Self-publishing my own products brought sanity to me at a very insane period of my life. My first e-book came out back in 2000 when things were extremely hectic and uncertain in my life.
I had just finished a contract project for a company that was a big success (developed a course for them), but was paid a fraction of what I was promised. My health was poor – a combination of extreme stress and being inundated with toxins from a previous job that I help through school. My second child was on the way and although I was excited – all of the anxiety and fear of having children was there too. Economically, we were in debt and without a clear path to making a LOT more income, it was hard to understand how that was going to change.
This followed a tumultuous period in my life where I had worked for 4 different companies, helped them expand by tens of Millions of dollars and yet still found myself unable to pay the bills or get out of debt – and now I had a second child on the way.
Things had to change…and FAST!
Self-Publishing – A Savior
I had been sitting on the idea of writing a book for nearly a decade…with a few weeks off on paternity leave – maybe this was the time.
Having played around with some affiliate marketing – making a few thousands dollars, a spark of hope that if I could write my own book, THIS was the time to market it online.
So, I worked up an outline and bounced it by a couple of people online who would become my mentors for getting started.
With LOTS of feedback, I completely changed the focus/angle of the ebook, passed it by two dozen other reviewers some of whom decided to join as launch partners.
From there, I build my first website, wrote the sales letter, created my autoresponder funnel and created a few bonuses (which included some interviews with TOP people in my field back then)
Immediately I noticed 3 amazing things:
- Having the outline and later full-blown version 1 of my product got me the respect and attention of the TOP people in that market – something that would have never happened had I not committed to self-publishing my own e-book
- My health improved, my energy improved, my SANITY returned and suddenly I felt the creativity, fun and happiness I hadn’t felt since I was a kid. The process of creating something that was mine that I would share with the world was more invigorating than anything I had done before
- I learned 90% of what I still apply to building offline and online businesses today in about 45-days…HOW? By doing. In those 45-days I took MASSIVE action…around networking, product creation, website and funnel building, email marketing, product launches, customer support and even (a few weeks later), follow on product development
That launch went on to earn $10K in less than 1-week, kicked off multiple online businesses for us, built a list of just under 10,000 loyal subscribers in the first month and continues to be a product we update and re-release annually nearly 17-years later.
The lessons here I hope you take away and apply to your own life are:
You Have Been Underselling Your Ability
You have FAR more energy, creativity and ability than you give yourself credit for ONCE you find that passion and take ownership of a project like self-publishing your own book, e-books or courses
Success IS The Reward For Taking Action
Taking massive ACTION pays huge rewards. Even though everything will not just work, there will be some setbacks…you learn from everything (successes and setbacks). Even better, you learn at a rate 100x faster than someone who simply thinks, dreams, studies, reads or learns what to do. DOING IT is how you learn fastest – there is no exception to that rule
Where You Start Doesn’t Matter – REALLY!
It doesn’t matter where you start from. You may have zero following, zero, list, zero revenue and you may even believe zero talent – when you start taking action in a direction that you believe in and are committed to…people take notice. As a self-publisher you are providing hope, inspiration, leadership and transformation to people’s lives…this is what people really WANT MOST. You put yourself in the cross-hair of the most important desires in people’s lives and they will take notice.
Since we launched that first product we have launched dozens more across 4 completely different niche markets – we finally got around to sharing the system we use in this FREE 4-part training – this is the exact system we followed that launched our new life, new businesses and new era of SANITY in an INSANE world…you can do the same…
