This episode of Courageous Destiny: Build a Business & Life You Love presents a rich and illuminating conversation between Kristin Crockett and Krista Brea, diving into the multifaceted journey of self-publishing. Together, they peel back the layers of what it truly takes to bring a book into the world—not just as a creative endeavor, but as a bold pathway toward freedom, income, and impact.

Krista, a ten-time author, shares her unique insights into the self-publishing process, emphasizing that while the idea of writing a book can feel overwhelming, it doesn’t have to stop you. She stresses the value of a structured, courageous approach: using ghostwriters to support your voice, leveraging AI to create outlines, and breaking down the writing journey into actionable steps that anyone can follow.

Throughout the conversation, Krista highlights the importance of market research—checking tools like Google and Amazon to ensure that book topics align with real reader demand. This strategic lens transforms writing from a daunting dream into an achievable, profitable venture. With smart planning, appealing book covers, targeted keywords, and the power of reviews, Krista reveals how authors can generate visibility and create streams of passive income through platforms like Amazon.

At its heart, the dialogue echoes a Courageous Destiny principle: overcoming fear with clarity, structure, and action. Listeners walk away not only with strategies to self-publish but also with the empowered mindset to push past the inner voice that says, “I can’t.”

Takeaways

• Plan with courage: Understand market demand before committing to a project.
• Leverage support: Use ghostwriters and AI to streamline the writing process without losing your unique voice.
• Break it down: Tackle book writing in manageable steps to reduce overwhelm.
• Market smart: Optimize keywords, covers, and reviews to stand out on Amazon.
• Create freedom: Passive income from self-publishing is real with the right structure and strategy.
• Move through fear: Courageously face the overwhelm of writing and transform it into confidence.

About Krista Brea

Krista Brea is a vibrant, self-published author who began her journey in 2022 after becoming a mother, seeking a way to create passive income while embracing the joy of family life. What began as a bold experiment quickly turned into a thriving stream of royalties and a proven, repeatable process.

With ten books under her belt in just a few short years, Krista now teaches her strategies through her self-publishing course, showing others how to turn their ideas into income. Her energy is contagious, her approach is practical, and her story embodies what it means to step courageously into new possibilities.

Krista reminds us all that self-publishing isn’t just about books—it’s about creating a destiny by design, where your words, wisdom, and willingness to take bold action can change your life and the lives of countless readers.

Krista's community on Skool for emerging author's turning pages to paychecks:

We invite you to join Krista Brea’s Skool community (https://www.skool.com/kdp-publishing/about)— the ultimate space for aspiring and experienced self-publishers who want to turn their ideas into published books and create real passive income. Inside, members connect with like-minded creators, share wins, and get expert insights from Krista, a seasoned author and publishing mentor with over 15 years of digital marketing experience.

New members get instant access to Krista’s Book Challenge Course, a step-by-step program that walks you through how to launch your very first book on Amazon — from idea to physical paperback. Whether you’re looking to publish for profit, grow your brand, or share your story with the world, this community gives you the tools and support to make it happen. Join today at the link below and start your publishing journey.

Hello everyone and welcome to the courageous destiny build a business and life you love podcast.

I am your hostess, Kristen Crockett.

And today I am honored and excited to have 10 times self published author Krista Bray on my show today.

Welcome, Kristin, to my show.

Thank you so much for having me here.

I'm super excited, you guys.

Krista has this awesome program and this is why I wanted to have her on so that she could tell you all about it and then all about giving us some tips about how to self publish and, and all of those things.

But she helps people turn pages into paychecks.

So how many times do you hear people go, oh, I want to write a book, I want to write a book.

And then they write a book and then you're like, well, where's your book?

Yeah, I'm not making a dime off that thing.

Right?

So this is a very important person that we have on our show that I have on my.

It's our show, everybody.

It's our show.

We're all going to be listening.

I'm here for you.

Krista, tell me how did you get into, into doing this?

How did you and how did you have time with being a mom and having the nine to five and all those things?

Find time to write 10 books?

Yeah, you know what, that's a great question because it's all about having the right strategy.

I saw this opportunity and ever since I was a child, I really wanted to write a book, but I was never really great at grammar and editing and all of those things.

And then I found a system that really worked for me.

But ultimately the reason why I got started because I am a full time employee, I am a full time mom too.

And I just wanted some extra income.

You know, everybody needs a little bit of extra money these days.

And so I learned this system to where I don't even have to fully write these books myself.

I actually leverage ghostwriters to do the a lot of the load for me.

Right.

So again, like Kristen said earlier, there's a lot of people who either want to write a book but don't take that next step to do it because they feel like it's too overwhelming, like there's too many steps involved or they write a book and then they're not producing income off of that.

So I've learned like a foolproof system on how to do this with little or work involved.

Right.

And then also how to do that upfront research to make sure that the book that you're going to be spending time on writing and Investing in actually has search demand.

Oh, that's interesting.

That's something like I often have things, they just come right out of my heart, you know and I, I kind of hope for the best.

Yeah, but what are some things, I mean can you share some secrets to what somebody might kind of look out for when they're doing some pre.

Pre.

Yeah, pre work, so to speak.

Yeah, definitely.

So whatever your topic is or whatever you have in mind, and keep in mind everyone that I have extended extensive years of SEO specialization in my own career for like dec. Over well over a decade.

So one of the first things that you can do to test if there is market demand for a topic that you want to write a book on is go out to Google and start to type that topic idea in Google.

Then what Google's going to do is going to start giving you some pre fill options.

It's going to fill down top things that people are searching for on Google related to that topic.

And so the things that are coming up high, you know that that has more market demand than some of the other things.

And then what you can also do is do this same technique inside of Amazon.com and you can look in the go to the books category and then start typing in your topic idea.

And so if it's starting to pre fill in there, then that means that there's already other books that are within that market that are selling well.

So you can kind of test that theory.

And that's just a very beginner place to start.

Then you want to do additional research by having the right tools in place.

And one of the tools that I actually prefer to use is something called Publisher Rocket.

And you know, that's something else that I give a full tutorial on inside of my program as well.

You, I know you have so much information.

I know you have so much information.

How do you, you know, I would love for you to share with the audience.

A lot of times I know for me for sure, when I think of writing a book when I was a little girl, I remember reading Somewhere in Was it somewhere in A Wrinkle in Time?

It was A Wrinkle in Time.

It was one of my favorite books.

And when I got done with the series A Wrinkle in Time and I did it in like a week, I got so into these stories and I just loved them so much.

And my mom would come in my room at 4am and she's like, what are you doing?

I'm like, I'm reading, you know.

And I remember just being so into this book.

And I remember getting through and going, I'm going to be an author.

That is what I want to be when I grow up.

I want to be an author.

And so I never became an author because I would look on tv, right?

And I would see people typing, like, when.

Okay, so I'm a Gen Xer, so I would see people typing out the book, right?

So they'd be typing out the book, and it just seems so overwhelming.

So when I think of writing a book, I've often thought of it as this huge undertaking and this gigantic project.

And how, you know, and how does one find the time to be able to do this huge project?

And when we.

If somebody were to join your program, how do you help them kind of navigate that and change their idea on that?

Okay, this is one of the top objections to overcome because people want to have a book, but they don't know where to start.

They feel overwhelmed.

So there's a couple of different things.

Today, in this age, we now have AI.

And AI is a tool that can help us get the ball rolling with fleshing out what we should be putting into that book.

So I often leverage AI to help me start my outline.

And.

And then once you have an outline put together, and I'm not talking about just, you know, chapters one through eight, right?

Like, you want to have your outline divided up into additional subtopics, like, pick five to 10 different things that you want to talk about in each one of those chapters.

So then once you have that shorter sub list within each chapter, it becomes easier to write 2,000, 3,000 words in.

In one chapter because you have talking points.

And once you get on a roll, it becomes easier to start writing on those specific topics.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So.

And then you have.

And I love what you said about AI being something that you would use to write an outline.

Yes, you probably could use it to write a book.

But.

But an outline is really important.

And.

And I. I've been using AI quite a bit just in my business lately, just to give me ideas and like you said, to get the ball rolling.

There's so many tools that we don't even realize we have.

So if you're out there right now and you're feeling a little intimidated, I just want to tell you, go, play with it.

Go play with it.

It's.

And just think of, like, if it would do this for me, then maybe I'd use it and then try to do that thing and.

And be like, astounded and go, oh, maybe this can help me a Little bit more than I think it can.

So thank you for sharing that.

I think that's really important.

And so you've got ghostwriters, an idea of a ghostwriter.

How do you make sure that they capture your voice?

Yeah, no, that's another great question.

So I fully develop my book outline.

So even though I work on it and get ideas and concepts throughout through AI, I go in and I start to, to put in additional bullet points to where I can tell unique stories.

I want this scenario.

I, you know, and I write a paragraph or three paragraphs, depending on what specific scenarios I want to tell in that section subsection.

Right.

So now I'm injecting my own personal stories so the ghostwriter has more to go off of.

And now she can tell a story.

Story that I'm giving her a summary of that happened in my personal life.

Right.

Without having to go over into details.

But where she can then, with creative writing, make that story kind of come more to life based on the facts and the details that I've provided.

So this is where, like, if you're a busy entrepreneur, busy professional, or you don't have the writing skills to complete a book from A to Z, you can leverage ghost writers, which are professional writers.

They have creative writing skills to make your story come to life.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

So it's like a co created story.

Yeah.

You know, one of the things that I think is so important too is like, I've always known just as a, as a business, as a life coach, how important it is as I'm on the speed speaker circuit to have a book.

And you know, so instead of having a book, my, my solution was to have a podcast.

That was my solution.

Now I'm like, I want both.

Yep.

So I want you to encourage me.

Let's pretend like I'm one of your ideal clients, because I'm assuming I probably am.

Oh, absolutely.

And tell me what, tell me.

I, I come to you and I go, krista, I've got this really great idea for a book to talk about.

I don't know, we'll just, we'll grab a topic.

Well, I, I know I want to write one called the Doobie Don't Be Guide to Sales Success.

Like, that's like, I love expanding awareness and I love expanding, you know, people need to know sometimes the things they're doing wrong too, so they stop doing the things that, you know, might be putting others off.

And so I thought it'd be fun to write this book, but I don't know that that's like my book, do you know what I mean?

Like, I feel like the pressure.

I'm gonna let you coach me here.

So I feel like the pressure that I have to write the book, do you know what I mean?

Like the courageous destiny book that showcases my journey from when I was in corporate America and I made the big leap and then I started coaching and now I'm in the process of growing a seven figure business membership and all this other stuff.

I feel like I have to write everything and it's, it feels so big.

And I'm like, why does everybody want to hear my story anyway?

And I hear that from other people too, but I have that.

I have that too.

Like, okay, well what would it benefit?

How could I break out the pieces that would really benefit them and the pieces of the story and those kinds of things?

So it feels so big.

Yeah, it definitely can feel like a huge mountain that you have to climb.

But I think what's important here is you want to think about, okay, how long does my book really need to be?

So the type of book that you're going after to be a decent size, but an easy read through and less work on your end would be targeting about 30,000 words on your book, which is roughly around 120 to 130 pages.

Some something that's very digestible.

So you want to break this down into smaller steps.

So one of the first things that you would do is now you know your tar.

Your.

Your topic, right?

Like your topic is, is sales success, right?

Like that is something that you want to cover.

So that's the main takeaway.

So one of the things that you can do is think about your book in terms of chapters.

How many chapters would you like to target in your book?

So most books are going to have of that size or roughly between six to ten chapters.

So just, you know, you, you can make up a number, right?

And then you start to put down what would I like to cover in chapter one?

And just put core, core themes like what do I.

And write this down for chapter one through eight or whatever number that you picked.

But the thing that you want to think about is not just what your topic is going to be, but what is going to be the takeaway from each of those chapters.

So the, as the reader reads the, they're getting value out of each chapter to keep them turning the page.

So this is just one of the very first things that I teach within my program is to take small bits and like break it down to something that becomes an easier roadmap and so from once you have your chapter outline and just naming each one of those chapters and what the takeaway you want to be of each of those chapters, you're already making big progress right there because then you're going to go into the next step, which is breaking down that outline.

You know, what things are you going to talk about to get to the reader to that takeaway in that chapter?

And so, you know, this is something just listing out those chapters.

You could probably spend one or two hours and you can get an idea from chapter one to chapter eight what you want to cover.

Just sit down and think about it, like, you know your story, you know what you want to talk about, you know, like, what is the overall goal of your book in the end, the end value you want your reader to get out of.

But now break it down chapter by chapter and then, like, you can continue to that next step.

That sounds a lot easier.

And then you can just work on the chapter.

You don't have to work on the whole thing at once.

And you could probably work on the one takeaway even at a time a day, you know, so if this, this chapter has three takeaways.

Yeah.

That you want to make sure they take away, then I could work on a takeaway at a time.

Right, Exactly.

I don't want to divulge all of your secrets, but I know you've got a million of them, so we'll be okay, right?

No, I definitely.

I think that this is really great because it's something that people don't think about.

And, you know, that is a common problem is people, they, they pause before they even get started because they're fearful or overwhelmed from the jump.

And when you start to break this mindset down and you're like, oh, wait a minute, breaking down the chapters and just writing what my ideas are for each chapter, that doesn't seem so bad.

And then, you know, I think that also gives you momentum.

Absolutely momentum with one.

Gosh, I know what I would feel like seeing one chapter done.

I know once I would see one chapter done, it would feels so good.

And to give you an idea, if you guys ever look me up on Facebook, you know, or if you found me from Facebook, you will see that I have done thousands, and I do mean thousands of posts over the last 10 years.

Thousands.

And I'm like, those in and of themselves could be probably three books that I could probably hire a ghostwriter for and be like, hey, can you kind of map all these posts.

Posts together and.

But it's it's so.

I think that's.

I, I coach this a lot for people.

If you make it hard, it will be.

If you make it easy, it will be.

Yeah, in your mind.

So if you make that, it's easy and you just showed me how I could do that and then it's like, oh, well, now I know how to start.

And that's a lot of people's first kind of obstacle they need to overcome.

It's easy to say it.

Yeah.

You know, but me waking up, I know I'll need to wake up early to do it.

I want to work, wake up early because that'll be my best time to write is right when I'm fresh, you know, and that's always been my best time to write my posts or anything.

And it's like just doing that first step.

What do you recommend as a first step for people?

What do you think's a good first step?

Can you give me like a good first step for, for like getting started with writing or to just like make the decision to create their book or do research from what piece of the.

Okay, we'll go both ways.

Yeah.

For just getting started, you know, it's really about making sure that this is something that you want to commit to again, even.

Even though that this is less work.

Because if you are going to outsource and help with a ghostwriter writing some of your stuff, it will be easier in these systems that I have put in place, like make it more simplified to get a book done from A to Z.

But you know, it's investing in yourself.

This is one digital asset that you're creating one time that you can sell forever.

So it's not, you know, you don't want to look at this as just something that you know is something that you're going to, I don't know if it's a lack of a better term, half ass.

Right.

Like you want to have a good quality book.

So if this is something that you want to do, just going through the steps of, you know, you know that you want to do this, this is going to be something that's going to elevate your authority if you're already a business owner.

Or it could be something that even if you wanted to smart start, start small, I mean, you could do something fun with books.

It doesn't always have to be writing.

For example, a friend of mine, she said she wanted to do some kind of a book activity book with her son.

Her son is 10 years old, he's into hockey.

I said, oh, that's so cool.

You know, you could make probably a little hockey scorecard book, right?

And give out to the teammates and everybody could have copies and they could keep score of their games and have coloring pages.

I mean, there's so many things that you can do with books, right?

It's just once the ideas start flowing, like there's endless opportunities of different things that you can do.

So even if you want to get started, you don't have to commit to some big 30,000, 40,000 word book.

You can start with something small like a journal or a notebook.

You know, there's different things that you can get started with.

Or a coloring book.

Like you just said, 100%.

Yes.

Isn't that fun?

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of fun.

And you can't.

Like you said, like.

And I thought about that too with Courageous Destiny.

Yeah, I could write some journals.

I could have, I could do.

I have so many clients that are artists.

Like put together a Create Just Destiny coloring book.

Like that didn't even exist five seconds ago, but it can exist right now and it is fun to think about and there's all kinds of different things to do, but as an art.

So if I'm an author and I have all these different books now, how do I turn them to profits?

Oh yeah.

So this is, this is where, you know, my passion really is because the whole reason why I got started into this was to make some passive income.

So ideally you want to make sure that your topic has market demand, meaning that there's other books in the marketplace that are covering kind of the same idea that you're covering as far as a topic like for you, sales success.

There's plenty of books on sales, right.

So then it's just working in the right keywords so that you're showing, showing up.

Because you already know what it takes to be seen.

Even when that comes to social media and other things like you have to be seen to get your yourself out there.

Well, it's the same thing with your book.

You want your book to be seen.

That's why the keywords are so important in your title and in your subtitle.

And then that this way it's, it's also about having a really captivating not just title, but also cover.

People say you don't judge a book by the COVID but people actually judge a book by the COVID So you want a nice, presentable, professional looking cover on your book that really stands out and grabs attention.

And honestly, the reason why I love doing self publishing is because I'm an introvert.

I don't go around telling anybody, hey, go buy my book.

I don't have to do that.

Amazon has such a vast marketplace.

I just create these ideas that I'm interested in that have search demand.

I put it up on the marketplace and people are finding it and buying it and then I get a percentage which is a royalty from Amazon every single month.

So for me it's more of a, you know, you, you set this up and you put it out there, you launch your book and you let the marketplace kind of determine your position.

And each sale helps you get more visibility because the more sales that you get, the higher your book ranks in the algorithm.

Just like a best sellers list.

So it's kind of, you know, follow, follow the process, put it out there, set it up and let it go.

Like I don't have to.

I just love the fact that I don't have to knock people's doors or DM people or say buy this so I can get sales, you know, so that's why I really enjoy doing books.

And I think even if you are already a professional, again this is something that can add to your credibility, but it's also an additional stream of revenue for your business.

Absolutely.

And I.

What I what?

I love what you said.

There's a few things that we're going through that were kind of coming through when you were talking.

You know, first step, obviously that planning stage, making sure that you have something that's searchable, making sure that you have something that solves an issue or is popular in the marketplace is certainly going to help you.

So the planning, you know, so a lot of people remember when you write a book, if it's a memoir, right.

It could be for you.

Right.

Or if you're writing a legacy piece, it could be you, for you and your family.

But if you want it to sell, it should cater to other people.

Right.

It should be something.

It could be, of course, your true authenticity and your passions and all those things.

But it should also, you know, if you want to make an income by on it, make sure that it is marketable.

That's what I'm hearing.

That's a hundred percent the takeaway.

And if that's your goal is to make money off of your books, then you need to do the upfront planning and research because too many self published authors have, have failed because they missed doing that step.

They just thought, oh, this sounds like a good idea, I'm just gonna run with it.

And then they invest a lot of money in book coaches and things like that, and then it doesn't go anywhere because they didn't do that upfront planning.

And a lot of.

A lot of even existing authors that might have went the traditional route didn't know about that either.

So it happens a lot.

So this is why that piece is such a key element.

And then it's like, also getting reviews on your book is also essential.

So that is something during a book launch that you're also going to want to, you know, focus on doing.

And that, again, is something that I walk you through in my course to just teach you all of these steps of what is important and where to spend your time versus where not to waste time.

Absolutely.

You guys, I hope you're listening if this is something that you're looking to do, because I hear this all the time.

I hear how people want passive income.

But in order to get passive income, there are steps, and there.

There is that planning stage can be very critical and.

And have a partner like Krista, if you're going to go out there and do this, I would.

I can't imagine how helpful it would be.

So thank you so much for.

For sharing the secrets.

And I have two questions for you.

I know I could talk to you all day, but I have two questions for you that everybody gets asked on my podcast.

And the first question is, Christa, what is the most courageous thing you've ever done?

I had to overcome my imposter syndrome to get started with this.

When I first this opportunity, I didn't think that I could do it either.

I had those exact same problems that we were talking about in this podcast.

How am I ever going to write a book?

You know?

But then when I realized that I could break this down into these smaller, more manageable, doable steps like.

And I.

And.

And after I did it one time, I felt so much more confident.

So once you get the first book out there and you learn all the steps, then the confidence kicks in and you're ready to go repeat the process.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Okay, one more question.

What is the most courageous thing you have left to do on your bucket list?

Oh, that is a great question.

So right now I am really, like, working toward teaching others how to do this right?

So I've mastered being able to generate passive income off of launching these books, and now I want to help other people learn how they can do this too, to also generate their own passive income.

And I think that kind of goes into what Kristen's going to ask me next which is, you know, what I'm doing right now.

And I have a brand new program which turn pages into paychecks.

And I'm super excited because it teaches people like you how to create books that generate profits.

Oh, thank you so much for mentioning that.

Yes, I was actually before we.

For sure.

Because I have to have people know how they get in touch with you and where they can find your books on Amazon.

Right.

So what we're going to do is I will have a link to the Amazon storefront for or your author profile and then also a link to how they can contact you to register for your group.

I think that would be amazing.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

This has been great.

Yes.

Thank you so much for coming onto my show and sharing such great words of wisdom and inspiration.

It does make.

It even feels easier to be now.

And I'm like, I've been wanting to write a book and I want.

I've been wanting to be an author since I was.

Since I read A Wrinkle in Time.

And you're going to be your future author.

You know that.

Just tell yourself, work on your affirmations.

I am a future author.

And you're.

You're almost there.

I have to use my program B and be the author.

Be the author.

Let's create it.

Love it.

All right, well, thank you so much, Krista.

And until next time, everyone live courageously.