In 2021, I made a decision:
I was gonna write a book.
In a way, the book was the first stepping stone to these here emails. And the first step in a longer, more intricate plan of establishing a personal brand.
Short story long:
Let’s rewind back to early 2019.
I felt underappreciated and overworked at my job. (I was.)
I was unfulfilled with the direction my career was heading.
I’ve always had the classic “entrepreneurial itch” in the back of my noggin.
And I was cursed (or perhaps gifted) with a deep insight about my life at the time:
The longer I stayed with said company, the more comfortable I’d grow. The more comfortable I grew, the easier it would’ve been to ignore this entrepreneurial itch.
So I hatched my escape plan.
I had two ideas:
I wanted to help other people dropout of college and land a job in what they were majoring in. And I wanted to freelance and write emails for other brands.
At this point, I’ve been studying and writing copy for a few years, and felt confident in my abilities.
So I spent 3 months plotting and creating content. I created content for my first idea… and I started doing research on niches I wanted to enter as a freelancer.
Well fast forward some time and the freelancing gig was bringing in a lot more loot than the helping other people dropout gig. So, I decided to RIP that and focus 100% on freelancing.
If’n you were on my list at the time, I went some 250+ straight days sending an email to my list (a PR) before shutting down my emails for good to focus on freelancing.
I wrote wayyyy more emails as a freelancer than any other point in my life, but I wasn’t writing for myself.
And that “itch” started creeping back up.
Sometime in 2021, I decided to revitalize my email list. I missed writing for myself. There are less “rules” you have to follow. I can write about any topic I see fit. And I can test out some ideas I can bring to my clients in real time.
But I needed a book to start for a couple of reasons.
And you know what?
Once I decided to write my book, it only took me around 90 days (or less, I don’t have the exact number) to write, edit, publish, and produce my book.
Here’s how I did it:
When I woke up every morning, instead of jumping straight into client work, I dedicated the first hour of my day to writing my book.
I did not stray from these rules I gave myself. Even on days when I was overwhelmed with client work, I worked on my book first. Funny how that worked out, because working on my own stuff helped me feel less anxious when it came to client work. There’s a counterintuitive truism for ya.
I wrote the whole thang in under a month. And I had a couple other pieces of half-baked content hidden in my Drive folder that I beefed up and added as Appendixes into my book.
(I’m thinking about turning one—The Bullet Dojo—into a course on writing better headlines, subject lines, and bullets. Let me know if something like this interests you.)
Anyway, I had the writing done for my book in under a month. Then, I edited it myself.
Not to toot my own horn here, but I didn’t have to edit much. I already wrote it as simple as possible, which made this job much easier.
This process took a week or two.
The next stage?
Formatting and publishing it.
These two steps were the most “difficult.” Not because they were hard, just because I didn’t know what to do.
So I went to Fiverr and found an awesome formatter. If you have a print copy of the book, you know what I mean. It looks “professional.” Much better than anything I could’ve done on my own. Dude’s name on Fiverr is josepepitojr if you want to use him too. He has my highest recommendation.
Then, to publish the book I used a site called Ingram Spark.
It helped me get ISBN numbers for the print and ebook version. Add it to Amazon without hassle. And they even have an advertising channel inside their platform which I used to sell some more books.
Looking back, I don’t know if I’d use them again. They made getting it into Amazon easy, but I have less control over my book.
Anywho, that’s how I wrote and published a book from scratch in under 3 months.
Moral of the story?
Small, consistent daily actions add up. And suffocate any feelings of overwhelm trying to subdue you.
Try it with your next hairy, overwhelming project.
Onto bidness…
Want to pour kerosene on your proven offer and make oodles more moolah without working?
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