The Publishing Performance Show

Joe Solari - Author Networking Success: The Author Nation Strategy Guide

• Teddy Smith • Episode 12

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Joe Solari is the Managing Director of Author Nation Conference, one of the largest and most innovative writing conferences in the self publishing industry. With wide experience in organizing major events and building author communities, Joe brings a unique perspective to conference organization and author development. His focus on combining business strategies with creativity has helped shape Author Nation into an amazing experience for writers at all stages of their careers. Along with his wife Sue, Joe has visited numerous industry conferences to bring the best practices and most effective strategies to the author community. 

In this episode:

  • The vision and structure of Author Nation Conference
  • Implementing EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) for author businesses
  • Creating effective networking opportunities for writers
  • Combining business strategies with creative development
  • The importance of accountability partners in author success
  • Tips for maximizing conference value and implementing learnings
  • Strategies for building lasting industry connections


Resources mentioned:


Featured Speakers discussed:


Connect with Author Nation:


Connect with Teddy Smith:


Join our Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/publishingperformance/

[00:00:00] Teddy: Since starting this podcast, I've spoken to a lot of authors, and one of the main things I've learned is that networking and building that group of authors around you who can give you feedback and you can learn from and you can make friends with is one of the most important things you can do if you're trying to build your author business rather than just writing books.

[00:00:25] Teddy: And that's why this is such a special episode, because today I'm speaking to Joe Solari, who is the [00:00:30] head of the Author Nation Conference, which is happening in Las Vegas in November. Now, it's one of the biggest conferences for authors and self publishers in the world. It's taken over from what used to be called the 20 Books Summit, which was also in Las Vegas.

[00:00:41] Teddy: It's happening next month, and I'm heading there. I'm super excited about it. And in this episode, I'm speaking to Joe all about some of the talks I'm most excited about hearing as an author and in an author business, and also some of the exciting things I'm going to do whilst I'm in Las Vegas. So if you are thinking about coming to AuthorNation, or you want to Go to a [00:01:00] conference and start networking with more people.

[00:01:02] Teddy: And I think Automation is a great one to go to. There's tickets still available at Automation. com and you can also find links to that in the show notes. But this is a really great episode. We're going to be talking about how you can make the most out of these conferences and also how you can build that network of people around you as an author so that you can start to grow your author business.

[00:01:20] Teddy: So I think it's a fantastic episode and I think you're going to learn a lot. Hello, welcome to the Publishing Informant Show. I'm here with Joe Solari, who's the managing [00:01:30] director of the AuthorNation Conference, which is a conference I'm really excited to go to in a few weeks. So welcome Joe. 

[00:01:36] Joe: Thanks for having me on the show, Teddy.

[00:01:38] Joe: This is a real pleasure. 

[00:01:40] Teddy: Yeah, you must be really busy at the moment. 

[00:01:43] Joe: Yeah, we are. It's a good positive busy. It isn't like, Oh, what's happening. It's like, you know, we're closing in. We've got a lot of things that we've planned, so we're making sure that things are showing up where they're supposed to show up and get delivered and then you have the [00:02:00] regular stuff of just any show runner would tell you this is like our show is the most important show.

[00:02:05] Joe: We're thinking about it all year. Attendees whether the readers or authors either they sign up right away and they're planning or it's right now is when they're deciding. Yes, they are going to go or they're not going to go. Right? So there's a lot of people that are just piling in right now.

[00:02:21] Joe: So it is busy, because people are like, oh, is it too late to sign up for a rave? Is it too late? It's like, yeah. It's a lot. Sorry. So yeah, all that stuff's fun. Lots of [00:02:30] emails. Yeah, but if we stop doing any, everything like the show would go off. 

[00:02:37] Teddy: Definitely. Yeah. Just give people context.

[00:02:39] Teddy: We're recording this about almost exactly a month before it starts. So it's kind of like action stations. 

[00:02:44] Joe: 39 days. 39 days out from the show. I know I'm not declining by the hours yet, but we are 39 days out. So the 

[00:02:56] Teddy: reason I'm so excited to talk about this because I've just been looking at the list of speakers.

[00:02:59] Teddy: I was [00:03:00] just making my plans for what I'm going to do when I'm there and some of the speakers are. Unbelievable. You know, you've got some really, really big people in the publishing industry and also just generally in the business world and authors. So I thought today would be a great opportunity to speak about some of the people that are speaking some of the favorite people you're looking forward to seeing.

[00:03:19] Teddy: And then also some tips for people who are coming to the show, how they can get the most out of it. Sure. 

[00:03:25] Joe: Yeah. Well, I'm real interested to hear your list. Yeah, my list, but I'd love to hear your [00:03:30] list. 

[00:03:30] Teddy: So I'll start with one of mine that I wanted to see first because it was actually a guy called Ricky Wollman and they're talking about God you go first.

[00:03:39] Joe: Well, Ricky's a woman actually, so I just Make sure you go ahead. 

[00:03:47] Teddy: there's one of the people I'm most looking forward to seeing is Ricky Wollman. She's talking about a system which I use in my own business, not just in my authoring business, but in my business generally, which is called EOS and it stands for the [00:04:00] Entrepreneurial Operating System.

[00:04:01] Teddy: So it sounds like, you know, something about that one. 

[00:04:04] Joe: Yeah, you're a nerd. 

[00:04:07] Teddy: I am. Yeah, I read traction about five or six years ago, and it really changed how I run my business. 

[00:04:13] Joe: So this is one of the speakers that I wanted to have, and I hope people come to hear Ricky speak. And here's why. So, let me give you some context about Ricky.

[00:04:28] Joe: She's one of the [00:04:30] co owners of written word media, 

[00:04:32] Teddy: right? Okay. I didn't know that, but 

[00:04:35] Joe: yeah. so she owns written word media. She's a Harvard MBA and she came out of the consulting space to, you know, be an entrepreneur and run this business, which most people are familiar with written word media for free free and the different promotion things that they do.

[00:04:51] Joe: Well, she invented that. They are practitioners of E. O. S. One of the best practitioners of it that I've ever [00:05:00] seen. So it was really important for me. off, they're a great sponsor. They're going to have a booth there to talk about all their stuff. But I didn't want them just to talk about promos because you can see them talk about promos just about anywhere.

[00:05:13] Joe: I wanted Ricky to come and talk about what she's done with EOS in her business. Because if you notice the quality of the employees at that company, if you notice the way that they operate it's all because they're using EOS the way it's supposed to be done. I'm sure you can relate to like, you [00:05:30] read these books and you wish you could do it the way they talk about it.

[00:05:32] Joe: And then reality hits, I'm sure it's the same for them, but like, They are practicing it, right? Like they're having their 90 day meetings and they're doing all like it's embedded in their culture. And I felt having a woman entrepreneur who's been through a startup and scaled it to include employees. Not just contractors, but actual W 2 employees, having [00:06:00] her explain how she used this system would be a really powerful thing for, for authors that are looking to figure out a business system.

[00:06:08] Joe: So, I think you could, that's probably a really good pick. We put a lot of pressure on her now, but 

[00:06:16] Teddy: So I did actually interview mike who's their head of marketing? a couple of weeks ago He was I think he was the second episode on the show And he spoke all about the prosians obviously had loads to say but you're right It's great to hear how they actually run their business because they're so successful Cause the way I use the [00:06:30] EOS, obviously you've got to tailor it a little bit for your businesses, but essentially how it works is it, you identify your KPIs in your business and you track them every week.

[00:06:40] Teddy: And I know that probably sounds quite basic, but the way that you track them is how the EOS works. I don't want to give away her entire talk, but essentially the way I do it in my. Book business is by, it's not just tracking the sales tracking things like how many books you've got written at the moment, or it could be how many words you've got to write, or it could be how many front [00:07:00] covers you've got to design.

[00:07:00] Teddy: And those KPIs are what tracks your business. And by tracking those things every week or month, you can see the progress of your business on paper, which gives you optimism for the future. And that's basically a summary of how it works. 

[00:07:13] Joe: Yeah, and I think that when you finally get solidified around those KPIs and your understanding, this is my end game, whatever that is, right.

[00:07:21] Joe: It was like, well, I want to make money. Well, yeah, but it's a cascading effect. So thinking about like, well, I want to sell more books. [00:07:30] My KPI is book sales. What are the things that influence book sales? Well, that's where it starts to get a little more nebulous. But as you think on those topics, like, audience building.

[00:07:41] Joe: If I don't have an audience, I can't sell books to that audience, right? So I'm going to drill down, build that out. And then you can actually see a train of connective tissue in your business that is feeding that over time, right? And, you know, the one function that we can't control is time in our patients, right?[00:08:00] 

[00:08:00] Joe: But for a long time, you're not going to see any movement on that KPI, but then you will. And you can then track it back and go, Oh, this is the part that's really making it work. I'm going to put more effort on that and less effort on these other things. And then it speeds up and speeds up and it really becomes a system.

[00:08:16] Joe: And I think that's, what's one of the good things about book businesses. The KPIs are relatively straightforward. You know, if you've got a normal products business, you might be tracking things like manufacturing and shipping times and all these sorts of things.

[00:08:27] Teddy: Whereas with a book, the KPIs are easier [00:08:30] to identify, but still, it's really important to make sure you're staying on track because, you know, you might find. That even by one of your KPIs being the amount of words you've written just by tracking that you can then see how quickly it Takes you to write books or how many of sales you're going to make so yeah, really excited about that talk.

[00:08:46] Joe: Well, I was gonna say, you know, probably the big one My biggest one that I want people See, and I'm forcing you all to see it is, right after the opening remarks on Tuesday, we are going to have Andrew [00:09:00] Davis, who is a professional speaker, and he's going to be this session called the curiosity factor and besides being very entertaining speaker, he's.

[00:09:12] Joe: Kind of guy that it's, it'll transform the way you think and his ideas around challenging what makes people engage Is going to be real interesting and it's demonstrated to you live on stage and you're gonna [00:09:30] So I think that that is important because as content creators We've kind of been duped into giving away our product for free 

[00:09:43] Joe: And what I mean by that is, oh, you want to get visibility. You need to create social media content. And how is that content going to be presented? And how is it supposed to be done? Well, here's this latest update [00:10:00] on what we think works in the algorithm. and then we all drive to that, right?

[00:10:04] Joe: We all run to that particular set of like, I'm going to do a 10 minute video or do 30 second video, whatever it might be, right? Versus thinking about how you can be more on brand and building, you know, a connection and curiosity with your fan. Overtime right letting that slow boil to really build a longer deeper connection it's it's antithetical to what most [00:10:30] marketing is talking about because most marketing is being subverted to what works for social media platform.

[00:10:38] Joe: To capture attention, so I think that that'll be one that a lot of people will come off of, and it'll also kind of set the tone. I feel sorry for all the speakers after him. 

[00:10:52] Teddy: basically you've got to see it. It's going to be that good. 

[00:10:55] Joe: Yeah, I've seen him present on other topics. highly [00:11:00] confident that the level of speakers that we have, people like him that we're bringing from outside the industry, because we bring a lot of people from outside the traditional publishing circuit that you see are of an exceptional level that you've never seen at other shows. Also the level of speakers in the diversity of speakers in the sense of how they're making money, right?

[00:11:25] Joe: Yeah, we all. It's just human [00:11:30] nature to, to appreciate others success. But we're showing you there's a lot of different ways, you know, There's many ways different up the mountain. Well, let's show you some of them, right? Instead of just showing you the same trodden path with 300 hikers going up Everest.

[00:11:46] Joe: Let's here's some other ways. They may be more difficult and treacherous. may take longer, but they may be better suited for what your business practices are going to be going forward. 

[00:11:57] Teddy: That's great that you're bringing so many people from outside of the industry, [00:12:00] because one of the things I speak to writers a lot about is they're so worried about the writing that they don't focus on the fact that they're actually writing a book in order for it to be a business, like for the most part, you know, some people just are writing and that's fine, but they're not going to make money if you're just not concentrating on business aspects of it.

[00:12:16] Teddy: So by bringing those people in from outside of the industry, you can get a fresh perspective. So I think that. Sounds like a really great talk. That one with Angie Davis. 

[00:12:25] Joe: And there's several others, you know, we only have so much time in this, but we spent last [00:12:30] year going to other events, like social media marketing world and getting people to this event and not just saying, Hey, can speak because every speaker is looking to speak, right?

[00:12:39] Joe: It's finding people that We felt we being Suze, my wife and I could help the industry and can either give us a shock and wake us up or, you know, help us rethink some things that we may be thinking about in our little bubble. [00:13:00] And part of that process was explaining to them the industry, because what's really cool is you go to some folks and they're maybe amazing at particular type of marketing and then you explain to him, Hey, there's this.

[00:13:10] Joe: A group of people that are publishing fiction and nonfiction and they need help and they're like, wow, I love, you know, and maybe you have to tweak a thing here or there for the different products type, but like, yes, it's applicable. So yeah, there's, there's a lot of space and time going into demonstrating that this [00:13:30] needs to be you know, a situation where we bring fresh blood in.

[00:13:35] Teddy: Yeah, definitely. I mean, there are still plenty of people talking about. Stuff for specifically for authors though, as well. One of the other speakers I'm really looking forward to chatting to is Damon Courtney. So he's from book funnels which is a, which is a really cool tool, which I think people don't maybe use enough for their books.

[00:13:52] Teddy: Like, cause it, it works for both nonfiction and fiction books. And it's essentially like a tool that helps you [00:14:00] to create those funnels. So someone can buy your book or. Get a cheat book or a free book at the beginning of the funnel. And then you can funnel them into buying further books from you later on.

[00:14:10] Teddy: And that is such an easy marketing tactic. And just before this call, we were talking about, you know, things that you can take away and can have a high impact on your business by implementing a funnel like that. 

[00:14:19] Joe: Yeah, I think anybody that's a newer author that comes in. And they connect up with the right people in the industry at some point in the first or second [00:14:30] conversation. There's going to be somebody that says to you, well, you need book funnel. 

[00:14:33] Joe: it's kind of that fundamental in, marketing basics. And so what I observed. People say that and then people run out and buy it and they're like now what 

[00:14:49] Teddy: so what 

[00:14:49] Joe: we've done Damon and the book funnel team has been an amazing supporter of the show They were one of our partners In [00:15:00] story wars, they sponsored a story wars team They're having a booth so you'll have access to them all week long in the mix and mingle Midway And we set up a session specifically for Damon, where he can have the time to go through all the basics of book funnel, 

[00:15:17] Joe: So if you've never used it before, or you've played around with a feature and you want to know more, he's going to have that on that 1st day, this really long session where it's going to be. Him just going through all of its features, because [00:15:30] I believe there's tools like that. And a few others that people just need to know how to use.

[00:15:36] Joe: Right? And you'll notice we've got 1 of the things we did with our sessions. We have at a strategic level. We have invited speakers. These would be people that we've identified as, as bringing value and we're paying for them to, to speak through ticket and room and cost to the show. Uh, we have vendors as well in a vendor [00:16:00] session which will be clearly marked.

[00:16:02] Joe: Those people are going to talk about their product. 

[00:16:05] Teddy: They 

[00:16:05] Joe: may be talking about value around their product, but don't be surprised that they're going to try and sell you a product. 

[00:16:11] Teddy: Yeah, 

[00:16:12] Joe: and the people that we have there, we believe. We're not endorsing any particular product. What we're saying is go, for example, writing software.

[00:16:24] Joe: There are a multitude of products. They all have strengths and weaknesses [00:16:30] come in. Just if you're in a point where one of the decisions you need to make in your business is what product am I going to use for writing? Go to, go to those sessions with that question in mind of like, what are the things I need help with?

[00:16:47] Joe: Right? So that you're, you're, you're not going there to be sold. You're going there to evaluate, right? You can, you look at three or four of those packages that you think are the right ones. And then you can come away and say, you know what? After that, I think [00:17:00] product B is the best product for me. That's how good business practices and decisions are made.

[00:17:05] Joe: Now you may find out later that you change your mind. Okay. Right. But like use the show as a way not to be sold to, but to be a discerning buyer in those cases. And I think in the, with, with book funnel, you know, there's, that's one of those products that, like I said, you're just like, you're going to have to be using if you want to do effective marketing, like you just laid out, [00:17:30] like it's worth the value just for that.

[00:17:32] Joe: Damon will later have another session where he's going to be talking about it. Direct sales and some really high end stuff that he's doing. That's for more advanced people. So, I, I think that that gets to the core of, like, our programming is thinking through, you know, how can you come in and get, you know, improve skill sets and transformational thinking.

[00:17:58] Teddy: Yeah, definitely, because [00:18:00] that the funnels is a concept in marketing that I think authors maybe are missing because in most other businesses, those funnels are like, it's a standard part of marketing where people are saying you're starting at the funnel and then going down to later on to more purchasing processes.

[00:18:14] Teddy: So I think going to those marketing talks where it is people who understand that outside marketing and bringing it into your authoring brand is one of the best things you can get out of these sort of conferences. 

[00:18:24] Joe: Absolutely, and I think that you know, when you, you look at the variety of ways people are [00:18:30] marketing and the results you get having a funnel system that goes to a free book and nurturing an audience to that, and then evaluating after.

[00:18:45] Joe: You have to build multiple funnels right like it's how do i bring a cold audience in and warm them up so that they not only download that book but read it right like that there's a lot of work that has to be done and you may be [00:19:00] like well the results are dismal one percent. 

[00:19:03] Teddy: You know, 

[00:19:04] Joe: conversion, right?

[00:19:05] Joe: Let's like, that's what a lot of businesses are building billion dollar e commerce businesses and it's right of that. So, like, that them's the numbers, right? Especially when you're just getting started. And then once you get those people in there. You know, what are you doing with the people that have finished that book, which is an even smaller number of that bigger set.

[00:19:25] Joe: Those are people that have really, like, have shown you an enormous amount of intent [00:19:30] about their interest in your product. And too often we get focused on trying to keep filling the top of the funnel, and we don't spend a lot of time on that, okay, these 10 people that came through that funnel. Have I done, have I asked them to buy my book, 

[00:19:47] Teddy: I think 

[00:19:48] Joe: that's the 

[00:19:50] Teddy: ones that are going to give you the money, like in the long one.

[00:19:53] Joe: Yeah, and you know, part of this is having a system that shows you the results, right? Like too [00:20:00] often, I think it gets to be about with funnels and I know there's not a funnel call, but like we're always worrying about the 99 percent that don't convert, not the 1 percent that do. 

[00:20:08] Teddy: Yeah.

[00:20:09] Teddy: Yeah, definitely. It's kind of easier to fill your funnel up than it is to try and get them to give you money in the long run. So yeah, that's why book chronicles is so good. Something that you should check out. Definitely. Yeah. And the last talk that I've got, I was really looking forward to, not that I'm looking forward to others, but this is one I particularly wanted to speak about was Jeanette Strode.

[00:20:25] Teddy: So she's talking about subcontracting because I think [00:20:30] A lot of writers think, Oh, I've got to do everything. I've got to write this. I've got to do my marketing. I've got to do the editing. I've got to create the front cover. And that's like massive overwhelm and people think that subcontracting parts of that whole process to other people can be really expensive, but it doesn't necessarily have to be.

[00:20:45] Teddy: And I'm, I think in her talk, she's going to be looking at. Ways you can do that, like responsibly for your size of business, but also how you can upskill your entire business by picking particular partners to work with. So I'm really excited about her talk as well. [00:21:00] 

[00:21:01] Joe: Yes. So Jeanette and her husband James have been around for quite some time and they've, you know, off of the back of his success as an author, they built up a publishing business as well, which 

[00:21:14] Joe: She runs, right? She's the CEO of it. So, so she's spent a lot of time going through the ups and downs of scale, right? And is understood that [00:21:30] there's as much as there's like, you think, you know, how to, or you want to do it, or you feel that you should be doing all this stuff that. There's kind of 2 factors in this.

[00:21:40] Joe: One is, is it the 4 percent that you should be focusing on your business that gets you the 64 percent of the results, right? Like, that's probably some of the, you know, as your business grows, that has to be re evaluated [00:22:00] because, you know, in their case, they made a really significant decision that Jeanette's running this business.

[00:22:07] Joe: Because the most important thing for James to do is write books. Like that's, that's his superpower. So like, he needs to be in the book, in the writing cave, right? Could he do, run the business and be the CEO too? Sure, sure. But like, then that, that cost is huge. So I think there's that part is like, you evaluating as you move along, what is taking away from where you have the [00:22:30] most impact on the business.

[00:22:32] Joe: And two is, Finding out that, you know what, there's probably people that are way better at it than you, 

[00:22:39] Teddy: right? Like, yeah, I can't repeat that enough, but yeah, 

[00:22:44] Joe: like, do you think you're like, there's a lot of people who can make covers and they're way better cover designers than me.

[00:22:51] Joe: But they're not the best cover designer. There is right. And so, like, I understand having to make trade offs on [00:23:00] time for money. Like, that's called entrepreneurship, right? That's always going to be something. But sometimes, you know, I think. It gets lost that the time trade off is, well, you know what, I'm going to say, I'm going to do some things to save some money and take some time to save up so that I can hire the right guy.

[00:23:19] Teddy: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, that's the reason we created publishing performance in the first place because no one understands how ads work. And especially if Amazon, it's like, it's a complex thing to do. And you shouldn't, you [00:23:30] know, if you can't do it yourself, then you're probably going to lose more money by doing yourself and spend more time learning it.

[00:23:34] Teddy: So. Yeah, and I, you bring up a good point about the product and in something like advertising, which is an important function. And you go and you hear a lot of people say, no, you gotta do ads. you gotta do ads. And it's like, yeah. Okay. So you made the decision. Now that's part of your business.

[00:23:51] Joe: Keeping up with all the changes. Right? Like you're a software developer. You're like, Oh God, they made another change and another change, right? Which means you have to make changes [00:24:00] to your stuff. So that's so hard for a business that's dependent on that function to stay on top of things. Right? So having something that you use to help you or a person to help do that, they can be 100 percent focused on what, you know, Oh yeah, they made these new updates.

[00:24:20] Joe: And now this is why things are working the way they are. Yeah. You know, I know when you're a beginning author, you don't have the money, you don't have the time. So there's [00:24:30] nothing wrong with just saying, you know what, probably the thing I'll do next is just write another book. 

[00:24:36] Teddy: Concentrate on what you're good at, you know, you're a writer, just do that.

[00:24:39] Joe: Yeah, yeah. 

[00:24:41] Teddy: The um, you've been to so many shows, like over the last few years. you said how many you've been to this year? It was like, I can't even remember how many you said, it was 

[00:24:48] Joe: a lot. Yeah, yeah. So we were at CEX. Um, that's the, um, content entrepreneurs in, uh, uh, Cleveland.

[00:24:56] Joe: We're at social media marketing world in San Diego. [00:25:00] So, and then, you know, the two of those were solely to identify. How we can find content or, you know, evaluate how others are running their show like we're there to poach ideas. And we're friends with the guys that run social media marketing world now, because we just made sure that we content like, Hey, we're running a show to like, tell us how you did this because, you know, there [00:25:30] shows much smaller than it was post COVID than pre COVID.

[00:25:35] Joe: But like, it's, it's scaling back. But you know, that was. One of the biggest social media, it's probably still the biggest social media marketing event with some of the most preeminent people there. Yeah. Um, yeah. And it's really entertaining. 

[00:25:48] Teddy: Yeah. So because one of the things I noticed about the show, you've got this download of a kind of like a diary for you to keep posture there of the people you've spoken to, what you want to get out of each day.

[00:25:58] Teddy: And I thought that was really cool. And [00:26:00] I was guessing that you've got that from all your experience of seeing all these different shows, because it's, I've been to quite a few of these shows and you often, You know, you see all this really cool stuff and you become really inspired and you're like, oh, I'm gonna go and 10 X my business, but you then read through your notes and you're kind of difficult to make out what it is that you've done, which I thought it was a really nice idea to split it up.

[00:26:21] Joe: Yeah. So again, this thing is a living, breathing organism that is, you know, adapting to itself. One of the [00:26:30] things that, you know, and this kind of feeds into the EOS thing is like, if our mission is to give you the best life through writing. Right? we can't just give that to you. Like, there's gonna be work that has to be done.

[00:26:42] Joe: You have to figure out what that is. But can we create a system that makes your investment in the show highly effective? Right? So there's the actual time you're at the show, right? And in that time, you need to get information. And you need to [00:27:00] connect with people like this, like the real value comes out of a show is, you know, being able to get exposure to new ideas and to see things that are.

[00:27:10] Joe: The cutting edge in the industry and understand what other people are doing. Right? So you're, you're, you're trying to fill your brain with all that information. Also, it's networking, right? It's connecting with people and it isn't just like, Oh, I need to meet this next big author. It's like finding people that are in your genre that are writing things similar to you and talking about [00:27:30] where you guys want to take the industry, right?

[00:27:33] Joe: Part, what I want to build there isn't like, Hey, just come here and we're going to tell you what the latest trend is. For you to imitate, it's like, Hey, come here and meet people that really care about urban fantasy. And as you talk as urban fantasy authors and urban fantasy readers, fans as well, you kind of see what the neck you create what's next, right?

[00:27:57] Joe: Out of this comes an amazing idea that [00:28:00] changes that genre. I think that's a possibility, but to what we did, you know, we designed this, this notebook, which. You know, how many shows have you been to that's got a notebook or every show, right? 

[00:28:13] Teddy: Yeah. 

[00:28:13] Joe: But what we have in there is a system, right? And so the idea being, score things, rank things.

[00:28:23] Joe: And then at the end of each day, collect that information and reflect on that information [00:28:30] because there's like the other part of this thing that's kind of, because I'm doing a lot of research onhow the brain works and productivity and the fact that you go just through that process unconsciously, you're setting yourself up.

[00:28:44] Joe: For your brain to kind of rewire itself and bring these ideas together if you do get any sleep,

[00:28:52] Joe: but like process of just writing that out sets things up for you to do things unconsciously by the end of the week, you [00:29:00] should be able to take that information that we've helped you collect and gone through at these end of day sessions to force rank 1 to 3 items.

[00:29:13] Joe: And my goal is for everyone to go away with one high impact, low effort item, you know, we've got over a thousand tickets sold. If those thousand people come away with that one thing and they go do that. [00:29:30] That's going to fundamentally change the industry forever, and it's going to make their businesses more successful 

[00:29:34] Joe: Will everyone do that? No, but if we see 25 percent of people do that or 50 percent this show is going to be the most effective show on the planet. And I hope people understand that. Like, we're thinking about this thing this way, right? That's why we built the community. We didn't build a community just so that you guys have a place to go post things and ask questions.

[00:29:58] Joe: I mean, that's part of it. It's also so that you [00:30:00] can find people to come away with that are accountability partners. And one of the last pages here is for you to get your accountability partner to sign the book and you exchange information, right? 

[00:30:12] Joe: I don't know about you, but for me, 

[00:30:13] Joe: When I know somebody else is counting on me. I produce a lot more. 

[00:30:18] Teddy: Yeah, 

[00:30:19] Joe: I can always rationalize my own But when I'm like, oh Teddy's expecting me to have this stuff done. I don't want to look bad in Teddy's eyes I really respect Teddy. [00:30:30] He's helped me out and I you know, at least I owe him to do these things And then you're thinking the same way as I don't want to disappoint Joe like yeah, we signed it that's those systems like Like that's really simple stuff that we learned in the buddy system, right?

[00:30:46] Joe: Like that's from Boy Scouts. It's not. Yeah, 

[00:30:53] Teddy: that's why I thought that I went through that download and I was like, this is amazing becauseyou do get a notebook with every conference. But you don't [00:31:00] get it laid out in a way to get the most out of those conferences. And it kind of leads into one of my top three tips that I thought we could come to a close with.

[00:31:07] Teddy: I think when you're taking notes, that accountability thing is great because the most important thing is to try and make a note about the people you meet and what you talked about so that then when you do follow up with them later on, you've got a reminder of that conversation.

[00:31:20] Teddy: And again, it's that accountability. What did you agree? follow up with them and say you're going to do that. the second one is. Try and do the nighttime stuff because you're going to be [00:31:30] tired. But that is where some of the fun conversations happen you can have a good laugh, but any conference is a good chance for you to meet people in a slightly less formal way.

[00:31:37] Teddy: You know, maybe you've got a beer or you're at a restaurant or you're in one of the more communal areas. Don't overtire yourself, but try and meet the people in the more informal spaces. And the last one is just to try and speak to as many people as you can, because you never know where those like serendipitous moments going to come from, like, obviously the talks are really important, but it's them speaking to people afterwards.

[00:31:59] Teddy: Like [00:32:00] if you'd like to show, go and speak to the guy that was talking because he'll be around somewhere and say, Hey, I like, I like this aspect. You never know where that's going to go. Yeah, I 

[00:32:07] Joe: think that those things are super important. Around that, I would add how do you prepare for the show?

[00:32:16] Teddy: Yeah, even, yeah. Um, 

[00:32:19] Joe: because of some of the stuff you said, like, go to bed early and take care of yourself before the show. Get ready, like, this is like preparing for an event, right? It's [00:32:30] like, so expect that you're not going to get great sleep while you're there, right? Your time zones are going to be off, in your case, a lot.

[00:32:37] Joe: You're going to be sleeping in an uncomfortable bad, you know, it's in a hotel that purposely is designed to make sure that you never know what time of day it is. So you but you're going to, you're, you're going, the fear of missing out will be so high that you'll, you'll, you'll, it'll be detrimental to important things like sleep.

[00:32:57] Joe: So you prep for that. Right. And be prepared [00:33:00] afterwards to catch up on that stuff. Um, yeah, we sent out to everybody kind of a pre planner to think about your intent because you won't get the physical notebook until you're there. So thinking through, like, what are my objectives at the show? And you've touched on, like, the key things, but it's like, come on, you know, if you're wherever you're at, think about where you're at and what you need to get to whatever the next big [00:33:30] milestone is.

[00:33:30] Joe: So if you haven't published. That when you go back next year that you're published, if you're not profitable right now, what it needs to get to where the business is generating its own cash flow. If you're at a point where you're having success and you're just trying to figure out your business, like, have intent and think through what is important to me as the shareholder and the person that does all the work, what's important for me to have my business.

[00:33:57] Joe: Do for me, not the other way around, right? [00:34:00] And then go with that intent. And so your questions are all infused with those thoughts so that you're getting the most out of the show, right? When you start writing things in that notebook, it's already kind of pre prepared, but I would say that anybody that hasn't been to a show like this, if you can come away with a peer group and some mentors.

[00:34:24] Joe: That's probably going to be the thing that gets you the furthest in the industry, even more than [00:34:30] the information that you hear. It's having a cohort of people that are where you're at that have the same business intent. Okay, there's going to be people that come to the show. That aren't necessarily as serious about where they want their business to go I'm not trying to make a value judgment there people are different, right?

[00:34:54] Joe: But when you can find those people that are like, yes, let's do this together, that becomes such a [00:35:00] powerful. Mechanism for your success and then to have some people that you trust that you're prepared to hear the harsh stuff from that, you're going to say, you know, you respect where they've gotten now understand this.

[00:35:11] Joe: If you're going to ask them for help and advice better be prepared to do what they say. I think that's probably why more high success authors tend to get tired of new authors because they'll come up and [00:35:30] say, what do I need to do to get what you got? And they lay it out and they're like, oh, that seems like too much work.

[00:35:35] Joe: Yeah, I'm not sure if I really want to do that. And it's like, okay, well, you asked me how I did it and this is how I think I did it. so I don't have another option for you. And I can't come up with the one that fits you. That's going to work. You said my results, my way, like this is how I did it.

[00:35:54] Teddy: And some of the authors speaking are so successful. there's going to be so many bits that you can get from listening to some hit speak on stage, but also chatting [00:36:00] to them afterwards. These conferences are a great chance to get to know people and make friends and get really good insights from people who have been there and done it.

[00:36:07] Teddy: So that's why I'm so excited about coming. 

[00:36:09] Joe: we've got a diverse group of authors in the sense of ways that they've had success, levels of success, right? too often we get wrapped around the axle of like, this person's a seven figure author. they are, but a lot of the things 

[00:36:25] Joe: That have happened for their success may not necessarily be reproducible [00:36:30] by you. what is the stuff you can take away from them? a lot of times it's around commitment to the business, their practices. There's also people you should be listening to that maybe are just a little bit ahead of you that are trying some other stuff they haven't attained the seven figure, status or whatever it may be that we attribute as shorthand for success, but they're doing the work today.

[00:36:53] Joe: too often we think about the idea of The port of call, right? We're trying to get to that. we're sailing [00:37:00] the ship to that port in the Bahamas. one day we'll get there, right? That's our destination. In the meantime, we're on the ship. We're changing the sails.

[00:37:10] Joe: We're checking the compass. We're following the court like that is getting there. Right. And if you don't do that stuff, you never get to the end destination. And that's the part that we're trying to help people see is like, okay, well, you know, maybe the end destination isn't seven figures, right? There are some people that I think should be listened to that [00:37:30] are running businesses that are maybe just doing 180, 000, right?

[00:37:35] Joe: But they're immensely profitable and they perfectly fit that person's lifestyle. Right. They've built a business that serves them making seven figures is not their goal. the goal that they've hit is their goal. And it's like they're crushing it. But too often we get sucked into this prestige and status.

[00:37:57] Joe: And that's not the [00:38:00] reality of this industry is, is that those, those are the outliers. 

[00:38:05] Teddy: Great. Well, I mean, I'm really looking forward to coming to show you what, where's the best place for people to get in contact if they want to get tickets still. 

[00:38:14] Joe: Yeah, so you're 39 days, one hour, seven minutes away from the show opening up you would go to author nation dot live and get your ticket.

[00:38:26] Joe: And then, you know, the show is in Las Vegas [00:38:30] Monday, November 11th is our industry day. Then we go into three days of author programming, and then the last day is our rave event, which is all about readers. We bring readers in on Thursday evening through Friday evening to create a environment full of people that like books and listening to books.

[00:38:51] Joe: And hopefully you've got a table there that you can sell them some books. 

[00:38:56] Teddy: Really good. I'm really excited. Before to catch up with you when we get [00:39:00] there. 

[00:39:00] Joe: well, you know, What we've done with the space is we've increased the area where people can hang out and we've rented furniture.

[00:39:11] Joe: So there's going to be more hangout space. In our space that you don't necessarily have to be in the casino and there'll be bars open in the evening. The whole idea is to facilitate that stuff you're talking about I know for a fact, some of my most successful clients that I work with on the business coaching [00:39:30] side, their big breakout came from conversations that happened after hours.

[00:39:37] Joe: Between one or two people, and maybe they decided to co write together, or that person gave them that tidbit of information that was what changed things. that's the magic, right? That only happens like we facilitate this whole thing and then people show up and make the magic, right?

[00:39:56] Joe: It's kind of like going to a concert. You need the band, [00:40:00] but if the audience isn't engaged, it's not the same show. So when we bring this all together and we just let this experience play outI guarantee there's going to be somebody there that gets that million dollar trigger.

[00:40:15] Teddy: Well, thank you so much for spending some time to chat to me today about the show and just some tips generally for going to these shows. Yeah, head to auth nation to get your tickets if you still haven't got one yet. And if you are coming, drop me a message and I'll see you there.

[00:40:27] Teddy: But thanks for joining us Joe and I'll speak soon. [00:40:30] 

[00:40:30] Joe: Thanks again, Teddy.