Want to overcome mediocre marketing? Join Joshua Maddux has he talks with Andrea Susan Glass this week on In The Bunker Podcast.
Our episode highlights:
Bio: Andrea Susan Glass is an award-winning ghostwriter and book coach for first-time nonfiction authors. For more than 20 years, she's ghostwritten dozens of books and copyedited hundreds of nonfiction books. As a book coach she's guided countless new authors to write and publish their book, some to bestseller status. Andrea is a long-time instructor for the University of California, teaching classes in the creative writing and copyediting certificate programs. She wrote the bestselling book, "Your Fabulous First Book: How to Write with Clarity, Confidence & Connection" to guarantee that new authors would have all the essential preparation to write their own fabulous first book. She’s followed that up with “My Fabulous First Book: A Workbook Companion to Your Fabulous First Book”. Learn more about Andrea and her book coaching programs at https://www.AndreaSusanGlass.com
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Welcome to in the bunker today, we have Andrea Susan Glass in
Joshua Maddux:the bunker with us today, Andrew was faced with a challenge of inconsistency
Joshua Maddux:in leads, clients and income.
Joshua Maddux:If you own a business and run a business, you've probably ran into
Joshua Maddux:this same problem as most new business owners and even seasoned veterans.
Joshua Maddux:I have this problem.
Joshua Maddux:She's overcome this challenge and really worked on, worked through
Joshua Maddux:this issue by diversifying to really overcome the inconsistency.
Joshua Maddux:Andrea has over 21 years experience in helping first time non-fiction authors and
Joshua Maddux:business owners become published authors.
Joshua Maddux:So many of us have amazing ideas and we want to, shout it from
Joshua Maddux:the mountaintops, but oftentimes.
Joshua Maddux:It's an idea in our head and it doesn't go anywhere.
Joshua Maddux:Becoming a published author is such an awesome thing and helps so
Joshua Maddux:many more other business owners.
Joshua Maddux:There's so much to learn through this conversation.
Joshua Maddux:And I'm super excited to just jump in and go from there.
Joshua Maddux:Great to have you on the show.
Andrea Susan Glass:Yes.
Andrea Susan Glass:I'm so excited to be here.
Joshua Maddux:Awesome.
Joshua Maddux:So let's dive in and walk through, what is your background?
Joshua Maddux:Who are you and how did you get here?
Joshua Maddux:Really from, a business experience aspect.
Andrea Susan Glass:Oh, sure.
Andrea Susan Glass:I've been writing most of my life and I just never thought
Andrea Susan Glass:I could make a living at it.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I would write articles and I wrote for different newspapers and magazines.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then I wrote a few books and I got an agent, but I never got a public.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I thought, this is really hard and this is really sad
Andrea Susan Glass:when you can't sell your books.
Andrea Susan Glass:I thought, what if I wrote books for other people?
Andrea Susan Glass:Cause I know how to write a book and I would get paid up front.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I started ghostwriting in 2000.
Andrea Susan Glass:That's what started my business writers way.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I did very well at the start.
Andrea Susan Glass:I won an award from the very first book I wrote.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then I realized like we were talking about inconsistent income.
Andrea Susan Glass:Copy editing to my services because sometimes someone came to me and the book
Andrea Susan Glass:was already done and they didn't need a ghost writer, but they needed someone to
Andrea Susan Glass:clean it up, which I loved doing as well.
Andrea Susan Glass:So at a copy editing.
Andrea Susan Glass:And after doing this for so many years, the urge inside of me to write
Andrea Susan Glass:and publish books was still there.
Andrea Susan Glass:But at this point as self-publishing grow, I didn't need to find a publisher anymore.
Andrea Susan Glass:Made that firm decision that I was going to write books for myself.
Andrea Susan Glass:And this year, 2021, I published my first two books.
Andrea Susan Glass:It was a book about.
Andrea Susan Glass:Write a book called your fabulous first book.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then I had a workbook called my father's first book.
Andrea Susan Glass:It was a workbook companion, and it's just very exciting to move from
Andrea Susan Glass:the ghost writer to the copy editor.
Andrea Susan Glass:I've also.
Andrea Susan Glass:Taught classes for the university of California, which I still do.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then I've also added book coach because I've learned
Andrea Susan Glass:a lot from my experience.
Andrea Susan Glass:So now I'm pretty much a full service business for first time.
Andrea Susan Glass:Non-fiction authors to get from where they are to where they want to be.
Joshua Maddux:That's awesome.
Joshua Maddux:I know.
Joshua Maddux:Oftentimes whenever we jump into any industry or tasks that
Joshua Maddux:were super unfamiliar with.
Joshua Maddux:Sometimes from the outward appearance, it's like writing a book.
Joshua Maddux:Isn't that hard.
Joshua Maddux:I got a bunch of words in my head.
Joshua Maddux:I'll just throw them on paper.
Joshua Maddux:And then you have to realize that like chapter breakdown and it has
Joshua Maddux:to make sense and it has to follow a flow and there has to be, and it's oh,
Joshua Maddux:this is actual, takes time to do it.
Joshua Maddux:You can't just spend an afternoon and spit out a book.
Joshua Maddux:And that's really where I think, whether someone is looking for.
Joshua Maddux:A writer, coach, a book coach or someone that goes right,
Joshua Maddux:or any of that type of stuff.
Joshua Maddux:Having someone who understands that is, is super, super valuable.
Joshua Maddux:Awesome.
Joshua Maddux:So I know with, in regards to your business challenge and
Joshua Maddux:chatting through essentially.
Joshua Maddux:Aspect of inconsistently and looking at obviously, inconsistent
Joshua Maddux:leads means inconsistent clients, which means inconsistent income.
Joshua Maddux:And so many business owners struggle with this.
Joshua Maddux:What does that look like for you?
Joshua Maddux:Overcoming that and diversifying.
Joshua Maddux:I know we talked about that briefly before.
Andrea Susan Glass:Yeah.
Andrea Susan Glass:Usually when we talk about overcoming a challenge, let's talk about the
Andrea Susan Glass:challenge first, problem solution.
Andrea Susan Glass:The problem for people like me, who I would call it creative
Andrea Susan Glass:because I am a creative writer.
Andrea Susan Glass:I'm a ghostwriter, I'm a copywriter, I'm a coach.
Andrea Susan Glass:Those are fairly creative skills and the skill that.
Andrea Susan Glass:Did not have when I went into business was marketing.
Andrea Susan Glass:So my inconsistent income was.
Andrea Susan Glass:It was a challenge.
Andrea Susan Glass:My inconsistent leads was a challenge because I didn't
Andrea Susan Glass:know how to market myself.
Andrea Susan Glass:A lot of people like me will go into business with a skillset, whether it's a
Andrea Susan Glass:holistic health practitioner, financial planner, or all kinds of coaches, because
Andrea Susan Glass:they want to serve may have a skill.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I want to share that space with a lot of people, but they
Andrea Susan Glass:don't have business acumen.
Andrea Susan Glass:They might not know how to set up a business.
Andrea Susan Glass:They don't know how to run a business.
Andrea Susan Glass:They don't know how to.
Andrea Susan Glass:Their financials or their contracts.
Andrea Susan Glass:And most of them don't how to run a business.
Andrea Susan Glass:In terms of marketing creatives are more or less using right side of the brand.
Andrea Susan Glass:And marketing is using the left side of the brand.
Andrea Susan Glass:Although there are ways to be creative with marketing.
Andrea Susan Glass:So we start off thinking, okay I ran an ad in the newspaper and I
Andrea Susan Glass:got my first post writing client.
Andrea Susan Glass:And from there you expect that there'll be more clients.
Andrea Susan Glass:Maybe you did a great job.
Andrea Susan Glass:So they'll tell us.
Andrea Susan Glass:But they might not know anyone who needs someone to write a book.
Andrea Susan Glass:Then you go to the chamber of commerce networking meeting, and you
Andrea Susan Glass:think you might meet people there.
Andrea Susan Glass:You start doing things that seem very common and familiar, but this is
Andrea Susan Glass:definitely not a way to have consistent income because a lot of people like me
Andrea Susan Glass:come out of a job where they're paid a salary and they know what consistent
Andrea Susan Glass:income looks like, but when they go into business, They don't think
Andrea Susan Glass:about the fact that there is no sense of consistency until you build up.
Andrea Susan Glass:And there are people who might out of the gate have context
Andrea Susan Glass:from their previous work.
Andrea Susan Glass:A lot of people start a business and have context from the job they
Andrea Susan Glass:had before, or they might prepare an advance before they start a business
Andrea Susan Glass:and set up a lot of lead generation.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I didn't do that and I didn't have that.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I had.
Andrea Susan Glass:Learn marketing basically from the ground up.
Andrea Susan Glass:And one of the things I learned is that you have to try a lot of different
Andrea Susan Glass:methods of marketing to see, which is going to work for your personality, for
Andrea Susan Glass:your skills and for the client base.
Andrea Susan Glass:You have.
Andrea Susan Glass:Because not everybody is going to be comfortable with all kinds of marketing.
Andrea Susan Glass:Some people are not going to be able to speak.
Andrea Susan Glass:I've spoken in many places.
Andrea Susan Glass:I've conducted workshops.
Andrea Susan Glass:I hit half the libraries in San Diego county and done workshops with them.
Andrea Susan Glass:So that's not something I'm uncomfortable with.
Andrea Susan Glass:So you have to find what works for you, but it still doesn't necessarily
Andrea Susan Glass:mean that you're going to have a li a lead generation machine.
Andrea Susan Glass:It's going to bring your consistently it's.
Andrea Susan Glass:One of the methods that worked for me was diversifying my skills that I offer.
Andrea Susan Glass:I started out as a ghostwriter.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I found that some people wanted the help, but they didn't want to pay the fee.
Andrea Susan Glass:And that ghost writing is your most expensive fee that you're
Andrea Susan Glass:going to charge because you're spending the most time doing it.
Andrea Susan Glass:And it's also the hardest work.
Andrea Susan Glass:I found that once I added copy editing, I was able to get a lot more clients.
Andrea Susan Glass:And a lot of people that I met through writing groups, writing classes,
Andrea Susan Glass:networking, lot of the different methods that I found from marketing.
Andrea Susan Glass:Wanted a copy editor, whether I worked with them from the beginning or in
Andrea Susan Glass:the middle or at the end, most of them usually come to me at the end.
Andrea Susan Glass:I found that copied.
Andrea Susan Glass:A more marketable skill than ghost writing.
Andrea Susan Glass:So now I became a ghost writer and a copy editor.
Andrea Susan Glass:Then the university of California contacted me.
Andrea Susan Glass:They found me in one of the writers groups I belong to and asked if I
Andrea Susan Glass:wanted to teach a class for them.
Andrea Susan Glass:And my first class was called marketing for copy editors,
Andrea Susan Glass:which is funny because I.
Andrea Susan Glass:The best marketing person at that time, but I'm really good
Andrea Susan Glass:at putting together classes.
Andrea Susan Glass:And my class has been running for over 15 years right now, and it's been very
Andrea Susan Glass:successful, but you know what they say, teach what you want to learn.
Andrea Susan Glass:And every time I teach that class, I learned more about how to market myself.
Andrea Susan Glass:After that, then I added.
Andrea Susan Glass:So the diversification of what I offered in terms of services was able to allow
Andrea Susan Glass:me more consistency of getting leads, because the more work you do for someone,
Andrea Susan Glass:the more referrals you're going to get.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then also the more groups you belong to, the more referrals
Andrea Susan Glass:you get from the groups.
Andrea Susan Glass:So the more exposure you give yourself, you expose yourself
Andrea Susan Glass:in so many different ways.
Andrea Susan Glass:It can be on social media.
Andrea Susan Glass:It can be.
Andrea Susan Glass:The work that you do, it could be writing groups can be getting out into
Andrea Susan Glass:the world like we did primarily before COVID and now we're doing more of that.
Andrea Susan Glass:So you start having the marketing work for itself in terms of.
Andrea Susan Glass:Taking on a momentum.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then this year I added author to my list of diversified skills, which
Andrea Susan Glass:is a way to create consistent income.
Andrea Susan Glass:Once you get your books really hooked in to a target market, once
Andrea Susan Glass:people know about you, now that I have two books, I'm talking on more
Andrea Susan Glass:podcasts, I'm doing live events.
Andrea Susan Glass:I'm doing books on.
Andrea Susan Glass:So your books can now be another source of income.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I basically have five sources of income now, and that diversification
Andrea Susan Glass:allows me to have more of a consistency.
Andrea Susan Glass:I'm not going to lie.
Andrea Susan Glass:It's still up and down.
Andrea Susan Glass:A lot of times you have times of year when people are just not buying.
Andrea Susan Glass:The holidays tend to be slow and yet there's some people I just had a client
Andrea Susan Glass:who hired me and says, I want to get my book finished before December 31st.
Andrea Susan Glass:That's not always correct that there's slower at the holiday time,
Andrea Susan Glass:but even so if it's slow at the holiday time, a lot of people say
Andrea Susan Glass:so sales or offer some specials.
Andrea Susan Glass:So marketing is really the crux underneath.
Andrea Susan Glass:All of this inconsistency.
Andrea Susan Glass:And once you learn how to get your marketing going, let's
Andrea Susan Glass:say consistent marketing.
Andrea Susan Glass:Whereas every day I spend at least an hour a day doing some kind of
Andrea Susan Glass:marketing, then you're going to create more of a consistency of leads.
Andrea Susan Glass:And ultimately in.
Joshua Maddux:That's really good.
Joshua Maddux:Yeah.
Joshua Maddux:And they're totally agree.
Joshua Maddux:And I think that's something that so many business owners, if you own a
Joshua Maddux:business and you don't consider yourself a marketer and you don't have either a
Joshua Maddux:marketing company or someone who is in the company, depending on the size of
Joshua Maddux:the business, if you don't have someone in the company or marketing company
Joshua Maddux:that you're paying, or you're not considering yourself a marketer, then.
Joshua Maddux:The long-term trajectory.
Joshua Maddux:The longterm viability of that business, I would say is in question,
Joshua Maddux:because if you're thinking, oh, I offer a product or alpha service
Joshua Maddux:and I don't need to market it.
Joshua Maddux:There are some industries where you don't necessarily quote, need to market
Joshua Maddux:per se, because the demand is so high.
Joshua Maddux:People are just going to show up no matter what, but if the.
Joshua Maddux:Two years have taught us anything with pandemic and everything.
Joshua Maddux:I think it's really prevalent that something little can change and
Joshua Maddux:disrupt your industry, massively.
Joshua Maddux:And I know, some writing coaches and stuff got super, super concerned when
Joshua Maddux:platforms like Amazon came out where they could, you could self-publish.
Joshua Maddux:And people got really freaked out.
Joshua Maddux:They're like, anyone can write a book now it's anyone can, but
Joshua Maddux:anyone can also be a mechanic and try to change the oil in their car.
Joshua Maddux:Not everyone's going to succeed in it.
Joshua Maddux:And so in reality, yes, anyone could self-publish driving that back to in
Joshua Maddux:reality, someone who knows what they're doing and can help through that process.
Joshua Maddux:And I think it's really interesting.
Joshua Maddux:The book itself that you've published, the two almost are
Joshua Maddux:a lead generation a little bit.
Joshua Maddux:Because.
Joshua Maddux:They're wedding, someone's appetite a little bit to publishing a book, and
Joshua Maddux:you've now put out a book about how to do that, how to publish a book, how to do
Joshua Maddux:that, what that looks like to create that.
Joshua Maddux:And it almost, because you're the offer author of it.
Joshua Maddux:It leads them back to you.
Joshua Maddux:So if they have questions or they need help, or they want to hire someone to
Joshua Maddux:help with that, it almost leads them.
Joshua Maddux:It does lead them back to you.
Joshua Maddux:So not only is that it's a twofold, it's a lead-generation aspect a little
Joshua Maddux:bit, but it also does bring in income.
Andrea Susan Glass:That's a good point, Joshua, because the people I
Andrea Susan Glass:work with generally, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and solo
Andrea Susan Glass:professionals, service professionals, like coaches, realtors, financial planners,
Andrea Susan Glass:therapists, those people have a service.
Andrea Susan Glass:And if they want to stand down.
Andrea Susan Glass:They could do that by writing a book that will put them above others,
Andrea Susan Glass:it will enhance their credibility.
Andrea Susan Glass:If you had 10 real estate agents and they can also tell the same
Andrea Susan Glass:homes, the one who's an author might stand out as more of an expert.
Andrea Susan Glass:So the people I work with want to.
Andrea Susan Glass:Expand their credibility and show their expertise to enhance their business.
Andrea Susan Glass:But also it can be an additional source of income in know, like
Andrea Susan Glass:we're talking about diversifying.
Andrea Susan Glass:It can be a lead generator because they could hand out the books for free.
Andrea Susan Glass:So that people could find out more about the service they
Andrea Susan Glass:provide and then go to them.
Andrea Susan Glass:And it also is a way to spread your expertise, your knowledge
Andrea Susan Glass:and wisdom to thousands of people.
Andrea Susan Glass:Whereas one-on-one, as a service provider, you can't reach that many
Andrea Susan Glass:people, you have a limit, and we've heard this term for so many years.
Andrea Susan Glass:Working for dollars or working for multiple income the dollar for dollar
Andrea Susan Glass:meaning you're trading your time for dollars is when you're a service.
Andrea Susan Glass:But a book is a product and a Burke literally sells while you're sleeping.
Andrea Susan Glass:That's the exciting part of having a product.
Andrea Susan Glass:So as I've added book, coach and author to my area of expertise and my services
Andrea Susan Glass:and my products, so that I can have more of a diversified income, the same
Andrea Susan Glass:is true for the people I work with.
Andrea Susan Glass:It will give them more of that diversified income.
Andrea Susan Glass:Less of that inconsistency and it just feels good when you see
Andrea Susan Glass:your name on the cover of a book.
Andrea Susan Glass:It's I don't know if there's anything that's not greater than
Andrea Susan Glass:that, but it's pretty great.
Andrea Susan Glass:Especially if you sweated through, I think it was almost a year and a half that
Andrea Susan Glass:it took me to get to publish this book because of fitting time in while I was
Andrea Susan Glass:working and learning the ins and outs of publishing and working with Amazon and.
Andrea Susan Glass:And consistencies, shall we say?
Andrea Susan Glass:And, getting on the phone with them.
Andrea Susan Glass:So someone finally coming with a book with their name on it is such a great
Andrea Susan Glass:reward for the time that you've put in.
Andrea Susan Glass:And that's, what's so exciting for me too, in my business to have
Andrea Susan Glass:the opportunity to serve people.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I just want to put a note in here that's so important to remember
Andrea Susan Glass:is that nobody runs a business.
Andrea Susan Glass:A lot of us go into businesses solopreneurs and say, oh great.
Andrea Susan Glass:I'm good at this.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I'm going to start a business.
Andrea Susan Glass:Whether it's the financial planner, the real estate
Andrea Susan Glass:agent, or a book coach like me.
Andrea Susan Glass:But we can't do it alone because we don't have all those skillsets and
Andrea Susan Glass:whether or not we hire a marketer, we certainly can hire other people.
Andrea Susan Glass:Whether we want employees or contractors.
Andrea Susan Glass:I've worked with contractors.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have my web design guy.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have tech people.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have my graphic designer.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have my copy of.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I have support people, accountability, partners.
Andrea Susan Glass:So it seems like an isolated experience to write a book or
Andrea Susan Glass:to run a business by yourself.
Andrea Susan Glass:But no one should think that they can do it all themselves.
Andrea Susan Glass:And that's really important that will also help counteract that
Andrea Susan Glass:inconsistency because when we can reach out to other people, when we're
Andrea Susan Glass:struggling and for me with marketing, I used books, courses, and coaches.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have a book marketing coach, and I'm working with a business marketing coach.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I can't do this all myself.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I'm really glad that I was willing to reach out and understanding that
Andrea Susan Glass:you have to you cannot do this alone.
Andrea Susan Glass:No one can write a book alone or no one can run a business alone.
Andrea Susan Glass:So that's really important advice that I like to share with people.
Joshua Maddux:That's really good.
Joshua Maddux:Yeah.
Joshua Maddux:Yeah.
Joshua Maddux:I totally agree.
Joshua Maddux:I think, and that's really.
Joshua Maddux:The main sort of mindset behind this whole podcast is the aspect of so many
Joshua Maddux:business owners at the end of the day.
Joshua Maddux:Trapped themselves in a bunker for whatever ever reason.
Joshua Maddux:And that might just be the doomsday bunker.
Joshua Maddux:And they're trying to protect themselves from whatever happened
Joshua Maddux:in their business five years ago.
Joshua Maddux:Or, whatever reason they're sheltering themselves from risk or some
Joshua Maddux:issue or whatever that might be.
Joshua Maddux:And so many business owners Do that on a regular basis.
Joshua Maddux:And I think it's so critical to really the success of any business to reach
Joshua Maddux:out and have other people that are there for you and can simply bounce ideas.
Joshua Maddux:If it's someone who's in a different industry, that's awesome.
Joshua Maddux:Run ideas past someone else who is in a different industry who isn't
Joshua Maddux:necessarily direct competition.
Joshua Maddux:And you guys can be open about, Hey, I think that's a great
Joshua Maddux:idea, or maybe not so much.
Joshua Maddux:And having a business coach, having any of that type of stuff, someone who doesn't
Joshua Maddux:necessarily a hundred percent of the time have all the right answers, but someone
Joshua Maddux:who maybe can ask the right questions.
Joshua Maddux:And I think that's really critical for businesses.
Andrea Susan Glass:I just thought of another important point is that
Andrea Susan Glass:people learn and people take in information in different formats.
Andrea Susan Glass:Whatever service or product you're providing.
Andrea Susan Glass:We have to think in terms of people who might be auditory, visual, or kinesthetic,
Andrea Susan Glass:and as well as I was to put my first book, any book into paperback, cause
Andrea Susan Glass:there's a lot of bells, a lot of detail.
Andrea Susan Glass:I did that and now I'm thinking about an audio book because people.
Andrea Susan Glass:Some people just they listen in their car or they go for a walk and they listen.
Andrea Susan Glass:And next year I'm planning on developing two courses because you
Andrea Susan Glass:can take my book and you can read it.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then you can just put it back on the shelf or you can
Andrea Susan Glass:take a course and go through it.
Andrea Susan Glass:Step-by-step let's say there's six modules and each module is going to
Andrea Susan Glass:give you a homework assignment and then you'll get on a coaching call.
Andrea Susan Glass:And you'll talk about your challenges with the assignment.
Andrea Susan Glass:And if you're going to get the same knowledge in a, so much deeper format.
Andrea Susan Glass:So we want to have those of us who want to share our expertise, we want to be able
Andrea Susan Glass:to offer it in many different formats.
Andrea Susan Glass:Not only is that great for our audience, because they're all learned
Andrea Susan Glass:differently, but here again, we're creating more sources of events.
Andrea Susan Glass:And since I am a teacher at heart, I actually graduated as a teacher and I had
Andrea Susan Glass:an English major and an education major.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I've been teaching for the university of California for 15 years.
Andrea Susan Glass:If I combine my teaching and my writing courses are perfect for me and
Andrea Susan Glass:beyond teaching for the university.
Andrea Susan Glass:If I teach my own courses, obviously I'll get it.
Andrea Susan Glass:Chunk of the income and I'll have more control over the
Andrea Susan Glass:content and the way I share it.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I'm very excited.
Andrea Susan Glass:I've taken a few online courses on how to develop courses.
Andrea Susan Glass:And again, even with courses, you can have them be strictly on the computer for
Andrea Susan Glass:somebody to go and take in their own time.
Andrea Susan Glass:Or you can have them with one coaching call a week.
Andrea Susan Glass:Two coaching calls or videos or no videos.
Andrea Susan Glass:There's so many different formats.
Andrea Susan Glass:And again, we have to understand our audience, Audience is business owners.
Andrea Susan Glass:They're very busy.
Andrea Susan Glass:What's going to be the best format for them to take in this information.
Andrea Susan Glass:And usually what I do is I like to run surveys.
Andrea Susan Glass:That's how I wrote my first book.
Andrea Susan Glass:I ran a survey to find out what was the biggest problem that
Andrea Susan Glass:potential authors were having and starting to write their book.
Andrea Susan Glass:And after I ran that survey, I had a sense of what I needed to put in my book.
Joshua Maddux:That's really good.
Joshua Maddux:Yeah.
Joshua Maddux:I think with the different types of learning whether that's via someone
Joshua Maddux:picking up the physical book or, listening to an audio book or anything like that,
Joshua Maddux:I actually, I know a business owner, friend of mine who will buy the physical
Joshua Maddux:copy and the audio book, and then he listens to the audio book as he reads it.
Joshua Maddux:And he's I retain so much more information.
Joshua Maddux:Out of that book.
Joshua Maddux:Then if I was to just do one of the two for me, I will grab, I'll grab audio
Joshua Maddux:books of books that I want to read and I'll do it while I'm, I'll listen
Joshua Maddux:to them while I'm doing yard work or gardening or, out driving or whatever.
Joshua Maddux:And it's activities that, I would never have been able to sit there on the
Joshua Maddux:freeway, reading a book while I'm driving.
Joshua Maddux:That's a terrible idea, but you can throw an audio book on.
Joshua Maddux:And, digest that content and think about it and process through that, in
Joshua Maddux:a time where you're doing an activity that isn't hyper productive necessarily.
Joshua Maddux:And it's something where you're able to replace, driving on the freeway
Joshua Maddux:with reading a book and actually be somewhat productive during that.
Joshua Maddux:Yeah,
Andrea Susan Glass:it's more of a, it's a progression that we're seeing nowadays and
Andrea Susan Glass:experts who was starting with a service.
Andrea Susan Glass:They're moving into a book.
Andrea Susan Glass:Then like me, they might move into a workbook and then
Andrea Susan Glass:they're moving into courses.
Andrea Susan Glass:And some of them even going beyond with coaching days and I'm planning
Andrea Susan Glass:on doing a writer's retreat next year.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have a few locations in mind.
Andrea Susan Glass:Expanding your service and product deliverables is one of the best ways to.
Andrea Susan Glass:Diversify your income and have more of a consistent income.
Andrea Susan Glass:I know it sounds like a little bit too much to manage and I can see
Andrea Susan Glass:that some people might think that, so it's not right for everyone.
Andrea Susan Glass:And that's why I wrote two books this year, but I won't
Andrea Susan Glass:be writing anymore for awhile.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I'm going to do two courses next year.
Andrea Susan Glass:They're just going to be my two primary courses.
Andrea Susan Glass:Some people go on and on and the next person, the bigger course, and you
Andrea Susan Glass:have to decide what's right for you.
Andrea Susan Glass:I am not.
Andrea Susan Glass:Youngster I'm, in my third phase of life, I guess say, and I know what I can
Andrea Susan Glass:handle, and I know what I want to do.
Andrea Susan Glass:And that ideas that I have to share will be perfect for the two
Andrea Susan Glass:courses that I'm developing and.
Andrea Susan Glass:I just, as a matter of fact, I just developed a new coaching
Andrea Susan Glass:program called begin your book now.
Andrea Susan Glass:Or I want to take authors who need a little handholding to the very beginning
Andrea Susan Glass:of writing a book where I'll help them on a few zoom calls with their title,
Andrea Susan Glass:their table of contents, their daily writing schedule and the timeline for
Andrea Susan Glass:the whole process, because that's what.
Andrea Susan Glass:A lot of authors find challenging.
Andrea Susan Glass:They don't understand the whole process where it starts with, writing
Andrea Susan Glass:the book and then getting it edited and having beta readers and having
Andrea Susan Glass:advanced readers and getting the cover design the whole trajectory.
Andrea Susan Glass:This beginning of book now coaching program that I'm developing is going to.
Andrea Susan Glass:Lay all that out and you'll have timelines for me.
Andrea Susan Glass:I don't find timelines as pressure.
Andrea Susan Glass:I find them as my own form of accountability.
Andrea Susan Glass:If I said that by the end of today, I'm going to do this and this.
Andrea Susan Glass:I'm going to put everything else aside and do that bad, or, I have
Andrea Susan Glass:an accountability partner right now.
Andrea Susan Glass:So on Sunday night I sent her what I was supposed to send her.
Andrea Susan Glass:It was like eight o'clock at night when I finally sent it to her.
Andrea Susan Glass:But I knew that I promised it to her.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I'm a coach is a great form of accountability, but you can find
Andrea Susan Glass:accountability partners in your industry or the writing community.
Andrea Susan Glass:Whatever works for you.
Andrea Susan Glass:So the beginning of your book now coaching program is a form of accountability.
Andrea Susan Glass:It lays out the whole process.
Andrea Susan Glass:So new offers don't have to struggle and say, oh, what do I do next?
Andrea Susan Glass:And what are we doing next?
Andrea Susan Glass:So I'm excited about that.
Andrea Susan Glass:And right now I'm going to be putting out a notice is looking for beta testers.
Andrea Susan Glass:Those are the people who take your coaching program the first
Andrea Susan Glass:time at a reduced price so that they can create testimonials for
Andrea Susan Glass:when you launch your program.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I'm excited about that.
Andrea Susan Glass:I love developing titles and topics.
Andrea Susan Glass:Tables of contents and this one of the most challenging things
Andrea Susan Glass:I've found working with authors.
Joshua Maddux:So yeah, the one thing, one thing I want to mention with
Joshua Maddux:in regards to diversifying, and I think I want to clarify a little bit
Joshua Maddux:here is although we're talking about diversifying what services or product
Joshua Maddux:you're offering, what you're not talking about is diversifying across different.
Joshua Maddux:Industry offerings.
Joshua Maddux:You didn't say, oh, I am a book author, and I'm also going
Joshua Maddux:to open an ice cream shop.
Joshua Maddux:Those are two entirely separate industries.
Joshua Maddux:Have nothing to do with each other and have no overlap.
Joshua Maddux:Being an author and being a copy editor and being a, a book
Joshua Maddux:coach are all the same industry.
Joshua Maddux:They have very similar elements, a lot of overlap, the knowledge needed
Joshua Maddux:to do all of those is not necessarily a hundred percent the same, but has a
Joshua Maddux:very high overlap across all of that.
Joshua Maddux:And the diversifying isn't necessarily always, oh, you own
Joshua Maddux:a plumbing company now go open a.
Joshua Maddux:A roofing company.
Joshua Maddux:Those are very different elements.
Joshua Maddux:They're both in construction, but they're different.
Joshua Maddux:Or, you own a restaurant go open a construction company.
Joshua Maddux:Like we're not talking about cross industry or diversifying in that
Joshua Maddux:sense necessarily because this diversity move that you made in
Joshua Maddux:diversifying sort of your offering.
Joshua Maddux:Wasn't something where you had to go spend five years in education
Joshua Maddux:and go learn a new skill.
Joshua Maddux:It was something that you had the primary skillset and it was
Joshua Maddux:pivoting the offer slightly.
Joshua Maddux:And that's really key.
Joshua Maddux:Sometimes you don't have to do this giant shift in business to offer something new.
Joshua Maddux:It can be a small little incremental change.
Joshua Maddux:There's a statement and a quote that I got.
Joshua Maddux:Butcher, but it talks about making a 1% increase in your business.
Joshua Maddux:You make a 1% increase every day in your business.
Joshua Maddux:That's 365% better by the end of the year.
Joshua Maddux:And so sometimes business owners want this big, giant, I
Joshua Maddux:want to do a 90 degree pivot.
Joshua Maddux:And it's okay don't do a 90 degree pivot because that's
Joshua Maddux:all you're ever going to do.
Joshua Maddux:And then it's not going to be.
Joshua Maddux:But do a 1% increase, day over day and improve your business a little bit.
Joshua Maddux:And I think elements like this, diversifying the authoring, the offering.
Joshua Maddux:Are really critical to that.
Joshua Maddux:And
Andrea Susan Glass:Really good.
Andrea Susan Glass:I think Joshua, that people will tend to want to work with specialists.
Andrea Susan Glass:When you look at somebody's website, you want to see what they've done.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have to say that I am horrified when I get on a website.
Andrea Susan Glass:A copy editor and says, I do copy editing.
Andrea Susan Glass:I do book formatting.
Andrea Susan Glass:I do graphic design.
Andrea Susan Glass:I do a virtual assisting.
Andrea Susan Glass:I do your taxes and it goes on and on.
Andrea Susan Glass:And how can this person be good at all of those things?
Andrea Susan Glass:I.
Andrea Susan Glass:I just don't think that's attractive for a business to do that.
Andrea Susan Glass:I specialize in working with first time non-fiction authors to help
Andrea Susan Glass:them write and publish a book.
Andrea Susan Glass:They're going to be very proud of at whatever stage they need.
Andrea Susan Glass:I am flexible and customized whether they need ghost writing, copy or books.
Andrea Susan Glass:I can do that and I can get them to the finish line.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I'm a specialist in first time, non-fiction authors.
Andrea Susan Glass:I don't really work in fiction.
Andrea Susan Glass:I don't really work in my market.
Andrea Susan Glass:I work with experts who have information to share.
Andrea Susan Glass:You.
Andrea Susan Glass:Don't go to a doctor who does everything.
Andrea Susan Glass:When you need a specialist for, a broken bone or any kind of surgery,
Andrea Susan Glass:we tend to feel that specialists have.
Andrea Susan Glass:The best skills.
Andrea Susan Glass:And when someone works with me, there's two factors.
Andrea Susan Glass:They want my skills, but on another level, they also have to get along with me.
Andrea Susan Glass:And so now that we have zoom, I don't take on any new clients until we have a zoom.
Andrea Susan Glass:Because, or I actually do have some live meetings with people because
Andrea Susan Glass:I've seemed to attract a lot of people in the area where I live in
Andrea Susan Glass:San Diego, but the zoom meeting, we can decide if we're compatible.
Andrea Susan Glass:I won't work with anyone.
Andrea Susan Glass:Who's not responsive.
Andrea Susan Glass:If I send an email and it takes a week to get a response, that's not the best client
Andrea Susan Glass:for me because we work with timelines.
Andrea Susan Glass:If I don't get responses and I don't feel like there's invested in it.
Andrea Susan Glass:So the skill set is really important, but the relationship is important.
Andrea Susan Glass:Whether you're offering a service or a product is still need to know
Andrea Susan Glass:your target market and you still need to have an affinity for them.
Andrea Susan Glass:Because even if you're selling books, you're going to be doing some live events.
Andrea Susan Glass:And I did a live event a few weeks ago at a library.
Andrea Susan Glass:I've got a live event in two weeks at a street fair where my
Andrea Susan Glass:writers put this taking a booth.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then in January I have another live event.
Andrea Susan Glass:I'm going to be on an offer panel that I set up in a women's coworking
Andrea Susan Glass:space, full of business owners.
Andrea Susan Glass:So I have to be relatable to that audience.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have to know my audience.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have to speak to that audience.
Andrea Susan Glass:So your skills have to become accompanied by your ability
Andrea Susan Glass:to relate to your audience.
Joshua Maddux:Yeah.
Joshua Maddux:Yeah.
Joshua Maddux:It's been super good chatting.
Joshua Maddux:I think, I feel like there's been a ton of really good nuggets and information
Joshua Maddux:throughout this whole conversation.
Joshua Maddux:And I feel like.
Joshua Maddux:We could probably sit here and chat for another half hour.
Joshua Maddux:I will have your website, LinkedIn, all that type of stuff is, and bio is all in
Joshua Maddux:the show notes for those listening, if you want to grab that, but what is the
Joshua Maddux:number one best place to connect with you?
Joshua Maddux:What is that number one spot where people should visit, find out more about you.
Joshua Maddux:If they want to connect?
Andrea Susan Glass:It's hard to decide between my two
Andrea Susan Glass:websites, but writer's way.com.
Andrea Susan Glass:Simple to remember.
Andrea Susan Glass:I took that from the artist's way, because I really liked that, his
Andrea Susan Glass:way.com and that's my service-based.
Andrea Susan Glass:And then Andrea, Susan glass.com is where I have my books and my coaching programs.
Andrea Susan Glass:You can always.
Andrea Susan Glass:People anyone on LinkedIn and Facebook by putting their name in there, but way.com.
Andrea Susan Glass:It also shows a lot of the authors I've worked with.
Andrea Susan Glass:I have pictures of their books and their testimonials.
Andrea Susan Glass:So you can also put my name into Amazon and find me all the books
Andrea Susan Glass:I've worked on and my books.
Andrea Susan Glass:Pretty much everywhere I want to be found, but I also offer a complimentary
Andrea Susan Glass:book strategy session, 30 minutes on zoom for anyone who has any questions.
Andrea Susan Glass:Absolutely no obligation.
Andrea Susan Glass:Let's just talk and see where you're at and what kind of services you need.
Andrea Susan Glass:And you can get that link on my website, Andrea Susan Glass dot com.
Joshua Maddux:Awesome.
Joshua Maddux:Awesome.
Joshua Maddux:I will make sure to add the Amazon book author link in the show notes as well.
Joshua Maddux:I'll grab that.
Joshua Maddux:And, though, anyone can click on that and check out the books that you've
Joshua Maddux:published to date follow the author on Amazon and Amazon will notify you as
Joshua Maddux:more books are released, which is great.
Joshua Maddux:So also appreciate the time.
Joshua Maddux:Appreciate you joining me today.
Joshua Maddux:And yeah, go check out the website if you want to connect and as
Joshua Maddux:always keep learning and we'll go.
Andrea Susan Glass:Take care.
Andrea Susan Glass:Thanks.
Andrea Susan Glass:Thanks so much for today, Joshua.
Joshua Maddux:Thanks for listening to this episode of, in the bunker.
Joshua Maddux:As always we can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
Joshua Maddux:at, in the bunker podcast.
Joshua Maddux:Be sure to share this episode and what you're going to apply from it.
Joshua Maddux:And how that can affect your business, make sure to tag us in that post so
Joshua Maddux:we can highlight your journey as well.
Joshua Maddux:But before you go.