Why You Want to Write a Business Book and How to Do It with Book Writing Expert Steve Brown | Ep. 40- Business Podcast
Summary
Steve Brown is author of the Golden Toilet. His marketing book explains why you should stop flushing your marketing budget into your website and build a system that grows your business.
Steve explains why Entrepreneurs should write a book, how it has helped him grow his sales and how to do it.
Listen to this episode to learn how to write your book to grow your sales, regardless of your industry or type of business.
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Hello,
Brandon:
friends. Welcome to another episode of Build a Business success Secrets. I am your host friend And see White today we’ve got a really cool guest. The author of the Golden Toilet, Steve Brown and I was seeing his book around the Internet, whether it was ads or just social media on it, it was really interesting. And I looked up this story and he wrote this book that pretty much launched his agency. And I was thinking that I could help you in your business.
Brandon:
So I reached out to Steve and he was kind enough toe right back. And in today’s show, he talks about why you want to write a book.
Brandon:
How he wrote the book because that seems sometimes really overwhelming would be a word that I would use to describe it or insurmountable.
Brandon:
But he explains how it actually is possible and doable. And then how that book launched his agency. Let’s not waste another second. You’re gonna love this episode.
Brandon:
Hey, Steve, Thanks for being on today. How are you? Um excellent. Brandon. Thanks for having me. I’m a little jealous.
Brandon:
You’re sitting in Half Moon Bay and I’m sitting in like the frozen, Frozen the frozen tundra. The plains of Texas. Right now.
Steve:
Is it cold there already?
Brandon:
Yeah, we just got hit with this ice storm. So it Z was the first one of the year, but it’s kind of the interesting.
Steve:
It was nice and, you know, 70 degrees. And then all of a sudden, wake up. I woke up this morning about two o’clock and it was thundering and it was snowing rain, you know, frozen rain.
Steve:
But it’s thundering and lightning.
Steve:
It was really kind of cool.
Steve:
That is crazy. Yeah, I guess the world’s crazy. I was looking at some instagram stuff and I sent a friend who is a bike rider message. I was like, It’s snowing there. You’re writing your fat book, that bike tires and she’s like, Shut up! And then and then we woke up this morning, and we have what effectively becomes the North Northern California Santa Ana winds. And we have gusts up to, like, 45 miles an hour here today. So crazy. Yeah, it’s crazy. Hopefully we don’t lose our electric. They said we wouldn’t, so hopefully our recording gets interrupted. It wasn’t me just cutting you off. It was PG and E deciding that they didn’t want wild fires to spread.
Brandon:
But thanks so much for coming on. You have. Ah, really interesting story on how you got to our ally online in your podcast, in your agency and everything. But before when we talked, Stephen, I talked last week about already what we’re gonna talk about.
Brandon:
And, uh, Steve, you have this really cool story about what I call pivotal moments And these air these moments that just right, like, you can look back in your life and say I’ve had five pivotal moments and those pivotal moments have led to X Y Z, and I feel like you had this pivotal moment that you were telling me on the plane I told you not to keep talking about, so I wanted to record it.
Brandon:
So can you share that with the listeners of how that happened?
Brandon:
You you know, you had some back story about where you were and and really, how you got to having this epiphany to write your book that really launched every Yeah, So I have this agency and for years I work with entrepreneurs and one of the thing I keep preaching to them is you need to see yourself is a multimedia publishing house, and I I want to help them grow.
Brandon:
And I want them to consider that there’s potentially a book in them about their business and their unique perspective that they should, Right.
Steve:
But what I would say that, But in the back of my mind, this little voice would go, But where’s your book?
Steve:
Steam?
Steve:
And it was in me and it was really It was like I needed to write this book.
Steve:
I sit down and I talked with entrepreneurs I don’t know, 1000 and all around a similar a similar conversation about why they should implement the things that we do here are Oi online And it just I was just getting Mawr convicted, um, or convicted that I needed to put it into a book so more people can read, other than just the one on one conversations that I add.
Steve:
But I didn’t want to write a book just to write a book.
Steve:
I wanted it to be unique and good and valuable, And so one day I’m on a plane.
Steve:
I’m flying to San Francisco to go to Google next conference, and I love to read books all in the business.
Steve:
John Ryan and you think about the thought leaders that you follow the things that you got value and helped you grow with someone that sat down and wrote in blood.
Steve:
And that’s how you learn about them and you get some piece of knowledge and you apply it to what you doing it.
Steve:
It helps you whether you hire them or not.
Steve:
So I’m sitting on this plane and I’m I’m wanting to implement the entrepreneur operating system for my business.
Steve:
It’s just a system of framework on how to manage your business better.
Steve:
And it stems from the book called Traction by Gino Wickman, and it’s a little little orange book and it says, What the heck is us?
Steve:
And it’s the book that you would pass around to your employees so that they would read it and understand why we’re going to make the see all these changes over the coming year.
Steve:
It is so smart.
Steve:
So I’m sitting there reading this book and all great books have a framework, and this one has the the entrepreneurial operating system.
Steve:
And in that moment I looked at this, and I thought, Oh my gosh, I’ve been worried about what would be the unique perspective that I would put in my book and I It’s been there all this time and we call it a quick start.
Steve:
But simplistically, it’s the entrepreneur marketing and sales operating system.
Steve:
That’s what it technically is. I just wasn’t calling it that.
Steve:
And that’s when the light bulb went off. What my book should be about, what the framework should be. And then it rolled downhill from there.
Steve:
So that’s a great epiphany toe have.
Brandon:
But writing a book is a really big challenge. I mean, even for someone who writes block posts and things like that for me. Ah, book is 65,000 toe what? You know, 125,000 words. So how did you go about like now?
Brandon:
You’re like, I got to write the book. How’d you figure you’ve never written a book before? No eso. How did you figure out how to write a 65,000 plus word book?
Brandon:
So I’ve done. I’ve done some research. Here’s the challenge. Let’s say that year this has been I’m sure I’m not the only one that this has been bouncing around you. You’ve been ignoring this call to action, so to speak, of writing, writing a book that’s going to help you grow the value of your business.
Steve:
It’s and so I had been doing a little research on.
Steve:
I’m sure there’s a company out there that could help me get past all the little hurdles that I would struggle with. That I may be on my first swing at something would, you know, maybe make a basic.
Steve:
But when he hit a home run, and yet this really needed to be a home run.
Steve:
And so I found a company that I hired toe Help me do that.
Steve:
And you’re the things that they did was help me get get it.
Steve:
You know, you think over the years you’ve had this tornado blowing in your you’re inside your brain of all these ideas and and these air great concepts that fly by not all at once, but one month this one came by and I envision noses, little pieces of like that, that plastic shopping bag that gets stuck in a branch of the tree and just sits there and flaps.
Steve:
You know that would be like a great idea that you need to capture and write it down.
Steve:
And over time, you would get this cattle well, they taking your brain and help you dump it out and get unorganized.
Steve:
What is that process likely? Do they do? You record yourself, you know? Or do you write notes and then just take a picture and send it over?
Brandon:
Yeah, well, they in this. It was a Siris of conversations.
Steve:
At least 14 hours of down 13 hours.
Steve:
Not all in one sprint, Right, Right.
Steve:
Here’s the thing That’s super therapeutic about it, Brandon, when have you gotten to talk to someone actually listened and asked you all sorts of great questions about what you do and what you think and why.
Brandon:
And I got to do that at least 14 hours.
Steve:
That was huge.
Steve:
Their therapy session.
Steve:
And then then it’s like the way that I describe it as you remember that time, Maybe that you you laid a path in your yard and maybe you kind of scrape the grass out of the way, and then you got some sand and you put it down and you put up these little guard rails.
Steve:
Then you had bricks or behaviors or something, and and so you have those delivered and they set him down.
Steve:
And then you start to take those papers now and arrange them where the important ones he gets, a kind of designed, the beautiful.
Steve:
That’s what they did for me, and that’s That’s a big task and really helpful, right?
Steve:
Especially when you’re just trying to get all that information out of your head.
Steve:
Yeah, because you have all these insecurities, especially if you haven’t done it before.
Steve:
Like you still you’re wrestling with that internal voices like, Who are you to think you should write a book and that you’ve got something to say?
Steve:
But then when you get to download it and you see the first kind of rushed path that they laid and it’s still very, um, there’s a lot of anxiety there, but the way I saw him, I swapped before I started, and the way that I saw myself in the end, it was very different.
Steve:
It’s like I think I’m going to write a book.
Steve:
I think I’m going to write a book.
Steve:
I am writing a book.
Brandon:
I’m unauthorized and then I don’t mind saying it, but it’s a great book and the people that read it, they really love it.
Steve:
And it’s an important book for all entrepreneurs and business owners and marketing directors.
Steve:
They need to read it.
Steve:
The golden toilet, right?
Steve:
Yeah, the golden toilets.
Steve:
Washing your marketing budget in your website and build a system that close your business now before we.
Steve:
Because I want to ask you how you came up with the golden toilet because, frankly, I’ve seen the golden toilet, a lot of places on the Internet, and it seems like it’s everywhere.
Steve:
So you get the download and then what is?
Steve:
Did they help you?
Steve:
I don’t want to say it’s tricks, right, But there’s techniques to get a best seller.
Steve:
So yeah, I mean, it’s not Hey, I just going to write a book.
Brandon:
I mean, the problem is, is I think a lot of people do believe they want to write a book and they have something to say.
Steve:
And they say, Well, I’m just going to write the book and I’m gonna put it out there and build it and they will Come on.
Brandon:
That is just not true, right?
Brandon:
No, because you’re launching.
Brandon:
I don’t know how many books go live on Amazon every year, but it’s like 160,000 bucks a year or something.
Brandon:
And so the same challenge exist with your book on the challenge that you have a Sfar as your business being seen found or your message being heard and absorbed.
Steve:
You still have that in every domain, and especially in the book domain.
Steve:
So they helped me really, being in from the marketing world and having a marketing agency.
Steve:
I did above average as’s faras positioning and prepping the Earth, so to speak, for the launch.
Steve:
So we we had a list.
Steve:
I had read some other books by some other great guys on how to launch a book, and there’s like a book and videos on everything.
Steve:
You’re you definitely have to thio do your homework, but that’s where you have.
Steve:
You can have a competitive advantage against all the other people.
Steve:
Watching is because most just write the book and then they go.
Steve:
Okay, so how do I How do I find people to read it now?
Steve:
Yeah, it’s just not build it.
Steve:
They will come.
Steve:
It means the same thing with a podcast, right?
Steve:
Like or a website or a product.
Steve:
I mean, you have the best mousetrap in the world, but nobody knows about it. So they helped you. I guess they have some sort of system or and I’m sure that changes regularly. But with Internet and S e o. But really put together a program where maybe you don’t go to print first, right? Or do you Did you print on demand or did you do before hand, or How did you do that?
Brandon:
Yeah. So I ended up launched with a Kindle slash paperback version.
Steve:
And they coach you on how to market this particular company coached beyond how to market it in general, the specifics of it there core essence was to help me write a great book not necessarily right, and launch a great book that fits into your existing business system in your business.
Steve:
And, you know, that’s a different game and something that I was more inclined to do, which was definitely an advantage and which my next book will walk someone through all the things they should consider based on my past experience in this.
Steve:
Yes.
Steve:
So you are learning you were taking a lot of your past experiences in sales and marketing and then saying Okay, well, if I do this with it and I build, you gotta build email list.
Steve:
You gotta build a following.
Steve:
You gotta get your S e o.
Steve:
Right.
Steve:
You’ve probably got to do some paid advertising, I imagine.
Steve:
Right?
Steve:
Yeah.
Steve:
So in particular, the game with Amazon to get a best seller is that you need I think you want to sell in the first several days.
Steve:
I’m gonna tell you wrong, but it’s been I launched in January, some things past year.
Brandon:
Kindle measures your kin.
Brandon:
I mean, Amazon measures your kindle purchases and so you can come up with a 99 cent version bond really prime the pump.
Steve:
And I think it’s like if you can sell over 100 200 books in just the first three or four days, then that signals to the Amazon algorithm, this book and some legs, and then they start to promote it as well.
Steve:
And that sounds doable.
Steve:
But I would say that you know, 102 100 doesn’t sound like a lot at first.
Steve:
But you think about how many people you have got to have for lack of a better way warmed up to you who you are your brand.
Steve:
Like you literally have toe Have this teed up.
Steve:
You can’t and you can’t. I’ll share a story, but you can’t go into this and be like I’m gonna wing it. I’ll tell you that the first launch of this podcast. Candidly, Steve, I I was like, Well, I’ve been I’ve been podcasting since. Like I don’t even know what before Podcasting was podcasting was just putting a P three files online. You and I talked about that, right? And, uh, I was like, I’ll be fine. I’ll just you know, I wasn’t winging it. I had a plan. But I’ll get there and, you know, you don’t get there because even with podcasts, if you’re gonna play that game, you’ve got to get listeners and things and engaging. It’s super hard going from zero. But you know, then then I learned about that, and I I stole the idea they say, stole. I borrowed it from gamers here in Silicon Valley who they launch and probably gamers all over the world. But they launch in a different country under a different name first, and then they learn everything.
Brandon:
And then they come back and read quote unquote. We launched their business, right? Well, they already launched in a country, and nobody in the next country knows about it, so they’re able to do that, and that’s that’s what I did. But I think with a book, you don’t necessarily really get these chances.
Brandon:
Because if that’s the case, right, you’re gonna have to go through. You’re gonna have to change the book a little bit. You’re gonna have to change the title. You’re gonna have to go through this whole process. So I guess I’m really emphasizing what you point out here, which is you absolutely need to to pre pre Primor prime this thing so that when you do launch and in the four days, if that’s what the algorithm says, you know you have at least 100 sales, and otherwise you’re you’ve really hurt yourself, right?
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
You You want to get a certain number of reviews, you want to do this, you know, on some quick sprint number of sales.
Steve:
But would it highlighted to me?
Steve:
Is all the back work that I could have optimized better that on the next go around you can you can bet gonna have all of my system lined up to really exploit it.
Steve:
But the first time you go to the gang, you’re learning, right?
Steve:
And and this particular company that wasn’t there, their sales point, and I didn’t have that expectation of them.
Steve:
But being a marketer myself, I had I had the fundamentals clear in my hand like you’re right.
Steve:
If you’re gonna launch a book, you you need to send an email out to a significant list, not just 30 people, but to have a significant list means you’ve been hustling for years.
Steve:
Are you spent a ton of money in Facebook ads on Overpaid for your lead, right?
Steve:
Totally.
Steve:
And then there You know the expectation of what value you expect from a book sale.
Steve:
If you think that you’re going to write a book and live off the proceeds from the sales of a book.
Steve:
No, The reason that I wrote the book is because I wanted someone to read the book, love the framework and approach me already prepared to implement this in their situation that’s so valuable.
Brandon:
That’s a totally different conversation than someone going will convince me why I should do it this way.
Steve:
Yeah, and I will just raise my hand.
Steve:
So my mom has written seven books, and I am the product of not a starving artist, right?
Steve:
But the truth of the matter is, and my mom wrote those books a long time ago photography and wrote them.
Steve:
You gotta have this plan with the book there.
Steve:
Certain people, right?
Brandon:
Like Harry Potter can get rich off of book sales, but that that’s really the I don’t know.
Brandon:
What is it, Steve? The top 1% or 1% or 1%?
Brandon:
Yeah, that’s a big outlier for sure.
Steve:
Yeah. So the fact that you actually have this for lack of a better way to put it value ladder and plan an expectation that the book is really your primer, like you said, Because when they come to you at that point, you as the author and expert, they already believe it’s so true when you think about it was an entrepreneur or business owner, there should be some place in your business where you start to go.
Brandon:
I need to be prepping this company at some point, I’m going to step off the bus, okay?
Brandon:
And I want something to show for all this work, right?
Brandon:
And so one of the things that you need to do is make a business that runs without you.
Steve:
But the harder thing is is to set up a sales process that can run without.
Steve:
And one of the reasons that you would want to write a book is that book is just a big fat lee generating PdF or Kindle or audio book or interview generator.
Steve:
That’s all that thing is.
Steve:
But that book becomes a sales person for you.
Steve:
That’s out there meeting all these people that you never meet.
Steve:
If you didn’t sit down and make that investment.
Steve:
So I have a question a few questions on this.
Steve:
Have you Did you record an audio version of this book yet?
Steve:
Did you read it?
Steve:
Yes, I did, uh, a lot was that Well, it was a little bit.
Steve:
It just was like, the whole process.
Steve:
It stretched me.
Steve:
It caused me to the best time and learn a new thing.
Brandon:
And to see myself different, but in the spirit of self publishing, I think it would be.
Steve:
It’s on Lee congruent that you should do read your own book now.
Brandon:
Did you record it?
Steve:
Obviously, anybody who’s watching on YouTube knows that you’ve got a professional set up and you have a podcast. So of course you do. But not any All listeners. You don’t have to have a professional set up to do a podcast to get started. So I don’t want to say that, but see, if you have that, did you record this in your studio there and edit it?
Brandon:
So that’s a great question. What you’re seeing is the the results of me going to someone studio and recording it in their studio and learning that I could do this myself.
Steve:
But what I needed at that time with someone that could help me, you think about when you read your book, you make all these mistakes, and I needed someone to sit there and record it and help me get those files off and edited and up to the standard that you want to upload it in tow.
Steve:
Amazon that they would expect so I needed help that first time and, well, let’s talk about that process, because how long did that take, and how much did it cost between getting someone thio help you write the book and recording it for your audio?
Steve:
So I spent I spent $25,000 as an investment in getting my book where it would be a book that you’re proud of meaning, meaning that it would had create cover art.
Steve:
It would have a great title you would have people to of to discuss and coaching on those things to go through.
Steve:
And there’s all these different editing processes that I just thought editing was editing.
Steve:
But there’s all these different editing process is the book is me.
Steve:
It is my story.
Steve:
It was interesting at all in the first several chapters.
Brandon:
When I started to review them, I became apparent to me that I was gonna have to step up and get in and delivered on the details that would show the depth of knowledge.
Brandon:
No one can represent that for you.
Steve:
Well, in that, if that is true in that area, then the format of the book, the printing of the book, all these other little details and I wouldn’t know I needed someone that could guide me through that and help me end up with the book that I would be proud of and not just this thing I see obviously spread out real quick as a PdF.
Steve:
Yeah, and the editing really does make a difference.
Steve:
Toe.
Steve:
Have someone who’s just a professional editor.
Steve:
I mean, there there is no substitute for that.
Steve:
You will see words that you think are there and swear that you read them.
Steve:
But but there, for some reason, they just don’t show up when it hits print.
Steve:
Now, on the audio that was an extra.
Steve:
Was that a week’s worth of work and 1000 bucks, or what was it you would think that you could go in and read your own book and just maybe two days?
Steve:
And there are scenarios that would expected of you.
Steve:
Your voice gets tired, your energy changes.
Steve:
There’s it’s amazing.
Steve:
The drain, the energy drain that comes out also on part two.
Steve:
I’m going to do my odd audible recording first, before I launch my my printed version, because what I learned is when I’m the chapters I really dug in.
Brandon:
They really flowed like I speak Mike.
Steve:
I speak right in the beginning, when I was reading them first.
Steve:
The evolution of my book was like my okay changing this word in this chapter, and I would I was really reticent.
Steve:
But on end to the book, I was changing Hole Peace is rewriting things.
Steve:
Really.
Steve:
The death came out, and those I noticed when I was reading flowed so easy.
Steve:
So you’re going to write the book on the new on your new book coming out, you’re gonna into and you probably already started write the book and then record it, release it on Audible and then release it in in Kindle and print.
Steve:
I would answer this way of all those edits, the different types of editing, the last layer of editing that I would add on to that is to read it and make this tweaks, or or that would fit in somewhere.
Steve:
But as I read it and record my audible version that could launch at the same time, that will impact and be a great way to check to make sure it really has my voice.
Steve:
Oh, I see.
Steve:
That’s like your last editing process and the audible in many ways doesn’t have Thio exactly match the book because the book’s gonna always have additions, right?
Steve:
You’re gonna catch something or rework something and then release it, right?
Steve:
Totally.
Steve:
Yeah.
Steve:
It was nice to, you know, I’m really enjoyed listening to, like I added a couple of interviews at the end of my audible books, a couple of podcasting and use them.
Brandon:
The folks that wrote blurbs for my book.
Steve:
I always had a call to mention at the end.
Steve:
So at the end of every chapter, I would do a little call to action.
Steve:
Be sure to go check out these green Resource is that that’s so there’s these fun personality action, things that you can inject inaudible version that doesn’t come across necessarily.
Steve:
And your text version.
Steve:
I realized that we didn’t actually get to the answer.
Steve:
So how long did it take you to record that?
Brandon:
So I think I think I took like, a month or so because I would go in for just two hours, 23 times a week that that studio was local.
Brandon:
And so I had.
Steve:
The luxury was popping in when I had the energy and picking up where I lived off, and if my energy dropped or if I had to stop and restart a bunch you know it would take.
Steve:
You wouldn’t get as much done.
Steve:
I had to go back and read a couple of chapters because some of the audio setting had changed on a update that came in in the middle of the project.
Steve:
I see.
Brandon:
And did they help you edit it at you?
Steve:
Had it edited for you?
Steve:
Yes.
Steve:
So they went in and took out the arms.
Steve:
Or there was just a nice whole system that we had that made easy toe, put those files together and slow and break them down into chapters.
Steve:
And then?
Brandon:
Then I received them.
Steve:
I listen to them, and then after I approve them, I uploaded them into the Amazon audible platform.
Steve:
And have you seen success?
Steve:
Mawr Mawr downloads or reads via the audible version or the book version?
Steve:
I think the audible version is responsible for about 50% of my sales, for sure.
Brandon:
So if someone has written a book and you haven’t you don’t have inaudible version.
Brandon:
I’m it would be move you to get it.
Steve:
Get it out there.
Steve:
It sounds like you’re in big trouble if you don’t have that and I find myself I have these Just this weekend I got to do a trip down to L. A and have these books on my shelf.
Brandon:
And now that I’m not flying, I was like, I’m just gonna buy these audible versions and listen to it. So I think maybe people, especially as they start it feels like a lot of people right now are driving in their cars on short vacations and things like that.
Brandon:
I would think about it, though.
Steve:
Brandon podcast is a medium that’s really surging right now, and people are busy, They’re exercising their working in the yard.
Steve:
They’re doing all these driving, doing all these other things, and they now have an audible version of your book.
Steve:
You know, it only makes sense that you would have that available for someone toe listen at their leisure when they’re ready.
Steve:
And I find myself that I’ll order the audible version first.
Steve:
And if I really enjoyed it and I want toe like, get the hard copy, I’ll order the paper back and take notes.
Steve:
I am multiple versions on books.
Steve:
Yeah, I got to say that I think I’m moving there. I like to I don’t know about you. I’d like to. When I read a book, I actually take a lot of notes. Some of that is because I I have some form of dyslexia. Actually, I think back then they didn’t know what to call it. So it’s some sort of learning disability, but I couldn’t sound out a word and read really well until later in life. But it helps me to take notes. So if it’s a book that I think I’m going to get a ton of value out of ill now I’m starting to listen to it and then, like you buy the book, read it again, which makes it a little bit easier, I think, and then make notes in it so that you have it for reference.
Brandon:
Now tell that I mean, a month is a long time, by the way. But I can understand the energy part of having to record this and you know, I mean, do you know how money is it?
Brandon:
I imagine your book 60,000 plus words or something like that.
Brandon:
I think the audible version was like eight hours are Oh, wow.
Steve:
I don’t want to tell you wrong but But it’s like, you know, I In the meantime, I was running an agency.
Brandon:
I was spinning up a podcast I was setting up of what we call the Quick Start Academy it.
Steve:
So I was launching these other initiatives so that when people read the book when they showed up, they would see these other options that they could take.
Steve:
What you really do have toe have I mean, I mean, I’m sure you could do it solo.
Steve:
I just think it without those multiple channels or even way to monetize your investment here.
Steve:
But I will say that $25,000 at first.
Steve:
As I heard, I was like, Well, that’s what it sounds like. A lot of money but in the realm of life, $25,000 investment that is basically your sales and marketing engine for a really long time.
Brandon:
Right now, where we’re recording this podcast, that book is working for you. That’s really insignificant. I imagine the audio book costs, you know, 2000 more, but I do think it’s worth having professionally edited up. When I first started podcasting, I used to edit myself, and it’s way too time consuming and professionals know how to get the voice to sound right, especially with a book you really can’t.
Brandon:
If you’re gonna charge someone a few bucks, whatever that is, it needs to be right. The other thing, I will say, Steve, I like with Audible books. Is I actually playing at 1.5 speed? So so so I can get consume or in less time Now I want to talk a little bit. One of the things they say about books is the title, just like a lead subject line in email, campaign or advertising campaign is I don’t know what percentage you might build it to help us understand that.
Brandon:
But it’s significant, isn’t it, as it relates to them reading the book.
Brandon:
So how did you come up with, you know?
Brandon:
I mean, the golden toilet is memorable.
Brandon:
Uh huh.
Steve:
So that’s the every leader faces this challenge to get what’s in your hand, packaged in a way where people will stop what they’re doing and carve off piece of their this finite resource that they show up with every day.
Steve:
Okay, And if 160,000 and I’m don’t don’t trash on me.
Steve:
If it’s 200,000 or 100,000.
Steve:
But if that’s just one metric that you’re competing against, you’re also competing against someone’s kids demanding their attention, their business, all these other things.
Steve:
The title is the title can make a great book.
Steve:
Have legs.
Steve:
A bad title can be like a great book.
Steve:
Be missed.
Steve:
For example, here’s a great book.
Steve:
It’s called Conversations that when the complex sales and this is one of the best sales books that I would recommend.
Steve:
But what’s in this book is not reflected in the design of the title on the cover, and it’s a big miss.
Steve:
And so the golden toilet.
Steve:
When you here’s what you you’ve got going on, you’ve got a brain that’s thinking about all these things. Emails, pinging text instagram, the Facebook, these air, the most weaponized attention slash focus grabbers and keepers with an army of data, scientists and technology and psychologist and constant.
Steve:
That’s what you’re competing against for just someone to just give you a shot.
Steve:
So the title and the cover is that really the essence?
Steve:
The most important piece.
Steve:
There’s a great book called Save the Cat by I think his name’s press field.
Steve:
It’s a book on writing a screenplay, but he takes two chapters and helping you just right what’s called the log line.
Steve:
And so you go in to sell that screen.
Steve:
That title and the subtitle needs to convince you to read the book and know and know what it’s about and have an expectation.
Steve:
So when you think about something that’s universally iconic and absurd, it kind of funny can be extremely persuasive.
Steve:
And so the golden toilet comes from a lot of conversations with these entrepreneurs that I talked about you.
Steve:
Every day you wake up as a business owner and someone calls you every day and they say, Hey, hey, brand and I can get you at the top of the search results, okay?
Steve:
And so they’re calling you every day, every day, every day over time.
Steve:
Your brain, your frame of your expectation, is impacted by all this propaganda file, a social media propaganda, and so sounds like I had to get the business is very smart people that overcome any challenge just by reaching across and grabbing the steering wheel and even reaching their foot over there and punch in the gas.
Steve:
That’s just how they are.
Steve:
They’re going to get through this.
Steve:
Somebody might get eye poked out, but we’re gonna make it regardless.
Steve:
Well, these are the people you’re talking to.
Steve:
How do I get him to stop and listen when they come?
Steve:
Pre program?
Steve:
They’ve already written their prescriptions, so to speak, on what they need from you.
Steve:
And believe me, I’ve failed them many times, giving them what they asked for instead of aligning them.
Steve:
Which is why my books.
Steve:
But one day I just said, Brandon looks your websites just a toilet and you could hear the tires screeching on the pavement in their brain.
Steve:
What we’ll think about it.
Steve:
You wouldn’t work in office if it didn’t have a toilet.
Steve:
You wouldn’t build a house or buy a house if it didn’t have a toilet.
Steve:
But when people come over, what do you guys hang out in the kitchen pan?
Steve:
Yo around the pool, the fireplace?
Steve:
It’s just a Nim porton piece of an overall system, and we need to treat it that way and have an expectation that it’s gonna facilitate a sales process that is going to support the marketing process.
Brandon:
Your hiring process.
Steve:
It’s just a piece of a comprehensive system.
Steve:
It’s not the only piece of this thing that we just need to quickly tick off and then move on to the next thing.
Steve:
So how long did it take from when you started?
Steve:
Because people always want to know, Right?
Steve:
Like everything you said makes complete sense and how you got there.
Steve:
But how long did that happen?
Brandon:
I mean, I’m joking, right? It didn’t happen in a day. It probably happened over weeks or months to come to that.
Brandon:
Yeah, like the the end.
Steve:
Like where you get to that book title?
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
So if it was one of the stories that I had downloaded and know that those interviews and it really stuck out to the person that waas working with me on this and she kept asking me a lot of questions around it.
Steve:
And so the golden toilet just popped out because it’s so absurdly iconic.
Steve:
And it it is the greatest representation of wasted f you money that rock stars demonstrates Saudi kings drug lords.
Steve:
And yet who is it that doesn’t wanna waste their money?
Steve:
My audience.
Steve:
And when you call their website and golden Toilet that even that everybody can scene and it does.
Steve:
It doesn’t help the user experience and it doesn’t improve the functionality.
Steve:
It makes sense to them immediately.
Steve:
So I’m gonna ask that all Was it three months?
Steve:
06 months.
Steve:
So it was like, six months and I wavered on whether whether I should go with that title or not Got it.
Steve:
Okay, that’s what I just wanted to get to because people there’s this thing.
Brandon:
I mean, you and I talked about about their right.
Brandon:
There’s this Hey, you’re gonna write a book and it’s going to be easy.
Steve:
And I mean, look, we if if you’re in the business of helping people write the book, you’re gonna want Thio get them over the line. But I think also the expectations happen when the customer has that experience and they’re like, Well, well, Brandon, you said that you had Steve on and it sounds like you got to that in 72 hours and you’re like, No, no, no.
Brandon:
Steve took six months or three months to get to that title. This, you know, overnight success isn’t overnight success, and we say that. But for some reason Steve from a guy who has a psychology degree.
Brandon:
I find it interesting that we know that we say that, but we still believe it was an overnight success. Every time we see it, Silver bullets been just pounding in our head.
Brandon:
But there is no silver bullet I went through the most.
Steve:
This was a very emotional process.
Steve:
Imagine, exposing yourself your thoughts, declarations, drawing some lines in the sand.
Steve:
Thanks.
Steve:
Just stepping out there like that.
Steve:
Just see the first rough draft of what you had.
Steve:
And then I I shut down for a couple of weeks.
Steve:
When I read it, I was embarrassed.
Steve:
I was like, I didn’t want anybody.
Steve:
I wasn’t definitely wasn’t gonna show it to anyone else, Okay?
Steve:
And I had to like finally, one day, I just had to force myself.
Steve:
All right, Chapter one, start getting in there.
Steve:
But it was emotionally embarrassing.
Steve:
The title.
Steve:
The most important piece of this whole thing.
Steve:
I wrestled with making the call for months.
Steve:
Finally, it came down to Steve.
Steve:
It’s a great title, but here’s the question.
Steve:
You need to ask yourself, Can you defend it?
Steve:
And it’s like, Oh, yeah, I can defend it and then that’s when I was able to own it, to see people say the title.
Steve:
They can’t help but smile.
Steve:
Well, that’s why I e I mean, it’s memorable.
Steve:
I mean, there’s just like I said, You you see it you feel like, you know, I feel like I see a lot, but yeah, people are going to remember it.
Steve:
And that’s really the e.
Steve:
I mean, that’s the key.
Brandon:
Here is they’ve got it. You’ve got to be memorable, and you’ve got to get that attention in someone’s span of their day to remember it. So and I think as I was listening to you, I was thinking So for all our listeners out there who are trying to figure out, you know, how do I sell more? How doe I make more money in my business? How do I either start my business or or scale it? The truth of the matter is, is that this is a prime example, right? Steve wear. You have an agency called our OI Online. You help entrepreneurs build their sales and marketing.
Brandon:
You have this really cool program that, quite frankly, over the last, I don’t know what it’s been. 15 minutes. We haven’t talked about it. All but we have talked about is your book and people. You should buy the book. Steve’s book is really good and his system that comes with that. But you don’t have to believe that. Just read the book. And this isn’t a prime example for all of our entrepreneur listeners that if you do write a book and you do become an expert that you can get on podcast, you can get press, you can get people and you’re selling without selling and being seen as authoritative expert.
Brandon:
Yeah, your your core business is the thing that you do.
Brandon:
But think what the book does.
Steve:
A book goes out there and convinces people about your unique perspective, and they may.
Steve:
They may try it.
Steve:
They may benefit from it, but at some point they’re going to come back around and check on what you’re doing.
Steve:
It may introduce, of course, Now you’ve got a great reason to just develop a quick course that people can go. So the book is step one. All right. Well, I’ll take the course because I need a little more support. Well, now you have an opportunity to offer another revenue string, then the next part would be I want to attend a live class and you teach me how to do what you talk about in the book.
Steve:
Then the next step would be Why don’t you guys just do what you for me? What you do in the book being That’s the way you would look at this.
Steve:
Yeah, and and like I said, the beauty of it is there’s no there’s no selling.
Steve:
You just talk about your book and and here here it is.
Brandon:
I mean now getting to it.
Brandon:
You do have an agency and you do have entrepreneurs and you’ll you will. I feel like as I was listening to you, I was like, I think entrepreneurs Ah, lot of entrepreneurs I don’t know all but someone asked me in the day like what religion are you, Brandon E? I was like she couldn’t dio and they said, Well, what do you Why, that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. Is that a religion? I was like, Well, I’ll tell you what. I dio I try to look at everything and take the best from it and then put that together and add my own secret sauce and that that’s worked for me. That sort of makes it better. And you know everybody not to say everybody but older entrepreneurs and say, Oh, that’s what Steve Jobs was always known for, Which is true in many ways. Steve. That’s what you’ve done here, right? You taken courses, you’ve been coached. You then added your sales and marketing sauce, which you go back, which we even talk about today. But you have a ton of sales and marketing experience previously and brought that together. And now that’s what really has created are a wild one.
Brandon:
Totally. You know, you think about let’s say you’re a plumber.
Steve:
Well, there are thousands of plumbers out there that can come in, fix the toilet or stop a leak or do all the things.
Steve:
So what differentiates you?
Steve:
Your unique perspective and value that you add a bums and beyond what everyone else does, right?
Steve:
And I heard this quote the other day and and I forget what? Who said it, But so this is not my quote, but people buy you first before they buy what you do.
Steve:
And before you can sell you, you have to do, Pay your dues, you gotta do your reps.
Steve:
And so a book comes out of it did.
Steve:
It’s at the point. I believe in a business where he’s got good customers, good employees, good services or products and you’re starting to prepare to scale. And then you go.
Steve:
You know, now is the time for me to really take my unique perspective and make sure it’s super clear in all of what I do. And the book process delivers that it distilled your message and makes its extinct.
Steve:
It really positions you and what you do better and that Onley bakes into everything else.
Steve:
All the hustle you’ve done in the pence.
Steve:
Yeah, it won’t be easy, but it will be great for your business.
Steve:
Think of all the folks you compete against.
Brandon:
They have to jump over this hurdle to and they’re not going to.
Brandon:
Yeah, not everybody is going to write a book.
Brandon:
I mean, I have not written a book yet.
Steve:
I I have one that I am writing, but I have not gotten it out, and it just take it just takes a while, so no, but the hurdle it it is hard, but I think hiring someone to do at least help get you through those hard parts and and and as much accountability like, Hey, brand.
Steve:
I had someone email me actually today and they said, Hey, you’re supposed to pick these chapters that by today we’re gonna have it C O B.
Steve:
And I was like, Well, I got to get to it today.
Brandon:
I got to get to it right now because gonna have Steve on the podcast and I got six other things to do.
Brandon:
So I think just that accountability is well worth it, because it will force you to do it.
Brandon:
I say this with bike riding all the time.
Brandon:
My wife’s like, you procrastinate and I in the morning, I’ll get up and I’ll start reading or I’ll start working on something and I’m sitting there in my bike. It and I don’t get out until 11 o’clock where I wish I would have gotten out at eight. But then yesterday morning is an example where my I didn’t think my guy arrived with all the time was gonna ride. And Saturday night he’s like eight o’clock Sunday morning. I just finished a 72 mile ride or 75 mile ride, and I was tired. I was like, Yeah, eight o’clock, because guess what? He’s showing up at eight o’clock and we’re getting on our bikes at eight o’clock. So I think and, you know, having that accountability and and paying for it. I also will say this sounds like it’s a sales pitch here, but it’s just true is when I don’t know, and I’m interested in your perspective, to you. But any time I’ve given something away for free and it has accountability things in there, I have not found in general in general, there’s a few exceptions, but for the most part, and I’m not saying that the device that had given people don’t value.
Brandon:
I’m just saying that when I give it away for free.
Brandon:
I don’t find that people have the results when they pay me.
Brandon:
And I don’t find that with myself because I have, I would say, several 103 pdf downloads.
Brandon:
Great, incredibly insightful educational, Definitely not.
Brandon:
Some of them are sort of light, but some of them are really extensive, But the courses that I bought the books that I bought those are the ones that I watch, I read it just because you have your your invested.
Brandon:
So really saying that toe all the listeners out there that you know you have to pay.
Brandon:
I mean, you pay for an education.
Brandon:
In this case, I think it was worth. And I think paying someone to help you with a book is, well, well worth it So But if you don’t believe us, try yourself.
Brandon:
Give it a go, right, it’s free.
Brandon:
It’s a part of this thing and us.
Brandon:
That is a commitment when you when you make that investment, you’re actually like getting married or you’re going to step up and pull your weight more than and not let yourself off the hook as easy as you would if, well, it didn’t cost me anything.
Steve:
So maybe next time.
Steve:
And I think that’s it.
Steve:
Well, thank you so much for coming on here and sharing the story and just being straight forward Steve and sharing the rial numbers for people so they know what they’re looking at.
Brandon:
But I’m excited for people that they hear your message and understand that it is attainable and that you can do it and you get yourself a coach, and it is true at our our ally online.
Brandon:
Now what? Your next book coming out? That you’re helping entrepreneurs with this and they should check you out.
Brandon:
Steve, what are your three high percentage tips for entrepreneurs who want to build their business and write a book?
Brandon:
Number one?
Brandon:
You have to see things. The competitive advantage is to recognize themes or patterns to implement systems and processes.
Steve:
They’re huge.
Steve:
They’re they’re like the force multiplier in your business.
Steve:
There’s a point where you can wing it.
Steve:
But then, when you see patterns and you set up systems to exploit the patterns or toe, expedite the process that happens in those patterns.
Steve:
For example, the patterns I saw in the themes of the conversations that I was having with entrepreneurs. It would make sense that I would set up a system to deliver that message better or to deliver the services better. So those air two heads and then the third hit is there’s no silver bullet there.
Steve:
There’s a framework, and if you can recognize and name, put an acronym on it and kind of branded that framework all of a sudden, all of a sudden and big value creates clarity and understanding and appreciation for what you do that other people do too.
Steve:
But they haven’t sat down and created that framework.
Steve:
Those were awesome.
Steve:
Steve, Thanks for coming on.
Steve:
We are looking forward to your next book.
Steve:
When do you think you will have that?
Brandon:
Yeah, that’s why it’ll have.
Steve:
So here’s put me down for nine months.
Steve:
All right?
Steve:
You’re on the hook.
Steve:
We’re gonna have you back in nine months talking about your second book and you will have a title, and we will be able to actually have a call to action where they can buy it.
Brandon:
Now, your current book, The Golden Toilet, and I’ll hit. I hit this in the intro I’m gonna hit in the outro. But they anybody can buy that book on Amazon Kindle and or audible.
Brandon:
Absolutely. The golden toilet.
Steve:
Absolutely. All right, Steve. Thanks so much. Enjoy the rest of your week, man.
Brandon:
Thanks, Brandon. This has been a pleasure. Your great host take care pretty cool, right?
Steve:
At first I bet you thought that writing a book was going to be this huge hurdle.
Brandon:
But Steve really did break it down and show all of us how we can make that happen. Steve, thanks so much for joining us on. Build a business.
Brandon:
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate review and subscribe. So you don’t miss any upcoming episodes until the next show. Remember, you are just one business plan away. I’m rooting for your success. We’ll see you soon
