In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, I’m excited to share a conversation I had with Eric Jorgenson, CEO of Scribe Publishing. Eric asked me all about why I chose to write my book, The Leader Assistant.
In this conversation, we talk about how the book changed throughout the process, what opportunities have come from publishing a book, how I went about marketing the book, and more! (You can watch the video of this conversation here).
Interested in self-publishing your book? Learn more about Scribe’s book publishing services.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00.180 –> 00:00:03.220
JEREMY: In-person meeting planning can be a lot to manage.
00:00:03.220 –> 00:00:05.940
JEREMY: That’s where TROOP Planner comes in.
00:00:05.940 –> 00:00:10.560
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00:00:10.560 –> 00:00:19.640
JEREMY: Whether you’re organizing an executive offsite, department meeting, or team retreat, TROOP keeps it simple, fast, and organized.
00:00:19.640 –> 00:00:34.480
JEREMY: From choosing the perfect location to managing budgets, coordinating travel, and tracking attendee details, TROOP brings everything together in one easy-to-use platform, so you can save time and focus on what matters most.
00:00:34.480 –> 00:00:41.140
JEREMY: TROOP has an exclusive offer for Leader Assistant listeners through Administrative Professionals Day, so don’t miss out.
00:00:41.140 –> 00:00:45.180
JEREMY: Visit leaderassistant.com/troop to learn more.
00:00:46.760 –> 00:00:48.860
JEREMY: Hey friends, welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast.
00:00:48.860 –> 00:00:52.680
JEREMY: It’s your host Jeremy Burrows, and this is episode 312.
00:00:53.240 –> 00:01:04.000
JEREMY: Thanks so much for your support, for sharing the show, listening to the show, leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen to the show.
00:01:04.000 –> 00:01:18.380
JEREMY: Really, really appreciate you listening and you are what drives me to produce more content to help you lead well, resist burnout, automate before you’re automated, and grow in your confidence as a Leader Assistant.
00:01:18.380 –> 00:01:20.100
JEREMY: So thanks so much for being here.
00:01:20.700 –> 00:01:25.560
JEREMY: Okay, so most of you know that I wrote a book called The Leader Assistant.
00:01:25.560 –> 00:01:34.860
JEREMY: I published it in June of 2020, and it’s a bestseller on Amazon.
00:01:34.860 –> 00:01:44.060
JEREMY: It’s been bestseller in multiple categories over the last few years that it’s been out, and it was a long process.
00:01:44.060 –> 00:01:46.060
JEREMY: It cost a lot of money.
00:01:46.060 –> 00:01:55.900
JEREMY: It cost a lot of time and a lot of headache, and it was a big risk to write this and invest this much time and energy and money into this project.
00:01:55.900 –> 00:02:18.020
JEREMY: But thankfully, it has paid off, and I wanted to share today a conversation I had about writing and publishing my book with Eric Jorgenson, who’s actually the CEO of Scribe, which is the company that I worked with back in 2019, 2020 to self-publish my book The Leader Assistant.
00:02:18.300 –> 00:02:20.420
JEREMY: So, it’s a great conversation.
00:02:20.420 –> 00:02:26.240
JEREMY: He had some good questions and interviewed me, so it’s nice to flip the mic around and answer questions.
00:02:26.240 –> 00:02:39.380
JEREMY: But I know a lot of you are interested in writing a book, or maybe have already begun writing a book, and even assistants of the world that have reached out saying, hey, I’m writing a book for assistants.
00:02:39.380 –> 00:02:39.960
JEREMY: I love it.
00:02:39.960 –> 00:02:45.220
JEREMY: I’m super supportive of people who want to take that risk and take that leap.
00:02:45.880 –> 00:03:00.540
JEREMY: And if you ever would like to discuss maybe a deep dive, I’ve done one-on-one coaching with authors, specifically executive assistant authors who are writing a book or have recently published a book.
00:03:00.540 –> 00:03:11.580
JEREMY: And I love helping other assistant authors really think through the process and work on how to self-publish and tips for writing and all those things.
00:03:11.580 –> 00:03:14.440
JEREMY: So hope this conversation is helpful, but feel free to reach out.
00:03:15.700 –> 00:03:27.160
JEREMY: If you’d like to dive into some deep coaching on the whole process and get a little more nuanced and specific to your dream of publishing a book someday.
00:03:27.160 –> 00:03:32.480
JEREMY: So you can reach out to me at jeremy at leaderassistant.com.
00:03:32.480 –> 00:03:42.580
JEREMY: Just shoot me an email and I would love to talk and share more about my one-on-one coaching for published authors or soon to be published authors.
00:03:43.100 –> 00:03:51.020
JEREMY: So here’s the conversation about writing and publishing a best selling book with Eric Jorgenson, CEO of Scribe and myself.
00:03:51.020 –> 00:03:51.740
JEREMY: I hope you enjoy it.
00:03:57.912 –> 00:04:05.532
<v SPEAKER_3>The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing leader assistants.
00:04:13.858 –> 00:04:15.898
ERIC: All right, Jeremy Burrows, welcome, man.
00:04:15.898 –> 00:04:17.878
ERIC: It’s good to talk to you.
00:04:17.878 –> 00:04:18.378
JEREMY: Thanks, Eric.
00:04:18.378 –> 00:04:20.458
JEREMY: Thanks for having me.
00:04:20.678 –> 00:04:40.418
ERIC: As the author of The Leader Assistant, which I know has sold a ton of copies, and I’m excited to hear more about what else it’s done for your business or for you and your career, but I want to start at the very beginning, which is just like, where did the kernel of the idea for writing a book come about?
00:04:41.578 –> 00:04:41.798
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:04:41.798 –> 00:04:42.578
JEREMY: Thanks, Eric.
00:04:42.578 –> 00:04:43.818
JEREMY: Great question.
00:04:44.918 –> 00:04:50.138
JEREMY: I’ve been an executive assistant for almost 18 years now, and I was in between jobs.
00:04:50.138 –> 00:05:00.218
JEREMY: My last executive had gotten fired, and I decided to take a break, and decided I had burned out, and he had burned out, and trying to figure out what to do with my life.
00:05:00.578 –> 00:05:03.758
JEREMY: Sold my house, sold most of our belongings.
00:05:03.758 –> 00:05:09.998
JEREMY: My wife and I took our two little boys literally to the mountaintop in Colorado to figure out what we’re going to do with our lives.
00:05:10.778 –> 00:05:17.778
JEREMY: And through that whole process, I realized that I wanted to help.
00:05:18.038 –> 00:05:19.338
JEREMY: I wanted to avoid burnout.
00:05:19.338 –> 00:05:29.938
JEREMY: I wanted to avoid making the same mistakes, but I also wanted to help other people, and specifically other assistants and executives with assistance, avoid making the same mistakes.
00:05:29.938 –> 00:05:36.398
JEREMY: So I just started blogging, I started networking, I started coaching some of the executives I knew that had assistants.
00:05:36.398 –> 00:05:46.718
JEREMY: And fast forward a couple of years, I had been doing that and I had gotten a new EA to the CEO gig at a software company called Capacity.
00:05:46.718 –> 00:05:54.098
JEREMY: And I was to the point where I was having the same conversations over and over again.
00:05:54.098 –> 00:05:57.258
JEREMY: You know, I was having the same coaching sessions over and over again.
00:05:57.258 –> 00:06:03.298
JEREMY: I was sharing the same advice to groups of assistants at different companies and organizations.
00:06:03.298 –> 00:06:17.238
JEREMY: And I realized, you know what, if I really want to help as many assistants as possible, I’ve got to get this down into a shareable, scalable version.
00:06:17.238 –> 00:06:27.338
JEREMY: And I thought, okay, well, a book would be a pretty easy way to, not easy to write the book, but easy way to distribute it once the book is done.
00:06:27.338 –> 00:06:29.558
JEREMY: And so I thought, well, okay, maybe I should write a book.
00:06:29.558 –> 00:06:35.058
JEREMY: And so I started looking at my blogs and I was like, man, I have like 75,000 words written already.
00:06:35.478 –> 00:06:38.478
JEREMY: And so that kind of triggered it.
00:06:38.478 –> 00:06:41.718
JEREMY: And yeah, we can talk about the whole process.
00:06:41.718 –> 00:06:48.478
JEREMY: But once I realized I had enough to say that, and I knew what was helpful.
00:06:48.478 –> 00:06:50.798
JEREMY: And then I sat down and freed out an outline.
00:06:50.798 –> 00:06:53.678
JEREMY: It was, it was off to the races.
00:06:53.678 –> 00:06:54.078
ERIC: That’s great.
00:06:54.078 –> 00:06:55.478
ERIC: There’s a couple of good heuristics in there.
00:06:55.478 –> 00:07:04.338
ERIC: I think the, like feeling like you’re repeating yourself is, is actually a great heuristic of like, man, I’ve had the same phone call 50 times.
00:07:04.618 –> 00:07:05.918
ERIC: Everybody’s asking the same questions.
00:07:05.918 –> 00:07:07.958
ERIC: I’ve given the same answers and they love it.
00:07:07.958 –> 00:07:10.798
ERIC: And, you know, they are changed because of it.
00:07:10.798 –> 00:07:12.058
ERIC: That’s a great answer.
00:07:12.058 –> 00:07:17.518
ERIC: The other is, how long have you been blogging to come up with that 75,000 words?
00:07:17.518 –> 00:07:27.338
JEREMY: I started in 2016 and I sat down to figure out the outline and decide to write the book in 2019.
00:07:27.398 –> 00:07:33.118
JEREMY: Probably late summer 2018 is when I really sat down and was like, oh, I’ve got this many words written.
00:07:33.118 –> 00:07:37.018
JEREMY: And now let’s figure out if I can come up with an outline that I like.
00:07:37.018 –> 00:07:42.378
JEREMY: And once I found the outline, I was like, all right, well, I’ve got this content to put in this part of the outline.
00:07:42.378 –> 00:07:47.658
JEREMY: I’ve got this blog post that I can rewrite for this part and piece it together.
00:07:47.658 –> 00:07:48.318
ERIC: Yeah, that’s smart.
00:07:48.318 –> 00:07:59.978
ERIC: I mean, I think it’s really smart to start over with a blank sheet of paper and write a book outline rather than see which blogs work or what content works rather than trying to just jam them all in.
00:07:59.978 –> 00:08:04.398
ERIC: So by that point, when you decided to write a book, you had a coaching business primarily?
00:08:05.578 –> 00:08:12.698
JEREMY: Yeah, I was mostly, so let’s see, I was doing some speaking here and there training.
00:08:12.698 –> 00:08:16.058
JEREMY: I was doing one-on-one coaching.
00:08:16.058 –> 00:08:20.498
JEREMY: I had an online, couple online courses.
00:08:20.498 –> 00:08:24.178
JEREMY: I had a 30-day, I still have a 30-day assistant challenge.
00:08:24.298 –> 00:08:27.278
JEREMY: It’s like the email course for assistants.
00:08:27.278 –> 00:08:32.558
JEREMY: And then, of course, I was full-time executive assistant as I still am.
00:08:33.798 –> 00:08:34.678
JEREMY: And then I just-
00:08:34.678 –> 00:08:35.538
ERIC: Busy.
00:08:35.538 –> 00:08:36.358
JEREMY: Yeah, yeah.
00:08:36.358 –> 00:08:44.078
JEREMY: So then I started, I actually launched my podcast, The Leader Assistant Podcast in March of 2019.
00:08:44.078 –> 00:08:52.458
JEREMY: And then, you know, started, like I said, putting together the outline of the book in late summer, early fall 2019.
00:08:52.938 –> 00:08:55.838
JEREMY: So, those were kind of the pieces I kind of saw.
00:08:55.838 –> 00:09:02.838
JEREMY: I saw, okay, you know, if I do a podcast, I want to do it well and I want to do it consistently for a long period of time.
00:09:02.838 –> 00:09:08.898
JEREMY: And so, I’m approaching a million downloads, I’m approaching episode 300.
00:09:10.598 –> 00:09:17.738
JEREMY: And that was kind of one of those things I saw as like a credibility pillar in the executive assistant world.
00:09:18.518 –> 00:09:24.238
JEREMY: And so, the other credibility pillar that I was interested in was a book.
00:09:24.238 –> 00:09:29.298
JEREMY: So, that was what brought me to that process.
00:09:29.298 –> 00:09:36.758
ERIC: And did the podcast help you in the writing or the marketing of the book?
00:09:36.758 –> 00:09:38.358
JEREMY: Oh, yeah, totally.
00:09:38.358 –> 00:09:44.558
JEREMY: It helped me a lot because I interviewed a lot of people, and I learned a lot about different perspectives on the assistant world.
00:09:44.638 –> 00:09:48.938
JEREMY: And it also helped me verify a lot of my ideas.
00:09:48.938 –> 00:09:59.378
JEREMY: And then once I had the book and I was writing the book, I actually would use chapters from the book as episodes of the podcast.
00:09:59.378 –> 00:10:05.418
JEREMY: So, I would kind of double dip, if you will, on the content creation.
00:10:06.518 –> 00:10:08.458
JEREMY: And then obviously, that would promote it.
00:10:08.458 –> 00:10:09.418
JEREMY: So, I’d share.
00:10:09.638 –> 00:10:10.978
JEREMY: I did my own audio book as well.
00:10:11.178 –> 00:10:24.198
JEREMY: And so, I would share an audio book chapter on the podcast and then say, hey, if you’re interested in this, if this is helpful, you can get the whole audio book on Audible, Amazon, and Pepper.
00:10:24.198 –> 00:10:25.338
ERIC: Yeah, that’s awesome.
00:10:25.338 –> 00:10:26.978
ERIC: Did you…
00:10:27.218 –> 00:10:28.978
ERIC: Let’s talk about the creative process a little bit.
00:10:28.978 –> 00:10:30.838
ERIC: How did the creative process…
00:10:31.858 –> 00:10:37.978
ERIC: How did your vision for the book change through the journey of going from this outline to…
00:10:37.978 –> 00:10:39.058
ERIC: And when did you actually publish the book?
00:10:39.058 –> 00:10:39.778
ERIC: 2020, right?
00:10:40.578 –> 00:10:44.518
JEREMY: Yeah, right after the global pandemic was kicked in.
00:10:44.518 –> 00:10:45.878
JEREMY: We were all on lockdown.
00:10:45.878 –> 00:10:46.658
JEREMY: I know, right?
00:10:46.658 –> 00:10:49.038
ERIC: Yeah, a lot of reading time.
00:10:49.038 –> 00:10:51.798
JEREMY: Yeah, I think the…
00:10:51.798 –> 00:10:55.558
JEREMY: You know, I had some friends that had published books that were bestselling authors.
00:10:55.558 –> 00:10:59.078
JEREMY: I had worked with my prior executive.
00:10:59.078 –> 00:11:04.638
JEREMY: I had worked with him in project-managed a couple of books that he published that were pretty successful.
00:11:04.638 –> 00:11:23.218
JEREMY: So I really had a good idea of how the process worked, but I didn’t understand how emotionally taxing it would be to actually write it yourself and put yourself out there and be vulnerable yourself, because I’d always interacted with other people’s books.
00:11:23.218 –> 00:11:30.618
JEREMY: And so really, I talk about this in the introduction, but there are days where you’re like, oh, this is going to be awesome.
00:11:30.618 –> 00:11:35.858
JEREMY: It’s going to help so many assistants and executives are going to be like, wow, this is what an assistant can do for me.
00:11:35.858 –> 00:11:36.618
JEREMY: This is amazing.
00:11:37.258 –> 00:11:39.698
JEREMY: And then the next day, you’re like, okay, nobody’s going to read this.
00:11:39.698 –> 00:11:41.458
JEREMY: Nobody’s going to like this.
00:11:41.458 –> 00:11:42.558
JEREMY: This is crazy.
00:11:42.558 –> 00:11:43.478
JEREMY: Like, who am I?
00:11:43.478 –> 00:11:44.698
ERIC: It’s a roller coaster, man.
00:11:44.698 –> 00:11:46.138
JEREMY: It’s that roller coaster there.
00:11:46.138 –> 00:11:56.958
JEREMY: And then the creative process was very interesting because I tried to just, there’s kind of three things that I did at a high level, I think, that really helped.
00:11:56.958 –> 00:12:02.638
JEREMY: And the first thing I learned from Seth Godin, I remember I was mowing my yard.
00:12:03.658 –> 00:12:07.458
JEREMY: I even remember the part of my yard I was mowing when I heard this.
00:12:07.458 –> 00:12:11.498
JEREMY: But I was listening to a podcast and I can’t even remember what podcast it was.
00:12:11.498 –> 00:12:13.158
JEREMY: I can’t even find the clip to be honest.
00:12:13.158 –> 00:12:14.038
JEREMY: So maybe I made it up.
00:12:14.158 –> 00:12:15.738
ERIC: Seth Godin has been on every podcast.
00:12:16.238 –> 00:12:18.438
ERIC: Exactly.
00:12:18.438 –> 00:12:31.798
JEREMY: So anyway, somebody like, he talks about how somebody came to him and said, hey Seth, I have been writing this book and working on this book for three years and I’m ready to get it out into the world.
00:12:31.798 –> 00:12:32.318
JEREMY: Can you help me?
00:12:33.218 –> 00:12:37.838
JEREMY: And he basically said, as nice as he could, you’ve been doing it wrong.
00:12:37.838 –> 00:12:42.378
JEREMY: You should have been putting your ideas out into the world for the last three years.
00:12:42.378 –> 00:12:45.938
JEREMY: Then come to me and say, hey, I’ve been putting my ideas out into the world for three years.
00:12:45.938 –> 00:12:47.338
JEREMY: I’m ready to write a book.
00:12:47.338 –> 00:12:51.158
JEREMY: And so that just made so much sense to me.
00:12:51.158 –> 00:12:55.958
JEREMY: And so I had written a couple of blogs at that point.
00:12:55.958 –> 00:12:59.298
JEREMY: But I remember as I was mowing my yard, I was like, okay, that’s what I’m going to do.
00:13:00.238 –> 00:13:04.378
JEREMY: And so, and I’m a pretty literal person too.
00:13:04.378 –> 00:13:11.118
JEREMY: So like literally three years later, I had been putting my ideas out into the world.
00:13:11.358 –> 00:13:22.198
JEREMY: I figured out which ones resonated, which ones were not that great, and honed my process and my coaching and training and my blogs that went viral or didn’t go viral.
00:13:22.878 –> 00:13:24.118
JEREMY: And I was like, okay, you know what?
00:13:24.118 –> 00:13:26.338
JEREMY: I’ve been putting my ideas out into the world for three years.
00:13:26.338 –> 00:13:27.038
JEREMY: I’m ready to write a book.
00:13:27.238 –> 00:13:31.458
JEREMY: So that was the first high level, that’s what I did.
00:13:31.458 –> 00:13:34.138
JEREMY: And that was super helpful and I recommend that to everyone.
00:13:34.658 –> 00:13:40.558
JEREMY: Not only to help you validate your idea, but also grow an audience and grow a community.
00:13:40.558 –> 00:13:46.218
JEREMY: Because by the end of that three years, I actually had someone to sell a book to, you know?
00:13:47.458 –> 00:13:49.598
JEREMY: It wasn’t just that I had a good book to put together.
00:13:49.598 –> 00:13:52.038
JEREMY: I actually had people that are ready to buy it.
00:13:52.038 –> 00:13:59.818
JEREMY: And the second thing I did in the creative process was try to just write a little bit every day.
00:13:59.818 –> 00:14:03.798
JEREMY: So like I was like, I’m just going to write a little bit every day.
00:14:03.798 –> 00:14:14.798
JEREMY: And that was really helpful to keep me going because I felt like, well, I’ve got a lot left.
00:14:14.798 –> 00:14:21.678
JEREMY: But if I just do a little bit every day, so like I didn’t watch as much Netflix during those months.
00:14:21.678 –> 00:14:25.558
JEREMY: I would just like, all right, instead of watching a show tonight, I’m going to write a little bit, you know?
00:14:25.678 –> 00:14:29.258
JEREMY: Like I just basically gave up all those extra things.
00:14:29.258 –> 00:14:30.858
JEREMY: And then that was really helpful.
00:14:30.858 –> 00:14:38.358
JEREMY: But then the third thing is my buddy who is a sales author, best selling author, Mike Weinberg.
00:14:38.358 –> 00:14:40.438
JEREMY: He’s written several sales books.
00:14:40.478 –> 00:14:48.518
JEREMY: He actually told me, he said, and it’s funny because I had already done it, but he said, don’t write the introduction until you’re done with the book.
00:14:49.638 –> 00:14:53.078
JEREMY: And I was like, well, I already wrote the introduction and I had sent it to him.
00:14:53.118 –> 00:14:55.978
JEREMY: He’s like, yeah, he’s like, you can do better than this.
00:14:57.118 –> 00:15:03.078
JEREMY: And I remember I wrote the book and then I was trying to sit down with the introduction.
00:15:03.078 –> 00:15:09.378
JEREMY: And I remembered the story of when I was like 10 or something, I was really little.
00:15:09.638 –> 00:15:13.278
JEREMY: I have the exact date because I looked it up and I found the date.
00:15:13.278 –> 00:15:23.198
JEREMY: But I was at a conference and John Maxwell, this leadership guru, was speaking and I had this little book.
00:15:23.258 –> 00:15:26.858
JEREMY: It was like Leadership 101 and I had him sign it.
00:15:26.858 –> 00:15:32.658
JEREMY: And he said, you know, probably what he says to everyone when he signs books.
00:15:32.658 –> 00:15:36.518
JEREMY: But he basically said, you know, Jeremy, you are a leader.
00:15:36.578 –> 00:15:38.678
JEREMY: And then signed John Merrittswell.
00:15:38.678 –> 00:15:50.538
JEREMY: And I, you know, remember that story and I was like, okay, this is kind of the seed of this whole leader assistant thing now.
00:15:50.538 –> 00:15:53.778
JEREMY: Fast forward, you know, 30 years later.
00:15:54.838 –> 00:15:58.798
JEREMY: And so that ended up being like, okay, this ties it all together.
00:15:58.798 –> 00:16:00.278
JEREMY: This is an interesting little tidbit.
00:16:00.658 –> 00:16:03.318
JEREMY: This is the introduction that I kind of leave that into an introduction.
00:16:03.858 –> 00:16:08.218
JEREMY: And then I sent it to my buddy Mike and he’s like, yes, this is it.
00:16:08.218 –> 00:16:13.518
JEREMY: Yes, you know, and because I had had, I’d sent him my old introduction before I finished the book.
00:16:13.518 –> 00:16:15.338
JEREMY: He’s like, yeah, I don’t know, you know.
00:16:15.338 –> 00:16:21.918
JEREMY: And so anyway, that was, that was a big thing to like, just, just write the book and then then figure out the introduction.
00:16:21.918 –> 00:16:24.138
ERIC: Yeah, I think that’s a great tool.
00:16:24.138 –> 00:16:27.718
ERIC: I think I read somewhere, this may be apocryphal, I don’t know, but the JK.
00:16:27.718 –> 00:16:44.018
ERIC: Rowling wrote like 17 chapters of the first, or 17 drafts of the first chapter of book one, because it just like trying to get that chapter right with like all of the, the foreshadowing and all the seeds and opening all of the mysteries.
00:16:44.018 –> 00:16:45.118
ERIC: And I thought that was really fascinating.
00:16:45.118 –> 00:16:51.058
ERIC: It’s so hard to write a comprehensive intro until you know, really everything that’s to come.
00:16:51.058 –> 00:16:58.118
ERIC: So yeah, even if you’ve done it, I think it’s smart to go back and do it with the benefit of knowing everything coming.
00:16:58.118 –> 00:17:03.558
ERIC: So I want to go back to the other piece in there about building your audience along the way.
00:17:05.558 –> 00:17:07.658
ERIC: What was the audience that you launched into?
00:17:07.658 –> 00:17:11.078
ERIC: What had you grown by the time you published the book?
00:17:12.238 –> 00:17:14.878
JEREMY: Yeah, I mean, I’d have to look back.
00:17:14.878 –> 00:17:16.518
JEREMY: I don’t remember how.
00:17:16.658 –> 00:17:22.958
JEREMY: I’d say my email list was probably, let’s see, what was that, four years ago?
00:17:22.958 –> 00:17:28.378
JEREMY: It was probably around 5,000 or so assistants.
00:17:29.418 –> 00:17:31.998
JEREMY: So a decent sized email list.
00:17:31.998 –> 00:17:34.678
ERIC: Yeah, decent sized and very focused.
00:17:34.678 –> 00:17:35.938
JEREMY: Yeah, very niche.
00:17:35.938 –> 00:17:44.418
JEREMY: And then my LinkedIn, at the time the book was published, I think my LinkedIn, I had about 18,000 or 20,000 followers.
00:17:46.258 –> 00:17:49.858
JEREMY: And so those were kind of my two primary channels.
00:17:49.858 –> 00:18:04.298
JEREMY: And then I had worked with a lot of other partners and assistant training organizations and worked out agreements to have them essentially promote the book on launch week.
00:18:04.298 –> 00:18:07.178
JEREMY: And so I did the numbers at one point.
00:18:07.178 –> 00:18:24.578
JEREMY: And I know the launch day or within a couple of days of launch day, I had at least a blurb that said, buy Jeremy’s new book for 99 cents on Kindle, on Amazon.
00:18:24.578 –> 00:18:36.598
JEREMY: This week only kind of a blurb in like different partner emails and different lists, totaling of like 200,000 assistants.
00:18:36.598 –> 00:18:41.178
JEREMY: If you combine the amount of how big these organizations were.
00:18:42.258 –> 00:18:46.318
JEREMY: And so that was a huge, huge help.
00:18:46.318 –> 00:18:56.838
JEREMY: Obviously, really big help for the opening launch week, for how many 99-set e-books I sold that week, and getting to the bestseller lists.
00:18:57.898 –> 00:19:20.278
JEREMY: And I think at one point, I got as high as 167 or 178 or something on bestsellers of all books of all categories on Amazon, which my buddy that had sold these bestseller sales books was like, I don’t even know if I’ve gotten that high before.
00:19:20.278 –> 00:19:22.738
JEREMY: So it was a good splash.
00:19:22.738 –> 00:19:28.318
ERIC: It’s incredible, especially for a niche market, which is a good idea.
00:19:28.318 –> 00:19:33.918
ERIC: But yeah, that set of allies on launch week is huge.
00:19:33.918 –> 00:19:37.778
ERIC: And it’s the kind of marketing that nobody else can do.
00:19:38.198 –> 00:19:46.538
ERIC: Only you laying that groundwork over a course of months or years with those partners can build that trust to reach the right market.
00:19:47.118 –> 00:19:47.758
ERIC: I think that’s brilliant.
00:19:47.918 –> 00:19:51.758
ERIC: I don’t want to out you, but are you public about how many copies you’ve sold?
00:19:51.758 –> 00:19:52.878
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:19:53.398 –> 00:19:55.018
JEREMY: I’ve kind of gone back and forth over the years.
00:19:55.018 –> 00:19:58.918
JEREMY: I had friends that were like, don’t share your sales numbers and whatever.
00:19:58.918 –> 00:20:03.838
JEREMY: But I recently was like, I’m going to share at least this milestone.
00:20:03.838 –> 00:20:18.018
JEREMY: But I recently, a couple months ago, if you include the e-books, paperback and audiobook combined, it’s over 40,000 copies sold.
00:20:18.018 –> 00:20:22.278
JEREMY: I think that’s an average of 10 per year.
00:20:23.838 –> 00:20:24.558
JEREMY: It’s a good run.
00:20:24.558 –> 00:20:25.518
JEREMY: It’s huge, man.
00:20:25.518 –> 00:20:26.878
ERIC: Congratulations.
00:20:26.878 –> 00:20:27.378
JEREMY: Thanks, man.
00:20:28.118 –> 00:20:29.938
JEREMY: It’s been awesome.
00:20:29.938 –> 00:20:30.578
ERIC: That’s huge.
00:20:30.638 –> 00:20:33.178
ERIC: That puts you so far up there.
00:20:33.178 –> 00:20:42.538
ERIC: I think people really underestimate how many books most people sell, because they only hear the big numbers of like, James Clear sold 10 million copies.
00:20:42.638 –> 00:20:44.698
ERIC: They’re like, oh, there’s other people out there doing it.
00:20:44.698 –> 00:20:47.158
ERIC: A few thousand books is an outrageous success.
00:20:48.578 –> 00:20:56.958
ERIC: To be in five figures would blow most people’s hair back, and you’re right in the middle and going steady.
00:20:56.958 –> 00:21:01.478
ERIC: This is the kind of book that I think new people are coming into the field constantly.
00:21:01.478 –> 00:21:07.538
ERIC: You’re likely to keep selling for years, especially if you keep doing everything else that you’re doing.
00:21:07.538 –> 00:21:07.878
JEREMY: Well, yeah.
00:21:08.358 –> 00:21:22.298
JEREMY: My hope is there’s millions of assistants in the world, depending on how you search on LinkedIn by different titles, because there’s so many different titles, executive business partner, administrative assistant, personal assistant, executive assistant, etc.
00:21:23.558 –> 00:21:27.438
JEREMY: But I know there’s at least two million just in the US alone.
00:21:27.438 –> 00:21:34.978
JEREMY: So I’m like, well, I’ve sold 40,000 books, but there’s still another couple million assistants out there.
00:21:34.978 –> 00:21:36.438
JEREMY: So we’ll see.
00:21:36.458 –> 00:21:37.818
ERIC: Lots of room to grow.
00:21:37.818 –> 00:21:39.538
ERIC: Yeah.
00:21:39.538 –> 00:21:46.418
ERIC: So what sort of unexpected good things came as a result of your book, directly or indirectly?
00:21:46.418 –> 00:21:48.938
ERIC: It’s been four years now since it’s out.
00:21:50.838 –> 00:21:53.398
ERIC: What has it done for you?
00:21:53.398 –> 00:22:02.178
JEREMY: Yeah, I mean, I was lucky enough to, it’s an investment to publish a book.
00:22:02.178 –> 00:22:05.498
JEREMY: It’s investment, money, time, energy, all those things.
00:22:05.578 –> 00:22:16.018
JEREMY: But I was lucky, you know, money-wise, I was lucky enough to make most of my money back after about a year because of different things that I did directly with the book.
00:22:16.018 –> 00:22:37.858
JEREMY: That said, I think one of the biggest things that’s been awesome with like the indirect benefits of the book, like you know the book helped, but you can’t exactly, you can’t always trace it back, you know, would just be all the networking opportunities that I’ve had to meet assistants all over the world.
00:22:37.858 –> 00:22:43.098
JEREMY: All of the corporate training and speaking aids that have come because of the book.
00:22:44.258 –> 00:22:50.058
JEREMY: The number one, there’s two sources basically where people find me.
00:22:50.058 –> 00:22:53.178
JEREMY: And one is my book and two is the podcast.
00:22:53.178 –> 00:23:02.398
JEREMY: And so it’s like, if somebody reaches out, says, hey, I’ve got an EA team of 500 assistants, so we’re doing a big conference and we need a speaker.
00:23:02.398 –> 00:23:03.958
JEREMY: So great, how’d you find out about me?
00:23:04.038 –> 00:23:07.378
JEREMY: And they’re like, oh, we read your book or we heard your podcast.
00:23:07.378 –> 00:23:12.598
JEREMY: It’s like always one of those two things, but the book has been a huge lead generation tool.
00:23:14.178 –> 00:23:36.118
JEREMY: And it really, but not only that, and I knew that was going to happen some, but I think what’s been even more surprising or pleasantly surprising is the fact that it’s also, it’s that credibility pillar that I knew it was going to be, but it’s so much more in the sense of even just speaking fees, for example.
00:23:36.118 –> 00:23:48.358
JEREMY: Like, you know, I used to do speaking gigs for 300 bucks or 500 bucks or free, because I was like, I got to get some something, you know, I got to get some experience.
00:23:48.358 –> 00:23:57.278
JEREMY: And, you know, it’s weird, as soon as I had the book out, it was like, I’d asked people what their budget was, you know, and it was, you know, thousands of dollars.
00:23:57.278 –> 00:24:02.398
JEREMY: And I was like, oh, okay, like, this is, things have changed.
00:24:02.398 –> 00:24:12.218
JEREMY: It’s like, it’s like taking, it’s like taking your business and your thought leadership or whatever you want to call it to a whole other level, having that book.
00:24:12.218 –> 00:24:16.818
JEREMY: And that’s been a, that’s been a pretty surprising part.
00:24:16.818 –> 00:24:17.998
JEREMY: I knew there was some of that.
00:24:17.998 –> 00:24:18.878
JEREMY: I knew there was some of that.
00:24:18.878 –> 00:24:20.318
JEREMY: I’m not going to say I didn’t know.
00:24:20.318 –> 00:24:21.618
JEREMY: I mean, that’s part of why I did it.
00:24:21.618 –> 00:24:24.338
JEREMY: It was, I was like, I want that credibility pillar.
00:24:24.338 –> 00:24:31.278
JEREMY: But I was, I think I was surprised by how much of a difference it makes to be a published author.
00:24:31.278 –> 00:24:32.198
ERIC: That’s awesome.
00:24:32.698 –> 00:24:33.558
ERIC: I’m so happy.
00:24:33.558 –> 00:24:34.258
ERIC: I’m psyched for you.
00:24:35.578 –> 00:24:42.798
ERIC: That’s when you go in thinking something will like maybe work, and then it over delivers on your expectations.
00:24:42.798 –> 00:24:45.458
ERIC: Like that’s just a good, that’s an awesome feeling.
00:24:45.458 –> 00:24:53.958
ERIC: And I say to people all the time, like a book is a tailwind on the rest of your life, or a book is a multiplier effect on everything else that you do.
00:24:54.478 –> 00:25:02.818
ERIC: And some of these examples you are giving are just so concrete and tangible that’s awesome.
00:25:02.818 –> 00:25:11.518
ERIC: When you go do speaking gigs, is that, if you’re selling 10,000 copies a year, I’m sure people are dying to know what you’re doing.
00:25:11.518 –> 00:25:16.718
ERIC: Like, are you selling a lot of those through the speaking gigs at the events you’re going to?
00:25:16.718 –> 00:25:19.998
ERIC: Is a lot of it, do you talk about the book on the podcast?
00:25:19.998 –> 00:25:24.958
ERIC: You’re running Amazon ads, where are those sales coming from for you?
00:25:24.958 –> 00:25:35.738
JEREMY: Yeah, I mean, it’s primarily, I think, Amazon, and I’ve got, I think, over 1,100 reviews or ratings or whatever on Amazon.
00:25:35.738 –> 00:25:42.038
JEREMY: And so I think that helps their algorithm to keep doing that.
00:25:42.038 –> 00:25:44.538
JEREMY: Podcast helps a lot, I’m sure.
00:25:44.538 –> 00:25:47.678
JEREMY: Again, I don’t have exact ways to track that.
00:25:47.678 –> 00:25:49.558
ERIC: It’s so hard to track all this stuff, yeah.
00:25:49.838 –> 00:25:59.598
JEREMY: Yeah, but I do sell some when I go speak and stuff, but I mean, it’s not, it’s probably a very, very small percentage of the annual sales.
00:25:59.598 –> 00:26:07.118
JEREMY: I think mostly it’s audio book, e-book, and paperback on Amazon.
00:26:07.118 –> 00:26:10.378
JEREMY: And I think it’s just, I’d say probably LinkedIn helps a lot.
00:26:10.378 –> 00:26:15.238
JEREMY: I do a lot of content and outreach on LinkedIn.
00:26:15.238 –> 00:26:22.538
JEREMY: Now I’ve got 45,000 followers on LinkedIn, and then I try to stay active with the assistant community there.
00:26:22.538 –> 00:26:25.078
JEREMY: And then, but I don’t really do any ads.
00:26:25.198 –> 00:26:35.078
JEREMY: I did try Amazon ads like very briefly, but they threw a couple of hundred bucks at it for a couple of months or something just to see.
00:26:37.478 –> 00:26:43.358
JEREMY: And then I don’t think I, yeah, I haven’t done any other like Google ads or Facebook ads or anything like that.
00:26:43.358 –> 00:26:44.298
JEREMY: I probably should someday.
00:26:45.718 –> 00:26:56.558
JEREMY: But yeah, I think it’s mostly I’m just like, I’m going to show up consistently on LinkedIn and on my podcast and to my email list and try to help assistants as much as I can.
00:26:56.558 –> 00:27:06.638
JEREMY: And then as I get reach outs and in bounds, if I’m available, I try to help people out and work stuff.
00:27:06.638 –> 00:27:09.538
JEREMY: Because again, I’m a full-time assistant as my day job.
00:27:09.538 –> 00:27:12.198
JEREMY: And so just do what I can.
00:27:12.378 –> 00:27:19.878
ERIC: Like let’s not forget the context of like, you still have a full-time day job while you’re speaking, podcasting, authoring, traveling.
00:27:21.358 –> 00:27:22.058
ERIC: Yeah.
00:27:22.378 –> 00:27:24.158
ERIC: Two things that you reminded me of there.
00:27:24.158 –> 00:27:29.598
ERIC: I think it’s funny that you said people discover you because of the book.
00:27:29.598 –> 00:27:40.038
ERIC: I think a lot of authors have the perception that, and this is largely true, like you should be prepared to market your book and be solely responsible for getting it out into the world.
00:27:41.658 –> 00:27:45.738
ERIC: However, Amazon is also a huge search engine.
00:27:45.738 –> 00:27:50.278
ERIC: There’s a lot of people that go to Amazon to discover things.
00:27:50.278 –> 00:27:56.838
ERIC: If you’re an event planner responsible for booking a speaker, what are you going to do?
00:27:56.838 –> 00:27:57.978
ERIC: How are you going to go find that person?
00:27:57.978 –> 00:28:07.918
ERIC: You’re probably going to Google speaker for assistants or you’re going to go to Amazon and you’re going to search assistant book or executive assistant.
00:28:08.578 –> 00:28:14.438
ERIC: If you’re one of the people who pop up in that niche, tremendous opportunities can result from that.
00:28:14.438 –> 00:28:16.598
ERIC: We have authors who sell all kinds of stuff.
00:28:16.598 –> 00:28:24.238
ERIC: The book is what captures the attention of people literally searching on Amazon for a solution to their problems.
00:28:24.238 –> 00:28:27.638
ERIC: We don’t think of that as a search engine, but it’s incredibly powerful.
00:28:27.638 –> 00:28:33.618
ERIC: I think that’s probably what’s driving a lot of your net new inbound.
00:28:33.618 –> 00:28:33.838
ERIC: Yeah.
00:28:33.838 –> 00:28:37.878
JEREMY: If you look at keynote speakers, I don’t care what conference it is.
00:28:37.878 –> 00:28:53.698
JEREMY: If it’s an HR conference, if it’s a tech conference, if it’s the leadership or women entrepreneurs or whatever it is, if you just look at the keynote speakers, almost all of them have a book.
00:28:53.698 –> 00:28:55.138
JEREMY: Almost all of them are authors.
00:28:57.558 –> 00:28:58.118
JEREMY: Yeah, you’re right.
00:28:58.118 –> 00:29:06.738
JEREMY: I think it’s a good lead generation channel, but it’s also that credibility of like, okay, well, you’ve got ideas.
00:29:06.738 –> 00:29:20.478
JEREMY: Not only do you have ideas that are theoretically worth sharing in a book, but you also have the discipline and the drive to organize those ideas in such a way that you can put it in a book.
00:29:20.478 –> 00:29:29.098
ERIC: Yeah, it’s just finishing a really damn hard project, and putting yourself out there to be judged and your ideas to be judged.
00:29:29.418 –> 00:29:30.918
ERIC: That’s brave and unique in and of itself.
00:29:30.978 –> 00:29:36.498
ERIC: And if people read it, and 1,100 people are giving you great ratings, that counts for a lot.
00:29:36.498 –> 00:29:39.598
ERIC: That’s a huge, huge credibility boost.
00:29:41.978 –> 00:29:53.118
ERIC: Another perception that I think authors have that’s not quite correct is they feel sort of them against the world, and it’s like a lonely person at a typewriter in a cabin.
00:29:53.118 –> 00:29:58.478
ERIC: And all the authors that I know who are having great success have a team and have advisors and have help.
00:29:59.858 –> 00:30:05.878
ERIC: So talk to me about, you know, I would say there’s one name on the front of the book and a hundred in the back.
00:30:05.878 –> 00:30:17.098
ERIC: So tell me about the, what sort of help, what team did you have to get you from start to finish and, you know, drive the success that you’re seeing?
00:30:17.098 –> 00:30:25.858
JEREMY: Yeah, I mean, honestly, the first person that I would say was played a huge part is my wife, my wife, Megan.
00:30:25.858 –> 00:30:43.238
JEREMY: She was helping me, like, rewrite stuff, like proofreading my ideas and saying, oh, you need to be a little bit more gentle with this point, or you need to be more considerate with this point, or, you know, stuff like that.
00:30:43.238 –> 00:30:48.538
JEREMY: And so she gave up a lot of Netflix, too, during the process.
00:30:48.538 –> 00:30:50.378
ERIC: With the diplomacy at it, you know.
00:30:50.378 –> 00:30:51.698
JEREMY: Right, right.
00:30:51.698 –> 00:30:52.138
JEREMY: So, and, you know.
00:30:52.138 –> 00:30:53.838
JEREMY: Keep it from being canceled.
00:30:53.838 –> 00:30:54.178
JEREMY: Right.
00:30:54.678 –> 00:31:02.318
JEREMY: And part of that is, you know, I am, I think like 98% of executive assistants in the world are women.
00:31:02.318 –> 00:31:07.378
JEREMY: And so having her perspective was really helpful along the way, too, of course.
00:31:08.538 –> 00:31:10.398
JEREMY: But so that’s number one.
00:31:10.398 –> 00:31:22.238
JEREMY: And then really, it was just a couple of friends I had that had written books before my prior executive, who had helped him project manage his book projects.
00:31:22.238 –> 00:31:28.138
JEREMY: And just pinging them and saying, hey, you know, this is what I’m doing.
00:31:28.138 –> 00:31:28.998
JEREMY: What do you recommend?
00:31:28.998 –> 00:31:30.698
JEREMY: Any, what are your top tips?
00:31:30.698 –> 00:31:51.498
JEREMY: And then one of the other things that my buddy Mike, who I mentioned earlier about the introduction tip, another tip he had that was really great was he said, hey, write down as you’re thinking about things and whatever, write down your stories.
00:31:52.658 –> 00:31:59.618
JEREMY: He’s like, don’t think about what you’re going to learn from the story or where they’re going to go in the book.
00:31:59.618 –> 00:32:02.778
JEREMY: Just make a list, a note on your phone of all these stories.
00:32:02.778 –> 00:32:08.578
JEREMY: So every time you think about some story in your life, some experience, some moment in your life, just write it down.
00:32:09.698 –> 00:32:23.738
JEREMY: And then as you’re writing the book and you’re going through and you’re like, oh, this is a really good point, but I need some sort of real life example to eliminate this point, or I need some sort of personal story to make this a little more engaging.
00:32:23.738 –> 00:32:28.658
JEREMY: Then you go to your list of stories and say, oh, do any of these stories make sense here?
00:32:28.658 –> 00:32:39.758
JEREMY: So there was a bunch of stories I didn’t use in the book, but it just helped me get in that mindset of, oh, I just need to jot down these stories because there’s all these things that have happened in your life that you don’t think about and you don’t remember.
00:32:39.758 –> 00:32:40.318
ERIC: Yeah.
00:32:40.318 –> 00:32:42.298
ERIC: I think everybody has good ideas.
00:32:42.298 –> 00:32:45.198
ERIC: It’s just some people write them down and some people let them go.
00:32:46.198 –> 00:32:50.938
ERIC: You’ve got to start collecting those things so that you know where to find them when you need them.
00:32:50.938 –> 00:32:53.618
ERIC: You’re not going to be able to remember it when you’re reaching for it.
00:32:53.618 –> 00:32:55.578
ERIC: It’s just not how it works, unfortunately.
00:32:56.898 –> 00:32:57.298
ERIC: Okay.
00:32:57.298 –> 00:33:04.038
ERIC: So once you had that manuscript, how did you decide between all of the different potential routes for publishing?
00:33:06.138 –> 00:33:06.478
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:33:06.478 –> 00:33:15.198
JEREMY: So again, my friends that had published before, a couple of them, well, one of them had used Scribe.
00:33:15.198 –> 00:33:17.278
JEREMY: And so I was like, I’ll check.
00:33:17.278 –> 00:33:21.358
JEREMY: He introduced me to you all and talked with your team and everything.
00:33:21.358 –> 00:33:27.498
JEREMY: And basically, I was to the point where I knew I wanted to write it myself, but I didn’t really want to.
00:33:27.498 –> 00:33:39.758
JEREMY: And I knew I could figure out and I’d actually done some of the stuff for my prior executive, where, you know, the ISBN numbers and uploading to Amazon and doing the Kindle version and this.
00:33:41.158 –> 00:33:53.178
JEREMY: So anyway, I did all that and then really just figured out, okay, I don’t know that I think I just want to focus on writing it.
00:33:53.178 –> 00:34:02.518
JEREMY: But the other thing was I really wanted a I really wanted to to even if it was a bad book, I wanted it I wanted to be a good book.
00:34:02.518 –> 00:34:03.458
JEREMY: Don’t get me wrong.
00:34:03.458 –> 00:34:08.238
JEREMY: But even if the book sucked, I wanted it to look like it was a bestseller.
00:34:08.238 –> 00:34:10.138
JEREMY: I wanted to feel like it was a bestseller.
00:34:10.138 –> 00:34:11.938
JEREMY: I wanted to be like professional.
00:34:11.938 –> 00:34:14.398
JEREMY: Like I didn’t want there to be any typos.
00:34:14.398 –> 00:34:22.658
JEREMY: You know, I wanted it to be like this is a this is going to be a bestseller just by looking at it on Amazon, just looking at the cover.
00:34:22.658 –> 00:34:24.578
JEREMY: I want the cover to be really designed well.
00:34:24.578 –> 00:34:26.438
JEREMY: I was really particular about that.
00:34:26.438 –> 00:34:28.778
JEREMY: And so that’s where I decided to go ahead and try to find help.
00:34:30.138 –> 00:34:31.918
JEREMY: And at the time, there weren’t a lot of options.
00:34:31.918 –> 00:34:45.438
JEREMY: But again, I went off my buddy’s referral and went with Scribe and basically let you all handle your team, handle, you know, interior design, some proofreading.
00:34:45.438 –> 00:34:53.258
JEREMY: I did hire a third party editor to go line by line to really dig it up and tear it up.
00:34:53.258 –> 00:34:58.358
JEREMY: And yeah, so that was that was kind of how I jumped into that world.
00:34:58.798 –> 00:35:01.098
JEREMY: I worked with your graphic design team.
00:35:01.098 –> 00:35:03.838
JEREMY: I was very hands-on on that process.
00:35:03.838 –> 00:35:06.838
JEREMY: I had a mood board of like, these are the types of covers I like.
00:35:06.838 –> 00:35:09.098
JEREMY: These are the types of covers I don’t like.
00:35:10.198 –> 00:35:14.558
JEREMY: So anyway, that was that’s kind of how I jumped in and did that.
00:35:14.558 –> 00:35:15.898
ERIC: Love that.
00:35:15.898 –> 00:35:18.358
ERIC: You were never drawn towards traditional publishing for this project.
00:35:18.358 –> 00:35:20.538
ERIC: You were just you knew what you wanted to self-publish.
00:35:20.538 –> 00:35:27.978
JEREMY: My my prior executive had had worked with some traditional publishers and I knew that like one, they don’t really do much to sell your book.
00:35:29.038 –> 00:35:39.178
JEREMY: They basically like in my experience with him and CNN with a couple of other people like their marketing is not going to do that much for you.
00:35:39.178 –> 00:35:52.218
JEREMY: It’s it’s they really traditional publishers publishers want to work with people who already have a following, who already have a huge email list, who already have that that influence in that niche audience they can sell to.
00:35:52.218 –> 00:35:52.918
JEREMY: So that was one.
00:35:53.018 –> 00:36:09.858
JEREMY: And then two, I saw that like, okay, they in order to get a big advance, like my prior executive was like, oh, if he did get a decent advance for one of his books, but it was after he had already sold a bunch of books.
00:36:09.858 –> 00:36:12.558
JEREMY: And it was like the second go around kind of a thing.
00:36:12.558 –> 00:36:15.818
JEREMY: And so I was like, so there was all that involved in the decision.
00:36:15.818 –> 00:36:18.938
JEREMY: And then I also thought like, well, I want to own everything.
00:36:18.938 –> 00:36:20.338
JEREMY: I want to be able to do whatever I want.
00:36:20.758 –> 00:36:32.858
JEREMY: And so I want to be able to sell to pre-order and sell a hard copy version directly and not have to pay out any commissions to the publisher or whatever.
00:36:32.858 –> 00:36:35.998
JEREMY: And so yeah, those are all those factors.
00:36:35.998 –> 00:36:37.758
ERIC: To grow the whole rest of your business.
00:36:37.758 –> 00:36:38.058
ERIC: Yeah.
00:36:38.058 –> 00:36:43.338
ERIC: I mean, the big money for you is the speaking and the coaching and stuff like that.
00:36:43.338 –> 00:36:43.818
ERIC: All right.
00:36:44.918 –> 00:36:47.358
ERIC: Last couple of questions here.
00:36:47.358 –> 00:36:50.838
ERIC: I know over time that your story is fantastic.
00:36:50.838 –> 00:36:57.358
ERIC: What was the highest point for you, the biggest moment of celebration?
00:36:57.358 –> 00:37:00.478
JEREMY: I mean, there’s a couple of big ones.
00:37:04.358 –> 00:37:16.118
JEREMY: The first one was before the book even came out, I decided to sell like pre-sale like hardcover with a t-shirt.
00:37:16.118 –> 00:37:18.938
JEREMY: So I had this t-shirt, Assistant Sleeve t-shirt.
00:37:18.938 –> 00:37:20.958
JEREMY: I had signed hardcover version.
00:37:20.958 –> 00:37:23.018
JEREMY: I had stickers.
00:37:23.018 –> 00:37:27.418
JEREMY: I had an online video course and a one-on-one coaching call.
00:37:27.718 –> 00:37:35.958
JEREMY: I had this whole bundle and I wanted to pre-sale these to my super fans, if you will.
00:37:36.698 –> 00:37:39.998
JEREMY: I think I charged like 100 bucks or 150 bucks or something like that.
00:37:40.218 –> 00:37:42.098
JEREMY: I think it was $100.
00:37:42.098 –> 00:37:45.318
JEREMY: My goal was like, I want to sell 100 of these.
00:37:46.698 –> 00:37:54.838
JEREMY: I thought, okay, if I can sell 100 of these, I can make back a decent chunk of the money I spent on this project before the book even comes out.
00:37:57.338 –> 00:38:03.558
JEREMY: It’s kind of a fun, exclusive thing to do with the people that have been following me for years.
00:38:03.558 –> 00:38:06.638
JEREMY: What I did is I wrote out this chart, my kids.
00:38:06.638 –> 00:38:08.538
JEREMY: I actually have my kids write out this chart.
00:38:08.538 –> 00:38:20.658
JEREMY: At the time, they were eight and six, I think, or five and, yeah, five, six, seven, eight, and they kind of colored in these charts.
00:38:20.718 –> 00:38:29.318
JEREMY: It was like every ten, so there’s like ten rows of ten, and they would take a crayon and color in when I sold one.
00:38:29.318 –> 00:38:30.138
JEREMY: That’s incredible.
00:38:30.138 –> 00:38:36.738
JEREMY: So it was like this, it was on the fridge, and I’d go, hey, I sold another one, and they’d go and they’d fill it in.
00:38:36.738 –> 00:38:45.398
JEREMY: Every time I’d sell ten, we’d do something special like get ice cream or watch a movie, or something fun to celebrate.
00:38:46.598 –> 00:38:49.298
JEREMY: That was awesome to have them be part of it and them cheering me on.
00:38:49.358 –> 00:38:57.018
JEREMY: Then once I got to 100, that was like a big like, wow, I can’t believe I actually sold 100 of these and made some of my money back.
00:38:58.218 –> 00:39:00.458
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:39:00.458 –> 00:39:01.638
JEREMY: So that was a big one.
00:39:01.698 –> 00:39:06.678
JEREMY: Then the other one was the reviews on Amazon and the ratings on Amazon.
00:39:06.738 –> 00:39:19.698
JEREMY: I was like, there are different milestones along the way, but I remember 1000 was a big one that I was like, man, if I hit 1000, there’s not a lot of books that have 1000 ratings on Amazon.
00:39:19.858 –> 00:39:24.678
JEREMY: So when I hit that last year, it was either earlier this year or late last year.
00:39:24.678 –> 00:39:28.958
JEREMY: I can’t remember, but that was a pretty big celebration too.
00:39:28.958 –> 00:39:30.858
ERIC: That’s a huge milestone, man.
00:39:30.858 –> 00:39:31.558
ERIC: Congrats again.
00:39:32.258 –> 00:39:35.178
ERIC: Thank you for sharing your story and your tactics.
00:39:35.898 –> 00:39:45.378
ERIC: I think there’s a lot in here that authors, even experienced authors are going to take and apply and appreciate.
00:39:45.858 –> 00:39:47.118
ERIC: Thank you for taking the time.
00:39:47.118 –> 00:39:51.178
ERIC: Where should people go follow, find you, watch this playbook in action?
00:39:51.178 –> 00:39:51.418
JEREMY: Yeah.
00:39:51.418 –> 00:39:51.858
JEREMY: Thanks, Eric.
00:39:51.858 –> 00:39:54.118
JEREMY: I appreciate you having me on.
00:39:54.118 –> 00:39:57.158
JEREMY: Best way to find me is leaderassistant.com.
00:39:59.238 –> 00:40:02.898
JEREMY: You can reach out for speaking training.
00:40:03.158 –> 00:40:03.978
JEREMY: You can buy the book.
00:40:03.978 –> 00:40:09.638
JEREMY: You can check out the podcast, all the things, or you can just search Jeremy Burrows on LinkedIn.
00:40:09.638 –> 00:40:13.558
JEREMY: You’ll find me if you’re a LinkedIn fan and you’d like to do it that way.
00:40:13.558 –> 00:40:14.898
JEREMY: But yeah, leaderassistant.com.
00:40:16.018 –> 00:40:17.458
JEREMY: We’d love to hear from you.
00:40:17.458 –> 00:40:34.438
JEREMY: If you’re an executive who has an assistant or once an assistant, this book is a really great tool to empower your assistant and get more from your assistant and really respect them and have them be more of a leader and more of a strategic partner with you.
00:40:34.438 –> 00:40:41.418
JEREMY: And then if you are, or even if you’re, if you don’t have an assistant and you want one, this is actually a really good way.
00:40:41.678 –> 00:40:42.998
JEREMY: It’s a pretty practical guide.
00:40:42.998 –> 00:40:48.298
JEREMY: So it’s a really good way to even build out a job description because you’re like, oh, this is what an assistant could do for me.
00:40:48.298 –> 00:40:52.598
JEREMY: This is what I’m going to hire and it helps you clarify that process.
00:40:52.598 –> 00:40:55.138
JEREMY: So yeah, reach out leaderassistant.com.
00:40:55.138 –> 00:40:56.758
JEREMY: Happy to have you connect.
00:40:56.758 –> 00:40:57.298
ERIC: Thanks Jeremy.
00:40:57.458 –> 00:40:59.058
ERIC: I’m going to buy a copy for my sister right now.
00:40:59.278 –> 00:41:00.278
ERIC: I appreciate you very much.
00:41:00.278 –> 00:41:02.818
ERIC: Thanks for doing what you do and sharing with others.
00:41:02.818 –> 00:41:03.178
JEREMY: Awesome.
00:41:03.178 –> 00:41:03.618
JEREMY: Thanks Eric.
00:41:13.667 –> 00:41:16.027
<v SPEAKER_3>Please review on Apple Podcasts.
00:41:22.442 –> 00:41:24.142
<v SPEAKER_3>goburrows.com.
