Welcome to the Masterful Coach Podcast with Molly Claire, where coaches learn Skill Mastery, Business Mastery, and Life Mastery at a whole new level. If you're ready to create a meaningful coaching business that makes a difference, you're in the right place. And now your host, master coach instructor, Molly Claire. Molly Claire: Hey everyone, I am so excited about this interview with Everett. Say hello, Everett.  Everett O'Keefe: Hello.  Molly Claire: Everett was such an important piece of my journey in building my coaching business because he helped me publish my book, helped me to make it a best seller. Yeah, he's got that right there in his hands, The Happy Mom Mindset. Everett O'Keefe: But mine is the special Collector's Edition. Mine has no bestseller seal on it. I could say I knew you when. Molly Claire: Yes, that's right. One of the original. Of course Everett, you know when I first started coaching, that I was working with moms who are overwhelmed, falling into perfectionist traps, worried about their kids. I just remember when I connected with you, feeling so excited about being able to package my message and my coaching in a new way. And so anyway, Everett has been a really big part of my coaching journey. I've seen him be a huge influence and help to other coaches on their journey too. So I wanted to have you here Everett so welcome. Everett O'Keefe: Thank you. Thank you. I'm so excited because well, first, I just always enjoy talking with you anytime. So this is really a treat. Molly Claire: Well, thank you. It's mutual. We love having you in the mastermind and everything. It's so great when you find those really powerful connections that you know will be a part of your business for a while, right?  Everett O'Keefe: Yeah.  Molly Claire: Anyway, go ahead. You are saying that?  Everett O'Keefe: Oh, no, this is fantastic. I'm just grateful for the opportunity. And excited to just what we're going to talk about today with publishing and coaches getting their message out in one of the most incredible, powerful, and durable ways they possibly can. Molly Claire: Yes, because right now, I think there's so much going on digitally. And obviously, you help people with digital books. But there is something timeless about a book. A hard copy, like whether it's paperback or hardcover, but like a copy of something you can have in your hands that is a packaged message, that is just different to me. Everett O'Keefe: It's interesting because there was a time when eBooks first came out, and they said, “Oh, print is dead, print is dead, print is dead.” And you've seen that in lots of other media, magazines and newspapers and things like that. But eBooks had this meteoric rise, but last year, there was this resurgence in audio and physical books. So it's very, very interesting, even in the midst of the pandemic, or maybe because of the pandemic. The great thing is, is for anyone who wants to do a book, it's not an either-or decision anyway. It's an ant thing, your book is going to be in all these formats. So fantastic, but you are right. There is nothing like a book, honestly, for authority, for credibility.  Molly Claire: Yes. So, coaches, we have so much to talk about, but I feel like I got ahead of myself a little bit. But I have Everett here. And Everett is the founder of Ignite Press.  Everett O'Keefe: That’s correct.  Molly Claire: Yes. And whatever it does, is he works with people, coaches, and other consultants, professionals to be able to put their message in book form and to really make it powerful by helping it to become a best seller. And to help them to use it as not only a way to package their message, but get it out there and create that authority. And so, he's just a really great person to hear from today. I want to talk with Everett a little bit about the process of how he does this. Also talking about the power in having a book because I know all of you coaches listening; there are so many ways you can get your message out there. And there often is the question, do I do a podcast? Do I write a book? Do I do this? What do I do and where do I start? And so my hope is that as you hear from Everett today, that if a book is in your near future, that you will feel that and be inspired because I know that was my experience when I first had the idea. So sit back and enjoy hearing all about this because I think it's going to be great. You're going to love this. Here we go. So Everett, I want to know because I know you're very passionate about books.  Everett O'Keefe: I am, very certain.  Molly Claire: And what is it that made you choose this field specifically? Everett O'Keefe: Okay, so I was a prodigal child of English Lit.  [00:05:00] I did my degree undergrad in English Lit. And I actually was working on a master's degree in English Lit when I got sucked into the business world and full-time work, and family and all of those things and left that behind. And never thought I would come back to the world of English literature or publishing or writing or anything like that. And then, in about 2006, I started a marketing company called The Solution Machine with a friend of mine. And we were exploring all sorts of methods for marketing. And we kind of came back around to books. And it took us a while, it was a bit of a journey, but we published our first book in 2013.  As a proof of concept, we really did it about video marketing, because that was something we could rapidly create a book about. But it was really just a proof of concept about how can we rapidly create a book that will provide authority and credibility and exposure for the business, and launch that book, and be making an Amazon number one bestseller. We did with a book called The Video Tractor Beam. Not a great book, like in the sense that, if you read it now, and I don't recommend you do it, I read it now. I just kind of cringed. It's super basic, and all of that. But it accomplished everything we set out to accomplish. It gave us exposure, it gave us credibility, it brought us our first five-digit contracts. It did everything it needed to do. And it became the number one bestseller on Amazon and beat out John Maxwell and a bunch of other famous authors. So it was like, wow, and we just kind of felt like we've got captured lightning in a bottle. That's when we decided, hey, we've got lightning in a bottle for us, why can't we make the lightning in a bottle for our clients? So Ignite Press was born. Molly Claire: What I love about this is, my audience typically is coaches who really are passionate about their message and their purpose. And they're not just here to make money or like not that making money is a bad thing. I think making money is a very good thing. I think it allows us to make a big impact on the world. But our messages really, and in the Coaching Collective is very heart-centered, make sure you're in alignment, make sure that you're doing things that you believe in. And I know just from working with you. And it's clear from talking to you here that you do that, you believe in this and something I remember when you and I were working together is you want to make sure that you are behind whatever the content is being delivered. You're not just going to put out any book, not that you have to agree with every opinion the author has, but you're not going to like help print a book that is in direct opposition to something you believe from your heart. Everett O'Keefe: That that's absolutely true. And we've had to turn down some books that might have otherwise been great books. And that came from really influential referral sources because they really just didn't line up with the type of book that we want to publish. That's been hard at times.  Molly Claire: Yeah, I would imagine. But for you, that's so important. Everett O'Keefe: I think everyone can imagine as coaches and consultants if they're working with somebody whose values are in opposition to their own. That's very difficult. That just sets up a tension that makes it so that, how do you feel when you go to work each day? How do you feel when you leave work each day? If you're not really in alignment, if you're not working in alignment, then you're just causing a lot of stress and anxiety and probably a crash? Molly Claire: Yes, absolutely. Even I think about like in our team, and as coaches like in my audience when you hire a VA or you expand your team, I think having aligned values with your team is so important. Like you said it otherwise it can cause kind of that friction. And also, I think back to when we were publishing my book, and I could feel your enthusiasm and excitement because when you're in it and excited that energy that we create together is really what propels the book forward, I think. Everett O'Keefe: Well, The Happy Mom Mindset was fantastic. I mean, everything about it, it was easy to get behind that book, Molly.  Molly Claire: Well, thank you. I will admit that recently, life shifted drastically for me over the last couple of years with my expanding blended family, and I found myself falling into old traps without realizing it and I spent a weekend reading my book and thinking, wow, what a brilliant author.  [00:10:00] I need to learn from this person. So isn't it funny how we can learn from ourselves even as we write these books? Everett O'Keefe: Well, isn't that interesting? Because by putting it in a book, it's almost as if someone else is telling you these things. Like, who was this person? What version of me wrote this? It is a kick to come back at it afterward. And it's weird. You can learn from yourself by reading what you wrote. Molly Claire: Yes. It's really a lot of fun. So anyway, I just I love that about you because that's definitely I know, with my coaches, and those of you listening, when you're out of alignment or something isn't really clicking with you and your business, or you're doing what you think you should do in your business, even though you really know it's not right. It just causes a lot of unnecessary drama and stalls in our business. Okay, love it. So I wanted to ask you also, specific to coaches, what have you seen when you work with a coach to publish their book? What impact does that have on them and the business that you've seen? Everett O'Keefe: Yeah. So books are a unique thing. First, we need to recognize that. They have a way of communicating to people that we really just don't have through other media. I encourage my authors to read when they're on an interview to read a brief section from their book. And there's a reason. This is the meta teaching is not only do you share the content from the book, but people go, “Hey, that's a pretty good book, maybe I need to get that.” So this is one of the tips we give to all of our authors and therefore to your readers. But I've got a section in my book, The Power of the Published talking about the silver bullet, that publishing a book is the closest thing to a silver bullet for your business.  There’s no true one size fits all, like marketing thing you typically can create, that's going to solve all your problems, and be useful today and useful 10 years from now, or something like that. But a book literally comes to the closest to it, because you create it today, you leverage it today and it'll be with you for a lifetime. That provides credibility and exposure for a lifetime. 20 30 years from now, you can look back, and you'll be like, “Yeah, that's my book, I wrote that book.” If Amazon is still around in 20 or 30 years, which probably will be, it'll still be there. I've got this in and I won't go through this whole list because it's nuts all the ways a book helps. I wrote here in my book, think of all the ways a book can help you. A book can provide instant authority by establishing you as an expert in your field, help qualify you for speaking in media opportunities, provide long-deserved recognition for your work in your industry, place you among an elite group of people who have authored a book, eliminate competition, provide the ultimate stick method to help customers remain customers. Become a durable marketing tool to continually reinforce your credentials and expertise, provide valuable social proof that you know what you're talking about, serve as an influential whisper that provides advice to your prospects and clients. And it goes on and on.  That influential whisper that I just mentioned is I think one of my favorite things. What can you send your clients home with that they will consume right before they go to bed? What can you provide to them that they'll actually pay attention to? They may watch a video of yours for 10 minutes, 20 minutes if you're lucky, but a book, they'll sit down and read. And while they're doing it, it's like you're whispering. You're whispering your wisdom into their brain. And there's also this thing about a book that isn't true of the movie, and you guys have seen it. Like, Molly, what's your favorite fiction book? Or just one you've loved over the years? Molly Claire: I'm such a self-help nut. When you say that, I'm like, I can't even think of a fiction book that I read recently at all. Everett O'Keefe: Okay, but think back. Did you ever read like the Hobbit or any of the Harry Potter or Twilight or whatever?  Molly Claire: Yeah. I remember as a child reading the Secret Garden that was like a musical. I loved it. Loved it. Everett O'Keefe: Perfect. So in the Secret Garden, in your mind, you develop this picture of that garden. You develop this picture of the sounds and the fields of it. And then when you see something like that in a movie, you're like, I didn't get that right. They didn't get that quite right. And that's because in your mind you're co-creating with the writer, you're filling in these details. [00:15:06]  And so when your clients read your book, they are co-creating with you, they are filling in the details. And if you're telling a story about some experience you've had with a client or something, they're there with you. And people support what they create. So if people are creating, co-creating with you in this book, it's just resonating. It's almost like they are coming along you. And when you give wisdom to them, they're right there behind that, validating that wisdom rather than resisting it, rather than being suspicious. I'm trying to be sold. There instead going oh, yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you for hours as I read this book. That’s kind of a long explanation of why books are so powerful. Molly Claire: Yeah. Oh, this makes me want to extend this to like a two-hour interview. I've so many things to say. Everett O'Keefe: This isn’t four hours? I had something really good for the third hour. But there is a story I would love to share because you asked what impact. So one of my authors, and we'll call her Sandy, I can't use her real name, called me up. And she had been working on a manuscript and she was going to be speaking at a conference in I think Dubai. Let me back up. She was attending a conference in Dubai, not speaking, just attending. And she said, “Everett, I would really love to have this book in my hand so that I could hand it to a few influential people at that conference.” A kind of a tight deadline, we were able to work it out. She got on the airplane with five or 10 copies of her book. She lands in Dubai and on the night before the conference, she bumped into a couple of people and she hands them her book. That first day of the conference, she hands people her book. That next night, she's walking through the lobby, and she sees one of those people sitting there reading her book.  I think on the second day of the conference, a couple of those people that she'd given the books to approached her. Those resulted in very profitable contracts for her. And shortly after the conference, she was invited to contribute to a textbook by other experts in her industry. The following year, she went back as a sponsored speaker at that same conference because of the book. I mean, the book gave her these paid contracts, it put her as a speaker on an international stage and it put her in a textbook along with other thought leaders in that space. Cindy looks back at that as a really pivotal moment. As a result, these are the types of things that happen.  Molly Claire: As you're telling this story, I think where my brain is going is, this is one of the millions of stories, like, so many ways, because as you were talking before that about kind of this whisper into our clients’ brains, I was thinking about one of the things I always say to my coaches is, you become the voice inside your client’s brain. So make sure that you're a good voice. Everett O'Keefe: Absolutely perfect. Molly Claire: If we're a coach who's like really harsh or critical, guess what our client’s going to start hearing in their own brain. And so I do think there's so much truth to that. And as you were talking about them, having that book and co-creating, I know, for me, I was imagining, which I never thought about this before. But certainly, as they're thinking through some of the examples and concepts I'm giving them as they work with their kids, they're imagining actual situations with their kids and applying it in their brains. And that never occurred to me until you said that, but I can see how it becomes so personal and that co-creation.  Everett O'Keefe: It is intimate. It is probably the most intimate media other than you sitting there holding their hand having a discussion. And honestly, sometimes it's more intimate because, when that discussion is happening, a lot of times people are putting up objections. It's that whole thing of, well, what am I going to say next in response to what this person just… Molly Claire: Yes, it's almost like a book is so much less, it's like non-threatening. Everett O'Keefe: It's it, defenses are down and you get to pour into your client’s mind, and their soul really. [00:20:00] Molly Claire: Yes, because I was thinking in relation to my coaches who are listening to this, that you all know that when you speak your message to people, people hear that you get them, that you understand them. And I've been reading a book recently that I feel like I understand myself. And I feel like as I'm reading what this author is saying, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, this person knows me, I feel intimately connected with this author because her message resonates with me. I think that has the same potential for, obviously, all of my coaches listening if a book is in their future. The other thing I wanted to say, just kind of speaking to the difference it makes, I think back to when I published my book, and I absolutely felt, I instantly had more credibility with anyone who talked to me, I had more confidence, I had something solid that I could share even for people who would never possibly work with me again.  This is something I tell my coaches when they're wanting help on how to do a consultation call. And my personal view on it is if I'm talking with someone, I am obviously selling them on the value they can get out of working with me because I want what's best for them. I don't believe I'm the only answer for everyone at all. I've had people come to me before who say, financially, the timing is not right for them. I respect that. But at the time, what I would say in relation to my book because that was exactly what they were coming to me for, I would tell them, “Go buy this book on Amazon, get the workbook, and I want you to use it as if you are paying me top dollar, get the most out of it you can.” And that was, for me a very powerful thing because I know that even if they're not going to continue working with me, I can help them change their life, I can help them make a commitment to themselves and use what I've put out there. And then other people, it is the right time for them to work with me. And so it just kind of releases sort of that pressure or whatever it is that can make the sales process. Everett O'Keefe: Absolutely right, so with my book, The Power of the Published, the reason I wrote that specific book was to show people all the ways that a book can benefit them and there are a gazillion that people never think of, and easy strategies to write a book, and a discussion of different publishing options like hybrid publishing versus self-publishing versus traditional. When I have my first call with a prospect, the first thing I do when I get done is I sign a book, and I send it to them. And by the time I have another conversation with them, or another email exchange, or whatever, they have my book in their hand, and I hear over and over from them, there'll be like, “Oh yeah, I read your book, or oh yeah, I saw that in your book, and blah, blah, blah.” And what it does is it makes those clients far more disposed to engage with me. They're more educated about me, they understand get me better. They understand our process.  A book in the hands of your listeners, if they have a book that they can provide to clients, it will convert clients way faster, it will convert higher-value clients as well. A lot of people find that when they publish their book, they pretty immediately also increase their fees. There are so many different ways. We see it over and over.  Molly Claire: Yeah. And I think all my listeners, I know you're listening, and if you're wondering if I'm trying to convince you, or he's trying to convince you, you should write a book, I'm just going to be honest, I think you should all write a book. There's no question in my mind, I don't know what timing is right. But genuinely, like, I know, all of you that are listening here have a message, you have something you care about. And I just think it's an unmatched experience. But kind of going back Everett to what I was saying about, not everyone's right to work with me. One of the things I also love about you, Everett, and as I've sent people to you that I always tell them I say, “Talk to Everett, he's going to tell you honestly if he's the right person for you to work with or if there's someone else that's better suited to your needs.” So I would love to hear you speak to that and specifically how you do help people.  Everett O'Keefe: Sure. So first, the people that we work with, we only publish nonfiction books, they are typically for expert positioning purposes. So the clients are coaches, they are speakers; they are business professionals, thought leaders. Also, a fair amount of that are pastors of churches and the directors of nonprofit organizations, but they're writing the book to get their message out.  [00:25:08] Their first goal is not royalties, their first goal is the sharing of their message, and the impact that the book can have within their brand, and they understand that. You and I know Molly that even very successful authors don't make their main money on royalties, they make on rights and speaking and other opportunities. So that's really important. And so for me, I want to look at the message that they're bringing, and see if it's a message that does resonate with us, that that is something that we can get behind. And if it's not, I will have a resource for them. I absolutely will, I run a mastermind group of other publishers, and I know exactly where we’re going. You know what, this one's really not right for us, but I think it's right for this other organization, and I'm happy to do that. There are some messages out there that are important messages that need to be out there, and I'm not going to block them from coming, even if they're not necessarily ones that I will resonate with, I'll find someone for them. Molly Claire: Yeah, I love that. Everett O'Keefe: As far as what we do, that was the second part of your question is we're a hybrid publisher. So we sit in between self-publishing and traditional publishing. And we'd like to think we're the best of both worlds. Traditional publishing has so many pitfalls, two of the most important of which are, they typically will red light, not green-light projects, if they will only accept a very small number of projects each year. And even when your book is accepted, it may be two-plus years before it sees the light of day. And most of my clients would like to see their book going to work for them next quarter, not two or three years down the road. And for us, it really is normally next quarter. We typically it's a 90 to 120-day process with us. So anyhow, if a client already has a manuscript, we will take that manuscript, and we will carry it through the entire publishing process, we will provide copy editing, we will provide layout cover design- As you remember, when we did your cover contest for the Happy Mindset, and we had a blast with that process, don't we? In fact, I think this is the appropriate place for us to let them know that you just did another cover contest… Molly Claire: Yeah, I was just going to mention that you're kind of like my daughter's maybe your youngest consultant coach that's publishing with you. Everett O'Keefe: Absolutely. So for the listeners, Molly's daughter has written a book, and we have just completed the cover contest for it, and it is phenomenal. I love it. We have this cute picture of Daisy on the front of it. And anyway, so we bring up the cover because the contest, we actually crowdsource cover creation. So rather than me having an in-house artist give you two or three versions of a book and you having to just live with those, we crowdsource this with a cover contest, and our authors will probably get 100 to 200 variations to choose from and it is a blast! Molly Claire: It is fun. I remember when we did my cover contest that it was like when the cover came up that I ended up choosing it was almost like it was meant to be my cover. It couldn't have been more… And then yeah, was doing Daisy’s contest because we just finished her cover contest a couple of weeks ago, and the designs coming in were so much fun. My daughter had a blast with it. And Chris on your team was so amazing, she's so warm and kind and connecting and Daisy felt so valued as an author and as the leader of her project, which was amazing. Yeah, and she had a blast. She shared it with her friends and teachers at school. I think she had almost 400 people vote on her cover. Everett O'Keefe: Okay, that's a record. That's a record by the way. For you listening or watching when we do a contest, we always recommend like, well, we'll help narrow down to the top three to five designs and have you pull your Audience, and the reason we do this is yes, the feedback is nice. But it's again goes back to people support what they create. [00:30:00] You are letting your audience create with you, they're more likely to buy your book, support your launch all of that 400 is off the charts. That's not even close. I'm not sure that we've run a poll that has more than 100 responses. Molly Claire: It may not quite be that high, but it was definitely, at least like around 300. Everett O'Keefe: It’s a record. Molly Claire: Chris said, we want to get at least 50 people voting and then like, after I think, like an hour, I was like, well… Everett O'Keefe: I love it. So the cover process is obviously an important process. And in traditional publishing a part of the process that you may have zero control over in traditional publishing, you might not even have control over your title. So, it's an interesting thing. So with our clients, we take care of the editing, the layout, the cover design, and then publishing and we publish our clients’ books so that they appear on all of the major online outlets. So your book appears on, it's on Amazon, it's on barnesandnoble.com, walmart.com, Apple iBooks, Google Books, and then even in apps, like Scribd and Overdrive, it's available for libraries to order, it's available for bookstores to order all of that. And we do that in such a way so that you get all the royalties, you get your books at cost. We don't charge any of those, and when I say at cost, its print on demand, which is the eighth wonder of the world for anyone considering publishing. Molly Claire: It's amazing. It's the best. Everett O'Keefe: So print on demand is awesome, and Amazon does not warehouse your book, they only hold your files. So when someone orders your book, within 24 hours, they print that one copy of the book and send it. It's incredible, and it's affordable, and it also means that for my authors, I don't visit their house 10 years from now and find that they still have a pallet of books in their garage, that has been eaten by termites because they had to buy so many copies of their book to get their work out initially. You don't have to do that. Instead, you can order books in quantities of one and four, often under $3 a book. It's astounding. And then for those people who are speakers, you can have your books drop-shipped to each of you at your speaking destination. So you're not stuffing books into a suitcase. Or if you have key clients that you're working with, boom, they can have here's your however many books. As you know, Molly, we do a bestseller launch. And for listeners, that is where we're creating the singular sales bike on Amazon so that for a period of time, your book is the number one book in one or more categories on Amazon, and I cannot tell you how powerful that is in several different ways. When we did our first book, The Video Tractor Beam, I watched that book go up the chart to the point where yeah, it was beating out John Maxwell, it was beating out Malcolm Gladwell, and it was beating out Andy Andrews, another one of my favorite authors. It was the number one book in entrepreneurship. It was the number one book in small business marketing that had an impact in a really unusual way. It added to my credibility. But I got to tell you, it also added to my internal posture, and I never expected that. That was a truly unexpected thing was suddenly going to wait for a time, for a moment, for a few hours or days or weeks, I was out selling my favorite authors. I was outselling the most influential people in the space. And it makes a difference. It makes a difference in how you approach your clients, and I don't think any of us ever set out to do a book to increase our own confidence. But I'll tell you, it does. Molly Claire: It does. It's almost like this new opening as to what you're really capable of creating in the world. Everett O'Keefe: That's it like I did. Oh, I did that. Molly Claire: Yeah, if I did that, what else can I do? I agree. I think it's very powerful for that internal competence. Everett O'Keefe: It was funny in the power of the published I tell the story of that, and I tell about how exciting and how much impact that had, and I talked about how I became private pilot years ago, and how that really was incredible that I accomplished that, and what that did for my internal confidence. But the book, a million times more. Molly Claire: That's the best. I love my book and I'm so excited for my daughter to have her book. Everett O'Keefe: Actually Molly, it’s a life-changer for her. [00:35:00] Molly Claire: Oh it's amazing. So those of you listening, it's her book is a kid's guide to divorce and life after, and she's written her story, and she's writing from a kid's perspective for kids. I'm so excited for her to have that for about a million reasons. So we won't get into that today, but I am in the interview or on the podcast, actually. So that will be fun, too. Everett O'Keefe: I would love to just briefly; one of the things people are really intimidated about is the writing. So I'd like to take a little heat off of people with that is, there are writing methods that are not these huge mountains that you have to climb. One of the ones I love is just write down the frequently asked questions of your industry. More of your practice. Write down the questions that people ask you the most. These are the questions that you already have the answers to, it's on the top of your head, grab your phone, use the voice recorder app, or Rev- another great tool, and just answer those questions. Just answer this question, spend three to five minutes on each one. Okay, if you have written down 20 questions, and you spend three to five minutes dictating on each one, you have your manuscript, you have the core of your manuscript. I've seen some really great books created this way; it's a fantastic way for people to create their first book and it's great. And then using Rev, if you do this in rev.com, you can actually have that transcription back within think hours. Molly Claire: I’ve used it for other things. It's pretty quick. Everett O'Keefe: Rev, I think does it with people that are transcribing and they maybe charge $1 a minute or something like that I can't quite remember. Or you can use otter.ai, which is an AI transcription and that will be back, almost instantly. So don't be intimidated about creating your manuscript. There are ways. It doesn't require you to go, like sit at Walden Pond in a cabin for six months and forego people in grooming. Molly Claire: Well, and as you're talking because in the Coaching Collective, one of the things we do with our clients is help them to really create a unique program for their clients, by talking the knowledge and what they do and really personalize it, not only with their clients, unique needs but their unique personality. And honestly, that program we help them create is the backbone of their book. That's what my book was, it was a program I created online, and then I turned it into a book. So it's a lot easier than we think. Everett O'Keefe: Yeah, in fact, I would say if you have a course you have a book, and if you have a book, you have a course. They feed each other. Molly Claire: Okay, so my hope is all of you listening are going to talk with Everett. And we're going to have in the show notes you're offering, which we'll talk about in a minute. But as I said, before, any of you that are interested at all in this, I would talk with Everett, because he's going to tell you if he's right for you. He'll talk and be honest about timing all of that stuff. And so if there's any interest, I think that's the best thing to do. But I do want to ask you, Everett here, for those listening who are wondering, how do I know if I'm ready? Or if I want to do this, but maybe I'm new in my business, or I'm not sure about timing, what would you say to them? What's your advice or thoughts on that? Everett O'Keefe: I think this perhaps is going to come across as very self-serving, but it doesn't change the fact that it's true. If you are in the kind of the inception stage of your business, there is nothing you will do that will catapult or accelerate your business faster than having a book. You don't have to have all the answers; none of us do, and ever will, and neither does your book have to be the next masterpiece. Okay, you have time to write your masterpiece later, if you'd like to. This first book is a book that's designed to help expand and deepen your message, get it to more people, and improve your business, and you can't do that soon enough, as far as I'm concerned. So as far as, is there a stage? I'll tell you if I were going to be opening a cookie business tomorrow and I don't really know anything about cookies, I'd find a way to write a book about cookies. And I would you know, gather the information from other sources or interview experts on cookies and I would do it. [00:40:00] And I would be immediately regarded as an expert on cookies simply because I put a book out. A friend of mine wrote a book about pit bulls back in the 80s, and he did it as a lead capture tool. He just wanted to sell some product about I don't know if he was on leashes or whatever online. So he wrote a book about pit bulls, and a newspaper reporter called him at some point said, “Hey, did you hear about that attack with this Pitbull, and I'd like to interview you.” And he's like, “I'm no expert on pit bulls, but I know this bad veterinarian up the road just by talking to him.” And the reporter said, “No, you don’t understand that you wrote the book on pit bulls. I want to interview you.” He didn't know he had no great expertise. That's how rapidly people are regarded as experts simply because you published a book, and that doesn't mean publish a bad book. But it means that you need to understand it doesn't need to be your Opus, it doesn't have to be your legacy piece. This is the best marketing tool you'll ever create for your business, and it's the one you'll still be using 10 years from now. You won't be using your web, the same website, 10 years from now, you won't be using the same emails or the same videos or even the same headshot. You'll still be using the same book 10 years from now, or you'll improve it and do another edition. Molly Claire: Yeah, well, I know like with my book, The Happy Mom Mindset, I use it, I work with coaches building their businesses, and yet I use concepts in that book all the time. I use it for things in their personal life; I use it for the translation in their business life, because the concepts in there while personalized are so universal, that even now, though, that's not my focus, it's one of my best powerful coaching tools that I use with my clients. Everett O'Keefe: There was another thing that was coming to mind, and I totally forgot it. So we'll skip that one. Molly Claire: Okay. Well, there was another thing I was going to mention, and then I do want to have you tell people where they can find you. But I'm going to be interviewing Sharon on the podcast soon. Sharon is- she's been on the podcast before as well. But she's one of our mentors in our mastermind and we had ever come speak to our mastermind, and talked about publishing and Sharon knew that it was for her, and that was her project. I remember still when she planned out writing her book, we do our quarterly planning workshop. And I don't know if you knew that she had all these like, organized post-it notes by color. Watching her create that book was such a powerful thing, and then watching it come to fruition and become a best seller. And where she is now in her business has been fantastic to watch that transformation with her. Everett O'Keefe: Wonderful so Sharon's book Tired yet Wired, we published and launched that book, and it became a number one best-selling book. I don't remember how many categories on Amazon. But absolutely fantastic and what I love is then watching our authors leverage their books and continue to leverage their books, and it's that silver bullet over and over. Molly Claire: Yeah, that's awesome. So well, this has been so great. Thank you so much. And tell everyone about your book that you want to offer that will have the link in the show notes, and also where they can find you. Everett O'Keefe: Yeah, absolutely. So the book that I was referring to The Power of the Published, I'm giving Molly a link, so that you can all get a free copy of the book, the digital version, you can get that. And trust me, I think that you'll find this useful, because not only will it share how many different ways books are powerful, and what they can do for your business. It also shares several different writing strategies to easily and quickly write a book and has an in-depth discussion of different publishing options. That's important because you want to have control of your book and own your rights and all of that, and so that's very important. And so there's that, and then if you just want to have a discussion, we offer a free book consultation through our website. If you go to ignitepress.us; not.com, ignitepress.us you'll see there that you can schedule a call for me and your direct access to my calendar, you can pick the time that works for you, and we'll be talking about your book shortly. Molly Claire: Awesome. Awesome, and I want to quickly highlight one of the things you mentioned that's in the book, which is those easy writing strategies. Because I think that was one of the things I really appreciated about working with you is it's so easy to feel a lot of pressure and think things are harder than they need to be, and I feel like you really have a gift for the kind of like you said with recording for rev right like and having them transcribed like, here are some things that are just like this one little baby steps that can be something amazing. [00:45:00] So I think that piece right there, my listeners would be a really valuable thing for you to get from that book. Everett O'Keefe: Yeah, and by the way, everyone has different ways they may want to do a book, and if those kind of rapid writing strategies aren't what you want, I have some phenomenal book coaches that I can connect you to as well, and then we have some people who are like, I really don't want to write, I would like a ghostwriter. And I've got some really great ghostwriters that we can connect people to as well. Some people already have a manuscript and they've been working on it, and it needs to see the light of day, and others need to begin. But the most important thing is get it out there. My first publishing client had been working on his book for, I don't know, three, four years, and still wouldn't have done anything if we hadn't kind of nudged them along. So, you got to get your message out to the world, or no one's going to hear it. Molly Claire: That's right. That's right. Well, thank you. I love what you do. I'm so appreciative of you and my life and my business and now in my daughter's life as she's publishing. Everett O'Keefe: I'm so excited about that book, and Molly, you, and Daisy are an absolute joy to work with. Like parents are not supposed to have their favorites. Publishers are not supposed to have their favorites either. But, love working with you guys. Molly Claire: And we love working with you and your team, thank you. Thank you. It's mutual. All right, Everett. Well, thank you so much, and hopefully, you'll all check out his book, and thanks for being here. Thanks for listening to The Masterful Coach Podcast; you can check out www.thecoachingcollective.com for info about the ultimate program for coaches building a business. To find out more about Molly, you can visit www.mollyclaire.com