Lessons from Launching a Book [Part 2]
Episode Summary:
When I first started my business, I remember Googling “how to make money without selling”, when I should have been Googling “how to sell in a way that is in alignment”. Last week on the podcast I shared the lessons I learned from writing my book. This week I want to do a part two to that episode and share the lessons that I’ve learned during this early access launch. Because even though I’m giving away the book for free, I’m still technically selling it! This is the skill that I’ve worked on the most as an entrepreneur, and it’s something that feels natural to me now. I want to share more about it with you today so that you can actually get your services in front of the people who need it, the people who are ready and willing to invest in change! If you’re writing a book, or launching a paid (or free!) offer, this episode is for you.
Discussed in this episode:
The skill that will help you get to six figures in your business and why things must feel in alignment with your business
The power of reframing things so that you can feel more confident about doing the things you don’t like in business and change your behavior
Remembering that even something is free, you still have to put in the work to “sell” it and the steps Anna took to fill her early access book launch list
Creating authentic urgency and deadlines to motivate your audience to work with you
The difference between promoting your free and low ticket things versus your highest ticket offers
Creating boundaries with your free offers so that you’re still providing value while also feeling like there’s a balanced exchange of energy
Episode Resources:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
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** This is a raw, unedited transcript.
Anna Rapp (00:00):
Hi friends. Welcome to part two of this little series I'm sharing about how to write a book. I am by no means an expert on this, but I am very fresh off of finishing my book <laugh>. So I felt like now was the time to capture this so that when you go to write a book you can listen to these and it can be simple, practical, actionable advice on how to get your book done quickly, how to get a lot of people excited about it and buying it quickly. So the first part, last week's episode was on writing your book how to get that done. I really talked about the two phases of book writing, the creative part, and then the second like editing, prepping part. So I hope that that's helpful for you. And now I wanna talk about the other important part, which is launching and marketing your book and getting it out there into the world.
Anna Rapp (00:49):
These tips will go to anything that you're launching or selling. You guys know I'm a big fan of figuring out how to sell in your business in a way that is in alignment, in in integrity, right? I have a whole mastermind based on this because I think it's a hundred percent what gets you to six figures in your and beyond in your business. Honestly, that skill of radical confident selling, and this applies to selling something free, right? It's a hundred percent why in 10 days I was able to get a hundred women signed up for early access of the book because I am a queen selling and I feel really in alignment, really not icky, really good about selling and I found my way to do it. That's the power of heart centered selling a hundred percent, right? And I also talked about this when I launched my podcast and I was able to get rank the podcast and get 55 star reviews in the first, you know, week of launching my podcast with zero paid advertising.
Anna Rapp (01:46):
A hundred percent also because I can crush it at, I crush it at sales, right? Also, why I've, I've been able to have multiple, you know, 70 k launches in my business is because I'm good at selling. And I think when we can take selling out of the paid stuff and just think about selling as a skill you need in your business period, whether it's free or paid, whether you're promoting your freebie, whether you're promot, like who cares, right? But getting, figuring out how to do that. I remember you guys know this, I, at the start of my business, I literally Googled, I kid you not how do make money in my coaching business without selling cuz I wanted to coach, but like, could I skip the selling part, right? Instead, this is what I should have Googled. How do I sell in a way that's in alignment in a way that's non icky, in a way that doesn't leave my audience feeling weird?
Anna Rapp (02:35):
How do I sell in a way that feels really good to me because I hadn't experienced that before? But anyway, today we're talking about how to launch and promote your book, how to market your book. But remember the reason I want you to get on board with this is because this is a bigger conversation around how to get really good at selling anything. I shouldn't named this episode How to sell air, right? We are always selling and marketing, right? I think about my kids, right? My daughter used to hate wearing jackets until I told her her blue jacket was an Elsa jacket and she was like, Oh, an Elsa jacket. She put it on and loved the thing, right? We're always thinking about how to frame things right? And I think the reason too, why I'm so good at sales is I think as a therapist, before I did, you know, my business, I think I realized a lot of, you know, and, and it's like this is like a coaching skill.
Anna Rapp (03:28):
How do we in integrity and with ethics, get people to change their behavior? We're often trying to sell them on something, right? Like think about this. If you're a health coach, once you have paying clients, your biggest job is to sell your clients, to market your clients the value of eating healthy and exercising, right? How can we make that fun? How can we make that sexy? How do we remove any mental blocks they have to those things, right? So it's just remembering like we're always using the skill of persuasion and selling. And when you are an ethical human then it's a good thing, right? Okay, anyway, that was a tangent, but I hope that that was your pep talk that right down on the sticky, I'm great at selling, it's safe to get good at selling every day. I'm better at selling in my business.
Anna Rapp (04:14):
Sales is the skill that will get me to multiple six figures. Like it's safe for me to learn how to sell even if I've never learned that before, right? I can learn how to do that, right? And especially if you write a book, you're gonna need to sell it because it doesn't matter how good your book is, it doesn't matter how beautiful, how well edited, how perfect is it is, Doesn't matter how good it is if no humans are seeing it, same thing with anything. Doesn't matter how good of a coach you are, doesn't matter how good of a bookkeeper you are, it doesn't matter how good of a website designer you are, if you're the world's best kept secret, if you are not able to market and sell and get visible, it's pointless. And so we wanna work on this skill so that we can get our work into the world, right?
Anna Rapp (04:58):
Okay, that was your kick in the booty pep talk <laugh>. Okay, so now some more book specific tips when it comes to, I obviously have not done my full book launch net yet. That will be next year. But this is really how I got a hundred people to sign up for the book Early access. And there's a few things. Number one, like I talked about before, remembering even if something is free, you still need to sell it, right? Even if it's a freebie, even if it's like follow me on Instagram, even if it's like download my podcast, even if it's like read my book, right? You guys know I'm letting you guys read the book for free. But guess what? It didn't just honor people didn't just magically sign up, a hundred people signed up because I did these things. Are you ready? Number one, I knew that I needed to sell it.
Anna Rapp (05:48):
I knew that I needed to create buzz and excitement and urgency. So how do you do that? You get visible in volume, you don't just talk about it once, right? <Laugh>, I sent one email and not very many people signed up, right? I posted one time on social like, you guys know that I have posted like, I think this is like my third podcast episode on it. I have probably posted on social 15 times, I probably sent six emails. We're afraid to get loud and frequent with something that we're excited about on promoting in our business, but it's what's necessary to get big results. And it's remembering, I've said it once, I'll say it again. Our audience is made up of empowered women. They know how to say no, they know how to unsubscribe, right? No one is forced to be following you on Instagram.
Anna Rapp (06:34):
They can unfollow you. It's easy. And we're like, I'm afraid to annoy my audience. Like why are you here? You have a business, you're here to make money, you're here to support the people that are ready to give you money to transform their life, right? And so show up for those people. And I don't know about you, but the people that I follow that I love, I am never irritated when they email me, right? If I do start getting irritated when people email me, that's an energetic sign that I need to unsubscribe happily, right? So give yourself permission to get loud and have volume around your book and really own that. Like, okay, I'm gonna probably need to post about this 10 times in the next two weeks. I'm probably gonna need to send seven emails, right? Really working on the frequency of promotion and really working on the excitement and the urgency and the buzz, right?
Anna Rapp (07:25):
I think can be super useful for your audience, especially if your audience is like mine, where we are all busy humans. We need to have a deadline, we need to have structure, right? So for me, I have a deadline, a really practical deadline around the early access to the book. And I've said that really clear, like you have to sign up for early book team by this date if you want in otherwise you have to wait till next year, right? And so I think really looking at what is the urgency? What is the deadline? Because as humans, that's how we're motivated, right? We're motivated by like, we have a seven mile long checklist. And so if there's not a deadline, your thing is not gonna make it to the top of your potential client's checklist. And we can do urgency in a way that's ethical and in integrity and doesn't have to be like, if you don't buy this, your life is gonna suck forever.
Anna Rapp (08:14):
It's more like if you don't buy this, fine. But I hope that you do because this book, I mean, what I believe about my book is that a hundred percent will change your life, right? And so I can say that in integrity, I believe reading this book, creating a 20 K freedom fund, a hundred percent will change forever how you feel and think about your personal finances and your business finances, right? Being able to know that and communicate that to your audience is everything and creating that healthy urgency, right? Another thing with launching a book and any sort of low ticket item, this is the distinction in my opinion. People always say, you know, it's easier to sell high
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Ticket than low ticket. I don't think that's true. I think they're just different to sell. But here's what I've noticed when it comes to promoting free things in my business or low cost things, you guys know I have a template shop, right? So I have some products that are like $10 $27. You know, I have freebees free workbooks that are a hundred percent free and I have challenges. So when it comes to promoting my low ticket or free stuff versus my high ticket stuff, what I do notice is that people want a lot more specifics, which sounds really crazy, but I think people do want a lot more detail around like this early access book club comes with a free call and a lot of people have been asking me like, what time is the call? Will it be recorded if I need to miss, Right?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
There's just a lot more specific nitty gritty questions. And so I think around your book launch, especially if you're including like a fun bonus, like maybe you are including a free live call with you, a QA call, right? Just being really specific about what they're getting, what it includes and really make it a sweet deal. I think like, it sounds really crazy, but I think the smaller my product is, the more detailed my sales page is. Like if you look at my low cost products, I have like what I, I have sell like a client tracker spreadsheet, right? And there's like little screenshots of my spreadsheet, right? It's just very specific and in visual, like people really wanna see and know what it is they're getting and what it is they're exchanging for. Because even though it's free or low cost, they're still giving their time.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And time is a super valuable resource, right? Okay. I also wanna say a word on why I've decided to make my book free to early access readers. Even though I will be charging once the book is live is cuz I really don't see the book as a money making avenue in itself, especially upfront, right? I really see it and honestly all of my low cost stuff, right? I really see it as more of a way to build trust with my audience, to give value to my audience, and then ideally people that resonate with my work are going to buy my higher ticket offers, like my course or my mastermind, right? But I really see it as a relationship building tool a one to many relationship building tool. I'm able to put my heart and my thoughts and my leadership in a book, right?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And then ideally people are gonna read that and the right people are gonna be like, Ooh, this was really useful. I want more, right? I want this personalized. And so I think it's remembering the, the point of a book, the point of a book and any sort of load ticket thing is to build relationship. And so I, I love that I decided to give this away for free. Number one I shared last week that it's making it not me feel like I'm not alone in the journey, right? <Laugh>, it's making me feel like I have people with me on this like very scary project that I'm releasing. But I think it also is going to really create a lot of advocate advocates for the book too. I know this book is good, I know it's gonna change lives. And so what it's gonna do is by the time the book launches next year is it's gonna have people that are saying, Wow, this book did make a difference for me.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
This book did change my life, right? And then from that place, I can really sell it to sell it for paid and make money off of it in the long run, right? You guys know I'm a huge fan. I do almost all organic marketing in my business. And a big way that I do that is I leverage free work. And I think people are like, Anna don't give things away for free because there's like freebie grabbers or something. And I'm like, I don't really believe that. Like, or you know, I had did a podcast episode, I called like love the lurkers. Like, you know, people say like, Oh, there's these people in my audience, but they never buy like <laugh>. It was just the weirdest concept to me because for me, I love my lurkers. Number one, if you're in my audience and you haven't bought from me yet, like that's fine, right?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I hope that you get something of value, you know, from my free stuff, but also a lot, or if not, most people that have bought my paid programs have followed me for a year or two being a lurker. Like that's the whole point. As heart centered women, we wanna know often before we invest that we can trust someone that someone's work is resonating with us. And so like that's the whole point of marketing is to give someone a free taste before they buy. And so I don't know, I don't know why the online world makes that wrong, it's so weird to me. But I highly recommend if you do do free work, making sure it's an even energy exchange, right? Like you guys know I talk about this, like, if you do free calls, right? Where you're doing some free coaching, make sure that you're also selling at the end and giving people a chance to work with you, right?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You guys know I have this podcast and it's absolutely free, but I also sell on the podcast and I say, Hey, if you wanna work with me, here's how right for the book, I am letting people read it for absolute free, but they have to actually read it and give me feedback in order to get their money back, right? So I think we go one of two ways wrong with free is or main one main way wrong with free. And that is making, not having boundaries, right? Not having boundaries around it. So for me it's like, yes, I'm happy to give you the book for free, but in exchange I want your feedback because that's value to well to me so that I can make the book better for next year, for next round, right? So I would say, you know, don't be afraid to give your book away for free in exchange for support, in exchange for accountability, in exchange for feedback, in exchange for people that will be excited advocates for when you go to sell it.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And I a hundred percent don't regret that and it's just been the biggest gift to me in the process. And so whether you're having 10 people read it for free or a hundred people, like I am just knowing that, like for me, I know that whenever I do something for free to my business and I show up with my whole heart and I have massive boundaries, it always comes back to me tenfold. Always right? And I think that's why I keep doing free shs because I keep getting a return from it. Right? At the start of my business, my coaching business, I coached three people for three months for absolute free. And I absolutely got a return on that investment because those clients continued to work with me and pay me money. They recommended their friends to me, right? Like that gave me a ton of confidence.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Like it really worked well for me. And so I've really emulated that model in so many ways in my business and it's either that or paid advertising. And I don't think that paid advertising is wrong or bad, but I really think you can go so far in organic marketing. And the cool thing is I really feel like your clients are dream fit. You know, people always say behind the scenes, like, you know, when they do my courses, when they're in my master, I like Anna, like the women you have in your program are amazing. And I do think a lot of that is because it really is organic, organic marketing in many ways. And a lot of organic marketing is an even energy exchange between free and paid, right? Okay, hope this was useful for you as you think through how you are going to launch your book.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
So again, reminders are remembering you have to sell it even if it's free. Remembering to show up in volume and not feel bad about being your book's biggest advocate, <laugh> and sharing about it again and again and again and again, again and again. Having being very specific since it's a lower free offer, just making sure you're being specific. And then really adding authentic urgency and making there be a deadline. And then again, encouraging you to give it for free. With boundaries. With boundaries, right? Making sure that you're getting exchange for that free gift. And I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Just a few more weeks and then I get to get the book into your hands. So Greg, and so grateful for you for being along on this journey with me and I will see you behind the scenes of the book.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.