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Jennifer Zahourek: How to Create Custom Print Books · The Daily Writer

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Saturday edition of the Daily Rider Podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Each weekday we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers and teaching that helps us supply what we're learning.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we all know that Amazon and other print-on-demand companies give authors an amazing opportunity to get our books out into the world without having to stock and ship those books.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you may not have known about the opportunities that exist for custom printing your own books.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this is an area that I'm exploring myself with at least one current project and possibly future ones for both me and for my clients.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I'm so excited today to bring you this conversation with the amazing Jennifer Zahorik.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Jennifer is a highly experienced pediatric and adult emergency and trauma registered nurse who is now the owner and founder of Recmed.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Before Jennifer became a nurse, she had a crippling fear of blood, struggled with dyslexia, and was told by her nursing instructor that she most likely would never pass the NCLEX, which is the exam that you must pass to become a nurse in the United States and Canada.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Jennifer then became a travel nurse for most of her nursing career that allowed her the opportunity to work in over ten different emergency departments across the country.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jenna found her niche in level one trauma centers, stroke and STEMI centers, where she grew her experience and her education.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: As a full-time ER nurse, Jennifer started working on a business to help her fellow nursing community learn to lessen the struggles that she had in school.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now Jennifer sits as the CEO of RecMed, which is a company that has helped nursing students all across the world.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: As a result, Jennifer and her company publish print products, and she has developed quite a detailed system for publishing, printing, distributing, and fulfilling those products.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: In this conversation, you're going to learn all about her systems and her background for creating your own print products.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I just want to tell you I had an absolute blast in this conversation, and I got to geek out with Jennifer over all the all the things in the world happening right now that are affecting distribution, paper, shipping, printing, all those kinds of things.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I learned a ton and I don't say much more than that.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Jennifer is just a really, really inspirational and energetic and a fun person.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I love having guests on the show who inspire me to become to become a better creator, a better author, and a better business owner.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And Jennifer absolutely fulfills all those boxes because she's so fun and inspirational.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you're going to really be inspired by the cool things that she has done as well.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before I get to the conversation, I want to give a very special shout out to my good friend John Stongey, who's the author of a lot of different books, as well as the host of several podcasts, including his newest podcast, which is called Platform Launchers.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have a link to that in the show notes.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: John is an amazing guy, and I'm so thankful that he was able to connect me with Jennifer because I'm a member of John's Platform University.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And through that is where I met Jennifer.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure and check that out.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: There'll be a link again in the show notes.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's get right to the conversation with the amazing Jennifer Sahurik.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Jennifer, welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is a thrill to have you on.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for having me.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've got to give a big shout out to our mutual good friend, Mr.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: John Stongy, who is a podcaster and author and all kinds of things.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Extraordinaire.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: A really, really awesome guy.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got to give him a shout-out for connecting us.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I know you of course you know John as well because you live in the same area and are from the Northeast.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: So uh that's pretty much my sister, my sister lives right next to him.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: They were hanging out at dinner, and then uh that's how I met him and heard about him.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and the way that uh sort of this all came about uh to some degree is because I'm I've known John for a couple of years now, and I'm also a member of his platform launchers community, and I think you are as well.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yep.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you were a guest on one of the calls a couple months ago, and we're talking about all the cool things you're doing in your business.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I heard that and I was like, oh my gosh, I have to invite her on the daily writer because you're doing a lot of really, really cool stuff that writers are going to be very interested in.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate you making time.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, yeah, of course.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: I love I could talk about this all day.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm happy to do it.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the one of the things that really piqued my interest about your journey and about what you're doing in your business is your involvement in print products, which is not something I've talked about a lot on my podcast because I don't personally have a lot of experience with it, other than you know, my books go through Amazon and stuff, but I have not had stuff uh bookstore journals or anything printed anywhere else aside from Amazon.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you have a lot of experience with this.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into this.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um by starting with your journey, how did you make the journey from being a nurse now to owning your own business where you have uh I would say it's an empire?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you call it an empire, but I'm gonna call it an empire around all these kinds of things because that's those are two very different kinds of things.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious if you can walk us through briefly how you made that transition.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yes.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I've always been a creative person.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I knew I always like had a uh like internal like driver theory that I was going to like write a book or I was going to do something with a book.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: I just knew I wanted to do it and I know way, shape, or form how.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I've been an emergency department trauma nurse for over a decade.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: And um I always thought like when people come into the ER, you know, they always typically have about the same complaints, like everyone has stomach pain, everyone has this and that.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was like, man, maybe I should write about stuff and it could like help people instead of coming to the ER, they could, you know, look in this book.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, no, that's a waste of my time.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I didn't really know what to do.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then finally one day, um, I had a patient that had heart failure, and the doctor was explained to him and was like, you know, oh, you have heart failure.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is what you're gonna have to do, go see a cardiologist, blah, blah, blah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: And this is what heart failure is, and walks out of the room.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: And the guy's just sitting there, just like looking at me, like, what the heck?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Can you tell me what you know you heard, understood about what heart failure is and you know, what the doctor said.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: And he just looked at me and was like, I have no idea what he even told me.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I like stood there and I started using my hands and I like went through the motions and I was like, okay, it works like this.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I broke it down super simple.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: And he looks at me and he was like, Why couldn't they say that?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, honestly, I don't know.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then I walked out of the room and I thought about that, and it was like in a split second, it was like all the years of my education or my training and just talking to people, teaching them what I've learned in four years of school, um, and just saying the same things over and over, I learned how to break things down so easily.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, shoot, I feel like this is it.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I want to be able to make something that's gonna help other people learn about these medical conditions in such a simple way.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: But because I've been an ER nurse, I didn't even know how to draw a line on the computer screen without like like paintbrush, like back in the day.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like I don't know, I'm 36.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I remember when I was like young on the computer, I'd be like the old school paintbrush app.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: MS Paint.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, MSP, yes.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: So um, so I started really like getting serious about and I was like, okay, well, I can like type some stuff up, find some graphics.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then that was it when um I started looking up graphics online to the things that I wanted to start explaining.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: The graphics were done by whoever owned it.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I couldn't, you know, you can't just take people's images and throw it in your own book.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: So that was kind of the moment where I was like, ah, I really wish I was able to like create graphics somehow.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I started paying people and being like, I want this graphic to look like this, and that was painful.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I um I went on Fiverr.com and Fiverr was where I was looking at graphic design artists and working with them.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I got, I have graphics that I still use that I'm obsessed with from people on there, and I absolutely love them.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: I won't mess with them, even though I could, but I don't.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that was when I was like, you know what, this is going to be way too expensive and also takes way too long of time.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like I need to just figure out how to do it.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: So um I was listening to YouTube and I used I'm obsessed with impact theory and Tom Billio.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: Not sure if you've heard of him.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: He I have heard of him.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's the um guy that started Quest uh nutrition, the Quest bars that we all see in the grocery store.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he ended up growing that in I think seven years, they had a billion dollar exit and sold to Atkins, which is crazy.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: So he started a YouTube channel all about like entrepreneurship, and he um kept saying like over and over on an ad, like, um, you know, this this YouTube's brought to you by Skillshare.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, what the heck is Skillshare?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like it just it was saying, like, oh, we'll teach you this, this, and that.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I happened to look it up.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: And the first thing that popped up was graphic design classes.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, dang, this is meant to be.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I downloaded Adobe Illustrator and I sat there with my iPad on one side, the computer on the other, and I literally would just pause, stop, pause, stop.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I learned how to draw graphics online.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I'd make these graphics and honestly, probably it took like a good two-week learning curve to like make anything even worthwhile.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and what I started doing is taking other images, I'd throw it into Adobe Illustrator, I'd draw over it, tweak it to what I wanted, um, make it totally different.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then um I started laying out these pages together.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: So after about like 20 pages started becoming the reality of like this thing has to be printed somehow and by somebody.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: And how am I gonna do that?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then that was when I kind of figured out like I knew I wanted to make a planner book because and use these reference pages I just started creating because then, you know, students in nursing school, they were have their daily planner with them because in school and college, like you're constantly your schedule is all over the place.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought it'd be helpful to have those content pages with their planner and just put out to the world to see what happens.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I think like 20 pages in, I was like, uh, I gotta like figure out printing and manufacturing.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the day that I started like needing to learn about um just outsourcing um could because no, no printing company here in America one really was very interested in me at first because I wasn't an established business at all, like at all.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't even registered.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it would have been that I needed a ton of money down.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so that was something I didn't have because nothing was brought to life.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I ended up doing probably what a lot of people do.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: I found um Ali Alibaba.com and I went on there, yep, and I looked at a ton of factories um and I did my homework.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: I did a lot of reading.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: So while I was making these pages, I was constantly like reading about like um just everything, like how to design a cover, how to design my boxing, or well, the boxing came later, but um just all about like importing, exporting.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things I saw was when you are working with these factories or companies on Alibaba, you know, they're very um big on like respect and just making sure you speak to them.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, in our world, like we're so quick to write an email and be like, hey Tom, um, did you get this note?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's a very western.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: And over there, it's like, hello, like Sally, how are you?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: Did you have a great weekend?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: I hope things are well.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: By the way, did you happen to?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so more of a subtle kind of approach.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're more you you establish a relationship and very respectfully before you jump straight into like, where's my stuff?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, or just wondering where things are.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I, since I was always attentive to that, I always like overly um was like, I'm very grateful for your time.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: I also don't know what I'm talking about.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I made that very clear through my whole journey.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't understand anything um because I was an ER nurse.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I was very like confident because of what nursing has grown me into be.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: But when I entered this whole new world of like trying to publish my own book, ship my own books, and actually put it online, I knew nothing.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: I knew absolutely nothing.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't afraid to tell people that.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I really was like, you know, I don't understand what this means.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: When you tell me you want to ship this to me DDP, I don't have a clue what that means.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: So research was like the biggest thing.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so when I was looking at these places on Alibaba, I just I wanted a place that was like five-star reviews across the board.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to see they had extensive history.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can also see what kind of volume they're pumping out every year, how much money that factory is making per year.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can see all their reviews.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's all very open.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the thing about Alibaba, it gives you that information um of like what this like full disclosure, like when was the last time they were actually um inspected?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Do they have all of that stuff?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: And they have to follow certain guidelines too.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: So the cool thing about it though is if things fall apart if with your contract, you will get your money back.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I felt a little safer going on the site.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so then when I found a factory I was working with, um, I didn't find out until later, but I feel very fortunate this is a factory that also works with companies like Disney um and like big, big, big printing companies.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure Disney works like with 25,000 companies, to be honest.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: But um I know that they have a good history, yeah, with them and still have a history, um, which is pretty cool.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I found that out actually through like not even from my factory.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: I found it out through like different ways of seeing print items.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, that looks familiar, what my factory does, and then figuring it out when I did my own research.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, so um yeah, they, you know, they were really the people that I I kind of really did my homework on looking at them, um, they were very the way that they worked with me too, they made it easy.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I noticed that as I've gone through this like world of working with multiple like factories and manufacturers, if they aren't making it easy and they don't appear like interested or push me off, I don't waste my own time.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because if I have to like chase you to even like make something happen, this is not going to be a good relationship for us.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it was more like being respectful of them, them being respectful of me, but them also being open to helping me showed that they were willing to like kind of go the extra mile and establish that relationship, then also showed me they were more likely to give me a quality product.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because a lot of the people that I have worked with that don't go that extra mile, their quality has normally not been as great.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so then when it came time to like actually was like, you know, I made this book.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's funny, I think back on these conversations, and I know they were like, man, this girl really knew nothing.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Because they were like, we need it in like this format.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then they had to teach you like what I needed templates from them of like what, you know, those pages need to be on what sizing, like formatting, all the bleeds and the margins.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then it was the boxing, and I had to figure out boxing and create that.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so they had to like walk me through a ton of stuff that I didn't realize I would need.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I was so worried about like what this final result would be because to me, I wanted it done before Christmas, and I didn't have time to get an actual physical sample to my front door.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I took a huge gamble and I was like, you know what?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna make 500 of these.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to do 500.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: How much is it gonna cost?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: And they were like, well, since we haven't worked with you before, it's 60% up front, and then the 40% is due before um we ship it to you.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: And this is pre-pandemic.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: So shipping was really like just a 30-day journey, and that's all it was.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was like, okay, well, if I don't do the sample and they print me, so they actually made a sample and they'd video it to me.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then when I was comfortable with that, it was like, okay, let's do the 500.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: So then we they shipped it over.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: I actually think I had like a hundred flown over because I was like, I just wanted to do like product photos and stuff.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: And back then it wasn't that bad.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yeah, so then they sent me all of it.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: And gosh, it like it's just so crazy.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like I still think the book I made then, I was like, wow, this is so cool.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm like, man, that was terrible.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know what I was doing.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's such a bad book, like the design and everything.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: But um, but yeah, they had to walk me through a ton of it.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think uh I think that was it.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: I started a small batch, it ended up working well, and then I just kind of grew my batches from there.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: But then they had to help teach me too about like containers and actually like now, like we actually utilize a whole container that goes onto the vessel and like comes over.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and there's a whole bunch of things with that.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's shipping rates of them doing all the freight forwarding, it's just going into the world of importing exporting is crazy.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't even imagine even in a time where everything is normal.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was a huge learning curve, big, big learning curve.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, and then it's funny because I did a lot of like homework too.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so I interviewed people in huge companies um that I'm sure a lot of people on your podcast know.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like in Wisconsin, New York, um, Nebraska, um, kind of everywhere, especially in Wisconsin, there's multiple print uh facilities.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: And it just it could never like, because I felt like I I didn't know what I was doing, it was even harder.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I was almost so embarrassed that I was like, oh yeah, I just don't.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like they would ask me so many questions on things like what size like is the run would be and this would be, and is it offset or digital?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I don't know any of these terms.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: I just know I have this thing I want to give to you.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: So um I think that was the other thing too.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: It was easier to work with online than it was doing like my cold calling and emails and quotes and waiting on stuff as well.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I think that's also why it kind of pushed me into that direction.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: But now um when I speak to them, it's a lot easier.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: But it's still at the current state that everything that is printed here, it's a lot more difficult because I'm getting half the volume at a higher cost.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: However, there are still some factories out there that also have many, many factories, um, even in Mexico.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so they have them all over like the United States and Mexico.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: So they're able to be more competitive, um, which is really exciting too.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just really calling around and seeing what they can do.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like right now, we were hitting such a big paper shortage, we couldn't even print our books for months um because we couldn't get paper like at all.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I was unwilling to print um an in like another country because I didn't want to deal with the supply chain mess and I didn't want my container getting lost.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: I already lost two containers.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I um yeah, I just kind of we paused our printing, but it looks like like a lumber and everything is starting to come back.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: So it's exciting.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: But do you think that there's going to be more of a shift to uh US companies establishing maybe uh I don't know what the term for this things moving from somewhat not moving from, but the things that that a lot of printers are doing in China right now?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a good chance that some of that is going to start moving to Mexico?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, or Canada because of all these issues and companies see the need to avoid all the the stuff with shipping and everything.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's easier to truck than it is to you know take the jump across the sea, that's for sure.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think that's already happening, and I think a lot of people they are outsourcing to Mexico and Canada, which is really great.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think they're also getting so overloaded by people trying this new like way that they also are getting it's really difficult to like what the demand is.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, excuse me.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so for us, we're actually trying to even, you know, become a business eventually that we'll be doing a lot of our own printing as well, probably not full scale, but on minor educational documents that we like print as well.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: So even like little flip books, um, books that have like, you know, different binding than spirals.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, actually, we could even print small spiral bindings with little plastic spirals, but um, but not our like 225 page books.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: We probably won't full scale that, at least I don't think yet.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so I think a lot of companies too, and there's a lot of new, it's it's like so interesting because I think there's a lot of really amazing print companies that are popping up and also some that are closing.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: And the problem is, is because I think the media that you need to buy all the paper and everything is expensive here.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: But um some places don't have enough jobs, and those are the people too where I'm like, I don't even know you exist, unfortunately.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I can't even get to you to give you that job.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so you know, when you are your own print company, you're looking for other people's work to like stay open and like be printing and do stuff.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think what's different like for us is we want to bring it in-house where we'll have enough for us to print and then we can also backbone and help others.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully we all start kind of seeing more of that kind of even pop up.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I think even like Erin Condren, she's a huge planner company.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they print, I think in Austin, Texas, they have like a mega hub too.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know if they print for other people as well, but like that's a really cool like the way she's doing it is like I look up to her so much.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, what what you're talking about, I guess to to maybe think of an analogy would be an Apple kind of a strategy versus versus a Microsoft strategy in the sense of Apple creates its own software and hardware, they do the end to end whole thing, the whole computer.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: They build the iPhones, they build the computers um and everything about them.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, which is nice because they control every aspect of the process versus Microsoft, which Which doesn't or do they don't make their own computers, I don't think.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think they use Intel, don't they?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Or is no, yeah, they use Intel.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they're yeah, they I mean and Apple used Intel until just like last year.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got uh my laptop I got last year.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think Microsoft does their whole thing though, no, right, right, or like Dell Computers or Oh, yeah, Samsung or whatever, where yeah, you know, these companies that that are relying on other companies to produce things, therefore you get into trouble when you're not making all your own stuff.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I find that fascinating that that you would be able to basically run your own print shop or have your own print business and do whatever you need to on demand.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: And there's definitely ways we've met with a couple companies to try to do that.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: The on-demand thing is difficult because our volume's a little too high.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we we need that printing in huge runs um to really help us so we can maintain volume.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: But um, print on demand is more of like a, you know, you're printing that one thing like daily kind of or the customization daily, and it just is a little more labor intensive.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so that's not something I think we want right away, but there are things that can do that for smaller batches, like um some machines that we love to utilize for that.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: But um you said something earlier.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: What was that?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: That was so interesting.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um gosh, I lost my train of thought.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as we hang up on this call, it'll come together.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll think of it.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think too, like uh, you know, trying to become our own printing has something to do with that.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm I don't know.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very excited that oh, this is what I was gonna say, is because you know, when you are um you like when you're when you're when you're self-publishing or even if you're signing on with somebody or whoever, you're always at the end of the day, you're giving a huge margin to the person that's printing your stuff.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: And margin in the print world is massive.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like when I've met and been doing my research on some of these printing facilities, and I keep asking them, like, do you know what like their markup is?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember someone that I spoke with was like, I don't want to tell you because you'll throw up.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I and they didn't, they didn't tell me and I was dying to know.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: But I think when I think about it, like someone at one time told me the margin could be anywhere from 30 to 300.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: They were like, you just don't realize how much they actually are getting.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like soda in a restaurant where it costs them pennies, but they're charging you three dollars.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Pennies, exactly, yes.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the that's the problem I think I have is that learning through all of this is that um what I didn't realize is we sell D2C.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we're all direct to customer.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have a couple schools and healthcare systems that we work with, um, which I'm very, very happy and and so happy to have these relationships with these people because we get to give more of our education to the whole class and not just like, you know, the person that's interested.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: But most of I mean 99.5% of our business is really um direct to consumer.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I uh started that model before like COVID happened.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: And what we learned from COVID is when you're in retail, um, you're giving that margin one to the retailer, you're competing, you're actually losing a lot of your profits.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so all these brands were like, holy crap, this whole e-commerce world, you can actually market now directly to your customer and totally avoid the middleman.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: And it totally exposed all of that.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's funny because I kind of went into it blind because I just was like, oh, I'm too small for a Barnes and Noble.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I can't do that.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: But here it turns out it's actually great because I was like marketing to people, and then that's how I was bringing in my customers.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so then that was the lesson I'm learned of that going direct to consumer early also taught me how it's like in order, because all businesses in order to even live, you need to make a profit.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: The one thing I see that was a downfall was that I'm making these books, but I'm losing my own margin because I'm giving it to the person like printing it.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where I was like, if I can recoup that, I can't imagine how much more we're able to provide, you know, with value and education.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a definitely a driving home to like make our own eventually.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let me now let me ask the obvious question, which I know probably a lot of our listeners will wonder, uh, which is, and you probably know what I'm gonna say, which is why not just use Amazon for all this?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why if you're gonna publish your own stuff, why not just upload it to Amazon?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that way you don't have to do inventory and have all the printing done and all the the stuff.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you have a lot of answers to that, but for the person who's kind of not familiar with this, having your own stuff printed sort of world, walk us through that a little bit if you can.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: I get this question every day of my life.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think I'm sure you do.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's funny.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: I just talked about this yesterday with uh someone I'm really good friends with that also has a great business and they're a hundred percent on Amazon.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: They are not at all um in like their own e-commerce.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I look up to them, they are there, they know what they're doing.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it's interesting because when they look at me, you know, they were saying, like, this is a my company and this is what I want to grow because we serve right now like student nurses, nurses um and um vet techs and like respiratory therapists, uh nurses at every level, like nurse practitioner, LVN, CNA, like all of them.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so our goal is to be able to hit like dental optometry, pediatrics, and like everything medical specialty.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: We want to help you educationally learn and have that planner for you and all the education resources.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: So, and and the reason I'm starting out with that is because I see everything as a 10-year journey at minimum.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm on this like big long game to the business.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: With Amazon, you are taking your product, one product, your or multiple products, and you're putting it on there.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: One, Amazon's taking a piece of your pie, which is fine because they're bringing the customer to you to some degree.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: But Amazon, so when you like when Kent goes on and orders my book, um, the student nurse planner, um, from Amazon, Amazon took your email, your phone number, your everything.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then, yep, and then they took it.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: So now I'm like, hey, guess what?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: Kent, I have now like I know you graduated and I have the nurse planner and I want to tell you all about it and show it to you, but I can't because I don't have your email, I don't have your phone number, I have no way to reach you or retarget you.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: You actually don't know what's going on with my company because you were just a transaction essentially.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was, I like this book, I want this book, I got this book, I'm done.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I wanted it fast, I wanted the fast shipping.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so, really, Amazon, they own the customer, and we don't own the customer at all.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, not only that, there's a lot of like room where people can hijack your brand, people can um mess with your inventory, people um can just be like, you know what, I got this, I don't like it, whatever.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: I want to return it.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: And Amazon will even like it could be completely like there's so many roundabout ways.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: Amazon always favors the customer.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: And in some aspect, that's a beautiful thing, that is a good thing, and we honor our customer very much.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: But there are people that just use and abuse the system.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: And by not making it so easy, also helps us as a business make it where people also can't take advantage, um, you know, of just returning or do whatever.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: We actually have a very low return on the rate, which we're lucky for.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: But um there's multiple things that are kind of a headache about being on Amazon, but then you also are, you know, with marketing, you're competing against everything.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you could get locked out of your own account.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I could have a selling history of four years and be impeccable, and something could be some kind of violation, and it could even be because someone hijacked your brand and you could be locked out of your own account and now you are dead in the water.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: You don't, you can't reach your customer, you can't reach anyone.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: So there are things to Amazon that I I use Amazon, I get I love when that truck pulls up, but it is not something that in my trajectory that is good for me.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because if I can collect your email and I can be like, hey, I have many more things for you, and I'm excited to show that to you, then that is going to serve me in the long term than it's ever going to serve me being on Amazon.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's the way I see it.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: We definitely, I mean, we could do more volume and use Amazon to just like grow, grow, grow like wildfire.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: But that would mean then we would be outsourcing a lot of stuff, like customer service.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's the one thing I don't want to ever outsource.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: I love to talk genuinely to my customer.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um I do it, my team does it.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: I we obviously have a head of customer service, she's amazing.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but people every day are like, holy crap, I'm actually talking to someone I didn't realize.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like they're like, like they'll be like, oh wow, I didn't realize I'd be talking to you like this.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, because they think it's just somebody from some of the overseas that's like, thank you so much, blah, blah, blah, going through a formality.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: And we are not like that.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so I don't think, like, I think to me, I'm happier to be patient on my journey and provide more value than I am to just scale something and then never be able to like talk to my customer again.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: So that's definitely what lots of reasons.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, many reasons, yes.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then also I um I actually had it happen.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: We put a planner, we put one of our planners on Amazon.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: We actually upped the price a bit because what we wanted to do was make it where if you go on Amazon, you're like, oh, that's kind of expensive.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you look at the brand, you'd be like, oh, okay, I'd buy it from the website because it's much cheaper.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: And our shipping's typically two days, anyways.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so that was kind of our like technique to just kind of bring people to us then to be like, hey, like, how are you?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: We're here.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: We want to show you other things too.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I had someone that actually ended up taking the planner, putting rocks in it, and sending it back to Amazon and saying it was what it was.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: And then they pocketed the money.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: So then they pocketed, you know,$56.99 and they gave us rocks back.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then I got hit as a business because it was like this item wasn't what you said, and like the return came as rocks or whatever.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, and that's that's the problem, is because that can happen so much and so often.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have, you know, X amount of those and that's hundreds of dollars, like you have no control, you know.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just a lot of things I don't, I'm not a fan, but that's because I'm just on that long plan.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: If I had a one product item knickk knock or one book, sure, go on Amazon all day.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: But I want to I want to keep giving you things as you go through your life.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love that 10-year vision.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, um a friend of mine, Honoree Corter, she's a very successful self-published author.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just yesterday, she sent out an email.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: I probably should connect you guys.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think you would really you have like uh I think you would really enjoy meeting each other.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, cool.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: But she sent out an email yesterday to her list that was talking about thinking in in 10-year blocks.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was so it's so interesting that literally you both are saying the exact same thing.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jennifer, wow, there's so many directions I could go with all this.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um let me kind of use myself as a case study here as we sort of head into the home stretch.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So and this is a real project, not some theoretical thing.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: So this fall I'm launching a book called The Daily Writer, it's 366 meditations for writers, and it's just one page per day, very short, kind of daily devotional type of a deal.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm also going to do a journal probably sometime next year, and I want to do something really cool with that journal.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if I want to go through Amazon with that journal.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: So can you give us like the Cliff's notes version of what would the step-by-step process be?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure this could be a whole masterclass in itself that you could give to us.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but what are the basic steps from going from getting something actually printed to getting it shipped to putting it in a warehouse, to letting people order that somehow and getting that to the customer?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not really sure what that whole process involves.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, that was exactly what you're saying doing the journal.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um this is all the stuff you spent years figuring out.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: So doing, yes.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so really, you know, it's one of those.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think I think my biggest there's two kind of questions that is are you going to be making the journal or are you going to have someone like help you make the designing of it?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would have it designed for me.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say I've got the basically the covered interior files ready to go, but I want to have it printed instead of sending it to Amazon.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, perfect.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: And the only reason I ask that is because that is like a whole 15 other steps, is if you make it yourself.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so once your files are essentially ready and you do your homework on um, you know, what factory manufacturer you want to use, um, no matter where that may be.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, once you once you finally do that, you'll send them over the files.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: They it typically takes like a 30-day lead time, depending on how much you're going to order.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um so once that happens, they then will help set up, you know, the shipping from no matter where it is.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as long as like they also like use if it's overseas, you have a freight porter, they have their own, or you can get your own.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so then, you know, once it gets there, I worked out of my garage for the first six months.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I wish like I wish I could show you these pictures.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: They're hysterical.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: You couldn't, you could, you could like you do quarter turns because it was so bad in there.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I just everything was to the ceiling.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: It was so nuts.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I worked out of my garage uh and like here at my home office before I was able to even move into somewhere.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um once that happens, I have a Shopify store.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: So on Shopify, you can have a bunch of apps.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so that's where my other question to you is is you know, if you are interested in obtaining your own customer because you want to be able to like make a community.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, okay.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: So that is so different.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that is why Amazon is not your friend.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because if you're trying to grow the community, create it.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: And like if you have, you know, journal two years from now that you think like, oh, I have like a direction I could go, it's even better.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to like tell these people, like you might have written this journal, here's how you do your next book, or how do you do this block or whatever?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that you can target those people.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: So you set up your Shopify store or you know, whatever um you want to use for your e-commerce platform.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: There's uh for me, we have a bunch of applications, like you can download a bunch of like apps into your store.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: So for us, there's an app called Pirate Ship.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um and Pirate, yeah, because I I love Pirate Ship.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: It seems to give us like the best rates on stuff.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so then you know, the customer orders it, we go into Pirate Ship, then we um make the label, we print it on.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: I have Rolo printers, and for every it's funny, I bought a Rolo printer and I didn't think I'd ever have problems with it, and I haven't, but I always do things in two because I'm always paranoid.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you have a bunch of orders to ship out, what do you do if your rollo printer dies?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I I ordered two of those.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you print your label.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then there was like, I remember being petrified.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: I've I put I measured out like what my packages were, I weighed everything, I put all the dimensions in.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember being like so nervous because I pre-put the label on and I give it to the post office.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, is that it?
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: Is something gonna happen?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I didn't know.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, it's really that easy.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's not more to it.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: You just figure out what kind of packing it goes into.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, if you can put something in a bubble mailer, like one of those bubble mailers, it is the cheapest way.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of boxing, um, it all is also by weight, but for us, like noteboxes and bubble mailers is really helpful.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: And a journal, you'll probably be able to do that, especially even a book.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if it's an educational book, you can qualify for media mail.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: And media mail through the USPS system is at such a discounted rate.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: So that is tremendously huge to help you with your margin.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: But what if you want to have stuff drop shipped?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I don't want to mess with shipping, how do you probably you know what's the what's the part in there?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so drop shipping, you don't get a lot of profit off of it.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: You can do it, but you um need to have a lot of volume in order to make the money that people are pretending to make when they advertise for drop shipping.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's very rare that people drop shipping make the money that they say they make.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so I think you know, it's something easy to do.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: I we dropped shipped a few like shirts, sweatshirts, and stuff, but the money that the consumer had to make or I mean had to pay to me, like stank for us to even make a good enough margin um for any kind of profit at all.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: We actually, it wasn't even what we did when we were offering it.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we had an exclusive line that was like, it's a great day to save lives.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we use that for drop shipping.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: To me, that wasn't necessarily like we're not a business for apparel, but we love the option of having it.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we're gonna bring it back when it when everything neutralizes again.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: But um, the thing about that was is like we ended up, it cost so much for them to print quality stuff that we barely made anything.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_02: So to us, we were like, okay, well, it's kind of marketing.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: If someone's wearing our sweatshirt program the hospital, that's cool.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: What's our name on it?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I'm probably not the best person to talk to about drop shipping, especially with books.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, okay.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I know, like, isn't it with Kindle?
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so I have two or three books on Kindle.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: They it looks like you can't like they take a significant amount of money from Kindle.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's crazy.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever seen that?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if your book was under nine dollars, that's yeah, the the the price of your book determines how much they take.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can whenever you sell a book on Amazon, you can either choose I think it's 30 royalty or 70 yes.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: What but there are certain stipulations that come with each other?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, but if you want 70, it has to be under like a certain amount.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't remember what the threshold is.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's so crazy to me.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that was and that's funny as you said that literally an Amazon truck just pulled up in front of my house.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh funny delivering like two or three things.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: I ordered some of us in our house orders something almost every day.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's insane.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it is kind of like the the the monster in the room or the elephant in the room, I guess.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and also, um, you know, I've been listening to a lot of things and talking to a lot of people.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I don't think Amazon, I truly do believe this.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think Amazon is gonna be Amazon in the next five years, um, especially 10.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think everyone is riding the magic bullet like as they can right now, which is great.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think it's gonna get harder.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: And the one way that you're always going to combat that is to build your own community um and to actually get your people.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so you know, and drop shipping is a way to do that for sure.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot speak fully on making really, really strong profits on drop shipping.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: So it might be great for some people where they're like, I just have a secondary income and that's cool.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but for us, you know, you know, and even like I have a friend that she's a thousand square foot unit next to ours.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: We have like a 4,001.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, she, I think it's like every Thursday, she goes down and she ships all her books out, and then that's it, and that's all she does.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so she like gets all her orders for the week, goes and ships them on Thursdays, and then she's out.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so that to her is great, and it is is great, like that's a great thing to do.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: And she doesn't really have like you know, multiple teams or anything like that, and it's a great source of income.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: She doesn't, that's her job.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so that's great.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: But so I think it depends.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, once you once you um go through the stages of if you actually obtain your own product, ship your own product out, doing that at low rates.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then that's it.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then you can always, you know, there's email ways to re-email them.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like we use Clavio.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_02: Clavio is an amazing platform for any level.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and they do great stuff, like even if it's your customer's birthday, you can send them an automated thing.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's like, here's five dollars, you know, on my next book or um, you know, whatever you want to do, or just a way to kind of get them back in.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then, you know, on Shopify, you can also bundle it.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: So if they get a book and a journal, you know, then they get a special discount.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you can also sell digital products.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: So you can also instead of putting it on Kindle or that kind of way, we use the app Send Owl.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: And Send Owl makes it where as soon as the customer purchases the product, Send Out automatically sends them that PDF.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: And the PDF is actually time-stamped and backed.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: So they stamp that thing.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: They have we set our parameters so they have two weeks to download it, they have two attempts to download it, and then anything after all that, they have to email us and let us know.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a way for us to avoid any kind of copyright infringement.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: So we sell our digital product, but we're doing it in a way that we have some control so that way people aren't abusing it or sending it to 30 people in their, you know, class.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so that's a really great thing too.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: If you ever do like for us, we sell like if you buy our physical book, you get our digital book for$10.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it also is another, yeah, revenue maker, which is really great.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, so I think like in my world, anytime you can just make it yours, it's always gonna benefit.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you've really inspired me with all this to think a lot more serious more seriously about all this.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: And um I always think it's great, like, you know, the journal idea too, like it's such a great thing, and people love writing stuff down.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: I like have a million of them, and even doing it in a small batch is such a good test, like just testing.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like then, you know, when I did it, I put up an Instagram ad, you know, on my Instagram, and I was like, hey, like I made this book, and then I put my ad up and um I was like, oh, student nurses, are you struggling to learn?
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: And the day I put my first ad up, I had two sales and I almost pooped my pants because I was like, it was that easy.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_02: It was crazy.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: But now it's a little marketing is a little harder to target because of Apple with the iOS privacy changes, right?
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: But It's still growing that community and then telling the community, hey, I have something.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then when you do something again, being able to email those same people and be like, I'm back with more.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then that's really going to help you grow.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: This has been really inspiring.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you taking time to do this.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: We got tons and tons of good ideas.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, can you share with our listeners how they can get in touch with you and check out your products?
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: I know I know this is not a podcast for nurses, and that's your audience, but I think it would be really inspiring for people to check out your products, even though maybe they're not a nurse, but to see what you do.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, right.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I think um, like that's the thing.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: Anyone can email me.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_02: My email is at jenj-e-n-n at recmed r-e-k-m-ed.org.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so if you have any questions, I'm so always happy to answer any emails about stuff.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I'm also I'm love, unfortunately, the TikTok.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm at Jen uhrecmed on TikTok, J-E-N-N-R-E-K-M-E-D.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: But um our website is recmed.org, um, r-e-k-m-ed.org.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so you know, everything, something to think about for whoever that's also like going through the stages, about 90% of the pictures that you see on that website was just me and an iPhone and great lighting.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, really trying to keep everything in-house was because I know my customer and I know like, like no one like you write, you are a ghostwriter and you write these books.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: The people that you're trying to talk to about writing books, you know them better than any marketing team knows them.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know how to talk to your audience.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: And that's I've been a nurse for over a decade.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: I know how to speak to another nurse or I know how to speak to a student nurse.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_02: So that was a big thing, is our websites very tried to be catering to that too.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and also just doing everything where we're really trying to like talk to our own customers.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, those pictures are our own.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: Shopify makes it easy to build your own website.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you do enough homework, you know, it's pretty, pretty easy to do.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: So but awesome.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: This has been an absolute blast.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, good.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a lot of fun.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, wasn't that a fun conversation?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was so inspired and so motivated to not just rely on Amazon or other print-on-demand companies for my books, but also to create my own stuff because there are so many resources out there for printing your own stuff, distribution, and all the other things that we talked about in this episode.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not here to you know, like downgrade Amazon or talk bad about them.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Amazon is wonderful and they're really good to authors.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it does come with a downside if you only rely on Amazon for your books.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to challenge you with this, uh with this takeaway from this episode to really consider not only relying on Amazon and other companies to ship and fulfill your products, but to think about expanded ways to do that.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing that myself with the current project.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working with a printer here in St.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: Louis as we speak to uh do a book of mine that's coming out next month.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have more to say about that uh over the next month or so.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm doing a custom print product to see how that goes and just to get my feet a little bit wet in this area.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this conversation was so fun because Jennifer has inspired and challenged me to think bigger than just Amazon.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if we can can use Amazon in conjunction with other things, like other printers and distribution channels and so forth, that really sets us up for long-term success as authors because we're not just relying on one single place, in this case Amazon, for people to go and buy our books.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: So some things to think about for sure.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to give a giant shout out to Jennifer for taking the time to be a guest on this episode.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: And for all of you who are listening, I want to encourage you to check out her website, which is recmed.org.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's r-e-k-m-ed.org.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: And also I will have links to connect with Jennifer on TikTok and Instagram uh there in the show notes.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure and do that because Jennifer is doing some really, really cool things, particularly on TikTok.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know a lot of authors there's a perception that TikTok is just for, you know, the kids these days and it's just full of dance videos and that kind of thing.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually not true at all.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of really cool stuff for authors happening on TikTok and Instagram as well.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure and check that out because you're gonna learn a lot from what Jennifer is doing on TikTok in particular.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you're gonna see me get more active on those platforms here over the next few months as I start to bring you more content in different ways related to the Daily Rider.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm definitely paying attention to what she's doing, and you should as well.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friends, thanks so much for listening to this episode.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you learned some things, and I want to challenge you to keep thinking higher, to keep thinking of better ways and more significant ways that you can serve your readers.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope this episode has done that.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to take a moment to let you know about our daily writer membership community.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the very best ways to develop better habits and impact more people's lives with your writing is to spend time around other successful writers.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're tired of feeling isolated and chasing success on your own, then I know you're gonna love the Daily Writer community.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: For years, I searched for the kind of writing community that I would want to join, but I could never find what I wanted, so I created my own.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the features include weekly writing sprints, monthly community calls, book discussions, calls with guest experts, and much more.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: For more info, you can visit dailywriterlife.comslash community.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.