing company that has

helped over 4000 authors publish and market their books, many

achieving best seller stat status on major platforms. Tyler

also founded partner profits.io where he helps businesses to

scale through referral relationships, using the same

strategies that built that he used to build authors unite into

an eight figure company. He hosts the Tyler Wagner show,

featuring conversations with impactful leaders and

entrepreneurs. That's where I met him. Go check it out.

Awesome Show, and you will not you will not be disappointed,

but we're here today. Tyler, welcome to the show. You've

helped a lot of authors, and you've helped a lot of authors

hit best selling status. It's one of the things that has

really stood out the most to me as we've interacted, and you've

done it a pretty cool way. But I want to, I want to pull some of

that experience out, like, what is it that actually makes a

business book work? Because, you know, being in the podcast

world, I see a lot of books that I'm certain not a lot of people

have read and and having, you know, being in this process

myself, it's a lot of work like to get a return on this. It's

got to be more than the Kevin was it Costner, if you build it,

they will come. So walk us through, what is it that you

figured out that makes these business books work so well?

Well, thanks for having me on. Man, I would say

it's a few things, and I'll speak to my own story first, and

I won't go through like the whole entire thing, but I think

I'm kind of the best example of the first kind of example of

this is I was 19 when I wrote my first book, and that first book

became an Amazon bestseller. A later book I wrote became a Wall

Street and I would say, like being 19 wanting to be a public

speaker at the time, once I was an Amazon bestseller. And I will

say again, this was like 15 years ago. But I think the same

principles apply is, once you're a best selling author,

obviously, on one of the major lists, Wall Street, USA Today,

or NYT, those are, like the elite, but best seller on any

list, it just from a branding standpoint. You kind of like,

trust is almost assumed, and they like, look past all the

other things. And I And what I mean by that is, as a 19 year

old that just dropped out of college 80 grand in debt. You

know, I had people that were paying me 1000s of dollars at

that time to help them, and I was getting paid a few grand to

speak on I did about a dozen stages before I switched, like

full time over to authors unite. But it was, it was because I was

a best selling author. They look past everything else. Didn't ask

me, like, any questions, so I didn't have to answer about the

debt, the age thing kind of disappeared, and it was all

because best selling author was next to my name. So to me, that

is the number one thing, just the branding of it. And it's

hard to like measure directly the impact of that, but I can

just speak for myself and a lot of my clients, like, once you

have that tag, if you will, or brand, everything else in your

life becomes easier. So I would say, that's the first thing. The

second thing is, I would say, and I kind of got this from Gary

Vaynerchuk, is instead of because I see kind of both

strategies at play in the market. Is one strategy is,

write your book, but don't give away all the secrets. Like, hold

back some of the secrets for the back end of your funnel,

consulting courses, etc. But what Gary V says is he's like,

what you really want to do is just give it all away for free,

or as like, as much as humanly possible. A book is not

technically free, but very low cost. So just give away as much

value as you can, and then people will be blown away as

they read your book. And then 99% of people, just like with

the people that watch your podcast, you know, a lot of them

don't have time to write a book, so a lot of them end up becoming

our ghost writing clients, or somebody else in the industry,

so somebody interviews them and writes the book. For them, but

for them to get to the place to feel comfortable paying 50 grand

to 100 grand for ghost writing a book, they have to trust you. So

if you have a lot of content out there and you're giving away all

the secrets, the reality is point oh, 1% will actually use

those secrets and apply them and do it themselves. And for those

people, great, you help them, so that's awesome. But the other

99% they're going to want to become your clients, and then

that, you know, turns into a higher purchase, way higher than

a book purchase. So I think that's one of the things that

just makes a lot of authors stand out, is instead of holding

back and making your book be kind of like a minor version of

the top of your funnel. Use it as the top of your funnel. Give

away a few chapters for free however you want to do it, but

put everything you can into the book. Don't hold back, because

it's just the reality. 99% of people will not do they will not

take action on what you're saying. So you don't have to

worry about like losing clients by giving away all your secrets.

And I think that's the worry that some people have, and

that's why they hold back. So I would say that, and there is a

lot of things, but I guess one other thing I would say, just

as, like, a kind of trick or tip, if you will, if you can, in

like, the best way possible, is this kind of a marketing tactic,

but, like, try to cause controversy, but not cause

problems for people. What I mean by that is, like, one of our

most successful books, the title of it's called weightlifting is

a waste of time, and I don't take credit for, like, the full

success. The author's name is John Chapuis. She already had a

fairly large audience, but we did the Wall Street Journal and

USA Today bestseller campaign for him, and since then, he's

sold over 200,000 copies. And from what we've seen like after

we did the campaign, that there was tons of talk online and like

forums, social medias, fitness trainers, personal trainers,

kind of like fighting with the people that believe in his

stuff. And the reason for that was his. I think it was his

really his title, weightlifting is a waste of time. It was kind

of taking a jab at the entire fitness industry, and they

fought back. So if you can get people, as long as you can

handle it, like mentally, some people, like, maybe emotionally,

wouldn't be able to but as long as you can, that tactic is very

tried and true, and it works really well. So controversy for

the right reasons, I guess would be that answer.

I love that. I love it. So let's go after this.

If you build it, they will come thing because, particularly for

like coaches and consultants or folks who are very smart or very

product sensitive, there's this idea that if you make something

amazing, it'll do amazing. And that's just not the game. So

tell us a little bit. What does it look like? How much of a book

success happens before it's written and how much of its

success happens after it's written?

Um, so I would say it's a mix of both. I'll

definitely say, like, build it and they will come in today's

world with all the competition. That's definitely not going to

work. But, and I'll use, like to me, Alex or Moses, kind of the

best example of this, because I just his content. I think it's

kind of an understanding between everybody that's gone through

his content. It's very good content. So you definitely it's

not all marketing. Marketing, though, is a big part of it. You

can't get anywhere, I think, without marketing, and if you

did, it would take very long for word of mouth to actually

spread. So to me, it really is kind of 5050, in today's world,

meaning, give everything you got to your product. Don't view your

book as just a business card. It is a business card, but it's way

more than that. And I think if that's your view when you're

writing it, you could maybe, kind of, I won't curse, but

like, half a it if you know you want to make sure, like, make it

so valuable, so that your marketing compounds. I guess is

the best way to verbalize this, so that all the marketing you

do, let's say your conversions are super low for whatever

reason, as long as that content is really good, even if your

conversions are super low with your marketing efforts, the

people that did convert word of mouth should eventually take

over in time. Whereas, if you only focus on the marketing and

make the actual service or product that, in this case, a

book, not the best, then word of mouth really has no chance.

It'll die out eventually. And that's what I tell a lot of my

clients, is like the reality is, and this is the truth, I can

guarantee, almost, well, not almost, literally any author,

short term success, but the only way for the long term success,

like that client I just mentioned, John jaquish, with

the fitness book, is if the contents actually good, right?

So I can get those first, you know, 20, 30,000 sales in a

week, hit the New York Times, whatever. But if the contents

good, it's just gonna, you know, fall off a cliff eventually,

right? So it has to be both, I think, is really the answer.

Yeah, yeah. I love that. And. Yeah, so I want

to touch on this, this kind of idea of publishing and formal

publishing, hybrid publishing, self publishing. There's a lot

of noise and talk around that. Walk us through, like, Why have

you chosen to go a hybrid route as an organization, as a

publishing company?

To me, it's just the best model, and I will

actually say too. So we do consider ourselves a hybrid

publisher, but we offer both in the sense of, we have some

authors that they just pay us, and then we publish it for them,

technically service publishing or self publishing, and then we

have some other authors, like we did a book with the Dalai Lama.

That's just, it's kind of like an outlier example. And for that

one we did like a hybrid model, where it was a royalty, kind of

split. And I would say, I just think it's the best model when I

compare it across, like traditional hybrid self

publishing, the only time that you'd really want to go

traditional is for two reasons. One, if you're going for New

York Times, because that will dramatically, it's almost like

required. There are a few examples of self published

authors like David Goggins, he hit New York Times. So there are

some outliers. But ultimately, if you want New York Times, like

that's your main goal, you kind of need a traditional publisher.

And then secondly, if you want your book in physical stores,

you can do it on the hybrid model. Definitely on the hybrid

self published is pretty difficult, but traditional,

it'll get typically widespread in the physical stores. So those

are the two reasons. But you do give up a lot of the royalties

control. I think normally part ownership of the book, if not

full ownership. So there is a lot that you give up. So in my

opinion, the hybrid model, it's kind of that perfect midway

point of there are hybrids out there that have Simon and

Schuster distribution. So they have very similar to the

traditional distribution. And then it's like a 5050, royalty

split. So not as not as bad as a traditional, typically,

traditional is like 8020, or 9010, in the favor of the

traditional publisher. So you know, you're literally making

10% of your 300 page or however long it is booked. To me, that

just doesn't feel play, right. So, yeah, to me, hybrids is kind

of perfect. You have a good team with your publisher, so it's

you're not all on your own, like self publishing. And that 5050,

feels fair to me for what the publisher is providing and what

you've provided, and it just seems fair, correct and exactly

as it should be, I suppose. And I will say last thing, though,

is, and we might get into this, or we might not have, but

ultimately, and this will be mostly for your audience too, is

you're not making most of your money from the book royalties.

So like when I say the traditional the 8020, or 9010,

to me, it just doesn't feel fair. But the reality is, if, if

the if the ROI is the back end, I guess it ultimately doesn't

matter that much, right? Because you're doing consulting, public

speaking courses, whatever, and that's where you're actually

making your money. So getting that extra distribution in the

stores, maybe it ends up playing out that actually you make more

money on the back end due to that extra distribution. So it's

just again for me, it just feels funny to give 90% of your book

away when you know you spent years probably writing it or a

lot of money with a ghost writer. Either way, you put a

lot of time and energy, maybe financial energy, whatever, into

that project. Yeah, to give away that much is feels strange.

One of the one of the things I know from

previous conversations that we've had, even offline, is that

a lot of your success in getting these books across the

bestseller line, and achieving that kind of success for your

clients came down to a ton of hard work and some pretty clever

strategy around referral relationships, and that's a big

part of what you're doing and your more recent endeavor for

for that same person, I think this really matters, because

referral relationships are one of those ways that you can kind

of kick start that virtuous cycle to get out of the time

crunch that you're in and really scale to the next level. So, you

know, we could spend a whole episode on this, but just kind

of give us your like biggest point on how we as entrepreneurs

should be thinking differently about referrals.

All right, I love this, so I would say my

experience with talking with a lot of business owners, because

I think we probably have similar audience. Most of my clients are

seven to nine figure entrepreneurs. So what I hear a

lot of the time is we have a few referral partners. Like when I

talk to business owners that like, pretty much, that's almost

100% of the time we have a few referral partners. They refer,

they refer some clients. Each. Year, and it's, you know, it's a

good deal both ways, essentially, but really, what

happened for me, and then I'll come back to that, is I realized

earlier on that a majority of my revenue was coming from a few

referral partners. It was a few different book publishers that

were referring to me just for the marketing side of their

authors, because they didn't offer that themselves. And once

I realized that, I was like, Okay, well, what have I had,

instead of, like, five of these? What have I had 100 of them? Or

what have I had 10s of 1000s of them? And that's the path, you

know, we took. So I think kind of just the eye opener, or just

to become aware of if you do have a few referral partners,

and most businesses do just and you're listening to this, take

the time to think like, what would it look like if you 100x

that, or whatever, it sounds crazy, but, you know, 1,000x did

or something, it's totally possible to do that. There's so

many people that could be referring to you. And really,

the reality is it would, you know, double, triple, whatever

the multiple is, it would dramatically grow your business.

And it's really in a super non risky way. There's nothing like

risk about it. There's no like money you have to pay like

Facebook ads or anything. So to me, it's just for any for no

matter where you're at in business, 678, or whatever.

Figures. To me, it just works perfectly if you're kind of

bootstrapping. Amazing. This does not have risk, it does not

cost money. Perfect. And then, if you are already eight

figures, or whatever, perfect, this could maybe help you get to

nine, right? Just build an army of people to help you get more

referral partners. So I guess ultimately, the answer that is

just become aware of it. I think most people overlook it, because

there's just so much talk in the industry about funnels, Facebook

ads and all that stuff is important, and it does work, but

I just think the tried and true, like classic, I don't know, back

in the day, method of just like referral partners, has been so

overlooked in today's world. And I'm just glad that I kind of

just by looking at the numbers, became aware of it and

multiplied it, and now we help other companies with it.

So good, so good. Tyler, there's one more

question I've got for you, and then we'll make sure folks know

how they can get in touch with you and and learn more about the

businesses you represent. But before we get there, here's the

question, what would you say is the biggest secret you wish

wasn't a secret at all. What's that one thing you wish

everybody watching or listening today knew?

Oh, man, that's a good question. And this goes

along with the GaryVee thing. Give away all your secrets. So I

will say what I just said would kind of maybe be it, but I won't

repeat myself. So I would just say the second thing would be

that the all, pretty much all the best seller lists, because I

feel like this is a good secret for everybody to know. All the

best seller lists are obtainable, as long as whether

it's you putting in the sweat equity or you paying a company

like ours, they are out there for you to get so just know that

it's possible. And I think that is kind of a big secret, because

I think most people out there, first of all, they don't even

think they can write a book. They want to, but they don't

feel like they have the ability. I can tell you, with a good

editor, you definitely have the ability. You just definitely

need a good editor, or at least that was my case. And then

secondly, for the best seller lists, for most people, that

just seems like a dream, so far away from reality. And the truth

is, in today's world, you know, some are easier than others, the

different lists, but becoming a best selling author today is

very possible, yeah. So that's what I would share.

Fantastic, fantastic. Tyler, there's some

folks listening that would love help writing or publishing a

book, or are interested in the resources you have around

referrals and building up referral partners, where can

they find more out about you and the work that you do.

For sure. So for the book side, authorsunite.com

is the website, and then for the referral partner side, it's

partnerprofits.io and yeah, if you have any questions on the

authors unite site, there's like a chat bot in the bottom, a real

person responds. But I guess it's a chat bot or intercom

whatever, if you send a question there, we'll reply to it. So

happy to answer any questions.

Fantastic, fantastic. We'll get both those

in the show notes. Tyler, thanks for being here. Fun turning

these around again. Check out Tyler's podcast. Tyler, give us

the name of the show again, the Tyler Wagner show. That's it.

Yeah, that's it. How could I forget? And you'll find some

great episodes over there. I had a chance to listen to a few as I

was getting ready for ours, and really enjoyed it and highly

recommend it. So Tyler, thanks for being here, really a

privilege and honor. Having you here, good to see you again, and

for those of you watching listening, you know your time

and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out

of this episode as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you

next time. Take care.