• The thought of becoming a best-selling author would never have occurred to you in the first place if it were not possible. We have an infinite range of possibilities, talents and abilities, and once we give them focus, that’s when miracles start to happen.

• Manifestation is not about presto/shazam/abracadabra, creating something out of nothing. It is about being aware that what you want already exists. Although we say that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, the light bulb already existed, he just needed to become aware that it was already there. Your book already exists.

• If you are not getting what you want, there is usually some form of resistance going on. It could be resistance to sitting down and writing – why not record your book and have someone transcribe it? The resistance could be deeper – it might come from what people will think of your book or your writing style. Or it could be because the book brings up a really uncomfortable thought/attitude/belief you have about yourself that you are afraid to confront.

It’s hard to get from point A to B when you’re terrified of A. But sometimes you have to unlock one key thought to get another door to open. It’s likely you are protecting yourself from some kind of truth, pain, embarrassment or shame. You are stuck because a protection mechanism is keeping you “safe” and resistance is the outward manifestation of that. It is your job to find out, by listening to your inner dialogue, what you are afraid of. Is it about being vulnerable? Is it rejection? Failure? Success? Once you confront that fear, it will vanish and you will be able to write. Each time resistance comes up there’s a gift for you – the gift of freedom from some negative and wrong illusion you had about yourself.

When speaking people meet you and form a bond with you. Another advantage is that you get immediate feedback from the audience – laughing, clapping, leaning forward in their seats and coming up to talk to you afterward all give you important signals. This means you can gauge the interest of certain products and programs before you spend time and money on them. And there are surprises because something you might say off the cuff gets a huge response and now you’ve got another product on your website making money for you while you sleep. Most test marketers envy these instant results.

The coordinator of a summit I spoke at told me sending e-mails resulted in two signups for his event, while live speaking garnered 30.  Although email and building your list can be one of the biggest assets in your business it just doesn’t have the same pull as speaking. Speaking is powerful because most people won’t do it. As an author, people listen to everything you say.

Even if you attended three networking events a week you would be amazed at what a difference it would make in your business.

As an author and speaker, the power increases exponentially. A book gives you celebrity, credibility and expert status, and published authors get booked readily into high-end speaking engagements and events.

Putting on your own events raises your profile the most because it establishes you as an expert in your particular community. This allows you to offer high-priced masterminds or intensive programs that run for months.

Events give you two or three days to really teach your methods and establish relationships with your participants. As people get to know you, they trust you to take them into your unique system in a deeper, fuller way. Your audience also gets to meet others they want to stay in community with.  It’s a bonding experience that often influences whether they sign up for your mastermind — because they want to be with their “tribe.”

As you can see, the willingness to get out there and speak opens a lot of doors – you’ll be invited onto other people’s stages, and your recognition factor will go through the roof. The possibilities, personally and professionally, that come from speaking can be life-changing. 

Many people seem to do the same things day in and day out because that’s what they’ve always done. But if we set reasonable goals and make ourselves accountable, we can really start making quantum leaps in our lives.

If you pick even one to three reasonable goals you believe you can achieve this year, your life will start moving forward. If you don’t set goals, your life will stay the same.  Here are some tips:

• It’s important to have the accountability quotient, but it’s also important to make your goal reasonable. If you commit to something that you think is unreasonable, you’re already setting yourself up for failure. If your goal is reasonable and accountable, then your life can’t help but change in positive ways.  This applies to that book you’ve been meaning to write. Take a step today that will take you further toward your goal.
• Goals become realities when you have an accountability partner or expert or mentor – someone to keep you on track. If you know that daily you’ll be getting a phone call asking about the steps you took the previous day, you will not disappoint! Book mentors not only keep you on track, they also have all sorts of ideas to shape your work and get it out there in the world so you can make money from your expertise, instead of simply the $2 to $4 revenue from the book itself. You could spend 10 years and a lot of money, time and struggle searching for these answers, or you can find what you need in one place with Expert Author Publishing programs.
• Many people hesitate, asking: "What if I make a mistake?" Even if you pursue the wrong goal, the fact that you’ve achieved this goal shows you can achieve any goal you desire, so go ahead and write your goals down and follow through on them.
• Be specific. Give each goal a definite date for completion. If it’s not written down, it’s not going to get done. Put your list of goals where you can see them every day.

The whole idea of smaller goals and accountability is akin to building a building – it happens one brick at time – there is no other way. Each goal you complete builds your confidence so you can reach for even bigger dreams.

• "My market is everyone." When you’re speaking to everybody, you attract nobody. If you niche down your audience to a particular group, whether it’s 35 to 55 year old women, or 50 to 60 year old men, they will resonate with your message, your message will become clearer, AND you’ll be able to find out where they are.
• "If I niche, I’m leaving people out and cutting profits." Not only are you not cutting down your market, you’re absolutely expanding it. Many authors want to cast a wide net but this is one of the worst things you can do. You end up cutting almost everybody out because the message gets so diluted. You want to hone your message to one particular group who will say, "That’s for me."
• "It’s easier to blanket the media with my message." Marketing to your niche is more effective and not as costly, while marketing to everybody is costly and not as efficient.
  For example, if you run an ad in a newspaper with a circulation of 60,000, there might be 100 of those reading the newspaper who want to know about knitting. However, if you take out an ad in a knitting newspaper or magazine,
  those people will be interested in knitting. The circulation will be less, but you’ll also be paying much less for your targeted market.

• "I feel bad leaving anybody out." You are not cutting people out, you are actually serving the people who need you in a deeper, fuller, better way.

Here are 3 key steps to define your ideal client:

1. Define: Male or female, local or worldwide, age range, are they parents, do they have jobs or are they entrepreneurs, what do they value in life?
2. Clarify: What is their struggle?
3. Solve: What is the transformation you can provide for them?

1. Offer Forms. Always have Offer Forms ready to hand out to get your audience opted in to your program. Have your Offer Forms handed out closer to the end of your talk when you are ready to go through the Offer Form and explain exactly what you would like them to do. Make sure the Offer Form looks professional and asks for a phone number and email address so you can build your list. You can offer them a free strategy session with you so you can sign them into one of your programs or some other offer you are currently running. If you do offer a free strategy session be sure to follow up with your prospects promptly after event.
2. Seeding. Seeding means sprinkling your talk with enticements for your services. These can be stories of successes you’ve had with other clients and customers who have taken your programs. Just by mentioning that a client made $7,000 in three days or conquered their fear of flying in one session, you are seeding the audience for success.

   First, you’re describing your program in a way that makes people want to have the same kind of transformation that your clients had. And you are also seeding the steps and benefits of your particular formula or system. Second, you may be able to sell a higher-ticket item by mentioning a success story you had with a one-day/one-on-one mentorship client, so they can hitch a ride on the fast track to success.

3. Scarcity. By invoking scarcity, you create a desire in the client to take action. You can generate scarcity by limiting the amount of applicants in your next program. Time limiters create scarcity – your audience has until the end of the workshop to sign up. Price limiters are also effective – this price is good for today only, then it goes back to your regular price. 

Remember that you are the expert and the audience expects you to act with authority. It’s up to you to state your offer clearly and to tell your audience how to respond. By taking the speaker and leadership role, you can significantly increase your business and transform more lives.

I immediately thought that was a belief he needed to work through, as he called me because things just weren’t working for him. He said he was missing a piece of the puzzle, and he wanted to know how I was able to have a successful business.

There are many lessons budding entrepreneurs and expert authors can glean from this experience:

–Don’t take it personally. This is where this client is stuck. Maybe he’ll get unstuck and maybe he won’t, but it’s not about you or the quality of the products and programs you’ve created from your book.

–You get what you pay for. If I counted up all the money I’ve spent on different programs, it would be well over $100,000, and the specific information I share in my programs cost me $2000 an hour.

–Experience counts. Experience can be worth much more than study. Mentors know the ins and outs in their business. Day to day, they are making real-world decisions, learning from every success and failure. For example, I know how to shape chapter titles. Just reading the table of contents can spur someone to buy your book; and I’m an expert at front and back covers that optimize sales. Yes, people do buy a book by its cover!

–People don’t value what they get for free. Clients who are not invested are often not seriously committed. Many times the amount of money invested in your programs is commensurate with the effort they make.

–You get what you pay for. Sure $333.00 an hour is not cheap, but if you call someone who charges $100 an hour, you’re going to end up with a $100-an-hour business. Why waste time? If you really want to make a lot more money and have a successful business, get your information from the best.

That reminds me of a story. A power plant’s generator failed. Each repair person they contacted could not get it started again.

Finally, an expert was called in. He evaluated the situation for about an hour, marked an X on the generator, then hit it with a hammer. Everything started working again.

When he billed them $1,000, the company asked him to itemize his rate of $1000 an hour. The expert replied:

“$1.00 for hitting the generator with a hammer. $999.00 for knowing where to hit the generator.”

Once I started writing that book, I was on the road to a whole new career. Then I got a $997.00 CD set from Paul Hartunian about speaking and selling from the platform and one of the things that was really helpful was that he recommended Mike Round’s “Talk, Talk, Talk: Your Guide to Making Money Through the Rubber Band Circuit, The Rubber Chicken Circuit and Radio Talk Shows” a DVD set for $50 about getting yourself set up in business by teaching adult education classes. Teaching adult ed classes, of course, has been a backbone of my business, not to mention how many opportunities and books I have helped birth because I’m willing to speak in front of audiences and teach workshops and classes.

Back when I was thinking of the book Change One Belief I had the idea for a book written by one of my mentors, and sure enough, 8 months later she calls me about having me publish her book.

When you put your thoughts out there with a goal in mind, the synchronicities that happen are amazing. The important part, of course is that you take action on your guidance.  

I couldn’t have planned the things that are happening to me now better than they’re actually happening. When you look back on your life, you become aware of all these different synchronicities that all happen in order (and sometimes they might not be exactly as you planned). But if you’re patient and you have faith, you’ll see it was a blessing how it happened—it all happened perfectly. 

The title for the anthology I’m doing called Change One Belief was downloaded to me in the same way. I admit sometimes I don’t even write these cosmic messages down, but if it’s still there in the morning, that tells me it has to be done.  I admit it–I ignored Change One Belief, but it kept coming back to me 5 times! After the 5th time, I knew this was a book that had to be published.   

I couldn’t have written a better script than what the universe has written for me, but you must be aware of when you get downloads or your intuition is speaking to you — and this is so crucial that I’m repeating it – honor it by taking action, and you’ll witness miracles in your life.

We’re looking at a publication date of January 2012 for the Change One Belief anthology. There’s still time to get your story published in the book or if you know someone with a great story, go to www.changeonebelief.com for guidelines and submission instructions. This could be your piece of synchronicity right now, so go ahead and take action!  

Most writers struggle and are disappointed when they finally finish their book and there is no money at the end of the rainbow. I tell them their life-changing journey has just begun.

In my previous article, I gave you some reasons why money is important to writers. In this article, I give you more reasons and concrete ways you can adjust your thoughts and change your prosperity quotient.

1. Money is an idea backed by confidence. How much confidence do you have in your book? How much are you willing to put yourself out there, back up your ideas and show your true face to the world? Is saying you don’t care about money really a copout? 
2. Getting out there with your book or having programs based on your book allows you to change other people’s lives.
3. More exposure brings more relationships into your life, along with the satisfaction of becoming a mentor and sharing your knowledge. 
4. Many writers hide behind their computers. Money gives you access to more resources. You get to know more people and more places, giving you more ideas and points of view for your writing.

If you do have limiting beliefs about money, what can you do about it?

1. Admit it, then see if you can trace it back to where you heard it. Dad? Mom? What did they say? How’s that working for them? Did their belief come from fear?
2. Realize you’re going to have to learn the art of faith and trust–trusting yourself, your book, the power of positive thinking and the process of life itself.
3. Determine if you are more afraid of success than failure.
4. Write down the ways success would change your life. 
5. Realize that most people fear change–period.  Any kind of change (even success).
6. Accept that success can mean tough decisions and growing pains, but the rewards include knowing that you did everything you could to live up to your potential.

Yes, you CAN make money from your book.  Curious? Go to www.ExpertAuthorPublishing.com and see how we can help you launch your new career.

At times, I’ve gotten someone in my class who looks down their nose and says, "I don’t care about money."

If you don’t care about money, it won’t care about you.

Money is merely a by-product of giving value to your audience. No value, no money. If you give value, you won’t be able to avoid making money. Have you noticed that many of the wealthiest people in the world have given the most value to society from what they do? From Oprah (who has helped millions transform their lives) to Bill Gates (transforming the way we process information), to Warren Buffet (who has created thousands of millionaires by helping them invest their money) this holds true, as long as you ASK for the money. It is a universal law that if you give value you will have money, so if I hear anyone say they don’t care about money they are also saying, "I don’t care about giving value to my readers."

In addition, if you care about your ideas enough to want to share them with the world, you’re going to want to care about money or you won’t be able to fulfill your mission.

Here are some other compelling reasons why it’s not just okay to care about money if you are a writer, but vitally important:

1. You need to publicize your book. Publicity, from websites with functioning search engine capabilities to draw people to your site, to other effective advertising, costs money. Even "free" publicity such as speaking engagements, social media marketing, writing ezine articles, gathering testimonials and making connections for affiliate partners takes time. Time is money. If you’re just scraping by or working two jobs to pay for your writing habit, you’re not going to have the time to get your book into your ideal reader’s hands. 
2. Money means freedom–freedom to publicize your book and time to write.
3. Money is simply a measuring gauge of how you’re doing (with a lot of societal, religious and emotional baggage attached to it). As you make more money, it can become a pretty fun yardstick.

In my next article, I’ll give you more reasons you should care about money and some solutions to lubricate a stuck money mindset.

Yes, you CAN make money from your book.  Curious? Go to www.ExpertAuthorPublishing.com and see how we can help you launch your new career.