- In this video,
I interview best-selling author of six books,
Chandler Bolt, about his tips for creating passive income
by writing a book.
Why it doesn't have to be as hard as you may think
and how to establish yourself as an authority
ahead of your competitors in your topic.
Comin' up!
(upbeat, hip-hop music)
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Hey, what's up guys?
Sean here with Video Influencers.
Help you build your influence, income,
and impact with online video.
And we're here in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World.
I'm talking with Chandler Bolt.
How's it going? - I'm doing great.
- Dude, super pumped to have you on the show.
Chandler is the best-selling author of over six books.
The founder of Self Publishing School
and really he helps creatives, influencers,
and entrepreneurs really build their influence
and income by putting out a book.
So I'm super excited for this conversation today.
But let's take it back.
Your company now is huge.
You're putting out all kinds of content to help us
really share our message and monetize with books.
But you eventually started without all of this
and everything that's happening.
Take us back.
- Yeah, so the reason why I'm so passionate
about books themselves.
It's 'cause writing and publishing a book myself
changed my life forever.
Now, I know that's a dramatic statement but it's so true.
Now, when I had publish my first book, I was 19 years old.
It was a book called The Productive Person
about how to be more productive as an entrepreneur.
Now, this book brought in a few thousand dollars a month
and passive income for me.
And really the big thing I always say that a book
is like a key that opens the door to Narnia, right?
So if you've ever seen Chronicles of Narnia,
you know it's this magical land
that only exist in this case for published authors.
So for me, a book was a starting point.
It started getting passive income coming in the door.
Then, I started getting leads,
it helped me grow my business,
generate our first million dollars in the first year,
and then fast forward to where we are now
which is we've just passed $7 million
in the first three years.
We have a book published just about every single day
from someone in the program and I'm just really passionate
'cause I see people's lives change every time
they write and publish that book.
- Man, that's incredible and you know,
one of the things we talk about on this channel,
there's lots of YouTubers.
People using video.
And they don't want to just grow their influence
but they also want to monetize that
and this is perfect for that.
You know, I actually wrote an ebook years ago
and it was actually one of the ways YouTube ads,
as people know, those don't make any money.
Recently, there's this huge demonetization too
where it's affecting all of these creators.
And so we're always talking about,
you need to create other ways to generate income.
- Gotta diversify. - You gotta diversify, right?
And it was actually years ago I wrote a book
called YouTube For Churches and it was an epub book.
I wrote it in Microsoft Word and created the cover.
But it was interesting
because I noticed it really built my authority.
I started getting speaking engagements.
All this stuff started happening
because I put that book out.
Speak to really how a book builds your authority
but also how it creates passive income like it did for you.
- Yeah so, I believe, you know,
if you're trying to start an online business,
and if you've tried, you know how hard it can be.
There's all this tech stuff.
It's like, "Oh, I gotta get these autoresponders."
"I gotta figure out my website."
"Oh, WordPress!
I don't know how to do that."
"How do I get all of this stuff set up?"
So for me, it was way easier by just starting with a book
and how I kind of had the specifics of how that worked.
It's over 70% of what all books sold or sold on Amazon
and on top of that,
there's hundreds and millions of buyers
inside Amazon that have their credit card on file.
Now, I always like to say
that Google is a search engine of browsers.
And even YouTube is a search engine of browsers.
Amazon is a search engine of buyers
'cause I'm only going to Amazon when I buy stuff.
So imagine that.
People are going there.
They're searching for the same things,
same ways that they would find you on YouTube.
They can then find you on Amazon
and pay you money and not to mention,
they can come be a subscriber.
They can come be a lead for your business.
Things like that.
But you make money off of the books.
Amazon handles everything.
So they handle the fulfillment,
they handle the payment processing,
all that you just get a check which is pretty nice.
So especially when you're first starting.
And even if it's just a hundred bucks a month,
it's nice to be able to create an asset that years from now
is still bringing in a hundred bucks a month.
You know, one of my employees,
his daughter wrote a book at eight years old
and he said, you know this was months and months.
Actually, I think it was over a year or two ago,
and he said, "Yeah, she still gets 250 bucks a month
and the first half of it is hers that she can spend
and the second half goes towards her college fund."
Right, and she's like 10 years old now.
So even she's making a decent little bit of income
that's still coming in a long time
from when she actually did the work.
- That is so cool and you know,
it doesn't necessarily have to be as hard as people think
because there's some tools now
and even if that's Amazon CreateSpace or even like again,
my book was actually only an ebook.
It was about a hundred pages.
I put a lot of work into it and really put it together nice.
I used some tools from DigitalMarketer.
But nevertheless,
it really doesn't have to seem so overwhelming
'cause I think that's the thing though, right?
"Man, a book!
That is daunting!"
What's maybe, like, a first small step
before maybe writing something shorter?
Just getting it out there quick.
Some of the tools you recommend.
- Yeah so, it's funny.
There's a lot of really helpful tools
but what I found is that most people get so lost
in the tools that they don't actually write their book.
So there's things like Google Docs.
There's Scrivener which is a really cool tool.
It's just really hard to use.
And so if you're going to be like a career writer,
you might want to try that
but don't do it for your first book.
A couple specific tools that I use.
Number one is a mind map.
So you probably do this when you're creating videos
is take the general idea into the center
of a blank sheet of paper.
Then map out everything you can think of on that idea.
And then you transition that into an outline.
And then that helps you write the book much easier.
So for me, it's analog.
People even say,
"Hey, there's these really cool mind mapping tools."
And I'm like,
"I don't want to use them 'cause it slows me down."
The tech it doesn't always come easy for me.
I imagine, "Well, you're a YouTuber
so maybe it comes pretty easy for you."
But you know, it just really speeds up the process
when you have that mind map.
And when you can do the mind map before writing
because all I care about for you
is getting your rough draft finished
as fast as possible 'cause that is when I found
people start to believe that they can actually do this.
So it's like the light turns on.
They see the light at the end of the tunnel
and that writing and finishing this book is possible.
- That's awesome.
Now, one of the other things that books do
is really build your authority, right?
And again like I mentioned,
I put out a book and all of a sudden,
now people are like,
"Oh, you must be an authority on the topics
so it lead to other things."
We're here at Social Media Marketing World
and I know that Michael Stelzner,
when they're thinking about speakers,
they a lot of times want the speaker to have written a book
because it shows that they've organized their knowledge.
- 100%.
- It shows that they've really thought through something.
They have a piece of content that is really positioning them
as an authority so I really want to encourage you
in the influencers community
that no matter what your niche is,
we have people that do sewing.
We have people that do gardening.
We have people that are teaching business, taxes,
you know, tech.
That having a book, an ebook, having something out there
can lead if you want to get a podcast,
you want to get on stages,
you want to do all of these things.
Have you seen books open doors?
- Oh, 100%.
That's what I, the literal door to Narnia, right?
- Yeah. - It's speaking.
It's podcast.
It's this whole world that I didn't know existed
but like I said, it only exists for published authors
and yes, here at Social Media Marketing World,
that's what they said.
That's the reason they got me to come here and speak.
It's 'cause they said, "We so believe in this.
It's a filter.
If you've been disciplined enough to write down
what you know in a book,
then you're probably going to bring the goods.
You're probably gonna be a good speaker
and we believe in you and we're willing to bring you here
to speak to our audience."
So I found that that's just a,
it kind of is a foot in the door
in a lot of places for a lot of things.
- That is awesome.
Well Chandler, are you ready for the lightning round?
- Yes, let's do it.
- Bam! Ooh!
- Well, my last name's Bolt so that's pretty weak actually.
- There you go! - It's a lightning bolt.
I'd like to think it's the sound of me running.
(laughs) But it's not actually.
- I love it, I love it.
Coffee or tea?
- Oh, for sure coffee.
(bell dings)
- Cat or dog? - Dog.
(bell dings)
Not even close. - We got two Chihuahuas.
What do you got?
- (laughs) I don't have a dog right now.
I'm single and I'm living the bachelor life
and I travel a lot.
So that poor dog would get neglected.
But I had a border collie growing up.
- N.Y.C. or L.A.? - N.Y.C.
(bell dings)
- Last song you had on repeat.
- Pumped Up Kicks but that's not true.
It's just a lot of Foster the People but I can't.
Pay the Man.
♪ Pay the man ♪
♪ You got to pay the man ♪
(bell dings)
- What book you recommend every influencer watching
should read for building their influence?
- Influence by Robert Cialdini.
Hands down the best marketing book I think I've ever read.
- Classic. (bell dings)
Now if you can only have one tool or weapon
during a zombie apocalypse, what would it be?
- It would be a knife.
'Cause with a gun, you run out of bullets.
- That's true.
(laughs) But that's kind of a lame answer.
- Hey, you've got your knife going.
I mean, whatever.
- I'm an Eagles scout so I can probably do some damage.
- You can do a lot with a knife, yeah.
(eagle screeches)
(bell dings)
Is there a failure or a setback that sets you up
for future success in your life
and do you have a favorite failure?
- So many.
So this is one of my company's core values.
Fail fast, fail forward, fail often.
The biggest failure I can think of
is I showed up to my company retreat
and found out from one of my employees,
my business partner was trying
to kick me out of my business.
- Wow.
- So we went through mediation.
I bought him out for multiple six figures.
And that was kind of a big low point for me.
Also, there was one time where all of my bank accounts
were negative when I was trying
to launch Self Publishing School.
- Wow.
- I borrowed $15,000 from friends and family.
So there's been a lot.
Those are just a two couple of big ones.
- What'd you learn? - A lot of things.
Don't partner out of insecurity.
So, don't get a business partner
just 'cause you don't think you can do it yourself.
That was a big lesson learned.
I learned I needed to invest in marketing
and learn the skill of marketing.
'Cause if my business wasn't getting customers.
So I need to learn marketing and sales
'cause if I can get customers,
I'll never be broke.
I'll never be out of a job.
(bell dings)
- And finally, one of your favorite Netflix shows.
- [Chandler] Ooh, Silicon Valley and The Profit.
And these are all lame business examples.
- [Sean] Sure.
- I'm kind of like a business nerd.
Those are a couple of my favorites.
Also, Narcos.
'Cause I think in another life,
I would have been a drug dealer.
- Yeah, you probably would have crushed it, man.
(laughing)
- It's like very similar to business.
- Sure.
- So if you look at John D. Rockefeller,
I was reading John D. Rockefeller's biography
at the same time I was watching Narcos.
Very similar actually how they built wealth.
It was a consumable that the economy was addicted to.
It was highly volatile markets.
Like, I can go on for a long time.
- That's crazy.
- But there's a lot of similarities
in dealing drugs and business actually.
- Yeah. (bell dings)
Lightning round.
(makes blaster sounds)
Let's talk really quick about your process.
Now, we want to link to, of course,
your resources and we'll get to that.
But you actually help people with Self Pub School
to publish their own book and really have this happen
and I can see the big need for that
'cause I know how brutal it was
to try to figure everything out on my own
and I actually invested
in a lot of training to even do that.
Nothing like what you've created.
So speak a little bit to your process
and how people can get involved.
- Yeah, so our process is taking people from no idea
or blank page to published author in 90 days.
Now, we work through the writing,
through the marketing, through the publishing.
All those things.
There's three unique ways that I feel like we help people
and add value to their life.
We save them a ton of time.
So hundreds of hours in the process.
We save them a ton of money in the process.
So whether it's book covers, editors, things like that.
And thirdly, we make them a whole lot more money
with their book by marketing it successfully.
Positioning it successfully.
Having a good cover.
Having a good title.
All of these things are super important
and so many people screw this up
if they just don't have a little bit of guidance
so that's kind of how we help people.
- That's awesome.
Where's all that information?
- Yeah, so you can go to self-publishingschool.com/free.
We have some free training there.
You can learn a lot.
Kind of like my process to get started
as well as you'll be able to find out some info
on Self Publishing School there.
- Very, very cool and then how about you on social media?
Where are you at?
- Yeah, I'm on Facebook pretty much only.
I'm like super old-school millennial, right?
So I don't have SnapChat.
I don't have Instagram.
I don't have Twitter.
It's just Facebook.
- Okay, awesome, awesome.
Well, we'll put links to everything
in the description below.
Finally, you know, as an entrepreneur,
you mentioned you've had ups.
You've had downs.
You've had tough times.
And I think every influencer watching knows that,
you know, it can be hard.
You get discouraged.
You put out some content.
It doesn't get very many views.
- Oh yeah.
- You think something's gonna work.
It doesn't.
Can you share final few thoughts to influencers watching
about pressing through those hard times to get to the goal?
- 100%.
Do not listen to anything that anyone says to you
that is negative about your capabilities.
Now, this is like rah-rah motivational stuff.
I know.
But it's so true because
when I decided to drop out of school,
I was tired of learning how to run a business
from professors who had never ran a business.
Now, I had people call me that were family friends
that I hadn't talked to them for years
and telling me that I shouldn't drop out
and I was making a bad decision.
I've had people say those kinds of things along the way
all the time and you just can't listen to them.
Whether they're your family, whether you're friends.
They don't know your vision.
A lot of times, they can't respect your vision
because they can't put it in a box
that they've seen be successful.
So my brother's a very successful musician.
Plays in the Grammy-nominated rock and roll band
Needtobreathe and he told me when I was growing up,
he said, "Everyone told me 'Why don't you go get a real job
and stop doing music?
Do something that can actually make money?'"
And now he's having the last laugh
playing sold out stages around the world.
They did 82 shows with Taylor Swift.
Like, he's done these huge, huge tours
and they're a very successful band
all because he didn't listen to the people in our small town
that told him that he couldn't be successful with music.
So you're creative, right?
You're doing YouTube stuff.
You're a YouTube influencer.
You probably hear that stuff from people all the time.
Don't listen to it.
Keep pressing on and you'll make it.
- Dude, I appreciate it, man.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Influencers, subscribe if you're not subscribed.
And if you want to check out another video
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Till next time, you know this channel's all about
helping you build your influence, income,
and impact with online video.
Keep crushing it and we will talk soon.