If you're a coach, you're probably looking for new ways of getting leads and new clients coming into your business. One of the best ways to do this is by having your book, and self-publishing may be the right route for you.
So, in today's topic, we are going to discuss self-publishing for coaches, a complete guide. So let's get straight into it. The first thing is the Introduction; we're going to hit the importance of self-publishing for coaches.
A. Importance of self-publishing for coaches
Now, why exactly does it matter so much for coaches that you get started with self-publishing? The first thing is autonomy and creative control. This is a huge advantage that you have as opposed to going traditionally published.
With traditional publishing, you're completely dependent upon what the publishing house is looking to present you as, whereas you may already have an idea of your brand that you have for the coaching that you're doing.
There are lots of different things, whether you're a life coach or some other type of coach. It could be anything—physical fitness, whatever it is—you have complete control over maintaining your brand and your identity as you're going through the book.
So when you get this book on the market. It's going to match exactly what you're trying to convey to your ideal clients that you'd like to have when they come into your business. The second reason is because it's a fast time to market; it's a lot faster than we would have if we were trying to do this whole process through traditional publishing.
You could end up waiting for years and years and years, and by that point, you've already lost interest in the entire project. Whereas with self-publishing, this is a super fast route for coaches because you can just simply get the book about as fast as you're able to on the market.
The other is enhanced profitability. When you have this book on the market, you're going to be making 70% of the sales. If the book is closely related to your coaching practice, you can even recommend that your clients purchase this book to get a better idea of exactly how to follow along with what you're coaching them to do.
And again, it could be all sorts of coaches in the world, whether you're a physical fitness coach or a dietary coach or you're doing life coaching or business coaching, any of these sorts of coaching, or maybe meditation and spirituality or something like that. You're going to be able to help them with the book that you're putting on the market so that they're able to get that and also get a good idea of exactly.
The ideas that you're teaching, if you're finding people in one direction, bringing people in through the book to your coaching, and also the other direction where you're able to increase profitability by taking your existing clients and pushing them in the direction of your book.
B. Overview of the content structure
The next thing is the overview of the content structure that you're going to be using. So the first thing is you're going to want a clear introduction in your book. When you're writing this book, it's not just going to be you spouting out all of the different things you could ever come to but giving them a very clear starting point.
Like, this is exactly who I am the problem that you have, and exactly how I can help you. The second thing is you're going to need to organize the sections and chapters to make sure that we have the chapters very clearly done.
One of the reasons I like to do this. I like to do this with Jutoh, which is my favorite formatting program because after we finish doing it in Word or Google Docs, we can move it over to Jutoh, and then we can see that these things are organized.
We can quickly switch them around. That's one of the reasons you can check out my affiliate link for Jutoh in the description; that's my favorite formatting tool. And I also have a course you can find below on Formatting Made Easy for self-publishers.
The thing is that we break it down into chapters and sections; we have to think logically. The best way to do this is not just to wing the book but rather to already create an outline so you have an idea of what you're going to convey to your target customers, and the future clients that you're going to have within your business.
The other is you should have an actionable conclusion. The point of the book is to drive action, and in this case, it would be possible to get new clients if the book is very helpful. The person will say, "Well, this book was really helpful."
Then they're going to just take it to the next level as they go into their coaching and they're saying, "Hey, I really would like to have a coach who could show me how to implement these strategies, whether it's diet or business career advice.
All of these sorts of things, there are different types of coaches that you can have, and your book would simply drive more of these customers to your coaching practice.
Understanding Self-Publishing
So next, we have to understand self-publishing. What is self-publishing for coaches?
A. What is self-publishing for Coaches?
Well, the first thing is it's empowering the publishing process. It makes it possible for coaches to do this independently and with a direct approach. So as you're establishing yourself also as an author, it's going to give you that authority that you need and it empowers you as a coach.
To get your message out into the world more than just the people you're normally contacting or running ads and things like that. Maybe you have a blog or something, but you're able to use the book to use it.
As a thing, that involves specifically personal branding and exposure that gets you out there. Your brand, you're an authority in this; you have a book. There's a huge difference between a coach who doesn't have a book and one who has a book.
You can say, you can hand it out, you can sell these books to say, "Look, I'm a bestselling author on Amazon, and this is the reason why I am fit to be a coach for you, a guide to take you through the steps that you're going to be needing."
Okay, you're also going to have diverse formats and channels for your book to ensure that it's in the formats that we're going to need to reach as big of an audience as possible. We don't know where your future clients are going to be, and especially if you're able to do your business online, you're going to meet people from all over the world. And that's why we want to be in as many bookstores in as many formats as possible so we're reaching these people.
B. Advantages and benefits of self-publishing for coaches
The other thing is the advantages and benefits of self-publishing for coaches. There's a whole bunch of advantages. One of the big ones comes back, it's the creative control, so you're going to be able to control exactly the messaging that you're doing.
You're not subjected at all to what other people are looking and wanting. You can control the messaging, as we mentioned. The speed at which we're able to get this book on the market, and then we're able to get the additional earnings that we would have.
Because, again, if it's self-published, we're going to be getting 70% of the profit, especially on the ebooks that we're putting out. And about 40 to 50% as opposed to traditional publishing with like 10 to 15% royalties, which is lousy, especially if they're not even going to be doing the marketing for you.
They will push your book for about a week or two, and then they move on to the next book. Unless your book is a huge success, which could happen if you've already got a large clientele, that is also a really powerful tip for you.
Preparing to Self-Publish for Coaches
Next is preparing to self-publish for coaches. So you're going to need to identify your target audience.
A. Identifying your target audience
Now, this is the most important thing, hopefully, in your coaching business, and I've coached coaches specifically on this, which is choosing a single target market. Do not try to target people in multiple markets.
I currently even have it in this category where it's like, okay, targeting this market and then targeting this market. You don't want to do that. You want to make sure there's one single target market that we have and to do this, we're going to conduct some market research to verify there is even a hungry market out there.
And how would we do that? Well, we're going to look at books that are already selling inside of your market and see how many sales are being made and how many books are on that market to give us an idea.
What we want to find is how we can look at marketing to where there are very few books inside of that particular thing, so little competition but the ones that are there are making a lot of sales. And that means that we're getting that profitability for the books that are out there but very few.
So we call it a hungry market, or some people would call it a blue ocean, as opposed to red oceans where there are lots of sharks and you already have lots of products and services meeting. A very few amount of demand makes it very difficult for you to rank on Google and get the sales that you want.
You're going to analyze your competitors—what are they doing right? And when we say competitors, we're talking about other self-publishers. We're not talking about big-name people because they're not your competitors. And we're also talking about people within your same market. What do we mean by market? People you're targeting who have the same problem.
Okay, and we're going to create a buyer persona. We're going to break down exactly, or an avatar, some people like to call it, breaking down what exactly these target customers, these people you would like to have as new clients in your coaching business, look like.
What do they feel like? What are they interested in? Where are their pain points? How can you best help them? This is a key issue as a coach that you're going to need to pay attention to.
B. Setting clear goals and objectives for your book
Then you're going to have to set clear goals and objectives for your book. What exactly is the purpose of this book? Define your purpose; figure it out. The book is never a standalone; everything you're doing, every aspect of everything you're doing, is always calling the person to move, continue, and do another action.
We're going to want to have them take a specific next action. To take the next step, as we keep moving through, we're going to establish measurable objectives. Some people would look at this as smart objectives, which is a good way to go. They should be specific; you're going to have specific goals.
They should be measurable so we can see whether or not what we're doing is working. They should be achievable, so you have to be able to; if it's not achievable, you're going to get demotivated. They have to be relevant to your target audience and time-bound.
That's what we mean by smart objectives for your book. Like, what exactly are we trying to accomplish with this book? For most coaches, it's simply going to be trying to bring additional people into your business, into your orbit with what you're doing, right?
We want to serve as many people as possible and be as helpful as we can, and the best way to do this is to reach out to them in the way that. We can, and that means we're going to need to identify your target readership to identify who these people are interested in your book.
C. Choosing the right book topic and title for coaches
Next, we're going to be choosing the right book topic and title for coaches. Okay, you're going to assess expertise and passion. What are you passionate about, and what are you an expert in? What are you good at, and what are you passionate about?
You should pivot your business to make sure that you're targeting the right market and yet choosing something that you are an expert in or are interested in becoming an expert in and that you're very passionate about.
Otherwise, if you're not an expert in this thing, it's going to be hard to sell. We're going from an authority-based thing; people need to know you know what you're talking about, and a book is a way that we communicate that to our target audience.
Okay, then we're going to consider audience relevance. Is the audience that we're currently targeting relevant to what this is? This is true for any of the books that you're doing on the market. It doesn't even matter if you're a coach or not because functionally we're putting a message out there.
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We need to make sure that our audience cares and that this is going to be useful for them. Okay, and you're going to craft an engaging title. The title is important for a couple of reasons: one it tells them this book is for me, and number two, it helps when they search on Google or Amazon. We want to make sure that this book is showing up there.
D. Creating a compelling book outline
Okay, then we're going to be creating a compelling book outline, as we talked about a little before. We're going to break it down, identifying the key themes and messages that we're going to have. We're going to organize the content logically and include any necessary supporting material. To make sure this outline looks good.
Writing the Book
Then you have to write the book itself. You have tips for effective writing for coaches.
A. Tips for effective writing for coaches
Some of these tips include knowing your audience, like we talked about before. Be clear and concise; there's no need to use a lot of extra words. So, so make sure you're getting in there, and you're giving them the goods. They don't want a 15,000-page book; they want a book that could just be 100 pages, could even be 50.
I would suggest at least 85 so we can have a hardcover version of this book. Okay, and the size should be 6x9. You're going to showcase your expertise and establish to them why exactly they should listen to you specifically as a coach.
B. Maintaining your authentic coaching voice in the book
We're going to be maintaining your authentic coaching voice in the book. That means you're going to be true to yourself; you need to embrace your unique perspective exactly. What it is you're coaching about is crucial for engaging in continuous self-reflection.
Reflecting on yourself, both inside the book and in your actions, should demonstrate that you're true to yourself. Don't be some phony baloney, as it can be difficult to maintain, and it consumes a lot of energy. It's best just to be yourself; don't try to pretend to be someone you're not.
You want to connect with your audience to understand what exactly resonates with them, and the voice that you have that resonates with that audience. The more we speak, the more we resonate, and the bigger the audience we're going to be building.
C. Overcoming writer's block and staying motivated
We're going to be overcoming writer's block and staying motivated. This is the next important thing, which means we're going to break it down into individual steps. One of the most important things is seeing where we're going, and feeling that we're making progress.
This is one of the reasons a lot of clients start working with me one-on-one in my one-on-one program, which you can find below in the description. They need that motivation, someone who can say, "Okay, look, I'm going to take you through the steps.
I'm going to show you exactly, step by step, what you need to do to succeed with your self-publishing." Find inspiration from different sources. You may not know what's going to bring you the most inspiration, but you just need to figure out what other sources can bring inspiration.
Other people in your community, other authors, can be helpful. Stay in contact with your people, and connect with your readers. Once you have established a writing routine, determine how many words you can write a day. Sit down in the chair and decide how many minutes you're going to spend writing.
One of the things that some people ask is, "Well, how do I know when I only write when I'm inspired?" But I'm inspired exactly at 8:00 every morning for 30 minutes to an hour. It's kind of funny, but it's true.
Whether you're inspired or not, sometimes just doing helps get you inspired. If you make progress, that builds motivation, and then we have a positive loop established.
D. Setting realistic writing deadlines and schedules
We're going to be setting realistic writing deadlines and schedules as we go along. We're going to assess your writing pace—is this going too fast or are we going too slow?
We're going to break the task down and prioritize to make sure that we're focused on the things that matter the most, and we're going to incorporate buffer time so it's not only work but then we have time in between.
Editing and Proofreading
Next, we're going to go into the editing and proofreading process, which involves the importance of professional editing. Making sure that what we're publishing, the content we're publishing, is error-free content.
A. The importance of professional editing
It's not going to have all these errors. Grammar errors and things like that – we're going to get those completely out. It needs to be a consistent and coherent narrative, so from beginning to end, it sticks true to your voice, and it's very consistent. We have objective feedback and improvement.
So as we're moving through this whole thing, we're getting that feedback we need. We're checking with the editing process, and they're going through this; they're going to be making sure that all of these things are in alignment. They're giving us that feedback and their job is to tear it apart, to tell us what we can do to make it better.
B. Self-editing techniques for coaches
In addition, under the editing, we're going to have self-editing techniques for coaches. One of them is to take a step back. Sometimes listening to your book, put it into a voice reading program. I like Voice Reader; it's my favorite one on the iPhone. It will just read the book to you. There are several ways of doing this specific thing as well.
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The other is to focus on clarity and conciseness, making sure that the book is completely clear as we're doing self-editing of the book. Is it clear? Is it concise? Do we get the message across? Seek feedback and revise.
You should be building an email list as you go if you don't already have one for your business. As we do, we can give them copies and find beta readers who can read the book and give us feedback. Is there a problem with this book that needs to be fixed?
C. Utilizing beta readers and feedback
Next, we have utilized beta readers and feedback, as I just mentioned. We have diverse perspectives we want to bring in with these beta readers. She's fantastic. Now, there have been some issues lately, but usually, they revolve around some misunderstandings.
Design and Formatting
I had some clients who encountered problems, but she is still my favorite. I've used her for over 200 covers, and virtually all of my clients have been very, very happy with the work that she's done.
A. Book cover design for coach authors
So, I would check her out using my affiliate link below in the description of all of my YouTube videos. Okay, so a couple of things on book covers: you're going to have captivating visuals. You'll want to look at what your competition is doing as well and make sure that it's popping.
It's a thumbnail for a reason; it's the size of a thumbnail, and they need to look at that and know exactly what this book is for and what exactly it's offering fast. You have about half a second they're looking at it – does it stand out? Does it reflect the author's brand? Is it reflecting your brand as a coach?
You may already have a website; you should have one. If not, you should get a website and then make sure that your book is matching the color scheme and other elements. It needs to be clear and informative on the cover.
B. Interior layout and formatting considerations
Then you have the interior layout and formatting considerations. Now, as we talked about before, I like using Jutoh, and I have my book formatting course for authors, which you can find below in the description of all of my YouTube videos, the Book Formatting Made Easy course goes through how to use Jutoh to get your book formatted easily.
But when it comes to this interior layout, it needs to have readability and flow. That's what I go through with my template in the course, showing you how to exactly do that. If you're part of my group coaching or one-on-one program, we go through it exactly. I take you through; I'll even look at your book and click by click go through your book and show you how to make those necessary changes.
We want to make sure of consistent styling, and that's the big part of using stylesheets that are inside of Jutoh so that we're able to ensure that throughout the entire thing, it's really easy to see. It all fits together; all of the styles are identical, and the margins and white space look good. So, we're not just like huge walls of text.
This is something that so many authors make mistakes on. We want to give breathability to the writing, and that the font that you're choosing is easy on the eyes. Do not make this so hard for your target audience.
C. Choosing fonts, images, and graphics for your book
Then we have to choose fonts, images, and graphics for your book. We're going to want to make sure the fonts are very easy to see, to read, and such. We're going to have the images that we're using about the inside of our book.
And the design so they're very, very clear and crisp. It's not these blurry ones and the graphics we're using stand out.
D. Ensuring readability and accessibility
We have ensured readability and accessibility. We're going to use concise language as we're doing this. We're going to be formatting the text with the appropriate headings and subheadings, using bullet points. It just makes it so easy for your audience to figure this out and to see what you're trying to tell them. It's easy, they love it.
People love bullet points, so make sure you're using them and implementing accessibility features for the text, images, and description so visually impaired people can also enjoy your book.
Publishing Platforms and Distribution
Then we have publishing platforms and distribution. We have popular self-publishing platforms for coaches.
A. Popular self-publishing platforms for coaches
One of them is Amazon Direct Publishing (KDP Kindle Direct Publishing), which I recommend you start with. Then you have Smashwords, which has now been purchased by Draft2Digital to ensure we maximize your ebook and maximize the total number of sites that we're getting our ebook too.
Gumroad if you want to sell directly to your people, maybe perhaps even on your website with a nominal fee. Gumroad is something to consider. You have a step-by-step guide to publishing on different platforms.
B. Step-by-step guide to publishing on different platforms
The first step is choosing your platform; then, you're going to prepare content for that specific platform. That's one of the reasons why when dealing with the interior. I like Jutoh, it will prepare the content for any of the platforms I just mentioned with a single click of a button.
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We can produce that content right in the exact formats; everything is flawlessly done. I suggest putting it on multiple platforms, and then you're just going to publish your content. When you set up the accounts, keep in mind the covers do have templates for each of these different platforms. So, we start with Amazon, which is the easiest of them all.
C. Understanding distribution options and reaching your audience
We're going to be understanding distribution options and reaching your audience. There are a couple of things here that are important. One is targeting your distribution, making sure that we're figuring out where exactly we want to distribute it to as many people as possible.
We're going to be diversifying the distribution channels, so that means we're going to be all over. In every possible online bookstore that we can find, we're going to be monitoring and adapting to see what exactly is happening on those sites. To make sure that it is selling, is it not selling, and how does the page layout look on the specific platform? So, we can request any changes if needed.
D. Pricing strategies and royalty considerations
Then, you have your pricing strategies and royalty considerations. We want to make sure that our pricing is competitive. But I'm going to tell you straight out the gate, when it comes to Amazon, we're going to be pricing your ebook at $22.99, and we want to ensure you get a $5 profit on your paperbacks.
There are advanced strategies that I give to my 1-On-1 Program clients and my group coaching clients, which we discuss inside Slack, the platform we use to communicate daily. We discuss how to get your book selling and making as much money as possible.
Okay, you're going to have your value-based pricing here as well to determine the value you're providing. Keep in mind, that most authors sell their books at too low of a price, not too high. Then we have royalty negotiations. With some platforms, we're going to discuss what exactly are the right terms for us. However, usually, there's not going to be too much negotiating.
Marketing and Promotion
Going on then comes to the marketing and promotion side of it. We're going to create a marketing plan for your book, figuring out who your target audience is, as we did before. We'll be utilizing multiple platforms for marketing and then engaging in content creation and engagement.
A. Creating a marketing plan for your book
Content marketing is where we create content that people enjoy, and we can say, 'Well, if you like this, you might like my book, you might like my course, you might like my coaching.' Whether you're watching this video, reading this blog, listening to this podcast, or reading this email, you're experiencing content marketing.
If you're trying to understand and get your head around content marketing, that's why I offer the 'Content Marketing for Authors: Made Easy' course, which is mentioned below in the description of all of my YouTube videos.
It goes through all the key steps to show you how to do four-pillar content marketing to maximize your total reach. As you're building a market audience and authority at the same time, it's powerful stuff. This is probably the best use of your time, in addition to writing new books.
B. Leveraging social media and online presence
Then we have to leverage social media and online presence, which means choosing the right platforms. You should be on all the platforms, really, but you should spend most of your time focusing on one or two specific platforms when it comes to replying to comments and such.
Don't be spread out all over the place. However, you can at least put your content marketing all over the place and get people on your email list by doing that. You're going to, again, use consistent branding and messaging while engaging with your audience.
There's no point in being there if you're not planning on answering questions. Once you start seeing money coming in or using your coaching earnings, you can hire a team to help you with a lot of this answering stuff.
C. Collaborating with influencers and other coaches
Then you have to collaborate with influencers and other coaches. This is a fantastic strategy. You want to identify partners that match and dovetail with your specific brand and establish mutual benefits.
You both are going to benefit from each other's lists and customer bases. You can swap sending messages to each other's stuff and foster genuine relationships, which also plays a major role when it comes to making sure that we're building real, true relationships. We're not using each other; we're helping each other out in our businesses.
D. Hosting book launch events and promotions
Then we host book launch events and promotions. And this would involve engaging influential guest speakers or authors. You can have sessions where they're asking questions, or you can offer to be a guest on their podcast.
Providing free content in exchange for an interview with you and allowing you to promote getting people on your email list by giving them something for free. That's the ask we're making. We're not saying, 'Buy my book.' We're just aiming to get them on the email list; that's where we want to get them.
Then, we can share information about our book and other content inside the emails. We're going to leverage social media and online platforms to ensure that we're reaching as many people as possible.
And whenever we see that we're hitting it big on one platform, we'll double down on that platform. We're going to offer exclusive perks and incentives on those platforms so that we keep our audiences engaged.
Building an Author Platform
Next, we're going to be building an author platform. That means the importance of an author website for coaches is something we need to keep in mind.
A. The importance of an author website for coaches
It means establishing professional credibility so that as we're moving along, our audience will hear and say, 'This is a very professional person.’ You know, this is a real platform; it's like an actual business. It's not just you trying to wing it, but it's getting better as you do this whole thing.
You're going to showcase your coaching services, so they know exactly what services you offer. You're going to facilitate client engagement so that your clients can interact with you. They're going to see this book that you have, which establishes you as an authority, even if it's self-published; it doesn't make a difference.
B. Growing your email list and engaging with readers
You're going to be growing your email list and engaging with readers, offering valuable content and incentives. You'll make sure they get on your email list by giving them something for free.
Once they're on there, we're going to go through exactly how to do these interactive email campaigns, nurturing campaigns, and sales letters – all of these things play a part. We discuss all of this inside my Group Coaching, where I go into detail to show you the winning strategies here on the channels.
On these platforms, I usually go through the top-level stuff, but there are a lot of strategies and how this is best implemented for your specific thing. That's one of the reasons I do that. Sometimes, even with a discovery session, which is free, we can take a look and see where you're at. You can find that below in the description.
You're going to regularly share valuable content, and I'll show you exactly how – which content you should share for your coaching business to figure out what's going to work well for you.
C. Establishing yourself as an expert in your coaching niche
You're going to be establishing yourself as an expert in your coaching niche, and notice we said 'niche,' not 'niches.' You're not hitting multiple niches. You're going to specialize and focus on one specific niche. You can broaden once you start having massive success in your niche if necessary.
But usually, being a specialist is always going to be better than being a generalist when it comes to coaching. You're going to share your valuable content with these people, and you're going to seek speaking and writing opportunities to ensure you get in front of as many audiences as possible.
D. Balancing coaching and writing responsibilities
You need to balance your coaching and writing responsibilities. At the same time, you're going to establish a structured schedule so you already know what time is. Being used for coaching and what's being used for self-publishing, you're going to prioritize the tasks effectively so we don't lose motivation.
We're looking at what the most important things are, and you're going to practice self-care to make sure that we're not burning ourselves out. That is the top threat, and trust me, I've felt the burn, where you're doing so much stuff that you start to burn out over some time. So it's very important to balance, and self-care plays a big role.
Monitoring Sales and Feedback
The next big thing is we're going to be monitoring sales and feedback. That means tracking book sales and performance. How are we going to do that?
A. Tracking book sales and performance
We're going to utilize sales tracking software built within Amazon, but there are also other tools like Book Report and others that will show you the graphs and data for your specific books.
This is also why I love self-publishing; you can see all of the sales daily, which is fantastic. You should set performance benchmarks, like what exactly do we expect, so we have goals on this. And we're going to analyze the best marketing strategies, figuring out if they're working for us.
B. Responding to reader reviews and feedback
We're going to be responding to reader reviews and feedback, expressing gratitude and empathy. So, if people don't like what we do, we're going to ask them why they didn't like it. I'm so sorry that you didn't like that, showing them some sincerity.
We are humans, after all, so make sure you show that. And when they say something positive, show them some gratitude. Okay, send some love to your clients, alright? You're also going to be addressing specific points.
As we're doing this, we're looking specifically at the sales and the feedback to whatever they're saying and staying professional and courteous. We don't get defensive; we don't get argumentative. We come with a helpful spirit to whatever they're doing and forgiving sometimes too if it's necessary, right?
C. Adapting and improving future editions
Next, we're adapting and improving future editions of our book, conducting thorough feedback surveys to see what's going on. We're going to be fostering strong partnerships and collaborations with the people that we have.
We're embracing technology and trends to figure out what exactly is currently working for other people, and then we're going to implement that when it comes to the sales of our books and the feedback that we're getting, right? I hope that makes sense.
Beyond the Book: Repurposing Content
Next, beyond the book and repurposing content, this is so important. We're going to be turning your book into other forms of content like courses and podcasts.
A. Turning your book into other forms of content (e.g., courses, podcasts)
You're going to be developing online courses. There's no reason why when you finish a book or anything that you're doing, you should always ask, 'What's next?' So they can just jump right in or launch a podcast series, which is what I talk about in my 'Content Marketing Made Easy' course below in the description of all of my YouTube videos.
Or creating visual content so we can say, 'Here are some infographics and things that would make it a lot easier. But what we always want to do with any book or anything that we're doing, we're always calling them to action to do the next thing.
B. Expanding your coaching business through the book's success
Next, we're going to be expanding your coaching business through the book's success. So, based on the success of the book, it's going to be driving more clients to your courses and your coaching, and you're going to establish your authority.
So, it's really easy to see this. We're going to offer value-added services. What additional services can you offer? So, you have this value ladder that you're building up, something I discuss with my one-on-one clients and my group coaching clients as well.
Going through what's the next, then what, and then what. There's this question your clients have, and we can talk it through how to figure out what's right for you. You're going to collaborate and network as well to make sure that we're maximizing what happens here as we get success on this thing.
Taking each piece of content we have and breaking it down and reusing it in another format. Keep in mind, that your entire book can also be reformatted just into a course. It's so easy; you've already got the outlines. You just make a course.
The course doesn't have to be long; one hour is a great length for a course. Nobody wants a course that's 500 hours; it's too long. They want you to get in there, give you the information, and get out. So, that's a really important thing.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Next, we have common challenges and how to overcome them. So, one of the big ones is dealing with self-doubt and imposter syndrome. That means establishing your authority.
A. Dealing with self-doubt and imposter syndrome
So, we're looking at this fact, how do you establish your authority? Well, keep reading and learning as you're going. So, you become an actual authority, and self-doubt is overcome as you help more people because they're going to say, 'Wow, you know all of this stuff, and you're not an imposter.'
Imposter syndrome means where you're feeling like, 'Oh, I'm pretending to be something I'm not. Well, the fact is, as long as you're able to be helpful to the people and your clients, they're going to ask questions. You're going to look up those answers and make sure you know their answers for the next time, and you're becoming that authority.
So, there's no imposture at all. You're giving useful answers to their questions regularly. As a self-published author of over 200 books, having run over 250 million ads on Amazon, I can tell you I still have clients ask questions I don't know the answer to. I have to look it up. I'm not an impostor; I'm just human.
So, we're not expected to know everything, but we should look it up and build that specialty, and it's only in one niche, so we're getting better and better at this, whether it's puppy training or whatever it might be.
And we need to make sure we have those value-added services that we're throwing in there to show them we are, in fact, an expert on this thing. Then, collaborating and networking as we go along with all of this.
B. Time management and balancing coaching and writing
Next is time management and balancing coaching and writing. We need to prioritize our tasks, figuring it out between those two areas, between the coaching side and the writing side. Then, we're setting dedicated writing time so we know exactly when we're going to be writing and when we're going to be coaching. Just delegate and outsource this stuff.
As the money started to come in, for me, I started hiring teams, and through outsourcing, I used Online Jobs. You can find my affiliate link below in the description of my YouTube videos, which I used to find my team in the Philippines. It's fantastic; I love having a team, it's wonderful.
C. Staying persistent during the self-publishing journey
The other thing is staying persistent during the self-publishing journey. You want to stay focused on your goals every day you wake up. What are the tasks, and make sure you're focused on them. Embrace feedback and learning; this is a learning process, but don't spend all your time learning.
Make sure you're doing stuff, and then celebrate the milestones and the progress. We need to celebrate our wins, whether they're small or big; it's critical to staying motivated.
Legal and Copyright Considerations
Then you have your legal and copyright considerations. You're going to copyright your work as a coach-author underneath your business. That makes a fantastic way of doing that. You may choose to get your ISBNs under your imprint as your business; that's one option, or you can go below in the description of my videos. I have ISBN services.
A. Copyrighting your work as a coach-author
You can find out how to get your ISBNs registered under an imprint as cheaply as possible, understanding royalties and intellectual property rights. That's an important one because if you cross some of these lines, you may end up having to pull your book off the market or risk getting sued in the process.
B. Understanding royalties and intellectual property rights
So you have royalty basics to understand what's going on there, and you have properties and IP rights. You're going to research that when it comes to the legal aspects of it, and then the licensing and the contractual side of things. You're also going to be navigating the potential legal issues and liabilities.
If you're giving people advice, putting preventive measures in place where you're telling them, 'Look, I'm not liable for the advice that you give in the book; this is just for entertainment purposes.' Using due diligence to make sure that we're doing the best we can to give good advice and then giving expert guidance.
C. Navigating potential legal issues and liabilities
Be very careful if you're giving legal advice or medical advice not to say, 'I'm not a lawyer, nor am I an expert, I'm a doctor.' So if you're giving legal advice or medical advice, you can get sued if you give bad advice and they apply it incorrectly; they can still sue you because you're giving advice.
Conclusion
As we're looking at this, you can see how this is very helpful if you're a coach putting these things into practice. And if you are a coach, I would like to know, have you already put a book on the market, or have you not done it?
Go ahead and write below in the comments whether you already have, as a coach, written a book or you're considering writing a book, what the status of your book is, so I can know where you're coming from. Check out my other blogs and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.