Latest / Author Hour / The Take Action Effect, Seven Years Later: Scott Voelker on Turning a Book Into Authority

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The Take Action Effect, Seven Years Later: Scott Voelker on Turning a Book Into Authority · Author Hour

• speaker-0: Hi everyone and welcome to the Scribe Author Hour Podcast. My name's Teddy Smith, and today we're going to be interviewing Scott Volker, who has had multiple six and seven figure businesses. I actually have been listening to Scott for quite a long time because I in my previous life I had an e-commerce business. So I used to listen to his old podcast, The Amazing Seller Podcast, which is why I actually reached out in the first place. But now he works more with coaches to help get leads from YouTube. And today we're going to be talking about his book that he wrote with Scribe. quite few years ago now called the take action effects, like where that's gone with his life and where he's working now. So welcome to the show, Scott. speaker-1: Thank you, man. Thanks for having me and thanks for being a listener for all those years. speaker-0: I've I've I've probably listened to a hundred episodes or something of yours. So when I was going through trying to reach out to all people, I was like, Wow, I've got to speak to this person. speaker-1: Yeah, no, that's that's that's funny. It's it's crazy. It seems like a lifetime ago. It really does. Yeah. speaker-0: I have to admit, just quietly, I'm quite happy I'm not in e commerce anymore. I found it very difficult. So it was speaker-1: You and me both. It it was a it was a fun little wave that we were on and I think it got crowded and then things got a little bit more complicated. But yeah, at the time it was great. speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It was I it was it was fun build building a brand. And that was to be honest, that was the part I enjoyed the most, building the brands. I learned all loads from that. And that's what I've taken away from it the most. But today we're more talking about what's happened since. And I know, well, a couple quite a few years ago now you wrote the book Take Action Effects, which was published with Scribe. You know, before you wrote that book, we were talking we were talking about e-commerce. I think you're working in construction before. When you built Take Action Effects, it's it was built around taking one action at a time and trying to build on that. Why do you think people get stuck in that planning and never get started? speaker-1: Well, I think it's because well, there's a lot of different reasons. And I fell into that as well. I think it's just, we want that thing on the other side, right? we if we're in a job that we don't want to be in, we want to be out of that job. And then once we get into maybe something else, then we find out maybe we don't want to be in that, and then we want to move on to the next thing. And so what I have found, and really the reason why I wrote the book was because every single action that I took kind of built me for the next. thing right so it was like that book was well part of the reason I wrote the book was because I wanted something to give to my kids almost like a a journal of like my life of like what I did but then they're also part of that story. But then also to kind of track where I was and and you had reached out to me and said hey your book is seven years old and I'm like my gosh like really like I didn't realize you know and a lot has happened in the last seven years. So it's like maybe we got to do a part two But I think the thing that holds people back, and again, I'm guilty of this, or I have been guilty of this, is that we we're afraid that it might not work. we're we're afraid that if we put the time in, the energy in and it doesn't work, then we just wasted a bunch of time. And actually the book lets you know that that's not the case. you might not have gotten to the goal, right? The money goal. A lot of times it's the money goal. how do I make $10,000 a month? And you don't hit that, but maybe you hit $2,000 a month. And then you're like, okay, I didn't hit my target, or maybe it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. But what lessons did you learn that now built skills that you're going to take on to the next thing that you're going to do? Whether that's advancing in your career in your corporate life, or if it's, you know, getting yourself to the next business venture. Like, so to me, it's like stop thinking about like, did you hit your goal? Did you learn something in the process and can you take that with you to use for the rest of your life? speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. I think you're gonna be a good person to ask this question, but it's one of the things that peop authors always ask us at the time. And it's about finding that why, because a lot of authors have all these ideas and they're like, I know about this, I know about this, I know about this, but they've got to bring it down to the, you know, the why they should be writing about this story or what it is that they've got to say that makes what they're saying interesting. When you came to write the take action effect, why was it that you wrote that book rather than something different? speaker-1: Great question. And probably looking back at it, if I was doing it just as a business play, if I was only doing it to get more business, that wouldn't have been the book. So I think there's a couple of different reasons why you want to write a book. And at that time, I was really, I was on a high. my business was cranking. I actually launched the book at a live event pre-COVID. So it was just before COVID hit. And I launched it to about 250 people that flew in from all over the world in Texas. And so it took me about a year to put that book together with my scribe, who I'm actually still friends with. Actually, I had her come out. I don't know if you know this, Teddy, but I had her come to the event and come up on stage and present the book because I honored her for what she had helped me create. So, and I just I just got on LinkedIn and you know, you know, you see me a little bit on LinkedIn. I'm not really much of a social media guy. And I connected back with her and Yeah, it's just crazy because yeah, just how life happens. But I think if I was to do it over again, looking back at it, that probably wouldn't have been the best book if I was doing it only for the goal of getting more business. Now, does it create or does it put me up a little bit more in authority because I've written a book? Yes. So you have that. But I think that book was more of like, okay. I want to get this book written because I want people to realize that if they get stuck, they're never going to be able to see what they could have achieved. And I also started being known for the take action guy. every podcast episode was like, take action, take action. I got a sign behind me that says take action. I've got a poster here. This is take action. Cause that's what I was known for. People were like, I was the take action guy now. So I was like, well, it makes sense that I should probably go through my story on how I started with my father's construction company for seven bucks an hour. And how I eventually got to a seven-figure business, seven dollars, seven figures. It was okay, but what happened in between? So I don't think it was the best strategic book, but it was a book that I felt I needed and I wanted to put out into the world. But I would say if you're an author and you're just writing a book to write a book and you don't need it for money, it's a whole different conversation. If you're doing it because you want it to help you with your coaching business, then we got to be a little bit more strategic as far as like. Well, what is the message? Why are we writing this book? What are they gonna gain from it? So I think there's two different people that we're talking to as far as like who thinks a book is right for them. Yeah. speaker-0: I think that's that that last point you made is is a really good point about talking about if let's say you're a coach and you want to write a book, yeah the positioning that book in the right way is really important because I know a lot of people think, Okay, I can just write a book with AI and just pump it out. But that's gonna be a potentially a really bad decision for your business because if you write a book and it's not good, you're forgetting that people actually read it. And you don't build authority by just having a crappy book. If anything, it brings it back down again. speaker-1: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And I I think like I said, there's a couple of different reasons why you write a book. I actually now that now that I'm where I am today, it's kind of funny how it does come full circle. So look like what we do now is like we help we help authors, we help coaches, we help consultants. But what we do is we help them build their authority. And part of that is a book. We don't help them with a book. We would, you know, say, hey, maybe you should go. talk to Teddy, maybe that's what we would do. But like to me, and I just actually did this with an author because they have a book that's a great authority piece. And you're speaking on this one topic that you want to be known for, you probably have an audio book if you're doing it right. And then the next question I had was, Do you have a video book? And they're like, No. And I'm like, why not? So that's where our whole thing now comes into like we take. just imagine you have a video book, let's call it. I call it a video book. It could be a keynote. if have a book, you probably want to speak on stages. Yeah. Right. You probably want to get invited and go, can you speak on this topic of your book? And you're like, yeah. And then you're like, you probably have five steps of your process or seven steps of your process, whatever. Well, that becomes what we call your anchor video. That's technically your book. And now what we do is we deploy that on YouTube. But more importantly, now it it lives outside of just the book. And so now that also builds your authority because now we have more ways for people to consume it. People that are maybe book readers, I'm not a book reader, I'm a book listener. I like to listen to audiobooks. I don't like to read them. Although I do have a lot of physical copies of books because it's almost like, there's something about holding the book, also something about having the book in your possession. And sometimes it's funny. I'll I'll look at a book and I'll be like, hey, I should probably go listen to that book again. It's almost like a reminder, you know, on my bookshelf. But I think. A book can do so much for your authority and your expertise to really like, you know, put the put the stake in the sand and say, like, I stand for this or this is my thing. And then I think when you put other things around it, like now you're going to be on a podcast. Here I am with you on a podcast talking about this topic. Well, you guys all know now that I'm an author. So you're now you're like, I wrote a book. Yep. And I've also got videos that support what I talk about, right? And that's another way we call it becoming bingeable. Where people like if they read your book, they probably are gonna try to look for a podcast of you that you were on and then start to listen. And then if they can't find any more, they're gonna probably look for other videos maybe they can watch or other things that they can consume of yours. And if you don't have that there, you're doing a disservice and you're also not leveraging the authority that you just created. Does that make sense, Teddy? speaker-0: Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Cause I know say when you're writing a blog or something like that, the more backlinks you get to your blog posts, it builds up authority in the eyes of Google so they rank you higher. True. And it works exactly the same with your personal authority. The more places that you're being spoken about, then the more ways people can find you, the more ways that the world is going to throw up those those options where people can come find you again in different ways. So yeah, I agree totally with that. speaker-1: Yeah. And I would say the other thing now in the world of AI, we have this thing called AEO, which is basically now being searched and found in AI citations. And actually they just came out, I think it was DigiDay was one of them that came out with a report recently. And they said that YouTube is like one of the top citation sites. So when you put out a video, they're automatically transcribing that video now. Right. I started on YouTube eighteen plus years ago. before it was anything close to what it is now. But now they have transcripts and they have an AI engine behind it and the algorithm that's picking all this stuff up. And basically now you're found in an AI citation. Well, if you're on a podcast about your book, you got another citation, right? And another proof piece and another piece of authority. So to your point, the more places that we could put our authority also is going to come into now. not just on Google searches, but it's going to become in an AI search. Yeah. Right. Which is really, really powerful. It's something that we're focusing on more ourselves. We're not an expert in it, but we are seeking out experts that know about that because I know it's important moving forward. We're in a whole new era of content. speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. If you go onto Google Search Console now, you can actually see your performance in AI and you're s I'm seeing mine go up with different posts that I do. It's like it's really good, especially when you're targeting it the right way. Yeah. when you did the Amazing Seller podcast, yeah. We that's you started out doing the podcast as well. You're doing the YouTube as well, but the the podcast that was quite big, or at least that's how I know you. Yeah. what's the difference do you find between doing a podcast and doing a video in terms of your reputation and getting your name out there? speaker-1: Well, I think there's a a a bunch of different things that come off of, just showing up. I think that's the first thing. But I started, so just to give people a little bit of the backstory. So when I started the podcast, and it was titled The Amazing Seller back in the day, and then it's since been rebranded, but it was it was a podcast talking about private labeling, so e-commerce for Amazon. And the thing took off. It was only audio for like the first probably six months. Yeah. Then I said, Well, I'm not shooting video, but maybe I'll just go ahead and I'll put it up on YouTube. And I actually did what they told you not to do. I basically put a static image, not even the waveform that you see nowadays where people are doing that. That's a little bit better, but this was just a static image. And I put it up there and I said, it's another platform. Let's just publish it there. So we did. I got 16,000 subscribers from just putting up an audio. And that was back in 2016, 2015, 2016. And then I'm like, well, maybe I should start paying attention to this YouTube thing. And that's where we started to be a little bit more on video. And since then now we've we've really kind of like dialed that in. But I think, and this is this was the feedback. And you can attest this because you were a listener. You lit when you listen to someone and you're on a walk or you're on a plane, you have no other way to be distracted other than what you're listening to. Yeah. Right. And so I had so many people, they would come up to me, they would tell me things that I shared, like about my dog, had surgery, or my son just had a championship volley or basketball game, right? And and they lost. And they're like, man, my son had that happen too, man. That was it's that that sucks, you know. So it was just I noticed from just that experience that man, if you can connect with someone through audio and video, not just a written word. Man, it accelerates the trust. Yeah. It just accelerates it. And so that's when I said, okay, no matter what I'm doing, and that's good for me because I don't like writing. I know some people are like, I'm going to lock myself in a cab and I'm going to write a book. That's why I hired Scribe. I didn't want to do that. But I did want it to be my writing and my style and, my stories. And that's why, for Scribe, when I, when I was part of doing it seven years ago, I, I met with my scribe a lot. And we would just go, hours upon hours. And what was cool about it was I was just telling stories. It was like I was telling it, I was on a podcast and I was just telling my stories. And then they actually shaped it into what it is today. But I just think audio and visual and being able to see someone and see their their you know inflection and in or listen to their inflection and their voice, like people hear me and they hear excitement, they hear passion because that's the kind of guy that I am. So some people like it, some people don't like it. But that's great because now you can decide, do I do I want to be a part of that that person's world or don't I? And so that's why I love adding audio and visual to it. I think that can accelerate. So if you are a book author and you're listening to this, get an audio book if you don't have one and put yourself up on video or start a podcast or be on other people's podcasts. That would be my recommendation. speaker-0: Definitely. W before you mentioned about doing a video book, d d for the f is that's not I'm guessing that's not just you reading your book out on YouTube. Like what does that look like for you? speaker-1: Yeah. So you you're talking about the the video book. Yeah. Yeah. So the video book is more like think about it like a master class or think about it as a keynote. So I always tell people when I'm working with a client, I'm like, okay, and I actually I'm working, we're actually in the about halfway through one of our cohorts right now, which we teach this. But the basics, the the basics around it are in thinking like this, if I was to tell you, Teddy, you know who you want to serve, you know your audience. let's just say that you helped men that were going through a messy divorce because you've been through it, but now you've come up with a system that allows them to be able to get through it and and thrive. I hope my wife's you're going to an event maybe where there's a men are there and they're struggling with their relationships and they're there to try to, you know, kind of revive their life again. And then you have the opportunity because you wrote a book on it, and now I'm saying to you, hey Teddy. I got a spot. It's a 45-minute keynote. I want you to come here and I want you to present a condensed version of your book. Can you do that? And you'd be like, Heck yeah. Right. I get to be in a room of a hundred people or a thousand people of my ideal audience. So now what you would do is you'd have to hunker down a little bit and figure out, okay, what am I going to present here? How am I going to deliver a transformation in a 45-minute window? That becomes your video book, as I call it. It's a master class. It's as if you were, it's not a webinar. Don't get that confused with a webinar. A webinar is like agitate, agitate, you know, strike a problem, give a little bit of like what can happen if you fix it. And then if you want me to help you, I I will, you know, and you can pay me for it. That's not what this is. A master class is pure value. Now, we are also giving opportunities for you to download something like a free resource so you can get on our email list and things. But the masterclass is basically that's what we call, it's kind of like your video book, where it's Going through your process just in a condensed version, as if you were to gonna pr if you were gonna present it at a conference that you would love to speak at. That's kind of what that looks like. speaker-0: So say if we were doing it for scribe, that would look like going through exactly how the book writing process works, the ghostwriting process works, but also giving value about how you could go and do it yourself. So it's just pure value. Then so you're saying, We're the experts at it, but if you want to go and do it yourself, this is exactly how you could do it. Is that how you'd position us? speaker-1: Exactly how I would do it. And like so let's just say that you were at an event where people are trying to like maybe it's an event not just for authors, but you're at an event for people that want to grow their authority and their personal brand, let's just say. Right. And a and a lot of these people are coaches, right? And so you might have one that says like, how to build your authority with a book without spending 12 months in a cabin. That'd be the title, right? And now inside of there, you're gonna one of the bet you would talk about why a book is good, right? But why people don't write a book hard, gotta slave away at the at the keyboard and all this stuff, right? But there's a new opportunity on this thing, right? So it's like, here's what can happen like with this opportunity, but it's hard. That's why I haven't done it. But there's a new way to do it. And I'm actually gonna walk you through five steps on how you can literally write a book yourself. Right. And then obviously, if you want us to help you with it, we've got a service that helps you with it. That's it. Right. So you would just walk through, here's how you do it. outline your thing, then record yourself, then hire an editor. And then, you know, have someone come in that's you know, whatever, another editorial thing. And dah dah. And you go through all the steps that if they walked away, they could do it. But most of the time people are like, Will you just do it for me? Will you actually help me with everything? The marketing, the, you know, the Putting it on Amazon and putting it on brand or Barnes, yeah, Barnes Noble, all of the different platforms. I don't want to do all that. But you would show them everything. don't hold that back. You would just present this is the opportunity. You might be thinking it's hard because it is hard, but we found a way to make it easier. And if you want us to actually help you with it, we will. That's what it looks like. speaker-0: What would a video like that look like for brand creators? speaker-1: Well, we have one. It's called Steady Leads. And it's basically how to get steady leads from one simple YouTube video per week. So what that instantly says is like what you want. So a 2 a.m problem for a lot of business owners is like, man, if I could just get some more leads, man. like you, Teddy, right? you're you're working for with Scribe right now, you're you're working with them. I guarantee your hope, you're like, how do I get more leads so that I can tell people about Scribe? Right? So that's a thing, right? And then it's like, okay, if I get the leads, how do I convert the leads? Well, I need people to get to know and trust me. So ours is like a one-two punch. Ours is like put it up on YouTube, you get that distribution. We also can maybe go on some podcasts and now they're going to join my email list. And now I get them to watch some of my videos. I get them to binge my videos. That's what we call it, get becoming bingeable, right? And now every video is going to have a call to action to join my email list. Right. So so when people wake up in the middle of the night, we're looking for that 2 a.m. problem. Right. What's the 2 a.m. problem? Now your book doesn't solve a if you just present your book like, you want to write a book and be a best selling author, but why? What am I getting from it? I'm getting more opportunities to speak on more stages. I'm able to now get keynotes. I'm able to get on bigger podcasts. Right. So that person's like, man, how do I get on more podcasts? If I get on more podcasts, like there's if I had a book, if I had a book, I could get one. I wonder how to I don't know how to write a book. Right. You see, it started with I want to get on more stages. That's where it came from. So for us, steady leads. That's the main thing. Right. So our book, our audio book is Steady Leads, How to Get Steady Leads, actually, how to get qualified Steady Leads from just one simple YouTube video per week. And the reason why I put in from one simple YouTube video per week is because immediately you're going to say, so I don't need to post on social media every day. And the answer is no. And we actually are our, every everybody normally usually wants a villain, right? Who are you against? Our villain is social media. Like I don't want to be on the content hamster wheel, right? I don't want to be posting on TikTok, on Instagram, on all these different platforms, doing all these shorts in the reels. We're against that. We're like, no, just do one simple YouTube video per week strategically, and you can have all the benefits of doing all that other stuff without doing all that other stuff. speaker-0: And you actually live by this, I know, because when I went to connect to you on LinkedIn I was like, man, you've got hardly any followers considering how famous you are. I was like, So you are you actually are living this exact thing. speaker-1: Yeah, I'm not posting on Instagram. I don't even have Instagram on my phone anymore because it was a distraction. I don't have TikTok. And the only place that I'm posting right now is a little bit on LinkedIn. And that's very, very natural because that's where my audience is. So I I I picked one platform, which is YouTube, build an email list and podcast guest, right? Or podcast publishing. So it's like I'm using my podcast and other people's podcasts to get people on my email list. When they get on my email list, then I bring them into my content, which my content gets them to watch more and gets to know and trust. speaker-0: For authors who are thinking about doing something like this, how how long does it take to do one video per week? speaker-1: Okay. So the hardest part in this whole thing is really just getting everything mapped out. And then really the first we call it the anchor video, which is your master class. Yep. And we call it your we're building your authority binge blueprint, is technically what we're doing. And inside of that, we have so just so just think about it like this. Number one, we have to get exactly who we're targeting. I see even though people are wanting to write a book or they're wanting to get started, like, you know, with lead generation or whatever. They don't really have a clear definition or a target of who they are really wanting to serve. So we spend probably the first week or two just dialing that in because that's the most important piece. So once we get that dialed in, and then we get the blueprint built out as far as like what we're going to be creating, which is basically your master class, which is going to take the longest, which is doesn't take that long, but it's like, Let's let's figure out what we're gonna do. It's like you were doing a keynote, right? You got to spend maybe a few hours building it and then you're gonna record it and then you're done. But what comes from that now is underneath that we have a layer, which is basically there's five pillar videos or seven, depending on how many steps you have in your keynote or in your masterclass. And then from there, those those are eight to 12 minute videos. And then from there, below that, we have five questions that people ask. We have five problems that they're experiencing, and then we have five myths that they're hearing. Those become eight to 12 minute videos. And then below that, we have another layer, which is your your proof layer. That's where you would tell client stories or you would tell stories about things that you've been able to accomplish. And those become proof videos. So with that all being said, as you can see, we're mapping everything out. And then we're just carving out an hour, maybe two hours a week. That's it. Once you get a rhythm, like right now, I spend probably an hour a week on creating video. that's it. speaker-0: Does it take a of time to edit them and things like that? Or how would you speaker-1: No, because we're doing actually less editing than we used to, because less editing is more effective than more editing nowadays. Yeah, yeah. It's like the flashy graphics, the the b-roll and all that stuff. Immediately when you see that, you immediately think sales, like sales pitch, sales, right? If you have something more like this, maybe you have some visuals, right? It's okay to have some visuals. But you don't want it heavy with the B-roll where it's like a guy's like this and he's all depressed when you're talking about something sad. And it's not you, it's just a b-roll clip, That stuff immediately signals sales. Yeah. Right. So we have found it's like for me, it's either sitting here or maybe I'm sitting out by the pool, or maybe I even record in the car. it doesn't like, but it's like what is the takeaway? Like, why is that person going to want to watch that video? So you got to give them a good reason. And so for us, it's it's the packaging too. It's title, thumbnail, and intro hook. It's your 30-second hook. And then deliver on the promise, sprinkle in a couple of calls to action. hey, if you want our playbook, just comment playbook down below. We'll send it to you, or you can find it in the description. So we're always adding in those little slight call to actions so people can get on our email list because then they get to consume more of our content, which then gets them into that binge loop, as we call it. speaker-0: Awesome. Who who are the ideal customers that you're looking for at Brand Crates? speaker-1: Authors that are that are coaches or consultants primarily and also doesn't have to be, but we prefer high ticket. So anything above like $2,000 or more because what we have found that if you find the right audience for your offer, let's say, and you're able to show up consistently and and build your authority, build your null I can trust, you don't need a lot of use. Right. You don't need a lot of views and you don't need a lot of subscribers. Actually, we don't even look at subscribers as far as YouTube subscribers anymore. We look more at who's the view, who who are the viewers and did they get on our email list? And if they did, who are they? And are they the the ideal target that we would like to work with or potentially work with? speaker-0: That makes perfect sense. And where can people find you if they want to come and join up? speaker-1: Yeah, well, there's c couple different areas. One would be just go to brandcreators.com. If you go there, you'll see a very simple webpage that tells a little bit about myself and my son, because my son is a partnered, a partner of mine in this brand. And if you wanted to get the playbook, it's about 31 pages and it basically goes through our entire strategy. And I have the masterclass attached to that. So again, I'm practicing what I'm preaching here, right? I'm giving you our resource, which is the the playbook, and then there's the masterclass, which is about 90 minutes. And you can just go to steadyleadsplaybook.com. So if you just go to steadyleadsplaybook.com, you can you can find everything there. speaker-0: Perfect. And I think your book, you're you're writing a new book, aren't Study leads at the moment. When when when does the plan for act come out? speaker-1: Yeah, well, right now I am working on that. And that is a more strategic book. It's not as thick, let's say, but it's literally going through our process in a written form. Our playbook is more of the playbook. It's like you can kind of there's some exercises in there and the and the the book that we're writing will also go along with that. It'll be like a companion. But yeah, it's called Steady Leads. You know, how to get steady, qualified leads with just one simple YouTube video per week. And that's it. speaker-0: Brilliant. Well, thanks so much for coming on. It's been great. I'm happy I got finally a chance to get on your podcast. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. Teddy, I I appreciate you, man. And I appreciate you reaching out. And yeah, man, it's just it's great to to to know that, you were someone listening years ago and and here we are. And again, it's like if I didn't take action, we wouldn't be here today, right? Hence take action effect. speaker-0: Very good. And I I wasn't able to get on your podcast before, I was too small. So now it's so it's payback time and you get to come on mine. speaker-1: Cool man, and who knows, maybe we'll get you on mine. speaker-0: That'd be great. Thank you very much. Awesome. Yeah, thanks for coming on. So go to brand creators to find out more. We'll speak soon. speaker-1: Appreciate it, Teddy. Thank you.