425: How To Use Your Miracle Morning to Write a Book with Chandler Bolt

[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. Hey, it's Hal Elrod. Thank you for being here today. Goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning Community, I appreciate you so, so, so much. And today is a conversation with a good friend of mine, someone I've been friends with for about seven years now, I think. And we do this usually once or twice a year. I bring him on the podcast, and we host a live training. So, we have a live training coming up on April 19^th, which I won't tell you about that now. You'll hear a little bit about it during our conversation today. Well, I guess I can tell you, if you do want to join the live training or get the info, go to Self-PublishingSchool.com/Hal, that is Self-PublishingSchool.com/Hal. That training is on how to go from blank page, meaning you got nothing written down to published author in as little as 90 days. And Chandler has helped hundreds of members of the Miracle Morning Community do exactly that.

And Chandler is the CEO of Self-Publishing School and the founder. He is just recently named a Forbes 30 Under 30, and he's the author of seven bestselling books, including his most recent book titled Published. And Self-Publishing School is an Inc 5000 company for the last three years in a row, which means it's one of the 5000 fastest growing companies in the United States. Today, we're going to talk about how writing your book can change your life and specifically, how using your Miracle Morning can be one of your greatest assets, your greatest resources to write a book. The irony is I wrote the Miracle Morning during the Miracle Morning. So, Chandler is going to kind of address today how applying your Miracle Morning to writing a book can help you get it done faster and that you're already possibly further along than you might even realize as a Miracle Morning practitioner.

Alright, before we dive into this conversation with Chandler, I want to just take a minute or two to thank our sponsor, Organifi. If you've got a busy schedule, which I know I do, it can be hard to get all of your nutrients on the go. Even if you have a lot of time to juice vegetables, eat massive salads, you may not love the taste of dark leafy greens or all of the healthy foods that are out there. And I think we all know that a lack of nutrition can lead to low energy, it can lead to bad moods, and all sorts of long-term issues. And that is why Organifi makes it easy to fill your life with more nutrition using delicious superfood blends. You just add a scoop to a glass of water to energize and nourish your day with carefully picked adaptogens, fruits, vegetables, medicinal mushrooms, and more. It's one of the easiest and fastest ways to make a healthy choice that will improve your life immediately every single day. Head over to Organifi.com/Hal, that is O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I, Organifi.com/Hal, and then use the code HAL at checkout, H-A-L, and you will get 20% off your order as a listener of the Achieve Your Goals podcast, any member of the Miracle Morning Community.

Anything else to announce before we dive into this conversation with Chandler? Oh, no, what was I going to say? I forgot. Well, I do want to mention the app, the Miracle Morning app, I don’t want to forget that. In case you're not aware, we finally launched the Miracle Morning app that is available now in the App Store and for Android. Any other announcements to make? I think that's it.

Alright. Without further ado, a conversation with one of my favorite people, literally. I always tell him he is one of my favorite human beings. He's such a good person and he's so fun and he's so funny and he's so smart. And I think you're going to get a taste of all of that during today's conversation on how you can use your Miracle Morning to write a book that changes your life and the lives of the people.

[INTERVIEW]

Hal Elrod: Chandler Bolt, it is good to see you, my friend.

Chandler Bolt: Hal Elrod, great to be here.

Hal Elrod: It's good to see you because I actually know now that you're not like four states away in California, you're 30 minutes away from me in Austin, Texas, man. Talk about that. Tell us about the move.

Chandler Bolt: Yeah. So, just moved to Austin, Texas. I just pretty much do what Hal does and I want to be Hal when I grow up. So, yeah, I just moved here to Austin, Texas, just bought a place, about to start to remodel. I'm excited to be here. The early pitch from you is, hey, you can pay for your dream home in tax savings.

Hal Elrod: Exactly.

Chandler Bolt: So, here we are. But for the record, this is when I meet people here, and they say, well, where do you move from? I’d say, well, I'm from South Carolina. I don’t have to mention the California part, I just temporarily lived there.

Hal Elrod: It is funny when I first moved here from California, which was like six years ago. You'd get some people go, ah, you go back to California. We don't need you here. It's like, most of them, and actually, that's not a fair representation of Texans. I think most are very welcome, glad you made it. But there was the occasional stink, I think, that I was from California. Yeah, I was going to say because you've got way more of what sounds like a southern accent than anybody else coming from California. So, you can play it off.

Chandler Bolt: A little bit.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, I'm from South Carolina. So, here's what I want to do. This is your 700^th time on the podcast. I don't know how many times, but two things I want to do, I want to establish, I just want to say this, the reason that Chandler is the first person who’s, like business and program I ever endorsed, literally, years ago, 2014, I think, ‘15 something like that, is because writing and self-publishing the Miracle Morning was the most life-changing decision I ever made. And then when Chandler started Self-Publishing School and he started helping people to do that, which I didn't really have the teaching. I don't know to tell someone how to do it. I just said, you should do it. It's a game-changer. Chandler, I really believe in what you're doing.

And so, before we get into the how to write a book, why to write a book, all of that, a couple of things, well, I already mentioned the webinar or I will have mentioned the webinar we're doing in the introduction that I'm going to record after this, but I want to start with where you are now. We usually start with your history and some tragedy you endure when you were younger, and that's really valuable. But really, I just want to start with where you are now and actually work our way backward. Kind of a different approach we've taken in the past. Does that sound good?

Chandler Bolt: Yeah, sounds great.

Hal Elrod: Alright. So, right now, talk to us, tell us about Self-Publishing School. Like, right now, where is Self-Publishing School? How has it grown? You're the founder and CEO. What's your team look like? Like, really, I'm just curious. How many people you’re helping write books? Let's start with today.

Chandler Bolt: So, Self-Publishing School, we're an online education company. We help people write and publish books that grow their impact, their income, and their business if they have when using a book. And so, where we're at today? We've published about 6,000 books in the last seven years. So, Hal, you were one of the earliest supporters, and at this point, we've had to have publish hundreds of books from the Miracle Morning Community, if not more than a thousand. We've had more people join from the Miracle Morning Community than anywhere else. And so, we've published thousands of books. We're on a journey and a path towards publishing 100,000 books by 2035, that's kind of the big mission, the big goal, about 30 something full-time employees like mid-30s full-time employees, handful of contractors. And we've been on the Inc 5000 list last few years in a row as one of the fastest-growing companies in the US. I just got Forbes 30 Under 30, and then just published a brand-new book, the second edition of my book Published. And so, we've already moved a bunch of copies, and then kind of full circle moment, when I spoke at Best Year Ever the last time, and we auctioned off that dinner, Rachel Richards, just an example of someone from the Miracle Morning Community.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, I know Rachel.

Chandler Bolt: She read the first version of this book and published her book. So, it's kind of a cool ripple effect of the people in the Miracle Morning Community. They've even published books without even joining Self-Publishing School, like there's a bunch of those too. So, that's been really cool to see.

Hal Elrod: And how old are you? How young are you?

Chandler Bolt: 28.

Hal Elrod: You’re 28. I was talking to her a while ago. She goes, “I think he's 30.” I go, “I don't think he's even 30 yet.” And I met you when you were, I think, 20, right? Is that when we met?

Chandler Bolt: Something like that, 21, 22, somewhere in that range, yeah. Maybe 20, it might have been 20.

Hal Elrod: I remember we went out to dinner. I don't remember if you were able to have a drink or not, I don't know. It was 20 or 21. Dude, we've been friends since then, and I've watched your journey. And yeah, I mean, it's incredible. And I watched you featured in the 30 Under 30 and before that, what was it? What was the first big feature you had? I remember I just was so proud of you when I saw that article, it was in a magazine.

Chandler Bolt: Maybe Business Insider.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was the title? What was the headline for that?

Chandler Bolt: It was like College Dropout Creates a Business, Is on Track to a Million Dollars, that sort of thing, talk about how you're changing the publishing industry.

Hal Elrod: It was fantastic, man. So, I just say, I love what you're doing. I obviously really, really believe in you, and I think it's important for my community. I think they know I don't bring anyone or anything to you unless I personally have a really heartfelt belief in what it is that you're doing so. Alright, let's dive into the content for people. Why should the person listening to this right now write a book?

Chandler Bolt: Yeah. So, I believe that books change lives, right? If you’re listening to this right now, how did you've had your life changed by a book? Probably, almost everyone. So, books change the lives of readers, and they also change the lives of authors. We always say it's not about the book, it's about who you become in the process of writing and publishing that book. And so, books change lives. I've had my life changed by the Miracle Morning. And how many of you may be listening to this? You found this podcast, you found Hal because of this book. And that book for me, I was just on a podcast interview yesterday, they said, “Hey, the most impactful book you've ever read?” It was like the one that turned me on to reading, and I said, “Okay, maybe like Rich Dad, Poor Dad because my dad handed me that book when I was 16 years old.” But then I’d say, “Secondly is the Miracle Morning because the reason I read so many books is because I implemented the Miracle Morning.” And I used to not read.

And so, that's what I think is so cool about the overlap here is that if you're already implementing the Miracle Morning, then you can either use that to read books or to write books or both. You've already got kind of that discipline, and that's one of the things we love about working with people in the Miracle Morning Community is because it's almost like a cheat code to make faster progress on your book. And so, that's why I believe people should write books. And not only that, but if you're looking to start or grow a business, a book, in my opinion, is the best thing that you can do to grow your business if you strategically do it to add value and to bring in more lead sales and referrals for your business.

Hal Elrod: And man, I can tell you that I wrote the Miracle Morning out of a sense of responsibility to share it with people. I thought this thing changed my life. Everyone I've shared it with, which was primarily my coaching clients back then, it is transforming their lives, and none of them are mourning people. And I wasn't a morning person. And if it changed their life and my life, it could change anybody's life. And no one knew who I was. Like, when you wrote your first book, nobody knew who you were, right? But it's amazing how that act of putting your story and your wisdom into the form of a book and then putting it out there in the world can be the catalyst that creates so much opportunity for you. You and I could never have imagined where we are now. And it all traces back to that first book that we wrote and self-published. We didn't wait for some big publisher to give us permission that we could write a book and they would give us a deal. We took it in our own hands.

So, in terms of why people should write a book, I'm totally on board with you. And I think that there are multiple reasons. I know you've said that whether it's your business which you kind of talked about or just to leave a legacy. If you have a message you want to leave with your kids, like our good friend, Chip Franks, Chip wrote a book called– I'm not looking at it right now, but I think it's something like life lessons from dad. And it's like an 800-page book. I mean, Chip's a prolific writer, but he literally wrote this. He didn't care if he sold a single copy. He said, “I want to leave the most valuable lessons that I've learned since none of us know what day is our last.” He said, “I want to leave the most valuable lessons that I've learned for my kids.” And of course, that book has also sold copies and earned him some income, and it helped a lot of other people as well, but whether it's to leave a legacy, whether it's to build your business, create another source of income.

And the last thing I'll say on that is when I got cancer and I was in the hospital, the Miracle Morning paid all of my bills for my family and allowed us to keep the lights on in our house and a roof over our head and the mortgage paid when I couldn't work, when I was incapacitated. And so, again, these are all just reasons that I'm such a big believer in why everybody should write a book. I can't think of a good reason not to, I’m like. So, how do you choose which idea to write about if you have too many ideas? I think that's a big– people go, “Gosh, I have so many ideas and so many stories, and I've had different careers and jobs and expertise.” How do you decide when you have so many ideas?

Chandler Bolt: Yeah. And so, we're going to dive into this a little bit more on the training as well. So, guys show up for the training on the 19^th.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, mention that. Give the details real quick. I don't have it in front of me.

Chandler Bolt: Yeah. So, we're going to do a live training, Hal and myself. It's on April 19^th. If you're listening to this after that, you can go to the same link and just get the replay. But I think it's Self-PublishingSchool.com/Hal, you can register there. We're going to actually make progress on your book, so we'll get started with your book. And then we're going to talk about how to market the book successfully to generate royalties or clients. And so, we'll kind of walk through a big part of the process, and you'll leave there with progress on your book.

Now, one of the things we'll talk about in more detail, and this is exactly what you just asked about, Hal, is there's probably people who are in one of three camps, either you're thinking, I don't know what I want to write about, I've got way too many ideas or I've got an idea, and I'm confident in that. Now, if you're into too many ideas camp, and I would think about if you're an entrepreneur or if like what do people come to you for advice on? Or if you're an entrepreneur, what are the broken record conversations that you keep having with every new client or prospect? The best way to stop talking about that thing is to write a book on it and then point to that book.

And oh, by the way, that book will be one of the best things you ever do to grow your business. So, probably, similarly, Hal, you said when you first wrote your book is for your coaching clients, I would assume that some of the curriculum and content in that book is just conversations that you were having, that you were getting asked about, and maybe a common theme that you saw in your coaching. That's one of the best ways to do it because it's solving a need for the people that you're already helping and you're able to do it in a more scalable way because that's the thing about a book. I call it leverage impact. You're able to crystallize the knowledge that you have into a book, and then that book goes on to impact thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even millions of people. So, it brings leverage to what you're doing and helps you go from one to one to one to many.

Hal Elrod: I like that. So, one of the things that the training that we're doing on the 19^th, the topic which you gave me is how to go from blank page to published author in as little as 90 days, I think. Did I get that right? How do you write a book in a short amount of time? I think that's one of the biggest excuses, objections is I'm so busy, like I don't know where I could write a book, and I know you mentioned that that's one thing the Miracle Morning Community has a little bit of an advantage is like, no, no, no, you already wake up early. And that's when I wrote my book, I wrote the Miracle Morning during my Miracle Morning. But how do you write a book in a short amount of time?

Chandler Bolt: Yeah. So, first thing, you've got to decide to make this a priority. So, I talk about this in my new book and I talk about deciding why you want to write this book and then deciding why now? Okay, and your why might be to grow your business, it might be this is a passion project, it might be I want to share this experience that I had. Maybe it's just something where you say, “Hey, long after I'm off this earth, I want this book to be here.” So that's your why, and you can put that up in front of you so that you see it so that that'll inspire you to make consistent progress. So, that's kind of the inspiration.

Then the Miracle Morning, I think, can be a part of the implementation of that, where you carve out some of your Miracle Morning, describing peace, and maybe instead of journaling, you're writing your book, and that's a piece of your morning routine. And so, I think that's the why. The Miracle Morning is a little bit the how, but then the why now, I think that is so important because if you don't have a strong why now, is that kind of like they say– what's the saying? It's like people don't change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing. And when that happens, they will change. And so, I think similarly with this book, if the pain of not writing it just gets higher than the pain of writing it, and the why now is so strong, then you write the book. And so, that's how you make it a priority. And then on this training, we’ll get a little bit more into the trenches on specifically steps you can take and you actually lead with progress on your book.

Hal Elrod: For me, my why that I finally got to was, I'm being selfish. This is what motivates me. I go, I'm being selfish by not being disciplined to get this done. Every day that I don't write is a day that someone who could benefit from the Miracle Morning is missing out. And at that point, I had literally gotten emails from people that I had shared the Miracle Morning with, like in speeches who had said the Miracle Morning saved me from committing suicide. And then another one that was like the Miracle Morning saved my marriage or the Miracle– all these really profound results. And I thought, how could I not share this when someone else is having the same struggle and they need this, and whatever message you have, whatever story you have, and sometimes that's just your story. You went through this adversity, you overcame it, and then just sharing that with someone else gives them the courage and the confidence that they can do the same.

And so, to me, that’s– the why can be selfish for sure. It could be like, I want to create a book, so I have a source of passive income and grow my business. Absolutely. Or it can be selfless, I want to help others. Or there's nothing wrong with it being both. Like, yes, I want to help others and I also want to create a source of passive income. Or one of my former coaches used to say that a book is just a brochure on steroids. And I love that. I'm like, yeah, that's really true. Like when you give out a brochure, people are like, ah, cute, and then they throw it away. You give them a book, they don't throw that away.

In fact, I remember when I wrote my first book, a lot don't even know I wrote a book called Taking Life Head On! That was my first book, in 2006 it came out. And then I became a college speaker and I would call these colleges and I would pitch myself, and I would get a lot of like, yeah, yeah, maybe call me later, like, we'll check back six months or whatever. And I would always say, “Hey, as a thank you for even just considering, you mind giving me your address?” Or I have their address from the website, I would say, “Can I send you a signed copy of my book as a thank you?” And they'd go, “Yeah, of course, sure.” And I would send a signed copy and had a brochure in it, like as a bookmark.

But I remember this woman called me two months later, and at that time I was earning $2,000 a speech. And she called me back and she said, “Hey, we have a budget of $6,000. I get called from speakers all the time, but you're the only one that sent me a copy of your book. And it's been sitting here on my shelf for the last couple of months. A few days ago, I finally took it home. It's just been staring at me. I finally took it home and I read it.” And she goes, “My students have got to hear your story.” Again, not my framework, not mine. And that's what a lot of people I think struggle with is like, well, I have a story, but I'm not an expert. She brought me in because her students need to hear my story and she paid me $6,000, like three times what I was used to, all because I had written a self-published book. And that one speech paid for all my editing costs and my proofreading costs. You know what I mean? And then from there, of course, everything, it just kept going, but…

Chandler Bolt: That's amazing, man. That's so good. I love that you do that because I think we are very aligned in that, and I send people books and stuff all the time because you got to zig when other people are zagging. And this is an analog way to get in front of people. And you've inspired me in a bunch of different ways. I feel like I was talking about this on a different podcast. I just shout you out on all these podcasts.

Hal Elrod: I love it.

Chandler Bolt: The Miracle Morning changed my life. And then you've inspired me in a lot of ways as an author and just as a human. So I loved– I remember when we went to Café Gratitude in San Diego, and you sparked up a conversation with the waiter, and somehow it comes up about the Miracle Morning. He said, “Hold on, let me go to the car. I only got a copy of the book.” And that just always stuck with me. And so, when I released this book, I've just started carrying– yeah, published. I've just started carrying around books, and it's just usually because I think a book can help you become more of a pillar in your community and can create a local change, which sometimes is like, you're doing all this stuff online.

Hal Elrod: You’re thinking about changing the world, yeah.

Chandler Bolt: Yeah. And it's cool, but you don't see it, so sometimes you don't feel the true impact. I started feeling this where it's, oh, I'm looking at houses and I give the person the book. I'm going to the chiropractor, I give them a book. And like all that stuff, and it's just that really inspired me, and you start to see that change. And then you've also inspired me to do a lot of podcast interviews. I mean, heavy promotion for my book Published that just came out and I'm three to five podcast interviews a week. Like that's kind of what you've done and what's worked really well. So, I'm doing a lot of that.

And then the final thing and maybe you get this sometimes, but it's so funny because I've written seven books, and I wouldn't introduce myself as an author. I kind of see myself as an entrepreneur. And an example of this, I was given a book out. I was looking at someone's home and I said, “Oh, yeah.” Apparently, my realtor had introduced me as an author, which I would never introduce myself that way. But it's so funny because he said, “Yeah, we're going to dinner tonight with some people who love books. They're going to be so excited that an author is looking out.” And he's like– and because I think an author lives near them, too. And this is like this crazy moment of realizing, wow, this is really cool. I don't think about this enough that in the minds of most people, when you become an author, you become an authority. The root word of authority is author. You can't spell the word authority without the word author. And so, that was just kind of a cool representation of just one of the many ways that you've inspired me.

Hal Elrod: That's interesting. I don't think of it that way, either in terms of author. So, you got movie star, you've got senior, and then you got author, right? And it's funny too, I also relate with you, it took me so long to introduce myself as author. I felt like such a phony impostor. I think I sold 10,000 copies of Miracle Morning before it finally was like, I'm an author, I guess, right? Like, I wrote a book. Does that make me an author? I don't know. Interesting.

Alright, so let's move into– we talked about writing the book, about coming up with your idea, figuring that out. How do you successfully launch a book? And I think I'm asking, especially for folks who aren't great at marketing or they don't have a big email list and they haven't launched something like this before, and that might be an intimidating part is like, well, maybe I could write it, but I don't know how to get anybody to read it. Like, how do you launch a book?

Chandler Bolt: Yeah. So, I'll never forget when I was trying to get my business off the ground and trying to sell books and that sort of thing. And I got some advice from a mentor who said, because I was just struggling, and he said, “Chandler, you need to learn how to become friends with Sam.” And I said, “Well, hold up. Who's Sam? And why do I need to know him?” And he said, “Sam is sales and marketing. And if you don't learn this, you will continue to struggle. But if you do, you can write your own paycheck, you can sell as many books as you want, all these things.”

And so, I remember I got that advice and said, “Okay, that sounds like a really good plan. There's only one problem, I don't like sales and marketing.” And so, maybe you're listening to this right now and you're thinking, yes, that's me. I would love to just write this book and then not have to market it. That's like what pushes me outside of my comfort zone, right? Well, good news, you're human. That's normal. But I would really challenge this and say, you don't give the advice that my mentor gave me. You don't have to like it, but you do have to learn it. Whoo! Don’t have to like it, but you do have to learn it.

And so, the first step is putting on your figurative marketing hat and saying, I am committing to marketing this book. And I think you use a great kind of language here, Hal, it’s like, okay, if I want this book to change the world and change the lives of even, let's just call it a thousand people, and if I believe in this book, then it is your moral obligation to market that book because if that book is going to make people's lives better, well, you got to tell people about it. And if you build it, they will not come, you have to tell them about it. And telling them about it is learning marketing, and then getting very specific, it's things like a launch team, it's things like getting reviews on your book, it’s things like the promotions around the launch week of your book, and these are kind of all things that will get into real detail on the training.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. Actually, I want to reframe, for anybody listening, this is big for me because believe it or not, I don't like sales and marketing, which is weird because I started at age 19 selling Cutco cutlery. But what I realized is that sales, if you're not in sales or even if you are in sales, there's a certain, I think, perception of what selling is. I have to convince somebody to do something that they may or may not want to eat. It doesn't feel good. I feel it’s uncomfortable. This is the way I view selling or, yeah, really view selling, and even when I was in sales doing Cutco, it's I'm just going to enthusiastically and sincerely tell you about my product or program or book and I'm going to just tell you about it, and then I'm going to let you know, like, hey, you do not need to buy this. If it's a great fit, awesome. If not, no worries. And I always would start my Cutco presentation with that, I go, “Hey, just you know I'm going to show you Cutco. It's high-quality kitchen cutlery. And just to be really clear, I don't consider myself a salesperson, like, I guess, technically, I am, but I'm just going to show this to you. I’m going to let you try it out. If it's a good fit, awesome. If you like it, great. But like zero pressure, this is totally about what's best for you. That sound fair?” And they'd be like, “Yeah,” and then they'd feel like, oh, I don't feel no pressure. There's no pressure. And I would just authentically be like, “Check this out, da da da da.”

And when I type my Miracle Morning, it's the same thing. I'm like, I'm just going to type my Miracle Morning and how it came to be and how it changed my life. If it's a good fit for you, awesome. If not, no big deal. So, really, to me, selling is just authentically and enthusiastically talking about something that you believe in and letting the person know that there is zero pressure for them to buy it. And then like when you look at it that way, it's like, well, that's not really uncomfortable, it's actually pretty easy.

Chandler Bolt: Selling is serving, and sales is a transfer of enthusiasm, which I think you're world-class at.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. Thanks, buddy. Moving further, how do you use books to grow a business? And more specifically, how have you, Chandler, used books to grow Self-Publishing School? Because again, when you wrote your first book, you were in sales, what was the– Painters? What's the name of the company?

Chandler Bolt: Student Painters, yeah.

Hal Elrod: Student Painters, right?

Chandler Bolt: Yeah.

Hal Elrod: So, how can someone use books to grow their business? And how have you done it, specifically?

Chandler Bolt: Yeah, I love this question, and I think this is really specific stuff that, to my knowledge, we've never talked about on this podcast. And so, I look at using a book to grow a business in three ways. And so, I'll give kind of the overarching framework and I'll talk about specifically how I've done it at Self-Publishing School. So, I look at using a book to get more leads, more sales, more referrals, those three buckets. So, leads, these are people who hear about you because of your book. So, for example, my book Published that just came out. So, there's a bunch of people who never know about Self-Publishing School, but they hear about this book, they read it, they book a call with my team, they sign up for Self-Publishing School. So, the leads, people who hear about you because of the book. Sales, these are people who already know about you but decide to do business with you because of your book. And then number three is referrals, so turning customers into active referrals.

And so, I kind of unpack those last two. So, sales, chances are if you're listening to this and you have a business, you have some sort of sales process or funnel, you've got traffic that leads to a lead or someone calling you that leads to either their buying or maybe booking an appointment, either showing up or not, signing up or not, etc. You can use a book at any or all parts of that process to get more people to opt-in, to get more people to show up to your trainings, or to your appointments or things like that. And again, the root word of authority is author. You're becoming an authority throughout that process, which means they're all parts of that funnel will go up and your conversion rate sales process will go up.

And then, thirdly, use the book to get more referrals. This is kind of exactly what you did, Hal, in sending a book to a meeting planner or someone that could book you on their stage. But I look at and I think, any business owner, if you write a book, send two copies to every new customer, one for them and one for someone you know who needs help with or someone they know who needs help with the problem that you solve. And so, now, all of the sudden, a book is a new business card. People say, “Well, I think a book is better than a business card.” It's exactly what you said earlier, Hal, you give someone a business card, they're going to throw it away almost immediately.

Hal Elrod: Yeah.

Chandler Bolt: But if you give them a book which is really a $4 business card, well, they're going to keep it. And every time they see it, they think of you. And just like that woman that said, “Hey, that book was staring at me, I finally read it,” and then booked you to speak. So, it's just such a powerful thing where people can refer your business by really just adding value to others and sharing about your book. So, that's the overarching framework. And then, specifically, how I've done it at Self-Publishing School, the first edition of my book Published, and so, I don't think people can see the video, but there's the first edition. There's the second edition. The first edition has generated millions of dollars in sales for Self-Publishing School over the last few years. And that's a big part of why I wrote the second edition because I know it's one of the best things that I can do to grow the business. And so, I really see that as generating tens of millions of dollars for the business over the next few years because it's more structurally designed to turn readers into subscribers and paying customers. And then we use it and give it away all over the place when I'm going to speaking gigs and all that stuff.

Hal Elrod: That's great. And by the way, I'm doing a Miracle Morning 10-Year Anniversary Edition. I think I told you this year. So, I'm going to reach out to you and say, okay, what did you learn in redoing your book? What did you do write? Anything you would've done differently? I'm going to hit you up for some tips on that.

In the Miracle Morning, one of the things, when I wrote it for me personally, was I had a dream of being a keynote speaker. And specifically, there was a number in mind, it was $10,000 per speech. That was like kind of the top guys, or not the top guys, but that was like you had made it, you were a legitimate $10,000 per speech speaker. And when I wrote the Miracle Morning, part of my intention was I was mentioning, oh yeah, I give speeches on this. And at that time, I was speaking at colleges, and then my entire speaking career for the last 10 years, every speech I give is on the Miracle Morning from a CEO or a leader, an executive that read the book, and like, again, it's the brochure. It's oh, wow, my team needs to hear this, so whatever it is, whatever, if you have a business, your product, your service, if that is the reason you're writing a book. Again, if it's just legacy, ignore this part. No big deal. But if you want to start a business or you want to grow your business, everything Chandler said, it can be one of the best tools to do that.

Alright, before I ask you for your parting advice, I just want to mention everybody just a reminder, really inviting you to join us for this free live training. We usually do this once or twice a year. I do this with Chandler every year because we have new members in the Miracle Morning Community, we have people that might have not gone to the trainings before because the timing of writing a book wasn't right for them, although when is it ever right, it never is right. Right now, you might go, okay, you know what? I want to dive deeper into this. I really want to get serious about writing a book. And there's a great quote around that, which is if not now, when? If not now, when? There are so many things that we put off and put off and put off and put off and put off, and then there's just no better time than now usually to get started.

So, the free live training on How to Go from Blank Page to Published Author In 90 Days is April 19^th at 12 pm Eastern. It's totally free. You can register right now at Self-PublishingSchool.com/Hal. Again, that is Self dash, little dash mark, Self-PublishingSchool.com/Hal, and I will be on there as well as Chandler. And again, today is just a conversation, that's a very structured training that Chandler has run in. As he said, we've had hundreds of members, if not over a thousand members of the Miracle Morning Community that have attended those trainings in the past, and now, they are published authors. So, last but not least, what is your parting advice for people who want to write a book and go from there?

Chandler Bolt: Yeah, it's exactly what you just said, Hal, it's there's never going to be a perfect time. I think a lot of times, we think writing a book, it's on the maybe someday list, it's on the maybe next year list. And so, maybe you're listening to this now and you've been dreaming about this book for years, maybe you're listening to us now and you're like, this is the second or third time I've heard Chandler talk with Hal about this, and I've always kind of been like, oh yeah, maybe later. I would just encourage you. There's never going to be a perfect time. A lot of times, people think, oh, this perfect time where I've got no job, no kids, no business, no responsibilities, and that's when I'm going to write my book. Well, bad news, that's never going to happen. You're going to have to get started before you're ready, and there's never a better time than now. So, get started with the book. Join us at the training on April 19^th, or if you're listening to this after that, you can go to that same link and grab the replay. And that's going to be really helpful to help you make some progress and get it then.

Hal Elrod: Awesome. Well, Chandler, I actually haven't told you this today. I always remind you that you're one of my favorite people, usually when we get started in any conversation. So, I love getting time with you. It doesn't feel like work at all. And so, I'm looking forward to it. Today was fun. Looking forward to the 19^th. Looking forward to coming and visiting you at your new place once it's renovated. I'm not going there until it’s a lot nicer.

Chandler Bolt: And we’re going to get out on the lake, we're going to do some lake surfing. It's going to be a good time.

Hal Elrod: I love it, brother. Well, hey, man, I love you. Thank you for taking the time today and looking forward to the training on the 19^th. Again, everybody, Self-PublishingSchool.com/Hal, and it's totally free. And we'll see you there.

Chandler Bolt: Yes, sir.

[END]