Write Your Book in 1 Hour

Michael D. Butler: Why was able to complete the marathon, I made a decision to do it. I went public with my decision. And I surrounded myself with a team that help hold me accountable. You can do anything you set your mind to, you can write a book in one hour. Today we're going to write one in 20 minutes.

This is the Entrepreneur School Podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur to CEO while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under 3am, a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out. On this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey, and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to entrepreneur School. Hello, welcome back to entrepreneur school. I'm very excited today to introduce you to Michael Butler. He is going to talk to us all about writing a book and also writing a book in an hour. Okay, so like, tell me how that's even possible, Michael.

Michael D. Butler: I know it sounds kind of crazy, right? It's like building a house in a day or something I can remember growing up on the farm in Oklahoma. And my neighbors, I saw them raise the barn, literally pour the footings, put the structure up, put the roof on in one day because they had about 45 neighbors helping them so he can be done. And you know, when it comes to writing a book, by the way, Kelly, big fan of the show, congratulations on all the amazing things you're doing. I gotta say, writing a book is a huge credibility piece. And for a woman that's an entrepreneur that wants to get on more stages, get in more media, they want to attract more clients, and just just have that credibility piece that says, Hey, I am an expert at XYZ. There's no better way than having a book and a books a daunting task. And what I find is after publishing 791 titles, authors in 64 countries, most people have been trying to write their book for six years, 16 years or two weeks ago, I talked to a woman 26 years, Kelly, can you and she stuck. And it's just a mindset of self sabotage and perfectionism that says, Oh, I don't have time to write a book. And you know what, none of us have time to write a book, one of the big faux pas or disadvantages, or I should say misconceptions is what I called the Ernest Hemingway syndrome. The Ernest Hemingway syndrome is because I'm not Ernest Hemingway, I'm not going to be able to write this book. And you know what? I'm not Ernest Hemingway either. And Ernest Hemingway wasn't Ernest Hemingway until he wrote his first book. But what I found Kelly and I tell my authors, this is like going to the gym, you make a decision to start, and you go public with it, and you say, march 15, I'm launching my book, and you put it on social media. And it's just like running a marathon. 85% of Americans and Canadians want to write a book, only 15% ever do. Same with the marathon. The ones that actually do it are the ones that decide to do it. And the ones that go public with their decision. So you got to say, I'm going to run the route 66 marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma on November 11 2008. I said that when I was a 39 and a half years old, it was on my bucket list. And I had been a couch potato and I put on my running shoes, and I went out that day, and I ran a block and I was out of breath. There's no one having a bad day. Next day I put on my running shoes, I run a block it to mailboxes, I think I'm gonna die and have to call 911. I dragged my butt back to the house. I google running shoes, and I google running club. Six months later, I'm crossing 26.2 miles the finish line. All for my son stepped out of the spectator area and ran the last three miles with me. Why was I able to complete the marathon? I made a decision to do it. I went public with my decision. And I surrounded myself with a team that helped hold me accountable. You can do anything you set your mind to you can write a book in one hour today. We're going to write one in 20 minutes.

Yes. Oh my gosh, yes. And we're gonna get into that in a second. I just have to say, first of all nodding along because if you were listening to the show, anyone who listens to this show knows that I'm a big fan of taking action, because we can overthink literally everything in our lives. And the only way to get something done is to start making a movement towards it. And the point that you made about going public with it and putting it out there is really like that first step of account ability and that's the accountability to yourself to actually complete it. Because now people are watching and people are like rooting for you and they want to be part of it.

Michael D. Butler: It's so true. And you know, Kelly, I've had authors in their books not even done yet. And they go on TV shows, and just hold up the book cover the contents, not in there, but they're sending people to their website to pre buy the book. The books are not going to be done for another 30 or 45 days. I literally had a client do this. He's a coach in North Carolina, Dave Ferguson boss or leader, and he was freaking out. I'm like, why are you freaking out? You're going on TV tomorrow. He said, I don't have my book shit. And I'm like, Dude, stop by Kinko's. I'll email you the full color, high res copy, printed out Scotch to another book, talk about the book as if it's already out. He got nine pre sales. And he had two clients hire him for one year retainer of $12,000 each. Listen, you know what a book does. It creates credibility. It gives people a reason to hire you. You're 68% More likely, according to speakers bureaus to get the speaking gig and the media interview because you've got a book over your competitor, your consultant, your coach, whatever business you're in, over the person that does not have a book. Now, I did something fun this summer. So I grew up on the farm in Oklahoma, and we had a one acre farm, which is pretty huge. When you're seven years old, one acres you can run for time. So one day my dad puts my brother and I had a pickup truck on a Saturday morning. You know, it's Saturday morning cartoon time. And mom's making pancakes. And Dad's taken us to pick up horse manure. We are shoveling horse manure for three hours and filling this truck up with stinky, dirty, nasty horse manure. What in the world are we doing? Well, I realize that you know, everybody wants organic fruits and vegetables, the delicious strawberries, the delicious watermelons and cantaloupes and the things that grow in your garden. But most people don't realize that to get delicious fruits and vegetables like you get at your farmers market here requires shoveling a lot of manure. And this is what I'm going to tell you when it comes to writing your book, you're going to shovel a lot of manure. And they say that the South African diamond miners I was in South Africa, pre COVID. We had 2000 women come out for a book launch on a Saturday morning at 730 Kelly and they stayed for five hours. People are wanting to read your book, people are wanting to make a change in their life. They're hungry, they're thirsty for the knowledge you have. But you know what, because of perfectionism, because of self sabotage, we put it off and we're like, I'll get to it. I'll get to it later. And we never make the decision. But you know what? Like my garden, I grew it this year for the first time. And that was when I was a kid that was like 45 years ago, I'm 55 now, and I planted a garden in my backyard in Dallas this year. And it brought back all those memories. But the reason we don't get the book done is we stay in the minutiae, we stay in the horse manure, and we don't realize that you've got to go through the horse manure to sprout and to grow and produce fruit. Everybody wants the results of the book, but they don't want to read all your memoirs and pain and suffering that got you to that point. Let me make a quick point. And then onto your next question, because the slowest moving category of books is memoir. And most new authors, they want to write about their trauma, they want to write about the pain. But the truth is, people don't have the bandwidth for that. The fastest moving category of nonfiction is how to, so why not structure your book as a how to book, the five pillars of truth I learned during my dad going through my divorce, going through my bankruptcy, losing my spouse, losing my child, losing my business, tell us what you learn and how you overcame, you can still embed your story but realize 90% of what you journaled should not go into the book because it's horse manure. But that horse manure purpose was to get your heart healed. Get the pain processed, so you could step into your greatest destiny and purpose. So the world's waiting, what are you waiting for?

Oh, okay. So a lot of the times I hear people who want to write a book, they say, it's been on my heart. It's been on my heart for 26 years, however long, right? Well, do you find that that's the case for everyone that it's like they just have this feeling that they want to be an author? Or is there kind of like a, a balance of some people like for me, it's not a dream necessarily that I have. I'll be honest with you. I do see the value of it. And I have participated in a compilation book before, but it's not like the way that I'm thinking about my legacy or anything like that. So what do you think? say to somebody who's sort of in that position?

Michael D. Butler: Well, I say two things. I say it's a marketing decision. It's a marketing decision to write a book because it attracts new clients. The publishing Institute says real estate agents can grow their business 290% by publishing a book, because the credibility piece of the book and the second generation referrals, it gives him, one of my clients, Seth Green, just published his ninth book. I think it was his sixth book he gave away as a financial advisor, and he picked up a $200 million client. I mean, that's a pretty sizable portfolio. I said, Seth, are you going to continue to give away $20 books? And he said, Absolutely. All day long, I'm not going to charge for them. So it's a it's a glorified business card that people won't throw away. You just need one client? I mean, what is the cost of customer acquisition? How much does a lot? What's the lifetime value of a client? So it's a marketing expense, but it's also the Kim Kardashian principle. What is the Kim Kardashian principle? Kim Kardashian is the most recognized billion dollar brand in the world with all of her brands that she represents. She's very strategic about what she posts online. And what her call to action is to her followers. And the point I want to make about this is, a lot of people are reluctant to write a book because they're like, somebody already wrote a book on how to write a book. I don't. Somebody already wrote a book about how to retire early. Somebody already else already wrote a book on how to blend to family. Somebody already wrote a book on how to travel the world for $100 a week. You know, it's okay that somebody already wrote a book on that topic. My very first book that I published is called the single dad Survival Guide. And you know why I wrote the book because when I went through my divorce, there weren't that many resources for single dads a lot for moms, not many for dads. Men don't read. So here's the here's the point. That's okay. Your contents not going to be original might be original to you. But go ahead and share it anyway. Because it will open doors for you.

Yes, okay. So now that we've gone over the mindset of whether or not to actually write a book, let's talk about what do you write the book about? And how do you make those decisions?

Michael D. Butler: Well, you ask yourself the question, Who are my customers now? What can I sell them? What am I selling them? Now? What's my highest margin product? What am I good at? What do I love delivering this great value that I make money at? And what is my low hanging fruit? I used to say pre internet in business, because I've done I've had multiple businesses and nonprofits if, if a customer or client asked a question the same question three times, we print a brochure. So if you have frequently asked questions in your insurance, business, your coaching business, your medical, business, consulting, business, whatever business you're in, if you're getting these frequently asked questions, why not publish a book about it? And why not make each chapter of the book specific to the deliverable you're giving the client for example, most of my authors, we have authors in 64 nations our speakers. So three years ago, I published this book called Finding the speakers edge turning your part time passion, your full time speaking career speaking from stage and speaking online. So I published it during the pandemic, I'd already written it, but decided a strategic time to launch it would be during the pandemic. And we've had dozens and dozens of people that had been speaking in Toastmasters, they've been speaking to Chamber of Commerce, being never gotten paid for speech, started charging for speeches, started hosting their own wine events started making money. So this feeds the publishing company vertical, I had a strategic reason to publish finding the speakers edge, because it feeds my publishing company. So if you're already coaching, if you're already speaking, if you're already providing a coaching program, if you're already doing weekly zoom calls, and have clients that are listening to you about a particular topic that they're paying you for or should be paying you for. That should be a book.

Okay, so this is really interesting. I love like the strategic angle on it for sure. As a marketer, obviously, I can see like connecting the dots through all of these opportunities, because I think that there's maybe another misconception or thought process out there where it's about your story, right? And like highlighting the story, and how, like people aren't writing books, because they think their story isn't, you know, impactful enough, or something like that. It's not going to mean enough to other people and all the things that wait like, let's just even go through all the things all that manure that you were talking about, now sitting in before we even can make a decision on how to move forward.

Michael D. Butler: Yeah, because I went in a Miss Universe because I wasn't a professional athlete, because I didn't have $100 million company. I hear what you're saying. But the point is, if you're doing something and you're passionate about your why people love to hear about your work. I Okay, because listen, that book single dads Survival Guide, men don't buy books. So I packaged that book as a book to sell to women who cared about the men in their lives, their brother, their cousin, their grandson that was going through a divorce that would buy that book and say, Hey, Tom, I know you're going through a tough time check this ad. I got it for you. Hopefully it helps. So we do a lot of podcast during Father's Day week because that is, you know, Alzheimer's Awareness Month diabetes, teen suicide, suicide prevention month, mental health awareness month, right now in November, there's always a month or a week or a day in the calendar. We're doing a series of books right now on burnout for nurses avoiding burnout as a nurse, do you think burnout was a big problem for nurses during the pandemic? You better believe it. And so sometimes you're slaving away as a nurse, you're slaving away as a business owner. And you're not realizing that your customers have questions that you could answer, and that you could actually build a coaching program, or a mastermind around the book. So every chapter in all of my books are a part of an online course. They're part of a coaching program. They're part of a mastermind. They've been podcast topics. And so this is what we teach our clients to do, we help you write a book in 20 minutes. Number one, decide you're going to do it. Number two, go public with it. Hey, by March 15, I'm launching my book. And then number three is go to my free webinar where I show you how to do it. And for 60 minutes at beyond webinar.com. Periodically, almost every other week, I'm doing a new webinar with a new class coming through. And we do a deep dive on specific your situation, you can ask all the questions. If it's a how to book, even if it's a fiction book, we'll help you write a fiction book in one hour. Because here's what you got to ask is, why am I writing the book? Who am I writing the book for? And what action do I want my readers to take? And then it's just a matter of figuring out the title, the subtitle, what to put on the back cover what the chapter outline looks like. And then Kelly, the biggest one, the biggest module I teach on this is how to write a chapter in 20 minutes. The formula I use shows you how to plug and play just add water and stir. You've got a book in 60 minutes. Let's go.

Oh, wow. Well, that just sounds like a little. I'm like, I gotta ask you the skeptic side of the questions that right? Because I mean, obviously you don't write the whole book within the 60 minutes. What are the actual reasonable timeframe? For the like, let's be honest, we're calling it the quick and dirty you're writing a book and we're not overthinking it book. But how long does it take?

Michael D. Butler: Yeah, I like that quick and dirty description that we in house, we call it the vomit draft, what we tell authors, vomit draft, we'll have it published for you in 30 days. So that's what we're looking for is the vomit draft because it's really the plan. Once you create the plan, and you know, like, Okay, I'm a health coach, I help people you know, lower their blood pressure in 30 days and live longer. Okay, great. Maybe you have clients that you're coaching at the gym about that, or you're coaching on Zoom about that, but you've never thought about putting that into a book, we help you organize the table of contents. And when you leave the webinar, you got a title subtitle, you know what to put on the back cover, and you've got that table of contents. Now you get to go have fun. And that first chapter is the fun is because it's called the movie trailer chapter. And the movie trailer chapter is where you get to take us on a rollercoaster ride of imagination, your highs and lows that probably started when you hit rock bottom. When your spouse left when your kid died while you lost the business. Those types of things we normally have a come to Jesus moment where we're like the epiphany of oh my gosh, I am an expert at this. This is what I was born to do. I can help people not go down the same road I did. And here's the five steps. And so once you have that piece when you and your why is so strong when your why makes you cry. It just like you said on the download on that chapter, you really you were telling me in the greenroom, you wrote that thing in one night you wrote that chapter, you had an epiphany, you're not at 11:30pm, you get this download, boom, he wrote the chapter. That's how it is with this book. And now we'll chat GPT we tell people No, you know, you can't use chat GPT to write the book. But you can use chat GPT to help you do your research. To help give you feedback on your chapters. I'm going to show you how to write the chapters chat. GPT is just going to be your best friend and give you feedback and he'll keep polish it up a bit.

Yes, it does really help because I know one of the challenges with writing anything is like that writer's block and working with a blank piece of paper or a blank screen is always a difficult place to start and when you can use a tool like AI to just give you some thought starters to get some words down for you to reflect on. You're almost like brainstorming with a robot

Michael D. Butler: With the robot, that's a good book title right there. Well, the journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. And the first step begins with a decision that says, I'm going to launch my book, march 15. Here's why I want to launch my book, I want to get on more stages next year, because I know I can grow my business by 30%. If I just speak more on virtual stages, you make that decision. And then you jump on beyond webinar.com, you're going to leave with a fire and a passion, you're not going to be able to sleep for three days and your your family is going to be like what happened to you?

I can't imagine like, the whole book is coming out, I locked myself in, in my office. And it's just yeah, that'll be done. I like for sure, especially when you have the energy. And you can see that it's probably just about like, giving that a little bit of space to breathe, right and committing to it. Versus like, elebrate yourself,

Michael D. Butler: it's an accomplishment. It's one of the greatest feelings. It's like crossing that finish line, it's a marathon. And you did it, you set the goal. And it's like buying the house, having the kid graduating the kid getting the kid married off, or whatever your goal was that you did and you marked off that bucket list, you feel so good. You're like, yes, who did it, then your confidence goes up. And then all of a sudden people like, Hey, I've been watching you, I and I want to get a consult on your coaching business. I want to I want you to talk to me about how to lose weight how to, you know, and you've got a new client, because you wrote the book, and they've been watching you for

Yes, exactly what you just said right there like taking that action and seeing a result from it even for just yourself having that completed final product, who is your confidence so much that that just translates into this, this better energy that you're coming from anytime you're having a conversation with someone. So yes, you're gonna land speaking gigs, yes, you're gonna land clients from low speaking gigs, from being on podcasts from doing whatever other visibility pieces that you do that go hand in, hand in hand with this book. So I love this, like plastic, we haven't gotten that tactical on the podcast before about like a specific way to get visibility. And this is a tool that then becomes sort of the center of your entire visibility plan. So rather than being like, Oh, but I got to do social media, and I have to do all these other things, if you just put on the blinders and shows that a book is going to be your thing, and then use that and leverage it into all of these other opportunities. And you already are creating a new visibility plan for your next year.

Michael D. Butler: Well, you're exactly right, Kelly, and you know, a big trend that we're seeing and a great way to get started. Because you know, writing a book is a daunting task that you can be a part of the chapter of a co author book. And this has been really big for us this year. A lot of women's groups, like real women and real estate, we're just now publishing their second volume, powerful female immigrants. We're doing their fourth volume, one of our authors, she is in Seattle, Washington, originally from Mexico. She's a filmmaker named Paulina Amador, she did this she's in powerful female immigrants volume three. And in that volume, her company is called weed genius mind, she writes about the power of genius, and finding your own genius. And so she's got a new book coming out next year called evolution, the genius equation. So she talked about in that chapter, the new book coming out, so we got the new book up for pre sale, she wanted up for pre sell by Black Friday in the US, which is tomorrow, because today in the US, if you're watching this later, it's Thanksgiving in the US. And we went live with the book yesterday. And you know what, she texted me at midnight and said, we've gone number one, so I sent her this meme and congratulating her. Thank you for making us number one on Amazon. So that's a marketing strategy for her. The books not going to be released until March, International Women's month, but she's getting all this traction, and all of these pre sales. So now you've got these customers that are buying your book, they're in your funnel, they're in your tribe, you can market to them, you can have them on a webinar, or you can sell to them before your books even done. You can sell your coaching program in the book help you attract them.

Yeah, oh, I love that. And I also love like, I just want to like highlight this subtlety. But there are so many like national holidays in like declared themed months and days and such that you can tack into that if they're good. Like if you're trying to think of when would be a good time to lodge to give yourself a deadline because that's important to have that accountability, thinking about what those are and I think that there's websites like international holiday.com or something like that, that's probably not really what it's called. But if you googled that you would see all of these opportunities and then maybe you find a theme threads through to what your book topic is. So thank you for being here. Michael. I love it.

Michael D. Butler: And you know, the other point on that is if there's not a day you can invent one you can add your own day,

who admitted National Donut Day clearly a donut company. Yes, I want to say I love to leave listeners with Call to action at the end. And I feel like we were having this conversation that's very much lends itself to call to action. So what what do you want to leave the listeners with today?

Michael D. Butler: Well, people can take the next step on actually writing their book by going to beyond webinar.com. They can learn more about what we're doing in Michaeldbutler.com. Everything is there from the publishing company, to our TV show to our nonprofit where we rescue girls from human trafficking. And then they can get on my calendar as well. I will give them Kelly a free consult. It's a $500 value about their book, it's a 30 minute consult. If they have a question about what are the next steps with their books or book covers or title or whatever, by just jumping on my calendar at beyondwebinar.com. Amazing,

I'll make sure all of those links are in the show notes and below in the video we're watching on YouTube. Thank you so much for sharing with us today.

Michael D. Butler: I love the show. Keep it up.

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