Turn Your Book Into a $7.5 Million Product with Mike Koenigs

Mike Koenigs is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, co-host of Capability Amplifier podcast with Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan and 13-time bestselling author, Mike is regular contributor to Entrepreneur and Forbes. He's interviewed, consulted and advised celebrity clients, billionaires and bestselling authors including Tony Robbins, Paula Abdul, Richard Dreyfuss, Dave Asprey, JJ Virgin, presidential candidate Tim Ryan, John Assaraf, Brian Tracy and XPrize founder Peter Diamandis, among many others.

He's also ALL love. I met him a few years ago and he was so kind and welcoming and usually wearing red shoes. But that is NOT why I asked him to come on the podcast. I asked him to come on because he is a master at taking advantage of business opportunities and I knew he'd be able to talk about how he's done that with books.

And BOY has he done it. Bet you didn't know you could generate millions from a book. In this episode, he explains how.

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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

Anna David:                  00:01                So Mike, thank you for that lesson. Thank you for doing this. We've been talking about doing this for I believe, I don't know, since the beginning of time. Do you think that's when?

Mike Koenigs:               00:09                About.

Anna David:                  00:09                Really, when God was a little boy, I think we started talking about this.

Mike Koenigs:               00:16                Yeah, about then.

Anna David:                  00:16                So it is a very odd time and as I was just telling you before we start recording, yes, of course I want to talk to you about book launches cause you're the master. But I see you as someone who kind of, you know, will be, you'll be the last one standing if this were the hunger games, it's Mike! So in this very odd time, and you just said people, you're the person people want on the desert Island, what is it you seem to know about survival that the rest of us could learn?

Mike Koenigs:               00:47                I think, I'm not sure exactly what it is about my character, but I've had some of the weirdest requests in the past. One of them is I hear people say when they introduce me, so like all of the, all Mike needs is like a spoon and everyone would survive on the desert Island or a, you know, like a piece of metal or something like that, kind of like a MacGyver reference. Other one, I had the strangest thing happened. I had several people say, can I put you on my will? Because, and they essentially asked me to pull the plug on them if time ever came, they said, cause I know you'd do it. I was like, wow, that, I don't know how to take that. But, I think, you know, I grew up in a very rural community where I was taught to hunt and fish and live on the land. And I've got very strong survival instincts and the ability to reinvent myself quickly. I've got a history of doing that. And for whatever reason people feel like I have what it takes in the times of real hard decision making to figure out how to reinvent, survive and make do no matter what kind of resources are available. So I'm pretty proud of that. Actually. I hadn't thought about it in a long time, except we do live in strange times right now. So. So yeah, I'll take the gift.

Anna David:                  02:08                So are people reaching out and going, Mike, what do I do and what are you telling them?

Mike Koenigs:               02:13                I got some interesting chatter from my family right now and I'm in a couple of masterminds and I was giving a bunch of people hell because I challenged them in a very harsh way to really pay attention to perspective at times like this cause everyone's losing it. Even guys who I consider to be strong masculine men and they're acting like scaredy cats. And I'm like, when you put this all in perspective, we are going to be fine in the grand scheme of things. History, has proven that. Stock market will take a big dump and that means everything's going to be on sale. They're going to be a lot of people in need. And right now is the time to build your capabilities and your skills and your platform while there's some in between time. And if you are not in a place where you can immediately generate income, now's the time to press the spring backwards to set up your dominoes and be prepared for that moment.

                                    03:21                And historically speaking, again, not that we've had pandemics in front of us in the past, but we've certainly, humanity has dealt with it in the past and in the grand scheme of things, humanity survived. And the other side of it is in a bare market time. I've got a giant list of every bare market going back to the fifties, and they've never lasted longer than two years and they generally just take two to three years maximum to bounce back. So at its worst, we're going to have a downtime of two years and then it's going to come back up over a period of three. I don't believe that's the case. Simply because the powers that be have a vested interest in maintaining the illusion, meaning those who are super wealthy have figured out how to manipulate every market and every system to have an exceptionally high quality of life. And if that means currency manipulation, market manipulation, a new form of junk stock or junk bond.

                                    04:27                Whether it's, it doesn't matter what it is. And again, you can look at this through a fatalistic perspective or through the lens of imagine that you just landed here on the planet and saw things as they were, which is there is immense, immense wealth in front of us. Immense opportunity. Statistically speaking, we live in the safest, most, you know, the more people are making money where more people are out of extreme poverty than ever before in human history by a long shot, statistically speaking. Fewer people are dying of bad things and the amount of wealth that's available worldwide and some people are, make a big point of the poor distribution. Even that is an illusion. It is. It is statistical manipulation in the grand scheme of things. There are fewer extreme poor on the planet today than ever before. In general, most people are better off a huge, a larger percentage of the people who have internet access now access to mobile phones, the ability to gain a free education. So, I know I got off on a long tangent there, but I have immense faith in the man's ability to recreate and also in capitalism to solve just about every problem that gets thrown in front of us.

Anna David:                  05:57                So how does that apply to writers and people not necessarily who want to make a living from their books, but who want to make a living as a result of their books?

Mike Koenigs:               06:06                Well, I think the first thing to think about is, anyone can publish now with no restrictions. So the way I look at it is you and I are communicating via Zoom. So, we could be broadcasting this live so anyone can broadcast live to almost the entire connected human race for free and turn our message into any medium possible, whether it's video, audio, books, articles, etcetera, etcetera, for free. It is exceptionally easy now to get basic media training and get on a local or national media. And it is possible and easy to have and run a complete business with no physical location, no physical employees, and earn millions of dollars a year with zero infrastructure. And, you know, I make a living building platforms, meaning I help people figure out what their core offer is and their message, and I get it done inside of 48 hours, which includes elevating them or promoting them, right? In national media or content. And so in 48 hours, you can completely reinvent yourself, craft a basic platform and an offer and start talking about it and enrolling clients into that. You don't have to have a huge college degree. So I think, again, there's infinite possibilities, infinite tools, infinite distribution, and most of it's all free. And so how do you make a living? It's just a matter of really honing down and figuring out like what is it that makes you uniquely you and crafting what I call a category of one brand so you stand out. So you are in fact unique and different, and that's really the hardest thing of all, but it requires some iteration. It requires some, some creative crafting, new neural pathways in your brain to think differently.

Anna David:                  08:16                So what about if it's somebody who's got a book, and they're looking to launch it and they're like, well, wait a minute, is this my unique ability and how do I, or are they too late? Do you need to start before you even come up with your book idea? Have this all figured out, have a session with you?

Mike Koenigs:               08:31                Yeah, that's a great question. So generally speaking, like when I meet someone and they'll say, yeah, I've been working on a book for three years or five years. And I'll say, well, tell me about it. Who's your audience? What is your outcome, goal or big dream that you want to accomplish as a of this book? What's the promise? The benefit result or outcome your book and you represent? And have you figured out a golden thread between what you deliver and what you promise and what you want? In other words, is your offer embedded in the book? Is your book the framework for a signature speech? Are all the points that you would make if you are being interviewed on national media embedded inside it? Etcetera, etcetera. There's a whole series of questions that I'll ask and if the answer is no, because most people who haven't built a platform that makes money before, who haven't written a book, whose intent it is to elevate their status in their brand and create opportunities, usually screw that up. And I don't believe in throwing bad or bad time in front of good time. And for example, the majority of my books, I wrote them, my first one in less than 30 days. My most recent one, which was my cancer story, it's called Cancerpreneur. This one I wrote, edited, published it, promoted it to number one category bestseller, which essentially means it became a number one bestseller in several specific categories on Amazon, but it still sold hundreds of copies inside of six days. Start to finish. Like from concept to, it's published available in paperback and Kindle form.

Anna David:                  10:35                What was your system? And you were with Hallel Rod, is that right?

Mike Koenigs:               10:39                He was a contributor because, I actually served, when Hall got cancer, he knew I was a cancer survivor. He called me up and asked for my support and I gave him some really specific direction. There were some things he was about to do that I think would have killed him. And he freely acknowledges that now, he got bad advice. And as a survivor I feel I'm uniquely qualified to give good advice and tell people what not to do and who not to listen to just as much as who to listen to. And several months later I said, Hey, I'm doing this book. May I interview you as a survivor. And so I interviewed several survivors and a functional medical doctor, as well as told my core story inside it in a way that I think anyone who's been diagnosed or knows someone who's diagnosed, this is a toolkit to make sure you and your family, and your relationships, and your business survive.

Anna David:                  11:38                And what was the, when you have the concept a week later, the book is out in number one. What was your goal with that book? What is the offer? What is embedded in it?

Mike Koenigs:               11:47                Yeah. So this one is unique because every one of my other books, were really to sell market or promote something and get me speaking gigs or get me in the media. This one was a result of, I considered it my mitzvah. In other words, my good deed. As a survivor, I feel I had a responsibility to other people who were diagnosed and in pain and filled with questions. Cause the moment you find out you have cancer, someone you love has cancer, the first thing people do is go through the, is it the five phases of denial and bargaining, and all that kind of stuff? There's a whole process, and it's very predictable. Denial will be the first one. It couldn't happen to me. Or you start bargaining with God. So if you survive, you'll stop doing this, this, and this or whatever it may happen to me. And the other thing that happens is depending on your personality type, if you're a more panic oriented, what your fear, stress levels are, you might go on the internet and start going down a rabbit hole and reading all kinds of garbage and making bad decisions. And the first lesson in being diagnosed with cancer is those who hesitate die. You have to take rapid swift action. And a lot of people will be like, well, I'm going to use an alternative approach, which basically is a recipe for death for the most part. Taking when you take medical advice from non doctors, that's a great way to die. And I'm very explicit about it and I know people who have since gotten cancer didn't listen, didn't pay attention, and they're dead now. I just buried one a month and a half ago.

                                    13:32                And to me, dying of ignorance is a unforgivable sin. You know, and I'm not saying I'm right, it's just that I spent a lot of time asking good questions and figuring out a system that genuinely works. And I'm not taking that from an egoic perspective. It's, you know, you can fact find and do a little bit of research. And so my direct answer to your question is I got deloused with people who, and I was talking to five or 10 people a week because someone had heard that Mike had survived. So you should talk to him and I'm, you know, really practical and I'll ask permission first, but I'll be very specific and explicit with someone on what to do and not to do, while still saying I'm not a doctor. I don't play one on TV or the internet. And you need to talk to a doctor. But here's some guiding principles and here's a arsenal of questions to ask a doctor. So you go down the right path. And what I did is I packaged everything I had ever answered to hundreds of people all in one place. It's easy to digest, easy to read. You really get through the core of it in a couple of hours max.

                                    14:47                So just imagine in two hours you've got a survival or something that you can pass along to a friend or a family member who's just been diagnosed and about to go down the path. And really give someone the assurance that no matter what stage you're at, there are, there's strategies to survive and thrive before, during, and after or extend your life considerably if you're late stage, like fourth stage or terminal. And I still have some people who I've talked to who had been terminal for years, five, six years. And I think if they would've gone down again, done different things, listened to the wrong people, they'd certainly be dead now.

Anna David:                  15:36                So this book, there was no, there's no business motive. It was pure altruism. Really?

Mike Koenigs:               15:42                Yeah. In that particular case, it's good, good deeds, good work. Although now I have a publisher that wants to distribute it and pick it up. They've already said yes to it and get it mainstream distribution. And what I could see happen as a result of this. So how could I monetize this or create a platform? One is I do not shame or say drug companies are bad. I happen to think that chemotherapy and radiation therapy have a place, an important place. I also think that functional medicine is a great way to prepare and also post-op, post-treatment, strengthen your immune system considerably and understanding really what's going on. And so I'd be happy to speak on stage and talk to doctors through the lens of a patient and a survivor. I'd be more than happy and willing to, like the types of drugs.

                                    16:47                The cocktail that I was given is something called FU5 and FOLFOX, intravenous chemo, which suck. I mean, it really sucks, but I could stand up in a stage or a Coliseum and talk about the benefits and what my experiences were like in a way to bridge multiple worlds. And in the meantime, I'd be more than willing to be pulled in if CNN or MSNBC or, or Fox or any a network needed a survivor cancer expert or someone who could speak about, you know, preparing for any kind of medical challenge or some sort of a thing that would come up. So, you know, in that particular way. So I could definitely be a paid adviser, a paid speaker. And no matter what, anytime you're getting any kind of visibility, that will certainly extend as someone would say, well, what do you do for a living? And I'd be like, well, I build brands, I create brands that are unique and I work with only a few people a year and that I know would lead into other business and other opportunities.

Anna David:                  17:57                Well, let's talk about some of your books that were more offer embedded, what you were able to do with them, how much money you were able to make as a result of ancillary income, and how you launched them? So is Publish and Profit, the best example of that?

Mike Koenigs:               18:14                Yeah, this would be a good one because it's really an evolution from my very first book, which wasn't called Publish and Profit, but basically the content was very similar. So, if we summarize all this, my goal and intention, it was always to write a book that promoted or sold an offer. And my goal is to generate a minimum of $1 million in a hundred days, and then build a continuing franchise from that. So thematically and strategically, what I do is begin with the offer. Now, in the case of Publish and Profit, I created a system that I used myself the first time around, and then I embedded the system into a book. So I kind of reverse engineered it. But for years, I started working in what you could say is the book business, in the publishing business, back in the early two thousands. My first product that I produced is called, Everything You Should Know About Publishing, Publicity, Promotion, and Building a Platform with a woman named Arielle Ford. Who at the time, was the gateway to get onto Oprah. So in the 90s, through the early two thousands, if you wanted to get on TV, if you wanted to be on Oprah, you had to talk to Arielle.

                                    19:32                And she represented Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Neil Donald Walsh, who wrote Conversations with God. Don Miguel Ruiz who wrote The Four Agreements. Louise Hay, her sister Debbie Ford. Mark Victor Hansen, Bob Allen. The list went on and on, at the time. Oh yeah. Jack Canfield, she represented 11 number one New York Times bestselling authors. And that's back when you had to actually pound the ground to sell books. Right. And I created an information product with her and as a result of that, I had a lot of authors come to me and say, Hey, will you help me launch my book and promote it and market it, build my website, help me with my videos, help me create a product, etcetera, etcetera. All the ancillary things that were involved. And then I had started a couple of software companies, but all in the background, much of my market were authors, experts, speakers, consultants and coaches, they were kind of the prime focus. And so, one piece of shame I had for many years as I had never written a book, even though my wife had written two books, Arielle had written many. And I'm working authors and I'm meeting them and I'm like, they don't have anything I don't have.

                                    20:50                But I was afraid. I didn't know how to get going. I didn't know what I should write about even. So it wasn't until I got cancer, I was diagnosed and I was going through treatment and I wrote my first book. And really when I wrote it, the book was a documentary of me writing a book and how I self published during the early days of Amazon. So not, no one really knew how Amazon KDP worked at the time. But it was a mechanism for self publishing. So I wrote that book while I was on my hospital bed. And the way I opened this story was I'm, you know, 2,357 miles away from home being treated for stage three colorectal cancer, waking up in a pile of my own hair every day with less than an hour strength a day. And despite all that, I managed to write, publish, promote my book to bestseller status in less than 30 days and make it a bestseller. And the other wild thing was while I was being treated, I got called by Tony Robbins, and they asked me to speak at a business mastery event. So I, I literally left directly from cancer treatment weighing less than 150 pounds, had a 27 inch waist. I look like an Auschwitz victim with, you know, most of my hair missing.

                                    22:23                And they said, will you come speak? So I accelerated my treatment in some cases to two radiation treatments a day so I could be on stage. And I got on stage there and just gaunt. And I told my story and the place went nuts. Crazy. And then the first thing that people asked is, well, how did you do this? And I said, well, I'll turn it into a product. So I turned the book into a product. So the book promoted the product and then the product drove people to a live event. And then from there we sold a mastermind. So here's the direct answer to your question now that we got the story out of the way. Which is the book, think of it like a sales story, but it's in the S the subtitle is a five step system for attracting pain coaching and consulting clients, traffic and leads, product sales, and speaking engagements. So Publish and Profit was specifically engineered to teach you how to tell a story in a book format that creates desire and demand to buy your products and services and how to position yourself as an authority and an expert using a book. And as a result, not only did that business turn, you know, produce $1 million inside of a hundred days, but it went on to become about a seven and a half million dollar franchise.

                                    23:56                So imagine the way it worked was, I would promote a webinar and when you registered for the webinar, you'd get a free copy of my book, a PDF version. On the thank you page, you could click to download the PDF or click to buy Kindle book so you could have it on all your devices. Click to buy the paperback book and I priced it at under 10 bucks, including shipping. Cause of course it's Amazon Prime so you could get the book for 99 cents. It turns out, even though people could get the book for free, they still wanted the convenience of the Kindle book. So I, the book, just by giving it away actually became a bestseller, many times over and stayed that way. Same thing with the paperback book. And then the book would drive you to a webinar. So when you open up the book, the very first page inside, folks at home can't necessarily see this, but it says free masterclass, and it sent you to a webpage where you'd sign up and watch. What is essentially a sales webinar about the benefits of writing a book, becoming a bestseller, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and how to do it. And then of course you can buy my program for $2,000 and as soon as you sign up for that and go through the program, there's an option to come to the live event, which is $5,000 but I'd apply your $2,000 investment to come to the event. So there's a difference and I guarantee you'd become a bestseller in three days. So we'd help you name your book, title it, create a book cover, give you a system for how to write it and do it yourself. And then we'd actually launch your book at the event, even though it didn't have to be written, and we promote it and market it so it would become a bestseller in three days. So before your book was even written, it already sold at least a hundred copies. And as a bestseller.

Anna David:                  25:54                How do you do that? So how people are buying an empty book because they see the cover.

Mike Koenigs:               25:59                Yeah. So Amazon started something. Now it wasn't in place when we first started this program, we actually, it was, you had to actually write the book, but then we gave you the tools. But what happens is Amazon lets you do what's called a presale. So you can put your book cover and one page, upload it, price it, and then sell it. And you have to put the content in there within 90 days. So the clock starts ticking. Well in our case, we had coaching that taught you how to write it over that period of time. But the biggest thing that people, most people never do is they never launch. Think about it. How many people you met? Yeah, I've been writing a book for five years. Uh huh. Yeah. The chances, you know, most people, there's statistically speaking, this is an old stat, I pulled out a USA Today. It was something like 82% of the US public wants to write a book someday, but sadly fewer than 1% ever do.

Anna David:                  26:59                It was in the New York Times and it's 81%. New York Times. Very well sourced.

Mike Koenigs:               27:04                There you go. And so, the net of that is we came along and had a solution and at the time there wasn't a lot of competition. And so what invariably happened though is someone would write the book and then they'd be like, well, what next? So then we had a program called speak and profit. We had another one called create profit, how to create products. Then we had another one called, let's see, a consultant profit, which is how to coach, consult, advise. And then I had a media training program, we called it the celebrity boot camp, where in three days people would come to my studio, we'd help them, we'd get them professionally, photographed. We had professional makeup artist and designer from Hollywood there. We'd craft their sizzle reel, shoot them in seven sets. I had a news anchor who would interview them. And then when you literally walk away in three days with all your photos, a one sheet, a real sizzle reel that shows you speaking, talking, being interviewed in a studio. So you could send this out to TV and get booked on your local television station as soon as you get out of there. And we also ran a press release for you. So what would happen is you'd be able to, you know, anytime you run a press release, it gets syndicated. So you'd be as seen on ABC, NBC, Fox, etcetera, etcetera. So it was like this whole tool kit to build someone's celebrity.

Anna David:                  28:38                But again, this was all built from the book that you wrote in the hospital. And you didn't have this plan, it sounds like it sort of each piece came together as you were onstage and you saw the reaction. Is that how it went?

Mike Koenigs:               28:52                Yeah, basically if you think about it, when you've got people who pay you money and then they show up for an event and then I'd be like, what the hell am I going to sell next? And I'd talk to people I'd be like, and at that point I knew what they needed. You know, it wasn't, but you know, the only votes that ever matter are the votes with the check writer. I mean, Dan Sullivan talks about that, but I like anyone who's a bitcher, a whiner or a complainer. Well, you should, and I'd be like, your vote doesn't matter, nor do your wines. Wines don't pay the bills. And then I ignore them. So if someone, and what was beautiful is, and this happened a couple of times where I'd be on stage and, you know, over a three day period of time we provided exactly what we said we would, we'd be like, okay, we're good right now we're working on the titles and subtitles. Now I've got designers, I'd have a bunch of designers in the back of the room making books, literally making book covers and printing out the cover and wrapping it around a real book because we take a photograph of them holding their new book. And then we were doing book buying parties to produce sales for the book. Now if you've got a hundred people in the room and a properly chosen book category, what a lot of people don't know is you only need to sell about a hundred copies or sometimes fewer of a book in a specific category to be a number one category bestseller.

                                    30:21                You still have physical proof. So we have all this, this machine running in the background, but during the production cycles I was teaching them. So I'm on stage saying, okay, now, now that your book's done, let's talk about how you're going to increase your prices for your coaching consulting and advising and it just led into a natural thing, which, Hey, just raise your hand if you'd be interested in spending a day or two with me and learning more and doing an immersive workshop like what we're in right now to learn how to coach, consult, advise, increase your prices and sell more effectively. Well, half the room raises their hands. So I could produce hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional sales by providing an additional high quality service to everyone in the room. So an event like that could easily produce a half a million dollars in additional revenue. And if I were doing three of those a year, which is what we did, it was insane by the way, but we did it anyway. And then I had a big studio, so I'd bring them into the studio and we'd do another mini event. And while I'm there say, Hey, how would you like to learn how to make market and launch a product? I'll show you how to create an information product, another workshop. Okay. And then in every one of these they're hands on. So I would like in the product creation workshop, I would make a product in front of a live audience and give you the business model on how you can do that too. So the whole idea is get check writers in a room, teach something. And then here's all the equipment and the tools and team you need. We'll record it and produce it for you. By the way, while you have him in the room, make an offer.

Anna David:                  32:03                Yeah you'll get a better deal if you sign up now, how about that one? Now, and then your other books like Money Phone and all of these. Were these all built with big revenue streams in advance thought of?

Mike Koenigs:               32:16                Yeah. So money phone is a system I developed and I actually modeled it after something some of my clients did. So here's the basic idea, and you've probably seen me do this before, but when I'm at an event and I meet someone and someone says, Hey, do you have a business card? Cause we're small talking or wherever it is, I'll say I don't carry business cards. I'll tell you why. Because going to give me a card, I'm going to give you a card and then we're both going to not follow up. So instead I'm going to take a picture of you and me. I'm going to text it to you and I'm going to include a link. So you can click that link and schedule a time for you and me to follow up. We can have a conversation about how I can help you grow your business, right? So if I go to an event and there are, let's say 500 people in the room, all who've invested thousands of dollars, taking time away from their work, their families, they expect to get a return on their investment. And if I show up, first of all, how many people, Oh, and here's the next thing I do by the way, as soon as I have their contact info, I make a note and I text to them some of the things we talked about. So I have a note and they have a note. And then before I leave that event, I make a little short, 30 to 62nd video saying, Hey Anna, it was so great chatting with you at the blah,blah,blah event.

                                    33:40                While we were there, you and I talked about boom, boom and boom. Now I wanted to just follow up with you because I've been thinking about you and I have a couple ideas that can start this process moving right away. When you and I connect, I'll tell you exactly what they are and here's a little teaser. Boom, boom, boom, whatever it is. Well, without exception, first of all, they remember who the hell I am because who, when's the last time someone took a photo and followed up with you? And when's the last time someone sent you a video that was, I am thinking about you and how you can blah, blah, blah? Doesn't happen. Right. So already I'm in a category of one and the most memorable person in the room and I actually provided value and I followed up, which is more than 99.9% of any anyone ever does. And then we're scheduled. And on the call, the first thing they say is, Oh my God, you know, I got to tell you that thing you showed me is brilliant. And I go, well, and then usually what I'll do is I'll say, by the way, if you want, just text me your address and I'll send you a copy of this book, which costs me three bucks, right? It's simple, and in it are scripts that I use to market and promote myself. So I am transparently showing you exactly what I'm doing with you and for you in a way that you can start using right now. Which by the way, every one of these is an offer for how to work with me. Okay?

                                    35:08                It's a sales script book. So this was actually used as a tool to sell Consult and Profit and actually all my other products and I always made a point, of anytime I did a live event, every event I did, I wrote a new book prior to it, which I would launch at the same time. And I could go in and say, and that this is the fact with Money Phone, I literally wrote this book in two days. I launched it two days after and two days later I was on stage doing a live event, and I handed out a copy of my book to everyone in the audience with the story about how I did it, which is I literally showed a step-by-step presentation of me doing the book. I did the same thing with Cancerpreneur where I documented myself making the book and made videos of me doing it in real time.

Anna David:                  36:04                Fascinating. Okay. We have got to get towards wrapping up. So let's talk about top three tips for lunch. This documenting the process so that you can use that as launch material. Is that one of them? What are your three tips?

Mike Koenigs:               36:18                Well, the first one is you've got to have an offer. No offer, no money. What the hell is the point of writing a book? Unless it's purely altruistic. And in that case, my advice to people is, unless you've got a bank full of money and money's not your issue, don't make your memoir or an altruistic book your first book, make money with it so you have time, freedom and money, freedom, freedom of purpose and freedom of relationship. Okay. That's, that's my outcome and my goal. So that's the first one is offer. Number two, make certain you have a, your book can easily be translated into your signature speech and all of your interview questions and all your content that you're going to want to put out as articles. Or if you're doing media, each chapter should be the equivalent of an article. So think of it as a Lego construction kit. Modularize it.

Anna David:                  37:21                Wow. That's so good. Okay.

Mike Koenigs:               37:24                And then the third is always carry your book with you in your bag because you never know who you're going to be able to meet. So you want to hear a little story about how that turned into something magical.

Anna David:                  37:40                Yeah.

Mike Koenigs:               37:41                Okay. So I was on my way to South by Southwest few years ago and I jumped on a plane and I overheard two guys who are sitting in front of me. One guy turned to the other, he goes, Hey, do you see who's in front of us? And the guy goes, yeah, I saw him on the way and it's Richard Dreyfus. And I kind of curled my head around cause I'm behind a few seats and sure as hell, Richard Dreyfus is on the plane. And I'm thinking to myself, I want to meet Richard Dreyfus. Yeah. He was in some of the best movies growing up, you know, Jaws and, and I always loved Mr. Holland's Opus, one of the most touching heartfelt films. And I really appreciated him as an actor. He's just like this big character. And as a small town kid growing up, I had no exposure to celebrity or Hollywood or any of that. Like, so I still have that gig, gig, gig, and then, I'm not worthy. So we're getting ready. I pull up my phone and one thing I know about celebrities is the way to their hearts is through their purpose and through their nonprofits, and their charities. And every, every celebrity has got a charity of choice. So I quickly typed in Richard Dreyfus, nonprofit, Richard Dreyfus philanthropy, and I found his. And so I wrote, I hold up my book and I have always traveled the Sharpie in a book. And I wrote on the inside, Mr. Dreyfus, my name is Mike Koenigs and I have an idea about how to raise money for your nonprofit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's my name, here's my number, yada, yada, yada. So when the plane lands, and we were in like salt Lake, I think.

                                    39:37                So I actually had a jump to go from where I was to where, you know, it's too hot. So I quickly got up and I still got right behind Dreyfus. And just as we're walking under the jetway, I turned to him and I said, Mr. Dreyfus, my name is Mike Koenigs, and I have an idea that'll help you raise money for your nonprofit foundation, blah, blah, blah, whatever it was. And he looked at me and he turned and he goes, I need you. Come with me, boy. Walk along with me. And he goes, so, what's your big idea? And I went on to talk him. I said, first of all, have you written a book? Ah, I've been thinking about writing a book for years, it's been half finished. And I go, okay. And where are you headed? Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. I basically asked him a few questions that were really well positioned. The bottom line is he didn't have a platform. He spends a lot of time on planes raising money. He had just had back surgery. So he's like, I'm old, I'm fat, I'm in pain. Yeah, I don't want to, I want to do this anymore. And I go, well, first of all, I can show you how to turn your dreams into a book that can be your fundraiser for your nonprofit.

                                    40:45                The second thing is I could have you, I can interview you at my studio and you can use those videos to send out instead of traveling, he goes, Oh my God, that would be so awesome. Turns out he lives in the San Diego area. So two weeks later, Richard Dreyfus is in my studio shooting video and I'm doing an interview with him. Yeah. And so the whole point of this, the third is your book is a ticket to get past the velvet rope and become and be a well-positioned VIP in any circumstance anywhere. There's always a reason why and a means that your book can provide value for anyone you come in contact with. And so you need to carry a couple copies of your book and a few Sharpie pens with you. You can introduce yourself with reason to anyone and who throws away a book, especially one that's autographed. So those are my three biggies that pop into my head.

Anna David:                  41:51                Well Mike, this has been so great. So, helpful. If people want to find you is the best way just to go to your website, MikeKoenigs.com.

Mike Koenigs:               42:00                Yeah. Yup, that's a good one. And I have a, uh, I'll give you a free video link too, that's at my website. So you can do the shortcut link to my website is paidforlife.com. That's easy to remember. Easy to spell. And the link to the video is paidforlife.com/owo, which stands for one word offer. And it's a story about how to inspire and attract and enroll an audience into what you have with one word. So I call it the one word offer and the two word brand. So it's how to become a category of one. It's very, very relevant. It's only eight minutes long.

Anna David:                  42:44                Okay. So anybody who has a book, you are silly to not go there and grab this amazing offer. Thanks, you guys.

Mike Koenigs:               42:51                If you don't have a book.

Anna David:                  42:52                Yes. Well, you're not listening to this podcast if you don't have a book. So, but everybody, Mike, thank you so much and thanks you guys for listening. I appreciate you, Mike, and I appreciate you listeners.