How to Take Your Book from Idea to Published With Jessi Beyer

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED Diane: Hey, Hey, today's guest. Jesse Beyer is an award-winning speaker. Best-selling author. And. When she's not writing, speaking or mentoring, aspiring authors is also a K9 search and rescue handler. I promise I'm going to try and keep my dog obsession in check. As we dive into how a book can help get your message out and increase your impact. Hey, Jesse, welcome to the show. Jessi: Hey, thanks so much for having me. And I'm happy to meet all the fellow dog lovers in your audience. Diane: Yeah. Ex let's start with a bit about your journey. how did you get to be all of these things? Jessi: Yeah. So my journey has definitely kind of convoluted. It's not a traditional straight line, but I started an entrepreneurship when I was a freshman, sophomore in high school, actually. And I knew a family friend, they had unfortunately lost their son who was only nine months old to over immunodeficiency disorder. And I was like, I want to help. I want to do something to help. So I started coordinating a run-walk fundraiser for them that ended up raising some money to help cover their son's leftover medical bills, his funeral bills and things like that. And I ended up doing that for three years in a row to help three different families that unfortunately stopped when he went to college because I went to college overseas and that was the whole thing. But that whole experience really opened my eyes to kind of having my own thing and doing my own thing. Instead of working in this traditional nine to five or working as a Starbucks barista or something like that. And I got that taste and was like, Oh, I like this. I like being in charge. I like doing my own thing, having my own project. So I went through college, had a few twists and turns through there as I changed my mind a couple of times and I got done and I was like, I don't want to go into corporate. I do not want to do this. This is not for me. I love freedom. I love having the opportunity to do what makes me passionate, uh, do something where I can leave a legacy and not just work and then go home and then have dinner and then go to bed and do the same thing over the next day. So I had already done a little bit of speaking. And by a little bit, I mean, I gave a speech at my high school, his graduation, and that opened a few fundraisers that I've coordinated. So very little speaking experience, but I was like, you know what, I'm really, really passionate about mental health because that's something I struggled a lot with when I was in high school, really traumatic relationship, depression, anxiety, kind of that whole thing. And I was like, I want to do something more with this. So I started speaking on college campuses about mental health and how to support someone who's struggling with their mental health. And after definitely a slow start that really started to pick up. And so now I speak fall and spring semester, probably about 12 to 15 times a semester at different college campuses, which is amazing. And then at the time of this recording, my book came out almost a year ago and that was about natural and integrative trauma therapies, kind of sticking in line with my breaking the mold. I actually started writing that for my college capstone project, my graduation project, it was supposed to be a literature review. And I went to my advisor and I was like, well, I want to write a book instead. It's going to be like three times or 10 times as long. I want to write a book and set. And they're like, no, you have to write a literature review. So I'm like, okay. So I spent the whole semester writing a book and then the last three hours before my literature review was due, I would flip review. Anyway, wrote the book, published the book. It did really, really well. I've reached thousands of people in nearly a dozen different countries. It was multiple number one bestseller in different categories, really, really well. And after that, I started working with other people, other entrepreneurs who wanted to write their book and get their message out into the world. And all of that has led to where I'm at now, which is running the aspiring author incubator, which is of course in group coaching program that helps. People take their book from idea to publish without working more than five hours a week. So long story short. That's how I got to where I am today. Diane: Wow. I have so many questions, but I'm going to try really hard to stay on topic so. What do you find when people come to you and they're like, Hey, I want to write a book. Do you feel like they have an idea when they come to you or do you feel like they have this vague message that they want to get out there and they want to write a book about it and you actually have to start at the beginning with them and be like, okay, let's hone the idea. Jessi: I think it's definitely more of the honing, the idea piece. I think people come and they're like, I know all of these things I've been through all of these experiences. I can teach people so much, but it's about taking that really broad idea of like business coaching or life coaching or something like that. And willing that down into three main points that you want to share with your people. And how do I construct this manuscript? How do I sit down and write it? That's really where we need to start, because if I. Okay, take all these ideas and throw you out into the wild and tell you to go write a book. It's not going to work out very well. So it's definitely really honing in on that idea. Is that first piece. Diane: Yeah. I definitely think that would be the hardest thing for me to be like, what are your three ideas? I'd be like, but I have 17. I don't want to pick did you find people find that easy? Am I an outlier or are people like, okay, well these are my three main or does that actually, does that take people some time? Jessi: I wouldn't say you're an outlier because with the way that I just said it of like pick your three ideas, it's so much more than that. So to kind of elaborate on that a little bit, I teach a three by three by three structure. So I'm not saying you have three sentences that you can tell your people and that's it. It's like choose three main, really big picture ideas and then three kind of supporting topics, which within each of those, and then three kind of the why's and the how's and the what's for each of those supporting arguments. So you have this tree that ends up with 27 things across the bottom that you're actually getting to convey to your people. So when I start to explain it that way, people are able to say, Oh, for example, I was actually working with a client the other day. She's a chiropractor. And she talks about burnout a lot. And so when she started, she was like, I have all these things, . How do I get all of these into a book? And I kind of looked at her and I was like, okay, three by three by three. And she's like, Oh, Burnout thing, number two, thing, number three. And it was like, Oh, okay, cool. And then it was plugging all those other little pieces into the structure. So I think once you look at it from kind of that tree structure, it makes it a little bit easier instead of me saying, you know, you only have three things that you convey. It's more of like three big ideas and then let's get more specific if the how's the why's, the what's and the who's from there. Diane: So I want to go back a little to, why should I do this challenging step and the rest of the process from a, from a business perspective, I understand if you have a big personal message and you want to talk about that and speak on it, like your book is personal to you and you speak on the topic and that is your expertise. When you're getting like a business coach or a life coach. Who's thinking about this. Less from it. I want to be an author and more from a, I need to do this from my business perspective. What are our pros and cons? Jessi: Yeah, so there are 1,000,001 reasons in my opinion, that you should write a book, both from a personal and business perspective, but I'll hit on just a couple of the business ones. First of all it massively increases your credibility. Like immediately the minute you can say you are a published author, especially if you hit a best sellers list, your credibility goes through the roof. This opens up a lot of other doors. It opens up press opportunities. For example, I got my first TV interview because I wasn't author. It was actually the day after my book came out. I got on TV. so press opportunities, more clients come your way because when you get those press opportunities, your name is now in front of more people, whether that's in Forbes, entrepreneur, big podcast, whatever that is, more people see you, you get more clients. Another great thing that having a book could do for your businesses. It can raise your rates because again, Your credibility has gone up. You look better, you are perceived as more of an expert, so your rates can go up as another example. My speaking fees pretty much doubled when my book came out and I'm not suggesting that you write a book and then immediately double your rates. That was kind of an aggressive move on my end, but your rates can go up and relatively significantly as well. In addition, you can kind of famous out those lower paying clients. So I work a lot with people in kind of the health and wellness, healing space as well. I get a lot of therapists and one thing that's common in the therapeutic space is something called sliding scale practice, which means that depending on how much the client can pay and how. You know how much income they have determines the therapy rate. Now, what that means for the therapist is they're taking on a lot of clients who are not paying the full rate. And so their profit margins are cut dramatically or even going into the red. So when you have a book, you can take some of those clients that either really want to negotiate your rates, who are a sliding scale clients who can't afford what you have to offer and say, Hey. We're not a great match for this one-on-one service or group coaching or whatever. Here's a book. And instead of kind of just writing them off, you're actually giving something that can change their life because you are pouring your heart and soul into this book. I'm writing a book can also be huge for your client and customer experience part of your business. So if you have a high ticket offer, when you get a new client, Give them a signed copy of your book, mail it to their house that really makes them feel welcomed and important in your business. So there are just a few right off the bat of increased credibility, press opportunities, getting more clients, raising your rates, client experience. You can also use it for lead generation. You can use it to build your email lists. So there's so many different reasons you could want to write a book, but at the end of the day, it is absolutely something that can increase your revenue to be very clear. Within six months of my book being out my business's revenue had increased tenfold. And I'm not promising that for everyone. I can't obviously make that type of claim, but that is the power that a book can have for your business. Diane: okay. So I like all of that so far, like tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. I will take all of that. Awesome. And now I've come along and I've killed off all my ideas. And I have my three by three by three, which makes me very happy because I do like a framework. I can picture the spreadsheet that I'm going to put it in. I'm very comfortable to this point. How important is. That message that's in the book, because I feel like some people write the book to hand the book to someone knowing that person's never going to read it. And sometimes you get those books, like I've been given them at conferences and you open them and it's talk, that's double sized and big diagrams. It's not engaging. It's. Some blog posts joined together. That's the other piece of advice. Just take all your blog posts and put them in a book. So that still feels like a book that's going to get me all of these advantages. Jessi: Yeah. So I have a lot of thoughts on this, just to give kind of one clear answer. I am a huge fan of the message being as important as the book, because not only do I encourage people to write a book for the business benefits, but to leave a legacy, to create something you're proud of to check an item off a bucket list. So there's, there's a lot that goes into it beyond just, Oh cool. I'm an author. I get all these other benefits. To be very clear if all you want is the business benefits, your book doesn't necessarily have to be that good. And I think that creates a lot of culture in our, in our industry. Like you said about right at as fast as you can just sit down and get it done, it's rolled up on the internet so you can call yourself an author. To me when that happens, those people are not as much authors as they are. People who have written a book. And I think there's a huge difference there because when you are an author, that is something of pride, you are proud of that you have this title behind your name and you're changing the world and all of these other things. So I definitely fall on the side of the message being incredibly important. Um, but what I think. People kind of miss a lot of times is the other business benefits that come with putting a really good message into your book. So to kind of talk about this, for example, a lot of discussion out there says you want to write and publish your book in two or three months. I think that's insane. I think a lot of people look at that and they're like, how the heck am I supposed to do this? And then they never even start. So I don't love that. But what that also breeds is it breeds a lack of good quality book because it's just get it done and get it up as quickly as possible. You miss out on a lot of press and endorsement and review opportunities because that's working on such a short timeframe. Usually those types of opportunities you want anywhere from three to six to maybe even more months before your publication, when you start reaching out for those opportunities. And so if you're like, Oh, it's coming out in six weeks, people are like, I can't review it that fast, or I can't get you on the podcast that fast. So. You miss out on a lot of those opportunities, which means your launch might not be as good. You might not reach as many people. You might have to invest more in advertising. So that kind of breeds a whole other set of problems. But then also when people read your book, they're not going to be as impressed and that could inhibit your revenue as well. So for example, let's just set the scene here. I am a new client. You've written this book. Okay. You've written a book, I'm a new client and I'm like, Hmm, I don't know if I want to invest in your $5,000 package yet. I want to kind of work up the value ladder a little bit. So I get your book from Amazon. I'm like, okay, well she's an author. This is amazing. Let's see what she has to say. And let's see how I resonate with your practices. So I start reading through your book and I'm like, Oh, Well, I just want Instagram posts. That was this whole chapter yesterday and Oh, well, okay. I mean, I guess this is okay. She's an author says she was a best seller, but I'm not really impressed with this. Now I am way less likely to become a client of yours because what I have read from you, your heart and soul and message and information, didn't really resonate with me. I didn't like it. I wasn't impressed. So I'm now no longer likely to ascend your value ladder, spend more money with you, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So not only is the message really important for all of the personal benefits and being proud of your book and leaving a legacy and yada yada, but it's also important for the business benefits because a lot of people start with your book and if they're not impressed with your book, they're not going to go any further. One other comment about the turning the blog post into a book thing. I love that strategy to a point because if you're a blogger and you have all of these amazing posts, you know what resonates with your audience and I'm like, start from scratch, wipe it all away and start writing again. You've just done all that work for nothing. So take your blog posts, but then you have to go back over them and actually smooth it together and put it in an order that makes sense and turn it into a book. So I think that's a great strategy to turn content. You already have into a book, but you have to actually do the work to make sure it fits together. So I did want to add that comment as well. Diane: no, I like that very thorough. okay, I'm happy. I need to write a book. I've got my three by three by three, my 27 things. I'm bought in that my message needs to count. And then my book needs to be more than a self-published pamphlet on Amazon. How exactly do I create debt when I'm also selling marketing client delivery? doing admin, because I like it from a conceptual perspective, but if this thing has to actually be good, as well as just finished. I know you are like under five hours a week and I'm kind of like, Hmm, that kind of feels like the productivity. Like I'm going to save you 10 hours a week and I'm like, Oh, you really though. So walk me through my skepticism of under five hours a week. Jessi: Yeah, absolutely. So there's a lot of mindset shifts that can happen here, as well as a lot of tactical things you can use to not spend as much time on your book. So the first thing I want you to understand based on what we just talked about is you do not have a time limit. You do not have to write this book in the next two to three months. And therefore, if you only have an hour a week, you can work on this, spend that hour a week and make sure that hour a week is incredibly productive. And that's where we get into some of the tactical things. So first of all, release that pressure that this has to be done in the next eight weeks. Second mindset shift, recognize what this can do for your business. Like we just talked about. So what I hear from a lot of people is, Oh, exactly what you just said, Oh, I want to write a book, but how do I spend time on that? When it's taking away from other immediately revenue generating activities in my business. Totally valid concern. I want you to look at the bigger picture of the 12 months picture and say, okay, when this book does come out, what can this do for my business? If it gets me one more client a month, how much increased revenue is that? If it gets me a major TV interview, how many people can I reach with that? So start looking at it as, yeah. Okay. Maybe these five hours a week are not going to be directly generating the revenue, but look at the picture. Again, my business, 10 X within six months of my book coming out. What could your business do? So start to look at it from that perspective. The other biggest mindset set shift is you have to let go of your perfectionism and your procrastination. So many people sit down to write and they're like, I can't write the next chapter or the next paragraph or the next sentence, if this one isn't perfect. So I can't move on. I have to get this a hundred percent perfect before I can finish. And then yeah, your book's going to take you a really long time if that's how you're approaching it. So you have to be able to set those things aside in order to really dedicate good, productive, quality time to your book, get it done. And then you can go back and be a perfectionist with the edits and the second, third, fourth draft. So in terms of some of the tactical things you can do, number one, I really encourage you to set content goals instead of tying goals. So a lot of the discussion in the publishing world is. Right for an hour a day, just sit down and get it done, or 15 minutes or whatever you have, whatever number you want to put on that. But what you can do with that hour is you can spend it on a single paragraph trying to perfect it and never move on. And again, if that's your approach, it's going to take you forever to write your book. What I encourage you to do is set a content goal instead. So. Instead of saying an hour a day, say a thousand words a day, again, pick whatever number you want, but something that is measurable, a thousand words, a chapter, a paragraph transcribing and inputting this interview. If you did an interview for your book, whatever that is set some sort of content goal, because then. You really can't spend forever on it unless you have forever to spend, you have to get it done so you can move on to the next piece. Now I do want to say, when I talk about just getting it done and getting it on paper, what I'm talking about is getting everything from your brain out onto a sheet of paper or a word document. So you can work through it and edit it and put it together. I'm not saying. To kind of screw quality and just get it up there as quickly as possible. So, first thing, set content goals instead of time goals, because that doesn't allow you to be a perfectionist, your professionalism comes in the editing, let it go for the first draft, get it on paper, and then you can go back through and make it really, really good. The second tip I would give is you have to understand your personality. Okay. So a lot of people, again, they're like to sit down and get it done, but for some people that doesn't work. So take some personality tests. Understand who you are and how you're working, what you're motivated by, for example. I am an inf J on the Myers-Briggs personality type test. That means that I am incredibly caused driven. If there is not some bigger existential reason for what I'm doing, I can't do it. I just get depressed if I get unmotivated and it's not fun. So I have to sit down and say, okay, how is this book going to change the world? How is this going to change someone's life, make it better. And that gives me my motivation. Other people, they are huge planners. They have to have everything lined up before they actually start doing something. And if that's you spend a little more time on your outline, make your outline a little more in depth. That way you have that structure that you can build on. There's 1,000,001 different personality types. And I don't want to spend the next seven hours talking about them, but understand how that affects you and how your personality affects you and then design writing habits around that. Okay. So. Everything I've just said in the past two or three minutes of shifting your mindset from this has to be done now to no, I'm going to fit this into my life. I'm going to make the writing time that I have incredibly productive and I'm going to set aside that perfectionism for now. That's a huge piece, that mindset shift. And then also in terms of making a writing time productive. Content goals instead of time goals, and then understand how, and when you write best, that is going to enable you to fit writing into your already busy schedule and recognize the benefits it could have for you in the long term. The last thing I want to say is that writing should be fun. This is not just another business thing. You've checked off your list. Like the next social media post or blog posts. This is something that you are pouring your heart and soul and experience into. So it should be fun. It should be emotional. You should probably cry once or twice. If you're writing about a certain topic like I did when I wrote my book, but. This shouldn't be something that you're stressed about. That you're hating that you're just pounding out, because if that's the case, maybe writing a book, isn't a good fit for you. This should be something that you enjoy doing. It may be relaxing. It may be hard. It may be difficult, but at the end of the day, it should be fun and fulfilling. And that's what I want people to get in their five hours a week of writing. Diane: Is five hours, something that you have found from working with people that that's kind of the limit most people have, or is that some kind of like special magic in the background? Jessi: Yeah, I don't know. Maybe it is some special magic. I know for me, five hours kind of splits the middle and for my clients as well. If I'm like spend 10 hours a week, people are like, girl, that's a lot. I don't have 10 hours a Diane: Yeah, that's like a day. Jessi: Right. Yeah, that's a ton. But if I'm like, just spend an hour a week, that's not really enough to make serious progress on this. And so I find five hours a week. That's less than an hour a day. It's like 45 minutes a day. If you want to write every day, it's doable. It's reasonable. But it's also enough to actually, like I said, make progress towards finishing this thing. Diane: Okay. So now I've ticked off all the things and I've written my book. Where do we fall? On the publishing side? Are you a self-publishing or you for it to count, it has to be a traditional publisher. Because I know that that also then has different implications for editors and promotions and all of those sorts of things. Jessi: Yeah. So if you'd asked me this question, five years ago, I would have a hundred percent said traditional publishing is the only way to get a book that counts. Now that's no longer true. Self-publishing has become a lot more accessible. It's a lot better of an option for some people. And it's a lot higher quality, especially if you do put the time and energy into your manuscript and you recover. So I'm not overly pro or con one side or the other, I think it really depends on you and what you're looking for, but I will give kind of a comparison list. So you can maybe make the best decision for you for traditional publishing. If you are not someone that is a celebrity or has huge audience, it's going to be incredibly difficult to get a traditional publishing deal. A lot of people say, Oh, you need at least 10,000 followers on one platform to get a traditional publishing deal. I don't even know if that's enough. Honestly. I think you need to be up in the like 50 to a hundred to have a really good shot at getting a traditional publishing deal. So for a lot of people that gets them out of the running, they can't even do that. The benefits of traditional publishing is that, um, there are no upfront costs. The publisher and the agent and everything take care of that for you, you do get more support in terms of editing and cover design and things like that. But a misconception about traditional publishing is that they do a ton of marketing and PR work for you. That is unfortunately not that true. If you were one of their huge clients, like you're a big celebrity, you're going to bring in a ton of books and a ton of sales, um, math. They might do some more of that for you, but if you're just kind of the middle to lower sized author in their list of thousands, they're really not going to do that much work for you. And a lot of that is still falling on your shoulders. Another benefit of traditional publishing is that you do get an advanced. Which is a sum of money up front. When you sign the publishing deal, that is about equal to how many books the publisher thinks you can sell. So small advances are in the like two to 3000 range. Some people get seven figure advances. If they have huge audiences. A huge con with traditional publishing is that you sign away all the rights to your book. So yes, you are still the author, but the publisher has the final say in the title, the subtitle, the cover, the content, like it is no longer your book. It is the publishers. So if you are any type of a control freak, like I am probably don't go that route. The other thing with a traditional publishing. Is that it takes a really long time. So from the minute you start querying agents to the day your book comes out, it can be two to three years. And who knows, where are you going to be in two to three years, your business moves quickly. The industry moves quickly. So that could be a deterrent for some people as well. With self publishing, you keep all your rights, you get to make all the decisions, all the cover title, all those things, that's all your decisions. Um, you do have no additional support, so everything is on you unless you want to hire it out. Um, and you do have to invest whatever money is necessary upfront. Now. This is where I also get really passionate because they're already a ton of people on the internet that say, Oh, the average person spends five to $10,000 to self publish their book. And I look at that and I honestly do not know where those people spend that money. Like I do not know where it goes. That just baffles me because I self published my book for about $450. And I teach my students to do it for under 500. So if you're like, Oh, self publishing is going to be this huge expense, it doesn't have to be. No, of course, if you have a larger budget, you can invest it in editors and marketing and all those different things, but you can absolutely have a number one best selling book launch for under $500 and get a good one as well. Write a good manuscript, go cover things like that. So, Personally, I would recommend that everyone starts with self publishing because there is no barrier of entry, right? It doesn't cost that much. If you get it up in literally 72 hours, it's very easy to do. You don't need a lot of tech skills. You don't need a huge audience. There's a very low barrier of entry. I personally want to try traditional publishing someday so I can see both sides for myself. But if you're an entrepreneur, you want to use this to leave a legacy and build your business. I would recommend starting with self publishing because a, like I said, you have more control that goes faster, things like that, but you also learn a little bit more about the publishing industry than if you just kind of handed it off to someone else. You get to be very involved in the whole process and have more, more control of how it turns out in the end. Diane: Yeah. And I know a couple of entrepreneurs who've chosen to go self publishing and then had publishers pick it up down the road because it's performed well. So they have had the advantage later on of being picked up by a really big name publisher that they probably couldn't have got when they started the book. Jessi: Absolutely. Yeah, there's a really good romance author. Hurtings Coleen Hoover. I'm not sure if you're familiar with her, but she started out writing self-published and her books just did really, really well. And now she's a multiple number one New York times bestselling author. She got picked up by a huge publisher. So that is an option, right? There's all these different ways that you could get to your end goal when it. Comes to being an author. It just really determines, I guess, on what's right for you at the beginning. Diane: it all sounds amazing. And I'm like, yes, I have my three by three by three. I'm going to rock for an hour a day. I'm super excited. And I know that tomorrow morning when I wake up, I'm going to do nothing. So how do we get started with this? Jessi: Yeah, this is a huge thing. Cause people, people get there all the time. They're like, Oh yeah, I'm so motivated. Let's do this thing. And then they sit and they have this blinking cursor on their word document and they're like, I have no idea. So. First things first, you have to know your why, why are you writing this? And you can't just say to make a million dollars or because I want to write a book or because it's on my bucket list. You have to go deeper than that. So remember, I don't know if you did this, but when I was a kid, anytime my parents would say something, I would go why? And then they'd say something else. Why something else? Why? And I'd go like 10 layers deep, and you need to do that with yourself as an aspiring author. So. You want to read a book? Why? Because I want to grow my business. Why? Because I want to make more money. Why? Because I want to provide for my family. Okay. Now we're getting somewhere because now we're not just saying, Oh, I want to make more money. And that's my motivation. You're saying. It's family, it's safety, it's security. It's the ability to travel and experience everything the world has to offer. Get deep and emotional with this, and really plug into that. Why? Because that's going to be your motivation thing. Number two, you have to give yourself a little bit of grace. Like if you wake up one morning and you've been up all night because your newborn baby hasn't slept and your other kid just threw up for six hours straight. Maybe that's not the day. You're right. And that's okay. Like if you're not in a good head space to write your writing is not going to be creative, it's not going to be very good. You're going to miss things. You're going to have so many more errors and typos than if you wrote for, in a good head space. So sometimes you have to give yourself a little bit of grace. Thing number three, and this is kind of the, the other side. Yeah. The corn, from what I just said, you have to get it done. There is some sense of discipline that needs to happen here. And if you have your why and you set up good writing habits, based on your personality type, you have your structure, you just got to do it and it gets easier. The more you do it, oftentimes what's holding people back from just doing it. Is that sense of perfectionism? Like it has to be perfect. But there's a quote by Terry Pratchett and he says the first draft is just you telling yourself the story. And I think if you really embody that, that takes so much pressure off of you because it's not the first draft that's going to be sent out into the world for people to read. The first draft is getting everything that's in your head onto a sheet of paper. Okay. That's it, it doesn't have to be pretty. It doesn't have to make sense, get it out. And then you can start to rearrange it. The final thing I'll say on this is a lot of things are baking that trips people up is that they think they have to have everything perfectly in order before they start. So they have their three by three by three, but they're like these 27 things at the bottom have to be a, to Z before I can put anything to paper. Books do not have to be written in order. Okay. I wrote my book kind of paragraph by paragraph all over the place. And then I pieced it together at the end because I had, Oh, this research paper just came out. I got a plump bed in here. Oh. I had this interview that I did with this therapist. I have to put that in over here, but this focus over here and it was this web. It was not a line. And then at the end I was able to say, okay, let's put it into a line. But don't let having this web of ideas and this kind of interconnected writing habit stop you from getting started. So if you need to start with the middle of chapter three, start with the middle of chapter three, and then you can go back and do chapter one at the end, a lot of authors that I know a lot of very successful authors. Never start with chapter one, some even start with the last chapter and work backwards from there. So I think when people get started with writing, they have this grand idea that it's all gonna flow so nicely in this order, that's going to be perfect in the very beginning and that's rarely the case. So let go of that get started and it will become easier as you get going. Diane: So if people are listening to this going, this sounds amazing, but I know myself well enough that I'm probably not going to implement all of that on my own. How can they find out how to do that with some guidance? Jessi: Well, like I said, my program probably inspiring author incubator. I have a free training that walks you through. Step-by-step how to take your book from idea to published in less than five hours a week. We cover things like the biggest mistakes you're making, how to structure your book, how to publish your book. The only four marketing methods you are ever going to need. You don't need all these different things that people are teaching. Like I said, that's a hundred percent free training. You can get that on my website. I'll have that link in the show notes, just because of the website, you were ELA sometimes a little bit hard to type. So definitely check out that training. That's going to be, in my opinion, the best way to actually get the support you need. Because when you get access to that training, you get access to me. You can ask me questions, and then if you join the aspiring author incubator, if that's a good fit for you, I am with you a hundred percent of the way you can get that one-on-one support you need. There you go. Come join the training. It'll be the best decision you made all year. Diane: That's awesome because I think the conversation will really have made some people really excited and want to take action on it. And you kind of want to take action on that before you let. All the excuses and the fear and the other things you could be doing take over and stayed. So definitely go and grab that. I'll make sure the link is below in the show notes. Okay. This has been magical. I have really enjoyed this. I always finish with a couple of questions that I'll ask everyone. So the first one is what is your number one lifestyle boundary for your business? Jessi: Yeah, I don't take morning calls. I take calls like client calls from like four to 6:00 PM my time, uh, because a, I am a zombie in the mornings. I am not functional. And B my day is structured where I don't really start work until about two in the afternoon, usually. So if someone's like on the East coast and like, Oh, I want an 8:00 AM call. I'm like, no, we're doing this later in the day. So that's my hard lifestyle boundary. Diane: I like that one. ID roughly the same kind of working times, but mine is just because I'm so far ahead that that's the only overlap that I could get. I wish someone wanted to talk to me at 8:00 AM Eastern. Okay. Second, what is the worst piece of cookie cutter advice you've ever been given in your business? Jessi: So many things that get me riled up. Um, I think the worst piece of advice I've gotten is to do it and ignore my intuition. I've done a lot of things over the years that have been in business all the way from when I started, when I was in high school, up through now of, Oh, this will work. This will make you money. You've got to do it. And I'm like, yeah, well, this doesn't really feel right. I feel uncomfortable with this. It feels sticky or slimy or salesy. And, uh, and I do it anyway. Because, Oh, this is going to work. And of course it doesn't work, right. Because I have all this energy that's like, but I'm telling myself that it's going to work. So that's probably the worst piece of advice I'd been given, when you are an entrepreneur and when you decided to take this journey for yourself, you have a level of intuition and a level of guts that a lot of other people don't have. And to ignore that because you think that someone else is automatically more important and more knowledgeable than you, I think is the biggest disservice you can do to yourself. Diane: Yeah, I think there's a lot of people in the space of here's what I did. Copy it. And YouTube can be like me, but unless you actually want to be like them and have their exact life and have their exact circumstances behind you, there's no guarantees. So why are you shutting your own internal voice down? So listen to this, like no one knows you better than you. Jessi: yeah. Diane: this has been really interesting. I can mentally have like the three by three by three in my head at the moment. I can see that structure coming out all over the place. So I know other people are probably also going to be having the three by three by three in the head and are going to want to chat to you about it. Is there a place that's good for them to carry on the conversation with you? Jessi: Yes is the best place to do that. You can actually email me directly from the training, if you have questions and I'll answer those, um, again, the link to that will be in the show notes. And then if you want to connect on social media, I'm on Instagram at Jessie buyer international, you're more than welcome to give me a follow. Shoot me a message. Tag me in a story, or send me a picture of your dog. That is also acceptable. Diane: yes. And tell everyone what the name of your book is, so that they can go and read your book. Jessi: Yeah. So my book is called how to heal a practical guide to nine natural therapies you can use to release your trauma. So if you were at all interested in natural healing or mental health, that's definitely a good fit for you. Diane: amazing. I'll make sure that we link that as well in the show notes. Thank you so much. This has been great. Jessi: Thanks for having me.