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Kate Frank:

As a ghostwriter, Kate works with people who have already established their expertise in their field of work. Her clients include public speakers, C-suite professionals, physicians and other thought leaders who are serious about making a difference in the lives of their readers. These authors have proven their authority. Now they want to expand their influence with a book of their own.

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Book Coach & Ghostwriter
It was a natural transition for Kate to move into ghostwriting books for Authority Clients. The role she plays in crafting successful, profitable books for her author clients combines her decades of marketing experience, her uncanny ability to listen to others well and her clear, concise language skills. ​ ​Most authors come to the task of authoring a book with at least some hesitation. They question whether their book can succeed in the overcrowded book marketplace. They wonder if anyone will want to read the book. If it is their first book, they really don't know where to start at all. The truth is, for many book authors their intense pride at first holding a book with their name as author on the cover - sadly and slowly descends into disappointment when they learn book sales are not as easy as they expected. It's why hiring Kate as your ghostwriter is different than you will find with another academic-minded, editor-turned-ghostwriter. Marketing savvy begins with a successful book long before the book is published. Learn more about the process of working with Kate on this page.

Personal Look at Kate

When I am considering someone to work with me, I really like to know something personal about them, so here is a little personal information about Kate.  I will write it in the third person because it is the "proper" way to talk about yourself.

 

She has a silly side and loves to find reasons to laugh out loud.  She knows it is old-fashioned to use the entire words, but often prefers them over LOL.  

She is an outgoing introvert. For some people, this terminology sounds like an oxymoron.  Trust me, it is accurate and I will probably write a blog post about it eventually.

​She has had many challenges over the years (like most of us,) but the most impactful challenge has been her struggle with her health.  You can learn more about this aspect of her in this blog post.

She is infinitely curious about life and the curiosity drives her to truly enjoy the life of a ghostwriter.  She is able to draw out the fascinating subject matter from her clients, take an objective "arm's length" look at the content of her client's books, and never be bored.  It's the perfect life for her.

She lives alone and works from home with her two adorable, and sometimes annoying, cats.  She doesn't plan to be single for the rest of her life, but she is comfortable with her own company.  Life is quite good.​

Book's From Kate

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Profit From Technology: A Guide for Today's Real Estate Agent


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Top Coaches Share Their Personal Action Strategies Book

Books & Links From Kate

DiSC Profile

DiSC® profile is a powerful do-it-yourself training and development tool designed to improve work productivity, teamwork, and communication.

Learn More Here

The Copywriter's Handbook:

A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells

The classic guide to copywriting, now in an entirely updated third edition

This is a book for everyone who writes or approves copy: copywriters, account executives, creative directors, freelance writers, advertising managers . . . even entrepreneurs and brand managers. It reveals dozens of copywriting techniques that can help you write ads, commercials, and direct mail that are clear, persuasive, and get more attention―and sell more products.

Among the tips revealed are:
• eight headlines that work―and how to use them
• eleven ways to make your copy more readable
• fifteen ways to open a sales letter
• the nine characteristics of successful print ads
• how to build a successful freelance copywriting practice
• fifteen techniques to ensure your e-mail marketing message is opened

This thoroughly revised third edition includes all new essential information for mastering copywriting in the Internet era, including advice on Web- and e-mail-based copywriting, multimedia presentations, and Internet research and source documentation, as well as updated resources. Now more indispensable than ever, The Copywriter's Handbook remains the ultimate guide for people who write or work with copy.

"I don't know a single copywriter whose work would not be improved by reading this book." ―David Ogilvy

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A Course in Miracles

The great classic work, A Course in Miracles, is devoted to teachings about who we are, our relationships to God and with each other, and the actually mental nature of our bodies and the world. There are three constituent parts to the Course: The Text, a Workbook for Students, and the Manual for Teachers. The Text lays out the theoretical foundation for the metaphysical system of the Course. The Workbook contains a series of 365 Lessons to be practiced daily for the purpose of retraining the mind and healing our perception. Finally, the Manual contains information for and about advanced teachers of God. The Course is also about miracles, which students understand to be, in part, a shift in perception to healed vision. But miracles are more than a shift in perception, because the shift has consequences in the world as we see it. The Course is a self study educational program for retraining the mind that is spiritual, rather than religious, in its perspective. Although the Course uses Christian terminology, it expresses a universal experience, and its underlying ontology is reminiscent of ancient refrains, echoing the world's most hallowed traditions.

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Episode Transcriptions Unedited, AI Auto-Generated.

Speaker 1: 00:00:15 Opening Music

Speaker 2: 00:00:15 Welcome to the social community you show or it's our goal to help you learn, grow and transform into person. Want to become. Today I'm talking with Kate Frank cheesy book coach and ghost writer as a ghost writer. Kate works with people who are already established their enterprise in their field of work or clients include public speakers, c suite professionals, physicians and other thought leaders who have eight whole are serious about making a difference in the lives of their readers. Authors have proven their authority now they want to expand their influence with a book of their own. K shares. An amazing amount of knowledge in this book space. If you're interested in writing a book, stay tuned, get you know, Pat Allen. Maybe pull over and save some for later. I'll, I'll have all the things that she talks about in the show notes. You guys can visit the Chanel show notes@thesocialcommunityin.show slash k dash frank if you're interested in anything that we talk about. Without further ado, welcome Kate. Kate, welcome to the social community show. Thank you so much for joining me. I really am looking forward to learning from you and you sharing your wisdom with everybody here.

Speaker 3: 00:01:23 Thank you for asking me. I it's my honor. Perfect. So what's keeping you busy these days? Well, actually I'm in the process of finishing up one book and halfway through two more so. And of course I haven't said what I do yet, but that is, you know, I coach people to for their books and I also go stright for people that are too busy to write their own books. So I'm now on the outlook for a new book to work with.

Speaker 2: 00:02:03 Perfect. So that sounds fun. Why Ghost writing? What, what interests you with that? Why not just do your own thing and be your own writer or something along those lines?

Speaker 3: 00:02:13 I'm going to be honest with you, first of all, I've already published five books, but it was before publishing got so democratized. So you're, no, the sales were all that good. There was a four series top coaches share book, and then I was in real estate at the time and I actually managed a book called profit from technology, a guide for today's real estate agent. And I think only two of them are still available on Amazon and they're in the name Kathy K, a t. H. I frank instead of Kate. So, and I've been published in a whole lot of things nationally. Right. the reason why I don't do that now is 100% economic. And that's probably why I have, I approach ghost in a very different way than most ghost riders. I think it's important if you're going to spend your time doing something to make a profit from it, definitely good.

Speaker 3: 00:03:24 No and well over 80% of the books that are published that you can find are not profitable. And that includes the ones that are traditional books where they spent, they may be given a $10,000 advance to the public, to the author, and still the book doesn't make any money with all their expertise, with all their involvement, with all their professional skilled labor that brought this book to the pub, to the public. They still don't make money. Because traditional publishers are depending 100% on book sales. The way I work with authors, it's not at all about book sale. It's about building a platform that a book can make it launch

Speaker 2: 00:04:19 Like different speaking or, or teaching or guest lecturing, stuff like that is what you're saying.

Speaker 3: 00:04:26 Any of those things plus many more. In fact, if, if at the end of this you want to share it, I have a document where I did the 12 most common ways for nonfiction authors to, to Everage their book. It's just a little pdf and when people see it, they go, well, of course this is pretty logical, but it's in one place. It's really easy to look at. 

Speaker 2: 00:04:58 I'll, I'll link in the show notes for everybody that's interested.

Speaker 3: 00:05:01 Okay. Well it's, it's really today whether you're talking about who was it that I saw on the news this past week that they were asking him to do something. He said, I'm busy. I need to sell books. You know, he's got a speaking tour. I mean, even if you are about Spi is selling books, you need to make it your full time job for at least a year.

Speaker 2: 00:05:36 This is what I've heard. I've heard of once the writing is over, you're, you're, you're about halfway there. Now. You've got to sell right

Speaker 3: 00:05:46 It, you've built your platform for the rocket to launch. Right? Okay, I see. Yeah, no, that's all there is to it. So if you, if you want to launch by being an author that's on the road and doing those kinds of things where you don't really get paid, but you're in front of enough audiences that you actually sell books then that's one way. But I think a more profitable way is for somebody to figure out what is it that they share with people every day in their environment that people are benefiting from. And I say start by inventorying all those things, all the people that you've helped, all the people that you've made a difference in their life and figure out. And I liked three by five cards. Just put a few keywords on that three by five card and move on. When you have a full inventory, it will become as clear to you is it already is to me, you've got two or three books in you.

Speaker 3: 00:06:57 So if you really want to profit from your book, then you pick the best book to be first and you figure out what that is by knowing your audience, know who your reader is. And you can figure that out. When you look at your three by five cards and you see the kinds of people that you've helped and made the most difference in their life, well guess what? They're probably your target reader. So once you figure that out and figure out where they hang out, then you are then ready to start building a platform to launch your book on. And it may be that you will coach people. It may people the, that you will be a public speaker. It may be that you create virtual workshops and, and deliver them online and never have to get out of your own home. Whatever it is that, that fits. And it can't be about the author. You're not going to make a profit if your book is about you and what you know. And that's what most books are. It's, it's somebody that's been thinking about writing a book for years. They've been seeing other people's books and they think they can do it better. And it's all about them. Well, if you stay in that place, you're not going to make money.

Speaker 3: 00:08:39 You have to get out of that place and get an end to the mind of your reader. Figure out what they want to hear and where they hang out. And then from that place, you can figure out how to monetize it. Did you, you say that I was listening to

Speaker 2: 00:08:56 An interview or something like that with Jordan Peterson was talking about how he wrote 12 rules for life and he's, that's what he said. He's like, I was on Quora, I was on there answering questions as a psychologist or psychiatrist when he is, and he's like, and people kept asking these things. So he started with, I don't know if it was 50 or something like that. And then when the whittle it down through the down and then somebody who was like, hey, you should probably write a book about this. And he's like, yes, that's a good idea. And if you're willing it down to the 12 rules that he went up coming up with. But that's interesting. That's how he wrote his book as well. That's very, very, and it's been, and from where I see it had been a huge success has been touring for the past two years. So it's resonated with a lot of people cause like you said, you're talking to them answering their questions and problems already. Now you're just putting that into a format more people can see and reach.

Speaker 3: 00:09:47 Exactly. I mean these days, first of all, I wanted to tell you that I encourage people to have 103 by five cards with ideas for their book on it. I think that's a great starting place, you know? So it sounds like he was approaching that and then had to work on pairing it down. And if it's sort of like if you shoot for the moon and land in the stars, you're better off. So I don't know anybody that's done a hundred but I encourage people to try. Right.

Speaker 2: 00:10:21 I've got lists everywhere. Things I just write down, random things that come to my brain. I just write them down. But you know, you see, you know, I don't have a desire to write a book. I have no desire to write a book. I have no thing. And I've also heard, and I kind of, I guess I subscribe to that Kappa, you know, don't write a book unless it hasn't been written. There's nothing out there on that. Like I disagree with that. Let's talk to talk to you this. So what do you, what do you think about that?

Speaker 3: 00:10:53 Two things. Sure. First, every book is his individual is the human that's involved in it. Okay. Do we have too many people with too many personalities?

Speaker 2: 00:11:08 Answer that,

Speaker 3: 00:11:12 But you know another one of my passions and I am going to write as soon as I can manage at the time I'm going to write a series about weird kits. Oh, that sounds fun because I believe that the more weird you are, if you're not ruined by your classmates and your parents and your teachers, that weirdness is where your greatest gift is. I agree. You were made weird for a reason. Yes.

Speaker 2: 00:11:45 Embrace it. There's so many people. Yeah. You

Speaker 3: 00:11:48 Know why I used to be really crushed by the fact that people told me that I was so different. Okay. I don't even remember what age it was. I would say I was in my forties before I realized that being different, it's so much better than being average. Yes. Has nothing to do with me. And I'm so glad you know you can love me. You can hate me and believe me, I've got plenty of people on both sides of that. But I've learned that since I've been comfortable not fitting in, I have more real friends than I ever have in my life.

Speaker 2: 00:12:40 That that is the key lesson right there. It's so easy to have these people that appease you around you and, and, and come and go in your life. But to find those true friends that care about you and not what you're doing or what you're making. That is, that is, that is key.

Speaker 3: 00:12:57 I really think what happened to me because you know, I've never blended in and I could, I could write a book about the lessons I learned about that. I'll tell you one, my, my father was the wise person in my life and I was a daddy's girl. And my nature has always been to come up with innovative ideas and in groups. What does that do? If you're somebody that comes up with an innovative ideas,

Speaker 2: 00:13:37 Lot of times you're, you're shut down and told to go away and stop being crazy.

Speaker 3: 00:13:42 Or they put you in charge of it. That's the, you got to have a,

Speaker 2: 00:13:50 The person that's there and leading an uncharged whatever they've got to see like this is crazy. You should take this and run with it. That, that you got to be in a special type of organization that has somebody around that recognizes crazy is going to go them.

Speaker 3: 00:14:02 Where would this, well, it's outside the box that you find gold. So I was always being put in positions of leadership because the easiest way to shut up somebody in an organization is put him in charge. Right. Exactly. And one time when I was a teenager, I came home just bawling my eyes out because of the horrible things that people were saying about me. And my dad said, well, if you want people to stop saying that you're bad and criticizing everything you do, there's a way you can do that. Stop doing anything. Yeah, that's, that's tough choice. If you do something, people will criticize always last year, last year. Well now you have something to add it. That's fine. No problem. So that was real eye opening for me. And then later on in life when I was a top producing real estate agent, I had a what do they call it?

Speaker 3: 00:15:29 A heritage profile. Basically they talk to you for about an hour and then they put together this profile that categorized all the things that were dominating in your personality. And like the guy that founded the company, one of my strongest things is I'm a pioneer. And he said, you know how to tell a pioneer by all the arrows in their back because if you reach out, if you go out, you do things that other people haven't thought of that other people haven't embraced. If you break the mold, people are going to beat you up. They are going to gather in little groups over to the side and find all the things wrong with what you're doing. But they all stay average and they always stay in the mix of average. They never accomplish anything. Hey, if you enjoy gossip more than you do achievement by, by now, I don't need, you know, because that's not the way my life is. My life is.

Speaker 3: 00:16:53 My biggest problem is I see so much good in the world. I see so many opportunities in the world and I try to do at all. That's insane. That's not possible. So, you know, making choices and getting my revenue up to a point that I can delegate some of those things that I need to do for my business. That's been my biggest challenge in everything that I've done my whole life. And I believe in delegating. In fact, that same coach that told the story about being a pioneer, he said, I went by Kathy then he said, Cathy, most real estate agents have a real hard time delegating. They'd rather do it and take up a lot of their time and do it wrong than to let go of control and delegate to others that you're different. You abdicate, you don't even tell the date.

Speaker 3: 00:18:05 It just let go. It is pass it over to somebody else's plight and happy to let them do it. Yes. which is a beautiful thing for some people you can hire. It's a great way to weed out the people that can't work with me. Right. W w what is some things you've found that help you be able to delegate? Find that right person. Are you familiar with the dic or disc profile? Yes. Okay. Well can I quickly go and overview of that? Yeah, go for it. Okay. In the disc profile, D's And i's r d it determined driven for the D and I all about people and all about engaging people and being a non what's the, I can't think of the term I'm trying to think of it would fit with the eye, but basically they're very people, people, persons. The s and the c are all about the task.

Speaker 3: 00:19:19 They are, well, the thing that fits me most is ss and cs do it slowly in hopes to being perfect at what they end up doing. Your sees your CPAS, your s's are typically employees. If you ask me, you're, they're rarely get anything accomplished because they blend in. And one reason why they blend in is because they're hyper sensitive to other people's feelings and they're also hypersensitive to their own feelings. So they get their feelings hurt very, very easily. And I am a high d high. I no s no c I can't do things slow saying coach said that. I used to think that I could do it four times, do it wrong the first three and still get it done before a c can get it done right before a c can. So, and he said, and I thought I was just being smart, but I learned that I was being a jerk.

Speaker 3: 00:20:49 And that is the thing that I have to deal with. Wow. And I'm, when I am in charge of the task and it has to be done by somebody that does it slower and more perfectly I tried to prepare them for the fact that I'm so rapid. In real estate, it was a real problem because what most people don't understand is a real estate agent does most of their work out of the office, but yet there's full time work in the office, right? So therefore, if you want to be good at real estate and really be a top producer, you have somebody in the office doing the task that needed to be done in the office when the title companies are open and the mortgage companies are open and, and all the paperwork can be managed and all of that. So I, one of the people I hired was an s, she was an ias, so she was all about people, all about sensitivity, you know, not very task oriented.

Speaker 3: 00:22:08 But I told her, I said, you know, because I am up here and you're down here, you're, I asked in a little bit of, see, I can tell you right now that your feelings will get hurt if you allow them to be. Do you promise me that you will do two things? First of all, when I walk in the door after being out with clients all day long, don't hit me with your problems. You've been keeping them all day. Keep them a little longer. Let me do the things that I've been thinking about that I need to do when I walk in the door. And let me wind down a little bit because I'm all hyped up working with clients. So just don't do that. And secondly, try to not get your feelings hurt because I'm honest, I'm brutally honest. I will tell you exactly what I need and I will be as tactful and kind as I can and I people that have worked for me and enjoyed it, we'll tell you how tax or unkind I am, but some people can't even take tactful and Cla kind criticism.

Speaker 3: 00:23:24 And she was one of those and one time she hit me when I walked in the door with all the problems that had come up during the day. And I was probably a little unkind at that moment. She quit and gave me a horrible letter about how horrible I am. So, you know, it's important to understand that D I s C I've never worked with anybody that was that s again, you know, they can be, they can be I s but they better have more c and they better have a little bit of eye. So much asked is just I'm two d I'm too driven. You know, I've made my living working with people. That's what makes me I, but by nature I'm d all the way. I'm just driven to get things done and come up with new ideas and come up with new ways to do things. And I've got a lot of friends that ending me for that, but they're usually sees and they don't understand that with that personality comes a lot of difficulty.

Speaker 3: 00:24:45 Like spend a little extra up front when you're hiring and getting somebody that's the right fit and it's going to work well in your system and your way of leading. Well, I strongly believe in the dic profile before you hire. Because one of the things that Gary Keller did is he interviewed and tested all the top producing team leaders in the Keller Williams system back in the 90s. And what he found is that the ones that were top producers were like me, Dni and they hired s's and C's. But what can't be calculated in that equation is, you know, I think that the ones that were really, really good had more seeing them than I do because coming up with systems for helping you manage my paperwork is not natural for me. I don't do it well myself, much less CICI, you how to do it. That's why I hired you.

Speaker 3: 00:26:04 Well, I believe that the right person, you can tell them, this is what I want to achieve. Here's the end goal and if you need answers to your questions, then let's set up a system either written or you know, in that case, don't hit me when you walk when I walk in the door, but give me 10 or 15 minutes and have a list of things that you need to talk about and I will help you every step of the way. But it has to be on a limited basis. And for some I'm going to be saying, I really don't know. What do you think? Right? Because you have the personality for figuring out how to do systems for managing files and managing people. I don't have that naturally. I have a lot of experience in the, in real estate and can lend that to the solution. But as far as helping you figure out how to manage the paper and manage the process, I'm a fly by the seat of the pants girl, you know? And that's probably not the best thing for you to do, to keep people around me that don't do that. Like, listen, I'm the, I'm the five. I see guys, you guys need to be organized and on point cause that's not my forte. And you know, like Gary Keller found when he used the dis, he is seated test all the top producing team leaders as agents.

Speaker 3: 00:27:49 Those are the people that get somewhere that people that have that drive, that have that need for speed. If you have that, it's an imperfection. You know, it's not all good but it is necessary to achieve the things that the people that are slower or sidetracked by worrying about what people think. You know, one of my philosophies of life is what you think of me is none of my business. If you want to share it with me, that's fine, but just know it's not going to make a difference to me. I like that. That's a good way to live. You know, I may take it in as feedback but it's not going to change me. It's not going to cause me to be anything but the person that, that I am. And I am very quick to apologize if the way I am offends you. I have no problem with saying my bad. I'm sorry. What can I do to make it better? But one of the things that makes it hard for me to get through life is I found that the best people in technology are CS. They don't mind doing it over and over again until they get it right. They don't mind digging into it and finding how to make it happen. I have the tea, I have the tolerance and patience of a three year old when it comes to dealing with technology. If I can't make it work right away, I just, I try to make enough money to pay somebody to do it.

Speaker 2: 00:30:01 So the only solution, I know this is your thing. Go do that by let me know how it comes out.

Speaker 3: 00:30:10 Exactly. Exactly. So that's why I've, I, it's in some Ba Buddy's book, it may be Bernay Brown that said, what you think of me is none of my business is a great way to live. Because again, if you're a pioneer, you got arrows in your back, you're constantly being told what you're doing wrong then you can let it drag you down. Right. And I decided somewhere in my forties, I'm not doing that anymore. You know, if you're going to be in my life, okay, I can take the criticism, but don't expect me to be different because you think I should be. Yeah. Like in fact I'll thank you for your feedback. You know, that's one of the things about being an entrepreneur and you know, this, people always think that you need to be doing this, this thing

Speaker 2: 00:31:29 Probably once a week and this is, this is how you should run your stuff. I'm like, I'm going to listen. Maybe there's something I can find in there, but you have no clue what's going on behind the scenes.

Speaker 3: 00:31:39 Exactly. Exactly. And one of the things that's behind the scenes is everything has a price at either has a price and money or it has a price and time. Yeah. And you can't do everything that would be good for your business. Right,

Speaker 2: 00:32:00 Exactly. Then that's the thing that I'm constantly struggling with. Like what is the priority? What is the most bang for my buck if I did this? What other problems would also solve? Like if I did x 14 other things I'm worried about, I knew that constantly trying to go through that and seeing where I can get the most out of the limited time and resources that I have.

Speaker 3: 00:32:24 I fully understand. An example is I have somebody that probably thinks I've completely forgot about them that that's not true, but he had a podcast, I was on his podcast and he questioned me. He believed that I should get a podcast and no, I shouldn't. I know that clearly too much technology for me is a lot of where people underestimate. It's like a restaurant. Just don't do it. People just don't do it. Exactly. Exactly. Just because you're a good cook doesn't mean you need a restaurant. Just because you're good with plants doesn't mean that you need a garden center. Yeah, I know all of that. Yes. But his questioning was very insightful in the fact that he asked me what was the biggest amount of time that I spend beyond writing.

Speaker 3: 00:33:31 And that is without a doubt, talking to people that want to book. I see. I have an endless supply. I people that want to talk to me about writing a book, some of them can't afford me. Some of them can't know so little about what it takes to write a book that I can spend two hours just talking to them, answering their questions about what's involved and just my 10 steps on how to make a profitable book. It can take an hour to go over that with a client because they have questions, they have objections to the way I go about doing it and thinking that it's wrong. And every time if I spend the time with them, they understand. They understand that this is the right way to make profit from your book. But because they come from a place of ignorance and preconceived notions, it takes a lot of time.

Speaker 3: 00:34:46 Right? So he suggested that I take the concepts of the 10 steps and some of the essential ingredients of about what people talk about and do a Webinar. Okay. So we started it. It's not finished, but that Webinar, if I basically told people when I meet him on Linkedin or Facebook or, or wherever some I'm these days because I'm doing so many podcast, I have people that are emailing me directly that they saw me on a podcast and they want to talk to me. And if I had that webinar finished, I could say, before we talk, watch this Webinar. And then I've got a book that's already written called your profitable book that is 50 something pages, I think, 53 pages long, where I explain what publishing is, what today, what your options are. And I go over everything just over the surface. I don't get into detail about any of it and it's still 50 something pages. But you know, most people will get confused. What is a coauthor? Why is it, what is a ghost writer? They'll ask me the question that you ask, why be a ghost writer? Why not just be a writer? Why not just be an author? You know, and isn't it a little bit dishonest to have a ghost writer? And the answer is no, no more than it.

Speaker 3: 00:36:29 Well, and it's, that's, yeah, something like 80% of the nonfiction books are written with a ghostwriter or a book coach at least. But there's so much to know about how to put, put a book together that if people really think about doing it all themselves, they need to think about, you know, most of my clients, or at least in their forties, if not in their fifties or sixties, because I only work with people that already have authority level knowledge. So say you do it yourself. Think about when you were in your 20s and you started getting all this knowledge, were you prepared to do the things that you do now? Do you want to be your own Guinea pig? In other words, you know, you're learning something totally new, totally outside your expertise. And I don't care if you made A's and everything that you wrote in college, you're not prepared to write a book.

Speaker 3: 00:37:49 No, you're just not. No, I have, I do have clients that will work with me that they feel like that they're good writers, but two of the things that they are not so comfortable with is first of all, how to get the story out of them in a way that people want to read it. Because what people normally do when they write a book is they come from all their knowledge and they just download that knowledge into a book and they expect everybody to be excited about it. Well, that doesn't work. If you don't come from the reader perspective, then that's not gonna work. But secondly, if you want to not sell books, just right walls of words, you know, just page after page after page, that's just a whole bunch of texts because people will fund through that book and they'll say, hell no, I'm not going to read that.

Speaker 3: 00:38:50 Another thing that you don't do is you don't write a 300 page first book. You're much better off writing three 100 page books. And there's a lot of reasons why that I could get into. But so if they want to write, because they know they have writing skills and they know they can manage the time to do it. And I've written for people that were excellent writers but they were busy entrepreneur are actually corporate owners. So, and they didn't think I could write for them and I just gave him a sample, you know, give me your video that you're going to be writing from. Let me write it for you and see if it's okay. And they hire me every time. So, and one of the reasons why is first of all, I have a gift and I'll give that credit to my higher power of being able to really get inside the brains of my authors and write in their language, in their voice.

Speaker 3: 00:40:04 The thing that is probably more important, getting back to the person that wants to write themselves and they can manage at the time, is they will hire me to coach them. I give them unlimited emails to ask as many questions as they want. And a monthly phone call where I basically interview them on what they're wanting to put in their book and what's different in being interviewed. And then of course I give them the audio and the transcript where they can write. But what's different in doing that with me? And then them just riding is I'll ask, how did you feel that day? You know, what else had gone on? What kind of day, what was the weather? You know, those kinds of things are what make the story interesting. You know, who was with you, how did they respond? Those are kinds of things that make the story interesting.

Speaker 3: 00:41:11 They draw out who you are in a much more effective way for your reader and allow you to write well. And then typically if people really understand what I do, they'll hire me to do that $300 a month. And you know, they get all that, but they couple it with what I call my core services, where I come from. I've been in marketing. Basically real estate is marketing, by the way. I been in some sort of marketing my entire life because it's just natural for me. And so I, I could go into so many stories. Sorry about that. I'll, I'll skip over the one that just popped into my brain. But the the thing that I, I was told, okay, I won't go into detail that I was told by my higher power, just like she was speaking to me in the car.

Speaker 3: 00:42:21 You will be known for your writing. I was in real estate at the time. It was actually before I got back as an agent. It was back in 92. And so I trust that higher power when it speaks to me and it doesn't speak to me often. Usually it's a feeling thing. And in this case it was the words. And I kept out, but you know, I've been published a lot of places, haven't made a whole lot of money until I did it full time. But I trusted that that was true, that I could not figure out how to do it. How can I get known for my writing? I can't pay my bills and less I'm earning something from someone. And there are a whole lot more writers out there that make no money. In fact, one of my mentors did a survey a couple of years ago and only 26% that have freelance writers are single and have to make an income in order to pay their bills.

Speaker 3: 00:43:38 Wow. Tells you something doesn't it? I'm one of that 26%, no family in the and my books. And so because of that, it's not feasible for me to be an author trying to make money off of it. You know, if I had a spouse, if I had a trust fund, if I had something to support me while I wrote the book, I now am convinced that I've got a children's book series that I'm going to make money on some day, but I've got to carve out the time to be able to do it. I have the illustrations figured out. I have the topics figured out, but the process of writing the books, it's time consuming. Yeah. So back to the marketing.

Speaker 3: 00:44:41 I have spent a lot of money in time learning to be a copywriter because that is what I figured out would be my way of moving out of real estate and into writing would be to write web pages, to write articles to write, you know, those kinds of things. And you know, of course all of that ghost writing I thought that was what I needed to do. So I come to the book writing world from a totally different place than any other ghost writer I know of. I know that today's reader won't read walls of words. So I go in and I put all these subheadlines in. You're not going to have two pages without at least three sub headlines and every four or five pages, there'll be a little text box like you see in magazines and blog posts. You know, because what today's reader wants to do is to flip through that book, pick out those subheadlines, pick out those little text boxes, those call out boxes.

Speaker 3: 00:45:52 They call them in, in, in copywriting, and figure out whether they want to read this book or not. A lot of the business books need a summary, key point summaries at the end of each chapter because people will read the chapter title, don't go to the summary and figuring out whether they want to read what's in between. So those are things that I do for people that I don't know any other ghost writer that's doing it. So if they work with me, if they want to write it themselves, they've got time to write it themselves. First of all, I suggest that they do the 10 steps that I have on my, you know, steal it from me. Go right ahead and steal it from me cause it works. And then secondly to hire me to coach you because first I'll keep you on track cause you're accountable to me, but I'll also get better information out of you.

Speaker 3: 00:46:50 And then when the manuscript is completed, then I do what the educated people call developmental editing. In other words, I'll take that manuscript and if it needs to be rearranged, if it needs to be put in a different order, then I'll help you do that. I'll also go in and put on those sub headlines and those call out boxes and those and summaries at the end of the chapters and those kinds of things because that's, I mean it started with what was the first one, Microsoft for dummies or something like that. I mean the dummies books started this trend basically dumb down books and I've had people say, my audience is sophisticated. They don't need their book dumbed down. Well you take a book that has bitten, been written by someone at the doctoral level by themselves at probably about the 20th grade language or maybe even higher, and you take one that has been written in eighth grade language with all the sub headlines is summaries and all of those things and both of them to all my phd friends and ask them which would they rather read, right? It's not an easy question to answer and you can convey your high brown knowledge.

Speaker 3: 00:48:33 I've never found a topic that I couldn't get down to at least 10th grade level, right? Because it has a whole lot of big words in it. But what people want to see is short sentences, short paragraphs, you know, short words, you know. I at one time tried to hire people to do for straps. These are college educated people and it didn't work out because they didn't get that ghost writing is not about your writing. It's about the client authors writing you're writing for them. But one of the guys that was doing the first drafts for me, the author was somebody that grew up on a cotton farm, didn't even have inside plumbing. Wow. Her story was compelling, but because she was driven herself, she got a college education and eventually became a physician's assistant and now she's mayor of a city in south Texas. Very accomplished a whole lot to tell people. But when Brett was ghost writing for her, he used the word protagonist that was not in our authors language. She, she would probably know what protagonists means because she's a smart girl. But would she use it in her language? Absolutely. Right. And you know, Brett, it's not your book, it's hers. So to use words that are not in her everyday language is a disservice to her and I won't allow you to do it.

Speaker 2: 00:50:44 That's how I got in trouble in school using big words. Yeah. The teachers, you didn't write this, but you did write it or you did have somebody ghostwritten or plagiarize. Do you want it? What are the two? You're young enough that that plagiarism is really easy these days it was so easy,

Speaker 3: 00:51:10 But there is a such thing as Copyscape that more and more professors are using because it's so common. If it's out there on the web, then Copyscape we'll find it and call it fraud.

Speaker 2: 00:51:27 Yeah. See when I was in, in high school and college, most people didn't have internet and most teachers didn't know who wrote this. I did actually the Britannica CBI had rode him.

Speaker 3: 00:51:46 Absolutely. Absolutely. Everything you say brings me to another story and I'm gonna tell you one on the topic of, and they'll, you'll find it in your profitable book. The book that I'll give people a download of. Okay. Publishers, well, over half of them will rip you off. Yes. And I'm talking, it can happen a million different ways. You know, a traditional publisher and I'll say that they rip you off because I believe it's true for most people. But not all people. I mean if you're Hillary Clinton, they don't rip you off. Okay.

Speaker 2: 00:52:38 No Obama, yeah. Did he get like $50 million or something to write a book?

Speaker 3: 00:52:41 Exactly. Exactly. But if you are Joe blow expert in their own fields, then that's, they will rip you off. And this is how they do it. Yeah. These days advances are getting smaller and smaller. Unless you're famous. There's only one other way that you can get a good advanced from a traditional publisher and that's to have millions of followings on someplace like you two bar on, you know, Instagram or something like that. If you have millions of followers that you have developed through your expertise, then you may be able to get a a in advance of say 10 to $15,000 that much either though. No, it's not some six figure number at least. No, not at all. Okay. So they give you this little pittance of an advance and then you have to write your book yourself. Or you have to hire a ghost writer. I charge more than $15,000.

Speaker 3: 00:53:56 So you know, you're going to have some skin in the game. If you go with a traditional publisher, even though you think they're going to do a lot more for you and they can. But secondly, if you are putting proposals out there to be accepted by traditional publishers, you can search the Internet and find out how many authors have gotten dozens and dozens and dozens of rejection slips. So if that's how you want to spend your time, go right ahead. It makes a good story when you're selling the book. I was rejected 74 times if that's what you want to do, go right ahead. Because most of those people get rejected dozens of times and they didn't, they come back and they self publish. So and then they get bought out when they're successful because the traditional publishers will buy it. Once you've proven that it's a good so you know, and then say you get in and they do give you an advance.

Speaker 3: 00:55:11 And they do get involved in your book, essentially are losing all control. They're going to make that book what they think it should be. They will get you involved, but they'll be sending these high and mighty editors opinions about the way it should be done. And God bless you if you disagree, you know, so that's it. But most people when they get a contract from a traditional publisher, they to sign it cause they're so happy to have it. They don't read it. And very often in those publishing contract racks, they want to own not only that book, but they also want to own any audio rights in a translation rights. Any other things that you might do with that book? They want control over all of it because after all, they've given you $15,000 in marketing. They're going to put behind it and everything they're going to, yeah, but they don't a whole lot of marketing.

Speaker 3: 00:56:25 Yeah. Distribution, they do well. Right. Distribution, they do well. But marketing, they won't take you unless you tell them what marketing you're going to do. That's part of your proposal. Wow. And if you don't have these things that you know, you tell them how many linkedin followers you've got and how many this and the things that you're willing to do in the will at time, you're going to take off work in order to promote the book. If you don't have those, it's not likely you're going to get that $15,000 because you've got to sell to them. The idea that you are going to do the marketing, the, the strongest involvement that they do. And a lot of times they don't even do that is to get you bookings in bookstores and stuff like that to go around marketing at yourself at your dime. They don't pay for it, you know?

Speaker 3: 00:57:19 So all of this, and then when it's done, your royalties start at something like 7% of the cover price. Wow. 7% if you get enough sales, it'll go up to 15% dollar. Exactly. So it's, you know, they have to depend on book sales because book sales are bare core and they will help you along. But you're going to be spending a lot of money in a whole lot of time doing your own marketing, even if you're with a traditional publisher. If you, if you flip that and you're, I've bought the domain and haven't done anything with it, but book boss publishing because I don't think you should self publish by yourself. I think that's foolish. I think that's a waste of your time. Very few people can make money if they're learning how to publish as I go. The way to make money.

Speaker 3: 00:58:36 And if you do that, you can make 90% of your cover price and book sales. You just won't make many mount of money. Exactly. Exactly. What I think the sweet spot is is for you to work with a, a what is termed in the industry as a hybrid publisher. These are people that will do the actual publishing. They'll do the printing and they'll do, they'll perhaps get you on Amazon, perhaps build you a web page perhaps. Do all these different things in. My first caution is don't go with somebody that promises you this package for a certain amount of money, but they won't break it down and let you buy what you want. So therefore their, their services are one or two things. Either something like ghost writing that they will call editing even if you haven't written a thing. So they will basically give you referrals and you'll have to hire that person on your own and addition to what you'd pay them or they will hire the cheapest possible ghost writer and editor they can find.

Speaker 3: 01:00:17 And is that what you want for your book? The answer is no. So if you work with someone that is a freelancer typically and there are some excellent publishers out there that are very small shops. They've learned how to publish on Amazon and get you to add a top seller status that I think that's important. Yeah. What you're, you're experts in the industry will tell you is it doesn't mean anything. And that's true. It doesn't mean anything. I mean, I'm going to tell you a story in a second about a publisher that has some journals that are top sellers, you know, formatted pages, top seller. So getting to be a top seller is not a meaningful thing to those of us in the industry that understand that. But I also understand marketing and to that person that's considering buying a book, being an Amazon best seller does have meaning.

Speaker 3: 01:01:33 It's just a marketing ploy on hundred percent. Again, nick, but you need it [inaudible] times' bestseller list and all that other stuff. Well, New York Times bestseller is a little bit more legitimate than Amazon bestseller is. It's still up to whenever they feel like putting on the list though, right? Absolutely. And you better have a PR person if you want to be a New York Times bestseller, right? You need a literary agent and a, and a and a PR person, or at least a PR person in order to get there. And you know, it can be done. It's just gonna cost you. So why don't I go ahead and tell quickly the story of the publisher that I no longer work with. Sure. They ask me to quote unquote edit a book that had been written. I gave him an exceptional price, which was a big mistake. And then I get into this manuscript and it's clear she had copied and pasted the entire manuscript wow. From other people's work. And very rarely did she give them acknowledgement. So like an idiot, I stayed with it. I went and googled every phrase that was clearly plagiarized and, and tour. I could give credit to everything I could. And 

Speaker 3: 01:03:12 You know, they're one of those publishing companies that are known for being Amazon best seller. I think they get everything to Amazon bestseller status and that's why you pay them the big bucks. But they will not, no matter how many times I ask, tell me how much they'd charge just to do that. Just to do that. I don't one have 50 books as part of the package. I don't want you to build my website. Your website's are crappy. I don't want you to do my cover because your covers are templates. You know, I, you know, I don't want you to do any of those things. Just tell me how much you'll charge me to take my book once I've been the boss of it and hired my own cover desire and my own interior designer in my own webpage builder. What would you charge to get it to number one or just a Amazon bestseller, which there's a difference between number one Amazon bestseller by so what do you charge to do that? They won't tell me, so I don't work with them anymore. 

Speaker 3: 01:04:24 And I could go on, you know, between the plagiarism thing and the fact that they won't do that, you know, it was really hard. They were feeding my business and it was really hard to be suddenly not part of their corral of people that got their business. But I would been stuck in a whole lot lower level of what I was paid. But you know, I'm willing to work for less if I don't have to market, but it's time consuming and expensive to do your own marketing. And so the law was pretty severe when I stopped getting their clients. Now I'm up to doing more than I was doing with them. Awesome. But when it comes to hybrid publishers, there's again read contract, go online and find out the ratings. I was supposed to be given a link to a company, a organization that does right hybrid publishers, but you'll be surprised at the ones that have really bad writings. I'm going to go ahead and give you one of those because one of my friends was so proud of the fact that he had written the book himself and it was published by Balboa press and it looked so good

Speaker 3: 01:06:02 And he looked at their ratings after the fact. It's part of Hay House. So you would think something that is as spiritual as hay house, they would be 100% honest and above board and it's for their authors and all of that. He doesn't feel that way anymore, you know. And I won't get into the details of why, but he feels like they over promised and under delivered as the bottom line. And that is very common in hybrid publishers. So I'm very strong in the fact that, you know, I can put you in touch with people, you can talk to as many people as you want to about every aspect of your book that you want to be done professionally. Because the key to profitability and books is for somebody to see it on the bookshelf, pick it up and can't tell any difference between the one that was printed by a traditional publisher and the one that was done by 

Speaker 4: 01:07:16 Okay.

Speaker 3: 01:07:16 Self publishing. Because if you get the right people working for you, then there isn't any difference because we know how to do it right. And we're unknown almost compared to all the people that are, I mean, if you rip people off, you've got a lot of money to spend marketing that's funny and sad and true. Yes. Yes. And you've seen that even in podcasting. Yes. if you throw enough money at it, then you can, you can become, you know, you can buy likes, you can buy all sorts of things so you can buy your way to the top and pretty much everything. Pretty much everything. Yeah. So that gets me back to the range of your profitability, your, your portion of the cover price. Even if you hire the very best people in every aspect of your book and you market it, like I can teach you how to do, you use it as a platform, then you're going to make at least 50% of the cover price.

Speaker 3: 01:08:41 Wow. Big Difference Between 15 and 51, five, two, five, zero is a good difference there. You might put some good food on your plate. Exactly. And it that, that level of investment into your book, you may get on the morning news, it may get on stages with some of the most famous people out there. You may develop workshops that will rival Lisa Sasevich. You know, you can do these things with your book that without a book you could not do. Right. you're opening a business. When you write a book, you're not publishing books to put on the shelf at Barnes and noble.

Speaker 2: 01:09:31 See the difference in what you're saying. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 01:09:33 Yeah. So be very wary of anybody you hire to help you with your book. And I only will give referrals to people that hire me because I understand that I've spent years developing miss list and, and you can pick my brain about what I do, but you can't pick my brain about the people I know who can do other things for you. So that's not allowed. So but I can help them do that. So pick your amount of professionalism you want to build into being the boss of your book and make somewhere between 50 to 90% of your cover price rather than 15. If you start selling books seven. If you don't. So it's, it's pretty sad. What about,

Speaker 2: 01:10:43 Do you have any tips or tricks, whatever, just the, for our everyday writing, is there stuff we can do to improve the way we, we send emails or we, we, we write different things that we kind of come across on a daily basis?

Speaker 3: 01:10:56 Absolutely. I thought I might be able to put my hands on it right quickly, but basically study copywriting. Okay. You know, it, you know, whether you go pick up books on copywriting or you words that sell is one of the books that I highly recommend. It's on my bookshelf that, sure. I think it was written by Bli bl. Why forgotten what his first name is. But what that does is we all get stuck in a Rut and we use the same words over and over again, or we use the words in the email that we opened or the blog posts we read where

Speaker 3: 01:11:54 Overused words have no power. Right. where the power comes from is something that's easy to understand, short and powerful. So in his words with that sell book, he's got words and then a page or more of other words that you can use. Oh. So it helps you a lot. But one of the first things they taught taught me as a copywriter and I, that was way back about 2004 or so. I got a binder with a teaching me how to be a copywriter. And the first thing that he had in the book shocked just shocked me. You know how,

Speaker 4: 01:12:55 Yeah.

Speaker 3: 01:12:56 To know a copywriter, they copy literally copy. So what he suggested you do is to win something.

Speaker 4: 01:13:09 Okay.

Speaker 3: 01:13:09 Catches your eye that you're reading. Have A, you know, at the time you would have a paper binder of things that caught your eye. You know, I was printing emails, I had an entire drawer about so wide and so deep full of things that I had, I had copied of other people's stuff. So if I went to own a style book. Exactly. So when I went to write something on a general topic, then I would go from through my drawer paper and find something that was applicable to what I wanted to write. And you cannot plagiarize copywriters do not plagiarize. What they do is copy. They copy style, they copy powerful words and phrases. They copy.

Speaker 4: 01:14:07 Yeah,

Speaker 3: 01:14:08 I mean style is the big one when you, you know, they don't have as many lat long landing pages today as they did 10 years ago. Yes. But you know,

Speaker 5: 01:14:20 Hmm.

Speaker 3: 01:14:22 Copywriters originally before they came to the net, rarely got paid a fee for actually writing those big old letters that you are too young for it to even get. But we used to get big old thick financial letters for example. Kiplinger used to send them and it was just page after page after page of very convincing language. What people don't understand is those copywriters, we're probably not paid anything to ride it. They were paid for the response. I see. So if you are paid by how much response you get, you get better at convincing people. And so that's how you learn how to write something compelling, concise and clear. And the job of a copywriter is to get the reader to take action. So start noticing what gets your attention, what convinces you to move forward on something. And even though you may not be at all interested in, in it, actually, if you feel yourself moving that way and questioning yourself, that's good copy. So that's what I learned to do. Okay. And I made my living from 2011 when I left real estate until 20. Oh, what year is this? 19.

Speaker 3: 01:16:07 Yeah, it was about 2015 when I started doing books. So the first five years or so I was doing web pages. And believe me, web pages are a whole lot harder to write than you'll ever believe. Yeah, they're hard. They're very hard because you can't use a lot of words. So writing web pages, writing articles, I've been published in all sorts of national and international magazines under somebody else's name. 

Speaker 5: 01:16:44 Okay.

Speaker 3: 01:16:44 But I'd forgotten where I was going with that. But the thing that I will go on to say that the thing that started me writing books is seeing those phd level books out there. Brilliant people with wonderful information written 20th grade level as a copywriter, they won't pay you a dime if it's written over eighth grade language.

Speaker 2: 01:17:20 Wow. Yeah. I hear most things written out like a sixth grade language.

Speaker 3: 01:17:24 Okay. That's preferred. That's preferred. If it's over eighth grade you will not be paid. It's just that simple. They are rejected and you're, you're lucky if they'll accept it. Even if you rewrite it, it must be written at a elementary school level. And some of your most famous authors, I've got a document somewhere in my stuff that, that has a scale of the grade level and the famous authors the most famous are down under say eighth grade level. Okay. No. So you know, make sure you don't use large words. That's how you are able to get people to let read what you have to say.

Speaker 2: 01:18:23 Is there any words or phrases that we should kind of stop using that are just no no's are turn offs or something like that?

Speaker 3: 01:18:33 It's really according to your audience. Okay. Yeah, no, there's an awful lot of overused words. And for example, in social media, you know, but if your audience is all into social media, even use lol. I don't like lol. I've gotten used to it myself. You know, I'd much rather say laugh out loud. Those are three simple words and you can say it in the same amount of effort. Yes. Now I do like BTW instead of ps. Oh, I never thought about that. That's just me because to me that fits today's language. Yes. Yes. Most people don't have a clue what that even means. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 01:19:25 I'm going to quiz them. I think when our friend children know what that means,

Speaker 3: 01:19:28 Probably not. Probably not. Just like they wouldn't know how to use a rotary phone if you put it in front of them.

Speaker 2: 01:19:35 My son, was it just a regular key pad phone? Right when he was two or three. He's, what is that? Dad has, it's a phone. He said, son, it's not a phone dad. There's no screen on it.

Speaker 3: 01:19:51 I see your point, but I'm telling you that's a phone. Yes. You know, I could talk about phones all day long, but they've changed a lot. I personally don't like smart phones. Yeah. Compare if I'm going to be just talking on the phone, I've often been tempted to get, you know, I have a fairly decent size smartphone, but getting one just a little bit bigger, maybe an eight inch and carrying that with me in my purse and getting a flip phone for calls.

Speaker 2: 01:20:27 I want to get rid of my phone and just had just have a flip phone, but there's just a few things I just can't get rid of it. It's just when I had a flip phone, I could flip it up and dial the number and never take the the my eyes off the road. No problem. No problems. Demands now. Well I don't. I'm older than you are. Not by much. What has been the best failure you've had in your life and what? What helped you get through it? How did you get through it? What did you learn?

Speaker 3: 01:21:08 Most profound failure I've made was going from being a top producer, owning a home top 10% and not top 2%. You know, I never reached that, but I was in the top 10% for more than a decade. Had average sales prices or real estate or AV 400,000 about and worked with very high achieving people. Then in September, 2008, Hurricane Ike hit Houston. I ended up with a tree in my house and didn't have power for something like 14 days. Blue Tarp, the works. And while I was trying to recover from, I like the financial markets fail in a big way. Oh yeah. Real estate market pretty well went away. But especially in the upper ranges, you know, starter homes were selling a little bit, but my relationships were in starter homes. No, I made, I think the first six months I made a few leases and I think I made something like $3,500 in six months. Wow. I thought I had a reserve. You realize how long it takes. You go through a reserve when you're not making any money? Yeah,

Speaker 2: 01:23:01 Very rapidly. So

Speaker 3: 01:23:06 I had to, between September of 2008 and January of 2011, I had two, six month periods of time that I made less than $4,000. Wow. that was a big failure. I gave up my house in lieu of foreclosure because it couldn't be sold. It was in the middle of a, of a remedy renovation. It was a 1956 house that was adorable. Bones, hardwood floors. You know, I had walls that weren't completed. I had, you know, all sorts of things that made the house unsalable. And I didn't have enough equity to do the, we buy ugly houses type of solution. So I basically gave it up in lieu of foreclosure. And I was so convinced that I had to own something that I got a big commission and Barton Rv and went through my house and decided what 10% of stuff I was going to put in a warehouse and what 90% I was going to get rid of in an estate sale. And just donations. Hardest thing I think I've ever done.

Speaker 3: 01:24:45 Living in an RV was not very good. It's a bad experience. So I eventually rented. And in the first quarter of 2010, I made more money than I ever made. Very, very happy. So I took a commission. No, I sold my RV and bought a BMW because I was driving to tourists at the time and it was beginning to fall apart. It was a five year old BMW and didn't make another dime the rest of the year. So by the end of 2010, I was questioning whether I was going to stay in real estate and I remembered that I was told that I would be known for my writing. I could no longer pay rent on my apartment. I tried staying with a friend that lasted four months. But while I was there, I had quit real estate the first quarter of 2011.

Speaker 3: 01:26:00 I refer it out more than a million dollars worth of, and basically lived on the referral to gates and a little bit of writing and com started working for $15 an hour online. Wow. Built a portfolio and started growing my writing business. My friends were worried about me. They didn't see any way that I could survive. But I did 2014 the IRS got tired of waiting on their money, so it got worse. It got worse. I am now almost finished with my bankruptcy, so it's been a rough, what does that 10 years just little over. Yeah. but would I go back? I'm so glad to not be in real estate anymore. Oh God. I seriously considered getting back in in 2014 because the real estate market was doing so well. But what I knew is today's public cannot distinguish between a 30 year old right out of real estate school and somebody with 30 years experience.

Speaker 3: 01:27:39 They don't see, see real estate as a skilled profession. You know, the truth is you can lose more money with a bad real estate agent then you can with a bad lawyer. Yeah. And you care a little bit about hiring a good lawyer, but most people don't care about hiring a good agent because they don't understand what real estate agents do. So I decided I just don't want to get in that world anymore. What I'm doing now, I can make a distinctive delineation between what I do and what everybody else does. It's very easy compared to being a real estate agent. Ghost writers will tell you, it's very hard to do that, but they weren't real estate agents. But it says easy comparatively. It's not easy, but it's easy compared to trying to make a name for yourself as a real estate agent. So my profit ready focus is something that I don't know anybody else doing.

Speaker 3: 01:28:51 Thank you for sharing. That story has a lot there. Is there, is there one or two things that you could maybe lend it or something that really helped you get through all that tragedy and the toughness? Can I go woo on, you know, whatever, whatever will help anybody out there for anybody that's open to it. I was in a study group for five years on a book called a course in miracles. Okay. And the groups, it's called ACA. I am because that's easy. It is a book that takes, if I, if I had a memory, I would recite you. The hey, guess what?

Speaker 3: 01:29:53 I don't have a memory, but I have a bookshelf. What it says in the beginning of a course in miracles is, oh, come on. Okay. This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take as voluntary freewill does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at any given time. The course does not aim at teaching. The meaning of love for that is beyond what we can be taught. It does Ame, however, at removing the blocks to awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance, the opposite of love is fear. But what is all encompassing can have no opposite. This course can there for be summed up very simply and this way nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists here in lies the peace of God.

Speaker 3: 01:31:14 This book is written primarily and I am the pentameter like Shakespeare. If, but if you can fully understand this introduction, you don't need to read a page of it, but it takes years and years and years to understand it. And I had been in this and I don't claim to totally understand it now, but I was in this group for five years and came into it with a lot of this kind of understanding already because I had been studying this kind of thing all along. And in our group, one of the things that said in the book, and I'm going to go out on a limb and tell you that those of us that believe a course in miracles, I believe that it was dictated by Jesus. Jesus was trying to explain what we as humans have screwed up since he was here on this earth. There's a lot of references to the Bible and explanations of what he really meant or what was meant in the Bible. But he says very clearly that humans get hung up and words the word God is something that every single person has a different concept about what God is. I personally believe that the people that have the most clear idea about what God is, or atheist, they know what they don't believe in.

Speaker 3: 01:32:56 So we agreed in our group to use, you know, the trinity, the active part of the trinity is Holy Spirit and Jesus. And to just use J for Jesus and hs for F for Holy Spirit because it, it's not charged. It doesn't have the energy that, that the words do. So my mantra from January of 2011 until I still use it today, just not as much, is hs and Jay have it your way. I don't know what to do. I have tried my darndest. I have worked my fingers to the bones. I have worked hours and hours, I've saved money, I've done all the things that I should do and I screwed up every time. I don't know what to do. So I just said, Jay, I'm going to pick my foot up every day. You tell me where to put it down. Hs and Jay have it your way. Hsn, Jay Habits or when I release any desire to control my life, I think it's the secret to life. That's perfect. That's a, that's a great skill to cultivate. The knowing what is in your control and I, you're controlling and doing what just all you can do basically. Nothing's in your control. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 01:34:39 Yeah. There's so much out there that we have no influence over, but we try so hard to have, you know, if we can trust most people, whether they go to church or not and I'm not a big church goer. Believe that there is a power that not only is out there more capable of controlling our lives and making our lives turn out well, but it also is a power that joins us, that glues us together. That what you do affects me. What I do affects you when you do good things for other people, it ripples out like a pebble in a pond. It is. We are all connected intimately with each other on an energetic level. So that power is not out there. It's not a guy with a white beard and the sky, you know, it is here. It is what breathes us. It is who we are. And if we can trust that part of who we are, life gets good. Yes it does. So what is the best place for people to get ahold of you and learn more about you, maybe even get your services or, or, or your resources?

Speaker 3: 01:36:17 Well and email is the best way to reach me or a linkedin message. So you know, I'm, I'll link to that in the show notes for you guys. Okay. I have over 16,000 connections in Linkedin, so I'm fairly easy to find. My email is based on my primary website, which is a thorny redefined.com and it's really easy to remember because who I work with is, first of all, I believe everybody's an authority in something, but you have to have that authority available for your book. And what you're going to do by working with me is really fine it into something else. You know, that book is going to be a launching pad for you to do other things that you've always wanted to do. So authority, redefined.com is the website. And my email is Kate at authority, rady.com too easy. And I said I will link all of that. So don't panic folks. You can just do and I'm just click right over and we'll, we'll have that all set up for you guys. Well, I have another website where I do my I won't get into why it's different. I'll just say that@authorlegacyresource.com. That's where they can download the a book I've been mentioning. Your profitable book. Yeah. Perfect. We'll, we'll set all that up and

Speaker 2: 01:37:56 We'll link to that. You guys can get ahold of those resources. Get you guys going. If you're interested in writing a book, if you've never thought you could do it, there's, there's things out there that case got we can get, you know, she can get you going and get you headed in the right direction. And then the last thing here on the social community show, what we like to do is, well, I like to have a weekly challenge to help out the listeners implement either some ideas or concepts or where they're from. This episode are not to to really help them, you know, take, take this challenge this week to improve your life, get your 1% better at something. And I would like to give you the opportunity to issue this week's challenge.

Speaker 3: 01:38:38 My challenge would be to find more quiet time if you don't have any, then try five minutes. If you already are doing something like meditating or doing something that quiets your mind, then increased it by five minutes. Find more quiet time or have more than one session where you're being quiet. Because what that's going to do is, and most people have trouble with it, so I'll give you a hint on how to do that. When you get quiet, the chattering monkeys get busy in your brain. Yes they do. I just go nuts. The way to handle that is to thank them. I have a balloon, surround them and let them float away. Forgive yourself for having chattering monkeys. Just go back. Once you've surrounded them or however you dismiss them, first you gotta sank them or they won't go away. But however you dismiss them, come back to try to be, to silence your mind.

Speaker 3: 01:39:54 Not, no. That sounds like you're trying to force it. Forcing won't work to feel silenced in your mind to just have, if it's two seconds, that's a tiny little moment, but it'll make a difference. Yes. Just try to increase that. And what you'll find is your own divinity. You'll find why you were put on this earth. You will find where your gifts are, what is important to you to share. I started and stopped with important to you, but who cares? What's important to you, what's important to you. We're all put here for a purpose. We all have something that is important for us to put out into the world or you wouldn't have been born. So what is important for you to share? Use those silent moments to learn that

Speaker 2: 01:40:53 Perfect child.

Speaker 3: 01:40:54 I love it. I love it. I love it. Is there anything you want to talk about our hope to say that we haven't covered here today? No, I think I've covered it all. You know, it's I want people to take advantage of my resources even if they are absolutely certain they don't want to hire me. Sure. because I think it's going to be useful for them if they feel like they can use my resources then have at it, get them, use them and never call me. If you do have an interest in being a book author, then I invite them for free consultation.

Speaker 2: 01:41:39 Yeah. And like I said, I'm 10 times probably now. I will link to this stuff guys. I've gone through a bunch of these things. There's some really great stuff there, great articles, videos, other podcasts. The listen things that, there's so much there. I could probably spend 10 minutes talking about it at all. There's grades of take advantage of this cane is so generous to have these things in to Bob. He sees for you guys, if you're thinking about writing a book, if you're in the middle of writing one, I'd say go in here, check these things out. Hey, thank you so, so much for sharing all of your wisdom and your generous time. It's been absolute pleasure.

Speaker 3: 01:42:14 It's been a pleasure for me too. I usually don't enjoy a podcast for this much.

Speaker 2: 01:42:19 Well I'm glad you did. That makes me feel good to talk to you so much. Thank you so much. And like I said took us drones for everything will be there. Oh right. Wow. Kate man, she just has so much knowledge, so much information and she so gracious to share with us all that stuff. Great. Great stuff. If you guys would like more from her, let me know and see if I can get it back on and we can do a part two and I'm sure she's not even warmed up yet. If you're looking for what we have going on for giveaways this month, head over to the social community.show/pick me. We're always looking for products or services or books or whatever it is that we find that we're using. We like to help us grow and learn, improve ourselves. What that 1%, you know, whether it's monthly, daily, weekly, whatever it is, things that add value to our life, eight or life, making it better and more efficient and more effective.

Speaker 2: 01:43:09 Whatever it is we're looking for that. We're trying to give that away to you guys to help you. Give you guys that leg up, help you guys accelerate your growth. If you want to know, we have going on, go check out what we have at the social chameleon doc show slash HC me and again, no something wants to look at checkout. She does align and if you know somebody that's been talking about or is working on a book, share this with them. Get, get to give them this as a gift to help them. Help them aid in their process or eight in there, putting this together or getting over the hump of starting. Share this with your friends and family if you're interested. If you're liking what we have going on here, I'd like to leave a light review, whatever it is, good or bad, please go ahead and do that in your favorite podcast app right here on Youtube in between shows. You guys can catch us all week long and the social communities show on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Don't forget to subscribe on the youtube if you like the video version or in your favorite podcast APP, you're already listening to this and now for past episodes and links, everything to talk about here today, you can visit the social chameleon in that show and until next time, keep learning, keep reading and writing. Growing. Transforming is that person you want to become.

 

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