Candice
Anita, welcome to the show.
Anita
Candice, you know, I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me.
Candice
You're so welcome. So for everyone. Just so you know, this could get a little out of control, because we are friends, and we do similar work, and we both love books, and we both love writing, and we both believe in the power of books. So just be prepared.
Anita
Strap on your seat belts.
Candice
What I want to start with, because so many people out there are business owners and they don't know what kind of book to write. You too are a business owner. You've been a business owner for, what, more than two decades now. Oh, yes. And you, the person who told me you would never, ever in this lifetime, write a memoir, when we first met, have written your business memoir. It's an excellent book. I think any small business owner could learn so anyway, actually, a big business owner could learn a lot from this. Tell me why you came around to writing a business memoir.
Anita
Did I ever say I wouldn't think I ever actually write a memoir?
Candice
You did say it.
Anita
Why did I decide to write this memoir? Well, one reason is that, as an author coach, as you know, we need to stay relevant, right? I mean, we could tell people all day long to write a book, you need to, you know, share your story and own your narrative. And it had been, let's see, I don't know how long since my last book, at least five years, okay, and there have been a lot changes in the industry and the publishing industry in a year or two, and I thought, I think I need to get myself back in the game as an author, as a published author.
So that was one motivation for sharing my story, and then I guess also just to really get my story out. All of my other books, seven or eight of them, have all been about how to write a book, why you should write a book, how to market a book. Here's what the publishing process looks like. Turn your journal entries into a book. So it's been more instructional, yeah, with a little bit of my story thrown in, and I just wanted to finally get my story out there about what it's been like for me in the last quarter century as an entrepreneur. So this one is not so much about book writing. It's more about my journey as an entrepreneur.
Candice
Well, it's not just your journey, and it is your journey. It tells a lot of her story of how she built her business, but it's a journey to work less, earn more, and play more, which I've read people's books where they talk about, oh, I worked less, blah, blah, blah, and I know it's not true. I know it's not true. I know they don't. They're telling a story. They don't. They're working 80 hours a week, and they're trying to tell us all we can build a business by working less.
But I know you, and I know that you do work less and play more and still get phenomenal work done for your clients. How did you build that kind of business? How did you get to that?
Anita
Well, it's been a journey, and as the book says, Becoming the Minimalist Entrepreneur, I had to get there right. It's been me for years, and probably at least a decade, doing all the things. And there's nothing wrong with that. I used to beat myself up, beat myself up over having tried all the things, and you, I know, because we tried a lot of the things together as business partners years ago. Just trying to find my niche, trying to find, what I like to do, trying to find what I'm really good at, and embracing the fact that I need to play to my strengths and not my weaknesses. I'm strengthening my strengths, not strengthening my weaknesses. Just getting to the point that I want to like what I do I want to love running a business, because I really don't plan to go back to corporate anytime soon, as in ever.
So when I left my last corporate job, I had to literally decide that I'm retiring from corporate work, not look at a corporate job as a safety net, because that's truly a joke at this point in our time. And I just had to decide I was going to make this entrepreneur thing, this business thing, work for me. And in the figuring it out, I realized that I had been doing everything myself, all the things, the marketing. I was doing my website, oh, Lord, I was writing all of my own newsletter copy, and it was just a lot, plus, you know, networking, building my book of business, servicing my clients, dealing with my vendors, and all of that.
And it was a lot, and it was hard, and I'm thinking it's after a while, you realize it should not be this hard. This is not even fun. It's not fun. And so I just had to step back and reassess what business is, what it should be, what I want it to be, and release a lot of what I had adopted, which was what everybody else says you should do, and how you should be as an entrepreneur.
Candice
Yeah, I think so many of us who leave corporate, I didn't leave corporate directly, but so many of us who leave corporate and build a business, whatever we were doing before, or if you were working for the government, if you were teaching, and you go to build a business, you're excited about creating this freedom. But then we build basically another job for ourselves, where, essentially, we are tied to a desk. We're doing a lot of work that we don't want to do, and we get stuck in that trap.
So it was really interesting, because I've experienced it too, to read about you sort of going through that journey. And it wasn't like this straight-line trajectory from corporate worker to the minimalist entrepreneur. You took turns and twists, and you share those. And one of the things I appreciate is the honesty with which you share those.
You share your setbacks, you share how your personal life and family losses impact you as a person and as a business owner, and I know that you coach people to do this, so you know how to get the words on the page. But what was it like being that open and vulnerable when it's actually you who's doing the writing and sharing your story?
Anita
Well, let me say, so it was difficult. I'll say that to answer the question, it was hard. One of the things that helped a lot was that you were my coach. You were my author coach. We spent a couple of days struggling at a beach house.
Candice
Such hard work!
Anita
And you helped me really work through a lot of the things that I was avoiding sharing in the book, the pivotal moments, the hard stuff. You know, it's easy to write about when it was successful and when it was fun and when the thing worked and all that, but very difficult to even think about the hard parts that were equally or even more important in the journey and explain how they fit in and how that hard stuff made me it really did.
The successes are great, but it's really those bumps and dips and all the hard stuff that really makes you know what you are made of, yeah. I remember that couple of days we spent coaching were extremely helpful for me, really. I mean, you asked some great questions as an author coach to help me really tap into it. I'm sure I had some boohoo moments, some tears, as happens when we are structuring our story to realize if it touched me like that, and it was years ago, then maybe it will resonate with my readers as well.
So I spent a day, one day, I got through writing, I'm in the midst of writing the book. On this particular day, I was writing about a really difficult year that I'd had as an entrepreneur. A lot of things happened personally for me, and I was so far into writing this, I decided that this whole day I'm going to write, I was so far into it that I couldn't not finish because it was so emotionally draining for me. I cried, and I'm just like with the laptop and the tissue box, right, writing and crying, typing and crying.
And I thought, you know, I have to get through this today, because I'm not revisiting this year of hell for me, It's really important in the grand scheme of things, I guess, depending on how you look at it. It really had nothing to do with business itself, but it did, yeah, because it affected me in a certain way.
And it was really so pivotal that year of drama that really propelled me. I was working full time as an employee at the time, and it really propelled me to get back into my business full time. And so the writing of it and being so transparent was really vulnerable for me. It was emotional, and I knew I had to get it out in a day, because I was like, I'm not going to write this again. Now I obviously revisited it as I made revisions and things, but I had to get it out in a day. So it was hard to write that, but I'm glad I did. I've heard from readers since then who have read the book and said, “Oh my God, that had to be a hard year for you, and how did you even write that?” So it was difficult, but I'm glad I did.
Candice
So I will say I just made a list while you were talking of everything I need to unpack from what you just said. There is so much juicy goodness in there. So first of all, listener, when you read “Becoming the Minimalist Entrepreneur,” you will immediately know what year she's talking about. When you get to that part of the book, you will feel the pain of that year. And I'm not kidding. I mean, Anita writes in a way, and you should all be endeavoring to write in a way, where you have the emotional experience with the author.
Mind you, this is a business professional memoir for the most part, right? It focuses on becoming the minimalist entrepreneur, but we're not separate from our business as entrepreneurs. What impacts us as a person does impact us as a business owner. So Anita, you do a brilliant job of portraying that in the book, and it is, because I know and love you, it is hard to read, so it's like I'm feeling the pain that my friend is feeling. I know she's on the other side of it. I know she's better for it, but it is difficult to read.
That is the mark of incredibly well-done writing, that you can bring the reader into the emotional experience with you. However, one of the things you preach to your coaching clients is that you can write your memoir without telling all of your business. How did you, as the author, make some decisions between what you would include and what you would leave out of your memoir?
Anita
I think that came with my structure, my initial framework, my outline and my decision to not write the book in chronological order. I'm not a big fan of chronological order memoirs. I really wanted to focus on certain aspects of myself and my life, and so certain things that happened to me in my life, they just didn't fit into the structure of the characteristics that I wanted to display in my book.
The ones that did, the events and circumstances and life events that did make it in, I had to really unpack them and look at the relevance. How relevant is it to this particular characteristic I'm talking about for myself, and then how much of that does the reader really need to know in order to experience or witness the character trait I'm talking about?
So as I became the minimalist entrepreneur, you know, I became adventurous, I became my own best advisor. I became all these things. And I talk about those in the book. Well, there are certain circumstances that happened in life that helped me become those things. I wanted to get across how those things impacted the characteristic, but not all the gory details of things. For example, I mentioned that I was married before and my husband and I ended up getting a divorce. No one needs to know all the things that happened and how many arguments we had and what he said and what I said. That's not important. What was important is how that impacted me as I became the minimalist entrepreneur. It wasn't about how many fights we had and all this kind of stuff. It was just about how that impacted me as an entrepreneur.
I had to really sift through the experiences, keep the stuff that was relevant and not discard it because it's part of your life experience, but just set aside the rest of it. And that's what you need to do as a writer, or even if you don't consider yourself a writer-writer. When you're writing your book, you need to really kind of sift through and be honest with what's most relevant for the point you're trying to make, and leave the rest of it for another time or another book.
I think that's where a coach like you comes in to help scale it down. Do we really need to say all this stuff? Do they need to know all the gory details, or di they just need to know the thing happened and how it affected you and what you learned from it?
Candice
One of the things you guys may have, if you're listening, you may have picked up on, is that I coached Anita on her book. She is also coaching me on my book. So even though we are book coaches, we have enough experience to know you can't read the label from inside the jar. You need someone from the outside to look in to help you figure out what you're writing about, to give you feedback on what you're writing. We just happen to have the good fortune that we have each other so that, yeah, you can do that.
And I want to give a shout out to Karin Crompton, a brilliant editor who also participated in this project. Tell me a little bit about what the editing process was like for you, because you are so used to being on the other side of this, you give that kind of constructive feedback to your own coaching clients, and now you're on the side of receiving it. What was that like?
Anita
It was great. Again, that was another reason why I wrote the book. I needed to, again, sort of sit in my client's seat. I need to walk in their footsteps. And having coached dozens of people, I know what it feels like to turn that manuscript over, that first sloppy draft, and feel like it's incomplete, or this sucks, or whatever, right? We've all been there. All our clients have been there.
Candice
I'm only laughing. I'm sorry. I'm going to interrupt you. I'm only laughing because your first draft was not sloppy. So sorry, but it wasn't.
Anita
It was sloppy to me, right? I'm like, I'm missing some things. I know it's not perfect, but I'm tired of trying to put the pieces together. This is the time to let it go. I trusted—like you saw that first draft. Karin Crompton helped with subsequent edits, and I trust you both that—we've worked on many projects together, but certainly with my story, and to know that you are just the consummate professional. You know your stuff, and you're not going to allow me to put out something that's subpar. So I trust you. I trust your knowledge and your insight, and that helped it be much easier just to turn it over and to allow you to work your magic with my manuscript and make it better.
That's what the editing process is about. It's making it better. It's improving it. It's helping to clarify the concepts. I knew what I wanted to say, but did it come across that way to you? That's why you need an outside voice and some outside eyes to say, “I think what you mean is this,” or “I think you skirted past this a little bit.” You need to dig deeper.
Candice
Yeah, and you don't just do that with one round of feedback, either. You have produced something great, because you were willing to come back to the page more than once to get it to the level of what you wanted to publish. But you made a really good point. Part of it was trusting the people on your publishing team, like we were a part of, and there are other people on our publishing team, the designers and the people who actually put it to print. She had a full publishing team to get this book out to the world.
How would you say to someone who doesn't know you, they don't know me, they don't know an editor? How can they look for that kind of relationship where they can start to build a team they can trust?
Anita
Ooh, I think, first, where else would you start, other than with Candice? You're listening to this podcast. Why would you go anywhere else for starters. So much of any team-building is relationship, so if Candice is not your person, she can give you some references, and she's just got you know contacts and connections and knowledge all over the place.
Start with someone you know and trust. If it's not Candice, then talk to a friend or a colleague who is a published author and who had a good experience and likes the output, the outcome, right? Someone who likes their finished product, find out who they worked with. To me, that's much more valuable and helpful than Googling, and certainly it makes sense to talk to someone who has had the experience and has enjoyed and appreciates their end result.
You can talk to a lot of people out there who've published books and they're got all the complaints, and they've had all the nightmares and all that. Then, maybe you can talk to them too, so you'll know who not to use and what not to do, but you obviously want to work with and consult with some people who've had a good a good outcome and a good experience.
Candice
Yeah, it's so interesting, because when we met, and I think I may have said this in your intro, we met because you were teaching a workshop about writing your book. I happened to be in the audience because I had just moved to Atlanta, a friend gave me a ticket, and one of the reasons it was easy for me to trust your expertise is that I could see your clients’ testimonials, and that they had gotten really good results from working with you before I even got to know you. I could see that. So if I was, you know, reading Reddit, and they all talked about some terrible book coach, I might see some red flags and stay away, right? That is not the case. What I see is, if you look up Anita, you will see her clients love working with her, and they are getting results from their books. So I think that is brilliant.
Now, you mentioned our time away at the beach, where we escaped to work on our books, which we both believe deeply in writing, getting time away to write. We believe in writing retreats, so much so that sometime soon—pay attention to this podcast, follow Anita on social media, be on my email list. Follow me on social media, because we will be hosting a writing retreat in the coming months.
Talk a little bit about like, what's valuable about that to you? You're an experienced writer. Why do you even want to do that? Why do you need that for your process?
Anita
Why do you need to get away to write?
Candice
Yeah, what's good about it?
Anita
Oh, where do I begin? I'm a traveler anyway, so just tell me we're going to go somewhere, and I'm ready, right? And then tell me to go write something, and I'll do that too. I think there's something about having a fresh, fresh environment to give you a fresh perspective.
Yeah, I've had clients go to the cabin and write to get away. I've had them go to the beach house to get away. Some people have rearranged specific rooms in their homes to make it their writing cave, more comfortable, secluded from the rest of the house and the family. So if actually going somewhere else to a different locale is not the thing for you, for whatever reason, then create your own writing space at home. You know, set the scene.
You and I talk about this all the time. Put on a candle, or set the lighting in such a way that it's cozy and comfortable for you. Put on your playlist, burn the scented candle, get your favorite tea or coffee, get in your snuggly clothes, or whatever it takes. Close the door, open the window, whatever you need to do, but set the scene. Make your writing space a retreat in and of itself.
But for us, having gone away to the beach, we just needed a trip. We like the beach, and we were both working on a book at the same time, and we needed each other's support. So it was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. We got some writing done, but most of it was coaching, even in that, just getting away to have a discussion about the books we were writing was just refreshing. It really, really is.
It's just the same thing that travel does for me, and I always call it travel, not vacation, because I'm not vacating some terrible lifestyle that I have. I live a wonderful life, but it's just nice to go on a trip and have some new experiences. And the same thing is true. It really invigorates your creativity and just gives you a fresh perspective on getting back into your writing and making progress. Just feels good.
Candice
It feels great. And I have a completed manuscript that Anita texts me periodically, probably weekly, to say, when are you publishing it?
Anita
I'm waiting.
Candice
It’s coming. Don't worry. Don't worry. But you mentioned a couple of things. You mentioned, sort of, the fresh environment, the space to write without all the world around you, and also coaching. You have been coaching people to write books for quite some time. This isn't—you're not like the newbie on the block here. So what is it that you value from both sides of that relationship? Why book coaching? So many people think it's just writing a book. I should be able to do it by myself. What do you as a book coach and as an author value about book coaching?
Anita
Ooh, I think it's the same thing people value about any kind of coach, that it's a fresh perspective. First of all, it's instructional, right? Almost none of my clients are writers, and you know some of yours might be, but they don't know the elementary aspects of you know—we all write every day, whether it's an email or whatever. We know how to string words together to make a sentence. Some of us know how to make a paragraph out of that and a page out of that, but it's much more in depth, in detail. When you're writing a full-length book, and if that is not your training, you're not trained as a writer in either fiction or nonfiction or poetry or whatever, it's hard.
It's a hard thing to just wrap your mind around, so to have a coach, someone who is experienced, to come in and say, there's a process to this, and it can be either hard or it can be easy. Let me help make it easy for you. Yeah, there's some structure that goes into it. When we get that structure and that framework started, it's easier to write when we have a formula where we can plug in common topics and content in each chapter, that makes it easier to write chapter to chapter.
When you have someone to talk to and talk through your content and stories that you want to tell, that makes it easier, because for some people, talking out their book content, or some of it, is easier than sitting down with a pen and a notepad or with a laptop or a tablet. Sometimes it's easier just to talk it out. And with that talking, it may be easier to talk to someone. So that is helpful.
It's also helpful to have a coach who understands what publishing a book really means, because a lot of people don't know what that means. And it has changed over the decade and a half since I've been doing this, and it continues to evolve the whole business and industry of book publishing. And so there are certain aspects that can become very meticulous in the process. That should be the editing aspect of it, for one. Also how do you get your book up there online?
How does that happen? How do I get my book up on, you know? How do I make a book cover? Well, of course, I'm telling you, you shouldn't be doing that unless you're a graphic designer. But how do I make my Word document that I'm typing in look like the pages of a real book, right, with the fancy fonts and the flourishes and the images? How do I do that? How do I get a copyright for my book? How do I register it?
All these things that my clients, personally, they don't want to do all that stuff. They want to work with someone else who knows how to do that. And that's the value of working with me as a coach, yeah, and that is also the value that I looked forward to working with a smart team. I already had my team built. These are people that I work with all the time, and so I’m like, “Here, Candice. It's time for you to take a look at my book again. Do your job. Karen, it is time to edit. Here's the graphic designer doing the cover, all these things.”
Yeah. So again, as the minimalist entrepreneur, I know that even for my book project, I shouldn't be doing all the things, even though I know how to do them.
Candice
Yeah, 100%. One of my clients, Jessica Bantom, she wrote “Design for identity.” It's a beautiful book. She just won an award for book cover design. Now here's the thing: she's a designer. She did not try to design her own book cover because she's not a book cover designer. She has an eye. She knows what she likes. She has her own brand. And she, as you said, she went to her team, not me. I'm a coach. I'm not a designer. She went to the designer on a team to say, “Hey, can we do this brilliant book cover?”
They collaborated, and it should be a collaborative process with every member of your team. and came up with a brilliant design that was award winning. But one other thing that you said that I thought was so important is, you know, most people don't write books for a living in our clientele, right? It's not what they do. They’re executives. They’re coaches. They’re speakers, etc, right? Most of our clients, you and I are trained writers, we have developed our own processes for writing a book, and we still needed our team, and we still needed the coaching relationship that we have with each other.
For me, it's accountability for one, y'all, because she's not going to let me let this slide, but also having the thinking partner, because you can so easily -- you already know what you know, what you know, what you know, like you already know that, and you can so easily block yourself from sharing your genius without that thinking partner.
I think that, to me, has been an invaluable part of having a coach.
Anita
Absolutely. One of the things you added to my book that I wouldn't have thought to do was you said, “I need to know what a day in the life of the minimalist entrepreneur looks like.” And I was like, “Girl, that is so boring. Why would I put that in there?”
Candice
Not boring to me, like I'm striving for minimalist entrepreneur.
Anita
Yeah, I'll write that. I would never have thought to do that. You're like, “I want to know what it looks like. I mean, everybody's day is different from day to day. But when I wrote it, it was kind of fun. I was like, it sounds boring, but this is the freedom that comes with being minimalist, being an entrepreneur, being your own boss.
It doesn't always look fancy and sexy and lovely, but it also doesn't look stressful, in meetings back to back and you gotta deal with your boss and all this kind of stuff. Here's what it looks like for me. Now your version of entrepreneurship may look totally different. But because my coach, Candice L Davis, said, “I want to know what your day looks like as a minimalist entrepreneur, I put that in there, and it was fun to write.”
Candice
Yeah, you might think it's boring because you have it, but for those of us, I'm not there yet. I'm still in the process of getting to minimalist entrepreneur status, and it is my goal. That is the kind of business I want to have. I’m not there yet. So for me, it's actually inspiring. What's boring to you is super inspiring to me, because, as you said, it's that time freedom. It's that time, freedom. You're not chained to your desk. You have more flexibility.
Y’all, she shows up for her clients. So don't misunderstand us, okay, like she does the work, but you have designed your work so that you have the flexibility to travel and you can take your work with you sometimes, but you have that flexibility. So what might be boring to you, my friend, it's like, that's goals for some of the rest of us.
Anita
Yeah, yeah. I agree. I agree with that. Now I'm just saying I wouldn't have thought to put it in there if not for you.
Candice
So on the retreat, we talked about, it wasn't primarily writing for us. It was primarily coaching, but you did have to do the writing. This is not a pamphlet. You know I don't like those pamphlet books. This is like an actual book. Yes, it's not “War and peace,” because we don't want that. It’s over 200 pages; it's like a whole book. And so you did the writing. Did you ever, and you know how I feel about this term, but I'm gonna ask you anyway, did you ever have to contend with the dreaded writer's block during that process?
Anita
I guess so. Yeah, we don't care for that term. I wouldn't say I struggled with writer's block. No, I don't know that I got stuck, that I just couldn't write anything. I think it just took some time in different sections of the book to get the story right. And in those moments, I released the need to be so literary and so fancy, and I just wrote it. I'm a typer-outer so I'm not a hand-writer and I'm not a voice-record person. It was almost like, I put the blinders on and just typed as if I were explaining this to someone in an email, and it was just like, run on sentences and no capitalization, no punctuation, all of that. Just get it out of the head.
And that's how I conquered those stuck moments. Those moments where I was trying to explain something or describe a point or whatever. It's just free write and attack the keyboard and fix it later.
Candice
Yeah, the point was that you didn't stop. Because you could easily have said, “Well, it's not coming easily. So I guess I don't have inspiration right now. I'll wait until I have the inspiration for that part.”
Anita
No, I didn't. I made a commitment to myself. So I'll tell you honestly that my deadlines moved further and further out as time went on. You understand that when we have clients whose books we're trying to get out, that comes first, right? That became a priority for me, but in the midst of writing, you know life happens. You know in your personal life, things go on, and I had gotten through so, first draft, Candice did a review, looked at the next draft, and then it was time for me to send it to my beta readers, my test readers. And as soon as I sent it off, maybe a week or two, I had an event occur in my life that stalled everything.
My mom had a stroke, honey, that blew my whole timeline out of the water. My book, thankfully, I had already sent it off to my beta readers, so they were taking a look at it and giving me their feedback. But even once they sent that back to me, there was nothing I could do with it. I couldn't even think about my book. Whatever. It'll get done whenever it gets done. I had to focus on my mom and her recovery.
So, yeah, you can set the timeline. It's kind of like how people say, “Oh, you got plans for your life, and God has, you know, a different plan for you.” But it never was a “I guess I'll never finish my book” kind of thing. It was like, “Okay, I'll get back to it when I get back to it,” and I knew, because I know that there is a process to this, I knew what was next.
So it's gone to my test readers, and now I need to address their recommendations. And when I get around to doing that, I will do that, because I know what comes next then is this next phase. So I moved the project forward as best I could, at a creep. But it did move forward, and it was months before I got back into it full time. But you know, life happens along the way. When you're committed and dedicated to finishing what you start, you don't let even something as serious as an illness of your own, or of a loved one. stop you. You gotta finish.
Candice
I love that you didn't freak out or beat yourself up because you had these temporary delays. You took care of your priorities, always knowing that the manuscript would still be there, and that you were committed to getting back to it. So I think that you gotta keep going. You gotta keep going. So you did keep going. You published? What month did you publish?
Anita
January? I published in January of 2024, the week of my birthday, and it was a great birthday present.
Candice
That’s a great birthday present. So it's been, what about six months, seven months since you published, what have been sort of the biggest, I'm gonna say, benefits or results that you have gotten from freshly publishing this book? It's not her first book, but it is her first non-how-to book. What's been the benefit of getting this one out there?
Anita
Well, just the satisfaction, first and foremost, of having done it. Well, I'm super proud of my memoir. It looks good, it reads well, I've gotten great feedback from readers. I will tell you, from a measurable perspective with a dollar sign in front of it—that's my entrepreneur speaking—is that probably about two weeks after my book launched, I was contacted by a gentleman who said, “You know, I want to do a book strategy session with you and talk about, I’ve got this book idea that I'm working on. I want to get my book done.” As people contact you who you don't know, you're like, “Well, how did you hear about me?” Yeah, I asked him.
And he says, “Well, I saw you post on LinkedIn about how your book just came out, and I actually read your book, and I really like it. A lot of the things resonated with me. I could totally relate to a lot of the content in your book, and I love it. And because I read your book—because I saw your posts, I purchased your book, and because I read your book, I want you to help me write my book.”
And that was like, Oh, my God. It was like, two weeks after the book launched, and he has become a client. And the value of his engagement with me, it 5xed my investment in my book publishing.
Candice
Sorry, could you repeat that just one more time, just in case they missed it.
Anita
I 5xed my investment in my book publishing, yeah, with one client two weeks after my book launched.
Candice
So Anita, you 5x your investment in your book. But people need to know that just because you know people in this industry doesn't mean that you got free services. Your investment in your book was real. You paid for these services.
Anita
It was real. I paid you. Thank you very much. I paid Karin. I paid for the cover design. Like everybody who was involved in the production of my book was paid. No one did me a favor, right? Other than just being awesome was the favor. But I know that I was working with professionals just like my clients do, yeah, and so professionals deserve to be paid. And so yes, I made a dollar investment, not just my time, but a dollar investment in the production of my book, and to 5x that within two weeks after my book launched was huge. And that is a great example of what I tell my clients, which is that it's bigger than the book.
Yeah, it's bigger than—we all want to sell a million books, and we want to make a million dollars and all that kind of stuff. That's fine, but you're probably not going to do that on book sales alone, right? Like, there's more tied to the success of your book than just book sales. And so for me and for you, and for a lot of people we work with, they realize their book can be tied to paid speaking, to more clients, consulting opportunities, all kinds of things that have a bigger dollar value.
You've heard me say this before. What would you rather have: a $25 book sale, or $250 an hour client, a $2,500 you know, speaking honorarium, or a $250,000 contract? What do you want? Yep, you can have them all. You can have them, and your book and be a great impetus to get it started. But don't stop at the $25 book sale. Understand that it's bigger than the book, and you can have more.
Candice
And so many of our clients do that. I don't know that so many of them 5x in two weeks. So I think that is amazing. And like, you need to be screaming that from the rooftops, but I have clients who actually give their book away so much at the right events, because they sell people into a $30,000 mastermind with that book. So the cost of printing the book, five bucks for them, probably less, because they're buying in bulk, leads to a $30,000 mastermind client for them.
So it's totally worth it for a business owner to make the investment to do the book. If your book had not been good, you would not have gotten that client.
Anita
He would not have contacted me. He would have been like, “This is the crappiest book I've ever read. I want my money back.”
Candice
He would have left you a one star Amazon review and went on about his business
Anita
Exactly. So that felt good. That was one great, as I say, measurable result. But again, the feedback I've gotten from readers has been great. Invitations to speak have come in, which is wonderful. And you and I talked about this. You're like, are you gonna do any speaking when the book comes out? And I'm like, “No, girl, I don't want to do that,” says the introvert in me, I am doing it. I'm doing podcast interviews like this, which has been great for visibility. So I certainly appreciate being here. But those kinds of things are really, really good, and it's helped me. Just going back to one of the initial reasons to write the book, staying relevant as an author coach.
Candice
One hundred percent. So what's next for the minimalist entrepreneur? What kind of things do you have on the horizon? How long will you be promoting your book? And it's been out for six months already? What are you going to do? Aren't you tired of promoting it by now?
Anita
It never ends. I've written this memoir about some aspects of my life and my business journey. That doesn't change. So it, quite frankly, is evergreen. I've written about things that have happened already and how they've impacted my journey to this point. So there may be another memoir in here somewhere. I don't know, but I will say that business continues to expand, which is wonderful.
I get to keep helping smart people write and publish their books. Yes, I've got some speaking opportunities upcoming. One of the marketing strategies that I've adopted is guesting on podcasts like this, so that has been fun. It gives me an opportunity to talk about the book, but also about my business, and just about life as an entrepreneur, and the fact that we get to choose how we entrepreneur, right? You get to choose it, and really liberating people from the burden of feeling like they have to do it, like there's only one way to be successful.
Candice
Yeah, if you are listening to this podcast and you have a business, or you want to have a business, pick up, “Becoming the Minimalist Entrepreneur.” You can order it online, where everybody gets their books these days, for better or for worse, from Amazon. And what I like about it really is—we don't need permission slips in our life; I know that—but it gives you permission in the sense that you can see someone else who did business their own way, so that you don't feel trapped in what everybody's screaming online. You have to do this. You have to do that. You gotta have funnels. You gotta have 2700 products. You gotta do all of this. If that's your thing, then go ahead and do it. But I feel like this book really releases entrepreneurs from those kinds of boundaries and restrictions and allows them to do their own thing and still be a successful business owner.
Anita
Absolutely. Yeah, thanks for that. Yeah. Absolutely.
Candice
So before you go, where is the best place for people to find you?
Anita
Well, find me at WriteYourLife.net That is my website. You can connect with me there, and then I hang out on LinkedIn quite a bit. So you can find me on LinkedIn. Anita Henderson, the Author's Midwife.
Candice
She is on LinkedIn quite a bit. She posts a lot of good content on there about publishing and writing. So if you want to know more about that, find Anita Henderson on LinkedIn, and all of her contact information will be in our show notes and in your podcast app notes.
I hope you have enjoyed this conversation. I know we're friends, so we kiki and we giggle, but hopefully, you got some value out of this conversation.
That’s all for this week's episode. Thanks for listening to “Nothing but the Words.” I'll see you next time.