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Welcome to the Bever Been Promoted podcast. Hi. This is Thomas Helfrich, and I'm gonna try to speak slower today. I can speak so fast, by the way. It's my it's my, Achilles heel, so I'm gonna work on that today. In this episode, I'm gonna use lots of pauses. Do you see what I did there? I stopped talking. Hey. Listen. If this is your first time here, I try to have some fun when we when we do this mission of helping other entrepreneurs get better at entrepreneurship. So if this is your first time being on the show or or listening to the show, thank you. And I hope it's the first of many. And if you've been here before, you already know you get dad points. Dad points are the best. You can spend them anywhere if you could figure it out where. It just means basically thank you for returning, and, you know, helping others maybe unleash their entrepreneur. And we're doing this through the stories of other entrepreneurs who are successful, who are failing, who are just starting, who have exited. There's always something to learn. And if you can learn one thing from today's show, you've taken a step forward. And today, we are you know, Kim Thompson-Pinder. This is our guest. She has three names. She's a CEO of RTI Publishing, and she's actually an extraordinary or The Extraordinary Word Ninja. And that's why I picked her actually because she has the word ninja in her title because I wanted to be a ninja as a child, you know, little black outfit, little thong toe thingies. I'm not sure why they had to have the thong toe thingies. Let's meet Kim. Hi, Kim.
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Hi, Thomas. And, no, I did not want to be a ninja growing up. I I had some other aspirations.
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I think that's the rule first rule of becoming a ninja. You can't wanna become a ninja. Because every guy that I know wanna become ninjas is like me and starting to get fat and now is on hard 70 5 or some other keto diet. And so we all wanted to be ninjas, and everybody else who didn't became 1. So you are 1. Thank you for joining, by the way. So, you know, you you have a great story. You have a, you know, your flowers on on a on a mantle or on a bookshelf above you behind you. We're gonna talk about why flowers are so high up in the room, later. For those listening, you're cluelessly listen. What's she talking about? I'm just looking at her background. Could you maybe tell me to stop talking and give us your backstory?
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Okay, Thomas. Stop talking, and I'll give you my backstory. Please start. So the beginning is really sad. It starts when my mom died when I was 4 years old. And it was really hard because I was so different from other kids and especially when I went to school. You know, all these other kids had moms that would come to everything, and my dad had to work a lot of hours to be able to support us, so he couldn't always come to everything. Now I am very thankful. I don't have one of these stories where my mom dies and I grow up with this drunk, abusive father. My dad was amazing. And when the family looked at him and said, David, you should give the girls I have a sister. You should give the girls up for adoption because you're a man. You can't raise girls on your own. Sexist. And so to keep your very clean rating, I won't use the words exactly that he used. Oh, yeah. You can cuss you can cuss all you want here. I don't care.
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I I don't cuss anyway. So value? Okay. You can believe it or not. You can say it like this mother. You can I I don't mean to make light? See, I'm using deflection once again in a serious conversation. I do this. Please keep your your dad sounds like an amazing guy. And, you know, curse anyone who says a dad can't raise kids. Come on.
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They're human. Well, you gotta remember, this is back in the early seventies. Right? Different philosophy. But he basically told them, either help him or take a flying leap because he was going to raise his girls, and he did. But it they're definitely I felt different than everybody else. And in grade 2, something interesting really happened. I had a female teacher, and she was beautiful and she was smart and she was talented and and kind. And and I I loved her, and I wanted my dad to marry her. She may have already been married. I have no clue. But, you know, when I go home at night and climb into bed, my dream was, you know, my dad was going to marry her, and she was gonna come home, and she would go and take care of me. And and so I just really emotionally attached onto this woman. And then the second thing happened in grade 2 was is I could write sentences. And all these stories, because I have a very vivid imagination, always have, always will, and I started writing stories. Now I don't know about you, but, you know, the first time that you hand your teacher something, right, that's an important moment in your life. And I remember the first time, you know, I I had written the story. I drew the pictures. Don't ever ask me to draw anything. I still can't draw to this thing. Part of the show. But I can write. And I handed her the story, and she looked at it, and she loved it. Well, you know, that was all my 7 year old grieving little heart needed, and I just started writing. And, eventually, I was handing her, like, piles every single day. But not only that, like, I was so emotionally attached to her that I I was just overwhelming her. And one day, she looked at me, and she said, Kim, stop writing. You're not a good writer. And those words just crushed me.
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So I guess she wasn't so nice.
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Well, she actually was. I think the thing was is back then, you gotta remember this was, you know, mid seventies. It's not like they had courses in teacher's college. You know, they didn't really take a lot of psychology and they didn't have courses on, you know, how to deal with 7 year old grieving little girls who just need a mom. Yeah. It was clearly reaching out. Wasn't just my teacher. She to me, she was my mom. Right? And so I don't think I think she, you know, tried to gently just kind of, you know, But I I wasn't gonna have it. I needed a mom, and I had picked her, and that was all there was to it. But I carried those words for a long time. And I think many times, you know, we have words that are spoken over with us that we carry, and we don't even realize they're there. So fast forward 30 years ish, and I'm married, I've got kids, I'm an entrepreneur. It's 2011, and I'm getting my website. My one of my bucket list dreams is coming true. I'm getting my own website. And the person who was doing it for me emails me, and he says, Kim, your website's ready. We just have to set up your blog. I thought, okay. So I emailed him back. I said, what's a blog? I mean, I had been reading them for quite a while. I just didn't know what it was called. And when he emailed me back, I only remember the first few words. It said, Kim, you have to write. And in that moment, I was in a God inspired crisis. Because you see, for the neck for those last 30 years, I mean, I wrote. Okay? You have to write in life. Like, k, I got an a in English in high school. So it's not that I never wrote anything, but I never wrote the things that really mattered. I didn't write the things that were in my heart that I wanted to share with the world. And in that moment, I was in a crisis because in my head screamed, Cam, don't write. You're not a good writer. I act I kinda jumped. I'm like, where did that come from? And what I realized is, you know, I prayed, I thought about it. You know, God opened up the memory of when I was 7 years old. I realized I'd been carrying those words in the back of my head. You know, subconsciously, I didn't realize they were there. It's not like every time I went to write, those words were there. But if I went to write something, I just kinda like, yeah. I guess not. You know, I'm not the greatest writer, but they were always there in the back of my head. But that day, they screamed at me. And I realized it was something I had to deal with. And as I went through this process, again, I realized that what the teacher said wasn't necessarily true. It was she didn't know how to deal with me emotionally. I was overwhelming her, and that was the only way she could get me to stop. So I took responsibility for my part. I forgave her. I know that's a weird word in today's world, but I forgave her. I let those words go. And then I had to start writing. So that first blog post, there was 50 to 60 crumpled pieces of paper on the floor by the time I got the one. So in the beginning, I used to write everything up by hand and then type it. That is a very long process. So I learned how to type because that was just taking forever. But I had a blog post, and I put it up on my brand new website, and I had just enough courage to ask a couple of people to read it. They really liked it. They found it helpful. It you know, I I wanted to write to help other entrepreneurs. And so that was all this 40 something year old heart needed at the time, and I began writing, writing, writing. And then there's the whole series with books. That's another 15 minute story in and of itself. But needless to say, I came within a hair's breadth of quitting I don't know how many times, and the laptop almost went out the window more times than I almost quit. And the only reason that the laptop didn't go out the window was my husband was a computer guru, and he probably would've divorced me if I did. Right. So that's the only thing that kept my laptop alive. But so I started writing books. It's amazing. Then 2015.
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Did wait. So, Hans, did you ever go back to your teacher and tell her how those words,
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held with you? Because I I was living quite a distance away. And, I mean, I I don't even know if she would have been in the same school. I wouldn't eve even have known how to find her after all those years. If there's only a place you could type in a name, and it would bring up all these results.
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Well, you know, I'm just saying from an an you know, we we're gonna get deep. Right? The unsolved relation childhood thing of of of just being able to say, hey. Listen. I really like, that was just to get it off your chest. Don't care what her reply is. Might might be worth it. Yeah. Might be a short story right there for you.
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You know what? I've let those words go.
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I'm just trying to put inspiration. I I I believe you. I just I'm trying to give you some some new new content, but that guy's good. But I guess I'm not. Alright. So 2015, that was, like, almost, you know, 9 years ago. Yes. Tell me fast. Take me from there. So you started writing books and and an amazing journey because it's really changed. We'll get into some how that's changed nowadays. But, what's happened since then?
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So 2015, my son was getting married, and we were driving 2 cars by faith. So, Thomas, have you ever driven a car by faith before?
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Is that where you'll use your knees and play on your phone the whole time?
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No. I have not done that one. That's where the car is basically not repairable anymore or it's not worth putting the money into, but you don't have the money to replace it yet. So you get in the car and you pray that you make it to where you're gonna go. You do what you have to do. You get back in the car and you pray that you make it back home again. So we had 2 of those vehicles and our son getting
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married. So it was a really On that journey is the I and the protocol that we accept that when it dies, we just leave it. We're just gonna walk it somewhere there. Alright. I was always wondering because, like, there's always the green tag vehicle on the side of the highway, and you're like, they never come back for them ever. And I think people are like, I'm done with it. My life I'm moving. I'm becoming homeless. Something happens in that moment. Like, forget it. Alright. Keep going. Well,
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thankfully, my husband's really good at repairing things. And while he is not a mechanic, his nickname is MacGyver. So the couple times we did end up on the side of the road, most 90% of the time, he was able to jury rig something enough to get us whole. So we always carried at least a metal coat hanger in the car because you'd be amazed at what you can do with a metal coat hanger. Idea. I mean, it sounds frightening.
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And duct tape. Duct tape. Duct tape, I get. I mean, that's why I've kept a lot of my cars together over the years. Even our refrigerator right now has duct tape on the inside. Anyway, amazing stuff. So
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I'm on a freelance site one day getting some graphic design work. Like because like I told you, you don't want me to draw. My dad was color blind, so my sense of color is very interesting. And I was just there and just the god thought. You know, just that little thought plunked into your brain. You should check out writing jobs. I thought, why don't I check out writing jobs? And I couldn't believe what people were paying for writing. And because I was already established author, my books had good reviews on Amazon, I start getting jobs right away. And the one thing that I didn't mention in the book story was the fact that I had no money to pay other people to do things. I had to learn how to do everything myself. So when I started taking on writing jobs, people were like, well, can you edit? Can you, you know, design covers and different things? Can you format? Now I may not be a graphic designer, but I'm really good with software, and I can adjust templates. So I knew how to use templates to create covers, but don't ask me to design one myself. So within a year, I had so much business coming in, and I just I really felt it was my calling. Like, it it was like everything in my life came together into that moment, and I knew that I was called to be a publisher. And so I started RTI Publishing, spent that next year working with a bunch of people that I really didn't wanna work with, because I you know, when you're in the beginning, you just take whatever job is handed to you, and you're not too picky about it because, you know, you need to be bringing in money. But by 2017, I realized that I I needed to define who it was I wanted to work with. And so 2017 was really about that, defining, you know, what types of books I want to specialize in, who I wanted to work with. And it's some of the basics have stayed the same, but it has evolved. And every once in a while, I look at who who do I wanna work with? And that has been a a whole process over, well, the last almost 9 years.
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Wow. And today, as it's you know, last 3, 4 years, your industry has significantly changed. You know, there's some sites I had on yesterday. He's the owner of Bookbud dotai. And just a small tangent story. So we're in Costa Rica for spring break this year as a family, you know, staying with another family, and and the property was just really there's some weird stuff. It was a very nice property on the beach in El Coco Beach, and the property manager's living or they don't own it, but they're on it. And and, you know, they didn't release this master bedroom that we had rent. We're like, we had to ask for it. And they're like, don't use the freezer in the kitchen, and it had 2 big chains wrapped around it. And so I just started making up a story that there are actually bodies in there. And then as I found random stuff on the property, I was like, you know, like, there's a there's a downspout pipe coming out of the ground, but there's no gutter attaches to it. It just comes out. I go, that's actually a breathing hole for wherever they keep the people. And and so I'm so I I say, I'm gonna write a short story about that. And we were asking, you know, it's like right in Dan Brown format where there's a double twist at the end. There's the the villain twist, but he's actually part of a bigger conspiracy that you don't know till the very end, but he's also then tied to actually one of the characters that yours your friend. You don't know what to do, and that leaves the the hanger cliffhanger. And so I'm gonna go write that and, you know, because he gave me a little coupon. How do you compete with original font with AI build to piece it together and doing all the research about the Cocoa Beach and the Costa Rican police and the like, how do you compete with that now?
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Well, first of all, we don't do fiction at RTA Publishing. Uh-huh. We strictly work with high level consultants, professional speakers, and coaches. And we go straight produce their signature books that they use as marketing tools to build their business and convert readers and clients. So we don't do fiction. But here's my perspective on AI. K? I don't have a problem with AI, but if you wanna stand out, if you wanna be seen as the authority, if you wanna be seen as that expert in your niche, don't touch AI with a 10 foot pole. Now don't get me wrong. I'm the host of the Author to Authority podcast. Thomas, you're gonna be coming on that in a little bit. You know, we use AI occasionally to create show notes, things like that. But the things that you write, your content, your books, and all that, they have to be you. They have to be you in your voice, your authentic message. We're gonna talk about that in a little bit, so I don't wanna get into too much about that. But AI is never going to get you to the point where people see you as a go to person because AI's voice is everybody's voice. And if you need you need to stand
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out. Well, a 100%. Now I will tell gonna make you different. In in the book that I've written called Never Been Promoted, it's 50 Entrepreneurial Life Lessons. Now I used AI for this what way to do it as my editor. So I gave the chapter it's a sit down, put down book, and I don't know if that's the right term because I'm not because it's my but each chapter is read independently. They are not connected. They are yeah. I wanna learn about humility. I wanna learn about how tech like, small stuff. But it's it's definitely more more focused on the vulnerability and the rawness of being an entrepreneur. And and, you know, like, you wanna cry in the corner every other hour and throw things out the window, and you dread working for somebody. So that's the, like, that last step. Like, nope. I'm back in. Like, you know So I wrote this, but I I I gave AI my thoughts and then a template. So here's the here's the format of the chapter. Do this part, like the analogy or the metaphor. Do that part. Get me a quote. Here's my take on it, and here's my personal take you know, my personal life part. And it and it helps with it. Is that an okay use in your opinion for AI and in writing where you're giving it all the original thought? I'm just saying make it sound better together with some other stuff that's, that's the meat part, I guess.
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I I think you have to be really careful in it because to be seen as the authority, you have to have thought leadership. And thought leadership is basically taking concepts and putting them in such a unique authentic way that it makes you stand out. The problem with AI is is it's drawing from everything. It's not creating unique thought. It's just taking the most popular whatever is hashed about and using it. So Yeah. I think, you know, if you really have no other choice, if you really can't write, you know, I think you would be better off in that case to work with someone.
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Well, exactly. So let me let me so that got me to, what, 75,000 words rough draft. And I didn't and I I think a lot of people my my initial publish my public hybrid publishing. Right? So they they said, hey. You could this is probably good enough to add a couple more explicit examples, and you're good. I didn't feel like it had the impact that I'm I'm really trying to write it where someone should feel uncomfortable or, like, I'm doing that or my husband does that to me, and I feel like, I want people to be kind of angry or sad or I wanna, like, draw real emotion from the book. Otherwise, I think it's just like, throw away. And so that's hard to do. It's my first book. I'm not saying I'm gonna get there, but I have hired a ghostwriter to help me tie it better, to to make it more fluid, more tumbleweed, more through lined. Yeah. You know? And and, you know, I'm using, like, you know, a metaphor quote and something else, and he's like, you only need one of those, not all 3. I'm like, alright. He's like, you know, I'm like, I thought what I was was good. He's like, it's just it's too much. You don't need to do that. Just tell more stories. And so I've hired someone to get my voice right because I can't get the headspace. I don't have the capabilities. I'm not strong enough writer to do that. Mhmm. And I accept that, but I have the original thoughts and ideas, and that just becomes interview. And and I think what you're describing is maybe AI helps you get framework set up some it helps you with strategies, ideas, and then you come in with the different, if you will. Is is that is that a better idea?
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Yeah. I I think that, you know, sometimes you just need some help. Like, even sometimes if I'm writing about this topic and I kinda get stonewalled, I'll just Google the topic. Not because I need to learn anything, but it reminds me of what I already know. So, you know, I'll look up the topic, and I'm like, oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Right? And since I know it so well, I I can then write it, and it just helps with writer's block. And I think AI is is good for that in terms of you know, it helps you to remember what you already know. But if you're trying to depend on it to give you something original or make you stand out, that's not going to it's not gonna do it. You can't take the person out of the author.
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No. You can't. And, and I tell people that now if you want a how to book that you just wanna kinda use your personal brand, it takes, like, the best in class. You throw some humor or some kinda, like, you know, you just make it slightly, like, new mousetrap, go for it. You know? Like, do an ebook out of it just to get some marketing funnels. I think that's probably okay. But when you're talking like thought leadership true piece, it's got to be for you. It's got to be your own stories. I agree with you this. Alright. So let's let's go. And so you had talked about some other parts of, you know, pivoting on the on the on the conversation a little. In your own journey, you know, one of the things I want entrepreneurs to take away from just maybe just how to write a book or how to start, maybe start with this. Give the entrepreneur, like, listen. If you want to 45 year olds have lots of knowledge on how to get it out, or they they want to and they struggle. What's one thing they can do just to start to get to get the the juices flowing even if you're the worst writer on the planet?
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So I wanna talk about the create method. So this is what you need to do. This is what your book needs to be if you're going to use it to convert readers into clients. So I wanna talk about and each letter has a specific meaning. So when you look at the goal, one of the goals for your book is c. It should be create authentic relationship. It's not always about getting out every piece of knowledge that you have. You want the book when the person finishes reading the book, you want them to feel like they know you, they like you, and they trust you, and they believe in you. And so when you make that the goal that you want relationship with the reader. And so there's lots of different ways to do that, but that should be in the back of your mind. Yeah. See, it's not about it's not about selling the amount of books. And to be honest, most people who are using a book to build a business actually give the book away or they sell it way under cost because the goal is not to make the money in selling the book. So if you if that's your goal, k, then you can write a different type of book. You can write a book that's catchy, whatever. It doesn't really do much, and you can sell a lot of books if you throw the right marketing at it. Yep. But if you're looking to position yourself as a go to thought leader, then you've gotta create relationship with the reader to the point that after reading the book, you are the person they have to work with. So think about that c. You know? Think about the fact that you have to create relationship. And one of the best ways to do that is with an impactful story. And one of the best ways to do that is with an impactful story. R, here's one that people don't think about. You need to reveal the real problem. Most of the best thought leaders I have ever heard actually didn't give me the solution to my problem. They actually revealed what the real problem was so I could solve it. So I've got a really great example, Thomas. Do you want a good example of this? No. I want a great example of this. Not a good one. Okay. I'm assuming you're married.
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I am. Okay.
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Your wife, Thomas, walks into the bathroom, looks at the toilet paper roll, and thinks, I can't believe he put that thing on wrong again.
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Are you over the top or against the wall, which is your preferred method? Against the wall. But Oh, no. It's either way out because it's too far away, and then you're hitting the wall possibly with pooped behind. You can't do that. It's gotta come out. And I'd ought to order you. Why not just use your bidet? Papers for heathens. Okay. Papers for heathens. So, Thomas, you just proved what I was gonna say next. So there you go. I'm just trying to do layups. Layups are the best way to do an interview. Please continue how I was wrong.
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Here's the thing. It has nothing to do with how you put the toilet paper roll on. Go on. The real issue is is the fact that she feels like you don't love her because you can't take the 3 seconds that it takes to put the toilet paper roll on the way she prefers just because she prefers it that way. Whether you logically think or not that it should be one way or the other, you do it because you love her and she prefers it. So that toilet paper roll has nothing to do with the way you put it on, and it has everything to do with the fact that she doesn't feel like you love her. Feel like she's not seen, heard, understood,
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taken to an account. Yes. This is part of our weekly therapy. Did my therapist send you? This is this is part of what we this actual conversation, I think, came up, and it wasn't about toilet paper because I'm the one who puts toilet paper on. I'm the because I often find it there, and I think, well, there's a double standard now, isn't there? I'm fakingly petting a beard I don't have for those listening. No. But I know what you mean. So so that is truly is. Like, is that really the problem? Is it really the problem? You know, you can't get leads on LinkedIn, or is the problem, oh my god. I gotta go back to working for somebody if I can't make my business work, and I feel like a failure. A 100%. So getting into the weeds of what's really going on to be you know, have humility. Are you afraid of looking weak? Or, you know and and I ask this question sometimes as and this causes fights. Do you wanna be right or happy? Which is it? And and and and my son wants to That's a very good question. I would rather be happy because I'm always right. So not true either. No. I get it. And so you told me your wife and she looked at you. That came up in a discussion and caused a 4 day fight. Yes. Let's just leave it at that. So, But you're right. So, like, we're getting in the heart of and you're describing something when I'm writing my book that I don't feel like I think I'm going through the motions to some degree, and I think part of the challenge was I was using AI to help move me forward. But I realized that it doesn't it wasn't good. It wasn't good enough. It was just too vanilla. It didn't really get and it had no edge on it. You didn't walk through it going feeling motivated. You didn't come out thinking, yeah. He's right as opposed to just you know, I don't wanna do a uh-huh. Like, you know, you don't you don't want the and the meh. You want something that comes out and goes, no. He's freaking wrong. He's like, is he? Really? Or, yeah, probably should start doing that.
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The reaction you want is, wow. This person knows me better than I know myself.
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Well and I'll extend that. I think it's that. And, well, if he can do it and that guy's out there finding success and and, like, hated doing it, it's like, you know, whatever it is and still did it. Maybe I should too. It's like it's to get you to take a step forward. So the point is you're showing and we're discussing, I think, in the lesson here for anyone listening who who doesn't fallen asleep between 2 people just really getting in the weeds on what like, we're we're nailing it down. Right? But the truth is you got to really think, what is the real problem here? Now I would argue AI could look at your story of toilet papers and ask it, what is the real issue here? What is the real deeper meaning of this thing? Is it really about I think it could do that for you, and then you could give your opinions on it. I think that is a good use of AI in writing. And I'm not trying to be pro AI because I because that's my background, but I think humans should be accelerated and lead this technology, not be led by it. And and I think if you look at your writing and go, what's the deeper thing I could be talking about? I think that's actually a good use case for leveraging technology, improve your writing. But you still have to come down to what that deeper thing means to you and and such.
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Well, again, you're using AI to help you jog your memory of things you already know. But if you're using AI to define your thought leadership, it's not going to work because it's not it's not gonna define it. But if you're just looking for ideas because you just you're you're getting writer's block, you're getting, you know, AI and Google and those types of things. They're great tools just to be able to kinda jog your memory, but you have to have that knowledge and that expertise first. And then, you know, you're using these things just to remind you. Now that leads to e, which is educate and engage. So once you've revealed the real problem, you have to educate people on how to solve it. Now when you do that, you wanna think more of why and what with a sprinkle of how. Now it's not that you don't give any how, you do, but sometimes when you get into how, the book is no longer engaging. So you've got to you've got to give enough how to get them started, but you don't want this boring how to book.
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Well, yeah, you don't want a textbook. Right? Exactly. So so let me let me an autobiography that a little bit. My biggest thing was was only to explain how I felt, what I was trying to do and failing or doing well with. And then at the end of it, I have, like, 10 strategies you can try. Just pick 1 and try it. Not all 10. Just pick 1 or 3. It doesn't matter. And, you know, and then I put some provocative questions, thinking questions at the end because I want you to the idea is to flip back and think. And I think the reason I did that is because I can't I know the answer does not exist in any format or solution. You know, and if I look at, like, how people extend some of their books and things to coursework when they're so defined, I personally go I would never follow that because I already know that it's it's too rigid. Right? And and not having you know, the creative thinking is how you do it, and you have and I don't know. So we could talk about that, how you extend content to
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that's the problem. Too much of an entrepreneur.
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No. I have entrepreneurial ADD, and I like to make excuses, and that's mine by blaming others. It's easier.
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So not only educate, but engage. So, you know, your book has to be written in such a way that engages the person to read more but also engages the person to take action outside of the book. Because the book is great, but you want them to connect with you. So, you know, you have to have called actions in your book. People just assume, oh, they love the book. They're gonna connect with me. No. They don't. You have to tell them how you want them to connect with you. And you have to remind them to do it a few times during the book That's good idea. At some point, they actually do it.
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You know, that's interesting. So, you know, and and, well, so that speaks to another entrepreneurial thing. You have to be when you're writing a book or anything else, you have to have the downstream things in place before you execute. So if you're gonna have ads, you better have a good landing page and a website and some other content replaced. Otherwise, you're wasting your money. In that case, and I agree with you, you know, like, in my example of my own book, the 50 chapters, I was actually going to put on our website, hey. This is kind of the discussion point for this chapter. Just jump in and, like, you know, and making sure that, hey. Listen. Create a login, and you can have a conversation on that specific chapter. It might be this, discussions, chapter 50, humility or whatever it will be. Right? And the point is people jump in if you want to learn more, see what people are saying, or start a conversation. I was thinking of that exact way of of a call to action for each one of the chapters to to jump jump into it.
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Because I agree with you. I have a better idea.
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What's that? I have a better idea. Oh, please. Because that was my idea that hasn't been executed. So that but I don't know what I'm doing. Take the provocative questions
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for each chapter. Make a workbook out of it and offer that as the lead gen.
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Make it a workbook. Saying download your workbook and make that the workbook, which means they can also we can add additional questions later, and then then, they they download that. But I honestly I'm not sure I really wanna do any coaching. I'm not like I kinda just wanna do some speaking or may maybe coaching, but it's gonna be expensive people. I I, I find that people get excited about coaching, and then I get a little bit put off when people don't really have they're good for 2 weeks.
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Anyway, I'm like, I don't wanna waste time. So Well, that's where a good interview system before you start working with the person, you just don't take somebody on. You interview them. And they're interviewing you, but you're actually interviewing them. But that's off topic, so I do wanna get to a, which is authentic message. Your thought leadership. Your well defined thought leadership. And you have to be able to explain it in a way that is easy to remember. I use the word create because it helps you to remember the concepts that I'm teaching. Some people use formulas, you know, like a a plus something plus something equals whatever. But you have to or an analogy, a metaphor. You have to come up with something that's easy to remember that's going to define your message and simplify it so that you stand out as a thought leader. Because, again, it's not like thought leaders really have original thought as per se, but how they present it is so original that you think it's an original thought. And in most cases I can't say there's never original thought because, obviously, there are. But in most cases, it's just how you present it in that unique way. And then that leads to t, which is targeted. If you're writing to everyone, you write to no one.
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100% true on that. That listen. I'm I'm gonna just pause you a second on that. That extends to all your marketing and and business. You sell it to everyone, you sell to no one. And if you sell it to too small, you're probably not really smiling to that small. Like, unless you're, like, you know, people with mustaches that are transgender, live on the south side of the street, only in Austin, Texas. Then you might you might have, like, a too small of a group. Right? But, otherwise, I agree with you a 100%. Because you'd rather have 5,000 really people into it than 500,000 who don't care or kinda care. Well,
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here's the thing. When you're writing a book to build your business, right, you need to that book needs to be impactful. So if you do not niche your niche down, I'm Canadian, but I hear it both ways. So I'll just say it both ways. Your book will not be impactful. It will not engage the reader. They will not feel like you understand them, and so target down. When I work with my clients, we usually get about halfway through, and they go, oh, Kim. I wanna add this or I wanna add this or I wanna add this, and I only have 2 words for them. And I go, book 2.
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Well, agreed. Now, hey. Listen. Let let me just extend that idea. That came up where I have these 50 entrepreneur life lessons. I'm like, could I come up with a 50 new ones, you know, and have a black shirt and white tie, and the next year podcast is that color. Right? Or do I call it ask to leave, which could cover getting let go, problems in your marriage, a childhood thing where, like, you know, we move really quickly? Like, do I do I cover a different topic that's still near this ideas of how I became an entrepreneur? I don't know. Do I hire Kim, The Extraordinary Word Ninja, to write it for me? Because god knows I don't have time or the capabilities. I can talk well. Mute me. Right? No good. Sorry. Well, well Okay. I want you to keep going with your acronym. So can you can you do this, Forrest? I want you to, if you don't mind, restate the high levels of the acronym real quick before we go to the next part of it.
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K. So c is creates authentic relationship. R is reveals the real problem. E is educate and engage. A is your authentic message. T is is your book has to be targeted. And then finally, e has to be excellently done. You cannot slap something together. It must be properly edited. And prior to the counter belief that, you know, people don't judge a book by its cover in 2024, people do judge a book by its cover, and they won't even open the book unless they like the cover. So you will are going to need to invest some money. You will need to hire a good editor. Now I was very blessed, when I started doing some more of these seriously. My best friend was a university English major, and she's a wonderful editor. And because she's been my best friend for, well, let's just say more than 30 years, she truly gets me. And so she is my personal editor. She knows how to elevate my writing like nobody else can. So I've been very blessed that way. But, you know, if there's if there's 3 things you need to invest money in, one is a good editor. And not just pick any editor. Interview this person. Make sure that this editor's on the same page as you, that they get you, they get your message, they understand you. Great advice. Don't want just someone correcting grammar. You want someone who's gonna be able to elevate your language, elevate your thought leadership, make the book a little bit more engaging, and they have to be able to understand and agree with who you are. There was one time that, someone wanted to work with me, and I turned the person down because I morally and ethically could not support, what this person believed in. And it was very interesting situation because there was a lawyer. So I had to word everything very carefully to get myself out of that one so that I didn't end up being sued or something.
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Here's here's the lesson. Just don't work with attorneys.
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Yeah. Yeah. I haven't yet. I don't think I will. But everything needs to be excellently done. The interior needs to look good. It needs to be properly formatted. And while you can learn how to do these things, because I learned how to do them, but let me tell you that was months months months of frustration, and it's not something that I recommend anybody go through. But if you don't have the money, there are ways to learn. And okay, I'm gonna give something away just because I really like you, Thomas, and I think your audience deserves it today.
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I love free things. I value them greatly.
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You can format your book for Amazon in Microsoft Word.
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Mhmm.
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It's amazing. You do not need any fancy software. We format all of our books in Microsoft Word. Now, yes, if you're doing a print book, you have to, save it as PDF, so you have to have that capability. I do recommend if you're gonna be doing a fair amount of books that you download okay. Here's secret number 2. Amazon has a program called Kindle Create. You can create your ebooks in for Amazon in the Kindle Create program. It is free software. Now we do it that way because it just makes the the the review process so simple. Amazon looks at it. They already know because we use their program. The books get approved very quickly because we use that program. And I think even now you can do some of the print books in there, though we do more elevated format matting, so we still use Microsoft Word for our formatting print formatting of our books. Let me So you can you can learn how to format your book
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in Word. So let me ask you a business question. And and if for anybody tries to write and this is something I I don't know. Is it better let's say, is it okay to do both, like, try to make money from your book and use it as a lead gen? So does that, in fact, not weed out potentially the people who who can't even invest in, like, let's say, a $7 book or whatever it is? What's your strategy on pricing on digital audio versus this in, like, you know, for audio bestsellers versus like this? How do you approach and I know we have a few minutes left here, but just maybe 2 minutes on if you're gonna price your book, here's just like a general rule strategy, if if you're able to do that in a 2 minute window.
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So most of the time, I I encourage my clients to price their book slightly above the midway point in Amazon. And if you wanna make the most money on your book, your Kindle book in Amazon, you price it between 299 and and 999 because that gives you 70% if you're in this United States minus 30% withholding taxes on their fees. If you're in Canada, you can get a tax exemption because they have a treaty with the US. So I do not pay the 30% tax withholding, though I do report all my income that I make to the government of Canada and pay taxes that way. So you're gonna make the most money if you price it within the way Amazon says for your Kindle book. Now your print book, they give you the base price, and you can charge anything that you want above that. So usually with our clients, we tell them to look at other books in their, niche and price it slightly above the average. So if the average is 22.95, you might wanna price it, say, 23.95 or 24.95. Here's the thing with with your book. If you're a high level consultant, if you're selling high level products and services, you're probably not gonna care as much about, you know, making the few dollars you're gonna make on the sales of a book. You're looking for the visibility and the credibility that being an author gives you. And you know that getting the book into the right person's hands, gives you a very likely chance of converting that person in into a client. So wherever possible, if you can give your book away and there's also a lot of models now today and a lot of ways where you can actually print your book and ship your book and do the free, pay shipping model, and I'll reveal another little secret again. If you do it properly with through the right people, you can actually print and ship the book for what you're just charging for the shipping because there's a lot of fulfillment companies out there, that can because they ship in such high volumes, they get really good shipping rates so they can ship things out cheaper than you can, and some places will even print your book for you. So, you know, there you have options to be able to get your book out cheaply. If you're looking to sell copies of the book to make your money, k, you're going to have to market it. So you're gonna have to speak from stages, or you're gonna have to hire marketers to, to sell the books. Now what we teach at RTI Publishing is not necessarily how do you market the book to get the money from the sales, but how do you market the book, even give it away, and then use that to gain clientele? Because I can make 2 or 3 or 10 or $15 on a book, or I can make 1,000 of dollars selling my packages and services. I'll give my book away if I'm going to sell a high level package.
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Yeah. Agreed. And, you know, just conscious of time, what's the one question maybe I should have asked you I didn't today?
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Good question. You did not ask me about my podcast.
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Could you, tell me a little bit about your podcast? And you can and and at the end of that, tell people how to get ahold of you.
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So I am the host of the Author to Authority podcast. And, yes, while we do interview authors, the goal of the program is to teach and train you how to use a book to build your business. And I bring on credible experts, like Thomas will be joining us on the show. And the goal is to teach you different things. So every expert that comes on is vetted, and we teach on things like sales, marketing, networking, communication, a little bit on leadership. We talk a lot about entrepreneurship in the sense of all the other things. Because you see, you have your book, but you also have to have marketing. So in a sense, it's called authority marketing. And so we focus on all of those topics that surround authority marketing. You can find the podcast, author to authority, on all major podcast apps. You can find it on YouTube. You can also go to the go to, www.authortoauthoritypodcast.com. If you wanna connect with me personally, the best thing to do is come find me on LinkedIn, Word Ninja Kim. Send me a message. Let them know that let me know that you're you heard me on Thomas's, podcast. I will make sure that I treat Thomas's audience
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the right way. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming on today, Kim.
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You're very welcome. I had lots of fun.
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And for everyone who's made it this part in the podcast or, you know, in the video, thank you so much. And if this was your first time, I do hope you come back and you've been here before. You know, you you know, like I always tell people, just get out there. Go unleash your entrepreneur. Go help somebody. Seek help if you need it, and just try to learn one thing from 1 entrepreneur every day. Until we meet again, this is Thomas Helfrich, your host of the never been promoted podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Get out there and go unleash your entrepreneur.