22 Jun 128. Increase Your Income and Your Impact Beyond Your Book

Why are you writing your book?

Whatever your reasons, your book’s positive impact on your readers and on the world should outlive you.

And you should also earn a return on the investment of time, money, energy, and creativity you’ve made in your book.

In this episode, Parchelle Tashi, founder of the Author’s Leverage, explains a no-brainer step-by-step plan to extend the potential impact and income of your book by creating a course.

Parchelle also argues that while personal and professional development books are obvious choices for course creation, books in other genres are also on the table.

For more writing tips and inspiration, follow me on Instagram @candiceldavis.

Mentioned in This Episode

Parchelle’s LinkedIn

Five Ways to Get More Bang for Your Book—Parchelle’s free ebook

Key Person of Influence by Kevin Harrington

Power of Self Awareness by Neville Goddard.

I’ll Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

Born to Rise How 22 extraordinary women rewrote their stories, claimed their power, and followed their dreams

Episode Transcript

Candice 

Hey, Parchelle Welcome to Nothing but the Words.

Parchelle 

Hey, I’m happy to be here.

Candice 

I’m so glad to have you. We only met recently and I was fascinated by the work that you do. Tell everybody what you do in your own words and how you came to this line of work because it’s very specific.

Parchelle 

Yeah so I get to help authors, bestselling authors who write in the areas of nonfiction health, wealth, relationships, leadership, development, I help them make more money from their books by converting them into online programs, digital experiences, and, you know, extensions of their book.

Candice 

Wow. Okay. So how did you—I heard courses and extensions of their book—how did you get to do this particular work with authors?

Parchelle 

Yeah, so my experience goes back to being a former school teacher. So as a high school math teacher for about seven years, I have a degree in curriculum and instruction, but along that path, I kind of got bit by the creative bug and entrepreneur bug and saw some possibilities and opportunities for myself and I picked up a camera and started doing video. I was doing it for a number of small businesses, churches, organizations, honestly just for free, but then eventually I saw I can make some money from this. So became my side hustle as a teacher. And then it became my full time and then it just kept growing.

Parchelle 

So I have also a big background in production. And so with that, an opportunity came up after the pandemic. Which is where I was doing a lot of searching anyway, answering the question, “What is my highest contribution to others?” and found that it is in this space of creativity, education, and learning. And so all those things come together in a beautiful way that I’m happy, serve so many authors to extend their book into different experiences for their readers. And also, it’s a lot of fun to do as well. It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun. So we’re supporting them all throughout.

Parchelle 

So that’s where the curriculum side of things comes in. We’re able to help them structure a program that’s going to be really well designed for their readers. And then from there, we’re able to help them on the production side to make sure you look good, sound good, and create a good multimedia experience for your readers in this program or extension, and then lastly, getting it online. So that typically covers aspects of, yes, the program needs to be online to be accessible, but also to be sold, also to be managed, and automated in terms of how you, again, create that experience for your readers.

Candice 

Okay, so I’m loving the word automated, and hearing video production. So I’m assuming these are courses, Evergreen courses, that learners can access at any time as opposed to teaching live.

Parchelle 

Correct. These are on-demand courses, typically we’re helping them set up and we’re also getting able to have an opportunity to work with some that are teaching live, and then be able to take that experience to create something.

Candice 

So if you’re an author, and you’ve already written a book, Why would somebody then take your course? If as many authors say to me, it’s all already in the book? What do I have left to give? And of course, I’ve given everything I’ve got in this book, what would you say to that author?

Parchelle 

Yeah, I would tell them a couple of things around the areas of impact and income, right? Impact-wise, your readers are going to pay for implementation. That’s the hardest thing across the board, especially if you’ve written a topic in the nonfiction space or somebody’s trying to learn how to do something.

Parchelle 

Now it’s one thing to learn how to ride a bike, it’s another thing to be on that thing. So that’s the opportunity you could present to your readers around the impact side that the learning that they’ve taken in through your book can now take on a different experience. To now they’re actually actively involved—actively involved with the community, right? Actively involved with learning from you and some of your live interactions that you can do with them. So there’s a lot on that side that can happen on the impact side.

Parchelle 

On the income side, one thing that I always say is “Yes, books create authority, publishing creates authority, but it’s the products that create cash.” And so the more extensions and experiences that you have, based on your book, only open up the door for more revenue for you. And in most cases we have seen and just work with numbers. We try to, of course, stay in touch with our authors to see how they’re doing. But in most cases they’re doing you can add a zero to whatever the revenue was that they’re making from their book to the aspect of having an experience. And most times that experience already links to a one-to-one service that you already provide. So there’s a lot around your business ecosystem that gets elevated when you’re able to have extensions and experiences based off of the core knowledge of your book.

Candice 

Yeah, I want to talk about that income phase for a minute because most of my coaching clients, they’re entrepreneurs, and they know that they have to make money with their books, right? They’re investing time in writing it. They’re paying for coaching. They’re paying—if they’re self publishing—for that whole process. And most of them do publish independently so they’re paying for the whole process. And then it’s not a hobby for them. They want to get a return on that investment.

Candice 

So when I say to them, book sales are not the only way they’re ready to do something more because book sales you’re making—what?—$10 per book at a time after you account for all of the fees and things that go into it. That’s just not enough. If you’ve spent 10 or 15 or $20,000 in the publishing process, which many people do, they want to write a high quality book. Not everyone does that. Don’t freak out. You don’t have to spend that much but many people do because they’re trying to produce something that’s really high quality at some point, you need to make that investment back and book sales, while great, are a long journey to making that money back. So with a course with your clients, what type of price points are you seeing them sell those courses at when they’ve made a course from their book?

Parchelle 

I say a really good sweet spot is anywhere from that $99 quick impulse buy that you can have available in the form of a mini course or mini challenge that goes along with your book, all the way up to a good sweet spot for that transition. Again, just thinking about where people are starting with what they’ve paid to invest in your book to one-to-one services with you, right? There’s this middle ground that can come into play. So 99 bucks, like I said, that’s a really quick impulse buy for something really quick and easy. And then from there, I see an increment that goes up to like maybe 500 And that’s another sweet spot that I find typically depending on how much value you put into it and what problem you’re solving will be very much well worth that person’s investment of 500 bucks.

Parchelle 

I think a good place to aim for is that $1,000. But just to keep, you know, things are changing right now in the online space and how we’re learning and how we’re investing considering everything that is available. So typically for those programs, there might be a little bit more involvement on your end, in how that’s executed and how you stay in touch with them. But really, that’s a really sweet spot I would say 99 bucks if you’re just looking to have something really quick that people will easily gravitate towards and you feel good about that up to about $1,000. And then also, you mentioned too, the comparison, right? Based off of a book sale, you’re gonna make maybe 10 books or what have you. But if you do the math and just ask yourself if I sell 100 copies this year, and only 20% or 10% of those readers now say that they want to jump into a program or a course or another product that I have. Just do the math and do that comparison to see if it’s worth it to you over that time given you know, the number of books that you would sell.

Parchelle 

Or the number of opportunities that might open up, right? Because sometimes, for most of us, we’re consultants, we’re educators, we’re coaches, so when someone does the introductory call with you, maybe they’re not ready for that one-to-one service, right? Now you have a product in that they can also experience if they’re not ready for you one-to-one, or it can be a prerequisite to your one-to-one. Create some space you know, between those that are, you know getting closer access to you so you can increase the worth of your time as well. So there’s a really interesting domino effect that happens when you have these things in place, right? Use your book first off to get your platform together. Your Author Platform is really important, right? So you can just repurpose content from your book to establish that. Then from there start to look at products and other experiences and, you know, extensions of the book, then, now I feel like in that place, you’re really really well groomed and ready to take the stage.

Parchelle 

Because when you’re on stage, people are getting a very good taste of who you are, how you present. They’re getting a taste of learning from you. And that’s the best place honestly to sell your $99 product and say, “Hey, I’ll throw in the book too.” So it keeps kind of expanding that way. It ends up being very much more worthwhile for the author. And as to your point, allowing a path to be seen to where you can get that investment back that you put into your book.

Candice 

I love your point about how speakers can use it because I’m always telling speakers, you know, a book can help you really establish yourself as an authority so you can speak on bigger stages, you can start to get paid to speak if you haven’t been already or you can increase your fees. A book can do all that, right? A book can even be the product that you sell at the back of the room. So let’s say you made $5,000 for a speaking engagement. Okay, so just sitting at the back of the room selling your $20 book doesn’t really add a lot on that, right? But if you have a course that you can also talk about—maybe it’s not—if you’re not able to sell from the stage at all speaking engagements, right?

Candice 

But all you have to do is wave that horse into your conversation. You tell a story about a client in your course and people will want to hear about that later. So I don’t think it’s an either/or when it comes to should I write a book, should I create a course. I think the well rounded expert is doing all of those things. And if you look at some of the most successful experts that we all follow online, no matter what our niche is, right? There’s somebody there who’s kind of like, the highest level in that area. They’ve done all those things. They’ve done the courses, they’ve got the book, they’re speaking on the stages and each one of those feeds the other.

Parchelle 

Yeah, yeah. 100%. A really good book I recommend is called Key Person of Influence by Kevin Harrington, and everything that you just described there some of those staples that are in place to be a person of authority and to be an influential person. So, you know, those things are definitely key, having the book that shows you’re an authority, having other extensions and experiences, taking the stage, being a part of other people’s podcasts, like what we’re doing, and you’re gonna come on to the podcast on our end too. That’ll be exciting. So yeah, it’s all those things that I think tie together and make your author platform that much more solid and powerful.

Candice 

So this is your area of expertise, and I’m assuming that besides your own clients, you’ve looked at some other courses whether as a customer or as, you know, just in your own research. What are some of the mistakes you see people making when they are attempting to create a course whether from their book or just from their area of expertise, but where do courses fall short sometimes?

Parchelle 

I would say one thing that sometimes is overlooked is the user experience. Like I think sometimes people miss understanding who is it that you are teaching to. And the same way most of us in business go through the process of figuring out your client profile, your client avatar, right? Your ideal person. That information carries over and it translates differently for how that person learns. So in most cases, having a 20-minute long video after another might kill your experience.

Candice 

It would kill me! *laughs*

Parchelle 

*laughs* So the length and really thinking about what is it that I am providing as an overall experience for someone who would actually find the time to do this, be excited about it and commit to it because you created it with that in mind. So for an example, one of our projects we’re working on right now is a course that teaches first time law students how to be successful in their first year.

Candice 

Awesome. That’s amazing.

Parchelle 

Yeah, yeah. And so most of them they know have a short attention span, right? We did a lot of understanding of who this person is, and made it to where we understood that part of this offer, of a course, would say, you know, we’ll get you ready for law school and just one hour a week. You see what I mean? We’re considering the time factor and what time is required to do this. You really have to consider that. So that’s one area that I see sometimes, you know, doesn’t get enough attention.

Parchelle 

And then I think that the other . . . So it’s a really good question. There’s a lot of things that I see. So yeah, the experience for the user in terms of time, and then I would say, too, the other thing is not being in continual conversation about it. So most authors, you know, put out the book and maybe do a little bit of promo for a couple months, maybe a month. And then after that, nothing else is really happening. If this is your area of expertise, you really want to make sure you find a way to constantly be in conversation about it because after you have the product, it’s still your responsibility to sell it. It’s still your responsibility to, you know, let people know that it exists. So those are some of the big areas that I see is, like, the user experience and then how you as the author, and the owner of this product, can be more involved in keeping the conversation going on a regular basis. Let people know that it exists.

Candice 

Okay, so now I’m gonna put you on the spot with a bad case study. So I signed up for a course last year, I found out after I took it that it was based on a book but I didn’t know I wasn’t familiar with the book at all. And for me, it did so many things wrong that I felt like I couldn’t get the value from the course. So some of them were, like, simple things like—now mind you, the person who created it is brilliant, like I know their work and they’re a brilliant person, so it’s nothing against them. And I’m sure they paid someone to help them with it because I could tell that there was a team involved, right?

Candice 

But things like the worksheets had a lot of typographical errors. Some of the videos where they should have been edited were not edited. So those were like on sort of the mechanical side, the logistics side, and then in terms of the content a lot of it was sending me to read parts of the book and I don’t want to so it, you know, a lot of it was, “In order to get this content, go read chapter two in the book.” Well, no, thank you. I would rather not. Like I showed up here for you to give me, like, a breakdown that’s different from what’s in the book. So like as a person who’s guiding authors through this process. How would you take someone who’s sort of in that—what would you do with some of those issues?

Parchelle 

I would make them more action oriented. I would find ways to, you know, from a community standpoint, as well as an activity and what it is being asked of you to do. That’s you know, that’s what it’s about. So in those cases, I typically find that if you’re having them do more work, more learning, more consumption of information. We can do that on YouTube.

Candice 

Correct.

Parchelle 

We need specific direction and activities and exercises that you know, can yes, you’re gonna get something different maybe from what you would read in the book, or you’re just getting in a visual, right? You’re getting the gist of it visually on video. Then after that, we really want to get the learner into action because that’s really how we learn.

Candice 

Yeah, and I’m a big reader and I do learn a lot from books, but I specifically took a course on this particular topic because I knew I needed more than just reading a book. So when I was like logging in, and she was saying, “Go reach out,” I was like, no.

Parchelle 

That’s a good point. I mean, like you had a specific reason for yourself and why you decided, “Hey, I want to go deeper into this.”

Candice 

Yeah.

Parchelle 

When you want to go deeper, now we’re talking about more of a practice. You want further information that you’re interested in, to almost become autonomous for yourself. You want it to be running for yourself in whatever format that looks like. And the only way you get that going is to actually get your hands in it. So, you know, my addition would be like, we don’t want to go back to the book and read this in this like if it is let’s go back and reference the book so that you can complete this.

Candice 

So you can complete an activity.

Parchelle 

Yes, and the activity being something specific towards your goal and why you signed up for it has to be a really really good match for that.

Candice 

Yeah. In all fairness, I have to say that our coaching part that went with it more than made up for what I saw in the module, so I have no regrets.

Parchelle 

Yeah, that’s a good point. Because the courses are also essentially an offer.

Candice 

Yeah.

Parchelle 

It’s an offer. So you get to, you know, build things around it and into it that make it more valuable.

Candice 

Yeah. So when you’re working with a client, what makes someone ideally ready to work with you to build a course.

Parchelle 

Ideally, ready is someone who’s honestly got a manuscript in place. They’re in the process of that publishing. So let’s say that they’re six months from release, three months from release. Those are good times—it’s a good timeframe to start now thinking past when this releases, how you’re going to start to generate that revenue back, and how you’re going to start to promote it and you know, do other things around it.

Parchelle 

So timing is an important factor. That’s why I mentioned that and whether you are on the stage, but you could also have had a book out for 5, 10 years and you want to revive it, right? That’s still a really good opportunity to again, breathe more life into that work, bring it back to the forefront, bring it back on social media, and point people towards not only the book but now also a new experience with the book, right? A new opportunity that they can take, especially if you’re still relevant of course.

Parchelle 

So timing is a thing. Also what they’re writing on is important. So we find that courses in the areas of health, wealth, relationships, and leadership, which is really important now, are aspects that—are topics that do really well in an online course, because people are willing to pay for help with implementation. If you can help me get in action and make it easier for me. You know, that’s gonna go leaps and bounds for you in terms of your connection with them and that being the part of a journey with you, because after that, they probably might want more and you can, you know, offer them the next thing.

Parchelle 

So the topic is really important. And then also someone who is not just trying to regurgitate information, right? Authors that really want to make an impact and really want to help people are really, really great fits for us as well in terms of ideally who we’d like to work with. And they haven’t taught this for the first time. Whatever it is, it also helps that you, you know, you have the ability to talk about this, you can just, you know, show up and teach and that’s really how we have structured our service is such that you as the expert just show up. Show up, answer questions, show up, you know, help us create the content with you, show up to review, show up to give approvals, right? You just being able to show up is important and if you know your material and your content and this isn’t your first rodeo, it also makes for a big difference in, you know, how it gets delivered. You know, how confident we feel that this is going to do really well. 

Parchelle 

Otherwise, you kind of run the risk without testing how people are responding already to that content or that format in which it would be taught. So I actually just met with a new client that signed up today and has a new book but has only taught the information once. So the first phase of our experience is actually to do a demo. So this is going to be demonstrated, we’re going to get some user feedback, we’re gonna get some survey data to ensure that what we’re building is something that works. So that’s always another thing as well again, just want to make sure that you have taught this before it’s not your first time teaching, you don’t have any feedback you just, you know, that’s really important to have.

Candice 

So if I taught this before, does it have to be that they’ve taught it in like a formal course or could they have taught it from like, teaching from the stage or video series of their own maybe on social media but still teaching the information and getting feedback from an audience in some way?

Parchelle 

Exactly. Exactly. One of our other clients that teaches DI communications she, you know, she has a book and then she has a workshop series and then she’s saying she really likes the the teaching that she does with the workshops but wants it to be an on demand experience that can be, you know, also experienced online without her being live. So in her case, because she has taught it very often and in many times it does make a big difference. So it doesn’t have to be formally and, of course, just period you are used to talking about this with people. And they’re saying this is great, you know?

Candice 

Yeah, ’cause a lot of my clients, my coaching clients in particular, some of them have been—they’ve been literally teaching this, right? Like they’ve been doing live courses and live webinars and workshops and master classes, but some of them they’re coming at it from a different direction. They’re speakers and they’re expanding in their books on what they normally speak about, but they haven’t necessarily taught it all, but they’ve taught the main points to an audience. So I feel like they will still be prepared to build a course even though—because they’ve gotten a lot of feedback on the main themes of what they’re teaching. So of course, it’s a great next step.

Parchelle 

Right, exactly. Especially if you’re able to, you know, if you have feedback and good user feedback on what you have taught from the stage. In other words, is what you taught, and what was implemented from what you taught— if it got results. If somebody was 1% better, 5% better than they were before they heard you talk. You know, those are good signs. But if it’s your first time you don’t know that, it’s a different case.

Candice 

Some of my clients. Come from your background, which is education. And so they do things like after they do a workshop, they send a survey, right? They want the feedback because they’re used to that from their own experience in education. So especially those who are in higher ed and so they’ve gotten the good and critical feedback right? On things that they can improve. And they’ve applied that. So I think, I’m going through people in my head that they really are ready to do that type of thing to do this type of course. So when working with a team like yours, let’s say you know, you’re on the West Coast, I’m on the East Coast, and I’m doing video, how does that work? How do you kind of guide me through that process?

Parchelle 

Yeah, absolutely. So the very first phase, are you talking about going from books to course?

Candice 

Yes, ma’am.

Parchelle 

Okay, good. So the very first phase is actually most of the phases are done remotely. So getting online and doing the work together, collaborative that way, but we go through the first phase, which is getting the course on paper. Developing a course roadmap that also has taken into account your vision for your life, as well as your existing business ecosystem. We want to understand all these components and understand how this course fits within it. So that’s the very first phase that we complete. And that also allows us to develop the curriculum and the actual course that we’re going to be potentially producing together.

Parchelle 

But the good thing about this first phase is that after we’ve formalized that plan, we hand that over to you as a client, so you could take that and produce it on your own. We are coming out with some series down the road that are going to help you support you and do that on your own based off that plan. But otherwise, if you’re saying yes, I want to continue with Author’s Leverage to finish the whole thing out. That’s great. Then from there we go through a series of different things that we find overall have been supportive in this journey.

Parchelle 

First thing is we want to start promoting. I just say, well, we’ve developed the plan, right, we know what the plan is. We put a lot of emphasis on planning, but we then go on to promotion. We want to start to create some information and some content that’s going to let people know that this exists. So we offer what’s called our Book to Shorts, and our Book to Shorts allows us to interview the author for about 90 minutes and on the backside of that we produce 30 Social media shorts that they can use to start to promote to get the word out about not only their book, but then also the product that exists.

Parchelle 

So after that, we go more heavily into the planning, right? We’ve got some user feedback, and we actually plan out the lessons we plan on everything that’s going to happen in the course. Then we produce it so we get to either get together in person to film which feels like you know you feel like Hollywood coming this way, get together. Again, that’s about the experience. So, you know, we’re able to produce at a very, very high level, also at a medium level, a basic level. And then we also just recently started providing remote support as well. So if you want to film remotely, we’ll give you all the tools that you need to be successful, to look really good, to sound really good, and then help in getting the content with you down together.

Parchelle 

We do the editing and then the final phase goes into the actual publishing of the course which gets it onto your learning management system and sets you up with a checkout page and a landing page. That way you can always know where to point people to and how that course is facilitated is managed through your system. So that’s from start to finish everything that we’re going through to ensure that you have what you need in place. At that point. Once you have the course, of course the conversations around marketing come to play and we’re really excited that we have some amazing marketing partners and folks that support the continuation of that so that way you’re continuing to be successful after you’ve got the product.

Candice 

That is fantastic because as you know with authors, some of them are like they hit the ground running with the marketing piece. They know they want to sell, they believe in that book so much they can’t talk about it enough, right? But others even though they believe deeply in what they’re teaching, the marketing is so far out of mind because they just want to finish this project. And the same thing happens when they go into these types of extensions. If they don’t have some guidance in terms of the marketing. It may be a great course but no one will know about it. It’d be the best kept secret in their industry.

Parchelle 

Exactly. Exactly. You got to find a way to just always be in conversation about what you’re doing, you know? You’re the expert. You’re the one you know who talks on this topic and you want to continue to do that. In whatever way that is, whether it’s even writing blogs or just being consistent somewhere is really important.

Candice 

Yeah, I like that. Whatever way that is because it’s not the same for everybody.

Parchelle 

Right.

Candice 

Yeah. And it doesn’t need to be. So if there’s something you hate doing, don’t do it. But do something!

Parchelle 

That’s exactly right. One of the biggest lessons for me that I’ve learned this year is that, you know, I’m not broken. You know what I mean? It’s just that whatever I’m doing isn’t working. And so I’m really seeing that. Instead of feeling like I’m the one who’s you know, I mean, we all need to grow, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a matter of who I am fundamentally and my gifts and my talents and what needs to show up in my business. Nothing’s wrong with that.

Candice 

Yeah.

Parchelle 

Whatever systems or, you know, ways that I’m going about doing what I’m doing, it has to fit me and that’s possible.

Candice 

I think it’s easy to get caught up, and especially when we have mentors or we hire coaches, in this online business world. It’s easy to get caught up in, “I need to do it the way my coach did it,” or “I need to do it the way my mentor did it.” But you are not your coach, you are not your mentor. So the way that you approach a book or a course or your marketing doesn’t have to be their way. It has to fit your lifestyle—I love that you mentioned that—your lifestyle is and your personality, right? Otherwise, you’re trying to cram yourself into this thing. And even if you get it done, you’re miserable the whole time.

Parchelle 

Exactly. Exactly. One of the biggest revelations came through a framework called wealth dynamics. Wealth dynamics is one of these archetypal frameworks so you’re one of nine profile types, but it reveals to you your path to wealth creation based on your gifts, unique skills, and talents. And so it wasn’t ’til I understood and learned this framework that I saw that I was following people, coaches, mentors, people, you know, influencers or what have you online, who clearly have a very different way that they are wired. And I couldn’t understand for the life of me all the time, like this is just so . . . this is, this is blowing my mind like I can’t do this. 

Candice 

I’m laughing because I don’t even know wealth dynamics. And I’ve had that same experience because, you know, when you come into the online business world, there are some voices that are so loud, right? They are so loud that they get your attention and so you see their success because they can’t stop talking about it which no shade on that talk about it all you want to but it becomes almost like this is the way I did it. So this is the way to do it. You know, as opposed to this is one way to do it.

Parchelle 

And this and so going back to creating courses, creating experiences for people. That’s why this is so important. You need to, you know, be aware of your own wiring and make sure that the people that you’re offering this to that there is an alignment you know, and it’s just important.  The better you know them, the better you know yourself and you can know how to really make that connection otherwise you’re giving people a way, yes, but you want to make sure that it’s a way that also works for them.

Candice 

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so switching gears. Has there been any book that you have been surprised or that we might be surprised to learn could be converted into a course. Because we know, like, the how-to business books, that’s a no-brainer. You can turn that into a course. Are there other genres that we might be surprised to find can be made into courses or have course material pulled from them?

Parchelle 

Yeah, I think that some areas like fiction work, for example. I think that there are—we haven’t done it just yet. But I think that there’s some potential there in certain fiction work that it can be something that can live as a learning experience. Let’s take for example right now there’s a lot of conversation and energy right now going towards DEI.

Candice 

Yeah. 

Parchelle 

So some of the best ways to understand and empathize with your own bias with, you know, understanding other people is the stories of these people. So, you know, there’s a way to connect, you know, the fiction of the story. Create that into the experience of a learning environment that facilitates discussion and allows for the actual learning of concepts through a story.

Candice 

Yes, it does entertain. Absolutely. But it also teaches, right. It also teaches lessons if nothing else, by why what you said is letting you into another world, how someone else lives what they experience. And I don’t care, it could be science fiction. It could be fantasy. It could be literary fiction, it doesn’t matter. If it’s letting you into someone else’s world—an experience that is different from your own, there are lessons to be learned there. And if your characters are going on a journey, there are lessons to be learned on that journey.

Candice 

Like I can make a I could easily—I’m mad at J.K. Rowling, so I’m not really speaking to her right now—but I could make a book I’d make a course out of her series no problem, right? Like, you could see where you could pull the lessons out of the Harry Potter series very easily, out of The Hunger Games series. You know I read these books with my kids when they were growing up, so I know them intimately. I read them because I enjoyed them. But I think if I look back even at say, the Toni Morrison books of my childhood that I escaped into as a kid or the Stephen King books that I escaped to them, there are lessons in all of those! There are lessons in all of those. And you can really learn something, so I think there is a potential in there. What about memoir? Do you think there’s ever an opportunity in memoir to develop a course?

Parchelle 

I think so too. In the same light that I just described, right? The stories, lessons that come from it can be referenced and packaged in a way that teaches the lesson and introduces new concepts, introduces something that, you know, people can relate to and start to understand from there. 

Candice 

Yeah, I recently accidentally downloaded to my Kindle, Billy Porter’s memoir, and I like Billy Porter, but I don’t generally read celebrity memoirs. No reason, just it doesn’t occur to me to read them. And I read that and it was so intriguing because I saw the behind the scenes of Broadway. So you saw his life but I mean, my husband is in entertainment, but not on Broadway. So I saw something I’m totally unfamiliar with, but I could see how that could be course content for someone who’s trying to grow a career in that area, and has no idea where to start or has no idea how to get past whatever level they’re at. Because he did some really smart things. He did some really risky things too. So I could see the potential, even in that memoir for a course.

Parchelle 

Absolutely. And there’s, you know, and you mentioned to people who are in transition, there’s a big wave of leadership, that is exiting firms or exiting positions that have a lot of wisdom to share, and they’re just switching up, you know, how they’re doing it and finding a way to teach it. So for sure that can be a memoir, like you said their story of this experience, but within that there can be learning of what is actually happening.

Candice 

Yeah, a lot of those lessons can be shared. I think they are easier sometimes to grasp when they come with a story. They’re easier to grasp when they come with a story. So what was the book that you recommended? You recommended a book earlier on influence?

Parchelle 

Oh, yes. Key Person of Influence. Key Person of Influence by Kevin Harrington.

Candice 

Kevin Harrington. Anything else you’re reading lately that you love?

Parchelle 

Hmm. I am, well, one of my favorites that I tend to read is the Power of Self Awareness by Neville Goddard.

Candice 

I don’t know that one! 

Parchelle 

These old books . . .

Candice 

I’m here for old books.

Parchelle 

Now that’s one that I really enjoy. Yeah, yeah.

Candice 

I’m here for old books, that’s not a problem at all.

Parchelle 

I mean, yeah, I just love it. It always just give me something to reflect on, which I like to do.

Candice 

Yeah, good. Content is good content. I always tell my clients, most of us are writing a book we hope will outlive us, right? So one thing if you’re writing a technical book—a how-to for something that applies right now like how to use something in technology changes. But if you’re writing a memoir, or you’re writing personal development or self-help, professional development, that stuff should last longer than you last on this Earth. *laughs*

Parchelle 

Yes. *laughs*

Parchelle 

Yes, yes. And one thing I will share too, I was really fascinated. So there was a really popular book that came out in 2009. Called I’ll Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. And I saw he has a Netflix special of basically teaching his book.

Candice 

Yeah, he does. Talk about repurposing.

Parchelle 

I was like, “This is amazing. This is exactly what I’m talking about.”

Candice 

I took a course with him maybe I don’t even know how many years ago and that was the name of his, not his course, but his newsletter at the time was I Will Teach You To Be Rich and he would send like a weekly newsletter and it was good content. I mean, he’s funny because he’s kind of mean about it, but you don’t take it seriously. You know what I mean? He’s stern about it but not in a way that’s offensive or anything. It’s funny. So I’ve kind of watched his trajectory over the years and that was a traditional book deal that he got for that for content that he had been teaching for years at the time that he got that book deal. And he put in the work to build a platform before that, and all that good stuff. You know, he had courses that he was offering based on—all that content is the same, friend.

Candice 

It’s the same content on his TV show, in his book, in the courses that align with that because he has other courses, but in the courses that align with how to make more money and have more money, all the same content. He’s just teaching it in different ways on different platforms, and we all learn in different ways so that’s great, but it also benefits him because he’s got income coming from every single one of them.

Candice 

Which is what I want for my authors. I want us all to be rich. And you know, like, I want that because money is freedom,money is access, money is options, you know. If you don’t want to give it away, but I want you to at least have the option to have it and let it pass through your hands.

Parchelle 

I like the way you think.

Candice 

Tell us where people can find you, Parchelle I know you have a book out there that they can grab.

Parchelle 

Yeah, so we just released an ebook called Five Ways to Get More Bang for Your Book. So you can grab that over at theauthorsleverage.com which is our main website, but theauthorsleverage.com/ebook is where you can grab that. I’m also a new found author. So being in this work has been very interesting because of my background in what I do I can support other authors. But I myself had not been, you know, had not become an author. So I started this business like two years ago. So now happy to say that I’ve joined the author space, which I’m excited for. So I participated in a book called Born to Rise, and it’s an anthology series of different women’s stories. It hit Wall Street Journal bestseller, which is awesome. And so I got to share a little bit of my story of, you know, just my life. You know, one of the hardest moments that I overcame, because that’s the theme of the book and so I share about my divorce and a lot of change for me that happened from there. And so anyway, that’s available as well. You can check that on Amazon, Born to Rise. The lead on that is Kim Fuller, amazing creative that had you know, spearheaded that effort. So definitely check that out as well. But and to connect with me personally check me out on LinkedIn. There’s not too many Parchelles. But Parchelle Tashi.

Candice 

I didn’t see any other Parchelles when I looked. *laughs*

Parchelle 

So, yeah, you can find me there and connect on LinkedIn. That’s the best place.

Candice 

That’s awesome. I so appreciate your time. I hope the audience has had a chance to really start thinking about next steps for their book and how they can monetize it with these extensions such as a course, even if they haven’t finished writing it. They don’t need to finish writing it yet. They need to probably start talking with you before they’re done so that they can be on track to create and promote both things and get income from both things.

Parchelle 

Absolutely.

Parchelle 

Absolutely. Your book is like your main attraction. It’s like the Eiffel Tower.

Candice 

That’s right.

Parchelle 

People are gonna flock to that and it’s your job to create the experience around it because that’s what makes more money than the tower itself, the cafe and the shops.

Candice 

We spend money all around that.

Parchelle 

And that’s the same for your book. I mean, it’s people are going to spend money for other experiences and ways to be connected with you if they’ve enjoyed it. So keep doing it. And I also like to tell people if you don’t already know, your book is a beautiful investment. And as you continue to invest in it, because it’s not going to stop. There’s always going to be more right we’re in business. So keep that in mind that the more you invest in it and the ways of repurposing it and be strategic with it, the more it will be in place to return for you.

Candice 

Absolutely we could not agree more. Thank you so much. Parchelle was so appreciate you coming on today.

Parchelle 

Yeah, thank you.

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