- So first of all, let me say
I had zero interest in being an author.
That, at a time when I was doing copywriting,
I was getting clients
and I was transitioning beyond just copywriting
I was doing consulting for some people.
And because I was 22, 23 years old
I just found that credibility becomes an issue.
And I didn't like to go to networking events
and hand out business card and meet with people.
I just find that that's very challenging for my personality.
And so, understanding marketing,
understanding positioning,
when you look at the word authority,
what's the first six letters, it's author.
So I thought, "I need to be an author."
So I wrote my first book called "Quick-Turn Marketing"
which is also, at the time, my company's name.
I still have that company today.
And it's not a very good title by the way.
It's a very bad title,
because when I talk to people at the time
like, "What is Quick-Turn Marketing?"
like, "What the hell is that?"
I thought it's like marketing that quickly turn,
you'd be like making profits, it was a dumb idea.
But I came with that title
and I self-published that first book.
So it's supposed to gold foil, shiny, luxurious,
turns into a matte,
dull,
brownish shit color.
That's how bad it was.
I didn't know how to do publishing right,
but I self-published the book.
And I think I ordered, I don't know,
a few hundred copies, I used that as a business card.
I think a book is a ultimate business card.
It's for you're a professional,
for you are a service provider,
instead of giving people a business card.
Here's the thing because when
you give people a business card, they throw it away
but people don't throw away the book.
It has staying power.
And you have 150, 200 pages to be able
to demonstrate expertise and tell your prospect
who you are, what you're about.
That's why since then I wrote my first book
I remember an incident, 'cause I still don't know
if this works or not, right?
So I was meeting with people and people would say,
do you have business card,
I would hand them books and stuff.
So, one time I was traveling to, I believe Chicago.
On the plane I was talking to a gentleman, a business owner
next to me and we're just talking.
And I say, what do you do, where you going to,
I'm going to a conference, cool.
And it's like, so what do you do?
Oh, you know, I'm in marketing.
You know, I write copy and this is what I do
and oh, that's cool and he was asking me
about different things and he asked me
do you have a business card?
And I said, well I don't have a business card,
but then I reached in my briefcase
and I pulled out my book, but I've got a book.
And I see his face, 'cause his face was like
you got a book, you're younger, you got a book?
I said, yeah, I got a book.
And he was kinda looking at this he was flipping through.
He was not even reading the book,
he was just, hm, that's cool, well, thank you.
Well anyway, we kept talking.
By the time we landed the plane
he wrote me a check for a gig.
Now, would that have happened if I gave him a business card?
I don't think so.
So, sometimes the power of the book is not even
if people read it or not.
Just by having it, the weight of it
carries so much more power, authority versus,
well here's my flimsy little business card, right?
So, that's when I learned and that's
from then on why I published more
and more and more books over these,
almost one per year for number of years.
Every single time I finish a book,
every single time, including the first one,
I say to myself, I swear to God, I'll never do another one.
Because it's too much work.
It is a lot of work to write, to edit, to publish.
At first I self published,
so you can use nowadays there are lot
of print on demand services.
And even this is before ebook was popular.
Nowadays anyone can publish an ebook on Amazon very easily.
Like, you want, you can buy.
And the great thing is people don't
expect an ebook to be that many pages.
You can write a 30, 40 page, something,
a book, a manuscript about whatever topic,
you can publish it on Amazon through
Kindle Publishing and you're an author, right?
And if you want you can go to lulu.com
or some of these other print on demand sites
where you could have a physical book,
if you wanna, when you are meeting with people,
you wanna give the book away, that's okay too.
So you can do it.
It's so much easier today compared to back then.
So, I didn't have a publisher
so I would just do self publish.
Nowadays it's very, very inexpensive
because it depends on how many you order.
So you can sell me your manuscript, even on Amazon,
you can order depends on how much quantity.
You can just go to a local printing house.
I print books paperback as cheap as like $3.50.
So before the first book, everything
I did before copywriting, it was all
a complete disaster and failure.
Every single time I had a business card.
So, from then as a copywriter then I had my first book.
Then this business was kicking off
so I don't want to jinx it so from
then on I never had a business card.
From then on it's always a book.
So that's the kind of the history there.
So I think over the years, the book
either I was writing the book to get more business
or I was writing the book for positioning
or I was writing the book for exposure.
If I'm co-authoring with other people.
Or I was writing the book to generating a profit.
Selling it on ClickBank or on sites, right, on the internet.
"F.U. Money" I wrote it almost back in 2008.
For this book you can see the tome of it.
It's much more like, I have made it.
Here's what I think, it works.
Here's what I believe in.
Versus those kind of trying to
promote something so "F.U. Money"
is definitely my signature work.
And people get on Amazon and even this
'cause I offer for free on fumoney.com, right?
This book has been downloaded probably like
a million times at this point.
A million times, we give it away.
And that's summarized by a lot of the philosophy
up to that point, like my late twenties by my late twenties.
The "Unlock It" book, so because this book,
it's one of those books where the title,
the message, it just works, it resonates with people
and I wrote it in my late twenties.
And after this book I really I had no interest
in writing another book because it's just so much work.
And to do another book I just felt like
It's just, I didn't have the time.
Because I'm focusing on my companies,
on my businesses, I didn't want to do it.
And it's only recently, last year,
that because of my social media, my following online.
You know, now we have millions and millions
and millions of people around the world
really study our work that
and every, almost everybody knows I have this book.
That this is the kind of the go to book.
People refer to it again and again
because so many downloads and people know me
and things like that.
The challenge is I wrote that book almost 10 years ago.
Just like, imagine if you're watching this
or if you're watching this
who you are today compared to 10 years ago.
You've grown, you've matured,
you're a different person, right.
If you're mom, you're a different mom.
If you're a dad, you're a husband, you're a wife,
you're different, you've grown.
So, I almost, as much as I love this.
This the "F.U. Money" book is not a good representation
of how I think and who I am today.
But because I don't have this.
So all people can refer to is this.
So I just think it's, even though I don't really want
to do it, I think it's necessary to do it.
That when people ask me all the time
"Dan, how can I be more successful?"
I felt it's time to have an updated version,
almost like a Dan Lok 2.0 to be able
to say okay, now read this.
This is okay, you can see the kind of
almost like the evolution of like myself.
But you will see this is what I believe in today.
This, these are the philosophies,
the principles I think you should follow.
Which is, if you look at "Unlock It" book,
really the subtitle is the master key
to wealth, success, and significance.
This book is all about success, "F.U. Money"
this book is much more about significance.
And also how to take success.
But it's just I want people to know
that this is kind of the Dan Lok 2.0.
Something that they can refer to
and that's why I wrote the book.
I think to avoid is in the beginning
when if you are not well known.
Like, you are just getting started,
you don't have a lot of credibility
then self-publishing is nothing wrong with that.
Then later on when you are a little bit better,
you have kind of a base, then you can consider
finding a publisher.
Like, this book is published by a publisher, "F.U. Money."
"Unlock It" is published by Forbes, Forbes Books.
So, like I didn't get to Forbes Books overnight.
It was self-published back in when I was my early twenties
until to this point, so.
I would say the mistake to avoid is
don't feel discouraged that oh, I'm not publishing
with like some major like Wiley or like a major publishers.
It's okay, it doesn't matter as much.
It's more getting your ideas, your expertise,
your message on a book and share it with people first.
Share it with the right people.
I have students who are entrepreneurs
that they're books, you don't find it anywhere.
It's on Amazon, doesn't sell a lot of copy
but they use it as a business card.
And it generates a lot of business for them.
It's a very niche kind of book.
But it works perfectly fine.
So it doesn't, it's not about how many books.
Unless you're writing like, "Harry Potter"
like fiction or certain types of books
that you will sell a lot of copies.
So don't expect to make money from the book.
Like, this book makes me zero money.
It actually costs me a lot of money.
Don't do it for that.
Do it for the for other reasons.
Maybe for me it's this book is for legacy.
If you're doing it for marketing and promotion, that's okay.
Knowing that the book is not a profit center,
it's what's after the book.
Maybe you get you sell your products.
Maybe you have consulting opportunities.
Maybe you have speaking opportunities.
Maybe it's use it to get through the gatekeeper, right?
Imagine if I am running a, a recruitment company.
To recruit talent and so me co-emailing CEO
and say hey man I can find you the talent you want.
Instead if I wrote a book, if hypothetically
I wrote a book on how to find top talents
for your company and I send this FedEx to the top CEOs
across the country which one's gonna get more response?
It's very simple.
Now I go into certain CEO conference
and say hey, I wrote this book on how to find top talents
for a company blah blah blah and boom.
Then you've, it's a totally different strategy.
So I think for beginners, don't expect
to make money from the book.
It's gonna cost you money.
But done properly, it's gonna open a lot of doors for you
and it's, still doesn't matter how much digital marketing
we do, it's still one of the most powerful thing
you could do in terms of marketing, I think.
That's why Richard Branson writes books.
Bill Gates wrote multiple books.
Yeah, a lot of successful people,
they don't need to write the book.
But they write it for a certain reason.
Legacy, exposure, PR, storytelling, whatever it is
that you know, you might be going after.
Yeah you get on unlock it, theunlockitbook.com.
You can get it on Amazon.
Also this book will be available
across North America in major airport.
Also you will also be able to get that as well.
So this is kind of the my first book.
Probably my last book but I said that when I wrote this.
Who knows when I'm 60 maybe I'll do another book.
But this is the book where it's now mainstream.
That you can get it from bookstores,
you can get it from Amazon, get it like in airport.
Everywhere, so this is kind of my, I would say,
my proudest work to this day for sure.