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Writing & Publishing an Anthology Series with Laura Di Franco · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Most writers feel that writing and publishing one book is a big enough accomplishment in itself.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm excited that my guest today is here to help us think about another strategy that can involve a lot more people and produce more books more quickly.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: The strategy and type of book we're talking about is an anthology series.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And as you might already know, an anthology is a book that contains chapters or sections by different authors.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my guest today is Laura DeFranco.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: She is the owner of Brave Healer Productions, where she'll help you share your story, build your business, and change the world.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Laura is a multiple-time Amazon best-selling author with three decades of experience in holistic physical therapy.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: She's also a third-degree black belt, and she has 30 published books.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Laura is a champion of entrepreneurs who want to grow their health-based practices.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Her publishing services, collaborative book projects, writing workshops and retreats, business strategy sessions, and online writing circle are just some of the ways she helps talented professionals maximize their professional impact.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: In today's conversation, Laura shares why antithologies can be such a valuable type of book.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: She also shares the process and how it works when you have multiple authors involved, how you can get started and the details of how to make this model work financially.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So this was something I honestly knew very little about whenever uh before we had this conversation.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I learned a ton, and she's gotten me very excited about the possibility of doing anthologies, not just in my ghostwriting business, but also doing some anthologies myself.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you're going to enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: I learned a ton.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And more than that, I think you're going to be inspired like I was by Laura's enthusiasm, her generosity, and her kindness.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can find out more about Laura and her services at LauraDefranco.com.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a link in the show notes.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get right to the conversation with the amazing Laura DeFranco.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Laura, I'm so excited to chat with you today.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: We have known each other for I think about a year now, maybe a little less than a year, because we're both in Honor Recorders Empire Builders Mastermind, of course.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's been really cool to see all the things that you have built and are building.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really excited to pick your brain about anthology series and business book stuff and all the thought all the things.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So this is going to be like a six-hour conversation.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just kidding.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Ready.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as I mentioned before I hit record on this, I like to interview really smart and creative people for this show.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you absolutely fall into that category because you've built something really unique.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And just as I've gotten to know you a little bit over the past year or so, you're also a really kind and thoughtful person.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not always the case where you have somebody who's like a business genius, but they're also just kind of a nice person.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really cool to be able to feature you in this conversation.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate that.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: I I I love all those words that you just said.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I've ever been called a business genius.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: That was a first, uh, Kent.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for that.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And listen, isn't kindness what everybody needs right now?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I have practiced extra, extra mindfulness about that this past year, couple of years.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's so important to remember you don't know what is going on with somebody.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and to just just be kind.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so thanks for saying that too.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember who said it.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is an older quote that's been attributed to a lot of different people, but it's the idea that be kind to everybody you meet because everybody's fighting a hard battle.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So every person that you talk to, they're going through something difficult, but you don't always see it.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I do think that kindness and empathy is it almost kind of feels like the missing component in the world today in some ways.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: I would agree with that.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, my background is as a healer, so I spent 30 years in holistic physical therapy before I pivoted and went wholly to books, publishing, business strategy, etc.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that topic, of course, that would be one that we could talk about for six hours for sure.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Just walking the walk of awareness.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I brought that into my publishing business.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that is one of the biggest things that helps us stand out is we're moving into the world to help people, but with a different level of awareness and kindness.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, man, it's nice to be able to respond to the moments of life instead of react, which is what you do when you're triggered or whatever, you know.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, you know, don't get me started on this topic.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be here all day.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is a good transition.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned your background in healing, and that's a good transition to kind of the main topic of this conversation, which is book anthologies and the logistics and the systems that you have in place for that.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that this is something you've been doing for a long time, and you have kind of a well-oiled machine at this point.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: But give us kind of a basic overview of what it is that you do with Brave Healer Productions and what what's the general scoop on these anthology books that you're putting up?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because number one, it's such a cool project.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And number two, I really just I love what you're doing with this.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: The covers are great, the titles are great, and like from a book production standpoint, I look at these and go, yeah, these are really, really well done.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So give us kind of an overview if you can.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that too.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I had been in about four of these um in the past.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: I had been asked by friends to write a chapter for this one or that one.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so this wasn't really a new idea of mine when it happened, but the story goes um, after COVID happened and I made the big pivot, literally let go of my physical therapy practice in a day because it was shut down.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: What I had been building Brave Healer Productions for about five years at that point.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it was scary.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to make the full pivot.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was too afraid to let the bread and butter go to do this thing, right?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: So COVID does it for me.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, push you off the ledge now.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: You better grow your wings.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And on the 20th of March of 2020, everyone's gonna have a story, right?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I was waking up from a dream of doing this.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I literally walked in my pajamas to the laptop that day and wrote a little note to the group I had been teaching a class to my healer friends.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know, the world needs to understand how to heal at home right now.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, who wants to write a chapter?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do this, you know.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the ultimate guide to self-healing was born 48 hours after I typed that note.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: 24 people said yes.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And five weeks later, we birthed that onto Amazon to a number one best selling book.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I know you know that that's a small miracle in the book world, and especially a project management world, like to get all those people to get their stuff in on time, and you know.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: That in itself is a massive accomplishment just to get writers to submit their stuff on time.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like that in itself, uh regardless of all the other aspects, is a really big accomplishment.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you're doing something right if you can manage even just that component of it.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I think I was born for this.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: I have been the type A Uber time management gal my whole life.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the it really was, I had to chuckle because it was like the universe telling me, well, you've been thinking about this for way too long, this transition.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: So time to go for it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and I did.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and bringing those people together and having it happen like that, I just knew something much bigger than me was driving the bus.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And all I really had to do was just following the divine instructions from the universe and get this thing going.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I really thought it was gonna be the book until about a week after we launched.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: I had a friend email me and she said, So when are you doing the next one?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, uh, today, I guess, you know, like, do you want to be in it?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: So so now we are 33, 35 maybe best selling books later in the last two and a half years.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I learned the business and the strategy and the operating procedures and the systems by the seat of my frickin' pants, Ken.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just I learned and did it and learned and did it and learned, and now we do have a much more well-oiled machine at that point.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: But it was like it was fly or die, you know?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's been an amazing journey.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So before I get into some questions about the logistics and how all this actually works, can you walk us through a little bit about what are the advantages of doing a book like this?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Where it's not just you writing it, but but you have how how many how many authors generally are a part of this?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's like 15, 20, something like that.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is like the best part of this.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I love this question.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, because these are communities of about 25 people.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: And there the books have been between 20 and 25 authors.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lead author who is working as the lead of the project.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: I have led several of my own projects, but I then started to um contract with other lead authors where Brave Healer Productions would publish this book for that person, right?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I've done my own, but I've also been partnering with people to do theirs for them.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the great part about it, the the thing I get so excited about is this is so much more than a book because it becomes a community and it becomes a place where people can have each other's backs in terms of business building, in terms of book promotion.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just building a launch team alone, that idea, if you compare having to do it as a solo author versus doing it with 25 people all reaching out to their communities and saying, hey, would you read this book ahead of time and give us a purchase on publication day?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, the strategy of that Amazon bestseller, this just gets way exciting when you have like 300 people on your team versus 20.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's the biggest, the biggest bonus, honestly, about doing collaborations like this.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you're functioning as the publisher, and then many times you have somebody who is uh essentially the project manager, the lead author.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is it that person's responsibility then to kind of gather up all the contributors, or do you have a part of that, or how does that work?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so I definitely am the number one project manager, me and my team.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: I try to make it really easy for the lead author, except what you mentioned is maybe the most challenging part.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: I am challenging them to pull in 24 co-authors into their world and ask them to be a part of this project.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: They're those authors pay a fee to be in the project, and then that lead author pays me to run and publish it.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I am super transparent about the process and the business model.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know why?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because I, when I created it, well, you know, the first one, I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned fast after that.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I decided I wanted it to be a triple abundant financial win for everybody involved.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted that energy to be just primo and high vibe.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so that lead author will make some money.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: I get paid for what I'm worth and what I'm doing on the project.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: And our authors get to sell paperbacks and make cash for themselves in the project.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so everybody gets a little win there, which I love about that.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, are you are you okay talking about how much authors have to pay to be a part of something like this?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great question.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: And in the beginning, when my first book was that idea was happening, and those 24 people said yes like right away.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I actually hadn't even thought about it.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and I sent them an email and I said, you guys, you know, I'm gonna have some hard costs on this.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like, could you guys at least donate like 75 bucks a piece and just give me a little help?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so not all of them did, but most of them did.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I was footing the bill for a lot of the hard costs on that first professionally designed book.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Those are cheap.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm hinting to there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: So now I'm just gonna jump y'all forward to the fact that our projects are costing between seven, eight hundred dollars, and probably twelve fifty, depending on the collaboration between me and the lead author and what we're offering the author group.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: And Brave Healer Productions um offers quite a wonderful package of um awesomeness when you come into a project.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many things about it, including the community.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes a lead author will come along and they'll say to me, Well, I want to give the authors this and this too.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's a bigger value.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna price the project at whatever they choose, right?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: So they vary.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think in the future I'll have to be very mindful of what a Brave Healer productions project costs.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we may need to think about making that um one fee, meaning it can't vary too much, or else people are gonna be like, well, how come they paid this much for this one?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: But they had to pay the right.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the struggle I'm going through right now, is just to make sure the value is there.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: But honestly, um I want to be known as the best collaborative project on the planet.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I already know that we go above and beyond many, many, many others.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard it over and over, you know, that we go above and beyond in these projects.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: We don't, we do not charge as much as many other people charge for these.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to keep the price so that we get paid for what we do, but also that it's a no-brainer for the author.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: They see the value and they're like, wow, yeah, I want to be a part of that.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not gonna break my bank, you know?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: For the first time, or for the first time, I don't even sorry, I don't my brain got mixed up with like three different questions at once.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I hate it when that happens.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: But for many of your authors, is this the first time that they have been included in a published book?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So this is like their first publishing experience.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times we have uh the gamut from very first time, never been published, never even written anything barely, to all the way to Seasoned Pro, already been published author, da-da-da, right?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: We have a range of people joining the projects, but honestly, it's the beginner writer and the first time published author that is absolutely my ideal client.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's those people who know that they've got the story in them and they're maybe just a little too afraid at first.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know if they're gonna be good enough of a writer or this or that, because Brave Healer Productions is really known for helping people through their purpose-driven fears and feeling not good enough or like not, I'm not a writer, I'm not an artist, I'm not a this or that, like getting rid of that head trash and moving beyond those purpose-driven fears.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I call them.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, that's my jam.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So these books are full of people healing themselves as a part of the process of being with us.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: They are moving through the mindset, they are doing things they've never done before.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: They are stepping up into the world and sharing brave words.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Those are healing moments.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, you know, what I talked about about being a healer, it's like that's why we stand out in this.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's really interesting because this is so this is so mission-driven.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times you see projects like this that are anthologies or they're they're a book series or something else, and uh you kind of get a sense that it's very much about just cranking up books and getting people to sign up for this or that.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really about the financial model and all that.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, those that has to be a part of it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: But this this is a very heart-centered series, at least, and I'm sure you would agree with that, of course.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I I just love this because it's clear that you really, really care about this, and you care about the lead authors, and you care about the contributors, and you care about the reader.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, that is what really seems to set this whole process apart.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what my intentions were.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: They're really two big missions.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: We want to help the readers live an extraordinary life, and we want to help the thriving business behind the author because if you think about that ripple, it's huge.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I do care about my healer posse.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: I care that their work is out in the world in a bigger way.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Are uh, you know, I've actually veered away from the word anthology.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: These are collaborations and they are stories.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's good and yeah, and their practical strategy and tool.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you think about that story I told you, how this was born.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: We, as healthcare professionals and practitioners, we understand that authentic healing really means that we are just the guide.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: We have to empower people to find their inner healer and give them the tools and strategies so that they can do that work and and feel better in whatever way, mind, body, soul that they're looking to feel, right?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted the chapters to be that powerful story because I know there's healing moments in that for the reader.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: But then I really wanted to go a step further.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to put the practical tools in their hands.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: So my collaborate expert collaborations are practitioners and professionals who are teaching something also.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And what's fun about those chapters is they they have been sharing amazing, vulnerable story of who they are and how they got to doing what they do they do in the world.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: But we transition in the chapter to that practical piece and they they change up, they have to step up as their master teacher in that portion, right?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: But you you probably understand the idea of you know, you have to build a no love and trust with your reader, with your client.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Cause, like, hey, Laura, who are you to tell me what to do here?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, like, okay, let me tell you who I am.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's the magical combination with these particular books.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I know it's a long answer for that, but it gets me excited.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, obviously.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, but isn't that the kind of person that you want leading something like this?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't want somebody who's nothing against accountants because you know, I love accountants and money people and they're wonderful, but but you don't want somebody who's really sort of obsessed and and excited just about the financial or the granular aspects.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: You want somebody whose heart is really in this, who really cares about the overall experience and who really wants something good for the people who are making the books and the contributors, but also their readers as well.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times with these kinds of projects that involve a lot of people, you sort of feel like you're just kind of being run through the ringer or run through the system to get to the final product.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I love the fact that you care so much about the the the collaborators who are part of this.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's really a cool aspect of this.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard that kind of feedback before.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I like I told you, I had been in about four of these kinds of projects before I started doing these and doing my own.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I kind of had an idea of that seriously, and I knew I knew what you're saying because I had been treated that way.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it was on purpose or not, it was just how the project was run.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so doing these projects in this particular way, I mean that is uh that's the goal is to have those authors feel seen and heard and cared about.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I am a serious cheerleader for them.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, they are doing something so brave.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: So they're not just throwing me their chapter and we're publishing a book.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's just so much more than that.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 21:28
  unknown: Right.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um I think they feel that for me.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think um that energy exudes from me.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I hope they I hope they feel it, right?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: I hope they know that they're at home in a place where really the uh we talk about this in in terms of being able to hold a healing space for a person and then a group is a skill.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so I am always attempting to be a better, uh, better at that, of holding that space for the group to write these beautiful chapters and step into their purpose.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: As much as I have been stepping into mine to lead these.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, wow, that's like magical energy.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it really is.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I am curious about the process that that the authors go through.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say they've been selected or asked to participate.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they're cool with the fee, which which I think is extremely reasonable considering all they get for what they're doing, you know.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: So they're going to be a part of the project.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: How does that work in terms of assigning topics for the chapters and the editing and and how much are you having to do a lot of rewriting or do you have kind of uh a word count link for each chapter?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just curious about the logistics of how does that actually work in terms of the authors?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's like five questions.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna have to like tell me if I'm missing anything.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have a super bad habit of asking like five questions at once.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think I can follow you though.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, okay, so um the coolest thing that's been happening in this last several months, even more and more, is now that people are seeing what's going on, they're approaching me and they're saying, and this would be lead author.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: They would say, Laura, I want to talk to you about leading a book.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: My business or my theme or my specialty is, and I'm gonna use my friend Amy Gillespie Dockerty as an example.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: She is the founder of Erogenics Ancestral Eye Reading.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: She takes photos of the eyes and does a reading of about who your ancestors were and what that was about and all of the healing.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So she's like, Laura, I want to do the Ancestors Within book and how to recognize, connect with, celebrate, embrace your origins, your sacred origins, our ancestors.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Man, oh man, thank you, Amy, for coming to me and saying that you wanted to do something like that, right?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: So Amy already has an idea about the theme of her book.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: If it matches with Brave Healer Productions in terms of a holistic healing theme, I'm in because these topics are changing the world, literally.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: They're changing perspective, they're changing our idea of what's possible.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: My tagline is we are waking the world up to what's possible, one brave word at a time.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And in ancestral healing, even me and I have been 30 years in healing myself.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: I learned a thing or two from that book that opened up my mind about what's possible, right?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yes.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: So she comes in and I say yes to the theme, and we create that title, and then we go out into the world and recruit her authors and say, hey, authors, we're writing this book about this theme.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, are you also a practitioner who loves this theme and wants to write about it and wants to teach about it?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, great.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: You're perfect.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: Come on in.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's kind of how the theme piece works.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, remind me of your other questions.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: So once you have the themes in place, how do you decide the specific chapter topics that each author is going to be working on?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, somebody, I assume you're kind of guiding that process to make sure there's not a lot of duplication, that kind of thing.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you know, um you, and we have done this, you could have a whole book about breath work.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: We published it this year, shamanic breathwork.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: All of those practitioners were shamanic breathwork practitioners.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, oh, is that just gonna be the same thing over and over again?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, of course not, because every individual has a unique story to tell about their own transformation, right?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then every practitioner brings a modality into their world, but it's mixed with their unique education and their other modalities.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: So they're able to teach uh a tool, a strategy, something for the reader.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's and every one of those was different enough, if you get my gist.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we're looking to them to tell us, hey, what do you think you want to teach in this?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm keeping track.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it you know, I think in one project, just to give you guys an example, is um, if you know about EFT emotional freedom technique, it's tapping.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Ever heard about tapping?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: I have.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: I have.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: So there were two authors and they both chose tapping.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just had to go to them and say, hey, you guys, you both have like 30 things in your toolkit.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so-and-so was the first one to talk about tapping.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, you, number two, like what else do you want to teach in this book?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: And on, you know, so we just try to keep the variety there, and so it's not a total overlap.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's only really happened once or twice in 30 some odd books.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when it comes to the chapters themselves, do you give them any kind of guidelines in terms of here's kind of how we want you to structure the chapter, here's the flow, here's the word count, those kinds of things?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're we have a word count that's pretty set between two and three thousand words.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we give them a very small structure because we like to organize the chapter for the reader's ease of reading.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: And other than uh a little bit of that structure, what they get as a part of coming into my world is they get the coaching for how do I choose?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I've lived, you know, I'm 54 years old, I've lived a lot of life.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: How do I choose one story and put that into a half a chapter?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: So authors come in, they want to give their whole life story.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's not gonna fit in half a chapter, you know.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I coach them through that.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to be known for?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: What is your signature story?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: This story is about to be all over the world.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want people to know about you?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: What tool do you want to teach?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to uh teach that's gonna brand your business?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: This is important stuff, right?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm giving you just little pieces of the coaching that we go through so that those authors can get really excited about putting that chapter together in the most strategic way they can.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully that's a partial answer to that.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'd I really love that because sort of the writing geek in me is really curious always about systems and processes, and and I'm kind of obsessed with book structure, chapter structure, all that kind of stuff.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that I think is so ingenious about this model is that somebody can come in and for really uh a really small cost compared to doing a whole book by themselves.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they can not only get coaching, they're uh they're participating in a group project, and they get to say they're a published author, which then they can promote that wherever they want.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So just there's like so many pieces of this that are just so brilliant.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I just really love this model of how you're doing there.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there's so many wins for so many people.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for recognizing that.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think in the beginning, and for my lead authors, the hardest moments for us are when we're having a good conversation with somebody and they say, Well, how come I have to pay for this?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, you know, so to have somebody like yourself recognize what the things you just said is is is a you know, I'm appreciative of that.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: I am past the point of of worrying about people who are thinking that way.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, it was harder.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: For some of my lead authors, it was hard to sell their projects.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: They I try to coach that.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: This is a lot of coaching for the lead authors too, and definitely a self-development journey in terms of being a business owner.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's sales, yes, and sharing your stuff.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I know now that the value is so much higher than what they're actually investing.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: You want to be in, great.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: You don't, okay.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: You ever encounter people that want to be a part of the project or that you want to be part of it, but they say, oh my gosh, the like the cost of being involved is just beyond me.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: How do you how would you handle a situation like that?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I offer payment plans and I try to be flexible.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I do a scholarship.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, most every book has a scholarship seat or two.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we are partnering with nonprofits now for every single book project moving forward.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: So this situation is um, if you owned the nonprofit, I might say to you, hey, Ken, would you like to write a chapter?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna donate a seat to you and so that you can write all about who you are and write about your organization and get that out into the world.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: But the other way we're partnering with nonprofits or charities is to donate a percentage of the launch uh royalties.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, I am so, so excited I get to say that out loud today because you have to get to a certain part in your business to be able to give back like that, to give things away and to give back and write checks to charities.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, man, that one's giving me goosebumps everywhere because it's part of the mission is to have that generosity and the abundant energy in the project.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so that's one way, you know, we do we invite people into each of the projects, but I do have other authors that say, you know, I can't afford it.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I'll always ask them, well, what if we spread out the payment?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: What if we, you know, so I mean, I'm gonna be flexible.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And many times I'll have people who, and I'm sure the same things happen to you, people who want to write books or they want to do something, and they say, but I can't afford to sign up for this or this group or this mastermind or or I can't afford edit book editing or cover design.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: And many times I just come back and say, Okay, here's five ideas to get a thousand dollars really fast.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what can you sell?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: What freelance work can you do?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, can you get a short-term, part-time job or something?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I always kind of challenge people, you know, on the idea that, well, I just I only sort of have this pile of money sitting here and I can't have anything else.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have access to uh anything else.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, the test is always when you give somebody four or five ideas for getting you know a thousand dollars quickly, that to that to me kind of says that's who this person is.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: If they're willing to do to hustle and do what it takes to to get the funds required to do to help to help them chase their dream, that really says a lot about them.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: But if they kind of shrink back and go, oh, that just sounds too hard, then you've kind of already answered the question in a way.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: That is brilliant.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to steal that and use it for conversations moving forward because that is it.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you'd be clear in that moment from the answer you're getting, completely clear whether or not that person is motivated and inspired and and really wants to, you know, be a part of that, or they're just not willing to step up and do the work or yeah.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's not the right time for somebody.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I totally respect that.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've been there myself many, many times over the years.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes the flow of the timing is something to remember.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is for all business owners who have even a program or a project, and you're promoting and you you're getting crickets and you're not really sure why.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I have had projects where we weren't filling the author roster in the timing that we wanted, and we took a breath and relaxed and gave it a boost two months later and it filled in two days.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, isn't that crazy?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's you have to remember that that it's not you, don't take it personally.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Could be just the timing of things.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's really true.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I wanted to ask about as well is um is the ownership component of this.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: So authors who participate, and I'm just I'm kind of getting into the granular details because I'm just curious.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: So you, the publishing company, you still own the intellectual property.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: The authors do not have any ownership stake in this once they're a part of the project, correct?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: They keep uh ownership of their chapter and their content actually.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: I am I am incredibly generous when it comes to these projects.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to restrict people from getting pieces of that out in other places where it could be helping people.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, you know, if you have a big enough vision that other people want to help you create this, the the energy is self-sustaining.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: It continues to evolve and get bigger and bigger and bigger.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: And this was one of the things for me because I had been in projects before and kind of read those fine details and you know, thought about it a little bit.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: And do I really want to restrict somebody from taking those words and putting them in a blog or taking them and putting somewhere else?
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: I really don't want to restrict people.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I can't, if you published it already in someone else's project, I'm sorry, I that's not going to be in our book because I don't know their rules.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I keep it very open and give them the right, yeah, the right to reuse.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I'm contracting with a lead author who uh she and I share a royalty deal together.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: Our co-authors, I I can't split royalties 25 ways, it would be insane and horrible.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I made up for that by giving them a paperback copy benefit of being able to just purchase and then sell those books and make some cash back.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have a motivated individual, some of them have made up the investment to be in the project in a couple of weeks.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: Seriously.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, and they get to do that, you know, beyond as well.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: So if they're smart about it, they'll figure that part out really fast.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, how does that work logistically?
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say, you know, you have uh obviously you have a lot of authors who are part of this.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Are you doing the books strictly through Amazon or through Ingram?
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or how's the printing actually happen with these?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I realized after a while that we needed to be on both platforms.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Amazon always comes first because we run the bestseller campaign there and it's fast and furious and crazy and exciting, and it all happens and it's fun.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: But very close afterwards we're uploading to Ingram because what I learned even from my own solo books is if you go off to um, I was at the beach for vacation some years back, and I had written a book of poetry, and the and the book had a beach, it had like a shell on the front.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember, it was like soap, a mermaid, a mermaid, that's what it was.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went into this small town bookshop with my little mermaid poetry book.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, oh my gosh, they would totally want to carry this book and sell it, you know?
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Well, is it on only Amazon?
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, it's only on Amazon.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so she was the one who motivated me to and educated me that bookstores, especially smaller ones, will they have a deal through Ingram Spark and they purchase books to sell in their stores.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's no way they're gonna deal with Amazon.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: Amazon is closing those shops down.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so I came to the point in this publishing game where every single title moving forward will be on both platforms for that reason.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because my lead authors are going out into their towns and they're they're talking to those small, you know, bookshop owners, and they want to be able to make deals with them and do signings and do fun things.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, so I want them to have a positive experience and not the one that I had with like, oh sorry, not gonna do it.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: And let yeah.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Are you doing paperback and hardback or just paperback?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Paper and ebook, paperback and an ebook, both so much simpler just to do paperback.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, hard, you know, hardback books.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think there are some people in the world that probably still have that soft spot for you know, the hardback being, I don't, you know, I need to talk to some of them because I am not one of them.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not either, honestly.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but a paperback and an ebook.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: I am the kind of gal who I want the paperback.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: My eyes are too tired to do the ebook reading.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I still love to dog ear and highlight and feel the book, you know.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's why we do both versions for every title.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you're not currently doing audio of these, correct?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we are.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: So another huge goal.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in fact, if you're listening out there, I need a project manager for my audibles.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're the person I need to talk to, let me know because I know you're okay, good.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Ken, I figured if I said that out loud.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um you knew I would know somebody.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know about ACX.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that is a very easy thing to do.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we have uh, I would say a handful of titles are on Audible now.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: But my goal is to have all of our titles on Audible.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, whoever takes this project on for me has 30 titles to help me out with at this point, right?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big job.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, you know why?
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, this was it caught me by surprise.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of like a duh.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I had a visually impaired author who wrote a beautiful chapter about her story and her challenge and what was happening.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: And she asked me about the audio versions and like what was going to be happening with that.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, of course.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, I want to have every title sooner or later.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's cool.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: I do, and and we can talk offline about that.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I have somebody who I think would be perfect for that.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um gosh, I feel like I have a million other questions to ask you about this, Laura, because I'm super, super intrigued by this.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: And kind of as we wind this down, maybe I shouldn't do this publicly, but I'm going to because I'm just curious.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I'm kind of learning because we're both in honorary quarters mastermind.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm learning to just put things out there and see what happens, regardless of whether I feel ready or equipped to do things.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh one of the things that I'm thinking about is uh for some reason this this series popped into my head a while back called Dear Author.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: And very similar to what you have structured, I would love to consider at some point in the future a series of books.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Dear Author, blah, blah, blah.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, take care of yourself.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, get your priorities straight, publish your book, w whatever the thing would be.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I could so easily envision a whole series very similar to what you're you've done with Brave Healer, where you have 15, 20, 25 authors each involved in the book on a surrounding s a specific topic for authors.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: That to me sounds like really, really a fun project.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm super intrigued by what you're doing because so many there are so many people out there who want to get involved in writing, but the idea of publishing a whole book on their own feels really intimidating.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I love the way that you have made this an easy, no-brainer way for people to get involved in in kind of a small way.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure a lot of the people who are involved in your books probably want to then go on to do bigger projects in the future because you've given them such a positive experience.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: There have been a lot of people who um get excited going through the project and then they're motivated and inspired and ask me, like, okay, I think I'm thinking of that solo book.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone out there has a book in them, probably five books.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: Especially my my healers who really have a mission to get those stories out into the world.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: They understand the power of that.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and Ken, it sounds like you and I have some chatting to do about that collaboration because I am in.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm super intrigued by this this project.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: My my my point of of questioning myself is I've got so many other things going on.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh ghostwriting stuff and my Daily Rider stuff and the podcast and community.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna retreat this fall.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like I've got all these plates spinning, and I'm like, where would this even fit into that?
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we can make it fit, but I'm I'm learning to stop stressing out about things and just let things flow in whatever way they're supposed to flow.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I know that you've been planning your retreat as well, and I am planning a first big writer's retreat event coming in 23.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a place for collaboration for lots of reasons because we're wanting to come back and connect again.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: Our writers, we all know that we're we're passionate about this art and craft, and also about the mission of helping people.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: And again, there's just such great energy in that that didn't want to forget to um have you talk about your retreat coming up during this because I know that you're excited about that.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: I am, and and thanks for asking.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this is the very first daily writer retreat that is uh only going to be limited to 10 people or so, and I'm intentionally making it small because I don't really know what I'm doing.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a lot of help with people who have uh a lot of experience planning events and things like that.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just really excited because I realize the power of getting together with people in person in smaller groups and communities, and how a lot of the a lot of the life change that we have experienced has happened in those kinds of settings, whether it's retreats or conferences or whatever it is.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: So almost like uh I feel like I'm a horrible marketer because I'm saying all the things I shouldn't say, but I've almost kind of resisted this idea for a while because I just thought I'm just Not like really a retreat planner kind of a person.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like a guy who gets on Zoom and I write books, and you know, left to my own worst devices.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the guy who just wants to go into the shadows in the cave and be like, everybody leave me alone, you know, as an introvert, which is a horrible perspective, but you know, I can't help it, that's the way I am sometimes.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I've kind of resisted this, but I've I've been changed enough over the years by these kinds of events that I thought I have a responsibility to at least do one and see how it goes and to do something really good.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and I know it's gonna be great.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know people are gonna love it.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: So so yeah, that's definitely coming up this October.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's exciting.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I I know it's gonna be amazing and it's and it could definitely be easy.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: I keep that in my mind all the time about these crazy ideas that I have all the time about this.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, good.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the funny thing with writers, I think, and I'm sure you can relate to this is you know, sometimes we go to these these business events or networking events, and it's it's rush, rush, rush because a lot of those kinds of things are led by entrepreneurs who are very type A and and extroverted and everything.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody, but a lot of those things are led by those kinds of people.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I find I'm kind of exhausted when I go to those events.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing about writers is you just you just gotta have like a couple of things that are good, and then they basically just want time to go off alone and read and do some writing and stuff.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like you have to plan a back-to-back wall of activities.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's a oh my gosh, that's exactly right.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just I don't want to forget to say this now that we're talking about this retreat aspect and just it's about connection.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it's about being led through experiences that help you become more of yourself as you and as a writer.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so that that's why I am in love with this.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: But we, for the very first time in the middle of COVID, we took one of our collaborative book project author casts.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that lead author took us all to Mexico for an intense healing retreat as a part of the collaboration.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I am telling you, I came back thinking to myself, how can I do this again?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: This was the best ever thing that we could have done.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I'm going to add a writer's weekend into the mix for my collaborative projects.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever can join us, right?
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in the DC area.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not gonna be everyone because I've got authors all around the world, but but bringing them together was other level in terms of the book product.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was other level connection, it was other level promotion and support of the authors.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we've been talking today about how some projects go and it's not so great, and you don't really get much more than, you know, right.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hoping to create something so much better.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: And you are too, by getting people together, right?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I think we need we'll do dear author.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have to take them to uh, I don't know, what's it?
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you want to go in the world?
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have a healing retreat.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll take all our authors, it'll be really good.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's where the magic happens is when you get people together.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I mean, think about how how do we actually change as people?
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is the process of change?
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't usually come because we decide something or because we do something.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Change, I think by definition, has to come from the outside somewhere, whether it's through, you know, maybe a meditation practice or through other people or through books that we read, like something has to change in order for us to make that change.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't actually make any sense now that I say it out loud.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, but hopefully my intention is coming across.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like you have to do something different in your life to manifest that change because that's just how change happens.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: You're talking about transformation and dipping your toe in the discomfort zone.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: Doing something that you haven't done before, meeting new people, do yeah, hearing something for the first time.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it totally makes sense to me.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think that has honestly been the biggest challenge for me the last year or so.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: As I stepped away from my college teaching job and I'm doing my business full time, uh, I've just kind of been nagged by this sense of I just am uncomfortable all the time.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm just encountering these problems and um my own habits and routines.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm always bumping up against things that are making me uncomfortable, but that's that's the very nature of leadership and growth.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so now I'm finally like, oh, ding ding-ding, light bulb moment.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're not supposed to be comfortable all the time.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly leadership, growth, healing, transformation, living the life you were born for.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a that's a great note to end this on because that's ultimately why we do what we do as people who are involved in books and writing and and communication and and all the things that we're doing.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Laura, this has been an absolute pleasure.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate your leadership in the book world.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, appreciate your heart and your warmth and your empathy for for the world and your emphasis on healing, which is something that the world really, really needs right now.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you're doing amazing work as a person, but also as a business leader and as an author.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate making time to stop by the Daily Writer Podcast today.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for having me.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was a really fun conversation.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: I learned a ton, but even more than that, I felt inspired to start to think about how I can incorporate anthologies into my ghostwriting business, but also do some anthologies myself.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of different ways that these can happen.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: They can involve different numbers of authors, and you can do them in series, and there's just all kinds of really, really interesting possibilities.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say my main takeaway is to just think about how you might be involved in an anthology, uh, whether it would be something that you would uh kind of be in charge of yourself or whether it might be something that you would be interested in participating in.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: So give it some thought.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh a really super interesting way to be involved in book projects or ways that you can produce them as well for other people.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, I want to thank Laura for taking the time out of her busy schedule to share her wisdom and insights on this episode.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: This was an absolute blast.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: And as always, I appreciate you listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.