Writing a Book For You with Success Profiles' Brian Wright

0:00
Welcome to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. I'm Josh Elledge, Founder and CEO of UpMyInfluence.com. We turn entrepreneurs into media celebrities, grow their authority, and help them build partnerships with top influencers. We believe that every person has a unique message that can positively impact the world. Stick around to the end of the show; we'll reveal how you can be our next guest on one of the fastest growing daily inspiration podcasts on the planet in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's go.

And with us right now, we've got Brian K Wright and Brian, you are the publisher of Success Profiles Magazine. You are a book writing coach and ghostwriter. And you're the host, longtime host of Success Profiles Radio, I know as a long time, like in podcasting, I know it's a radio program, but you've been around now for over eight years. Correct gratulations On your longevity, and thank you and in broadcasting, podcasting, streaming, that sort of thing. So thank you so much for joining us. You're so welcome. And how did you get into what what made you decide to grab a microphone and do your thing?

1:15
Well, it's interesting because when I was in high school, the speech coach encouraged me to go out for speech, tournament's speech competition, and I didn't want to, and she said, I think you'd be really good. Take the robot calm and see if there's an event that resonates with you. While there was one event called radio news announcing and the thing that resonated with me the most was the fact that I did not have to face my audience. Yeah. You got 30 minutes to prepare a four to five minute radio broadcast and you sat in a room adjacent to the audience. timekeeper showing flash cards, how much time you have left, yeah, sound pumped into the next room, and I did really well. And then I expanded to do other events where I didn't have to face an audience and then fast forward to the early part of the 2010 like 2011 I had somebody who had a show on the Tony net Radio Network who said, Brian, you'd be really good. You should have a show. And I thought about it for a while and finally decided to pull the trigger and say yes. So in January 2012, I had my very first episode of success profiles, radio and Episode 360 is coming up next week.

2:15
Now, amazing. Congratulations on that, you know, I actually did the exact same thing in high school, and I did the broadcasting thing. So it was a the program was called forensics. Yeah. Ken and, yeah, so that's I and I did the exact same thing. And it was for the same reason, like man standing up. And, you know, giving an extemporaneous speech would be tough, but I could read something. And so but so, you know, they just gave you these, you know, pages a copy, and they're like, hey, turn this into a broadcast, you know, and you know, and of course, you needed to hit your mark as well. So, yeah, I enjoyed it. In fact, I think I got to regionals. And I think one thing that you know, where I kind of separated myself from others is my code. I said, so do I need to look at them? And they're like, no, but if you do, and you can do any eye contact and and go, right, you know, go back down to your copy, I think it might differentiate you because the judges are just, you know, they're not professional judges, they're just volunteers or whatever, right? So that I think, you know, I didn't I didn't get to like states or anything like that, but that was the one thing is I got, I tried to get really good at kind of, like, you know, being able to take my eyes off the page and, you know, read a bunch, you know, kind of memorize a bunch of in advance and kind of project it that way. Fun times do it. It's great experience. So it is fantastic. Anybody that's got you know, you know, kids in that age, I highly encourage them to get in that Toastmasters. I mean that those skills are just so valuable no matter what you do so so Brian, um, tell me about then the business behind the work then with the with the profiles radio program.

3:58
Yeah. The Radio Show is the springboard from which everything else flows. And people ask, Well, how are you monetizing your show? Well, it's it's more indirect. I mean, I've had some some sponsors, they tend to stay not very long. Partly, I think it's not because of the size of the audience. But I think it's because people aren't patient enough to know that radio advertising takes a while to take hold. If anyone's ever read guerilla marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, he says that it takes nine impressions on a radio commercial for you to go from A to Yes, to zero by. But what also is unspoken, is the fact that there are three impressions per one impression, so that you don't even notice that it's going on. So it actually takes 27 versions of that message, sub 27 repetitions of that message for you to go from. I don't know who you are to Yes, I know like you and trust you and I'll buy something from you. And a lot of people just don't have that patience. But I will say though, the ratio has given me a lot of opportunities. It's opened some doors. I've gotten to do some red carpet interviews because of that for book and movie premiere. I've gotten introduced to other people who I would never have dreamed that I've gotten introduced to because I have a show now. So let's promote your book, that kind of thing. Yes. And so it's opened doors for me. And after a while, I realized that so much content that I should do a magazine, I sat on the domain success profiles magazine comm for two years, I was doing it for the third time and realized, Oh, I haven't done anything with this yet. So I needed to do that. And so in 2017, I finally decided to launch success profiles magazine, Kevin Harrington was my first cover. Wow, it's really really valuable to create content not just once, but to use it multiple times in many formats. The reason being someone may know you have a show, but they don't know you have a magazine. People may see your magazine but not realize that you're an author. People may know your author, but they don't they've never heard of you before. So they haven't connected you on LinkedIn or Facebook or anything else. All these things synergize together. And when someone's connected with you everywhere, they see you everywhere, and those people have an opportunity to become super fan who buys everything you do.

6:00
No, no. So Brian, go ahead, drop some names. You've had some big names on your program.

6:07
Yeah. Kevin Harrington, Chris Paul from ABCs extreme weight loss. Darren Hardy, Sharon lechter. Laura longmire jack Canfield, Bob Doyle, dr. john demartini. Dan Locke, UFC champion rich Franklin Stedman Graham was on a few weeks ago so a lot of really really amazing people. I'm just happy and blessed to have been connected to a lot of these amazing people.

6:31
Yeah, and so what is your secret for getting big name guests?

6:37
I think it starts with getting the first one and the very first big name guests that I got was Bob Berg

6:44
and it was oh my gosh, that dude that dude has changed my life. Yeah, such a profound way because I I tell you what I resonated with his philosophy before I even knew that he wrote the go giver and the go giver sells more and that sort of go giver way of business. Right and So I a matter of fact, I put it out there. I'm like, does anybody know? You know, my philosophy in business is just give value to people first, like, don't, you know, don't put up a big paywall and, you know, this kind of nonsense, you know, just Yeah, nice things for people and see what happens. someone's like, dude, that's Bob Berg. I'm like, really? And so I read his book. I'm like, Oh my gosh, here it is like in print someone actually took what I've been doing and put it in print. And yeah, that that has absolutely. This past year has been a whirlwind. If you really take that here, so sorry to take a you know, you got me all excited there. Yeah, Bob. Bob, my friend if you're listening.

7:39
Yeah. So a PR firm reached out to me, Sir, my friend, a PR firm reached out to me this is the first time a PR firm had reached out to me is about a year and a half into my show. And the lady were friends still friends to this day. She said I represent Bob Berg, would you like to have him on your show? And I said, Yes, that would be great. In my in my mind. I'm thinking Yes, please. Yes, please. That'd be awesome. Yeah, I read endless referrals back in the 90s. Though I knew who he was, like 20 years ago, I knew who he was. So yes, of course, I want to interview him. So we promoted the go giver. And then his next book after that, which was adversaries into allies. He has been on my show twice. And he was a fantastic and fabulous guest all the way around.

8:22
Yeah. You know, you can imagine what it would cost. If you were to dial up Kevin Harrington, and you were to say, hey, um, you know, would love to ask you a bunch of questions. Pick your brain. Yeah. All right, one of those and you didn't have a platform. Right? And, and so he'd be like, well, that's okay. But my rate for that's going to be about five grand for, you know, 30 minute conversation, right? If that's reasonable, like you would expect that but when you have a podcast, and I think part two of this is you can get really big name guests. Yeah. If there's something thing that they need to promote, like, that's just how this works, right? It's an enormous audience. But, you know, because you know that they just know that they listen, it's, I think that it's, it's just as effective to do you know, 100 smaller podcasts as it is to do one giant one. I mean, that's nice. That's a nice shot in the arm. But I want to be seen everywhere and anywhere. And even if it's a podcast, it's got, like, 10 listeners. Yeah, we'll do that because I'll repurpose that. That's what we're gonna, we're gonna pivot we're gonna start talking about that. I will repurpose that and serve my own audience with that content.

9:38
Yeah. And you'll find that some of these big name people have differing philosophies on what kinds of shows that go on someone like jack Canfield will go on a show, no matter how many people there are, you know, because he realizes that if I can touch even one person's life that's worth it. Someone like a Darren Hardy, for example, will only do media when he's actually promoting something like a book. So you learn pretty quickly Who who's willing to play in the sandbox all the time versus when it only serves their purposes? Sure. And there's nothing wrong with either either philosophy just figure out who's doing what.

10:10
Yeah, you know, I absolutely don't mind at all. And again, I don't mean to be geeking out with, you know, talking like podcasting and stuff like that too much. But it really like, I feel like the host and the guest have heavy, you know, a mutual, you know, job to serve one another and serve the audience. Right. And, you know, I know that some podcasters are, you know, real stingy about promoting their guests. I love promoting my guests. They were kind enough to spend their time with me, like you please go buy their stuff. Go learn about them, like, yeah, anyone who's been listening this podcast for a while right now.

10:46
Yeah, I let all of my people promote. In fact, I pretty much insist that you have something to promote because he wants to be on my show, and they have nothing to promote. Well, this is evidence of your journey, have something and I hope people finish your book first and then we'll bring you on And some of those people I never heard back from again.

11:01
Yeah, yeah. So Brian, one thing that you're a big fan of is, is, is repurposing and getting content, you know, you know, using content to create more content in different channels and different platforms, obviously, Ghost writing book, you know, having a book, that sort of thing is one thing that you've been able to do. Can you kind of explain how the services behind your and I should point out your website, by the way is Brian K? Right? Calm? So that's Brian, br i n k. Right. And that's why our i g h t.com. And so you could see exactly what Brian is about to explain. Yeah,

11:41
it's so interesting because the idea of repurposing content is something that we all should do. And when Jeffrey Gitomer was on my show, and he was my 100th Guest back in 2014, and I remember that because he was my 100 guests. That was a milestone episode now. I asked him, when did you decide to write a book and he said, I never really decided to do that I just started a blog about all the stupid things that salespeople do. And when I had 100 entries, I realized, well, I guess I have a book. And so I would say that if you have a blog, and all of your blogs are about a common theme, there might, in fact a boo, brawl blog, but there's nothing but it's a collection of wisdom, you know, lessons and wisdom and that's fine. Those are good books, too. I like those. But for me with some of the books that I've written, I've repurposed the most amazing interviews from my show into a book. In fact, last October, this book came out success profiles conversations with high achievers Volume Two. This one featured Kevin Harrington and Chris Paul and Dan Locke and Brad sugars and, and a whole bunch of amazing people and it's on Amazon, the Kindle versions 99 cents, you can't even shake a stick up. Go get it now. Yeah. And then Volume One came out in 2018. This one features Darren Hardy and Sharon lechter. And jack Canfield and Tom Ziegler. This is on Amazon also. So yeah, repurposing some of your most interviews with people. And here's what you can also do. You know, people do composition books where they charge people to be in the book, what you can do is if you've got enough big names, and you want to fill some spots and give some other people an opportunity, if they're willing to, you know, pay a little to play, they can be in the book too. And then by association, they can say, I was in this amazing book, and especially if it goes to number one on Amazon, I mean, that's, that's a win for everybody.

13:25
Yeah, Yeah, no kidding. And so, you know, if I were featured in that book, I would want my audience to know that, and then I'm featured alongside all of these other, you know, high profile people. And so, and and the chapters I mean, you you're basically just taking your interview and turning that into a chapter in the book,

13:44
right? I mean, there's some editing that has to go on your conversations don't ever happen in a straight line, right? So sometimes people will foreshadow something they're about to talk about, or they will revisit something they just finished talking about. You have to make the conversation appears if it happened in a straight line, even if it doesn't And in the rare case where someone's not really answering the question that you're asking, x, take that out. Yeah, my job is to make all of us sound brilliant. So that's the purpose behind that.

14:12
Um, so the reality is, you know, books are, you know, even the average book buyer, I think the consumption of the book. It's not huge, right? It's, it's a pretty small number. And so, talk to me about strategically about why a business professional still wants a book.

14:36
I think it's because they have a chance to learn from a whole bunch of different people in one source. I think with the second the second book in particular, what I did is I repurpose some of my interviews into a feature magazine article, and then I put it in the book. And so I already had some of these edited down to a smaller chapters. And so I put 18 people the second book, whereas I had 11 in the first book, and the second book is a little bit shorter. So They're shorter chapters, and people can consume them a lot faster,

15:03
right? That makes it more digestible. But I guess why? If I'm, you know, if I'm producing all this content on social and YouTube and podcasts, why bother with a book today? Why should I be quoted in a book? Well, you know, we kind of talked about this a little bit, or why should I go through the effort of hiring a ghostwriter or publish my own book?

15:22
Yeah. Well, I think a book is a great business card and expanded business cards. Sometimes people give them away at networking events. You know, you ask somebody have a card. I do. And I also have a book. I also do this with my magazine debit card. Well, I have a magazine. That's a conversation starter. Yeah. And then it gives people an opportunity to ask because now you've invited them into your world. You've shown them this piece of content, and then invites them to say, what is this and now you have permission to talk about what you want to do versus projectile vomiting, what you're doing to someone who may or may not even care. They're asking what you do as a courtesy.

15:58
Yeah, how do you break What do you do when in terms of you know, again, I know this is also part of your business that you help produce or help get someone into a magazine. How does that work with a with your business? Great?

16:11
Well, I have a monthly magazine called success profiles magazine, right? The person on the cover is usually somebody who was on my show. And then I have other people contribute content to the magazine. So I have between 15 and 20 articles a month. The magazines usually are between 36 and maybe 40 or 44 pages a month. And it's content. They're very, very few ads in it. So people like the fact that it is very content driven. The thing that bothers me about looking at a magazine in a bookstore, is I have to flip through eight pages of ads to even get to the table. Ryan's like where's the content, and so it takes forever sometimes to find the Table of Contents or to find the feature article, I feature articles on the front. Some of the feature articles and other magazines are in the back. It's another is it. So I try to eliminate Some of that mass. And so that's a way for people to be involved. I also do special edition eight page magazines for people who want to be on the cover of the magazine themselves with no other articles, no other ads, no other noise, it's just them, they can use it as a networking piece, they can use it to get onto stages with event planners they can use to get into media, they can think of trade shows, home shows, they can send it to celebrities, or other people they really, really want to be connected with. And I've had people say this is the best marketing tool I've ever had. And so I have clients who pay for that, and I did probably 20 of those last year, and I've done some this year, too. Yeah, it's it's something that's really taken off. In fact, that's almost my number one source of income in my business right now.

17:40
Yeah. So, um, you know, if we were to if we were to explain how your funnel works, then is that you're basically just able to extend invitations to people that you'd like to potentially work with, and do something together. Right and, and then just say, Hey, you know, if you'd like to, you know, continue this relationship. You know, here's how we could do this. And that And yeah, the up to you. But this is how this is how the business of Brian K right works. Yeah,

18:04
I asked them how are they promoting themselves in their business? Let them tell me and yeah, you know, I asked if they have a book, I asked if they've ever been featured in a magazine, I basically just let them tell me what's going on and just based on how the conversations flowing, I offer suggestions. I mean, it's not like a hard sell at all. Yeah, like a doctor prescribing something I kind of get a feel for what they're looking to do, what they have done, what their goals are, if they mentioned a book of being a bucket list, I asked them how come you haven't written your book yet? No judgement just asking how come How come why not why not yet. And I let them tell me and then I let them tell me why maybe it might be a good idea to to at least consider because it can do this, this this and this for you. And if it intrigues them, we continue the conversation but if it seems to be put off then I i pivot to something else. Yeah,

18:55
yeah. So brain in terms of I guess you know, your business and where you are going. What do you see happening over the next five years?

19:08
I see myself having a bigger team. Right now I'm solopreneur, who sources some things out? I would like to have a bigger team so that I can accommodate more business. I want to work with more people. I want to get on more stages. Yeah, I want to do more magazines, I want to do a lot more books. I want to help people get their message out to the world in a big massive way. And I've got five year income goals, which are pretty massive. Now will I reach it? Who knows? But if I don't aim for it, I have no chance of getting to it. Right?

19:38
Yeah. In front of me, and I would imagine that, you know, aside from the business relationships that you've built, what is the what? I don't know if you can kind of explain how your life has changed, just from the wisdom that you've gained from interviewing that many people. Oh, absolutely. describe that.

20:01
I can tell you from a personal standpoint, things don't bother me as much or as for as long as they used to. Yeah, I interviewed Hal Elrod, and he's got a five second rule, or five minute rule. And then he says, can't change it. He lets himself wallow in the muck for five minutes. And then we're done with this, and we can't change it. And what's next? what's ahead. So in fact, I recently allowed myself probably about 12 hours to wallow in the muck, and now I'm fine.

20:32
Yeah. I mean, yeah. Because usually, you know, when we're worried or feeling anxious about something, there's this, there's this inner fight, right? Oh, I feel awful. And I don't want to feel off. I wish I didn't feel awful. And I'm out of control here. What if instead, you just embraced it, and you said, You know what, I'm going to feel everything. I'm going to feel every bit of pain. Bring it on, right. So it's almost like maybe actually just get this over with quicker, right if I embrace Yeah, you know it that that pain, and I have never I've never thought of that because I usually, you know on the enneagram I'm the type seven so yeah, usually like it's it's kind of talking what I need what I could experiment, right. here's, here's another one I usually avoid those painful feelings at all cost.

21:24
Yeah. Here's the other piece of that you have to learn to forgive yourself. Yeah. Because sometimes we make choices that we wish we could take back. Not that anything egregious, awful or horrendous happened but little things like I over ate yesterday or I wish I hadn't spent as much time doing this as I did. You know, the little things add up but when we don't I mean just just forgive yourself for what has happened and just focus on what's forward and move ahead in this particular case that I was thinking about. I happened to have a scheduled call with my coach during that 12 hour session and he you know, lit the fire and I felt For a pet, and then I realized he was right. And I took some action and I'm fine now.

22:07
So Brian, for the first, like, what would be a great entry I would imagine just really easy is just listening to Success Profiles, Radio, how do they do that? Then go on iTunes or Apple podcasts, and

22:20
they can subscribe, they can listen to any of the 359 episodes that I've currently done. It's every Monday at 6pm. Eastern. So they can just go on iTunes and subscribe there. They can go to success profiles, radio calm, they could type it into their browser, it'll take you to my show page on the togi that radio network, but you can listen to any of the episodes that you want. And it's an hour long show with commercial breaks, so it's very digestible, and you know, 12 to 13 minutes segments with commercials in between.

22:46
Very, very nice, very good. All right, well, Brian K, Wright. You're on the web at BrianKWright.com. And again, same podcast however, you're listening to this podcast right now. Just go and search for Success Profiles Radio, it's there. And you can subscribe. And listen, I would imagine you've had some pretty great guests over the. We have had a lot of great guests over the past number of years. So there's a lot of gold that you could dig through. So, Brian, again thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And thank you so much for being a guest. You're so welcome, Josh was a real honor privilege to be here with you and your audience. Thank you so much.

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