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From Expert to Author: The Strategic Power of Publishing With April O'Leary · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

• 0:37
  Jennifer Johnson: Today we're diving into the powerful impact that authorship can have on your professional journey, Whether you're an entrepreneur, a seasoned executive or an aspiring thought leader.
• 0:46
  Jennifer Johnson: The discussion will reveal why writing a book might be a game-changing move that you've been looking for.
• 0:52
  Jennifer Johnson: From establishing unparalleled credibility in your field to opening doors for speaking engagements and media appearances, we'll uncover the multifaceted benefits of becoming a published author.
• 1:03
  Jennifer Johnson: We'll explore how a book can serve as your ultimate business card, attracting high value clients and partnerships.
• 1:09
  Jennifer Johnson: Plus, we'll discuss the personal growth and clarity that comes from articulating your ideas in long form content.
• 1:16
  Jennifer Johnson: By the end of this episode, you'll understand why so many successful individuals consider writing a book not just as a personal achievement, but a strategic business decision.
• 1:28
  Jennifer Johnson: Today, we welcome into the studio April O'Leary.
• 1:31
  Jennifer Johnson: She's the founder of O'Leary Publishing and the author of.
• 1:34
  Jennifer Johnson: I have seven books, but now it's eight books, and I'll explain why.
• 1:37
  Jennifer Johnson: She is committed to creating books that exceed the industry standards for her aspiring authors and she's a board member of the Florida Authors and Publishers Association and on the Membership Benefits Committee with the Independent Book Publishers Association.
• 1:51
  Jennifer Johnson: She's also the host of the I'm Booked podcast.
• 1:55
  Jennifer Johnson: Welcome, Thank you.
• 1:57
  Jennifer Johnson: Super excited to be here.
• 1:58
  Jennifer Johnson: So the reason why you are the author of now eight books is because you just published this little ditty which packs a big punch.
• 2:06
  Jennifer Johnson: It's called who Me An Author, and if they can do it, so can you, and it's packed with stories from authors that have published a book.
• 2:20
  April O'Leary: Yes, it is.
• 2:25
  Jennifer Johnson: And I urge you to get this.
• 2:26
  Jennifer Johnson: You can see I'm holding it up here.
• 2:27
  Jennifer Johnson: It is a great book.
• 2:28
  April O'Leary: You can find it on everywhere you can get a book.
• 2:30
  April O'Leary: Everywhere you can get a book.
• 2:32
  Jennifer Johnson: So let's dive in, let's do it.
• 2:35
  Jennifer Johnson: What are?
• 2:38
  Jennifer Johnson: We've had you on before, so hopefully our guests know who you are, but you're the publisher, you're the owner of O'Leary Publishing and you actually published my book, which is amazing.
• 2:48
  April O'Leary: If you have not picked up Grace and Grit yet, what are you waiting for?
• 2:52
  Jennifer Johnson: Exactly People.
• 2:53
  Jennifer Johnson: Hello, we're talking to you.
• 2:55
  Jennifer Johnson: You can get that everywhere.
• 2:57
  Jennifer Johnson: You can buy books as well.
• 2:58
  Jennifer Johnson: But when people go into wanting to write a book and let's say they're a business owner, let's take it from that angle.
• 3:07
  Jennifer Johnson: We talk about the benefits, but what can that do for a business owner?
• 3:18
  April O'Leary: That's a great question.
• 3:18
  April O'Leary: First of all, I'm a business owner and before I wrote my first book, I was a business owner of a life coach business and I was in the swarm of, or the sea, I should say of, life coaches out there.
• 3:32
  April O'Leary: And how do you establish your voice?
• 3:34
  April O'Leary: How do you make yourself different from all of the other people that are out there?
• 3:39
  April O'Leary: Now, in life coaching, most people have specialties, special clients, they work with a niche or whatever, and I was guest producing a radio show at the time for my life coach mentor, and the guests I was booking had to have a book, and so for me, I kind of understood wait a second.
• 3:55
  April O'Leary: If you have to have a book and that gets you, for example, media appearances on his show, his XM radio show, the book is the tool, and so maybe I should have that.
• 4:05
  April O'Leary: And so, as a business owner, back then in 2012, I wrote my first book, ride the Wave Journey to Peaceful Living, which established myself in the niche of working with women who have a lot on their plate, who may feel like the world is in chaos around them, and how do you find peace in that moment without having to necessarily control all the pieces out there that are uncontrollable, and that book, for me as a business owner at the time, led to teaching online courses, it led to creating some conferences, it led to some media appearances and it opened doors that had I not done the book, I wouldn't have had those opportunities.
• 4:44
  April O'Leary: And so, as a business owner in your own niche whether you're a consultant or have some specialized knowledge or expertise.
• 4:53
  April O'Leary: How do you elevate your voice so that the right client finds you?
• 4:56
  April O'Leary: And I think that is one of the really cool things a book can do is it identifies you to those people.
• 5:04
  Jennifer Johnson: It helps you become a thought leader?
• 5:05
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, absolutely, and credibility and all those things.
• 5:09
  Jennifer Johnson: And I can say from my own experience that that is certainly true, and I remember sitting down with you in this journey and having a completely different thought process on how I wanted to do this, and you guys walked me through it and how.
• 5:32
  Jennifer Johnson: I saw that, wow, I can apply this to business.
• 5:35
  Jennifer Johnson: It doesn't have to just be about me personally, because, as an entrepreneur, the person is part of the business and it just melds together beautifully.
• 5:45
  April O'Leary: I think that's one of the things that is such a cool thing to do.
• 5:49
  April O'Leary: When you work with a publisher or team or if you're thinking about writing a book as a business owner, you don't have to share all the skeletons in your closet necessarily.
• 5:58
  April O'Leary: You don't have to say things you don't want to say about your personal life.
• 6:01
  April O'Leary: For example, you really think through all right, who is that ideal client that I want to work with?
• 6:06
  April O'Leary: Or who is that audience that needs to hear my message?
• 6:10
  April O'Leary: And then how do I craft a book based on my expertise and my personal experience that's going to attract those people to me?
• 6:17
  April O'Leary: It's going to help them in a way that they are going to see oh, this person has been through this, they really understand me, and what else does this person have to offer?
• 6:27
  Jennifer Johnson: Right, it's that no like trust that everybody talks about.
• 6:30
  Jennifer Johnson: But it's true, because how I'm not going to work with you because I found you just off the street, I need to see some of your work, I need to begin to like you because I can see your stuff and I can like your stuff, but I don't like you.
• 6:46
  Jennifer Johnson: And then I need to trust you and a book kind of puts it all together and ties it with a pretty bow.
• 6:56
  April O'Leary: It does, and it gives the author a chance to share from their heart in a way that can reach so many more people than they could reach one-to-one.
• 7:05
  April O'Leary: So if you're a one-to-one consultant and you help business owners grow their business, for example, there's only a limited number of clients you could work with, just due to our time-space continuum that we live in right.
• 7:18
  April O'Leary: So how can we reach that larger audience through media, through books, through podcasts and all of that, and that book can become that anchor, centerpiece.
• 7:30
  April O'Leary: That's sort of your calling card, as you said at the beginning of the show.
• 7:33
  April O'Leary: So your book Grace and Grit gives that exact message to the exact clients that you work with, who are retail owners who want to grow their business, and that stems directly from your experience.
• 7:46
  Jennifer Johnson: And I love that you said anchor, because it is kind of the centerpiece of everything that you do.
• 7:51
  Jennifer Johnson: Because you go speak on a stage and let's say, you're not getting paid for that speaking gig, fine, but you can sell your book from stage and you can sell all of the other things that you do from stage, because people look at a published author in different light.
• 8:12
  April O'Leary: And one of the things I think is important as you're crafting that book and as you're thinking about who is my ideal client, who was the person that I was 10 years ago and what did that person need?
• 8:25
  April O'Leary: That I know now, and sometimes I think that's a good way to reverse engineer, because we're all growing and evolving.
• 8:30
  April O'Leary: And if I could show up for myself 10 years ago, what would I want to know?
• 8:34
  April O'Leary: And in that thought process, right, you're putting this book together, but you also have other things that you offer, and so it's really important to think through the sales funnel, since we need once they discover A.
• 8:58
  April O'Leary: So if someone discovers your book, how are you going to also think through what are the marketing pieces I can build into this book so they know where to go?
• 9:07
  Jennifer Johnson: next Right.
• 9:08
  Jennifer Johnson: Very much so, because when you have just blinders on and you can't think past that, it's really hard to figure out how that all fits in and that's something that's as you're writing your book and as you're going through the design process and building in some of those pieces.
• 9:26
  April O'Leary: don't overlook the power of a QR code.
• 9:28
  April O'Leary: Having that in your book so that someone can scan it and get to a landing page or a next offer or a free download or something.
• 9:37
  April O'Leary: Because to me, the real magic is I want to know who my readers are If they buy my book and I never hear from them again.
• 9:47
  April O'Leary: The book may have helped them, but I have no way to contact them.
• 9:49
  April O'Leary: I have no way to nurture that relationship, and so see your book as a way to give someone that know, like and trust and a very clear idea of how to get to the next step with you, so that you actually get to know.
• 10:00
  April O'Leary: Oh, jane Doe bought my book and she's a retail owner who's three years into her business and she needs help and this course that I created is perfect for her Right.
• 10:12
  Jennifer Johnson: I love that because it is a lead generator for you and by putting a QR code in your book, that's perfect.
• 10:20
  Jennifer Johnson: You can.
• 10:21
  Jennifer Johnson: Then you know they go to that they sign up whatever you have their email.
• 10:26
  Jennifer Johnson: Then you can start nurturing them in other ways and it's all about being in front of them.
• 10:31
  April O'Leary: Totally.
• 10:32
  April O'Leary: You know it's interesting.
• 10:33
  April O'Leary: In the sales world I've experienced I'm sure we have all experienced the aggressive salesperson who's trying to sell you the big thing right away.
• 10:42
  April O'Leary: They haven't even qualified you as a prospect or whatever.
• 10:45
  April O'Leary: It happens on LinkedIn all the time, every day.
• 10:47
  April O'Leary: Yeah, in your DMs you're like, oh my God.
• 10:50
  April O'Leary: Yeah, that's absolutely true, and I think that the book is the coffee date.
• 10:57
  Jennifer Johnson: Oh, that's a good way to put it.
• 10:58
  April O'Leary: It's that like, let's have coffee together and you get to speak to them and it's a very non-threatening way to introduce yourself and then they'll let you know if they want to have lunch or dinner with you.
• 11:10
  April O'Leary: Like escalate to the next offering, and so to me it's a really nice way to create a very comfortable sales process.
• 11:18
  April O'Leary: No one wants to be in a yucky sales conversation, just like nobody wants to, you know, be pursued aggressively inside of a bar.
• 11:26
  Jennifer Johnson: Right, not that I would know, but I'm just saying hypothetically, but it's the same.
• 11:30
  Jennifer Johnson: You're right, it's like we can't jump to first base till we've had coffee first.
• 11:35
  Jennifer Johnson: Right, exactly.
• 11:36
  April O'Leary: Yeah.
• 11:37
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, and that's a good way to put it because it can, like I said, yes, it can be used like your business card.
• 11:43
  Jennifer Johnson: Hey, you know, I just want to give you my book.
• 11:46
  April O'Leary: Check it out, let me know what you think yeah, and as you said at a speaking gig, if you're someone who is interested in becoming a professional speaker.
• 11:54
  April O'Leary: Maybe you're already speaking.
• 11:55
  April O'Leary: If you're already speaking and you don't have a book, for God's sake, please write and publish a book Right like today, you're missing a lot of opportunities.
• 12:03
  April O'Leary: Yeah, like, preferably yesterday, but today's a good day to start.
• 12:06
  April O'Leary: But if you're aspiring to build speaking into your income stream, it's a great leveraging tool as well, because when you are getting those contracts, you can build in wholesale book orders that then they distribute to the people at their events, and so that's a great way.
• 12:25
  April O'Leary: I prefer that rather than back of the sale, back of the room book sales, like if you're going to give me option A, they buy the book at a less price but in bulk and give out.
• 12:35
  April O'Leary: I would always pick that over me speaking on stage and then standing at the back of the room.
• 12:41
  Jennifer Johnson: And I love that idea because not everybody thinks about that.
• 12:45
  Jennifer Johnson: Even if you're going to speaking or been asked to speak somewhere and they're going to pay you, you bake that in, no matter what.
• 12:54
  April O'Leary: Yeah, it's a nice upsell and I think for event planners who want to wow their attendees.
• 13:01
  April O'Leary: If you can offer them a wholesale pricing on your book which you should be able to work out with your publisher you give them not retail price but the perceived value for the attendee who gets it is they're feeling as though they've got a full retail price which they did.
• 13:15
  April O'Leary: And so it's a win-win all the way around.
• 13:18
  April O'Leary: And I think that it's a great way to bring added value, add a little bit of extra padding to your contract, but also get the book in the hands of all the people who are there who probably want it.
• 13:29
  April O'Leary: Anyways, they're there to hear you.
• 13:31
  Jennifer Johnson: Why would they not want it?
• 13:32
  Jennifer Johnson: It's your ideal customer.
• 13:33
  Jennifer Johnson: I went to an event last year where I received two books from Amazon not even Amazon bestsellers.
• 13:42
  Jennifer Johnson: They were like New York Times bestsellers and I was and they were business books and I already had one of them Actually, I think I already had both of them but it was so cool because then I was able to get the book signed by the author.
• 13:55
  April O'Leary: Yeah, and another thing I would say if you at all have the time when you're in that type of contract situation where you may be speaking and you know there's going to be 500 people or whatever, if you can pre-sign books, that's great as well, Because making people wait in line some people won't do that and then if they want the personalization, they wait in line for that.
• 14:17
  Jennifer Johnson: Right, Because you can talking about QR codes you could put up on the screen if you want to buy your signed copy, buy it now.
• 14:26
  Jennifer Johnson: They scan the QR code, they buy it, Yep, and you already have them pre-signed.
• 14:30
  Jennifer Johnson: They can get into one line for the pre-signed Yep and then, if they want it also personalized, they can get into a different line because some people aren't going to care and they'll be like I just want to sign copy that is the best way to do it from stage.
• 14:43
  April O'Leary: What you just said.
• 14:44
  April O'Leary: If you didn't hear that, if you were sleeping while you're driving, rewind back 30 seconds in here, because that strategy will save you so much headache Standing in the line waiting for an author to try to swipe your credit card while there's 20 other people and you want to get to the next workshop or you've got a lunch break or whatever.
• 15:03
  April O'Leary: You lose sales because people get worn out.
• 15:05
  April O'Leary: So the smoother you can make it, the better, yeah.
• 15:09
  Jennifer Johnson: I agree, and I've been in that position before and I wanted to give up.
• 15:14
  Jennifer Johnson: And then the last, the second book that needed to be signed.
• 15:17
  Jennifer Johnson: I cut short, listening to the person so I could get back in line, because I knew what they were doing.
• 15:22
  Jennifer Johnson: So I shortchanged myself because I'm like I'm going to be first.
• 15:28
  April O'Leary: You're resourceful.
• 17:57
  Jennifer Johnson: Yes, I am To my own fault.
• 17:59
  Jennifer Johnson: So what tips do you have for business owners who want to write a book that is informative, that's influential?
• 18:10
  April O'Leary: Well, I would say first of all, decide on your amount of time available and budget, because those are going to be the two key factors for you.
• 18:17
  April O'Leary: Business owners are inherently wearing many hats.
• 18:20
  April O'Leary: They're very busy and they're doing a lot of stuff in their business that maybe others can't do.
• 18:25
  April O'Leary: Maybe you've been a great delegator and you're sitting there twiddling your thumbs Great.
• 18:29
  Jennifer Johnson: And maybe you want to.
• 18:31
  April O'Leary: Good for you.
• 18:31
  April O'Leary: A plus Write your book.
• 18:33
  April O'Leary: If you have a lot of other responsibilities, know that there are writers, which are called ghost writers, who will do the writing for you, so they're not going to create the content, they're going to interview you, record the interview, they will get it written down in a format that's readable for your target audience and it's going to be a very simple process for you that doesn't require a lot of time, and so, if you have the money but not the time, that's the route to go.
• 19:00
  April O'Leary: If you have the time but not the money, then I would say think about it as a writing process with support, so you don't have to do it alone.
• 19:10
  April O'Leary: I think the biggest hurdle people have in thinking about writing a book is like okay, where do I start?
• 19:16
  Jennifer Johnson: I've got a blank screen, I'm sitting here I don't know what to do Go and map out your table of contents if you don't know how to do that yourself, and we're going to talk about what your process looks like because it is amazing.
• 19:29
  Jennifer Johnson: We'll talk about that in a second, so you have to do that.
• 19:32
  April O'Leary: So you're either going to hire someone to help you write the book and do an interview process, or you're going to write it yourself, and either way is totally great, but don't let the writing or thinking you're going to be writing alone stop you.
• 19:45
  April O'Leary: Because, if you can think about that person, you were 10 years ago or 20 years ago and those people are out there still struggling right now and they need to hear from you and you can do it with this heart of service.
• 19:56
  April O'Leary: This is a service I'm giving back to the world because I've weathered a lot of hard challenges.
• 20:01
  April O'Leary: I've been through a lot of stuff.
• 20:04
  April O'Leary: It's like your kids right, trying to give them advice so they don't have to suffer the same slings and arrows you did.
• 20:10
  April O'Leary: Sometimes they do take the advice.
• 20:12
  April O'Leary: Sometimes they don't, but it's worth trying.
• 20:23
  Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely so I want to go through the process, because I've gone through the process and it literally, when I went through it, I was I don't know.
• 20:27
  Jennifer Johnson: I didn't know what to expect and I came out on the other side of it a better writer because of it.
• 20:34
  Jennifer Johnson: So let's go through your process.
• 20:35
  Jennifer Johnson: How you, how?
• 20:37
  Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, oh, I want to write a book.
• 20:38
  Jennifer Johnson: What do you do with me?
• 20:39
  Jennifer Johnson: I?
• 20:40
  April O'Leary: love it.
• 20:40
  April O'Leary: What do you do with?
• 20:41
  Jennifer Johnson: me.
• 20:41
  Jennifer Johnson: What do you do with me?
• 20:42
  April O'Leary: I want to write a book, now what Well?
• 20:44
  April O'Leary: So there's generally, when people come to us, there's two people fall into two categories.
• 20:49
  April O'Leary: They either have written something that they think is ready to be published here it is.
• 20:57
  April O'Leary: Can it be out next month?
• 20:59
  April O'Leary: Or you've got someone who has a lot of experience, a lot of expertise.
• 21:03
  April O'Leary: They have a big heart to serve, they understand the value and the vision of writing a book, but they haven't written anything yet, and so we can work with both of those people, in one sense, the person who's written the book, but they haven't written anything yet, and so we can work with both of those people in one sense, the person who's written the book.
• 21:14
  April O'Leary: We do a manuscript review, which is where we will, for a fee, read the entire book and give them back the editorial highs and lows strengths and weaknesses, and I laugh at that just because I know my own experience at all.
• 21:29
  April O'Leary: Yes, I was like, oh my God, they cut my book in half, but it's the best thing they ever did, yeah, yeah.
• 21:35
  April O'Leary: So it's a process whereby we want to know, when someone's coming to us, if they think their book is done because they've already written it.
• 21:43
  April O'Leary: How well is it written, how well is it organized?
• 21:46
  April O'Leary: And so then we can give them back some really solid critique and we also do a survey of what other books are out there that are selling well in the genre competitors, et cetera.
• 21:57
  April O'Leary: And then they can take that report and either try to fix it themselves or they can burn it and say I think you're totally wrong.
• 22:05
  April O'Leary: They usually don't do that, but most of the time they say, oh my God, I didn't see that.
• 22:10
  April O'Leary: It's kind of like you're putting all your furniture in your house but you don't really know how it all fits.
• 22:16
  April O'Leary: And then an interior designer comes over and says but wouldn't it make more sense if the couch was over there?
• 22:21
  April O'Leary: And then you're like, oh my God, why?
• 22:23
  Jennifer Johnson: didn't I think of that?
• 22:24
  April O'Leary: So that's one type of person.
• 22:25
  April O'Leary: The other type of person has the idea they may have a sample title, they may think they know who they want to speak to, or they may want to share some personal experiences.
• 22:35
  April O'Leary: And then we really try to, through the book mapping process, clarify all that down.
• 22:40
  April O'Leary: Who is your reader?
• 22:41
  April O'Leary: What is the win for you?
• 22:43
  April O'Leary: What are some of the key takeaways?
• 22:47
  April O'Leary: How are we going to structure this?
• 22:49
  April O'Leary: Is this going to be a how-to book?
• 22:50
  April O'Leary: Is this going to be a chronological book?
• 22:52
  April O'Leary: Is this going to be a topical book?
• 22:53
  April O'Leary: How are we going to break it out?
• 22:55
  April O'Leary: And then we build a table of contents.
• 22:57
  April O'Leary: A lot of times we'll help write the back cover copy, and that's before you even start writing the book, because it's important to always know what's my bullseye and how am I writing towards that bullseye.
• 23:08
  April O'Leary: I think some of the frustration for writers is when we feel the flow and we're writing and now we're off on rabbit trail A and it has nothing to do with the book, and then you feel like I just wasted all this time and words doing something that is not relevant for my book.
• 23:26
  April O'Leary: So I think that having a very solid book map and a strategy and a team to help you get it done is essential, and it's going to free you up from feeling that like what am I supposed to write next?
• 23:39
  April O'Leary: Because we know, oh, I need to write chapter one, and here's the outline of what chapter one is, and it needs to be about 2,000 words and blah, blah, blah and that's doable.
• 23:49
  Jennifer Johnson: What I love about your process is that if you come in with a book that you've written all this stuff right which I kind of had a bunch of stuff written for my own personal experience but then you sit down and you actually go through it, get very clear, and then you go back and write some more, and then you do it chapter by chapter.
• 24:14
  Jennifer Johnson: So I send you a chapter and then it comes back to me with all the revisions or questions.
• 24:18
  Jennifer Johnson: Because when you're writing, you're writing it from your perspective and only see it how you typically see it in your eyes and in your world.
• 24:28
  Jennifer Johnson: Somebody completely unrelated has no idea of what your story is, comes in and they're like, okay, well, I really really like this piece, but I want to know more.
• 24:39
  Jennifer Johnson: Or you all of a sudden throw this concept in here.
• 24:41
  Jennifer Johnson: I've not heard of it anywhere else in the book.
• 24:43
  Jennifer Johnson: And you're in chapter 15 of a 20 chapter book.
• 24:46
  Jennifer Johnson: Right, I want to know more.
• 24:48
  Jennifer Johnson: We need to mention that earlier.
• 24:50
  Jennifer Johnson: That was the biggest thing for me, because again, you just start putting your life and your thoughts on paper.
• 24:57
  Jennifer Johnson: But having that guide to tell you and pull out the nuggets.
• 25:03
  April O'Leary: Yes, and I think you're right that if you're listening right now and you're a business owner or you're someone who's been in your field for a while, there's a lot of stuff you take for granted that you know and you kind of assume everybody else knows and the truth is not everybody knows.
• 25:18
  April O'Leary: The person who picks up your book might not know the things that you're inherently speaking on that.
• 25:23
  April O'Leary: They're here to learn it.
• 25:26
  Jennifer Johnson: And so what you're?
• 25:26
  April O'Leary: saying is it's good to have someone on the outside who's saying, well, let's slow down a little bit, let's bake this part in a little earlier or let's not get so detailed into this.
• 25:41
  April O'Leary: The goal is we want the person to finish the book from start to finish, so it doesn't mean that you have to write a book that's 500 pages Jennifer's book.
• 25:47
  April O'Leary: What I think is so great about her book Grace and Grit is that it is really very practical and readable and it's not super long, and so when you get it you feel like I can read this and it's for a busy person right For a busy person to commit to reading a 400 page book is a little bit, you know much, it's daunting.
• 26:08
  Jennifer Johnson: And I have to admit, like when I first did this, I'm like oh, oh, it's small.
• 26:15
  Jennifer Johnson: But then I'm like this makes complete sense, and you've probably heard me say this.
• 26:22
  Jennifer Johnson: We live in a TikTok world.
• 26:23
  Jennifer Johnson: People's attentions are so small it's hard to sit down and read a 30 chapter book that is, you know, two times the size of the Bible.
• 26:36
  April O'Leary: Yeah.
• 26:36
  Jennifer Johnson: Like you know, I mean, that's just so hard, Even listening to it.
• 26:40
  Jennifer Johnson: I had to listen to an audio book on something because literally there were 48 chapters in this book.
• 26:48
  Jennifer Johnson: The audio listening time was 18 hours.
• 26:51
  Jennifer Johnson: Wow, that's a lot.
• 26:52
  Jennifer Johnson: And I went I'm not reading that book, Like I can't.
• 26:55
  Jennifer Johnson: That's too much, so oh, my God.
• 26:58
  April O'Leary: And even listening, like a half hour a day, that's like a whole month.
• 27:01
  Jennifer Johnson: It was just I double timed it.
• 27:03
  Jennifer Johnson: I had to listen really well.
• 27:05
  Jennifer Johnson: But the point is is sometimes smaller is better, because if it packs a punch, who cares how big or small it is?
• 27:16
  April O'Leary: And really the point going back to what we were saying earlier, as if you can frame your book.
• 27:21
  April O'Leary: As this is my very best material, I really want the reader to connect with me online and I really want to nurture that relationship the best I can and I really want to nurture that relationship the best I can.
• 27:33
  April O'Leary: If the book achieves all those things, it doesn't matter if it's 15,000 words or 50,000 words or, God forbid, 100,000 words.
• 27:41
  Jennifer Johnson: How many pages is that?
• 27:46
  April O'Leary: It's probably about 400 pages or more, but we don't discourage.
• 27:48
  April O'Leary: Everyone has a different reason for writing.
• 27:50
  April O'Leary: So we work with business owners and we're talking specifically about using your book to share your expertise to grow your business and attract the right clients.
• 27:58
  April O'Leary: There's other reasons, of course, to write a book.
• 28:00
  April O'Leary: There's reasons because you've already had your success and maybe you don't want to be a public speaker and maybe you just want to pay it forward in some way and so you want to share all your knowledge.
• 28:10
  April O'Leary: Or maybe you had some spiritual major transformation and you feel like a moral obligation to pay it forward, or you want to leave something for your kids.
• 28:19
  April O'Leary: There's lots of reasons why someone might want to write a book, but I would say, in this bucket of book growing my business, it's a very simple and strategic move to have a book.
• 28:32
  April O'Leary: It's a great tool.
• 28:33
  April O'Leary: It's a great tool and it's a hundred percent doable.
• 28:37
  April O'Leary: So I think that's where this who me, an author, came in to my mind and writing the short booklet and it's super small, it is and it's 10 of our authors who have published with us I gave um their story and kind of their reason why they wrote a book and their website and a little bit about what their book has done for them, because I wanted the reader to see.
• 28:59
  April O'Leary: Oh wait, I mean Jennifer Johnson's amazing and she has grown a business and she's written a book and she's reachable and she speaks.
• 29:09
  April O'Leary: And she might answer my email.
• 29:10
  April O'Leary: Email and she's not an unreachable person.
• 29:13
  April O'Leary: That is where it feels like, oh, but those people are authors.
• 29:19
  April O'Leary: But I could never do it.
• 29:20
  Jennifer Johnson: They're on a pedestal and I can't touch them.
• 29:22
  Jennifer Johnson: They're not attainable.
• 29:24
  April O'Leary: And so I think that you know, as a human being, with you know, the propensity to maybe unless you're like a narcissist, but someone who has less this feeling of like I'm not as good as that person, or they probably have better ideas than me, or who am I to write that?
• 29:42
  April O'Leary: I mean, there's certainly, you know, publishers that are way bigger than me, you know, have been in business for hundreds of years, who published thousands of books a year, but that's a different audience.
• 29:54
  Jennifer Johnson: And here's the thing in life there's always going to be somebody who's?
• 29:58
  Jennifer Johnson: Ahead of you.
• 29:58
  Jennifer Johnson: Somebody I was listening to is like don't compare your chapter one to somebody's chapter 20.
• 30:03
  April O'Leary: Right, and to you you might be a chapter 20, to someone else who is at a chapter one, that's 10 years before so we're all sort of pulling each other forward.
• 30:12
  April O'Leary: And if you know, as someone listening to this right now, if you've ever had that sort of butterfly gut feeling like maybe I should write a book and then you immediately talk yourself out of it.
• 30:24
  April O'Leary: Yeah, this conversation is really just to say why not?
• 30:27
  Jennifer Johnson: you you.
• 30:35
  April O'Leary: You have had unique life experiences from maybe your family of origin, maybe your educational experiences, maybe some traumas, abuses, violence, immigration problems anything right that you've overcome and come through and that you can help others.
• 30:47
  April O'Leary: That despite all those things, those human pains, I'm here, I'm succeeding, I'm making things happen.
• 30:53
  April O'Leary: I'm not making excuses.
• 30:53
  April O'Leary: I'm succeeding.
• 30:53
  April O'Leary: I'm making things happen.
• 30:54
  April O'Leary: I'm not making excuses.
• 30:54
  April O'Leary: I'm not a victim in my own mind and now I get to pay it forward.
• 30:58
  Jennifer Johnson: And I'm glad you said that, because I remember when I was going through this process in my head like I really want to write a book but I'm really scared to share parts of my story because I feared backlash.
• 31:12
  Jennifer Johnson: I feared somebody would think, oh really, or whatever, would think less of me because of my story, when in reality it's the opposite way around.
• 31:27
  Jennifer Johnson: But it's the crap that we tell ourselves to temper what we're doing.
• 31:34
  April O'Leary: Can you?
• 31:34
  April O'Leary: I'm turning this around on you now.
• 31:35
  Jennifer Johnson: Can I ask you a?
• 31:36
  April O'Leary: question?
• 31:36
  April O'Leary: Sure, because I would love for you to share Once your book was out, because Jennifer shared a lot of personal stories.
• 31:42
  April O'Leary: She had a lot of courage in her book, weaving in some of her personal traumas with her business and in her personal life and weaving it in with, but despite that, I was able to have success.
• 31:59
  April O'Leary: And so once that book came out and people saw that Jennifer was a human being, do you have a story of someone who came up to you or said something like wow, that happened to me, or thank you so much for sharing that, or anything like that?
• 32:15
  Jennifer Johnson: that stands out in mind for you.
• 32:16
  Jennifer Johnson: I did, and that was actually the reason why I came into wanting to write a book, because I've gone through some very personal situation with sexual assault and didn't want to.
• 32:30
  Jennifer Johnson: I wanted to share.
• 32:32
  Jennifer Johnson: That was like the reason I came into wanting to write this book, to share that story, Because if you can impact just one person, whatever you went through was worth it, right.
• 32:42
  Jennifer Johnson: So after I wrote that book, yes, I actually had more than one individual come up to me and young people saying, wow, I've been a victim of that and I've been too scared to say anything.
• 32:57
  Jennifer Johnson: Or another one who's like I'm in a bad situation.
• 33:02
  Jennifer Johnson: It wasn't exactly that, but I feel like if it can happen to you and you got out of it, there's hope for me.
• 33:10
  April O'Leary: Yeah.
• 33:12
  Jennifer Johnson: So there's that, that.
• 33:13
  Jennifer Johnson: That, really that's the reason I didn't write a book to be, you know, to make money on it.
• 33:20
  Jennifer Johnson: I wrote a book to make an impact yeah, to be like.
• 33:24
  Jennifer Johnson: You know, success looks like many different kinds of people and many different scenarios.
• 33:35
  April O'Leary: Yeah, and knowing that someone read your book and then was able to make some shifts in their own life, like to me, there's nothing better than that and the doors that are open because of becoming an author.
• 33:48
  April O'Leary: Some will have to do with better you know, more income streams, and some will have to do with just feeling like, wow, I'm, I'm impacting other human beings and that's important too.
• 33:59
  April O'Leary: So it's just this kind of magical tool that is.
• 34:03
  April O'Leary: It's almost like if you have this feeling that you should write a book, for example, and it's knowing that like it takes a bit of faith to say I'm going to put this out there and I don't get to control what the book's going to do once it's out there.
• 34:19
  April O'Leary: I don't get to control who reads it, what opportunities come about, what income shows up, what speaking opportunities I get.
• 34:25
  April O'Leary: But I'm going to trust the process and know that if I do it for the right reason, with honesty and integrity, that those seeds of those books that are out there in the world they will germinate and they will sprout and you just get to see what the harvest is.
• 34:42
  April O'Leary: It's sort of like you know it's anyone's guess.
• 34:46
  April O'Leary: I like to do this exercise and say write down everything you think would happen from published Once your book is published.
• 34:56
  April O'Leary: Write down everything you think possibly could happen in the next 12 months and I guarantee things you would never put on that list will happen.
• 35:02
  April O'Leary: And so it's kind of fun.
• 35:03
  April O'Leary: Like what other things in your life can you do where you feel like there's this mysterious thing happening?
• 35:10
  Jennifer Johnson: out there.
• 35:10
  Jennifer Johnson: It's a beautiful process thing happening out there.
• 35:15
  April O'Leary: It's a beautiful process.
• 35:16
  April O'Leary: It really is.
• 35:16
  April O'Leary: It really is.
• 35:17
  April O'Leary: I'm honored to be able to do it with people in a way that is meaningful.
• 35:19
  April O'Leary: We don't publish fiction books.
• 35:20
  April O'Leary: It's not because I don't like fiction.
• 35:22
  April O'Leary: It's just because I really like the idea that sharing your personal experience and being vulnerable can help other people and it can also help you.
• 35:32
  Jennifer Johnson: vulnerable can help other people and it can also help you, you know, and sometimes it becomes a sort of catharsis.
• 35:36
  Jennifer Johnson: It totally is.
• 35:36
  Jennifer Johnson: I will definitely say that that is true, that is very true.
• 35:40
  Jennifer Johnson: It has been a pleasure, as always, having you on our podcast today.
• 35:44
  Jennifer Johnson: If our listeners are interested in, you know, exploring the possibility of writing a book, or they just want to connect with you.
• 35:52
  April O'Leary: How can they do that.
• 35:52
  April O'Leary: I would absolutely love to connect with them.
• 35:55
  April O'Leary: Our website is o'learypublishingcom.
• 35:57
  April O'Leary: We have a free author quiz on there.
• 35:59
  April O'Leary: All our services are on there, our catalog of books.
• 36:02
  April O'Leary: You can find Jennifer's book on there.
• 36:03
  April O'Leary: I encourage you to purchase her book and support her.
• 36:07
  April O'Leary: She's put so much love into the book and into this podcast and that's the best place to start.
• 36:12
  April O'Leary: We offer an editorial consultation and a publishing consultation, which is just a one-hour session to speak with me or speak with Heather, our head editor, to sort of get all of your questions answered.
• 36:23
  April O'Leary: So that's sort of first base for us is just a short consultation.
• 36:28
  April O'Leary: Fabulous, thank you.