The Publishing Performance Show

Mike Capuzzi - The Magic of Short Books: Turning Expertise into Effective Marketing

• Teddy Smith • Episode 69

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Mike Capuzzi is the founder of Byte Size Books and creator of the "shook" concept – short, helpful books designed as powerful marketing tools for business owners. With almost 30 years in the marketing industry, Mike has developed a specialized approach to help entrepreneurs, professionals, and local business owners establish authority and generate leads through concise, impactful books typically around 100 pages in length.


In this episode:

  • The concept and benefits of "shooks" (short helpful books)
  • Why shorter books are often more effective than 300-page tomes
  • How local businesses can use books as marketing tools
  • The power of books to establish expertise and authority
  • Strategic distribution methods for maximum impact
  • Success stories from Mike's clients
  • How even local businesses can benefit from Amazon presence
  • The process of creating a shook with Mike's guidance


Resources mentioned:

  • The Magic of Short Books (Mike's foundational shook)
  • Byte Size Books publishing services
  • MikeCapuzzi.com/magic (Free resources for listeners)


Book Recommendations:

  • More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us by Steve Leder


Connect with Mike Capuzzi:


Connect with Teddy Smith:

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[00:00:00] Teddy Smith: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the publishing performance show. I'm really happy today to be joined by Mike Capuzzi, who is the founder of Bite Size Books. So thank you, Mike, for joining us. 

[00:00:15] Mike Capuzzi: Hey, Teddy. looking forward to this and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you again. 

[00:00:19] Teddy Smith: Great. No, I really appreciate that.

[00:00:21] Teddy Smith: I was, I was on your podcast a few weeks ago and it was, One of the more fun ones I've actually been on. So thanks for having me on. 

[00:00:26] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah, it's actually airing this week in a couple of days. 

[00:00:30] Teddy Smith: Okay, great. Well, I'll be sure to put it out there. So we're going to hear it was a really good conversation cause we were actually, we started, the reason why I started talking to you was because we were talking about Shooks, which are like short books and it's kind of a concept you invented for your business.

[00:00:43] Teddy Smith: So why don't you tell me a bit about Shooks and exactly what they're used for? 

[00:00:48] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. So one step back, I've been in the marketing game business game for almost 30 years, Teddy. And as you and I both know, one of the key parts of any business and specifically with marketing is really to be able to differentiate yourself and articulate how you're different, why you're better, et cetera.

[00:01:05] Mike Capuzzi: I've been helping clients publish books for over 15 years, but we really formalized our process and really started focusing on it pretty much 100 percent of the time back around 2018 and I was really one of my unique niches is being able to really. Make complex things simple and I started doing that with our clients books and I said, Hey, you know, we, instead of writing this long 300 page book, it's better to write maybe three, 100 page books, shorter books that are easier to read, faster to read.

[00:01:40] Mike Capuzzi: And the concept I came up with was a short, helpful book short. It's helpful. It's a book and we call those a shook. That's what a shook stands for short, helpful book. It's our brand, if you will. And it's more than just a name, Teddy, as we'll talk about. It is a literally a, from the front cover to the back cover and everything in between a recipe slash formula for creating a powerful sales tool and lead generation asset for your business.

[00:02:12] Teddy Smith: Right? So you, you, you think of them specifically as lead generation tools rather than as. useful books on their own rights? 

[00:02:20] Mike Capuzzi: Well, it's one of the key reasons why you want to create. So one of the differentiators, Teddy, with people we work with, so we're only talking nonfiction. We're typically talking business focused.

[00:02:31] Mike Capuzzi: So if it's a, a doctor who's written a book on, you know, how to deal with osteoporosis, for example, which we just did last year. It's a book about. You know, helping people with osteoporosis, but also connecting the readers to the author's services for alleviating issues with osteoporosis, for example.

[00:02:55] Mike Capuzzi: So yeah, I mean, it's meant to be a helpful tool for consumers. That's the helpful part of a shook, but for the author, rather than just putting a book out there, putting it up on Amazon and, you know, maybe making a dollar when a book sales, which is not what we're worried about here. It's about, you know, getting people connected with you, the author, learning about your products and services.

[00:03:18] Mike Capuzzi: Opting in, et cetera. So yeah, it's a sales tool, differentiate, point of differentiation for the author. But yes, most importantly, it's a well written, typically about a 100 page book for consumers. This sounds like it's kind of a bit like your calling card. It's a bit like, this is me, this is me in a book.

[00:03:38] Teddy Smith: Here's what I'm about. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, books have been used for well over 100 years as a marketing device as a way to help people with information on a specific topic. And yeah, oftentimes I'll say it's like a business card on steroids. It's just. You know, again, let's just going back to a doctor with a, you know, let, let's say a chiropractor, it's a little easier to say, you know, there's two chiropractors in a, in a particular community, a particular town, one has written a book on how to alleviate back pain.

[00:04:09] Mike Capuzzi: One has never written a book. When someone's researching, if everything else remains the same. Oftentimes the person who has written the book is perceived as an expert, as an authority, and, you know, oftentimes if it comes down to choice A or choice B, people will tend to choose the book author, because we still believe in the power of books, and we still, most people, elevate people who have written a book.

[00:04:36] Teddy Smith: Yeah, yeah, I've heard that a lot on this podcast, people have said. You know, it's the best way to get things like speaking gigs or to get in front of clients because people trust you more if you've got that book, because you've got your ideas, you put them down on paper and people can start to see what it is you're about.

[00:04:51] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah, and I'll caveat it again, because a lot of people who do what I do, who say, well, it's not that important if no one reads it, you know, you just want to have something to hand out, etc. I don't subscribe to that notion. It does have to be a quality book. It doesn't have to be a 300 page book. It doesn't have to be a book that takes you a year to write, but it, you know, it has to be a quality book.

[00:05:11] Mike Capuzzi: And it look, it has to look like a quality book. Why do you think that it doesn't have to be a 300 page book? Why is a short book okay? Because it sounds like it might be a bit thin on the details, but You explain it. Yeah. Well, I mean, listen, they're, they're real. Here's one of my shooks, the magic of short books.

[00:05:26] Mike Capuzzi: I mean, it's a real book. It's, it's, you know, yes, it's thinner, but listen, I'm sure, and this is a question I'm not going to ask you, but I'm sure if I were to ask you, I'd say, Teddy, you probably don't have a ton of free time. You know, if you have a family and you've got job responsibilities, I mean, how many times have you started a book?

[00:05:43] Mike Capuzzi: You know, your typical, I don't have one next to me business book, that's two, 300 pages. You start it and you never finish it. And there's many reasons why. Maybe your interest wanes, maybe the author just keeps repeating themselves, which a lot of them do. So why? Why make it so long that people aren't finishing making it tedious to read?

[00:06:06] Mike Capuzzi: And as I've said earlier, I would rather have Three, 100 page books versus one, 300 page books. So for example, cause I know, you know, a bit about your business, cause I had you on my podcast, you offer a tremendous service to book authors who are on Amazon. Right. Yeah. I have a book. It's right down here next to me, which I bought recently.

[00:06:26] Mike Capuzzi: It's a big, thick. How to do Amazon ads for authors book. Guess what? I started it, got into it. I think I may have mentioned this to you before. I'm like, Oh my gosh, there's no way I'm going to finish this damn thing. Right? Yeah. In your case, you could write one or two or three shorter books. You know, how to get started with Amazon KDP could be the first book.

[00:06:49] Mike Capuzzi: The second book could be why Amazon ads are important, right? And then the third book could be like advanced strategies for Amazon ads. So the consumer can start where he or she is. And it makes a much better marketing message for you because now you have three books to market, but it makes it a lot easier for the consumer to say, you know what, that's the book I want to start reading.

[00:07:09] Mike Capuzzi: And because it's. a hundred pages, 15, 000 words. They can typically read it in about an hour or two, which is a very big promise of a shook. 

[00:07:20] Teddy Smith: Yeah. A lot of books you read now, especially self help books, mostly it's stories and padding and a load of rubbish that you don't necessarily want to hear. So. I'm totally on board with the idea of reading a book in two hours just to get the main points of it and it's the reason why people read things like Blinkist really short versions of 

[00:07:38] Mike Capuzzi: books.

[00:07:39] Mike Capuzzi: It's really funny you mention that, Teddy, because we all, everyone preaches about the importance of storytelling and connecting with readers. I get that. I don't, that's not, we're not saying just write a, you know, sterile, Encyclopedia like book. That's not worth saying, but you're right when typically when they're traditionally published books.

[00:08:00] Mike Capuzzi: Now, these are our books are published through our company. It's a hybrid publisher, but for all intents and purposes, it's more closer to self publishing than a traditional publisher, but a traditional publisher You know, that typically takes a year or two to get done. They have so much overreach and so much control of your book.

[00:08:18] Mike Capuzzi: If they don't like the title you suggest, they're going to rewrite that title, for example. But they also have a specific kind of book they want to publish, which typically has a specific page count. So yeah, they're, they're forcing you to have this filler, which in my opinion, oftentimes is not necessary.

[00:08:36] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. Now you said at the beginning that this is mostly for business books or is there any kind of business that this would work for do you think? Or is it more for that kind of consulting where you want to bring people on board? 

[00:08:49] Mike Capuzzi: We have dealt with, you name it, Teddy, we've dealt with it. Or, you know, work with that people.

[00:08:54] Mike Capuzzi: So. two thirds of our clients are local business owners, the local dentist, the local chiropractor, the local lawyer, attorney, they have, they have a specialty that they want to explain, which is a book is good to help do with that with and they want to be what I call five mile famous, https: otter.

[00:09:14] Mike Capuzzi: ai Geographic area to be this expert on this topic. So they'll publish a short, helpful book about that. A third of our clients are people like you and me that have more of a worldwide audience. So yeah, it's, it's anything that a device like a book could be useful in explaining. So consultants, coaches, definitely.

[00:09:39] Mike Capuzzi: I still haven't worked with a pizza shop owner, but I'm saying someday I'm going to work with a pizza shop owner to write a shook about. His famous grandmother's, you know, recipes and he puts it in a little short helpful book that kind of have fun with. So, um, but yeah, just about any business owner, even and, and corporate executive too, by the way, corporate executives could benefit from a, a short, helpful book 

[00:10:01] Teddy Smith: that surprises me so much that you said it was two thirds local businesses.

[00:10:04] Teddy Smith: 'cause I was expecting you to say, oh, it's 90%, you know, online coaches who have got this particular skill of teaching my back. 

[00:10:11] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. My background for 20 years now has been focusing on. Primarily local businesses. 

[00:10:18] Teddy Smith: Well, okay. 

[00:10:19] Mike Capuzzi: I have a whole separate company. I know you said you talked to people, have multiple, we're not going to talk about that company, but I have a company.

[00:10:25] Mike Capuzzi: All we deal with, Teddy, are local mattress retailers, local independent retailers who sell mattresses and bedding products. And we have a very niche specific service we offer them, which, by the way I'll just show you on screen. Oh, do I not have them right here? Oh, here they are. Got a Shook. You know, we have, we have even shorter Shooks, Terry, called little pocket Shooks.

[00:10:48] Mike Capuzzi: But look, check this out. Pocket Shook. Here's how to choose the perfect sheets. How to choose a perfect pillow. How to choose the perfect mattress. How to choose the perfect bed base. These are, so here's a standard shook. Here's a, a public or a S financial planner. And then we have our, you know, our little pocket shooks.

[00:11:06] Mike Capuzzi: Which are even smaller and even, you know, less words, but mattress retailers are using those little pocket chooks to sell more mattresses. Yeah. Amazing. I just want to, before I spoke to you before this episode, I always thought that short books were just short books, but now every time I see a short book, I noticed that they are often like leading on something else.

[00:11:26] Teddy Smith: So it is obviously a big concept you're talking about. And I love this idea of it being for local businesses, because from, yeah, I just, I just definitely assumed that this would all be, you know, consultants who are trying to boost their profile, but it's actually more about local businesses as well, trying to gain recognition in the local area and prove their expertise.

[00:11:46] Mike Capuzzi: Listen, most of us want many, many folks want to write a book. They don't know how to, they don't know where to start. They don't think they're a great enough writer, all that kind of thing. And a short book is a great first book to write, right? Just get it done, learn from that process. I am not saying a traditionally published book is not an important thing.

[00:12:07] Mike Capuzzi: I'm not saying a longer book is, they all have their place, but for the kind of things that we're serving our clients with, yeah, this is all we do. 

[00:12:16] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Amazing. So I think you kind of just touched on it just then, but for a lot of people who maybe are a bit nervous about writing a book, what's that writing process look like?

[00:12:26] Teddy Smith: Because I'm guessing they would need to write this all themselves or is it something that they would be able to outsource? 

[00:12:32] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah, well, it could be all the above. Even potentially AI, if that's something you're really into. But when they work with us, Teddy, it is a step by step process. I literally have a very specific, you know, process system to do this.

[00:12:47] Mike Capuzzi: They work, every one of our clients works directly with me. I'm at the point in my life where I enjoy that. So I'm not afraid of that. So I work directly with all our clients and we, I walk them through everything from, you know, Thinking about why you're doing this, what your goal is, what your goal for your reader is all the way through to the specific content.

[00:13:06] Mike Capuzzi: Now I said earlier, Typical shook is about 12 to 15, 000 words, whereas a typical business book is 75, 100, 000 words. So it's a lot quicker, a lot faster to write. And then with our formula, where I tell you, okay, here are the chapters I believe you should have based on what your goals are and what your topic is.

[00:13:27] Mike Capuzzi: you're not sitting there with a blank screen thinking, what am I supposed to write? You know, specifically what you're writing. Right. Okay. So with these books, do you generally get the topic quite niched down? You're not talking about broad things, obviously, because you've only got this short amount of space.

[00:13:42] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. Yeah, it typically is. And again, if you have a broad topic, it's oftentimes better to, like I said, have multiple. I have a client, an attorney here in the United States. She's an elder law attorney. I'm looking at her shrugs over here. She's got four or five of them now. Right. She could have written just one, but now because she's got different areas of practice in her law firm, she has a shook for each area.

[00:14:06] Mike Capuzzi: And you know, that's, that's definitely the better way to do it. 

[00:14:10] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Cause you could have lots, you've got five books, which you can show on your website. It really shows your authority. I'm guessing in that particular right. And 

[00:14:19] Mike Capuzzi: And if it's not, so our local, our local clients are not on Amazon typically because they don't need to be right, but for clients who are on Amazon and are benefiting from the service that you offer, for example, having multiple books up on Amazon with a specific reader intention, with a specific targeted reader, with a specific promise of that book to that reader, as you well know, having different ad campaigns for those different readers and those different promises is very powerful.

[00:14:47] Mike Capuzzi: Well, 

[00:14:47] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. So how do, what's the distribution look like for these books? Are they mostly on Amazon for people to buy or do you suggest a different way of getting them out to customers? 

[00:14:57] Mike Capuzzi: For the, for our Amazon, I mean, yeah, so we are, we are, we only offer two packages, local business owner and global business owner.

[00:15:03] Mike Capuzzi: And if they're global, they're on Amazon. And then they're also on, you know, the other platforms that are out there. But, Amazon's the big 800 pound gorilla. So. You've got to be on Amazon, but yes, and then the local business owners, they typically are doing their own distribution. They're in their offices.

[00:15:19] Mike Capuzzi: They're handing them out at events. They're speaking at events. They're on podcasts. You know, with your permission at the end of this, I'm going to give away 3 shooks to your listeners. But yeah, there's, there's all different ways. So, yeah. Cool. but yeah, obviously our global authors are on Amazon. 

[00:15:36] Teddy Smith: So if they are on Amazon, do you have any specific design elements that you try to incorporate into the book in order to make them stand out?

[00:15:43] Teddy Smith: For example, because I know that Amazon's, he got all these books line by line, especially with some of the topics. It might be quite broad. how do you, how do you 

[00:15:50] Mike Capuzzi: It's a great, it's a great question. And there's many layers to that onion in that, I mean, first of all, you want a professional design, right?

[00:15:59] Mike Capuzzi: So for example, I showed this earlier. So this is the magic of short books. I published this in 2018. It's been updated several times. So the original cover, so we tweak it. So the only purpose of this insider baseball is this is a lead gen device for me up on Amazon. I've gotten clients because they've read this book and they've reached out to me.

[00:16:18] Mike Capuzzi: And it's, you know, just the graphic alone, the magic of short books when you see it's very clean, simple, there's not a lot of, it's not design heavy, like that's important. So yes, the book cover is very important. You know, people need to be able to get it. The book title, the book subtitle is very important.

[00:16:37] Mike Capuzzi: These are all You know, things that we work on to make sure that when someone's scrolling through or pops up as an ad that our intended target reader gets it and wants it right. So, yeah, so is that front cover is really important, I think, and people often think, Oh, you know, books should be judged by its cover, but actually they always is judged, but judged by its cover.

[00:17:02] Teddy Smith: And so it's really important to make sure you've got those elements correct. 

[00:17:06] Mike Capuzzi: And we have, I mean, some of our clients, they want more complicated covers. But you know, it really depends on what the goal of the author is and it's determining what is the right feel. Again, we approach everything from a marketing and sales angle for the business owner slash author.

[00:17:25] Mike Capuzzi: It's not about necessarily aesthetics while that's important. It's about grabbing attention and getting conversion. 

[00:17:34] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. So if people who want to start making shooks, what are the steps they need to get started? is it just a case of creating an outline and just going with it or is there a particular process you think they should be following?

[00:17:47] Mike Capuzzi: Oh, yeah. The first thing is to read the magic short books, which I'm going to give to your listeners for free. They're going to get that whole book for free. Read it, listen, if you want to work with us, that's awesome, but I give you a step by step formula in that book. I tell you what should go where and you just literally just follow that.

[00:18:05] Mike Capuzzi: I think the very first step, Teddy, is trying to really understand what it is you're trying to accomplish. If it's just, hey, I want to write a book, that's great. but we want to go deeper. It's, I want to write a book for a specific reader to help with a specific problem or help them achieve a specific goal, and I can connect my business, my products, my services to that.

[00:18:25] Mike Capuzzi: If there's a person that's thinking that way, then, you know, our, our system is a perfect match. But it's, it's really about how can I help people with a short book and what do I want to accomplish in my business with that short book? That's, to me, the very first step. 

[00:18:42] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely 

[00:18:43] Mike Capuzzi: be being clear on that.

[00:18:45] Teddy Smith: Yeah. And when, when you're talking about getting out to the customers, I know that you've got the books on Amazon, but you mentioned before, sometimes you give the books away for free in order to make them into lead magnets. 

[00:18:54] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. 

[00:18:54] Teddy Smith: Do you, have you ever followed that approach where you give the book away for free, for example, through a Facebook ad or something in order to, to drive people to your website?

[00:19:02] Teddy Smith: Or is that not approach you see working? 

[00:19:04] Mike Capuzzi: Oh, no, no, definitely, definitely. Yeah. I mean, fun. We have different funnels. Yeah. You know, the, the traditional book funnels. You know, buy my book, get free shipping or get, you know, get a free book. Pay for shipping is a very, you know, two very traditional types of book funnels.

[00:19:20] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. I mean, social media, print ads direct mail, old school printed, you know, physical, they get a postcard in the mail you know, prospect list, you know, great for local business owners. Hey, announcing my new book on, you know, how to fix your back, et cetera. you know, every traditional marketing media can be used to promote your book online, offline.

[00:19:45] Mike Capuzzi: You know, when I hear one of the most interesting things, Ted, you'll appreciate this. This now is local business owners. So, you know, local business owners often sort of like, Oh my gosh, I don't have the. You know, the flexibility of an online business, they can be all over. They can be cheaper. Yeah.

[00:20:00] Mike Capuzzi: You know, all that stuff. Well, local business owners have a lot of distinct advantages over more of an online business. And one of them, and this is a really powerful strategy. I've written about it. Most of our local clients are doing it is again, in your community, whatever that might be, whether it's five miles or 15 miles, whatever.

[00:20:24] Mike Capuzzi: You identify other businesses that you either have a relationship with, maybe a networking group, or just, you know that your target reader is in those businesses. So, let's talk about our chiropractor, for example. He may have a friend who's a dentist, a friend who owns a gym, a friend that you know, is a physician.

[00:20:46] Mike Capuzzi: Is to display the books, the shucks in those places of business or display a lead generation card to, to get a free copy of those books. So either like a postcard thing, which I don't have one near my, we have them, we call them promo cards. It's a book promo card. It's a little card that you're, you know, you're in another office.

[00:21:05] Mike Capuzzi: You see it, you have free book available. You take the card with you, you go back home, go back to your business. There's a URL, a QR code to go get the free book, or you actually. Put the book in. If you have the budget, you actually put the books in these different places of business. So it's Legion with OPC, other people's customers, right?

[00:21:25] Mike Capuzzi: You, you and I both know what, which is what Amazon is, right? That's why Amazon is so powerful. People are there to buy and they're searching their Amazon customers by using Amazon ads, for example, you're trying to leverage. Amazon's customers. This is no different scale, of course, but very, very powerful.

[00:21:44] Mike Capuzzi: Very powerful. 

[00:21:45] Teddy Smith: Of course it sounds like it sounds like the process of working with you rather than doing it yourself is it's more of an end to end process. So it's not just helping people write the book. It's more about that strategy for distributing it out, getting that design. Right. And is that about right?

[00:21:58] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah, I mean, Teddy, I say this ad nauseum, honestly, writing and publishing the book, or let's just call it creating, because not everyone's writing, they may be speaking it, they may be using AI, whatever creating and publishing the book is, is truly the easiest part of the equation. I know that may sound counterintuitive, but it is.

[00:22:18] Mike Capuzzi: The more challenging is the consistent and persistent use of that book, because there are story after story of people publishing books and never using them because the energy is waned. That's why, again, people like you exist with these services to get books promoted on Amazon, for example. But yeah, it's really about the marketing and promotion of the book.

[00:22:38] Mike Capuzzi: That's a, is the key, the key part. 

[00:22:41] Teddy Smith: Yeah, that is the hardest bit. And it's definitely different across. Local and of course, Amazon, like on Amazon, you're targeting more or less everybody who, if they're searching for a bad back, you're told to people who are searching for a bad back on Amazon. If you're people in Yorkshire, where I am, and they search for bad back Yorkshire, you have more of an idea that they're searching for a specific place to go and get it fixed.

[00:23:01] Teddy Smith: So it's a, it's a different type of targeting. That's really interesting. I, I suppose I hadn't even thought about it as the local book element. So I think that's a really interesting point to take away from. with books you've created, I mean, for any of your clients, do you have any good examples of books which have done really well and have led to a good success for those clients?

[00:23:20] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah, I wouldn't be business if we didn't. It's not as easy to get, you know, once a person gets done a book and then they've gone through the process, which, you know, takes a couple months typically. You know, we all, we're always like pinging our clients, like, Hey, give us stories, let us know what's going on.

[00:23:37] Mike Capuzzi: But it really depends on the individual. So for example, there's a client of ours, she has a PhD. She's written a book on weight loss. I mean, she, she's built a big business to begin with, but it's a local business, but it's also a global, it's a, not a global, it's a local business, local offices around the country in the United States.

[00:23:55] Mike Capuzzi: But also a heavy online presence, and we did a very traditional book launch for her with her shook. I mean, she sold like 3000 shifts in the first week, but and that's not typical, at least with our clients. That's that's a lot of books. I mean, it's not a lot of your some world famous author, but she's she's not world famous.

[00:24:14] Mike Capuzzi: She's known in her niche, but she had a lot of partners promoting and setter. But She's now sold, you know, gobs and, you know, there are, all those books are leading back to her business. So they're all little soldiers out there. I mentioned the what we call the strategic partner process. That's where you're putting your books out there.

[00:24:38] Mike Capuzzi: I worked with a, he was a long term client of ours. He was a dentist in Michigan. Unfortunately, he's passed away now, but unexpectedly a couple of years ago, but regardless. we got a shook done and he was a holistic dentist, meaning he didn't use mercury or fluoride. It was a very natural pathway for dentistry.

[00:24:58] Mike Capuzzi: So we wrote a shook. I have it over here. One of his key parts of his business was removing mercury. Mercury in your amalgams, your cavity fillings is a very bad thing. Mercury is a toxic, you know, in your mouth, it's not a good thing. So anyone listening who has amalgams, those silver fillings, there's mercury, and there's a good reason why you want to have those removed.

[00:25:21] Mike Capuzzi: Anyway, he published a shook about The dangers of mercury in your mouth is the shook title was are your teeth toxic and then what he did, Teddy, you know, people who want to remove mercury from their mouth, which, by the way, I had known about this because I had worked with another dentist years ago. I had all my amalgams removed 20 years ago.

[00:25:44] Mike Capuzzi: People who want that tend to be, you know, more focused on fitness and health and wellness. So he put his shooks out at yoga studios, natural food stores, chiropractor's offices to give out a free copy. In the first 30 days, I remember him telling me this, first 30 days, he had three new patients that found him because they got his shook and became, you know, a patient of it, you know, and in his case, that's patients worth a couple thousand bucks.

[00:26:12] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. So, yeah, it's a local example. And then, you know, the other example was, you know, more global. 

[00:26:17] Teddy Smith: Yeah, definitely. And that shows just working with someone who's got that experience of different areas of marketing and how to distribute that book makes quite a big difference because, you know, even me, and I'm quite into books, I haven't even thought about this going to local and you can see how working with you would get those, that distribution out a bit further and you'd have more understanding about where it should be given to.

[00:26:36] Mike Capuzzi: And by the way, this is another aside and you and I probably could talk for hours. I know that's not the purpose, but we have published local authors on Amazon. So here's another quick example of them. Get your head spinning. This was an idea I had, which I never really got off the ground. Other than one shook, I was trying to make this a big thing.

[00:26:54] Mike Capuzzi: And then. I realized it was maybe going to be more challenging than I wanted, but I was looking to publish I was looking to identify a local expert in a local, in an area where people wanted to move to here in the United States, for example. So these are, you know, typically high end places where people want to either buy like a vacation home to or move to.

[00:27:18] Mike Capuzzi: So we published the first book. It was a book about Whitefish, Montana, which is a beautiful ski area here in the United States. It's a expensive area. And he was a local real estate agent. He had a local business, but we published it on Amazon because we know there are people who are searching, moving to Montana or moving out west, you know, or moving to the Rocky mountains.

[00:27:44] Mike Capuzzi: So there is this also this sort of hybrid thing where a local bit. So had we known about you and your service, we could have been promoting his book using Amazon ads, which is critically important to get even more readers. 

[00:27:58] Teddy Smith: Yeah, that is, that's such a good story. Cause I haven't. Yeah. I mean, it's so good because you've got these people who are maybe searching for something that is wide, widely searched for, but actually they're focusing on a local service.

[00:28:09] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That has got my head spinning. Got a lot to think about with that one because lots of people ask me about these sort of books all the time. 

[00:28:16] Mike Capuzzi: I mean, there are, I know, for example, I know another dentist. He had a national audience. People would, he would had, he was, he was kind of like a, not famous, but he was well known.

[00:28:26] Mike Capuzzi: Right. And. People would fly into Virginia where he was located, you know, he had patients in Michigan and, you know, Arizona, for example, that would fly, you know, they had the money, they wanted to work with him, they would fly into Virginia. And while he's a local business owner, he could, and he, he wasn't a client of ours.

[00:28:47] Mike Capuzzi: He was more of a friend, but he had books on Amazon too. So yeah, there is that there is a way for local business owners, you know, to leverage Amazon. 

[00:28:55] Teddy Smith: Brilliant. Yeah. I mean, that's, yeah, that's a really great. Thing to talk about, I think. I've really enjoyed that. So let's, you mentioned you wanted to give away some books to the audience.

[00:29:04] Teddy Smith: So why don't you tell us a bit about how they can get hold of those? Okay. Well, it's three 

[00:29:09] Mike Capuzzi: shooks, Teddy. Um, so one, a little pocket shook for magic of gratitude. This is a little gift shook. I use when a new client comes on board. It's just, you know, a little book of quotes that I like. The magic of working together and then the magnet short books, which was the one I published my first one.

[00:29:26] Mike Capuzzi: I published it really launched this short book phenomena that I'm known for. So those are three shooks. They're the digital versions, so you can read them on your phone on your laptop, whatever. But if they go to Mike capuzzi dot com slash magic, I call it my magic kit magic kit. Just, you know, name an email, let me know you heard me on Teddy's podcast, and I'll send you a link with, all three links to read those online.

[00:29:52] Mike Capuzzi: And they're the full books, nothing's held back, it's not like a part of the book. And or you can go on Amazon, but if you want those three for free. Mike Capuzzi dot com slash magic. 

[00:30:03] Teddy Smith: Great. Thank you very much. And if people want to get more information about working with you With bite sized books. Is that in the same place or is there a different place?

[00:30:11] Teddy Smith: Mike 

[00:30:11] Mike Capuzzi: Capuzzi dot com is sort of a Top there's also bite sized books bite sized with a D bite sized books calm Which explains our publishing program our prices are right on our website. I don't hide anything And, you know, it looks like it's a good, you know, it's not that we're not the cheapest, we're surely not the most expensive, but, for the person who's looking for what we do, we're a very good match.

[00:30:34] Teddy Smith: Brilliant. Well, thank you very much. I've really enjoyed this conversation today. I think the guests will get loads out of it. So thank you very much for chatting to me. So just before we go, we've got one final question and that is a book that you recommend everyone should be reading at the moment. 

[00:30:46] Mike Capuzzi: Yeah, this one, it was a great question, Teddy.

[00:30:48] Mike Capuzzi: I love it because I'm a book lover. But I'll tell you what, I read this book, I read the Kindle version, I then immediately went out and bought a bunch of paperback copies, gave them to my mom, my dad, my wife, my two daughters, so I'm like giving this book out to family, which I don't often do, it's not a business book, but it could help you if you're in business.

[00:31:08] Mike Capuzzi: So it's by a rabbi. So it's not a, it's not a, you know, religious book, but it's written by a rabbi. It's Steve Leder, L E D E R, Steve Leder. The book is More Beautiful Than Before, How Suffering Transforms Us. And I know it sounds like a heavy topic, but I will tell you, Ted, first of all, it's a relatively short book.

[00:31:32] Mike Capuzzi: I wish I, I don't have a copy next to me. it's not a shook though. It's not a shook, but he's a great author. It's a, it's one of the most profound books I've ever read. My, my dad, who's 82 years old, read it and he couldn't, you know, he's like, he's calling me, he's like, Mike, this book is amazing. He's re you reread it.

[00:31:50] Mike Capuzzi: It's just because stuff happens to every one of us in life, and typically I'm talking about stuff that's not good stuff. And it's about how you react and how you perceive that. And Rabbi Leder, really, I just, his approach to it and his style of writing, it's just, it's an amazing book. So, yeah, more beautiful than before, How Suffering Transforms Us.

[00:32:11] Teddy Smith: Great. I really, I love that. I love that as a recommendation because a lot of people recommend on writing by Stephen King or something like that. So it's lovely to get something that is really personal to you and really different. Well, thank you very much, Mike. I really appreciate you coming on. It's been a great conversation and hopefully we'll get to speak in soon.

[00:32:28] Mike Capuzzi: All right, Teddy. Thank you. 

[00:32:29] Teddy Smith: Thank you so much for tuning into the Publishing Performance podcast. I really hope you found today's episode inspiring. I love chatting to authors, writers, and people in the publishing world. Now, just before we wrap up, let me tell you about Publishing Performance, the number one platform for authors who want to increase Amazon book sales, but are not really sure where to start.

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