Why Every Professional Needs a Book Plus How to Finally Start Writing When Overwhelmed

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Speaker 1

You.

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Speaker 2

Hey, friends and future authors, this is Lynn Elikqitie, Esquire, just back for another episode of publishing for professionals. Is excited to bring you another Book Blueprint episode. These are really fun where I get to coach my guests for free on, Any self-publishing is like writing or publishing issues that they that they have questions on. So, I have an incredible, conversation lined up for you today.

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Speaker 2

And before we we jump into that, I just wanted to give a big welcome back to my returning listeners. Thank you for listening to publishing for professionals and welcome for my news listeners. I hope you hit that follow button so you can get weekly episodes dropped into your audio player and or on YouTube so that you can get up to the date information on writing and publishing your book.

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Speaker 2

and Ethics report daily since: 2010

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Speaker 2

And that is a huge undertaking to be that consistent for that long. So that's really awesome. Tom is also a bestselling author, having written 38 books in the areas of compliance, risk management, business ethics, and leaders. So without further ado, I'd love to introduce my guests. Tom. Tom, welcome to the publishing for professionals podcast.

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Speaker 1

Lynn, thank you so much. I'm thrilled to be here with you today.

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Speaker 2

se you've been blogging since: 2010

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Speaker 1

Well, I started podcasting in: 2012

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Speaker 1

And now I want guest full time.

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Speaker 2

Nice. And so, yeah. So actually, that's how I started out with my first podcast, Travel Gluten Free. So I started out with a blog and then had a podcast and then turned it into a book. So yeah, it's like kind of a natural progression, a creative progression when you have a podcast on the blog. So you're here for a book, the book blueprint episode, you've obviously or multiple published author.

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Speaker 2

So what is your first question that you have for me today, Tom?

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Speaker 1

Well, and I really want to explore the process of not so simply what you do, but really the process to help a person who has not written a book think through that. So I may sound like I'm asking some basic questions, but there's a real reason for that. And I want to start with what? Why do you think every professional should publish a book?

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Speaker 1

I certainly have thoughts on that, and I'll share those. But why do you think it's so important that's led you to create this entire business model around this effort?

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Speaker 2

Yeah. Well, thank you for that question. I don't think anyone's ever asked me that. So I feel like if you are a professional, like there's a lot of data, if you're familiar with the ETL, ETL studies, there's a lot of data out there that shows like if you are a professional with a book, you get more traction, you get more exposure.

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Speaker 2

People, people are more likely to see you as an authority. It separates you from everyone else in your vertical because you're the one who has the book. And so if someone's going to pick someone to work with for an author or someone who's not an author, they're more likely to pick the author. So there's a just kind of the few big overview reasons why.

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Speaker 2

If you're a professional, especially if you're like an executive C-suite and or you have your own business, that is really important to have a book that shows your expertise.

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Speaker 1

So I'm going to add a couple of others, because I certainly believe exactly what you said I would have phrased is it's the best business card you can have.

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Speaker 2

It is definitely the best business card that you have right now. Most of my clients are using their book that way. They're just literally using it for a business card.

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Speaker 1

But the, a couple of other things I found was in the research process to write a book. It forced me to focus on not so much the information, but putting it together in a format that did make me a subject matter expert. So it leveled up or up leveled my game. I actually writing the book, and the third one and I tell people, please don't discount this ego.

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Speaker 1

There's nothing better than seeing your name on a cover of a book. And, so I, I use all three as motivation. Are those valid in your mind?

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Speaker 2

Oh, yeah. Especially the last one, I can tell you that for sure, because when my first book came out, the idea of traveling gluten free, I literally opened up the package I was holding in my hands. And I was so happy. I was crying like I probably cried for 15 minutes. Like, yes, absolutely. When you see your name, especially if it's like, because having a paper book in your hand and I don't know if you have this experience through, tell them, like when I have a paper book in my hand, it feels way more real than if I'm reading like an e-book on Kindle or Apple books or whatever.

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Speaker 2

Right? Like and just having that feeling and holding that physical book and seeing your name physically on that book is so, so exciting and fulfilling and like, accomplishment checked off, right? So yes, I totally agree with that as well. So what if you have any other questions that we can talk. It's not about today.

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Speaker 1

the process and in let's see,: 2005

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Speaker 2

Something.

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Speaker 1

And I said, honey, how did you do that? And she said, dad, it's easy. You just sit down and write a book. I went, wow, and, you know, she was right. But let me ask you, how do you most people. And I was the same way. Are overwhelmed when they sit down and think about it.

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Speaker 1

How can you begin to think about a process that is, I don't want to say bite size, but, process that you can get your arms around to actually start the process of writing a book. Yeah. Help somebody think about that.

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Speaker 2

I love that question. And yeah, to your point, it does feel overwhelming, right? Because it's a book. Like, it feels like something that's almost impossible that you can't achieve. So what I tell people, if they want to write a book and and I work with a lot of busy professionals, one of the things you want to first look at before you write your book is, how are you spending your time during the day, right?

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Speaker 2

So like, do you have kids? Like, are you taking the soccer practice? You know, tennis, whatever. Like what does your day look like and just love where you're spending your hours every week? And what a lot of people find is that they may be spending too much time on social media, or they may be spending too much time doing one thing or another, that they can actually take that time that they're spending and maybe reduce spending and on that activity and use that towards writing your book.

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Speaker 2

So if you are on social media two hours a day, you can take one of those hours and use that to write your book. Right. And still have another hour of social media. But what I would say is build yourself a reward system, because if you are not a fan of writing and you don't want to hire a ghostwriter, then you'll then, something you could do would be like, I'm going to write my book for an hour, and then when I'm done with this hour of work, I'm going to have like, an orange creamsicle pop, or I'm going to do it on our social media.

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Speaker 2

And that kind of becomes your a word instead of your time waster. And, so that's what I really recommend that people do time blocks of work. So pick like maybe Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. And if you're a morning person, maybe you're writing before your kids get up. Maybe you are writing your book when you're waiting in line for them to pick them up from school.

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Speaker 2

I have a really good friend who we were working together on her book, and every day at 3:00 she would sit in her daughter's school line and just audio record her book on her phone. And then we take that transcription and make it into her book. So there's a lot of different ways you can find time to write your book.

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Speaker 2

And even if it's 15 minutes a day, right, it doesn't have to be 3 or 4 hours. And you do that on a daily basis. You're making progress. You just need to consistently move forward. And little tiny steps, like you said, get your arms around it, right, because that feels like way more doable to write 15 minutes a day or even a half an hour or three times a week.

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Speaker 2

Then, just like what a lot of people think the ideal writer does is lock themselves in the cabin for a month and write a book. But you can do that. Realistically, that doesn't work very well for 90% of the population. You know, that only works really well for people who are full time writers and that's your career. But even that, that's that doesn't always work.

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Speaker 2

Like I couldn't be not I'm one of these weird, extrovert writers, and for me to lock myself in a cabin for a month with no one else, that would drive me crazy. Like, I need to be around people sometimes. So that's a great question. And I get that a lot from, just, you know, prospective clients and things like that.

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Speaker 2

Like, how do I find time to work on my book? And you just really need to look at your whole schedule holistically to see where you're spending time that you don't need to, or maybe isn't a priority, because if your books are priority, you have to figure out, is it more important than the activity that you're doing right now?

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Speaker 1

So I've now identified time blocks in my day off. And how do I now think about the structure of the book, what I want to put into it? Should I outline it? With a basic table of contents? Type outline. I'm a deca thinker, so everything's intense. I have ten chapters to every book with an intro and outro, so it's pretty easy for me.

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Speaker 1

But do I think about the chapters and then do I drill down for greater specificity in that chapters? Do I think about a narrative format, a longer form for each chapter, or should each chapter have subtopics or headings or all of the above, or none of the above?

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Speaker 2

Yeah, no. That's another great question that I get a lot too. So if you are before you write your book, I always recommend people make some type of outline. So there's a lot of different ways to outline your book. The one that I found that is the most effective and I use this one. I used to be a Stem teacher in my classroom a lot.

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Speaker 2

It's called a mind map. And so what a mind map is for people who don't know it's literally like a map of circle. So in the very middle circle you have your main idea. So that might be for you. If you're writing for clients full time that would be compliance. And then when you put your lines out like spokes on a wagon wheel, then you put little circles around all that and all these little circles around that main circle are going to be like your main chapters.

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Speaker 2

So what is it that you want to write about? Compliance. And you would fill that out. And then you can make extensions off of those circles. And that's going to be the information that's in your chapter. You can also do like a regular traditional outline with like the Roman numerals, which is what I learned in private school growing up.

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Speaker 2

I think I could do this in my sleep. Actually, I think I did do that in my sleep one time. And then there's other ways of, and there's lots of different ways that other, you know, writing and publishing experts have talked about with outlines. But I find the mind map is the easiest because you can draw it out.

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Speaker 2

It's visual. A lot of people who are creative are visual, and it's really easy to change it up another way you can outline your book. I've seen people do it with sticky notes on a wall. So same idea like the mind map. But they have like a big they have like all their chapter headings up, and then they write notes on sticky notes and put them underneath the chapter headings.

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Speaker 2

I've seen people do that. I've used a whiteboard with magnet, magnets on it that you can dry erase on the magnet to make books and to also plan for events, because that's I had a really huge whiteboard in my last office, and I like that even better than sticky notes, because one, the magnets are less likely to fall off the off your board.

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Speaker 2

And two, you if you need to move something around, it's really easy. You just peel the magnet off and put it in a different chapter. So whatever way appeals to you to outline, I always recommend outline first. And the reason why is that you don't even know where your book is going. If you don't have an outline right, it would be like jumping in your car and driving someplace new.

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Speaker 2

But you you don't know what the road to go on, right? So you're never going to get to your destination. Or if you do, it's going to be so convoluted that you would have used a lot of your time inefficiently. And as busy professionals, we want to be efficient with our time. We don't have to do that all the time.

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Speaker 2

But I feel like if you're working on a book and you're putting this much time, effort and money into this passion that you love, and you want to be seen as a thought leader, then I think that's a good way to go.

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Speaker 1

As you mentioned, I have multiple books in the arena of compliance, ethics, business leadership, risk management. And I don't want to say they're technical books, but they're more narrowly focused for more of a technical audience. And it's a it's a world I come out of professionally and I'm very comfortable in it, speak the language and etc. I'm crossed over now into a work of traditional nonfiction about an event, and I'm having the following problem I have the outline.

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Speaker 1

I know what I want to put, but when I sit down in that time slot and for me it's 4 a.m., is is the only way I could get extra time in my day. I cannot turn my brain off. I'll start writing about the event, which was a flood. And then in the middle of the time I'm on the flood, I'm thinking about a sonata that was played at my church around grief or the financial recovery of a company that was on the river.

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Speaker 1

I can't keep focus. My mind is just it's mind map, but it's on Uber steroids, and I can't seem to focus like I could if it's like, all right, this chapter's policies and procedures, this chapter is financial incentives. This chapter is risk management strategy. Any is that just adult A.D.D.? And you're just going to have to live with it?

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Speaker 1

Or is can you turn that mind map part off to focus on the task right in front of you? Or how do you do that?

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Speaker 2

Yeah, the that's I love that question because I do the same thing when I write like I sometimes I'm writing and other things come to your mind and the reason that happens is I think because like with your compliance books, right. There's not really any emotion involved in it. Right? It's just like you're going from A to B and you're showing people the steps, right?

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Speaker 2

And you know it and you're super comfortable with it. And so it doesn't get you I'm sure you like doing it, but it's not like not I don't want to say like passionate like as in just discouraging things, but, I feel like writing the book about the flood is much more emotionally involved. And so because it is, your brain's probably pulling in things that can it relates to the flood while you're writing about it.

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Speaker 2

And so what I recommend to do is like, if you're writing and you think of that sonata, write it in the story, be like, as I'm writing this, I'm thinking of the Sonata, blah blah, blah, blah, blah, just to get it out of your head, even if you don't use it in the book. But it would be cool to use that in the book, because then you can make that a story and kind of comparison.

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Speaker 2

Like I'm thinking of the Sonata because blah blah blah. And even if you don't know why you're thinking about it at the time, I would say just put it in the book and then you can take it out later. You can add to it if you want to, if you feel like it needs to be in a different place.

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Speaker 2

But the key is, is to get it out of your head. So once you put it in your book, then that thoughts out of your head and then you can continue on with your story. But that's normal. I don't know if that's added because I have it. I do the same thing and my brain wonders. I think it's more of a non-linear thinking, like if you if you are a non-linear thinker like I am, like, I just grasp ideas from all over the place and a lot of times I'll be talking to friends and I'll say something that's like, completely not part of our conversation.

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Speaker 2

And they're like, where did that come from? And it's because my brain's hopping from hopping from place to place and ideas idea really quick. Because I also process really quickly. And so because of that, that's where I get all of the, all of the, a lot of ideas and just kind of trying to bundle them to, to where they make sense.

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Speaker 2

But yeah, to your point, that's normal. It's a normal creative process. We I think almost everyone I know that's a creative does that. So don't worry about it. You're good. You're good. I think it's actually a benefit because if you're thinking about other things that relate to the flood, right, that can make your story so much more like in-depth and interesting, because then the reader has like these two different things.

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Speaker 2

You have the nonfiction flood story, and then you have how you personally relate to it. And I think that's really powerful. I like that combination of things. So that's a that was a great question. Thanks. So friends, we're going to take a super quick break right here. But when we come back I am definitely going to Tom and I are going to talk more on the The Book Blueprint episode.

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Speaker 2

Hi friends and future authors, welcome back to this episode with Book Blueprint. I have Tom Fox here who is a multi published author and he is on today to ask some questions about his bridging over to nonfiction to absolutely love. So if you are on YouTube, make sure that you follow this, podcast publishing for professionals so you get a new one dropped every week.

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Speaker 2

If you're listening to the audio player, make sure you hit follow. All right. So Tom, these were fabulous questions for the first half. What else do you have for me. Because I'm loving these questions.

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Speaker 1

So I'd like to talk about process because you mentioned something about I think it was a woman you were working with and you and she was audio recording material. You were getting a transcript from that. You were adding that transcript and became the basis of, of a something, a first chapter or a part or something. But it started with the audio.

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Speaker 1

So I'd like to maybe ask you about a process that someone can use. And for me, that audio is a podcast. So I've written multiple books which were based on podcasts, I've done podcasts based on books. So I see things as a process and that you can create multiple forms of content using that process. But I would really like to explore the process.

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Speaker 1

You might suggest a first time author, would you can they, use a podcast to get their ideas together, much like in the interview?

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Speaker 2

Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. I actually have worked with clients who have had podcasts, and we literally take their podcast and turn it into a book. Now, that's not to say like everyone can do that with their podcast, but it's really, really easy because you have that content. But the other thing I would say is you can't just take transcripts and copy and paste them in a book, right?

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Speaker 2

It needs to be rewritten. But to your point, like if you, like for your compliance thing, right? So like if you have compliance and you want to write a book and you're looking at your podcast and you, you do your outline first and then see what content you currently have that can fill those chapters. And then one of my other clients did was she actually we had like 3 or 4 chapters she didn't have content for, so she made specific podcast episodes that she could use in those chapters.

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Speaker 2

So she was intentional in the repurposing because she saw, okay, these four chapters need content. So I'm going to make like 4 to 6 podcast episodes that we can use to fill in those chapters. And so that's a really smart and efficient way to work. And you can also do the flip. You can have a book and turn it into a podcast where you pick like, a topic from your book every week.

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Speaker 2

And what I always suggest to people is just read a small excerpt, like 1 or 2 paragraphs, and then just talk about it for the rest of your show. And it doesn't have to be a long podcast episode. It can be 15 minutes, and people actually prefer shorter podcast episodes anywhere from 30 minutes and under. So if you did that once a week, you say it's promoting her book, which is great because then if people like your podcast, they would obviously like your book because you're using your book for your podcast and be, it gives you more authority, credibility, because you're also a podcaster in addition to an author.

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Speaker 2

So that gives you a lot of more authority. It gives you more, more, I guess, more social proofing your space. And it also gives you a, an avenue to advertise your book that just uses your time. Right. And obviously your time is money, but it's not like you're doing having to pay for it, except for the initial startup cost, which is really low for a podcast.

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Speaker 2

So yeah, you can do either way. And that's what I usually recommend for people, is that just to, you know, take your information and put it into. But you, you always want the outline first.

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Speaker 1

Let me turn to working with Lynn, whether that be as a ghostwriter, whether that be as an editor, whether that be as a subject matter expert. How would you suggest a first time author work with someone who's going to assist them in either that that editing or that storytelling process?

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Speaker 2

Oh, that's an awesome question. I don't think anybody's ever asked me that on the on the podcast. So one of the things I like to tell people is because there's a lot of people out there who say they're editors, or if we say like they're ghost writers, right? But one of the things I found is that ghost writers who have not published their own book, like they they're not going to do as good a job for you because they're not going to know all the little nuances and things like that to publishing.

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Speaker 2

So the first thing I always say is, if you're going to hire an editor, not an editor necessarily, but more like a ghost writer, if they have not published a book on their own, I would say don't go with them just because that experience brings a lot into the ghost writing process. So I have four published books, and so all of my published books I've had, you know, challenges with all of them, like we all do, because publishing a book isn't always easy.

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Speaker 2

And so I bring all of that experience to the table, in addition to my ghost writing skills and things like that. Another, point I want to add on to this too, is that if you are looking to hire a ghost writer or a book editor, they need to answer all your questions right and answer them fully. And if they avoid a lot of questions or you get red flags, definitely don't go with them.

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Speaker 2

Or if your personality doesn't click, like if your personality doesn't click, definitely don't sign on with them because you're they're going to be your best friend if they're your ghost writer for up to a year to 18 months sometimes. And so you want to make sure you have a good relationship with that person. The other aspect I would say is just you could ask people for a sample.

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Speaker 2

Now, don't ask people for a chapter sample. That's that's unprofessional. But say, hey, can you here's a 500 word, you know, piece of my book. Can you please do a sample edit? And that's acceptable professionally to do a 500 word sample edit. But if you are doing a sample edit, make sure you're giving the same content to every editor that you're looking to hire.

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Speaker 2

And then that way you're comparing apples to apples, because I've seen people be like, oh, this person is going to do a sample edit on chapter one, and this person is going to do a whole chapter two. It's like your chapter two is different content, even though it's the same book. And so you can't tell as accurately if that's a good edit.

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Speaker 2

And I always advise people they'll go on Fiverr and Upwork to find a ghost writer and editor, just because a lot of those people just aren't professional editors or aren't professional ghost writers. And, the the one last thing I do want to mention is if your ghost writer or your editor really doesn't want to communicate with you, don't hire them.

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Speaker 2

Ask them like, how do I communicate with you? If I have a question? Right, they should be open to at least an email or a text once a week to like say, hey, this is what's going on and update them. I update my clients every time I do work for them. So just make sure all these things are in place, because if all of those are in place, you should have a good quality editor or ghost writer that is working with you, right?

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Speaker 2

Not just for you. So that's really important when you're hiring a ghost writer or an editor.

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Speaker 1

How do you, as a ghost writer, perhaps more than an editor, put someone's personality into the book? How do you make it seem like it's Tom talking to the audience? Or do you look at who Tom's audience is and say, well, Tom, you should write for that audience. It doesn't really matter what your personality is.

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Speaker 2

Yeah. So I think your personality is really important when you're writing, because if you're not, if you're not, if you don't include some of your your personality in your book, I mean, obviously if it's just a strictly technical manual, that's different. Right? But like if you're just if you're authoring your own book, you need to put your personality in it because people, people attach themselves to the person, not necessarily the book.

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Speaker 2

I mean, they might love your book, but then they're going to automatically like you as well because you wrote the book that they like that emotionally appeal to them. So I would say, one of the things I do is because a lot of my listeners, excuse me, a lot of my ghostwriting clients have a podcast or a blog or something.

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Speaker 2

I usually will listen to their podcast like 3 or 4 episodes and then I can. I'm always interviewing people, so I do a big onboarding call that we talk about all those things and, during that onboarding call, I really get a sense for like who they are, what they want to do. And then I also have them fill out a book focused template, which is, tells me about their book, who their avatar is, why they're writing their book, their purpose, their passion, and all of that.

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Speaker 2

So between all of those things, I can capture my client's voice really well. And so we usually go through the first couple chapters, then we meet and then we talk about like, hey, this is good, this is not good. Let's do more of this. Let's do less of this. I don't like this word. I like this word.

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Speaker 2

So just keeping in constant communication with my clients on what they like and what they don't like about my writing. In that way, I can fine tune it to their voice and style. That was a great question. Thank you.

00;26;49;15 - 00;27;17;29

Speaker 1

Oh, let me get a little bit more towards the end of the process, because I interview a lot of authors and they're usually very passionate about their writing. They're usually very passionate about their book, but now they've got the book and they're not so passionate about marketing. And so do you have that discussion with or not particularly a first time author that, yes, we can go through this process and I can give you that physical copy, or you can get that physical copy and that's what you want.

00;27;17;29 - 00;27;27;01

Speaker 1

That's fine. But if you want people to actually find it, you're going to have to do something. And can you tell us how you handle that conversation?

00;27;27;04 - 00;27;44;14

Speaker 2

Yeah, absolutely. So when someone is writing a book, and especially if they're writing a book with me, they're ghostwriting and or editing. I'm working on their book editing. I always ask them, like, do you have a marketing plan? And most of the time the answer is no. And that's because, like, literally nobody likes someone. I literally have not met anybody.

00;27;44;14 - 00;28;07;02

Speaker 2

Tom. That's like, I'm so excited to work at my book. Like, no one's ever said that. But I can tell them. I'll tell them, like, based on your avatar, these are the places I think would be good for you to, you know, put your book out there. And then there's always places like book club and free books. But yeah, to your point, ideally you want to start marketing your book three months before you are planning on publishing it.

00;28;07;04 - 00;28;29;08

Speaker 2

Right? And so if you move your published date back because you have, you know, some challenger issue that needs to be resolved with your book, that's fine. That just gives you more time to advertise your book. But if you can ideally start three months before and get on podcast and talk about your book and things like that. And also you want to add a really important aspect of marketing is one, an email list.

00;28;29;08 - 00;28;50;22

Speaker 2

A lot of people don't have an email list, and if they do, they don't utilize it. And the power of email is very important. So I always recommend people just go on kit, which used to be called ConvertKit and get a free account. And that gives you just basic email things, but emailing, getting on podcasts, and also to do you have to build a marketing plan around things you're comfortable with, right.

00;28;50;22 - 00;29;20;07

Speaker 2

Like not everybody's comfortable with being on video. So that's something you want to consider if you're looking at being on a podcast is a video, and if you're not comfortable with being on video, then just go with an audio podcast. So utilizing, you know, different components of marketing that are easier for my client or more palatable for my client, and then just tell them, like, start off slow, you know, just make some really easy still images and then use a social media scheduler and put it up just to start to build awareness of your book.

00;29;20;13 - 00;29;40;29

Speaker 2

But yeah, a lot of people do not like the marketing piece. And so that's my advice to them now, whether they do it or not, you know, it's up to them obviously. But I always tell them, you know, any book you see out there that's selling a lot either is A and A list or B another like important personality, or see someone who's done a really good job on marketing their book.

00;29;41;01 - 00;30;03;07

Speaker 2

And that's why I'm I always get miffed about when I see jobs pop up and they're like, I want someone who's written for, like, a New York Times bestseller. It's like, okay, but I don't control what my client does in advertising. So I'm a good writer. But none of the books that I've written have been on the New York Times bestseller list, because that's not the goal of my clients and all my clients is to use it as a business card.

00;30;03;11 - 00;30;16;04

Speaker 2

So they're not going to pursue the New York Times bestseller list. But that doesn't mean that author, that ghost writer, that editor isn't good. It just means that they haven't written for a book that's been on the New York Times bestseller.

00;30;16;07 - 00;30;41;11

Speaker 1

The, there's one other area I'd like to explore, and and we started off I start off by asking you why you should, have a book as a business professional, this is really not a business professional, but it's become somewhat of a passion for me. I interviewed a, nonfiction author. I, I live near a small town, and he had written a book on business leadership, but he focused on leaders in the town.

00;30;41;13 - 00;31;03;22

Speaker 1

So it was not United States or South Texas. And I interviewed him at the end. He asked me how old I thought he was, like, well, you know, probably in your 80s. Well, he was 93. Wow. And then he says, you know, I've always wanted to write my autobiography. And I just looked at him and said, why haven't you?

00;31;03;22 - 00;31;25;12

Speaker 1

This is your seventh book. You know how to write a book. And he goes, well, this or that or I stop it. I said, here's what you're going to do. You're going to give me ten one page outlines of chronology of your life. I'm going to interview you for a podcast on that each one. I'm going to give you that transcript and use as a first draft, and you're going to write your autobiography.

00;31;25;14 - 00;31;55;05

Speaker 1

And he did, and it was a wonderful experience for him and for me. He unfortunately died about six months after that. And at his funeral, his daughter, who was 68, came up to me and said, thank you for doing that for my father because I heard things in there I'd never knew about my dad. And so, I live in a community that is 38% over the age of 65.

00;31;55;08 - 00;32;25;17

Speaker 1

And I tell people, do this for your children, do this for your grandchildren. I would have given an arm to have my dad tell stories. And he never did. And so it can be an autobiography for your family that can live forever. And with the cost of self-publishing, it's very affordable. And so I'm really on a campaign to help people understand you can give more of yourself once again in a nonfiction story by by doing something that straightforward.

00;32;25;20 - 00;32;28;03

Speaker 1

Do you ever have that conversation?

00;32;28;05 - 00;32;44;18

Speaker 2

I do, yeah, actually, one of my clients who, his name is Tom, shot. He's 80. When we published his first book this year. And so, yes, I have that conversation a lot with people, and people make all sorts of excuses to put off writing their own autobiography. And I'm like, look, you would be like, my kids don't care.

00;32;44;18 - 00;33;02;08

Speaker 2

And like, you would be surprised. Like they may not tell you that they care or they may not say, hey, I'm interested in family stories, but I have literally not ever met anyone who has picked up one of their parents autobiographies or memoirs and didn't wasn't excited about it, or learned something new about their parents or, you know, fill in the blank.

00;33;02;08 - 00;33;25;03

Speaker 2

So I yes, I always encourage people to like, sit down and just start writing in your autobiography because if you don't like you said, right. Like he passed away shortly after that. And had he never had you not encouraged him to write it, his daughter would never have known, like how deep her dad was. And all these other stories that you found out strictly through his autobiography.

00;33;25;05 - 00;33;45;11

Speaker 2

And also to I feel like a lot of people just don't feel like their stories aren't important to their kids. But the thing is, is you never know what's important to your kids, right? You I mean, you had some idea, but you don't truly know because you're not in their head. And every time I know someone who's written a memoir just for their family legacy, they their family was excited.

00;33;45;11 - 00;33;59;14

Speaker 2

They love the book. Like, you know, the author was just in tears sharing their story. So I think that's a great way to leave a legacy is to write a memoir. An autobiography is fabulous, is great.

00;33;59;17 - 00;34;09;16

Speaker 1

I want to end with a question I'm asked quite a bit, both in writing a book and starting a podcast, and it's along the lines of.

00;34;09;18 - 00;34;24;05

Speaker 1

What's the most difficult hurdle I have to overcome? And my answer is always the same get off your duff and start. So I want to put that question to you, Lynn, what's the most difficult thing about writing a book?

00;34;24;08 - 00;34;45;20

Speaker 2

I think just for me anyway, personally, the hardest thing for me writing a book is that I deal with a lot of like like I have several disabilities, so there's times where I just don't feel good, and when I don't feel good, I can't write because I can't be creative. But I think for most people it's they talk themselves out of it.

00;34;45;20 - 00;34;59;24

Speaker 2

Right? Like our brains are really good at wanting to do just the same thing every day and not change. And then when you're like, oh, I want to write a book, your brain is like, no, no, no, we don't want to do that, because that's not our normal daily routine. So I would say, don't listen to that voice in your head saying, don't write a book.

00;34;59;27 - 00;35;15;16

Speaker 2

Don't talk yourself out of it. A lot of people do that. They're like, who am I to write a book? Just sit down and write it like it's it. Does it like, don't worry about what other people are thinking about it. Because honestly, you can't control what other people are thinking. You can only control two things. One is what you're thinking and two is your actions.

00;35;15;23 - 00;35;29;03

Speaker 2

So control your thinking and your actions and just sit down and write the book. I think that's like my best advice for people is like, stop listening to the negative thoughts in your head because they're not serving you well.

00;35;29;03 - 00;35;37;03

Speaker 1

And I wanted to thank you for one of the truly most inspiring podcasts I've ever been a part of. This has been fabulous for me.

00;35;37;05 - 00;35;57;13

Speaker 2

Oh, I'm so glad. Thank you Tommy. That's a very nice compliment. I really appreciate that. I try to do my best to pack a lot of value and a lot of just, you know, great answers for people that are on the self-publishing journey. So thank you. I really appreciate that. So, Tom, where can people find you if people want to learn more about you and talk to you about what you do.

00;35;57;15 - 00;36;09;21

Speaker 1

So you can come see me at the Compliance Podcast Network, WWE Compliance Podcast Network Dot net. I'm on LinkedIn, Thomas, our Fox. You can email me at T Fox at T Fox Law.com.

00;36;09;23 - 00;36;20;12

Speaker 2

Awesome. Well, thank you again for coming on today, Tom. And this has been really a blast. I loved your questions. They were really thoughtful and I'm sure we will see each other again in the podcast space soon.

00;36;20;14 - 00;36;21;13

Speaker 1

Great. Thank you.