Jeremy Weisz 5:59
Yeah, some people do that any, you know, would do it, but they don’t think to do it. Right. So the fact that you just spell it out, like, oh, you know, oh, I should take a picture and post it right. And so you just Anyway, keep going. So number one, number two was number two. Yeah. So
Chandler Bolt 6:13
that was number one. And then number two, was if you if you have podcast, I’d love love to be on it love to do an interview. And then number three was, I’d be happy to give away some copies of the book for free to your audience. So whether you have a podcast or not, maybe that’s a fit. And so that’s kind of the and so then I made an easy call to action, where I said, Hey, here’s my phone number, my email, and just text number one, number two, or number three, or I’ve got something else in mind. Very clear, with an easy
Jeremy Weisz 6:42
call to action. You know, love it. I mean, we first met, if you remember, we first met at Brian Kurtz’s Titans event. So we first met at Brian Kurtz’s Titans event. Okay, I don’t know if you remember this. I mean, you’re still young. But at that time, you’re younger and just you could tell a go getter, Hustler, you’re there. You know, you got your you basically said, I’m going to help out, let me go to this thing. And I’m just a student of direct response.
Chandler Bolt 7:21
Yes, that was a so my early hustle was, I think, Gosh, I must have been probably 21 years old at the time, maybe 20. But early on, it was so I dropped out of school to start a company and I said, Hey, I’m gonna drop out of school, but I’m gonna operate like, I’m still in it with the way that I approached my learning. And so instead of, instead of class, I’m gonna read books, I’m gonna go to conferences, I’m gonna take online courses, like all that stuff, and kind of convinced my mom to take some of the money that was set aside for college and like, redirect it to some of that stuff of you know, the only only any and all that only went so far. And so then beyond that, I said, are these amazing conferences that I want to go to, but I can’t afford them? How do I get in the room. And so that was when I had like, titans of direct response. I was learning copywriting I was handwriting, a copy for an hour a day, and just like really diving into that, and I saw this event. And I was thinking, Man, this looks incredible. I don’t have the money to go. And so I messaged, I found a way to get in touch with Brian. And then that was kind of my pitch is I did the same thing with Mastermind Talks. And I said, Hey, I you know, I’d love to go, um, can’t currently afford it. But I’ll tell you what, like, are you looking for volunteers, I’ll do anything. I’ll sweep the floors. I’ll run the mics. I’ll pick speakers up from the airport, like, whatever would make this easier, better, smoother experience for you. I’m there. I just want to be in the room. So let me know. And he said, Yeah,
Jeremy Weisz 8:52
let’s do and it’s just the nicest, kindest person on the planet. So I can’t imagine him.
Chandler Bolt 8:58
Oh, he’s awesome. And that was that was but that was so crazy. How that was the start of so many relationships. You, Ryan avec. Gosh, there’s a bajillion people that came to think of off the top Oh, Perry Marshall, who you mentioned earlier, just like so many different people. And, and but it was all in I mean, I worked my butt off at that conference, but it was, yeah, you probably remember me like spreading the mic in the conference room and doing books and then I got you know, there were
Jeremy Weisz 9:28
all these binders. I mean, he probably gave everyone 50 pounds of binders and I think you were like lift they were like whew, I still have those things, you know, all the you know, basically, you know, sales letters that converted hundreds of millions of dollars in those binders but you I’m like, Oh my God, you were like lifting them lugging them around. It was crazy.
Chandler Bolt 9:52
Behind the scenes and what was an interesting I learned from that? A lot of different things, but one of which was It was almost like because I was volunteering, like, people viewed me as like the right hand guy of Brian. It’s like, not just like, I mean, I wasn’t, but it was just like, Oh, you’re with Brian. And you’re helping you’re running the mics? No. So just the proximity is instantly, you’re actually elevated above every other conference attendee in some way. Because it’s like, oh, you’re with the guy who’s running this. And so it just was it just segwayed for so many relationships, and including the relationship with Brian and Simon, he’s just an amazing person. And, and, and then that led to a lot of relationships, a lot of learning, that really kick started a lot of early things for self publishing,
Jeremy Weisz 10:37
I want to talk and we’re going to talk in for anyone who’s listening to this, we’re going to get into the crux of what do you do when you’re publishing a book? And then more, you know, and beyond? What does the how do you grow your business with a book, and we’re gonna get into that, but on that topic of lessons learned, you you have colleagues mentors, I love for you to mention a few lessons learned. I know, one of them was Michael Hyatt.
Chandler Bolt 11:02
Yeah. So Yeah. Michael Hyatt, I mean, he’s a guy that I’ve learned just from the whole wheel of life. Right, he has concept he calls double win. And so now he’s an advisor for Self-Publishing School and a mentor for me personally, but I mean, he’s the CEO, he was the CEO of the seventh largest publishing company in the world, or the seventh most profitable, profitable publishing company in the world. So I’ve learned a lot from him on the book side of things and how he does books and how he does all that. But also how do you build a business and a life where your business is successful, you have a thriving marriage, you have kids that still love you. And, you know, you haven’t been divorced five times and all that stuff, but like truly a full wheel of life. So he’s a guy that I’ve learned a lot of that stuff from and, and continue to, to learn from I just had a coaching call with him this morning. So continue learning and it just speak life for me.
Jeremy Weisz 11:53
So with Michael and anyone, you’re you’re really good at reaching out. And you know, Michael’s a busy guy. Right? What was your approach to reaching out? He’s like, he probably gets lots of inquiries of like, hey, I want you to help me, advise me, mentor me, whatever. What was your approach with? Michael?
Chandler Bolt 12:12
That’s a great question. So my philosophy, I mean, very similar to yours. Jeremy, I think you’re exceptional with this relationship building, adding value, all those things. So it’s, it’s very similar, I think, to your approach. Well, a couple things that I did, I would say is, I mean, add value first, and find ways to add value to that person. But then the big one for me is I like to become people’s most successful students. And so whereas I think, in today’s society, and for a lot of people, they want to learn stuff, and then never credit the person that they learned it from. And then just like somehow, like, Oh, I just created this. And and I’m self made, I think self made is a farce, no and self made. There’s, there’s sure you may have, you may have blazed that trail, but you had a lot of people that helped you along the way. And so, for me, I want to become people’s most successful students, and then just continually shout them out and point back to them and say, oh, yeah, if it wasn’t for Michael Hyatt, I’d never be doing any of this. And and so I, you know, people who pay pay attention, and people who get paid by you pay attention. And so I said, Hey, how can I have the opportunity? I’d been for years, it was kind of like, my master plan was like, hey, that’s the guy want to mentor me. And so finally, it was like, Oh, he’s got this business accelerator thing that sounds interesting, that they’re launching, I’m gonna join that. And then and then okay, let me like, his daughter and him are fans of my brother’s band need to breathe. So like, Okay, let me do let me like, make an intro there. And like, try to see if I can send them to a concert or something and, and just like little things like that, and then, and then doing well and saying, hey, I’ll be a testimonial. And then when the timing was right, when he was kind of stepping out of the CEO role and turning that over to his daughter, and he was kind of moving into a chairman of the board type role. I said, Hey, man, it sounds like you’re about to have some time on your hands. I got breakfast with him. I said, Hey, here’s here’s how this will make no make this a win for you. And and I think this will really be a big part of your legacy is I’m going to carry that on and and you can use what you’ve learned in the publishing world, and teach me that because that’s what we’re doing. That’s what we’re building and so just like casting the vision, and and he said, Yeah, that sounds awesome. Let’s do it.
Jeremy Weisz 14:28
I don’t think channel I’ve heard anyone put it like that, which is be someone’s most successful student, you know, 100%, you know, and add as much value as humanly possible to someone and ask nothing in return, and the opportunity will come if there is an opportunity to do stuff together. Right. And yeah, that could be a book a t shirt be someone’s most successful. So that’s, that’s I love that. There’s another one. Pete Vargas. Cassone learn from
Chandler Bolt 15:01
I mean, how to speak on stages in a way that grows my business and self. So funny such a perfect segue is, that was a similar thing is I want to be, you know, pizza most successful soon. And so Pete shouts me out from stage all the time. And then as soon as I mean, it’s reciprocity to like, I was one of Pete’s first people that promoted him and promoted him to my audience. And like, that was a big kickstart for his business. But I wouldn’t be speaking on stages if I didn’t learn that from him. And so he taught me that I said, Hey, let’s go, let’s go implement in 2018, which was the first year we started speaking. A first year I started speaking, we did a million dollars in revenue from speaking at events. And it was just following the playbook that Pete taught us and then just shouting out him. And then now I think that’s a that’s a blurb. And like, anyone on Grant cardones stage, and like, I’m getting all these pictures, and all these different big events that he’s spoken at. It’s like, my, I’m like, Hey, we just, it’s the last day of 2018. And we literally just passed a million dollars from speaking this year, wouldn’t have been able to do this without pee, like all that stuff. And so that’s just been a catalyst. And he’s been able to introduce me to a bunch of amazing people. And, you know, my business wouldn’t be what it is without learning the speaking piece from him. But then with also without, just I mean, being, you’ve probably seen this too, it’s like you see, you see how people how they operate and how they grow. And it’s just inspiring and inspires you to level up. And that’s Pete, for me,
Jeremy Weisz 16:34
the movie and nothing else out as obviously, one of the take home says you should have a book. But the other one is be someone’s six, you know, most successful. So think of who in your universe that that’s, you know, choose the whatever qualities that is on that topic. And I want to talk about Chandler there’s a lot I like to bucket there’s one thing I did not like about the book, I’m going to ask you about that. And but before we get to that you got to open a loop or loop. But you’re most excited some of your successful students write and talk about Alexis. And justice. Oh,
Chandler Bolt 17:15
Alexis, and Justin Black. I think it’s amazing story. And this is for people who want to write a book about their personal life experience. And so I think, you know, Alexis and Justin, they did that they grew up in the foster adopt kind of community and world. And they they wrote this as a memoir called Redefining Normal. And it is just become a rallying cry for a lot of folks in the foster community. It’s unbelievable. And for anyone who’s written a memoir, you know how hard like, it’s hard to sell copies of a memoir if you’re not famous, right? I mean, and they have done an unbelievable job. They’ve they’ve sold at least 10,000 books over the last few months or a year or so it’s led to speaking gigs, it’s led to a business, it’s led to like all of those things. I think that’s a great example, as a book as a starting point, to launch a business to grow your impact and income and all that stuff.
Jeremy Weisz 18:10
What should they if someone wants to check it out? Do they just Google Alexis and Justin Black, and they’ll find that
Chandler Bolt 18:16
and redefining normal, but you can check it out on on Amazon or anywhere that the books are sold.
Jeremy Weisz 18:21
Cool. And then because you talk about in the book, publish different types of books. I mean, it’s not just business book, when I think of it, I think of business book. But Emma, talk about Emma.
Chandler Bolt 18:33
Yeah, so she’s in the she’s on like, paged, 15 or something. So her dad joined Self-Publishing School years ago, he’s a physical therapist wrote multiple books. And then she said, Hey, Dad, I want to do that. And he’s like, go write 50 words, and come back to me thinking out of enough of a deterrent, right. And she comes back and she you know, a few hours later, she’s done it. And so So sure enough, um, I think they went to Panera Bread every single Saturday for for a period of time. And she wrote and published a book called a children’s book called The fairies of waterfall Island. It’s sold so well. I mean, she, I think the book made $4,000. In the first three months, she started getting asked to speak at her school and at local schools. So I think our first speaking gig she made like 1200 bucks. But it was
Jeremy Weisz 19:23
that young, you make $1,000 You’re like,
Chandler Bolt 19:27
oh, it’s changed the trajectory of her life. You think like as a young woman, her confidence, the skill sets that she’s learned the opportunities. I mean, now she’s paying for school field trips, through her book royalty, but she’s got quote, unquote, allowance, which is really just the royalties that come in from her book. And so it’s so cool just setting her set her up. But I mean, she did the work and she donated a ton of money to an Autism Awareness charity as part of the last like, because she has a friend that has autism. And so it’s just like such a cool story all around and that’s where it was But what’s called the guy, right? Like, yeah, I believe that books change lives and whether you’re an adult, and it’s I wanted to change my life or my business, or whether you’re a kid, and it just changes the trajectory of your life all together.
Jeremy Weisz 20:12
What was the book called? Again?
Chandler Bolt 20:14
It’s called the Fairies of Waterfall Island.
Jeremy Weisz 20:17
Um, so tell me a little bit. I want to talk about one other example. But Tony talked to people about what’s the process. So let’s say an entrepreneurs listening and founders, listen, they go, Oh, my God, like, I want my kid to do that. That sounds amazing. I want to teach them. Do they go through the videos of the course like, you know, where do they start? And then kind of how does it work? To go through it like if it’s down or their child? Yeah,
Chandler Bolt 20:46
I mean, the first step, like, if you’re, if we’re talking about Self-Publishing School is like, the first step a lot of people take is they book a call with my team, they’ll chat about their goals, their their challenges, put together a roadmap and a plan, all that good stuff. So you can if that’s something you’re interested in, you can go to Self-publishingschool.com/apply, book a call with a team, we can, we can let lay out a roadmap. But then once you get started, we’re all about helping people work through the eight milestones, right? And so if you’re watching the video version, you can see this this is in the book, I guess this is chapter or page 55. Here, but there’s, there’s eight milestones on your journey. So there’s the first four are what I call the more writing method. So that’s mind mapping. The book, Turning that my map into an outline, writing the rough draft, and then editing, right, so Mr. E, my map, outline, rough draft
Jeremy Weisz 21:40
editing, and don’t skip the Mind Map. And he taught he has a big case in the book, for I think you you once like, I don’t need the mind mapping part. And then you’re like, Ah, this did not work. So yes, there’s a certain reason there’s an order to this. And, you know, someone has published 1000s 10s of 1000s to help people do this, just look at the process. Don’t try and reinvent it, right? Oh, no
Chandler Bolt 22:03
doubt, no doubt. And that would be like, for anyone listening to this, I would encourage you, as soon as you’re done listening to this episode, grab a blank sheet of paper, put your topic in the middle of the page, set a timer for 15 minutes, and mindmap everything that you can think of on that topic. So don’t skip the staff. Yeah, do not skip this step. It’s tempting to just say, I’m just gonna start writing. But it’ll be unbelievably inefficient if you skip this step. So think stories that you have lessons that you learned, if you’re a business owner, what are the broken record conversations that you keep having over and over and over again, with with with prospects or all that stuff? And so that would be the big thing. For me is is our for I think, for the listeners is is? Um, start with a mind map?
Jeremy Weisz 22:50
Yeah. And you can get, you know, like, if you’re the first 50 People go to publishbook.com/jeremy and get the book and actually, you know, read it. So, okay, so you book a call the team, you kind of think of these steps, what’s next? So yeah, someone has a son, daughter, like, yes, Chancellor, I want the next Emma, I want to be the have them be the your most successful students.
Chandler Bolt 23:13
Yeah. So that for us is the milestones are at the front of everything that we do. And then we’ve got a bunch of resources that support that. So for a lot of people, it starts with what we call the clarity call, like, that’s the first call after you sign up with this with one of our coaches. And they’ll walk you through like, Hey, what’s your what’s your avatar that you’re writing to? What’s the book about? How do you? What’s the plan, like, let’s map this out. And then we’ve got curriculum that people go through, we got a series of workshops, like we’ve got the writer book workshop, we’ve got, you know, just like, basically, it’s just a ton of resources and templates and all this, our goal is to save people hundreds of hours in the process to save people, hundreds, if not 1000s of dollars in the process, and to help them actually finish and publish a quality book that sells more copies. And so there’s there’s the curriculum that does that. There’s the one on one coaching, there’s group coaching workshops, like all that, that goes through it, but it’s it’s all about really for us is how do we help people take the very next step. And so the very next step might be from this podcast might be creating your mind map, right? And then once you’ve got your mind map, the very next step is turning that into an outline. And so each of those milestones, it’s okay, not how do we do everything, but how do we just help people take the very next step? Because if we keep doing that, then they’re going to they’re going to get this book done and published fashion they thought they could
Jeremy Weisz 24:36
remind you of Joe Sugarman his book, about copywriting, which is it’s one of my favorite books and copper and because he’s like, what’s the point of the headline to get the subhead what’s the point of sub had to get the person What’s the second first sentence second sentence and you kind of taking the same approach with with writing a book, The
Chandler Bolt 24:53
slippery slide? I love that. I’m scrambling right now to try and find it in the book. Um, but I literally, I literally talked about the end, the book is the slippery slide and I talked about within the context of what’s the, what’s the purpose of the title, when you’ve got a title of your book is to get them to read the subtitle, what’s the purpose of the subtitle is to get them to open the book, or, you know, read the book description of the first chapter. And then what’s the purpose is that like, is to get them to keep reading, right. And so that’s the slippery slide or the slippery slope concept. I think it’s just it’s unbelievably important with with copywriting, but also with how you kind of structure your book.
Jeremy Weisz 25:33
So let’s continue on with this cuz I want to keep I want to talk about how to use the book to grow your business, right. But, um, so we have mind mapping, outlining rough draft, self editing, professional editing, because there’s, you go in detail in the book about the different types of editor editors, and you go in detail about the process to after that would be the cover design. And then after that would be the formatting. Right? And so other steps in between there, like with the formatting? Is it the certain pages or format on the page? How does? What am I missing in this outline? If we went a little bit more granular?
Chandler Bolt 26:13
Yeah. So if we’re going specifically into formatting, right, because, you know, you talked about we got self editing, which is making the book better yourself, then is our professional editing, like, let’s bring in a professional, then you’ve got cover design, which is alright, yeah, good cover needs to grab attention. It needs to be easy to read. And you need to instantly understand what the books about. Right? So a good good cover includes a good title. And a good title and subtitle where prospects or potential readers instantly understand what the books about. But then to jump into what you’re asking about as on the formatting side of things. I look at that kind of in two ways, which is how do you make this an amazing reader or listener experience? And then how do we format this in a way that is going to take people from reader or listener to subscriber and customer? And so the kind of like the dual purpose of that, and so how do we make it a great experience, both for the reader and for the listener and, and then there’s a bunch of you know, minutiae, kind of within that of like, you know, your margins and your your headings and your type and your, the cover and the or sorry, that’s like the size of your book, like all those things that are a little bit more boring. But that do matter. When it comes to creating a great book that truly helps people,
Jeremy Weisz 27:28
you know, I mean, you do a good job on the book, I’m looking at page 177. But you can see, it’s not just written words, there’s pictures, you could see there’s a stool and you could see, you know, email list, outgoing, outgoing promotions, and an author brand. And so I’m going promotions, and you can see like, it breaks up and allows me to not have to read I remember when I was looking at Elon Musk’s book, um, he had a picture of him. I think it was as a kid or something in some copper. He was talking about this. What do you always read the picture? You read the little description in the picture, but you it make you read it right. And so yeah, I was like, Oh, my God. Having pictures with like, the description people. I bet the whole book. Okay, I listened to an audible, so I didn’t read the book, but I had it. But I looked at every picture in the book and read the little, little caption.
Chandler Bolt 28:24
Yeah, yeah. It’s hard for me to skim. But and that’s the goal for me, Jeremy is is, you know, I mentioned, I’m a sea level English student and a college dropout with ADHD, like, the last person you think, to write a book, but that’s why I think it’s those things I think helped me write great books. Because for me, I want it to be ADHD friendly. So it’s like, hey, I can just skim and I can look at the pictures. Or if I’m fully reading it, and you know this from copywriting, right. They call it the dual readership path. And so it’s how do I make sure that this is valuable for the person that’s going to read every word, and help them read every word by breaking it up with images and make it fun? But then how do I also make this valuable for people who are more just going to skim it and help those folks as well? So that’s the goal.
Jeremy Weisz 29:10
I think you create a new certification, like you know, even food, it’s like GMO free or vegan. Your ADHD friendly certification. So is ADHD friendly, certified self help? No. So I want to talk about Hayden, Hayden Crabtree.
Chandler Bolt 29:30
Yeah. Yeah, so Hayden here. So he’s a student of self Self-Publishing School. And he, so he wrote a book called Skip the Flap. And this is just a great example of using a book to grow your business. I mean, he’s a real estate investor. He’s does a lot of real estate investing, but then also has started building out a fund. I think even a software company now at this point, but it he wrote a book called skip the flip it did unbelievably well follow the process has got 607 reviews on it. Amazon that helped him land on the bigger pockets show, which led to a lot of other business and then kind of full circle, you know, I’m starting to get a little bit more into real estate, and I read his book, and it just totally changed. I mean, books change lives, right? And it’s totally changed my perspective on real estate investing. And now it’s helping me with, with how I’m looking at investing in real estate and all that stuff. So just like kind of a cool example of a of a, I call it it’s like a book is like this key that opens the door to Narnia. You know, like Chronicles of Narnia. And and, and it’s this magical world of opportunities that only exists for authors. I’m kind of like they discovered the magical world of Narnia. Well, the book is the key that opens the door to those opportunities for so for him, that was the bigger pockets podcast that was leading to a fund investors read the book, and then give him money. And or, you know, join his coaching program, like all those things. And so it’s just great. A great example of using a book to grow your business. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 30:59
Yeah. And we’ll talk about that, which is part of chapter 25. But I did have Joshua Dorkin on a bigger pockets. And fun fact, is he was in a Saturday Live skit with Jerry Seinfeld, and I think I have a clip on that episode of him actually, if YouTube didn’t take it down, but um, the Grow Your Business part. So talk a little bit about that.
Chandler Bolt 31:24
Yeah, so I look at how to use a book to do three things, how to use a book to get more leads, to get more sales and to get more referrals. And so getting more leads, it’s these are people who hear about me because of my book. Right? So if you think about so many people who read Russell Bronson’s books never would have known about Clickfunnels. But they found out about a book, read his book, and then now they know Click Funnels and all that stuff, right? So these are people who hear about me because of my book, and then sales, it’s how do I get more people who know about me to do business with me. And that’s where I look at using a book in any or every part of your sales conversion funnel, right to boot, it’ll boost your conversion rate across the board, right? It’ll build authority, you know, the root word of authority as author, you can’t spell the word authority without the word author. So it builds you up as an authority, which helps your close rate, it helps your conversion. But if you look at the whole funnel, right, you got traffic, that probably leads to a lead, which maybe leads to an appointment, which maybe leads to someone showing up, which maybe leads to someone you know, purchasing or not purchasing, every part of that process can can get more efficient, and more effective, adding a book. And you can use it to capture more leads, you can use it to actually get people to show up to an appointment or to a webinar, you can and if they read the book as part of that process, you’re now the obvious choice. And so that’s the sales piece. And then the referrals, the hearing differentiation, yes. It’s a big time differentiator. I mean, a book is the new business card, right is a lot of people say, and it’s, if you give someone a business card, they’re probably going to throw it away within 24 hours. But if you give them a book, they’re going to keep it and then every time they see it, they’re going to think of you, right? And that even leads to the third point, which is how do you turn your customers into refers or even prospects? And so my recommendation is give two copies of your book to every new customer. And you say, Hey, here’s one for you. And here’s one for a friend who needs help with XYZ. And so could you give them a copy of this book, and they will. And then now all of a sudden, it’s teach teaching the methodology and is bringing back refers and so referrals and so you’re turning customers into active refers,
Jeremy Weisz 33:39
I want to talk about year long because people will probably like, Oh, I’m just gonna do this for like, a couple weeks, a couple of months, because it’s so it’s, it’s a process to get the bug out there. You’re probably like, a little bit tired. You’re like, okay, let’s just, I kind of pictured, if I had like an exam I’ve been studying so hard, just want to get the thing over with. Right. And that’s This is when the journey begins. Right? So a year even John Rowland talks about five year plan to getting out there and keeping it keeping it fueling the fire, I guess, um, so talk about what people should be thinking about in that year plan. Yeah, so And by the way, Chandler you have so many good merch ideas like you should, I don’t know if you have a T shirt. Like, you can’t spell author without authority or be someone’s best student. Like there’s so many merch by like a T shirt or mug with this stuff on it. So publishing school merch, it started, you heard it here first. So a year long process.
Chandler Bolt 34:43
Yeah, it’s see I call this the one year launch. And so it’s a mindset. And it’s a it’s a process. And so really the mindset piece is, I talked about the Toyota Camry versus the Lamborghini launch. And so the Lamborghini launched What most people do, right? They, they focus all their efforts on a singular week. And if you think about Lamborghinis, they use a lot of fuel. They’re loud and shoe. They’re going into Flash, right? And that’s the way most people look at their book launch. But I would I would advocate for instead is the Toyota Camry approach. So how do I create a book that can assets that continue to sell? So it’s a mindset to continue to promote my book after the launch? And then it’s, it’s moving from one off promotions to Evergreen marketing assets? Price, what’s the difference between a promotion and marketing are creating marketing assets? And that’s really what it’s all about. So just like this podcast interview is, will become an evergreen marketing asset, right? It’s
Jeremy Weisz 35:49
ones I didn’t nine years ago, people are still looking at listening. Yes, spreading the word on. Yeah, totally not popular his channel. But again, I said not as pop as a Self-Publishing School channel. But But still, I don’t
Chandler Bolt 36:02
know about that. But yeah, so creating evergreen assets and continuing to sell the book Beyond the launch, which is so important. You know, speaking of I mean, The Self-Publishing School podcasts, it did interview the most successful authors on the planet, and that is the commonality. Right is all of those folks, it’s like, Hey, how was your book so successful? Well, I continue talking about the book, I continued marketing the book.
Jeremy Weisz 36:30
Um, I want to talk about your YouTube channel a little bit. You have over? I mean, at the time of this, you have over seven 2000 subscribers. Okay. Talk about the focus on that. Yeah. And growing that.
Chandler Bolt 36:47
Yeah, it’s, it was a it’s so funny, because at the time of like, literally last night, I’d never look at this stuff. But that last night, I just, I was in my email, because I just signed a contract or went under contract on like my first house purchase, graduate, I was looking for things, I was looking for that email, which was like the DocuSign. And like, hold up, there’s this thing from YouTube. Like, I’m wondering what that is. It’s like the stats on last month. And there’s two YouTube channels, there’s the cell phone, which is go by gas, there’s the Seven Figure Principle show, which is all about, like, kind of the operational principles of, of leading and growing a company. And, and it was like the stats, and I’m like, Oh, my gosh, 19,000 minutes was the seven figure principals show. And it was like, the Self-Publishing School chair sounds like hundreds of 1000s of views and minutes watched and all this and it’s just crazy. Talk about marketing asset, right. So that really came from, I think video is my one of my best mediums. So it’s still I mean, the lesson there, I think, is stick to what you’re good at, or invest in what you’re good at. And so we kind of take it took a calculated approach to that. And then we do a lot of organic content. So we’ve got, you know, Selfpublishing, com, we’ve got Self-Publishing School, we’ve now acquired a few other companies. And if you google anything about writing and publishing a book, you’re gonna land on one of our sites. And so it was an approach to to diversify in type of content. So if we can create a video on how to write a book, and then that video is embedded on our posts that gets 1500 views a day on how to write a book, well, then now all of a sudden, we can leverage that traffic here. But also, for me, the goal was create a more lasting impression and better serve the reader. So I mean, I’ve seen a bunch of blog posts that I don’t remember, like, oh, who was I just, I don’t remember what it was or who it was. But I remember the information, right, where it’s where I see a video, I remember the information, and who taught it to me. So that was that was and is the goal with the YouTube channel with a podcast and all that is creating a lasting impression with helpful content specific to what the searcher is looking for. Because the search is how you have one is how you create a long term asset versus just, you know, videos that die on the vine and don’t get continuous views.
Jeremy Weisz 39:12
So one of the ways to grow it, I’m wondering if there’s anything else you did to put fuel on it? But you know, doing the research and seeing what are people searching anyways, creating videos around that. So you know, there’s an audience for it, you know, it’s like how to write a book. Well, yeah, if there’s like 50,000 people are looking for that a month, you’re gonna show up, but is there anything else besides that, that helped grow the channel?
Chandler Bolt 39:33
There’s so many things I mean, creating topical content on on search on what people are searching, there was we did a giveaway in the early days, where it’s like giveaway a Kindle or something and you enter to win by like subscribing to the channel, commenting on this video, and doing different things. So little things like that, but really focusing on what are our pillar pieces of content, and how do we get those to rank similarly I did a TEDx talk. And then I kind of strategically picked the title of that talk was how to write a book in a weekend. But I knew that I wanted to rank for how to write a book. And so when you search how to write a book on YouTube, I think that’s like the second search result, because the TED YouTube channel is so popular, right. And so I, so that was the thought process there. And then Self-Publishing School, and then myself are like the first comments. And that are like uploaded so that now people can watch that YouTube video and kind of go into that ecosystem. So just like a bunch of little scrappy, things like that, and then leveraging the content ecosystem and written content, and embedding those videos. So there’s more views, more subscribers, and kind of just like, fueling that whole content ecosystem.
Jeremy Weisz 40:47
There’s a challenge. Two last questions I have. Before I get to those two questions. One of them is I want to tell you what I didn’t like about the book. But yeah, the other one is, I would love to hear some of your favorite business books. But I love Raiders run me through a little bit about the milestones of the company, because people see you now, you know, successful growing, and there’s a lot of blips and challenges throughout, right. Like you mentioned, most people wouldn’t go, oh, he dropped out. So you know, some of the things people may not know about you that got you to where you are,
Chandler Bolt 41:19
yeah, dropped out of school started the company. You know, in February of 2015, all of my bank accounts were negative, right, as we were launching the company, it was kind of like the burn the boats, put every all the chips in the middle of the table. And then we went from zero to $1.32 million, that that year, a year later find out that my business partner is trying to kick me out of the business. We go through mediation, I go through multiple six figures in debt, borrow money from my parents retirement to buy him out. So that was like, Okay, I’ve never been in six figures in debt, and much less borrowing from my parents retirement, there’s failure is not an option. And then, you know, double down, paid that money off scaled, we’ve been on the Inc 5000 less, but I think the the, the important point, like you said is people will see the Forbes 30, under 30. Or they’ll see the Inc 5000. Or they’ll see whatever else. And I think, oh, that must have been easy, or they’ll see the highlight reel, but there have been so many really, really difficult moments on that journey.
Jeremy Weisz 42:21
Totally. Um, so what I didn’t like about the book, okay, yeah, I was mad at you. Actually. I was I was listening to the book. I’m in Costa Rica. And we were on a family vacation. And, and towards the end of the book, you tell this amazing story. Okay. And I was like, Why the hell did you leave it at the end of the book? Like I wanted at the front of the book, like, yeah, you left one of the best parts of the entire book. Is it just so you like, make sure people finish the book? I don’t know. But I was like, he should have like, I wanted him to start with this. Yeah, heart. And it was at the end. So I’m, I love for you to tell a little bit of the story. But why put why’d you and I’m sure it’s deliberate? Why did you put it at the end? Instead of like, towards the front? Yeah.
Chandler Bolt 43:10
That’s a great question. I’m not intentionally not will kind of intentionally it’s the it’s the why get like, let’s go do they literally
Jeremy Weisz 43:20
hit me in the face that story when I read it hit me in the face, and I can’t couldn’t stop thinking of that story, the whole trip. I mean, I still think about that story. Yeah,
Chandler Bolt 43:29
gosh, maybe I should put it. Um, I’ve never wanted to feel like I’m in some ways felt like it was it’s a downer of a way to start a talk or to start a book. Um, and, and I’ve also never wanted to feel contrived or like, Oh, I’m using this story to get people to take action on. So I think that’s why maybe subconsciously, for me, it was like, Okay, this feels like the right spot of like, okay, I gave the why and books changed lives in the beginning. And this is like, Okay, you’re gonna have to put this book down and potentially never do anything with what I just taught you. And here’s why you need to do it right now. Right. I wanted
Jeremy Weisz 44:08
it in the beginning. So I don’t know what you want to talk about. Yeah. But when I read it, I’m like, Why did you know? Yeah, luckily, I’ve read through the whole thing. You know, I mean, I would have missed like, yeah, one of the most powerful things about the entire book.
Chandler Bolt 44:26
I appreciate that’s good feedback.
Jeremy Weisz 44:28
So do you want to do you want to give someone an inkling on what that is? No. You have to get the book to read. Well, I mean,
Chandler Bolt 44:41
to try to come up and say Yeah,
Jeremy Weisz 44:42
exactly. If you I don’t know what page it’s on. But you got to get the book go to publishedbook.com/jeremy. And of that story, does it make you think it doesn’t resonate in your brain? You know, I be sure shocked. Okay. But but you’ll know when you read the story in the book, you’ll know exactly Hey,
Chandler Bolt 45:06
Johnny three in this chapter 26.
Jeremy Weisz 45:08
Okay, yeah, me like, it put an impression on me scared the hell out of me in so many different ways. So if you just get the book to read that one store I recommend I mean, obviously, it’s, there’s amazing information here. So check it out in the book. Um, so last question. Chandler is I’d love to hear your favorite business books. You know, we’re talking about Polish. I love the title. What is some of your favorites? Yeah.
Chandler Bolt 45:35
I mean, one of my top favorite of all time is is Extreme Ownership, Jocko. I mean, that’s the one of the best leadership books I’ve ever read. And so that’s that, that is probably the most helpful. Also 8020 sales and marketing. Perry Marshall. I mean, that is a Gosh, unbelievable book. So those are a couple of the top two. And then third, I mean, this is, I don’t know, the next five
Jeremy Weisz 45:59
minutes, just rattle off. Keep going. I mean, I, I have four credits in my audible, so just keep going. There’s until you hit one that I haven’t read.
Chandler Bolt 46:09
I’ll go one and then I’m gonna, I’m gonna ask you ask you a question. And so what the next one I would say is you’ve almost definitely read this, but How to Win Friends and Influence People. I mean, that is just one of the that’s all my reread every year to total list. And then here’s a question for you, Jeremy. Because I think this is how people should pick books pick their next book is what’s one area of your life that you’re looking to grow, or you want to learn? Yeah, and then based on that answer, I’ll recommend one.
Jeremy Weisz 46:38
Okay, so you’re asking me and asking Yeah. Oh, that’s a good question. Um, I think a big focus for me this year is been more self care and health related stuff. So sleeping specifically I’m terrible. And you know, I got an aura ring this year. Yeah, I did get I haven’t read it looks long. Give you a better recommendation. I’m up for the walker. I forgot which what the book was, but he’s like, one of the biggest experts on sleep. I think it’s like eight hours on Audible. So if you have a better better one, I am martyrs
Chandler Bolt 47:15
Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson. I read that book back in the day. It’s really good. It’s very practical tips to sleep smarter and get better sleep. Cool.
Jeremy Weisz 47:26
What else? Give me a couple more business books that you like. Oh, man, any on your reread like you mentioned How to Win Friends Influence people’s on your reread? Are there any others that are many the
Chandler Bolt 47:36
Go Giver is on the reread list? Um, how this is less known Bob Berg. Yeah, Robert, this is less known, but how to talk to anyone by Leil Lowndes. That is like I couple that with How to Win Friends and Influence People. And I’ve read those back to back probably at least three times in my life. So that’s a big one kind of, I’m a big fan of going deep on a topic. And so, you know, at one point, it was alright, I need to focus so that it was the one thing and essentialism back to back. Yeah. What’s your two great books on pretty much the same exact thing?
Jeremy Weisz 48:10
Well, I like both of those on the podcast. Yeah. Both of those.
Chandler Bolt 48:15
Yeah. Yeah, those are those guys are super, super sharp. And so those are, those are some really great books. And then outside of that last one I would give is he’s actually working with us right now to republish his book. I think it’s one of the best. It’s called Extreme Revenue Growth. And it’s one of the best books on growing revenue or scaling revenue growth that I’ve ever read. I mean, I’ve just been harassing him for years to publish an updated version. Who wrote it is what’s that? Who wrote a victor Chang? Okay. Yeah, it’s just a legendary book. And I’ve had my whole team read it. I’ve had my leadership team read it
Jeremy Weisz 48:54
a bunch of times. Like it’s so good. I love it off the check it out isn’t an audible. It is not oh my god, it will be Victor. If you’re listening, put it on. I would listen to this weekend. Talking about
Chandler Bolt 49:08
a second edition. It’s a second edition and the whole story behind that but this is I mean, this is why we do matters. It’s I multiple people recommended it. I said, Hey, I’m not reading it. It’s
Jeremy Weisz 49:19
got you talked about this in the book. Yeah, you okay, I
Chandler Bolt 49:21
keep going. Yes. Yes, the story. I said I’m not reading it. It’s got 12 reviews on Amazon. They said you got to know you need to read it. And I read it and it was one of the best books and I posted about it and I was like hey, this is what we do matters. And then wouldn’t you know it someone I knew knew him and just tagged him in the post I felt like an idiot like ultimate Foot and Mouth moment. And then but it ended up full circle. He’s like Yeah, cool. Let’s work together. And and I’ll get your help on the second edition. And so I think it’s finally given out since I’m really really excited.
Jeremy Weisz 49:55
Awesome. Chandler fantastic. Everyone check out go to Publishbook.com/Jeremy, where else should we point people towards online? I think I saw
Chandler Bolt 50:06
last year me. So that’s the first place to go. Yeah. So that like grab first 50 People will get a copy of the book and then if you’re interested in booking a call with my team to chat about working together, go to Self-publishingschool.com/apply. Those are probably the two best places. I love it.
Jeremy Weisz 50:24
Thank you so much. Chandler. You rocked.
Chandler Bolt 50:27
Jeremy Thank you.
