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How to Write a Book That Grows Your Business (and Become an Amazon Bestseller) with Jake Kelfer · The Unfiltered Tea with Evie

• Jake: Your book should be an extension of who you are as a person, as a coach, as a consultant, as a service provider, as a business owner. And so I do this in a way of when people read my book, they get this feeling that I have a larger than life personality. Extroverted to the nth degree personality because that's who I am. I always tell people: you don't need everybody in the world to like you, to have a great business. You just need the right people to love you. Evie Tavares: I'm Evie, and you're listening to The Unfiltered Tea with Evie. I'm a business owner, a copywriter, and a storyteller at heart. And over the years of building my own business and growing my own community, the thing I've loved the most is hearing people's stories, the strategies that they swear by, the mindset shifts that changed everything for them, and the honest truth about what it takes to grow a business from the ground up. Every person has something that makes them different in their industry. And finding that thing and amplifying it is basically my whole job. And this podcast is just another way I get to do that. In this podcast, I'm bringing on incredible guests from my community, experts in marketing, business growth, and mindset to share the real, unfiltered version of what building a business looks like. There's no polished highlight reel in these episodes, just the tea. So let's get into it. Welcome back to the Unfiltered Tea with Evie. I am so excited to be sitting down today with Jake. Jake and I actually met at a high vibe women event, which I'm sure we'll get into that later, but thank you so much for coming on. I'm so excited to chat with you today. Jake: Come on, Evie, this is great. Happy to be here. Evie Tavares: So for people who aren't familiar with you, can you give us a bit of idea who you are and what you do and how you got started? Jake: Yeah, of course. I can I can give you the whole rundown. but basically, I was a guy who wanted to work with NBA players. I was a basketball nut, played basketball my whole life, and I was like, you know what, if I can't play in the NBA, let me represent NBA players. And so my very first job out of college was working for the Los Angeles Lakers. Now I'm from Southern California. I was like, this is a dream come true job. And after I took the job, Kobe Bryant announced that it was his final season. And I was like, This is gonna be crazy. And so during that season, I gotta experience firsthand the impact that Kobe Bryant had on the world because you had people traveling from all over coming to watch Kobe play one final time. And I just thought to myself, how do I make an impact on people at this level? How do I do something so powerful? How could I be so great at my craft that people will travel all across the world to experience something, right? And the thing is, is when you're right out of college, you don't have a ton of experience on a lot of things. And that was me. And so I remember asking myself two questions. And these two questions put me on the trajectory that's taken over the last 10 years of my life. And they were this, what do I know and how can I help people? And as I was answering those questions, I realized, look, I knew a lot about how to get a job as a millennial because I had gotten a lot of internships. A lot of my friends asked me, how do you get the your jobs? How do you get these interviews? How do you get these internships? I was like, you know what, I get to probably talk about this. And then I realized, like, who do I want to help? Right? And how can I help? And my brother, one of my best friends, he's three years younger than me. I was like, I can help him and all of his friends get better jobs so they can have more time in college to party and have fun. And I was like, okay, so let's do it. And six months later, Kobe Bryant retires. I retire, and my very first book comes out to the world. And that book took me on a path that over the last 10 years has allowed me to build multiple businesses on the back end of a book in the in the speaking world, the coaching world, the book publishing world. I wrote four bestsellers in my twenties. I traveled the world as a motivational speaker. And now today I spend my time running Big Idea to bestseller, where we help entrepreneurs and thought leaders write, publish, and launch nonfiction books to grow their business and make an impact. Evie Tavares: Amazing. I love that story. And I wanna kinda go back to the bridge of your story, going from working for the LA Lakers to writing a book, which you never done before. So how do you make that jump and what kind of gave you the confidence to just go for it? Jake: Well, there's a there's a few things that we need to break down here. And the first one is what made me want to do it? Well, first and foremost is a commitment to something greater than myself. I think that when people look at books, they think of it as this huge undertaking, they think of it as that would be so cool, but it's not for me, or who's gonna listen to me? And the the truth of the matter is this a book is just a different way of delivering information. And if I was going to create a course, it's The same information as I would have put in my book, just delivered in a different way. And so for me, I realized right at the beginning when I decided to do this, I focused on two things. I said, one, I'm gonna commit to doing this. And two, and this was like the fun part of it, was like, how cool would it be at 23 to have a book? Right? that would be so cool. But it was the commitment and the decision to do something bigger than myself and to use a book as the vehicle to deliver that information. Now, the other part of it was like. How do you have the confidence to actually go out and doing it? And that was the thing that was looking back on it, probably the hardest thing. Because everybody that I knew was like, why are you doing this? You have a job with the Lakers. Who do you think you are teaching people about career development? You only have one year of career experience. And that almost stopped me from launching my first book. It was the thing that made me question: should I do this or should I save myself the embarrassment? But I realized. As I was getting ready to release it, I realized that I was actually the perfect person to write that book. And the reason for that was because I wasn't the world's greatest expert on it, but I was one to two steps ahead of the exact person I was trying to help, and I could relate to them. I had just gone through it, so it was fresh. And there was nobody better than me to help these college kids navigate this experience. Because I had just gone through the exact thing that they were now going through. And so that was how I decided to do it, how I had the confidence to do it, and ultimately what propelled me to releasing that first book. Evie Tavares: I think that's such an important point because a lot of people feel like they need to get to a certain point. They need to reach a certain goal or be a certain level of business owner before they can write the book. But like you said, it are you one or two steps ahead of where the person is that you're writing the book for? Jake: Couldn't agree more. I I think that so many of us, and and myself included, I thought that in order to write a book, you had to have achieved something. You either had to have achieved a certain amount of status, a certain amount of longevity in your career, a certain amount of money, right? Like I thought, to be a paid motivational speaker, which intrigued me. But I thought, I'll do that when. And I realized that everything about that was so backwards. Because that that wasn't the requirements. There are no requirements to help people. The requirement to help somebody is to make a decision. And the way in which you choose to help people is the vehicle that you decide. Right? And the key thing about all this though is not pretending to be somebody you're not. I didn't pretend to be the world's greatest career development expert. Because that would have been fake. That wouldn't have been real. But I could 100% authentically be. A guy who's one year room from school teaching you what I know about what worked for me. And that's a big shift that allows us as humans, as entrepreneurs, as people, to maybe try something that otherwise we might not have had the courage or the willingness to attempt. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. I like the piece about not faking it because I feel like that's maybe where people's brains go is well then I'm faking it. But like you said, it's your experience and your story. I'm curious what the writing process was like for you, for your first book, and then going into your second, third, and fourth bestseller, how you grew as a writer and went into that process. Jake: Alright, I'll preface this by saying I I don't love writing. Okay. I don't think I'm the best writer in the world. I'm a good writer. I've spent a lot of hours doing it now. but what I more so believe is that I'm great at delivering information through the vehicle of the written form using a book as that mechanism, if that makes sense. And Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jake: so for me, that first book, I mean. I think back to it and all I really remember about the writing process was this. I would Google and ask, how do I do this? And it would give me a million things. But then I really just realized like, what can I teach somebody? Like, what have I already done that has worked? And then what is the order in which I would teach that to somebody else? Right? So my first book was called Elevate Beyond, and it was a real world guide to standing out in the job market. So the first thing you need to do is you need to a good resume. Then you need to be able to get the interview. Then you need to be able to network. Then you need to be able to land the job. Then you need to be able to use social media properly. And I just guided people through the steps that I had taken. So that took a lot of pressure off trying to be perfect because I was just sharing the process that I wish I would have known before I experienced that thing. But I would leave my house at five in the morning to avoid LA traffic. And I would go to the Lakers facilities. And I remember I'd sit in my car on my laptop and I would literally scrunched up like this. And I would just write and I would type. And it wasn't the most efficient process. But the thing that made that first book happen was not trying to be perfect, but rather trying to be complete. And this is where a lot of authors get messed up, is they try to make a perfect rough draft. they think that, I'm gonna do something I've never done before and I'm gonna be great at it in thirty days. Would you Expect to be a great proficient Spanish speaker if English is your natural language and you spent 30 days? No. Would you expect to be a great golfer after 30 days? No. Would you expect to be great at posting on social media after 30 days? No. But yet when we write a book, we assume that we're gonna automatically be a phenomenal book writer, even if we've never done it before. So that was a big realization. Fast forward now. I've helped thousands of authors. We've worked in a very high-level capacity with hundreds and hundreds of authors, and I've written four of my own best-selling books. What I can honestly say now is that writing a book is about creating a strategy and a plan. It is not about saying, I'm gonna write a book and trying to just hope it comes out because that's how you get stuck. Instead, writing a book is all about building out the plan. Creating the outline, having the commitment, understanding why you're doing it, knowing who the audience is, and then from there breaking down how much time do you have and what can that actually look like? Because you don't need to spend a year writing a rough draft. You can spend 30 to 45 days and get a good rough draft and then rely on the team or rely on yourself to revise, edit, and move forward in the process. So these are some of the things that I've learned as a writer. who doesn't like writing and who doesn't consider myself a phenomenal writer. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. I love what you said about the first draft, because even for myself, I do copywriting, and there's a term that I learned early on. It was T U F D, the ugly first draft, and that that always has to come first in order for that polished final draft, right? So yeah, I think people get very hung up on that. So love that you mentioned that. I have a bit of probably a tricky question for you. Do you have a favorite of your four bestsellers and why? Jake: I like them all for different reasons. Evie Tavares: Is it like picking a favorite child? Yeah. Jake: Well, I'm I'm having my first one very soon. So I can't answer that question yet. But I will break down that answer into the most non-answer answer if possible. Okay. So Evie Tavares: Yeah. Jake: so my first book was Elevate Beyond. There's a special place in my heart for that because it was my first book. it fundamentally changed everything that I do and changed my career trajectory. That's pretty cool. My second book was awesome because it catapulted my speaking career and got me invited to speak in China. That was so cool. My third book was really amazing because it really grew my network. And then I was able to use that book to build a coaching business on the back end of it. My fourth book, Big Idea to Best Seller, that one, and this is a present me talking to you, that one is the one that I use most day to day because that is the business I'm currently operating of. But that book has led to millions of dollars in revenue and tens of thousands of readers probably worldwide at this point, who want to learn more about writing a book. So as of today, the first book changed my life. And my most recent book has been the one that's generated the business that was able to get me my first home. That was the book that allowed me to create the environment where I'm gonna raise my daughter. Like so there's there's power in each one of them. but probably my first and my fourth are my two anchors To that question. Evie Tavares: Amazing. And let's go a little bit deeper into the fourth book and the business that's behind it. So you help to support business owners who want to do the same thing and write a book that supports their business. So where would you recommend that somebody starts with that process? what's usually like the first thing somebody's coming to you and saying? Jake: Yeah. Well I think you gotta ask yourself first and foremost a few questions. A lot of people either feel like they should write a book or they want to write a book, but they haven't given it much thought. So I like to call this the validation test. Okay. And the validation test is to help you determine whether or not a book should be worth your time. And not because you see everybody else doing it, not because you think it's gonna do everything for you, but because you actually want to do it. And so there's a few questions that I like to ask. I change these questions all the time, but it's ultimately you'll get the gist. Question number one, and this is the most important question. Do you actually want to write a book? If you don't really wanna do it, don't wait. Okay. Now I'm not saying if you don't feel ready to say no. I'm saying if at your core in your gut you don't actually want to do this, then don't do it. The second question is: is do you anticipate serving a similar audience for the next two to five years? If the answer to that is no, then maybe it's not the right time to start a book. And the reason for that is because a book's gonna take you six to eight months from idea to launch. The worst thing you can do is write a book and then just immediately change everything on the back end after that, right? So is this book going to lead to the same audience? Now you could change your offers, you could change how you do business, you could grow, right? There's so much that will happen. But is the audience going to be similar that you want to serve? The next question is: have you already helped somebody get the result that your book might be about? If the answer to that is no. okay, do I want to help somebody get this result? If the answer to that is yes, okay, great. We can move on. The next question you ask, and again, these are layered, right? So it's not you have to hit all of these, but it's you want to address these. And then the next question is just have you already been paid to teach people these things? And if the answer to that is yes, phenomenal. Well, now you want to write a book. You know you're serving this audience for the next handful of years. You've helped people serve Within this idea, and you've been paid doing it. That's often a great thing to say, yep, it is perfect time for me to write a book, and this book will lead directly to what we call the three P's purpose, platform, and profit. Okay. Evie Tavares: Mm. Jake: So first and foremost, though, you gotta validate and decide do you actually want to write the book? Right? And then most people think you start writing. That's one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Instead, what you want to do, if you decide that you do want to write a book. Is you want to really address a few things. You want to identify, well, who is that reader, right? You want to identify why are you doing this? And we can go deeper into the reasons people do this, because this often helps overcome the imposter syndrome, the am I ready for this and all this other things. and you really want to make sure that you set aside the proper time and have proper time expectations for what this project is going to require of you. And then you would outline and then you would write your book. And when you follow that process, you're writing a rough draft in 30 to 45 days. Evie Tavares: So let's get into the why then. why would somebody want to write a book? Like how does it actually Jake: Yeah. Evie Tavares: help them in their business? Jake: Yeah, so there's three reasons that most people write a book, okay? We call it the ROI trifecta. All right, how are you going to make this book worth it to you as the future author? Because you aren't gonna spend time, energy, and money, right? So, how do we make sure that that time, energy, and money produces a positive return on that investment? And what we have found is that people want one of three things: they want to make a difference, they want to get rich, or they want to get famous. And so We've boiled this down into purpose. Purpose is for people who want to write a book because they want to share a message that's they're so passionate about. They want to impact people, they want to create a legacy. They want to really be known for something. But ultimately they're writing this book because of its a higher calling. And to them, if somebody reads this book and it changes their life, they've done it. Maybe it's to close a particular chapter in their life. Maybe it's to share what they learned after selling a company. Platform is about growing the brand. So it's about using the book to amplify what it is that you do to make you more of the authority, to give you podcasts and stage topics, to get you on more stages, to have bestseller status, to get you more media opportunities, and to be known for a proprietary framework or philosophy. So start with why. Everybody knows Simon Sinink as the why guy, right? James Clear is the habits guy, right? And people have established that based on the words they use in their title, based on the philosophies. They've now established that as part of their brand through the book, right? Brene Brown, what do we know her as? Vulnerability. What are all of her books tend to be about? Vulnerability, right? And so you think about that. Alex Hormozy, $100 million, $100 million leads, offers, et cetera. 100 million is what you associate his books and him with. So that's the brand component of it. And then you have the profit side of it, which is okay, do you actually want to monetize this book? And if you're using a book to grow your business, then the answer to this is gonna be yes. And the way you're gonna do that, and what a lot of people don't realize, that book sales is not the number one way people make money for most nonfiction authors. But the good news is there's a lot of other ways that they haven't thought about: digital products, physical products, courses. Live events, retreats, speaking gigs, coaching, consulting, done-for-you services, career transitions, all of these are ways to monetize your expertise, your story, and your knowledge. And so you have to identify before you write a book, what is the intention, what is the reason you would write your book? Is it purpose, platform, or profit? And so I'll give everyone who's listening to this an exercise. If you had a hundred points. To divvy up between purpose, platform, and profit. How would you divvy that up? Would it be 90% profit, 10% impact? Would it be 30-30-40 and you kind of want to do a little bit of everything? Depending on how you allocate those points, it will help determine the style of book you should actually create. And based on that, you've now given yourself a much more clear plan of how to approach the book writing process. Evie Tavares: Awesome. I'm gonna have to do that for myself now. I'm gonna listen back and go through it all for myself. Jake: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Evie Tavares: so I wanna talk about best seller for a second, just because I think Jake: Yeah. Evie Tavares: that's obviously everybody's dream is like I wanna be a best selling author, probably the first thing they think of. But can you kind of explain what it actually takes to become a bestseller? Jake: Yeah. Well, let's define bestseller first. Right? It seems like everyone thinks they're a bestseller. And unfortunately, most people who say they are aren't. There's a few different types of lists, okay? There's New York Times bestseller, which a lot of people have have thought and heard about. There's USA Today bestseller. Some people will say Wall Street Journal. Guess what? They don't have a bestsellers list anymore. And then there's Amazon bestseller. For most people, assuming you don't want to spend a ton of money and assuming you're doing this as part of a bigger plan, most people are gonna shoot for Amazon bestseller earlier on. That's the one that a lot of people have more success with because it's easier to do, it's less expensive typically, and there's a lot of opportunity. So let's define that because I think this is really important. And I think that if you're gonna be a bestseller, you gotta be a bestseller. So being a bestseller on Amazon does not mean you are top ten in a category. New York Times bestseller, if you make the bestsellers list, you could be one through ten. You're on the list. But just because you're number eight in a category on Amazon does not mean you're a bestseller. Best seller on Amazon does not mean that you're the number one new hot release. You'll see sometimes people post about that. No. Number one bestseller on Amazon means that you are the number one best selling book in a particular category. I'll take it one step further. Number one bestselling book in an ethical category. Because what you will see is people who write books on finance put themselves in Chinese cookbooks and they're like, I'm a best selling author. Technically, but that's such bull BS. You know what I mean? And so to be an Amazon bestseller, you gotta be number one in a particular category. Now, how do you go about doing that is the next question. Well, there's a game. Just like anything that somebody has figured out, there's a way to do it repeatably. That's why myself, that's why other people have figured out a way to do it consistently. Both for ourselves and for other people. And what we have found is that there are really a few key components that drive bestseller status. Number one is obviously sales. You need to have a sales strategy to do a successful launch. Number two is you need to have a launch team or a group of people who you know will support you early on. Why? Because these are going to be your early sales, your early reviews, and your early referrals. People who are going to amplify your message beyond your existing ecosystem. And then the third part of that is you want to get some reviews. Reviews validate the fact that it's coming out. And what we have seen is that if you're under 25, most people can get about 25 reviews just from friends and family. Okay. But once you pass 50, then 100, now people start to see your book as not just, they had their friends and family leave five-star reviews. And so you start to position yourself differently. So when it comes to bestseller status, you need to move copies. You need to get people talking about the book. You need to talk about it yourself. And then you also want to get a handful of reviews. And those are the things that we've seen, after doing this hundreds of times, are the three biggest needle movers on the initial launch week, launch month, launch day to hit Amazon bestseller status. Evie Tavares: So you support authors in that launch process, that sales strategy. what are some basic things around that? I know you mentioned for becoming a bestseller, but even just basic steps for people to do to plan for that launch and and plan that strategy out. Jake: So good. First thing that I would say here is this. Don't wait till your launch to talk about your book. Evie Tavares: Mm. Jake: One of the biggest mistakes that you can make is working in silence and then being like, my book's out. Because the first thing that someone's gonna say is, wait, you wrote a book? And it's not because they don't want to support you, but now they have to first hear about it, get over the shock, then support you. Instead, talk about your book as you're doing it. Okay. Talk about, my gosh, I just submitted my manuscript to the editor. This is so exciting. my gosh, I just finished my outline. my gosh, I just did my first page. Those are the things that can get people invested in your journey. Because we as a society, there's nothing more than we love than following along someone's journey without a guaranteed result, right? are they gonna fail? Are they gonna succeed? I think that's why we love like Shows Love is Blind and all these reality shows because you're like, gosh, we don't know what's gonna happen because they can make a decision or something can happen that changes the entire direction of this show, right? It's the same thing. We don't know if someone's going to actually follow through, and so we get invested. But by posting about it as the author along the way, you get people invested in the journey. So now they're aware they're gonna be more easily likely to say yes, and they're gonna be more likely to support you. So that's the first thing. And that will help you generate a bunch of sales. The second thing is during launch is to not avoid the grassroots campaign in a world of digital AI. And what I mean by that is so many people think, okay, I'm just going to post online if I have 10,000 followers and I get 10%, I'll get this many sales. Or okay, if I just post once a day every day, everybody will hear about it and then they'll support it. And yes, that is true. And grassroots going direct to your people. That is one of the best things that you can do because it has the highest ROI on your time in the early stages, especially if you have a smaller audience. And so to do this, you reach out to people and say, hey, my new book's coming out here, or my new book just dropped. Here's the link. If you're interested, grab a copy. And it's doing that one-to-one outreach versus just letting AI do cold outreach or just posting to everybody in a one-to-many approach and hoping that people gravitate towards it. Because here's the thing: Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Jake: books aren't like anything else. People support book launches more than they support anything that I've ever seen. And the coolest thing about it is for a book launch to start being successful and to gain traction, it doesn't just have to be with ideal clients. Friends, family members, people you went to high school who you didn't even know follow you, people you went to college with who you didn't even know still knew who you were. People come out of the woodwork to support you on a book launch, which is very different than if you announce a new company, if you announce a new course, if you announce a new offer. When you announce a book. Evie Tavares: Why do you think that is? Jake: Well, I think it's because I've thought about this a lot, okay? Evie Tavares: Yeah. Jake: I I think about I think the the the reason that I've come to the best conclusion I have is because. We view authors as a society as people on a pedestal. And we view authors, literally authority, author and authority, right? But we view authors as experts. If you have a book, you're seen differently than if you don't have a book in a naturally positive way. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Jake: And the reason for that is because even in entrepreneurship where it feels like there's a lot of people who have books, to the general population, Authors are one of the smallest groups of people. And so if you have a book, people see you differently, you're immediately put on a pedestal, you're assumed to have more expertise, and therefore, that's also the same reason why people stress out about committing to a book versus writing a course or writing a blog. Because it's a bigger perceived undertaking, a bigger perceived value to society. And so, therefore, I believe that is the reason. For what we're talking about. Evie Tavares: Yeah, I agree. Jake: but it's an interesting thing, right? And and look, does that mean that if you write a book, you're immediately better than somebody else? No. But does it mean that people will see you differently than everybody else? Yes. And if you're Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Jake: using a book to grow your business, part of doing that is to be seen in a different way than your competition. And then if you're good at what you do, you will then be able to charge more. For doing the same amount of work. And this is where having a book can amplify your pricing power, your conversion, shorter sales cycles. I'll give you an example of this. We had an author, and she ran a business where she charged a certain amount per month. After her book came out, she did not change her deliverables at all, but she increased her rates by two. She doubled her rates. We had another author. Did the same thing and she added $57,000 in revenue over six months without doing any additional work. The only thing that changed was her perceived value as an author. I have one more story about this that that I think is really helpful for people. when I was new to this whole thing, and I started charging for speaking. I was in my early 20s, and like I charged $2,500 for this gig, and I was like, I'm getting this thing. How cool would it be? I'm gonna pay $2,500 to do an hour talk and have my travel paid for. This is gonna be amazing. And I a few weeks go by and eventually I reach out to the host, and they were like, hey, we actually went with somebody else. And I was like totally blindsided. I was like, this is a surefire thing. And that was rent money. Like, this was this was early days trying to figure it out. And I was like, what happened? And she goes, I'll be honest with you. The price you charged us and quoted us at, and the fact that you're a best selling author on this topic, it didn't match up. And so either your pricing was too low for how good you actually are, or you weren't as good as we hoped you were. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Jake: And so immediately after that, I said, guess what? I'm never doing again. Charging that price, right? And so I immediately raised my rates. And what I found was I started to have more success. Because being an author, being a best-selling author changes the perception and what you offer has to match that perception to the consumer that is buying from you. And Evie Tavares: Mm. Jake: so that is such an aha moment for me, and I hope for everyone listening is like once you have a book, you basically have to charge more, right? No, you don't have to, but a lot of times you are going to want to, and it makes it easier to do so. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Have there been any other kind of surprising or unexpected results that you've seen from people launching a book or even from yourself launching a book? Jake: There are there are infinite amounts of these. Now I could give you revenue stories all day long, but I wanna share a few things that I think is more powerful. We had one author, he came through our our experience and he wanted to use his book for speaking gigs. Phenomenal. After his book came out, he said two things that he didn't expect Number one, he said, I've never felt more confident in who I am. And what I do as a coach. Because he was like, finally, now I have the book, it backs up what everyone has always told me, and now I really actually believe I'm that good. But the second thing he said is, look, I knew I'll get the speaking gigs. But he goes, But now instead of creating a new speech based on what they want every single time I get hired, I just use my book, and that book is now the keynote, the workshop, or whatever, and it saves me a ton of time, and everybody likes it, and then they all buy my book. So that's one author. Some of my favorite stories though are an author, she wrote a book, and her younger daughter, Preeti, she read her book. And she told her mom after she read it, it was like one of her first chapter books, and she was like, Mom, this is my favorite book. You are my favorite author. And that mom was like, that was worth every dollar I spent, every hour I labored over this book. She goes, that was it. I never would have thought that that would be the outcome I needed the most. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Jake: But it was the outcome that made me feel the best. And so when you write a book, there are so many great and unexpected things that can happen. And you won't get to experience those unless you take a chance to share your perspective with the world and to put your knowledge, your story, your experience into the form of. Evie Tavares: I love that. I'm curious. So around like people's voice and like the tone that they use in books, how do you make sure that a book sounds like the author because you talk about teaching people something. So how do you make sure it actually sounds like the author and not just like a textbook? Jake: Okay, we've figured out the three keys to a good book. Specifically a good, high-converting nonfiction book. Okay. Number one, and I'll go in reverse order so I can end on tone and voice. Number one is expertise. You have to share your methodology, your process, your framework so that people know you are actually good at the thing you are talking about. Number two is you have to share your experience. These are the stories, the case studies, your personal experiences, your own transformation. That relates to the audience so they know they're not alone. A great book is not about saying, hey, this is what you need to do, go do it. A great book in today's world is about saying, hey, look, this is what I figured out. This is what I went through to get here. This is what I've learned. Let me teach you, but come with me on this journey. It's not saying, look how great I am, but it's saying, hey, come with me and let's rise together. That's by building connection, relatability. And then the third thing, and you asked about tone and voice, and this is where this is the biggest difference, I think, that helps people know if you're the person they should hire or if you're not the person. And it's add your personality in the book. Your book should be an extension of who you are as a person, as a coach, as a consultant, as a service provider, as a business owner. And so I do this in a way of when people read my book, they get this feeling that I have a larger than life personality. Extroverted to the nth degree personality because that's who I am. And for some people, that's not for them. That's okay. There are so many other people that can help them. And I hope that they find that person. But the people who want the let's go energy, the big vibes, those people read my book and are like, that's who I'm working with. I like him. That's what I want to do. I even write let's go with six O's in my book. Right? that's not how you spell go. That is a typo. But that to me is a way for people to learn who I really am and for me to show my personality. And if you don't like that, that's okay. And I always tell people: you don't need everybody in the world to like you, to have a great business. You just need the right people to love you. And so you ask about tone and voice, it's about being you. It's a book, is an extension of you that helps people get a result. that leads them to taking the next step in their adventure. Evie Tavares: And along those lines as well, I remember seeing something in the news about publishing companies really slamming down on like suspicious of AI writing and that kind of thing. So I'm curious how AI has impacted your business and and how you kind of work through that with your authors. Jake: So I'll the first to say, I love AI. We use AI all the time in our business. I think it's great. it's a tool that we didn't have years ago, and now we can, it can make things better and more efficient, right? but when it comes to writing a book, here's what I believe about it. I believe that the best books are human generated, but they could be AI assisted. Not in the standpoint of AI is writing your book for you. I have not seen that to be done at a high level, because the level of which AI operates and produces is based on the the prompts it receives by the person it's doing. So a first-time author giving AI a prompt to write a book that they don't even know how to write is very hard to get the output you desire. It's great for frameworks, but what I love using AI for in the writing process is, maybe it's midnight and can't stop thinking about an idea. Overcome writer's block. Elaborate on a message do a quick revision or an a extension of how do I think about this. So I love using AI and I encourage people to use AI for those little things. but when it comes to actually writing the book, I want you to be the lead writer. It's human generated AI assisted. I think that's a really great model for people to follow because at the highest level, you want to be proud of your book. And if you put your blood, sweat, and tears into that book, you're gonna be more likely to promote it, you're gonna be more likely to talk about, you're gonna more likely to use it. And those are the indicators after the fact of what makes the book long-term success. It's not just about getting the book out and having it written and being like, okay, cool, it's out. It's about, okay, I love this. This is like I'm birthing a baby. I love this. I'm getting to do something. Again, now I'm not a female. I have not birthed my own baby. I am on the process of having our baby soon. so I want to be the first to admit, I don't know what birthing a baby actually feels like. But bringing something new to this world, you want it to be an extension of yourself. So do I love using AI? Absolutely. When it comes to writing a high-converting book, I want to make sure that it combines your personality, I want it to combine your style, and I want it to have the you effect, right? Not to mention that there are different not restrictions but specifications that if you use AI to write the book, you have to now declare that in the publishing. So this is now sparking a whole nother debate. That is to be determined. There's a lot of other things going on behind the scenes that the everyday author will never know. So I like to just keep it topical and be like, look, you're the author, not Claude. You're the author, not Chat GPT. It's your book. These are tools to help you, just like if you had a writing coach, just like if you had an editor. These are tools to assist in part of the process. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. so one last thing I want to touch on. you and I met at High Vibe Women. you were sponsoring and you were on the stage a couple of times. I'm just curious, I think you're like the only high vibe man that there has ever been. So I'm curious, I know you know Christina really well. What moved you to sponsor an event that's for women? Jake: Yeah, it's a really great question. first and foremost, I want to give Christina and the team and Maria and everybody a huge shout out. They're phenomenal. The community they've built is phenomenal. but Christina's a really good friend of mine. And, you know, she is a big believer. Our business, we have more female clients than we have male clients. And so when we look at our marketing and how we run our business, knowing that our clientele is comprised of a lot of female. Female events tend to be really great. Also, I'm a big believer in how do you stand out. Well, as you mentioned, I'm the only high-vive man that has been on that stage as of the time of this recording. And I'm incredibly grateful for that. And I don't take that lightly, but I also know that from a marketing standpoint, every person in that room will know who I am immediately. I don't have to worry about sticking out. I don't have to worry about wearing something different. I am different because of who I am. And that is an amazing thing in marketing when you can stand out in a room of 100, 200 immediately. And then you can use the rest of your energy and capacity to then focus on the next step. And I think in marketing so often, right, we go to where everyone else goes and it's like, okay, well, now I have to figure out how do I stand out. And then once they hear about me, then I have to figure out what to do next. For me, I go to a female event, I'm the only man, I'm one of a few men. Boom, I stand out like a sore thumb. And that is an advantage to me. And To some people, that is a disadvantage, right? And I get that. And that's right. I go back to what I said earlier. I'm not for everybody. I've referred people in high vibe women who prefer to work with somebody else. And I will recommend them because it's a better fit. But I love speaking at female events, I speak at male events, I speak at co ed events. but the question you asked about high vibe, I love the community. I think they've done a really great job of creating a safe place. I think they've done a really great job of collecting a great group of individuals. we now have a ton of clients who are high vibe women or high vibe women adjacent. And so it's been a really, really fun experience to be able to grow with the community and to be part of that. Evie Tavares: Amazing. Well, I really loved this chat and along the lines of high vibe women, loved meeting you there and hearing you speak a few times there. So before we get into rapid fire and wrap this up, let people know in the audience where they can find you, how they can work with you, all the things. Jake: Yeah. Well first let's do something really fun here, Evie. Let's let's give everyone Evie Tavares: Mm. Jake: who's listening a free copy of the book. All right. Evie Tavares: Ooh, I like that. Jake: So so Big Idea to Bestseller, this is the fourth book that I wrote, and it's literally the the step by step guide on how to write, publish, and launch a nonfiction book. So let's give everybody that and if you're interested, you just go to big idea to bestseller dot com forward slash free dash book. Or just DM me on Instagram at Jake Kelfer and say, You heard me on the show and you want a free book. We'll get that to you. Digital or in person, whatever you want. and then in terms of how people can work with us is we run a entrepreneurial publishing company. So we take you from idea all the way to bestseller status with a launch book. And if you want to learn more about that, just reach out directly to me on Instagram at JKelfer or visit big idea to bestseller dot com and we'll take care of you. Evie Tavares: Perfect. So definitely go and grab a copy of Jake's book. okay, let's get into some rapid fire. Jake: All right, let's do it. Evie Tavares: okay, so what's your go-to morning beverage? Jake: Water. Evie Tavares: Water, no coffee or tea? Jake: Fun fact, never had a cup of coffee in my life. Evie Tavares: Okay, yeah, me neither. But no tea even, T Jake: No tea, I don't do caffeine typically. Evie Tavares: T's not really big in the States anyway, is it? Okay. Jake: A lot of people like tea. if if I'm speaking a lot, I'll do hot water with lemon and honey. Evie Tavares: Okay. Jake: But I that's that's the extent of my fancy morning beverages. Evie Tavares: I love it. if your business had a theme song, what would it be? Jake: I don't know why the song caught in a head, but you that song, All I Do Is Win? And everybody's Evie Tavares: Yeah. Jake: hands go up and they say they're just like, I don't know. I I don't always win, of course. I have many losses in my career, but I like to focus on the positive side, so that feels like a a good one. And then I'll say another one just for fun is like, you know those songs that are like so inspirational, Sia's Chandelier and like some of these other ones just have this build-up until you're just full of emotions. That would be it. Just rising above and just taking on the world. Evie Tavares: Love it. what book would you recommend the most? Jake: Of my book or in general, every book? Evie Tavares: Any book. Any book. Jake: Is there any particular person I'm referring the recommending the book to? Evie Tavares: high vibe women. Jake: Okay. Wow, this is not a rapid fire answer and I apologize for that. I I Evie Tavares: Okay. Jake: I would say I would say this. My recommendation of what book would be dependent on what that person needs at the time that we're having the the conversation. So if that person needs something that is related to you know building better habits, I'm gonna recommend Atomic Habits or Tiny Habits by BJ Fawk. If somebody's needing a a different book, I would I would recommend them books based on what they actually need. So I don't have a general one size fits all. Evie Tavares: Okay, so let's get really nuclear on that then. Somebody wants to write a book but doesn't have the confidence or the mindset to do it, what book should they read? Jake: you set me up for this one. Big idea to bestseller, chapters one through four, right? Evie Tavares: There we go. Jake: there's a chapter, how to overcome your limiting beliefs when it comes to a book. but yeah, I that's that's what I'd recommend. Evie Tavares: amazing. are you a physical book reader, e reader, or audiobook yourself? Jake: Physical book reader ten out of ten times. Evie Tavares: Yeah. okay, and last one, do you have any dream collab or partnership that you're calling in for the rest of twenty twenty six? Jake: This this is the cheesiest answer, but it's the the honest one is my dream collaboration and partnership is with my soon-to-be daughter. Like, that Evie Tavares: I love that. Jake: that is the most important partnership I will build. And when this episode airs, I will all things go well. I'll have a healthy baby daughter and that will be everything. So that's that's my dream collaboration for the next three months. Evie Tavares: I think that's the best answer I've ever gotten on this podcast. Yeah, I'm I'm super excited for you. congratulations to you and to your wife on everything Jake: Thank you. Evie Tavares: coming up. I hope everything goes well. thank you so much for being here. Thank you for the chat. I'll link everything in the show notes if you're listening, you have any questions at all, my DMs are open, Jake's DMs are open and feel free to reach out. That's the tea for today. If something in this episode landed for you, I would love to hear about it. And if you're curious about working together, whether that's finding your own unfiltered tea and bringing it to the front of your marketing, or writing copy that really sounds like you, reach out. I'm always open for a conversation. And before you go, hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you're feeling extra generous today, leave a review. It really helps this show to reach more people who need to hear it. Thank you so much for listening, honestly. And I will see you next time.